matsoMaster of PatchesJoin Date: 2002-11-05Member: 7000Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Shadow, NS2 Community Developer
Umm, yes, I'm pretty sure Lerk spikes did receive a buff not long ago. Can't remember how much, but it was a pretty big buff.
Just popping in to say that.
Yea, they used to do light damage for a patch or two back in beta, but because light damage alien weapons become increasingly useless towards the end of the game, the lerk spike got its damage dropped and converted to puncture damage instead.
The spike dps varies a bit by range, 12.5->16, inside 9m it does 80 dps if you hit with every spike, so an A3 exo takes 1040/80 damage to take down, or about 13 sec.
If you hit with all of them spikes and can fire continously for all of that time.
I don't see a point here, I don't play on any pro clan servers, but still I've never died to a lerk as an exo.
1) A lerk starts spiking me --> I start shooting the lerk.
2) I do some damage to the lerk --> He flies away/dies.
( 2.5) Or I don't hit the lerk etc. and I retreat.)
3) Profit
You could make up some situations where it isn't a skilled lerk against an exo whose keyboard just stopped working and all the marine team f4'd, since that spiking the legs etc. isn't really a point since there are ways to move in this game.
Pretty sure OP's argument is only valid in the case of derpenstein EXO vs God-Tier Lerk. Unless you have like 5 (LOL) lerks all spiking from random corners of a room... still, a little bullet spray damage from an exo and the lerk will get scared and fly away.
I think the main difference between my thoughts on this and everyone else is on the topic of the lerks late game effectiveness. Before this update, I never bothered spiking the exos, it seemed futile. I would either spike the marines welding him or try to sneak around behind to gas them. That was the most helpful thing the lerk could do. Now with this extra damage that means the lerk can also be very effective at just spiking the entire duration of the battle. To me this makes the spike a bit op but to you all it was just broken before and they fixed it.
Since I play lerk as often as I can, I've been trying this out since I read this post and I have yet to kill a single exo by myself with spikes. Yes, you can sometimes shoot at part of exos without them being able to get a line of sight on you, and those times they either get welded or move. Either backing off, or going forward so they can shoot me.
It doesn't seem like anyone shares your experience, and since it takes a lerk 8-13 seconds of continous spiking to kill an Exo, I don't think you have a case. Now if you're the only player who can actually do this, why not just enjoy being an über Exo-killing lerk? The only reason it would make sense for you to keep arguing is if you're the derp exo in the scenario.
Comments
Yea, they used to do light damage for a patch or two back in beta, but because light damage alien weapons become increasingly useless towards the end of the game, the lerk spike got its damage dropped and converted to puncture damage instead.
The spike dps varies a bit by range, 12.5->16, inside 9m it does 80 dps if you hit with every spike, so an A3 exo takes 1040/80 damage to take down, or about 13 sec.
If you hit with all of them spikes and can fire continously for all of that time.
1) A lerk starts spiking me --> I start shooting the lerk.
2) I do some damage to the lerk --> He flies away/dies.
( 2.5) Or I don't hit the lerk etc. and I retreat.)
3) Profit
You could make up some situations where it isn't a skilled lerk against an exo whose keyboard just stopped working and all the marine team f4'd, since that spiking the legs etc. isn't really a point since there are ways to move in this game.
It doesn't seem like anyone shares your experience, and since it takes a lerk 8-13 seconds of continous spiking to kill an Exo, I don't think you have a case. Now if you're the only player who can actually do this, why not just enjoy being an über Exo-killing lerk? The only reason it would make sense for you to keep arguing is if you're the derp exo in the scenario.