Note: This post is a revised version of my Long War 2 Assault build, with changes to the text/build as appropriate for the new rules and skills in LWOTC. All changes to the rules/mechanics of LW2 are displayed in bold.
LWOTC Ufopaedia: Assault
The Assault is no longer the most powerful soldier at the end of the game. Chain Lightning has been nerfed down to a more reasonable level, but the Assault is still going to be one of the most powerful classes throughout the campaign, and one of the trickiest to use effectively. Tricky because you will often have an enemy you cannot kill or control except by running your Assault over next to him and shotgunning him in the head. The temptation to push this easy button can be quite strong. But it is usually a bad idea, as it could activate another pod. One way to prevent yourself from making this mistake is to pick skills that discourage that risky behavior. And with that in mind, here is my build.
Run & Stun
Electroshock
Close and Personal
Stun Gunner
Formidable
Rapid Fire
Untouchable
Chain Lightning
Electroshock:
A lot of players are going to think this is a dumb pick, but my guess is that most of them have never actually tried Electroshock. Not having Lightning Reflexes takes some getting used to, and it will make overwatch removal tricky on occasion. But giving the Assault an effective way to fight from a distance is really helpful, especially in the early game. The arc thrower, unlike the shotgun, has no range penalty and so it is a great option when you don’t want to Run & Gun. With Electroshock, the arc thrower becomes a 100% chance to at least disorient. This is a great counter against sectoids, breaking mind control and dispelling zombies, and it still gives you some help dealing with overwatches. Instead of breaking 2-3 overwatches, Electroshock is only going to cancel one - but it also functions as a long range flashbang, disorienting the target, which will often make that enemy far less threatening. An overwatching rocketeer or stun lancer is demoted from serious threat, to minor threat, and this allows you to focus on killing the other enemies on the board. If you are able to do that without running any overwatches, then Electroshock has done more for you than Lightning Reflexes would have done. To make sure that happens, it is important to pair Electroshock with other overwatch mitigation abilities such as Combat Protocol and Suppression, or to bring a grenadier or a technical who can throw explosives a great distance. It’s not as hard to go without Lightning Reflexes as you might think, and Electroshock is a lot stronger than it appears to those who have never tried it. I started picking Electroshock on all my Assaults a long time ago, and after several successful legendary campaigns,1 I have not regretted the switch.
Alternatives: Slugshot or Lightning Reflexes.
Slugshot is fine, but it doesn’t 100% solve a problem, as Electroshock does for Sectoids and Lightning Reflexes does for overwatches. When you can’t get close, Slugshot gives you a better to-hit chance, but usually still not good, and without much chance to crit. To be effective, shotguns rely on proximity to increase the to-hit chance and the crit chance, not just to avoid the distance penalty. With Slugshot you get neither of these bonuses and the low aim of most Assaults becomes a serious impediment. Usually I would rather try to stun (while guaranteeing disorient) and on the following turn run over and make the kill.
Lightning Reflexes seems like the obvious choice for new players. In the original Long War, damaging enemies did not cancel their overwatches, and numerous enemies would move backwards, and then go on overwatch. Nasty. But things are different in LW2/LWOTC, mostly because there are just so many ways to cancel overwatch: Grenades, Flashbangs, Combat Protocol, Soul Fire, Suppression, Rockets, Flamethrowers, or just plain shooting them. And if you can’t cancel the overwatch, your soldiers can often move around safely by setting waypoints. Oh, and there is one other way to deal with overwatches… Electroshock, which breaks the overwatch and also mitigates the danger of that enemy on his next turn. All that being said, Lightning Reflexes is still the best choice for less experienced commanders, and will make deleting overwatches much simpler.
