The Lerk Is Awesome.

n4s7y · August 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Yup.</div> They are. Here's a few of the things I've managed to do:

ns_nothing:
marines decided to rush viaduct hive (raw marines). noone was there, except for a lone lerk (me.)
I threw in a few spores, hid in a corner, repeated, rinsed, spiked a few, and soon had 5 dead marines at viaduct.

Got into the vent that goes into the marine base (nothing, again). Took out FIVE marines with spore, at least five others with spike, and pressured the comm into getting a TF at their base, which was practically useless with my umbra.

ns_eclipse:
Same thing as nothing. Got into the vent, spored, beat the f out of the marines until the comm quit.

God I love lerk. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'>

Stakhanov · August 2003

The lerk is a bit cheap now... with SoF it takes little to no prediction to spore marines to death without risks. Regen lerk is almost invincible when on guerrilla duty in a vent. Adren lerks are uber as well , they can keep sporing and spiking marines as they fly by. They are more than ever the comm's worst enemy when working with vanilla marines.

Kid-A · August 2003

n4s7y what upgrades did you have?

Personally I like regen, haven't tried any sens ones apart from cloaking will definately now.
I find adren is almost nessecary as a lerk...

I wouldn't call lerks cheap, alone they need lots of time to do damage but with other aliens they can be devastating.

OttoDestruct · August 2003

Lerks have the staying power of a chicken on cs_italy. Thats all I'm going to say.

Roger_Dodger · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (OttoDestruct @ Aug 2 2003, 09:43 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Lerks have the staying power of a chicken on cs_italy. Thats all I'm going to say.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Hehe nice analogy.
But i think there needs to be some more skill involved with the spikes, as the energy for flying has been tweaked, flying and spiking is alot better now.
If only the pistol werent the bane of lerks and the fact that every rine has one makes it worse. Yeh gas i always thought was pretty cheap, but i thought the same of babblers as u never really had to put much effort in.

- RD

Creepin_Jeezus · August 2003

Lerks on Bast are EVIL. when i first played it, i saw you could lock up the vent... only to realise it left the room for lerks to shoot gas out of it, but small enough to not let us hit him. we were gassed the whole time till we got nades. but by then we were being hassled by numerous fades and oni.

Lt_Hendrickson · August 2003

Been playing nothing but the new lerk. Well all i can say is HATE IT.
Spores are lames. I hate being a marine spending half the game choking on spores.
Spikes are good but any decent rine could kill the lerk before spikes could the rine. Unless you ambush then there may not be enough time for the marine to react but you'lll come out seriously injured.
Fligh models sucks. Spent a long time flying around on a empty LAN. Not versitile enough, too slow and jsut sucks.
There a support class but a **** one at that. Umbra last only a split second.
Lack of health makes them useless even as support. u can sit 500 thousand feet away providing umbra support and get totally owned by stray bullets aimed at the twenty fade and onos.
If you claim you can sit in a vent with regen and never die and spore away, two things, marines suck, and spores are **** anyways. Any time i see green gas i imediatly find the lerk and blast it to shreds(unless of course if im a little preoccupied by other species). But no matter how many lerks i blast away instantly there so cheap theres 5 thousand of them flying around gassing you the whole game. Its lame.
O yeah. No lerk bite sucks too. But trying to swoop and bite with the new flight model and health would be suiside anyways.

Thumbs down on the new lerk.

tanathos · August 2003

Hendrikson, that is why the HA exist. It negate spores.

Personnally, my favorite tactic with the lerking is snipping from far away with silence. I downed 2 HA like that. The last one found me, but I had the intelligence of building 2 DC in the vent (vent near Engine in bast, and the HA where in engine corridor). Next came 3 normal marines. Gassed them + spiked them. Down really quickly, saved the hive. (For now, we lost in the end <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>)

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'>

Spazmatic · August 2003

Lerks are very useful. However, they're fairly expensive at 30 res to simply annoy marines with, and, while very good guerilla fighters, the ability to knock out a large group of marines hinges on their lack of cooperation. Flanking maneuvers slaughter lerks like nobody's business.

However, I do like them a lot. To show why, I'll address Hendrickson's very negative post.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Spores are lames. I hate being a marine spending half the game choking on spores.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Spores are designed to soften you up for skulks and other classes, and that's all they should be doing. If you're dying to spores more than occasionally, whoa boy, you're not moving around enough. Plus, if you're important enough, your comm should be giving you meds, and if the position is really important, he should be executing some sort of trapping maneuver to catch the lerks.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Spikes are good but any decent rine could kill the lerk before spikes could the rine.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Cloaked silenced lerks are excellent snipers with spikes. Don't engage 'rines face to face. Further, spikes are great support weapons, as, combined with spores, they can cut down the number of bites/gores/swipes needed to take down a group of marines very quickly (hard to hit dodging marines in close quarters with those, easy from afar with spikes).

