Finally, A Lerk Strategy Post!
J_o_E
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6906Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6906Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</div> OMG!!!!!!!
What a concept!!
Somebody actually knows how to play Lerks beyond turret smashers?
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW..
KK enough of my sarcasm lol..
<b>The Early Game</b>
Ahh yes, the familiar countdown and immediately proceeding, the Skulk-age. Do as you please - there are many, many other strategy threads on this alien strat board, all of which give slightly modified versions of the same story. Rush, or stealthily assassinate marines as much as possible, and guard resource nodes. Is that wrong? Not in the slightest. Listen to them.
<b>The Missle Attack - Early Game</b>
There is a very magical thing about the Lerk. This is his rapidfire, instant-hit prod machine. Due to the fact that that is roughly all that this skill can do early on, you need to make sure you use it in the most accurate way possible, and WITHOUT getting hurt in the process - Lerks lack the HP of the other classes and are very fragile indeed, so you can't be wasting energy if you aren't putting full focus on aiming. Your method for the Lerk is going to be hit, and fly as far away from them as you can. Continue doing this until they die if you wish to use pure missle. Or, you can read below.
<b>Bite of the Hamster - Early Game</b>
Just like the title says, this is an extremely weak Bite (comparatively). It will only serve it's purpose against structures and against the first level Marines; also, if you know you are going to die, you might as well run up close and peck at the Marine's head, because I can guarantee you, without the later skills, this attack fails to be more effective than rapidfire.
<b>The Umbra - Mid Game</b>
WOW. Just wow. Rather than writing an essay on this because it is not only the Lerk's lifeblood AND the best defensive ability the entire alien team has, I will give you a simple, numbered guideline on how to use it.
1) Locate enemy.
2) Hide.
3) Envision where most of the battling will be taking place.
4) With Umbra readied, fly towards that area, and hit the fire button.
5) Dance back and forth once hitting the ground, and pelt the opponent with rapidfire.
6) After around 6 rapidfire shots (15 if you have Adrenaline), prepare to get another Umbra going, and launch once more.
7) Rinse lather and repeat #4-6.
8) By this time, they will have (A) Died (B) Ran away or © Ran up close to knife.
9) If A - Congratulations. If B - Chase them down and Bite them to death; they'd only run to not be humiliated. If C - Bite their head off.
<b> Spores of Doom and Umbra - Late Game</b>
LUCKY! You got three hives. This is a very rare occurance indeed (hopefully it won't be once the resource patch comes out - CMON guys!!!). Now, before you call me a psychopath for not becoming an Onos, allow me to demonstrate the powers of the maxed out Lerk. I hope you enjoy the new ability - the Spores of the Lerk are the absolute best missle weapon the aliens have to offer against the marines. Why?
1) They have the same radius of effect as an Umbra, except they do damage.
2) They do 30 damage a tick.
3) They do damage for as long as umbra (7-10 seconds, somebody correct me on this? I will assume lowest damage until then).
4) They do 210 damage for a full round.
5) Yes, they do 210 damage to every marine in the area of effect.
6) They can be stacked in pairs (or in foursomes with level 3 Adrenaline).
7) They can do about 850 damage to every marine in the area of effect.
Hope that clarified things. And now for the tactic.
<b>End Game Tactics</b>
Mmmm...After playing around with the Spores detonation (they are a cloud of toxic gas that explodes upon impact) and getting used to their aiming, get ready to play, Hide in the Umbra and zap away to safety!
**NOTE - This assumes that you go with my subliminal suggestion of using Adrenaline.
1) Locate a commonly passed/camped area that sees many a Marine. This may be their main base or an outpost, or just a big T junction that they go by often.
2) Using Cloak, wait for two or more enemies in the shadows.
3) If you chose Redemption (my personal favorite for the third hive game), cast an Umbra and spam spores like a madman. Chances are, you will get at least one Marine before you are zapped to safety.
3b) If you chose Carapace, you will last about 3x longer in the field than the Redemption setup by firing only one or two Spores behind the Umbra - but you have no escape route. Chances are, you will get 4 kills and get ripped by grenades.
3c) If you chose Regeneration, You will last around the same as the Carapace setup, perhaps a little longer, depending on your dodging abilities.
In short, Lerks are extremely underestimated aliens that you should learn to use so you can dominate the mid and especially the late game. Plus, how cool is it to be at the top of the alien list as the least used class on the alien team?
