Support Class (XCOM: Enemy Unknown)/Guides

Skill Comparisons[]

Two strong options with the Support Class skill tree can be building a medic specialist (predominantly left side) or building an Overwatch specialist (predominantly right side). Experienced players who have completed XCOM: Enemy Within on Classic or Impossible difficulty strictly recommend to choose Field Medic and Revive.

Sprinter vs. Covering Fire[]

Covering Fire is extremely weak; Sprinter is essentially the only choice in this tier. Sprinter offers extreme utility whereas the penalties to reactive fire combined with the Support's inferior weaponry makes Covering Fire's additional chances for reaction fire of mediocre value.

Sprinter synergies well with the use of Arc Throwers and Medikits;
Sprinter stacks with movement bonus from Skeleton Suit and Ghost Armor, providing unmatched mobility.

Covering Fire allows reaction shots to trigger on enemy attacks.
- Covering Fire provides "bonus" reaction fire opportunity in a situation where the player is certain that they need to suppress an enemy, rather than attempting to deliberately set up a situation where reaction fire can occur.
- Covering Fire synergies somewhat passably with Rifle Suppression and Sentinel; it allows reactive fire against a suppressed target who fires and increases the likelihood of two reactive shots per Overwatch exposed/flanked targets in an engagement.
  - Covering Fire still incurs the reaction fire Aim penalty present with Rifle Suppression or Overwatch, as well as any cover bonus an enemy might have.
  - The reaction fire cannot crit.
  - The Support Soldier still incurs the aim penalty associated with the enemies' cover, which when stacked with the overwatch penalty, often makes your chance to hit neglible, so much so that your Covering Fire is often just a waste of ammo, and thus worse than no Covering fire at all.
- Covering Fire frequently wastes shots and expends ammo at enemies in cover as Overwatch triggers cannot be controlled; it is generally safer to fall back and entering Overwatch as it is more likely to force an enemy to move up and be fired upon reactively while they are exposed and before they can fire.
  - Covering Fire is improved in XCOM: Enemy Within by allowing Supports on Overwatch to shoot their targets before they attack. This includes the single-target Overwatch granted against the target of Rifle Suppression.

Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors[]

Field Medic is immediately strong, whereas Smoke and Mirrors tends to need the Captain promotions to really shine. Given the strength of explosives and Squadsight Snipers at ending standoffs quickly, the tendency of Aliens and EXALT operatives to use grenades, rockets, psionic attacks and/or poison in the mid game, and the dominance of psionics late game, the niche for Smoke and Mirrors is quite small.

Field Medic allows Medikits to be used three times per mission.
- It synergizes very well with a squad containing front-line troopers with the Secondary Heart gene mod, as it guarantees that these soldiers can be lose all their HP once per mission and without taking any permanent penalties whatsoever.
- Field Medic's effectiveness is greatly increased through its synergy with the Sprinter and Savior abilities and the completion of the Medikit Foundry upgrade.

Smoke and Mirrors allows Smoke Grenade to be used two (enemy unknown) or three (enemy within) times per mission.
- As smoke grenades themselves are somewhat weak, smoke and mirrors tends to have a limited effect on your squad's ability to avoid damage.
- As the beginning of the game is significantly harder than the end, this talent can sometimes take too long to matter, even when eventually paired with +20 aim combat drugs (enemy unknown).
- Smoke and Mirrors assists most when movement between full cover positions is difficult or even impossible.
  - Lots of explosives can sometimes create deadly no-mans-lands that lack decent cover.
- Carefully-placed smoke can make overwatching aliens miss, but this is unreliable and Lightning Reflexes and Suppression can better answer overwatch. If someone takes a hit from noncritical overwatch fire, a field medic can just as easily heal them - most of the time.

Revive vs. Rifle Suppression[]

These both have merit. Revive sometimes ensures you don't lose in the numbers disadvantage too badly, whereas Rifle Suppression can help suppress enemies on overwatch, partially disable large single enemies, or threaten an enemy in danger of flanking your position.

Revive has strong synergy with the Officer Training Don't Die On Me, or the Secondary Heart Gene Mod in XCOM: Enemy Within, due to the increased odds of soldiers falling critically wounded instead of being killed. With Secondary Heart, it virtually guarantees that those troopers can lose all their HP once per mission, yet continue fighting with no detriment to performance, thus making the player's squad very resilient to mistakes especially in Iron Man mode.
Revive is a potential lifesaver but is a skill that is never used on a good mission; on a bad mission, it can salvage a potential squad wipe and hopefully open a shot at victory.

Rifle Suppression fires a barrage that pins down a target, granting reactive fire against it and imposing a -30 Aim penalty.
- Rifle Suppression is a somewhat more frequently useful skill that reduces the effectiveness of a foe's weapon fire against squad members, albeit with modest effectiveness.
- Rifle Suppression is great for partially disabling Sectopods or Mechtoids, who can fire twice per turn; using two Rifle Suppression effects, should cause any shots against targets in cover to always miss.
- Rifle Suppression, like Smoke Grenades, encourages enemies to choose alternative attacks such as grenades, rockets or psionics; none of which are affected by the suppressive Aim penalty, nor trigger the ability's reaction fire. Careful note should be taken of which enemies are suitable for suppression and which types should simply be killed.

