It is a major problem though because it severly gimps the lerk. The lerk needs either a rework of it's flight system to something that functions better with spikes or it needs to fix spikes or remove them as an ability. Having spikes work like a shotgun is a pretty cool idea and it would work with the flight model but right now the spike alt fire just seems weak and the spread on it is pretty high.
<!--quoteo(post=1900486:date=Feb 6 2012, 11:22 PM:name=MrGunner)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MrGunner @ Feb 6 2012, 11:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900486"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It is a major problem though because it severly gimps the lerk. The lerk needs either a rework of it's flight system to something that functions better with spikes or it needs to fix spikes or remove them as an ability. Having spikes work like a shotgun is a pretty cool idea and it would work with the flight model but right now the spike alt fire just seems weak and the spread on it is pretty high.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yep, fixing the spread on it and making the damage scale with the game time (through an upgrade) would make it like a slightly more versatile version of the NS1 bite, which would be good enough to remove the rapid spikes if they changed the adrenaline cost
but then people would say we're just trying to make ns1 :)
twilitebluebug stalkerJoin Date: 2003-02-04Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited February 2012
<!--quoteo(post=1900316:date=Feb 6 2012, 12:34 PM:name=twiliteblue)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (twiliteblue @ Feb 6 2012, 12:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900316"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Here are a few different changes to Spore I think are worth a try:
1. Reduce the duration of Spores, but increase its damage-per-second. (Turn Spores into an effective weapon, rather than being mostly a smoke screen.)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1900423:date=Feb 6 2012, 05:17 PM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Feb 6 2012, 05:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900423"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->1) Why make the low-skill weapon more powerful? The entire problem with the class is it's designed to be played by and against low-skill players.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Crop duster Spore is one of the most basic weapon/abilities (available at the start), so I think people are fine with its low skill requirement.
Aiming also does not cover all the "skills" require to use a weapon. Effective use of crop duster Spores also requires movement skills and good situation awareness.
I believe that the reward for using such a high risk weapon (especially against and Flamethrowers and Shotguns!) is not sufficient. Marines can quickly and easily walk out of the toxic clouds, and avoid most of the damage, which is why I'm suggesting a DPS increase.
I'd also like to see "Shotgun" spikes become the primary weapon of the Lerk. It is much easy to aim than the "machine gun" Spikes when dodging fire.
A lategame Spikes upgrade would also be most welcomed. It's disappointing that the Shotgun can match the DPS of Spikes at a distance of 10 to 15.
I personally want bite back but I think that a solid shotgun style spike ability would be a decent replacement. Also I am fine with the crop dusting spores as long as you can puke them ahead of you a little bit. This would allow for slightly more aim and add a bit of range to it while still forcing the lerk to commit slightly to do damage with it.
I've played tons of lerk in the last week, several hours every day, gotten pretty good at it.
<u>Stuff i've noticed</u> 1. It's really fun to get kills with the gas, and support your team, I love doing laps in the marine base pissing them all off and providing cover for my team.
2. It's really fun to sneak up behind marines and shotgun spike them in the back 1-2 times and finish them off w/machine gun spikes.
3. You can out range and murder people with shotguns/flamethrowers w/machine spikes, and you can crush marines w/LMGs, even 2-3 of them if you wear them down and have regen/cara to make multiple attacks (not vs very good players, obviously, but most)
4. Lerks are terrible in small corridors, could use another interesting ability for this kind of thing.
5. Aiming the spikes while dodging midair is really fun, and it feels really satisfying to win encounters like this.
6. A bit of damage scaling would be cool for late game.
The lerks swooping gas is a great idea but needs to be more useful, mainly the radius in which the gas effects, perhaps it could expand out, currently it is much too easy to simply step out of it.
I'm not crazy about lerk spikes, if you want to keep it, then keep it but the above has to be given to the lerk if you ever wanted the class to be as his former glory was. stop ignoring years of balance that ns1 already built.
Also the current spores, flying in spreading spores has to be one of the worse things happened to the class, we need to revert back to the old spores if nothing else gets changed.
make shoot mouse1 gas mouse2 and give the lerk some more armor/ slight buff of spikes. I think thats what id like to see, its abit confusing swapping to gas/spikes while trying to fly.
<!--quoteo(post=1900846:date=Feb 8 2012, 03:21 AM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Feb 8 2012, 03:21 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900846"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Instead of suggesting things without explaining the reasons for them, don't post in the thread!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i say this because swaping abilities while flying dodging structures and attacking with spikes and dropping gas is a bit much in some situations. (for me)
I find myself waiting for my adrenaline to recharge more then actually harrasing.
