Overview
Stukov is rather unique in that he has both Terran and Zerg qualities, fitting with his infested theme of a grotesque abomination of a fusion of the two races. He control scheme doesn't quite say Terran or Zerg, and it can get some time to get used to. He has creep that spreads automatically and will cover the entire map when you get to the late game. It's required for all of his buildings, which are more Terran than Zerg (even though they don't liftoff, but uproot instead). His army control is strange too; his bio units (which have timed life) will not count as army units, so if you F2 your army, they are not included. He's got access to infested mech units, however at this time they require a lot of babysitting to survive. Overall, he's a great commander for swarming if you go with the infantry route, along with other options for a fresh take on co-op.
Unit Control
I'm adding this section for Stukov because of how wonky it is.
He has Zerg macro mechanics regarding that all unit production comes from eggs that pop from buildings. But he has Terran macro mechanics regarding requiring production buildings to make those eggs. Just remember that he does not have larva. It's weird to be able to hatch 5 infested siege tanks from eggs, but that's how he works :P
His first "calldown" ability is the psi-emitter which attracts his infested infantry towards it, attacking any enemy in their path. It is used as a rally point for your barracks and infested compound. This does not make your infantry not microable though. You can still give them commands like normal units.
His mech units on the other hand, handle just like normal units.
Units
- Infested Civilian: basic melee units that spawn automatically from your infested colonist compound. Nothing really special, but they spawn for free. Some upgrades make them a nice meat shield with their leap attack and broodling spawn. You'll have to work on upgrading the compound early to reap the most benefits.
- Infested Marine: your only AA unit. Cost only 25 minerals. Remember they have timed life, so just spamming them isn't always the best idea if nothing is going on.
- Infested Bunker: considered a unit when uprooted, and a building while rooted. When you finish building one, it comes with 4 (or 6 after you reach level 14) infested marines pre-loaded. It will automatically generate infested marines while rooted over time. Even though you build them from SCVs, they do require 4 supply. Bunkers themselves have a melee attack while uprooted, but keep in mind they do not spawn marines while doing so.
- Infested Diamondback: this unit finally makes an appearance in co-op, though in an unusual state. It can attack while moving, but also has an ability to bring air units to the ground (think of a reverse graviton beam from the phoenix). Later you can upgrade it to leave a trail that hampers enemies too.
- Infested Siege Tank: a siege tank with a large spine colony on top. It eats your own infantry units for ammo for its "volatile infested" cannon (shooting banelings lol). It's quite powerful, but a little fragile. But if you are defending, a few tanks with infested to feed them can do wonders.
- Infested Banshee: comes with cloak for free, and has the ability to burrow to recover health and energy quickly. It's great on hit and run tactics with good micromanagement.
- Infested Liberator: more like infested Valkyrie. It does not have that awesome AtG cannon, so I don't know why it is not the Valkyrie from Brood War. It's range is a bit short too.
- Brood Queen: the BW queen with similar abilities. Ocular symbiote gives any friendly unit detection abilities for a short time. Spawn Broodling simply kills a target and spawns broodlings from its corpse. Fungal growth is your AoE root and damage (basically, a better ensnare).
- Overlord: your source of supply (not depots). Can mutate into overseers.
- Overseer: your detector. They require an infested starport for mutation from overlords.
- Infested Missile Turret: because every race needs something like this.
Calldown Abilities
- Psi Emitter: places a psi-emitter at your target location, attracting all of your infested infantry to it. Works as a rally point and attack-move command. There is no cooldown on this ability.
-
Infest Structure: temporarily infests a structure to spawn broodlings. Usable on friendly or enemy structures (once you reach level 2).
- Apocalisk: causes an Apocalisk to burst out of the ground at any visible location. It's a huge ultralisk with a thor on top, shooting missiles and cleaving anything in its path. Just looking at it is a marvel to behold.
