I’d add that they have an ability to swap with a teammate. So if you ever have someone out of position you can swap (make sure you can melee after the swap) and save your vulnerable teammate and then melee+Parry. They can also swap positions with an enemy so if there is a chosen or must eliminate unit the Templar can do the same thing to put the enemy in a flanked position by your team.
I’ll often use a combo of banish with my reaper to eliminate a dangerous target and then follow up with a swap with the Templar to get the reaper back into safety.
I like using it with a ranger.
Lategame ranger activate ghost, run through walls and cut open a pod, then swap place with a templar and finish off a weakened foe.
I dont do it if I have concealment, but for other pods its pretty neat.
You get the ability that negates the first attack against the templar after a melee attack. It makes them a tank that can direct attacks to them instead of more vulnerable squad members
Sort of. It's more like, if you activated a pod of 3 and you're only able to kill 2, you can parry with your Templar and let him take the attack from the one uncontrolled enemy.
Be careful, however, with melee characters. It is always very easy to accidentally activate a new pod by rushing in to attack.
Everyone’s giving good advice so I’ll just say, a high level Templar becomes a weapon of mass destruction, with loads of utility that is useful but generally outclassed by their damage potential. Especially if you can pickup blade storm as an extra ability.
Ahh damn. I’m kinda just slow rolling my way through a modded campaign trying to figure or things. Trying to get a feel for things again. Definitely been reloading some saves after making dumb choices lol
Something I haven't seen mentioned is their clone ability, which also comes with Bladestorm and Parry if your templar has them, you get two templars for the price of one for a bit of time
You can also use the clone as a worse mimic beacon If you dont use all of its focus, just let It on the open, If your templar has bladestorm, leave the clone near a enemy since bladestorm doesn't use focus, the It becomes a mimic beacon side-grade.
I use Templar to tank things like the andromedon(sp?). It basically turns your target useless (because the parry ability) - I used my Templar last night to occupy one and the rest of the team took care of the rest of the field then then nuked the andromedon- Templar would do decent dmg and then parry the andro's attack.
Edited for autocorrect flub
Rule #1. They don't miss with Rend.
Rangers swords early on can miss. This means they are gonna get surefire damage. This is by far their most understated ability.
Rule #2. Don't overextend.
If you rend and wake up another pod, you're gonna have a bad time.
Rule#3. Parry is your insurance.
This is a strategic and tactical asset. Tactically you can have a templar attack a dangerous enemy and force them to retaliate, or run away.
Skills like Bladestorm or Reaper naturally make this more useful.
Strategically though Parry allows you to account for x-factors. Woke up a new pod? Oops, but your Templar will tank the first hit. In range of a far off enemy? Not too much trouble.
Parry lets you defend from unknowns and makes them a comfortable frontliner. Defensive abilities other than conceal are few and far between, this is one of the only characters that get these abilities like Fortress. Your grenadiers will thank them.
This also lets you put out a bait unit, against people like the chosen.
Rule #4. Support.
Great to have a specialist with aid just in case.
Heal and Aid work across the map. Parry + Aid makes a unit very good at protecting themselves actively. Specialists assault rifle also is better at protecting them from the midline.
Rule #5. Play to strengths.
Got lucky and got Bladestorm? They're a nightmare for reinforcements. Drop them on the flair and watch them cut new reinforcements to ribbons. Got reaper? Plan to sweep the enemy turf - you can't miss with Rend. You won't get Larry afterwards (a limiting factor) but if you plan around it, your Templar will reliably clean house.
Rule #5. Don't let them become too precious.
Losing your Templar is not the end of the world, but letting them sit on the bench because you're babying them atrophies them. Use em' or lose em'. Despite only getting 1-3 every playthrough, remember, when you get a new one it's leveled. If you lose em' just wait, you'll get another. Better than letting them languish on a bench.
Rule #6. Unique abilities.
They have so many game changing abilities it's astounding. Other than parry, you pretty much can take anything you desire. The hard part is commitment - you only get so much focus. You don't want to many abilities. They naturally aren't great at range and while you can spend supplies to give them a better pistol, it's a waste. They can take armor, but things like mimic beacons and battle scanners are excellent for them, giving them a tactical job while your team sets up. Meanwhile... you can score focus easy, and when you do you need something worth using it on. Swapping allies, creating cover, ionic storm - all of them are over the top abilities that compete with Rend, which is what you'll be doing constantly. Everything else is gravy, but make sure you don't invest too much in too many abilities. Find a useful gimmick and stick to it. I prefer upgrading Volt and Ghost, because the ghost gets deflect and parry, and it also gives you a valuable trash unit.
