@@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
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.
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
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.
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.
@@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.
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?
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
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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 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
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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 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?#
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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...
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
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.
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).
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 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 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.
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.
I personally love the skirmishers they were my favourite class by far this has only proven me right I was surprised you didn't appreciate that much I rate them very highly
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.
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."
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.
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.
Know what, I'm alright with that mission restart. You do prove that it is not just possible, but also very feasible to beat the game using only Skirmishers, especially considering the amount of misplays you make.
Upon coming back to that scene of the andromedon leaving the mimic beacon, and knowing the game a bit better, I think I know how it was able to ignore the beacon. The vast majority of the time when a programmer makes a distraction, or taunt, they usually just increase ai priority or outright disable ability to hit anything that isn't that target. Ai priority is just what what it is likely going to target, not necessarily the actions themselves. It's just in xcom, attacking is usually the best play, and the ai of course usually attacks. This enables scenarios where, say if an enemy decides to run away instead of attacking it will do that.
Something to consider for the first ability skirmishers can get is that shoot->hunker in high cover is pretty strong and if you get shot back you get 3 actions the next turn. It’s not great but when you don’t have good options it’s some extra value in marginal situations
One time I was just playing but I made sure to put a skirmisher as my covert operative and send him on EVERY mission that increased stats the ENTIRE campaign, I brought him on my final mission and he had something like 48 Hp with no armor upgrades, was always 85+ chance to hit even on full cover, could move in a single action what most soldiers dashed in, and had like 35 dodge too, was absolutely busted
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.
My understanding for the Andromedon on the Avenger Assault mission, the first time would be last unit in a pod running to get reinforcements, that took priority over making an attack. As for the second time however, Advent wins once a unit has spent a turn on the Avenger ramp entrance so the AI will prioritise getting a unit there over attacking, bypassess a Mimic Beacon that will draw fire if no attacks are made by the unit.
I think you're right. I just didn't think it would be able to fall back or beeline to the Avenger if there was a mimic beacon there. I thought attacking would take priority, but I was obviously wrong haha.
20:18 "I went back over to the calliope. There was-" "I thought it was pronounced 'Ka-lee-o-pee?'" "Sasha? You’re… back early - I thought you were trying to get hold of those police reports for the Harold Silvana case?" "Tried and succeeded. They were actually quite helpful." "Oh… well. Good work." "So, do we know if it’s pronounced 'Ka-lee-o-pee' or 'Kuh-ly-o-pee'?" "I have also heard it said as 'Ka-lee-ope'." "Seriously? By who?" "Americans." "Ah..."
filthy? maybe
Savescummer? no
LMAO. Harsh, but fair!
Get a shower and get back in the fight, Stinky! Yeah, your gun arbitrarily doing 5x normal damage to the data tap is kind of out there BS.
@@serraelakha2758 Look, saving humanity is tough work, okay? You're gonna work up a sweat! :D
@@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
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 never actually thought about that, but you're right on the money!
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.
@@braincell4536 I do that too. But then don't forget you are effectively playing with one less soldier. So it balances their limited utility.
I've always found that Skirmishers benefit the most from custom ammo. AP ammo on a skirmisher really gives them a boost to the late game enemies.
Yeah, it's a great idea and one I'll definitely use when I try another Skirmisher run.
Seems rather obvious that when you have the capability to always fire twice - that you augment these shots as much as possible for twice the fun.
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.
"There's no way i'm going to watch this guy play X-com multiple times"
aaaaaand here we are to the fourth run.
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
My guy I've seen all of his xcom and most of his other videos already. And yet I'm always coming back and rewatching 😭😭😭😭
Is that a bad thing? These days being able to watch long form content at all counts as an achievement
I’m not even interested in X-Com, I just love the background noise these videos provide
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.
I love losing a hack the device mission on turn 1 because some fuck stepped on it on the opposite side of the map.
Haha wow is that what happens when it disappears turn one 😅
WAT
SERIOUSLY?!
Funny because once, I had a mission to assault the device and the sectopod destroyed it for me, making it an easy win.
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.
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.
Dude is like the Lion in the Wizard of Oz. Finally finding his courage. -_-
Yes, killing the psi zombie separately does count as a kill where killing the sectoid does not net you kill xp for the zombie
Thanks for the info. This is good to know.
Really? I have always thought it was like XCOM:EW when sectoids do the mind merge
@@deathlymetalzgaming That counts as 2!?
I always tried to kill the mind merged first
@@JonatasAdoM yeah at the end Of the first mission of the mind controlled, look at their kills, you will see it counts as 2
"The exploding car took out the only way to the roof, so that's not happening."
>Playing as a full Squad of Skirmishers.