I think armor buff is appropriate because the lerk is predictable and slow. But a good compromise would be to buff armor or spikes. imo
They do explode mines, the left click spikes anyways, never tried w/shotgun spikes. As for the spike damage it tells what kind of damage it is on the wiki.
<!--quoteo(post=1900780:date=Feb 8 2012, 07:14 AM:name=luns)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (luns @ Feb 8 2012, 07:14 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900780"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->here is what <strike>the lerk</strike> NS2 needs:
<strike>1. lerk bite 2.projectile spores 3.umbra</strike> NS1<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Fixed it for you.
I'm in agreement with others that shotgun spike should be the primary-slot primary attack, and spore should be the all-slot secondary attack. The automatic spikes, as the secondary-slot primary attack, should be made more useful for attacking structures.
I like the higher DPS, lower duration, spore idea too. I do think the spores need some motion to them however, such as retaining the Lerk's forward momentum and being affected by gravity.
@twiliteblue: Have you already experimented with non-directional glide being uncoupled from view yaw, not just view pitch?
<!--quoteo(post=1900780:date=Feb 8 2012, 12:14 AM:name=luns)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (luns @ Feb 8 2012, 12:14 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900780"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->here is what the lerk needs:
1. lerk bite 2.projectile spores 3.umbra
I'm not crazy about lerk spikes, if you want to keep it, then keep it but the above has to be given to the lerk if you ever wanted the class to be as his former glory was. <!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>stop ignoring years of balance that ns1 already built.</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
Also the current spores, flying in spreading spores has to be one of the worse things happened to the class, we need to revert back to the old spores if nothing else gets changed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
dont fix my posts, skip them if you see them since you refuse to read them. we can have 10 page discussion about the same crap over and over, and we will return to what has been working for years.
its amazing how this whole thread is about spikes, lol.
see the problem with ns1 balance is because fades don't have acid rocket anymore. no ranged attack on a highly mobile unit is a problem. therefore, why not let the lerk take over ranged attack duties? it's as mobile as the fade if not more so, and everything about it suggests a skirmishing unit. if we really wanted skulks with wings then there should be an upgrade to allow them to hovar without flapping. but there really is no need for lerks to be that.
<!--quoteo(post=1900907:date=Feb 8 2012, 03:38 PM:name=luns)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (luns @ Feb 8 2012, 03:38 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900907"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->dont fix my posts, skip them if you see them since you refuse to read them. we can have 10 page discussion about the same crap over and over, and we will return to what has <strike>been working</strike> not been worked on for years.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Fixed it for you. I actually do (skim) read your posts, and every time, they are the exact same thing: Return to NS1.
I've been trying to keep up with all the posts in this thread, sorry if I missed something. Could someone please enlighten me as to what the exact role of the Lerk is now? I'm a bit confused,in NS1 (2.0) I was under the assumption that it was a support unit. In competitive play going anywhere mid-range in a marine assault was a one shotgun blast death. Sporing rooms with heavy marine activity was ideal while at the same time helping other alien units sustaining damage through the use of umbra with bite being their last line of defense. Why exactly were spikes removed altogether in previous versions? What brought about the reasoning for the return of spikes, no umbra? Is the idea to make lerk more of a frontline unit? Are resources not as precious as they used to be with such great risks now being taken?
they aren't. assuming a 6v6, marines start with enough resources for 6 shotguns automatically without tapping tres at all, whereas the aliens start with (collectively) enough res for 5 lerks.
<!--quoteo(post=1900909:date=Feb 8 2012, 08:43 AM:name=Wheeee)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wheeee @ Feb 8 2012, 08:43 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900909"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->no ranged attack on a highly mobile unit is a problem.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> How so? I can't really imagine fades having acid rocket <i>not</i> being overpowered and boring to use since they can just blast everything from a safe distance, then teleport away if anyone tries to fight back. Only reason it wasn't even more overpowered than it was in NS1.0x was because of blink getting you stuck in terrain.
