Heavy (EU2012)

Heavy

A class specialising in firepower and damage, carrying both a Light Machinegun and a Rocket Launcher. They are essential to support squad attacks, engage enemies on their own or the demolition of terrain obstacles. Its main disadvantages are low accuracy progression and limited ammunition for the launcher.

• The LMG is the Heavy's main weapon, capable of dealing heavy damage to targets and also to suppress them, if the Heavy has that ability. It can later be updated to the more advanced Heavy Laser or Heavy Plasma models.
• The Rocket Launcher is the secondary weapon for the Heavy and grants 1 rocket, to use against groups or enemies or to take down terrain. The Shredder Rocket ability adds a special purpose rocket; and the Rocketeer perk allows one further normal rocket to be carried. The Rocket Launcher can later be upgraded to the Blaster Launcher, which increases the effectiveness of the rockets.
• Heavies can carry 1 additional item for customization. Frag Grenades/Alien Grenades are an essential item for Heavies that have taken the Grenadier ability.
• The Heavy's Ability tree choices are mainly divided between Damage Increase, Reactions and Equipment.

• Damage Increase - Fire Rocket, Shredder Rocket, HEAT Ammo, Danger Zone and Mayhem.
• Reactions - Suppression and Rapid Reaction.
• Equipment - Fire Rocket, Grenadier and Rocketeer.
• Unique - Bullet Swarm (firing doesn't use both Actions), Holo-Targeting (+10 Aim to squad mates) and Will to Survive (less Damage taken).

• Heavies receive lesser rank bonuses in stats upon promotion, specially in Aim (+10 Aim points total upon reaching Colonel), receiving also a total of 4 HPs and 14 Will points.
• Heavies also take the longest time to level into a Colonel, making them an investment to reach their full potential.

Rank	Ability
Squaddie	Fire Rocket Fire a rocket using an equipped launcher. This ability can not be used after moving, nor more than once per mission.		Fire Rocket Fire a rocket using an equipped launcher. This ability can not be used after moving, nor more than once per mission.
Corporal	Bullet Swarm Firing the primary weapon as the first action no longer ends the turn.		Holo-Targeting Shooting at or suppressing enemies also confers a +10 Aim to any allies' attacks on those enemies.
Sergeant	Shredder Rocket Fire a rocket that causes all enemies hit to take +33% damage from all sources for the next 4 turns. The rocket's blast is weaker than a standard rocket's. (67% normal damage)		Suppression Can fire a special shot that grants reaction fire at a single target. The target also suffers a -30 Aim penalty.
Lieutenant	HEAT Ammo +100% to damage against robotic enemies.		Rapid Reaction Confers a second reaction shot, if on Overwatch and the first reaction shot is a hit.
Captain	Grenadier Allows to carry 2 grenades in a single inventory slot.		Danger Zone Increases hit area of rockets and suppression by 2 tiles.
Major	Will to Survive Reduces all normal damage taken by 2 if in cover and not flanked.		Will to Survive Reduces all normal damage taken by 2 if in cover and not flanked.
Colonel	Rocketeer Allows 1 additional standard rocket to be fired per battle.		Mayhem Confers additional damage based on weapon tech level to Suppression and all area-effect abilities.

KEYCHART

Additional Shot	Improves Reaction	Extra Movement	Additional Equipment	Change Unit Aim	Decrease Enemy Aim	Change Damage Given	Decrease Damage Taken

Fire Rocket The Heavy's signature weapon. It provides a limited but powerful area effect attack that does heavy damage to targets and terrain. A Heavy can only use 1 rocket per mission at first, but has the potential to carry up to 3 by Colonel rank by taking Shredder Rocket and/or Rocketeer. Rockets require a full 2 actions to fire. Rockets do not need a solid surface or target to detonate. They can be set to explode in mid-air. The Rocket Launcher only fires in a straight line and has a chance to be fired off-target. Careful positioning of the Heavy is therefore a crucial element for an effective rocket attack. Once upgraded to the Blaster Launcher, all rockets will gain more damage, the ability to navigate around walls and obstacles. They can also travel through closed doors. The Heavy only needs to be within rocket range, and can otherwise stay safely out of sight. Rockets can be enhanced with Danger Zone and Mayhem. Danger Zone widens the blast area, while Mayhem adds more damage at the cost of the Rocketeer perk.

