@@TheDriftersBroadcast Whiplash does not do extra damage to Codex and Spectre, but blue screen rounds do. It is because whiplash works on electric short circuiting so it affects only electromechanical objects like machines. Codex and Spectre are AI personified not machines. Whereas bluescreen rounds are more like viruses which corrupt the AI. So it will affect anything that works on a computer program. Codex, spectre, sectopod, MEC etc. All of them need AI to work.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Also when enemy soldiers are retreating they ignore the mimic beacon. They consider mimic beacon as another real soldier. So if they are retreating they are not obliged to attack it. Happens with me all the time. They will also ignore mimic beacon if they do not have the vision of mimic beacon in the beginning of their turn. As per my experience, enraged berserkers (sometimes), panicked enemies or xcom soldiers and all bosses (including avtar) also ignore mimic beacon.
I agree with you in terms of lore! The new ending sequence where the no-longer-brainwashed ADVENT units lay down their arms in front of a skirmisher camp, and Betos simply greets them with a "Welcome Home" was heartwarming
With the length of each play through, I thought the same thing at first. But playing something mindless while watching has gotten me invested, and now I’m looking forward to what Drifter has next since all “8” troop types have been done (I don’t watch livestreams).
I just found this channel and this is exactly what happened to me because I have already seen the PSI only, Chosen only (if that one counts), Templars, Skirmishers and Specialists only Oh, and sparks only
I think skirmishers greatest strength and weakness is right there in the name, they excel in short skirmishes, but really struggle in protracted engagements.
I disagree. That's exactly reaper not skirmisher. Skirmishers' abilities are mostly reusable whereas reapers' abilities like claymore, sting, banish all have limited uses, not to mention they have weakest guns (firepower) of all units. So in long run reapers are really useless unless you are saving their skills, then they are useless in initial phases 🤷. They are very good as opportunist, to be used at the right time (like double claymore explosion on an entire pod or remote start if pod is near a car) and then rendered useless.
@@indiankid8601 I agree with your assessment on the Reaper, but I feel like this is mostly the case in the early game, when the Reaper doesn’t have access to Silent Killer yet, and thus is reliant on RNG to maintain their Shadow. Reapers make for excellent scouts, and I feel like the design intention when it comes to claymores is that they are to be used to weaken or destroy dangerous pods that appear later on the mission. Even after all claymores have been expended, the Reaper can still be of use in a prolonged fight, especially with blood trail and needle, landing them in a niche position where they’re used to keep tabs on enemy positions, while finishing off the stragglers that your primary forces can’t finish off
@@indiankid8601 A Reaper with a Repeater, And the extra crit damage + talon rounds make them glass cannons. Able to pick off units from the shadow without being revealed. They are a true scout class and executioner. Skirmishers are more hit and run, their abilities limited used but also able to traverse a long distance and still be able to fire or retreat back to safety, but once those abilities run out due to prolonged engagement, like having too many enemies at once, then they get bogged down.
I like having 1 with blue screen ammo, a advanced scope, and either expanded mag or reload mod. You can kill 2 mechs or the big 1 with just 1 unit then
Yeah I used my skirmisher for bot detail with bluescreen ammo, getting to fire twice with boosted damage can really put a nail in bigger more tanky bot health pools.
@@zacheymczachface Being able to immediately get to a higher position with the grapple hook and *then* firing down on the enemy is always a great time when you have the opportunity. It doesn't happen often, but when it does the skirmisher is worth their weight in alien alloys.
Ah, the classic Saturation Fire broken stuff. For some reason, cover destroying abilities always insta-kill the device, which is another reason why lategame Protect the Device missions are impossible: A sectopod could just step on it, ending your mission on the spot.
I remember a sectopod trampled the device in my very first campaign way back when the game launched. I remember very little else about that campaign, but I remember that like it was yesterday. I was pretty salty about it at the time haha.
At 1:26:15 it's a really funky interaction between the skirmishers' bladestorm and the judgment ability. After being attacked the defending skirmisher bladestorms his opponent and judgment triggers to attempt to panic the attacker. The panic fails and the attacker gets a bladestorm retaliation that seems to be triggered by the judgment action. The attacker then gets a judgment panic roll which fails causing the defending skirmisher to get a bladestorm and another judgment roll. Luckily the panic works causing the attacker to run away. If I read the situation right there appears to be no logic preventing an infinite loop if the judgment continues to fail to panic either party. Bladestorms won't continue to go back and forth because they thought of that interaction and made bladestorm not trigger bladestorm but it appears they didn't think to apply the same exception to the judgment action. Tldr they could have gone back and forth till one died if the panic didn't land. Was cool to see them have a "matrix" superspeed fight over there tho.
