Tier list

The only specialization that makes Advantage rather than spending it. Combat Recon grants a point for every enemy in the area it assesses, and Tactical Timing hands one back on 20% of kills at rank one and 80% at rank five.

That matters because every ultimate in the game is priced in Advantage, out of a pool that holds ten. Scout is what pays for the other seven, and it is the strongest thing to put in a second specialization slot rather than the first, because the squad wants the points more than the Scout does: its own ultimate, Ambush, spends every one of them at once.

The whole kit is built to take more actions. Open Fire is the only ultimate with no cooldown at all, so it is limited by the pool and nothing else, and Quick Draw is a 1 AP attack with no cooldown, which no other specialization has.

Onslaught makes each of those worth more than the last: every attack this Operator has already made this turn adds +1 blaster damage to the next one. A class that attacks three times a turn is the class that benefits from it.

Identify Weakness costs 1 AP, has no cooldown, and makes the target Vulnerable, which turns the next attack that damages it into a guaranteed critical hit. Spent on somebody else's longarm that is the biggest single hit available to a squad.

Scoundrel's Instinct penetrates four points of Defense from the moment the specialization is taken, which is worth nothing against a threat-one droid and up to three damage a shot against the elites that carry armour late.

The highest single-target ceiling, and the cheapest way to reach it: Zero In is 1 AP with no cooldown, and Sharpshooter Training is +10% chance-to-hit on every blaster attack for nothing.

What holds it out of the top tier is the weapon. A longarm is two of the three action points a turn, so a Sharpshooter fires once and generates one point of Advantage where a pistol generates three.

Armsmaster is the best free passive in the game: +2 blaster damage and +2 grenade damage before a single point of focus is spent. Brutal Strike is a 1 AP rush that Dazes, and a Dazed unit cannot attack at all.

The ultimate is the worst on the board. Rocket Strike asks for ten Advantage, the entire pool, and fires once per encounter.

First Responder is a Medpac that does not use a utility slot, and it fully heals whoever the Medic rallies. Combat Stim is 1 AP with no cooldown.

It reads weak next to a damage tree and is worth more than it reads, because an injury is a strategic-layer cost: a bed is a cycle and a credit price, and on Hard and Expert the bacta tank is switched off entirely.

The cheapest ultimate in the game at four Advantage, and the catch is that it fires once per encounter. Bull Rush pushes, and a push next to a drop kills anything at any health, which is a terrain argument rather than a class one.

Strike The Flanks is +20% critical chance against anything not protected by cover, so the class rewards moving before shooting.

The only specialization whose ultimate costs more focus than everybody else's. Bulwark runs 0, 3, 8, 15, 24, 34 where every other ultimate line runs 0, 3, 7, 13, 21, 31, so each rank of it buys less than the same rank anywhere else, against a ceiling of 24.

Intimidating Posture taunts on every blaster hit and cannot be switched off, which is help when the Heavy is the one who should be shot at and a problem when they are not.

For My Brothers is the only talent in the game that undoes a death. At rank three, eleven focus, Trick stands back up at the start of the next turn on full health and takes no injury for going down.

With permadeath on that is the highest-value eleven focus available to anybody. Without it, it is still a free full heal and a saved medbay cycle every mission it fires.

Two specialization trees nobody else can reach, taken together: Padawan first and Wayseeker as the second slot, where everyone else picks from the shared list.

She is also the only operator who deflects blaster fire and the only one holding a lightsaber. Not a better version of an operator, a different unit that happens to occupy a squad slot.

Final Shot spends no action points and no Advantage. When an ally's attack leaves an enemy under the threshold, Jae fires and it dies, and because the squad gains a point of Advantage every time an Operator damages an enemy, the free kill pays for part of somebody's ultimate as well.

Rank four doubles it to twice a turn at ten health, but it is 21 of the 24 focus on its own. Rank three at eleven is the stop.

Fearless Leader is the only talent that buffs the whole squad rather than its owner: assist damage and defense for every Operator on the field, as long as Hawks is present.

He is present. Every story and hero mission in the game requires him, so focus spent here is the only talent investment that can never be left at the Den.

The cheapest talent ladder in the game, and it is not close. Combat Gas reaches rank three for seven focus where Final Shot, For My Brothers and Combat Jump all charge eleven, so Luco keeps four more of his 24 in the class lines than the operators he is measured against.

What it buys is five stacks of Sharpened Senses at +5% chance-to-hit and +1 ranged damage each, spent one per shot rather than one per turn.

The Warrior tree ignores Defense on both of its lines, which is worth nothing against a threat-one droid and most against the armoured elites that turn up late.

The cost is his turn. ElectroWeb Dart is priced in Advantage rather than action points, so Cly draws from the same pool that pays for everybody else's ultimate.

Uppercut is a six-rank line rather than a four-rank talent, so it can absorb as much focus as a specialization would, and what it does at the end of it is push.

A push next to a drop is a kill at any health, and on a map without one it is a rush and some melee damage on a Scoundrel who would rather have spent the point on Identify Weakness.

The most damage a turn of any blaster, and no range band where it is the wrong choice. The rule is the game's own: the first shot each turn is 1 AP and every shot after it costs 2, so three action points are two shots and twenty damage.

Two damage a turn behind the rifle and a point of Advantage ahead of it. Advantage is generated per enemy damaged, and it is what every ultimate is priced in, so the pistol is the squad's battery as much as its sidearm.

The highest base damage in the game in both of its firing modes, and the asset says why you might still pass: it accepts no weapon modifications and no weapon upgrades at all, so everything the Armory and the Den can add to another blaster is off the table.

The biggest single hit and by far the best critical damage, and it costs two thirds of the turn to fire once. It earns its place through Overwatch, which takes every remaining action point and which the Sharpshooter tree pays to improve.

Firing one consumes the whole turn, and what it adds for the extra points is Rapid Fire, which is worth the weapon's own Sureshot Damage. That is a real bonus and it still lands under a rifle's two shots, for a third of the Advantage.