What is the better shark strategy

[★Fynx★]

I was curious of people's opinions on what is the better shark strategy from personal experience, to dive into the room and do as much damage as possible, while having no real control over where you are moving, or grabbing a diver and let it stab you for a bit to give you the time to leave the room and then kill the diver.

[Rhoobarb]

Copied from my post in the 'sharks are too weak' thread

A good strategy I use when the divers are holed up in a room with S.T.E.V.E;, knock the loose walls, or ceiling, not enough to break through, but enough to draw their attention. When they get nervous, they tend to start moving around. I line myself up to a straight entrance and exit, then wait for a nervous diver to move in the line. Right click just before hitting the entrance, you dart through, grab the diver and are out the exit and start shaking them before the others can react (usually), then grab a seal after to replenish the stabbed health.

Obviously doesn't always apply, or always work. But for the limited time I have played, it has been quite succesful.

Other than that, stragglers looking for loot and divers trying to catch up to S.T.E.V.E are easy prey as they are focusing on something else.

The maps all have decent ambush points, and the divers have to move eventually because of S.T.E.V.E, so it's not like they can just hole up forever. They are at their most vulnerable when S.T.E.V.E is moving.

It is far more tactical than it first seems to play as a shark. It's not just about getting in, it's about getting out too!

[TonkatsuRamen]

Best tactic is to align yourself with the openings in the room. Try to dive in with sprint (left shift) and shortly in front of the diver plunge him (right click) and drag him on the other side of the room outside the door/window/opening and trash him outside.

Don't go all kamikaze, try to ambush them or seperate divers from their group.

Another tactic is, plunge a diver and drag him into a mine or mine cluster and enjoy your free kills :)

[Jakkar]

If you're playing against a tough team, it might be worth not even worrying about room attack strategies.

Instead, get what kills you can on stragglers and brave treasure-seekers, and acquire the hammerhead upgrade - this will significantly increase the stun time inflicted upon STEVE. Use this to isolate divers in the wide-open between safes, and to slow down their escape after the third.

One shark should hammer STEVE with quick two-lunge attacks, one to hit STEVE, one to carry on moving, while the other picks off the divers. Their morale will crash, they'll either begin spending all of their money on consumables and automatic weapons, or they'll split up. Either way, panic. There's very little they can do at this point without using the scanning pistol very cleverly.

[Fropps]

Hit-and-run Hammerhead makos. It's the new best meta.

[Deadscale]

Without going into a Balance disscussion (we have enough of that :D) people forget a few little things that help sharks.

Steve can be killed, it's not the best way of winning, but it is a way of winning.

AFAIK (atleast on the great white) you lose no momentum breaking through a wall on the hit you break through, this allows you to fully charge at a diver who's behind a breakable wall, and zip off in the confusion (it creates a lot of dust).

On the note of the Great White, Different sharks are good at different things, but are all played pretty much the same, Just because the Great White can take a beating doesn't mean you should be sitting next to steve slowly singing the Jaws theme. One easy way of tagging what sharks do best is saying that GW's are good Bruisers, Tigers are all rounders and Mako's are for Hit and Run, but this isn't realistically true because All sharks have to hit and run, so try to find a shark more suited to You as a player rather then the situation.

^ That being said, try not to have 2 of the same sharks when you play if you can help it, certain sharks fair better on certain maps (GW's on Devils Head due to seal's being quite far away, and the map being quite close quarters, Mako's on Olmec / Crude due to it being quite an open map but closed areas to defend, Tigers on Antiguo for versatility, that sort of thing) But having 2 of the same sharks can hurt you in some situations. Great whites excel in disruption, being able to break walls faster, and more importantly are a Bigger target who can take some punishment, usually if a GW starts noming on someone people start shooting you, leaving your little Mako friend to zip around uncontested (You can probably tell I like the Great White a lot...)

While the in-game perk to see what equipment the divers are using is situational at best, it really does help if you can pick out what diver has what from their model / mannerisms. Taking out the guy with the Harpoon or ADS Tranq gun over the guy who's bought 3 shark shields and is still on Pistols is a no brainer.

There's a time and a place for everything, people dislike sharks who just run in and die, but arguably there are situations where the Divers are completely defended from all angles, In this situation unless you've got a Great white running in and suiciding is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ option, so sitting and waiting is your best bet, if you have got one GW. they can be used as a martyr, gunning for one easy kill in exchange for inducing chaos.

And as has been mentioned, Room Attack is by far and away the least optimal way of killing a Good diver team, Hammerhead + Hitting steve while he moves is an amazing way for some easy picks.

Oh and as a little tip, Take out Sonar Bouys no matter where they are, the amount of times as a Diver I just spam the hell out of them, and we're on our way back / moving and a Shark pops up near one, literally saving us / getting us an easy kill are too many to count, they're not too hard to take out and can sway a game sometimes.

[Alucard †]

Game is hard