The Attack Peon : Gorges In Combat
BoddoZerg
Join Date: 2002-11-13 Member: 8380Members
Join Date: 2002-11-13 Member: 8380Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Theyre better than you think</div> One very powerful thing that can be done with Gorges, and yet very few players seem to do, is to use Web to turn the Gorge into a surprisingly good attack unit. A few facts about the Gorge:
1) A level 3 Carapace upgraded Gorge has more than twice the durability of a Skulk, and is only slightly less durable than an unupgraded Fade. (in contrast, a Carapace upgraded Fade has nearly twice the toughness, and an upgraded Onos is 4 times as tough) Since Gorges will usually be surrounded by their own Defense Chambers, they are very durable in combat, and you should not die unless facing multiple Marines with shotguns or heavy machine guns.
2) At the tier2 (two-hive) stage, you recieve your most powerful weapon : Web.
Let's look at how Web works...
Web shoots small web projectiles. An adrenal upgraded Gorge can probably shoot ~8 webs with a full energy bar. Each web projectile to hit a surface will immediately try to spawn a web connecting it with the previous web projectile hit location. If there are any terrain features in between the two web points, or if they are too far apart, no web will form. If there is a Marine in the way of a newly formed web strand, or if your Web projectile directly hits a Marine, no web will be formed, the marine will be webbed immediately. Otherwise, a web strand is made. Web strands are permanent and cannot be destroyed by any means except for the Marines' Welder. Aliens can never destroy their own Webs.
When a Marine walks into a Web, you'll hear the characteristic webbing sound, and the Marine will be immobilized and unable to shoot. The marine is completely immobile for less than a second, but for ~2 seconds he will be extremely slow and unable to fire weapons. If a Webbed marine hits another Web, <b>the duration of Web stacks</b>. Hitting 5 web strands will cause the marine to be slow and unable to fire his gun for more than 10 seconds.
Now, the great power of Web is this : A marine who is webbed has no way to retaliate, even against something as helpless as a Gorge. He moves too slowly to run, and cannot shoot or otherwise attack. Since the duration of Web stacks, a Gorge with adrenaline can keep a Marine permanently webbed by continuously shooting webs at him. Because a webbed marine is so slow, it is dead easy to rack up direct hits with the Web projectile, and keep that Marine firmly webbed in place.
When a Gorge sees a marine, usually the first thing that happens is that the Marine runs toward the Gorge, shooting wildly. A Carapace upgrade gorge can take 3 seconds of LMG fire, easily. Web has a <b>ridiculously</b> fast firing rate; you can easily shoot 5-6 webs at the ground near the Marine within a second. One of these web strands is sure to ensnare the Marine. Once you hear the web sound and notice that the marine can't shoot at you anymore, run straight toward him while hitting him again and again with Webs. Try to aim near the Marine's feet, so that even a miss will create a ground-level strand that might ensnare him. After you've heard the webbing sound about 5 times, you know the Marine is pretty much incapacitated. Then you have the amusing choice of how to finish off your ensnared prey. For humiliation value, nothing beats Healing Spray - despite its wimpy name and graphics, healing spray has damage comparable to a Welder and boasts a much longer range and larger area of effect - it can kill any Light Armor marine with ease. With escorting Skulks or Fades, even multiple heavy armors can be webbed and killed with ease.
Mastering the webslinger Gorge opens up several lanes of strategy:
Most obviously, when that single Marine stumbles upon your resource node-building operation, and you don't have enough Offense Chambers to fight him off, you can Web and kill him yourself. This saves you the trouble of running away, screaming for help like a little girl, and hoping that your skulks don't get killed by that single Marine - a Gorge stands a much better chance against a Marine with good aim than a Skulk does - good aim can kill a Skulk before it touches you, but good aim is useless when you are Webbed and can't even raise your gun.
The second nice thing is that a single Gorge with ample resource supply becomes a powerful and mobile siege unit. A heavily fortified expansion with multiple turrets and a few Marines? Start building your standard chamber wall, and when the Marines swarm out to kill your O-chambers, Web them and laugh as those poor-accuracy offensive chambers suddenly find an easy target to hit.
The third and perhaps the most lethal thing is that a Gorge with escort, or even two Gorges, becomes an unstoppable Marine-munching force. Even a large number of Skulks are afraid of a group of Heavy Armor / HMG equipped marines. With some Web usage, those big heavies become gift-wrapped treats for the Skulks' snack habit. Two web-slinging Gorges with two Carapace upgraded Fades can take virtually any combination of heavy guns and heavy armor. Although the Jetpack's mobility makes it hard to hit with Web, its difficult-to-control nature means that two or three Webs placed in mid-air are guaranteed to ensnare any annoying Jetpackers like a fly in a spider's web.
Although you certainly wouldn't want to attack 20 turrets with Gorges, an Adrenal gorge who makes proper use of web is one of the most powerful 1v1 combat unit in the game - once your opponent has been tangled in one Web, it is child's play to wrap him up in five or six more Webs, and dispose of him at your leisure.
