New Lerk Tactics Or Guide

Fat_Wang · January 2004

<div class="IPBDescription">need help</div> Note: The forum people hate me and think my screwy speak dialect of english is another lagnuage so this will be my 1st post in normal english. if you detect a spelling error it's due to my innate crappy spelling. (I'm not gonna look up every word for gods sake). Also note that this post is 3.0 beta orriented. If you don't have it start downloading now!!!

I have asked about lerk tactics in the past and the majority of them had something to do with "fly around like a mad man and spike everything in sight". Well now in 3.0 spikes are gone. What is one to do? I've tried the bite but it's too weak and I die repeatedly. What should I do?

Also is locational damage on? I've seen veteran lerks kill HA in 2 bites where it takes me 7 to kill the same guy (yess I had focus and so did the vets). I was just wondering.

NumbersNotFound · January 2004

404's Official 3.0b1 Lerk Guide:

The Lerk, imo, is the most powerful of the Combat. I haven't played enough classic NS to get a good guide down for it, but here it goes for Combat.

Lerking is a matter of one-up ism. You need to start off fast and be better than the average marine you'll be eating.

First, as a skulk, try to get your first level for either carapace or leap. The leap REALLY helps against the Marine ranged weapons and can get some quick kills. Carapace will let you get up close to the enemy faster, so either one is pretty good.

Next point, put either to adreneline or save it. If you wanna go lerk faster, than save it, otherwise put it into adreneline to get your Leap skill flowing faster. This will also help flying around as lerk.

Next two points go into either Lerk/adren or just lerk (if you picked Adren last level) Now we move onto lerk strats:

Flying in 3.0 is changed. You no only fly straight up when no motion is made in any direction. Otherwise, you flap AT your target. This means you pitch up to fly up, down to fly down. Whatever is in your sights you will fly towards. It's fairly easy to pick up.

Ok, so to actually.. you know.. kill stuff.. you have to be pretty darn visual. Keep Umbra and Bite on deck. Switch to Umbra, and start hunting. When you see a marine, shoot the umbra AT THEM, then fast switch, fly into the umbra, and start chomping. After a little while, fast switch to umbra and shoot at your feet and switch back to bite if needed. This should let you tank against almost anything.

Next point put to celerity. Next point to your 4th ability.

Primal scream creates a 3 skill juggling match. I stay with primal scream out all the time (since it lasts the longest.) Give a blast of Primal Scream, switch to umbra, umbra the marine, flap in, bite uber fast.. BAM. One dead marine. This primal scream will REALLY help against heavies and the like.

Next points to regen and silence.

Now is time for CC destruction. You can fly into the marine base after a round of aliens has killed off the marines which have a now huge respawn time. Get behind the chair, switch on primal scream and bite away. Umbra if they start to shoot at you and recast primal scream as needed.

I haven't counted everything, but that should leave you at level 10 with all you need to be an uber lerk. Silent, fast, deadly.

Here is the result:

The_IRS · January 2004

*notices highest death rate*

NumbersNotFound · January 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (The_IRS @ Jan 29 2004, 08:18 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> *notices highest death rate*  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Well, rate is deaths in relation to something...

2.85k/d ratio. The next highest guy has a 2.59k/d ratio, the only FFT on the team <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

Even if you meant "death number" then i'm only 2nd, but i admit the 2nd guy wasn't the brightest onos in the bunch.

RaVe · January 2004

What you want to get too is SoF, it pays to know where they are, especially after those VERY LONG RESPAWN TIMES.

If you wish, you can get all 3 movement upgrades, 1 sensory upgrade and 2 defense upgrades, along with 1 ability to do a lot of damage.