Close And Personal:
Close and Personal is the best choice at Corporal. Maybe the Assault has a regular laser sight (+5 crit chance) and expects to be flanking enemies (+40 crit chance) with a shotgun (+15 crit chance) loaded with talon rounds (+10 crit). At point blank range this gives the Assault a 70% chance to crit. The Close and Personal ability perfectly closes the probability gap, taking critical hit chance from likely to guaranteed. In LW2 Laser Sights granted an additional bonus based on proximity, but in LWOTC that potential +10 crit bonus is gone. And this means that Close and Personal is even more valuable. If your Assault is using a shotgun, then this is the ability to select.
Alternatives: Trench Gun or Arc Pulsar.
Trench Gun has a much larger range in LWOTC; 7 tiles. It’s much easier to target multiple enemies, but the cone of fire is exceedingly narrow at close range, and this is very problematic because shotguns only grant bonuses to hit within a 4 tile range. Attempting to target multiple enemies will lead to some low accuracy shots. This ability is hard to use, and often leads you to make dicey compromises in where to position your Assault. Still, Trench Gun will allow an Assault to sometimes hit 3 targets, perhaps killing all of them; so it’s pretty strong, but situational.
Arc Pulsar sounds just okay. I have never tried it, and don’t intend to.
Stun Gunner:
In LWOTC, more enemies are immune to stun. Advanced Priests are immune to all mental status effects, and Elite Priests project a field of immunity to nearby enemy units. Priests are rare, and so Stun Gunner is still great. Just like Electroshock, this ability encourages smart play by making the arc thrower more viable. +20 aim will make likely shots near guaranteed. When I first started fielding Stun Gunners I was surprised at how often they hit the stun, and then I realized, quite happily, that this was due to the fact that a graze is as good as a hit. This ability is critically important against Gatekeepers and to a lesser extent Andromedons. Both can’t be controlled with fire or hacking, and often need to be stalled for a turn while you setup Kubikiri shred their armor or deal with other enemies that are easier to kill. And consider this, the arc thrower has a one turn cooldown which means you can use it every other turn. If you have an Assault with an Arc Blaster, he can keep a Gatekeeper perpetually stunned for as long as needed. But this only works if the Assault has the Stun Gunner ability due to the gatekeepers enormous defense (+40).
Alternatives: Killer Instinct or Fortify.
Killer Instinct is quite strong. It adds 50% to your damage when landing a crit, (not just 50% to the critical portion of the damage). When paired with Extra Conditioning and Rapid Fire this makes the Assault a boss killer. It’s overkill against most enemies, but an Assault without Killer Instinct will often fail to kill the Muton Elite or Andromedon he is standing next to.
Fortify is activated to give you +20 defense when you are in a dangerous spot, which is ok.
Formidable:
Formidable is very good. It adds 2 HP and some explosion resistance. It is especially valuable for the Assault, who often must take a dangerous position to be effective.
Alternatives: Extra Conditioning or Aggression.
Extra Conditioning makes it more likely that the Run & Gun ability will be up and available in consecutive encounters, which is nice when paired with Killer Instinct, otherwise it is probably unnecessary. Usually after using Run & Gun, the Assault will be able to reach additional targets with blue moves.
Aggression is good even if you already have Close and Personal. It will give the Assault a better chance to crit against unflankable opponents, and when not shooting from point blank range. I haven’t quite made up my mind that Formidable is better than Aggression for my builds and squad composition. Next time I play through a campaign I will probably try both and see which I prefer.
Rapid Fire:
All 3 of the abilities at TSGT rank grant you an extra action or attack under different circ*mstances.
Hit and Run: After taking a flanking shot gain an extra action. Does not work with Run & Gun.
Close Encounters: When shooting a target within 4 tiles gain an extra action. Does not work with Run & Gun.
Rapid Fire: Fire twice anytime, but with a -15 to hit penalty.
All of these abilities are fantastic, of course. But which is the best? For a long time I always picked Close Encounters because it gave the Assault the flexibility to target multiple enemies, and the potential to kill or stun 2 of them instead of only one. And sometimes this works great. But often this doesn’t matter because you need both shots to kill the primary target, or there isn’t a second target near by. More problematic though is that with Close Encounters you often start each battle with only one shot, because you need to activate Run & Gun to get close to a target.
