Goliath (Long War)

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MEC variant of the Gunner class. A Goliath is designed to be a human tank. They have the best HP progression of any class in the game and an unsurpassed selection of defensive perks. They have reasonable aim progression, but their selection of offensive perks is a bit lacking.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Absorption Fields Reduces most incoming damage to this unit, scaling up as the damage increases.
	No other bonuses.
Lance Corporal	Body Shield The nearest visible enemy suffers -20 aim and cannot critically hit this unit	Flush Fire a shot that causes enemies to run out of cover. The shot is easy to hit with, but does reduced damage	Automated Threat Assessment Confers +15 Defense during first attack in owerwatch, and a half point of damage reduction(meaning one point of damage in a successful attack has a 50% chance of being avoided)
	Aim: 0 Will: 2 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0
Corporal	Ranger Primary weapon does one additional damage.	Reactive Targeting Sensors Unit gets a free shot back at the first enemy who attacks the MEC each turn, provided there's enough ammo to do so.	Close Combat Specialist Confers a reaction shot against any enemy who closes to within 4 tiles. Does not require Overwatch. Warning: Will activate even if unit is concealed.
	Aim: 0 Will: 1 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0	Aim: 2 Will: 2 Mob: 0
Sergeant	Shock-Absorbent Armor Damage received from enemies within 4 tiles is reduced by 33%.	Platform Stability Any shots taken without moving have +10 Aim and +10% critical chance.	HEAT Ammo Your primary weapon does extra damage to robotic enemies.
	Aim: 0 Will: 2 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0
Tech Sergeant	Resilience Confers immunity to critical hits.	Advanced Fire Control Shots from Overwatch no longer suffer any Aim penalty.	Collateral Damage Area of effect attack that destroys most cover and hits all eligible targets for 34% damage. This attack cannot cause critical hits.
	Aim: 0 Will: 2 Mob: 0	Aim: 2 Will: 0 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0
Gunnery Sergeant	Repair Servos Repairs up to 50% of damage taken (max 2 per turn). Additional damage taken before repairs are complete reduces how much can be repaired.	Bring 'Em On Adds 1 damage on critical hits for each enemy the squad can see (up to 5).	Ready For Anything If the unit fires without moving, it automatically enters overwatch.
	Aim: 0 Will: 2 Mob: 0	Aim: 2 Will: 2 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0
Master Sergeant	Packmaster All limited-use items in your inventory receive one extra use.	Damage Control When this unit takes damage, all further damage will be reduced by 1 or 2 points for the next 2 turns.	Vital Point Targeting Additional 2 damage against any human target and any alien that has been autopsied.
	Aim: 0 Will: 0 Mob: 0	Aim: 0 Will: 2 Mob: 0	Aim: 3 Will: 0 Mob: 0

Tactical Advice

Intended Role: "Tank"

With the highest HP progession and plethora of defensive perks, the Goliath acts as the frontline bullet sponge for the rest of the team. It is the one unit that you would want to take fire from the heavy hitting alien units. With the Absorption Fields perk as the first perk to be available, The Goliath is able to heavily reduce any damage that it receives.

With perks like Body Shield, Shock- Absorbent Armor, Damage Control and Resilience it becomes nigh impossible for aliens to severely hurt the MEC and even if they manage to heavily damage it, the Repair Servos perk can give it even more survivability, by making it able to repair itself during longer missions.

The Goliath MEC is the only unit that XCOM has available that can reliably be called a tanking unit, as such it can act as a recon unit for the rest of the team, even though it is hampered by its less than stellar mobility. This is why it is good to use it in conjunction with Scouts and Assaults. Use the Scouts to do recon and the Goliath to have the enemies (hopefully) shoot at it, while the assault can go around for a flank.

Sadly the enemy isn't actually obliged to shoot at the Goliath, making its tanking role somewhat situational as enemy units can forego shooting at the MEC that is standing right in front of them, and instead shoot at a soldier in low cover behind the MEC. In this case, equipping short range, high damage weapons such as Kinetic Strike and/or Flamethrowers can make them regret letting your Goliath run free. You will probably want to strike a balance when building your Goliath between defense and offense/utility, since a purely defensively built Goliath will have little to contribute in the event that the aliens don't decide to attack it. Flush, HEAT Ammo, Collateral Damage and Packmaster are prominent offensive and utility perks. Advanced Fire Control and Ready For Anything can let the Goliath lock down aliens with the threat of overwatch.

It should be noted that even with their high health, damage reducing and self repairing capabilities, they can still die quite easily during the later parts of the campaign. This is why it is a good idea to have an Engineer equipped with an Arc thrower and the Repair perk, to act as a... well Field Engineer, to increase the survivability of the MEC even more. Another good idea is to give it Alloy belts, which increases its maximum HP.

The biggest drawback of the Goliath is its rather narrow usability; it has one role which it does extremely well, but it is not as versatile as other MEC classes. Unless you are going to use it for its specific purpose, you might not want to get a Goliath.

Stat Progression

Rank	HP at level	Total HP	Aim at level	Total Aim
Specialist	1	1	3	3
Lance Corporal	1	2	3	6
Corporal	1	3	3	9
Sergeant	1	4	3	12
Tech Sergeant	1	5	3	15
Gunnery Sergeant	1	6	3	18
Master Sergeant	1	7	3	21

See also

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