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For the classes that get Formidable as a soldier skill (as opposed to the others who might get it as a AWC skill), is the point of armour and 66% protection from explosions ever worth the trade off of the skills not taken?

Assault: Extra Conditioning or Aggression

Grenadier: Heavy Ordnance or Protector

Gunner: Chain Shot or Mayhem

Ranger: Bring 'Em On or Ever Vigilant

Technical: Tandem Warheads or Phosphorus

SPARK: Strike or Cool Under Pressure

I'm not so sure for the Assault or the Technical, but for the other 4 I'd say one or both of the other skills is more important.

For the Grenadier, either of those two skills gets another grenade and early in their career.

For the Gunner, Chain Shot is an important possible two-shots-for-1-action attack. And Mayhem is a 25% increase in damage for Suppression.

For the Ranger, Ever Vigilant is vital for getting the most out of Rapid Reaction, a key skill.

For the SPARK, Cool Under Pressure and +10 aim and a chance to crit for Overwatch shots is more important.

I think it's reasonable for Assault if you got close range crit over Trench Gun.

It's good for a Rapid Fire ranger.

It's good for a tank Spark, which is my preferred usage of them.

Flame Technical you might take it, I really like Tandem warheads though.

Grenadier and Gunner I'd never take it.

Certainly not a much used skill. However it's interesting for building a tank soldier who rolls the right stats with NCE (low defense high dodge), which can happen for any of those classes, so it'll always have it's niche.

i agree with the op the only one i ever take formidable is with my electro assaults and no one else

I noticed that I tend to always take Formidable when it is available, because stacking armor points gives me false sense of security.

I personally play with not created equally and hidden potential at 100%. So for me the soldiers stats come into play alot. If i get a soldier with above average hp and low aim ill always take it and have him sit in half cover and have my squad in full cover. This litterally makes him/her a meat shield. It works good for me. Plus if you couple the armor with a fair amount of dodge the payoff is huge. Grazes that do litterally no damage feel nice and while they are all trying to kill him my sniper js getting ready to go serial on their asses muahahahaha

i think you should get it on a spark. i usually take it on my gunners although i know i should not. for the most other classes i would not take it. in general LW2 has an emphasis on alpha damage (even more so than vanilla xcom2) and a single point of amour will rarely make a difference.

The thing about the SPARK is that Cool Under Pressure, if you're building down the tank route, isn't really as useful as another armor point as you won't be over watching as much.

Formidable is currently one of the best perks in the game IMO. I don't typically take it every time, but it's definitely a very very strong perk if survivability is what you're after. Goes on all of my low-HP (I use NCE and HP) soldiers.

Definitely an excellent choice on a SPARK. Besides being a part of the tank build for it (which is it's best use, IMO), it also has a sorta hidden synergy with Bulwark. When a soldier hides behind the SPARK, the two units together tend to become an excellent choice for grenades, which Formidable will help resist. A niche situation, but it still comes up.

Mostly, it's a good choice the more you can stack armor. Every single point of armor is worth more than the previous armor point. And if you have Red Fog on, every HP of damage you don't take, is a little bit more move speed and aim, so you're not working with a simplistic "Dead or Not Dead" situation, where the armor only matters if it's the difference between getting 2-shot and 3-shot.

I don't take it, but I understand it's very powerful when you're playing with randomized statlines.

If you find someone with low (negative) defense and positive dodge, you pick this skill, stack armor and dodge PCS; the aliens will be attracted to attack it because of the low defense but all that dodge turns a lot of their hits into grazes, and armor works wonder on grazed shots. The reduction to explosive damage is occasionally entertaining when you pull too many longbows/rocketeers and you have a crowded overwatch nest.

I find it's not valuable on its own, but it's a great component in armor stacking. I would only take it on front line troops, but if you put the Tac Vest and Predator together with it you start to get good results. An Iron Skin PCS or Will to Survive in the AWC pushes it all into seriously reliable territory. It's nice to have a soldier who won't even be harmed by the first shot that connects, and take roughly half damage from the next. As mentioned above, if you manage to also stack Dodge you can outright negate some hits.