XCOM Multiplayer Analysis Part 2: Aliens
Unlike XCOM, Alien base prices are completely accurate. The only customization you can engage in is giving them witty nicknames.
Aliens
Sectoid: 400 Points (500 post-patch)
If you're going to insist on fielding an XCOM guy in full kit, you're going to be deploying some Sectoids just because you won't have the points to spare on better for filling out team slots. Having the full team of 6 units is just too valuable.
Sectoids are in some ways better than a Smokejumper, doing the same damage but with unlimited ammo, having Suppression spam, and being able to use Mind Merge for utility functions. Among other points, Mind Merge can be used to heal a Sectoid or Sectoid Commander if you get a quiet period, as it adds a hit point and doesn't take it away unless their new max is below their resulting current HP. The healing is a bit of a niche scenario, but still worth commentary, particularly for Sectoid Commanders.
In Enemy Within they're also a useful supporting unit to Mechtoids, as the shield is a fairly powerful benefit, even if the enemy has the tools to try to punish it, as theoretically you won't be as dumb as the AI is about doing things like putting the Sectoid close enough to the Mechtoid for an Alien Grenade to hit them both. This is good, as Mechtoids are expensive -3 Mechtoids leaves you with 100 points that you can't actually spend anything. 2 Mechtoids supported by Sectoids probably makes more sense if you want a Mechtoid-heavy force.
Sectoids are fairly convenient as disposable scouts, spotters, and suppressors, though obviously they're inferior to... pretty much every Alien except Drones if you have points to spare on such. They work on a design level.
I'm unsure why the balance patch raised their price. Oh well.
Drone: 1100 Points (400 post-patch, which is supposed to be a 300-point decrease relative to EW base)
In Enemy Unknown, never buy Drones. Never.
In base Enemy Within, they're still probably overpriced.
Post-patching, they gain the niche of being the cheapest unit in the entire game since Sectoids are now upped a bit in cost. Their ability to repair robots is also much more relevant in Enemy Within thanks to Mechtoids being vaguely reasonably priced and acceptably durable, so a Drone might be worth taking on its own merits if you have robots to support. Seekers and Drones are, unfortunately, too fragile to be liable to benefit from the repair utility, but Cyberdiscs and Mechtoids work well as receivers of healing, and for Mechtoids there's something of a synergy with the shield from Sectoid Mind Merge. Tank a lot of punishment, get out of view, get repaired of what damage you did take, and go out with a new shield!
All that said, Drones are probably less "actually good for their price" and more "if you're filling out your last slot or two and don't have many points left and you're a robot-heavy force anyway, Drones might make more sense than Sectoids." Even then, Sectoids are overall better at making your Mechtoids hard to kill, not to mention have better damage, the ability to Suppress...
Still, you shouldn't simply forget they exist like some of the Multiplayer options.
Floater: 1300 Points (1000 post-patch)
In Enemy Unknown and base Enemy Within, they're overpriced and not worth it. Nearly their only value worth commentary is the Launch ability, and they're just too weak to really take advantage of it. (Flight is nice, but not remotely that nice) The fact that they don't need cover helps, but not as much as you might hope. They actually have trouble competing with Sectoids for value, aside from costing far more! One extra HP, only 5 extra Aim if you assume high ground bonus... note that Launch ends the Floater's turn, so it can't be used to flank and attack a target in a single turn. They're basically relying entirely on their innate flight to be relevant, and frankly Thin Men having Leap has pretty much the same value while being a more useful unit in other realms.
Post-patching... I can see buying a Floater if you have something like 1000 points to spare. If it's a little over (eg 1150 points), it's easy to take a Smokejumper and give them a Light Plasma Rifle, but if it's 1000 to 1100 and you've only got the one slot left, a Floater might be worth considering. Even then, at 1100 I'd give more serious consideration to Thin Men.
Thin Man: 1400 Points (1100 post-patch) (Thin Men use their Normal Difficulty stats, except that they have 4 HP and no damage penalty, as per Classic Difficulty)
Also overpriced in Enemy Unknown and base Enemy Within.