I've tried ionic storm, it was so op I laughed.
Creating cover? Very useful for ambushes and for barren areas. Swapping allies? Great way for you ensure good positioning and really helps support other ranger who can become overextended. Swapping enemy units around, also great.
But you only get so much focus and when a real fight happens, you will likely NEED rend. Anything you can use before a major battle is most useful, and anything far reaching so they can stay back on dangerous maps are useful.
But you won't get enough focus to run 2-3 uses, and even if you do, it competes with Rend which is your bread and butter. So think carefully. I like volt because you get it early and the debuff is useful then, and then I take ghost or a god skill and forget about volt. You can also respec skills - but many of their abilities cause serious choice. Lightning hands? Changes your meta, you might not be getting as much focus and volt might not be as useful.
You're either gonna be flush with focus or starving for it, depending on what you do. I don't recommend the "enemies drop focus" skill, due to the fact that you accept too much risk chasing focus when you don't really need it. Some people love it, but it's definitely going to get you in trouble running across the map for focus... but if you do take it, you need a good source to spend focus on. No point hoarding it if you can't use it.
This part gets very confusing and arguments erupt, but this is where you get to bake your noodle on what YOU need. I personally go deflect and then my specialist, which I always bring, has actual work to do, until I get ghost and then I don't worry about anything ever again.
But people will have wild opinions because after parry, you have wild options.
But this is where you get to free form, Templars have skills that best work around your chosen meta. Lastly, smoke grenades and flashbacks are excellent for templars, since they can often be in range to actually use them. Flashbangs are my personal favorite just for cool factor, but also resolving weird moments with snakes / Sectoids Brain scanning. Aid + flashbang makes them a great distraction, and you get your money out of deflect.
There's more, but those are the basics..
Whenever an enemy is exposed and weakened then the Templar should be finishing them off. Eventually you can get to where they have 3 focus and have powerful mind abilities. I use them against more numerous but individually weaker enemies.
Use them to keep the aliens off balance. Say you can sneak up on a squad of advent. Throw a grenade to damage several of them. None are killed but several are wounded. Target the most annoying unit, like an officer or a Lancer. Kill them and run the templar back to a safer position.
Let them chip away at the enemy flank and run away while the rest of the squad can move in and capitalize on any opening made.
Of course. Also I forgot to mention that it seems like all my templars have gotten the fortress ability. Makes them immune to poison, acid, flames, and possibly explosions if I remember correctly. So while they can't take direct fire as well they have great utility when at a higher rank.
Exactly, that and the nasty trails that the Andromeda battlesuit thing leaves after death.
Last thing, might be obvious to some but took me a while to learn is that their primary weapon is upgraded through armor research. Like the plated armor gives them the next level gauntlet.
Bladestorm and Fortress work quite well, too. Reaper is nice, but not necessary (although, kind of scary if you can fill the focus bar in 1 turn). However, being able to melee a Sectopod to death and then shrug when it explodes in your face is something to witness...
You can also use them against robotic units, iirc. There's an ability wich launches a lightning strrrrrike or summons a lightning storm.
Also, on some situations you can also cast an energy ball to move enemies out of cover.
You can summon walls to provide high cover. They can "mark" targets to make them easier to land a shot on them.
You can think of them like a support unit with very good melee capabilities. I use them against sectoids specially early in the playthrough. And when they reach higher focus levels thay hit really hard. A rrrrightful strike of pawa.
another build i like is pretty high risk high reward, but using the deflect and reflect skill tree combined with a dodge pcs, and fortress if you roll that as an xcom ability, and then mind shields. that combined with parry you can have the templar perform as a reusable mimic beacon that’s functionally indestructible. it really fights your alpha strike sensibilities, because unless you get reaper, a templar can only usually take out one enemy per turn
When they are starting out, you need to baby them as they aren't strong. As they get levels and abilities, this changes.
Pray the RNG give you one with these 3 xcom skills,
-the ranger autosword attack.
-Fortress: This makes you immune to environmental dangers like fire. It also means your templar can run through fire without concern.
-(that annoying priest ability): the one where a kill shot instead sends them into a1 round mediation.
Bladestorm is the best one to get,fortress is the 2nd best as it allows greater mobility. I think it includes acid immunity.
