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Thread: Need help as a frontliner

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Need help as a frontliner

    So I've been playing this game for a little while now and I'm kinda in a bind about something. Whenever it comes to playing as the more melee-oriented classes of Xeno's, I have hard as hell time coming to grips with everything. So now usually I've delegated myself to worker caste xenos like Drones so I can help around in the hive or play combat medic, maybe Spitter's so I can aid in a fight with little risk of death. At least this way I feel like I'm contributing to the war effort, despite how boring it can be a lot of the time.

    But anything that forces you to claw down your opponents damn near feels impossible to me, especially with how erratic the game is where you can't stand still for two seconds or otherwise become swiss cheese. I see people play so gracefully, knocking down marines to pick them up and drag off while clawing them up all while their marines buddies are chewing them with FF. Tried my best to mimic their playstyles just to find myself clicking everywhere or getting focused down when something positive does happen -- it gets a little disheartening after awhile, and there's no room for failure otherwise you're out an entire round.

    Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

  2. #2
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    Good lord I know them feels.

    I find what helps me (not sure how well it'll work for you) is to attempt those roles during LowPop hours. Get a feel for the Xeno you wanna play when the pressure isn't as heavy. Seeing as I started this game in LowPop, I was able to learn my role, learn its skills and abilities, and become useful on the Frontlines (even as a support...who'd have guessed) within my first two or three games of ever playing CM. I hit Queen on my the next time around and we scored a Xeno Major. And that was only 4 games after signing on. One of my best memories here.

    Really, the lower population (and lag for that matter) really does assist in learning how to play your Xeno. Taking care to study your moves and abilities, or even reading a guide about your chosen role, goes a long way to keeping you alive. It's better to know that a Sentinel's Neuro is going to have almost a 30% higher chance to hit your target at 3 tiles away, versus that 4th tile where it drops significantly. Little things like that.

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    The game is unforgiving to xenos so I recommend the following with melee castes:
    - Recognize that most castes are mono-purpose and often that purpose is not fighting. This means that you MIGHT be able to get away with attacking but there is no guarantee.
    - Do not help xenos that made a mistake if helping puts you at risk of dying. It doesn't sound nice but they made their choice and you just end up dead too. There are some factors like risking yourself as a defender for a T3, that's good. And help the queen..
    - Always heal to full health before engaging. If you think you dont have to heal because you are elder/etc. you are just wasting your bonus from aging.
    - Typically you dont want to aim for the chest.
    - Avoid people with shotguns as buckmeme is the ultimate melee caste, also unless you secure the kill somehow, they get infinite revives while you get popped from 1 hit
    - Avoid specialists too
    - You mention seeing people playing gracefully. Attach yourself to them, just DONT block their movement. Surprisingly a drone is probably the best battle buddy: quick to get ancient, free resin, use warding on attack and reco while resting, and 1 more xeno clawing is always good.

    Basically learn to not overextend.

  4. #4
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    depends on what you mean by frontliner cause theres so many different melee castes that all play differently. The only thing I consider a frontliner is the praetorian, defender and the warrior. I consider every other melee fighter a hit and run type fighter.

    I will preface this with saying that I am not good at actual clicking on the marine so I have to outsmart/outplay the marine to beat them. Some people can just run by and click the shit out of people I dont know how. The way I do it is if the guy is standing still I figure out what tile hes gonna be in compared to me when I move next to him. Say im gonna go right next to him and he will be on my left. I put my cursor on the tile to the left of me then i run at him and just click cause once I get in that exact position my cursor willb e ontop of him. This is great for abilities like headbutt/punch/grabbing someone/just getting 1 slash on them. One thing ive noticed is theres some stupid built in thing in the game where if you click it wont register another click right after. This matters because if you spam clicks on the wrong timing it will never hit the marine. Sometimes its better to click less so that when you do click them it actually registers.

