Rocketeer (Long War)

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.
Specialist	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.
Lance Corporal	+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%).
Corporal	+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.
Sergeant	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.
Tech Sergeant	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.
Gunnery Sergeant	+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.
Master Sergeant	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, which can be somewhat negated with the Snap Shot perk.

Another important ability is the Shredder Ammo perk, which gives a free rocket with increased AoE and 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 Ranger, Suppression and Danger Zone and a respectable Aim increase per level, the Rocketeer can hold her own during fire fights if built as a rifleman, though less so than Infantry or Gunners.

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 significant damage. Rocketeers can enable aggressive styles of play where rockets are used to remove cover, while others push against the enemy position.

Sample Builds

Rocketeers, more than any other unit, can save a situation gone horribly wrong, by blowing up a swarm of aliens, often clearing an entire flank or removing the cover of all opposition with a single action. They require forethought with Steady Weapon to make them effective, however, meaning they can be useless if they're caught out of position. As Rocketeers are difficult to use in the beginning of the game without careful preparation because of rocket scatter, it would be wise to choose Snap Shot; however further on in the game as aim improves, and eventually when the Blaster Launcher is available for manufacture, perk choices such as Fire in the Hole that increase the range and accuracy of rockets without moving can be highly desirable. In the midgame, Council requests allow troops to instantly be promoted from Specialist to Corporal; with this a bumbling rookie can be immediately launched to the level of a competent Rocketeer with no labor required.

Standard Rain of Fire

This build is a massively powerful, long range mobile artillery unit that requires some preparation for maximum effectiveness. The only unit in the game that can single-handedly destroy a swarm of flying robotic units in a single turn, and can also destroy huge swaths of cover while doing massive damage. Falls off compared to MECs somewhat in the late game, only to come roaring back in the very-late game with the Blaster Launcher, becoming the most damaging unit in the game.

LCPL: HEAT Warheads. A key perk that plays to the Rocketeer's unique role in clearing out swarms of hard-to-hit flying robots, as well as staying consistently useful in putting down high HP tanks later in the game. Adds +3 damage to the regular rocket launcher, +4 to Recoilless Rifle and +6 to Blaster Launcher, which is not affected by Damage Reduction that will shut down your other troopers' smaller weapons.

CPL: Fire in the Hole. Essential to this build, allowing a Rocketeer to shoot with decent accuracy even without Steady Weapon. Snap Shot is useful if you have difficulty planning ahead, but is anti-synergistic with Steady Weapon.

SGT: Shredder Ammo. Platform stability is a good choice, but the free extra rocket of Shredder Ammo makes it preferable in most situations.

TSGT: Mayhem. Stacks even more damage on top of the already-punishing rocket launcher shots. Also helps compensate for the damage lost by rocket shots that scatter from the muzzle.

GSGT: Shock & Awe. As every perk in the build makes rockets better, what could be better than more rockets? Helps give the soldier more longevity on long missions as well.

MSGT: Tandem Warheads. All 3 perks are excellent. Danger Zone increases the AoE of your rockets, but risks being too much of a good thing if you have to fire close to your own troops. Javelin Rockets make it so your soldier will never worry about reaching the target again, and also keeps them safely behind the lines. Tandem Warhead adds the most damage overall, as even aliens merely brushed by the rocket will take full damage, which is especially useful as alien Damage Reduction increases late game.

Hybrid Overwatch Rocket

A very interesting hybrid rifleman that is both a powerful shooter and rocket slinger. Suffers from the fact that rockets need a lot of specialization to become useful and cannot get key perks to be both an optimal Overwatch and Rocket build. Load with a Scope and a shredder rocket.

LCPL: Ranger. Adds damage to both the rifle and rocket launcher. Can't go wrong.

CPL: Rapid Reaction. Build enabler. Multishot overwatch perk that synergizes with the Rocketeer's naturally high aim. Unfortunately requires skipping Fire in the Hole, meaning that this build will have poorly aimed rockets until late game.

SGT: Platform Stability. Allows Rapid Reaction shots to have +10 aim, which is huge.

TSGT: Opportunist. Allows the build to really come online, as it will consistently allow hits on overwatch.

GSGT: Extra Conditioning. A Rapid Reaction build needs every point of aim it can get, and the extra HP is great for a front line troop. Shock & Awe is also a good choice for the increase in explosive power.

MSGT: Tandem Warheads. All 3 perks are excellent. Danger Zone increases the AoE of your rockets, but risks being too much of a good thing if you have to fire close to your own troops. Javelin Rockets make it so your soldier will never worry about reaching the target again, and also keeps them safely behind the lines. Tandem Warhead adds the most damage overall, as even aliens merely brushed by the rocket will take full damage, which is especially useful as alien Damage Reduction increases late game.

Snapshot Survivalist

This build is focused on being able to fire rockets even with badly placed Rocketeer, and survive the consequences.

LCPL: Will to Survive. Of course.

CPL: Snapshot. Our Rocketeer will move towards the enemy lines if necessary and fire rocket as the second action often.

SGT: Shredder Ammo. Supression doesn't make sense for a Rocketeer and Platform Stability is counter intuitive, since we prefer to use rockets as the second action. That leaves us with Shredder Ammo.

TSGT: Tactical Sense. Helps to survive among enemies, as they will hopefully choose a tank and not our precious Rocketeer.

GSGT: Extra Conditioning. Again helps with survivability and the extra movement also fits this build nicely.

MSGT: Javelin Rockets. Being able to fire wherever needed is crucial.

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.

Rocketeer (Long War)

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