A Guide To Blinking
vlr
Join Date: 2002-12-24 Member: 11499Members
Join Date: 2002-12-24 Member: 11499Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Understanding and using blink</div> <span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>Is blinking worth it?</b></span>
Ever since I learned about the ability called blink, I have been fascinated. That it wasn't intuitive was part of the charm for me, and I was determined to master blinking. I started using blink as much as I could and the more I used it, the more I liked it. In all the time I've played I have seen few fades truly mastering the blinking ability, of course not everybody will become blinking experts, but I hope that via this guide I at least can give people more use of blinking and more incentive to use it.
Perhaps the biggest complaint about blinking is that you get stuck once in a while.
Personally I rarely get stuck, but I know that getting stuck all the time makes blinking virtually useless to some people. To avoid getting stuck I would recommend being careful when you are blinking around grates and moving objects. Getting stuck is usually not a problem if you aim high though .
First thing to realise about blink is that it is meant as a support ability. It is meant to compliment your other abilities. You cant deal damage with blinking and blinking wont win the game, or even kill anything. However it is awesome to remove some of the restrictions that fades have. Blinking allows fades to move more quickly sometimes even making a blinking fade quicker than a skulk. It allows fades to get close to the marines in an instant, and allows them to flee quickly. The usefulness of this cannot be underestimated as it allows you to dictate the combat, and it helps minimise the actual time vulnerable.
But as you use blink, you quickly realise that there are a lot of times where it is either impossible to blink effectively (such as places with a low ceiling) or the use of blinking is limited (such as when you are bombarding a base with acid rockets and have plenty of cover/backup)
But a lot of times blinking can be a life saver making you be able to get away quickly. and where the use of blinking significantly reduces the time traveling the map, thus making more valuable time actually making a difference.
On top of that, blinking is also a psychological tool. Blinking has often made the difference between life and death, because I blinked to places the marine(s) didn't count on and as such hasn't even thought of.
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>How to blink</b></span>
So mastering to blink is definitely valuable, but most people are still confused on how to blink. Some can blink occasionally but don't use blinking because they are not sure precisely how it works and spend 60% of the time swiping their claws doing nothing (for the uninformed blinking uses the swipe animation)
<b>Your ability to blink is defined by the height of room of where you are standing</b>
The trick with blinking is always to measure the height from where you are standing and the ceiling. The higher there are to the ceiling the farther you can travel with a blink and the more effectively you can blink.
And the higher there is to the ceiling, generally the lower you have to aim. For example at the refinery hive in bast you it is best to aim straight at or slightly higher than where you are trying to get to, where was in a low corridor you have to aim significantly higher.
In tunnels with a low ceiling found in many maps, you can blink a few feet at the most, however in for example the refinery room in bast you can move from 1 side to the other with only 1 blink.
When you have measured the height to the ceiling and it is reasonably high, the actually distance 1 blink takes you also depends on where you are aiming at.
<b>You can aim too high</b>
You can aim too high causing you to go straight up instead of forward, this will mostly happen in huge rooms
<b>Crouching improves your blinking ability</b>
Another trick to blinking is trying to lightly tap the crouch button, causing a semi-duck just as you blink. This will allow you to keep your momentum (as opposed to stopping up and crouching fully) and will make you blink farther especially in lowish tunnels.
Sometimes when you are trying to reach vents or the like, you can also try standing still and crouching, this will allow you to get a bit higher and should help the the vent is high above you.
A neat trick if you are trying to get into a vent and keep failing, is to move away from the vent, start moving towards the vent, jump and then crouch mid-air and blink to the vent. This will allow you to keep your momentum while still crouching.
<b>In short steps this is what you do when you blink</b>
1. Select the blink ability (slot 3)
2. Take a quick measure of the height from the ground to ceiling
3. Move your cursor up (vertically)
4. Press the attack-button (usually left mouse button)
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>Using blink in combat</b></span>
In order to use blink effectively in combat you must be able to switch between blink and swipe/acid rockets quickly.
I would recommend having the buttons you use to switch between acid rockets, swipe and blink as convenient as possible. For WASD users 1, 2 and 3 is OK, but for the people who use somethinf else, you have to rebind swipe, acid rocket and blink to something closer to your keys. Of course if you have a 5-button mouse you can just bind the keys to the extra mouse buttons. I would also highly recommend having hud_fastswitch set to 1, you do this by typing:
<i>hud_fastswitch 1</i> in the console, or you can find it in the config.cfg file
To understand the more advanced blink strategies I will go through the 2 most basic types of blinking fades:
<b>The Blink-Swipe fade</b>
The basic blink-swipe fade uses the blink ability to be better able to get close to the marines. This type of fade sometimes also uses the blink ability to get away. Many blink-swipe fades get the carapace and celerity upgrades although arenaline works too with a fade that relies a lot on his blink ability. The blink-swipe fade uses his quickness to confuse the marines as much as he uses it to get close to the marines.
