Solider vs Neptune

[sparda4]

Who's better in shorter missions and who's in longer ? And what's the difference between their OW skills ?

[drspendlove]

Neptune's OW skill is strictly better. Check out the wiki for details on that.

The Neptune tends to not have much mobility, which can be a hinderance on some maps, but depending on the build, can put out much more AoE AND single-target damage than the soldier.

The soldier has a lower SP cost which can give the rest of your squad a small boost. They also have group buffs that can further augment your group; one of them increases group mobility.

So it really depends on the map. I prefer Neptunes but will always use at least one soldier for the buffs and cheaper cost.

[drspendlove]

Regarding the OW differences IIRC: Better heat cost, more penetration, higher critical hit chance for neptune.

[contributor]

I don't think there's a definitive answer to this. It feels worn-out to keep saying it, but so much depends on the team build and overall tactics and the needs of a particular mission. If it's long and will require somebody camped-out holding a lone position, probably Neptune all the way. If you have to cover a lot of ground, or your tactics include high speed to shorten a potentially long mission you're going to need a soldier for Rallying Cry. It's been awhile since I've played, but I think there are still some Neptune builds that pretty mobile and don't overheat as bad. Again it's more a question of what kind of Neptune build do you want for a long mission, or a moving mission, or do you just want somebody to be a stationary wall.

Then there's also the secondary question of SP and how quickly you need to deploy people and what your unit caps are. Sometimes getting out two units earlier has a big advantage, other times having one Neppy who can hold back a tide that would require 2 soldiers makes a bid difference.

[Cory Trese]

One often overlooked mechanic is that reduced mobility also means heat reduction via "stored" MP.

In a situation, either a siege or a defense, where heat and damage management is more important than speed, the Neptune will always excel.

[sparda4]

So in esence the soliders are the "Mobile" unit's while the neptunes are the machine gun units ? Alright thanks everyone.

[Cory Trese]

Roughly speaking, yes, but keep in mind that mobility is more than raw MP at the start of your turn.

A lot of time you cannot spend all your MP -- because of heat, targets, terrain or objectives.

Into a horde of Xeno, the Neptune advances faster.

When a Neptune buffs up, she digs in. When a Soldier boosts up, she rallies for the charge.

[sparda4]

Then let's say i have a tact point but i have objectives all around. What's better in that case ? To dig in with the neptune or to charge ahead with soliders and the rest of the squad ?

[En1gma]

In my experience, there are very few situations that I've seen (and I've played since the alpha) in which the Neptune would be a better choice than the Soldier.

There aren't many missions that require you to hold your ground for extended periods of time, and this is why the Soldier shines in every single mission. Neptunes are capable of dealing crowd damage second only to the Hydra, but their mobility is their greatest limiting factor. Rallying Charge is possibly the single best talent in the game, and instead of forcing you to slow progress to accommodate the slowest member of the unit, you make your Battleforce a mobile unit while boosting damage significantly.

Hands down, Soldier is better IMHO.

[En1gma]

I'm breezing through a Brutal run with a full roster of Soldiers. Cheap, diverse, and brutally effective. If you haven't tried this yet I'd highly suggest it as a way to realize the true power of the Soldier.

[hissrad]

I like Neptunes,they put out a lot of damage and lock stuff down like champs. They're superior to soldier in a bunch of ways but....soldiers are easier to handle,cheaper so you can field more and have some sweet buffs.

I usually get way more use out of soldier but a good Neptune or two can save your teams butts against a swarm or have the power to take on the meanest xenos you'll come across.

I like to pair a couple with a paladin for a B team on big missions

[Cory Trese]

Soldiers are force enablers -- they're medium speed / damage / toughness with good utility. You cannot go wrong using some Soldiers.

[Brutus Aurelius]

Aug 26, 2017 17:05:42 GMT -5 En1gma said:

I'm breezing through a Brutal run with a full roster of Soldiers. Cheap, diverse, and brutally effective. If you haven't tried this yet I'd highly suggest it as a way to realize the true power of the Soldier.

A 5 Neptune list will do just as well

[En1gma]

For that cost you could just go with 6 Soldiers

[drspendlove]

A few tidbits to contribute:

Neptunes have better Toughness than Soldiers (150% versus 100%) and better Resistance (125% versus 100%) but worse HP gain per point of fortitude (6 versus 7). Ignoring gear for a moment, this leaves Neptunes a little better to handle lots of smaller hits but soldiers in a better place to handle a few larger hits.

Soldiers have grenades for some supplementary AoE damage and debuffing, which is nice. However, getting moderately accurate with these requires points in the Grenade skill while the Neptune has plenty of AoE choices that all rely on Gunnery.

Also the Neptune has an additional point of Focus and Tactics to start with which means +1% Critical Hit chance and +1% Auto-block over the soldier just from starting stats.

The biggest unmentioned distinction is the gear choices though. I don't have enough knowledge there to give a reasonable explanation though.