Re: L4d Tank Tactics

**Transcendant** · 01-07-2009, 04:27 PM

What should happen is that the tank coordinates with hunters/boomers to get a pounce or a horde on a downed survivor. Then the tank tries to stay near that downed survivor and protect the infected finishing him off; tanks can't really kill easily or quickly, but they can ensure their teammates do.

When the survivors are all holed up with autoshotties, it's best to just wait for your team to fully spawn in and coordinate your attack. While waiting, do as has been said; pound on some physics objects or zombies.

**WhiskeySix** · 01-07-2009, 04:34 PM

The only way I've seen any success is when a boomer goes kamikaze and the tank follows soon after. The boom disorients/blinds and the tank can at least get a few swipes in before dying.

**Lorax74** · 01-07-2009, 05:00 PM

The other night I got the tank and was able to alienate one person from the others so I proceeded to pound on her in an attempt to kill her before the 3 autoshotties could get me. Needless to say, someone said I should go and try to incapacitate the other survivors instead of killing just one, others chimed in that that was the thing to do so I stopped my pounding and went looking for the other survivors. Needless to say, they killed me and revived her. If memory serves, they all made it to the safe room and I couldn't help but wonder if going after the other survivors was the wrong thing to do.

**Sirusblk** · 01-07-2009, 05:08 PM

If you're in the red, might as well work on killing an incaped survivor than chasing down that last Auto-Shottie out in the open amiright?

I think you think yes...

**DrBeat** · 01-07-2009, 08:00 PM

Tank just needs to incap the survivors. Take a swipe or two, then move on. With normal mode, you need to get survivors down, and get the special infected bringing them down to zero.

**Celestial1** · 01-07-2009, 08:35 PM

when you don't have capable teammates picking up stragglers and downed, yes, kill the downed ones if applicable.

**Unload** · 01-07-2009, 10:11 PM

All tank tactics are quite situational. You should never run through a fire if you can avoid it, you only live for 30-40s. In addition to some already good tips and points, you can also use the tank to block fire from survivors trying to save their friends. Keep the survivor firing their gun between you and the survivor being mauled by your smoker and hunters. It is usually a good idea to kill one of the survivors that has been incapacitated by the tank with a hunter. If you have a runner with green health, the tank may not be able to catch them however, so it would be a good idea for the hunter to chase rather than kill an incap. Strategies for survivors holed up in a small room together with auto-shotties? Don't really have many effective ones. Try to get all the infected attacking together - Boom them, tank goes in, hunters go in and swipe or pounce. A tank will die from under 4 clips of an auto-shotty in my experience. Try your hardest to throw rocks at survivors holed up in small rooms. A smoker pull out the breakable wall while the tank is attacking on the final stage of BH works well too.

**Avs** · 01-08-2009, 08:06 PM

Use throw to stop someone from reviving a teammate at range.
Dont chase survivors you cant catch.
Don't give into peer pressure (GO TANK GO) when its obviously a bad situation
Don't attack survivors grouped up.
Tank is support, not a kill hunter.
Protect incapped survivors so teammates can finish them off.
Don't protect incapped survivors if this means you will take heavy damage.
Don't waste time hitting incapped survivors unless you really have nothing better to do (this includes hiding behind stuff).
Don't assume boomer + tank = win.

Survival is key, the longer the tank stays alive, the better it is for your team unless they are split up and you can pick them off one at a time. Never engage unless you are prepared to commit or you can deal "enough damage to make it worth it". This usually means at least 100+ damage (1 incap).

Fighting survivors in a closet: Use throw if you can, otherwise wind up your attack and tap the closest guy without entering the closet. Otherwise, dont engage.

Use objects to incap survivors immediately.

Think goalie, your job is to prevent movement, not go after the puck or do the work for your team.

In some cases leaving the tank to the AI is better than controlling the tank as a human.

Tank's best weapon is fear, since pro survivors will make short work of any tank left alone.

**Transcendant** · 01-08-2009, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by Avs

Think goalie, your job is to prevent movement, not go after the puck or do the work for your team.

Exactly. People panic when they see a tank. Someone may run for the saferoom, but most of them will try to find a spot to hold out. Unless they charge you or are weak/disrupted, don't rush your victory.

Originally Posted by Avs

In some cases leaving the tank to the AI is better than controlling the tank as a human.

But remember the AI tries to kill everyone it incaps, and never disengages. And, though it climbs, it doesn't always climb the right spots...

**Avs** · 01-08-2009, 08:42 PM

Actually in versus, the AI does not try and kill the person it incaps. Instead it will hit it once or twice before moving onto a new target if shot at (if left alone, it may kill the target but then theres no reason not to). The AI does not try to kill everyone it incaps. This function only applies to Coop mode, mainly as punishment in higher difficulty levels.

The problem with the AI, that was pointed out by Transcendent is:

1. It sometimes climbs the wrong spot (but hey, at least it can climb)
2. It can easily get tricked and confused (ie. making it climb up and down the same place)
3. Cannot dodge molotovs
4. Its throwing algorithm isn't better than a person with some practice
5. It locks onto a target far too often getting kited

And a lot of other things. The benefits is that it rarely misses a punch and that its auto-targeting for throwing makes up for human error. Also it primarily allows the infected players to get 4 people in so they can trade off losing the tank with more support and tactics using this method.

**Sirusblk** · 01-09-2009, 03:17 AM

Yah am I missing something? Is there a way for a player controlled tank to climb?

**Kebab-Kastike** · 01-09-2009, 08:11 AM

I've noticed that there are some un marked areas hunters can climb (some stone walls in blood harves campaing) but I haven't been climbing much as a tank. Maybe because you are suppose to be punching players heads in.

**Avs** · 01-09-2009, 03:08 PM

The computer infected tank has the same pathing abilities as a normal infected. Meaning, they can climb most objects regardless of type.

There are unmarked areas where infected can climb (such as a pipe). Survivors can also climb certain unmarked areas (not sure if this a bug).

Climbing is bad if you are playing a tank (in most situations). Any action that leaves you vulnerable (including chasing people) can potentially lead you to roll into a hailstorm of shotgun shells and other pointy objects. I know it would be cool to have the option (climbing up to use throw at a height advantage). Its just too bad that the "rage" meter runs out so fast to throw more than a few times.

I can think of a few ways climbing could be abused as well.

**Avs** · 01-09-2009, 06:04 PM

A good summary of tank tactics from the Steam forum:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=782694

**Sirusblk** · 01-10-2009, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by Avs

Climbing is bad if you are playing a tank (in most situations). Any action that leaves you vulnerable (including chasing people) can potentially lead you to roll into a hailstorm of shotgun shells and other pointy objects. I know it would be cool to have the option (climbing up to use throw at a height advantage). Its just too bad that the "rage" meter runs out so fast to throw more than a few times.

I can think of a few ways climbing could be abused as well.

I only ask because since you can't choose where you spawn, it'd be nice to get setup on a rooftop and hurl rocks on the survivors below. It'd be a lot more accurate than say on ground level where you have to rely on teammates to tell you how you've missed your mark.

Thread Tools

Display