How to blink-swipe:
1. Select the blink ability
2. Aim high and blink to the marine(s)
3. Immediately lower your cross hair, Select swipe and start swiping the hopefully confused marines
<b>The Acid-Blink fade</b>
The Acid-Blink fade is a little different than the blink-swipe fade. It uses blink to get away from the marines instead of getting close to them. Paired with the acid rocket ability, this should make the fade able to maintain long distance and this give the fade the advantage, due to the spread of the LMG and the use of cover.
How to Acid-Blink:
1. Notice your surroundings. Be sure that it is possible to blink away.
2. Fire a couple of acid rockets at the marines and get their attention (be sure to have at least 1/3 of your energy left)
3. Blink away untill you are reasonably far away form the marines, fire a couple of acid rockets, repeat.
Moving on to the more advanced blink strategies:
<b>The Alternative Blink-Swipe fade</b>
Most marines will start to unload their LMG clip as soon as they see a fade, you can take advantage of this so if you have the adrenaline upgrade you can blink to the marines, swipe once or twice, blink to another location, blink back to the marines and finish them off. If preformed perfectly this should make you hard to hit since you are blinking between places very quickly and when the marines are low of ammunition (doesn't take long to empty an LMG clip) you swipe them.
Whenever you try to blink close to a marine to swipe him, try to blink besides or behind him, avoid blinking directly in front of him if you can, this mean you will harder to hit as the marine has to turn around, and by that time you should have had at least 1 swipe at him.
<b>The Acid-Swipe-Blink fade</b>
Most marines have 2 very distinct ways of dealing with fades depending on which type of fade it is.
If it is an acid rocket firring fade the better marines will try to close the distance to get so close to the fade so it cant use its rockets. Most fades will try to backpedal away from the marine and try to avoid marine(s).
If it is a swiping fade it will try to get close to the marine as quickly as possible. It will be using a lot less energy swiping instead of acid rockets and the swipe does a higher damage, however due being closer and thus easier to hit the marines will be hitting the fade with more bullets causing more damage.
If you have a good blinking fade you can combine these 2 basic strategies and make a much more versatile fade (although not necessarily better)
Instead of immediately blinking to the marines you can fire a couple of acid rockets (although not too many as it depletes too much energy) watch the marines try to chase you, blink to them (or even behind them <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> and swipe them a couple of times and then blink away. This will allow you to take a lot less damage as you will be more difficult to hit, and by using the acid rockets to "soften up" the marines.
Of course there are much more strategies, and this is just to give you an idea of how blinking can be used.
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>Practicing on blinking better</b></span>
So now you know the rudimentaries of blinking you should try practicing on being better to blink, this will help you so that when you get into a situation where blinking can mean the difference of life and death (such as an HMG + HA marine surprising you around a corner) you will succeed and not just swiping with your claws doing nothing which can be extremely annoying in a dangerous situation.
At first simply use blinking to travel the way, learn to instinctly know how you will blink, and how high you should aim to move to the desired location. This will allow you to cross the map quicker, and make you better able to react to emergency situations.
Next you should try utilizing blink more in combat, blink close to them swipe them and when you are getting low on health blink away and blink to a defense chamber.
Finally you should try to blink to places not normally accessible to fades such as vents or on top of pipes, this can be quite surprising if a marine is chasing you and suddenly you blink on top of a pipe and wait for him to pass you and then bombard him with acid rockets.
I hope that this article helps some fades and makes them realise that blinking is indeed useful, and I hope to see some more blinking fades in the future <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
You are welcome to comment on this and correct me where I am wrong; perhaps even contribute your own strategies/experiences with blinking
Ever since I learned about the ability called blink, I have been fascinated. That it wasn't intuitive was part of the charm for me, and I was determined to master blinking. I started using blink as much as I could and the more I used it, the more I liked it. In all the time I've played I have seen few fades truly mastering the blinking ability, of course not everybody will become blinking experts, but I hope that via this guide I at least can give people more use of blinking and more incentive to use it.
Perhaps the biggest complaint about blinking is that you get stuck once in a while.
