Praetorian

ALIEN- TIER 3
Praetorian	Evolves From: Warrior Evolves To: N/A Role: Depends heavily on the strain you choose. Front-line all-rounder combat is your main purpose. Guides: Guide to Pheromones

Playing a Praetorian

What a Praetorian does in combat is heavily dependent on the strain that you choose, though all strains are for front-line combat.

Base Praetorian - A good all-round combatant with potent spit, the powerful Acid Ball for an area-of-effect attack, and good melee damage. Your acid line spray makes for good cover for a retreat, as it stuns and knocks down anyone who walks into it.

Vanguard - You lead the charge, get in and out, and deal heavy burst damage. Use your dash to position yourself behind a small group of marines, then fling one away with your Cleave ability.

Dancer - The fastest and best damage dealer, you trade most of your tankiness for extreme speed and high single-target damage. Tag an enemy with one melee attack before using your abilities to deal extra damage to them. Use Dodge to escape from large groups trying to body block you, or charge in, get one solid hit, and get out.

Oppressor - Use your plethora of crowd control abilities to disrupt organize groups of marines and allow faster aliens to deal damage to them. Your abilities work best against groups, though they can be effective in 1 on 1 combat. Trapper Boilers, Ravagers, and Warriors are your best friends.

Warden - Play more like a Super Drone with your pheromones, powerful heals and shields, and your ability to remove stuns from other aliens. Never fight alone, as you can keep well over half a dozen aliens fighting at full capacity with your presence alone. Spit at marines from around corners to keep them low enough for other aliens to finish off, and switch your pheromones around as needed. Warden Praetorian does make for a potent front-line combatant when facing marines without enough burst damage to stop your self-heal. Remember to slash and spit often to keep your internal HP pool full.

Protect your sisters and the Queen, or lead them on the warpath at her command. When the Queen herself emerges to fight for the Hive, be by her side at all times—especially as a warden.

Abilities

Abilities:	Description:
Corrosive Acid	PASSIVE: Your acid-based abilities apply a stack of acid to your enemies. When a target reaches 5 stacks, they take 30 additional burn damage.
Rest	Used to rest and get up. Xenos heal faster when resting on weeds.
Regurgitate	To devour, grab a host with Ctrl + Click or Grab intent (3 in hotkey mode) then click yourself, standstill. To stop the host from getting up and running away, you can switch to an empty hand (X in hotkey mode) and keep tackling them using Disarm intent (2 in hotkey mode) when you are devouring them. Xenos with devoured humans inside them can not vent crawl but Xenos with devoured monkeys can. Hosts with boot knives can injure the Xenomorph they are inside if they are conscious. (Edit this template)
Corrosive Acid	Vomit a glob of acid on item to dissolve it. Multiple items can be clicked at once as long as you are standing still. The cost of plasma is increased compared to other castes due to how the praetorian has stronger corrosive acid. Costs 100 plasma.
Acid Spit	Spit acid onto your target. Grants 15 shield upon successful hit. Costs 25 Plasma, cooldown: 2 seconds.
Dash	Dash a short distance at a desired location of your choice. Costs 10 Plasma, cooldown: 5 seconds.
Acid Ball	Throw a ball of acid that explodes into acid spit in all directions. Costs 75 Plasma, cooldown: 18 seconds.
Spray Acid	Sprays a line of acid in a cardinal direction away from the Praetorian. The acid doesn't trip tall hosts but it applies a stack of corrosive acid on them. Costs 40 Plasma, cooldown: 12 seconds.
Tail Stab	Activating tail stab will begin a windup of one second, and upon conclusion, will enable you to launch a two tile attack that deals 1.2 times your maximum melee damage. It requires a direct click on the targets sprite, however, if it is missed, it only incurs a standard slash delay. Additionally, it will always hit the targeted limb. Unless otherwise stated, this is shared by all strains. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Attainable Strains

Strains:
Vanguard	Dancer	Oppressor	Warden

Vanguard

Abilities:	Description:
Warleader	PASSIVE: You are granted a shield that perfectly blocks one attack and rapidly decays after you're hit. The shield recharges while out of combat.
Pierce	Stab through your enemies with your tail against tall hosts with a 3 tile range. If you hit two people with your pierce, your shield is instantly recharged. This ability does a slight extra damage than normal slash. Costs 20 Plasma, cooldown: 4 seconds.
Dash	Charge through enemies with a range of 4 tiles. Upon stopping, activate again to do an AoE slash in a 3x3 tile range, otherwise the ability will activate automatically after a 3 second delay. Costs 10 Plasma, cooldown: 13 seconds.
Cleave	Root: Immobilises your target for 1 to 2.5 seconds in the ground, making them a sitting duck. Fling: Flings your target away from you, sending them flying backwards. Costs 0 Plasma, cooldown: 8 seconds.
Toggle Cleave Ability	Switches which cleave ability you will use.

