Gladiator (Q2)

"With two massively mechanized legs and one shoulder-mounted railgun, the Gladiator is the daddy of all the adapted humanoids."

- Quake II manual

In the Quake II, the Gladiator is one of the tougher enemies, yet uncommon throughout the game. The Gladiator is a humanoid cyborg battle machine with a powerful shoulder-mounted railgun and a giant clamp for close range attacks. Upon visual contact with the player, a Gladiator will utter the English phrase 'a traitor'. The Gladiator is fast moving and possesses armor above that of the Gunner, Iron Maiden and Berserker but not as good as the likes of the Tank and the Tank Commander.

Railgun
The Gladiator can fire the Railgun with pin-point accuracy, dealing high damage to an unarmored player (50). The Gladiator will aim at the player and fire at that same spot less than a second later. So to avoid the attack, the player must keep strafing left or right or take cover, thus when the Gladiator fires at the spot its aimed at, the player will have moved and it will miss. The Gladiator can fire frequently, about as fast as the player, thus there is no time to stand around, the Gladiator must be killed as soon as possible.

Clamp
The Gladiator has a very large clamp which it will use if the player is close by, dealing 20-25 damage per hit with two hits in quick succession, dealing almost as much damage as the Railgun. The Gladiator can be treated like a Shambler in that the player can go up to the Gladiator, cause it to use its melee attack and back way so it is busy swinging its clamp aimlessly while the player can continue attacking. The Gladiator is a lot easier to "dance" with than the Shambler.

Strategies

 * When fighting multiple gladiators, try and make it so that one of them hits the other. While doing that won't stop the projectile, it will harm the other gladiator. Every little bit of help is useful when dealing with multiple gladiators. Otherwise, treat them like you would one gladiator; dodge often and use powerful weapons against them.
 * With other enemies, a gladiator should be taken out ASAP, even if there's a tank in the area. Its railgun is very fast and will hit you unless you're giving it your complete attention. If you absolutely must go for another target first, running perpendicular to the Gladiator will greatly reduce the chances of being hit by its railgun.

Death Messages

 * Player was mangled by a Gladiator's claw (Claw)
 * Player was railed by a Gladiator (Railgun)

Trivia

 * When a Gladiator spots the player, they will shout something that sounds like "Prepare to die!", or "Gladiator!".