Post-patching they're a little cheaper, but they're still held back by a mediocre attack, low HP, and limited utility from their advantages, exacerbated by the fact that Mutons have been made cheaper too -now instead of a Muton being slightly over twice the price of a Thin Man, they're exactly twice the price. It's almost always more useful to lob an Alien Grenade than a Poison Spit, especially since robots, Thin Men, Chryssalids, Mecs, and XCOM units in heavy armor or with a Respirator Unit equipped or carrying a Medikit are all flat-out immune to Poison where nothing is immune to an Alien Grenade, and a Muton's advantages in direct damage and durability will tend to outweigh a Thin Man's theoretical utility ability. The points cost reduction does at least give them an edge over a Skeleton Suit xcommie-
-oh wait, a Smokejumper with Watcher has the same mobility advantage, costs 100 points less, is tougher... give them their own Light Plasma Rifle and they're instead 150 points more expensive, but all the Thin Man has at that point is Poison Spit/Poison immunity/explode into Poison cloud on death/very slightly cheaper.
So basically if you've got an empty slot and exactly 1100 points leftover, they're probably your best choice. Otherwise, they're very dubious.
They're still basically flatly superior to Floaters, though.
Muton: 2850 Points (2200 post-patch)
The staple Alien unit before they cut its cost, the Muton is a powerful and flexible unit with a reasonable points cost for its utility. Its only notable flaw is a weakness to psionic action, and this flaw is less relevant than you'd think due to how hideously over-priced psionic ability is on the whole. Given a single competent XCOM psionic unit is liable to be supported by little better than Sectoids, the ability to lob an Alien Grenade is extremely relevant against such forces. Only Sectoid Commanders truly render the Muton's poor Will particularly relevant, and they can be reliably accounted for with robotic support. (Just remember that Mechtoids are susceptible to Psi!) Mutons even throw in the "Ammo Conservation" Foundry Project's effect for free, meaning they will almost never have to reload. Pound for pound, Mutons are worth their cost, especially once the patch slashed their price such that it's possible to field 3 Mutons and still have points to get a full force of 6 units!
Intimidate, Blood Call, and Suppression are all nice bonuses, too, and having them attached to an already-viable unit makes them relevant even if you don't consider them worth taking into account when teambuilding. Since Alien units mostly have poor Will, Intimidate is even fairly likely to matter to competitive matches!
Note that they wield Plasma Rifles rather than Light Plasma Rifles, maximizing their damage potential.
Chryssalid: 3000 Points
Bad.
Chryssalid's would be overpriced even if XCOM units were the staple of the game, but the fact that they can't zombify Alien units severely limits their utility. A Berserker is only 1/3rd more expensive and yet is more than twice as tough and considerably more likely to actually reach melee range and land a hit, and Berserkers do 50% more damage than Chryssalids. (Ignoring the effects of Poison, admittedly) Berserkers also benefit from Blood Call, and I've already noted that Mutons are a staple unit so that's a relevant advantage. Poison on a melee hit isn't worth it and the zombification effect will be completely irrelevant in entire matchups, and even in the matchups it can crop up in it's unlikely to actually matter -the Chryssalid needs to land the killing blow to produce a Zombie, and XCOM soldiers tend to only be deployed as fairly elite units anyway, as their cannon fodder potential is usually exceeded easily by various Alien units like Sectoids.
The one thing in the Chryssalid's favor is their innate Leap access, which a canny player can use to flank the enemy and unexpectedly land a lethal hit, largely bypassing their flaws. They're... still rather expensive, even if you're confident in your ability to pull this trick off reliably. Furthermore, their melee attack is only 1 point more damage than a Thin Man's Light Plasma Rifle -if you want a Leap-abusing ambush Alien, Thin Men are depressingly likely to do better, and can even inflict Poison themselves via their Poison Spit ability.
Sectoid Commander: 3200 Points (2700 post-patch)
The only legal Psi unit unquestionably worth fielding, and actually quite an amazing unit, with good durability, a free Alien Grenade, unlimited ammo and built-in Suppression, and a good Will score. Even Mass Mind Merge is useful in the base game thanks to Sectoids tending to be how you round out your numbers, and in Enemy Within Mechtoids make it even better! Then the patch reduced its cost, making it even betterer!