>Visible confusion
LOL yeah, that was a bit of an epic fail on my part.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast especially when the next few turns have you grappling up there, kekw
@@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.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I'll allow it. Every time I've used a grapple while not engaged, I've regretted it.
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.
I never thought of that, but it's a pretty sweet strategy. Guaranteed destruction as soon as a target hits 3 HP. Nice.
@@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.
Excluding Psi of course had 4 fully upgraded ones once they are not fair.
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?
4 with the weapon mod bonus
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
Cheers. :)
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.
Spark and skirmisher synergy, the possibilities...
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.
I am liking going ninja in this game (Ranger& Templar/Skirmisher)
XD
Funny thing I learned recently. Reflex actually works when your marked by a captain.
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)
I like this idea. Gonna add it to the list.
Wait what the hell this is actually a good idea
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!
That is a very kind post, my friend. Thank you. The day will come where the Skirmishers will get their redemption!
Fun fact. Mind shields also protect your soldiers from their own panic conditions
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
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.
Here we go! Can't wait to see how this played out, I had difficulty utilizing Skirmishers myself in my WOTC playthrough.
They're definitely an interesting class. I enjoyed using them in this one.
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.
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.
Agreed. The DLC took a great game and made it even more amazing.
I had just finished watching your other XCOM 2 challenge runs which I loved. Having a fourth one uploaded just hours later is a real treat.
Hope you like it as much as the others! :D
The Tarzan scream at 18:09 was the single greatest thing I have ever heard in my entire life.
Thanks for that. I needed a good laugh. 🤣🤣🤣
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.
51:00 "The Sectopod is no big deal" - I can honestly say that I never had this reaction to a sectopod, not in XCOM, not in XCOM 2.
Nah, you just need a reaper with banish + bluescreen and they're easy peasy. :D
@@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).
@@JanHoppmann Sectopods are definitely a bigger threat in the base game. Less tools to be able to deal with them.
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.
@@De-eggs For sure. Repeaters on anyone who can shoot multiple times will often lead to some good times haha.
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
Thanks so much for the positive words. I definitely recommend playing XCOM 2 haha.
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.
Man, that is... garbage LOL.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast It's a very advanced skill you know, looking down. They don't teach that to just anybody!
@@resurgam_b7 It's on the exam to go from Major to Colonel LOL.
Sounds about right :P
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.
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!
Maybe they were actually friendly and just trying to say hello. We'll never know! :O
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
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.
I'm definitely taking this into consideration for my next Skirmisher run. Cheers.
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.
That's a very good point. I think they would still struggle a bit, due to having all the Chosen there, but it would certainly be much easier.
Bro this run was so epic! You are by hands-down the best XCOM player! Keep killing it!
You're too kind, man. Thanks so much for the words of encouragement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
13:15 ‘exploding cars destroy the only way up to the roof’ did you forget all your troops have grapple hooks?
Apparently I did. I mean, given I forgot the mission objective multiple times, my memory clearly isn't the best haha.
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.
That doesn't seem entirely fair LOL.
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!
I didn't realise who the voice actor was. I feel kind of silly now lol. But I do agree that Skirmishers are extremely cool.
@@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 found your channel earlier today and finished your videos while at work and was left wanting more. What great timing!
Sometimes real life gives good RNG too haha.
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.
I think you struggled in the final mission because you haven't aquired the tactical analysis unlike your other runs
I hadn't considered this, but it's a very good point. I think that definitely contributed.
Good point, I hadn't noticed that but TA is a massive game changer.
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...
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.
That's a good analysis.
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.
That's an interesting comment. I imagine game balance would be one of the hardest parts of the job as a game dev.
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.
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.
Good stuff, I only found this channel a few days ago and greatly enjoy this series.
Glad you like it. I'm having a blast making these vids.
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.
This channel is super unapreciated, great gameplay and even better commentry and editing! :D
Thanks so much. I appreciate the kind words.
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?#
It was a sit rep that made the mission only mechanical enemies. I hope you never get it LOL.
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.
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.
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.
Glad you liked it. Skirmishers are definitely one of the coolest looking classes. But you're not alone in struggling with them late game lol.
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
Yeah, I definitely appreciate them more after this campaign. I'm definitely going to do a second run with them to give them their redemption hehe.
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
Appreciate your faith in me, buddy. :)
I will come back to Skirmishers one day, but I'll try some different challenges first.
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
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...
I think this is a good approach. With their ability to shoot twice, it makes special ammo even more useful than normal.
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
Cheers. I do recommend having a go yourself. It really changes the way you play the game.
38:45 I'm pretty sure melee vulnerability was a thing from launch it I remember correctly. Regardless great video!
I really like your commentary, props to you.
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.
This is a wonderful set of runs! Can't wait to see the Avatars only run!
