@@TheDriftersBroadcast xcom 1 big ship etherial 1st activation ptsd (for those that dont know if you activate the therial first the whole ship gets pinged your location)
@@dalewarrior1364 Oof, that sounds brutal. It would be hard to activate that pod last though, wouldn't it? Since you have to run through all the others to get to it.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast very occasionally it likes to hang out in the hanger. As a suprise. Had that happen more then once open hanger door. Oh hi there. Evac.
When you hit an archon, they activate battle fury (or something like that, I forget the name), and from then on they get 3 actions per turn. That's why that one was able to move and shoot, despite tactical analysis. (If you look around 34:30, you can see it was already injured, so battle fury would have been active.)
I remember one playthrough where a chosen ended up with melee and templar weakness. By the point I took him on I had a fully maxed out team with four rangers a sniper and, of course, a templar. The battle was strangely short.
My first encounter with the Warlock was that. He was weak to Templar and melee and I just obliterated him with one hit that crit. It was pretty amazing.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Oh yeah, I was really worried because one of my units was seriously out of position when he warped in, so if he survived that unit might have just died. So I was very excited.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Not exactly templars, but on my first ever run of WotC, i started with the reaper faction first, and the first chosen i encountered was the hunter, but he had a weakness to explosions as well as reapers, and on literally the first turn that he spawned in on one of my missions, he had happened to spawn literally within blue-move-distance of my reaper, and got pretty much spawncamp-instakilled
I'm not sure if you had a max rank templar with a bladestorm, but if you did you made a big mistake in not giving them the ghost ability. The thing is just like bladestorm doesn't give you focus when it kills, it also doesn't drain the ghost's focus when triggered. As such by simply rushing in with said bladestorm ghost, putting it right next to the target you want to hit, and then simply passing the turn you can almost guarantee the enemy in question gets hit several times at maximum charge plus all the other enemies who run past plus all the repositioning they will do because they are flanked by the ghost.
Drifter:"that we had the option to shoot it means there was an enemy nearby" Me: regularly having to avoid shooting explosives with no enemies nearby "hah?"
Man I never used Volt because I only ever had the one or two templars at a time and it always seemed worse than just rending. I never knew how strong it is until this video.
@@triangle200 Also the first faction you unlock will give you an extra hero. I like doing the Reapers first so I have 2 Reapers in case the other one is injured.
A Templar with reaper and bladestorm are just chef's kisses. Also didn't realize how powerful ionic storm was. Definitely gonna have to play around with that.
even though templars are my favorite class soldier, using them feels like such Russian roulette. Sometimes they'll be the star player, and sometimes they've activated a sectopod and a pod of andromedons because you had the audacity to try and rend. If Xcom 3 ever would come out (and yes I know Chimera Squad is a thing) then I hope some sort of overhaul is given to the pod system, and especially if melee is brought back with templars.
When I'm not doing challenge runs, I normally play with a mod that activates all pods once the first one is active. It did make things harder, but you knew roughly where the bad guys were and could melee whenever you wanted without risk of further activations. Highly recommend it.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast That is interesting, I'll have to give it a try next time a play through xcom 2. The game just takes so long though, and losing one soldier makes me lose steam for a playthrough lol
@@AdjustedDisparityI know that feeling. Just started playing and I quickly realized that losing a soldier you created to bad luck or just a bad decision sucks. So I decided to make group of disposable generic soldier characters that are basically ADVENT troopers but on my side. Makes things a little easier when you have units you are completely fine with losing.
Yeah I like XCOM 2 but it had many contradicting designs. The pod placement discouraged flanking and melee, so it forced me to play one way: destroy cover and shoot. I'm not a fan of devs forcing a style of play, whether it's a strategy game, MMO, or FPS.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast it's a reference to starcraft, which has a faction of Psionic Aliens Called Protoss, and one of the castes of that faction are the templar. Aiur is their homeworld, and they will often be heard saying "my life for Aiur" when selected/commanded
I remember the first time I got a Templar, I was so excited to try them out. Their first mission is a retaliation, and I get introduced to Mutons. My monkey brain was like "cool, our first victim" I sent the templar to Rend it completely forgetting they had the counterattack ability (2nd playthrough, but first time with WotC). So my Templar goes in, the attack doesn't happen, I am confused, then the Muton wacks my Templar and kills them in one... hit. I may or may not have save scummed, but sshhhhh that's a secret...
The pods the game sent your way makes me wonder if there's some sort of adaptative enemy selection going on... Surprising to be sent specifically mutons en masse against the class that struggles against them.
I just did the last mission on a playthrough tonight and there were a ton of mutons, and I didn't have any Templars or Rangers on my squad, so I dunno.
Archons do in fact get three actions per turn if they have Battle Frenzy on. As you've learnt, Null Lance is guaranteed to hit regardless of any effects, abilities, armour or chances as it *nullifies* all those and does raw damage.
Quickdraw lightning hands Templars can be a lifesaver. They do often get overlooked, because reaper is more powerful and flashy, so does bladestorm, but you don't always get those. I had a Templar with 3 pistol skills a couple of times and was bummed about it initially, but then I've noticed how much I can soften the target before charging with rend, to the point that I had AP rounds on this Templar. Also faceoff was just hilarious to have on the missions with the lost
You didn't mention it, but templars gain a +1 increase in mobility and a 10% increase dodge for the first two focus, the extra third has only a +5% dodge. With a superior agility PCS you can get a 50% dodge stat on a templar relatively easily.
