Sharpshooter Class Overview - A Guide to XCOM 2

An overview that explains my thoughts on the Sharpshooter class, its abilities and some tips and tricks.
Muted version: • Sharpshooter Class Ove...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:46 Weapon Upgrades and Equipment
2:28 Squadsight
3:15 Fire Pistol
4:08 Long Watch
5:00 Return Fire
6:05 Deadeye
7:09 Lightning Hands
8:26 Death From Above
9:39 Quickdraw
11:18 Kill Zone
12:20 Faceoff
13:13 Steady Hands
14:20 Aim
15:28 Serial
16:29 Fan Fire
17:38 Conclusion

[@LAZERAK47V2]

I only ever pick up Aim if my Sharpshooter rolls Deep Cover, because you automatically Hunker Down if you didn't shoot that turn, and considering you need two actions to shoot the rifle anyway, if you've done anything else and don't fire your pistol, you get a free +20 aim boost. This means that if my Sharpshooter needs to relocate, they'll still get a nice Aim buff. I think they also Hunker Down if you set up Overwatch too.

[@talos1279]

Death from above is OP when sniper is equipped with dark lance. It's basically free Serial if you manage to kill all of them in single shot.

[@cobrazax]

the dark lance would be perfect...if it had an expanded mag! without it...its really hampering on killzones...which is annoying. oh well...free serial is good too!

[@zenokazuya5882]

​@@cobrazax If you're playing on PC you can download mods to be able to mod any weapon, even those given from alien bosses

[@cobrazax]

@@zenokazuya5882 I am but i cannot find a way to download mods. I dont use steam.

[@sisifo55]

@@cobrazax pirate rrrr

[@theadeptuscustodes]

Deadeye and serial can be absurd with late game sharpshooters cuz of their accuracy and the fact that you'll probably have a plasma lance

[@LAZERAK47V2]

Also, it's fun to meme with Gunslingers when you have the Between the Eyes Resistance Order and do your best Mccree impression before using Face Off against a bunch of Lost.

[@houdiniabracadabra6180]

Seriously. Your videos are underrated. Normaly i hate a robotic voice. But this onw sounds so polished.

[@ryeo9907]

Another good thing is if you get Between The Eyes, any hit will insta kill a lost. With a pistol this means if it hits, it kills, even on a 12 hp Brute. Very powerful with unlimited ammo.

[@RexMK-]

You just open my mind, I usually tend to use them as either a Sniper desing to cause high damage from distance or a mix between gunslinger and Sniper. And honestly at leats for me, Deaeye has been specually usefull when dealing when dealing with hard enemies

[@ryeo9907]

I always go full sniper to the sheer power in there, and the second you get the Darklance it's a no-brainer to do sniper, as it makes something stronger than a Pistol but has it's main advantage.

[@cobrazax]

i take deadeye only later as early on its pretty shit... when u got insane aim, deadeye can become quite useful, especially when facing strong enemies later on. early on and even later too, lightning hands is just too handy in most situations

[@ryeo9907]

@@cobrazax It's insanely strong particularly at the start actually, as you can oneshot many things even if you're late with magnetic and gauss weaponry

[@cobrazax]

@@ryeo9907 Sure but your miss chance is really bad. I dont want to rely on those kind of chances

[@ryeo9907]

@@cobrazax High ground and flank and you have solid chances already. Also particularly early pistol abilities aren't worth it, maybe if you have excess Ability Points but that rarely ever happens,

[@nix207]

Really interesting. I tend to use my Sharpshooters at the back, so pistols and related abilities didn't seem that useful outside of missions where there are more enemies than expected. For example, I already take Face-off over Kill Zone, but I rarely take Quick Draw over Death from Above especially with the WotC rifle. Nice to see someone explain where abilities can or cannot be useful so i can choose better when I play ahain.

[@veegeeplz]

I've tried to keep these videos as neutral as possible, but there will inevitably be some bias because I tend to build most of my classes the same way for specific reasons. Sniper Sharpshooters are very potent and are a very popular choice. It's just for me personally, once I went Bluescreen Gunslinger I can never go back.

[@nix207]

@@veegeeplz I tend to go for Bluescreen Sniper style, but the only active ability I often use is Serial. Maybe that was a sign I should’ve been giving the Gunslinger abilities more chances to shine. Thanks again for the video.

[@ex-act6167]

These videos are awesome, hopefully you make guides outside of xcom too

[@veegeeplz]

I've thought about it. The only reason I was able to do this though is because I probably have close to 1,000 hours in XCOM. Wouldn't want to try to educate people on a game I don't know very well. Thank you though. :)

[@c-man9406]

I really like both face off and kill zone just because how hilarious it can look sometime

[@mellinghedd267]

this TTS voice has more humanity in it than some people do

[@crosseightyeight]

With sharpshooter abilities, you definitely need to pay attention to what weapon is mentioned in the description. Gunslingers benefit the least from bonus abilities in the training center because those abilities require the rifle.

[@Toshiro69612]

You sound so pro mate, your vids are amazing. Subscribed!

[@mtfoxtrot5296]

ngl, the robot voice turned me off at first. But these guides are top notch in terms of info. Very helpful.

[@codyskater6073]

I would say the gun slingers build is definitely more consistent and that the game gets easier the further you get. But I would say the the full sniper build scales harder than any class in the entire game. Chosen sniper plus death from above is just serial that is always on and special armors will mitigate their move penalties into an almost nonfactor. And since you tend to stack aim on sharp shooters you will get above 100 percent numbers so dead eyes draw back can often not even effect your shot or make the chance to miss so low that the extra damge saves you an action point on another soldier or to continue the death from above chain. I find that my sniper can just solo missions on commander difficulty in the late game.you will also have so much aim in the late game that kill zone will pretty much kill anything in sight regardless of cover. I understand that if you make it to the late game then you have basically won already so your build is probably better overall but I figured it was worth mentioning.

