Psionic (EU2012)
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A Psionic is a late game 'extra' class that appears once you tested your soldiers for psionic ability. Higher Will makes the more likely to have the gift. They can use their mental powers on the battlefield to panic/control enemy units or to create physical attacks. Psionic soldiers get access to their regular class abilities in addition to their psychic powers, allowing for some interesting combinations. A Psionic soldier will have a purple effect applied to their class identifier.
| Rank | Ability | |
|---|---|---|
| Psionic |  Causes the target to lose grip on reality, inflicting penalties to Aim(-25), Will(-25), and Movement, and doing 5 base Damage. Robotic units are immune. Lasts 2 turns. 1 turn cooldown. | |
| Specialist |  Removes Mindfray and panic from all allies within 3 tiles, and strengthen their Will by +30 for 2 turns. 4 turn cooldown. |
 Cause target to panic on its following turn, if the target's Will is overcome. Robotic enemies are immune. 2 turn cooldown. |
| Operative |  Create an immobile telekinetic field that lasts through the enemy turn. The field distorts and deflects incoming attacks, granting +40 Defence. |
 Very difficult psi technique that, if successful, grants control of the target for 3 turns. Robotic enemies are immune. 5 turn cooldown. |
| The Volunteer |  Devastate an area with a storm of psi energy. The rift does more damage against targets with low Will, and reduced damage against targets with high Will. 4 turn cooldown. | |
Additional Notes
- Psionics can only be used on an alien that can only be seen by the unit.
- Will penalty from Mindfray stacks with multiple application. Other effects does not stack.
- Telekinetic Field will be centered on the psi user that created it, so it should be given to soldiers that will be near the front line.
- Telekinetic Field don't give defense to enemy units unlike smoke grenades.
- An alien under the effects of Mind Control is treated as one of your soldiers for pretty much all intents and purposes. Your soldiers will take the Will penalty if he dies. Additionally, if he dies while being MC'd, his weapon does not explode, allowing you to capture it at the end of the mission.
- A Mind Controlled unit cannot act on the turn it is controlled.
- Psi Inspiration removes the Fallen Comrade will debuff. This is especially useful when using Mind Control.
- Contrary to the description, Psi Panic will cause the victim to panic immediately and then skip its next turn. This will often cause it to fire on you in your turn if it can see you.
- Only one psi unit can become The Volunteer, and this occurs when they use the alien device in the Gollop Chamber.
- The Rift ability is a wide area-effect psi attack that can inflict massive damage, but has a long down-time.
- Rift is the only Psi attack that can affect Robotic units, and, if the Volunteer is a Heavy, DOES benefit from the HEAT ammo ability.
Tactical Advice
Psionics are clearly an asset to any class. Shotgun Assaults can use psionics to engage at medium range when it's not possible for them to Run & Gun for a close range shot. Snipers can use psionics as a weapon after moving. Heavies can use psionics as a crutch to make up for their terrible aim at high levels. Supports in a way gain the least from psionics, but their Deep Pockets ability allows them to carry a Mind Shield, which gives them fantastic offensive psi ability hit chance.
Abilities
Psi Inspiration vs Psi Panic
Psi Panic is less useful than it sounds. It causes the unit to panic immediately upon use and then skip the next turn. The problem is that often the unit's panic action will be to take a shot at you, which isn't a massive improvement on what it would have done had you not panicked it. Sometimes the unit will do something else like hunker down or run away, and it does prevent the use of any special abilities like grenades and will prevent the unit from moving to flank.
Unlike Mind Fray, Psi Panic will not decloak a soldier using the Ghost Armor's Ghost ability. The panicked alien will not attack the hidden psi user, but may attack other soldiers that it can immediately see. When used carefully, this can be a good way to disable a single enemy for a turn.
