XCOM 2: You're Mind Is WEAK! or HOLY****BALLS are Psi Operatives Awesome!

[happyninja42]

Ok so, I've been dabbling with XCOM for a few weeks now, and last week or so, I finally decided to focus on actually deploying my Psi Ops on missions, and holy crap are they insane!

So much fun in fact that I made a pure Psi Op squad, and used them to steamroll the game from that point forward. I've now decided to actually go for a higher difficulty run (something Iusually don't bother with in games), and am focusing on getting Psi Ops ASAP, and using them exclusively again.

Anyone else had the insane amount of fun that I've had with the Psi Ops? I might be having extra fun with them, because I made a bunch of Rookie's inspired by Mystery Science Theater 3000. So I had a Psionic Dr. Forrester, and TV's Frank, as well as Mike Nelson and Joel Hodgson, running around, melting the minds of badguys, and turning them into puppets for their amusement. The Dr. Forrester looks surprisingly accurate too.

Anyone else enjoying Psi Ops?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Fun units, but their balancing is completely buggered. Several missteps in their implementation.

1. They should not have access to both their "trees". Creates a fundamentally unbalanced/OP soldier, and removes any interesting decisions from their development.

2. They should graduate through combat like other soldiers, not by sitting in a room on the Avenger. Reduces attachment between commander and soldier, removes all risk presented to that soldier, and assures that psi-ops are generally a late game deployment, if they're seen at all.

3. Will should be a more fluid stat, influenced upwards and downwards by in-game events, and psi-ops power and accuracy should be determined by Will, much as it was in EU/EW. As it stands, they have some powerful abilities that cannot miss, and assured damage is king in a risk-mitigation game like XCOM.

It's a shame they weren't designed better, and I consider their implementation to be one of XCOM2's most gratuitous missteps. Leaves the game with "fundamentally four classes" instead of having five from the beginning, removes the interesting tactical impact low level psi-ops could have on early missions, and just reduces the breadth and variety of the game. One of those things I'd hope to see addressed in a game play overhaul mod once people settle down on making new hats and tattoos.

 

[Pseudonym]

I have used one of them so far. I have won the game without using them at all, merely using plasma and powerful armour and regular colonels. Yes, they are powerful but they are also an unneeded investment that repays itself slowly and slows down the time until you have hightier armour. Given that the start of the game is far harder than actually winning it once you have midtier armour, they seem to me merely a toy to use if I feel like steamrolling the aliens in that way, rather than by using my 6-kills-a-turn sniper abilities, or plasma grenades and fire bombs, or by hacking sectopods.

A bit of an unfortunate result of power creep as they may very well be fun to play with. I will try them out the next time I begin a new game.

 

[Jandau]

Psi operatives are one of the few aspects of XCOM2 I truly dislike.

First, as has been stated, they level in a stupid manner. Seriously, it's a terrible idea, it discourages you from bringing them along. The irony here is, you CAN bring them at any time. It means that someone at Firaxis actually gave this some thought. You can bring along a PsiOp who is currently in training on a mission and it won't interrupt their training. Great! Except he'll be outclassed by fully leveled team members and/or he'll be taking up a slot that might be used for a soldier who actually needs the XP.

Secondly, they are either too weak or too strong. Early PsiOps are a liability, maybe offering a bit of crowd control. But why would I want that when I can use that slot to bring in an extra Grenadier and saturate the enemy with enough ordnance to level a city block (literally) or a Ranger who one-shots Sectopods? But then at some point, they get Mind control and suddenly they are the fucking MVP. I don't even want to contemplate a full maxed out PsiOps squad, that just sounds silly.

Basically, I stopped using them after my first playthrough. Not because they are bad, but because they fit into the game VERY poorly.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

There are SO many things I NEED to build before I get around to the PsiLab (In both my runs, they were built on the bottom layer of the Avenger), that I never really bothered.

This run, I built one, and I was VERY impressed with my late game PsiOp. Sadly, though, I already have a Perfect MVP A-Team of one Gunslinger, a super-critting Scout Ranger, a hybrid Specialist with excellent accuracy who can execute often on overwatch and THREE grenadiers with 3 Blaster Launchers, one of whom has so much accuracy she often has 100% hit chance to hit stuff BEHIND HALF COVER.

At this point, I don't really care about the PsiOp I've been training. If I can find time to make the PsiLab earlier in the game, it might be useful, but right now, going into the final mission? I'm fine without her, thanks.

 

[sXeth]

Yeah, by the end game I'd switched to 3 Psi-ops, 2 Specialists, and generally a Grenadier on the end (sometimes you do need mass-shredding). Enemies just spend the entire time disabled or controlled.

 

[happyninja42]

I don't even want to contemplate a full maxed out PsiOps squad, that just sounds silly.

They're not silly, but it is an interesting tactic. I personally love it, but it does have some drawbacks. Almost all of their powers have long timers (4-5 turns on most), so if you use an ability in a less than optimal way, you won't be able to use it again for a while. Also, since their powers usually effect anyone in the area, the risk of friendly fire is high, depending on how you have your team spread out. I learned early on that you have to resist the urge to blow all your cooldowns at once, or you are stuck with 6 people with guns, and not much in the way of skills related to those guns. Seriously, if your full Psi Op squad is shooting, things aren't going well.

As to their leveling method, I don't have a problem with it. Yeah, it's counter intuitive to the other classes, but if you want to grow the psi op, you can't take them with you. If they get injured, they can't restart their training until they are healed. So taking someone mid-training on a mission is a risk. So, you have to leave them at home, which means you aren't benefiting from their abilities during that fight. So it's a pro/con issue to me, and I like it. Do I take Dr. Forrester with me on this mission so I can use his Soul Lance ability as well as the Void? Or do I let him keep cooking and just run with my mundanes? If he gets hurt, now I have the problem that it's now going to take *insert healing time* + *training time* before he will actually finish that new trick, so that might have him out for most of a month before I get to take advantage of him again.

Also, while their powers are...well..powerful, they do have some limitations. The Lance ability is nuts, but if you can't line up several enemies in a straight line, you really aren't able to benefit form the multiple target aspect of the ability.

Don't get me wrong, I still think they are insanely powerful. But, I don't think they're any more insane than my, as someone put it A-Team of other classes, who stomp any fight with Kill Zone, Serial Killer, and any number of other insane powers, that make the fight a cakewalk. It's just a different flavor of cakewalk, one I find more enjoyable, compared to shooting everything, style of cakewalk.

 

[aelreth]

I enjoy them, I usually start the end game process when I finally have two fully cooked. I prefer bringing two medics for the final mission. So I have 1 for the transmitter and one for the last mission.

 

[monkeymangler]

They are a ton of fun (and a maxed out Psi-Ops can solo missions on normal), though Guppy is right that their balance feels a little weird.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

They deserve to be powerful since they have a cap on how many you can practically have and whats it cost, the price of having plasma rifles every time you want to train a new one?

In the end game everything about your soldiers is imba, even if the psi-ops get the craziest. I honestly think once you get power armour and plasma rifles its pretty much all over for the aliens.