The Path Of The Ninja Skulk
Scuzball
Join Date: 2003-09-08 Member: 20657Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2003-09-08 Member: 20657Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">^__^</div> This is mostley from combat. Maybe it's not the most effective strat, but damned if it isn't a really fun one. Lots of it applies to Skulking in general too.
Silence is a must. A MUST. Not only does it destroy that horrible click-clack-come-shoot-me noise, but if you happen to MISS (shame, 'ninja!'), they won't know it.
Then, I like Focus for the quick damage, Leap for travel, closing distance, and escape, and maybe Cara and Regen. Don't bother with Cloak. With Silence you should be able to manouver into sneaky enough places that it won't be needed. Look at it this way: you get Cloak, they get Scan, and now anytime you aren't running, they'll get a nice auto-ping to let them know that it's time to start looking in sneaky places for your ****.
That's usually all you'll need, which is good, because this usually transitions nicely into a hearty Fade or Lerk.
Once you're level 3, you should have Silence and Focus, and should be a real terror to lvl 1 Armor marines. If they did upgrade armor, at this point that probobly means weaker weapons. Win/win early game anyway.
Get above doorways. Not directly above, your nose might poke down. At angles. Pounce diagonally at their tender neck muscles. Always try to get behind them. We want to avoid the whole bunnyhop-circlestrafe-skulk-dies scenario. If you miss, or he doesn't die, DONT HOLD DOWN BITE. Backpedal, get your bearings, and Leap/Bite straight through his torso! With Silence and sufficiently dark dank surroundings, he'll probobly have trouble seeing you with out the horrible click-clack radar.
And the other thing: You're silent. You hear them reeeeeaally well now that you're not clicking around. With a little practice, it's easy to judge where they are, where they're headed, and how many of them are coming, all by the clop of boots and jingling of zippers. If you hear 2 or 3 of them, let them all run by. If you jump the first one, the other two'll shoot you down.
Nail the caboose on that meat train! If you're not confidant you can finish 'em off, RUN! If it's a HA train, try to find a few lights thinking they're safest at the back of the armor wall (heh heh).
Another great one is the flyby decapitation. Here's how you do it: Select Leap. Find your target, maybe even in his spawn, and hopefully standing still. Leap right <i>past</i> him, turn slightly, and Focus-Bite his face off in mid air. Bite has a longer range than you think. If you hit him, you're boned. You're gonna stop dead in rine territory. Try to miss him, and you'll continue to coast right by. If he didn't die, so what!? Free hit! Glide right out the door and setup again.
Mostley, I think ppl on both sides underestimate Silence. It disables the here-I-am radar that all players have. And once they know you have it, they're <i>scared</i>. You could be anywhere, hopefully running behind them at full tilt!
Of course, this becomes obsolete soon. HA start getting frequent, shotties get passed around, and armor levels make you into a 2-bite annoyance. If you can't deal with it... just Fade ^__^
Silence is a must. A MUST. Not only does it destroy that horrible click-clack-come-shoot-me noise, but if you happen to MISS (shame, 'ninja!'), they won't know it.
Then, I like Focus for the quick damage, Leap for travel, closing distance, and escape, and maybe Cara and Regen. Don't bother with Cloak. With Silence you should be able to manouver into sneaky enough places that it won't be needed. Look at it this way: you get Cloak, they get Scan, and now anytime you aren't running, they'll get a nice auto-ping to let them know that it's time to start looking in sneaky places for your ****.
That's usually all you'll need, which is good, because this usually transitions nicely into a hearty Fade or Lerk.
Once you're level 3, you should have Silence and Focus, and should be a real terror to lvl 1 Armor marines. If they did upgrade armor, at this point that probobly means weaker weapons. Win/win early game anyway.
Get above doorways. Not directly above, your nose might poke down. At angles. Pounce diagonally at their tender neck muscles. Always try to get behind them. We want to avoid the whole bunnyhop-circlestrafe-skulk-dies scenario. If you miss, or he doesn't die, DONT HOLD DOWN BITE. Backpedal, get your bearings, and Leap/Bite straight through his torso! With Silence and sufficiently dark dank surroundings, he'll probobly have trouble seeing you with out the horrible click-clack radar.
And the other thing: You're silent. You hear them reeeeeaally well now that you're not clicking around. With a little practice, it's easy to judge where they are, where they're headed, and how many of them are coming, all by the clop of boots and jingling of zippers. If you hear 2 or 3 of them, let them all run by. If you jump the first one, the other two'll shoot you down.
Nail the caboose on that meat train! If you're not confidant you can finish 'em off, RUN! If it's a HA train, try to find a few lights thinking they're safest at the back of the armor wall (heh heh).
Another great one is the flyby decapitation. Here's how you do it: Select Leap. Find your target, maybe even in his spawn, and hopefully standing still. Leap right <i>past</i> him, turn slightly, and Focus-Bite his face off in mid air. Bite has a longer range than you think. If you hit him, you're boned. You're gonna stop dead in rine territory. Try to miss him, and you'll continue to coast right by. If he didn't die, so what!? Free hit! Glide right out the door and setup again.
