Skirmisher Class Overview - A Guide to XCOM 2

An overview that explains my thoughts on the Skirmisher class, its abilities and some tips and tricks.
Muted version: • Skirmisher Class Overv...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:48 Weapon Upgrades and Equipment
2:18 Marauder
3:11 Justice
4:18 Grapple
4:58 Reflex
5:43 Total Combat
6:32 Wrath
7:44 Zero In
8:33 Whiplash
9:28 Full Throttle
10:01 Combat Presence
11:19 Retribution
12:16 Interrupt
13:19 Waylay
14:16 Reckoning
15:21 Manual Override
16:24 Battlelord
17:42 Judgment
18:37 Conclusion

[@dovahkiin_brasil]

Not gonna lie, the skirmisher have the best looking armor

[@owentucker6215]

That post-advent drip is real.

[@xDaPrincex]

​@@owentucker6215lmao

[@2_572]

They remind me of mandolorians.

[@dfprod.]

not gonna lie, you’re 100% right

[@Eshtian]

"Skirmishers Don't have that many flashy abilities" Laughs in 4 attacks in one turn

[@pepe2veces]

Not the most flashy or easy class to play but they get the job done. For me they are above the templar (way too linear playstyle) and only below the reaper cause shadow is the most broken ability in the game

[@alpha198delta]

Sharpshooter, laughs in theoretically limitless.

[@niedude]

​@@pepe2veces Not to mention the Templar is reliant on focus, and how much focus you get per mission is not something you are fully in control. They also require a very aggressive playstyle that might not suit everyone, despite the fact they're sneakily amazing support units with their teleportation and cover-creating abilities. I love skirmishers for their versatility, and have more use for skirmishers in most playthroughs than for Templars and sometimes even Reapers. But then again, I never play on higher difficulties and I'm by no means an amazing player, so chances are I'm just "playing things wrong"

[@xDaPrincex]

​@@pepe2vecesI can agree wit that, I chose a Templar over the Skirmisher as I'm new to the WOTC, everybody did good but the Templar, you need to get kills, so of your too far or miss or something then it's a waste. You literally have to put them in danger & hope they get a kill just to get points, it's ridiculous

[@One.Zero.One101]

@@niedude I suspect you only used Templars for 5 minutes and gave up immediately. 1. My Templar has full focus all the time. There's a skill that makes enemies drop essence that fills your focus. A full focus gives enormous boost to damage, mobility, and dodge. 2. With Aid Protocol and Parry, you can basically run up to enemies and massacre them. You can move along the battlefield like you're strolling in the park. 3. My Templar is tied in second place with Sharpshooters in kill count, obviously the first place belongs to Rangers.

[@SenseiRaisen]

Honestly, the combination of those extra perks from the XCOM tree are also sweet to pick up amost all of them: -Return fire in case you deal with some heat -Volatile mix combo nice with Total Combat since it give extra damage, amor shred , and AoE. So it gives you a prefect reason to pick up Total Combat in that case. -Saturation Fire because a skirmisher with that is make soften enemies at an abush or get rid of some cover. -Lighting Refex , because you can laugh at Heavy Mec's constantly overwatching as soon as they get reveal. -and finally tactical rigging because its always nice to bring 2 items instead of one only (making the posibility to bring both a granade of choise and a munition of choise too)

[@Biscuit_Goblin]

What items do you suggest for the skirmisher?

[@SenseiRaisen]

@@Biscuit_Goblin about items, plasma granade if you wanna maximize Total Combat. Fire rounds if you're going against Lost or blue screen make wonders against robotic units (making the skirmisher a good last hit dealer against them, specially on the Shen Last gif mission).

[@bearbones7913]

I feel like I am using saturation fire wrong because it feels like Mox misses everytime

[@justbull6841]

Good guide on them, pretty well explained. Sadly, Skirmishers are greatly overshadowed by their competitors as you said. Both Templars and Reapers are extremely powerful and since you can ever only have a limited amount of Special-Unit characters show up as available recruits in each run, you are better off skipping skirmishers entirely. A shame because they are fun to play, but almost of no use in the higher difficulties because of their shortcomings.

[@zafelrede4884]

The Skirmishers are the class that is in most need of a rework imo. So many of their abilities are weird or almost useless.

