In the base game, Snipers with Squadsight were death dealing machines.  Fix em up just right, and they could clear an entire map with a stealthed Ranger to find the bad guys.  Rangers excelled at quite a few short-timed missions, in particular the base attacks where you needed to plant explosives.  They wouldn’t kill anyone, but they’d bypass everything and get out before a single shot was taken.

Reapers are what happens when Snipers and Rangers make babies.

They can get right up to someone, shoot them in the back, and retain stealth.  They can throw claymores, essentially grenades that need to be shot after landing, and not break stealth.  The more people they drop, the higher their crit chance.  And then there’s Banish.

Banish requires stealth.  It breaks stealth on use, so you don’t get +2 armor pen (but tactical rigging can offset this).  It has regular hit rates.  It uses all your PCS and weapon upgrades.  And it empties your entire magazine in an enemy – plus can target another one afterwards.

With the +3 ammo clip and a scope, this is a 1 shot kill on anything but the Chosen sarcophagus, and perhaps a Legendary Sectopod.  Anything else is just toast.  You only get 1 use per mission, but considering that you rarely get 2 Sectopods or Gatekeepers… this is a wash.  But you can have 2 Reapers on a mission too…

Templars and Skimishers have their place as well, and focus a bit more on movement play.  That has a rather high risk factor, compared to their potential damage output. I’m sure it has a lot to do with my preferred playstyle.

Next mission up is the Hunter Chosen base.  Now that I know what to expect, of sorts, it allowed me to better plan my squad.  This will be a lot of fun.