Support (EU2012)

Support

A multipurpose class intended to serve as field medics, scouts, sentries or any other support roles. Supports can stay behind the front lines in order to heal damaged units and/or secure flanks, or provide suppressive fire for advancing units. Or they can join the advance, by scouting ahead and using smoke clouds to protect the squad's advance, helping to outflank opponents, if Assaults are pinned down or have been lost, or to provide Overwatch. Its drawbacks are the slighly lower damage from its primary weapon and lower capacity for critical hits as well as having no permanent Defense bonuses besides those of armor/cover.

• The Support's primary weapon is its Assault Rifle, which can also be used to Suppress enemies, if the Support acquires the Rifle Suppression ability. The main weapon can later be upgraded to Laser Rifle, Plasma Light Rifle or Plasma Rifle variants.
• The Support also carries Smoke Grenades which can generate clouds capable of offering half cover to any units inside them (both XCOM and the aliens) or even increase the stats of the soldiers inside the cloud.
• Support abilities upgrades are centered on four aspects: Defense, Damage Reduction, Reactions and Inventory.

• Damage Reduction - Field Medic, Revive and Savior greatly increase a Medi-kit's abilities.
• Defense - Smoke Grenade, Rifle Suppression and Dense Smoke.
• Reactions - Covering Fire, Rifle Suppression and Sentinel.
• Inventory - Smoke Grenade, Smoke and Mirrors and Deep Pockets.
• Unique - Sprinter - only perk that increases Movement and Combat Drugs.

• The bonus in stats gained through rank promotions will give the Support a total of +24 Aim points upon reaching Colonel rank, together with a total of +4 HP and +14 Will.

Rank	Ability
Squaddie	Smoke Grenade Deploy a smoke grenade once per mission. The smoke confers +20 defense to all units, not just allies, and lasts during the enemy turn.		Smoke Grenade Deploy a smoke grenade once per mission. The smoke confers +20 defense to all units, not just allies, and lasts during the enemy turn.
Corporal	Sprinter Allows the support to move 3 additional tiles.		Covering Fire Allows reaction shot to trigger on enemy attacks, not just movement.
Sergeant	Field Medic Allows medikits to be used 3 times per battle instead of once.		Smoke and Mirrors Allows 1 additional use of Smoke Grenade each mission.
Lieutenant	Revive Allows Medikits to revive critically wounded Soldiers at 33% of maximum health instead of just stabilizing them.		Rifle Suppression Fires a barrage that pins down a target, granting reaction fire against it and imposing a 30 penalty to aim.
Captain	Dense Smoke Smoke Grenades have increased area of effect and further increase units' Defense by 20.		Combat Drugs Smoke Grenades now contain powerful stimulants that grant +20 Will and +10% Critical Chance for all units in the cloud. (Also grants +20 Aim Bonus)
Major	Deep Pockets Confers an additional item slot in inventory.		Deep Pockets Confers an additional item slot in inventory.
Colonel	Savior Medikits restore 4 more health per use.		Sentinel Allows two reaction shots during Overwatch, instead of only one.

KEYCHART

Additional Shot	Improves Reaction	Extra Movement	Additional Equipment	Change Unit Aim	Decrease Enemy Aim	Change Damage Given	Decrease Damage Taken

Smoke Grenade Smoke Grenades mean the difference between life and death in the game due to the Defense bonus it provides. Later they can carry Combat Drugs switching their role for an offensive one. Supports can carry an additional Smoke Grenade with Smoke and Mirrors but they'll forgo the additional Medi-Kit usage. Dense Smoke doubles the Defense to +40, giving units on the cloud the equivalent to full cover. If already in full cover the bonus can increase to +80 or more. Combat Drugs is also a great ability specially when setting ambushes to advancing aliens or if you can plan the cloud deployment in advance. It can also be used to counter Will losses coming from Psionic attacks in the late game stage.

Additional Notes

• Support abilities upgrades are centered on medical, scout and sentry roles.
• The Field Medic perk dramatically improves the effectiveness of medikits, tripling the number of uses. Savior further improves medikit effectiveness, and Revive can allow the medikit to bring critically wounded soldiers back in to the fight.
• The Sprinter perk and additional smoke capacity makes for a good scout.
• Combat Drugs smoke gives an undocumented +20 to aim, and loses its defensive benefit.
• Support's two other specialized abilities are Rifle Suppression, allowing scouts or sentries to support attacks and Covering Fire (making it the only class that can react to enemy fire on Overwatch).

