New Article At Www.nslearn.org

Firewater · November 2004

Hi, I would like to take this oppurtunity to tell the NS community that <a href='http://www.nslearn.org' target='_blank'>http://www.nslearn.org</a> has a new article up about Lerking. It was written by [exi]TheAdj and I hope you all enjoy it!

<a href='http://www.nslearn.org' target='_blank'>http://www.nslearn.org</a> Please register on our forums, in game sessions can be scheduled.

DragonMech · November 2004

Excellent - three lorks out of three! <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif' /> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif' /> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif' />

theclam · November 2004

Good article. Now he just needs to add the upgrades. Can't have redem-silence-cloaking lerks sporing marines to death.

Kazbar · November 2004

i can feel my lerking skill improve as i read it!!!! lol

Firewater · November 2004

Good point about the upgrades, I would always get carapace, adrenaline, and scent of fear as my main upgrades. But thats my personal style there are other combinations that are effective.

surprise · November 2004

if you stay in cover most of the times anyways, wouldnt it be better to use regeneration?

Cerebral · November 2004

i go regen, celerity, sof (or focus in a pub =p)

Jim_has_Skillz · November 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cerebral @ Nov 5 2004, 10:37 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> i go regen, celerity, sof (or focus in a pub =p)  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
same here. You will find that getting regen and celerity will allow you to stay on the field longer. You really don't need adren because if you can manage your energy(sorta like fading), it is infinitely better than adren. Also, if you get to sof, that is the best sens upgrade since you really need to know where all the marines are around you. SOF easily stops lerk ambushes and allows you to scout helpless and defenseless marines that are by themself.

Great Article but I would definately include the upgrades aswell.

Zunni · November 2004

That's interesting, I find adren essential to my survival and attacking skills as a lerk.. I'm not a great lerk. but without adren, I easily run out of energy to fire a volley of spores..

Any insights from other lerkers?

Faskalia · November 2004

@Zunni
For me its nearly the same.
Although i can control my energy pretty well i usually go for adren, since the danger of wasting 30 res is just too great. So i am basically staying back and spore with the help af adren. The only time i fly in for a bite is against lone rines with lmg or grenadelauncher and only if i spored them before.
So its regen/adren/sof most of the time.

This completely changes when playing co.

My first up is cele, cause i dont always want umbra and i need a way to reach my target a lot faster as a skulk. This is usually followed by regen and after that i go for adren. Once i have this (lvl6) i am ready for some true lerking. The box room in daimos is really nice for sporespam, fly in, bite one dead, fly out, heal and repeat. Once i hit the lvl8 mark some rines have usually JP. In order to fight them properly i just need focus.
My last two ups depend on my actual mood.
If I have accumulated lots of hatred during the week (doesnt happen often) i will go for silence and sof.
When the hive is under constant pressure it is usually umbra and cara for me.
If most of the rines have ha i might switch to fade and get cara as an addition.

Zunni · November 2004

I agree with combat all bets are off..

Celerity first, then adren, then lerk.. and then regen or cara (depending on map and what I'm doing mostly). Then probably silence/umbra..

TheAdj · November 2004

It's all about tradeoffs. Carapace has far longer staying power than is apparent, but that's because lerks have such low starting armor to begin with. Extra armor makes you near impossible to kill on ambush, and it prevents being 1 shotted with a shotgun or pistoled with one clip, it pretty much removes death from the equation that involves a careless mistake, as long as you don't make another one before healing. Regen gives you decent harassment power, but I find that the lerk is far too weaek for regen most of the time at one hive. When movements come into play it's a choice between adrenaline and celerity. Celerity allows for amazing speed and acrobatics, but requires killer adrenaline management. One has to aim spores and umbra well and keep flight adrenaline usage to a minimum, maximizing speed without spending more adrenaline than is needed. I personally use celerity because of it's amazing speed, a lerk can not only spore the entire team down, but swoop in on single marines for a bite kill. Adrenaline allows for massive sporing and umbraing, and is more suited to those that prefer to not fly in and dice it up with marines. This also requires less adrenaline management, but keeping tabs on it will allow for nearly constant sporing and umbraing. Scent of Fear versus Focus is also another tradeoff. I personally take SoF most of the time because I can already engage marines without needing focus, but the power of knowing exactly where they are is amazing for banking spore cloud around corners and making them run. It's also impossible to ambush a SoF lerk unless the lerk also happens to be blind. Focus allows for a lot more of a combative lerk, however I rarely use focus unless I have carapace or really good skulks. A good skulk will parasite all marines, which minimizes the chance of being ambushed. The default lerk armor is very weak and it's easy to kill a lerk that lacks carapace if it's not the best flyer around, and combined with the delay on biting due to focus it could spell the end for a lerk facing a marine with any aim or a larger weapon. It's all about maximizing damage and minimizing exposure. Flying into a squad of marines is plain stupid, flying to a solo marine who's weakened is ok.

Jim_has_Skillz · November 2004

When you get carapace or regen, it won't matter if a shotgun comes around the corner, you will die either way. This is usually why I don't get carapace, the armor bonus really isn't that nice. Also, if you get regen, it will help more when you are behind enemy lines hiding in a vent regenerating.

Celerity is awesome for the large speed bonus you acquire. It allows you to quickly escape a deadly situation. Adren won't allow you to do that no matter how fast you jump. Since not dieing is your #1 rule for lerking, celerity is the best possible option.

Zunni · November 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Celerity is awesome for the large speed bonus you acquire. It allows you to quickly escape a deadly situation. Adren won't allow you to do that no matter how fast you jump. Since not dieing is your #1 rule for lerking, celerity is the best possible option.</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

See I look at it the exact opposite.. If I need to do some damage (after all I didn't just drop 30 res for something that's going to sit in a vent and spore once every 10 seconds), I would think being able to fly in, spore, bite bite would be much more effective.. But that's why I ask because there is much I need to learn <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

TheAdj · November 2004

Jim you survive two shotgun blasts with carapace. With regen one solid hit kills you. I can't count the number of times carapace has saved me when regen would have failed. I can count the number of times I died when regen would have saved me where carapace didn't on two hands. Effectively doubling the armor makes the lerk quite durable.

Firewater · November 2004

lerks are so quick and agile that going back to the hive really isn't that unreasonable.

Its kind of dangerous to go heavily offensive with the lerk.

KaMiKaZe1 · November 2004

Nice tutorial, though it confused me where the spore/umbra stacking explanation was. I thought it meant you couldn't have spore/umbra affect the same area at the same time. XD

MrGunner · November 2004

I get regen and celerity all the time now. I don't get close to shotties if I can help it unless I know I have an instakill so regen helps me a lot. As for celerity, the tradeoff between it and adren for me lies with 2nd hive ability. I am an aggressive lerk and like being able to hit hard and fast, taking out a marine and dodging back for another run. With celerity though you can't hit them with gas and umbra both and still be able to have enough energy to get away fast. So I just hit them with gas then attack. I only use umbra in situations where it is needed for fades or when I am pinned and need help fleeing.

I also find that using a 2jump script helps my lerking a lot. It hits top speed with one press of the button and it doesn't use a lot of energy. It also is key to dodging quickly and controlled. It isn't for everyone but if you are having problems this may help you out a bit.

alias +2jumps "+jump; wait; -jump; wait; +jump"
alias -2jumps "-jump"

New Article At Www.nslearn.org

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