NightHawk043
Member
Note: For those lazy people who don't like reading lots, jump down for the general message that is lower in the post.
If there's one thing that I get sick of in pugs it's people constantly confusing the hell out of newbloods by first saying "OMG Never Ever Llama", and then "Why the *DANCE* Didn't You Grab the Flag to Stop Them Capping. You Were Next to It!"
The fact is, whether we like to admit it or not, there is a time when Llamaing is a good thing.
In a Competitive Match this also exists. Imagine the enemy capper has gotten past your defenders and is outrunning your chasers. You look around, and can tell no teammate could get there before the capper does. However, you've just been hanging around in the enemy base. Now, is a good time to llama. Chances are, if their defense is any good, you won't get very far, but it's merely a delaying tactic to bide your teammates some time.
If you know you'll die if you try to ski off with the flag, it's often a good idea to toss it out of the base for a teammate to pick up. (usually in the nearest bowl). Grabbing at the last minute to prevent a cap like this is known as an E-Grab (emergency grab).
Now, if in a similar situation you've looked and you have a capper on your team coming in at high speed it get's tricky. If you're not sure whether he'll get there in time, grab, if you know he will, but aren't sure if he'll get out at high health, make a judgement call (if he's far enough away, you might be able to toss it out closer to him, so he doesn't have to enter the base and the enemy fire, however don't toss it past him so he has to do a u-turn. That just Mucks things up).
In non-competitive play where there is little efficient defense and you can make it back to your base after a llama, there's also times when llamaing is acceptable, but there is a condition. Look Before You Llama!
LAZY PEOPLE JUMP TO HERE.
With that Long Paragraph over, I launch the "Look Before You Llama!" Campaign.
The basic idea is that provided you don't interfere with a player doing a proper high speed route (that doesn't just mean grabbing a moment before him. Remember, if they're moving a lot faster than you, they can often go almost two lengths of the map in the time it takes you to do one). There a few good signs that you shouldn't grab.
- is that there's about 5 proficient defense hanging around killing anyone who gets close moving slowly (in such a situation you'd be better off attacking them, to distract them while a high speed capper comes through).
- is that you can actually see if you look around a teammate flying at the flagstand very fast.
- and this is an important one, is if you see someone who you know tends to do proper routes spamming the "I'm Capturing the Flag" button. Most cappers will either do this when they start a route or (and this is more sensible) when they are a few seconds away from grabbing. In those situations keep an eye out, and if they look like they're about to die (critical health before grabbing), then grab anyway, but if they've got a fair amount of health and a lot of speed, stay away from it and shoot the defenders to help him get through.
It's also about knowing when To llama. As I mentioned above (but I'm compressing here), if the enemy team is about to cap, and only you can stop them from capping by grabbing the flag first, then DO IT. If some guy gets pissed off at you for doing that, tell him it's an e-grab and he needs to learn tactics.