    Shotguns are your worst enemy. Since they removed wield delay any no name no skill retard can wreck you with a shotgun. It is literally 0 skill to use especially if they put a gyro and recoil comp on it. They dont even have to wield it in 2 hands to blast you. They can push e and instantly click you. If you have the shotgunner alone you can overcome this and kill them if you can keep stunning them but if you hesistate when he gets up you will get killed. Other situations with shotguns - You are fighting 2on1, 1 has a shotgun and the other doesnt, target the shotgun and keep him down until you run. 2+on1 and more than 1 has a shotgun, dont engage especially as a lurker. When you pounce you will get stunned ontop of the marine and the other will just walk up and pb you because no skill is needed especially while you are stunned for 2 seconds after pounce.

    Scout with m4ra is another OP weapon you must watch out for as xeno. It atleast takes skill unlike shotgun, but incendiary rounds are op as fuck when they burst fire you. Xenos with less health can get crit by a single burst and a few ticks of the fire damage. If you are not near water to put out the fire (RUN INTO WATER IF YOU ARE ON FIRE SO MANY DONT KNOW THIS) then you wont have time to resist off the fire by yourself because resist is garbage. If you are near other team mates they can save you usually.

    RPG is obvious, get hit by it you are dead.

    Pyro using blue flame is OP as fuck. It will straight kill you if you dont have other xenos to put you out. Praetorian is about the only one that can take a blue flame to the face. Crusher will even get melted by blue flame cause they have alot of armor but not alot of HP. Flames ignore armor. Ravager and queen must kill the pyro unless pyro is a retard and gets memed by stuns. Dont fight the pyro if he is using blue flame you will die.

    B18 is a bitch, stun him and kill him, dont matter what xeno you are. Only threat is if hes using a shotgun.

    Sniper is a bitch, dunk his ass. He cant fight up close.

    RPG is a bitch without his RPG. Stun him he cant use his RPG then dunk him.

    Despite what people say smart gunners are really strong now. They will melt you fast if you try to sustain melee fight with one around because they dont have to worry about hitting team mates and can just burst fire like crazy. Target the smartgunner first if there are no shotguns or scary specialists around.

    Watch medics the smart ones will carry mag harness shotguns.

    Engineers can do the same as medics with mag harness shotguns.

    Tank can be dunked by any xeno thats semi fast 1on1. If tank doesnt have good marine support then just run up to it on its side, never the front or back. If you are behind or infront of the tank it will run you over and stun you for 30 seconds and you are dead unless another xeno saves you. If you get on its side it literally can do nothing against you. It turns slow so just keep maneuvering to its side and it will never beable to shoot or run you over. If it is smart enough to get against a wall or something where you cant get on its side then run away and come back later. PROTIP: ACID SPIT FUCKS UP THE TANK EVERYONE WITH ACID SPIT SHOOT THE FUCK OUT OF IT.

    Now heres how I play each melee class:

    Defender: I dont do shit until elder. Defenders fucking suck ass at young/mature and kinda suck ass at elder but are playable. At ancient defender gets good cause they arent slow as fuck anymore. How fast are you at switching abilities? If you can use tailsweep then switch to headbutt quickly then what you wanna do is set it to tailsweep then run by a marine or 2 and tailsweep them. If it knocks them down good switch to headbutt and go headbutt one of them. Then gtfo. If tailsweep fails gtfo. After you get used to this you will start getting to where you can juggle them without running away as much and just keep knocking people down. If you are too slow to use tailsweep and headbutt then take the strain (I think its called steel curtain or something) and just headbutt the shit out of people without worrying about tailsweep. Defender slash is pretty shitty but if the marine is down you can slash him up a few times if you want just dont fight standing marines. Headbutt goes through armor, so use this to fuck up b18/pred/pyro/heavyarmor retards.