I dont think he said anything about this but for any1 that dosent know, Always make contact with the area where the first blacksite is located first. Even if u dont have any plans to do it anytime soon. That area is always guaranteed to belong to the first chosen u end up with in your game so there is no risk of activating a 2nd. Where as if u go for another nearby region that maybe have a higher income there is always a chans that u activate a 2nd Chosen and that can be problematic, especially if it happens to be the Warlock. The Warlock is absolutly brutal to have to deal with before u have Plated Armore on your squad. Before Plated Armore u only have 1 item slot and u very mutch need mind shields on your soldiers when dealing with the Warlock as if he mind controls 1 of your soldiers it is impossable to break that without killing him.
I think more of your soldiers should have had fortress. Immune to explosions, poison, burning, etc is just too good to pass up if your stacking templars imo. it allows you to blob them all up behind cover wich can bait enemies to waste their actions throwing out aoe's that your immune too.
watching this again, I noticed how you evac with confidence, but your boys dropped the package 48:41 😂🤣 "Great job, boys! Where is that body you picked up?" "uhh... it slipped. we lost it at the evac" "...come again??"
This is a really great video, you clearly put a ton of work into it. Really deserves way more views! Hope you make more of these, was super fun to watch!
Just some hints having a bond mate give a Templar an action after they have gone and parried can have the Templar have two parries. This combined with armor and a good vest can make for an especially tanky unit. Giving them the jail ability where they heal off the unit that’s locked up makes you not need as many heals for them.
I think the devs are intentionally trying to spring a trap on us with the placement of the pods. There are pods where the edge of their detection range is conveniently in the line of engagement of the next pod. So even if you're trying to be careful, you're just gonna trigger them sometimes. And also there are some pods that are 10 feet from the other pod. That means they're gonna be triggered through proximity even if they didn't actually see your squad.
It's so funny coming back and watching this video after your LW2 Sharpshooter video, and seeing the sharp difference between what you call devastating in this video and what is needed for that word to be bandied about these days lmao
I'm not going to lie. This is just how I play xcom 2 normally except half the troops would be rangers. I just have too much fun running full speed at aliens with swords.
34:29 If you damage an Archon it will activate Battle Frenzy and gain an extra action per turn, yes. If you can't outright kill an Archon you should try to not damage an it at all on the first turn of its activation, so it spends the first turn doing Blazing Pinions instead of attacking.
Yeah, Templars are extremely powerful, and their abilities get quite versatile, but getting to the point where they crush everything takes a while. Not to mention that having an entire team of them really limits they ways you can attack, especially in the early game. But hey, they are not the worst of the special classes to do this with! *cough skirmishers cough*
I use to think Templar are terribly inferior for the same problem you fell into. Melee means close. Close means more pods. The trick to using them is finding ways to lure enemies to you which doesn't really work when you have a timed mission. Even still, Templar don't really come ahead in damage until Major and Colonel. Arc Wave allows for clean ups when you need more attacks then you have squad. And as you found Storm and Ghost can be sickeningly strong. To get them into this stage means lots of kills or lots of missions and the pace of their development doesn't keep pace in the Lieutenant and Captain phase of the game as it becomes a lot harder for them to get kills to boost their XP. My work around is to farm Lost on a Horde mission. You can only get 1 promotion per mission yes, but all the overflow XP counts toward further ranks which you gain on the next mission. This is rather cheesy, but it works well. All this counted, I still don't think Templar measure up to most of the other classes as melee is a liability and never a strength. Particularity when melee immune is a possibility. Why is that even a thing? Parry is nice for absorbing "leftovers," but with a more standard squad you get less left overs. Major props to you for being able to finish this run given all these things working against you and only needing 2 runs to get it to work.
Yeah, they've always been a matter of "style over function" for me. If if they're not the most useful class, rending fools and then sucking the life force out of them is just so satisfying.
I had so many kills with my Templar with a superior Speed PCS Give them an armor and their natural dodge and party/reflect/deflect makes them a mimic beacon in practical sense. If too hot can always run away with that much mobility as well
New to the channel, enjoy your work! Little tip for you. I’ve noticed, don’t know if it’s true or not, but if you wound a Muton before you melee it it won’t counterattack. Or at least has a much lower chance to counterattack.
I dislike templars precisely because it's difficult to use them without accidentally activating new pods. And not having any good guns takes most of the fun out of the game, IMO. An all-reaper run, on the other hand, sounds like much less of a slog.
On higher diff Reaper feels like one woman army. Being able to pick whole groups from the Shadows saved me from ridiculous situations. Even with the team wiping viperboss.
Templar are my favorite because of the melee stuff. I love that in these games, despite it being sort of tactically bad. That being said, you have to expect you might trigger a pod when you rush in for a rend. I usually paired my templar with a ranger so they teamed up to protect each other.
@@orarinnsnorrason4614 Yep that's what I do. Trigger the pod with a shot from squadsight so they move closer to you, then tag team the enemies with Templar with Parry, and Ranger with Untouchable. You're probably not gonna trigger a pod, and even if you do they can't hurt your soldiers. You can make this even safer by casting Aid Protocol (+40 defense). With Aid Protocol sometimes the enemies don't even attack your soldier because they often choose targets with less defense.