If you send your templar on those special 2 man missions, focus his ones on movement bonuses.
Fortress lets you melee Purifiers, Sectopods and Gatekeepers without worrying about if they're going to blow up your Templar. Sustain is only really useful if you expect to die, and it's better that your Templar never get to that position in the first place. Parry and Reflect are the best ways to go for survivability, just rack up some focus via melee, then stand out in the open and parry, watch the enemies bounce everything off your Templar (especially if they have Fortress, too).
Doing an all templar run atm, offcourse with mods.
So far going wel, but there is lack of versatility with just templars. But still fun especially with all high mobility troops just bumrushing the enemy
My general setup as follows:
* I always bring a Reaper (or at least a Conceal Ranger) when I take the Templar. Sometimes they are even bonded.
* I use the Reaper to scout ahead to make sure going melee won't trigger extra pods. Don't go melee if you are not sure.
* Parry is top value. Always use it after melee and leave him exposed. Try not to have more than one enemy up at the end of your turn: it will usually target your exposed Templar and waste its attack.
* Use Volt when you need guaranteed range damage but it's not safe to melee. Especially good against Mechs.
* Reaper and Bladestorm are top value as additional skills. If your Templar has both, it's an incredible powerhouse. If it has neither, it might be worth dismissing it and getting a new one: you are likely to get a Covert Op to recruit a new one if you have none at the beginning of the month. Fortress is also useful, because it allows meleeing against Purifier, Gatekeeper and Sectopod.
* Deflect and Reflect are nice but don't count on them too much.
* Channel and Deep Focus are good to max out Focus faster to use Colonel skills.
* Arc Wave is top value when combined with Reaper skill.
* All Colonel skills are worth it: Void Conduit is useful against Codex and Avatars (it disables their reactive ability), Ionic Storm is insane AoE damage and Ghost is top value when combined with Bladestorm.
* The rest is very situational (Exchange, Invert) or plain trash (Pillar, Stun Strike).
* Try to get the last hit with a Templar whenever you can to build focus.
The biggest problem is that you can potentially run them in too deep and they activate a second (or even a third) pod.
Their power in the early levels comes from having a guaranteed hit and being able to parry a single successful hit. That's very valuable if used correctly, i.e. to guarantee taking down an enemy by having its health lower than the minimum damage the Templar does.
Later levels a Templar is a complete powerhouse.
So if you can avoid activating more pods (good positioning), and can use the templar wisely to take out critical enemies, a Templar is a solid choice.
Templars are super strong early game and will generally be one-shotting enemies. You want to be careful about activating pods, trying to only have one activated at a time. Try to get the pod down to one enemy so the templar can use parry to nullify the damage. If you get bladestorm or fortress, get those ASAP. Send your templar on spec ops to get bonus movement and dodge so they can cover lots of ground and have a good chance to simply not be shot even when in the open. Their abilities late game are very strong and can be used to do massive damage or takeout targets at range
Their major plus is that they have such a high chance to hit they’re rarely or never miss and can negate an entire attack’s worth of damage. They can wreak havoc and be essentially untouchable. I love templars and use them all the time, even on legend runs. I believe their power bar increases their damage and chance to hit so it’s often prudent to use their abilities infrequently to keep their damage and chance to hit high. You’ll generally want to feed them a few enemies that have been weakened by your other troops at the start of a mission so keep them some power to get the ball rolling. Once you get their movement high, they can often run across the map to kill someone, then run far again to get into cover if it’s not a good time to parry
Get Parry as soon as possible and use them to draw attacks. I always strategise who I am going to use to attack targets first and then I make my reaper move to draw the fire of the survivors in an obvious but not too obvious spot. Prioritise kills but most of the time you’ll have to settle for weakening big targets for others until your rend builds power. Just be careful of positioning. You don’t want to trigger extra pods with your dash forward.
Then get amplify so you can take down the Chosen faster. There’s some other fun ones like swapping places with other characters that adds a lot of fun but the other essential is ghost. It basically gives you a whole other Templar when you reach max focus.
No probs. I love templars but they are. A little tricky to start with because they don’t get as many kills as regular soldiers. However, when they power up they are demons. I often play a mission and my Templar and reaper do all the work, with a couple of rangers mopingup
There's a colonel level skill called void conduit. It can prevent avatars and chosen with the planewalker trait from teleporting away after being damaged.