@@g80gzt I think I didn't want to use the grappling hook initially until there were enemies around and I actually needed to. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it haha.
There's no way you could have expected a whole 20+ damage from a magnetic bullpup, it honestly looked like a glitch, especially with nothing else being damaged, whereas saturation fire usually destroys everything in its path So yeah, that re-load was justified
My new headcanon is that the andromedon in the avenger defense mission was affected by the first mimic beacon, but was so scared that it had to fall back for help. It then took some extra time to convince everyone in the other pod too. By the time the second mimic beacon was thrown, this particular andromedon had assured itself that the mimic beacon was nothing to worry about.
11:50 Faceless melee attacks are actually AoE attacks that hit a cone in front of them and as such, they don't require line of sight so long as they know someone is there. They can also hit multiple bunched-up troops or even civilians with one swing... X( As a side note, great to see some love for my favourite class in X-Com. I like to think of them as a sort of pseudo-support flex role, due to the fact their Battle Presence ability is actually a straight upgrade from the Inspire psi-power when supporting non-skirmishers. It doesn't end their turn and can be used on units that are immune to psi powers like SPARKs (which actually synergizes well once you upgrade their overdrive ability) and hacked machines. Skirmishers also make excellent bond mates for sharpshooters, partially for this reason. Giving your sniper 2 extra actions lets them do more dumb sharpshooter things, and Skirmishers' mobility pairs well with squadsight. On top of this, the marksman always uses their sniper rifle for dual strike regardless of whether they have moved or not, letting you set up some underhanded kills on distant targets using Skirmishers' mobility. Alternatively, you can use them as a "handler" for your Templar and witness true carnage as you have them butcher whole pods singlehandedly, using momentum to move a terrifying distance between strikes and filling your whole focus bar instantly before setting up parry for the 4 extra pods you triggered with your Leeroy Jenkins antics. Both are pretty hilarious. I think the trick to having fun with Skirmishers is to get past the misconception that you'll be using their tools every turn. You'll often spend your first action on movement, and that's okay. It's not a waste if it gets you where you need to be. Proper resource and cooldown management will ensure when you really need that second shot your insane mobility options will let you take it from an extremely advantageous position. It's incredibly satisfying to do something like grapple to a good position, give an extra action to your demolitionist to clear enemy cover, and then take a shot on the newly exposed enemy. Skirmishers are a "just enough" kind of class. Once everything clicks they have just enough firepower, mobility, or support potential to fill any role you need on a given turn, allowing them to act as the glue that holds your more specialized members together. Sorry for the rant. I'm just so happy to see Skirmisher appreciation given the general perceptions of their usefulness. Great vid!
Not at all, friend. Rants are always welcome. I think your view on the Skirmishers is quite wise. Doing this run certainly made me appreciate them more.
Also, the reason the faceless swung in the direction of the skirmisher he couldn't see is from a weird trick of the AI. If an alien can see one of your guys, then all active aliens know where all of your guys are (except for your guys in stealth). So, even without LOS, it knew where she was.
Some of my best troopers were specialists. Getting serial as a bonus skill on one, and equipping her with a superior stock was memorable. Turns changed from getting everything to zero hp to getting everything to three hp, which is a good bit easier.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast it was especially good against mid-game codex pods, as she could just erase all the weak clones. I really like serial snipers, but on a specialist it played quite differently, which was interesting.
Specialists with stocks are insanely powerful - lasers, scopes, and extendo-mags make them even better. Ever had an entire pod get gunned down by 2 guys on overwatch with guardian, doing crits on the ones they hit, and crippling them to low HP if they miss?
you know what would be kinda fun, a chimera squad run. install the mod that let you play with enemies and at the start of the run you can only play with the "characters" (soldiers that are the closet they can) of chimera squad + a spark (because of the robot mechanics)
Skirmishers have always been my favorite class in the original WotC, probably because of Michael Dorn providing the voice acting (he played Worf in Star Trek: TNG). Plus, they're scrappy!
