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[Leafsnail]

I was gonna buy this since I enjoyed the first one and have a real computer now. Is the Digital Deluxe edition worth getting? I haven't seen too many good reviews for the DLC and I'd probably leave the difficulty increasing ones off at least at first.

[Neonivek]

I was gonna buy this since I enjoyed the first one and have a real computer now. Is the Digital Deluxe edition worth getting? I haven't seen too many good reviews for the DLC and I'd probably leave the difficulty increasing ones off at least at first.

If the money matters... Not really... They are kind of meh and on the side.

Not anywhere close to the level of content as say... The Meld expansion in the first game.

It isn't terrible... just not very well thought out and you are seriously not missing anything by skipping them.

[Toaster]

I was gonna buy this since I enjoyed the first one and have a real computer now. Is the Digital Deluxe edition worth getting? I haven't seen too many good reviews for the DLC and I'd probably leave the difficulty increasing ones off at least at first.

If the money matters... Not really... They are kind of meh and on the side.

Not anywhere close to the level of content as say... The Meld expansion in the first game.

It isn't terrible... just not very well thought out and you are seriously not missing anything by skipping them.

I'll second this, noting that there are strong signs that another DLC is coming soon.

[Rince Wind]

Not really fair to compare it to Enemy Within though, as that was a proper expansion, not DLC. Friends in low Places and the French Psi-Woman are fair comparisons.
I'd say Shen's last Gift is worth it, as you get a new (if not very powerful) class and a fun mission.
Children... ist pure cosmetics. Some dislike it, because it takes away some seriousness with all the cyberpunky and post apocalyptic stuff, but I kinda like it.
The Alien rulers are the difficult one. They shake up the game and force you to do stuff differently while they are in the mission, but they do give you access to some nice armor once dead, and some equipment even before you know about them. I am especially fond of the axe.

[Flying Dice]

Alien Rulers is 100% worth it IMO, between the added (unexpected) difficulty, the new items (which are different enough to allow classes to play in new ways), and the Vahlen tease <3. The rest are hit-or-miss. Cosmetics are cosmetics, and SPARKS aren't very good. The mission for Shen's Last Gift is ballbreakingly hard if you do it with ballistics and kevlar, for what it's worth.

[Neonivek]

I'll state that the reason why Alien Rulers themselves are difficult is because they move after every unit turn.

Ohh sorry... I am being silly, they get a full turn after every half-action (Which in... real life terms... every alien ruler is sonic). So you typically have to cheap them to death.

[Twinwolf]

I seem to be in the minority that had minimal trouble with the Alien Rulers DLC, but this may be because I knew what was coming and waited to be well into magnetic tech (actually had the plasma rifles too) before unleashing the rulers. Viper King hurt a bit, Berserker Queen never got an attack off, Archon King got screwed by my Psi-Op Stasis-ing him to give the team time to set up.

[Neonivek]

I seem to be in the minority that had minimal trouble with the Alien Rulers DLC, but this may be because I knew what was coming and waited to be well into magnetic tech (actually had the plasma rifles too) before unleashing the rulers. Viper King hurt a bit, Berserker Queen never got an attack off, Archon King got screwed by my Psi-Op Stasis-ing him to give the team time to set up.

The issue isn't whether or not you find them tough... It is where their toughness comes from. Which is that they egregiously break the rules of the game.

[GiglameshDespair]

Ohh sorry... I am being silly, they get a full turn after every half-action (Which in... real life terms... every alien ruler is sonic). So you typically have to cheap them to death.

No, they don't. They get a action, not a full turn.

The issue isn't whether or not you find them tough... It is where their toughness comes from. Which is that they egregiously break the rules of the game.

Ignoring how an enemy programmed by the game devs 'breaks the rules of the game'...

I reckon they have to gain a bonus in the action economy to pose the threat that they do. Even such things as Sectopods go down under focused fire. Gaining an action after the player acts is a pretty good way of increasing their threat, and more importantly, forces the player to act differently to normal. They could have just added a stronger enemy, but that wouldn't have been good - the alien rulers as they are shake up gameplay a bit and make you have to strategise differently to other enemies.
 

[Neonivek]

I see that but even games that do that to their bosses do basically a few things.

One is they give them a "partial turn" after every full turn. (not after every half-turn)

Another is they limit what actions they can take during those partial turns to a weaker than usual attack.

The result of how they do it in Xcom 2 is why the fights against these "bosses" kind of devolve into what they currently are. It isn't a coincidence that they give you a free freeze grenade. Especially in a game like Xcom 2 where fighting is not only deadly but debilitating to lose.

It can be done better is all I am saying. It isn't trash, but I wouldn't look forward to fighting them for a good time (except maybe to laugh at how I can curbstomp them through lockdown).

[GiglameshDespair]

Eh.

Most of the ruler attacks aren't actually all that strong, damage wise, so they do a lot of attacks against a lot of people. Makes them dangerous but not so lethal. They injure people a lot but very rarely kill, in my experience.

It's not like they weren't compensated for. The Archon King's blazing pinions is weaker than the ordinary archons, to make up for it being mostly undodgeable.

[SOLDIER First]

Ignoring how an enemy programmed by the game devs 'breaks the rules of the game'...

Actually, there are a lot of enemies in other games that blatantly break the rules (even though they "aren't" because they were programmed so). If it applies to the player but *~mysteriously~* not to the enemies, they're breaking the rules, dammit!

[RAM]

Can we agree that a disable-focused team will find rulers to be easy-mode and a brute-force team will find them to be hardmode? And in that case, doesn't it seem kind of like they are free goodie-bags for those in the know and brutal murderers to anyone who wants to play the game ignorantly but likes things shook up a little? Hard counters always seems sort of like a disappointment to me...

[Neonivek]

Can we agree that a disable-focused team will find rulers to be easy-mode and a brute-force team will find them to be hardmode? And in that case, doesn't it seem kind of like they are free goodie-bags for those in the know and brutal murderers to anyone who wants to play the game ignorantly but likes things shook up a little? Hard counters always seems sort of like a disappointment to me...

It isn't only that but also the way they introduced. They can attack you at anytime on any mission (well... ok not ANY mission... but you don't know that).

However if a mission is going poorly or you aren't prepared for them... You are dead.

You can retreat if things got too dicey normally before you go against the tougher enemies. You can't on them...

Among other things. They are a combination of factors that don't mesh well as far as game design is concerned... they are very overbearing. Which I know is the point, they are meant to sort of create paranoia...

[Rolan7]

Can we agree that a disable-focused team will find rulers to be easy-mode and a brute-force team will find them to be hardmode?

You know, I'd been hearing this long before I started playing again and got to the rulers.  One of the specific suggestions was flashbangs...  So I flashbanged the Archon King.  It just used blazing pinions for like 15-20 damage, was a total waste of time.

I'm not sure if I froze one or not.  I seem to remember trying some stun that only gained me a half-turn, AKA practically a wash, but I could be misremembering.
I guess it's tricky because, yeah, it's a fresh mechanic.  Or put another way, it's incredibly arbitrary...  makes it frustrating, especially with blazing f'ing pinions.  The Viper didn't cause me any trouble, but the Archon butchered.  The Muton got some hits too...  I guess an overwatch trap would help a lot, but that involves some lucky scouting.

I don't think I ever found the rulers in concealment, I wonder if that's a thing.