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
--JoE
PS - Edit - I always forget something in my posts. This time it was to include rapidfire in the late game. Essentially, rapidfire is not good against marines after the mid game. It is good to use in between Spores and Umbra (5 shots at the most); but the only time it will kill enemies singlehandedly is with Primal Scream. Use your imagination on that one. Other than that, you can stick to the cookie cutter turret thwomping use it gets so often.
What a concept!!
Somebody actually knows how to play Lerks beyond turret smashers?
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW..
KK enough of my sarcasm lol..
<b>The Early Game</b>
Ahh yes, the familiar countdown and immediately proceeding, the Skulk-age. Do as you please - there are many, many other strategy threads on this alien strat board, all of which give slightly modified versions of the same story. Rush, or stealthily assassinate marines as much as possible, and guard resource nodes. Is that wrong? Not in the slightest. Listen to them.
<b>The Missle Attack - Early Game</b>
There is a very magical thing about the Lerk. This is his rapidfire, instant-hit prod machine. Due to the fact that that is roughly all that this skill can do early on, you need to make sure you use it in the most accurate way possible, and WITHOUT getting hurt in the process - Lerks lack the HP of the other classes and are very fragile indeed, so you can't be wasting energy if you aren't putting full focus on aiming. Your method for the Lerk is going to be hit, and fly as far away from them as you can. Continue doing this until they die if you wish to use pure missle. Or, you can read below.
<b>Bite of the Hamster - Early Game</b>
Just like the title says, this is an extremely weak Bite (comparatively). It will only serve it's purpose against structures and against the first level Marines; also, if you know you are going to die, you might as well run up close and peck at the Marine's head, because I can guarantee you, without the later skills, this attack fails to be more effective than rapidfire.
<b>The Umbra - Mid Game</b>
WOW. Just wow. Rather than writing an essay on this because it is not only the Lerk's lifeblood AND the best defensive ability the entire alien team has, I will give you a simple, numbered guideline on how to use it.
1) Locate enemy.
2) Hide.
3) Envision where most of the battling will be taking place.
4) With Umbra readied, fly towards that area, and hit the fire button.
5) Dance back and forth once hitting the ground, and pelt the opponent with rapidfire.
6) After around 6 rapidfire shots (15 if you have Adrenaline), prepare to get another Umbra going, and launch once more.
7) Rinse lather and repeat #4-6.
8) By this time, they will have (A) Died (B) Ran away or © Ran up close to knife.
9) If A - Congratulations. If B - Chase them down and Bite them to death; they'd only run to not be humiliated. If C - Bite their head off.
<b> Spores of Doom and Umbra - Late Game</b>
LUCKY! You got three hives. This is a very rare occurance indeed (hopefully it won't be once the resource patch comes out - CMON guys!!!). Now, before you call me a psychopath for not becoming an Onos, allow me to demonstrate the powers of the maxed out Lerk. I hope you enjoy the new ability - the Spores of the Lerk are the absolute best missle weapon the aliens have to offer against the marines. Why?
1) They have the same radius of effect as an Umbra, except they do damage.
2) They do 30 damage a tick.
3) They do damage for as long as umbra (7-10 seconds, somebody correct me on this? I will assume lowest damage until then).
4) They do 210 damage for a full round.
5) Yes, they do 210 damage to every marine in the area of effect.
6) They can be stacked in pairs (or in foursomes with level 3 Adrenaline).
7) They can do about 850 damage to every marine in the area of effect.
Hope that clarified things. And now for the tactic.
<b>End Game Tactics</b>
Mmmm...After playing around with the Spores detonation (they are a cloud of toxic gas that explodes upon impact) and getting used to their aiming, get ready to play, Hide in the Umbra and zap away to safety!
**NOTE - This assumes that you go with my subliminal suggestion of using Adrenaline.
1) Locate a commonly passed/camped area that sees many a Marine. This may be their main base or an outpost, or just a big T junction that they go by often.
2) Using Cloak, wait for two or more enemies in the shadows.
3) If you chose Redemption (my personal favorite for the third hive game), cast an Umbra and spam spores like a madman. Chances are, you will get at least one Marine before you are zapped to safety.
3b) If you chose Carapace, you will last about 3x longer in the field than the Redemption setup by firing only one or two Spores behind the Umbra - but you have no escape route. Chances are, you will get 4 kills and get ripped by grenades.
3c) If you chose Regeneration, You will last around the same as the Carapace setup, perhaps a little longer, depending on your dodging abilities.
