XCOM2 Perfect Team Composition - Hints and Tips - How to set up the best team - Vanilla

What is the perfect team composition in XCOM2? We have a go at answering that question, including suggestions, abilities, weapons and weapon mods. Let us know what you think in the comments.

[miguelarrocha]

your team gives more priority to attacking with precision than attacking from the flanks.

To attack from the flanks, it is preferable to compose a team as follows:

SUPPORT:
A specialist, a support grenadier and a phantom ranger.

ATTACK:
Ranger (with run and gun), sniper (with hook), grenadier (with good aim)

The idea is that your scout anticipates the position of the enemies and then organizes your soldiers for a surprise attack. Timing is ideal and the best tactic for surprise flanking attacks is to use the pincer formation. One group will serve as a decoy and the other group will attack from the flanks. The phantom ranger will only attack when it is really necessary.

Scanners are very important in this formation. Also other types of artifacts and armor with hooks.

The idea of ​​this tactic is to use few grenades, take advantage of critical damage by attacking from the flanks and capture more loot.

[falconhead]

I wish their was a part 2 to this video. I really enjoyed your insight. I got through the entire campaign of Enemy Unknown and Within, but XCOM2 I ended up giving up. The difficulty ramped up to fast. XCOM is my all time favorite game. Going to give it another try. Thanks for the video.

[wherethetatosat]

I only just finished playing on easy, but I found that early on and through midgame, 2 grenadiers, 2 snipers and 2 specialists did well. Later on, swap out one of the specialists for a psi operator. Grenadiers were great for their raw damage output. Place a scope on them ASAP and they reliably hit most of their shots even at long range. The ability to shoot any grenade from longer range helped; I used a lot of the standard grenades to strip armor and the salvo ability made it a free turn. Free turn to grenade which strips armor and low cover, next turn get in position, next turn fire with the holo targetting to make sure everyone else lands their shot.
2 snipers also with scopes. One that focuses on sniping and one that focuses on pistols. Sniping is great after holo targetting as you can pick off whichever enemy is most dangerous without letting them get closer. The second sniper focusing on pistols is great with fast hands so you don't have to waste a more powerful shot to finish off an enemy with only 1 HP. It gives you some flexibility too when an enemy suddenly gets too close. You'll notice a theme here, I like to reliably hit all my shots.
2 specialists because I don't like rangers. I'm too reckless with rangers and they usually get injured which makes them unreliable. Some missions definitely would have been easier if I tried to remain stealthy, but I like the combat and my soldiers needed the EXP. One specialist for healing, one for damage. I had a lot of missions be saved by one really clutch hack. Didn't even need control of the unit, just needed them out of action while dealing with the other threats. Guaranteed damage on tanky mechanical units from long range is great. While you usually want to avoid damage and status effects, I had a late game mission be absolutely saved by a giga Chad healing specialist. My first sectopod wreaked havoc on my extract a VIP mission. Got discovered very early on and there was not a lot of cover on the mission. My other specialist got ganked, was low on grenades, the only source of high cover was just blown up leaving THREE of my squad literally out in the open. This giga Chad specialist got the other specialist back up, healed everyone else in to safe range, the other specialist had one of the last grenades to strip armor, he got a clutch overwatch kill, and everyone lived through that mission. Lastly, the ability to move, shoot/reload and immediately go in to automatic overwatch on the same turn prevented a lot of enemies from getting to flank me.
I got a late start on the Psi Operative because I had poor resource management on the Avenger early on. The Psi Operative is incredibly strong but it does need to be supported by the rest of the squad. It does a lot of guaranteed damage, sometimes with bonus effects, and can usually ignore cover. Later on, I would swap out one of my specialists for a Psi Operative. So, my ideal squad is 2 Grenadiers, 2 Snipers, 1 Specialist and 1 Psi Operative.

[stenyethanmathews]

Get a ranger with reaper + all upgrades for their blade...1 man/woman solo army. Also equip them with spider suit or serpant armour. And get them covert missions which give you mobility and give them mobility pcs. Trust me. After this you'll never go back. And equip the katana from assasin on them :). The amount of ground you'll be able to cover and the amount of 1 blade kills you get in just 1 turn is insane. All with just 1 person.

[djtambor]

6 rangers with talon rounds and mindshields. Thank me later.

