If you agree with the guide, please rate up, help spread the information about Proper Witch/Tank Handling to make those public games safer and more enjoyable!

I write from the point of view of having played Campaign/Realism on Advanced/Expert for the bulk of my Left 4 Dead career. However, the information in this guide should be very important to anybody playing Easy/Normal, and still applies to Versus matches.

This guide is really for people who are still somewhat new to the game and do not know the ways of handling the minibosses: the Tank and the Witch. I know many players wish to jump into Versus without even playing the game on Campaign mode first, and while I don't suggest doing that, maybe this guide can help you the most.

Things to keep in mind:
-Avoiding damage from Witches and Tanks is a gameplay basic that was taught in Left 4 Dead via the achievement system. Achievements like Towering Inferno, Tankbusters and Man vs Tank meant that it is not only possible to ace a Tank, it is relatively simple. Others like Cr0wned, Burn the Witch, Witch Hunter, and Do Not Disturb also advocated for smart play by encouraging players to find ways to avoid damage from Witches. This appears somewhat lost in Left 4 Dead 2 as I constantly come across players in higher difficulties who remain stationary against oncoming Tanks and players who try to crown Witches with their SCAR. Remember, your team can (and should strive to) walk away from fights with both of these infected without taking a single point of damage!

-The game spawns Witches and Tanks in a predictable pattern. At some intervals of distance, the director will pick to spawn either a Witch, a Tank, or nothing, and must finish the set before starting a new one. They can also never be the same two in a row (two tanks, two witches).
Examples:
WT_W_T
T_WT_W
_WTWT_
Each combination leads to a different playthrough, but you should begin to notice that Witches and Tanks share general spawn locations.

-Turning your music on and subtitles on greatly improves your chances of detecting a Witch or Tank.

-You can visit YouTube for tracks on all SI sounds, as well as videos covering the information I describe in this guide. Those videos are not mine so I won't link to them here, but they're not too hard to find with simple relevant search terms and can be useful if you are a more visual kind of learner.

Before you see him: LISTEN. Turn your sound up, your ingame music on, and possibly subtitles on as well. You can hear the Tank grunt and growl from a distance without triggering him and the Tank music. This allows your party to be prepared by stopping and clearing the area of commons, healing up first, reloading or changing guns, positioning and setting up any traps.

The majority of the time, its best to lead a Tank back towards an area that you've already cleared of commons instead of running forward into more hostile territory. If everybody is healthy and there are no other infected around when a Tank spawns, then ideally nobody should take damage from the Tank. He has two abilities, both of which are easily avoided.

Dodging Punches
-Maintain green health and run away. Avoid obstacles while kiting, especially when running backwards. Be careful around corners, walls, and ledges, where a single punch can be lethal.
Dodging Rocks
-Run and hide behind cover. Be careful of the rock's large hit area though. Also, try not to kite into another survivor, because you take the risk of the rock hitting them instead.
-Strafe Dodge: Strafe one way, and as the tank releases the rock, strafe the other way to dodge it.
-Skeet: Shoot the rock in the air. Most commonly done with snipers and shotguns. Can be accomplished with a Melee Weapon or a Molotov as a last resort.
-Keep in mind that Tanks have 3 types of throwing animations, and they differ in release location and timing.

In a nutshell, killing a tank effectively involves finding a circular path around an object to kite his punches while looking out for his rocks, which you can easily dodge with the methods above. The object you're running laps around can be a tree, a truck, a pole, an escalator, a tent, etc. Size doesn't really matter, as long as you can use the object as cover from a rock if you cannot strafe dodge or skeet. Run backwards when he begins approaching to melee you. If he stops to throw a rock, you have about two seconds to figure out how you are neutralizing it. Watch out for obstacles around you and common. One survivor kites as three others shoot, changing roles if the Tank changes targets. If he is burning, he will die over time without you needing to fire a shot, although every second that the survivors are dealing damage to the Tank is another second saved.