    Runner: Runner is the highest skill ceiling xeno in the game. Runners are fucking garbage at young never leave the hive as a young runner. They are fast enough to drag off people after someone else stuns them when mature but dont fight as mature either. Elder+ they get good. You want to avoid it if you arent comfortable melee fighting with the risk of getting 1 shot. Runners are also super risky around claymores because you move too fast to see the claymore. The key to claymores for all xenos is they can be slashed and blown up. The way you do that is look at the claymore and see which side of the tile it is on. It is facing the opposite side of that. You have to come from the side or behind where its facing so it doesnt hit you when you slash it. Shotguns are the bane of runners more than anyone else. They will 1 shot crit you. Never stop moving as a runner you will die fast if anything can hit you. The way I fight with a runner 1on1 is I set my intent to disarm (press 2 on the top numbers). I pounce them and try to stun them immediatly. If I get the stun off I switch to harm intent (press 4 on the top numbers) and then I slash them 2 or 3 times. Now I switch back to disarm and stun them again and rinse and repeat until they are dead. You can also stun them and switch to grab intent (3 on top numbers) and grab them to drag off. After grabbing switch to disarm and push X to switch your current hand (you have them grabbed in the other hand) and start spamming disarm while you run away with them. (TACKLE FUCKING SUCKS SINCE THEY NERFED IT SO YOU WILL NEED RNG HELP FOR ANY OF THIS.) If you fail to disarm them when you pounce or you fail to disarm them while dragging them away then you can pounce again and reset all this or you run away. Do not stand there they will cheese you with no wield delay buckshot pb. Target limbs or groin. Always take offweed healing strain until they add something better.

    The other way I play runner is I just go in and run around like a crazy asshole with either disarm and harm intent locked in just running in circles slashing people and trying to get them to friendly fire each other. You can pounce people to mess them up especially guys with big guns like RPG and just be a general nuisance. It breaks marine cohesion and morale pretty bad when you troll them like this. This is super risky though cause 1 pb buckshot and you are fucked.

    Drone: Drone fucking sucks at melee combat. You can outplay a fucking retard but anyone with a shotgun will dunk you. You can support other people like spitters and stuff by helping tackle spam or slash someone they have pinned down. I would say take healing strain and just be a medic. Without hugger combat drones are too squishy to fight anyone that isnt retarded.

    Carrier: Should never fight ever just be the facehugger bitch and make traps. Too slow you will get buckshot to death.

    Burrower: I dont play dont have any advice

    Hivelord: Hivelord is a garbage melee fighter. You can have speed when on weeds because of resin walker so basically never fight off weeds. Act like a drone basically.

    Lurker: Lurkers are the best xeno fighter in the game if you get robust. You can frontline somewhat with them but you cant be the only one doing it or you will get focused and killed because you arent tanky. When im frontlining as lurker I do it by stealthing so people dont see me and I wait for someone else to engage. Especially in like 2on2 situations you wait for a spitter or warrior or another lurker to stun someone and you stun the other guy. You can meme groups of marines this way with a good partner because marines are fucking stupid and will keep coming in 1 by 1 to help the idiots you keep killing 1 by 1. Basically as a lurker your pounce is your initiation. Your mortal enemy is the PB buckshot. Like I said earlier you get stunned after pouncing someone so you are wide open to get buckshot. Dont do that. You can fight up close without pouncing by circling the retard you are fighting. Keep the idiot between you and the other idiot trying to shoot you so he cant hit you. Just keep slashing him until he goes down then go after idiot #2. This changes if you are against a smartgunner or carbine user with iff scope. Target them and do the circle thing while the other idiot cant shoot through them. Dont melee fight shotguns ever. You can pounce them but dont melee fight them. Anyone who is not using a shotgun and doesnt have good aim is easy to melee fight as a lurker, just keep moving so they cant aim, and keep slashing them. If they can aim be careful cause 2 bursts can fuck you up pretty hard. Lurker is all about outsmarting your opponent with use of stealth (By the way make a macro for this it is toggle-move-intent I have it set to F key) knowing when and when not to fight, and knowing who not to fight. If you see a snowflake without a helmet switch to targeting head and decap them. Lately I have been targeting arms as a lurker because chest armor is fucking op as shit with how often it completely negates your damage. Groin is a good spot too but it takes forever to straight kill them targeting groin. Always take offweed healing strain until they put in something new.