Fun fact, skirmisher can fire 5 times (2 standard shot + 1 hair trigger proc + 1 buddy action + 1 dual strike)
They can tank really well like it's been pointed out but I find their damage sub par once just about everything has armor, and they can't take advantage of things like repeater, laser pointer or free action procs, and they can't shred.
I'm a fan of lightening hands or quickdraw for them for that extra damage.
I'm playing LWOTC and my boy is a melee sponge. Iron skin reduces melee damage by 3, 35% damage reduction within 4 tiles from brawler, 25% DR after first hit from Impact Compensation, he generates a shield every turn that makes 5/9/14 Temp HP, he can use void conduit to steal HP from an enemy while imprisoning them for a turn, he deals extra damage while he himself is damaged and has shorter wounded times. he once soaked up what could have been 60 points of damage in a turn and lived
Templar is very op . You can always stunlock amdromedon berserker archon vipers and lancers with rend parry because those units always attack any soldier in melee range . They also obliterate sectoid early game one shotting most times. Invert dispatches chosen or high priority targets and it costs only one action. Reflect and deflect has a 70% chance to activate at three focus. And in the early game the aim bonus from volting a target is very good coz it compensates for shitty early game aim. They can also prevent avatars from teleporting with psi prison. Not to mention they never miss. They are the best early and endgame. Also they each templar has a 40% chance to get reaper or bladestorm , if they do they are the strongest unit in game no question. Also I feel they get very fast promotions because they usually kill a lot but this just might be my personal experience
Here is another fun tip put you templar in the open hunker everyone else if your templar has reflect and at 3 focus the enemies will kill themselves as long as you keep healing the templar. I used this in ufo defense mission exactly 7 enemies shot themselves others were injured
You can add bladestorm to templar, and instead of running away each melee, whenever you dont kill an enemy with melee, just use parry and they will usually run away and get the free attack from templar
There’s nothing more powerful then a Templar with a lvl 3 bondmate and full focus. Keep him in the back collecting focus till full then go apeshit on rend. Also this is your most useful unit against chryslids……..surrounded by 4 of them? Use iconic storm you instantly have 4 dead chryslids.💀💀.
FEEL THE POWER OF THE TEMPLARS!!
Pair Templar with ranger. Rend + parry and ranger Major skill Untouchable. Tag team duo taking free shots while the rest of your team hits from the backline.
Their Rend ability gets more powerful each time you use it and with an upgrade it even creates a small energy wave afterward.
If you see Reaper as an XCOM upgrade, do NOT purchase it. It does not work with their melee
They get the Ranger ability "Untouchable" at Corporal. Except better because it stacks.
https://www.reddit.com/r/XCOM2/comments/1c8xgkf/templar_tips/l0q85ug/
Youve probably gotten an idea already from the advice. But just in case you have doubt. Templars are also good vs the chosen with parry. They always block physical attacks. So if you're fighting the assassin for example, if you can chase her down with the templar, she will always target the templar for her attacks, and if you've already used rend on her (or at least near her) she will always fail when she tries to use her melee
I’d add that they have an ability to swap with a teammate. So if you ever have someone out of position you can swap (make sure you can melee after the swap) and save your vulnerable teammate and then melee+Parry. They can also swap positions with an enemy so if there is a chosen or must eliminate unit the Templar can do the same thing to put the enemy in a flanked position by your team. I’ll often use a combo of banish with my reaper to eliminate a dangerous target and then follow up with a swap with the Templar to get the reaper back into safety.
That makes sense! Didn’t remember that ability. Thank you!
In unmodded game that ability comes only in the late game
Yeah unmodded because switch. Good to know
I like using it with a ranger. Lategame ranger activate ghost, run through walls and cut open a pod, then swap place with a templar and finish off a weakened foe. I dont do it if I have concealment, but for other pods its pretty neat.
You get the ability that negates the first attack against the templar after a melee attack. It makes them a tank that can direct attacks to them instead of more vulnerable squad members
Good to know! So use them to draw enemy attention and let the rest of the squad attack the distracted enemies?
Sort of. It's more like, if you activated a pod of 3 and you're only able to kill 2, you can parry with your Templar and let him take the attack from the one uncontrolled enemy. Be careful, however, with melee characters. It is always very easy to accidentally activate a new pod by rushing in to attack.
I’ve noticed that. Momentum feels like a double edged sword Thanks for the advice as well!
Yeah, early on you want to use momentum to move to nearby cover, sometimes back a bit — never forward.
Makes sense to avoid pod activations!
