When I play Commander I always go Shift, Shade, and then Crag. The movement boost is gigantic and the silence ability is too good to pass up. Not to mention you can cloak your hive. and defense.
I go crag hive first (carapace, regen) and shade hive (silence, camo) second sometimes, if I'm feeling saucy. Then the entire alien team is invisible behind front lines, and invisible crags line strategic positions. Invisible heal stations always, without fail, have made getting a third hive pretty simple. Additionally, invisible whips and hydras can be very, very deadly.
It is just so handy to have deadly assassins posted just outside their base with a nice invisible retreat. Plus, I can use a shade to send in fake onos and get them to beacon. It doesn't always work out, but having an aggressive front line is pretty much a must against a marine team with any amount of experience.
EDIT: Shift first instead of crag is also pretty good, then you can have invisible eggs anywhere you need them.
<!--quoteo(post=2009422:date=Nov 4 2012, 11:44 AM:name=AuroN2)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (AuroN2 @ Nov 4 2012, 11:44 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009422"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->BADUM TISH ------------------ Anyway Shade is only really good if your aliens know how to ambush, OR, alternatively, the marines are getting arcs. or if you are an evil ###### and lurve whiptraps. And in those situations, it is REALLY REALLY good. shade for #1!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Did you just endorse cloaked whip traps on single hive? Wow! This is a multi player game evolving static defences at the expense of player tech is not only limiting your teams fun but is screening to your team that you think they are worthless. Whips should never be dropped before celer/cara/leap/blink are all done, and only before third hive if the third hive is not readily seizable.
Any structure besides a shift to prevent egg locking in early game is a waist of precious res. the same is true of rines early turrets and robo or general spamming of structures slows time to lvl 3/3 where every rine is deadly.
<!--quoteo(post=2009485:date=Nov 4 2012, 08:51 AM:name=ItAx)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ItAx @ Nov 4 2012, 08:51 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009485"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yes celerity... Why? Because adrenaline is not as good as it used to be and I don't use blink that often because shadow step is so good. Celerity gives fade so much speed that with shadow step you can attack faster than with blink.
Agree. I don't even wait for blink to be researched before going fade anymore.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But shadowstep and blink compliment eachother so well. In fact they were created to work together. Why do you think you can shadowstep any direction downward but not upward? So you can blink away upwards to confuse your enemies just after they get a bead on you then shadowstep directly downwards at them for a couple more strikes.
I saw a few other people saying a good alien commander will pick shift and celerity first every time, and I have to agree with that assessment. My personal reason for that is to ensure that the aliens don't get egg locked at the start and to enable the team to get to where they need to go as quickly as possible. Second hive I usually go carapace since it helps vs. marines that now have level one or two armor/weapons.
Not saying you couldn't do great things with the other upgrades, it's just the most logical path of advancement for most games you'll play. If I went shade first, it would be for an early base rush to try and simply win right at the start and it would be because all the good players stacked aliens at the get-go. Otherwise, the marines have a structure called an 'observatory' that will completely negate every single thing you can build with your stealth hive. They will also build observatories at all their base locations as soon as they realize what you've done too, further nerfing your shade hive.
So, to review, the marines can build a 15 res structure that negates all your upgrades right off the bat. He doesn't even really need to research the observatory, he can just build it 'whenever' and wherever he wants. Versus a noob commander on marines, shade is perfectly viable. Against even a slightly aware marine commander? Disaster waiting to happen.
Also, it's kind of an issue of what helps and when it helps. Celerity helps to negate phase gates and helps survive marine vs. aliens encounters with low marine upgrades. Carapace helps to negate some of marines armor/weapon upgrades, and silence helps to negate marines hearing which direction you're coming from which only really helps you out when you can't survive a direct confrontation which is usually later on in the game hence the choice of it being a 3rd hive.
Sadly though, I usually save the third hive in case I loose either one of the other hives since really shade provides very little benefit that can't be negated by the basic marine structures and a competent marine commander will ping before moving into a location hence removing the benefit of visually hidden structures. (Ping will uncloak things for a short period of time and provide 'motion tracking' that highlights all aliens in it's area of effect for a limited duration. Kind of OP, but costs the commander t-res.)
