Which classes do you like to use for Officers?

[cola]

Now on my second LW2 campaign and I've been thinking about which classes I want to consistently use for Officers. Currently I mainly use Specialists with OW/Hack build for Officers.

However, I kind of want my Specialists to be more on the frontlines doing damage with OW/Hack builds, so I've been considering either Grenadiers or PsiOps as alternative Officers for future campaigns.

Grenadiers I feel are a good choice because they have very limited utility outside their limited number of charges, once they're used up they tend to be deadweight. Having them be Officers would keep them useful without wasting a grenade and would free up my Specialists to go to town. In addition, Grenadiers tend to hang a bit behind the frontlines but still nearby most of the squad, keeping them in the optimal position away from enemy fire but close enough to the rest of the team.

PsiOps on the other hand have the bonus of having Quick Study by default, which makes training them into officers a cinch. Completed a mission and they didn't get new abilities to train? Stick em in the GTS to level up Officer skills! Not only that but they're tough to kill with skills like Fortress, health steal from soulfire, and pretty much immune to mental impairments. Since Psi and Officers both are better at detecting Faceless in Havens, having Psi Officers also makes for a perfect fit. Training Psi as Officers also makes them great since PsiOps have a lot of supporting skills like Solace and Mind Merge. Pop Get Some and Mind Merge onto a Kubikuri Sharpshooter to ensure the kill. However, since Insanity has no cooldown and can be followed up by other abilities such as Soulfire/Null Lance perhaps it might be better to have someone else do the commands while PsiOps keeps spamming Insanity + ability followups.

If not any of these three classes, who do you like to use for Officers?

[stefan3iii]

The most important skill an officer has is command. Command basically trades an officer's action for the strongest possible action any another soldier can take. This is a very strong ability!

A good candidate for officer frequently has turns where they have no good actions, and can get major value out of command.

That would be shinobi, hands down. Most of each mission a shinobi wants to stay in stealth until really needed, so instead of doing nothing, they can command another soldier to do something powerful. On top of that shinobi often has a very bad action left over at the end of a reaper chain, which can be better used on command. Finally, a shinobi belongs on every mission, so you're never in a situation where you're bringing the wrong class just to have an officer.

Good runner ups are grenadiers, who have actions to spare with salvo and rapid deployment. And specialists, who often have weak turns. The more I play though, the more I believe that it should just be Shinobi officers 100% of the time.

[cola]

The most important skill an officer has is command. Command basically trades an officer's action for the strongest possible action any another soldier can take. This is a very strong ability!

A good candidate for officer frequently has turns where they have no good actions, and can get major value out of command.

That would be shinobi, hands down. Most of each mission a shinobi wants to stay in stealth until really needed, so instead of doing nothing, they can command another soldier to do something powerful. On top of that shinobi often has a very bad action left over at the end of a reaper chain, which can be better used on command. Finally, a shinobi belongs on every mission, so you're never in a situation where you're bringing the wrong class just to have an officer.

Good runner ups are grenadiers, who have actions to spare with salvo and rapid deployment. And specialists, who often have weak turns. The more I play though, the more I believe that it should just be Shinobi officers 100% of the time.

I tried shinobi officers on my first playthrough and I didn't like it much. Mainly because they're always up and out ahead scouting, so they're rather far away from the rest of the squad which can make it awkward since several units may be out of command range. Even when in stealth I wouldn't consider them doing "nothing," since they move up to reveal fog of war to know where alien groups are beforehand to know which moves can be done without activation. Can't do that if they're commanding others or using other officer abilities. In addition, I find shinobi particularly valuable for phantom and scouting functions so typically I nearly always want them out and doing missions, particularly ones with revealed starts like extractions or Smash and Grab. This means that there isn't a lot of time for them to sit in the officer training. Specialists and Grenadiers can afford time off in the tube because Grenadiers can be costly for infiltration and Specialists hacking/medical may not be needed on a particular mission.