Absolutely amazing video Drifter! It’s so satisfying seeing the Skirmishers get some appreciation. Thave always been my favorite Hero class, both for their lore and their versatility. Seeing the Skirmisher Squad absolutely wreck the Berserker Queen was an absolute highlight, and the heroic yet doomed Skirmish Uprising makes for a wonderfully compelling narrative. I’d love to see another go with the Skirmishers, but am totally looking forward to more vanilla class play throughs. Keep up the amazing work!
Honestly, Skirmishers have always been one of my favorite classes in XCOM 2. They're fun to use, extremely versatile, and can just solve a lot of problems that other classes might not be able to handle. However they've also always felt like the BUGGIEST class in the entire game. Half their abilities feel like they just actively do not function most of the time, while the others feel half-baked at best. It always felt like they needed a patch or something to fix them, but of the many patches XCOM 2 got, we never got Skirmishers their much needed patch. It's extremely unfortunate. Thankfully there's a decent amount of mods out there that can help, but it's still such a shame since it makes them a lot harder of a sell in just normal vanilla runs, and is part of the reason why they're considered the worst class of the three faction classes added in WotC.
Yeah, it's really disappointing their most powerful ability is basically useless. It'd be like if banish had a glitch that caused the reaper to only shoot twice, regardless of how many bullets were in the clip.
While skirmishers are TECHNICALLY my least favorite of the 3, they’re still super fun and awesome to use. Love them. WotC really is one of the best DLCs to any game I own. Just absolutely spectacular in every way.
9:30 I like to bring mindshields because it means you can practically ignore the psionic enemies early game; sectiods can’t panic or control your allies, Priests cant either; it’s good for any of the Chosen, since Dazed counts for a mental effect, meaning the Assassin will only do damage, the Hunter cant gas a group, and the Warlock is neutered. Further along, I cant recall every enemy with some kind of psionic effect, but it could work against Spectres Shadowbind ability? Gatekeepers are annoying too, and the Avatars could always use a little nerfarooni
10:00 Vision blocked by fence (yep, this one that made of wooden planks with holes between them), and building is too high. If building is too high, you can even not seen enemy right below you, even without a fence, cuz soldiers cannot look down.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I should definitely try that, but to be honest, I never played WotC long enough to meet Sectopods (I finished the base game, though).
Skirmishers with repeaters have carried me through some really sticky situations. Since they're regularly shooting multiple times per turn it gets lot of chances to proc. The amount of chosen and sectopods that have just been deleted by it has been great.
I have to thank you for having such long form videos. You've been giving me something to listen to at work and get me through 8 frustrating hours of boringness.
Honestly, would have been fine just seeing the loss. Even thematically it makes sense that they "couldn't do it without the commander" or whatever. Its was a heck of a run though, really fun.
Most upgrades to the skirmisher are very situational, I've had missions that went totally sideways a few turns in and a skirmisher was the only thing that made it work out, then other missions the same skirmisher just hung out around some corners and doesn't do much
Now that I have slept and wasn't just listening to your voice in a half asleep haze, and actually was able to comprehend. I think the reason the andromedon ignored the mimic beacon twice is because the thing isn't programmed to force the enemy to attack it, but rather increases the priority to attack it. You have had other times when they ignored the mimic beacon and attacked your troops as well. Since the AI logic for the andromedon was heavily tilted towards retreat, then to move towards avenger it beat out the priority on attack on the mimic beacon. However through these solo class challenge runs I have seen the error of my ways. I always saw mimic beacons as hot garbage. Maybe they were just inconsistent when I first played XCOM2, maybe I got unlucky (like in here), but I wrote them off forevermore.
Yeah, Sectoid AI is weird. 99% of the time they prioritize their psionic abilities if they can use them, instead of taking shots, even if they can get easy flanking shots.
I'm also wondering if mindspin (or whatever their psionic ability is called) has a greater chance to affect the unit if they're flanked? Otherwise I just can't understand why it bothered to flank him at all.
