Assault (LWR)

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  Assault

The Long War Rebalance Assault is similar to the vanilla Assault. Their signature ability is Close Encounters.

Primary Weapons: Carbines, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns.

Secondary Weapons: Pistols, Machine Pistols, Sawed-off shotgun.

Class-Limited items: None.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Close Encounters Close Encounters The first standard shot against an enemy within 4 tiles will leave this unit with 1 AP but reduces mobility to 3.3 tiles during their next action. Grants immunity to critical hits and reaction fire from enemies within 4 tiles.
Lance Corporal	Run and Gun Run and Gun Activate to allow shooting or overwatching at 0 AP if the last AP was spent moving. When active: Gain +20 crit, +20% crit damage, immunity to reaction fire, but the AP discount from Close Encounters is disabled. 2 turn cooldown. Cannot activate if out of ammo and does not work with the stun rifle.		Grenadier Grenadier Using a destructive grenade deals +1 damage and costs only 1 AP. Equipped destructive grenades and MEC launchers receive an additional use and have no weight.		Will To Survive Will To Survive Increases DR of all cover to 60% but grants 10 less defense. For XCOM, grants Steadfast. Steadfast Steadfast Provides +2 armor HP, immunity to panic, and reduces injury times by 30%.
Corporal	Extra Conditioning Extra Conditioning Grants +2 armor HP and +0.6 mobility, and a 10% chance for all end-in-idle actions to cost 0 AP.		Fragmentation Fragmentation Explosives critically hit exposed targets, have double the bleed chance, and apply 2 stacks if they cause bleeding.		Brawler Brawler If this unit is idle and has not been damaged this turn, incoming shots within 4 tiles graze (dealing only half of the original damage).
Sergeant	Ranger Ranger Grants +1 damage to all weapons and equipment, +0.6 mobility, and +10% throw/rocket range. Sidearms additionally gain +2 damage, +20 aim, and 1 AP reloads.		Killer Instinct Killer Instinct Grants +30% crit damage.		Close Combat Specialist Close Combat Specialist Grants a reaction shot at any enemy within 4 tiles that acts. Reaction shot only activates on enemy's turn, once per enemy. [Basic reaction shots bypass half of cover DR/def, cannot crit, and require hit chance >30]
Tech Sergeant	Rapid Fire Rapid Fire Fire twice with your primary weapon; accuracy gains above 50% hit chance only contribute half to final hit chance.
Gunnery Sergeant	Aggression Aggression Shots gain +10% crit damage per enemy in sight.		Mayhem Mayhem Suppression damages enemies immediately with a round of suppressive fire. Suppressive Fire can cause bleeding.		Tenacious Defense Tenacious Defense Grants +2 armor HP. Grants +20 crit resistance when protected by cover.
Master Sergeant	Sprinter Sprinter Grants +1.3 mobility and +10 defense. Doubles damage from Ram.			Lock n' Load Lock n' Load Reloading any weapon costs only 1 AP and dashing automatically reloads the active weapon.

Stat Progression

Rank	Attribute Gains
Specialist	+0-1 (50%)	+2-6	+0.6	+5-15
Lance Corporal	+0-1 (50%)	+0-2	-	+1-3
Corporal	+0-1 (20%)	-	-	+1-3
Sergeant	+0-1 (20%)	-	-	+1-3
Tech Sergeant	+0-1 (20%)	-	-	+1-3
Gunnery Sergeant	+0-1 (20%)	-	-	+1-3
Master Sergeant	+0-1 (20%)	-	-	-
Total	+0-7	+2-8	+0.6	+10-30

Predictable Potential:

Rank	Attribute Gains
Specialist	+1	+4	+0.6	+10
Lance Corporal	+1	+1	-	+2
Corporal	-	-	-	+2
Sergeant	-	-	-	+2
Tech Sergeant	-	-	-	+2
Gunnery Sergeant	-	-	-	+2
Master Sergeant	-	-	-	-
Total	+2	+5	+0.6	+20

Tactical Advice

Role: Mobile Offense, Tank

Long War Rebalance Assaults are more specialized than vanilla Assaults. They are more mobile than Infantry and capable of much greater burst damage output at close range. Since their innate ability is Close Encounters, they typically want to be close to the enemy at all times, whether they are tanking damage or dealing it, and Shotguns are a natural choice for their close range focus. However, SMGs are also viable due to their high crit, mobility and crit damage boost.

Assaults are fairly simple soldiers, and the choices in their builds tend to be a simple one of offense vs. defense at each rank, with some mobility thrown in.

Assaults make good covert operatives. They have high base HP, allowing them to survive better without armor.

