That would be nice, but it would make lerks impossible to hit nightmares. Their weakness is their inability to drop at regular falling speed, just like jetpackers can't rocket into the skies. Again, lerks are upward oriented, jetpacks downward. Giving lerks a dive button would be overkill on their movement abilities. They'd be shooting down corridors like superfades and skidding to a stop to change direction, then rocket off through small doorways and so forth. That's insane. Marines would have no hope until it settled on the ground for long enough to shottie or pistol it. Meanwhile, spike spike spike spike. And at least the lerk knows which way it's going, so it can keep it's aim steady. Add down and up to the equation and it gets stupid.
Heh. Yesterday I got, maybe 5 kills in the span of 10 seconds from spore/fast switch spike. I'm no super player, and this was a pub server, but it goes to show that even a basic understanding of lerks is deadly. Sporing and spiking at the same time will melt LA rines like tar on a hot day.
What people say about lerks bieng mainly support is true. Every time I die as a lerk, it's cause I got greedy and cocky. Probably the best asset to an excellent lerker is patience.
IIRC, there was a new lerk flight model planned for 2.0, but it was not finished. It's a shame, cause lerk flying is really clumsy and needs to be changed to be made easier. With a possible drop in lerk hp, if needed, of course.
I believe we see camper here...venthugging lerks that spend 30 mins spiking marines to get 5 kills while the marine team secures half the map and starts attacking a hive...
Rember a skilled marine with medspam CANNOT be kill by one lerk EVER. Spores do very little damage if the marine has area to move and spike just dont kill him if he keeps getting meds. Youll die though, since all thats needed its a few lmg hits and then some accuracy with the pistol...
The lerk can be used early on to kill eRT's but it takes time, and against a moving squad it can barely do anything. Dont get me wrong, I play lerk as much as I can, and sometimes I can really rack up kills...but they JUST DONT CUT IT. A superlerk can kill at most one marine in a group of two, alone. And then provide backup for his firends. Dont believe me? Come play with me...
yes but theres alot to be said of a lurk that can camp marine spawn and pepper the armory with spores it reduces their health to by an amount, that amount may be the deciding factor when fighting skulks in another location.
When peppering a armory with spores you will be affecting pretty much every marine gathering ammo which we all know they love to do. The comm could use med packs on them but thats more res wasted which is a good thing from the alien point of view. the marines may get a Gl to deal with a spawn camping lurk thats more res to spend to get rid of a 3X res alien. it all adds up and you can be lurk early enough to really annoy the marines and prahaps make a differance.
ive been on the receiving end of this and it annoyed the hell outta me, in the end id just run out of base streight after spawning to avoid taking damage. but then id have no ammo. in the end the comm dropped a GL to try get rid of the lurk but the way the vent was set up allowed the lurk extremley easy escape from the grenades. and the lurk just carried on annoying while the rest of the aliens secured the next hive and marines lost. it probably woulnt work in clan games but in pubs it works fine <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
well, I still believe the only way to survive as a lerk right now is to have cannonfodderskulks or to hide in vents. Venthiggers do little to no real use , since they arent fighting where to battle is.
Sure, armorysporing is annoying, but it wont kill you to leave base without ammo..and if you waste 6 res worth of meds to kill a lerk, id say its worth it...
Maybe you aren't flapping enough, and aren't identifying the right places to be. I play with some pretty decent players, and there are plenty of times I just go toe to toe with them in the same small hallway, strafe, fly over them, circle around, regen working the whole time as my own form of alien med-spam. And take down two or three no problem, with regen healing me to full health as I fly towards their base exit to intercept more.
Lerks aren't meant to camp in a vent. They just aren't. And frankly, vents aren't made for camping. They're made for alien shortcuts. Lerks are highly mobile aliens with a very healthy regen rate, and possess the marine team's best weapon: Range. You don't wait for the marines, you take the fight right to them with your superior movement speed, find a nice hallway or large room, flap around being as impossible to hit as possible, shrug off the occasional hit as regen heals you up midair, and spike the whole squad until the skulks show up to decimate the remainder, or until you kill them all, or until you back off for five seconds to heal up. Good lerks in the early game are precisely the reason marines DON'T control the map. That is their primary purpose. They hound slow moving marine squads persistantly with spike and occasional spore clouds in tight areas, perhaps waxing a few rines in the process, and leaving the rest of them with little armor and probably not entirely full health, costing the marines time, res (medpacks) and ultimately, the battle at the end of the road where the marines are going.
Lerks prey upon long marches of marines. The few surefire ways of advancing in the face of lerks are slower, more steady expansion from res node to res node to chokepoint to chokepoint, avoiding their avenues of fire, since you WILL die faster than them if they are any good, and if possible, catching them trying to get through a tight room with a low, broken roof, and blasting them into deepfried lerk drumsticks since their mobility has been cut, and you can finally hit them. If you're anywhere with a smooth roof, forget it, run, and look for the moments when they slow down in the air, if any make themselves apparent.
See also: HMG and Grenades make short order of any lerk stupid enough to let itself be seen by anyone with these weapons. The splash from nades is easily enough to kill lerks from much farther than most alien life forms, and HMG tear up ANY alien lifeform, no problem. Shotties are less of a threat since most often, you should be in a hallway, and all you need to do is flap backwards, chuckle-spam, and perforate them with spike. Congrats on costing the marines ten res on a no-longer-effective early game weapon.