When identifying your circular kite path or finding cover, be mindful of the locations of hittable objects. Tanks can smack most dumpsters and most cars (but not anything you would describe as a van or truck) with their punches. A Rock Throw can also nudge these objects very slightly, which will incap any survivors it paths into. Players have figured out ways to send these objects long distances in Versus games. AI Tanks can unintentionally smack a hittable object and incap a survivor, but human players will deliberately take advantage of the presence of these objects.
-Logs, forklifts, dumpsters and bumper cars all do significant damage.
-Other objects will still damage you but not incap you immediately, including tables, chairs, bricks, and pieces of pillars

If there is fire:
Set him on fire, and run away until he dies. Shoot as often as possible without taking damage.

If there is no fire:
Kite him.

If there is water:
Kite him on land to keep him lit, also to maintain your movement speed. A Bile Bomb can help if you are losing ground to a tank and backed into a corner, just remember you now have extra Common to deal with, which can be deadly on Expert/Realism.

If there is a panic event:
Reaching a switch to turn off an alarm is a priority. Make sure the switch is off, then figure out a right place to kite and kill the tank. You can also split up if you're confident in each other's abilities and have one person dash to the switch while the other three handle the tank.

If somebody is limping:
If you cant quickly heal someone (Kit>Pills>Shot) and they're limping against a tank, then the healthy survivor(s) can keep the Tank away from the injured one(s). Swinging at a Tank with a Melee weapon is usually enough to get a Tank's attention.

If somebody is incapacitated:
If they have meds they can use instantly, then it may be worth it to get them up. Keep in mind the process of helping them up, using a med, reloading their guns all takes time. Make sure they are a good distance away from the Tank so they don't get instantly incapacitated again. Most of the time, if there is a survivor down, it will be better to kill the Tank first.

If there are SI around:
Free your allies first, try and kill SI first, but do not become so distracted that you allow a Tank to catch you.

If somebody is Boomed:
The AI Tank will focus them, so the best thing you can do is just focus the Tank before he kills the survivor. Common will be coming too so things can be hectic. A Pipe Bomb would be nice to use if one is handy.

If you don't have an open or circular area to kite the Tank:
Then it becomes all about getting his HP down before he gets within range. Within hallways, the Tank will usually throw rocks allowing you to duck behind corners until you run out of running space, at which point your team should just be shooting and shooting. Have the stationary survivors positioned along the right wall and the survivor who is running and shooting can hug the left wall. In close quarters against a Tank, it is essential that you find ways to minimize or eliminate friendly fire and allow maximum uptime for your teammates to be shooting the Tank.

-Explosive Ammo does not stumble a Tank, but does do increased damage
-Incendiary Ammo only keeps him lit for 5 seconds. Can interfere with other sources of fire (Molotov, gas can). Only use Incendiary Ammo if there is no other fire source available.
-All shots are equal on a Tank, headshots do not do more and leg shots do not do less.
-Tanks will break down doors of starting safe rooms, but they cannot break the ending safe rooms. If a Tank spawns at the end of your run, just kill it, unless as a team, you decide to skip.
-Melee Weapons do a LOT of damage! If you're able to, get a swing in. Just don't take damage from a punch. Be prepared to run because the Tank will likely change targets to you!
-SMGs are better than tier1 shotguns against Tanks.
-If you turn on subtitles, don't stop shooting at a Tank until you see [Tank Death] appear!
-As parts of The Passing and Swamp Fever, you will have to fight two Tanks at once during the finale.

Rare methods of killing tanks:
-Pipe Bomb and Propane Tank stumble: If the Tank is caught in close range of the explosion, he will stumble a few steps. Positioned near a ledge or window, this can lead to an instant kill!
-AI Tanks can be really dumb in terms of figuring out paths. Sure everyone can trick a Tank on the Dead Air finale to walk through fire, but more daring players can trick the Tank on The Parish finale (and other places) into jumping off the bridge.
-Not spawned? Bugged out. Sometimes the second tank on Dark Carnival finale does not spawn because it is in a bad location and it basically dies without ever seeing the survivors. This can happen in other locations as well, where you'll hear the Tank music start and abruptly end. Other places, the Tank will get stuck in an opening it can't fit through, and the survivors can score an easy kill.