[Skyfighter]

My standard squad for Xcom2:
Sharpshooter-sniper build, Armor Piercing bullet, Wraith suit. lets me get into position early, and catch up on timed missions to reach extraction.
Specialist: Medic. poison or incendiary rounds. Overwatch fires on any action/chance to get extra overwatch shots.
Specialist: Hacker, Poison/incendiary bullet, skulljack. same overwatch talents.
Grenadier, Shredder, Chain Shot, Holo targeting, salvo, saturation fire. War suit with Blaster shot or Shredder.
Ranger: Serpent suit/Fusion Axe, Assault all the way, except for Rapid Fire at the end. rapid fire can be instrumental in wrecking Sectopods and Gatekeepers.
Psychic: Icarus suit, Bluescreen rounds/frost grenade.

That last slot is flexible, of course, my tendency is to have an extra grenadier.

[stoneodin]

Just picked up the xcom 2 collection for 10$. Can’t wait to play it

[Devonaxx]

I kind of rotate my team depending on the mission type. Sometimes you need the damage and other times you need more utility/support.
so here is what I run with:

- Damage, Protection and map coverage -
* Specialist (Healer)
* Grenadier
* Sharpshooter
* Sharpshooter
* Ranger
* Spark

- Support, Team Survivability and Adaptability -
* Specialist (Healer)
* Specialist (Engineer/hacker)
* Sharpshooter
* Grenadier
* Grenadier
* Ranger

Never use PsiOps because it comes too late into the game and they do not add so much more damage that it justifies breaking the team. They are good, but not "they can do it all" good.

EDIT: I used to run a murder team with 2x grenadier and 2x spark with 2x Specialist.. But later changed that too 1x spark and using sharpshooters more and more..

[Fletchuk]

Using a Sharpshooter with Serial, Expanded Mag, Scope and Hair Trigger is such a treat! In the final room in the final mission I've had one up high able to get multiple kills that kept going on and on with the aid of free reloads and chance of getting additional shots.

[mdube]

Thanks for the great content. I actually just downloaded the game off epic yesterday and had not seen or heard of it till now 😃

[thijsdeboer]

I mean in war of the chosen due to the new fatigue feature you are kind of forced to rotate your team, especially early on.
I think it's best to build a varied roster so you can make a squad for every kind of mission.

(melee rangers are fucking nuts tho, holy shit once you get comfortable enough with the game and know how the ai works they become monsters)

[michaelw]

I generally like 2 Rangers, 2 Specialists, 1 Sharpshooter, and 1 Grenadier. During missions I pair a single Ranger with a single Specialist and have them advance on one flank with the other pair on the other flank, leaving the sharpshooter and grenadier in the middle to quickly add firepower where needed.

Specific soldier builds depend on the mission but I have a very strong preference for shotgun Rangers as their burst damage can effectively kill pretty much anything in a single round by themselves. I lean towards explosive builds for the grenadier to destroy cover, but I’m flexible. I used to like my Sharpshooters to be snipers, but over the years I’ve gotten pretty aggressive so I’ve moved to gunslingers because I just don’t have the patience to bother with sniping anymore.

[olilondon]

Cheers dude, loved the video. Super useful!

[pierre-mariecaulliez]

- Engineer : hacking, hacking, skulljacking, electric discharging and some healing on the side.
- Heavy : frost grenade, then ALL the damage + holo targetting to strip as much armor as possible before the rest of the team plays, Berzerker armor because special weapons.
- Psi op : late game insanity, mind control, support and heavy damage to multiple opponents.
- Ranger : all damage but double shot instead of reaper, late game enemies have too much health to really bank on killing multiple in a row, snake for dodgingand extra move.
-Sharpshooter : same skills, a menace as a sniper, but can take care of themselves if cornered, Icarus for instant repositioning and shooting.
-random : depending on what the campaign hands me, a double of the other classes, preferably sharpshooter, anything other than engy is good to me.

[renashi]

If its the Vanilla XCOM 2, I'd go for 1 Ranger, 2 Grenadier, 1 Sharpshooter, 1 Specialist and 1 Psi-Ops. Half the time, will switch up to have 2 Specialist and 1 Grenadier instead. The Ranger, I focus on the Assault skills, along putting them as the team's Recon. Sharpshooter, I somewhat gave more focus on pistol skils, but left some of the sniper skills like Longwatch and Death from Above. For the case of Grenadier, I'd put it your way as well with one is the single-focus dealer, and another is the Grenadier/ Ambusher. I did mentioned I put 2 specialist in 1 team sometimes, replacing any of the grenadier. For Specialist, I have 2 roles which are obviously the Hacker and the Medic. Psi-Ops, no need to mention much as you can try get all skills in one go. If we include the DLC such as Alien Hunter and the SHIV, I did replace the Grenadier with it to be the other Single target dealer.

