X-Com 2

[Jaedan]

I know some of us are playing it, how are you all finding it?

For me, it takes everything that was good about its predecessor and makes it better. Absolutely the best strategy game I've played in a very long time.

Anyone got any tips or tricks?
Favourite squad setups or a strong research order?

I'm playing on Commander (not iron man, too pussy!) and it has so far managed to always feel unfair but not insurmountable.
I particularly like that it has, so far for me at least, managed to stay difficult. I always feel like I'm just a step or two behind the enemy and then just when I'm about to catch up to them and have an edge, a new enemy gets introduced and I'm back to questioning how the hell I'm going to handle that thing!

My favourite squad setup is 2 Grenadiers, 2 Rangers, 1 Specialist and 1 Sharpshooter.
If and when I decide to take any Psi operatives, I will have a genuinely difficult time figuring out who to leave behind - probably a ranger but it's a tough call. If I'm ever down a ranger or grenadier, I'll bring a Specialist. I have a spare Sharpshooter but I would be genuinely worried about how successful I would be with two of those. That being said, Killzone is the tits!

Considering I barely used explosives at all in EU/EW (I don't think I ever even fired the top tier rocket launcher!), Grenadiers are my boys in X-Com 2. Most useful class for me by a country mile. They don't tend to do much killing themselves, but they make sure that everyone else just has to mop up instead.
I have one setup as an actual grenadier - he has an EXO with a rocket launcher, a perk for an extra grenade and larger explosive radius so he has 4 turns of potential mayhem, and another as fire support - he has a massive expanded magazine so he can use his skills with extreme prejudice, shredder to remove armour with normal attacks (I should have taken this with both - it's an absolutely amazing skill throughout the game) and of course holo-targeting - this again has brilliant synergy with Shredder, because you want to take the first shot with anyone that has shredder if the target is armoured anyway.

[Jaedan]

Special Tips!

1: You can get INSTANT research on any of the corpses if you have acquired enough of them, so don't waste valuable time on corpses when there are other things to research!* The caveats to this are that it seems to require more bodies for the tougher enemy types - basically the tougher the enemy, the more bodies needed - and that the 'instant' thing will only pop after completing whatever you're currently researching - it won't show just because you have met the body count (probably a bug)

2: The Mimic Beacon is the best item in the entire game

3: Armour is a more valuable research choice than weapons - this is because while weapons are great, they won't save a lower ranked soldier's life like armour will

4: Get the Guerilla Training School as soon as humanly possible - this allows you to increase your squad size amongst other perks, but also allows you to put recruits in to select what class they should become and ranks them up to a squaddie - if you have recruits, there's no reason this building shouldn't always be working for you

*This excludes the faceless because you need to autopsy that to get access to the mimic beacon (see point 2)

[Bört]

I really dislike grenadiers, I usually only bring one. Feels like their guns are absolute shit, never hitting anything. But stick one in an EXO suit and you've got all the 'splosions you'll ever need.

I usually bring 2 Specialists (one medic and one hacker) hacking is insanely useful when you're fighting Mechanized enemies. It's like mind control in the previous game, you're able to run around with a MEC scouting and soaking bullets. Other than the specialists I tend to take one Grenadier and either two rangers or two Snipers. I generally prefer snipers due to their range and damage. The fact that squad sight is the starting ability is nuts.
Sharpshooters are obviously better than Gunslinger. I mean the Colonel sharpshooter ability is called Serial. It makes your killing shots free actions.
Rangers are neat for scary burst damage and mobility. The fact that one of the archetypes is sneaky is a bonus as well.

Speaking of sneaky I like the covert addition they've made to the game. Sneaking up on an objective is neat.

My tips are these:
Snipers up high with as much coverage as possible, give them spider suits so they can grapple around (free action!) as well.

Don't squander the covert phase, you can set up some nasty ambushes.

And like I said before regarding the specialists, hacking is neat. Really neat. Shut down turrets, MECs and probably sectopods. Oh and you can hack your self some resources or info on most maps as well. That said, always use a specialist for hacking, they have massive bonuses compared to any of the other classes.

[Jaedan]

[Bört]

I've started running into sectopods and other heavy armored units so now the Grenadier is useful. Stuck her in a WAR suit and added a plasma caster thing that deals 10-12dmg to everything in a fairly long straight line.
Good idea regarding the tracer ammo though. I'm using it one the lower ranked of my Marksmen. I'm actually deploying with two of them at the moment.

Regarding bad classes I would say that the gunslinger is a bit underwhelming. The pistol damage is quite low even with plasma weapons, so all those fancy abilities kinda fall flat. Lots of free damage with that spec though so it's not all bad.

I've started on my psychic troops as well. Only have two abilities for her so far but one of them is a permanent mind control.

There's also a lot of nice things to be gained from the Proving Grounds: acid grenade which eats armor and has a mean DOT, some sort of ammo which increases crit chance by 20% and crit damage by 1, AP rounds which ignore armor oh and that Plasma caster. Neat stuff all around.

[Jaedan]

I agree that Gunslinger and (and later, Melee rangers) are a bit underwhelming.

I found melee rangers really useful at the start - they're absolute beasts in the beginning and ranked up far faster for me than anyone else by a country mile, but I'd recommend respeccing them somewhere down the line as almost all of the abilities start to become a bit lackluster as health pools move up, and rapid fire is exceptionally powerful - far too good to pass up regardless of spec.

The problem with both specs is that they're kind of designed to mop up lots of already weakened enemies, so it's almost required that you build your entire squad around that concept - reaper is useless if you don't have lots of targets that are <6hp each (excluding the first target which can be <9hp) that are pretty close together, and a single miss or a lower than expected damage roll will completely ruin the streak.

Gunslingers are better if you treat them right but still not the best. Their main caveat is enemy armour but if you're able to render that a none-issue (either with AP ammo or by straight up removal), they can be absolute lifesavers.
The reason for this is because special ammo types have a bigger effect on them than any other class or spec as they're able to make use of them with their pistol which can mean they can fairly regularly turn what would be +1 damage with most into +3 or more, so for example AP or Bluescreen ammo will absolutely ruin a sectopod, dragon or venom rounds can either burn or poison several enemies (which have their own, awesome debuffs in addition to damage) or deal a pretty huge amount of additional damage to any unarmoured targets, and talon rounds will basically mean that they can solo kill anything other than a sectopod or gatekeeper alone as long as you've removed the armour first.
While I haven't actually tried this, I think they can potentially fire up to 5 times in a single turn against one target (normal shoot pistol - doesn't end turn, then lightning hands as a totally free action, then fan fire which shoots the same target 3 times = 5 shots) which is a level of damage that only a ranger with rapid fire can reach without requiring some (but that is a 2 shot -15 aim chance, so it's not quite as reliable when you absolutely need it). At the very least I know for certain that they can fire up to 4 times. Infinitely more if you have Faceoff and lots of enemies in view. They're absolutely insane if they attack a target that's been ruptured first (+3 damage on all attacks) due to the way that they work. No other class or spec can reach their single target damage anywhere near as reliably.
With all that said, Sharpshooters are still probably better overall - just gunslingers can be absolutely mental and lots of fun when the right situation turns up.

[Bört]

That is a good point... I should level up my gunslinger and give those high end abilities a try.
I also agree with you regarding the melee rangers, I keep jumping back and forth on the rangers to pick the good talents.
As you said they worked well early game. I used them frequently, until I ran into Mutons. Said Muton counter attacked and one shot my ranger.
So right now he's collecting dust as a backup.