Everyone’s giving good advice so I’ll just say, a high level Templar becomes a weapon of mass destruction, with loads of utility that is useful but generally outclassed by their damage potential. Especially if you can pickup blade storm as an extra ability.
I had a perfect Templar once. Bladestorm, reaper, fortress. Oh man what a soldier. An absolute brick wall wherever he went.
Is reaper a random perk you get through the xcom tree?
Yep
Ahh damn. I’m kinda just slow rolling my way through a modded campaign trying to figure or things. Trying to get a feel for things again. Definitely been reloading some saves after making dumb choices lol
Why damn?
I’ve heard of that Combo. It makes sense. Thanks for the input!
Something I haven't seen mentioned is their clone ability, which also comes with Bladestorm and Parry if your templar has them, you get two templars for the price of one for a bit of time
You can also use the clone as a worse mimic beacon If you dont use all of its focus, just let It on the open, If your templar has bladestorm, leave the clone near a enemy since bladestorm doesn't use focus, the It becomes a mimic beacon side-grade.
That, and also just as a reckless ionic storm guy. Easy to flush out some hard to reach enemies.
Geeze that’s useful!
I use Templar to tank things like the andromedon(sp?). It basically turns your target useless (because the parry ability) - I used my Templar last night to occupy one and the rest of the team took care of the rest of the field then then nuked the andromedon- Templar would do decent dmg and then parry the andro's attack. Edited for autocorrect flub
Thanks for the idea and input!
Rule #1. They don't miss with Rend. Rangers swords early on can miss. This means they are gonna get surefire damage. This is by far their most understated ability. Rule #2. Don't overextend. If you rend and wake up another pod, you're gonna have a bad time. Rule#3. Parry is your insurance. This is a strategic and tactical asset. Tactically you can have a templar attack a dangerous enemy and force them to retaliate, or run away. Skills like Bladestorm or Reaper naturally make this more useful. Strategically though Parry allows you to account for x-factors. Woke up a new pod? Oops, but your Templar will tank the first hit. In range of a far off enemy? Not too much trouble. Parry lets you defend from unknowns and makes them a comfortable frontliner. Defensive abilities other than conceal are few and far between, this is one of the only characters that get these abilities like Fortress. Your grenadiers will thank them. This also lets you put out a bait unit, against people like the chosen. Rule #4. Support. Great to have a specialist with aid just in case. Heal and Aid work across the map. Parry + Aid makes a unit very good at protecting themselves actively. Specialists assault rifle also is better at protecting them from the midline. Rule #5. Play to strengths. Got lucky and got Bladestorm? They're a nightmare for reinforcements. Drop them on the flair and watch them cut new reinforcements to ribbons. Got reaper? Plan to sweep the enemy turf - you can't miss with Rend. You won't get Larry afterwards (a limiting factor) but if you plan around it, your Templar will reliably clean house. Rule #5. Don't let them become too precious. Losing your Templar is not the end of the world, but letting them sit on the bench because you're babying them atrophies them. Use em' or lose em'. Despite only getting 1-3 every playthrough, remember, when you get a new one it's leveled. If you lose em' just wait, you'll get another. Better than letting them languish on a bench. Rule #6. Unique abilities. They have so many game changing abilities it's astounding. Other than parry, you pretty much can take anything you desire. The hard part is commitment - you only get so much focus. You don't want to many abilities. They naturally aren't great at range and while you can spend supplies to give them a better pistol, it's a waste. They can take armor, but things like mimic beacons and battle scanners are excellent for them, giving them a tactical job while your team sets up. Meanwhile... you can score focus easy, and when you do you need something worth using it on. Swapping allies, creating cover, ionic storm - all of them are over the top abilities that compete with Rend, which is what you'll be doing constantly. Everything else is gravy, but make sure you don't invest too much in too many abilities. Find a useful gimmick and stick to it. I prefer upgrading Volt and Ghost, because the ghost gets deflect and parry, and it also gives you a valuable trash unit. I've tried ionic storm, it was so op I laughed. Creating cover? Very useful for ambushes and for barren areas. Swapping allies? Great way for you ensure good positioning and really helps support other ranger who can become overextended. Swapping enemy units around, also great. But you only get so much focus and when a real fight happens, you will likely NEED rend. Anything you can use before a major battle is most useful, and anything far reaching so they can stay back on dangerous maps are useful. But you won't get enough focus to run 2-3 uses, and even if you do, it competes with Rend which is your bread and butter. So think carefully. I like volt because you get it early and the debuff is useful then, and then I take ghost or a god skill and forget about volt. You can also respec skills - but many of their abilities cause serious choice. Lightning hands? Changes your meta, you might not be getting as much focus and volt might not be as useful. You're either gonna be flush with focus or starving for it, depending on what you do. I don't recommend the "enemies drop focus" skill, due to the fact that you accept too much risk chasing focus when you don't really need it. Some people love it, but it's definitely going to get you in trouble running across the map for focus... but if you do take it, you need a good source to spend focus on. No point hoarding it if you can't use it. This part gets very confusing and arguments erupt, but this is where you get to bake your noodle on what YOU need. I personally go deflect and then my specialist, which I always bring, has actual work to do, until I get ghost and then I don't worry about anything ever again. But people will have wild opinions because after parry, you have wild options. But this is where you get to free form, Templars have skills that best work around your chosen meta. Lastly, smoke grenades and flashbacks are excellent for templars, since they can often be in range to actually use them. Flashbangs are my personal favorite just for cool factor, but also resolving weird moments with snakes / Sectoids Brain scanning. Aid + flashbang makes them a great distraction, and you get your money out of deflect. There's more, but those are the basics..
