Originally Posted by Spyder

A coordinated, experienced team that sticks together without FF and effectively melee bashes will win versus mode on normal, no matter what the skill level of the infected players are.

Special infected (tank is an exception) have no real methods for forcing a straggler. Occasionally you get a good smoker pull in, but rarely does the person ever make it to you to take damage, and rarely can you pull him far enough away from his compatriots to be effective.

Hunters fare very badly against a good human player. I personally can punt a hunter somewhere in the range of 70% of the time when he's leaping for me, and I know people who are far better and more accurate than I am. Punted hunter = dead hunter. With good teammates the other 30% involves me taking at most 3 hits from him, which on normal is like 10% damage.

That leaves boomer bombs, which start a horde which on normal does almost no good. Why? Two reasons. Firstly it forces good human players to get their backs to the wall, crouch, and start bashing like mad. You may have noticed that as a hunter, leaping into a bash spam is pointless, because most of the time it'll punt you pretty easily. Same with smoker's tongue. If you manage to snag somebody, chances are they get bashed before moving 3 feet.

Second is that it cleans out the whole area of infected, which makes it easier to move as survivors.

The only thing a boomer does for you on normal is temporarily blinds anybody he hits, which would normally open the door for the other infect except?

A blind person's first reaction is to spam bash until they get their bearings. Which serves to negate the natural abilities of the other SI's.

So, tactics wise, that means that to be effective as infected you need to hit them all at the same time. Boomer them blind, then try to lash/pounce them when they can`t easily tell where each other are and help. Problem on normal is that humans have already found the counter to this.

Run. On normal there aren't enough normal infected to slow down a human group that decides to move fast. This plays merry hell on special infected, because the crazy rules for spawning most often means that you're spending half you spawn time just trying to get out in front. It also serves to string the infected players out, making hitting as a group harder.

Combine that with the fact that on normal Medpacks will spawn in just about every cabinet, and it really shouldn't be close. If it is, it's because of the survivors playing badly, not the infected playing well.

Advanced is harsh on new players because you really have to know the strategies, but it's a far more balanced and fun experience IMO.

Excellent post. You should put this on the L4D steam forums if you haven't already