Hero Strategy: Tork

Tork, the Fungal King is a Bio Tempest. The last Bio hero availible to be unlocked, Tork is centred around debuffs, periodic damage, and horde killing.

Athough tricky to master, if he is tamed, hordes of the Darkspore will fall down dead before they even come into melee range.

General information and notes
Since his nerf, Tork has been considered by players to be a fairly weak hero. However, Tork is in fact an extraordinarily proficient horde-killer and DoT specialist. If his abilities are utilised to their full potential, he can utterly decimate hordes of the Darkspore with his debuff-focused damage. This is thanks mostly to his great basic ability, "Toxic Spores".

Tork does not perform well against Elite enemies with certain affixes. Regenerative enemies will not take as much damage from his DoT attacks, and his attacks will be of little use against Shifted enemies. Since he deals not upfront damage, he should avoid enemies which can taunt heroes.

[[File:Icon_ability_Abilities_bio_dps_range_basic.PNG]] -Basic ability: "Toxic Spores"
Range: 30m Cooldown: 0.7 seconds Cast Type: Instant Attack Type: Lobbed


 * Lobs a spore pod that creates a toxic pool on impact, poisoning enemies for 18 energy damage over 3 seconds.

Although it deals not upfront damage, "Toxic Spores" is a still highly useful basic ability, mainly for one reason: it rests in a pool on the ground for a couple of seconds. This means that a single well-placed shot can poison and decimate entire hordes of enemies. Although the poison debuffs do not stack, they will refresh for as long as an enemy is standing in a pool.

Since the attack deals no upfront damage, it's probably a good idea to aim the shot in front of enemies, especially if they're moving. Enemies will have to walk through the entire pool, boosting the poison's duration slightly.

As a lobbed projectile, there are numerous imaginative ways to utilise this ability. It can be thrown down (or up) to vastly different altitudes from Tork, further ensuring his enemies will die before reaching him. It can also be thrown over sufficiently short environmental objects, granting an advantage over regular ranged enemies.

The spores lobbed by Tork do not benefit from +xx% Projectile Speed. Tork has to stand still to thrown them, somewhat hampering his hit-and-run tactics.

[[File:Icon_ability_Abilities_bio_dps_range_support1.PNG]] -Unique ability: "Sleep Cloud"
Range: Cooldown: 12 seconds Cast Type: Channeled Power Cost: 27
 * Releases a continuous stream of relaxation spores for 6 seconds that cause enemies within 6 meters to fall asleep.

The only way for the player to put enemies to sleep, "Sleep Cloud" is most useful in Co-op mode, where the player can put a horde of enemies to sleep whilst their allies deal free damage to them. Even though they wake up after taking damage, they'll immediately be put to sleep again.

However, "Sleep Cloud" can also be useful in Solo gameplay. For starters, it can function as a sort of "Dimensional Rift" (the Quantum variant ability which banishes enemies), although the player cannot move for its duration. It can also be used after poisoning or diseasing a horde of enemies, putting them to sleep and causing them to take all of their DoT damage without being able to fight back.

[[File:Rampant_growth.png]] -Passive ability: "Rampant Growth"

 * Increases the periodic damage and healing of nearby allies by 25%.

[[File:Virulent_Vines2.png]] -Alpha: "Virulent Vines"
Range: 30m Cooldown: 16 seconds Cast Type: Instant Power Cost: 27
 * Roots the target in place for 8 seconds and applies an infectious disease that deals 56 energy damage over that period. The disease will spread to nearby enemies, dealing 32 energy damage to each one. 

"Virulent Vines" keeps Tork's theme of debuffs and periodic damage. Whilst it probably won't kill many enemies by itself, it leaves them very vulnerable to your basic ability.

A good horde-clearing strategy would be to apply "Virulent Vines" to an Elite or Lieutenant enemy (since the first enemy to recieve the disease takes extra damage, and is rooted), throw some "Toxic Spores" in front of them, then flee, perhaps using Viper's "Thornado" or Magos's "Kinetic Wave" to finish off enemies who reach you. This strategy should wipe out an entire horde without any enemy even scratching you.

When combined with Skar's "Shadow Cloak", every tick of the disease will score a critical hit, making this ability extremely deadlu.

Quantum

 * Magnos
 * Andromeda
 * Orion
 * Maldri
 * Vex

Necro

 * Wraith
 * Revenant's squad ability, "Terrifying Curse", will deal increased damage thanks to "Rampant Growth".
 * Skar's squad ability, "Shadow Cloak", can be devastating when combined with "Virulent Vines" or a strategically based "Toxic Spores", since "Shadow Cloak" will cause every tick of damage from a DoT attack to crit.
 * Arakna
 * Jinx

Plasma

 * Krel
 * Char
 * Blizt
 * Lumin
 * Zrin

Cyber

 * Goliath
 * Meditron's "Reconstuct" squad ability will have increased healing thanks to "Rampant Growth".
 * SRS-42
 * Titan
 * Seraph-XS

Bio

 * Savage
 * Viper's squad ability, "Thornado", deals poison damage. This fits with Tork's theme, and he will benefit from the poison damage more than any other hero, thanks to his passive, which will increase the poison damage.
 * Sage
 * Arborus

Useful gear stats
As both a horde killer and a DoT specialist, Tork benefits enormously from +Health Leech, +Power Leech and +Dual Leech gear. Whilst using the above "Virulent Vines" strategy with leech gear equipped, Tork could be regenerating health almost constantly.


 * +xx% Damage for Bio Attacks
 * -xx% Damage from Bio Attacks
 * +xx% Attack Speed
 * +xx% Cooldown Reduction
 * +xx% Power Leech
 * +xx% Health Leech
 * +xx Energy Damage (and/or) +xx% Energy Damage
 * +xx% Periodic Damage
 * +xx% Duration of Harmful Statuses Inflicted