The fact that its Plasma Pistol has poor damage is only a consistent flaw against robots, as they are immune to Mind Fray and Mind Control. This is more relevant in Enemy Within, where Seekers have been added, but is still only a big problem if you over-commit to leaning on psi-spam. A single Sectoid Commander is still a useful unit even against a robot-heavy enemy force, between its Alien Grenade, Mass Mind Merge, and free Suppression, and Mechtoids are actually susceptible to Psi, so by a "robot-heavy force" I basically mean one that's a Cyberdisc, some Drones, and maybe a Seeker. The viability of such a force seems low to me, personally, so it's not even much of a flaw in practice.
Heavy Floater: 3750 Points (3000 post-patch)
Pre-patch, I consider the Heavy Floater somewhat overpriced. The utility of flight per se and the Launch skill are nice, but a Muton Elite costs only 50 points more while having more HP, better base Aim, innate Defense helping make up for flight-based Defense, and a more lethal weapon. The ability to largely ignore terrain is nice, but not amazing. Ultimately the main advantage of the Heavy Floater is that it can never be flanked unless it chooses to take regular cover.
Post-patch, it's still an expensive unit, and worse is actually 100 more points than the Muton Elite, but it's at least the overall best flight-capable unit that isn't insanely expensive (I'm including XCOM units in Archangel Armor here), so if you do value flight utility, it's the go-to choice.
Muton Elite: 3800 Points (2900 post-patch)
Before the patch, very pricey and difficult to combine with regular Mutons to take advantage of Blood Call. Ultimately it's a good unit, but 3800 points is just very limiting to the rest of your force composition.
After the patch reduced the costs of both, Muton Elites are a very attractive option to mix in with a couple of Mutons and then round out with Sectoids or similar, representing a good general use unit with only one real flaw -susceptibility to psionics. A Muton Elite in Full Cover is nearly impossible for Aliens to successfully shoot, and XCOM soldiers have to burn a lot of points to be able to have a decent chance to hit on 60 Defense, practically mandating flanking or Aim-ignoring effects to root out a Muton Elite that's dug in.
And of course they're one of the hardest-hitting units in the game, have an Alien Grenade with exceptional tossing ability, benefit from Blood Call, and have enough HP it's fairly difficult to unexpectedly kill them with a surprise flank or the like.
They're all-around good post-patching, is what I'm saying.
Berserker: 4000 Points
More worthwhile than a Chryssalid, generally. Is it actually worthwhile?
Maybe.
The charge skill in particular helps compensate for the fact that it's a melee unit, and its sheer toughness can only be matched or exceeded by very expensive XCOM units... or, in Enemy Within, by a Mechtoid benefiting from a Mind Merge, which costs 300 points less than a Berserker while having ranged attacks. Powerful ranged attacks, in fact.
I can see the appeal in the base game, but in Enemy Within a Mechtoid backed by a Sectoid really does seem like the better deal. Of course, melee can't miss, so that's a point in their favor. On the other hand, XCOM's Mecs, as we'll see in the next post, tend to outperform the Berserker. So Enemy Within just really hurts the Berserker's case in general. The balance patch didn't even hit their points cost to compensate, alas.
A rather curious flaw with the Berserker is that Bull Rush demands that there's cover between the Berserker and its target. It's also rather finicky in general, but that point in particular means that any unit that has little or no reason to use Cover is much harder to arrange a Bull Rush on.
Still, they hit like a jackhammer and can't miss, so if you can get them into position to land a hit, they'll one-shot the majority of units in the game.
Cyberdisc: 5500 Points
The single most expensive legal unit in multiplayer! Is it worth it?
Maybe. Honestly, its main problem is how it restricts the rest of your team; 4500 points is not a lot to work with for filling out five slots. The Cyberdisc looks pretty nice when compared to semi-direct comparisons, such as a Demolitionist with Alien Grenades, since it has a strong base weapon, innate flight, immunity to Psi, long-ranged Alien Grenades... but I've already ragged on how dubious the Demolitionist is, so that's not a glowing recommendation.
