Ravager is probably my favorite strain to play as, let alone runner. But I still am unsure on what strategy or tactic would suffice for its strains and its base variant beyond "Charge in and retreat
I’d like to hear some opinions or how you all like to play Ravager.
I remember getting 11 kills one round on Hybersia as a ravager in ONE life, but most of it basically came from queen pushes.
TLDR (bastards…): what are strats other big red people like to use?
Situation determines what strain I use.
If I need to be independent and mobile due to either low cover, bad teammates, or robust marines, I use default Rav. Combo is to go in, super empower, slam some poor bastard with the empowered dash, scissor cut, slash, dash out. That will crit or kill most marines. Default Rav is the most flexible.
If the queen is off ovi, or marines are in cramped spaces, or I have good team support i will go zerker for mass killing and staying power. Farm rage off screeched/immobilized/distracted marines and slash and slash until you need to back off. If safe, you can use eviscerate as a win harder ability but I don’t like using it under heavy fire as it can be risky. Zerker is not too independent a caste as it does high damage and heals, but has no real setup, and minimal mobility without apprehend. I like using zerker when I have the queen or good teammates to setup my combo for me.
If I know it’s going to be fob siege hell, there is little use for a default Rav or zerker. In that case I go hedge and use the shard shield to apply constant pressure to Cades and cover other Xenos. Hedge is the weakest combat caste, and I only like using it for sieges. It relies on marines not knowing how it works to be combat effective.
I swap strains with these factors in mind as the match progresses.
Primary thing you need to look out for as Rav above all else is SADAR, and you should be tracking their position throughout the entire match until they are permad. You are the priority SADAR target just below queen, and any remotely competent SADAR will be hunting you the entire round. Second behind that is to be wary of bodyblocks. Default and zerker can dash or fling blockers, but it remains dangerous all the same as you can be caught on cooldown, or fail to get them out of the way. Hedgehog has no recourse against blockers without outright killing them.
base rav:
rav is not special in any kind in terms of strategy. its just general “don’t overextend and pick off marines”. can’t really tell you how to get better at that except of practice. just keep in mind that you need to actually think what are you doing, why you are doing and if you die, why you died. that is if you care about getting better, of course.
aside from general strategy, base rav is king. its very fun to one shot marines with the charge ability, especially hitting it on moving targets. another thing is that you should target head/chest because you deal a lot of damage for armor to not be too much of a problem for you, especially when you have full enrage stacks AND if you utilize tail stab, which will deal insane amounts of damage if combined with enrage.
one big tip i can give you is that if front is tricky and you think you could die, i recommend saving your charge as an escape tool, saved me many times.
zerker:
zerker is good when you’re being overrun. if utilized in caves and/or with a queen, you will really quickly make marines change their mind about mindless pushes. though its way harder to play than base rav simply because you don’t have the charge ability. when playing as zerker you have to be twice as careful because its easy to die if you fuck up and there’s no way to quickly escape.
i also do zerker if marines are evaccing for that juicy alamo massacre. very fun.
hedge:
probably the most controversial take - hedge is really not that good. i tried playing hedge many times and it has to be one of the most boring caste out there. you’re tankier than a crusher but you don’t have any attacking abilities and very little mobility. you’re also a very easy target for sadar since he knows you don’t have any counter measures.
its probably good for sieges but personally i’m just staying as base rav and stay with queen/harass marines with my scissors ability because it goes through cades.
sadar:
ravager poses the same threat to sadar as sadar to ravager. as base rav you can fuck him up in a second if you know what you’re doing, giving him fractures/organ damage/internal bleedings.
zerker is not bad if you know how to move. if you don’t you will probably die. you can also die if sadar gets lucky with his shot, its 50/50.
I have to disagree with you, but its a great defensive class, ive saved countless xenos by just body blocking and forcing marines to stop firing via the shield. Like any class you just need to play it right , dance your butt off like a bee, and find opportune moments. sharding ability is a nice little poke that can cause shrap sometimes and stall, also shards are armor so extra chunky xeno can really take alot of damage as long as your not constantly wasting shards. full expel ability of your spines is rarely touched unless you know there is a big pullback to the hive or you can get away with it during a marine retreat.
if the marines have more than 3 brain cells, which they usually don’t
Not like this marine bros….
I never play base and zurk but do love playing Hog.
The big thing about Hog is it shines most in a mixed Rav based hives. This is due to the fact the marines get confused as what kind of Rav they are fighting at any given time. This means they will tend just keep blasting at any Rav that rushes them, which means they tend to shred themselves shooting at shielded Hog.
So what i am saying is the best strat with Hogs is stick with other Ravs to max out the confusion, if you can get the marines to not shoot when a Zurk is closing in because they think its YOU the hog then your job is done.
