Pavonis Interactive Forums

I want to try one out, any tips on perk choices?

High aim, low mobility I guess, going down the middle tree for the Arc Thrower skills?

Shotguns are soo good tho...

Since most of the perks of the Assault tree work only with shotguns or at close range, a good rifle Assault makes use of the Arc Thrower perks and stays at medium range.

A good path would be:
Electroshock -> Arc Pulser -> Stun Gunner -> Formidable -> Rapid Fire -> Untouchable -> Chain Lightning

This way you have a good rifleman who can take out stragglers and has some staying power thanks to Formidable and Untouchable. He can also disable key adversaries. As noted, you will need some good Aim to make use of the rifle at medium range.

I am also experimenting with a Hunter build, using the Bolt Thrower. The idea behind it is to stun or kill big enemies each and every turn.

Here is what I am trying out:
Electroshock -> Arc Pulser -> Stun Gunner -> Formidable -> Hit and Run -> Untouchable -> Chain Lightning

Due to the Bolt Thrower having only 1 ammo, you are better off with Hit and Run, as it will allow to get into cover or just use a pistol to finish off the enemy with the second action

I wish there was a way to use the double barrel shotgun instead of the arch thrower with a slow assault solidier. Then you can use the rifle most of the time, but run and gun for the occasional high powered shot.

Sir_Dr_D wrote:I wish there was a way to use the double barrel shotgun instead of the arch thrower with a slow assault solidier. Then you can use the rifle most of the time, but run and gun for the occasional high powered shot.

Yeah rifle works well with decent aim and arc thrower perks. Rapid fire is the key perk. You can take anything at SSGT and anything at GSGT. I just promoted mine to the A team for big missions: rifle troops are good on those as you spend a lot of the game with upgraded rifles long before you have upgraded advanced weapons. And once he gets chain lightning I expect him to be MVP on that team.

I got low mobility + high aim assault from Gatecrusher and decided to go Electroshock > Ark Pulser > Stun Gunner > Extra Conditioniing > Rapid Fire > Untouchable > Chain Lighting. This is work fine, but after some missions I switched from rifles to SMG's. This guy was combat heavy missions hero, R'n'G to flank 15 enemies and Chain Lighting 'em all with nearly 100% chance - priceless.

Only thing I would change for this build is to replace Electroshock with Lighting Reflexes. Guy almost never miss with Ark Thrower, disorient perk left unused.

You can use high-mobility, high-aim Assaults with rifles as well with or without the Arc Pulser tree. Lightning Reflexes is key to moving into flanking positions, Hit&Run or Rapid Fire are extremely good for this bulid. You can use anything to improve your aim: scopes, tracer rounds, holotargeting from a Sniper - and a lot of overwatch actions for your other squad members.

You can flank multiple enemies with a hiyh-mobility Assault soldier, so your enemies will be on the run next turn. Use your Area Suppression Gunner or overwatch-bulid soldiers to kill them.