I’ve never tried Strike, but the internet says it’s bad. On the other hand, the Spark is a good opener that might kill the enemy outright - if not, well now he’s holo targeted. Otherwise the rarity of the skill means it is worth considering, but Holo Targeting does not work well on the Spark, which has only one multi-shot ability, Overdrive, and that has a long cooldown. If you field Holobot officers, then Holo Targeting is not even worth considering here. It is still rare, and the Spark is one of only two soldier classes that has it as a base class ability. Holo Targeting is a little easier to find on the XCOM row, than it was to acquire from the AWC. If you get your Spark to Champion rank, and acquire Damage Control, the synergy with this ability will help further, and maybe this ability will allow your Spark to tank one extra hit. Even if they fail to shred armor, they start hitting for 8+ damage. A Dark Event will grant Shredder to more enemies. In the late game most advent troops carry grenades, while Mutons and Advent Gunners get Shredder. Acting as high cover is the more significant advantage, because Bulwark only adds one additional armor, and numerous enemies will be able to shred it. This will allow your Spark to march down an open street protecting a squadmate.
Sparktacusīulwark adds a point of armor and enables the Spark to act as high cover. I don’t even know what to call this hodge-podge build so I am using the nickname I always give to my Spark. This build was tested on my first Avenger Defense it works well as a tank, and still has most of the Spark’s offensive potential. I am sticking with the tank skills, and pairing that with Hunter Protocol, which is very strong. In LWOTC, the Invasion mission is much easier, but tanking is still a useful role. So I switched to a pure tank build, and that helped my squads survive. At first I built my Sparks to be primarily offensive, but I found that such a build could not stand up to late game enemy firepower, and what I really needed was a soldier to tank shots during the Invasion mission (this is back when playing LW2, btw). The Spark can tank, or overwatch, or apply shred/holo, or burst damage, and he will perform each of these roles effectively. And this is what happened to my Spark build. Instead, my builds have just evolved to be hybrids because I needed them to perform multiple tasks, or be effective in different situations. This is not something I am actually trying to make happen. More aim was exactly what the Spark needed to stay competitive with the other shooter classes in the late game.Ī lot of my builds are hybrids, where I design a soldier to be good at two things, rather than great at one thing. There is also a new Spark gun at each weapon tier (Laser and Coil were missing in LW2), and the tier 3/4/5 weapons all have bonuses to aim and crit.
It can now use weapon mods, helping this shooter hit its target. The second change is to the Spark’s giant gun. Acquiring a Spark quickly will also allow him to level up sooner, which will help him survive against late game enemy fire power. 1 The Spark is far more valuable in the early game, and can absolutely crush advent during this period, which is a lot of fun. All you need is the Proving Ground, a bit of cash ($50) and an elerium core. First, and most important, is that you can acquire a Spark much earlier in the campaign. One of the best things about LWOTC is how it improves upon the Spark class with only a few minor tweaks.
All changes to the rules/mechanics of LW2 are displayed in bold. Note: This post is a revised version of my Long War 2 Spark build, with changes to the text/build as appropriate for the new rules and skills in LWOTC.