Specialist (XCOM2)

The Specialist operates some of XCOM's most advanced equipment. They deploy robotic drones on the battlefield that can be outfitted for combat or field medic duty. The Specialist is the successor to the Support class.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle

Secondary Weapon: Gremlin

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Squaddie	Aid Protocol Command your Gremlin to move to a friendly target. It grants that target a bonus to Defense until the start of the next player turn. The basic Gremlin grants +20 Defense.
Specialization	Battle Medic	Combat Hacker
Corporal	Medical Protocol The Gremlin can perform healing actions remotely. Grants one free Medkit charge.	Combat Protocol Send the Gremlin to an enemy to jolt them, dealing guaranteed damage, which is increased against robotic enemies. The basic Gremlin deals 2 damage. Usable twice per battle.
Sergeant	Revival Protocol Send the Gremlin to an ally to remove any negative status effects: Disoriented, Stunned, Panicked, or Unconscious.	Haywire Protocol You may target robotic and mechanical enemies with your Gremlin, attempting to hack them and seize control.
Lieutenant	Field Medic Equipped medikits have 2 extra charges.	Scanning Protocol The Gremlin can trigger an instant scan of the area, increasing the Specialist's sight radius substantially for one turn, and revealing any hidden or disguised enemies in view.
Captain	Covering Fire Overwatch shots can be triggered by any enemy action, not just movement.	Threat Assessment Aid Protocol now grants the target a Covering Fire overwatch shot, but the Aid Protocol cooldown is increased by 1 turn.
Major	Ever Vigilant If you spend all your actions on moves, you are granted an automatic overwatch shot at the end of the turn.	Guardian With every successful overwatch shot, there is a 50% chance that another shot will be taken.
Colonel	Restoration The Gremlin flies to each squad member, healing or reviving them as needed.	Capacitor Discharge Send the Gremlin to a location where it emits a substantial electric discharge, damaging and potentially stunning all nearby units. Robotic units take more damage.

Tactical Advice

As the Support class was described as 'not sexy like the other classes,' the Specialist managed to bring the sexy back.

In the Tech-heavy world of the ADVENT Administration, information is a literal commodity: Intel resources can be hard to come by, and that's where the Specialist comes in. As they bring the Gremlin models with them, they receive a major boost to hacking abilities over the other soldiers tiny PDAs. Not only can you (with luck) disable, or even take over enemy robotic units, but remotely access terminals you would otherwise need to get close (and risk exposure) to access. Indeed, they're the only ones that can safely hack the 'lamp posts' in the cities that scan for identification, at least while remaining in concealment.

When hacking (including with other soldiers), the screen that appears will show the three possible results. Most commonly, it will show the failstate (often buffing the targeted device), a medium-difficulty utility hack, and a hard difficulty bonus hack. For example, on MECs and Turrets, the failstate is to buff the unit, and the hack is to either disable, or to take over the unit (lasts 3 turns). Meanwhile, the aforementioned 'lamp posts' hack is the failstate of summoning re-enforcements, and usually either causing all enemies to go into Disoriented status, or complete invulnerability for the Specialist for two turns. 'Usually', because on occasional missions, hacking these lamp posts, which are connected to ADVENT's equivalent of Mosaic, may give other bonuses, such as ADVENT facility information-- extremely helpful to keeping the Avatar program from completing, or effectively a free Mind Control of a random enemy unit still on the map. It is worth going out of the way to hack whenever possible for other bonuses such as permanent increase to the Specialist's hacking score.

It is also advisable to give them the Skulljack device, as their hacking bonus will apply, as well: this not also gives the Specialist a high-chance instant kill against ADVENT soldiers of all kinds, but gives them a Ranger/Lancer-like dashing attack with it (once per mission). This can be extremely profitable, as hacking bonuses include intel, resources, or even Avatar Facility location data (which must then be researched). Turning your specialist into such an 'Intelligence Officer' is very effective for your overall campaign against ADVENT and the aliens.

Note that when hacking, the choice is for either the 'utility' hack, or the bonus hack, not both: simply click the panel for the hack you want to go for. Either way, pray to the RNG Gods that you chose below the roll.