    Warrior: Ok im gonna preface this by saying im not a great warrior or anything but this is how I play warrior. I dont use lunge ever because like I said earlier I am not good at clicking. I will miss and it will go on cooldown 90% of the time. When I want to "lunge" someone I just set grab intent and walk up and grab them. It will stun them just like lunge but you dont jump across the screen. Warriors are the true front liners because they are pretty tanky. This excludes young warriors. Young warriors are complete fucking garbage because even in agiltiy mode they can not outrun a marine. Dont do anything as a warrior until you are mature. So basically how I play warrior is I run around punching/slashing people until I see an opportunity to grab someone. You dont want to grab someone in a group of marines with no support cause you are too slow to get away while dragging a marine. If the marine is 1v1 like a retard just grab him. Then switch hands (X button) and beat him to death cause hes an idiot. If you do grab someone and marines are coming punch them and it will send them flying breaking your hold so you can run away. Punch is like headbutt it goes through armor, so use it to punch b18/pred/pyro/heavy armor marines. I dont use fling either cause I suck at warrior. This is why if you play like me I would suggest always going the puncher strain. Makes your punch better and you just grab and punch people if you are like me so theres no downside at all.

    Spitter/Sentinel: Just neuro then beat them to death nothing much to it.

    Praetorian: Praetorian is like spitter and sentinel with neuro being your main way you are gonna fight people up close. However the reason I consider praetorian a melee fighter is because you are pretty fucking tanky so you can actually go in up close and slash people while stunning other people. This is why I consider the praetorian to be the best xeno in the game. Just fight like you would as a lurker move around so you arent a sitting target, get the guy you are fighting between you and others trying to fight you. You can also use acid spit up close while slashing and do a shitton of damage to people. Acid spit ignores armor just like punch/headbutt you know the drill by now fuck up the b18/pred/pyro/heavy armor marines with it up close. Prae also has pheromones you can use to make yourself and others stronger while in the front line. You will also generally be a leader which gives you queen warding making you even tankier. Basically play like a big ass lurker that stuns people through neuro instead of pounce.

    Crusher: You dont have much melee ability but you are tanky. You wont want to fight in the middle of a group you want to be on the edge fighting 1 guy because you cant run fast. You can fight 2 different ways. By slashing people and dancing around lurker style, or by trying to disarm someone. Once you disarm them you get ontop of thme and use your stomp then slash them up. Crusher is mortal enemies with PB buckshot just like a lurker. It goes through you armor and fucks you up and slow to run away so they can chase you and murder you. As crusher you will want to make sure no one is trapping you because marines will body block you and you will die. Dont let them surround you ever.

    Ravager: I will preface this by saying Ravagers are fucking garbage. Especially at young they dont even do damage. Ravager damage is almost doubled when you mature. Never fight as young. If you can get to elder then they get decent. They are one of the worst xenos in the game after removal of stat buffing mutators and the nerf to delimbing. To delimb you now have to have damage on the limb you are targeting. So you have to hit them once before you even have a delimb chance. This dont work well for ravagers because you are gonna want to hit and run. Ravager is squishier than a lurker. They literally have no armor and basically no hit points. You are not as fast as other castes so you will get shot up trying to run away. Basically just pounce them (I take longer pounce strain) and then maybe slash them a couple of times then GTFO. You are super at risk against RPG because he doesnt even have to hit you to stun you long enough to get cucked by every other marine in the area since you have no hitpoints. Your strength is you are immune to fire. See that asshole pyro blue flaming all your buddies? Pounce his ass and cut his arm off. Most people target limbs as ravager to delimb people. May not matter as much since delimb nerf. Lurkers are straight up better than ravagers.

    Queen: You play like a slower praetorian. You also have screech to knock people down. Tell all the xenos to follow you when you screech or else every marine will charge you.

  5. #5
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    In order to become good at melee combat you need to play as a runner or PFC. You need to master fast paced combat.
    Nothing else.



    Keep trying, you'll improve eventually.
    And it will feel hella satisfying and rewarding when you do.

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    You need to build a kind of byond muscle memory to beno decently and you need to undrrstand the flow of combat. I recommend going sentinel first and when you are grown up andthe hive is under control go to the frontline (dont do this if there are hosts and you are the only sent).

    Once there just spit at ungas and try to get a slash in or drag them. Take care not to block the bigger zenoes. A well timed spit can result in an easy capture or cool stuff like spitting at an unga holding a primed nade.

