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Archangel armor, available late game, gives a soldier the ability to fly. What are the considerations when deciding whether a soldier should be covering or hovering? Does one provider better offense or defense than the other? Does altitude affect anything other than line of sight?

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Hovering gives a better vantage point (better LoS), can trigger the "Height" bonus if you're high enough, and additionally acts as low cover (-20% chance to be hit, just for flying).

If high cover is available, that might be preferable, or if you need to hunker down (not available while flying).

One other thing to note is that Sniper's don't benefit from Low Profile when flying, so you might find them getting hit more often than you're used to, should they start taking flak.

If no cover is available, you should always be flying.

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  • Shouldn't flight's low cover effect prevent being exposed?
    – kotekzot
    Commented Oct 13, 2012 at 22:54
  • @kotekzot It doesn't provide low cover. It provides a bonus equal to low cover.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Oct 13, 2012 at 22:57
  • Obviously, but is it more than a semantical difference? You get the low cover icon and the low cover bonus, to treat you as exposed would be inconsistent. Are you 100% about flying making you exposed?
    – kotekzot
    Commented Oct 13, 2012 at 23:50
  • @kotekzot I'll double check when I can. I was basing my experience with Floaters, but I may just have been confused as to when they're considered flying or not.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Oct 14, 2012 at 0:51
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    @AnnaLear Then you're not flyinng high enough! I've got both the height bonus, and Damn Good Ground from flying.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Oct 14, 2012 at 4:19
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if you click more info when aiming at an enemy you can get a breakdown of what mods are in effect for that shot. One of Elevation is one of the positives. Additionally, snipers have a perk that gives them bonuses "from high ground" and flying counts.

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    This is mostly tangential information. You don't actually answer the question directly.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Commented Oct 13, 2012 at 21:57
  • The archangel armor does not grant elevation bonuses.
    – Adam Lear ♦
    Commented Oct 14, 2012 at 2:28
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In fact, archangel armor is not good as imagine.
Damn Good Ground only effect when you STAND, not effect when you hover/fly. For sniper, climb rooftop/hill, take cover is more useful than fly.
Low cover got 20 defense, 180 degrees. Hover/fly got 20 defense too, but 360 degrees. If surrounded by the enemy, hover/fly maybe a choice to prevent flank shoot, but retreat is better choice.
A perfect way to use archangel armor is in terror mission, map small, chryssalid and many susceptible people, just fly and shoot.

Not tested of angle's LOS, but sniper use squadsight, it's not a problem.

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    I'm 100% DGG does work for flying snipers - I've seen the tooltips.
    – kotekzot
    Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 11:28
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    Found in link: "Flying DOES confer an elevated-position bonus, but you must fly higher than normal", Maybe I just high as rooftop and lost bonus, sorry for that.
    – Tiger_Zhao
    Commented Dec 11, 2012 at 1:43
  • PROTIP: you can edit your answer to make it more accurate.
    – kotekzot
    Commented Dec 11, 2012 at 2:05

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