Disclaimer - no shitposting please
So, lurkers. They have long lasting invisibility (30s) of 25 alpha with only a 15s cooldown, and they will only decloak before that timer is up when they attack someone or land a pounce. They have a flat 20% speed boost while invisible and by themselves are very fast, not runner level but still one of the fastest xenos nonetheless. Their slashes consistently do 35 damage and will as a result of this fracture a leg/foot fairly easily in three slashes or even delimb if they're lucky. They also have a 2-6 tackle which lets them solocap (with no counter other than avoiding the intial pounce) if they're lucky. The pounce itself has a ridiculously small cooldown at only 6s which means they can easily escape anything.
As it stands, it's hard to argue that the lurker is not one of if not the strongest t2. It will always win a 1v1 when it lands its pounce (which is easy). If it pounces a marine in a group, most of the time they will be able to dodge anything fired at them by simply running over the marine they pounced and using directional slash - because their pounce freeze is negated if they slash, effectively giving them zero freeze upon their pounce. This is coupled with their "crippling strike" ability that lets them ignore slash delay once, effectively giving a lurker who can set up a simple macro and press a keyboard button once a way to nigh-immediately slash you twice (the second time for extra damage) which gives them a pretty good chance of breaking your leg or foot. A lurker can pounce you right in the middle of a group of marines, slash you a few times, then run or pounce away. Unless a marine with a buckshot shotgun is standing directly next to you when you're pounced to PB and block the lurker, it will live, you will get fracs. And no lurker with half a brain will ever take that fight. Due to the changes to slugs you can't slug lurkers to disable their abilities anymore, meaning that unless they're bodyblocked (never gonna happen since the lurker won't take those fights or will just bring backup) or they're greedy, they will be able to escape and disengage every single time.
So we have laid out the groundwork : lurkers slaughter lone marines, lurkers break the bones of marines in groups and slaughter marines trying to save/help other marines that they have killed, lurkers can escape or disengage from any fight with ease, and can often kill entire squads/fobs if nobody's good with a shotgun. They camp directly outside of the LZ to rush the fob once the main force has left and kill bravos or get shipside and cause even more chaos.
A group of lurkers is even worse as they have no mechanics that work against them grouping up, which makes it even easier for them to take down large groups of marines and even entire fobs.
Common lurker defender arguments
"just group up" - the lurker can disengage so easily that even if it pounces you in a group of marines, nine times out of ten it will break one of your bones and get away. Unless you're in a group of people all with buckshot shotguns who can land their shots, have good ping, and are close enough to you when the lurker pounces it will not die. And yet again lurkers simply just won't take this fight.
"PB/slug it" - it can simply run away and disengage as slugs don't disable abilities anymore.
Since open source was released lurker has recieved NOTHING but buffs. (coupled with all the other xeno powercreep)
https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/colonial-w...e_requests/338 - lurker plasma cost lowered
https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/colonial-w...e_requests/352 - lurker health regen buffed
https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/colonial-w...e_requests/363 - pounce freeze removed, slashing upon pounce negating it
https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/colonial-w..._requests/1406 - lurker invisibility increased, partially reverting an MR that reduced it
https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/colonial-w..._requests/1416 - lurker invis always applies a speed boost (buffs lurker gangs)
closing statement: lurkers are hard and unfun to fight against due to their high level of unkillability (they can disengage from every fight with ease and if they think you pose a large threat to them they won't engage you in the first place), nerf lurkers