Tactical Advice

Supports aren't sexy in the way that the other classes are, but they do bring a lot more to the table than many realize. Their Aim and HP are both on par with Assaults, giving them comparable offense for the early portion of the game. On top of that, they have great mobility, effective damage mitigation and healing, and get the opportunity to bring 2 Items along for unparalleled customization. It is not by any means a bad decision to bring a pair of Supports on a mission as you expand your squad, and it can be very helpful to do so on long missions such as the Alien Base or lengthy UFO assaults. There are 3 main paths while choosing perks for Support soldiers rather than the common 2 of the other classes. Those can be combined together in several combinations, although the choice is between specialization vs. flexibility.

• Scout. Sprinter, Smoke and Mirrors and Dense Smoke
• Tactical Officer: Covering Fire, Rifle Suppression and Sentinel
• Medic: Field Medic, Revive, Combat Drugs and Savior

Abilities

Corporal

Sprinter vs. Covering Fire

Sprinter gives an incredible amount of mobility to set up flanks. While the Assault's Run & Gun accomplishes this as well, Sprinter also helps set up grenades, stuns, or Medikit use.

Covering Fire is essentially an upgrade to the Overwatch ability of your Support to restrict enemy actions. It can be also useful for a Medic since its role is usually more of a sentry unit and Covering Fire grants more Overwatch options.

Sergeant

Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors

Field Medic gives you the ability to repair some/all damage to your squad after a major fight or when things go wrong. And they will go wrong. Depending on the opposition level it is normal to see 1-2 Medikits on squads so this skill is one of the most important to have present on any squad.

Smoke and Mirrors is, under ideal circumstances, better than Field Medic, as avoiding shots is preferable to healing (some of) the damage from a shot. The issue with this is that you're playing without a safety net, so if you don't use smokes effectively (or you deploy them correctly and the enemy shots connect anyway), you're not going to find yourself in a good position. A side benefit of choosing Smoke and Mirrors is that you will never feel bad about packing an Arc Thrower, so consider that flexibility when making your decision.

Lieutenant

Revive vs. Rifle Suppression

Rifle Suppression is a great utility skill, keeping your squad safe from return fire and locking enemies in position. While Heavies can get Suppression as well (earlier, and with more ways to augment it), this is a great ability for Supports working as Scouts to have as well since they allow to lock newly seen aliens.

Revive is a useful skill but that can be tricky to use. While it is admittedly nice to be able to bring a soldier back from the almost-dead, if you can't protect the revived soldier from any alien shots then it will be killed and most likely your Medic with it afterwards. And if later the soldier will further require more healing before it can be relied not to die with a single shot. Sometimes it may just be better to stabilize the unit rather than revive him/her.

Captain

Dense Smoke vs. Combat Drugs

Defense vs Offense choice.

Dense Smoke is a huge defensive bonus that will make units in any kind of cover nearly untouchable. The catch to this is that after the appearance of Mutons, aliens will start carrying grenades. And any time they decide they don't like their odds to hit, they're liable to hurl a grenade instead. This will do 5 damage to one or more unit and set you up for further pain by destroying your cover. This is a Very Bad Thing. Aside from that quirk, this is, again, a huge defensive bonus.

Combat Drugs provides a powerful boost to your Will and a small one to Crit Chance. And while this isn't listed, it loses its defense bonus and gets +20 Aim bonus instead (this might be a bug, but it works this way now). Since the smoke lasts to next your turn, you can benefit from the Aim bonus twice. Will bonus could be helpful when you want defense from Sectoid commanders or Ethereals, or using psi attacks against high will targets.

Colonel

Savior vs. Sentinel

Savior synergizes with Field Medic (and Revive) very effectively, and with the Improved Medikit project from the Foundry will give a unit 30HP worth of total healing to hand out. This is a huge boost to your longevity, marking almost double the healing even if you already have the Foundry Project. Perhaps more importantly, this 8-10 HP will often counteract an entire shot's worth of damage. After all, healing a solider from 1 HP to 7HP does you no good if incoming attacks are dealing 9.