Did you not pick up Channel on any of your Templars? You were playing this on a harder mode than you thought if so. Just having that on one or two Templars per squad would have solved your focus problems almost completely. Awesome run, btw.
Thanks for the kind words. :) I have tried the channel strategy in the past, but I discovered if a Templar drops focus only that specific templar can pick it up. The rest of the squad won't be able to. No idea why it works this way, but unless you put it on everyone, it isn't that helpful. Otherwise it would have been a game changer for sure.
27:40 why not? if i remember correctly picking up and laying down a body does not cost actions. but even if it does cost one, its still worth the risk. man... i should reinstall XCOM. its over a year that i played it an your videos make me want to do another run.
Picking up is a free action, but putting down is not (which makes no sense, since it would be way easier to put down, then pick up haha). And when you're relying on melee and often have to sprint in, losing an action can be costly.
Tamplars are my favourite class. Just get one with ghost and blade storm and they will solo every single mission. Also, rend is so satisfying, and parry is so lit. Just such an amazingly satisfying, extremely strong class. I pretty much never use focus abilities through and just keep them on max focus the entire game.
I know it would have been harder, could you have just stepped into line of sight for the pods and then retreated? this pulls them towards you and away from the others. This leads to movement only for them and then swarm to melee to death.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I have seen a couple other videos and you are right. For instance, when they chucked the grenade at two soldiers that were completely out of sight. The game does have its hiccups and some awkwardness to it. I just figured that with the tactical ability mixed with only one soldier moving forward and then back that it might allow you to take them out before they get their turn. Still good work though
@@TheDriftersBroadcast But if you bait the pod while 5 of your Templars still have blue moves, the enemies probably won't survive this turn, and even if they do you're now scattered for the enemy turn plus everyone is on Parry.
I got a templar with quickdraw and lightning hands, and quickly became possibly one of my most self-reliant non-modded units in my barracks. can easily soften up targets to then deliver the killing blow with bladestorm. currently trying to get ability points to get all of their skills
you could explain the bladestorm not generating focus because it's a reaction, you need to quickly react and you're not focusing on the strike itself, your only focusing on the fact someone just went by you and you need to hit it. While with rend you focus on the strike itself, allowing you more time to use your focus (heh) to empower your gauntlets
As I was watching this while playing I was totally stunned by how a Templar gave a bitch slap to a mutton, first the mutton activated bladestorm, Templar parry it at somehow Templar got a bitch slap on the mutton face one shot ting him... That woman is a mvp
You should install the fair lost targeting mod, the lost AI actually has a 70% chance to go for X-Com, and a 30% chance to go for ADVENT, with fair lost targeting it changes that percentage to a 50/50 chance to go for either side
Man, all this pod business looks really weird from my perspective as a Classic X-COM/Xenonauts player. Shouldn’t all enemies on the map activate when you lose concealment? It seems like a strange game mechanic.
It is a weird mechanic I agree. The way it works is that the pod you lose your concealment to, activates and any subsequent pods will just activate whenever any of your soldier reaches their line of sight since you don't regain concealment. There's a mod called yellow alert which does makes things more sensible as it gives the rest of the pods a general direction to move towards as they're getting attracted to the battle's gunfire and grenade noise. It can activate multiple pods at once with that
Holy-, I've never had it happen, but knowing a Muton can just chuck a grenade right into the middle of the civillian cluster and nail 7 kills in one go in retaliation missions..... I had no idea the AI would actually do that given the opportunity, glad it's never happened to me before and glad I now know it so I can prioritize for myself. Is it just that he's targeting the grouped up Templars and the civvies are just bonus collateral, or can the Mutons just aim grenades on civvies? Tip you probably knew, but try to make sure if you roll a Bladestorm Templar that it gets Ghost and use them as a priority for that purpose. The Ghost gets all skills the creator had, and a Bladestorm Ghost is one of the best disposable options you have. Counter foes, distraction and free attacks combined since Bladestorm will not consume it's Focus bar but will still use the damage multiplier from Focus, so a 3 Focus Bladestorm Ghost can do some major damage if thrown into the right spot, especially since it's disposable, you don't have to care about it surviving the next turn, just maximizing use. If you also have the swap abilities, the Ghost can also get that and at a cost of 1 Focus can even become a rescue or ambush unit.
I think he was targeting the Templars and the civs just got in the way, but I'm not 100% sure. I've had a faceless go after a group of civs too when none of my soldiers were even close to them. So it might just be XCOM doing its XCOM thing.
Jus watched the spark one and this today they were both great I was gonna comment to do a reaper run next but you beat me to it can’t wait till you put it on RUclips
14:44 That's a reload, buddy. That is absolutely one of those situations where your honestman rule should come into effect because that's some major BS
I didn't even know the Xcom community had a term for 'honestman'. Xcom 2 being as volatile as it is i never play with ironman as i have had it completely ruin multiple playthrough due to glitches or fumbling missclicks.