Dense Smoke vs. Combat Drugs[]

Dense Smoke is preferred for most cases: Dense Smoke enhances the core functionality of Smoke Grenades where as Combat Drugs offers some moderate additional utility.

Dense Smoke increasing Smoke Grenade's area of effect to 4 tile radius and Defense bonus to 40.
- Dense Smoke's bonus of 40 Defense on allies in full cover combines to make 80 Defense, which is almost impenetrable to all weapons fire, even on Impossible difficulty.
- Dense Smoke can be extremely effective when thrown in front of an Alloy SHIV or MEC. If the enemy is limited to conventional weapons fire, they will struggle to stop your advance.
- Dense Smoke can be extremely effective when thrown on an ally/allies in indestructible cover.
- Dense Smoke's increased area of effect aids in squad positioning - squad members can spread to minimize the effects of AoE damage effects like grenades.
- Dense Smoke's increased defensive bonus is more likely to cause foes to re-position, use a grenade, or use abilities that aren't reliant on Aim; triggering the use of a grenade is an undesired outcome, as it both delivers unavoidable damage and destroys cover, leaving soldiers exposed to enemy fire. Thus, just as with Rifle Suppression, take this into account when deciding when to use it, and how to position your troops beforehand; Dense Smoke's increased area of effect aids in this regard.

Combat Drugs grant Smoke Grenade a +20 Will and +10 critical chance for all units in the cloud.
- In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Combat Drugs also grants a +20 Aim bonus not listed in the talent's description. This Aim bonus is more significant than anything listed in the tooltip. This greatly assists relatively inaccurate Heavies and otherwise inaccurate reactive fire at critical moments and supports lower ranking troops in landing shots to gain promotions.
- The Aim bonus has been removed in XCOM: Enemy Within, further reducing the ability's usefulness.
- Combat Drugs makes Smoke Grenade able to support almost anything, albeit in many cases in a relatively minor way. These small bonuses are often inferior to simple primary weapon fire.
- Combat Drug's critical chance gain is often marginal, but an Assault with Close and Personal (enemy unknown version) using a rifle on a close exposed target can have his crit raised from 90% to 100%, which may prove decisive.
- Combat Drugs are extremely important to synergize a Holotargetting Rapid Reaction type Heavy build with some bonus aim (enemy unknown only).
- Combat Drug's Will bonus tends to be ineffective protection against psionic encounters.
- Combat Drug's Will bonus does not benefit an XCOM soldier's psionic attacks.

Savior vs. Sentinel[]

Savior is preferred in most cases: Savior grants a reliable increase to a core strength of the class, while Sentinel offers the potential for a double attack but suffers from the penalties of reactive fire.

Savior doubles Medikits' restoration value to 8 health per use.
- Savior is a great upgrade for a Field Medic, providing three (enemy unknown) or four (enemy within) heals for 8 hp (10 hp with the Foundry upgrade).
- Savior progressively increases in utility as the player researches advanced armor and equipment that allow troops to survive significant hits and benefit from the substantial healing that this ability provides.
- Savior allows a single well-prepared medic to significantly buffer a player's potential ability to recover from bad situations, turning many difficult missions into easy victories.

Sentinel allows two reaction shots during Overwatch.
- Sentinel is the only way for a Support soldier to make two attacks per turn (thus roughly doubling a Support's damage output, the reaction fire Aim penalty notwithstanding), but is reliant on consistently getting two reaction fire chances per enemy turn. Pairing this ability with Covering Fire can maximize the opportunities for reaction shots. However take note that the other soldier classes all have more reliable and effective methods of making two or more attacks per turn, and arguably, a Support should be optimized toward maximizing their unique abilities instead.
- Sentinel cannot use heavy weapons and can only use rifle-class weapons, making them arguably the weakest offensively of all the classes. Other squad members deal significantly more damage with their specialized weaponry, more reliable methods to make multiple shots per turn, and substantial critical hit bonuses.

Builds and Tactics[]

Main article: Squad Tactics (XCOM: Enemy Unknown)Support Class builds suitable for all difficulties and DLCs:

Combat Medic Soldier[]

Early-game "savior" build (1-2 months):

Skills: Sprinter, Field Medic, Revive, Dense Smoke, Savior
Equipment: Medikits, Arc Thrower, Laser Rifle, Skeleton Suit
Upgrades: Tactical Rigging, Improved Medikit, Improved Arc Thrower, Mimetic Skin, Lead By Example
Tactics

Four Savior Medikits and a Dense Smoke Grenade helps ensure the squad's mission success, increases efficiency of alien captures and Meld recovery, and remains versatile for any situation. Even in the early game, the medic can still be trained and equipped with Mimetic Skin so that they can be effective forward observers late game.