Why do people keep saying the obs negate everything the shade does. Don't they have an Ink ability meant to counter the obs? If anything, Shade counters obs no? That said... it kinda sucks to have the marines know where the shade is, because once they shoot it all invisibility is gone
<!--quoteo(post=2009912:date=Nov 4 2012, 10:31 AM:name=Sooty)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sooty @ Nov 4 2012, 10:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009912"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Why do people keep saying the obs negate everything the shade does. Don't they have an Ink ability meant to counter the obs? If anything, Shade counters obs no? That said... it kinda sucks to have the marines know where the shade is, because once they shoot it all invisibility is gone<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ink costs res and doesn't counter it very well. 1 Obs can simply scan anywhere on the map and you'll see what you're looking for with scan long before the alien commander uses ink from a shade that MAY be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
<!--quoteo(post=2009912:date=Nov 4 2012, 01:31 PM:name=Sooty)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sooty @ Nov 4 2012, 01:31 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009912"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Why do people keep saying the obs negate everything the shade does. Don't they have an Ink ability meant to counter the obs? If anything, Shade counters obs no? That said... it kinda sucks to have the marines know where the shade is, because once they shoot it all invisibility is gone<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ink is useful enough I suppose, but not reliable enough versus a marine commander that has his thinking cap on.
<!--quoteo(post=2009483:date=Nov 4 2012, 08:49 AM:name=MinstrelJCF)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MinstrelJCF @ Nov 4 2012, 08:49 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009483"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Shadowstep is actually superior to blink in this game interestingly enough.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Only for you.
More often then not I see shift hive first, while the upgrades might be a close run between cara/cele the shift completely outweighs the usefulness of the crag. I do wish more ppl would get silence, it is really really good.
I also wish ppl would stop sprouting this bs about cara being mandatory, it is not. In 9/10 cases I prefer cele/regen fade, lerk or even onos if there are no gorges. Maybe if you have some sort of obsession that you cant leave a room before you kill something you need cara but for the people who can wrap their minds around hit and run regen is vastly superior.
<!--quoteo(post=2010000:date=Nov 4 2012, 02:44 PM:name=1dominator1)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (1dominator1 @ Nov 4 2012, 02:44 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2010000"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Only for you.
More often then not I see shift hive first, while the upgrades might be a close run between cara/cele the shift completely outweighs the usefulness of the crag. I do wish more ppl would get silence, it is really really good.
I also wish ppl would stop sprouting this bs about cara being mandatory, it is not. In 9/10 cases I prefer cele/regen fade, lerk or even onos if there are no gorges. Maybe if you have some sort of obsession that you cant leave a room before you kill something you need cara but for the people who can wrap their minds around hit and run regen is vastly superior.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Carapace is mandatory late game, which is why it's the second upgrade for me. There will be many games where you never see the third hive, or not for long, and the healing crags+shifts are way more useful as siege backup than a shade in any situation I can realistically think of. A regen Onos is a sitting duck for weapon 3 marines that even kind of know how to aim. You are, after all, the size of a barn. Early to mid-game you aren't wrong, only at the later stages of the game does regen under perform for most lifeforms. Eventually, you just really need the gorge and umbra depending on how long the game stretches out.
<!--quoteo(post=2009766:date=Nov 4 2012, 07:54 PM:name=Sooty)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sooty @ Nov 4 2012, 07:54 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009766"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Can you guys explain the shadowstep > blink comments? I don't understand why it is so.
Edit: Can someone also explain this comment? "...but it has certainly come a long way from having to reduce skulk speed massively just to prevent people from taking carapace first." Carapace reduces speed?
Edit2: Also, celerity bonuses are loss during battle?!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
About shadow step and blink. I only noticed the usefullness of the shadow step after the adrenaline and blink nerf. Blink got slower and adrenaline... Well it's not as good as it used to be, so you have to check your energy constantly as a fade. Shadow step consumes less energy and it's pretty damn fast, especially with celerity. The best choice of course is to use blink and shadow step in conjunction.
In beta there was a time when the use of carapace reduced speed, but it was taken out because upgrades should only give benefits.
I think Shadowstep works better in closer quarters, Blink is better for more open areas.
Either way I wish the Fade got some damage resistance while doing both. I don't know if it's lag or netcode / hitreg problems but even when I'm shadowstepping all over the place like I'm god damn Nightcrawler, I soak damage constantly. Probably lag, I've had times where I ran around a corner as a skulk and only THEN died to LMG fire.
