Scavenge, you, and a spitter

[BigBiker05]

So I really started to love scavenge. But now I've got over 10 games under my belt and I've really found a huge annoyance.
Scavenge is very dependent on the spitter.

The problem is you can knock down 3 members of their team,t hey can recover. But if you knock down 3 members of their team, and spit 1 can... you can win it. That can will hurt those 3 guys and also light any other cans they dropped and drastically pinch them for time.

So keeping a spitter up at all time is very valuable. Bad players die often and spend most of their time watching a respawn timer.
Spitters need to know when to shoot, you don't shoot to prevent them from poring gas cans, you shoot to blow up gas cans.
I know it seems like a good idea to spit on a group of 4 people, but 6 seconds later they can then run in and pore the cans, however, if you blow one up, the fire last longer than a spit, and the fire can instantly blow up other cans while the spit takes a few seconds.

So if you plan to play scavenge, please for the love of your team mates and to win more games, learn how to be a good spitter.

Sincerely yours, the lovable biker.

[Araris]

Yeah while I'd generally agree in my experience Spitter is a bit overrated for Scavenge. I still think an experienced hunter, smoker, charger or jockey can be much more effective considering they can actually knock the cans out of their hands. Most teams I play with always hit the 10 seconds left timer about 7-8 cans in so at that point I'm not sure what use a Spitter is.

[The Spanish Inquisition]

Did not know spit blows up cans. Can spit blow up the cans that the survivors havent' touched? Because that seems unfair.

How long does it take for spit to blow up a can?

[Bronze Fox]

It's only cans that have been picked up, (With the yellow glow) and a can has to spend about two seconds in the spit itself to ignite.
After the fire is gone, and another five seconds has gone by, it respawns.
Of course a Spitter can also spit where they have to dump the fuel. Which will slow them down, cause damage, and maybe even incap someone.

[Plinko]

The problem is, the Spitter's goo recharges extraordinarily slowly - even moreso than the boomer bile, I think. If you want to suck up the Spitter slot for a minute while hiding, then go ahead, but I'd say you need to take the opportunity to do serious damage/incap/scatter the survivors when you can rather than wait wait for the perfect moment to blow the cans which may or may not come.

I mean, if it's there, obviously it's an awesome thing to do, but smart survivor teams are not going to toss all the cans down and leave them because they know a spitter could basically end the round with a well-placed shot. I prefer to either hit the generator right when they're about to pour (especially if they're engaged with commons), or work with a smoker or jockey to incap someone.

[l3eeron]

I'm with Plinko...


Blowing up gas can with the spitter is good, and can work really good with other infected knocking the cans out of their hands. But a decent team of survivors will be able to adjust and keep the cans out of the goo. I usually try to spit then rush in and die right next to the survivors to drop more goo. But, I'm still really new at this!

[TheCarpe]

I try to spit wherever they or the gas cans are, and then stand in front of the generator. The spit does it's magic, and my death goo keeps them from pouring. Win-win.

The spitter is very useful, but between spits if you hide for all that time you are, for all intents and purposes, a man down. Four survivors taking on three infected.

[Clay Pigeon]

What is the cooldown on spit, anyway?

[BigBiker05]

I wouldn't exactly call yourself a man down, without one person dieing it greatly reduces the respawn time of your other 3 survivors.
The plan isn't a solo spitter, its working with your other 3 team mates to get 3 cans down at once, then spit on those 3 cans. The result can be greatly catastrophic.
Not only are you incaping 3 people, but you create a huge fire that is likely going to do more damage than your spit would have done.
Also, the recharge time on the spitter is greatly shorter than the time it takes to die, and another person spawning as a spitter.

[Princess]

Spitter's recharge is significantly faster than Boomer's. For instance, if you spit and ignite a can, the spit should be back shortly after the fire goes away from the can.

Boomer takes a good deal longer. On the Boomer note, Boomer can also destroy cans if he stands directly on top of them. If he's nearby it'll still send them flying, which can often lead to a situation where they must simply kill the can themselves so it will respawn. The Swamp level is a good example of this - a lot of action happens near the generator, and there's a bush right behind it that launched gas cans from boomer deaths tend to end up on. It's so high up that Survivor's can't jump to get it, so they're forced to kill it and wait for respawn.

Also, I dissagree with Big Biker a bit. Spitting on a can isn't a OHKO for the team, or even the can. The ~3 seconds is ample, ample time to pick up the can and throw it out of the danger zone. Only if your team manages to busy them or they ignore cans does this get to go without a hitch. And, even if his scenario where you manage to make them drop all 3 cans (a rarity), those cans will never be in the same, localized area for one spit (unless you get extremely lucky or they're extremely bad), even with the extra fire radius. Meanwhile, spitting on the generator buys a solid ~6 seconds, which can often be enough to throw the game into overtime or let one of your allies respawn. During the first run on relatively safe levels (if you do ground first of Atrium or house with 2 cans in the Swamp), just stalling several seconds with the spitter in the beginning is sometimes the best thing you can do, since it makes Overtime occur that much faster. It's also easy to stay alive on these levels, so you'll most likely get another chance.

A lot of Spitters decide to camp ontop of gas cans once they spit, which I think is really impractical. there's a chance the goo you drop will kill the can, but if the other team is halfway decent, they'll pick it up no problem. It just takes one shove to get you off of it, and even if they shoot you first they have ample time to pick up and throw the can after your death.

I've been playing a good deal of scavenge with my team. Hit me up if anyone needs a third or fourth.

[NoahTheBoa]

I think the spitter is most useful for isolating the survivors from their group making them an easy target. If the survivors are busy saving each other, they're not grabbing cans.

[BigBiker05]

Well my problem with what you said princess is that you can fill a generator while standing in spit. Its not a practical move, but if it differentiates between a win or loss you can do it.
So spitting on the generator seems useless, the survivors will either just wait, and be on full guard for any zombies, or if its a game threatening circumstance they'll just run in the spit and fill the generator.

[TheCarpe]

[quote="BigBiker05";p="212861"]Well my problem with what you said princess is that you can fill a generator while standing in spit. Its not a practical move, but if it differentiates between a win or loss you can do it.
So spitting on the generator seems useless, the survivors will either just wait, and be on full guard for any zombies, or if its a game threatening circumstance they'll just run in the spit and fill the generator.[/quote]

Spit interrupts pours. If you try to pour while there is spit on the ground around the generator, the fill bar is constantly reset every time he takes damage, the intervals of which are shorter than it takes to pour gas. I guess maybe with an adrenaline shot you might be able to pour one in fast enough, but in normal play, spitting on the generator makes it nearly impossible to pour.

[BETTEH]

Generally my team adopts the "make the survivors drop the can and spit" maneuver. Its always been a highly effective technique in setting at least one of the two cans on fire, creating a havoc of fire, damage, while we are still attacking them with jockey / smoker / hunter what have you. I've always found just spitting on the generator a waste of time unless the player is on the brink of dying as in most cases you can simply side step the ooze and continue pouring, or simply waiting for it to disperse and continue pouring. The amount of damage done in that split second of him standing in the ooze doesn't equal the amount of time it would take them to run back for a can that has been lit on fire, also short changing them on time even if they were to get one can in. Albeit to each there own, and what works for you is great, but i'll tell you now i rarely if ever lose scavenges with a team using the spit on downed cans method.

[Grapedrink]

the spitter recharge is the fastest recharge in the game except for hunter pounces or jockey pounces. The need for the spitter emphasizes team work more than the others, one charger can get in and knock back all 4 of them, but a team will recover in seconds unless a spitter is ready