I've been interested in the BX Commando squads that have been coming up recently.

The way I see it, the BX Spotters' biggest asset is their energy shield - giving an adjacent ally the 50/50 chance to avoid ranged damage is huge, especially for Seps who aren't very mobile. I think they're a good throw-in for a lot of Separatist squads - just adding 1 or 2 to help against enemy shooters.

The BX Snipers are just really good shooters. They have 30 base damage, accurate, and they can get access to +4 attack from fire control, and Double attack from a few different sources. However, they actually have some ranged defense built in, as they have stealth, so they don't benefit that much from the Spotter's Energy Shield.

I often see them in squads together, but I'm not sure if they're actually that compatible - especially in a squad that's primarily Snipers and Spotters, with support. In my mind the rapport on the Spotter is to encourage their use together, and it's only necessary as they're not such a good fit together otherwise. They're both good pieces, I'm just surprised to see them together so often. I'd rather just run 8 BX Snipers a lot of the time (they can shoot 16 times for 30 damage), rather than 4 Spotters and 4 Snipers (they can shoot 4 times for 50 and 4 times for 30).

IMHO, an efficacious blend is what is required with BX's. Meaning six Snipers and two Spotters; so as to maximize efficiency as well as leveraging the Spotter's ES and Spotter 20.

A 1/1 ratio is indeed a waste.

I'm coming around to this thinking also but if I have a BX Sniper there will be a BX Spotter. The 50 dam at 22 attack on just about anything is to good to pass up. (It sucks to be on the wrong end of a BX Sniper/Spotter combo)

Also, with Intuition, these things are crazy fast and you can mostly choose when to use them.

I just re-read my post here and I realized I did a poor job of articulating my exact feelings on this topic. In several of the squad builds I have used I actually prefer using 2 spotters to 1 sniper. Using a spotter to CF w/ a sniper is great and I will still do it during the course of a match but they can be just as effective if not more devastating when used with other shooters as well.

If I'm using the new Aurra Sing w/ Lightsaber and twin and have LoS from my spotters why wouldn't you take the extra damage (and better odds of hitting) against that one beefy target when the opportunity comes up?

Morrigan Corde suddenly at a 15 for 40 (80 w/ twin) of completely unavoidable damage?

For me it's all about versatility and I think the dual purpose of defensive ability + attack and damage enhancement is just as easily applied to other shooters rather than just running Snipers.