And remember, Umbra is your friend! (Doesn't do much to point-blank shotties though)

EDIT : Although lerk bite has lower damage than skulk bite, the lerk bite has a much mnore higher RoF, which is what makes it so dangerous. Pair this with Focus, and you have one dangerous hit and run lerk flying around.

frostymoose · January 2004

lerk is amazing in areas where they have room to fly around, in combat anyways. I've tried to lerk a few time in classic but it doesn't really work out because you can't get so many upgrades. I'd guess you should stick to sporing the rines to death and only going in for a bite on jetpackers (since it's the best and easiest way to take them down) and on rines you are 100% sure you can take down. They should probably be alone, too. like I said, lerks aren't too hot in classic from what i've seen so far. I went 128-15 with the lerk in combat today on co_core but I can't do much with the lerk in classic :/

Scuzball · January 2004

God, I was having so much fun as lerk today. I went 81-25, not the best ever, but the best on my team. I had all 3 defensive upgrades, silence, umbra, focus, and adrenaline.

I would enter through one end of the rine base, drop gas clouds like a stealth bomber, and glide smoothly right out the other door to circle around and do it again. Every pass I made, I'd sight a target, drop umbra ahead of myself, and glide directly into and through his torso ^__^

Focus rocks.

Sarisel · January 2004

Umbra is probably the most important thing for a lerk to have. Use that, and you can take a heavy armor 1v1 - just keep umbraing every 3 seconds. In my experience, that's the difference between good and bad lerks. Bad lerks expect to stay alive even though they are fragile, so they don't use umbra. Good lerks know their limits and play carefully, although they are still ruthless when it comes to dispatching marines.

Edit: Can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet.. <b>don't fly in straight lines or stand still when you're attacking on ground, keep moving unpredictably always</b>.

Skydancer · January 2004

I usually save the first 2 levels for lerk, then celerity, carapace, umbra, silence, primal, regen and sof. It's a personal combination based on people I play with...

Parallax · January 2004

Noone here has mentioned the <b> REAL </b> new lerk fly mode!

Hold down jump when you are flying, and you glide. If you want to go in a direction, then you look there - up, down, sideways, whatever. If you are going too slow, then release and then press (and hold) jump again to flap and make yourself go faster.

You can do circuits of the whole level while never touching the ground and while recharging your energy (without adren) as you do so.

-Parallax

DjBourgeoisie · January 2004

I agree as someone stated above, its good to umbra a group as you glide in from behind and get a few bites in and fly away. Also, I have found that waiting on a ledge somewhere out of site and gliding down behind an unsuspecting marine is an easy kill since the glide is silenced. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif' />

Sarisel · January 2004

except that you often make squawking sounds as you glide

Doobie_Dan · January 2004

Remember, don't forget focus if you're planning on using bite, umbra, and scream... even with adren that will drain your enery PDQ. Focus lowers your energy consumption quite a bit.

My god combat lerk is so much fun!!! <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

krunaldo · January 2004

In classic you should get Celerity,Regeneration and focus

Fly like hell close in when they are reloading and take one bit fly away and dodge some more then fly in and kill the poor marine.

Primal scream is also extremly good becuse with primal scream you could kill anything that moves.

Never bite shotties , keep your distance and gast thim but never bite thim becuse one lvl 0 shotty shot you are dead...

Also never attack more then 2 marines in group if you don't feel secure on killing thim.

Catch_22 · January 2004

I always find that getting Focus, then regen, then saving for lerk works for me. I usually always make it out of battle with 20 hp lol. Regen is useful for me so I dont run alllll the way back to the hive. I dont usually bother with Carapace/redemp.

TheKillingTree · January 2004

something I have noticed that people do with lerks is just fly into large groups of marines head on. Not a good idea, all you need to do is wait and nail em when they are walkin around. Also what seems quite effective when Im lerking is to constantly move up and down not just flying straight, im not sure if the downward glide picks up speed or not (can anyone clarify this).

And peopel, run away if your less than half health. I see alot of people who wont leave untill the marine is dead. If you dont have him in the first few chomps and hes done some pretty good damage to you run.

Lerks are great ambushers catch them off guard!

mutt · February 2004

Some great tips posted earlier. What's been working for me:

Upgrade path:
skulk->celerity->focus->lerk->(adren or regen)->(adren or regen)->cara->silence->umbra

Gliding is key until you get adren. Even after getting adren you still have to conserve your energy somewhat. With that said:

As the saying goes, speed is life. Worded anther way, try not to stick around too long and die from greed. So to use the new lerk as an offensive weapon, you're basically reduced to the hit and run strategy. If there's room available, tight turns and dive bombing works really well. I avoid flying directly at my target until the last possible moment.

