Yes Sirens are real PITA i mean they’re hard as F to deal with but there are ways (Disable head, then mind-control her for free by Priest :D).
The only thing i would change is that the scream should have requirement for Line of Sight. I had a Nest mission and there was a long mountain-wall right at the beginning. One Siren was behind that mountain and she screamed the hell out of my soldiers on second turn. There was no way i could know about her and there was nothing i could do. It does not seems right. Some alien yelling behind a huge pile of rock should not scare half of my bad-ass soldiers …
1 or 2 is fine. But, I just went into a mission, early game and there were 6 of them. No way to deal with that. Especially given they can cross the entire map within a turn or two.
Agreed, I just entered a Lair where 3 or 4 sirens immediately came at me in turn 1, and it was the first time I just sighed and quit the game. God knows how many more lingering in the back if I were to continue that mission.
But if they as in my case can field 4 at same time ( 3 come in one group) at 4%, and that was half to a third of the total Pandorans. Then they are no LT or mini-boss they are just a common soldier.
I agree that the problem isn’t that the Sirens are hard, it’s that the number of them that spawn is overkill. They are at least as tough and more dangerous than chiron (providing you are aiming at weak points) but they can come 3-4 to a spawnery mission. For my second play through I’m making more use of berzerker character precisely for their mind control immunity and then giving them a second class for ranged firepower.
One of the major problems is that when you see one, you have to stop what you’re doing and focus everyone on it. The result is there are usually a couple of assault guys nearby who have ‘return fire’. So if one of them gets brain washed, then all of a sudden every shot you take against it gets you a shotgun to the fact care of your brain washed Assault dude.
So I agree, they are too fast, too powerful and have too long a range for brain wash. If they were a bit slower and had to be in B2B contact to brainwash then I think this would solve the problem.
I agree with you there - But I think it is more that the number of them should be reduced, not the individual Sirens themselves that need to be nerfed.
Honestly, the Siren is why I stopped playing the game, only a few hours in the campaign in the second difficulty level, until a patch fixes the balance and the other problems that drag this game down to its grave. I stopped playing again a few days ago, but today I was feeling great - for reasons unrelated to the game - and I decided to jump back in. Big mistake.
First mission for the day is to take down a nest. The first unit I encounter is a 550HP/30 Armor Siren that mind controls 2 Assault units with Return Fire in one turn. Good luck taking this one out without taking a ton of damage from your own soldiers who stand a few feet away from the other soldiers. I guess this is a good reason to stay away from Return Fire, but this ability is so broken on the enemies (basically unlimited Overwatch shots without the need for the enemy to move) and I was tempted to give it to my soldiers. The equivalenet of the Siren in XCOM would be a hybrid between an Armored Berserker and a Sectoid with the ability to use Mind Control twice each turn. Absurd, I know. And yet here we are.
The game at this point has some good qualities, but the bad are so infuriating that I end up leaving every session angry. The solution was rather simple. Uninstall so I am not tempted again. Perhaps in a year or two the game will be in a playable state. It was a smart idea to stay away from Steam since there this game would be buried under a “Mostly Negative” rating. And why Epic’s lack of a rating system might look appealing to the devs of unfinished games.
The thing that irks me is their mind control. They take one of my guys? ok no problem, then another one pops up and controls another, still, I’ve got this. tried disarming one of their heads (not sure if that undoes the mind control it should in theory) but i couldn’t. then next turn they mind control 2 MORE soldiers. NOW is the time to restart. I like a challenge, but it can’t be denied that their are some balance issues. If the game can take just about your entire squad away from you, it moves from being about strategy to being about…something else. they should limit the number of targets they control to one, at least at first. maybe as part of their evolution they get to take control of more at mid to late game.
Yeah, it’s in Nests when Sirens can just appear around a tight corner that causes the problem and makes them feel unbalanced, along with RF from your own soldiers.
If you see them from a distance then sniper shots to the head make them unable to mind-control but in nests it’s not necessarily possible.
I feel a Siren (or two) appearing among your squad at close range is one of several random feeling ways to lose most (or possibly all) of your squad, which in turn could effectively end the campaign.
Couple that with the fact that repeating the early campaign over and over is going to feel easy and time consuming (so many missions), so therefore will be boring for many. Imho, I think this means that Ironman mode is going to feel way off.
I’m actually wondering if that’s the real reason it hasn’t been patched in yet; they realised that new players would sink 15+ hours into the game, moving along fine, only to get wrecked by what seems like an unbalanced/random mechanic and would therefore be enraged and not bother to finish it, possibly leading to poor word of mouth. Many games manage IM successfully without losing your saves so what’s taking Snapshot so long?
I think Mind Control and some of the other powerful abilities both for pandora and soldiers should use a cooldown. It makes no sense one siren mind-controlling one soldier each turn…
Siren is dangerous in close range but moving relative slow. If possible, Incendiary grenades can block their way. Or Just use one turn to fall back for better condition. If there are no way out, retreat is accetable in phoenix point.
Just came across SEVEN sirens (at least), plus the usual assortment of arthons, etc. They frenzy each other, putting pretty much the entire map in mind control range. It’s not hard to dash and kill one or two; but doing so depletes WP - exactly what you don’t want with a bunch of other speedy sirens nearby. I’ve restarted the scenario again and again, but never getting remotely close. Will keep on trying…
Seriously Like Narkon I just end playing that game. When you encounter 2 sirens in the first diplomacy mission, day 11-01-2017 not even 2 weeks in game it’s just ridiculous. You cannot pierce their armor just doing Zero damage and maybe a few bits in the head but too much turns to down that one mob so two at the same time it’s just not fair game and not interresting.