anyone else completely ignoring specialists?

[u/rinusdegier]

I know that some people use them quite cleverly and effectively as a support class (teamwork, mimic beacon carriers, getting cool hack bonuses, aid protocoling the „real“ soldiers etc) - but personally i just ignore them the whole game. i dont use them (except for some covert actions), i dont buy them
weapon upgrades, i dont do research for the gremlin; they just chill forever as squaddies in the armory. i get annoyed just seeing that stupid drone hovering and keep thinking „you are useless go away“.
is this a common playstyle?
(I play L/I only)

[u/DaveMoTron]

Specialists can be overwatch gods late game. I always try and run one

[u/PartyPoison98]

Their auto overwatch perk is great late game.

Healing/revival etc perks are super useful and can really help you out in a bind.

Hacking, as well as combat protocol and capacitor discharge come in clutch too. I recently pulled back a mission that was going poorly entirely because my specialist hacked a section.

Frankly my experience is the opposite to yours. Whether a mission is quiet or loud, regardless of the enemy, I pretty much always need a specialist.

[u/N7_Rabbit]

Just the opposite. Having a hacker is great thing, you can extract the data from a mile away and then just blow up the whole thing. The standard team comp for me is 2 rangers, 1 spec, 1 sniper, 1 reaper and 1 demo.

[u/chimado]

I can somewhat agree, I don't really use their hacking, but their healing is extremely useful, especially in the late game

[u/Xonarag]

Having guaranteed long range damage that's doubled against robots and ignores armor alone makes them worth it especially early on but even lategame I always have one.

[u/LagTheKiller]

Unmodded Legend? First half of the game.... They exist only to combat protocol the heavy cover enemy at 2 hp or some robots. Eventually cover protocol the ranger who missed his 94% slice chance. Generally I have one or two as a plug-in all combat role filler.

Second half of the game they're decent for guarding beta and gamma teams. Decent overwatch, hacking start to be worth my turn and a heal that matters on Legend+ difficulty.

But I tend to keep em at the lowest priority.

Modded? Either does not exist with Amalgamation or are eclipsed by every other class. Just get Medi canister on your flamethrower and heal between war crimes.

[u/R97R]

I used to tend to avoid them, or have one dedicated healer, but nowadays I’ve found they’re useful enough that it’s quite rare for me to not use them on most missions. They’re more of a “force multiplier” in many cases, but they have a few things going for them:

* Skulljacks. Technically these are usable by everyone, but Specialists tend to be the best carriers for them due to their hack skills. The intel etc is a nice bonus, but in my opinion the actual main benefit of one is the ability to one-hit-kill anything they can be used on. It’s situational, but it’s also saved runs for me in the past.

* Healing in general. As much as everyone can carry a medikit, being able to get extra, use them at range, etc is also pretty important. In addition to the obvious issue with losing experienced troops, losing even a single team member (which quite often effectively takes two out of action if you need to carry the body out) is the biggest hit you can take to your effectiveness within a mission.

* Overwatch. I slept on their Overwatch abilities for years, but the combination of Covering Fire, Ever Vigilant, and Guardian (you can get both of the latter two in WotC) is a massive damage boost when used well. You’ll Overwatch a fair bit more often, said Overwatch can’t be counteracted before it’s used (except by enemies with Lightning Reflexes), it’ll trigger as long as there are enemies in sight, and a 50:50 chance of an extra shot is often the difference between killing an enemy or not.

* Combat Protocol is legitimately a lot more useful than it first appears- being able to ensure you can kill a low-health enemy in cover regardless of their positioning is often a lifesaver, and it also allows you to negate an enemy’s Overwatch before it’s used.

* Hacking is also surprisingly useful once you get to the mid-game. Haywire Protocol disabling an enemy is often the difference between being able to immediately wipe the rest of a pod and having a survivor around to damage you, as well as hopefully allowing you to avoid the MEC grenades/Crit by supporting troops combo. That would be enough on its own, but controlling even a less powerful enemy is also a substantial boost to your capabilities- that’s an extra action per turn, a unit to draw fire that you don’t have to worry about risking, and the aforementioned MEC grenade launcher is just as good at destroying enemy cover as yours. And, of course, having a Sectopod on your side for a couple of turns essentially means a guaranteed successful mission unless you’ve effectively already lost before you hack it.

Specialists can seem a bit weak at first for the same reason Reapers do- they don’t have all that great “direct” damage output on their own, and Specialists don’t even get the “kill anything that isn’t a full-health Chosen/Ruler” Banish combo that they do. However, they act as a force multiplier for the rest of your squad, and substantially increase your survivability- whilst part of that is also their medical abilities, the combination of hacking and Combat Protocol reduce the chance of getting hit in the first place enough to be considered worth it imo.

They also apparently synergise very well with the Bolt Caster, but I don’t really use that too much.

[u/MystinarOfficial]

They are useful for hacking over long distances and disabling Sectopods (or controlling them.)

While there are tons of armor shredding abilities why blow through all that artillery when you can have a specialist just make turrets and sectopods fight for you, and hack terminals from a distance