Sentinel combines with Covering Fire and Rifle Suppression for a sentry unit that will shoot twice at any aliens that move or fire within its field of vision.

Equipment

Weapons: Generally your Supports will be using your Assault's leftovers. Because they have no ability to increase their damage output, you'll need good weapons to make up for it. Unlike the Heavy, they have very few non-primary-weapon damage or utility, so unless you're planning on using Suppression every turn, you'll need to stay up to speed here.

Armor: Again, probably playing second banana to the Assault. With Sprinter, Supports don't have a huge need for Skeleton Suits during the mid game, and later on a case can be made for Titan Armor. Ghost is still preferable in the long run, but given how expensive it is, Titan is not a poor alternative while you scrape together resources.

Item: If you took Field Medic and/or Savior, you'll be carrying a Medikit. Sprinters are the best choice to use Arc Throwers, and with fast armor the Support will have an easy time getting into range. Chitin Plating helps to counteract the Support's lack of defensive talents, and does a good job of filling in any question marks in the extra slot. Psionic Supports would do well to bring a Mind Shield in their bonus slot, as it gives them very good hit rates on Mind Control.

Summary

As discussed, you can mix and match to suit personal play style to Scouting, Medic, and Tactics. Field Medic is ideal for early on, when most soldiers are one or two hits away from death anyways, while it become less important as you get better armors and more HP. Smoke & Mirrors and Dense Smoke will help you from getting hit at all, while Combat Drugs may help with not getting fired at at all, by helping other soldiers kill aliens first. Ghost Armor is easily the best for Support troopers, as the add to move and grappling hook help get into position, Ghosting lets you get right next to aliens, and landing a shot while Ghosting is a guaranteed Critical. Getting Field Medic almost "forces" you to save one inventory slot for the Medkit, but plus Ghost Armor, and the Deep Pocket slot for a Scope, that makes Support pretty damn good at fighting Thin Men during your monthly(ish) Council Missions. Otherwise, Chitin Plating is a good choice, as it gives an extra 4 HP, though the "50% reduction to Melee" may not come up often for them. Sentinel may help your Support soldiers do more damage, while Savior, plus the Medkit Foundry upgrade, means +10HP a heal. Sentinel and Cover Fire gets two shots to an attacking alien during Overwatch: with laser/plasma rifles, the first shot may destroy the alien's cover, making the second a critical hit (though both may hit, both may miss, etc...).

Psi Support: it seems as if Support troopers do not get the greatest of starting or leveling Will scores, so their role as support is expressed here. Mind Fray assist your front-line troops, naturally. Psi Panic may not be good for them, as since Supports are mid-range fighters, a Panic Attack will probably make the affected alien attack your forward Assault or Heavy, so again, Psi Inspiration as a support role is probably best. MC or TK is again, per preference: TK Field is good as, if you didn't get Smoke and Mirrors for that second Smoke Grenade, or got Combat Drugs (with reportedly loses the +20 Defense, while Dense Smoke makes it a +40 Defense item), acts as a regenerating defense field, and also, unlike the smoke grenades, doesn't help any aliens that happen to be in range of the effect. The downside is that TK field lasts 1 turn, while Smoke Grenades last two, but as your mid-line soldier, a TKing Support might cover your entire squad. Mind Control helps 'add a volunteer' for your squad, but probably only the forwardmost alien will be in range, which if MCed, will almost always be killed by its former squadmates behind it.

That being said, Supports often make for good, safe choices for the Volunteer, since they don't usually rely as much on the quirks of their end game armor like other classes do (eg: Shotgun Assaults using Ghost Armor to flatten an enemy, or Squadsight Snipers using Archangel Armor to hover out of reach). As a result, they won't be as seriously handicapped for the final mission when they're forced into the (when compared to other end game armors) lackluster Psi Armor. As an added bonus, with the benefit of Deep Pockets, you give them Mind Shields without seriously hampering them.

See Also

• Classes (EU2012)
• Weapons (EU2012)
• Armour (EU2012)
• Equipment (EU2012)