L4D2 Witches.

[grimsprice]

So has anyone else noticed that the witches are now the second most harmless Special Infected in L4D2?

I've taken to killing them every opportunity i can. And i have about an 85% success rate. The only thing i fear less is boomers. Have you seen how many zombies a boomer summons with a puke? About 20. Woopty fuckidy doo. I think the Specials are extremely unbalanced now. Vavle needs to fix it in a patch.

Have you noticed this? Or do you still pucker up when you hear her whining?

EDIT: Let me clarify, as some people have mentioned how useful the boomer is in versus and expert mode. I play L4D2 on normal or advanced with friends over xbox live. I don't play versus much, if at all. And i'm not suicidal enough to play realism, or expert. Thats just masochistic.

 

[Jamienra]

they are now the best infected in the game. i didnt tell him they could walk so he went past it. he went up some stairs and it got up and followed him. hilarity ensued.

And Realism mode the witches MUST be avoided

 

[Lolth17]

I don't know if they're any more or less harmless, but they're definitely a lot less scary in L4D2. I don't cringe every time I hear them crying anymore. They also seem much harder to 'startle' now.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Heh, I always shoot them and they are dead by the time they stand up not too much of a threat unless an AI teammate shoots them.

 

[twcblaze]

I'd say in the offline campaign or split screen with my roomie, I can completely agree with you there, but when I'm playing online, I tend to assume with good reason that the other people I'm playing with are dipshits, and they tend to not disappoint when it comes to witches... 90% of the time someone'll aggro her at the worst possible time and get screwed up.

 

[martin's a madman]

Jockeys are rigged, spitters are rigged, witches aren't murderous, Boomers WILL KILL YOU ON EXPERT. Hunters are the same, smokers are the same, both deadly, and Charger is sort of cheap. Tank murders you.

 

[Internet Kraken]

How can you not fear Boomers? Sure, in campaign they usually suck because their AI is broken, but in versus they will fuck you up. And it's not just because of the zombies; a good boom will blind most of the survivors, opening them up to attack from the other SI (like, the Spitter).

And Witches were never a threat provided you had someone who knew how the cr0wn them. Valve hasn't really fixed this, though they can ruin everything as the wandering witch can wander into a horde, causing you to accidentally shoot her. But beyond that they're not much of a threat.

And I'd hardly say that the SI are unbalanced in L4D2. Used properly, they can easily obliterate the survivors.

And Realism mode the witches MUST be avoided

Witches should always be avoided. Unless someone knows how to cr0wn them. Then they are not a threat.

 

[Halfang]

SE in L4D2:

1: Tank
2: Witch
3: Smoker
4: Jockey
5: Charger
6: Hunter
7: Boomer
8: Spitter

From those:
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 incapacitate you straight away. That is more than half. Boomer has been nerfed, as well as hitbox for crowning the witch. Still, the ratio of infected-to-incap is very high. The damage ratio of the spitter is ENORMOUS, and the fact that she drops MORE acid when she dies is a timebomb for incapped survivors. The Jockey frees himself upon incapping, and it is very easy to total party kill the whole survivor team with a jockey and the proper ledge (that leaves the survivor hanging, and doesn't "use" all the special attack from the jockey. Plenty of those everywhere).

You tell me whether it is not balanced.

 

[Bagaloo]

I have to agree with the OP, I usually take every opportunity I can to harass the witch, even on Expert where one mistake will lead to death. *Edit* My favourite method for doing so has to be the chainsaw to the back. She does her whole "OH NOES U STARTLD ME" animation for a good few seconds before she tries to attack, which is plenty of time to shred her to bits with your gas powered zombie-raper.

I would disagree on the Boomer being the most useless though, he certainly has his uses. Blinding people and getting them attacked by zombies isn't too bad on the lower difficulty settings, but on expert it can destroy your group.

Jockeys are rigged, spitters are rigged, witches aren't murderous, Boomers WILL KILL YOU ON EXPERT. Hunters are the same, smokers are the same, both deadly, and Charger is sort of cheap. Tank murders you.

Could you clarify what you mean when you say spitters and jockeys are rigged?