[@xDaPrincex]

Better then Templars with that weak ass weird ass ability that you need to get kills wit but yes a rework is needed & there shouldn't be reckless abilities, it's basically rewarding you for playing reckless when it should be the other way around, Templars literally need to put themselves out in the open & need to get a kill juss to get a ability point, that shit wild, that needs a rework more then Skirmishers. Both need it but only on the abilities that are trash, this game is pose to be hard & strategic so why not make all abilites good so it would be hard to choose between them making it more strategic

[@zafelrede4884]

@@xDaPrincex I actually like the Templars a lot, and when you get that ability that makes them invulnerable after a kill, it makes them really useful, you can combine it with other abilities that can protect the Templar to turn him into a killing machine. Prob the best early game faction soldier imo.

[@aster4405]

@@xDaPrincex they're the only soldier I can feel confident being left alone against a pod or two. Especially when they have reaper, have full focus, and void conduit.

[@One.Zero.One101]

Devs really need to learn the "Phoenix Down Hypothesis". If an item / skill runs out, players are gonna save it for a rainy day, and they end up never using it because they keep saving it for later. Those once per mission skills are outdated design, you need to consider human psychology in designing mechanics.

[@shirokatatsu5886]

​@One.Zero.One101 that why Skirmisher rebalance is very good, fix all of his odd bug and put all his skills on CD instead of one usage. He insanely strong

[@KirosanaPerkele]

11:55 Wrath + Retribution makes for a pretty flashy ambush though if you manage to get the Skrimisher right in the middle of the pod. Very nice video! Thanks for sharing these tips!

[@elvinmacospag6989]

Great guide, as always. Justice is actually a lot more powerful than most people think; it procs Overwatch and other forms of reaction fire (Kill Zone, Bladestorm, Close Combat Specialist), which is actually a nifty Combo Kill, if you need AP.

[@beleagueredbeluga5228]

Looking up this guide because next playthrough imma play with a skirmisher just for fun. Literally I've always skipped over skirmishers every single time. Interestingly, the most surprising thing I've learned with this vid is that you could send a ranger with bladestorm right where the alien reinforcements are going to land. Dont know why I've never thought of that.

[@therealcap8598]

Same 😂, just changed the name of the game

[@gouhoh7906]

Just be aware of potential purifiers though They can explode and hurt your ranger

[@NotYourBusiness-bp2qn]

Bladestorm is a overwatch ability and as such has a significant chance to miss. You're gambling your ranger a bit. Even the supposedly infallible katana will miss on bladestorm. Rend can't miss though so a templar with bladestorm is better suited. Especially if you also get fortress on him to ignore the stupid flamethrower explosions.

[@mrdaddycupcakes9890]

Chad Templar vs virgin skirmisher

[@Eshtian]

Said the dude hiding behind a psionic shield

[@chaimrothberg5367]

Great video, I’ve tried making skirmishers useful but they really fall off in the mid game. They are pretty powerful though in the early game. Justice and marauder really make them useful when you’re fighting mostly advent units at the start. Sadly after Lt. There really are no useful abilities besides combat presence and that can be duplicated to a certain extent with bonds and inspire so it’s not really that special. Overall I’d say they are worth recruiting as they are pretty powerful in the early game and it’s a free squaddie soldier so why not. But after you get mag weapons and Lt.+ ranked soldiers they basically become “roster fillers” or I guess take them whenever you’re fighting their chosen adversary. Shame since I really think they could’ve done a lot more with the “advent deserter” trope.

[@frostfire5208]

They're not good for your A squad, but they're great for your B squad and training up rookies. The 2 shots and his ability to pass an action to someone else is good for softening up enemies for rookies to kill.

[@nojuanatall3281]

This is my favorite of the new classes.

[@benjaminvillafane7898]

Nice guide :D

[@szifon2]

Very well done!! Thx

[@meap6861]

Thank you verymuch. Good job

[@tomaka121]

nice, thanks

[@Giannis_Krimitzas]

Thank you

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

I feel like the Skirmisher would be a really solid class if all of their abilities had shorter cooldowns. The way that work now they run out of gas too fast and wind up just shooting and hoping to proc a hair trigger most of the time.

[@AlamarianJ]

The devs seem to have over estimated the power of the skirmisher’s single-use-per-mission abilities. Some of them would be pretty eeeh if they just had a cooldown. Having one measly charge on Interrupt sucks. Manual Override is the one ability where having a single charge could have allowed it to be cool. If it was a free action that reset all your cooldowns to 0 with a single charge, it would be much better.