I am just gonna kinda echo what has been said to kind of confirm it with my own observations.
Silence/camo can be very devastating
Not having celerity is bad HOWEVER, Leap can be a very effective replacement for celerity and rushing a second hive works great.
Carapace is great early game as it gives aliens the ability dominate the resource nodes early on and this can be the straw that broke the camels back for the marines. Aliens can come back from much more devastating problems, but if marines lack res for too long it can lose the game for them just like that. It may not happen for 10-20 mins but what happens early game decides who wins late game.
<!--quoteo(post=2010129:date=Nov 5 2012, 12:41 AM:name=Sherwood)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sherwood @ Nov 5 2012, 12:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2010129"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I am just gonna kinda echo what has been said to kind of confirm it with my own observations.
Silence/camo can be very devastating
Not having celerity is bad HOWEVER, Leap can be a very effective replacement for celerity and rushing a second hive works great.
Carapace is great early game as it gives aliens the ability dominate the resource nodes early on and this can be the straw that broke the camels back for the marines. Aliens can come back from much more devastating problems, but if marines lack res for too long it can lose the game for them just like that. It may not happen for 10-20 mins but what happens early game decides who wins late game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Silence and camo is very devastating in early game, however if the aliens fail to secure 3rd hive to get both shift and cara, they are going to have a bad time in late game.
<!--quoteo(post=2010221:date=Nov 4 2012, 10:31 PM:name=ItAx)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ItAx @ Nov 4 2012, 10:31 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2010221"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Silence and camo is very devastating in early game, however if the aliens fail to secure 3rd hive to get both shift and cara, they are going to have a bad time in late game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Also, it means you have to move focus to your second or third hive. The third hive is usually the least-secured because of its likely proximity to the marines, so making it your least-important hive type - in this case Shade - makes more sense. You can play without Shade and compete in the mid / late game, but losing Carapace or Celery / Adrenalin is much, much worse.
<!--quoteo(post=2010000:date=Nov 4 2012, 07:44 PM:name=1dominator1)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (1dominator1 @ Nov 4 2012, 07:44 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2010000"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Only for you.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Works in whatever direction you press the key, uses less energy, better in combat, jump + shadowstep + jump for better travel for less energy. Blink is useful if you need to go after jetpacks or fly through a room full of marines.
A big part of shift first for me is that if the marines try to deny a second hive, you can relentlessly spawn in aliens to a foward location to try and take it back. Shades are pretty useful early game, though money wasted that could be better spent on other things. Crags aren't that useful early game as you can't gaurantee their safety that early in the game. You can barely gaurantee a shades safety considering it's obvious whenever one's around (this I feel is counter-intuitive) - because all of a sudden you start walking in infestation that's not there (infestation footstep sounds should either be removed, or infestation & cysts uncloaked but buildings remain cloaked).
I think shades and crags would be so much better if you could drop them in vents and off infestations. Little outposts out of immediate marine reach (until jetpacks or unless they're really really determined and make a human pyramid or mine ladder) that aliens can utilize to your advantage. Smart structure placement was a big part of ns1. And although it is too in ns2, it doesn't have the benefit of complete freedom to place a structure almost anywhere. I almost wish gorges could just build anything the comm can build, off infestation - well, maybe not hives, but harvestors, crags, shells, veils, spurs, shifts, shades and whips. I suppose it would lessen the importance of the commander role though, and infestation.
I prefer celerity to carapace, but it doesn't bother me to be honest. Whatever the comm feels like using is fine with me. I wish you didn't have to choose between upgrading carapace or upgrading regeneration (and likewise adren/celer and shade upgrades) and it just did them both like in ns1. I would actually use regen early game as skulk if it were available, but it never is. And late game by the time regen comes out, it's no longer worth it to go regen.
A Mini BuddhaJoin Date: 2012-11-02Member: 166058Members
I feel like going shift hive first is the best way about going into public games and establishing early map control. I feel unless you have a specific strategy based around carapace or an all in it works best to go cara first, but pretty much I have found going celerity into carapace the best starting alien build.