Once a target's been selected, set up your approach with a high undulating/strafing pass, preferably with some cover (to get the marine to waste some ammo trying to hit you). If you do take significant damage on the approach, don't be hesitant to call off your attack and get the hell out of there and out of sight. But if you do make it, once you're really close to your target, swoop down at a steep angle and take one bite, change direction somewhat, and fly away for a brief moment. Reacquire your target and repeat. Here's some crude ASCII art of a side view.

\ / \ / \ / <-----
\ / \ / \ /
\ /
o

There are many areas on combat maps with nice cavities that you can fly into to temporarily get out of the hail of bullets. In areas that I'm not sure how many marines are there camping, I'd just fly a quick in and out and gauge how many there are and to get an idea where they're hiding.

Bad situation in my experience:

The worse case scenario for an offensive lerk is a bunch of marines camping in a small room with few entrances and a low ceiling.

Avoid doing 180's in level flight as you basically stall the lerk of horizontal motion in mid air (sitting duck comes to mind), making you extremely easy to target.

Avoid landing on the ground at any given point (again, sitting duck)

Losing situational awareness (ie health, adren, and # of marines)

Greed is hard to overcome unfortunately and most of my deaths as a lerk are a result of the "just one more bite" syndrome.

-Plan 9

Mintman · February 2004

Don't forget to spam the spores early on, it negates level one armour if you use it right, and it can make them spend an early level on resupply, delaying HA and JPs that little bit longer.

SaintVicious · February 2004

i do kinda an odd tactic with lerk that i dont see a lotta lerks do but i almost never die using it and i also never use umbra to acheive this i do somewhat of a dive bomb bunny hop with the lerk this requires celerity,adreneline,regeneration,carapace,focus, and scent of fear this will leave u with 1 skill on the side to use i usually get umbra or cloak on the side
this requires a lotta flapping and quick reaction you get your speed up really high then fly threw the base going up and down diving at a marine and biting then taking off straight up in the air again right after the bite you can usually get off about 5 or 6 bites on the targets in the room before u have to regen if your decent at dodging then fly into other room and regen i usually shoot poison gas into a room before i do a run because it will weaken the marines down enough to die to one hit from bite heavies are pretty easy to kill without gas due to the fact that they are slow and bulky targets and easy to bite

Stakhanov · February 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (SaintVicious @ Feb 5 2004, 09:24 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> i do kinda an odd tactic with lerk that i dont see a lotta lerks do but i almost never die using it and i also never use umbra to acheive this i do somewhat of a dive bomb bunny hop with the lerk this requires celerity,adreneline,regeneration,carapace,focus, and scent of fear this will leave u with 1 skill on the side to use i usually get umbra or cloak on the side
this requires a lotta flapping and quick reaction you get your speed up really high then fly threw the base going up and down diving at a marine and biting then taking off straight up in the air again right after the bite you can usually get off about 5 or 6 bites on the targets in the room before u have to regen if your decent at dodging then fly into other room and regen i usually shoot poison gas into a room before i do a run because it will weaken the marines down enough to die to one hit from bite heavies are pretty easy to kill without gas due to the fact that they are slow and bulky targets and easy to bite  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Welcome to the NS forums.

Punctuation is your friend.

KoniaX · February 2004

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

ThE_HeRo · February 2004

2. Focus
3. Leap
4. Adren
5-6. Lerk
7. Regen
8. Celerity
9. Carapace
10. Silence

That's what I do, and I can usually maintain a solid 8:1 KD ratio or more. Just play defensively, know that you can be destroyed very quickly. Of course, this is also assuming you can skulk pretty well. My reasoning for getting adren at level 4 is that it helps leap+focus skulks alot, and it allows you to spam umbra and fly/bite as you wish without running out of energy.

Wolv · February 2004

The thing I miss most in this thread (and in-game) is the fact that the lerk is more then just a good rambo: he's also an excellent team supporter. Just find a group of oni/fades and umbra/scream away. You'd be surprised how fast a cc goes down to a screaming onos for example.

New Lerk Tactics Or Guide

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