You hear a Witch crying. Locate her, turn your flashlights off, and then consider your options:

1. Avoid her completely by walking around her or taking an alternate route.
Easiest, fastest, low risk. One survivor at a time if you have to.
2. Light her up and run. Molotov, gas can, or a single shot from an Incendiary Ammo will keep her lit until she dies.
Very low risk, though time and item consuming.
3. Shotgun crown.
Low risk with practice. Doesn't work on Realism. Walk up to the Witch or startle her and wait for her to come to you (draw crown).
4. Headshot stumble into melee/shove combo.
Low risk with practice.
5. Headshot stumble into ranged assault.
Low risk with accurate teammates with snipers.
6. Explosive Ammo stumble.
Successive hits with Explosive Ammo will continue to stumble her, allowing your team more uptime before she reaches you.
7. Ladder bug.
If you are on a ladder she will get stuck trying to climb it, leaving your allies open to taking her down. You must remain ON the ladder and above her.
8. Pipe/Propane stumble off of a ledge.
Rarely ever come across a proper time to do this.
9. Proxy aggro, lead to fire.
Rare and difficult to pull off. If you startle the witch and lead her into a fire without her taking any damage, she will retreat and no longer attack the group.
10. Kite in a circle around an obstacle.
Yes, it is possible to outrun a Witch, sort of. This usually involves abusing bad AI pathing scripts and is hard and unpredictable to do, so I don't suggest it. Its also very difficult to kill Witches this way, it is more of a survival technique if you startle one accidentally.

Options 1-3 reflect what the large majority of players choose to do against a Witch. Options 4-7 still occur with some frequency, and are often chosen in Realism games if fire is unavailable against a Witch. Another option is the sacrifice of course. Basically, when you fail one of the above intentionally or not, your team has a short amount of time to kill the Witch, except on Realism mode where you die instantly. If you're just playing Campaign mode and nobody is comfortable with handling a witch, send your lowest HP survivor in to attempt a crown or headshot and just unload.

Other Witch tactics
1. Avoiding a witch is always suggested over going out of your way to kill her. You can fail a crown or get ambushed by SI. You can also lag or have teammates who can't kill her in time. On Realism, she will kill you instantly, and she cannot be crowned with a shotgun, so don't try.
2. Crouching Witches are disturbed more easily than walking ones. There are subtle differences you should be aware of in the ways you should approach both if you want to crown them.
3. She will swing at doors to break them, and this will cleave to nearby survivors. Stay away from her near doors!
4. Fire intercept. Another survivor startles the Witch. If you set her on fire after she is startled but before she takes any damage, then she will chase you instead of your ally! If you light her up after she has incapacitated an ally, she will try to incapacitate you as well. High risk move rarely seen or needed.
5. Chainsaw works well against Walking Witches, but so does just avoiding her.
6. Witches will retreat if they encounter a safe room door, but you have to make up for lost ground.
7. Hard Rain_2. If you want to get good at dealing with Witches, this is your map.
8. The Hang Method: Once you've startled a Witch, if you incapacitate yourself by hanging off a ledge, then the Witch will retreat. A teammate can then get you up and you'll still be healthy to keep moving on.

The tips below may help readers in varying degrees as some were learned from watching confogl matches and others from playing public Versus games.

AI vs Human
-It is possible to dodge Tank punches at melee range if the Tank is controlled by a player, whether because they're new or on a poor connection. You won't have so much luck against an AI Tank. AI are much better at aiming punches in general, and their rocks seemingly have homing capabilities to the untrained. In Versus, I have seen survivors kill Tanks in elevators with nothing but secondary weapons before.
-AI Tanks walk through fires, and are generally just dumber and more brute-like. They chase you down from the moment you approach them, with no thought about strategy or support from SI.
-Humans will find ways around choke points, they understand techniques like the Haymaker, Jump Rock, Curve Rock, and they will aim high angle shots with Rock Throws until you learn how to skeet. They will stand in doorways to block you from freeing someone capped by an SI, wait at hittable objects to trap you, and retreat if they're low on HP, forcing you to wait out another SI attack.