Vile | FriskyJoin Date: 2012-11-04Member: 166873Members
As a general rule of thumb the only time you should ever rush a Crag hive first is if you plan on skulk rushing the enemy base and wiping them immediately. In the current meta, Shift hives will almost always be dropped first for several reasons:
1] Dropping a shift hive first allows you immediate access to Celerity and/or Adrenaline, which are, in my opinion, two of the best passive evolutions available early on. With celerity you can have your skulks absolutely dominate map control and force engagements that most marine players are unable to handle properly. Adrenaline is VERY useful for Gorges looking to support an early Onos Egg rush.
2] Opting for an initial shift hive allows you to drop shifts at key locations, which in turn allows you to put EXTREME pressure at choke points or even defend specific areas. Whenever or I command on Veil I generally go shift hive first so I can rush Nano Grid and spawn eggs to create a centralize forward base that is extremely defensible.
Crag hive is often second unless you have a very aggressive and coordinated team, in which case the silence buff is insanely awesome. If you're confident in your teams abilities, you can always go shade and then crag but you better have a highly skilled team to execute strategy using such a difficult evolution combo.
<!--quoteo(post=2010258:date=Nov 4 2012, 05:53 PM:name=Temphage)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Temphage @ Nov 4 2012, 05:53 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2010258"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Also, it means you have to move focus to your second or third hive. The third hive is usually the least-secured because of its likely proximity to the marines, so making it your least-important hive type - in this case Shade - makes more sense. You can play without Shade and compete in the mid / late game, but losing Carapace or Celery / Adrenalin is much, much worse.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Correct me if I am wrong but can't you just place the upgrades in the more important hives, and even if the hive dies you can still use it.
Hive 1 1 choose-able upgrade, 2 upgrades total
Hive 2 2 Choose-able upgrades 4 upgrades total
Hive 3 3 Choose-able upgrades 6 upgrades total
Hive 2 with 6 upgrades available = 2 choose-able from any category third category greys out when two are selected.
<!--quoteo(post=2009808:date=Nov 4 2012, 12:34 PM:name=Sooty)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sooty @ Nov 4 2012, 12:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2009808"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Thanks for the answers Cobra, it was very helpful. How about the point about shadowstep being better than blink? This thread is the first time I read it anywhere. Would love to hear more!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Load up an explore map, go fade, then shadowstep, jump immediately after, then jump again. You can practically fly down hallways once you get the timing down.
It's also, IMO, more useful in combat, as you can dodge in any direction, whereas blink requires you to look in the direction you want to go (i.e., you telegraph your next move to the marine).
Also, you can attack in the middle of a shadowstep :-)
<!--quoteo(post=2010654:date=Nov 4 2012, 08:51 PM:name=Ness_FrogKing)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Ness_FrogKing @ Nov 4 2012, 08:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2010654"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Load up an explore map, go fade, then shadowstep, jump immediately after, then jump again. You can practically fly down hallways once you get the timing down.
It's also, IMO, more useful in combat, as you can dodge in any direction, whereas blink requires you to look in the direction you want to go (i.e., you telegraph your next move to the marine).
Also, you can attack in the middle of a shadowstep :-)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Shhh stop telling people the secrets of shadowstep movement.
Comments
The movement boost is gigantic and the silence ability is too good to pass up. Not to mention you can cloak your hive. and defense.
It is just so handy to have deadly assassins posted just outside their base with a nice invisible retreat. Plus, I can use a shade to send in fake onos and get them to beacon. It doesn't always work out, but having an aggressive front line is pretty much a must against a marine team with any amount of experience.
EDIT: Shift first instead of crag is also pretty good, then you can have invisible eggs anywhere you need them.
------------------
Anyway
Shade is only really good if your aliens know how to ambush, OR, alternatively, the marines are getting arcs. or if you are an evil ###### and lurve whiptraps.
And in those situations, it is REALLY REALLY good. shade for #1!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Did you just endorse cloaked whip traps on single hive? Wow! This is a multi player game evolving static defences at the expense of player tech is not only limiting your teams fun but is screening to your team that you think they are worthless. Whips should never be dropped before celer/cara/leap/blink are all done, and only before third hive if the third hive is not readily seizable.
Any structure besides a shift to prevent egg locking in early game is a waist of precious res. the same is true of rines early turrets and robo or general spamming of structures slows time to lvl 3/3 where every rine is deadly.
Celerity gives fade so much speed that with shadow step you can attack faster than with blink.
Agree.