Additional Notes

• Heavy abilities are divided between Heavy Ordinance (Attack) or Heavy Supression:

• Heavy Ordinance path: Focuses on area effect damage. Suggested perks include Shredder Rocket, Grenadier and Rocketeer. This perk line is designed to accentuate area damage, good for taking out groups of weak aliens or to soften up and destroy the cover of hard targets.
• Heavy Suppression path: Focuses on suppression perks like Suppression, Rapid Reaction, Danger Zone and Mayhem. Suppression allows the player to pin down the enemy and freely move around Run & Gun Assault units to systematically eliminate the enemy. This would be good for scenarios that are not time sensitive so you establish position and plan out movements to minimize Overwatch consequences.

• The Heavy can provide general purpose squad-support with Holo Targeting, Supression and the Shredder Rocket as well as use any carried explosives to destroy enemy cover.

• Both Holo-Targeting and Shredder Rocket are designed for other squad members to take advantage of them, allowing the Heavy to act as a squad multiplier, including other Heavy units, if present.

• Bullet Swarm allows you to use both of your move to fire your LMG. It counts as using your first move action, so cannot be followed by a Rocket attack. Bullet Swarm only works with your primary weapon, so using an item or psionic ability as your first action will still end the turn.
• The Shredder Rocket deals 4 base damage as opposed to the regular rocket's 6 damage.

• Any targets hit by a Shredder Rocket will take on more damage from any subsequent attacks for the rest of the turn. This makes it a good opening attack on enemies with lots of hit-points.

• The damage bonus for HEAT Ammo is applied to all of the Heavy's damaging attacks, be it regular shooting, grenades, rockets, or Mayhem.
• Mayhem deals 1 damage per tech level of the heavy's primary weapon, so the LMG will deal 1 damage, the Heavy Laser will do 2 damage, and the Heavy Plasma will dish out 3 damage.
  • Additionaly, Mayhem, paired with Supression, seems to have 100% accuracy AND splash damage (akin to the Sectopod's beam weapons) for 3 damage for all in-range targeted enemies (6 with HEAT Ammo on robotic enemies), excellent for pinning down a Disc or Pod while taking out it's drones, or aliens that are taking cover close together,
• The suppression ability of Heavies allows a pair of them to effectively immobilize a mind-controlled ally. This will save you from killing your own soldiers, or having an alloy-cannon-armed assault soldier turning on you on while you're in the tight spaces of a downed UFO.

Tactical Advice

Heavies are the class with the most varied choices: HEAT Ammo, Suppression, Shredder Rocket, etc. making each build an individual taste. You can have an explosives specialist capable of putting out major damage in an area, making big plays to pull your squad out of the fire when XCOM decides to be... well, XCOM. Or you can have a Machinegunner expert that crowds out the Support for his job with Suppression, Bullet Swarm and Rapid Reaction. As for the Heavy himself, he's in an interesting place. Though all soldiers begin with 65 Aim, Heavies gain significantly less through promotion than their peers. In contrast, his machine gun deals high damage, on par with a sniper rifle or shotgun. These facts, combined with his rocket launcher, make him a terror in the early game but potentially less reliable (and thus less relevant) as it progresses. Between their poor Aim and inability to fire rockets after moving, Heavies are the class most hampered by mobility.

In light of this, beginning players may find explosives-centric heavies preferable. Suppression-focused heavies take a while to come into their own and depend on their squad to provide killing power once they do. Explosives Heavies are somewhat more straightforward to play, and they themselves provide more firepower to carry your team before it becomes a well-oiled x-ray-killing machine.

For psionic Heavies, Mind Control may suit a Heavy better, at least as a distraction to keep them and their cover from being attacked, keeping nearby aliens in position for a Rocket/Blaster attack.

Abilities

Corporal

Bullet Swarm

Holo-Targeting

Either choice will benefit both Heavy builds. Explosive Heavies usually go Bullet Swarm, although Holo-Targeting is also very useful for the rest of the squad to fire against the alien. Machinegunner Heavies may prefer Holo-Targeting in the long run, but also benefit from Bullet Swarm.

Bullet Swarm

• Gives tactical flexibility. It allows for Fire and Move, Fire and Reload or Fire and Fire. In particular, shooting twice ends up yielding a statistically better chance of hitting a particular alien than Holo-Targeting him and ordering the rest of your Rookies to open fire.
• Finally, firing twice gives the Heavy two chances to destroy his target's cover; in this event, he has just granted your squad more than the benefit of Holo-Targeting.
• The downside is its high ammo consumption plus using it can make the Heavy immobile and vulnerable against superior enemies.