- Aleksander: calls down Stukov's flagship, equipped with tentacles and "egg bombs" to rain hell from ground and air enemies alike. Even if it is felled, the crash site spawns broodlings to help out.
Level Upgrades
1) Infestation: just describes the fact that he starts with an infested colonist compound and that his creep spreads from his infested commander center.
2) Hostile Incubation: gives you 2 extra charges of infest structure and allows you to target enemy structures. Doing so will disable them as well, which is perfect for initiating an attack on a base while broodlings distract enemy forces. This is kind of a power spike, as it gives this ability a lot more utility.
3) Epidemic: allows you to upgrade your infested colonist compound 1 extra time, doubling how much you spawn, as well as another upgrade to increase how many broodlings spawn from your infest structure ability. Improves both defense and offense.
4) Apocalisk: grants you the ability to use this calldown.
5) Infested Engineering Bay Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades to increase bunker armor and their regen rate. If you go with an infantry heavy build, you'll want these upgrades for sure.
6) Corrupted Conscription: doubles how many charges of spawn infested marine a barracks can have (from 5 to 10) and reduces their spawn time. This is quite good as it cuts down on infrastructure costs.
7) Infested Infantry Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades to allow broodlings to spawn from felled infested civilians, as well as giving infested infantry a damage-over-time effect on their attacks.
8) New Unit: Brood Queen: allows you to spawn Brood Queens.
9) Infested Factory Upgrade Cache: unlocks an upgrade to buff siege tanks' damage to armored targets and an upgrade for diamondbacks to leave a trail of slime that slows and damages enemy ground units. If you are bringing in some mech to your forces you should consider both upgrades based on what you are facing (e.g. slime could work against heavy ground bio comps).
10) Aleksander: allows you to use the Aleksander calldown ability.
11) Infested Starport Upgrade Cache: unlocks an upgrade for your liberator to take a lot less damage while attacking, and increased banshee life. To be honest I have a hard time justifying building either unit it most situations as they are expensive units to make and are easily destroyed if you look away for even a brief moment.
12) Incendiary Prosthetics: buffs your Apocalisk to do double damage with its AoE attack and initial spawn. Just a straight damage buff, nothing more, nothing less.
13) Brood Queen Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades for the Brood Queen so they can spawn will full energy (along with double energy regen) and to reveal cloaked/burrowed units with their attack. The energy upgrade is well worth it if you can handle queens.
14) Engorged Bunkers: increases the capacity of your bunkers from 4 to 6 (remember they start fully loaded) and spawn infested marines 20% faster. If you go with infantry, this is a significant boost to your effectiveness, giving you more access to free ranged units.
15) Neural Infestation: Aleksander can mass neural parasite units it attacks with its tentacles (meaning, air units). This can turn the tide of any battle that features non-hybrid enemy air units. This looks cool, though I would have preferred something like spawning scourge or doing something else that wouldn't tie up the air attack.
Pointers
- Where your barracks are placed is important when setting up attacks. After you research upgrades from a tech lab attached to a rax, you can give it up to your factory or starport. Bring your barracks just outside where you need to attack or defend, then spawn your marines. This also applies to your colonist compound. But remember that if you are researching an upgrade from it, it will not uproot. But you can accidentally uproot a barracks that has a tech lab researching something, cancelling the upgrade.
- Infinite creep spread will allow you to root your buildings where they are needed, but creep itself is neutral and does not grant vision, with you do need to place them. Kind of annoying, as this makes setting up camp a pain for your barracks and bunkers.
- Going heavy infantry will keep you mineral starved. In fact, many times you'll find yourself with extra gas even if you never take the gas from your expansion if you forego building any factory/starport units.
- Speaking of which, the easiest build is an infantry build that only uses civilians and marines. You'll need a lot of minerals to get started, meaning you'll have to wait a bit before building any refineries. My initial build would go 15 rax/OL/bunker. Then I may go either refinery, ebay, or even 1st colonist compound upgrade (which surprisingly costs no gas, only 400 minerals). The bunker can help clear rocks if you have time to spare before the initial attack wave, as well as infest structure.
