Lerks...
Diablus
Join Date: 2003-03-31 Member: 15080Members
Join Date: 2003-03-31 Member: 15080Members
<div class="IPBDescription">yes the annoying little flying buggers</div> One of my favorite classes to go as alien is lerk, but lately i have found that lerks are extremly deadly even against a group of skill marines, at level 1 weapons it seems to take mroe than a lmg clip to kill them. especially when thier flying into the cieling, u can barly see them. i just came from a game in nancy and no matter how much we rushed these 2 lerks they just pummled us, ill admit towards the ending game lerks are nothing but in the begining they can cause the game to be lost to the rines. in tanith when they fly outside the marine spawn on the ceiling u cant see them at all (this should be adressed) now ill admit i am complaining somewhat about lerks, and it seems to me that its thier hp, i think they should be strictly a support unit in the begining games not a weapon of mass destruction in a group of 2-3, if thier hp not lowered a bit then do somethnig about the res cost, they show up in a minute or less in the game which is a low blow to marines if the lerks and sticking together <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
Heds
As my favorite class along with the skulk on the alien side, it's usually used like following (in my case at least):
Early game: Harrassment with spore + Regen/Cloaking or Sent of Fear/Adrenalin (depending on what first chamber is). It allows you to slow down alot the progression of the marines, giving your alien fellows time to expand even more quickly, and consolidate the defence of the corridors they've taken control of.
Even if you eventually get shot, you may have managed to get enough RfK to quasi-instantly go Lerk when you respawn.
Middle-End Game: Still a bit of Harrassment (always do whatever you can to annoy your enemy) and support oriented play. As soon as you can have Umbra, you should try to find a fellow Fade or Onos and escort him in his next rush. As long as it's alive, you are mostly safe (people usually try to shoot down first the Big Rushing Onos, not the annoying little Lerk hiding at the other end of the corridor). Just prey they didn't take redemption instead of Regen or Cara, otherwise you may go through alot of trouble when they redeem...
In every case, the Lerk's principal weak spot is his low HP. You have to be very careful because a few shots will get you killed. That's why I recommended to hide behind a stronger alien form in assault. So maybe Celerity could be a good choice in order to improve your dodging abilties?...
middle-end game, you should be using the two support functions of umbra and primal scream, meaning the only way to keep a consistent flow of one or both is to have adrenaline. celerity would drastically reduce your effectiveness as a support unit, and lerk flight is pretty damn fast anyways. practice flying more accurately, as accurate flight is more useful than celerity.
"If I had a server, I would limit 1 lerk per team. Their hitpoints would be 5 with a plugin."
Sound familier?
Lerks need looking at, for a class that can be gotten in the first minute of the game they are simply too powerful. I don't usually chase lerks down, but the spores that they spread are too thick and too vast, and by the time I get out of my own spawn I'm already on 45 hp, not even able to take one skulk bite, and thats assuming the lerk doesn't snipe me with spikes either, something that is sure to get me killed easily.
Gorges are builders...masters of buildings...and that works.
Skulks work as the basic grunts of the alien army.
Fades are the great anti-personel troops they've always been
and a good onos will always decimate those outposts and bases.
the supportive lerks though? They rarely support....they usually attack, they're skulks with range and more health, at least that's how they're played. For 30 res they're far too influential on the game.
in my humble opinion. Of course all you lerk fanboys will counter this with how the lerks are nothing like that and are useless against marines if the marines ignore them... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
-Lee
But still, even as a Lerk fanboy ;p, I do agree with the fact that this "support class" is pretty powerful all by itself.
Lerks can decimate an entire squad of marines all by themselves, or at least severly cripple it, in order for skulks to finish the job quickly.
The intersting point here is what should the marines do?
If they ignore the Lerk, they still get really diminuated from the spore attack. If the Lerk is ambushing them with a skulk or two, I barely see a squad survive them.
If they go chase him, the risk is high that the Lerk will spike them to death, as weakened as they became while going through the spore cloud.
So what??
As a side note I think the fade should be brought down to 40 res, but with aliens owning as it is I don't see why we should be making it easier for them.
Or to delay alien expansion and the early lerks alien starting res could be 20?
only ideas.