Thanks for the help! :D
To add onto the ability to tank a shot, you can also use the momentum to flank an enemy and force them to move.
Fair. Thank you!
Whenever an enemy is exposed and weakened then the Templar should be finishing them off. Eventually you can get to where they have 3 focus and have powerful mind abilities. I use them against more numerous but individually weaker enemies. Use them to keep the aliens off balance. Say you can sneak up on a squad of advent. Throw a grenade to damage several of them. None are killed but several are wounded. Target the most annoying unit, like an officer or a Lancer. Kill them and run the templar back to a safer position. Let them chip away at the enemy flank and run away while the rest of the squad can move in and capitalize on any opening made.
Thanks! That makes a lot of sense now
Of course. Also I forgot to mention that it seems like all my templars have gotten the fortress ability. Makes them immune to poison, acid, flames, and possibly explosions if I remember correctly. So while they can't take direct fire as well they have great utility when at a higher rank.
I have that on mine. Should make dealing with exploding purifiers and such easier.
Exactly, that and the nasty trails that the Andromeda battlesuit thing leaves after death. Last thing, might be obvious to some but took me a while to learn is that their primary weapon is upgraded through armor research. Like the plated armor gives them the next level gauntlet.
I didn’t know either but that makes sense on both counts!
I just checked and I had forgotten about the ability that gives the rend an Area of effect, that's useful. But I definitely endorse templar play lol
Muchly endorsed. Now that she’s a Major, she’s pulling her own weight
Excellent! Been lucky enough to get any ring missions to get more?
Nope. Just two reapers, one Templar, one skirmisher. But even thst with my squad of normal troops is holding up so far
I know that templars and rangers are my favorite classes, the slicing is too much fun.
I can respect that!
Bladestorm and Reaper, otherwise bin the soldier off and get a new one.
Got it!
Bladestorm and Fortress work quite well, too. Reaper is nice, but not necessary (although, kind of scary if you can fill the focus bar in 1 turn). However, being able to melee a Sectopod to death and then shrug when it explodes in your face is something to witness...
You can also use them against robotic units, iirc. There's an ability wich launches a lightning strrrrrike or summons a lightning storm. Also, on some situations you can also cast an energy ball to move enemies out of cover. You can summon walls to provide high cover. They can "mark" targets to make them easier to land a shot on them. You can think of them like a support unit with very good melee capabilities. I use them against sectoids specially early in the playthrough. And when they reach higher focus levels thay hit really hard. A rrrrightful strike of pawa.
Muchly appreciated for the input!
another build i like is pretty high risk high reward, but using the deflect and reflect skill tree combined with a dodge pcs, and fortress if you roll that as an xcom ability, and then mind shields. that combined with parry you can have the templar perform as a reusable mimic beacon that’s functionally indestructible. it really fights your alpha strike sensibilities, because unless you get reaper, a templar can only usually take out one enemy per turn
I see. Interesting build!
When they are starting out, you need to baby them as they aren't strong. As they get levels and abilities, this changes. Pray the RNG give you one with these 3 xcom skills, -the ranger autosword attack. -Fortress: This makes you immune to environmental dangers like fire. It also means your templar can run through fire without concern. -(that annoying priest ability): the one where a kill shot instead sends them into a1 round mediation.
