The Ratnik Molotok is I think the way to go. Despite his heavy armor, the Ratnik really needs Suppression fire to live, and unfortunately the HRL profile has no such weapons (not even an SMG!) capable of suppression. Also he is the only solo piece in Ariadna to get 5 burst (dual molotoks), so can somewhat go crit-fishing, though I wouldn't rely on it. 54 points and 2 SWC is expensive and he's never a piece that is really going to "make back his points". His value more comes from the fact that he's a very different type of roadblock to the typical ariadna camo diversions people are used it. In terms of how he plays in the Vanilla Ariadna/TAK ecosystem - he makes a great Datatracker and his multiple wounds/high Armor are an exceptional contrast to the sea of 1-wound, no armor camo tokens that surround him.
Yeah he's a xenotech escort, point-man or datatracker by design really; he's got a couple wounds, decent armour and good enough guns so can get up the board and can drag a xenotech up with him. Also solid at scoring zones, especially the molotok variant as can sit in suppressive
I disagree. The ratnik is not a roadblock, its a cannon ball. Its easy to hunt down If you leave it in suppression, its designed for the active turn. If you open an attack vector for him you can clean half of the enemy list. It's better to go berserk and kill as much stuff as you can in active using dogged and the 2 wounds rather than just leaving him in a safe spot in supression. The enemy is going to remove it safely and leave it die in dogged state.