Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

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Sines
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 8:36 pm

Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Sines »

I heard someone else mention this idea, of having a Holo-Sniper as an officer with Lead By Example. When I found I had a rookie with abysmal stats that had been sunk into oblivion, all in exchange for massive Aim and Will, I figured I'd give the build a try. The idea being to have the sniper focus primarily on holo-targetting and doing officer things, whilst using Lead by Example to significantly boost the Aim of her squad (and ideally will as well). Taking Phantom and leaving the officer in concealment is optional, although if you're like me and are doing this to a soldier who could barely withstand a stiff breeze, it's a bit more required, since the officer will not be able to hang away in back.

Since Holo-Targetting and Officer Commands don't break concealment, and only the worst Snipers won't be able to contribute some good aim by Lead by Example, this seems like a fairly good alternative to what I consider the 'usual' Shinobi or Specialist Officers. Although I would add that their class name also starts with S.

Who has tried this, and what do they think of it?
Lyzak
Posts: 81
Joined: Thu May 18, 2017 5:01 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Lyzak »

My primary issue with this is that I'm not going to turn a soldier with great aim into a holo-bot. I'm going to turn them into a DFA sniper who's gonna camp somewhere and not be shot at. And probably not be near the rest of the team. Snipers with bad aim become holo-target spammers.

Worse yet, it's a tad hard to justify giving an infantry unit of any sort (ergo someone who's gonna do a lot of shooting, probably because they have great aim) officer perks, because many of the early ones - and the ones that make the biggest difference - are activated. Command, Get Some, Focus Fire. I don't want my shooty-shooters commanding, I want them shooting. And so the strange paradox: you want to give Lead By Example to a soldier with good stats, but you don't want to train a soldier with good stats as an officer 'cuz you'd rather them be shooting than officer...ing...

No, it's not a terrible idea to make an infantry unit an officer. Just perhaps, in my opinion, less optimal. Doing it for a single officer perk to shine (which you don't get until officer rank IV) seems like a waste.
TheDarkZero
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 9:31 am

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by TheDarkZero »

Lead by example is the worst perk in the game by far, to make itself do something you need to train it on someone whit good stats and have him lead a squad whit bad stats to gain HALF the difference...like wow, its not like you do your whit your soldiers and build the ones whit good aim to be shooters and the ones whit bad aim to do things other than shootings such as burning or launching grenades.

This perk is more about a high level officer boosting the aim and will of low level soldiers but I find all my other soldiers on legend surpass the officers in level due to the 2-3 missions they lose while on the tube compared to the non officer soldiers, and that leads to situations where my officers are often the soldiers whit the least stats in the squad
trihero
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:01 am

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by trihero »

I think the best lead by example officer is an OW ranger with combat fitness. They can do something like focus fire or get some into OW, while providing fairly beastly lead by example bonuses.

Also, remember to give your lead-by-example guy the best perception pcs you can find. the +base aim from this pcs is indeed factored into lead by example's effect.
Lyzak
Posts: 81
Joined: Thu May 18, 2017 5:01 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Lyzak »

trihero wrote:I think the best lead by example officer is an OW ranger with combat fitness. They can do something like focus fire or get some into OW, while providing fairly beastly lead by example bonuses.

Also, remember to give your lead-by-example guy the best perception pcs you can find. the +base aim from this pcs is indeed factored into lead by example's effect.
On the one hand, I do like the idea of Ranger officers (because they can shoot and then use an officer action, or vise-a-versa). On the other, I want to say "Oh yeah if they're an OW ranger they can use Ever Vigilant to go into Overwatch after using a commander action and moving" - but oh wait, if you so much as breathe (pick up loot, et all, "free actions") during your move actions, supposedly Ever Vigilant doesn't proc. Hm.
Dlareh
Posts: 125
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:41 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Dlareh »

There's a "Reliable Ever Vigilant" mod for those who want to 'fix' that issue.

Lead By Example has a niche for Trial By Fire training missions, if your TBF officer has good aim and will, but I'd figure most should go Collector instead

The ideal High-aim, High-will lead by example Sharpshooter would have reasonably good mobility and defense and Quick Study to load up on pistol perks. Unlikely, but the stars might line up someday ¯\ (ツ) /¯
Excitement continues to build as city centers across the globe prepare for the latest incarnation of Groundhog Day.
Dwarfling
Posts: 524
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:16 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Dwarfling »

Holo-Officers are meant to act as scouts, as a replacement for Shinobis. High aim means either low mobility, low defenses, low hp, or all of them combined. That's really not something you want on a scout, specially one that can get spotted more easily. And being a scout means you might not even be in command range of the people you want to be buffing.

Honestly, if you think about it, Lead by Example is just not worth the trouble, because if you want one of your soldiers shooting, then it's because it has a good aim stat, otherwise you picked a different role for them and they spend their actions doing something else, like grenading, shotgunning, flanking, etc.
Sines
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 8:36 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Sines »

Well, I'll still be giving her a try. For a Ranger of the same aim and same rank, she'll be providing him +4 aim. However, since I choose someone with a possibly max roll for aiming, she'll be providing far more than that, and even better to other soldiers. Compared to soldiers with more normal aim, she'll be providing over +10 before she even holotargets anything.

Now, is this better than just having her shoot... well almost certainly not for a small squad. But a larger squad will be getting far more out of her.

We'll see, I guess. Maybe I'll decide this was all a terrible idea in practice. Especially since she's currently just a squaddie, and is going to take a great deal of catching up, which will be done in larger parties where she's not usually getting the kills. That... might be a bit of a problem :D Oh well, I'm still determined to give it a go.
DaviBones
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:30 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by DaviBones »

Wonder how effective a DfA officer would be. In theory sniper shot + command sounds pretty good, and the officer abilities give them something to do when they need to change positions. Unfortunately since they are an officer you would have to give up potentially good sniper nests to stay near the squad.

Still, might be worth a try for this specific instance.
Dlareh
Posts: 125
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:41 pm

Re: Holo-Sniper Lead-By-Example Officer

Post by Dlareh »

Well I wouldn't spend too much time wondering, because a DfA Sharpshooter is the worst possible choice for an officer, bar none. Every other class and every other build is a better choice.

The best things to do when changing positions and having an action left is not any officer ability, but either Steady Weapon, Reload, or single Holo
Excitement continues to build as city centers across the globe prepare for the latest incarnation of Groundhog Day.
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