Sample Builds

Run and Gun Assault

The R&G Assault aims to maximize mobility and damage potential to enable extremely long distance sprinting in order to dispatch high value targets that are too hard to reach by other means. It is a high risk high reward build that uses surgical precision removals to turn the tide of entire battles - though it will often leave the Assault isolated from any support. Low Profile (bundled with Run and Gun) coupled with the close range crit nullification of Close Encounters alleviates some of the risks. Still, it remains by essence an extreme build that operates on a razor edge; R&G Assaults generally burn brightly but briefly and few of them will reach the higher ranks due to grave wounds or even death.

Sample Run and Gun Build: Run and Gun -> Extra Conditioning or Tenacious Defense-> Killer Instinct or Ranger -> Rapid Fire -> Aggression -> Sprinter.

Run and Gun Run and Gun

Extra Conditioning Extra Conditioning Tenacious Defense Tenacious Defense

Killer Instinct Killer Instinct Ranger Ranger

Rapid Fire Rapid Fire

Aggression Aggression

Sprinter Sprinter

Recommended Weapons: Shotgun or SMG. Secondary Sawed-off/autopistol if mobility allows
Recommended Equipment: High Cap Mags, Targeting Module/Reaper Ammo, Respirator Implant, Alien trophy, Combat Stims, Psi Defender(psi), Psi Conduit(psi).

Notes:

• The mobility and 10% free action of Extra Conditioning can be clutch. Tenacious Defense offers some much needed tankyness.
• Killer instinct allows for some beefy crits. Ranger gives unconditionnal damage with a small boost to mobility and no aim penalties for your secondaries.
• A Psi gifted soldier will enjoy the added utility,enhanced stats from Inner Fire and powerful item options in Conduit(psi) and Psi defender(psi).
• Advanced Perception, Secondary Heart and Adrenaline Surge will help reduce the high risk of harm and/or death inherent to the build. Muscle Fiber density offers greatly improved mobility on a large number of maps. Adaptive Bone Marrow will heavily shorten the likely long wound times.

Grenadier Assault

This build provides the Assault with pinpoint cover destruction and useful AOE damage utility. Fragmentation, Ranger, and HEAT Warheads add range and damage to the Assault's grenades, maintaining their relevance as the campaign goes on. The innate offensive power of the class allows it to still perform decently once out of grenades - even though it will have reduced mobility due to equipped grenades. This will happen very frequently as the class lacks the Packmaster perk, psi abilities are thus a good choice to increase the available options of this build.

Sample Grenadier Build: Grenadier -> Fragmentation -> Ranger -> Rapid Fire -> Heat Warheads-> Sprinter

Grenadier Grenadier

Fragmentation Fragmentation

Ranger Ranger

Rapid Fire Rapid Fire

HEAT Warheads HEAT Warheads

Sprinter Sprinter

Recommended Weapons: Shotgun or SMG.
Recommended Equipment: HE grenades, AP grenades, Alien/Plasma grenades.

Notes:

• The AP grenades can arguably be switched out for another item of choice if needed.
• Psi is a strong option for this build to add utility after grenades inevitably run out.

Tank Assault

This build focuses on defensive perks to build a durable combatant able to both tank efficiently at range and to shrug off otherwise devastating hits in close quarters. While very sturdy this build does not lack offensive prowess and uses the high base damage of the shotgun coupled with Close Combat Specialist to good effect. This does severely limit its effective fighting range however, and on an open map it may lack the opportunity to close in to reliably deliver its damage. Nevertheless it will most often prove a strong and dependable vanguard for your forces if properly supported.

Sample Tank Build: Will to Survive -> Tenacious Defense -> Close Combat Specialist -> Rapid Fire -> Brawler -> Lock n' Load or Sprinter

Will To Survive Will To Survive

Tenacious Defense Tenacious Defense

Close Combat Specialist Close Combat Specialist

Rapid Fire Rapid Fire

Brawler Brawler

Lock n' Load Lock n' Load Sprinter Sprinter

Recommended Weapons: Shotgun
Recommended Equipment: Alloy Plating/Reinforced Plating/Regenerative Plating/Chitin Plating, High Cap Mags, Combat Stims, Breaching Ammo, Psi defender(psi).

Notes:

• Lock n' Load allows a free reload while sprinting toward enemies for more uptime on Close Combat Specialist. Sprinter offers more flanking and repositioning potential with added mobility.
• Defensive Gene Mods,Psi and Officer are all viable paths to enhance this build's capabilities

See also

Long War Rebalance: Soldiers
Soldiers	Soldiers Assault Infantry Rocketeer Gunner Sniper Scout Medic Engineer
MEC	MEC Troopers Marauder Goliath Jaeger Shogun
Sub-classes and abilities	Officers Psionics Gene Mods S.H.I.V.s