aura or phantom?

amoral

which do you prefer on your lifeforms? now that there's an actual choice for shade upgrades. also, Regen or Cara? for higher life forms Regen seems better, for skulks and suicide gorges, Cara. maybe lerks as well, though I haven't really done too much lerking... to.afraid I'll hate it. but back to topic, which is better? aura or phantom? in your opinions.

IronHorse

Aura every time.
Knowing which marine to pick off, through walls, while playing as any lifeform - is far more impactful than having the element of surprise through ambushing - imo.

Zek

They're both good for Skulk - Aura for every other lifeform hands down.

Ghosthree3

Aura is awesome, borderline OP.

ezekel

I mostly use phantom, I'll use aura sometimes on fade/lerk; being 100% silent is much better for me, plus I've become excellent with cloaking

onos is probably the only lifeform where I'll always take aura; his screen rattle gives him away even with silence

rantology

Aura becomes more and more valuable as the game progresses, especially once marines hit Armor 2 and become 4 bite/swipe. Phantom is always good early game, not as good mid/late game when you have less chance of profiting or doing any real damage from an ambush and marines get their mobility going.

kalakuja

This game has so bad sounds that 2x silence is enough to be totally silent. Depends on situation but aura might be better overall.
Need focus and 100% cloak ;_;

PsiWarp

Aura for the most part, for awareness and mobile lifeforms. Phantom has its uses, but I only use it when 3 Veils are up for complete silence.

Nordic

What is the range on aura from 1-3?

xen32

Phantom for skulk because of silence, never for any other lifeform because of cost.

Kalopsia

Aura with the same points as @IronHorse mentioned.

I particularly like it as Lerk as it allows me to fly around the map scouting and picking off solo marines and sometimes small groups depending on the situation.

Radman

different levels of aura should upgrade the range you can see marines at. Right now it just seems way too good. But then again, i dont think id ever pass up carapace for it.

Blarney_Stone

I like phantom for the skulk, for fade I pretty much exclusively use aura to stop myself from running into groups of 3+ marines.

ScardyBob

I'm hard pressed to find a situation where I'd prefer phantom to aura. Knowing the location of the closest marines outweighs any silence or cloaking ability.

RabidWeasel

Took me like 70% of a game to realise what that weird yellow blob on all the marines was, I was kind of assuming aura to look more like parasite. It's amazing though, I love silence but aura owns the hardest now.

Tharos

Aura for higher lifeforms because as a fade for example you can not be trapped by 2 marines hiding in a corner and one solo marine in the middle of the room.

CrushaK

Focus would be good indeed, but then it would probably not be available at the same time as Phantom, so your element of surprise would still be useless against marines with higher armor levels.
I rather dislike that marines get a flat damage AND armor scaling as the game progresses while aliens only get the latter. Having to bite someone 5-7 times in a 1 vs 1 because he gets medpack spammed is extremely frustrating. Plus you take way more damage than in the early game as Skulk once marines got some weapon upgrades going.

Sherlock

Phantom during early game, when you know the Marines have little to no armour. Ambushing is essential to keeping Marines back off your territory.
Aura in mid to late game, when it's important to know which Marines to kill easiest to make a difference.

I would rather 1 Marine with full health left shooting at my team than 3 Marines all with 10hp.

StrikerX3

I can only see Phantom being useful for early game skulks, and even then they should be careful where to hide since camo is no longer 100% effective. On all other cases, Aura is far better.

Roobubba

I like having a combination on the team. If you're with another fade or two and one of them has aura, they can relay the really important info before you go in (3 in overlook watch out). 2 silent fades plus 1 aware fade > 3 aware fades, provided the communication is good. Don't underestimate the benefit that extra swipe can give you with silence, especially when hunting in packs.

Mr.Greedy

Phantom. Most marines still dont sneak , so its enough for me to spot the enemys through the wall by simply hearing them.

But I wish that aura-effect would be on a shade to spot enemys from a far distance and see them on the minimap( like the good old senory-chambers )

StrikerX3

I'm mostly considering comp player level skill, as any comp player will be checking their corners and they will see you hiding in plain sight with the not-100% camo, hence why I said Aura is better. But I do think Phantom has its uses, mostly for the silence component.

joederp

Personally I find the wallhack I mean aura to be most useful.

ezekel

StrikerX3 wrote: »

I'm mostly considering comp player level skill, as any comp player will be checking their corners and they will see you hiding in plain sight with the not-100% camo, hence why I said Aura is better. But I do think Phantom has its uses, mostly for the silence component.

You can cloak and hide against them, you just need to make sure you don't move your mouse at all and aren't out in the open, if you've just fleed from a fight then are hiding in the next room, high chance you'll be found

You need to be camo'd in a room where they are unaware you're there, then when they're turned.. now is your time young one, FEED, FEEEEEEEED!!

joshhh

Like other posters, I love phantom for skulk every time. If you have a descent pair of headphones, you will know where the marines are coming from anyway. For any other lifeforms, aura all the way. Make your regen/aura fade a ninja that picks off the weak ones.

StrikerX3

ezekel wrote: »

StrikerX3 wrote: »

I'm mostly considering comp player level skill, as any comp player will be checking their corners and they will see you hiding in plain sight with the not-100% camo, hence why I said Aura is better. But I do think Phantom has its uses, mostly for the silence component.

You can cloak and hide against them, you just need to make sure you don't move your mouse at all and aren't out in the open, if you've just fleed from a fight then are hiding in the next room, high chance you'll be found

You need to be camo'd in a room where they are unaware you're there, then when they're turned.. now is your time young one, FEED, FEEEEEEEED!!

Yeah, I know all that. It's just harder than usual now that camo isn't perfect, but if you pick the right spot and the right moment they'll never find you.

sotanaht

Phantom is great for early game, too bad khams still don't go shade first. It's not any worse for mid game than silence used to be, with situational benefit for the cloaking side.

amoral

think I'lltry more shade first actually, but Regen is pretty damn good, especially with the crag Nerf.

Nominous

I find aura to be very powerful as a fade. It decreases reaction times compared to running into marines unexpectedly. Killing a soft target among a group of marines is quite satisfying. I like it a lot, but I much prefer it as my third upgrade.

Concerning spurs, I find adren to be massively better than celerity for blink/shadowstep chaining. I was wondering whether people prefer cara or regen as a fade vs LMGs and shotties.

amoral

Regen on all, except maybe skulk. can't count on crag farms anymore.

Kamamura

Seeing the topic of the thread, I wondered for a while if I have not ended up on some weird occult society pages.