If I were to make a guess on the easiest baseline class to solo with, I'm guessing that Grenadier will be the easiest, followed by Sharpshooter, then Assault (Which will play an awful lot like reapers), and lastly Specialist. I feel like Specialists will suffer on the strategic layer as the ability to heal every team member to full multiple times a mission still means an awful lot of wounds and their alpha strike abilities are lacking. My experience was that Assaults worked best as earlygame crutches and then using Stealth to support Sharpshooters and Grenadiers, but my best "Assaults" by endgame was just other classes that picked up Assault abilities in the AWC/Training Center. Sharpshooters feel like they have a lot of killing power and two very different builds that support each other, and Grenadiers were a class that I felt got better the more of them I brought to a mission. Psi Operative seems like a meme run that will be easily the hardest of them all
Yeah, I think Grenadiers are definitely the best of the base classes. They're just really versatile (and you can have a whole squad of shred which is amazing). And yes, the psi run will be agony lmao.
11:50 Faceless attack are free aiming like grenades as you can see in multiplayer so they can attack without line of sight, they can also leap like chryssalids
While I know that it goes against normal Xcom logic, I would highly recommend investing in the Skirmisher abilities that reward your unit for coming under fire. I always give special ammo to my skirmishes instead of grenades, so I’ll grapple forward to cover, take a shot, and if I think that he might be under fire, I hunker down. Enemies that shoot as their default action end up missing, which puts the skirmisher in a great position to benefit from return fire and reflex actions. With an all Skirmisher run, I’d suggest having two of your guys carrying bluescreen and AP and using these abilities.
Going to honest; in regards to the SPARKS run, the ending was only brutal because you did it with near unmodded mag weapons, plate armor, and standard heavy weapons and fought all three chosen at the same time. If anything, that proves that SPARKS are op as hell. I kind of wanted to see what would happen if you went in fully prepared. The epic curb stomp would be heard from the tower mission. Hope you do more runs with each class.
I love this format for xcom videos. Long but swift compared to xcom series. I also have never seen that many mechs on one mission in the mission were the one retreated. Why were there so many?#
10:07 because of the chest high cover it blocks your line of sight, oddly enough this also happens with railing covers that have holes assuming they give you the half cover bonus.
i don't even play XCOM even though i tried the first one while at a friends house and have known plenty of people who play it. i really don't know how the algorithm got me here but i'm glad it did. your channel is underrated. it has all the earmarks of a big channel but its nuts you dont even have 1k subs. i might have to pick up xcom 2 myself. gl dude
Ooh, I can answer that question! At 31:00 I discovered a little while ago doing the blacksite mission for the 400th whatever time because I'm picky about how my campaigns run and restart when I get the urge, that an extra pod (usually 2 man shieldbearer and captain/stunlance and VERY rarely a mech) can patrol around REALLY far away from the blacksite, I was waiting in the street in my mission for 8 turns (don't ask), and they finally showed up, when/if they spawn the Infinite waves of reinforcements won't show up until that patrol is dead, if they're alive, only the one will appear. Addendum: I play on console, i don't know what applies to PC versions of it's different.
Those chrysalides at 39:39 thought they've got a jump on you... And then you slapped them in the face and gunned them down instantly, firesquad-like. So nice!
This was the first video I watched of Drifter, soon after I had complet3d my first wotc run. And my favorite units were the skirmishers and Sharpshooters, the two classes the Drifter failed with on the first go around, which I find pretty funny because I won on Veteran and he lost on Commander which shows the difference between the two difficulties.
For the faceless @11:30 I think others have already said that their attack is a cone AoE. The other thing is that if the aliens can see 'any' one of your soldiers, then they automatically know where 'all' your soldiers are, so hiding out of line of sight has to be an all or nothing deal.
The reason why the codex was able to attack on the hunter chosen mission was because, when revealed, all hostile units get 1 AP. 97.5% of the time they use it to get to cover, but since the codex teleported into high cover, it attacked.
Skirmishers are really good but more as a utility support unit than a front liner. I also agree they don't scale well in the tech tree because the latter skills are just not good enough. In stark contrast to Templars which have their stronger abilities at the latter half of the tree. While reapers are just the best...
XCOM 2 has a horrible habit of not flagging its mechanics properly. Which is one of the reasons I restarted my campaign two times and save scummed massively during the run I finished. I have no guilt abusing saves if the game doesn't do what it's supposed to
Found you from your Spark video yesterday, really enjoyed seeing you use Skirmishers, such a cool class aesthetically but one I’ve also struggled to make use of late game. I have always loved the grapple attacks and mobility tho.
skirmishers really shine in beta strike mode. they are my primary tanks, outperforming even tank invested sparks and weirdly enough mobility is their primary stat. using covert ops is my primary means of increasing their stats, even small increases to mobility or health drastically increases their viability. in fact the only thing ive seen outperform them in both tanking and damage is a 100% dodge serpent king ranger
I recently finished a playthrough of X2:WOTC, and I found skirmishers to be absolutely savage. The fact that they are voiced by Michael Dorn AKA Worf from Star Trek TNG, tells you all you need to know. They are Klingon! Warriors through and through!
