My apologies if this has already been discussed, I’ve searched this monster of a thread a couple times and didn’t come up anything, but I’m not confident I didn’t miss something.
Anybody have tips on how to play as the tank? I tend to suck when I’m the tank, and get accurately ridiculed by the other players. The damn survivors can always outrun me!
Tank Basics
Warning: annoying techno music in that video… It covers some basic tank strategies, though.
There are probably better tips than this but I’ll toss a few out:
Do not feel like you must rush the Survivors. While there is a time limit on how long you can go without smacking someone it does give you some leeway. Take some time if you need it to assess the situation and find a good place to get the survivors.
Remember that you can throw rocks (secondary attack, can be done from anywhere). If someone is staying ahead of you toss a rock at them. Personally though I have found people are pretty good at dodging rocks but it can be useful in some situations…especially down a hall where they cannot dodge.
You can knock things around. Is a Survivor running in circles around a car? Bash the car into him.
Work your target into corners. If they are running backwards they cannot see where they are going. Adjust your angles to maneuver them into an obstacle so you can catch them. If they are flat out running away from you (and at full health) forget it…you won’t catch them (although maybe a good time to throw something at them since they will not see it coming).
Along with the above opt to run down people who are in a confined area. Easier to get them. People out in the open are tough.
Avoid autoshotty groups like the plague. Learned this one the hard way. I (tank) turned down a hall to see three Survivors with their backs to a wall. I figure “Great! Easy meat!” and rush them. I did not touch a one. Going maybe 20 “feet” down the hall they were able to kill me (maybe in 3 seconds…was really fast). That was an eye opener. Throw stuff at them or just stay away.
Scatter the Survivors. Remember to pay attention to your teammates. Unfortunately a lot of newer players just figure to watch the tank do its thing. Encourage them to get in there. A killer tank attack has the other Infected doing their thing too. If you cannot smack the Survivors work on scattering them so they are easy pickings for the rest. Either they will die or attempt to save their teammates. When they go to save the other guys go smack them (or smack the guy getting up from a Hunter pounce or whatever). Remember that people who have been Boomered do not see well. Pretty easy to get them usually.
Hope that helps.
Maybe this has been asked and answered but I can’t be arsed to read through the whole thread (if it has just point me to it).
I keep seeing people claiming 20 and 30 point Hunter pounces. So far I think the best I have done is 8.
I realize you need to jump from high places but even when I find the highest spot possible (like the top of the warehouse in NM3 to those on the ground) I get like 6 point pounces.
What am I missing?
From the discussion on the L4D forums, I take it that you may need to jump up first - people get on a building, face upwards, pounce, turn to look down, and land on someone. You can also pounce and ricochet off walls and build up momentum for a high point pounce. I personally can’t do it yet. There’s a guy on the Steam forum offering classes, though.
Aim above the survivors when making your pounce.
So I got to be the Tank last night.
It was at the very end of NM3. Somehow, not sure how, I managed to drop three of the four Survivors in the room where the Safe Room door was. The fourth person went in the Safe Room and shut the door so was “safe”. By the that time though the Tank was pretty beat up and it was apparent the guys on the ground shooting pistols would kill me so I back out.
Of course the Safe Room guy comes out to revive and I run back in and they re-Safe Room. I run back out. Do that again and this time they kill me (Tank).
Where are my teammates? No clue…having fun watching I guess (they were there and active…just not attacking despite my telling them to get in there). I actually manage a re-spawn as a Hunter and attack but by this time the last guy is being revived and they easily kill me quickly.
All four make it in the Safe Room. :rolleyes:
I rarely give up on any groups but I did on that one. Went from winning with some style (last possible moment) to complete loss.
Loads of good advice already. Let me just add this:
Hitting an object such as a car into a Survivor incapacitates them instantly. Do this whenever possible. Just run up to the car and punch.
Don’t try to actually kill anyone yourself. The Tank is great at putting people down, but not so hot at finishing them off. When you’ve put someone on the ground, leave them there and move on to the next Survivor. Don’t attack a person on the ground, you won’t live long enough to do enough damage to make it worthwhile.