Personally I rarely get stuck, but I know that getting stuck all the time makes blinking virtually useless to some people. To avoid getting stuck I would recommend being careful when you are blinking around grates and moving objects. Getting stuck is usually not a problem if you aim high though .
First thing to realise about blink is that it is meant as a support ability. It is meant to compliment your other abilities. You cant deal damage with blinking and blinking wont win the game, or even kill anything. However it is awesome to remove some of the restrictions that fades have. Blinking allows fades to move more quickly sometimes even making a blinking fade quicker than a skulk. It allows fades to get close to the marines in an instant, and allows them to flee quickly. The usefulness of this cannot be underestimated as it allows you to dictate the combat, and it helps minimise the actual time vulnerable.
But as you use blink, you quickly realise that there are a lot of times where it is either impossible to blink effectively (such as places with a low ceiling) or the use of blinking is limited (such as when you are bombarding a base with acid rockets and have plenty of cover/backup)
But a lot of times blinking can be a life saver making you be able to get away quickly. and where the use of blinking significantly reduces the time traveling the map, thus making more valuable time actually making a difference.
On top of that, blinking is also a psychological tool. Blinking has often made the difference between life and death, because I blinked to places the marine(s) didn't count on and as such hasn't even thought of.
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>How to blink</b></span>
So mastering to blink is definitely valuable, but most people are still confused on how to blink. Some can blink occasionally but don't use blinking because they are not sure precisely how it works and spend 60% of the time swiping their claws doing nothing (for the uninformed blinking uses the swipe animation)
<b>Your ability to blink is defined by the height of room of where you are standing</b>
The trick with blinking is always to measure the height from where you are standing and the ceiling. The higher there are to the ceiling the farther you can travel with a blink and the more effectively you can blink.
And the higher there is to the ceiling, generally the lower you have to aim. For example at the refinery hive in bast you it is best to aim straight at or slightly higher than where you are trying to get to, where was in a low corridor you have to aim significantly higher.
In tunnels with a low ceiling found in many maps, you can blink a few feet at the most, however in for example the refinery room in bast you can move from 1 side to the other with only 1 blink.
When you have measured the height to the ceiling and it is reasonably high, the actually distance 1 blink takes you also depends on where you are aiming at.
<b>You can aim too high</b>
You can aim too high causing you to go straight up instead of forward, this will mostly happen in huge rooms
<b>Crouching improves your blinking ability</b>
Another trick to blinking is trying to lightly tap the crouch button, causing a semi-duck just as you blink. This will allow you to keep your momentum (as opposed to stopping up and crouching fully) and will make you blink farther especially in lowish tunnels.
Sometimes when you are trying to reach vents or the like, you can also try standing still and crouching, this will allow you to get a bit higher and should help the the vent is high above you.
A neat trick if you are trying to get into a vent and keep failing, is to move away from the vent, start moving towards the vent, jump and then crouch mid-air and blink to the vent. This will allow you to keep your momentum while still crouching.
<b>In short steps this is what you do when you blink</b>
1. Select the blink ability (slot 3)
2. Take a quick measure of the height from the ground to ceiling
3. Move your cursor up (vertically)
4. Press the attack-button (usually left mouse button)
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>Using blink in combat</b></span>
In order to use blink effectively in combat you must be able to switch between blink and swipe/acid rockets quickly.
I would recommend having the buttons you use to switch between acid rockets, swipe and blink as convenient as possible. For WASD users 1, 2 and 3 is OK, but for the people who use somethinf else, you have to rebind swipe, acid rocket and blink to something closer to your keys. Of course if you have a 5-button mouse you can just bind the keys to the extra mouse buttons. I would also highly recommend having hud_fastswitch set to 1, you do this by typing:
<i>hud_fastswitch 1</i> in the console, or you can find it in the config.cfg file
To understand the more advanced blink strategies I will go through the 2 most basic types of blinking fades:
<b>The Blink-Swipe fade</b>
The basic blink-swipe fade uses the blink ability to be better able to get close to the marines. This type of fade sometimes also uses the blink ability to get away. Many blink-swipe fades get the carapace and celerity upgrades although arenaline works too with a fade that relies a lot on his blink ability. The blink-swipe fade uses his quickness to confuse the marines as much as he uses it to get close to the marines.
How to blink-swipe:
1. Select the blink ability
2. Aim high and blink to the marine(s)
3. Immediately lower your cross hair, Select swipe and start swiping the hopefully confused marines
<b>The Acid-Blink fade</b>
The Acid-Blink fade is a little different than the blink-swipe fade. It uses blink to get away from the marines instead of getting close to them. Paired with the acid rocket ability, this should make the fade able to maintain long distance and this give the fade the advantage, due to the spread of the LMG and the use of cover.