Me hearing the Rulers were once even more hellish after I only played recently and each almost wiped me out in every encounter: *what*
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).
Oh and the codex not taking extra damage from Whiplash is probably and oversight/glitch.
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.
Thanks for the info. I do love bluescreen rounds + Warlock rifle for gatekeepers. Absolutely wrecks them. :)
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.
You summed it up perfectly.
Dude I discovered your channel mere hours ago, and now I see this video. Fantastic, keep up the good work!
Cheers. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
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!
The Scorpion voice pack would be perfect haha.
Can they get Bladestorm? They already have Retribution as a base ability, which is basically the same thing.
Happy Christmas Commander! 🎅🏼 It's a Christmas miracle too, the first successful retaliation mission this campaign!
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.
the skirmisher fighting the queen were like : "ah crap, our commander screwed up again. Now we have to clean up his mess"
Pretty much. It's usually me getting mad when the soldiers mess up, but this time I bet they were mad at me for messing up haha.
Great job on your content. I'm happy to be one of your early supporters. Keep up the good work 👍
I'm happy to have you! Thanks so much for the support.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast what xcom2 challenge do you plan on doing next after specialists?
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.
I personally love the skirmishers they were my favourite class by far this has only proven me right I was surprised you didn't appreciate that much I rate them very highly
I've definitely been sleeping on them for too long. They're a great class.
With the number of 'unique' exchanges I feel that myself revisiting it would be something to consider.
Yuh, I don't think we're quite done with the Skirmishers haha. It's definitely a fun way to play the game, so I fully support giving it a go yourself.
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.
I'm definitely installing the Battlelord fix before my next campaign. I think it'll make a huge difference to the usefulness of the Skirmishers.
Thank you for these uploads. It’s inspired me to replay another campaign and stop blowing my money on COD.
Thank YOU for watching. Glad it's inspired you to get back into my favourite game. :)
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."
I think you're spot on with your analysis here. I guess I'm just a "style over substance" type of guy haha.
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.
That is some garbage. Thanks for the heads up.
I love the lore implications of an All Skirmisher run.
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.
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.
I'm still not sure I'm entirely convinced, but that explanations is as good as any. Cheers.
Know what, I'm alright with that mission restart. You do prove that it is not just possible, but also very feasible to beat the game using only Skirmishers, especially considering the amount of misplays you make.
Just started watching yours xcom challenge series, really liking it so far, makes me wanna go back to play it again.
Yeah, I went a couple years without playing the game. Very happy to be back into it.
Upon coming back to that scene of the andromedon leaving the mimic beacon, and knowing the game a bit better, I think I know how it was able to ignore the beacon. The vast majority of the time when a programmer makes a distraction, or taunt, they usually just increase ai priority or outright disable ability to hit anything that isn't that target. Ai priority is just what what it is likely going to target, not necessarily the actions themselves. It's just in xcom, attacking is usually the best play, and the ai of course usually attacks. This enables scenarios where, say if an enemy decides to run away instead of attacking it will do that.
Something to consider for the first ability skirmishers can get is that shoot->hunker in high cover is pretty strong and if you get shot back you get 3 actions the next turn. It’s not great but when you don’t have good options it’s some extra value in marginal situations
Yeah, I don't think I gave it enough consideration. I'll definitely try it out next time I attempt this run.
One time I was just playing but I made sure to put a skirmisher as my covert operative and send him on EVERY mission that increased stats the ENTIRE campaign, I brought him on my final mission and he had something like 48 Hp with no armor upgrades, was always 85+ chance to hit even on full cover, could move in a single action what most soldiers dashed in, and had like 35 dodge too, was absolutely busted
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.
My understanding for the Andromedon on the Avenger Assault mission, the first time would be last unit in a pod running to get reinforcements, that took priority over making an attack. As for the second time however, Advent wins once a unit has spent a turn on the Avenger ramp entrance so the AI will prioritise getting a unit there over attacking, bypassess a Mimic Beacon that will draw fire if no attacks are made by the unit.
I think you're right. I just didn't think it would be able to fall back or beeline to the Avenger if there was a mimic beacon there. I thought attacking would take priority, but I was obviously wrong haha.
that oh no on the plated armor screen was perfect
20:18
"I went back over to the calliope. There was-"
"I thought it was pronounced 'Ka-lee-o-pee?'"
"Sasha? You’re… back early - I thought you were trying to get hold of those police reports for the Harold Silvana case?"
"Tried and succeeded. They were actually quite helpful."
"Oh… well. Good work."
"So, do we know if it’s pronounced 'Ka-lee-o-pee' or 'Kuh-ly-o-pee'?"
"I have also heard it said as 'Ka-lee-ope'."
"Seriously? By who?"
"Americans."
"Ah..."