Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some input on the Technical's firestorm ability -- is it worth getting? I built my Technical around a lot of the flamethrower stuff (except to get the +defense ability and the shredder ability) and while I'm inclined to get firestorm, but the other two abilities look pretty tempting too...
This is my first technical to make it to the end so I don't want to waste this choice.
Technical final soldier ability
Re: Technical final soldier ability
Sounds like you have a Technical Flamethrower build like this:
Roust - Napalm X - Shredder - Formidable - Incinerator - Tactical Sense - Firestorm / Rapid Fire / Bunker Buster
and you're trying to decide on that final perk selection.
If you've been following any of the topics here and in the LW2 Strategy forum discussing soldier class perks and builds and the relative merits, you'd see there's a broad variety of opinion about them. And people change their opinions over time and further playing about what they think is best. I suggest you should look at the whole build rather than a few powers, because there's often a synergy in picking certain powers together.
It's a good flamethrower build that keeps some utility besides rockets and flame shots by having Shredder. Although I'd have likely gone with Quickburn instead of Tactical Sense for either double flaming or run-flame-run goodness, I think you should cap it off with Firestorm. It'll make your Technical immune to fire without carrying any other kit and allow you to dash in, even a yellow move if an Officer can Command the soldier, and Firestorm a pile of enemy. Will have some protection from Tactical Sense, although that could have been improved by picking Burnout over Shredder.
What you can do is save your game right before you make the perk choice, then in succession play it out 3 times, picking one of the 3 perks and then running a quick mission with the solider and a small team including a Officer. The strength of a build is in the skill using it along with other soldiers and how it fits into your playstyle. If you prefer having a one-shot rocket that rips apart structures and destroys cover, take Bunker Buster. Be sure to fire it without blue-moving the Technical for best accuracy. If you want your Technical to have a lot of primary weapon utility, take Rapid Fire, but you'll want to arm with a Rifle or Shotgun and that will increase needed infiltration time, decrease mobility, and increase the range at which civilians and ADVENT will see the Technical and break concealment.
Here are my 3 Technical builds. Mostly intending the first build, especially as a Officer for Haven Advisors. Like most stuff, still open to revision as I learn more. The pairs of perks separated by '/' are ones I'm still thinking over.
Technical
Fire in the Hole - Biggest Booms / Napalm X - Shredder / Burnout - Tandem Warheads - Incinerator - Tactical Sense - Bunker Buster
Technical Rocketeer
Fire in the Hole - Biggest Booms - Shredder - Tandem Warheads - Javelin Rockets - Tactical Sense / Salvo - Bunker Buster
Technical Flamer
Fire in the Hole / Roust - Napalm X - Burnout - Formidable - Incinerator - Quickburn / Tactical Sense - Firestorm
Roust - Napalm X - Shredder - Formidable - Incinerator - Tactical Sense - Firestorm / Rapid Fire / Bunker Buster
and you're trying to decide on that final perk selection.
If you've been following any of the topics here and in the LW2 Strategy forum discussing soldier class perks and builds and the relative merits, you'd see there's a broad variety of opinion about them. And people change their opinions over time and further playing about what they think is best. I suggest you should look at the whole build rather than a few powers, because there's often a synergy in picking certain powers together.
It's a good flamethrower build that keeps some utility besides rockets and flame shots by having Shredder. Although I'd have likely gone with Quickburn instead of Tactical Sense for either double flaming or run-flame-run goodness, I think you should cap it off with Firestorm. It'll make your Technical immune to fire without carrying any other kit and allow you to dash in, even a yellow move if an Officer can Command the soldier, and Firestorm a pile of enemy. Will have some protection from Tactical Sense, although that could have been improved by picking Burnout over Shredder.
What you can do is save your game right before you make the perk choice, then in succession play it out 3 times, picking one of the 3 perks and then running a quick mission with the solider and a small team including a Officer. The strength of a build is in the skill using it along with other soldiers and how it fits into your playstyle. If you prefer having a one-shot rocket that rips apart structures and destroys cover, take Bunker Buster. Be sure to fire it without blue-moving the Technical for best accuracy. If you want your Technical to have a lot of primary weapon utility, take Rapid Fire, but you'll want to arm with a Rifle or Shotgun and that will increase needed infiltration time, decrease mobility, and increase the range at which civilians and ADVENT will see the Technical and break concealment.
Here are my 3 Technical builds. Mostly intending the first build, especially as a Officer for Haven Advisors. Like most stuff, still open to revision as I learn more. The pairs of perks separated by '/' are ones I'm still thinking over.
Technical
Fire in the Hole - Biggest Booms / Napalm X - Shredder / Burnout - Tandem Warheads - Incinerator - Tactical Sense - Bunker Buster
Technical Rocketeer
Fire in the Hole - Biggest Booms - Shredder - Tandem Warheads - Javelin Rockets - Tactical Sense / Salvo - Bunker Buster
Technical Flamer
Fire in the Hole / Roust - Napalm X - Burnout - Formidable - Incinerator - Quickburn / Tactical Sense - Firestorm
Re: Technical final soldier ability
It honestly depends on what team you put him in.
If your team lacks good cover destruction and would benefit from it greatly (most teams do, but melee-flankers don't really care for instance), then bunker buster is 100% recommended in that circumstance.
If your team has good cover destruction, but lacks area damage, firestorm is good. You need to have an Officer with Command to make it much easier to get off in one turn.
If your team has good cover destruction and area damage, then you might as well just pick up rapid fire for the pew pews (since you took shredder, this is a great way to peel off hard targets like sectopods/gatekeeper's ridiculous armor stacks)
If your team lacks good cover destruction and would benefit from it greatly (most teams do, but melee-flankers don't really care for instance), then bunker buster is 100% recommended in that circumstance.
