What are the uses of Air Controller?

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Dlareh
Posts: 125
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:41 pm

What are the uses of Air Controller?

Post by Dlareh »

Do you guys think this officer perk is strong enough vs. Infiltrator, or does it need a buff?

I've really never taken it, as it looks incredibly weak. May as well infiltrate better and the evac will be ~1 turn sooner anyway.

I'd be okay with ditching the concept entirely and replacing it with something better and more novel that contrasts with Infiltrator. But if we're to keep the notion, my idea would be for it to let that officer call for Evac without breaking squad concealment.
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Tuhalu
Posts: 433
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:02 pm

Re: What are the uses of Air Controller?

Post by Tuhalu »

It's relevant in 1.3 on Legendary difficulty. Even if you 200% infiltrate, you have a 3 turn evac cooldown. With Air Controller it's a 1 turn cooldown on the initial use (not sure if moving the evac is still 2 or is reduced to 1). At lower difficulties, you can reduce your evac timer to 1 with significantly less infiltration time than you would with Infiltrator.

Infiltrator only lets the squad infiltrate 17% (24% with Intel) better than before. That's important if you need a bit more infiltration to make the mission possible, but past 100% it won't always get you to another infiltration cutoff.

All up, I think Air Controller is the superior choice for stealth/semi-stealth ops where there is no fixed evac and you need to get out fast after completing the objective. For everything else, you take Infiltrator.
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WanWhiteWolf
Posts: 138
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 10:09 pm

Re: What are the uses of Air Controller?

Post by WanWhiteWolf »

Air controller lets you do some 2 man missions.

For example a Specialist + Shinoby Officer with Air Controlle can do reliably the 8 turn hack mission. You find a spot within the dashing distance from hacking the objective.

You make sure you see no enemy -> drop the evac where you need to dash-> pop a smoke/ hunker down with the Specialist.

The smoke/ hunker down is to avoid any potential reaction fire of a pod that might run into you.

Next turn -> you dash to the evac spot; Shinoby commands the Specialist; Specialist hacks the objective and gets out. Next turn Shinoby dashes and gets out as well.

Apart from stealth missions, Air Controller has no use. Infiltrator all the way.
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