Tank as Survivors
-One swing from a melee weapon does 5% (1/20) of a Tank's HP. 4 Survivors with melee weapons swing 5 times each = 20 swings. This means that a Tank can be killed in 5 seconds in Versus Mode!
-You can play mind games with players controlling Tanks by feigning movement in a direction. This is somewhat risky but is hilarious to pull off and to watch! On a large scale, your entire team can bypass a Tank and make it into the safe room, while on a smaller scale, a single individual survivor can dodge Tank punches in melee range.
-Some Tanks will try and throw rocks in order to maintain Frustration levels before going in. Be sure you do not get hit. A valid strategy is to wait out the Frustration and force the infected to move into a very bad position to attack, where the Tank is essentially neutralized. Skeet rocks or find cover to stop oncoming damage. If control is passed twice on a Tank, it will go to AI which will attack immediately.
-Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges. Do not stand near cars or ledges.

Tank as Infected
-People in public games have a tendency to attack immediately when they are the Tank, while you should be waiting for all your SI to spawn first so that you have support!
-Avoid fire at all costs. Target the survivor(s) holding the Molotov(s) first if at all possible. Don't get lit. Douse yourself in water if at all possible if you are lit.
-Tanks will friendly fire on infected, so be careful of where you punch and throw rocks. They can actually kill SI and free survivors who were captured but not yet incapacitated.
-Players have figured out the different angles you need to hit objects to send them in different directions, but it all still ends up very random.
-Hitting a car over an incap'd survivor a few times will kill them.
-Hittables are good and its usually smart to have at least one in play, but you don't want to take too much damage getting them into position. Tier 2 can destroy a Tank in seconds from long range.
-You can "hit a home run" with a survivor by punching him and sending him flying across the map. He can take fall damage which will incap him, or he can get sent out of bounds which will kill him.
-You can block pathways to prevent survivors from reaching a destination like a safe room or an incapacitated survivor. You can also physically block bullets for your SI teammates. Hunters make short work of Survivors, and sometimes you just need those extra seconds for a Jockey or a Smoker to move someone out of line of sight or for a Charger to set up.
-Jockey, Smoker, Charger can all move survivors forward and spawn a tank that is ahead.
-A strategic retreat can mean an extra SI attack for your team sometimes.

Witch
-Typical plays involving Witches will be Smokers, Jockeys and Chargers moving you into startle range. Hunters and Boomers can stop people from successfully crowning Witches, and Spitters are great for delay tactics or spitting nearby the Witch.
-Best way for survivors to handle a Witch is to crown her with an automatic shotgun or snipe her from afar when SI spawns are down.

If you want more specific information on Versus mode, there are other guides here on Steam as well as on YouTube written by players more passionate on the topic than myself.

I only wrote this guide because it was requested, and I found it difficult to put into words things that are so well displayed in videos. Unlike First Aid Kit and Grenade use, this was something that could very easily be learned by watching clips on YouTube. I tried to keep the writing style similar to my other guides, as a list of possible scenario conditions and the options you have to respond with.

It did dawn on me at some point that Witch and Tank killing isn't a skill that is taught by the game anymore. A newbie to the franchise can find it intimidating if they didn't play Left 4 Dead 1 and if they never bothered to YouTube some how-to videos. I play a lot of public campaign games on Advanced and Expert and see players taking easily avoidable damage from Tanks and Witches all the time. I think the biggest problem though for most players is playing as a Tank in Versus mode, due to the many different environments you can spawn in combined with the low number of times you get to control one leads to many players just being awful.

Feel free to remind me of anything I missed, or just leave some feedback in the comments below. If you own a YouTube video that you believe exemplifies multiple points illustrated in this guide and would like to have it included, please PM me.

If you're interested in translating this guide into your language, please contact me first.

If you agree with the guide, please rate up, help spread the information about Proper Witch/Tank Handling to make those public games safer and more enjoyable!

4/13/2013 : version 1.03 (added Hang method for Witch)
3/6/2013 : version 1.02 (minor edits)
3/4/2013 : version 1.01 (minor edits)
2/27/2013 : version 1.00