Holo-Targeting

• Applies to both the Machinegun and the Launcher - Heavy shoots/blows cover and marks the remaining aliens for the rest of the team to tag.
• Helps the whole team to focus their firepower on a single alien - it can be very useful in taking down high-threat aliens, regardless of storyline progression.

Sergeant

Suppression

Shredder Rocket

Shredder Rocket for Explosive Heavies, Suppression for Machinegunner Heavies.

Shredder Rockets

• Useful throughout the game. On all difficulties except Impossible, they deal enough damage to one-shot Sectoids, Thin Men, and Floaters, making them essentially just another rocket when you first get them;
• Shred effect helps with high HP targets;
• The set damage provided by explosives can help set up aliens for capture.

Suppression

• Also a handy utility skill;
• Can be used to pin down an alien and prevent it to move (and flank your position);
• Suppression will also drop its target's Aim by 30% if it fires against an exposed squadmate.

Lieutenant

HEAT Ammo

Rapid Reaction

Similar to the Corporal choice, both Heavies like HEAT Ammo, but Machinegunner Heavies can consider Rapid Reaction.

HEAT Ammo

• Deals extra damage to robotic opponents. Put simply, in XCOM, robots are the devil. Anything that hastens Cyberdiscs and Sectopods to their circuity grave is awesome;
• HEAT boosted grenades will make short work of Drones, saving your squad a lot of wasted effort.
• One of few ways to scale your explosives damage, until Blaster Launcher is available;
• If combined with Bullet Swarm, Heavies can dole out massive quantities of damage to robots, and the team can even drop Cyberdiscs and Sectopods in one turn.

Rapid Reaction

• The complement to HEAT Ammo: an ability for use against weaker enemies as found in Council missions, specially during Overwatch ambushes;
• Rapid Reaction can also be very useful to guard rooms and corridors;
• Be sure you get the Ammo Conservation project done in the Foundry or you will find that this is a fantastic way to empty your magazine.
• The AI almost never moves when suppressed, so this has surprisingly little synergy with Suppression.

Captain

Grenadier

Danger Zone

Both types of Heavy like Danger Zone. Explosive Heavies should also consider Grenadier.

Grenadier

• Locks you into a single item to take advantage of it, but grenades are admittedly useful.
• Make sure you acquire some Alien Grenades if you go this route.
• Consider whether you typically have grenades on any of your other units. If not, giving up a wildly-inaccurate Heavy shot to hurl a grenade is not a big sacrifice by any stretch, and the rest of your squad will thank you for blowing the enemy's cover.
• Similarly, if you think you'd rather Kool-Aid Man through a wall instead of using the door, doing it with a grenade beats burning a rocket on it.

Danger Zone

• Explosive Heavies will love having a bigger boom, but Suppression Heavies being able to AOE suppress enemies is the big payoff.
• AOE Suppression requires fairly particular enemy positioning, but when you can manage it, it's great;
• You can also apply Holo-Targeting to the whole group, turning it into a nice combination.

Colonel

Rocketeer

Mayhem

Explosives Heavies will want Rocketeer. Suppression Heavies should take Mayhem.

Rocketeer

• Boosts your overall damage output while taking away some of the nerves you get when thinking about whether now is really the best time to shoot your one, single rocket;
• While Mayhem does add some damage to your rockets, Rocketeer ultimately amounts to more damage and gives you more control in how you apply it.

Mayhem

• The grand finale for the Machinegunner - makes Suppression becomes a reliable way to damage enemies;
• Can be a useful late game way of chipping the health off an enemy you want to capture.
• The extra damage on your rockets is a nice side benefit.
• Despite Rocketeer resulting in more overall rocket damage, Mayhem allows you to apply more damage in one turn. This could makes the difference between ending turn facing a Sectopod on 2 HP, or a dead one. Mayhem allows a HEAT Ammo Heavy to one-shot a Cyberdisc on Classic and Impossible.

Equipment

Weapon: With the Heavy's high base damage, the standard LMG can often one-shot Sectoids, Thin Men and Floaters on Classic. This means there is no immediate urgency to hasten a Heavy's weapon upgrade over other class-specific weapons. Of course, do upgrade when you can spare the time and resources to keep the Heavy on par with the stronger enemies as they appear.