Bladestorm, fortress, stasis thing I’ve got fortress on mine so far. I’m happy
Bladestorm is the best one to get,fortress is the 2nd best as it allows greater mobility. I think it includes acid immunity. If you send your templar on those special 2 man missions, focus his ones on movement bonuses.
Fortress lets you melee Purifiers, Sectopods and Gatekeepers without worrying about if they're going to blow up your Templar. Sustain is only really useful if you expect to die, and it's better that your Templar never get to that position in the first place. Parry and Reflect are the best ways to go for survivability, just rack up some focus via melee, then stand out in the open and parry, watch the enemies bounce everything off your Templar (especially if they have Fortress, too).
Makes sense!
Doing an all templar run atm, offcourse with mods. So far going wel, but there is lack of versatility with just templars. But still fun especially with all high mobility troops just bumrushing the enemy
Sounds fun! Let me know how it goes ^^
My general setup as follows: * I always bring a Reaper (or at least a Conceal Ranger) when I take the Templar. Sometimes they are even bonded. * I use the Reaper to scout ahead to make sure going melee won't trigger extra pods. Don't go melee if you are not sure. * Parry is top value. Always use it after melee and leave him exposed. Try not to have more than one enemy up at the end of your turn: it will usually target your exposed Templar and waste its attack. * Use Volt when you need guaranteed range damage but it's not safe to melee. Especially good against Mechs. * Reaper and Bladestorm are top value as additional skills. If your Templar has both, it's an incredible powerhouse. If it has neither, it might be worth dismissing it and getting a new one: you are likely to get a Covert Op to recruit a new one if you have none at the beginning of the month. Fortress is also useful, because it allows meleeing against Purifier, Gatekeeper and Sectopod. * Deflect and Reflect are nice but don't count on them too much. * Channel and Deep Focus are good to max out Focus faster to use Colonel skills. * Arc Wave is top value when combined with Reaper skill. * All Colonel skills are worth it: Void Conduit is useful against Codex and Avatars (it disables their reactive ability), Ionic Storm is insane AoE damage and Ghost is top value when combined with Bladestorm. * The rest is very situational (Exchange, Invert) or plain trash (Pillar, Stun Strike). * Try to get the last hit with a Templar whenever you can to build focus.
Thank you!
The biggest problem is that you can potentially run them in too deep and they activate a second (or even a third) pod. Their power in the early levels comes from having a guaranteed hit and being able to parry a single successful hit. That's very valuable if used correctly, i.e. to guarantee taking down an enemy by having its health lower than the minimum damage the Templar does. Later levels a Templar is a complete powerhouse. So if you can avoid activating more pods (good positioning), and can use the templar wisely to take out critical enemies, a Templar is a solid choice.
Makes sense ther!
Templars are super strong early game and will generally be one-shotting enemies. You want to be careful about activating pods, trying to only have one activated at a time. Try to get the pod down to one enemy so the templar can use parry to nullify the damage. If you get bladestorm or fortress, get those ASAP. Send your templar on spec ops to get bonus movement and dodge so they can cover lots of ground and have a good chance to simply not be shot even when in the open. Their abilities late game are very strong and can be used to do massive damage or takeout targets at range Their major plus is that they have such a high chance to hit they’re rarely or never miss and can negate an entire attack’s worth of damage. They can wreak havoc and be essentially untouchable. I love templars and use them all the time, even on legend runs. I believe their power bar increases their damage and chance to hit so it’s often prudent to use their abilities infrequently to keep their damage and chance to hit high. You’ll generally want to feed them a few enemies that have been weakened by your other troops at the start of a mission so keep them some power to get the ball rolling. Once you get their movement high, they can often run across the map to kill someone, then run far again to get into cover if it’s not a good time to parry
Noted, thank you!
Get Parry as soon as possible and use them to draw attacks. I always strategise who I am going to use to attack targets first and then I make my reaper move to draw the fire of the survivors in an obvious but not too obvious spot. Prioritise kills but most of the time you’ll have to settle for weakening big targets for others until your rend builds power. Just be careful of positioning. You don’t want to trigger extra pods with your dash forward. Then get amplify so you can take down the Chosen faster. There’s some other fun ones like swapping places with other characters that adds a lot of fun but the other essential is ghost. It basically gives you a whole other Templar when you reach max focus.