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Fligh models sucks.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

It's simple, yet prevents the absurd maneuvers that made lerks so insanely good in 1.04. The speed cap makes lerks killable, while the reduced cost makes them more capable of fighting and flying.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>There a support class but a **** one at that. Umbra last only a split second.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Aside from the wonderful ranged aspect, the new umbra is still better than the old (I think, not sure about actual stopping power). Rather than fire one, and hope my buddy stays still, I can fire a series and cover that fat onos' entire approach vector, while not costing me more energy than 1.04 umbra.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Lack of health makes them useless even as support.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Eh. I don't seem to die as lerk. I'm not sure what you're doing, but as support, they shouldn't get a bead on you (at least not easily). Stray shots won't kill a regen lerk, just duck and heal.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>If you claim you can sit in a vent with regen and never die and spore away, two things, marines suck, and spores are **** anyways. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

It's very hard to get a regen lerk in a vent, if he has SoF. He spores away, and if you approach, he flies away. Nothing a lone marine can do, period, without a jetpack.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>No lerk bite sucks too.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

By sucks, do you mean "is balanced"?

n4s7y · August 2003

Lerks are the king of harrassment. Anti-lerk people just haven't learned to use it. I'm not lying about stopping entire squadrons ya know. Lerk spores are the meanest, greenest thing to hit Natural Selection since devour. If anything, it's overpowered. BTW, my upgrades usually go regeneration (must have if you're harrassment unit, because you don't get heals) or carapace if you're supporting an attack. Scent of fear for sensories, and if you're harrassment, you might wanna try cloak, although I haven't used it yet.

Here's a few lerking tips:

Learn to fly. Flying is tricky, and no tutorial can teach you to fly. Just practice moving around, and you'll get it eventually. Once you can fly properly, the lerk is amazing.

When harrassing, shoot 3 spores at a time, covering as much area as possible. Shooting one spore doesn't hit as many targets.

When spiking, either snipe from a distance or circle strafe your target from above (easy with a few hours of lerk flying practice) and shoot at it.

Lerks can take out outposts quite easily. Commanders can get pretty cocky sometimes and think that lerks are no threat, but I've seen TFs and phases taken out before I could say GET TO REACTOR ROOM, resulting in the loss of reactor room <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>. To do this, you need a HUGE room, one with enough space to stay out of range of turrets (you can't dodge em in 2.0 anymore <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>) Just keep spiking the TF. With some luck, it'll fall in a minute or two, and most likely nobody will come to save it.

Lerks are the ultimate defense unit at the beginning of the game. Got a tough spot like a double res or are they trying to rush your first hive? Go lerk. Harass them from vents while your skulks finish em off. Like I said, I've dropped entire squadrons with this tactic.

If anything, lerks are overpowered.

Kid-A · August 2003

I agree with n4s7y and Spazmatic except...

...I don't think lerks are good I think they are <b>vital</b>.

Taking on any sort of marine defence is <i>very</i> silly without lerk support. It can be done but its often wasteful. I'm often the only person as a lerk on 8-10 alien sides. With that many people 2 lerks is extremely effective, laying down the umbra and sporing PG's does alot more good than it's creditied for.

Spazmatic · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I don't think lerks are good I think they are vital.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Yep yep. So are bilebombing gorges, but people ignore them a lot too.

OttoDestruct · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Lerks are the king of harrassment</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Small errata on this statement. Lerks are the king of early game harassment. Me and another guy **** the marines off so much that the commander gave out shotties and grenade launchers just to try to kill us, LOL. Go to a marine area, spore em, run. If they chase, drop spores along their path. If they dont keep sporing until they do. Once its late in the game and they got HA, go fade. Fade + Redemption = Win. I've stayed alive 30 minutes+ as a fade without ever dying because of metabolize and redemption. Hide in corners cloaked and kill wandering marines. If you have acid rocket attack expansions, their spawn, ANYTHING just to draw their forces. Yea I said lerks were weak before, and they are, but they aren't meant for frontline fighting, and umbra is really only useful now when you have gorge heal support.

sekdar · August 2003

i love the new lerk. they absolutely own in vents and, if you play smart, you can stop an entire marine squad from an area. i've used this to great effect by buying fleeing gorges precious seconds of life, or even slowing a hive rush.

spores are an excellent pyschological weapon. proper use of it can force the marines to spend dozens of resource units on medpacks for marines that will die shortly after <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Spazmatic · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>you can stop an entire marine squad from an area.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Not if the marines play smart... My marines perform pincer maneuvers to get rid of lerks. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'> That is, when they understand WTH I'm asking of them.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>umbra is really only useful now when you have gorge heal support. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Please, lerkies, don't under estimate how useful umbra is for oni!!! Regen onos with umbra is really really scary... Will wipe through a turret farm in one run if not countered with hmgs or shotties. Plus, you have primal scream.

acer_r · August 2003

yah primal scream turn the lerk into a LMG, Lerk Machine Gun <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'> XD........

