I personally hate this perk, and while I understand that it has some uses, it is the only perk that can make your soldier worse in certain circumstances. If my soldier didn't have a good shot and I overwatched him, then I don't want him wasting the overwatch on a shot that he has little to no chance of making. Personally I would prefer if this perk also caused the shot to ignore any cover bonus the shooter has, though that might be a bit too strong.
Anyways, the issue lies in the AWC that requires you to get Offensive lvl 1 before you get level 2 and then 3. If Covering Fire is the lvl 1 perk, then I have to decide if the lvl 2 and/or 3 perks are worth having to take a perk which might weaken my build.
Possible Solutions:
remove Covering Fire from AWC --I commented out the entry for my game as a quick fix
move Covering Fire to a lvl 3 perk, so it doesn't block anything
change Covering Fire so that it is better, or atleast not be a negative.
- Make the Covering Fire shot ignore cover defense. This way the shot will have the same chance as if the unit moved.