How to Acid-Blink:
1. Notice your surroundings. Be sure that it is possible to blink away.
2. Fire a couple of acid rockets at the marines and get their attention (be sure to have at least 1/3 of your energy left)
3. Blink away untill you are reasonably far away form the marines, fire a couple of acid rockets, repeat.
Moving on to the more advanced blink strategies:
<b>The Alternative Blink-Swipe fade</b>
Most marines will start to unload their LMG clip as soon as they see a fade, you can take advantage of this so if you have the adrenaline upgrade you can blink to the marines, swipe once or twice, blink to another location, blink back to the marines and finish them off. If preformed perfectly this should make you hard to hit since you are blinking between places very quickly and when the marines are low of ammunition (doesn't take long to empty an LMG clip) you swipe them.
Whenever you try to blink close to a marine to swipe him, try to blink besides or behind him, avoid blinking directly in front of him if you can, this mean you will harder to hit as the marine has to turn around, and by that time you should have had at least 1 swipe at him.
<b>The Acid-Swipe-Blink fade</b>
Most marines have 2 very distinct ways of dealing with fades depending on which type of fade it is.
If it is an acid rocket firring fade the better marines will try to close the distance to get so close to the fade so it cant use its rockets. Most fades will try to backpedal away from the marine and try to avoid marine(s).
If it is a swiping fade it will try to get close to the marine as quickly as possible. It will be using a lot less energy swiping instead of acid rockets and the swipe does a higher damage, however due being closer and thus easier to hit the marines will be hitting the fade with more bullets causing more damage.
If you have a good blinking fade you can combine these 2 basic strategies and make a much more versatile fade (although not necessarily better)
Instead of immediately blinking to the marines you can fire a couple of acid rockets (although not too many as it depletes too much energy) watch the marines try to chase you, blink to them (or even behind them <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> and swipe them a couple of times and then blink away. This will allow you to take a lot less damage as you will be more difficult to hit, and by using the acid rockets to "soften up" the marines.
Of course there are much more strategies, and this is just to give you an idea of how blinking can be used.
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'><b>Practicing on blinking better</b></span>
So now you know the rudimentaries of blinking you should try practicing on being better to blink, this will help you so that when you get into a situation where blinking can mean the difference of life and death (such as an HMG + HA marine surprising you around a corner) you will succeed and not just swiping with your claws doing nothing which can be extremely annoying in a dangerous situation.
At first simply use blinking to travel the way, learn to instinctly know how you will blink, and how high you should aim to move to the desired location. This will allow you to cross the map quicker, and make you better able to react to emergency situations.
Next you should try utilizing blink more in combat, blink close to them swipe them and when you are getting low on health blink away and blink to a defense chamber.
Finally you should try to blink to places not normally accessible to fades such as vents or on top of pipes, this can be quite surprising if a marine is chasing you and suddenly you blink on top of a pipe and wait for him to pass you and then bombard him with acid rockets.
I hope that this article helps some fades and makes them realise that blinking is indeed useful, and I hope to see some more blinking fades in the future <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
You are welcome to comment on this and correct me where I am wrong; perhaps even contribute your own strategies/experiences with blinking
Comments
I rarely see fades use blink at ALL, it really annoys me, as it is a VERY powerful ability, and one that can be heavily relied on to keep a fade alive, or do major attacks!
I use blink a hell of a lot, as it is very useful, firstly I use it to move around maps, then I use it to escape from marines.
I rarely use it to do the blink-swipe, as it is too risky for bases, which is what i usually attack as a fade, this is due to the amount of marines, and possible turrets.
It is gr8 for outpost thou, you can blink into blind. less defended spots to kill them, also I often use it to get to odd places(hehe, marines are like "WTF!?!?!?! HOW THE HELL DID A FADE GET UP THERE!!?!?!?!?!") <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Overall it is a very useful and underused tool.
Nice post vlr <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
the thing you should mention is that the fade's head appears where your cursor is pointed, and if there isnt enough room for the whole fade, you won't teleport. There lies the benefit of crouching, especially crouch-jumping.
the mindless adren-acid spammers will only realize this after they discover that fades can actually switch weapons <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
I have got myself in most annoying places though...trough floor, inside a object etc <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. Use the blink, fade!. Blink -> Attack -> Blink away, repeat instead of spamming from corners.