@@TheDriftersBroadcast WEll combined with the fact that reapers are voiced by Marina Sirtis, Diana Troy, also from Star Trek TNG, and during season 5 and 6 it hink, Worf and Diana were an item, that makes the whole bickering between them even more funny (also in ca. 90% my playthroughs, both Mox and Elena always end up having the highest bond affinity with each other). Next, the Boss of the reapers?Yeah that Jonathan Frakes, aka Commander William Thomas Riker, also from Star Trek TNG. I think the Boss of the Templar was it, is voice by Denise Crosby, aka Lieutenant Tasha Yar/ Subcommander (and later Empress) Seela (yeah you know the drill). And one of the npc scientist (I do not remember which, but i am pretty sure not chief guy) is voiced by Dwight Schulz, aka Lieutenant Reginald Barkley (aka Brokkoli ^^) from? Yeah Star Trek TNG, again. Yeah the star Trek TNG cast are quite prolific voice actors, i mean did you know that almost half the cast of the old Disney cartoon Gargoyles is voiced by them?
@@wolfsruhm I used to LOVE Gargoyles, but had no idea the Trek cast did the voices LOL. I do like Star Trek, but I actually haven't watched that much of it. I think I need to change that.
I feel like the Skirmisher was intended to be able to switch between short-range to long-range quickly - hence having three different melee abilities that can yoink the Skirmisher or their target or simply charge in with Reckoning, but also having Grapple to get yourself back out again to take shots. The trouble is that their bullpup has the range of the shotgun, which doesn't lend itself well to those longer-range shots, and has the damage-tier of an assault rifle except lower maximum damage, which doesn't lend itself well to anything. So the Skirmisher is fun to use and can pull weight, but I can never really justify taking them on purpose in a balanced squad where I want one of each core classes and a Psi Op - I would always prefer a Reaper for the sixth slot, and if they're not available I still generally would prefer a Templar. What's interesting though is how close the balancing is: on a Commander run I did recently, I got Improved Bullpups very early, and it turned my skirmisher from mediocre to *amazing*. One extra damage per shot turned him into a powerhouse, especially once I put dragon rounds on him.
So with the codex and whiplash there is a few posssibilities. 1) The devs never thought about that combination. 2) Either the whiplash or the codex isn't properly flagged in the code to recognize this. 3) The codex has unique code compared to other mechanical enemys.
The "Unit is mechanical" and "Unit is vulnerable to Bluescreen Rounds" are apparently different "flags" in the code. Codex has the latter, but not the former. It lacks other properties of mechanical units, including the immunity to mind effects. And apparently, Whiplash works only on the units with the "mechanical" flag, not on the units vulnerable to Bluescreen.
@@antongrigoryev6381 Ah so its more towards the unique coding speculation, #3, that I had. That is good to know and thank you for the clarification. It is an interesting distinction on a developers part to make. As codexs are also affected by emp grenades which do affect mechanical / robotic units. In some manner, one could say they, the codex, are mechanical in name only. As extra work in setting up its own flags to treat it the same as a mechanical had to be done. There is probably a very simple answer a person more familiar could give to the reasoning why a EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) grenade works on a Codex but a Whiplash (electrical-based) attack doesn't. Could be lore based, could be balancing based, could be related to needing to push the dlc out on time at the time. Could even be a combination.
Repeaters are amazing. I got an execution on a ruler with my reaper on their first shot. I figured pairing repeaters with banish/annihilation means you get to make even more shots if you manage to get an execution. And an added bonus was having the resistance order to improve the effects of attachments making a superior repeater give a 20% chance of executing. Every 1 in 5 shots insta-killing is nuts. Second time watching this run by the way and I had forgotten that the final mission was so rough. Great job managing to pull through on that second attempt tho. Skirmishers seem to be really strong early/mid game but their potential really falls off when every enemy has armor and they have no means of getting rid of it. And like someone else mentioned, they really do follow their name, short skirmishes are their bread and butter while protracted engagements seem to really wear them down. Props to the Xcom devs on the Skirmisher tho. imo, a good class should allow you to beat the game with it alone but it should be hard and they seem to have nailed it. You should have to utilize every other trick at your disposal in order to win because you are literally playing the game wrong by using only that one specific class. Although, it would be nice if all their abilities worked as intended ;) Looking at you Battle Lord. Also, Reflex/Whiplash could use a buff to not be once per mission.
