Over watch ranger question

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Jj001
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Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:19 pm

Over watch ranger question

Post by Jj001 »

I just got my first Ranger maxed out. And she just happens to be an OverWatch Ranger. I have a choice between rupture combat Fitness and Killzone. Killzone doesn't really seem to make sense because between all the OverWatch perks such as rapid reaction and covering fire why would I need Killzone? Is rupture the way to go?
Dwarfling
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Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:16 pm

Re: Over watch ranger question

Post by Dwarfling »

Well I always pick Combat Fitness on the OW Rangers (and most of my Crit Rangers) for the HP and mobility but Kill Zone is nice to have, although a bit overkill considering Rapid Reaction is free. Tho Kill Zone is a much better skill to have when opening from concealment, or when you know a pod will walk into you, and if you didn't pick Covering Fire (I never do since I don't want to miss during RR), you get to shoot stuff that doesn't move before attacking, but I'd imagine that is of limited use since pod spread out and love full cover.


Kill Zone was amazing on vanilla's Sharpshooters because they were so far away the cone covered so much ground and they had Squadsight and Long Watch to shoot beyond visual range. Rangers don't have those.
Psieye
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Re: Over watch ranger question

Post by Psieye »

I'm getting weird ideas to go Kill Zone and then have a grenadier lob a Shaped Charge to open up a wall so the pod suddenly realises it's already inside the zone.
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WanWhiteWolf
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Re: Over watch ranger question

Post by WanWhiteWolf »

I go with Combat fitness on all Rangers. It's a pretty good perk and the others don't seem that interesting.

On a Shooter ranger it's better in almost all cases to use rapid fire over rupture.

The Cone attack is pretty much a trap. You can only use it effectively when breaking concealment, and even then it's a wild card. Although the Cone area looks nice, it's effective range is way way less. The unit has to ENTER in the region to proc the shoot. This means that although you select the cone on multiple ayy, the ones that are close to the edge will not proc, most likely, an OW shot.

As reference, I've had several times a pod of 8 in the cone range just to get 3 shots upon reveal. That's the same I would have got by simply using OW. Might as well use combat fitness and make your soldier better for all scenarios.

One more important fact is that MSGT rangers are usually part of bigger missions, not your regular GOps. So the Concealment break is a small part of the mission when you are fighting 30+ enemies; thus having a better soldier all around might help you more.
LordYanaek
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Re: Over watch ranger question

Post by LordYanaek »

I would never take Rupture on an OW build since they usually want to OW with their last action so at most they take one normal shot if they don't move, but not a special one. The other two however can both make sense.
  • Combat Fitness is an overall boost to your soldier. The mobility can be particularly important and a small aim boost will of course help you hit with your OW shots. The boost is rather small thought : slightly less than 3% CTH when OW penalty is taken into account and +1 mobility isn't as important for an OW build than it is for a Sawn-Off build. At the end of the days, more HP, Mobility and Aim is never a bad thing.
  • Kill Zone can be tricky to use but is a nice tool for an OW build as it benefits from CuP and the Hair Trigger you certainly equipped. While it takes time to judge the actual zone of effect it has a number of useful applications.
    • Opening from concealment can be useful even on longer missions. You don't always have a perfect map with a nice spot for your snipers in a corner. Sometimes the only half decent place i could find was very close to the patrol zone of an enemy pod or two and my snipers were vulnerable at the start of the battle. I've been happy to prepare a double Kill Zone (with the help of the gunner) on a nearby rainbow or muton pod. In addition i found OW ranger to be quite useful in small GOps squads where a good ambush is even more important, i play with fixed squads so i don't move them to another squad when they reach MSgt.
    • Speaking of ambushes, Kill zone + Threat Assessment from the Specialist allows you to take 2 consecutive OW shots on up to 3 enemies moving in front of you, usually it's enough to kill them.
    • Kill Zone doesn't crap out if you miss the first shot or the pod is led by a Great Archon!
    • You're likely to have OW shots left after every enemy have moved (provided you had an Exp Mag) which is very useful to keep your Combat Awareness tanking ability. After you finished your 3 OW shots (or missed one), you can say goodby to your +15 defense.
Re : Covering Fire. This is an entirely different topic but i decided i would always pick it on my Ever Vigilant builds after i dashed to flank a wounded Muton Elite with a ranger who didn't have CF and the bugger decided to stand there, put up his shield and shot my guy down :o
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