For a Heavy taking the explosive build route, weapon upgrades do not confer bonus damage on rockets, grenades or suppression until paired with the high ranking Mayhem' perk. Weapon upgrades in this instance will mainly be beneficial for personal defence once their munitions have expired and there are no nearby allies to provide support.

A different approach should be taken for a machinegunner or suppressor build as the primary weapon will be the Heavy's bread and butter weapon.

Armor: Heavies will typically be near the front of your group, as they need to advance and sit still in order to put rockets where they need to be. As a result, Armor is a fairly big priority for Heavies, and they should be considered after Assaults for cutting edge suits if you can't outfit your full team. Skeleton Armor and Ghost Armor eliminate mobility issues, with the invisibility from Ghost Armor being particularly helpful in setting up rockets, flanks, or moving into point-blank range to counteract their lesser Aim. Titan Armor, despite being the "heaviest," is not always the best choice due to the aforementioned mobility consideration.

Item: If you went Grenadier grab a Grenade. If you have HEAT ammo and are facing Cyberdiscs/Drones, grab a Grenade. A S.C.O.P.E. can improve the Heavy's low Aim, improving their long range combat effectiveness with the machine gun, making it a useful item for any build except for a Grenadier. Heavies also make decent carriers of Medikits if your Supports for some reason don't have enough. Chitin plating serves as a decent extra padding in any instance that requires your Heavy to get very close to the action.

Summary

Most Commanders will raise their Heavies as machine killers, and room-clearers, particulary for Terror Missions, and those occasions where every enemy in a mission seems to show up at once.

If you don't mind Save Scumming, and have a rocket going off-course (a seeded outcome: it will happen every time): you can manipulate this to still land a rocket precisely where you want it to (it will explode at the same elevation and distance that you aim for, so merely compensate for the angle; roughly 20 degrees).

While their aim starts and ends as the lowest in the game, their capactiy for explosives makes their aim semi-irrelevant. Indeed, with Grenadier, and the Blaster Launcher allowing you to place an explosive precisely where you want, they technically have 100% accuracy, and with limited Rocket capacity driving you to conserve rocket shots, those will tend to be the shots that really matter.

Being only able to carry their main weapon and a limited-use rocket, they actually have significant flexibility with item choice, unless Grenadier is chosen (in contrast, a Commander might never unequip Scopes and Archangel armor from their Snipers, or Medikits from their Supports), as well as armor. A Heavy can therefore function as an alternative to a second Assault, or a second Support, and their abilites lend to either. For example, Combat Stims and their Will To Survive ability pair well to make Heavies very hard to kill. Chitin plating, Titan Armor, and Bullet Swarm make them Chryssalid & Berserker Killers (and the way those two attack, makes Aim less of an issue), and Archangel armor (or one of the two with the Grappling Hook) can redefine the term "Death from Above."

For UFO assault missions, a Support-centric heavy with Grenadier will allow you multiple, smaller demoltions, rather than risking the larger blast of Danger Zone destroying valuble Elerium generators and navigational computers, but still being able to bring down the hammer in a tough situation.

With the stat-altering Second Wave options (Hidden Potential, Not Created Equal), Heavies can come out of the box with significant to very high Will, as well as good starting Aim, and can receive the same 2-to-12 Will (with OTC's Iron Will) bonus with every level, bringing them back to regular front-line combat readiness in late-game. Their Aim upgrades will still be quite low, though still (potentially) more than without the Second Wave options.

As they have a mix of skills that work either as secondary Support or secondary Assault, and unspectacular leveling will scores, a Psi Heavy also works either way with support or offensive Psi skills, and again comes down to personal playing style. Inspiration and TK Field help him help others, while MCing an alien lowers the odds of your Psi heavy being shot at (and risking his cover being destroyed), keeping him safe to launch a rocket next turn, if you had to move to get into range this turn. Plus Ghost Armor, a Mind Shield, and damage-focused abilites, an Inspiration/MC Psi Heavy can be devstating to alien squads, even on his own (a good canidate for the Lone Wolf achievement on a Small Scout).

See Also

• Classes (EU2012)
• Weapons (EU2012)
• Armour (EU2012)
• Equipment (EU2012)