Assault (Long War)

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Assault

The Long War Assault is similar to the vanilla Assault. Their signature ability is Run & Gun, which works exactly as it does in vanilla XCOM.

Primary Weapons: Carbines, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns.

Secondary Weapons: Pistols, Machine pistols, Sawed-off shotgun.

Class-Limited items: Impact Vest, Shredder Ammo, Breaching Ammo.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Run & Gun Allows firing or Overwatch after Dashing on the turn Run and Gun is activated. 2 turn cooldown.
	No other bonuses.
Lance Corporal	Flush Fire a shot that may cause non-flying enemies to run to new cover. The shot is easy to hit with (+30 aim), but does reduced damage (-50% base weapon damage), and consumes extra ammo (2 ammo). Hunkered units will not relocate.	Close Combat Specialist Confers a reaction shot against any enemy who closes to within 4 tiles. Does not require Overwatch. Warning: Will activate even if unit is concealed.	Steadfast Never panic as a result of getting wounded, allies panicking, allies getting wounded or killed, or the intimidation ability.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	+5 Will.
Corporal	Gunslinger Confers +1 damage with sidearms and negates the long-range accuracy penalty when shooting beyond 14 meters.	Will to Survive Gain 1.5 Damage Reduction (DR) if in cover and not flanked.	Aggression Confers +10% critical chance per enemy in sight (max +30%). Aliens visible via squadsight are not counted for bonus.
	No other bonuses.	+2 Will.	No other bonuses.
Sergeant	Hit and Run Your first standard shot of each turn against an uncovered or flanked target does not cost an action. Does not work against flying units, and cannot be used if Run N' Gun activated.	Close Encounters The first standard shot made within 4 tiles of the target does not cost an action. Cannot combine with Run And Gun.	Rapid Fire Take two shots against a single target in quick succession. Each shot carries a -15 penalty to Aim.
	No other bonuses.	+5 Will.	No other bonuses.
Tech Sergeant	Resilience Confers immunity to critical hits.	Killer Instinct Activating Run and Gun grants +50% critical damage for the rest of the turn.	Ranger Confers +1 damage with primary weapons, rocket launchers, MEC secondary weapons and sidearms. Negates the long-range accuracy penalty with sidearms when shooting beyond 14 meters.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	+2 Aim.
Gunnery Sergeant	Tactical Sense Confers +5 Defense per enemy in sight (max +20).	Bring 'Em On Confers 1-4 bonus damage during critical hits (which is then multiplied by 50% due to the critical hit). The damage is higher when more enemies are in view (including squad sight vision). This results in +1.5 dmg for 1-2 enemies, +3 dmg for 3-4 enemies, +4.5 dmg for 5-6 enemies, +6 dmg for 7 or more enemies.	Sprinter Grants +4 mobility (roughly 3 tiles movement).
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Vital Point Targeting Confers 2 bonus damage with primary guns, and +1 damage with sidearms, against humans and alien targets whose species have been autopsied.	Extra Conditioning Confers 1-4 bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.	Lightning Reflexes The hit chance of reaction fire against this unit is reduced by 90 percent for the first shot, and by 70 percent for additional shots.
	No other bonuses.	+1 Mobility, +4 Aim, +4 Will.	No other bonuses.

• If Training Roulette is on, and Lock n' Load is acquired: reloading as the first action also stops Hit and Run from activating.

Stat Progression

Rank	/level	total	/level	total	/level*	total*
Specialist	1	1	3	3	5(6)	5(-6)
Lance Corporal	0	1	2	5	5(6)	10(-12)
Corporal	1	2	3	8	3(4)	13(-16)
Sergeant	0	2	2	10	3(4)	16(-20)
Tech Sergeant	1	3	3	13	3(4)	19(-25)
Gunnery Sergeant	0	3	2	15	3(4)	22(-28)
Master Sergeant	1	4	3	18	3(4)	25(-32)

• Note that, even without Hidden Potential turned on, there is a chance of gaining 1 extra will per level (shown in parentheses above). Psionic soldiers can also gain 1-6 extra will per psi level (1 + rand(6)).

Tactical Advice

Role: Mobile Offense

Long War Assaults are quite similar to vanilla Assaults. They are more mobile than Infantry while packing less firepower, swapping Light 'Em Up for Run & Gun. Due to the existence of the Infantry class that excels at mid-range combat with rifles, Assaults tend to equip shotguns and use their mobility to engage at close range, though using them as a medium range flanker with an assault rifle is also viable.

Assaults are fairly simple soldiers, and the choice in their build tends to be a simple one of offense vs defense at each rank, with some mobility thrown in. A role-changing perk however is Lightning Reflexes, allowing them to draw out overwatch fire much like a Scout can, though they have to wait until Master Sergeant to do it and it can't be combined with the highly useful Resilience perk. Given some aliens in Long War have Opportunist, this makes absorbing overwatch with an Assault still quite dangerous, unless tough enough to absorb a crit.

Assaults make very good covert operatives. They have high base HP, allowing them to survive better without armor, Lightning Reflexes to not be hit by overwatch when running to comm arrays, and they can use Run & Gun to hack arrays on the same turn after dashing.