Also Hogs make great backup as they also because they have the highest Exp resist. If you are inter mixed with your Rav sisters and your group gets naded you won’t get stunned and can move in and proc your shield to let the base or Zurks time to get back up.
What’s more the Demo while they can Stun you with a direct hit because of your high Exp resist you don’t actually take much damage, also if you are good about procing your shield in time you will take even less and follow up will do very little to you.
Basically the strat for Hogs is act as back up and rear guard for the pull back. you will not get many kills yourself but doing this leads to much more bone shards getting blasted out and remember bone shards cause slow down and can cause IB, fracs and Organ damage. so it really helps the other ravs get the finishing blow off while giving them peace of mind to go all out.
What maps would you say rav is best for? I know it’s pretty weak on maps with alot of water (especially early game 624)
Every map is a good Rav map. It’s the best caste overall by far and it’s really not even close. Play a round with 5 decent ravs sometime and you’ll see what I mean.
Do not die until the queen is off OVI. Do not die until the queen is off OVI. Do not die until the queen is off OVI.
As my second favorite Xenomorph, I will speak about the Hedge.
While playing Hedge you have one of three goals.
That 3rd(and 2nd) one might surprise, but your slashes SUCK and you don’t have normal offensive abilities, instead you shoot bone chips. Each time one hits a marine it does 8 damage.
So the real way you murder marines is with bone chips, and the only way your shooting enough to do any real damage is with your shield.
It’s 500 shield(amazing) 2.5 seconds long(ok), costs half your shards(yikes), but the cooldown is only 9 seconds(INSANE).
Every time you take damage, 7 bone chips are shot from you randomly. No cooldown or limit. If your shot 50 times during the shield, you fire out 350 bone chips.
Even if they break your shield by doing excess of 500 damage, you’ll continue shooting bone chips.
Overall it’s easy to chop up Hedge as being easy to counter trash.
No offense
No mobility
Good defense that falters and fails the moment marines stop shooting for 2 seconds.
However by forcing marines to shoot you it solves all of these problems.
By getting marines to shoot you, you gain shards, shoot marines, and don’t need to even slash via ranged attacks.
How?
Well ever see a Sadar who shoots there rockets the moment a T3 appears at the edge of there vision? Yeah that’s the average player. And that’s how.
The average marine is easily spooked and easily manipulated.
You come around a corner they couldn’t see? They will shoot you.
You attacking someone in melee? They will shoot you.
You slashing there ankle, breaking there bones and your about to kill them? They’re mag-dumping you.
Now some marines think they’re smart. “Oh that’s a hedge, I just gotta wait till it uses the shield and it runs out, THEN I shoot it.” Sometimes entire groups will think they’re smart.
That’s fine, just keep slashing them. Kill there medic, target the weak ones first. They’ll cave. Often at the exact same time.
Though you might get a smart marine with a MOU or shotgun. Just some baby marine as an additional shield to block there line of sight to you while you buy time to wear down the Group’s patience.
Exploit SG’s anti-runner instincts. Run a little past your baby marine victim to get inside the group’s bubble. They will instinctively want to shoot you to repel you with there IFF, far more than normal marines.
Look for fast firing turrets. Marines think they suppress and kill xenos who charge, but really they’re little traitors who want to help you charge up your shard meter and get you to fire a few hundred extra bone chips.
Injured? That’s fine. They see your yellow marks on you. Your injured, your weak, all they need is a few more bullets to kill you. If you didn’t have 500 extra hp with a button press.
Did I mention Bone chips will usually travel through marines and a single one can hit 2 or even 3 marines? Yeah a well positioned charge and bait can outright kill one or two marines and crit whole groups. Even beserker has nothing on Hedge’s AoE suicide minigun.
But don’t get too greedy. You don’t want to loose too much health. Your just gotta wait 9 seconds for another 500hp. Done just right you can get 2 kills per shield, for 10 kills a minute. Even beserker has trouble with this needing to ramp up to Rage, and experiencing the lockout timer.
All you need is one tiny little button.
Done right, most of the time you just have to walk around and lazily slash someone. Peak nothing gameplay.
If nothing else, just remember almost every single marine player REALLY wants to shoot xenos and you.
It takes there active attention and goes against there basic desires to NOT shoot you, you just have to figure out subtle ways to manipulate them into shooting you more, and less.
And remember, to stop shooting xenos is to give up and kill themself.
And to shoot you is to give up and kill themself(or another).
A very popular strat seems to be, pick any strain. Charge into the middle of a group of 10-20 marines and give up your life and T3 slot to break ones ankle before you explode from gunfire in 9 different directions.
Only after you do this can you truly become a Prime Rav with time.
I thought I invented that, but apparently it’s been around forever? At least I know that a bunch of marines are going to have to spend 3 seconds removing bone shards from their body.
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