[Psieye]

I tried shinobi officers on my first playthrough and I didn't like it much. Mainly because they're always up and out ahead scouting, so they're rather far away from the rest of the squad which can make it awkward since several units may be out of command range. Even when in stealth I wouldn't consider them doing "nothing," since they move up to reveal fog of war to know where alien groups are beforehand to know which moves can be done without activation. Can't do that if they're commanding others or using other officer abilities. In addition, I find shinobi particularly valuable for phantom and scouting functions so typically I nearly always want them out and doing missions, particularly ones with revealed starts like extractions or Smash and Grab. This means that there isn't a lot of time for them to sit in the officer training. Specialists and Grenadiers can afford time off in the tube because Grenadiers can be costly for infiltration and Specialists hacking/medical may not be needed on a particular mission.

Not the only way to use Shinobi. Mine are always in visible range of my front line. I only need to know if there are pods one blue move to the flank of the front line. What's the point in knowing there's pods 2 full dashes away unless I'm not fighting anything and snipers want to squadsight pull?

My current campaign has an abundance of shinobi coming out of the GTS. Much as lowbie stealth has been suppressed in 1.3, the new shinobi tree means I want more not less of them for my playstyle. They have the best tanking build imo. Thus I always have shinobi in a tube because there aren't enough active squads to use them all.

At the start of a mission, shinobi are scouting while I establish safe territory. After the first 2 or so pods, I have enough safe ground that I can take advantage of ideal terrain. By this point, I don't need my shinobi to be scouting anymore (because a phantom holo guy is watching my flank) so they're now a frontline tank instead. High rank snapshot snipers can reliably hit through hard cover from far away (given holo help) so I just need an 80+ (high cover, smoke/aid protocol, lone wolf) effective-def 40+ dodge tank that makes enemies waste actions overwatching instead of approaching my snipers.

[Thrombozyt]

For me, specialists and holo-snipers are the ideal officer candidates. The former take missions with a hack-objective, the latter the rest. Phantom Snipers are a little bit more tricky to use as scouts due to them not equiping SMGs (sadly), but they contribute more to the main squad while remaining in concealment.
Specialists grab Trial by Fire as I want them for the easy missions to grab the hack rewards and they can handle the mecs on those missions, sharpshooters are geared towards combat missions.
Later, PsiOps make good backup candidates with TbF as they can handle the bio enemies on easy missions. For the most time, 2-3 handlers and 3-4 low levels are a good setup for training ops.

Holo-Officers are just really nice sitting at a flank not far away from the team and managing the engagement while keeping an eye on routes of reinforcements. Incoming, holotarget, focus fire into a command is quite the major boost to the squad to take down a particularly tough opponent.

[orion_winterfire]

shinobi, technical, grenadier, sharpshooter
Any of the above with >average speed and <average aim. Most other troops' actions are too valuable imo.

[Icarus]

Huh. How much aim would you guys consider necessary on a sharpshooter holo officer?

[orion_winterfire]

Huh. How much aim would you guys consider necessary on a sharpshooter holo officer?

I don't have a hard target for that, but the lower the better (kinda lol), for an officer.

[llll BlackFlag]

Usually all shinobis and high hacking specialists become officers for me. I give high aim / decent defense grenadiers a pistol and train them in the AWC; they also go sapper into damage build. Low aim grenadiers will be support grenadiers and officers as well.

[Thrombozyt]

Huh. How much aim would you guys consider necessary on a sharpshooter holo officer?

It depends on the soldiers you have. 62 and lower is definetly holo, but if the initial 2 rounds of promotions made the high aim soldiers into sharpshooters, then I would probably even make the third one into an holo officer at 65-67 aim. It's more a function of above average move speed and decent defense.

[Thrombozyt]

Usually all shinobis and high hacking specialists become officers for me. I give high aim / decent defense grenadiers a pistol and train them in the AWC; they also go sapper into damage build. Low aim grenadiers will be support grenadiers and officers as well.

This is interesting. For me it's the reverse. Low aim grenadiers get the damage build while high aim grenadiers go the support build. Rapid deployment allows for shooting afterwards so it's better combo'ed with high aim.