[@rodionpashchenko4867]

I'm running my gun slingers with assault rifles with repeater, especially lucky when I get kill zone as random ability. Extra mobility you get for using ar is fearsome

[@emberthecatgirl8796]

“Attachments don’t really matter to me.” Spoken like a true Jedi.

[@awanderer3047]

I managed to skulljack a captain, and as the codec was bearing down at my weakened squad, I took a chance with deadeye. 25% chance, and not enough damage to one-shot. It rolled a crit. Codec died, and the squad left, with me a little star struck at that. Only in Xcom

[@jonasnee]

i think Death from above is just straight up superior to quickdraw, if you need 2 shoots to kill 1 target with a pistol then likely you could have just dont so with the riffle and then shoot with a pistol, also its effect with the hunter riffle simply makes it the best skill in the game. also fan fire can be used as the first shoot with quickdraw, you dont need to use it last.

[@c0d3014]

i usually build my "end" team around Sniper and i make him as movable turret tower... 125 Aim(is a must), Chosen Sniper Gun, Archon Boss Armor( for jet pack that allows me to move anywhere on the map; usually i jet pack to high place were no one can reach it), Ap Rounds or bluescreen (if you go spider suit), Long Watch, Steady Hands, Death from Above and Serial (rest from gunslinger as bonus)... whit this build i can eliminate whole pods as long my "spotter"(Templar or Reaper) see the enemies... i had killed Avatars pretty effectively because no matter were he teleport my Sharpshooter always hit him and strong arm him for next teleport that is closer to my team... if you lucky you can get rapture, chain shot or fan fire as bonus skills then your other teammates wont even get any action because everything is dead

[@pierre-mariecaulliez6285]

I usually pick mostly the sniper abilities, with Lightning hands and Fan fire to bring the pain on anyone foolish enough to push or flank my sniper (muhahaha) ! Also, giving them flying suit allows to just, drop in and drop them with surprising efficiency ;7

[@bgklol5492]

i got a sniper named him deadass his aim is 173 never seen him miss

[@Sapeidra]

the sharpshooter is the answer to the question "can someone delete the enemy pixels?"

[@knightmareAlpha]

what's the music mod you're using? These non standard tracks are real bangers

[@veegeeplz]

I'm not using any mod that adds music. The tracks are from the Tactical Legacy Pack DLC.

[@knightmareAlpha]

@@veegeeplz really? I had that installed since forever and I never heard them in game. Well thank you anyway

[@veegeeplz]

@@knightmareAlpha You can change the soundtrack in the options menu, as you can see here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJPOhX13j7Jnn5Y There's also a mod on the Workshop that will randomly select from all available soundtracks.

[@knightmareAlpha]

@@veegeeplz you are truly the ultimate guide to this game

[@10jobu1]

@@veegeeplz What mod would that be? I kinda want it.

[@AmonHa01]

A really great guide! Sharpshooters indeed evolve really good since Enemy Unknown. A question: You said one of the abilities the damage a item they use to increase damage only works in the first target, and you use a mod to fix that problem. Can you tell me what is the name of the mod?

[@veegeeplz]

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1136729138 Google: "faceoff ammo"

[@AmonHa01]

@@veegeeplz Thanks mate! I wish you all the success in the world mate!

[@satanamogila9251]

​@@veegeeplzthat's cheating though

[@pasyjansbuc1343]

What IF I put AP rounds on a shredder grenadier

[@veegeeplz]

This is actually a really good question, so I went to test quickly. What happens is that your shot will ignore up to 5 points of Armor, but also still shred one of those points. So say you have an enemy with 3 points of Armor and your attack does 7 damage. You will do the full 7 points of damage and also still shred 1 point of Armor.

[@pasyjansbuc1343]

@@veegeeplz seems like a nice thing to consider doing. Thx for the reply.

[@k1roextophia28]

12:45 what mod you use to fix skill?

[@veegeeplz]

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1136729138 "xcom workshop faceoff"

[@k1roextophia28]

@@veegeeplz tks

[@Exozealots]

They never fix squad sights as it's still broken. Like my guy has clearview and within sqaud sight, but it never shows the target. That's why I use a mod that fixes this stuiped problem. Squadsight can still work, but it's a 50/50 if the squadsight activates or not. Sometimes to really work you have to reload that save to work the damn thing. That's why I have return fire as the first ability.

[@veegeeplz]

Afaik, Squadsight is only broken on the Nintendo Switch port. In the PC version (and potentially other ports), Squadsight pretty much always works as intended. The only exception is if the line of sight is being blocked by a piece of full cover such as a lamp post or tree.

[@jossgoyanko7006]

Man. With how good the pistol is, why the hell does these guys even have the sniper rifle?

[@ItsMinoAgain]

Hey, you need to do one for Psi Operatives

[@Ruslakall]

Sharpshooter is very weak early on, you need a lot of investment in him, but it's totally worth it when he starts getting 80%+ aim across the map. Always give him superior scope and Perception.

[@dankmemes7796]

Ngl I would rather use a rookie than a sharpshooter

[@whimsicalchronicles8798]

you would probably change that tune if you took down a sectopod with JUST a gunslinger by shooting it 5 times in one turn with bluescreen rounds