Rocketeer (Long War)

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Rocketeer

The Rocketeer class is similar to an explosives specialized Heavy in vanilla XCOM. Their signature ability is Fire Rocket.

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	Will to Survive Gain 1.5 Damage Reduction (DR) if in cover and not flanked.	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.	HEAT Warheads Your rockets and grenades do an additional 50% damage to robotic enemies after damage reduction is assessed.
	+3 Will.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Corporal	Rapid Reaction If on Overwatch, confers a bonus reaction shot (to a maximum three shots total) for every reaction shot that is a hit.	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).	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%).
	+2 Aim.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Sergeant	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.	Platform Stability Shots taken before any costly actions have +10 Aim and +10% critical chance. Also grants +10 aim for purposes of reducing scatter if the soldier has not moved this turn, and increases range of Blaster Launcher (which does not scatter).	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.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Tech Sergeant	Tactical Sense Confers +5 Defense per enemy in sight (max +20).	Opportunist Eliminates the Aim penalty on reaction shots, and allows reaction shots to cause critical hits.	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.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Gunnery Sergeant	Extra Conditioning Confers 1-4 bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.	Double Tap Allows a second action restricted to Standard Shot, Precision Shot, or Disabling Shot as long as the first action was a Standard Shot, Precision Shot, Disabling Shot, or Flush provided no costly actions were taken. 1 turn cooldown. (Note: Double Tap is cancelled in the following cases: (1) the first shot results in a kill, and no more enemies are visible to the unit, or (2) for gunners only, the first shot depletes the ammo.)	Shock & Awe Allows 1 additional standard rocket to be fired per battle.
	+3 Aim, +3 Will, +1 Mobility.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Tandem Warheads Explosives employed by this soldier do full damage to the maximum extent of their area of effect.	Javelin Rockets Your rockets now travel much further(+33%) and can hit targets beyond your visual range.	Danger Zone Increases area of effect of Suppression, rockets, grenade launchers and proximity mine launchers.
	No other bonuses.	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 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: 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. It can be valuable to end a Rocketeer's turn with steady weapon rather than overwatch. Equipment such as the SCOPE reduce scatter, but laser weapons and carbines do not influence rocket scatter.

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.

Rocketeers can carry additional rockets in item slots, but each one has a weight of 2 (twice that of most items). This can be offset by using lighter armor, or using an SMG as a primary weapon. Even without the Javelin perk, rockets can be fired slightly beyond visual range, allowing a lightly armored Rocketeer to remain slightly back from the front line while still being able to launch rockets.

Rocketeers excel at removing groups of flying enemies; a Rocketeer with the HEAT perk can not only eliminate the support drones surrounding a Cyberdisc, but also inflict it with significant damage. Rocketeers can enable aggressive styles of play where rockets are used to remove cover, while others push against the enemy position.

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.

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