1) A level 3 Carapace upgraded Gorge has more than twice the durability of a Skulk, and is only slightly less durable than an unupgraded Fade. (in contrast, a Carapace upgraded Fade has nearly twice the toughness, and an upgraded Onos is 4 times as tough) Since Gorges will usually be surrounded by their own Defense Chambers, they are very durable in combat, and you should not die unless facing multiple Marines with shotguns or heavy machine guns.
2) At the tier2 (two-hive) stage, you recieve your most powerful weapon : Web.
Let's look at how Web works...
Web shoots small web projectiles. An adrenal upgraded Gorge can probably shoot ~8 webs with a full energy bar. Each web projectile to hit a surface will immediately try to spawn a web connecting it with the previous web projectile hit location. If there are any terrain features in between the two web points, or if they are too far apart, no web will form. If there is a Marine in the way of a newly formed web strand, or if your Web projectile directly hits a Marine, no web will be formed, the marine will be webbed immediately. Otherwise, a web strand is made. Web strands are permanent and cannot be destroyed by any means except for the Marines' Welder. Aliens can never destroy their own Webs.
When a Marine walks into a Web, you'll hear the characteristic webbing sound, and the Marine will be immobilized and unable to shoot. The marine is completely immobile for less than a second, but for ~2 seconds he will be extremely slow and unable to fire weapons. If a Webbed marine hits another Web, <b>the duration of Web stacks</b>. Hitting 5 web strands will cause the marine to be slow and unable to fire his gun for more than 10 seconds.
Now, the great power of Web is this : A marine who is webbed has no way to retaliate, even against something as helpless as a Gorge. He moves too slowly to run, and cannot shoot or otherwise attack. Since the duration of Web stacks, a Gorge with adrenaline can keep a Marine permanently webbed by continuously shooting webs at him. Because a webbed marine is so slow, it is dead easy to rack up direct hits with the Web projectile, and keep that Marine firmly webbed in place.
When a Gorge sees a marine, usually the first thing that happens is that the Marine runs toward the Gorge, shooting wildly. A Carapace upgrade gorge can take 3 seconds of LMG fire, easily. Web has a <b>ridiculously</b> fast firing rate; you can easily shoot 5-6 webs at the ground near the Marine within a second. One of these web strands is sure to ensnare the Marine. Once you hear the web sound and notice that the marine can't shoot at you anymore, run straight toward him while hitting him again and again with Webs. Try to aim near the Marine's feet, so that even a miss will create a ground-level strand that might ensnare him. After you've heard the webbing sound about 5 times, you know the Marine is pretty much incapacitated. Then you have the amusing choice of how to finish off your ensnared prey. For humiliation value, nothing beats Healing Spray - despite its wimpy name and graphics, healing spray has damage comparable to a Welder and boasts a much longer range and larger area of effect - it can kill any Light Armor marine with ease. With escorting Skulks or Fades, even multiple heavy armors can be webbed and killed with ease.
Mastering the webslinger Gorge opens up several lanes of strategy:
Most obviously, when that single Marine stumbles upon your resource node-building operation, and you don't have enough Offense Chambers to fight him off, you can Web and kill him yourself. This saves you the trouble of running away, screaming for help like a little girl, and hoping that your skulks don't get killed by that single Marine - a Gorge stands a much better chance against a Marine with good aim than a Skulk does - good aim can kill a Skulk before it touches you, but good aim is useless when you are Webbed and can't even raise your gun.
The second nice thing is that a single Gorge with ample resource supply becomes a powerful and mobile siege unit. A heavily fortified expansion with multiple turrets and a few Marines? Start building your standard chamber wall, and when the Marines swarm out to kill your O-chambers, Web them and laugh as those poor-accuracy offensive chambers suddenly find an easy target to hit.
The third and perhaps the most lethal thing is that a Gorge with escort, or even two Gorges, becomes an unstoppable Marine-munching force. Even a large number of Skulks are afraid of a group of Heavy Armor / HMG equipped marines. With some Web usage, those big heavies become gift-wrapped treats for the Skulks' snack habit. Two web-slinging Gorges with two Carapace upgraded Fades can take virtually any combination of heavy guns and heavy armor. Although the Jetpack's mobility makes it hard to hit with Web, its difficult-to-control nature means that two or three Webs placed in mid-air are guaranteed to ensnare any annoying Jetpackers like a fly in a spider's web.
Although you certainly wouldn't want to attack 20 turrets with Gorges, an Adrenal gorge who makes proper use of web is one of the most powerful 1v1 combat unit in the game - once your opponent has been tangled in one Web, it is child's play to wrap him up in five or six more Webs, and dispose of him at your leisure.
Comments
Sounds good 1V1 - of course your fecked if theres 2 of them <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Hey im guessing those newbies already understand the gorges killing potential - they ALL seem to gravitate immediately to <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
And yes ive seen a 6 man alien team (5 <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> of course) with rambo <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> charging around ATTACKING marines and turrets....