 

[Internet Kraken]

Boomer has been nerfed,

Not true. Boomer has actually received a buff, as his explosion radius is now larger. However, a change has been made that in some situations is a nerf. When a Boomers vomit hits a survivor, the vomit will not pass through the survivor. So if a survivor is standing directly behind another one, you may not be able to hit both of them. Though if you are aware of this you can usually work around it.

 

[Discord]

I've had mixed feelings about the witches, on one hand I think there a little bit easier to kill (if you dont scare them at first) but on ther other hand there sometimes hard to see or find even when they wonder around a bit. I hear them (and the CREEPY music) but I don't see her until I found out she was following me or in a conrner somewhere. I have'nt played online yet but so far on single player the specials are alright.

 

[Halfang]

Boomer has been nerfed,

Not true. Boomer has actually received a buff, as his explosion radius is now larger. However, a change has been made that in some situations is a nerf. When a Boomers vomit hits a survivor, the vomit will not pass through the survivor. So if a survivor is standing directly behind another one, you may not be able to hit both of them. Though if you are aware of this you can usually work around it.

True. The explosion radius is now 3D: shooting a boomer directly above or below you will slime, whilst in L4D1 didn't happen, you had to be int he same plane as the boomer.

I meant nerfed in the sense that the trajectory of the bile has been modified in such way that I still haven't got the point of perfect-long-distance-all-around-bile

 

[martin's a madman]

-Snip

Of course I can my dear. On expert, a Jockey comes in with a ridiculous amount of health for its size and for some reason very powerful secondary attack. It is fast, small and jumps around constantly making it a harder target to hit than most infected. It jumps on you and downs you in a few seconds, depending on how alert your teammates are that is. The spitter, uber-ranged splash damage but thankfully she can be killed with one sniper round. Any tight formation gets destroyed by them. Making them terrible to deal with in a horde. Maybe rigged wasn't the best word, but they are overpowered. Specifically the Jockey.

 

[grimsprice]

I have to agree with the OP, I usually take every opportunity I can to harass the witch, even on Expert where one mistake will lead to death. *Edit* My favourite method for doing so has to be the chainsaw to the back. She does her whole "OH NOES U STARTLD ME" animation for a good few seconds before she tries to attack, which is plenty of time to shred her to bits with your gas powered zombie-raper.

I love using the chainsaw on witches. I tend to walk up to her and fire axe her in the head 3 or 4 times with adrenaline taken. Takes them down. You can get them hung on objects in the map, and can run backwards as fast as they run forward. The machine guns in the game do amazing damage to them, and with one or two people helping me i can usually have a lot of fun with them.

 

[Bagaloo]

-Snip

Of course I can my dear. On expert, a Jockey comes in with a ridiculous amount of health for its size and for some reason very powerful secondary attack. It is fast, small and jumps around constantly making it a harder target to hit than most infected. It jumps on you and downs you in a few seconds, depending on how alert your teammates are that is. The spitter, uber-ranged splash damage but thankfully she can be killed with one sniper round. Any tight formation gets destroyed by them. Making them terrible to deal with in a horde. Maybe rigged wasn't the best word, but they are overpowered. Specifically the Jockey.

Ah, thanks for that. I agree with some points about the Jockey; specifically that its got a stupid amount of health for its size, its too agile to hit properly and it has a ridiculously powerful secondary attack. However, as for its primary attack, whilst its annoying to be dragged off, and potentially fatal if its near any ledge, the Jockey does relatively little damage to the survivor whilst its riding them. Even on expert mode, it takes a good 15-20 second ride (from full hp) to down the survivor, if not longer.

The annoying part starts when it does down a survivor, and its primary leap is on its cooldown. Too many times has my party been wiped out because that damned midget went on a knee-clawing spree and took out everyone within 1-2 hits...

As for the spitter, its power is just a pay off for its vulnerabilty. Its goo does hurt a lot, but only if you stay in it for any length of time. Usually you can move out of it very quickly, and I believe it was said in the developers commentary that it starts of weaker, then builds up power as time goes on, so if you get out of it early it wont do you much harm. And its nice that it does less damage to a downed survivor, the stuff can drain you from 100 to 0 in about 5 seconds, if it worked at that strength while you were lying on the floor you would be dead in the blink of an eye.