It's quite fun and it can feel like a slog at some point. Definitely install some mods for fun like consmetics. It is also on the steam workshop now do it's a good time to try
Templars are my favourite, purely for the coolness. Grenadiers are probably the most useful, though. The next video is going to be on Reapers, but Skirmishers will be the next video after that. Stay tuned, my friend. :)
@@TheDriftersBroadcast subed and waiting. Troop type while i agree the grenedier is the most useful the rangers are the ones i think are the coolest aside from skirmisher. Thanks for the reply
Bonding a Templar and Shinobi together is busted as hell in a regular run. I love all these runs. Watched them multiple times. Are you still planning on eventually doing a LW2 WOTC run? I just did one on veteran.
Great video. I'm a big Xcom fan myself. I have a question: How did they manage to only have Templars? Is this a mod, if so can you tell me where I can find it? I would like to test it too. Oh and I´m sorry for my English; I can´t speak very good.
Alternate title: Can you beat XCOM 2 WOTC while activating every pod on the map at once?
Pretty much! XD I actually used to play with a mod that would activate the whole map once concealment was broken. It was pretty wild.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast xcom 1 big ship etherial 1st activation ptsd (for those that dont know if you activate the therial first the whole ship gets pinged your location)
@@dalewarrior1364 Oof, that sounds brutal. It would be hard to activate that pod last though, wouldn't it? Since you have to run through all the others to get to it.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast very occasionally it likes to hang out in the hanger. As a suprise. Had that happen more then once open hanger door. Oh hi there. Evac.
@@dalewarrior1364 That sounds horrific LOL.
Watch one of the chosen get melee immunity. Better yet the assassin get melee immunity.
You knew it was coming LOL.
Volt and Autopistol exist.
@@dexter2392 Truly inferior options.
@@dexter2392 No shit.
Pain
"In that response, I used the Avatar's corpse to make another ghost" One hell of a power move
I will use their greatest weapon against them! Haha.
You could say the power has... drifted to your side
@@oashen5475 Killin' me. XD
@@oashen5475 i hate it
Seeing that giant lost pod pile out of that boat gave me a visceral flashback to that one Newfoundland mission in Enemy Unknown. Whew.
I'll take lost over chrysalids any day though haha.
I had Vietnam flashbacks on that shot holy hell
I unknowingly basically skipped that missino with the Mec's jet boots lol didn't kill a single chrisalyd from the ship
I sadly havn't gotten the mission.
When you hit an archon, they activate battle fury (or something like that, I forget the name), and from then on they get 3 actions per turn. That's why that one was able to move and shoot, despite tactical analysis. (If you look around 34:30, you can see it was already injured, so battle fury would have been active.)
I never knew that. I thought battle frenzy just meant they could only use their melee attack. Thanks for the info.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Frenzy, that's it... I knew it was something like that. :)
33:18 That may be the most brutal thing I've ever seen in XCOM. A muton using a grenade on a cluster of civilians would make me rage quit.
Drifter is already acostumed with civilians taking grenades so its not that bad for him
I remember one playthrough where a chosen ended up with melee and templar weakness. By the point I took him on I had a fully maxed out team with four rangers a sniper and, of course, a templar.
The battle was strangely short.
I bet it didn't end well for him LOL.
My first encounter with the Warlock was that. He was weak to Templar and melee and I just obliterated him with one hit that crit. It was pretty amazing.
@@NoodleKeeper Those sorts of takedowns don't happen often, but they are extremely satisfying when they do haha.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Oh yeah, I was really worried because one of my units was seriously out of position when he warped in, so if he survived that unit might have just died. So I was very excited.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast Not exactly templars, but on my first ever run of WotC, i started with the reaper faction first, and the first chosen i encountered was the hunter, but he had a weakness to explosions as well as reapers, and on literally the first turn that he spawned in on one of my missions, he had happened to spawn literally within blue-move-distance of my reaper, and got pretty much spawncamp-instakilled
I'm not sure if you had a max rank templar with a bladestorm, but if you did you made a big mistake in not giving them the ghost ability. The thing is just like bladestorm doesn't give you focus when it kills, it also doesn't drain the ghost's focus when triggered. As such by simply rushing in with said bladestorm ghost, putting it right next to the target you want to hit, and then simply passing the turn you can almost guarantee the enemy in question gets hit several times at maximum charge plus all the other enemies who run past plus all the repositioning they will do because they are flanked by the ghost.
This is an awesome strat. I'm bummed I didn't think of it.
It will also work like a nuclear detonation against the Lost.
@@yakobsoulstorm5187 Oh yes. Bladestorm vs the lost is amazing lol.
Bro that's genius
If your ghost has reflect and it gets shot there's like a 75% it reflects or deflects the shot so you can basically use it like a mimic beacon too
Drifter:"that we had the option to shoot it means there was an enemy nearby"
Me: regularly having to avoid shooting explosives with no enemies nearby "hah?"
that stun lancer doing 4 actions reminds me what happened when beserker had almost unlimited attacks on a soldier with hellweave vest
Man I never used Volt because I only ever had the one or two templars at a time and it always seemed worse than just rending. I never knew how strong it is until this video.
It's a godsend when you're going up against mutons haha.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast trying to melee a muton is an XCOMers rite of passage.
How do you get more than 1of every faction unit? I haven't been able to have more than one in vanilla xcom2 :( I don't know if it is rng or what
@@triangle200 after you clear their respective chosen there's a chance for "Recruit faction hero" to be a resistance ring op
@@triangle200 Also the first faction you unlock will give you an extra hero. I like doing the Reapers first so I have 2 Reapers in case the other one is injured.
