MEC Trooper (EU2012)

A MEC Trooper

MEC Trooper

The MEC Trooper is a new class of soldier that is introduced by the Enemy Within DLC. A MEC Trooper requires Meld and can be created from any of your existing soldiers (from any class) after building the Cybernetic Lab. The soldier will lose all of its existing abilities but see its HP increase and will have its own abilities tree, starting with Collateral Damage.

MECs are walking tanks that are usually used for either Fire Support or Close Combat. Tactically they're a mixture of the Heavy and Assault classes, being built for frontline roles. Since MECs can't use Cover like regular soldiers they're equipped with specialized armor to be deployed, in the form of the Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit (MEC Suit). MECs can't carry regular items but the MEC Suit offers a choice of two different Tactical Subsystems at each tier level.

Primary Weapon: Minigun, Railgun and Particle Cannon.

Tactical Subsystems:

MEC-1 Warden: Kinetic Strike Module or Flamethrower

MEC-2 Sentinel: Grenade Launcher or Restorative Mist

MEC-3 Paladin: Proximity Mine Launcher or Electro Pulse

The MEC's Ability choices are mainly divided between Fire Support or Survivability stats/abilites on each tier, giving the player the choice of either going full defence, high damage or a trade of between both. MEC Troopers gain a total of +10 Aim points upon reaching Colonel rank, together with a total of +4 HP and +14 Will through promotions. A MEC Trooper who is converted will retain their stats from before conversion however, meaning you may want to put off augmenting your (non-Heavy) soldiers until already high ranked, since the Support, Assault and Sniper classes have better stat progression than the MEC Trooper class.

Abilities

As part of the conversion process, each soldier turned into MEC will gain a bonus ability based on its former class and will retain its previous rank, replacing its previous abilities with MEC ones:

• - Heavy - Body Shield - The nearest visible enemy suffers -20 Aim and cannot critically hit this unit.
• - Assault: Shock-Absorbent Armor - Damage received from enemies within 4 tiles is reduced by 33%.
• - Sniper: Platform Stability - Any shots taken without moving have +10 Aim and +10% critical chance.
• - Support: Distortion Field - Nearby allies in cover receive +10 Defense.

Rank	Ability
Squaddie	Collateral Damage Area of effect attack that destroys most cover and hits all eligible targets for 34% damage. This attack cannot cause critical hits.
Corporal	Advanced Fire Control Shots from Overwatch no longer suffer any Aim penalty.	Automated Threat Assessment Confers +15 Defense when in Overwatch.
Sergeant	Vital-Point Targeting Confers 2 bonus damage against targets that have been autopsied.	Damage Control When the MEC takes damage, all further damage will be reduced by 2 on the following 2 turns.
Lieutenant	Jet Boot Module When activated, confers the ability to jump to normally inaccessible heights for the rest of the turn.	One For All When activated, the MEC becomes a high cover element. Moving or using an arm-based weapon will return the MEC to standard posture.
Captain	Repair Servos Confers 2 health recovery at the start of each turn. A total of 6 health can be regenerated per battle.	Expanded Storage Allows additional uses of Restorative Mist, Grenade Launcher and Proximity Mine Launcher in each mission, and increases primary weapon base ammo by 50%.
Major	Overdrive Firing the MEC's primary weapon as the first action no longer ends the turn.
Colonel	Absortion Fields Any hit that makes 33% more damage to the MEC's maximum health is reduced to that number.	Reactive Targeting Sensors MEC gets a free shot back at the first enemy who attacks the MEC each turn, providing there's enough ammo do to so.