[@carlito___fml2652]

What’s the music playing at 3:41 ? It sounds like it’s from Hotline Miami

[@veegeeplz]

See the reply to WhiteWeaselGaming.

[@ganr1277]

Is it possible combine Justice with Bladestorm from near Ranger?

[@boom5732]

Yes

[@WhiteWeaseI]

3:12 what's the background music? It's pretty rad!

[@veegeeplz]

Covert Operations from the Tactical Legacy Pack soundtrack. One of my favorites. 2kgamesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/xcom-legacy-original-soundtrack

[@WhiteWeaseI]

@@veegeeplz awesome, thank you.

[@PowerSkiff12]

Can you do xcom 1 and enemy within?

[@veegeeplz]

I haven't played Enemy Within in a while and I'm not nearly as confident in that game as I am with XCOM 2. Plus, it's quite old now. I don't think that many people are curious about those abilities any more.

[@goreobsessed2308]

I really Whish they had made these guys gwt some kind of bonus with the mind jack they already basically use one like make it 100% hit in their hands or something

[@gameraiders4749]

is this a part of the dlc?

[@ItsMinoAgain]

Hey, you need to do one for Psi Operatives

[@tohlm]

A lot of these skirmisher abilities are giving me this "preemptively nerfed by the devs because they thought it would be too strong" vibe. Especially Battlelord. Also very telling that one of their best abilities is the "I suck, so I'm going to give one of my actions to someone who can actually do something" ability.

[@chee.rah.monurB]

This is a really nice unit AND DLC,how come I don't see many poeple playing this game with the DLC?Or even with general life-improvement mods?

[@veegeeplz]

Not sure if this is sarcasm or genuine. Skirmishers are in the War of the Chosen DLC, which almost everyone plays with. I haven't met a PC player who doesn't play with at least some mods.

[@chee.rah.monurB]

@@veegeeplz It also might jsut be that the walkthrough i'm wawtching (Chris.Odd) was made BEFORE the DLC,but me searching in the youtube tab doesn't show me many youtubers using WotC,MAYBE Gift or Hunters but not WotC (though Odd does use some mods i haven't seen before,like smg and leadership.) Also,like others said your editing/presentation is really good,definetly better than the wiki at conveying information.

[@veegeeplz]

@@chee.rah.monurB ChristopherOdd has at least 5 WotC playlists, including his most recent for XCOM 2. The playlist you're watching must've been pre-WotC, so before 2017.

[@chee.rah.monurB]

@@veegeeplz Yeah,most likely,i put the words into the searchtab and that's what youtube gave me.Plus he las a large library of playlists,kinda a chore to search through all of them for that one playlist i want. Alternatively,If i had a steam account and money to spend,I'd start without WotC as a way to train myself cause fcking shit I've seen some clips of Alien rulers and they're above my skill level.Some other players probably had the same idea as me.

[@chee.rah.monurB]

@@maximantonyuk Oh,I'm not sure if I'm the best authority on that.I follow Rimworld & Minecraft mods a lot more closely that XCOM,but Christopher Odd has several modded playthroughs so just do what he does.

[@kubenblisk1493]

Are these guys only available in Wotc?

[@veegeeplz]

Yes.

[@kubenblisk1493]

@@veegeeplz oh ok ,just recently started playing xcom 2 and I’ve heard you have to start a new campaign to play Wotc is this true?

[@veegeeplz]

@@kubenblisk1493 Yes, WotC is treated as a completely separate game.

[@kubenblisk1493]

@@veegeeplz oh thank you for the info

[@Ze_N00B]

Skirmishers are one of the most powerful classes in the game. You just have to play them right.

[@NotYourBusiness-bp2qn]

Amateur take. Skirmishers are capable of multiple overwatch shots and shots per own turn with their late game abilities. Give it a REPEATER and a EXTENDED MAG. Hair trigger has the same percentage chance to proc as a repeater but won't proc on overwatch shots and only gives you an action not a instant kill. Not even a contest.

[@shirokatatsu5886]

Laugh in 4 attacks in 1 turn If you want him even stronger, install skirmisher rebalance, which makes him even stronger. He can even solo a mission.

[@xDaPrincex]

I swear late game skills for these new Heroes are trash. Your better off just getting things you passed out on for better abilities.