I play lerk a lot. Most of the things I'm talking about are purely my experience. I'm a pubber, but I'm an okay pubber as far as they go. This is MHO, but I do play a mean lerk.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->That's funny, cause I usually attack alone. Either a) my teammates get killed and I'm left or b) I play agressively and Im always on the front lines (with regen I'll always be at the front lines) <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I will admit, yes, lerks are absolute killing machines early game.
However, mid game, when HA starts to come around, I'm certainly hoping they're not getting killed by you alone as a lerk or I'd feel very sorry for their lack of skill. Mid game, always hang around a fade or Onos and I guarantee you--you will get a lot of kills, or you will help kill lots. Both are good.
45 kills in about 10 min, lerks not deadly my ****.
OK OK so those nubs didnt upgrade armor.
By the way i still prefer to fight marines up close, what i basically do is, gas around the marined and circle spike them. Up close you'll land more spikes and the marine wont bother leaving the gas, however after level 2 armor, marines start to become to tuff to charge in right away, got to seften them up more.
Comments
What people say about lerks bieng mainly support is true. Every time I die as a lerk, it's cause I got greedy and cocky. Probably the best asset to an excellent lerker is patience.
IIRC, there was a new lerk flight model planned for 2.0, but it was not finished. It's a shame, cause lerk flying is really clumsy and needs to be changed to be made easier. With a possible drop in lerk hp, if needed, of course.
Rember a skilled marine with medspam CANNOT be kill by one lerk EVER. Spores do very little damage if the marine has area to move and spike just dont kill him if he keeps getting meds. Youll die though, since all thats needed its a few lmg hits and then some accuracy with the pistol...
The lerk can be used early on to kill eRT's but it takes time, and against a moving squad it can barely do anything. Dont get me wrong, I play lerk as much as I can, and sometimes I can really rack up kills...but they JUST DONT CUT IT.
A superlerk can kill at most one marine in a group of two, alone. And then provide backup for his firends. Dont believe me? Come play with me...
When peppering a armory with spores you will be affecting pretty much every marine gathering ammo which we all know they love to do. The comm could use med packs on them but thats more res wasted which is a good thing from the alien point of view. the marines may get a Gl to deal with a spawn camping lurk thats more res to spend to get rid of a 3X res alien. it all adds up and you can be lurk early enough to really annoy the marines and prahaps make a differance.
ive been on the receiving end of this and it annoyed the hell outta me, in the end id just run out of base streight after spawning to avoid taking damage. but then id have no ammo. in the end the comm dropped a GL to try get rid of the lurk but the way the vent was set up allowed the lurk extremley easy escape from the grenades. and the lurk just carried on annoying while the rest of the aliens secured the next hive and marines lost. it probably woulnt work in clan games but in pubs it works fine <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Sure, armorysporing is annoying, but it wont kill you to leave base without ammo..and if you waste 6 res worth of meds to kill a lerk, id say its worth it...
Lerks aren't meant to camp in a vent. They just aren't. And frankly, vents aren't made for camping. They're made for alien shortcuts. Lerks are highly mobile aliens with a very healthy regen rate, and possess the marine team's best weapon: Range. You don't wait for the marines, you take the fight right to them with your superior movement speed, find a nice hallway or large room, flap around being as impossible to hit as possible, shrug off the occasional hit as regen heals you up midair, and spike the whole squad until the skulks show up to decimate the remainder, or until you kill them all, or until you back off for five seconds to heal up. Good lerks in the early game are precisely the reason marines DON'T control the map. That is their primary purpose. They hound slow moving marine squads persistantly with spike and occasional spore clouds in tight areas, perhaps waxing a few rines in the process, and leaving the rest of them with little armor and probably not entirely full health, costing the marines time, res (medpacks) and ultimately, the battle at the end of the road where the marines are going.
Lerks prey upon long marches of marines. The few surefire ways of advancing in the face of lerks are slower, more steady expansion from res node to res node to chokepoint to chokepoint, avoiding their avenues of fire, since you WILL die faster than them if they are any good, and if possible, catching them trying to get through a tight room with a low, broken roof, and blasting them into deepfried lerk drumsticks since their mobility has been cut, and you can finally hit them. If you're anywhere with a smooth roof, forget it, run, and look for the moments when they slow down in the air, if any make themselves apparent.
See also: HMG and Grenades make short order of any lerk stupid enough to let itself be seen by anyone with these weapons. The splash from nades is easily enough to kill lerks from much farther than most alien life forms, and HMG tear up ANY alien lifeform, no problem. Shotties are less of a threat since most often, you should be in a hallway, and all you need to do is flap backwards, chuckle-spam, and perforate them with spike. Congrats on costing the marines ten res on a no-longer-effective early game weapon.
I play lerk a lot. Most of the things I'm talking about are purely my experience. I'm a pubber, but I'm an okay pubber as far as they go. This is MHO, but I do play a mean lerk.
I will admit, yes, lerks are absolute killing machines early game.
However, mid game, when HA starts to come around, I'm certainly hoping they're not getting killed by you alone as a lerk or I'd feel very sorry for their lack of skill. Mid game, always hang around a fade or Onos and I guarantee you--you will get a lot of kills, or you will help kill lots. Both are good.
OK OK so those nubs didnt upgrade armor.
By the way i still prefer to fight marines up close, what i basically do is, gas around the marined and circle spike them. Up close you'll land more spikes and the marine wont bother leaving the gas, however after level 2 armor, marines start to become to tuff to charge in right away, got to seften them up more.