Overall, I think it really is worth its points cost if used carefully, especially with Enemy Within making Drone repairs more viable so a patient player can potentially pick apart enemy forces with careful play while still taking some hits, but it's difficult to make a good determination in that regard, when the biggest impact of picking it is that it severely constrains the rest of your team. If you can make a plausibly good team of five guys on 4500 points... then yeah, definitely worth the points. If you can't? A lot more dubious.
Personally, I think 4000-4500 points is probably a more accurate price-point for it, but that's more a commentary on my opinion that prices are, for the most part, too high in general, than it is on the Cyberdisc in specific.
Ethereal: 10500 Points
Sadly unavailable to competitive multiplayer by virtue of being 500 points too expensive to actually buy. I don't get why. Yes, Ethereals are powerful, but I'd put them at maybe 8000 or so points in actual competency, if that. It's especially puzzling because there's multiple Aliens that are outright unavailable to multiplayer, instead of technically available but too expensive for the competitive scene to use. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sectopod is a case of technical problems, such as the cluster bomb not being available on the interface, but why no Outsider?
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One big thing I appreciate about the balance patch is that it makes Blood Call a lot more relevant -the base points values gave enough room to field three Mutons, or a single Muton and a single Elite or Berserker, but these were very constrictive builds, and Blood Call's payoff isn't good enough to really justify it at that kind price. Now you can actually pull off two Mutons and an Elite and still have enough points to support them with some decent units. It's nice.
I'm not sure why the Floater and Thin Man are as expensive as they are. The Floater, in particular, is only marginally better than a Sectoid, and was originally more than three times the cost! I also feel like the game is overvaluing the melee Aliens, and I'm not sure why that would be. I can sort of imagine that Chryssalids are priced in part on the idea that they'll abuse their zombifying effect, but with Berserkers I really just don't get it.
Still, I think the more middle-to-high-end Aliens are in the right vicinity, and Sectoids as filler Aliens works out fine. The Floater and, originally, the Drone, are the only cases where I really feel like you can compare them to other Aliens and say basically "Why would I buy this thing when I can buy another thing that's overall much better and either cheaper or only slightly more expensive?"
Next time, we cover the Enemy Within additions.
Aliens
Sectoid: 400 Points (500 post-patch)
If you're going to insist on fielding an XCOM guy in full kit, you're going to be deploying some Sectoids just because you won't have the points to spare on better for filling out team slots. Having the full team of 6 units is just too valuable.
Sectoids are in some ways better than a Smokejumper, doing the same damage but with unlimited ammo, having Suppression spam, and being able to use Mind Merge for utility functions. Among other points, Mind Merge can be used to heal a Sectoid or Sectoid Commander if you get a quiet period, as it adds a hit point and doesn't take it away unless their new max is below their resulting current HP. The healing is a bit of a niche scenario, but still worth commentary, particularly for Sectoid Commanders.
In Enemy Within they're also a useful supporting unit to Mechtoids, as the shield is a fairly powerful benefit, even if the enemy has the tools to try to punish it, as theoretically you won't be as dumb as the AI is about doing things like putting the Sectoid close enough to the Mechtoid for an Alien Grenade to hit them both. This is good, as Mechtoids are expensive -3 Mechtoids leaves you with 100 points that you can't actually spend anything. 2 Mechtoids supported by Sectoids probably makes more sense if you want a Mechtoid-heavy force.
Sectoids are fairly convenient as disposable scouts, spotters, and suppressors, though obviously they're inferior to... pretty much every Alien except Drones if you have points to spare on such. They work on a design level.
I'm unsure why the balance patch raised their price. Oh well.
Drone: 1100 Points (400 post-patch, which is supposed to be a 300-point decrease relative to EW base)
In Enemy Unknown, never buy Drones. Never.
In base Enemy Within, they're still probably overpriced.
Post-patching, they gain the niche of being the cheapest unit in the entire game since Sectoids are now upped a bit in cost. Their ability to repair robots is also much more relevant in Enemy Within thanks to Mechtoids being vaguely reasonably priced and acceptably durable, so a Drone might be worth taking on its own merits if you have robots to support. Seekers and Drones are, unfortunately, too fragile to be liable to benefit from the repair utility, but Cyberdiscs and Mechtoids work well as receivers of healing, and for Mechtoids there's something of a synergy with the shield from Sectoid Mind Merge. Tank a lot of punishment, get out of view, get repaired of what damage you did take, and go out with a new shield!