 

[Internet Kraken]

-Snip

Of course I can my dear. On expert, a Jockey comes in with a ridiculous amount of health for its size and for some reason very powerful secondary attack. It is fast, small and jumps around constantly making it a harder target to hit than most infected. It jumps on you and downs you in a few seconds, depending on how alert your teammates are that is. The spitter, uber-ranged splash damage but thankfully she can be killed with one sniper round. Any tight formation gets destroyed by them. Making them terrible to deal with in a horde. Maybe rigged wasn't the best word, but they are overpowered. Specifically the Jockey.

Ah, thanks for that. I agree with some points about the Jockey; specifically that its got a stupid amount of health for its size, its too agile to hit properly and it has a ridiculously powerful secondary attack. However, as for its primary attack, whilst its annoying to be dragged off, and potentially fatal if its near any ledge, the Jockey does relatively little damage to the survivor whilst its riding them. Even on expert mode, it takes a good 15-20 second ride (from full hp) to down the survivor, if not longer.

The annoying part starts when it does down a survivor, and its primary leap is on its cooldown. Too many times has my party been wiped out because that damned midget went on a knee-clawing spree and took out everyone within 1-2 hits...

As for the spitter, its power is just a pay off for its vulnerabilty. Its goo does hurt a lot, but only if you stay in it for any length of time. Usually you can move out of it very quickly, and I believe it was said in the developers commentary that it starts of weaker, then builds up power as time goes on, so if you get out of it early it wont do you much harm. And its nice that it does less damage to a downed survivor, the stuff can drain you from 100 to 0 in about 5 seconds, if it worked at that strength while you were lying on the floor you would be dead in the blink of an eye.

Jockey has a high amount of health because he has to put himself at greater risk when attacking survivors. Plus when he jumps on a survivor he is a huge target and if his health was to low he would have much more difficulty riding survivors.The Jockey does low damage when riding a survivor to balance out his health and ability to ride a survivor away from the group. He's designed to maximize damage potential by guiding survivors into other infected and environmental hazards.

 

[AkJay]

So has anyone else noticed that the witches are now the second most harmless Special Infected in L4D2?

I've taken to killing them every opportunity i can. And i have about an 85% success rate. The only thing i fear less is boomers. Have you seen how many zombies a boomer summons with a puke? About 20. Woopty fuckidy doo. I think the Specials are extremely unbalanced now. Vavle needs to fix it in a patch.

Have you noticed this? Or do you still pucker up when you hear her whining?

EDIT: Let me clarify, as some people have mentioned how useful the boomer is in versus and expert mode. I play L4D2 on normal or advanced with friends over xbox live. I don't play versus much, if at all. And i'm not suicidal enough to play realism, or expert. Thats just masochistic.

You can't complain about how weak a special infected is if you play on normal all the time.
Witches in Expert must be handled with caution, they kill you in one hit.

 

[archvile93]

-Snip

Of course I can my dear. On expert, a Jockey comes in with a ridiculous amount of health for its size and for some reason very powerful secondary attack. It is fast, small and jumps around constantly making it a harder target to hit than most infected. It jumps on you and downs you in a few seconds, depending on how alert your teammates are that is. The spitter, uber-ranged splash damage but thankfully she can be killed with one sniper round. Any tight formation gets destroyed by them. Making them terrible to deal with in a horde. Maybe rigged wasn't the best word, but they are overpowered. Specifically the Jockey.

I disagree, now you can't just hide in a corner when things don't go your way. That was a flawless tactic in the original (except for tanks of course, although if you have enough guns it works just fine there too).

 

[Pegghead]

They probably did it to counter-act the extra special infected, uncommon common and improved AI director. It's still a pretty hard game at some points.

 

[ArchBlade]

The Witches are largely the same from what I've seen. Though, all the extra weapons and the addition of melee may have softened them up quite a bit. Hell, to take out a Witch, the easiest time I've had of it went like this.

1. Pick up combat shotgun.
2. Look in the general direction of the Witch.
3. Pull the right trigger really fast over and over again.

Doing that, she was down before the game even registered that I startled her. Usually though, when I'm playing with friends, we just circle her with melee weapons and then simultaneously converged and beat the living hell out of her. It works oddly well, though anyone can screw up and accidentally startle her.