A Templar with reaper and bladestorm are just chef's kisses. Also didn't realize how powerful ionic storm was. Definitely gonna have to play around with that.
even though templars are my favorite class soldier, using them feels like such Russian roulette. Sometimes they'll be the star player, and sometimes they've activated a sectopod and a pod of andromedons because you had the audacity to try and rend.
If Xcom 3 ever would come out (and yes I know Chimera Squad is a thing) then I hope some sort of overhaul is given to the pod system, and especially if melee is brought back with templars.
When I'm not doing challenge runs, I normally play with a mod that activates all pods once the first one is active. It did make things harder, but you knew roughly where the bad guys were and could melee whenever you wanted without risk of further activations. Highly recommend it.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast That is interesting, I'll have to give it a try next time a play through xcom 2. The game just takes so long though, and losing one soldier makes me lose steam for a playthrough lol
@@AdjustedDisparityI know that feeling. Just started playing and I quickly realized that losing a soldier you created to bad luck or just a bad decision sucks. So I decided to make group of disposable generic soldier characters that are basically ADVENT troopers but on my side. Makes things a little easier when you have units you are completely fine with losing.
Yeah I like XCOM 2 but it had many contradicting designs. The pod placement discouraged flanking and melee, so it forced me to play one way: destroy cover and shoot. I'm not a fan of devs forcing a style of play, whether it's a strategy game, MMO, or FPS.
What should have been heard throughout this run...
"My life for Aiur! Er... I mean, Earth."
I don't get the reference, sorry. :(
@@TheDriftersBroadcast it's a reference to starcraft, which has a faction of Psionic Aliens Called Protoss, and one of the castes of that faction are the templar. Aiur is their homeworld, and they will often be heard saying "my life for Aiur" when selected/commanded
@@gundenordstrom8123 Thanks for the info. I've never played Starcraft. :O
@@TheDriftersBroadcast And these Protoss use dual energy blades and psyonic storms. _Literally_ the same as in XCom.
On top of all that, Alarak’s (a protoss leader) voice actor from Starcraft 2 voices Geist, the Templars’ leader. Talk about an on the nose reference.
I remember the first time I got a Templar, I was so excited to try them out. Their first mission is a retaliation, and I get introduced to Mutons. My monkey brain was like "cool, our first victim" I sent the templar to Rend it completely forgetting they had the counterattack ability (2nd playthrough, but first time with WotC). So my Templar goes in, the attack doesn't happen, I am confused, then the Muton wacks my Templar and kills them in one... hit.
I may or may not have save scummed, but sshhhhh that's a secret...
The pods the game sent your way makes me wonder if there's some sort of adaptative enemy selection going on... Surprising to be sent specifically mutons en masse against the class that struggles against them.
I just did the last mission on a playthrough tonight and there were a ton of mutons, and I didn't have any Templars or Rangers on my squad, so I dunno.
Archons do in fact get three actions per turn if they have Battle Frenzy on.
As you've learnt, Null Lance is guaranteed to hit regardless of any effects, abilities, armour or chances as it *nullifies* all those and does raw damage.
Does that mean Null Lance ignores stasis as well?
Quickdraw lightning hands Templars can be a lifesaver. They do often get overlooked, because reaper is more powerful and flashy, so does bladestorm, but you don't always get those. I had a Templar with 3 pistol skills a couple of times and was bummed about it initially, but then I've noticed how much I can soften the target before charging with rend, to the point that I had AP rounds on this Templar. Also faceoff was just hilarious to have on the missions with the lost
You didn't mention it, but templars gain a +1 increase in mobility and a 10% increase dodge for the first two focus, the extra third has only a +5% dodge. With a superior agility PCS you can get a 50% dodge stat on a templar relatively easily.
I knew about the increase in mobility, but not the increase in dodge. Thanks for the info.
I dont think he said anything about this but for any1 that dosent know, Always make contact with the area where the first blacksite is located first. Even if u dont have any plans to do it anytime soon. That area is always guaranteed to belong to the first chosen u end up with in your game so there is no risk of activating a 2nd. Where as if u go for another nearby region that maybe have a higher income there is always a chans that u activate a 2nd Chosen and that can be problematic, especially if it happens to be the Warlock. The Warlock is absolutly brutal to have to deal with before u have Plated Armore on your squad. Before Plated Armore u only have 1 item slot and u very mutch need mind shields on your soldiers when dealing with the Warlock as if he mind controls 1 of your soldiers it is impossable to break that without killing him.
Wow I didn't even know templars could counter the assassin with parry, that's pretty cool. I can't ever remember that happening in my games.
Parry is insanely good haha.
I think more of your soldiers should have had fortress. Immune to explosions, poison, burning, etc is just too good to pass up if your stacking templars imo. it allows you to blob them all up behind cover wich can bait enemies to waste their actions throwing out aoe's that your immune too.
I hadn't really considered that strat, but it seems obvious in retrospect lol. I wish I had thought to use it.
It is a bonus ability regardless, so, there was no way of making sure everyone'd get it
watching this again, I noticed how you evac with confidence, but your boys dropped the package 48:41 😂🤣
"Great job, boys! Where is that body you picked up?"
"uhh... it slipped. we lost it at the evac"
"...come again??"
