becoming a gorge webmaster
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Gorges are the workhorse of the alien team, creating structures and healing teammates, and usually trying avoid combat. But their third ability, Web, can be used to supplement an alien assault or single handedly disarm a squad of heavily armored marines. A skillful gorge can turn the tide of a battle by disabling the enemy team, as well as making the alien bases and outposts much tougher to penetrate and destroy. Webs are also disorienting and demoralizing for the marines - the sight of a frenetic trapped marine as he sees a fade coming at him is one of the highlights of being a gorge.
Web is the third weapon slot for gorges. Webs have three effects on marines that touch them:
1. slows them down to crawling speed for five seconds
2. takes the weapon out of their hands for five seconds
3. makes a telltale "scrunch" sound giving away their position
The effects stack, so a marine touching three webs at once will be stuck for about 15 seconds, up to a maximum of sixteen webs in one area. A gorge can make about six webs quickly before he runs out of energy, or seven with level three adrenaline.
Once a marine touches a web filament, it disappears. Aliens are not affected by webs at all. A gorge will not have the web ability until the alien team has at least two complete hives.
Web is not like other weapons you shoot directly at an enemy. Instead, when you "attack" with web, you will shoot a green ball. The green ball itself will not harm enemies in any way; it's used as a "cursor" to "draw" the web. If you've used a drawing program like paintbrush, web works like the line tool. You target a surface (ceiling, floor, wall - any hard surface in the map) where you want the web (a single straight line) to begin, and then immediately aim and shoot at a second wall where you want the web to end. You can shoot at a third surface to make a second web from the endpoint of the first web to the new target, and so on. In the same way alien structures are limited to six of a specific type per area, you can only make sixteen webs in an area, and there is a map limit of 60 webs for the entire alien team. As the webs are destroyed by marines, you can make new ones, but there is no way for the alien team to destroy webs so place them wisely!
Web will only work between two map surfaces. You can't draw a web in midair, or on players, and the maximum length of a web is about 20 feet.
Use flashlight to see your webs
Sometimes in dark areas it's difficult to see where your webs are as you place them. Hit your flashlight key (default "F") to highlight them. Do not have flashlight on when creating the web though because there is a bug in NS that makes your webs invisible to you (but not to other players) if you had your flashlight on when you created them.
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Place webs in non-parallel lines
Don't fill a doorway with webs in a vertical line. This makes them easy for marines to see and remove. It's much better to place webs in non-parallel lines.
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Place webs on the floor
Webs can be placed flat by targeting spots on the floor. This makes them very difficult for marines to see, but works just as well as placing them at other heights. These images show how hard it is to see a web on the floor:
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Place webs strategically
Putting a web in an empty hallway will slow the marines down for a few seconds, but it's better to place webs where they can be attacked at the same time. Likewise, webs near a hive will only delay an attack, not prevent it. It's better to use webs to help your team kill marines. For example, in a very active hallway, get a skulk to cloak or hide nearby your web so he can kill any hapless marines as they get stuck. Or place offense chambers where they can attack the webbed location.
Personal defense
If you are in imminent danger of being attacked, with enough practice you can draw webs under your attacker's feet, giving you time to run away or keeping him there until backup can arrive and chew him up.
Support an attack
If you have the celerity upgrade (increasing your running speed) and can keep up with your Fades, their attack will be much more effective if you can quickly web enemies when the Fades start attacking. Even a marine in heavy armor with an HMG is helpless when webbed, Combine this with some quick healing by the gorge (weapon 2) and you have a three-player team that is unstoppable.
Use web's sound effect to detect stealthy marines
The aliens don't often sit around waiting to be attacked, but if you have to hide somewhere while saving up resources for a hive, throw a web at each entry to the room and you will have a six-second head start on a marine before he pops out from around a corner.
Stack the webs to paralyze and disable multiple marines
Many marines will walk into a single web filament without hesitation if they think they will only be out of action for a few seconds. But if you create sixteen web filaments on top of each other in a single line on the floor, the marines will be stuck for over a minute with no weapons or ability to move!
This marine stepped into 16 webs - he'll be stuck for over a minute!
Use welders to cut through webs
Welders are the only way to destroy a web without walking into it. If you suspect that an area has webs, have a person with a welder in front, burning them off instantaneously. The cutting range on the welder is about four feet, so you can cut webs on the floor without crouching.
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Use your flashlight
If you don't have a welder, your flashlight is the only way you can see webs in dark areas.