What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post Reply
Antifringe
Posts: 226
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:52 pm

What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by Antifringe »

It displays as having higher damage, but Arc Throwers don't do damage, unless you have the Arc Pulser perk. Does this upgrade do literally nothing if you don't take that one specific perk?
stefan3iii
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 3:49 am

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by stefan3iii »

Antifringe wrote:It displays as having higher damage, but Arc Throwers don't do damage, unless you have the Arc Pulser perk. Does this upgrade do literally nothing if you don't take that one specific perk?
Stuns for 3 actions instead of 2.
nmkaplan
Posts: 207
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:14 pm

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by nmkaplan »

It's actually 3 *rounds*, not 3 actions. Basically, it will lose actions for 2 alien turns, not 1, which is a pretty big deal. On the 2nd alien turn, it will stand up and become un-stunned, but will have no actions.
LordYanaek
Posts: 940
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:34 pm

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by LordYanaek »

nmkaplan wrote:It's actually 3 *rounds*, not 3 actions.
No, stefan3iii is right, it's 3 actions which means on the second turn the enemy will get only 1 action. Sometimes they will only move (often if they are flanked) and won't shoot but they still get an action point and for some enemies it's enough to be dangerous.
Only the T3 Arc Thrower with it's 4 actions stun really offers 2 turns of complete control.

But each one is still a big improvement over the previous one, and even more if you have the stun perks (they also gain higher aim bonuses with Stun Gunner)
faket15
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 6:41 pm

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by faket15 »

Most enemies when flanked and with only one action will actually do an offensive action and stay flanked. The only two exceptions I remember are Sectoids/Sectoid Commanders and Najas. Stunning for 3 actions instead of two is useful against Sectopods and Gatekeepers, but not that strong against anything else.
nmkaplan
Posts: 207
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:14 pm

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by nmkaplan »

LordYanaek wrote:
nmkaplan wrote:It's actually 3 *rounds*, not 3 actions.
No, stefan3iii is right, it's 3 actions which means on the second turn the enemy will get only 1 action. Sometimes they will only move (often if they are flanked) and won't shoot but they still get an action point and for some enemies it's enough to be dangerous.
Only the T3 Arc Thrower with it's 4 actions stun really offers 2 turns of complete control.

But each one is still a big improvement over the previous one, and even more if you have the stun perks (they also gain higher aim bonuses with Stun Gunner)
Huh, that has not been my experience at all. When I use advanced arc thrower, I see "Stunned: 3", the tooltip says "stunned for 3 rounds" and I have never seen an alien take an action on that 2nd turn. Do you have experience to the contrary?
Antifringe
Posts: 226
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:52 pm

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by Antifringe »

Thanks for the answers. This one was really bugging me.
DerAva
Posts: 94
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:46 am

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by DerAva »

nmkaplan wrote:
Huh, that has not been my experience at all. When I use advanced arc thrower, I see "Stunned: 3", the tooltip says "stunned for 3 rounds" and I have never seen an alien take an action on that 2nd turn. Do you have experience to the contrary?
Here's a quick example:

Advanced Arc Thrower fired about here: https://youtu.be/agKW5g2L03g?t=16m
Enemy wakes up from stun and takes his single remaining action at about 27:50
NephilimNexus
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 8:56 am

Re: What, exactly, does the Advanced Arc Thrower do?

Post by NephilimNexus »

I believe that it also does more damage to robotic enemies if you have the appropriate perk for that.
Post Reply