Tips & Trix

• MEC Troopers can be created from any soldier above rookie rank, but they'll lose all abilities they previously had. For example, if player sacrifices a sergeant-ranked soldier, he/she would get sergeant-ranked MEC, along with the ability to choose skills from the first three ranks.
• MEC Troopers have the Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit or MEC Suit which acts like the armor on normal soldiers. If this layer of defence is breached then the unit will have to endure wound recovery time. Similarily, a MEC suit will survive the death of a MEC unit, but it has to be repaired with small cost.
• MEC Troopers can be healed with Medikits.
• MEC Suits came with the Minigun as its default Primary Weapon: more advanced primary weapons need to be manufactured in Engineering before being deployed.
• The Cybernetics Lab can augment 3 soldiers at a time and it costs §10 and 10 Meld units. The process takes 3 days and soldiers will lose all Gene Mods when augmented. The process is irreversible. Take note that wounded soldiers can also be augmented.
• MECs are very expensive to purchase, costing up to 200 Meld to create a MEC and equip it with the most advanced MEC Suit.
• MECs can't use Cover (so they can't be flanked). To compensate that they have Hardened ability present on S.H.I.V.s and alien robotic units that gives increased protection against critical hits.
• MEC Troopers get monotone, Robocop-esque voice.
• Any soldiers tested positive with Psionic ability are automatically excluded from MEC conversion, and MEC soldiers can not be tested whether or not they are gifted.
• Any soldiers with Gene Mods will lose all mods if converted.
• Any medals given will remain after conversion, and MEC soldiers can still be awarded medals (remember that a MEC can't go into cover, so giving it the DEF-bonus-while-in-cover bonus is pointless).

Tactical Advice

Tactical Subsystems

Flamethrower vs Kinetic Strike Module

These are both short range weapons and useful in similar situations, so the choice is mostly down to personal taste. The flamethrower is more effective against many weak units, while Kinetic Strike is more useful for taking down single tough units. If you don't intend to be close enough to use either most of the time, then take Kinetic Strike for the bonus mobility.

Grenade Launcher vs Restorative Mist

Offence vs defence. Note that MECs already have a cover destroying area effect attack in Collateral Damage, so Grenade Launcher is more of a souped up version of that rather than giving any truly new tactical options.

Proximity Mine Launcher vs Electro Pulse

Electro Pulse would be most useful for a MEC that likes to get up close and personal. Robots, particularly Sectopods, can do tremendous damage if left up, so the ability to stun them is quite useful in the event you can't kill them on the turn you see them. However, Sectopods that have prepped a Cluster Bomb will not be stopped from unleashing this deadly barrage if they are stunned with Electro Pulse. Proximity Mine Launcher is a more broadly applicable tactical weapon.

Bonus Abilities

• The Heavy's Body Shield is the most generically useful defensive ability, giving the MEC good protection from a single unit, but it won't help much if you let your MEC get swarmed. It also won't help much against melee attacks, since they automatically hit.
• The Assault's ability works well with a close combat oriented MEC, and helps to protect against melee enemies.
• The Sniper's ability is great for a fire support MEC, and becomes especially powerful once the MEC gains Overdrive and can use its first move action to fire.
• The Support's Distortion Field is a strong defensive buff for nearby troopers, but doesn't help the MEC itself since it doesn't use cover.

Abilities

• The Kinetic Punch Module offers custom kill animations on Mechtoids, Berserkers, and Sectopods.
  • Caution when doing so on Sectopods: their death explosion will do 5 damage to the area nearby.
  • Anything else gets sent flying about 5 squares, often causing collateral damage to any structure it hits.
  • Be careful not to accidentally punch a Cyberdisc at an ally.
• Immune to fire, strangulation, and poison but can still be psi attacked (and mind controlled) by Psionic units.
• Electro Pulse can be used while a MEC uses One For All and not disrupt the ability.
  • However, if Reactive Targeting Sensors is taken, a MEC using One For All (regardless if on Overwatch or used both actions) will immediately deactivate One For All when fired upon, leaving any soldiers using MEC for cover exposed.
• Reactive Targeting Sensors will activate even if the MEC is not on Overwatch, which can be useful for Dashing or Meld scouting without having to save an action for Overwatch.
  • Advanced Fire Control makes Reactive Targeting Sensors even more useful as a MEC can fire without aim penalty and be able to use both actions for movement.
• The defensive bonus from Automated Threat Assessment is lost as soon as the MEC fires, instead of the entire enemy turn, making it dubiously useful.
• Vital-Point Targeting confers bonus against EXALT.