Mostley, I think ppl on both sides underestimate Silence. It disables the here-I-am radar that all players have. And once they know you have it, they're <i>scared</i>. You could be anywhere, hopefully running behind them at full tilt!
Of course, this becomes obsolete soon. HA start getting frequent, shotties get passed around, and armor levels make you into a 2-bite annoyance. If you can't deal with it... just Fade ^__^
Comments
i get:
- focus
- carapace
- silence/celerity
- celerity/silence
- leap
- regen
- (SoF possibility)
SoF is optional....i just dont bother with other points....just spawn faster...or save up just incase you need to go to a high lifeform...
Cloak helps greatly: walk, while being cloaked so you won't be seen by motion tracking. Let the marine pass you and run behind him being careful to land the first hit (you'll have time since he doesn't know you're there). If there are several marines, attack the last one!
On ns_maps, stay cloaked using a sensory chamber. Stay on the ceilings and jump down on unsuspecting marines. Even if they DO know you're somewhere in the room, you'll still have the upper hand: You get an easy first hit and the second will always kill even lvl3 light marines. I've killed 15+ marines near their base and 3 HAs, 2 of which had GLs and 1 had LMG, in one game. I let all powerful HAs or groups of marines pass and took out only single marines.
On co_maps, there is really no good way to counter scans; your only hope is that marines will not use it, which happens quite often.
Lerks and skulks are practically better than both fade and onos in combat.
First I get focus to force those bad bad rines in armor. Rather then weapons. Onos will be pleased by this.
Then I get celerity, unless they got shotty this will get you in range intime.
carapace to survive there new upgrades
regen to hit and run tactics.
this is already sufficient to take nearly any type of marine out. I suggest leap for those pesky JPers, but HA is nothing. its bite, run, bite, run. carapace and heal give a healthy retreat.
And you see, alot points left for personal preferenses. including silence. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
You don't need silence, celerity, cara, focus, leap, etc to ambush, right up until the marines start upgrading. All anyone really needs is dark corners or doorways with an overhang. Upgrading yourself as a skulk is shortsighted, and anyone who does it instead of invest in higher lifeforms is going to end up being little to no help in the late game. If your whole team does it, two HMGs is all the marines need to win.
Not raining on anyone's parade here I hope, just presenting the argument against excessive skulk upgrades. Please think ahead when I'm forced to play pubs with you on aliens.
Silence pairs well with OCs and spores. Any time a marine is taking damage from another (very obvious) source, it's easy to sneak in a few silenced bites from behind.
I agree. if the whole freaking team is skulk its byebye.
Usually its best if on or 2 are skulk, preferably untill xenocide. You are small, fast, strong. (3 bites is still a goodbye HA)
You can be the distraction of the rather large onos coming in. Or visa versa, in whihc case your bite still hurts.
But indeed.. agreed. All "superskulk" is gg for the rines.
I'd go for [leap - focus - silence - scent of fear - carapace] in that order for maximum efficiency, since even if the marines hear you, they're not going to have much time to react against a leaping skulk(unless you leap straight at them or something stupid like that).
Oh, and use vents. A <b><u>lot</u></b>.
(note that adrenaline is good for letting you leap more if you screw up, and redemption isn't good at all unless you don't want xenocide or cloak)
(note2: scent of fear is sooo underrated. Along with motion tracking. Wallhack helps incredibly much.)
Thats so true, i take it always after focus usually, its vital information for you and for your team (if you tell them what you see), it gives you the change of suprising them and not vice versa <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->. If you take cloacking too, its super-good almost well until they get MT/scan. If they got HAs you can still hunt the poor GL guys. And its good to know if JPs are coming.
in beta2 there is alot of more JPers than HA guys in combat at least, or just normal guys with armor3 upgrade. JPers are the guys that take down the hives mostly, at least in co_faceoff -> evil vents <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
If you're taking scent of fear, it might be good idea to share your intel with the rest of your team, in combat it might be the change for victory. If you see the whole marine team moving closer to your hive, and the base is empty.. try to get everyone attacking the cc.
In late game my "superskulk" is for a few reasons there.
support
getting lone rines
advanced warning (SOF)
speed for recon
did I mention that fighting support
Also, I have to disagree with those who think skulks are weak late game in combat.
Although nade spam is very hazardous, it takes a marine with extremely good aim to beat a super skulk. Dodge around until you can leap in and take a bite. With a bit of practice you can do very well as a super skulk even in late game. I've gotten scores as good as 54 4, and can usually last much longer in marine start than an onos.
<!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif' /><!--endemo-->
SO it usually takes me like 10 minutes to get a kill, but once I level a few times its fun.
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif' /><!--endemo-->
- Celerity
- Leap
- Carapace
- Silence
- Scent of Fear
- Adrenaline
- Redemption
- Cloaking
Note the lack of focus.
