WanWhiteWolf wrote:All my squads (8 at the moment - and probably won't make more) have a grenadier. I am close to the end of campaign so I can give you some feedback:
I never reached end game before. Thank you very much for sharing those end game information: they are very helpful .
Gas grenade - Pretty useless. Not even worth the slot in the inventory. Flashbang is simply better for the same purpose. I think it needs something like -20 aim extra to be viable. End game enemies have 100+ aim. The aim malus from a gas grenade is pretty insignificant.
I'm at early game and gas grenade seems better than flash at the moment because most enemies can only shot at you. But I've never considered about mid-late game where most enemies will just use their abilities if you restric their aim. I've already made 3 gas grenades but I'm afraid you are right. I would put those resources into something else next time.
Acid grenades - Pretty weak as well. In theory they are armor removals but in practice they are to weak / there are better option to do that. I think a buff of +2 / +3 armor removal is needed to make them viable.
My concern is I would use Archon corpses to build Fusion Blade 1st. By the time you get enough corpses, maybe you already have the "better option"?
You will not be able to burn multiple enemies without volatile (I think I managed once to burn 2 enemies in my entire campaign). However, volatile mix is against salvo and for me that's to strong to pass.
That's the reason why I started this topic in the 1st place. Based on your experience, the radius nerf seems to have a very big impact on fire grenades. Taking salvo and wear an EXO/WAR suit seems like the way to go now I think about it.
As for sapper vs support build:
The fact that sapper was buffed with +1 env damage means a lot of the cover can be destroyed for the tile you are targeting. So if a soldier is behind a wall, your grenade needs to target the wall - not the soldier. That tile will get 10 damage and thus leaving the soldier flanked. Without engineer perk (MSGT) you will not be able to take down chunks of cover / take down a wall. Also, some object have have 20 or so env resistance so you won't be able to take them down (trees, building columns ...etc).
I'm aware that some object have more HP than others and you need to aim at the object for maximum destruction. But have you seen enemies taking less damage because they are behind a heavy object(like a metal box) while you are trying to remove it? I don't think high cover provide DR in LW2. I get pissed off if I see an enemy takes 1 damage when the mimium damage says 2. There's something going on here but I don't understand, and I don't like being like that.
I also have full sapper builds. I think both are viable end game. It does seem tho , that until they get salvo or volatile, they are a bit lacking. 1 plasma grenade / encounter is usually not good enough to compensate for having +1 soldier. You might as well over infiltrate and have - 1 pod.
I take Airdrop on my specialist(most of them are overwatch build) and it never disappointed me.