The colonel prison skill is custom made for the Avatar. Allows you to prevent the teleporting ability.
Really would have helped you there
10:35 "daisy chain of recovery" -> recovering dazed soldiers. Good one :)
I didn't even think of that LOL. Total accident. I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!
I never knew how much I needed to see an xcom challenge run like this. Great video!
Cheers!
This is a really great video, you clearly put a ton of work into it. Really deserves way more views! Hope you make more of these, was super fun to watch!
Thanks so much! I'm already working on the next vid, so there will definitely be more to come. :)
Can't wait to see the reaper video. This was genuinely interesting and entertaining
Just some hints having a bond mate give a Templar an action after they have gone and parried can have the Templar have two parries. This combined with armor and a good vest can make for an especially tanky unit. Giving them the jail ability where they heal off the unit that’s locked up makes you not need as many heals for them.
Nice tips. Thanks. I definitely slept on some of the Templar's abilities too much.
Bladestorm not giving focus may not make sense narratively but it would be horrifically unbalanced for say... the lost. Or even stunlancers.
Watching the slaughter with ionic storms was very satisfying. I think I might be sleeping on it...
Yeah, I really wish I had used it more. Had no idea how awesome it was lol.
The intro music is iconic And I’ll never get tired of it.
amazing, love to see more of you in xcom
Thanks so much. :) I am slowly working on more XCOM videos. I should have a lot more free time come December, so videos will come out much more often.
I actually did an all templar playthrough a few years back, and absolutely loved it.
We have loving it in common then. :P
@@TheDriftersBroadcast not only that, my hunter also got melee immunity.
I think the devs are intentionally trying to spring a trap on us with the placement of the pods. There are pods where the edge of their detection range is conveniently in the line of engagement of the next pod. So even if you're trying to be careful, you're just gonna trigger them sometimes. And also there are some pods that are 10 feet from the other pod. That means they're gonna be triggered through proximity even if they didn't actually see your squad.
It's so funny coming back and watching this video after your LW2 Sharpshooter video, and seeing the sharp difference between what you call devastating in this video and what is needed for that word to be bandied about these days lmao
I'm not going to lie. This is just how I play xcom 2 normally except half the troops would be rangers. I just have too much fun running full speed at aliens with swords.
I do love melee attacks. Just wish they weren't so risky with further pod activations!
34:29 If you damage an Archon it will activate Battle Frenzy and gain an extra action per turn, yes. If you can't outright kill an Archon you should try to not damage an it at all on the first turn of its activation, so it spends the first turn doing Blazing Pinions instead of attacking.
Yeah, Templars are extremely powerful, and their abilities get quite versatile, but getting to the point where they crush everything takes a while. Not to mention that having an entire team of them really limits they ways you can attack, especially in the early game.
But hey, they are not the worst of the special classes to do this with!
*cough skirmishers cough*
OMG, you only have a 55 subs? That's really unfair. Cmon RUclips, give this guy at least a 50-100k
Thanks so much! Maybe we'll get there one day. :D
I use to think Templar are terribly inferior for the same problem you fell into. Melee means close. Close means more pods. The trick to using them is finding ways to lure enemies to you which doesn't really work when you have a timed mission. Even still, Templar don't really come ahead in damage until Major and Colonel. Arc Wave allows for clean ups when you need more attacks then you have squad. And as you found Storm and Ghost can be sickeningly strong. To get them into this stage means lots of kills or lots of missions and the pace of their development doesn't keep pace in the Lieutenant and Captain phase of the game as it becomes a lot harder for them to get kills to boost their XP.
My work around is to farm Lost on a Horde mission. You can only get 1 promotion per mission yes, but all the overflow XP counts toward further ranks which you gain on the next mission. This is rather cheesy, but it works well.
All this counted, I still don't think Templar measure up to most of the other classes as melee is a liability and never a strength. Particularity when melee immune is a possibility. Why is that even a thing? Parry is nice for absorbing "leftovers," but with a more standard squad you get less left overs.
Major props to you for being able to finish this run given all these things working against you and only needing 2 runs to get it to work.
Yeah, they've always been a matter of "style over function" for me. If if they're not the most useful class, rending fools and then sucking the life force out of them is just so satisfying.
I had so many kills with my Templar with a superior Speed PCS
Give them an armor and their natural dodge and party/reflect/deflect makes them a mimic beacon in practical sense. If too hot can always run away with that much mobility as well
Glad I found your channel man great content gonna binge watch it all now
New to the channel, enjoy your work! Little tip for you. I’ve noticed, don’t know if it’s true or not, but if you wound a Muton before you melee it it won’t counterattack. Or at least has a much lower chance to counterattack.
I dislike templars precisely because it's difficult to use them without accidentally activating new pods. And not having any good guns takes most of the fun out of the game, IMO. An all-reaper run, on the other hand, sounds like much less of a slog.
On higher diff Reaper feels like one woman army. Being able to pick whole groups from the Shadows saved me from ridiculous situations. Even with the team wiping viperboss.
You are playing templar wrong if you're afraid of activating every single pod in the map at once.
Templar are my favorite because of the melee stuff. I love that in these games, despite it being sort of tactically bad. That being said, you have to expect you might trigger a pod when you rush in for a rend. I usually paired my templar with a ranger so they teamed up to protect each other.