Psi Inspiration gives a +30 boost to Will for 2 turns and removes Mind Fray and Panic. The most important thing this ability does that isn't mentioned is remove the Fallen Comrade Will debuff. This is very useful when using Mind Control, because mind controlled aliens dying will cause this debuff and you'll want to get rid of it so it doesn't hamper your morale and psi abilities for the rest of the mission. The Will bonus will buff your soldiers' offensive psi ability hit chance and defense against enemy psi attacks, making it a useful ability to use before breaching a room. Psi Inspiration can be used to level up to the next psi level quickly, because it can be used on spare turns when not in combat. While Psi Inspiration is an area effect ability, it only reaches two tiles, so can be a pain to get many other soldiers without forming your squad in to grenade bait formation.
Telekinetic Field vs Mind Control
Mind Control is easily the most powerful ability in the game in most encounters. While it's difficult-to-impossible to pull off against psionic enemies, they usually have non-psionic guards (Muton Elites in particular) who can be controlled. The only major enemies it doesn't help against are Cyberdiscs and Sectopods, though mind controlled aliens from a previous group will make for good cannon fodder for them. If in doubt, Mind Control is the ability to take. Like Panic, Mind Control also does not decloak a soldier using the Ghost ability. This way only the mind controlled alien will be at risk of attacks from its allies. Additionally, MCing an alien in an unactivated squad (ie: while in Ghost Mode) will (almost never) immediatley activate the remainder of the squad (or any others nearby) untill your next action is taken. Plus some Squadsight-ing and Headshotting Snipers, this is a good way to wipe out an entire Alien Squad at once.
You can keep track of how many turns are left of a controlled alien by the ability tile on the controlling soldier: if it reads T-3, then the alien will be released at the start of the next Alien Action. Some aliens will immedaitley fire if your soldiers are in range, and be especially wary of any with grenades. However, you can 'force' their action-- or inaction: when the tile reads T-3, have the soon-to-be-free alien Hunker Down, and it will stay in that mode when released. As flanking ignores Hunker Down, and your soldier only needs to be a little away to be invisible to it, this is a safe way to either MC it again, or finish it off.
Telekinetic Field is essentially a psionic smoke grenade that is reusable after a 4 turn cooldown. It is always centered on the soldier creating it, rather than being placeable like a smoke grenade, but it makes up for this by being much larger. It also gives +40 defence like a dense smoke grenade. The main use for this ability is to protect your squad from the attacks of a sectopod or cyberdisc if you have to finish your turn under its guns. Telekinetic Field will not decloak a soldier using the Ghost ability. You may want to take this if your psionic has low will.
Chances of Psi attacks
Chance to land Mindfray/Psi panic is 50 + (your will) - (target's will) %.
Chance to land Mind control is 30% lower, 20 + (your will) - (target's will) %.
Psi armor and Mind shield gives bonus 20% and 30% (respectively) chance to all psi attacks, on top of will bonus.
On classic and Impossible difficulty, there is -10% and -20% (respectively) penalty to all psi attacks.
- Combat drugs will boost does not apply on psi attack.
- If you have 205 will with Psi armor and Mind shield, then you can MC an Ethereal with 100% chance on impossible difficulty.
Equipment
The requirements of your primary class will probably dominate your equipment choice. The only items of particular note for psionic soldiers are the Mind Shield and Psi Armor. The Mind Shield's description portrays it as a defensive item against hostile psionics, but the Will bonus it gives is equally useful for boosting your own psi ability hit rate. Psi Armor is an option for psionics that gives a Will bonus and all the effects that entails, but it's by no means automatic that Psi Armor is the best choice; Ghost and Titan have better defence and Ghost and Archangel have better mobility.
When deciding on whether to use the Mind Shield or Psi Armor, look at the soldier's Will level and consider the sort of psi skills that your soldier will be using the most. A soldier mainly concentrating on buff skills for example will not need to use either, as these skills are not dependent on their Will level. A soldier specialising in Mind Control may want to take one or even both to get Will close to or beyond 100. Most combat oriented builds can get away without either and can use Mind Fray and Psi Panic to a good degree of success against most common enemies except the Muton Berserkers and Ethereals.