Sample Builds

Line Assault - Balanced damage build for early assaults with balanced stats (particularly good mobility). Deploy with most squads, particularly on missions where you expect close quarters combat to either be advantageous or necessary (council missions, terror missions)

At Lance Cpl: Close Combat Specialist for situations where enemies will close to point blank range in attempts to flank or melee your Assault. As for Steadfast: consider ranking the assault for later MEC conversion if their base will is perilously low; refer to another build for tanky psi assaults that can make use of Steadfast's bonus will.

At Corporal: Tactical Sense for the bonus defense, which Assaults will need, as they will draw plenty of fire. Only grab Gunslinger for a line assault if your pistol production is advanced enough.

At Sergeant: Close Encounters for maximum flexibility and the bonus Will. Since Run and Gun is more of a problem solver than a build focus, Rapid Fire will only be more efficient than Close Encounters once every three turns. You will also usually be operating a close range, and sometimes will not be able to muster a flanking shot at close range, making Hit & Run more useful for rifle assaults and covert operatives.

At Tech Sgt: Extra Conditioning to improve survivability and overall stats. Killer Instinct-fueled crits only come up ever three or more turns, making it a less efficient buy. Assaults usually deal enough raw damage via double-shots and crits that Ranger isn't necessary.

At Gun Sgt: Sprinter to improve ability to close to Close Encounters range and carry heavy armor/lots of heavy items. This assault build doesn't make heavy use of expanded crit chance, and Extra Conditioning with Resilience at MSGT should be sufficient tankiness.

At Master Sgt: Resilience to complete the durability package. OR Vital Point Targeting to help confirm kills. Only take Lightning Reflexes for this build if you're low on effective Scouts in the organization.

Equip completed build with: Shotgun weapons for increased damage, clip size with early weapon tech, and crit chance. Heavy armor for durability (they'll draw a lot of fire!). Breaching rounds to improve damage against armored targets. Impact Vest, Chitin Plating, and high-cap mags are good choices for remaining item slots.

Go for Offensive Psi powers so your Assault has options to engage the enemy at range. Secondary Heart is a good idea on gene mod side.

R&G Operative - Gene-modded Covert Operative build for assaults with great base HP and mobility. When not used for Covert missions, deploy on missions where powerful single foes are expected and will need to be kill-confirmed with Run and Gun Rapid Fire.

At Lance Cpl: Flush if you want to use your operative/assault as utility while waiting for R&G to come off cool-down. OR Close Combat Specialist when you want to use your operative as a close-in damage threat for alien missions (be wary, as this can backfire on covert operatives if CCS procs deplete all your ammo before a turn which you planned to use R&G to trip a comm relay). Take Steadfast if your assault operative has low will and you do not want to risk them panicking to a light wound.

At Corporal: Gunslinger as a core perk, allowing assaults to contribute significant damage at all ranges on covert operations, as well as have a consistent secondary damage source on alien missions.

At Sergeant: Hit and Run for shots of opportunity, OR Rapid Fire, as Run and Gun is central to this covert operative's strategy and Rapid Fire can be used with it.

At Tech Sgt: Killer Instinct to make Rapid Fire R&G crits seriously hurt. Consider Extra Conditioning if you need the slight bonus mobility. Ranger does not enhance pistols.

At Gun Sgt: Sprinter to hit relays on the far opposite side of the map with Run and Gun. OR Bring 'Em On for a more relevant Assault post-EXALT base; combined with Killer instinct, Rapid Fire, and potentially a friendly Mind Merge, this assault can devastate any single target with crits.

At Master Sgt: Lightning Reflexes if you hit this rank and still have a few exalt missions to go, to make grabbing Comm Relays under overwatch a bit safer on Covert Extractions (and allow the assault to be useful as a pseudo scout in alien missions while waiting out R&G cooldown). Any perk is a good choice here otherwise.

Equip Completed build with: Operative builds are generally self explanatory (machine pistol, alloy plating and a grenade). As for alien missions: Shotguns and machine pistols to make best use of crit bonuses and gunslinger. Heavy armor (Titan and/or Archangel) as this assault will have the mobility to handle it. Breaching rounds to penetrate high-armor targets. Situational picks for remaining items.

For Gene mods, pick any head mod, Depth Perception (synergy with Muscle Fiber Density, and improved pistol reliability at elevation), Secondary Heart (when something goes wrong on a covert op; bring a medic with revive along on Covert Extractions so you can continue the mission!), Bioelectric skin (bonus visiblity at the start of EXALT missions; feel free to switch to Iron Skin if you like once EXALT's Base is gone), and Muscle Fiber Density (Makes Run and Gun charges more versatile and safer when you can dash up to elevated, hard-to-flank high cover and still dispatch your target.)

See also

Long War: Soldiers
	Soldiers Assault Infantry Rocketeer Gunner Sniper Scout Medic Engineer
	MEC Troopers Marauder Valkyrie Archer Goliath Jaeger Pathfinder Guardian Shogun
	Officers Psionics Gene Mods S.H.I.V.s