Field Engineer Soldier[]

Mid-game "sentinel" build (3-4 months):

Skills: Covering Fire, Field Medic, Revive, Dense Smoke, Sentinel
Equipment: Arc Thrower, Ghost Grenades, Light Plasma Rifle, Ghost Armor
Upgrades: Tactical Rigging, Drone Capture, S.H.I.V. Repair, Mimetic Skin, Lead By Example
Tactics

Ideal for squads consisting of 1-3 Heavies / M.E.C.s for breaking cover, and 2-4 S.H.I.V.s for high-risk scouting and suppression. Three Dense Smoke protects the S.H.I.V.s as they absorb enemy fire. The Arc Thrower keeps the S.H.I.V.s and MECs propped up. Rifle Suppression deals with multiple tough enemies in a mission. Ghost Grenades, Sentinel and Covering Fire perform flawlessly against enemy flankers.

Covering fire alone is not much. But if you combine it with an Assault who has Lightning Reflexes, now that's a whole different story. It gives some real depth to the class system. Support on overwatch at key points and then go in with assault revealing enemies it works wonders. There is nothing more satisfying than watching an enemy get revealed and then get auto-blown up without getting a chance to do anything.

Psi-Guardian Soldier[]

Late-game "trainer" build (5+ months):

Skills: Sprinter, Field Medic, Revive, Dense Smoke, Savior
Equipment: Medikits, Flashbangs, Light Plasma Rifle, Psi Armor
Upgrades: Tactical Rigging, Mimetic Skin, Psi Inspiration, Mind Control, Lead By Example, Star of Terra
Tactics

Specifically designed for promoting low-rank troops like Rookies and Squaddies during Scout crash site missions and Covert Operations against EXALT. Psi Inspiration counteracts Psi-attacks and panic-induced Intimidate. Four Savior Medikits and Flashbangs are vital against tougher targets, locking them down and letting the greenhorns engage in "live-fire target practice".

Equipment and Upgrades[]

Equipment[]

S.C.O.P.E. is extremely useful for Supports of all ranks and builds as they maintain the furthest distance from foes than any other class (except Snipers).
Medikits
Combat Stims
Arc Thrower
Ghost Grenades ^EW
Flashbang Grenades ^EW

Gene Mods[]

Requires XCOM: Enemy Within expansion:

Hyper Reactive Pupils confers +10 Aim after missing a shot, making the second shot of Sentinel deadlier if the first misses.
Mimetic Skin greatly increases the viability of the Rifle Suppression and Alien captures. Throwing grenades does not break Mimetic Skin's cloak if enemies do not have line of sight.

Multiplayer Support Classes[]

The following is a detailed break-down of the Support Class stats and abilities in multiplayer mode.

Class	Points	Health	Aim	Will	Abilities
Smokejumper	100	7	70	45	Smoke Grenade
Medic	750	9	82	65	Smoke Grenade - Sprinter - Field Medic - Revive - Dense Smoke
Tac Officer	1000	9	82	65	Smoke Grenade - Smoke and Mirrors - Covering Fire - Rifle Suppression - Combat Drugs
Imperator	2000	10	90	75	Smoke Grenade - Sprinter - Smoke and Mirrors - Rifle Suppression - Combat Drugs - Deep Pockets - Sentinel
Psi Guardian	2500	9	85	70	Smoke Grenade - Sprinter - Field Medic - Revive - Dense Smoke - Deep Pockets Psionic: Mindfray - Psi Inspiration - Telekinetic Field

Note: Each soldier class has a base cost of 800 points, which would need to be added to the values above to determine the point value of a particular soldier. The above point and stat values reflect the default (0 point) equipment load-out.

Multiplayer Tactics[]

Support Class soldiers are surprisingly effective in multiplayer. Their Medikits can save a unit and bring it back into battle or heal a soldier to flank an unsuspecting enemy once again.

General

Light Plasma Rifle and a scope grants 110 Aim on attack and 90 Aim in Overwatch.
Suppression stacks: reducing the target's Aim by 30% (each) and grants a free reaction shot at no penalty.

Imperators

Imperators are rare, deadly, and efficient with the correct loadout:

Sentinel Support can hit the same enemy in Overwatch twice. This occurs when the Support leaves cover then fires, ducks into cover and then when fully crouched-the animation is ready, if the enemy is still moving it will pop back up again and take a second shot, very lethal.
Chitin Plating and/or Mind Shield are effective counters to either Chryssalids or Sectoid Commanders. (Making it cost 4050 points).
Carapace Armor or Skeleton Suit boosts survivability cheaply.

Smoke Jumper

Smoke Jumper combined with a Sectoid Commander deals with any big threat strong enough to overwhelm the squad

Add 3 Sectoids, their 4 damage Plasma Pistols are excellent at strafe-fire, Mind Mergeing and suppression afar in a safe place. These Sectoids can reduce a target's Aim to 1%.