fanaticThis post has been edited.Join Date: 2003-07-23Member: 18377Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1900938:date=Feb 8 2012, 11:41 AM:name=incog)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (incog @ Feb 8 2012, 11:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900938"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've been trying to keep up with all the posts in this thread, sorry if I missed something. Could someone please enlighten me as to what the exact role of the Lerk is now? I'm a bit confused,in NS1 (2.0) I was under the assumption that it was a support unit. In competitive play going anywhere mid-range in a marine assault was a one shotgun blast death. Sporing rooms with heavy marine activity was ideal while at the same time helping other alien units sustaining damage through the use of umbra with bite being their last line of defense. Why exactly were spikes removed altogether in previous versions? What brought about the reasoning for the return of spikes, no umbra? Is the idea to make lerk more of a frontline unit? Are resources not as precious as they used to be with such great risks now being taken?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Because: 1. The developers don't understand -- or perhaps they don't care -- how marine vs. lerk plays out at higher skill levels. 2. Most of players currently in the beta, and consequently also most of the posters on this forum, are bad at playing games and don't understand or care how marine vs. lerk plays out at higher skill levels.
tbh the long range fast shooting spikes of the lerk are annoying.. people find the smallest places to camp and spike marine structures, making it near impossible to kill them, crevice and the old alien start on tram come to mind right away. To me the cropduster spores are a bad idea as lerks are inherently weak, and that ability requires you to fly in a relatively predictable pattern and basically into the face of marines, which seems like a deathtrap.
<!--quoteo(post=1900776:date=Feb 7 2012, 03:04 PM:name=antacid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (antacid @ Feb 7 2012, 03:04 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900776"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The lerks swooping gas is a great idea but needs to be more useful, mainly the radius in which the gas effects, perhaps it could expand out, currently it is much too easy to simply step out of it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Indeed, perhaps allow Spore clouds to expand over time, increasing the DPS area radially but cloud opacity increases as well?
<!--quoteo(post=1901052:date=Feb 8 2012, 03:42 PM:name=Mkk_Bitestuff)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mkk_Bitestuff @ Feb 8 2012, 03:42 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1901052"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->tbh the long range fast shooting spikes of the lerk are annoying.. people find the smallest places to camp and spike marine structures, making it near impossible to kill them<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
on the other hand, camping as a lerk is suicide once you progress past playing against people who just installed the game and have 20 FPS
even in those games, I run out of adrenaline before I can kill a structure (let alone wound a structure with enough left to drop spores as I escape) - it's actually funny how hard the adrenaline change has been on the class, but people haven't complained yet because nobody plays lerk anymore
what fana said is a good way of summarizing, but it's also very sad!
Right now I can't see the lerk being an effective unit at all in competitive play. While it is highly mobile its harrassment ability requires it to be relatively immobile, either by sitting somewhere or by hovering or gliding and shooting spikes at marines. The problem with this is that the lerk is not durable nor high damage enough to be able to sit there and straight trade damage with marines. Any competetant marine will just snipe it with his pistol or shoot it out of the air with ease. So basically for a lerk to do damage they either need to be in close to marines, which with their 30 res cost and their annoying spores makes them a high priority target and good marines will gib them, or they are sitting at mid range spiking a single marine and good marines will gib them,
The reason why lerks were always valuable in competitive play was because while their ranged harrassment was fairly weak, it hit multiple marines at a time. You could also just fire and forget it which allowed you to remain in hiding until you were ready to try to commit to combat. A good lerk could then use this tactic to pressure marines into an area where the lerk could either glide in on them silently or dive them fast and bite the crap out of them.
Area denial. That's what lerks have that they don't anymore, before if you had a single lerk and a fade you could hold a chokepoint with spores/umbra and if the marines really wanted to push they needed HA or they had to eat the spore damage. Either way the lerk could stay safe while denying access to an area and *sustain* that denial. Now, you can't area deny at all, to even try is taking a risk. And for that risk we've not gotten a reward really, since spikes are utterly useless at taking buildings out, and can only serve to chip a marine down slower than they can chip you down.
Lerks have always been the most mobile lifeforms and this is extremely important early game as they were used in NS1 competitive to put pressure on early marine pushes and lone res cappers. They were EXTREMELY good in this role. I really don't know what role they fill currently in NS2 for the alien team that isn't better off done by fades or skulks, as fades have stronger damage and skulks can actually kill nodes.
I think that having the lerks spore be tied to it's flight is not all bad as it somewhat forces the lerk to commit to harrassment. As it is though you have to commit too much. Having the spores spray out like 10 feet or so and settle to the ground would be better as you could more directly aim where they go and you wouldn't have to be in melee range of marines to do damage.
As far as the primary ability though I would lerks either need a strong melee range ability like bite, or they need to have a strong close range hit and run move like the shotgun spikes. This would allow lerks to not have to sit around and sustain fire on marines to kill them. They could fly in on wounded marines and blast them with spikes or shoot from a little further back for spraying multiple marines. If it was a fairly long (5-6 second) cooldown time it would make the lerk more of a hit and run fighter, which is how all of the alien team should be in my opinion.