- Infest structure only works on completed buildings (contrast to Alarak's photon overcharge). It will work on uprooted buildings except uprooted bunkers. However, this does open up for some hilarity with other infested structures (like moving infested command centers, or if you have an Alarak ally, a structure that is infested and PO'd simultaneously - and don't underestimate how powerful and tanky it is!).
- I highly suggest dedicating one hotkey to your infantry spawning buildings, a separate one for factories and starports, and one more for bunkers. Learn to use hotkeys for them too (holding down A is simple enough for spamming marines, and R for uprooting and rooting buildings).
Friday, December 16, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Nova (it's like I'm really playing Warcraft 3!)
Overview
Nova is a Terran commander that is all about specialization from what the game tells you. She's the first Terran commander that can be controlled on the battlefield with some rather unique traits. She is much more micro oriented; her base building is very simple. You can only build 1 barracks, 1 factory, and 1 starport. You do not train units, but call them down similar to mercs in the WoL campaign (though you call them down anywhere you have vision). Fortunately your production buildings can store up to 3 charges of each calldown. In addition, you get a free ghost academy.
She also has a 100 supply cap, and her forces are not exactly cheap; think Karax costs, then bump it up a bit more. So you can't just parade push; you need to consider what you need based on what AI you are facing. Even some of her abilities cost minerals!
Overall I think she is rewarding, but hard to pick-up. You need to familiarize with the abilities of all of your units to be successful. Her leveling perks will alleviate some of your woes fortunately. She is the first commander where I have to actively plan any assault on a location instead of just building the right unit composition. It is definitely a nice pace changer.
Units
Nova: A ranged hero sniper as you can guess. Enjoys perma-cloaking and a very powerful snipe that works on any unit, not just biologicals. Her default mode is great for picking off key units and of course, nuking locations. She has the following initial abilities:
- Snipe: like mentioned above, a very long range single strike that can target bio and mech alike. You can fire two in quick succession at full energy.
Cloak: free cloaking, what else is there to say? Be sure to take out any detectors to keep her safe.
- Sabotage Drone: deploys an invincible controllable drone that you can move to a location where it can burrow and eventually detonate for massive damage in an area. Very useful as an opener when assaulting locations.
- Detection: upgraded at your ghost academy, this makes Nova a detector. Not much else to say.
- Elite Marine: Beefy marines that come in sets of four. General purpose units that you will need to micro to keep alive. They do have 150 HP, but don't just A-move them; for 600 minerals for a single calldown, you don't want to throw them away. Initially you can get a nifty range upgrade for them, and an even more amazing one as you level.
- Marauder Commando: Beefy marauders that come in pairs. Can initially upgrade them to gain aoe concussive shells for slowing targets, and another upgrade later for more damage.
- Spec Ops Ghost: Finally, ghosts are in co-op. They come with an auto-cast snipe and can gain access to EMP rounds. Note that they do not have energy, but their abilities are time based. In fact, all abilities except Nova's are timer based. For a pair of ghosts, they are VERY expensive, so pay attention to them!
- Hellbat Ranger: Super hellbats that can gain the pre-ignitier and a "leap" attack similar to a charging strike. Perfect against swarmy enemies.
- Strike Goliath: IMO Swann's goliaths are better due to dual-targeting, but these are excellent in their own right. They can research upgraded range on both of their weapons, and eventually allow them to wreck Terran/Protoss air with a certain level perk upgrade.
- Heavy Siege Tank: beastly tanks to say the least. Taking a page out of Sgt. Hammer from Heroes of the Storm, you can upgrade them to arm themselves with spider mines that can be deployed in front of them. Another level perk upgrades makes them ridiculous on defense and assaults.
- Raid Liberators: libs make an appearance with Nova as well. They work similar to the ones in multiplayer, just with bigger numbers. Can be upgraded to allow their air-to-ground attack to target buildings, and another one later with a level perk.