For the case of WOTC, is a different story. Most of the time, I try to put each faction in one team. Although, I did change sometimes for certain mission structure. One example is the facility missions, where you must bring the Reaper all the time for a simple stealth plant. Either way, Reaper is definitely the Go-to faction for Long Stealth Run. Also, every time in a mission with Concealment, bring both Reaper and the Grenadier as they work well together as Ambusher. Plant the Claymore in One Pod of enemies, and drop a Grenade to do double amount of Damage.

Most important would be it is your choice of how you build your team for missions. Lots of way can be done for a good team build in both Vanilla and WOTC expansion.

[ransomdekafenya]

I tend to think of a six man party as 2x 3 man teams. So I do absolutely favor the idea of two specialists over two grenadiers. I just build on to be more of a hacker/drone wasp than a medic.
And I'll put them in the same team as well, usually with a Sharpshooter (which I also only run 1 of. And I bound and cover down range with team 1 in the forward position usually. So itll look like:

Team 1:
1) Covert Ranger-Rifle
2) Assault Ranger-Shotgun
3) Grenadier-Anti Cover

Team 2:
1) Sniper Sharpshooter
2) Specialist Medic
3) Wasp Medic

Team 2 universally gets scopes and lasers. I prefer lasers over repeaters for Team 2 because instant death is a lower probability than a crit. So if I can use my entire "back row, " to rob RPG terminology, to sneak in a crit or 4 over the course of a fight, then I look at that as a win over 1 or 2 instant kills on fodder. Team 2 also usually has 1 stock for low health enemies leftover at the end of a round, but I give that to the Medic for when I can spare a shot for a round. Usually the medic is more weapon dependent than the wasp. Generally, Specialists get more from personal gear than any other class, so having two affords you a lot of options when kitting out.

Team 1 is all about the scout creating the flank and spank. So universal equipment includes scopes and extended mags/autoloaders. You mentioned in your video that Covert Rangers are wasted a lot of the time because they focus so much on remaining hidden. If you fight this urge and build one to change the battlefield, it makes using a single Sharpshooter in the back row extremely viable. You can use your turn to get a nearly guaranteed kill on a pack, force them to position into a Killzone (because they will almost always seek cover away from the nearest enemy...which means closer to your SS, ) then follow up with demolishing the cover of the survivors on your own turn via your grenadier, and forcing them to move on their turn while *still in the Killzone.*

It's nasty dude. And remarkably efficient. You highlighted the importance of landing your shots and cross training specialists with some grenadier/ranger abilities definitely makes me a little overwatch heavy on Team 2. But it is far from a bad thing.

[zaratustra]

very pleasant video, just got back to xcom 2 ;)

[adrianobernardiprado]

In vanilla i Go:
1 medic specialist
1 sniper
1 stealth ranger
1 grenadier demolition
1 grenadier gunner
1 free choice (another sniper, psi Warrior, hacking specialist or a melee ranger).

In Wotc with mods, etc, base squat is:

1 stealth type (reaper, stealth ranger...)
1 healer type. (medic classes in general)
1 crowd control type (grenadier, psi...)
1 marksman type (snipers in general)
1 light infantry type (skirmisher, infantry classes in general)
1 heavy infantry type (gunner, dragoon ir any heavy hitter type)

[kevinhardy]

What X-Com really needs are microtransactions to buy dance moves for your squad. Spark does the robot.

[Shiftry]

13:55 No u DO NOT wanna equip a scope on a ranger. If ppl find that they keep shooting from far away alot then its better to bring another Grenadier or anything else really. A Ranger should never have to use a scope to be effective. Your getting way above 100% hit chans on anything when a ranger is in a flanking position which is easy to get with the Run and Gun ability even on those aliens that have a default def boost like Mutons, Archons and Gatekeepers. Apart from a stock for obvious resons, a scope is the worst thing to use on a ranger and any other soldier class should get prio on scopes before your Ranger. If ppl have an oversupply of scopes and nothing else then sure pop 1 in but a Ranger should never have a scope or a stock equipped if other options are available and especially not a max rank Ranger.