Rocketeer (Long War)

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Rocketeer

The Rocketeer class is similar to an explosives specialized Heavy in vanilla XCOM.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, Carbines, SMGs.

Secondary Weapon: Rocket Launcher.

Class-Limited items: Rocket, Shredder Rocket.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Fire Rocket Fire a high explosive rocket using an equipped launcher.
	No other bonuses.
Lance Corporal	Covering Fire Allows certain reaction shots to trigger on many enemy actions, not just movement (excludes reload, overwatch, and hunker down actions).	Rapid Reaction If on Overwatch, confers a bonus reaction shot (to a maximum three shots total) for every reaction shot that is a hit.	HEAT Warheads Your rockets and grenades do an additional 50% damage to robotic enemies after damage reduction is assessed.
	Provides +3 Aim.	Provides +3 Aim.	No other bonuses.
Corporal	Fire in the Hole Grants +10 aim for purposes of reducing scatter if the soldier has not moved this turn. Increases range of Blaster Launcher (which does not scatter).	Suppression Fire a barrage that pins down a target, granting Opportunist reaction fire against it if it moves. Imposes a -30 penalty to aim and reduces range of many area-of-effect attacks, including grenades. Also negates overwatch from the target while suppression is active. Lastly, enemy AI prioritizes breaking the suppression by shooting the suppressor, so it functions as a mini-taunt. Not possible with shotguns, sniper rifles, or strike rifles.	Snapshot For snipers, removes the sniper rifle's restriction on firing and Overwatch after taking a costly action. Any shots taken after using any costly action suffer a -10 Aim penalty. For rocketeers, reduces the aim and range penalty for launching a rocket after taking a costly action to 25% (from 50%).
	'No other bonuses.	Provides +2 Aim.	No other bonuses.
Sergeant	Opportunist Eliminates the Aim penalty on reaction shots, and allows reaction shots to cause critical hits.	Tactical Sense Confers +5 Defense per enemy in sight (max +20).	Shredder Ammo The Shredder debuff causes any unit hit to take 40% additional damage (after DR, rounded down) from all sources. Gunners and MECs apply the Shredder debuff for the remainder of the current turn to any target struck by their primary weapon. Rocketeers get an extra rocket that is weaker than a standard rocket (60% rounded down), cannot penetrate cover, has a +50% larger blast radius, and applies the Shredder debuff to all targets struck by the rocket for the next 3 turns.
	Provides +3 Aim.	Provides +3 Aim.	No other bonuses.
Tech Sergeant	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.	Ready for Anything If the unit fires without taking any other costly action, it automatically enters overwatch at the end of its turn.	Will to Survive Gain 1.5 Damage Reduction (DR) if in cover and not flanked.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Gunnery Sergeant	Danger Zone Increases area of effect of Suppression, rockets, grenade launchers and proximity mine launchers.	Mayhem Confers +2 damage for suppression, SAWs, LMGs, explosive grenades, proximity mines and rocket launchers. Confers +4 damage for sniper and long rifles, marksman's, strike and reflex rifles using Standard Shot or Precision Shot.	Javelin Rockets Your rockets now travel much further(+33%) and can hit targets beyond your visual range.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Extra Conditioning Confers 1-4 bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.	Sprinter Grants +4 mobility (roughly 3 tiles movement).	Shock & Awe Allows 1 additional standard rocket to be fired per battle.
	Provides +5 Aim, +5 Will, +1 Mobility.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.

Stat Progression

Rank	/level	total	/level	total	/level*	total*
Specialist	1	1	3	3	5(6)	5(-6)
Lance Corporal	0	1	3	6	5(6)	10(-12)
Corporal	0	1	3	9	3(4)	13(-16)
Sergeant	1	2	3	12	3(4)	16(-20)
Tech Sergeant	0	2	3	15	3(4)	19(-24)
Gunnery Sergeant	0	2	3	18	3(4)	22(-28)
Master Sergeant	1	3	3	21	3(4)	25(-32)

• Note that even without Hidden Potential switched on there is a Random (1) Will per level. This is properly shown in brackets. Psionic soldiers receive additional random will as well.

Rockets

Rockets in Long War behave quite differently than in vanilla. See Rockets for more details.

Rocketeers get one rocket as part of their standard loadout, and can gain additional rockets with the Rocketeer and Shredder Rocket (renamed Shredder Ammo) perks as in vanilla. Additional rockets and shredder rockets are also available as carried items, however rockets are heavy, so carrying additional rockets as items will cause a mobility penalty due to encumbrance.

Tactical Advice

Role: Mid/Long range Offensive Support.

An offensive support class, whose value depends on the players playstyle. The Rocketeer's speciality is the rocket launcher that she carries with her. Unlike Vanilla, the Long War Rocketeer perk tree focus almost exclusively on ways to improve the Rocket launcher.

Even though they are less reliable to hit , in Long war, the rocket launcher's primary uses are still the same as in vanilla: clearing tightly packed groups or hard cover, while letting the rest of the squad clean up any stragglers. Unlike vanilla, Rocketeers can move and fire, though with a hefty aim penalty and reduced range, this can be somewhat negated with the Snap Shot perk.

Another important ability is the Shredder Ammo perk, which increases the damage dealt by friendly forces, while also doing respectable damage on its own. A major difference from vanilla is that Shredder Rockets will not destroy cover, and will not affect units that are in cover relative to the center of the blast.

With perks like Covering Fire, Suppression and Danger Zone and a respectable Aim increase per level, the Rocketeer can hold her own during fire fights, even though they should still be kept away from the front lines.

Unlike Vanilla, Long War Rocketeers rely on their Aim to determine how precisely they can aim their rockets; a higher aim will mean that a rocket will scatter less, also the further away the target, the higher the scatter will be.

Due to the way that Rockets behave in Long War, it is very dangerous to shoot rockets while friendly forces are near the target area, as the rockets can easily veer off course and hit friendly soldiers, meaning that danger close rocket support is next to impossible.

As mentioned before, the usefulness of the Rocketeer depends entirely on the playstyle. Rocketeers tend to favor more aggressive styles of play, where rockets are used to remove cover, while others push against the enemy position.

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