- Raven Type-II: an extremely important unit regardless of what you face. I'll remind you again that Nova's units are not energy based, so don't be shy in using all of their abilities. Railgun turrets are great against any ground target, as they do 30 damage in a straight line. Bio-mechanical repair drone is basically a flying medic that heals any friendly unit (not just bio). Predator missiles are seeker missiles that have no wind-up time. Later upgrades make them even more useful too. Note that this is the only unit that is called down one at a time; most of the others come in pairs.
Covert Banshee: air-to-ground flying specialists. Best used against heavy ground compositions obviously. You can research perma-cloak for them, and another upgrade with leveling perks.
Railgun Turret: a ground defense turret that shoots railgun shots, damaging everything in a line. SCVs can build them for 200 minerals a piece, and can be salvaged later. IMO they are emergency defense unfortunately.
Missie Turret: because every commander needs static detection.
Initial Calldown Abilities
-Defensive Drone: summons a drone that protects a target with a 200HP shield. Hotkey your cooldown abilities; usage of this ability is required at all stages of the game. Can be improved later with leveling perks.
- Instant Regeneration: should Nova fall in battle, you can pay minerals to instantly revive her at any visible location. The cost is based on how much time is remaining before she revives automatically. Until you max out your supply, you may want to hold off on using this skill unless you absolutely need her out.
Level Upgrades
1) Covert Ops: just defines her traits. 100 supply, instantly trained units that are deployed wherever there is vision, and buffed up units in general.
2) Griffin Airstrike: a new calldown ability. When used, you select where the strike will start and the direction. Then the Griffin will appear and carpet bomb the targeted location for extreme damage (I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot to say the least). Just one catch: it costs 1000 minerals! So always spending minerals on units is not always the best idea.
3) Assault Mode: a new skill for Nova. Swaps out her sniper rifle for a shotgun for close range action. Obviously, she cannot snipe, and loses her cloaking, but gains that sweet spread shot from her mission pack. She also gains a blink ability that also give temporary shields. Again, this skill requires planning and knowing what you are up against.
4) Barracks Upgrade Cache: unlocks new upgrades at the barracks tech lab. Super stimpacks heal marines over time instead of damaging them. Marauders can also gain an additional attack which fires every so often (30 seconds?). Doesn't sound like much, but it is free, front-loaded damage.
5) Tactical Airlift: Your other new calldown ability. Summon the Griffin at a targeted location to pick up all friendly units (even your allies' unit) to drop them off at another targeted location. A sorely needed skill for mobility. Oh yeah, this also costs 200 minerals to do. Why does everything cost so much -_-
6) Factory Cache Upgrade: new upgrades for mech units. Goliaths can gain lockdown missiles, stunning air targets they attack. Yeah - if you are against Terran or Protoss air, you want this. Also unlocks the Siege Tank upgrade where being in siege mode gradually increases their range to about double the range! Both of these are crazy good IMO and should not be missed if you go heavy mech.
7) Automated Refineries: just like Vorazun; you get to mine gas without SCVs. In Nova's case, this is even more crucial since that's 12 supply not needed in workers, and with a 100 supply cap, that's sorely needed.
8) Covert Ops Upgrade Cache: unlocks a ghost upgrade to enhance their snipe ability into a "triple tap", where they fire 2 more shots after the initial one, each doing about 1/2 the damage of the first shot. Basically doubles the damage. Also an upgrade for Nova's life regeneration.
9) Tactical Nuke and Holo Decoy: took long enough; you can finally call down nukes in stealth mode (sniper) and create a holo decoy in assault mode (shotgun). The decoy will act on its own. Because free stuff that causes damage is always welcome.
10) Starport Upgrade Cache: unlocks the banshee ability to do an aoe ground attack, and the liberator's transformation time. The former makes the banshee's job a lot easier; before they were simply air snipers. The latter makes liberators a lot easier to use.