All that said, Drones are probably less "actually good for their price" and more "if you're filling out your last slot or two and don't have many points left and you're a robot-heavy force anyway, Drones might make more sense than Sectoids." Even then, Sectoids are overall better at making your Mechtoids hard to kill, not to mention have better damage, the ability to Suppress...
Still, you shouldn't simply forget they exist like some of the Multiplayer options.
Floater: 1300 Points (1000 post-patch)
In Enemy Unknown and base Enemy Within, they're overpriced and not worth it. Nearly their only value worth commentary is the Launch ability, and they're just too weak to really take advantage of it. (Flight is nice, but not remotely that nice) The fact that they don't need cover helps, but not as much as you might hope. They actually have trouble competing with Sectoids for value, aside from costing far more! One extra HP, only 5 extra Aim if you assume high ground bonus... note that Launch ends the Floater's turn, so it can't be used to flank and attack a target in a single turn. They're basically relying entirely on their innate flight to be relevant, and frankly Thin Men having Leap has pretty much the same value while being a more useful unit in other realms.
Post-patching... I can see buying a Floater if you have something like 1000 points to spare. If it's a little over (eg 1150 points), it's easy to take a Smokejumper and give them a Light Plasma Rifle, but if it's 1000 to 1100 and you've only got the one slot left, a Floater might be worth considering. Even then, at 1100 I'd give more serious consideration to Thin Men.
Thin Man: 1400 Points (1100 post-patch) (Thin Men use their Normal Difficulty stats, except that they have 4 HP and no damage penalty, as per Classic Difficulty)
Also overpriced in Enemy Unknown and base Enemy Within.
Post-patching they're a little cheaper, but they're still held back by a mediocre attack, low HP, and limited utility from their advantages, exacerbated by the fact that Mutons have been made cheaper too -now instead of a Muton being slightly over twice the price of a Thin Man, they're exactly twice the price. It's almost always more useful to lob an Alien Grenade than a Poison Spit, especially since robots, Thin Men, Chryssalids, Mecs, and XCOM units in heavy armor or with a Respirator Unit equipped or carrying a Medikit are all flat-out immune to Poison where nothing is immune to an Alien Grenade, and a Muton's advantages in direct damage and durability will tend to outweigh a Thin Man's theoretical utility ability. The points cost reduction does at least give them an edge over a Skeleton Suit xcommie-
-oh wait, a Smokejumper with Watcher has the same mobility advantage, costs 100 points less, is tougher... give them their own Light Plasma Rifle and they're instead 150 points more expensive, but all the Thin Man has at that point is Poison Spit/Poison immunity/explode into Poison cloud on death/very slightly cheaper.
So basically if you've got an empty slot and exactly 1100 points leftover, they're probably your best choice. Otherwise, they're very dubious.
They're still basically flatly superior to Floaters, though.
Muton: 2850 Points (2200 post-patch)
The staple Alien unit before they cut its cost, the Muton is a powerful and flexible unit with a reasonable points cost for its utility. Its only notable flaw is a weakness to psionic action, and this flaw is less relevant than you'd think due to how hideously over-priced psionic ability is on the whole. Given a single competent XCOM psionic unit is liable to be supported by little better than Sectoids, the ability to lob an Alien Grenade is extremely relevant against such forces. Only Sectoid Commanders truly render the Muton's poor Will particularly relevant, and they can be reliably accounted for with robotic support. (Just remember that Mechtoids are susceptible to Psi!) Mutons even throw in the "Ammo Conservation" Foundry Project's effect for free, meaning they will almost never have to reload. Pound for pound, Mutons are worth their cost, especially once the patch slashed their price such that it's possible to field 3 Mutons and still have points to get a full force of 6 units!
Intimidate, Blood Call, and Suppression are all nice bonuses, too, and having them attached to an already-viable unit makes them relevant even if you don't consider them worth taking into account when teambuilding. Since Alien units mostly have poor Will, Intimidate is even fairly likely to matter to competitive matches!
