15 Long War of the Chosen LWOTC Guide to Specialist

[@corbanbenthannon2081]

The Specialist is the build that gives me the most trouble - I really want a full-on Medic...but I also want a full-on Hacker...but I love the idea of an Overwatch beast as a "support" soldier. This guide has made me feel less guilty about deciding on Medics - that's really what I need considering my recent attempts.

[@SykenPlays]

Yeah, I can see that ... my view on it is that medic is ALWAYS needed. Wounds are just happening and healing can only be done by psi-ops alternatively. The hacking isn't bad, but you could do without it - unless you want to run 2x specialists

[@danielgranda896]

Specialists have always been my favorite classes. Thank you for the excellent guide. I would love to have to two in each squad and seeing how versatile they are it seems really do able. Especially when you get to the part of the game where they are Mechs in every pod.

[@SykenPlays]

Hey Daniel, thanks for the feedback and great to hear that the guide worked well for you.

[@MrScientifictutor]

Specialist from last Long War was so good.

[@SykenPlays]

Indeed, they are fantastic, both in the vanilla game and in Long War

[@apocalypseviking9240]

second the Revival skill, it is a lifesaver and it really make the team a lot more robust

[@SykenPlays]

Yes, it is just fantastic, many players do not give enough credit to anti-CC skills, but they are very, very valuable.

[@jimy6468]

Col. Edgar 'alien' Poe. Classic haha

[@angelseeker]

Seems good. Cant wait for more... Personally, I would take Failsafe and Trojan first (even on medic specialist) and if the specialist has enough AP go for those medic abilities. Mid game, you start getting some nasty mec's that are hard to shut-down and having no consequences to failing the hack and buffing the mec even more is a godsend. Are you going to talk a bit about some loudouts? Like early/mid/late game?

[@GuardDaos64]

You can't take multiple abilities from the same column though... At least, not unless you take a second wave option I think.

[@angelseeker]

@@GuardDaos64 that is correct. Before you start a campaign there is an option to toggle for multiple abilities.

[@nickemmons4015]

This seems like an odd choice of build considering all I hear all the time is "alpha strike and crowd control is best in xcom." Is there a particular reason you don't value certain skills you didn't take, like trojan? Everyone raves about trojan, so that's mostly the one I'm curious about. Thanks for the incredible guides!

[@SykenPlays]

Hi Nick, excellent question: See the problem with the alpha strike mentality is that it assumes that you are not making mistakes - and even the most experience players make them, just less often. If you play Ironman and cannot save-scum, you need to have abilities to deal with situations where you pull 2+ pods at the same time. That is exactly where defense comes into play, using those abilities let you survive situations with sacrificing not much offense at the same time. Just think about how bad it is to lose a high level soldier, which is exactly why I am not a big fan of "glass-cannon" builds. Edit: I would say - as a conclusion - it's like the saying in sports: A good offense wins games, a good defense wins championships.

[@nickemmons4015]

@@SykenPlays true, I can definitely get behind that. I just feel that trojan is quite strong but it shares the row with the most essential part of your build :(

[@schwarzseher8774]

@@SykenPlays Not questioning your knowledge and skill, especially since I only briefly played LWOTC, i.e. my experience is built on "vanilla" Long War 2. That being said, I feel that you underestimate the value of hackers and sentinels. You said that there are numerous options to deal with overwatches or to finish off an enemy. But there as many occasion were exactly that is NOT possible. Not to speak that a combat protocol is a guaranteed one-shot kill on a drone in the early game, the phase where this unit is an absolute annoyance. In large non-timed missions, I also think that a sentinel can contribute nicely with overwatch traps, equipped with a medkit he has still (indeed limited) remote healing capability, i.e. has a reasonable versatility. A pure healer cannot do that even if he is an officer. To me it seems that a full medic has the same downside which a pure scouting shinobi has (as you point out in respective guide): not contributing enough in combat engagements. Nonetheless, great content and food for thought.

[@florinadrian5174]

Restoration is not a AoE skill. Your allies don't need to be bunched up in an area to benefit from it. It is a multi-target skill.

[@SykenPlays]

Poor choice of words, in Everquest (early MMOs), anything that was targetting multiple units was an AoE. Later (WoW and beyond) it also had a physical target area. So yes, you are correct, its a group heal.