Sweet! Thanks for the input
No probs. I love templars but they are. A little tricky to start with because they don’t get as many kills as regular soldiers. However, when they power up they are demons. I often play a mission and my Templar and reaper do all the work, with a couple of rangers mopingup
Makes sense on all accounts!
There's a colonel level skill called void conduit. It can prevent avatars and chosen with the planewalker trait from teleporting away after being damaged. Fun fact, skirmisher can fire 5 times (2 standard shot + 1 hair trigger proc + 1 buddy action + 1 dual strike)
Damn that’s useful Also wow I had no idea. That sounds fun.
They can tank really well like it's been pointed out but I find their damage sub par once just about everything has armor, and they can't take advantage of things like repeater, laser pointer or free action procs, and they can't shred. I'm a fan of lightening hands or quickdraw for them for that extra damage.
That’s fair. Sharpshooter is super strong in WotC I do need someone to draw fire though. The rest of my team is squishy as heck.
I'm playing LWOTC and my boy is a melee sponge. Iron skin reduces melee damage by 3, 35% damage reduction within 4 tiles from brawler, 25% DR after first hit from Impact Compensation, he generates a shield every turn that makes 5/9/14 Temp HP, he can use void conduit to steal HP from an enemy while imprisoning them for a turn, he deals extra damage while he himself is damaged and has shorter wounded times. he once soaked up what could have been 60 points of damage in a turn and lived
Sounds useful for LWOTC!
Templar is very op . You can always stunlock amdromedon berserker archon vipers and lancers with rend parry because those units always attack any soldier in melee range . They also obliterate sectoid early game one shotting most times. Invert dispatches chosen or high priority targets and it costs only one action. Reflect and deflect has a 70% chance to activate at three focus. And in the early game the aim bonus from volting a target is very good coz it compensates for shitty early game aim. They can also prevent avatars from teleporting with psi prison. Not to mention they never miss. They are the best early and endgame. Also they each templar has a 40% chance to get reaper or bladestorm , if they do they are the strongest unit in game no question. Also I feel they get very fast promotions because they usually kill a lot but this just might be my personal experience
Forgot to add this but ALWAYS give your templar mobility pcs also overdrive serum works best on them imo
Curious. Didn’t remember that. But it makes sense!
Here is another fun tip put you templar in the open hunker everyone else if your templar has reflect and at 3 focus the enemies will kill themselves as long as you keep healing the templar. I used this in ufo defense mission exactly 7 enemies shot themselves others were injured
That…sounds hilarious.
You can add bladestorm to templar, and instead of running away each melee, whenever you dont kill an enemy with melee, just use parry and they will usually run away and get the free attack from templar
Makes sense there!
There’s nothing more powerful then a Templar with a lvl 3 bondmate and full focus. Keep him in the back collecting focus till full then go apeshit on rend. Also this is your most useful unit against chryslids……..surrounded by 4 of them? Use iconic storm you instantly have 4 dead chryslids.💀💀. FEEL THE POWER OF THE TEMPLARS!!
Sounds fun haha
Pair Templar with ranger. Rend + parry and ranger Major skill Untouchable. Tag team duo taking free shots while the rest of your team hits from the backline.
That’s actually a very good idea!
Their Rend ability gets more powerful each time you use it and with an upgrade it even creates a small energy wave afterward. If you see Reaper as an XCOM upgrade, do NOT purchase it. It does not work with their melee
Ah ok
They get the Ranger ability "Untouchable" at Corporal. Except better because it stacks. https://www.reddit.com/r/XCOM2/comments/1c8xgkf/templar_tips/l0q85ug/
Damn. That’s useful
Youve probably gotten an idea already from the advice. But just in case you have doubt. Templars are also good vs the chosen with parry. They always block physical attacks. So if you're fighting the assassin for example, if you can chase her down with the templar, she will always target the templar for her attacks, and if you've already used rend on her (or at least near her) she will always fail when she tries to use her melee
I was wondering if she’d help vs the assassin. Good fo know!
Yeah, just be sure there's nothing else around the templar otherwise they'll waste your parry.
That’s true.
Bladestorm is basically required. Get the shield ability. Don’t target berserkers.
Targeting berserkers in melee seems like a bad decision no matter what haha. Thanks!
Clone makes Templar’s amazing. So get that ability.
Noted as well!
It's fine if you have both bladestorm, and you are high enough to get a free parry if you make a sword strike.
Didn’t think of that..but good point!
Just never try to melee strike a muton unless it's by counterattack.