For the Skirmishers' flaw you explained at the end - I think it was more because they lack shred other than their grenades, and they suffer from it much more because their damage is reliant on multiple hits. They lack the high per-hit damage and survivability Templars have, and they don't have an OP oneshot ability like Reapers do with their Banish. While against most other heavy-armored enemies it can be overcome by Bluescreen Rounds, Avatar doesn't care. And not only do they take less damage, but they teleport after every attack, against a class that relies on multiple attacks to deal damage. That makes them Skirmishers' worst enemies, and it shows. I think it's not that Skirmishers are flawed, it's just the last mission counters them specifically.
The main difference is that whiplash is "electrical" damage. While Bluescreen is just "more damage vs robotic". But in general electrical damage in XCOM2 is inconsistent as hell. Some sources ignore armour others don't. Then you have bombard for Sparks that looks like it would be electric but it isn't.
Speaking of ammunition at the end, isn't there an ammo type that DOES shred armor? Or maybe it is armor piercing? And ya, I'd love a repeat of this challenge run, skirmishers are my favorite class in the game, since I have a preference for close quarters shredding. Something you should be using at every chance are laser sights, since the crit rates improve based on how close you are to the target. As soon as you can, you should max out auto-loaders and lasers on atleast two of your bullpups, then do the same but for normal scopes and high capacity magazines for two other bullpups, so you have two bullpups for pressuring enemies up close, and two for medium distance engagement without having to use turns moving, so you can just spray down the line with higher odds to hit
I believe shredder ammo is only available in XCOM Enemy Unknown. You can only get shred from abilities in this game (excluding the use of mods, of course). AP ammo will bypass armour though.
yay more challenge videos! thx man. That was exactly what I was looking for - how I found you in the first place. I don't think you don't need to redo skrimishers. At leas I believe in your ability to finished it without loosing on the last mission
Skirmishes are probably my favourite of the 3 classes, mostly because how overlooked they are. I field them as support troops, because they can cover up just about any area. Need melee? They've got you covered. Need to boost action economy? Skirmishes are your friends. Softening up two (3 with whiplash) targets at once to set up reaper or serial, disrupting the enemies positioning, taking the high ground and immediately following it up with 2 shots. And for what it's worth I love total combat. Jump with a grapple hook - shred the target with a grenade - shoot the bullpup. And of course there's the combat presence ability, probably the most busted on their list. Need to do a crucial shotgun shot, but of bondmate charges? Use combat presence. Also 2 shots per turn usually give me a nice reason to use repeaters. Repeaters and autoloaders are probably my favourite loadout for them, because of double chance to execute.
this class is goated early game because of all the stuff they get right out of the gate, and when your early soldiers suck, having a jack of all trades class is really good. but in late game when your other soldiers start getting more powerful abilities they become useless.
As for the being unable to grapple hook on a cliff or a building, might have something to do with context not properly functioning. Like when its checking a true or false flag for being able to grapple somewhere, it might be seeing the flag as false. Now whether that is to do with the skirmisher or the map itself, is another matter.
I always have great effect from simply doing whatever with their builds, as long as i use custom ammo of some kind on them... Bluescreen, Venom or Dragon are my favorites, as being able to murder robots cleanly and spread status effects around has helped me on a ton of runs! I usually don't build a Skirmisher to depend on fire or poison, but when it happens it always helps out...
Skirmishers are kind of the 'boring but practical' class in terms of their actual mechanics. They don't have the flashy melee focus stuff of the templars or the stealth master assassin badassary of the reapers but they are the best all-round combatant class in the game. The moment you talked about how they weren't your favourite, my immediate thought was "yeah... but you're gonna have an easier time with this challenge."
Skirmishers aren’t a class that CAN shoot twice in one turn, they’re a class that NEEDS to shoot twice in one turn! Because their aim and damage kinda sucks. Looking forward to the Specialists only run! I always use specialists as my "Team leader" units and put them in heavy armor so they can use heavy weapons, but I very rarely actually end up killing enemies with them. They are generally super-reliable though, and are the best unit for setting overwatch traps.
