So I’ve been out of the loop for a couple months, only recently started playing again on a server that’s mostly regular CM, and I’ve noticed two things:
A) Did Vanguard get changed or was it always this strong?
This is subjective but I feel like in the past couple months the shield has gotten much stronger, my memory might be incorrect but I remember it lasting only a fraction of a second. From my recent experience, it lasts much longer than it used to. And it definitely lasts a lot longer than intended as it’s meant to only block one bullet, which the evolution text says, and that’s what was originally intended.
Other thing with it is that either players have gotten a lot better with it or there’s some obscure mechanic with it that I’m not aware of, I play with light armor and from full health, Vanguard can damage me in 1 second enough to where I will fall into crit in about 5 seconds if I do not med myself before that happens. I have absolutely no clue what their combo is.
B) What is up with Valkyrie? It just seems to be a hardcounter against SADAR, GL? Screen-wide stun removal? What? I’ve mostly been playing marine but just from observing this seems absolutely insane to me, can anyone explain what else it can do, or what the downsides are? Or requirements?
Crucial to note that Valkyrie does still heal Xenos! Upon slashing a marine, A valkyrie sends out a three tile wide AOE that heals any xeno inside of it for 15 health. While the Valkyrie is enraged via Tantrum (Which lasts five seconds for the Valkyrie) this healing is bumped to 30 per slash in a 3 tile AOE.
Typical vanguard combo (as far as my elder xenobrain gets it) is dash (+slash) → slash → pierce → slash → cleave to Brazil. That’s ~120 raw damage done in 2 seconds, a couple more slashes will send you to crit, especially if you’re wearing light armor
Wiki says that it’s a “shield that perfectly blocks one attack and rapidly decays after you’re hit.” This is exactly how it works, it catches one projectile and disappears after a second or two (during which it can still block bullets)
No, just SADAR. Valkyrie’s anti-stun has long cooldown and huge rage cost, you can’t counter nade spam with it
AoE heal with each slash, whose range is so small that it barely heals anyone except you
Warden’s xenohook (Retrieve)
Tailstab fire extinguisher (works on marines and xenos alike, can’t damage anything)
3x2 AoE knockdown (sentinel moment)
30 armor
Strong pheromones
No tailstab
No explosion immunity
No dash
No spit
No dick
No balls
Basically, it’s a downgraded crusher with antistun. This caste exists solely to fuck with SADAR. (And if xenos need to dedicate a T3 slot to counter that one specific dude in particular - it seems like an issue, but that’s another story for another time)
Turns out you can use dash twice to instantly make it do the slash instead of it being delayed, and as long as it hits at least one target you regain your shield back fully.
Can be used as an opener, escape or just to keep on fighting.
The shield can block 6 to 8 bullets of the mk2/1 depending on mode/fire rate, it also seems to take about 8 AP bullets of 10x24mm to break the shield and deal damage through it.
After testing it doesn’t seem that much stronger than other T3s, it’s just that the shield is so annoying and blocks so many bullets that by the time it wears off you’re halfway dead and have done zero damage.
The anti-stun is free (by the time the cooldown expires, you’ve made more fury than it costs to use), it costs 75 fury with a 45 second cooldown, you gain 5 fury every life tick, in an ideal scenario that’s 2.5 fury per second, which means you gain 90 fury throughout the cooldown for Fight or Flight.
For SADAR, it is a hardcounter, if a Valkyrie is within 6 tiles (ie.: they’re in the target’s view but not at the very edge) of your target, even through walls, they can instantly counter your limited supply, expensive anti-armor rocket with the press of a button, forever.
For GL, if you had multiple Valkyries they might be able to troll him every 20 seconds if it was perfectly timed, but that probably won’t happen.
Xenos have several T3 slots, and warriors/spitters can instantly evolve into another Valkyrie if the previous one dies. Marines can order a foxtrot specialist which can go SADAR, and there is the possibility of having two SADARs at once, however unlike the Valkyrie, they don’t have infinite & unlimited ammo and will eventually run out, and can be permanently killed.