Dancer

Abilities:	Description:
Finesse	PASSIVE: For a short time after slashing a marine, you have increased evasion. Hitting a marine with a slash applies a tag that can be used by your other abilities. Missing a click with your offensive abilities adds a short cooldown to tagging.
Impale	Impale a marine next to you with your tail for moderate damage. If they have been tagged, impale them twice. Costs 100 Plasma, cooldown: 13 seconds.
Dodge	Gain a speed boost upon activation and the ability to pass through mobs. Costs 100 Plasma, cooldown: 20 seconds.
Tail Trip	Target a marine within two tiles of you apply a daze to them and trip them. If they are tagged, knock them down instead. Costs 50 Plasma, cooldown: 13 seconds.

Oppressor

Costs 50 Plasma, cooldown: 15 seconds.

Abilities:	Description:
Smackdown	PASSIVE: Your slashes deal additional damage to prone/knock targets.
Abduct	Drags your enemy in front of you and slows them after a slight delay. Works on multiple targets, and against static emplacements such as the M56D or M2C. Does not work on downed and stunned targets, or targets that have a ledge between you and them. Landing this ability on: 1 person will drag them in front of you and slow them. 2 people will drag them in front of you, slow them, daze them and briefly root them (2.5 seconds). 3 or more people will drag them in front of you, slow them and briefly stun them (1.3 seconds). Costs 50 Plasma, cooldown: 15 seconds.
Dislocate	A powerful punch, similar to the warrior's punch. Deals 20 armor piercing damage, 40 if your enemy is slowed. Will also root slowed targets. Reduces other ability cooldowns by 5 seconds. Costs 50 Plasma, cooldown: 12 seconds.
Tail Lash	Knock marines back in a 2x3 area in front of you and slow them. Take note that this ability has a wind up. Costs 80 plasma, cooldown: 13 seconds.
Tail Seize	The Oppressor has a unique tail stab, instead called Tail Seize. Rather than taking 1 second to charge, it will instead take 0.5 seconds, and has a range of 3 tiles - however, it deals no damage, instead pulling the target in towards you and slowing them for 0.5 seconds upon their arrival. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

Warden

Abilities:	Description:
Bulwark	PASSIVE: You gain a buffer of health built by your slashes and spits that you can use to defend yourself or your allies. Your stored health will automatically be spent to self-heal or when you heal others at 50% efficiency. Additionally, you gain the ability to emit pheromones.
Emit Pheromones	Emit one of the three Pheromones. It is advised to emit the pheromone that are not already being emitted, as pheromones don't stack. Costs 30 plasma to emit and then drains plasma while active.
Xeno Spit	Use middle mouse button to spit globs of acid against your foes. Cooldown: 2.5 seconds.
Spray Acid	Sprays a line of acid in a cardinal direction away from the Praetorian. Costs 40 Plasma, cooldown: 8 seconds.
Aid Xenomorph	Target an ally to aid them, depending on the type of aid you've selected. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Aid Types: Protection Aid Types: Heal Heals the targeted ally. Costs 75 Plasma and 100 Internal Health Reserves. Cure Eliminates all negative status effects except fire on an ally. Costs 75 Plasma and 100 Internal Health Reserves.
Retrieve	Enables you to use your ability on a xenomorph to pull them towards you, if they are resting or are incapacitated. Costs 100 Internal Health Reserves.

Pheromones

Pheromones scale based on what caste is emitting them, aka a Queen emitting pheromones will have a stronger pheromone effect then a Drone emitting them and as such the strongest will be used instead. If an Alien is injured, use recovery. Also use recovery to keep the pressure up if there's a skirmish. If there's a big push or fighting on grass, use Warding. Frenzy may be most useful during an attack, trying to contain escaped hosts, or moving around the map with high plasma. Note that same type pheromones do not stack but varied ones do. e.g. Recovery and Warding.

Take note that only Warden Strain Praetorians may emit Pheromones

Pheromone	Effect
Recovery	Increases health regeneration, increases plasma regeneration on weeds, reduces stun times of affected Xenomorphs.
Warding	Increases the needed critical damage for Xenos to die, and the damage taken by being in critical condition. Potent enough warding pheromones will completely negate bleed out.
Frenzy	Increases movement speed and damage from slashes. Slash damage may stack however the movement speed does not.

Praetorian Stats

Tier 16 Tier 15 Tier 14 Tier 13 Tier 12 Tier 11 Tier 10 Tier 9 Tier 8 Tier 7 Tier 6 Tier 5 Tier 4 Tier 3 Tier 2 Tier 1 Health Lower Melee Upper Melee Plasma Plasma Regeneration Armor Explosive Resistance Speed Evasion

You can learn more about alien stats here.