Hot damn was that exciting! I wish I had been recording that one! We were off to a cautious start, since I was in full view of one of those Mist-spewers. I managed to pick off some kind of cocoon on the wall. I eased up one of my Assaults and picked a careful barrage and got 5/6 shots to connect. Needless to say this did not go well with the neighbors.
Next turn my Sniper’s Deadly Duo took out two Crabbies. My Assault popped Exertion and flanked a Crabby for as close as I could get for a shotgun burst. It survived with 1 HP!!! It’s return-fire from such close range absolutely devastated me, rendering my arm inoperable and leaving me with 2 HP, 1 Wound. My Soldier limped back to cover while my Tech was too far away to heal. Luckily the Crabbie bled out before there could be any further issues. Next turn, my now 1-HP soldier met my Tech for some much-needed TLC.
The Crabbies weren’t having their tete a tete though, harassing us with plinks of damage. The Sniper actually got a lucky return-fire shot off with his Pistol for a whopping 4 damage. In a moment of frustration, I placed my Tech’s turret down. This little bugger had to be the best placed one of all time. Not only did it manage to deal a massive 12 damage to the Mist-spawner in one barrage, it also managed to pick off 4 more Crabbies over the course of the battle. Between the turret, Techie, and Assault I had so much return-fire going it wasn’t uncommon to wipe an attacker out.
My other Assault and my Heavie meanwhile got bored and decided to wander the other way. They met a few stragglers until I finally encountered some massive creature that legit made me yell “Holy Sh*t!” I took a breath though and scanned this new target. It was so massive my Assault Rifle and Shotgun would have no issues hitting the massive thing with every shot. I decided to use my Willpower for Rapid Clearance, recognizing more of the Cocoons on this thing. We’ve all seen the 1980’s Aliens movie, and I wasn’t having this. With his Will spent, I opted for the Shotgun and finished the job in spectacular fashion.
Great. But you know that only Assault can return fire? This is one of the changes in Backers Build 3. No other class is allowed to do that even if they have proper weapon for this ability.
Thanks for clearing that up. Pretty sure I switched my tech to a shotgun fairly early, so may have missed noticing/forgotten about it. I assume the pdw also counts as agile.
I’ve had situations where an assault will switch from a grenade launcher to return fire with an assault rifle. (Edited to add: automatically, they switched on their own)
It is a known bug when soldier select his first weapon while overwatching or in case of Assault even while returning fire. But return fire should be performed only by Assault.
Out of curiosity where in the game’s manual or news or patch notes does it specify only the assault to be returning fire? I cleared out a second nest and I can definitely confirm technicians will return fire with a PDW
first comment from William Cross (one of the developers)
And I must say it is strange what you write. My Technician was running with PDW (or Defender) many times and didn’t return fire even single time. But it may be a bug in my case, because I messed up little bit with inventory. Defender wasn’t primary weapon for my technician.
EDIT:
I started BB3 again and tested my techinican with PDW. He did not return fire in any situation even with Defender as his primary weapon. I don’t know what you have done to make your technician to return fire. What gear exactly does he has in his inventory (order in prepared items is important).
I may only suspect that every soldier has some personal ability which we can’t check or see, and your technician for some reason has Return Fire ability and my not.
Can anyone else confirm that their technicians return fire with any agile weapon?
This is one of the changes in Backers Build 3. No other class is allowed to do that even if they have proper weapon for this ability.
Then for some reason my technician didn’t return fire with anything in his hands, so probably I should report a bug. 