I don't even wait for blink to be researched before going fade anymore.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But shadowstep and blink compliment eachother so well. In fact they were created to work together. Why do you think you can shadowstep any direction downward but not upward? So you can blink away upwards to confuse your enemies just after they get a bead on you then shadowstep directly downwards at them for a couple more strikes.
Not saying you couldn't do great things with the other upgrades, it's just the most logical path of advancement for most games you'll play. If I went shade first, it would be for an early base rush to try and simply win right at the start and it would be because all the good players stacked aliens at the get-go. Otherwise, the marines have a structure called an 'observatory' that will completely negate every single thing you can build with your stealth hive. They will also build observatories at all their base locations as soon as they realize what you've done too, further nerfing your shade hive.
So, to review, the marines can build a 15 res structure that negates all your upgrades right off the bat. He doesn't even really need to research the observatory, he can just build it 'whenever' and wherever he wants. Versus a noob commander on marines, shade is perfectly viable. Against even a slightly aware marine commander? Disaster waiting to happen.
Also, it's kind of an issue of what helps and when it helps. Celerity helps to negate phase gates and helps survive marine vs. aliens encounters with low marine upgrades. Carapace helps to negate some of marines armor/weapon upgrades, and silence helps to negate marines hearing which direction you're coming from which only really helps you out when you can't survive a direct confrontation which is usually later on in the game hence the choice of it being a 3rd hive.
Sadly though, I usually save the third hive in case I loose either one of the other hives since really shade provides very little benefit that can't be negated by the basic marine structures and a competent marine commander will ping before moving into a location hence removing the benefit of visually hidden structures. (Ping will uncloak things for a short period of time and provide 'motion tracking' that highlights all aliens in it's area of effect for a limited duration. Kind of OP, but costs the commander t-res.)
Ink costs res and doesn't counter it very well. 1 Obs can simply scan anywhere on the map and you'll see what you're looking for with scan long before the alien commander uses ink from a shade that MAY be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
Ink is useful enough I suppose, but not reliable enough versus a marine commander that has his thinking cap on.
Only for you.
More often then not I see shift hive first, while the upgrades might be a close run between cara/cele the shift completely outweighs the usefulness of the crag. I do wish more ppl would get silence, it is really really good.
I also wish ppl would stop sprouting this bs about cara being mandatory, it is not. In 9/10 cases I prefer cele/regen fade, lerk or even onos if there are no gorges. Maybe if you have some sort of obsession that you cant leave a room before you kill something you need cara but for the people who can wrap their minds around hit and run regen is vastly superior.
More often then not I see shift hive first, while the upgrades might be a close run between cara/cele the shift completely outweighs the usefulness of the crag. I do wish more ppl would get silence, it is really really good.
I also wish ppl would stop sprouting this bs about cara being mandatory, it is not. In 9/10 cases I prefer cele/regen fade, lerk or even onos if there are no gorges. Maybe if you have some sort of obsession that you cant leave a room before you kill something you need cara but for the people who can wrap their minds around hit and run regen is vastly superior.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Carapace is mandatory late game, which is why it's the second upgrade for me. There will be many games where you never see the third hive, or not for long, and the healing crags+shifts are way more useful as siege backup than a shade in any situation I can realistically think of. A regen Onos is a sitting duck for weapon 3 marines that even kind of know how to aim. You are, after all, the size of a barn. Early to mid-game you aren't wrong, only at the later stages of the game does regen under perform for most lifeforms. Eventually, you just really need the gorge and umbra depending on how long the game stretches out.
Edit: Can someone also explain this comment? "...but it has certainly come a long way from having to reduce skulk speed massively just to prevent people from taking carapace first." Carapace reduces speed?
Edit2: Also, celerity bonuses are loss during battle?!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
About shadow step and blink. I only noticed the usefullness of the shadow step after the adrenaline and blink nerf. Blink got slower and adrenaline... Well it's not as good as it used to be, so you have to check your energy constantly as a fade. Shadow step consumes less energy and it's pretty damn fast, especially with celerity. The best choice of course is to use blink and shadow step in conjunction.
In beta there was a time when the use of carapace reduced speed, but it was taken out because upgrades should only give benefits.
Either way I wish the Fade got some damage resistance while doing both. I don't know if it's lag or netcode / hitreg problems but even when I'm shadowstepping all over the place like I'm god damn Nightcrawler, I soak damage constantly. Probably lag, I've had times where I ran around a corner as a skulk and only THEN died to LMG fire.
