No respect for Boiler?

[Marcus Jackson]

I play xeno a lot, more than I play marine SL usually, and while I normally play Drone I do have this tender love for Spitter and Boiler... but it seems that Boiler has recently been relegated to the "Well I guess we could have 1." category of T3's. While Crusher is good for mines and bullet blocking for everyone, and the Ravagers and Hive-lords can induce pants-shitting the moment you slip up, I feel like aside from Prae (which is almost entirely support) Boiler is treated as more of a liability than anything else.

Fact of the matter is the Boiler should be the biggest part of a hive-defense, or a FOB-assault simply because you can either put a whole squad to sleep, or melt them down to the bone while also obscuring muhreen vision.

The only disadvantage I can think of is that Boilers need either 1 Crusher, or a small posse of Spitters to act as security... and even then having at least 2 Boilers alternating their fire should crush most enemy opposition in it's cradle, but do let me know what y'all think.

[Karmac]

The problem is competent boilers are almost non-existant.

[CrimsonAerospace]

The Boiler glows in the dark, which makes it spaghetti for sniper fire, or even a dillhole with a scope on a revolver or pulse rifle.

I personally love playing Boiler and consider myself one of the few decent ones.

[Marcus Jackson]

The problem is competent boilers are almost non-existant.

If someone doesn't know how the basics of Boiler works then how do they survive day-to-day RL? It's not a hard class either, stand a certain distance away, look far off while picking some poor bastard to drop a glob on (preferably Spec or SL), and then fire.

I just think that Boiler should be a more wanted/used T3, considering that when I've played SL half the time my problems aren't Queens, Ravagers, Crushers, or even Preds challenging me and my Spec to a duel... it's those god damn Boiler globs melting guns, ammo, and people into nothingness.

[CrimsonAerospace]

If someone doesn't know how the basics of Boiler works then how do they survive day-to-day RL? It's not a hard class either, stand a certain distance away, look far off while picking some poor bastard to drop a glob on (preferably Spec or SL), and then fire.

It's not.../hard/ per say, but it isn't the norm of a Xeno class. You move slow, you glow in the dark, you're almost entirely unarmored, and you look like a giant green toad. And it does have a bit of a learning curve to it. It's not your standard "Aim-n-spit" alien class, you have to get into a good position, you have to figure out where to aim, how to get it over shit, all that. AND, you have to deal with range. While it doesn't always often happen, sometimes you come up against a Marine with a sniper, or a marine with a scoped rifle, and if you don't position yourself well, your shit-tier armor rating is only going to keep you alive a good five-ish seconds.

[Marcus Jackson]

It's not.../hard/ per say, but it isn't the norm of a Xeno class. You move slow, you glow in the dark, you're almost entirely unarmored, and you look like a giant green toad. And it does have a bit of a learning curve to it. It's not your standard "Aim-n-spit" alien class, you have to get into a good position, you have to figure out where to aim, how to get it over shit, all that. AND, you have to deal with range. While it doesn't always often happen, sometimes you come up against a Marine with a sniper, or a marine with a scoped rifle, and if you don't position yourself well, your shit-tier armor rating is only going to keep you alive a good five-ish seconds.

True, but good snipers, and even just sniper in general are a rarity, and you should have a posse for such things anyway.

[CrimsonAerospace]

True, but good snipers, and even just sniper in general are a rarity, and you should have a posse for such things anyway.

Oh yeah, it is a bit rare, but the second marines see that glob of acid falling into their FoB, they're screeching for the nearest person with a scoped weapon to help. And you posse too, can only take so many bullets.

[Marcus Jackson]

Oh yeah, it is a bit rare, but the second marines see that glob of acid falling into their FoB, they're screeching for the nearest person with a scoped weapon to help. And you posse too, can only take so many bullets.

Yeah, but the point of the posse is to harass specific marines with either scopes or SADAR long enough for you to get a shot, the marine dies, or the marine pulls back.

[Crab_Spider]

Don't mistake boilers for Praetorians. Everyone wants them in a Hive as they're very useful (in terms of strategy, other than that, they're not getting anywhere if they get zerg rushed. They're weak and if you bet in CQC range with them and you have a shotgun, 2 shots at point blank will put them down.

[Marcus Jackson]

Don't mistake boilers for Praetorians. Everyone wants them in a Hive as they're very useful (in terms of strategy, other than that, they're not getting anywhere if they get zerg rushed. They're weak and if you bet in CQC range with them and you have a shotgun, 2 shots at point blank will put them down.

Praes have their place as support for the Queen (not very great support but whatever), but recently I've seen the described attitude for Boilers, where the hive has only 1 boiler but the rest of the T3 roster is Ravagers and Crushers.

[Redikalzip]

Don't like gas boilers. He ignites.

[Marcus Jackson]

Don't like gas boilers. He ignites.

lol

[Redikalzip]

Ignites even when you're not in boiler-gas.

[Renomaki]

From my experience, a hive isn't a hive without at least one boiler.

Then again, when I go queen, I want at least 1 of every type of xeno possible to ensure maximum balance and flexibility. Other queens have their own ideal swarm, however. Hell, some queens prefer to spam a certain caste (such as boilers or crushers), while others don't give a crap about what her children evolve into (which can result in some... Strange hives).

[Casgair]

Good Boilers need little support aside from the runner/hunter caste that is already or will be harassing marines. Aside from getting used to shooting the diagonal / using cover to your advantage, make the best use of your long range sight (and be aware while you have a better 360° view of your surroundings, you don't see as far down range as a rifle scope), TOGGLE DARKVISION from time to time so you don't get snuck up on/end up walking into a death trap, and be prepared to move to safer territory as soon as you fire off a shot in a semi-hot zone.

Also, don't be shy about using your corrosive acid (hotkey that shit and right click only when absolutely necessary, as you'll lag on right clicks) to get rid of barriers that keep you from giving the marines the ol' dutch oven.

Two more things: You're in a better position than most to relay information about the battlefield, do so when able. Also, don't be shy about Transfer-Plasma to drones that are building (and try to convince them to keep your lanes open enough to actually hit anything).

[Butterrobber202]

Boilers have to have pretty good support. A decent way to go about it is to Blmbard then have Crushers rush into the cloud and get as many marines as they can

[Casany]

Ima just gonna remind all future boilers to remember to turn your lethal gas on. So many times a boiler has gotten a good shot and it's on neuro

[Dilithium]

I feel as if Boiler is a much more popular choice on Ice due to the size of the FB that's usually bolstered by the Marines (The Hanger). It's a wide open space with a lot of room to fire into as a boiler and few obstacles, which is a far cry from the Nexus in LV-624 which seems pretty hard to fire into as Boiler without hitting some sort of blockage or something. Different Xenomorphs show different levels of viability on different maps, and I think the choices of xenos picked is showing that.

[Steven Sneider]

imo a boiler is decent on mature and later.
Even the vomit on close range will fuck a marine hard.

[Crab_Spider]

imo a boiler is decent on mature and later.
Even the vomit on close range will fuck a marine hard.

That vomit does nothing but make me run at it, boilers only advantage are their gas clouds, but that takes way too long to charge and the moment anyone with a sniper shows up, their very presence fucks the others over. I don't mind having 2 boilers around in a Hive, but they're too predictable, like someone who packs only buckshot.

[Steven Sneider]

From my experience the vomit has saved me a lot from situations were marines would just kill me. One situation I remember is when PMC's were closing on us from the flank and even while they could easily kill me they got hit by the vomit and went to crit. I do believe that young and maybe mature vomit sucks but elite and ancient, its devastating.