You can always just shoot to activate. Then go in. Or hunker down; this will make the pod move towards you.
@@orarinnsnorrason4614 Yep that's what I do. Trigger the pod with a shot from squadsight so they move closer to you, then tag team the enemies with Templar with Parry, and Ranger with Untouchable. You're probably not gonna trigger a pod, and even if you do they can't hurt your soldiers. You can make this even safer by casting Aid Protocol (+40 defense). With Aid Protocol sometimes the enemies don't even attack your soldier because they often choose targets with less defense.
Did you not pick up Channel on any of your Templars? You were playing this on a harder mode than you thought if so. Just having that on one or two Templars per squad would have solved your focus problems almost completely.
Awesome run, btw.
Thanks for the kind words. :) I have tried the channel strategy in the past, but I discovered if a Templar drops focus only that specific templar can pick it up. The rest of the squad won't be able to. No idea why it works this way, but unless you put it on everyone, it isn't that helpful. Otherwise it would have been a game changer for sure.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast fucking devs preventing a nice syngery.
I loved it. Waiting for the reapers only!
27:40 why not? if i remember correctly picking up and laying down a body does not cost actions. but even if it does cost one, its still worth the risk. man... i should reinstall XCOM. its over a year that i played it an your videos make me want to do another run.
Picking up is a free action, but putting down is not (which makes no sense, since it would be way easier to put down, then pick up haha). And when you're relying on melee and often have to sprint in, losing an action can be costly.
Love Templars so much I’m coming back and watching this gem a second time!
So weird to see civilians in abandoned cities, that also happen to be swarmed with lost. Not suspicious at all haha
Video Title should be: MY LIFE FOR AIUR
You're not the first one to make that comment. I needed someone to tell me it was from Starcraft haha.
Tamplars are my favourite class. Just get one with ghost and blade storm and they will solo every single mission. Also, rend is so satisfying, and parry is so lit. Just such an amazingly satisfying, extremely strong class. I pretty much never use focus abilities through and just keep them on max focus the entire game.
Yeah, they are very cool. I like to avoid using focus, if possible. But in this run, it wasn't always possible. :(
Drinking game: watch this video and take a shot every time Drifter says: "We activated another pod"
Always drink responsibly.
Nerdpokegirl mvp
14:40 That's something I would (allow to) reload, because that is some high tier level of BS
I did consider it, but decided just to slice up that little cheater instead. :D
I always unmask my templars because of the faces they make.
I’m not all the way through and I’m just waiting for the melee immune chosen
Oh, it happens, and it SUCKS haha.
I know it would have been harder, could you have just stepped into line of sight for the pods and then retreated? this pulls them towards you and away from the others. This leads to movement only for them and then swarm to melee to death.
It's a legitimate strategy, but AOE attacks can ruin it. Some of them can hit you from beyond line of sight, so it's risky either way.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I have seen a couple other videos and you are right. For instance, when they chucked the grenade at two soldiers that were completely out of sight. The game does have its hiccups and some awkwardness to it. I just figured that with the tactical ability mixed with only one soldier moving forward and then back that it might allow you to take them out before they get their turn. Still good work though
@@TheDriftersBroadcast But if you bait the pod while 5 of your Templars still have blue moves, the enemies probably won't survive this turn, and even if they do you're now scattered for the enemy turn plus everyone is on Parry.
The advent (lol) of slightly monotonous youtubers is great. So relaxing
I got a templar with quickdraw and lightning hands, and quickly became possibly one of my most self-reliant non-modded units in my barracks. can easily soften up targets to then deliver the killing blow with bladestorm. currently trying to get ability points to get all of their skills
I had totally forgotten about the templars
I like the idea of Honestman, instead of misclicks and stuff like that aren’t reloadable.
Ah yes. My favorite wotc class to use in combat, in terms of gameplay
They're very fun to use. Dangerous, but fun haha.
StarCOM 2 Legacy of the Templar
I'm getting quite a few StarCraft comments. I think I need to check those games out lol.
you could explain the bladestorm not generating focus because it's a reaction, you need to quickly react and you're not focusing on the strike itself, your only focusing on the fact someone just went by you and you need to hit it. While with rend you focus on the strike itself, allowing you more time to use your focus (heh) to empower your gauntlets
LegKeeper isn't real, it can't hurt you.
Legkeeper: 1:00:16
Damm mate those templars are all like bruh
I know this is an old video, but I would love to see you go through this using the Jedi class from the Musashi mod list.
As I was watching this while playing I was totally stunned by how a Templar gave a bitch slap to a mutton, first the mutton activated bladestorm, Templar parry it at somehow Templar got a bitch slap on the mutton face one shot ting him... That woman is a mvp
48:42 Rescue a vip in suit, accidentally drop it anyway
MISSION SUCCESS
Second time watching this run. It was poetry tbh
You should install the fair lost targeting mod, the lost AI actually has a 70% chance to go for X-Com, and a 30% chance to go for ADVENT, with fair lost targeting it changes that percentage to a 50/50 chance to go for either side
Of all the classes, this was the one I would have bet could not have done it.
The mid-game in particular was brutal. But we managed hehe.
New challenge idea: 2 reapers, 2 skirmishers, 2 templars.
You just earned a sub, good job mate!