Silence/camo can be very devastating
Not having celerity is bad HOWEVER, Leap can be a very effective replacement for celerity and rushing a second hive works great.
Carapace is great early game as it gives aliens the ability dominate the resource nodes early on and this can be the straw that broke the camels back for the marines. Aliens can come back from much more devastating problems, but if marines lack res for too long it can lose the game for them just like that. It may not happen for 10-20 mins but what happens early game decides who wins late game.
Silence/camo can be very devastating
Not having celerity is bad HOWEVER, Leap can be a very effective replacement for celerity and rushing a second hive works great.
Carapace is great early game as it gives aliens the ability dominate the resource nodes early on and this can be the straw that broke the camels back for the marines. Aliens can come back from much more devastating problems, but if marines lack res for too long it can lose the game for them just like that. It may not happen for 10-20 mins but what happens early game decides who wins late game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Silence and camo is very devastating in early game, however if the aliens fail to secure 3rd hive to get both shift and cara, they are going to have a bad time in late game.
Also, it means you have to move focus to your second or third hive. The third hive is usually the least-secured because of its likely proximity to the marines, so making it your least-important hive type - in this case Shade - makes more sense. You can play without Shade and compete in the mid / late game, but losing Carapace or Celery / Adrenalin is much, much worse.
Works in whatever direction you press the key, uses less energy, better in combat, jump + shadowstep + jump for better travel for less energy. Blink is useful if you need to go after jetpacks or fly through a room full of marines.
I think shades and crags would be so much better if you could drop them in vents and off infestations. Little outposts out of immediate marine reach (until jetpacks or unless they're really really determined and make a human pyramid or mine ladder) that aliens can utilize to your advantage. Smart structure placement was a big part of ns1. And although it is too in ns2, it doesn't have the benefit of complete freedom to place a structure almost anywhere. I almost wish gorges could just build anything the comm can build, off infestation - well, maybe not hives, but harvestors, crags, shells, veils, spurs, shifts, shades and whips. I suppose it would lessen the importance of the commander role though, and infestation.
I prefer celerity to carapace, but it doesn't bother me to be honest. Whatever the comm feels like using is fine with me. I wish you didn't have to choose between upgrading carapace or upgrading regeneration (and likewise adren/celer and shade upgrades) and it just did them both like in ns1. I would actually use regen early game as skulk if it were available, but it never is. And late game by the time regen comes out, it's no longer worth it to go regen.
this.
1] Dropping a shift hive first allows you immediate access to Celerity and/or Adrenaline, which are, in my opinion, two of the best passive evolutions available early on. With celerity you can have your skulks absolutely dominate map control and force engagements that most marine players are unable to handle properly. Adrenaline is VERY useful for Gorges looking to support an early Onos Egg rush.
2] Opting for an initial shift hive allows you to drop shifts at key locations, which in turn allows you to put EXTREME pressure at choke points or even defend specific areas. Whenever or I command on Veil I generally go shift hive first so I can rush Nano Grid and spawn eggs to create a centralize forward base that is extremely defensible.
Crag hive is often second unless you have a very aggressive and coordinated team, in which case the silence buff is insanely awesome. If you're confident in your teams abilities, you can always go shade and then crag but you better have a highly skilled team to execute strategy using such a difficult evolution combo.
Correct me if I am wrong but can't you just place the upgrades in the more important hives, and even if the hive dies you can still use it.
Hive 1 1 choose-able upgrade, 2 upgrades total
Hive 2 2 Choose-able upgrades 4 upgrades total
Hive 3 3 Choose-able upgrades 6 upgrades total
Hive 2 with 6 upgrades available = 2 choose-able from any category third category greys out when two are selected.
Load up an explore map, go fade, then shadowstep, jump immediately after, then jump again. You can practically fly down hallways once you get the timing down.
It's also, IMO, more useful in combat, as you can dodge in any direction, whereas blink requires you to look in the direction you want to go (i.e., you telegraph your next move to the marine).
Also, you can attack in the middle of a shadowstep :-)
It's also, IMO, more useful in combat, as you can dodge in any direction, whereas blink requires you to look in the direction you want to go (i.e., you telegraph your next move to the marine).
Also, you can attack in the middle of a shadowstep :-)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Shhh stop telling people the secrets of shadowstep movement.