Note that they wield Plasma Rifles rather than Light Plasma Rifles, maximizing their damage potential.
Chryssalid: 3000 Points
Bad.
Chryssalid's would be overpriced even if XCOM units were the staple of the game, but the fact that they can't zombify Alien units severely limits their utility. A Berserker is only 1/3rd more expensive and yet is more than twice as tough and considerably more likely to actually reach melee range and land a hit, and Berserkers do 50% more damage than Chryssalids. (Ignoring the effects of Poison, admittedly) Berserkers also benefit from Blood Call, and I've already noted that Mutons are a staple unit so that's a relevant advantage. Poison on a melee hit isn't worth it and the zombification effect will be completely irrelevant in entire matchups, and even in the matchups it can crop up in it's unlikely to actually matter -the Chryssalid needs to land the killing blow to produce a Zombie, and XCOM soldiers tend to only be deployed as fairly elite units anyway, as their cannon fodder potential is usually exceeded easily by various Alien units like Sectoids.
The one thing in the Chryssalid's favor is their innate Leap access, which a canny player can use to flank the enemy and unexpectedly land a lethal hit, largely bypassing their flaws. They're... still rather expensive, even if you're confident in your ability to pull this trick off reliably. Furthermore, their melee attack is only 1 point more damage than a Thin Man's Light Plasma Rifle -if you want a Leap-abusing ambush Alien, Thin Men are depressingly likely to do better, and can even inflict Poison themselves via their Poison Spit ability.
Sectoid Commander: 3200 Points (2700 post-patch)
The only legal Psi unit unquestionably worth fielding, and actually quite an amazing unit, with good durability, a free Alien Grenade, unlimited ammo and built-in Suppression, and a good Will score. Even Mass Mind Merge is useful in the base game thanks to Sectoids tending to be how you round out your numbers, and in Enemy Within Mechtoids make it even better! Then the patch reduced its cost, making it even betterer!
The fact that its Plasma Pistol has poor damage is only a consistent flaw against robots, as they are immune to Mind Fray and Mind Control. This is more relevant in Enemy Within, where Seekers have been added, but is still only a big problem if you over-commit to leaning on psi-spam. A single Sectoid Commander is still a useful unit even against a robot-heavy enemy force, between its Alien Grenade, Mass Mind Merge, and free Suppression, and Mechtoids are actually susceptible to Psi, so by a "robot-heavy force" I basically mean one that's a Cyberdisc, some Drones, and maybe a Seeker. The viability of such a force seems low to me, personally, so it's not even much of a flaw in practice.
Heavy Floater: 3750 Points (3000 post-patch)
Pre-patch, I consider the Heavy Floater somewhat overpriced. The utility of flight per se and the Launch skill are nice, but a Muton Elite costs only 50 points more while having more HP, better base Aim, innate Defense helping make up for flight-based Defense, and a more lethal weapon. The ability to largely ignore terrain is nice, but not amazing. Ultimately the main advantage of the Heavy Floater is that it can never be flanked unless it chooses to take regular cover.
Post-patch, it's still an expensive unit, and worse is actually 100 more points than the Muton Elite, but it's at least the overall best flight-capable unit that isn't insanely expensive (I'm including XCOM units in Archangel Armor here), so if you do value flight utility, it's the go-to choice.
Muton Elite: 3800 Points (2900 post-patch)
Before the patch, very pricey and difficult to combine with regular Mutons to take advantage of Blood Call. Ultimately it's a good unit, but 3800 points is just very limiting to the rest of your force composition.
After the patch reduced the costs of both, Muton Elites are a very attractive option to mix in with a couple of Mutons and then round out with Sectoids or similar, representing a good general use unit with only one real flaw -susceptibility to psionics. A Muton Elite in Full Cover is nearly impossible for Aliens to successfully shoot, and XCOM soldiers have to burn a lot of points to be able to have a decent chance to hit on 60 Defense, practically mandating flanking or Aim-ignoring effects to root out a Muton Elite that's dug in.