"If I had a server, I would limit 1 lerk per team. Their hitpoints would be 5 with a plugin."
Sound familier? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
hhahaa, yea that was funny, but i seriously do think lerks are a bit overpowered seeing how 1 can take out a group of la's with slight effort
Lerks need looking at, for a class that can be gotten in the first minute of the game they are simply too powerful. I don't usually chase lerks down, but the spores that they spread are too thick and too vast, and by the time I get out of my own spawn I'm already on 45 hp, not even able to take one skulk bite, and thats assuming the lerk doesn't snipe me with spikes either, something that is sure to get me killed easily.
Gorges are builders...masters of buildings...and that works.
Skulks work as the basic grunts of the alien army.
Fades are the great anti-personel troops they've always been
and a good onos will always decimate those outposts and bases.
the supportive lerks though? They rarely support....they usually attack, they're skulks with range and more health, at least that's how they're played. For 30 res they're far too influential on the game.
in my humble opinion. Of course all you lerk fanboys will counter this with how the lerks are nothing like that and are useless against marines if the marines ignore them... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
-Lee <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well in DOD the support weapon is the BAR/STG44 and its pretty good at killing all.
Lerks get kills early in game but later near the end, their mainly supposed to support.
thats true but in the end game all lerks do is usually spore the marines to death getting 2x as many kills as an onos would
you're assuming the lerk is stupid enough to a) get close enough to the base without the aid of one of many vents and b) that the lerk isn't going to fly away leaving a trail of spores as it goes to a safe spot.
<!--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--> Gweh. Quit your whining and improve your aim, or just leave the lerk alone. Let it stare at structures, with no marines around, and it cant do much... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Right, because a lerk in cover, or at long range with regen (and its ever present wings) doesn't at all make an impact on a marine spawn...you know, when marines spawn in a mist of green smog and lose at least 30 hp before they're even out of the place? Try adding a constructive comment and not just a blanket "omg improve ur aim n00b" type rubbish, because frankly that isn't anywhere near where the problem with lerks lie.
<!--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-->Well in DOD the support weapon is the BAR/STG44 and its pretty good at killing all.
Lerks get kills early in game but later near the end, their mainly supposed to support. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
the two aren't the same. A machine gunner is there for sustained fire to keep the enemy pinned down. The main way to beat a lerk is to ignore it, though the usual responce is for the marines to get pinned...out.
As someone else said, the lerks get plenty of kills in the late game, more than in the early game...yet their supportive measures in the early game are nearly non-existant...at a time when they're most needed.
Swap spore for primal scream, and THEN you have a supportive alien unit, that can still do its annoying spore trick to gain uber amounts of kills at the end game.
-Lee
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
very true, but primal scream around a group of skulk can in fact pretty much have 1-2 skulks own a marine base early game <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
-Impy <!--emo&::lerk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'><!--endemo-->
Put spores back to third hive and you've got those end game marines dying as quick as they ever have, and the lerk frag **** get their end game kills.
At the end of the day, I feel that any changes which put the lerks into a mode where they don't go and automatically take up a position 20-30 meters from a marine base, and spend all the time just gassing and spiking til they get res to go onos...are good changes. Put the lerk into this support mode, where they're used to help attack outposts and defend hives...then you have a perfect teamworking alien team in premise.
Right now you have an alien team that survives through bias, and dies a lot more in 2.01d because of lack of teamwork and a lot of res whoring. putting the lerk into a role where it can do little but support attacks and defenses, while keeping it the same res, until the third hive...it'll help the aliens along as a team.
-Lee
Put spores back to third hive and you've got those end game marines dying as quick as they ever have, and the lerk frag **** get their end game kills.
At the end of the day, I feel that any changes which put the lerks into a mode where they don't go and automatically take up a position 20-30 meters from a marine base, and spend all the time just gassing and spiking til they get res to go onos...are good changes. Put the lerk into this support mode, where they're used to help attack outposts and defend hives...then you have a perfect teamworking alien team in premise.
Right now you have an alien team that survives through bias, and dies a lot more in 2.01d because of lack of teamwork and a lot of res whoring. putting the lerk into a role where it can do little but support attacks and defenses, while keeping it the same res, until the third hive...it'll help the aliens along as a team.
-Lee <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
amen