Hit and Run also does not work with Run & Gun but can give you the same flexibility as Close Encounters to split your shots. Unfortunately it doesn’t proc against unflankable enemies, and there are a lot of those: Drones, MECs, Turrets, Sectopods, Faceless, Chryssalids, Berserkers, Archons, and Gatekeepers.
With Rapid Fire you have no flexibility. You are shooting twice at one target, and with a -15 aim penalty. But this is rarely a liability because the shotgun gets a massive +60 to hit at point blank range. It falls off quickly (+45 at 2 tile, +30 at 3 tiles, and +15 at 4 tiles) but you can still guarantee the kill most of the time you are close. And you can get in close right away because it works with Run & Gun. There is another hidden advantage: both shots will trigger before a codex can clone or an avatar can teleport. This is no trivial matter. The codex presents a tricky problem. You can’t treat it like a normal enemy, and remove its cover, because it will clone. Even if you manage to flank it, you will often fail to kill it with one shot (because high dodge), and then you have 2 of them. To do it right you need to disorient it first so it can’t clone, then blow its cover, then shoot it, and then maybe shoot it again, using up the actions of at least 3 soldiers. Or you can run your Assault over next to it, and use Rapid Fire. In LWOTC there is a 1-turn cooldown on Rapid Fire, and so it is no longer possible for an Assault, after being gifted a bonus action, to use Rapid Fire a 2nd time in the same turn.
Untouchable:
I have gone back and forth between CCS and Untouchable. Both of these abilities are unreliable as they depend on the enemy’s actions. Both are frustrating. CCS can deplete your ammo firing poor shots against drones. While Untouchable does nothing if the aliens decide to fire on a different soldier, and that encourages you to leave your Assault exposed to draw fire, which can backfire with your Assault getting shot at multiple times, and only one shot negated by Untouchable.
I have settled on Untouchable after an unfortunate incident in which a panicked Assault shot her own squadmate. This is an extremely rare scenario, but it is easy to forget about and can lead to a disaster. With Untouchable there is one less thing to worry about.
The other ability Bring’Em On, is going to be overkill when combined with Rapid Fire, most of the time. If you go with Close Encounters, I think BEO is the right choice.
Chain Lightning
In LWOTC, Chain Lightning is no longer the best ability in the game. Instead of targeting every enemy in line of sight, it will behave as it’s name implies; jumping from one target to another, up to six tiles away, and hitting a maximum of 4 enemies. The nerf to this ability was well done, and improves game balance. Chain Lightning will no longer win Psi Gate singlehanded; but it’s still incredible. Pair it up with Stun Gunner and an Arc Blaster to get full value.
Alternatives: Street Sweeper or Lethal.
Street Sweeper is great, but like Trench Gun it is hard to use effectively. It has a large cone of fire, reaching 11 tiles; and thus able to target multiple enemies most of the time. But the cone of fire is narrow at close range, and shot gun accuracy is poor at long range; and so just like Trench Gun, Street Sweeper is strong, but awkward in practice.
Lethal is very good; adding +2 damage to every attack with the Shotgun, and +1 on crits.
Alternate Builds
I recommend watching DerAva’s Assault build video, in which he breaks down his 3 builds: Killer Instinct, Breacher, and Stunner. His class build videos also contain a lot of information on game mechanics and how those interact with various abilities, and is worth watching even if you stick with your own build.
Considering the XCOM row, some of the perks will strengthen a rifle Assault build, but I have no intention of going down that road. Shadowstrike will make Street Sweeper a viable ambush ability, but I will probably stick with Chain Lightning regardless, because the ambush is usually the easiest fight of the mission.
1
Most of these campaigns are in LW2, though I am about to win a LWOTC campaign using Electroshock exclusively, and I see no significant difference in dealing with enemy overwatch.