Last time when my blink didnt succeeded..well, i did got away from fire but this happened:
O
/ \ < upper body
====== < floor
| | < legs
Now if they would just fix the getting stuck issue.... <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo-->
Most marine outposts are in fairly open rooms, and the marines tend to like having the wall to their back. A wall is exactly what you want to blink... run into sight, blink against the farthest wall, and you can nail several mairnes from behind before they ever realise there's a fade in the room.
Small objects poking out of walls are likely to get you stick (like the pipes on the walls in ns_nothing). Don't blink straight down elevator shafts if the elevator is at the bottom, you'll get stuck in it (ns_bast's marine base, for example. Instead try blinking into the wall near the bottom and let yourself drop a shot distance).
The same rules for ceilings as walls - things sticking out are likely to get you stuck. Smooth walls/ceilings are best. Experiment, it's worth getting stuck once in awhile when you first learn to use blink so you can get a feel for what will and won't work. You may get stuck several times, and it may even cost you the game... but so what? You'll be a much better fade in every subsequent game, and most of us will play more games of NS in the comeing days, weeks, months, and years than we have yet played. The mod is still young. Now is the time to experiment. Don't be afraid of getting stuck; it's the only way you'll learn to recognize potential hazards.
And crouch! The only place I can think of off the top of my head where I don't always crouch before I blink would be up the huge elevator in ns_bast (by the way, blink to the left or right, if you try forward you'll get stuck in the curved ceiling).
A fun way to scare marines is to make yourself appear to be several fades. You need a "T" shaped hallway, with marines on the stalk of the "T." Fire acid rockets from one side, retreat, blink to the other side of the hallway, and fire from that side. It seems like there are two fades, one on each side. Or fire from one side to lure them into a chase, blink to the other side, and kill them from behind when they chase
It's great to see players revealing techniques such as these, especially highly specific ones (i.e. Bast elevator)
All I can say is I'll be using blink more often, and because of this thread.
Next try to aim higher than the location you are trying to blink to.
If that doesnt work try crouching first and then blink
<b>The Key To Understanding Blink</b>
Blink is an advanced form of leap and it works in much the same way. That is when you use blink the server moves you forward incredably fast along the direction you are currently aiming much like leap does. You come to halt when you collide with an object, this explains why blink works better in rooms with high ceilings because it's harder to collide with them. And by collision I mean your hit box, not a single point on the line.
Other useful things to consider are lift shafts. These don't present a problem to a skilled fade who can blink to the top. This is extremely useful when there is a grenade launcher troop at the top keeping everyone at bay, blink then claws sorts this problem out. If you hear grenades anywhere on the map blink then claw is the prefered solution, even if that marine has support as you can bilnk up to him, kill then blink off to heal, blinking causes enough confusion that you shouldn't die.
Also use blink to fall long distances, or rather to avoid taking the damage from doing so. Very useful when you are low on health and need to drop down a lift shaft or that pipe on caged and your on low health.
First of all, leave your 1234 keys bound to attacks normally, and have HUDfastswitch on.
Bind some other key to weaponswitch to 3, +attack, then weaponswitch to one.
Now you have a button that makes you instantly blink and change to attack. Also works for skulks to make them leap-bite, lerks to make them umbra-bite, and onos you can charge-bite if it makes you happy. You also don't have to spend your concentration on weaponswitching, and instead get ready to attack. All you have to do is left click to start swiping or biting away.
ns_nothing: from the pipe room, fire acid rockets at the marine base to draw them out. Quickly retreat back to the pipe room and down to the painted corridor. This gives you a nice long distance to fire a rocket at the marines, then blink straight across to the flat side of the pipe room and carve them up.
ns_nothing: see caged strat, but use it when assaulting either Viaduct or Cargo Bay Foyer lockdowns.
Using blink against marines is all psychology and geography <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> Use it where you can gain the biggest advantage from it (large rooms, long hallways, flat areas), and use it to scare the enemy by blinking STRAIGHT at them before carving them up. Camp outside of a doorway where you know marines are, chuckle, blink to the other side, chuckle some more, etc. Be creative.
u press shift qucikly and jump ...
short hallways like in tanith dunno how to describe is harder to use blink..
i use blink for quick attacks and getaways..
ie.. in ns_eclipse.. i quickly blink into their base and swipe a few people and blink out quickly...
note: it is VERY risky.. for those who haven't mastered blink yet DO NOT try this. I am not PERFECT wif blink yet.. and i almost died one time.... i left wif 20 HP and 0 AP... thats SO LOW for a fade! >.<