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[Teneb]

You also fight all of them during the campaign, so no need to worry about that.

[Cthulhu]

Are their abilities persistent or do they change?  The way they're introduced really felt like their characteristics were randomized.

Random nemesis enemies that can appear multiple times in a campaign would be a really fun addition.

[GiglameshDespair]

Their weaknesses and strengths are randomly generated for each campaign (except the first Chosen you meet will be weak to your starting special if you don't go with Lost and Abandoned).

They can gain new strengths as the campaign goes on, but they'll never have the same strengths or weaknesses as each other.

[umiman]

It's all fun and games until your starting Chosen is the Assassin without the Lost mission.

And she's immune to explosions as a starting trait.

Prepare for immediate abandoning the first retaliation mission she shows up in.

[GiglameshDespair]

Weep when you encounter a chosen immune to explosives and who regenerates.

I've never encountered the Warlock as my first Chosen, but honestly I'd say on legendary the Hunter can be worse than the Assassin for your first chosen encounter.

If he wants to, he vaults around your dudes, killing one per turn with each shot. His manoeuvrability lets him always have height and flanking bonuses so he never misses.

[Cthulhu]

My assassin ignores overwatch and can  shoot back on missed shots.  The overwatch thing is really fucking annoying with her constantly running out of visibility.  She's weak to high-ground attacks though which helps a lot.  First random appearance was in a catch-the-boxes mission with The Lost.  I ended up evacing with Mox unconscious and the medic who was trying to save him dead.

Do stabilized units automatically evac or something?  I stabilized him but couldn't extract him, and he apparently survived and made it onto the skyranger somehow.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I believe that's because box hunting is normally a non-evac mission, so it just uses the rule that any living soldiers are recovered even though you evac'd.

[Cthulhu]

Are patrols random or do they intentionally move in ways that you'll come across them?  Doing the first black site and I keep getting thrown in the dumpster by multiple patrols, tried to go around them and minimize contact but then the first patrol started moving the opposite direction it usually goes, right into my alternate route.

[Culise]

Looking around, it seems they'll move into your path, or more precisely, they move so that at least one pod will block the path to the objective.  That's likely what you're seeing if you're still under stealth.  If you're not under stealth, it depends on difficulty: on lower difficulty levels, the AI will sometimes steer unengaged pods away from a firefight to avoid overloading the player, while on higher difficulty levels, it will steer them into the firefight (reinforcement). 

The reference I found is couple years old, though, so it may not be perfectly applicable to the new expansion pack.  I'd also make an ancillary note that it definitely doesn't apply to Long War 2, for those who play that instead of the expansion. 

[Cthulhu]

That explains it.  I've done this mission every possible way, there's so many things piling on at once.  I reloaded to the geoscape and I'm gonna try it again when all my sergeants are healed.  The game feels like it moves so much faster though, I feel like I'm throwing the game away if I waste any time at all.

[GiglameshDespair]

WOTC escalates faster than vanilla 2, but your power level increases faster too.

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, I'm not really having any problems with the escalation, just with the avatar project constantly "HEY I'M TICKING UP YOU'RE GONNA LOSE SOON HEY HEY HEY HURRY UP" while I'm trying to get ready.  I've got a lot of strong guys but they're wounded or occupied, I think I went into the black site too weak.  The assassin's ignore overwatch ability really fucks me over, almost impossible to stop her from hitting a guy every round.

I got through the blacksite with no casualties and even took out the assassin, but then the last group of sectoids and the reinforcements just take my squad apart like we're not even in cover.  This game is fucking exhausting.

[Nighthawk]

Yeah, I'm not really having any problems with the escalation, just with the avatar project constantly "HEY I'M TICKING UP YOU'RE GONNA LOSE SOON HEY HEY HEY HURRY UP" while I'm trying to get ready.  I've got a lot of strong guys but they're wounded or occupied, I think I went into the black site too weak.  The assassin's ignore overwatch ability really fucks me over, almost impossible to stop her from hitting a guy every round.

I got through the blacksite with no casualties and even took out the assassin, but then the last group of sectoids and the reinforcements just take my squad apart like we're not even in cover.  This game is fucking exhausting.

If you're willing to start a new campaign there's an option to double the length of the avatar project timer, giving you more pips to work with before it's full. I don't think it ruins the game, but it does make it significantly easier because you have a lot of time to prepare before really going in. I agree the game can be exhausting, and if you ever feel like you're not having fun, it's often best to make little tweaks and find your favorite way to play.

The assassin is really troublesome at first, but isn't too hard to deal with once you know her shtick. You're going to take damage, so make sure you have a medic present and stocked; maybe even bring extra medkits on other soldiers. Keep your units separate, but not too far apart, to guarantee she doesn't do a crazy AOE ability to disable two or more of them at a time. Keep in mind you can reveal her while she's invisible if you flank her, so pay attention to where she runs off after attacking and flank whatever cover she's using. Then absolutely double down and do as much damage in a single turn as possible to absolutely delete her before she gets more annoying.

Also, battle scanners are your friend. They can reveal her location within an area if you chuck one.

Good luck, soldier.

[umiman]

Yeah, I also permanently keep the timer on double.

Just mod the game or change it to what suits you.

[EnigmaticHat]

IIRC the assassin can be quickly brought down by guessing which bit of cover she's concealed behind, then blowing it up and rushing her.  If she gets that ability where she teleports after taking damage that actually makes the process easier since her teleports are less intelligent than her moves.

Alternately, with good healers and the bond recover-from-stun ability she's surprisingly easy to ignore.  For a few turns at least.  There's some condition under which she's guaranteed to never use the gun but I don't remember what it is; I think all you have to do is stay close enough that she can move into melee.

Basically you can't defend against her and trying will probably cause her to shoot someone.  Ignore or attack.  Once your squad size is six and you have at least one decent healer you should be able to endure until she tries to take a prisoner and then simply let her (last resort obviously).  Haven't played Xcom 2 in a while so grain of salt.

(ninja'd but whatever)