I hate it with a passion, mainly because everyone swears by it
The first two upgrades there are the ones I use in normal NS.
focus
silence/celerity
leap
silence/celerity
carapace/regen
carapace/regen
and then sit pritty, happily chewing vanilla rines, till either HA or JPs show up and evolve to fade or lerk accordingly.
leap
xeno
SoF
save for fade/lerk depending on what my team needs.
I'll often level quickly by getting groups of 4-5 marines in one xeno blast when they are trying to hold hallways. Staying super skulk usually leaves me spectating at late game, and focus doesn't seem to help me as much with higher life forms, so I avoid it.
I used to wind up as a Fade with adren, cara, regen, SoF for acid spam, but I haven't tried it since they nerfed acid rockets.
2) Focus
3) Celerity } Interchangeable
4) Carapace }
5) Scent of Fear
6) Regeneration } Interchangeable
7) Silence }
8) Cloaking (if they don't seem to have Scan)
9) Leap
10) Xenocide
That's right, I use Celerity as a substitute for Leap, simply because while it isn't as fast, I can actually control where I'm going, it is useful in many more situations (as I will explain a bit further down), and it doesn't cost any energy or require weapon switching to use.
Also, why Silence so late? With the number of kills I get early-game with this config, level 7 (or sometimes 6) is hardly late <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Now, about Celerity's uses: As I've posted in another thread, the psychological effect of spastically bouncing around a Marine with it in conjunction with Silence is simply outrageous. <i>They just can't find you</i>, and even if they do, not only will you be moving too fast for them to hit, but you'll disappear from their vision quickly enough, meaning that they have to find you again. (Only HAs can possibly survive that long anyway, though). One particularly disgruntled opponent accused me of teleporting just for that <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
(Yes, I have basically copied and pasted this last paragraph from the other thread, injecting a little bonus content. I was right the first time, so why not say it again?)
Some actually do use it consciously, and those are the people who know how much it helps, but every one else uses it too subconsciously.
Even if you don't think you use your ears, have you ntoiced how hard it is to kill a silenced skulk?
And another great thing that most people don't realize: Silenced Leap.
Without the silenced bit, there's an annyoing noise to alert the rines that you're going to pounce them, and so they often dodge, or are ready to hit you midair.
With silence though, it's completely unexpected, and they don't realize what happened until you're already in their face. This is a good thing... for the kaharaa at least.
Now... Focused silenced leap...
hehehehe....
not only will they not hear you coming, not hear you leaping, and not hear you biting.... they will also often die in one hit, leaving absolutely no way for them to even think about shooting you, and if not one, with silence, you should easily be able to do two bites, since they have no idea where you are after you pass them.
<!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Silenced lerk is also massive amounts of fun. It's another thing people don't realize they listen for.
2) Focus
3) Celerity } Interchangeable
4) Carapace }
5) Scent of Fear
6) Regeneration } Interchangeable
7) Silence }
8) Cloaking (if they don't seem to have Scan)
9) Leap
10) Xenocide
That's right, I use Celerity as a substitute for Leap, simply because while it isn't as fast, I can actually control where I'm going, it is useful in many more situations (as I will explain a bit further down), and it doesn't cost any energy or require weapon switching to use.
Also, why Silence so late? With the number of kills I get early-game with this config, level 7 (or sometimes 6) is hardly late <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Now, about Celerity's uses: As I've posted in another thread, the psychological effect of spastically bouncing around a Marine with it in conjunction with Silence is simply outrageous. <i>They just can't find you</i>, and even if they do, not only will you be moving too fast for them to hit, but you'll disappear from their vision quickly enough, meaning that they have to find you again. (Only HAs can possibly survive that long anyway, though). One particularly disgruntled opponent accused me of teleporting just for that <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
(Yes, I have basically copied and pasted this last paragraph from the other thread, injecting a little bonus content. I was right the first time, so why not say it again?) <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can move soo much faster with leap.
Leap once, and then continue your leap with bunnyhops. Somehow i think something hopping toward you at the speed of a leap is about more threatening then running in circles around you.
I personally like a celerity silenced focus leap skulk.
Celerity speeds up my leap, and bunnyhopping keeps up the speed, and silence makes leap silent, and focus makes rines food.
and its very easy to kill jetpackers with super skulk.
Good is that you will walk of the cloak so you won`t be seen in mt and that scan really isnt so much problem throw celerity in and you can kill anything
1. focus
2. silence/cloak
3. silence/cloak
4. ability 1
5. carpace
6. aibility 2
7. sof
8. rege
With those you will be feared and that xeno really add`s a huge scare effect yo marines. i have walked many times behind 3/4 mariens shooting down the hall xenoed behind them and jumped and laughed with rest of the aliens. ^_^
Cloaking first
Silence Second
Regen Third
for NORMAL NS
Trust me, it works (let them walk into you, hehe)
For COmbat:
I dunno just how effective this is... I haven't played Beta 2 (my HD died)
Cloak
Silence
Regen
SoF
Adren
Carapace
Celerity
Leap
Xenocide
Trust me, it works! Even if they get scanner... hehe, they still diiiiiieeee!