If your team has good cover destruction, but lacks area damage, firestorm is good. You need to have an Officer with Command to make it much easier to get off in one turn.
If your team has good cover destruction and area damage, then you might as well just pick up rapid fire for the pew pews (since you took shredder, this is a great way to peel off hard targets like sectopods/gatekeeper's ridiculous armor stacks)
Re: Technical final soldier ability
logan007 wrote:Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some input on the Technical's firestorm ability -- is it worth getting? I built my Technical around a lot of the flamethrower stuff (except to get the +defense ability and the shredder ability) and while I'm inclined to get firestorm, but the other two abilities look pretty tempting too...
This is my first technical to make it to the end so I don't want to waste this choice.
If you don't know all the abilities, you might as well set your awc respec times to 0 for now so you can test every ability you like.
Also in the same type of question what kind of last perk do you all like to pick for shinobi? While reaper is pretty good standalone, I don't appreciate any of them for a stealth shinobi. Rapid fire is the best synergy with shadow strike, but it still seems underwhelming for stealth at msgt. Does anyone else wish there was a stealthier option, even a mediocre one, to fit the kit more?
Re: Technical final soldier ability
Not really, there's too much stealth emphasis already.Does anyone else wish there was a stealthier option, even a mediocre one, to fit the kit more?
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KevlinTallfellow
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2017 2:01 am
Re: Technical final soldier ability
For your Technicals that are true firebugs, you'll really enjoy Firestorm. There's literally nothing else in the game like running up to the middle of a group of enemies, spinning around with the flamethrower to set everyone and everything within 8 tiles on fire, and then running back to the safety of cover (via Command or Quickburn) or just sitting there in the flames in your smoke cloud with defensive protocol or stasis.
If you often find yourself in situations where you absolutely must kill *that guy* and do it *right now* and he's behind some very sturdy cover, then Bunker Buster is a very good solution to that problem.
To be honest, I don't even remember what the third choice is at top rank.
If you often find yourself in situations where you absolutely must kill *that guy* and do it *right now* and he's behind some very sturdy cover, then Bunker Buster is a very good solution to that problem.
To be honest, I don't even remember what the third choice is at top rank.
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saroscycler
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:45 pm
Re: Technical final soldier ability
Time to form the IED Mafia.
Re: Technical final soldier ability
Yes, and if the emphasis on an undesirable mechanic is not going to be removed the other solution would be to make it more palatable by improving the mechanics of stealth or giving more ways to interact with it.trihero wrote:Not really, there's too much stealth emphasis already.Does anyone else wish there was a stealthier option, even a mediocre one, to fit the kit more?
Re: Technical final soldier ability
Nope, not really. You're fishing for someone to agree with you, I simply don't. I answered your question of "does anyone else think that..."
Re: Technical final soldier ability
It's getting away from the Technical class, but....
The Shinobi already has 5 perks, one it always gets, that are stealth oriented: Phantom, Ghostwalker, Covert, Shadowstrike, and Conceal. Along with carrying an SMG, they make the Shinobi excellent at stealthing.
The only thing I think should be added for further stealth function would be similar to what's in the mods LW2 Tactical Suppressors and [LW2] SpecOps Combat Knives: silent kills whether with the primary weapon or the blade. That mod makes it a balanced inclusion with a suspicion system to add risk beyond the yellow alerting that will happen from ADVENT finding the bodies. And of course, if it's not a kill, concealment is now blown.
Watched the video in the Combat Knives mod. That was weird. Maybe too OP. Maybe fun too?
The Shinobi already has 5 perks, one it always gets, that are stealth oriented: Phantom, Ghostwalker, Covert, Shadowstrike, and Conceal. Along with carrying an SMG, they make the Shinobi excellent at stealthing.
The only thing I think should be added for further stealth function would be similar to what's in the mods LW2 Tactical Suppressors and [LW2] SpecOps Combat Knives: silent kills whether with the primary weapon or the blade. That mod makes it a balanced inclusion with a suspicion system to add risk beyond the yellow alerting that will happen from ADVENT finding the bodies. And of course, if it's not a kill, concealment is now blown.
Watched the video in the Combat Knives mod. That was weird. Maybe too OP. Maybe fun too?
Last edited by Jacke on Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Technical final soldier ability
Huh? If that was true then you wouldn't have answered since you don't have the answer to that question technically.trihero wrote:Nope, not really. You're fishing for someone to agree with you, I simply don't. I answered your question of "does anyone else think that..."
Also how is it "nope, not really". That's exactly correct. Not to mention that the stealth class having a reasonable stealth Msgt skill would not be an over emphasis of stealth.
Re: Technical final soldier ability
The existing stealth abilities are plenty overpowered as is, don't need to add more. Whether it's reasonable or not is backseat to balance to me.
Re: Technical final soldier ability
It's always A Question of Balance.trihero wrote:The existing stealth abilities are plenty overpowered as is, don't need to add more. Whether it's reasonable or not is backseat to balance to me.
I think giving us more ways to kill them damn dirty aliens and their collaborators and genetic monstrosities makes it more like XCOM should be. ADVENT sure gets a lot of chances to kill us (at times it feels like the cover picture on the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader).
Imagine yourself there. Wouldn't you want to be able to strike back here, there, and everywhere? I think these things can be balanced out for the game. It also adds utility to Suppressors. Allowing XCOM to vary the secondary weapons gives more power to the player to craft their squads. Sure, they can also kit out a squad completely wrong, but that can be done now already.