Marines have always been more of a ranged sustained damage team while aliens have always been melee range hit and run fighters. I'm not saying that these are ridgid roles for each team as obviously shotguns and flamethrowers make marines especially strong in close but you can't make one of the weakest aliens, and certainly one that has always been about quick rapid movement, have a primary ability that requires sitting in one position and shooting from range.
When you say cooldown... are you talking about energy usage?
I generally agree with you on everything except that point. If you want to make it more hit-and-run, just increase the energy cost and damage; but I personally think it should be in the range of around 3 to 4 strikes (shotgun spikes) per full energy bar, with around 1.5 <b>perfect</b> strikes (all spikes hit) able to kill a vanilla (no upgrades) marine.
I think it would be worth considering re-tooling the spores to be armour-attacking rather than armour-ignoring. That automatically makes spores good against structures, and scales the ability well for the late-game (i.e. good against all the armour that marines get), especially as a support, harassment and area denial class.
Actually thinking about it I'd like to see it drain the whole bar. The more energy you have the more damage it does, or maybe spikes that come out. I really want either a sustained melee ability or a really strong close range burst ability.
Comments
yep, fixing the spread on it and making the damage scale with the game time (through an upgrade) would make it like a slightly more versatile version of the NS1 bite, which would be good enough to remove the rapid spikes if they changed the adrenaline cost
but then people would say we're just trying to make ns1 :)
1. Reduce the duration of Spores, but increase its damage-per-second. (Turn Spores into an effective weapon, rather than being mostly a smoke screen.)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1900423:date=Feb 6 2012, 05:17 PM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Feb 6 2012, 05:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900423"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->1) Why make the low-skill weapon more powerful? The entire problem with the class is it's designed to be played by and against low-skill players.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Crop duster Spore is one of the most basic weapon/abilities (available at the start), so I think people are fine with its low skill requirement.
Aiming also does not cover all the "skills" require to use a weapon. Effective use of crop duster Spores also requires movement skills and good situation awareness.
I believe that the reward for using such a high risk weapon (especially against and Flamethrowers and Shotguns!) is not sufficient. Marines can quickly and easily walk out of the toxic clouds, and avoid most of the damage, which is why I'm suggesting a DPS increase.
I'd also like to see "Shotgun" spikes become the primary weapon of the Lerk. It is much easy to aim than the "machine gun" Spikes when dodging fire.
A lategame Spikes upgrade would also be most welcomed. It's disappointing that the Shotgun can match the DPS of Spikes at a distance of 10 to 15.
<u>Stuff i've noticed</u>
1. It's really fun to get kills with the gas, and support your team, I love doing laps in the marine base pissing them all off and providing cover for my team.
2. It's really fun to sneak up behind marines and shotgun spike them in the back 1-2 times and finish them off w/machine gun spikes.
3. You can out range and murder people with shotguns/flamethrowers w/machine spikes, and you can crush marines w/LMGs, even 2-3 of them if you wear them down and have regen/cara to make multiple attacks (not vs very good players, obviously, but most)
4. Lerks are terrible in small corridors, could use another interesting ability for this kind of thing.
5. Aiming the spikes while dodging midair is really fun, and it feels really satisfying to win encounters like this.
6. A bit of damage scaling would be cool for late game.
<3 lerk
1. lerk bite
2.projectile spores
3.umbra
I'm not crazy about lerk spikes, if you want to keep it, then keep it but the above has to be given to the lerk if you ever wanted the class to be as his former glory was.
stop ignoring years of balance that ns1 already built.
Also the current spores, flying in spreading spores has to be one of the worse things happened to the class, we need to revert back to the old spores if nothing else gets changed.
<!--quoteo(post=1900846:date=Feb 8 2012, 03:21 AM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Feb 8 2012, 03:21 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900846"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Instead of suggesting things without explaining the reasons for them, don't post in the thread!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i say this because swaping abilities while flying dodging structures and attacking with spikes and dropping gas is a bit much in some situations. (for me)
I find myself waiting for my adrenaline to recharge more then actually harrasing.
I think armor buff is appropriate because the lerk is predictable and slow. But a good compromise would be to buff armor or spikes. imo
Also, the lerk is really bad at killing buildings like extractors since the adrenaline change in 194. I think that could stand to be tweaked a bit..