That being said, if you simply must do some killin’ as the Tank, your best chance will probably be on rooftops, such as the finale of No Mercy. I got to do this as the Tank on Sunday night; herded a lone Survivor into a corner near the edge, and smacked him a good one. Over the side and down, thirty story fall, splat. I actually did it twice in the same life, but I didn’t get the first one close enough to the edge, and he grabbed on rather than falling. I didn’t notice that he was still hanging on, and the others pulled him back up while I was knocking the second one off.
It’s based solely on your distance from your target when you pounce. The further you are when you pounce, the greater your damage to a maximum of 25. Chaining jumps together doesn’t help. Starting high up is the easiest way to get the distance, but vertical distance is only one aspect.
Jumping from the top of a building on to a survivor at the base of the building won’t do nearly as much damage as jumping on to a survivor away from the building.
Are you sure they didn’t just die recently and haven’t had a chance to respawn yet? Another reason I hate playing as infected is because it’s a long respawn time…20 to 30 seconds at times.
Considering I chased three people and bashed each one a few times to put them down then ran in and out of the room a few times trying to get the last guy then died as Tank and respawned myself and took one more shot at them I’d say yeah, pretty sure they had a chance to respawn.
Listen to the points above, and then I offer the following:
Tank advice #1:
Avoid Fire. It’s easy for them to throw cocktails and run, especially when they’re green and can outrun you. You’re better off waiting it out or going around most of the time.
Tank advice #2:
Don’t rush in, even if they don’t have fire. Plan things out. The frustration meter makes you feel like you need to rush forward. But hold up and get things planned first. If the rest of your team is dead, you can give them 15 seconds or so to spawn and set up. Especially if you can get a boomer to get 1 or 2 of them down, it’s very useful for the tank.
Tank advice #3:
Just because you CAN hit them, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. If a hunter or smoker has someone tied up, leave them alone. A hit from you will kill your infected buddy, and probably not do enough to incapacitate the target. If you have to, use them as bait to lure green survivors closer.
Tank advice #4:
If they’re green, don’t bother. The tank moves slower than a green person. Don’t bother chasing them around for any significant amount of time. You’re better off targetting someone else, or waiting for your infected buddies to slow the green ones down with a horde or a few slashes. Generally all focus is on the tank and that is the best time for the others to attack. Plus the tank music disguises the boomer gurgle somewhat.
That’s more or less it. At least that I can think of.
Thanks for all the tank advice folks!
I got a 23 pounce the other day. I went on top of the house in the finale of Blood Harvest and pounced from there. I also had good luck from the roof top in No Mercy maps.
This is all Mutton Time’s fault.
update has been released! Featured News - Steam News Hub
A lot of the fixes discussed here have been incorporated to boot. XBOX users will have to wait a few weeks though.
There’s nothing in there about versus dead air/death tool. WTF?
9PM eastern is the ideal time to launch a big patch to one of your most popular games, apparently.
yep 
Guess they’re still working on it.
Yeah, that’s the only thing that I’m kinda upset about with this patch - other than that, they’ve fixed a lot of major balance issues. I wish they’d done small patches along the way, but one huge one works just as well.
While they didn’t go about everything in the manner we’d hoped, they seem to have addressed most of the issues.
Seems like smokers got a huge boost in lethality, and the tank is more immune to autoshotties - which means I’m probably going to start using the rifle more often.
*Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route
This is going to make the witch a bit more of a problem for survivors. Granted, T2 weapons can still pretty well annihilate her.
Anyway, Steam’s back online. Get back on everyone, we can have ourselves a proper versus match!
"Survivor’s cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging "
Is that going to be a closet camp breaker, if you get the right angle?
If there’s no versus dead air/death toll then this patch is a major dissapointment. It was by far the number 1 issue for me… I would trade every change they made for having those 2 campaigns available to versus. It took them 2 months and they haven’t completed a few modified maps?
Edit: Still can’t get on steam.