RaVe · August 2003

Yeah I'd have to say they are very vital to an alien teams success in early game <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Spores are sort of like alien grenade launchers,think of what the GL does....<span style='color:#041e2d'>correct,area of denial</span>

If :
A) You are having constant streams of rambos always headin for your hive
B) You found a marine expansion starting
C) You are going for a base siege with Onii and Fades
D) You just want to fly around the room for the sake of it <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

By all means go lerk....maybe except point D

hehe LMG,Lerks can take down turrets quickly with spikes,and I mean very quickly,I did some research yesterday.
<span style='color:041e2d'>They can take out a turret in 3 primal-screamed fullauto spikes >=D</span>

n4s7y · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>hehe LMG,Lerks can take down turrets quickly with spikes,and I mean very quickly,I did some research yesterday</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

People underestimate the lerk's ability to take down outposts. They just get inpatient with how long it takes to kill a building, and give up and lose a perfect opportunity. You don't even need LMGs to take down a TF or phase if you're careful (regeneration helps).

Lt_Hendrickson · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Spazmatic @ Aug 2 2003, 03:45 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Spikes are good but any decent rine could kill the lerk before spikes could the rine.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Cloaked silenced lerks are excellent snipers with spikes. Don't engage 'rines face to face. Further, spikes are great support weapons, as, combined with spores, they can cut down the number of bites/gores/swipes needed to take down a group of marines very quickly (hard to hit dodging marines in close quarters with those, easy from afar with spikes).

</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Hey lets quote leave out parts and counter argue something with something i already said. Read more than one line at a time.

Lt_Hendrickson · August 2003

Lerks are certainly NOT overpowered. Going against some lousy marines then. Quite common.
Lerks die tremedously fast if spotted. Lot of peopl don't realize this yet but although the pistol is not as acurate anymore, its HIGHLY efficiant when killing lerks in vents. Spikes usefulness varies during the game, good vs nilla rines, bad vs nilla rines with 2+armore then they dont get good again till three hives with primal scream. Realistically how often will you have three hives after the marines get better.
Umbra's not useless but by golly it sucks compared to the old one. Shooting it is very nice but the time it is up is only ive been told 3 seconds(i count around 5 but hey im not a walking clock here) which is a very short amount of time. Only bad part about shooting umbra i realized today is its harder to cover my own **** when ambushed. Shootin the ground works but not in flight. However i do fight it better for escapin if theres a door in your way. I used to throw umbra up while waiting for doors to open and fly off now i can toss umbra on the door before i get there.
Being "Softened up for skulks" is useful for aliens but it's tremendously lame. Might as well save aliens some time, take away spores and spawn all rines with half health cause but the time anymarine can get to a non gassed spot thats how it is.

Lt_Hendrickson · August 2003

On a seperate note here has anyone else tried using cerlity as a lerk instead of adrenline. I find you don't need as much energy with the new lerk and cerity helps alot with survival. One you can fly faster. But thats useless cause you can also walk at a thousand miles per hour too.

n4s7y · August 2003

Did you just make three whole posts in a row?

I'd try celerity, but adrenaline is such a better upgrade.

mojojojo · August 2003

I think the only problem with lerk is that 3 of its weapons are support weapons... Umbra, Spores and primal scream. I find it difficult to be responsible for so much support weaponry during an attack, and trying to fly at the same time...if you even have enough adrenalin to use them all.

The thought of a silent cloaked lerk working as sniper hadn't occured to me before. Now that the visible spikes have been removed is there any way at all for the marines to find out quickly where you are?

someone · August 2003

You gotta love the Silence/Cloak combo. Nothing funnier than watching a marine spin around in circles frantically spraying because he has no clue where the spikes are coming from <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'>

Also, The new marine blood that has come with 2.0 has made it much easier to tell when you are nailing a marine while spiking.. a wonderful thing when you are trying to fly and spike at the same time.

Typhon · August 2003

If you're getting nailed by stray fire while trying to umbra support, toss an umbra on yourself when you see marines firing in your direction. Adren + regen + scent makes you practically unkillable and a VERY effective support weapon. I think people dont like the new lerk because they want to still play him as the assault class he was in 1.04, not the pure support role he has in 2.0.

That_Annoying_Kid · August 2003

GG with the triple post henderson <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'>

lerks with primal scream and spikes are win

they are the ultimate in support, hence the name lerk <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

shootable umbra and spores are great for attacks, simple shoot umbra at the turrets and it negates them

Error404 · August 2003

If sensory is up, I go for Scent of Fear, then I just find already weakend marines and fire one spore and they drop like flies.

Lt_Hendrickson · August 2003

Well umbra isn't as great as it be but by golly, its still hella useful.

The Lerk Is Awesome.

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