The reason that codecs don’t take double damaged rom whiplash is that they are not robotic but rather psionic making the warlock’s disruptor rifle effective against them. On a related note gatekeepers count as both robotic and psionic depending on what form they are in.
In a normal game versatility is easy to come by, just using many different classes give you plenty of it. On a mono run like that versatility is a luxury few classes can provide. Skirmisher is one of them, and even their name fits.
I remember a campaign that I got a skirmisher onto a lot of covert ops that increased mobility and aim, that then proceeded to get tactical rigging and with a expanded mag and a scope on his bull pup. I used him as a mobile mimic beacon that could wipe out the biggest thing in a pod or just annihilate a pod while the rest of the team engaged a different pod.
I used to feel the same way about Skirmishers as you did, but when I found a Scorpion voice pack on the workshop I decided to give one a proper go for a whole campaign. The mobility and versatility completely won me over even before I got Bladestorm as a random perk, they are easily my favourite of the three hero classes now. Slap some Dragon Rounds on for the full Scorpion experience!
I fluctuate for my favourite faction soldier type but I love Skirmishers. For me they fit in well with a regular squad make-up. I think you underrate the grapple hook in the beginning. There is almost always a place to jump to and height is never a bad thing with the aim bump + two shots (or more with hair triggers).
man this video gives me great vindication Ive always been a skirmisher fan, championing their multi-tool power and it always made me a little sad to see people so down on them they really shine in single-class runs but hopefully people see the value of an all-purpose multi-tool in ANY makeup
So, Battlelord has a bug that makes it only react to the first two actions instead of all actions. There's a fix for that on the workshop, not to mention a handful of buffs as well (that can be disabled). Also, I think you're doing something really good here, good content. One last thing: Ammo Types are actually really helpful, ESPECIALLY with Skirmishers, and not just Bluescreens. AP Rounds regularly see use in my campaigns, they're a good substitute for shredding on certain Classes.
I'm definitely installing that mod before my next play through with Skirmishers haha. And I think you're right on the ammo issue. A few people have suggested AP rounds in particular and I think they could be really useful.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I'm also a big fan of Talon Rounds with them. Since Skirmishers can so easily grapple into solid flanking positions they REALLY benefit from the extra crit chance and crit damage. Tracer rounds can also be a nice benefit to help mitigate the sometimes lacking aim that Skirmishers can struggle with. Overall I think Skirmishers are one of the classes (Along with Gunslinger Snipers and of course Banish-using Reapers) who benefit the most from ammo types.
The main reason is because I'm not building the training centre (since hero classes don't need it to get their hidden perks, so it's not really worth the resources). Without the training centre, you can only have level 1 perks. This gives you a not great ability, but gives the downside that a soldier can go berserk and attack your own team if something happens to their partner. It's a large downside for not much upside. With regular classes, since I'm building the training centre anyway, bonds are likely to be more useful. But looking back, since the Skirmishers did struggle a bit late game, it may be worth building the training centre and maxing out the bonds. I'll keep that in mind if I ever give this challenge a second go.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast considering how rarely your troops actually die, I doubt the level one bonds wouldn’t be worth it on their own. If your that worried about it, wait until you have Warden armour and your bond mates are both high rank. Trading an action can be so useful.
Great stuff, I like silly challenge runs in games like this and was glad to see ones for XCOM! Definitely interested to see how the other solo class runs will go, inspired to do some of my own too
That mission at 24mins didn't go bad because of the Mech jumping into a ditch, it went bad because you grouped up. If you place 2 characters in cover both within explosive radius the AI is more likely to use explosives. If you place 3 characters in cover all 3 within explosive radius the AI is extremely likely to use explosives. This is actually a reason why anytime there is an enemy with AoE you need to spread apart, explosives are generally saved to punish the player for grouping up in my experience or if you're near impossible to hit. Better positioning is like an armor onto itself.
Recently I've even noticed the AI flat out cheating with explosives, firing them out of vision at groups they physically can't see. a Viper shooting a wall with no knowledge of units there to poison them. Or even better a Codex ignoring 2 flanking shots to... malfunction 2 units weapons. ...it even seems like Sectopods will use their charge AoE cannon as well for their final action. So grouping people up actually protects you from the "strongest" mech in the game.
