Assault (Long War)

Assault

The Long War Assault is similar to the vanilla Assault. Their signature ability is Run & Gun, which works exactly as it does in vanilla XCOM.

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

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

Class-Limited items: Walker Servos, Impact Vest, Shredder Ammo, Breaching Ammo.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Run & Gun Allows firing or Overwatch after Dashing on the turn Run & Gun is activated. 2 turn cooldown.
	No other bonuses.
Lance Corporal	Flush Fire a shot that causes enemies to run out of cover. The shot is easy to hit with, but does reduced damage.	Close Combat Specialist Confers a reaction shot against any enemy who closes to within 4 tiles. Does not require Overwatch.	Steadfast Immune to panic, except Psi Panic.
	Provides +2 Aim.	No other bonuses.	Provides +5 Will.
Corporal	Gunslinger Confers 2 bonus damage with pistols.	Tactical Sense Confers +5 Defense per enemy in sight (max +20).	Aggression Confers +10% critical chance per enemy in sight (max +30%).
	Provides +1 Aim.	No other bonuses.	Provides +1 Will.
Sergeant	Rapid Fire Take two shots against a single target in quick succession. Each shot carries a -15 penalty to Aim.	Close Encounters The first standard shot made within 4 tiles of the target does not cost an action. Cannot combine with Run And Gun.	Extra Conditioning Confers bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.
	Provides +1 Mobility.	Provides +1 Mobility.	Provides +1 Aim, +1 Will, +1 Mobility.
Tech Sergeant	Will To Survive Reduces all normal damage taken by 1.5 if in cover and not flanked.	Killer Instinct Activating Run & Gun now also grants +50% critical damage for the rest of the turn.	Ranger Primary weapons do one additional damage.
	Provides +1 Will.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Gunnery Sergeant	Packmaster Limited-use items in your inventory receive additional uses.	Bring 'Em On Adds 1 damage on critical hits for each enemy the squad can see (up to 5).	Sprinter Allows the soldier to move 3 additional tiles.
	No other bonuses.	Provides +2 Will.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Resilience Confers immunity to critical hits.	Vital Point Targeting Confers 2 bonus damage against targets that have been autopsied.	Lightning Reflexes Reduces hit chance from overwatch fire by 90% for the first shot, and 75% for subsequent shots.
	No other bonuses.	Provides +3 Aim.	Provides +3 Aim, +3 Will, +1 Mobility.

Stat Progression

Rank	HP at level	Total HP	Aim at level	Total Aim
Specialist	1	1	3	3
Lance Corporal	0	1	3	6
Corporal	1	2	3	9
Sergeant	0	2	3	12
Tech Sergeant	1	3	3	15
Gunnery Sergeant	0	3	3	18
Master Sergeant	1	4	3	21

Tactical Advice

Role: Mobile Offense

Long War Assaults are quite similar to vanilla Assaults. They are more mobile than Infantry while packing less firepower, swapping Light 'Em Up for Run & Gun. Due to the existence of the Infantry class that excels at mid-range combat with rifles, Assaults tend to equip shotguns and use their mobility to engage at close range, though using them as a medium range flanker with an assault rifle is also viable.

Assaults are fairly simple soldiers, and the choice in their build tends to be a simple one of offense vs defense at each rank, with some mobility thrown in. A role-changing perk however is Lightning Reflexes, allowing them to draw out overwatch fire much like a Scout can, though they have to wait until Master Sergeant to do it and it can't be combined with the highly useful Resilience perk. Given some aliens in Long War have Opportunist, this makes absorbing overwatch with an Assault still quite dangerous, unless tough enough to absorb a crit.

Assaults make very good covert operatives. They have high base HP, allowing them to survive better without armor, Lightning Reflexes to not be hit by overwatch when running to comm arrays, and they can use Run & Gun to hack arrays on the same turn after dashing.