<strike>1. lerk bite
2.projectile spores
3.umbra</strike>
NS1<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Fixed it for you.
I'm in agreement with others that shotgun spike should be the primary-slot primary attack, and spore should be the all-slot secondary attack. The automatic spikes, as the secondary-slot primary attack, should be made more useful for attacking structures.
I like the higher DPS, lower duration, spore idea too. I do think the spores need some motion to them however, such as retaining the Lerk's forward momentum and being affected by gravity.
@twiliteblue: Have you already experimented with non-directional glide being uncoupled from view yaw, not just view pitch?
1. lerk bite
2.projectile spores
3.umbra
I'm not crazy about lerk spikes, if you want to keep it, then keep it but the above has to be given to the lerk if you ever wanted the class to be as his former glory was.
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>stop ignoring years of balance that ns1 already built.</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
Also the current spores, flying in spreading spores has to be one of the worse things happened to the class, we need to revert back to the old spores if nothing else gets changed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
dont fix my posts, skip them if you see them since you refuse to read them.
we can have 10 page discussion about the same crap over and over, and we will return to what has been working for years.
its amazing how this whole thread is about spikes, lol.
we can have 10 page discussion about the same crap over and over, and we will return to what has <strike>been working</strike> not been worked on for years.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Fixed it for you.
I actually do (skim) read your posts, and every time, they are the exact same thing: Return to NS1.
How so? I can't really imagine fades having acid rocket <i>not</i> being overpowered and boring to use since they can just blast everything from a safe distance, then teleport away if anyone tries to fight back. Only reason it wasn't even more overpowered than it was in NS1.0x was because of blink getting you stuck in terrain.
Because:
1. The developers don't understand -- or perhaps they don't care -- how marine vs. lerk plays out at higher skill levels.
2. Most of players currently in the beta, and consequently also most of the posters on this forum, are bad at playing games and don't understand or care how marine vs. lerk plays out at higher skill levels.
Indeed, perhaps allow Spore clouds to expand over time, increasing the DPS area radially but cloud opacity increases as well?
on the other hand, camping as a lerk is suicide once you progress past playing against people who just installed the game and have 20 FPS
even in those games, I run out of adrenaline before I can kill a structure (let alone wound a structure with enough left to drop spores as I escape) - it's actually funny how hard the adrenaline change has been on the class, but people haven't complained yet because nobody plays lerk anymore
what fana said is a good way of summarizing, but it's also very sad!
The reason why lerks were always valuable in competitive play was because while their ranged harrassment was fairly weak, it hit multiple marines at a time. You could also just fire and forget it which allowed you to remain in hiding until you were ready to try to commit to combat. A good lerk could then use this tactic to pressure marines into an area where the lerk could either glide in on them silently or dive them fast and bite the crap out of them.
What would you two suggest to make the current lerk more like what you feel it should be? Don't say "make it like NS1" - use lots of words.
I think that having the lerks spore be tied to it's flight is not all bad as it somewhat forces the lerk to commit to harrassment. As it is though you have to commit too much. Having the spores spray out like 10 feet or so and settle to the ground would be better as you could more directly aim where they go and you wouldn't have to be in melee range of marines to do damage.
As far as the primary ability though I would lerks either need a strong melee range ability like bite, or they need to have a strong close range hit and run move like the shotgun spikes. This would allow lerks to not have to sit around and sustain fire on marines to kill them. They could fly in on wounded marines and blast them with spikes or shoot from a little further back for spraying multiple marines. If it was a fairly long (5-6 second) cooldown time it would make the lerk more of a hit and run fighter, which is how all of the alien team should be in my opinion.
Marines have always been more of a ranged sustained damage team while aliens have always been melee range hit and run fighters. I'm not saying that these are ridgid roles for each team as obviously shotguns and flamethrowers make marines especially strong in close but you can't make one of the weakest aliens, and certainly one that has always been about quick rapid movement, have a primary ability that requires sitting in one position and shooting from range.
I generally agree with you on everything except that point. If you want to make it more hit-and-run, just increase the energy cost and damage; but I personally think it should be in the range of around 3 to 4 strikes (shotgun spikes) per full energy bar, with around 1.5 <b>perfect</b> strikes (all spikes hit) able to kill a vanilla (no upgrades) marine.
I think it would be worth considering re-tooling the spores to be armour-attacking rather than armour-ignoring. That automatically makes spores good against structures, and scales the ability well for the late-game (i.e. good against all the armour that marines get), especially as a support, harassment and area denial class.