In short, Lerks are extremely underestimated aliens that you should learn to use so you can dominate the mid and especially the late game. Plus, how cool is it to be at the top of the alien list as the least used class on the alien team?
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
--JoE
PS - Edit - I always forget something in my posts. This time it was to include rapidfire in the late game. Essentially, rapidfire is not good against marines after the mid game. It is good to use in between Spores and Umbra (5 shots at the most); but the only time it will kill enemies singlehandedly is with Primal Scream. Use your imagination on that one. Other than that, you can stick to the cookie cutter turret thwomping use it gets so often.
Comments
<ul>
<li>peak around corner
<li>cast Umbra
<li>shoot at turret (<!--emo&::sentry::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/turret.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='turret.gif'><!--endemo-->) until umbra fades (seems like 1 second)
<li>get shot until dead
</ul>
What am I doing wrong and is there a way to make Umbra last longer?
Mid-game, yes, the umbra is a great skill, but less for turret-destroying. Where it really shines is in teamwork. Move with two or three of your buddies (probably fades by now) and toss as many umbras as you can muster when they encounter the Frontiersmen. If they try and whip out the knives, hey, they're going against fades (or skulks), so good luck.
Late-game is where the lerks are more commonly seen, and this is because they own with the spore cloud. I went 18-1 late-game with it. Just sit outside their base and spore cloud in, giving your team's onos' and fades plenty of room to take out the structures.
Lerks are my favorite, if you couldn't tell. Nothing beats flying!
I could never figure it out. I thought Spore Cloud worked the same way Umbra did (you spray it right where you are)
Is it different? Help. This will make me much better <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Some other useful spore instances:
Spore clouds seep around walls. If an enemy goes around a corner, shoot at the corner. If the enemy is injured, he'll probably die.
If a marine is camping in a vent, Spore the hell out of the vent. The marine will slowly try and crawl away and die while trying.
Overlap them in the enemy base, right by the infantry portals. They spawn, have no HA, and are suddenly taking 60 damage a second and their base is full of toxic gas. It's wonderful.
Spores DO NOT damage buildings, so don't shoot them at buildings. When your Onos's start reaming the commanders chair (or skulks) then spam the area with spores. The commander ejects.. and dies horrifying suffocating death.
You can shoot through enemy buildings and turrets. Just a pointer. However Alien structures and players will block your shots.
Take Adrenaline. That's all there is too it. Celerity isn't applicable since Lerk flying speed is not limited. And Silence is more for a skulk. Adrenaline will tripple the effectiveness of your SporeSpam©. And that's what you gotta do. Umbra your fades occasionally, then lay on heavy with the spam.
You'll see wonderful death notifications for no apperant reason.
I was playing a game today and I could have used spores so much... it's just that FF was on, and I didn't want to gas all my teammates (we were near a major breakthrough).
Don't expect lots of kills with the Lerk either. You're not going to be taking down gropus of marines until you get the spores, and like I said you are MUCH more valuable supporting your team with Umbra clouds.
Caraspace (sp?) is the most important defensive upgrade. The Lerk has weak armor and low hp so you definitely want to stay alive as long as possible. I'm not a big fan of redemption with the Lerk, and Regen is pretty useless because you can always fly back to a defensive tower (Remember a flying Lerk is the fastest alien). That isn't to say that Regen is worthless, but in my experience the armor upgrade has been the better choice. I'd love to hear feedback from those who do use Regen though <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Once the final hive comes up its all about the spores. You're going to clear any room extremely fast when you spray spores in there. Doesnt matter if its a HA marine or not--they all can and will run. Spores DO NOT damage structures so keep that in mind. If they did they would be too uber, lol.
At the end of the game I just finished, we were finishing off the marines at thier spawn. I was the only Lerk with a team of Onos and I had so much fun wreaking havoc on those guys. I was flying around the room spraying spores everywhere as they spawned and I was laughing my **obscenity** off as they tried to shoot me down. This was after they pushed our Onos rush back for a brief moment so I was the only alien in there until reinforcements arrived. My god, a flying Lerk must be the TOUGHEST alien to shoot because I was flying around for what seemed like hours. I had to land because I ran out of adrenaline (btw flying and spores) yet I still managed to stay alive a few secs on the ground and recover some adren. Then I took off to the ceiling again and continued to laugh my **obscenity** off. FINALLY more reinforcements arrived and they took down the remaining marines (and the base). I died somewhere in the process but it was the most fun I've had so far with this mod <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Moral of the story: be annoying as hell until your frineds arrive.