They seemed merely to be shooting that puny no1 attack - but prehaps they were using web when i wasnt looking <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
The health spray doesn't do nearly as much as the slime balls but it has a great range and its easy to hit them.
Gorge kills are so satisfying <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
1v1 the webslinger always wins, 2v1 he just throws several Webs in their path and runs back to defense chambers. Gorges may be slow, but webbed marines are slower. Properly played, you shouldn't ever die - it takes several seconds of concentrated fire to kill a Carapace Gorge, but only a split second to web the marines - and then they can't shoot anymore!
Nothing funnier than that leet marine bunnyhopping to KILL the cute pudgy, only to have the gorge web and healspray him down. Here's some comments from those marines:
Waah!
OMFG
WTF!?!?
GAAAHH!!!!
names removed from the testimonials, just to be nice, you know who you are.
<!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> ownz j00
Nothing funnier than that leet marine bunnyhopping to KILL the cute pudgy, only to have the gorge web and healspray him down. Here's some comments from those marines:
Waah!
OMFG
WTF!?!?
GAAAHH!!!!
names removed from the testimonials, just to be nice, you know who you are.
<!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> ownz j00<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Healing spray fires faster than spit; it deals quite a bit more damage per second. It does use a lot more energy though.
The first time I, as a Marine, encountered a Gorge that was <i>charging at me</i>, I laughed at him and started blasting away with HMG. Within a second, I couldn't shoot because I was webbed, and then I started yelling "WTF?!??!" as his healing spray quickly stripped away my armor and health. Ever since then, I've played mostly as an offensive Gorge when I'm alien, and found out how <i>easy</i> it is to kill lone marines... once that first Web hits the marine, 7 or 8 more webs follow and that marine is dead meat.
Web is, fundamentally, a slow one-hit-kill weapon. Once you hit the marine once, he is helpless and you are free to throw more and more webs on him. Although it can take a long time to kill a heavy armor marine with web and healing spray, an Adrenal gorge's energy regenerates fast enough for him to keep any single marine permaently webbed and still have the energy to use some spit and healspray.
Healing spray fires faster than spit; it deals quite a bit more damage per second. It does use a lot more energy though.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm guessing that the "healing spray does 16" is what it heals? Considering it's meant to be a support weapon/ability, I guess the devs didn't see the need to put "healing spray heals 16 to your guys, but does xx to the baddies".
After reading this thread, I've got a whole new respect for Gorges. I've always considered them a great support unit, but I'd always be cut down if I was a gorge, alone, and caught by a marine. The webbing thing makes perfect sense, but it never really occurred to me to try it as a 1v1 weapon. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
But please bear in mind that the gorge's greatest powers lie in their support role. Don't go out chasing marines unless the game is already won and you are bored.
Damn, i'm sure that next gmae i'll find players wanting to try these ninja gorge tricks. Another 7 gorges 1 skulk team. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
But please bear in mind that the gorge's greatest powers lie in their support role. Don't go out chasing marines unless the game is already won and you are bored.
Damn, i'm sure that next gmae i'll find players wanting to try these ninja gorge tricks. Another 7 gorges 1 skulk team. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The point isn't to directly attack marines, its self-defense: if a single Marine stumbles upon your building operation while your towers aren't up yet, you can defend yourself with Web, and usually kill him. Of course if you see 3-4 HA/HMG marines shambling into your resourcer room, you should know better than to attack them as a single Gorge.
Also, you'd be surprised at how good a Gorge can be in a siege role, with support from either Skulks or your own Offense chambers. Even heavy armors go down fast when there's a Skulk biting them and they have no way to retaliate. You can sometimes build Offense Chambers in full view of marines, and keep most of the Marines webbed long enough for the offense chambers to come online and kill them all.
Their offensive use is indeed great when they have or provide support with healing/webs/babblers and all kinds of chambers or even in a defensive situation. It's just that i've seen quite a few weird things done by gorges in my last few games and wanted to make things clear.
when I find an outpost with turrets, instead of consuming resources, i start launching babblers against thier turrets ... thier attacks and xenocides destroy the turrets in a few seconds ... and if lone marines attack you, you can send babblers against them to escape (or you may prefer to use the "webbing" tactic explained above <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> )
And remember the decoy effect that babblers create : once, i entered the marine base vent on ns caged, and then muted to gorge ... I started launching babblers out of the went ... the noise and the damage (little, but continue) they created forced some marines to try to kill me for a long time ... so i keep them occupied while my mates destroyed marines' outposts and preparing the last assault.
I also want to do some testing with the range of healing spray through walls. I know many marines have become big fans of sticking tfs right up against a wall. However, I suppose that if a gorge can get to the space behind that wall, you'd be able to take it out without making yourself vulnerable to a single shot. It'd certainly be useful.
~Rune Grey~
Perpetual Thorn of Logic and Reason
You need to fire 2 to create the web. The web cursor shot sticks to marines. Fir another and you'll create a web on the marine. 2 shots=1 stop. So if you shot a marine 10 times, he gets 5 webs on him.