Much appreciated. :)
I find it fitting that you can use a Templar to kill the Assassin
Man, all this pod business looks really weird from my perspective as a Classic X-COM/Xenonauts player. Shouldn’t all enemies on the map activate when you lose concealment? It seems like a strange game mechanic.
It is a weird mechanic I agree. The way it works is that the pod you lose your concealment to, activates and any subsequent pods will just activate whenever any of your soldier reaches their line of sight since you don't regain concealment.
There's a mod called yellow alert which does makes things more sensible as it gives the rest of the pods a general direction to move towards as they're getting attracted to the battle's gunfire and grenade noise. It can activate multiple pods at once with that
I've had the stun lancer burn cancel happen before, so frustrating!
I literally used anything BUT templars during my first playthrough
Mf was a rookie while I already had a colonel squad
I just love melee attacks too much haha.
Holy-, I've never had it happen, but knowing a Muton can just chuck a grenade right into the middle of the civillian cluster and nail 7 kills in one go in retaliation missions..... I had no idea the AI would actually do that given the opportunity, glad it's never happened to me before and glad I now know it so I can prioritize for myself. Is it just that he's targeting the grouped up Templars and the civvies are just bonus collateral, or can the Mutons just aim grenades on civvies?
Tip you probably knew, but try to make sure if you roll a Bladestorm Templar that it gets Ghost and use them as a priority for that purpose. The Ghost gets all skills the creator had, and a Bladestorm Ghost is one of the best disposable options you have. Counter foes, distraction and free attacks combined since Bladestorm will not consume it's Focus bar but will still use the damage multiplier from Focus, so a 3 Focus Bladestorm Ghost can do some major damage if thrown into the right spot, especially since it's disposable, you don't have to care about it surviving the next turn, just maximizing use. If you also have the swap abilities, the Ghost can also get that and at a cost of 1 Focus can even become a rescue or ambush unit.
I think he was targeting the Templars and the civs just got in the way, but I'm not 100% sure. I've had a faceless go after a group of civs too when none of my soldiers were even close to them. So it might just be XCOM doing its XCOM thing.
Great stuff, but one thing bro....void conduit stops avatars from teleporting....... lmao
Damn, I really should have invested in that one LMAO.
Ya, Avatars are the one and only thing Void Conduit is actually good for, but it is pretty useful for that final mission.
Jus watched the spark one and this today they were both great I was gonna comment to do a reaper run next but you beat me to it can’t wait till you put it on RUclips
archons have an ability called battle frenzy which gives them an extra action
Huh , Templars fighting an assassin. Where have I heard that one before?
But this time the Templars are winning! :D
7:55 One of the Assassin's weaknesses was that the were weak to templars...
Bad day for her LOL.
14:44 That's a reload, buddy. That is absolutely one of those situations where your honestman rule should come into effect because that's some major BS
I've never used a mimic beacon. I see how wrong I was after watching your videos.
47 minutes in and the chat is talking about food
This video is just "...however we activate another pod" over and over
I didn't even know the Xcom community had a term for 'honestman'.
Xcom 2 being as volatile as it is i never play with ironman as i have had it completely ruin multiple playthrough due to glitches or fumbling missclicks.
Yeah, especially with mods - the game becomes even more unstable haha. Ironman is just too much of a gamble for me.
i love templars so much, i use LWOTC and its a shame that they have a shield in that which is unfortunate
Yeah, Templars are definitely the coolest class, in my opinion. I haven't played LWOTC, but I am thinking I need to give it a try.
It's quite fun and it can feel like a slog at some point. Definitely install some mods for fun like consmetics. It is also on the steam workshop now do it's a good time to try
Can you beat xcom 2 without using primary guns (no rifles, sniper,shotgun,canons) only with secondary weapons, items and abilities
This could actually be really interesting. I'm adding it to the list!
Sweet! What about Templars without psychic powers?
Need more mind shields on these guys
Because I've always had the tutorial enabled I've rarely even played as a Templer 😅
Would like to see a skirmisher only run. Thats my fav faction personally...whats your favorite faction or troop type?
Templars are my favourite, purely for the coolness. Grenadiers are probably the most useful, though.
The next video is going to be on Reapers, but Skirmishers will be the next video after that. Stay tuned, my friend. :)
@@TheDriftersBroadcast subed and waiting. Troop type while i agree the grenedier is the most useful the rangers are the ones i think are the coolest aside from skirmisher. Thanks for the reply
@@wildcrow6250 Not at all. Thank YOU for the support!
And I agree, Rangers are insanely cool haha.
Bonding a Templar and Shinobi together is busted as hell in a regular run.
I love all these runs. Watched them multiple times. Are you still planning on eventually doing a LW2 WOTC run? I just did one on veteran.
I do plan to play LW2 at some stage.
what's the mod that adds alerts for if your soldiers' movement will trigger overwatch?
I think it's called 'Gotcha Again'.
Great video. I'm a big Xcom fan myself. I have a question: How did they manage to only have Templars? Is this a mod, if so can you tell me where I can find it? I would like to test it too. Oh and I´m sorry for my English; I can´t speak very good.
Oh and in my game, I can only hire a maximum of one Templar.
It's the Starting Soldiers mod on the Steam Workshop.
haha energy sword go BRRR
And it never stops. :D
Edit: nvm I'm crazy. though I believe you can use amplify on the tombs so that would have helped slightly.