And of course they're one of the hardest-hitting units in the game, have an Alien Grenade with exceptional tossing ability, benefit from Blood Call, and have enough HP it's fairly difficult to unexpectedly kill them with a surprise flank or the like.
They're all-around good post-patching, is what I'm saying.
Berserker: 4000 Points
More worthwhile than a Chryssalid, generally. Is it actually worthwhile?
Maybe.
The charge skill in particular helps compensate for the fact that it's a melee unit, and its sheer toughness can only be matched or exceeded by very expensive XCOM units... or, in Enemy Within, by a Mechtoid benefiting from a Mind Merge, which costs 300 points less than a Berserker while having ranged attacks. Powerful ranged attacks, in fact.
I can see the appeal in the base game, but in Enemy Within a Mechtoid backed by a Sectoid really does seem like the better deal. Of course, melee can't miss, so that's a point in their favor. On the other hand, XCOM's Mecs, as we'll see in the next post, tend to outperform the Berserker. So Enemy Within just really hurts the Berserker's case in general. The balance patch didn't even hit their points cost to compensate, alas.
A rather curious flaw with the Berserker is that Bull Rush demands that there's cover between the Berserker and its target. It's also rather finicky in general, but that point in particular means that any unit that has little or no reason to use Cover is much harder to arrange a Bull Rush on.
Still, they hit like a jackhammer and can't miss, so if you can get them into position to land a hit, they'll one-shot the majority of units in the game.
Cyberdisc: 5500 Points
The single most expensive legal unit in multiplayer! Is it worth it?
Maybe. Honestly, its main problem is how it restricts the rest of your team; 4500 points is not a lot to work with for filling out five slots. The Cyberdisc looks pretty nice when compared to semi-direct comparisons, such as a Demolitionist with Alien Grenades, since it has a strong base weapon, innate flight, immunity to Psi, long-ranged Alien Grenades... but I've already ragged on how dubious the Demolitionist is, so that's not a glowing recommendation.
Overall, I think it really is worth its points cost if used carefully, especially with Enemy Within making Drone repairs more viable so a patient player can potentially pick apart enemy forces with careful play while still taking some hits, but it's difficult to make a good determination in that regard, when the biggest impact of picking it is that it severely constrains the rest of your team. If you can make a plausibly good team of five guys on 4500 points... then yeah, definitely worth the points. If you can't? A lot more dubious.
Personally, I think 4000-4500 points is probably a more accurate price-point for it, but that's more a commentary on my opinion that prices are, for the most part, too high in general, than it is on the Cyberdisc in specific.
Ethereal: 10500 Points
Sadly unavailable to competitive multiplayer by virtue of being 500 points too expensive to actually buy. I don't get why. Yes, Ethereals are powerful, but I'd put them at maybe 8000 or so points in actual competency, if that. It's especially puzzling because there's multiple Aliens that are outright unavailable to multiplayer, instead of technically available but too expensive for the competitive scene to use. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sectopod is a case of technical problems, such as the cluster bomb not being available on the interface, but why no Outsider?
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One big thing I appreciate about the balance patch is that it makes Blood Call a lot more relevant -the base points values gave enough room to field three Mutons, or a single Muton and a single Elite or Berserker, but these were very constrictive builds, and Blood Call's payoff isn't good enough to really justify it at that kind price. Now you can actually pull off two Mutons and an Elite and still have enough points to support them with some decent units. It's nice.
I'm not sure why the Floater and Thin Man are as expensive as they are. The Floater, in particular, is only marginally better than a Sectoid, and was originally more than three times the cost! I also feel like the game is overvaluing the melee Aliens, and I'm not sure why that would be. I can sort of imagine that Chryssalids are priced in part on the idea that they'll abuse their zombifying effect, but with Berserkers I really just don't get it.
Still, I think the more middle-to-high-end Aliens are in the right vicinity, and Sectoids as filler Aliens works out fine. The Floater and, originally, the Drone, are the only cases where I really feel like you can compare them to other Aliens and say basically "Why would I buy this thing when I can buy another thing that's overall much better and either cheaper or only slightly more expensive?"
Next time, we cover the Enemy Within additions.
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