New Fade 3rd hive ability: Mark

Mouse

The fade specializes in 1v1 and general clean-up. This 3rd hive ability is designed to help that.

Mark is a low damage, ranged attack that is somewhat similar to Parasite; the fade Marks a marine/marine structure. Then, for the duration of the Mark, that fade can see it though walls & on the map (as with Parasite). In addition, that marine/marine structure takes increased damage from the fade's swipes.

Additional points:
- Only the fade can see its Mark through walls & on the map
- A Mark stays active for about half as long as a Parasite
- The fade can only have 1 Mark active at any one time
- The damage increase is large enough for the fade to require one less swipe to kill at each armor level
- Attack speed isn't affected

[EDIT] Changed it into a ranged attack

Gibs

Let's say I'm a Fade. Why would I bother marking a Marine to reduce the number of swipes by 1 when I could just swipe him, and it would accomplish the same thing?

Mouse

Good point. Do you think it would be more worthwhile as a ranged attack or with a greater damage increase?

Gibs

I would say ranged is the better idea. I still wouldn't want to use it, though. I'd rather save my energy for swipes and blinking.

BeigeAlert

Fades already work well enough solo, I don't think that needs to be buffed. What really helps out is having a lerk-buddy who can spike down marines' armor from a distance so you have less swipes for a kill.

Gibs

Thing is, acid rocket would be too stronk

Mouse

The vague theme of 3rd hive abilities is that they should make the lifeform a lot more effective in their role; almost excessively so. So to my mind, as the Fade is primarily 1v1 and clean-up, any fade ability should decrease the amount of time the fade has to spend out of combat (blink, metabolize) or increase their effectiveness in 1v1 combat (no AoE abilities).

The intent behind Mark was to improve the effectiveness of the end-game fade in 1v1 combat.

Nordic

If you have a third hive, you would have the option of aura which pretty much does the same thing.

xDragon

Since you linked this - I would say this might be something possibly viable for pub play, but generally speaking 3rd hive abilities are not seen in comp play, or only for a very short time. In general however fades do not really suffer from weak 1v1 effectiveness, and I actually think stab already does fit the 3rd hive role reasonably well for fades. Stab does require a bit too much execution compared to other T3 abilities, but that is something that can be corrected. I think primarily fades lack a T1.5/T2 ability.

Mouse

mmk

MoFo

Sorry but no, Fades are already more than powerful enough. (especially in late game when they have adren, shells, and aura)

I've lost count of how many times I've seen players go Fade then proceed to get anywhere from 30-50 kills without dying, or how many games I've seen the Aliens make a comeback and win purely because of one player going Fade and decimating the entire Marine team.

A buff of any kind is the last thing the Fade needs.

twiliteblue

I've thought about an ability just like the Mark ability suggested here. I think it would be almost redundant, since its role overlaps with those of Parasite and Aura, both of which are more powerful enemy tracking abilities

What Fades really need late game is a powerful attack (stab) for efficient marine killing. If Stab is buffed, by reducing the movement speed penalty, and perhaps faster animation, it would be perfect.

2cough

What if your proposed mark idea was instead made an improvement to vortex. Say you have a vortex spot selected around the corner or something and you land your swipe or stab, maybe then your mark could show the marine you last did dmg to so when you come back around it's easier to pick out your target.

Just a proposal, but I mostly agree with others that aura can already fill this role and I doubt a 3 hive fade is gonna need much more help.

twiliteblue

Perhaps Vortex, with some tweaks, could become a worthwhile T2 ability. (I've made a new thread to start a new discussion.)

A few ideas I have are:

• Invisible Vortex portal, to allow the Fade to set up ambushes.
• Vortex triggers after holding the Blink key for longer than 1 second (after the anchor point is set), instead of upon attacking.
• Vortex anchor is not destroyed upon use, to allow multiple uses of the same anchor, and to simplify the key strokes required.

Benson

I agree with most in that the fade doesn't really NEED buffs in the 1v1 department, but rather in the ending-the-game department.

Perhaps a passive buff that adds a DoT to each swipe (acidic claws?) that only affects armor (and structures), unlocked on two full-biomass hives?
- DoT would need to not stack to prevent it being good against structures

Nothing too crazy, but enough to make it easier to kill a3 marines (and exos, for us pubs), without making them "efficient" at killing structures