    Runner is good to learn when to engage and when not to - try running through small groups of marines real fast and there's a c high chance they will buckshot each other. When harassing always periodically turn light off and take advantage of it, learn vent layouts so you can identify weak spots with few marines. Try to have an escape route when engaging in memery

  7. #7
    Senior Member SirMandrake's Avatar
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    Everything above but I would just add that mouse sensitivity is really important in cm, especially for frontlining. I usually have high sensitivity in other games but I lower a bit when playing cm. That's just my personal preference and others disagree I'm sure, but you find what works for you. Also to emphasise what master shake said above, clicking faster in cm does not equate to hitting more often/quickly. Precise clicking is much better, and I found fist fighting as a pfc was the best practice (mps will prolly arrest you though).
    Goosen Dagen-casual marine

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    Ahhhh, thank you guys for your replies, I'm going take a lot of what ya'll said into heart. I also understand that most of this boils down to practicing however it helps reading peoples methods on gittin' gud.

    Warrior: Ok im gonna preface this by saying im not a great warrior or anything but this is how I play warrior. I dont use lunge ever because like I said earlier I am not good at clicking. I will miss and it will go on cooldown 90% of the time. When I want to "lunge" someone I just set grab intent and walk up and grab them. It will stun them just like lunge but you dont jump across the screen. Warriors are the true front liners because they are pretty tanky. This excludes young warriors. Young warriors are complete fucking garbage because even in agiltiy mode they can not outrun a marine. Dont do anything as a warrior until you are mature. So basically how I play warrior is I run around punching/slashing people until I see an opportunity to grab someone. You dont want to grab someone in a group of marines with no support cause you are too slow to get away while dragging a marine. If the marine is 1v1 like a retard just grab him. Then switch hands (X button) and beat him to death cause hes an idiot. If you do grab someone and marines are coming punch them and it will send them flying breaking your hold so you can run away. Punch is like headbutt it goes through armor, so use it to punch b18/pred/pyro/heavy armor marines. I dont use fling either cause I suck at warrior. This is why if you play like me I would suggest always going the puncher strain. Makes your punch better and you just grab and punch people if you are like me so theres no downside at all.
    That's one of the things I need to work on is maneuvering through the hotkeys, it's almost like playing twister on the keyboard and in the heat of the moment I can fuck up something simple as switching hands.
    Last edited by GenocideCrusader; 03-22-2019 at 10:55 PM.

  9. #9
    Whitelisted Captain ScreamingIdiot's Avatar
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    Thing about xenos is that they don't get macros. You just gotta get good at hand-eye coordination and positioning. Always be aware of where your backup and opposition are, and play into the strengths of your fellow xenos: when a boiler gas is incoming, try to delay a retreat by using acid as a Spitter or knocking down PFCs as a Warrior, Defender, or any other frontliner caste.

    If it's any encouragement, there's little that's more satisfying when you get to clown on a squad of marines by breaking their bones and throwing them into explosives and fire as a Warrior, beyond being able to 1v1 specs and SGs easily.

    As for Runner, the third caste with a high skill ceiling besides lurker, abuse the shit out of marines being uncoordinated especially those who spam 'nades or harass slower xenos with cuckshots and fire. Again, nothing is more satisfying than pouncing someone who primed a HEFA and watching it wipe half their squad. Oh, and absolutely take advantage of vulnerable PFCs such as medics in unprotected triage areas or engies without backup.


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  10. #10
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    deal with trying to 1v1 lone marines far from anyone else til you get the better of them (wounding them + getting away counts as getting the better of them, if you cant manage a kill) most of the time as lurker and some of the time as runner

    then try the frontlines
    just recognize the fact that you'll die a lot, it happens to the best of us
    it happens to the t1/2 because they're weak, and it happens to the t3/queen because they get targeted more

    CONTROL YOUR BLOODLUST - people tend to get cockier after doing a lot of damage and start to take more risks with their health and positioning, usually leads to big dead, try to heal all the way after every engagement (there are exceptions to this, like following the queen when she screeches, but for new people its a good guideline)

    you can also play as crusher, since they don't really rely on click based actions, merely good positioning and you can still damage marines tons running them over, disarm/harm/grab is nearly irrelevant to them (don't try to disarm a marine to stomp them unless you absolutely have to) and if you're near water don't be afraid of fire

    dont use hotkeys or macros
    at all
    learn 2 love your mouse

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