As much as I don't like a lot of the things Long War of the Chosen did to my boy LW2, the way they shook up Skirmishers is really great since Skirmishers finally have something to focus on. Skirmishers are supposed to be hit and run units, kinda like an Implacable ranger. Flank an enemy, shoot, run back into safety. A ranger spends a blue move and has to hope for a kill, the Skirmisher just grapples and gets to run into safety regardless of landing a kill. However, none of their abilities really fall into that category. Implacable sounds like something that Skirmishers should've had in their skill tree actually. LWotC gives them Hit & Run which is just a wonderful fit; The first shot at a flanked or exposed enemy is free. Don't you know, they also get Implacable so you can grapple and move to flank, shot twice and if you kill, run away. Or soften up a target with a grenade if you have Total Combat. These two additions alone are mind blowing frankly and in my opinion encapsulate what they should've been to begin with.
I 1000% agree with your final assessment of skirmishers. I think some of their abilities are extremely useful but the needless limitations on them prevent them from really being great. Justice only being able to hit advent and specters and whiplash only having one charge are good examples, either of these abilities could have their limitations removed or at least could have gotten buffed slightly without ruining game balance (especially if you changed whiplash damage with ripjack tier). But instead they’re reduced to the point where they’re pretty meh late game. And don’t even get me started on battle lord. I get why having a playable alien ruler would be pretty broken, but as it is now it’s literally useless, only granting a net gain of 1 action.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast perhaps you should try doing each of these "Beat the game using only (Class) in long war" after you finish doing them in base game since it would be interesting to see directly how the experience compares
@@gamerz1172 I'll have to do a regular run (or ten) first, just to get used to it, but after that, I really like your idea. I'm adding it to the list of future runs.
I will say I love Skirmisher versatility. I have a mod that causes faction sitreps to spawn a small pod of either 3 reapers with a leader being buffed, 3 skirmishers with buffed leader, or 3 templars following the same deal. I 've rolled Skirmishers multiple times due to multiple sitreps 2.0 and they honestly put my soldiers to shame as they mop up anything in their way.
to answer the codex/ andromedon bluescreen question, I would say it's because the andromedon shell is very clearly a machine (weak to bluescreen and whiplash) while the codex is kind of like... living code. It's not made of machine parts like a normal robot, it's more of like a hardlight construct. Hence, it is weak to bluescreen but not whiplash. That's my best explanation.
The other thing with Battlelord is that if you use it to ambush a troop of reinforcements dropping in, it lets those troops get an extra turn in, for some reason.
Drifter: "Ugh, Skirmishers are so bad. I don't like them at all." Also Drifter: Proceeds to have so much fun with the tactical usage of the Skirmishers that he forgets very obvious turn-timers.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Unless I'm misinterpreting what Marcus means (which is likely), you'd have enough for a full 6 team! And hey, maybe you could even do a covert op once in a blue moon, who needs rest?! 9 soldiers is enough, right? I wonder, would you start with a Psi op, or would you have to wait until you could normally get one? I'd argue start, personally. Same question with the SPARK, can't forget that! I hear you love those. I don't think anyone would fault you, though, for making sure you get amazing base stats (especially base will) on your team, and/or making sure you get the max will increase each level, if you did this. You can't replace them, after all. For a less extreme version, I know 18 soldiers is more than you're used to, but you could start with 2 of each base class, allowed to get 2 of each other class and the limitation that you can't take 2 of the same class on the same run. That'd be more max, but less starting than you have here. Or another less extreme option would be to start with a Colonel (maybe even with all non-XCOM tree class abilities) of each class (or for a harder challenge base class), and be forced to speed run the game before the Aliens could even catch up. Really enjoyed these so far! I always like finding myself down rabbit holes and finding cool new channels (this is often true for challenge channels, specifically)
@@Shadowqueer Yeah, that would be much easier. I was thinking if you did it without the Starting Soldiers mod. Like, you can only use one hero until you recruit the others and then you can use three LOL.
The original reply might be talking about a 4 against the darkness campaign, I of each faction hero, and an Xcom soldier (usually a ranger) depending on how masochistic you feel changes whether or not you can use other soldiers for covert ops
I found the Reflex ability, while being underpowered as fuck, is really useful in a pinch just because an extra attack is an extra attack. It's far less situational for the Skirmishers than the Total combat ability is as it's just a free action when you probably need it the most.