[WanWhiteWolf]

I tested almost all classes. I usually make different squad compositions depending on misison types (e.g timed or non-timmed). My rankings:

Class A Officers

PSI OP - For me, PSI OPs are the best officers in the game. The biggest issue is that they come rather late so they are under-leveled. They do have the means to catch up + they come with Quick learning which is by far the best perk for an Officer. They have also powerful skills with high cooldown - which is a good synergy since you can use them, then use command while they are in cooldown. You can probably make 1 or max 2 top officers PSI; it's difficult to level up more to high levels.

e.g. Statis + Command seems a bit to powerful

Shinoby - It's probably your safest bet; especially on 5 man missions. First pod, you kill from concealment. You can use getSome + Command). Second pod you can afford another command. Third pod you can dive. You are using - pretty much - 5 man firepower + safe engagements all mission.

Specialist (Hacker) - Same as PSI - one of the reason why specialist - hacker is a powerful choice is because you have solid anti-robot skills but not much against eveything else. Thus you can use your skills to Hack and command / buff squad while they are on cooldown / only bio units around.

Class B Officers

Grenadier - Support grenadier can be really powerful - especially once you reach Salvo. You can basically drop a sting + smoke + command. The reason why I consider them as "B class" is a matter of play-style. I like to use grenadiers with 3/4 grenades and take the ablative armor perk. That said, they are not particularity tanky and sometimes they need to be in average positions so that they can launch that fire grenade. Means they do get hit and having an Officer wounded overall is pretty bad situation.

Sniper - Sniper are not particularity Officers ....with one exception - Snapshot snipers for training missions. I always have 1 snapshot sniper for Rookie training. The reason why I think they are the best for this kind of missions is: Lead by Example. A sniper has the highest aim progression in the game and thus buffing the low rank with extra 10-15 aim makes a big difference. Rookies with 80 aim - Yes please. I typically go in 6-7 people Ex Light for training missions. This means that they can handle pretty much everything with exception of very powerful aliens (e.g. Sectopod). Having a Kubikiri to mop any big targets when your squad is mainly LCPL seems invaluable to me. You can also use GetSome + Shoot on the same turn.

Class C Officers

Assault - Arc spec assault can be decent if you are into that. You can use the stun / disable and command the turn it is on cooldown.

Sniper - A halo sniper can make a good Officer. I wasn't impressed by their performance but it might be a matter of playstyle.

Note:
I also tried Medics , Rangers , tanky Asaults, Technicals, Gunners, DFA Snipers but it didn't work for me. Which makes sense since their abilities are usually on par with Command - except Medic who is a bad three spec path IMO.

Summary:
Non-timed missions: PSI , Hacker , Halo Sniper
Timed mission: Shinoby, Hacker, Grenadier
Training OP: Snaphot Snipper

[Dwarfling]

I use Specialists and Shinobis exclusively. One can use non-turn-ending actions, the other doesn't have a lot to do while concealed. I used to make RT Sharpshooters officers too, but I kinda like them to get pistol skills and that's just too much tubetime.

[Jj001]

I like using medic specialists. They can use aid protocol, and heal or use leader actions in 1 turn.

I tried shinobis but they seem to be away from the team.
Other classes such as technicals or grenadiers can work however, I find that every mission needs a specialist at some capacity.

[llll BlackFlag]

This is interesting. For me it's the reverse. Low aim grenadiers get the damage build while high aim grenadiers go the support build. Rapid deployment allows for shooting afterwards so it's better combo'ed with high aim.

That's a good idea. Until now I've been shooting the pistol then launching a grenade, or sticking to pistol/smg fire if grenades aren't ideal. I'll have to try out your spec.

[RookieAutopsy]

I use non-overwatch Specialists and Support Grenadiers for my officers. I don't use Shinobis for that role because when you need that clutch Command, it often competes with Fleche of death across the map. I quite often put my (always DFA regardless of stats, I just vary up the spec and add Tracers) Sharpshooters in for 1 rank of Officer training as they live in Havens only being dragged out for untimed missions, but they are never the CO for actual missions.

I also don't take Shinobis to missions where you start concealed, except untimed missions, so I need someone else to be the officer as they are dead weight (I like to use 4 man squads and run Ex Light) if you are not Fleching every turn in combat. Thats almost always the Grenadier who is my go-to pointman as they are still fully effective after activating with a blue move.