Like in XCOM and other tactical turn-based strategy games, skills can make or break many battles. In Gears Tactics, you’ll have Active and Passive skills. Given that the former requires 1 AP to execute, they can be extremely potent. However, they’ll go on cooldown for a number of turns after. What are some of the best Active and Passive skills that can be learned for each class? Let’s take a closer look.
Before that, it’s worth noting that you’ll gain two skill points on leveling up and these can be spent to either upgrade existing skills or learn new ones. Unlocking a skill will often make adjacent skills in that branch available, allowing you to specialize in a specific way. Respeccing is a matter of spending Reset Tokens which are earned during the campaign. That being said, there’s a limited number of them so respec wisely.
First, let’s start with the Support. Supports are looked at as a healing class but there’s so much more they can offer here. If you want to just focus on healing, then spec into Stim. It can also be used to revive allies at a range when allocating another point into it. Given how frequently it can be used, Stim is definitely good to keep allies in the fight. You can also invest in Group Therapy to heal the entire squad at the cost of reduced healing compared to a single target.
Empower is great for those seeking more of a damage Support. It grants a bonus action to an ally but on upgrading, it can provide two bonus actions. Plus the ally will deal more damage, perfect for Snipers and Scouts. Teamwork will give this class extra actions if an ally downs an enemy. Again, very useful for a Sniper or Scout who can take down multiple enemies at once. Use it along with Empower to combo multiple actions between a Support and ally in one turn.
You can further polish off this bu8ild with Lock and Load, which allows finishers to reload everyone’s weapons and increase their damage by 50 percent for one turn, and Surge which resets all cooldowns and abilities for one ally.
Next up are Vanguards, who will be your bruisers and point-men in fights. They have the ability to heal each turn thanks to Regeneration but they have some fairly interesting debuffs. Intimidate, for instance, will push back or interrupt enemies in a 10 meter radius. Further upgrade it and affected enemies will take more damage. You can also use Demoralize to interrupt foes and remove their buffs with gunshots.
Want everyone in your group to have lifesteal? Invest in Rally, though if you have a decent Support with Stim, it might not be necessary. Breach is fairly interesting – when hitting any enemy in radius with it, allies can gain a free action and healing if they kill enemies who are Breached. Distraction is a good aggro skill – it will cause an enemy to attack the Vanguard, allowing other units with low health to dip out. Upgrade it further to gain 50 percent damage resistance or even 75 percent damage resistance on the first attack. You can also go for Bayonet Charge to get into the thick of things and combine it with Breach for free actions and health. Just make sure the enemy in question doesn’t have any strikes of opportunity available.
Next we have Snipers. They’re best when hanging back and can incur a damage penalty when fighting up close. When it comes to damage though, they deliver the goods. Some pretty good skills include Fast Fingers which provides a free reload if a foe is downed (or killed) on a shot. Upgrade it to get a free action as well as reload. Chain Shot provides a bonus action if a shot connects and this can be upgraded to two bonus actions, providing even more opportunities to keep gunning down enemies.
Then there’s Ultimate Shot which will provide bonus actions when downing or killing an enemy, though the max is three bonus actions. Impact Rounds is a good alternative since it can interrupt targets , and even applies on Overwatch. However, it’s probably better to get Concussion Shot which interrupts and stuns an enemy – upgrading it will even increase the crit chance for allies shooting the same target.
If you want to focus on a crit Sniper above all else, then go for Extra Round and Precision Shot. The former will provide free ammo on critical hits while the latter provides 30 percent increase critical strike chance and accuracy on the turn it’s used. Further increase crit chance with mods, use it along with Chain Shot and Extra Round and go to town.
Now we come to the Heavy who utilizes the Mulcher for some crazy damage. The Anchor passive increases damage and accuracy if a Heavy doesn’t move. There’s some serious firepower to be had – Explosive Shot will cause an explosion to go off if the shot kills them, allowing for clearing low health targets en masse. Suppressing Fire will cause an enemy and any foes surrounding it to be interrupted and rooted in place.
Slayer will increase the damage of Overwatch shots by 50 percent while Redeploy provides three actions. The Anchor passive is still active in between so even if Redeploy disables one’s weapon for a turn, it circumvents a major weakness for the Heavy. Take down some foes and when things get too hot, Redeploy, move to a better spot, maybe heal up and then set up shop again to dish out damage.
The last class is the Scout which utilizes a Gnasher, making them extremely deadly up-close. They fill a number of roles from chugging grenades to assassinating enemies. Start with Sprint, since this allows for traveling a good length with only one Action Point, though you need to go for a straight run to get the most out of it.
The Proximity Mine augments the Scout’s grenade and can either go off when an enemy is close. It’s perfect chokepoints and upgrading it will increase the range, damage and explosion radius. Cloak will make your Scout invisible and can be upgraded to last for two turns. Use this with Demolition Expert to plant mines or grenades while remaining in stealth. It even provides 25 percent damage reduction from explosions. Pick up Frag Grenade Mastery to reduce the cooldown on grenades and make life even harder for your enemies.
If you want to play around with the versatility, then try going with Assassination with Cloak and Demolition Expert. Every kill while Hidden will provide a free action. Again, you’ll want to look at your preferred play-style for the Scout and play around that.