11) Research and Development: halves the cost and time of research upgrades. Yes please. Simple and sweet. One big note: this does not affect weapon/armor upgrades. Bummer, but still very useful in getting your troops in top performance.
12) Raven Upgrade Cache: allows the target of their healing drones to be cloaked, as well as to allow an additional charge of all of its abilities. The former sounds great on paper, but consider that many bases will have detection, and that some of the latter Hybrids are detectors themselves. The latter is amazing though; this allows you to spam their skills a lot more.
13) Military Hardware: allows you to store 2 more charges of the defense drone (to a maximum of 5), and lowers the cooldown by 30 secs (initially, it is 90 secs). Can't complain; its a skill you will use a lot, and this lets you use it more often.
14) Nova Upgrade Cache: upgrades for your hero. Snipe will refund 50% of its cost if it kills a unit, and the shotgun's ability gains increased range. Basically, more opportunity to snipe, and a much meaner shotgun blast.
15) Stance Dance: When switching between stealth and assault mode, you instantly refill your energy. The cooldown to switch is also reduced by 15 seconds. This creates some interesting micro potential for Nova, as you can spam abilities, switch, and spam some more. In addition, you get a damage buff when switching to stealth mode and temporary invincibility when switching to assault mode.
Pointers
- First thing to note: no supply depots required. Sounds amazing until you see the costs of everything she owns. Couple that with the fact that she cannot convert command centers into orbital commands; this means no MULES :( I always find myself more mineral starved than gas starved; be sure to saturate your mineral fields before saturating refineries.
- Because of how expensive everything is, you need to figure out what units you need. Units from your production buildings have a cooldown on calling them down, and it always feels like an eternity. In addition, her own calldown abilities have price tags. You really need to plan our your actions before engaging.
- Base management is simple. No need to worry about how many production buildings are needed; just make one of each. No supply blocks other than being maxed out. This means more focus on your army. Losing any unit can hurt a lot, especially in the early game where she still needs to research all of the good stuff.
- Try to be active with Nova at all times. Snipe units and deploy that sabotage drone as much as you can. Don't forget you can control where the drone (and readjust as necessary before it burrows on its own, or manually burrow it early), and that it cannot be destroyed - it appears cloaked, but cannot be attacked at all.
- Planning your attack/defense is crucial for victory. Ravens in particular need to setup their turrets and deploy their missiles; Nova needs to snipe and/or use her drone; defense drones can be set; tanks sieged up, liberators in place, etc. There's a lot of abilities to go around, and you need to use them all. "Classic" stutter-step micro can only get your so far with a low unit count. Practice using hotkeys.
- Similar to the above, planning what to spend your precious resources is also important given the prices. Except for the Raven, you need to know what you need at the right time. Save up for a Griffin Airstrike? Train goliaths for that much needed anti-air and lockdown? Ghosts for EMP against Protoss? Hellbats for zerglings? Fortunately the decisions are not so much based on what production buildings you have, since you need to build all of them anyway.
Nova is a Terran commander that is all about specialization from what the game tells you. She's the first Terran commander that can be controlled on the battlefield with some rather unique traits. She is much more micro oriented; her base building is very simple. You can only build 1 barracks, 1 factory, and 1 starport. You do not train units, but call them down similar to mercs in the WoL campaign (though you call them down anywhere you have vision). Fortunately your production buildings can store up to 3 charges of each calldown. In addition, you get a free ghost academy.
She also has a 100 supply cap, and her forces are not exactly cheap; think Karax costs, then bump it up a bit more. So you can't just parade push; you need to consider what you need based on what AI you are facing. Even some of her abilities cost minerals!
Overall I think she is rewarding, but hard to pick-up. You need to familiarize with the abilities of all of your units to be successful. Her leveling perks will alleviate some of your woes fortunately. She is the first commander where I have to actively plan any assault on a location instead of just building the right unit composition. It is definitely a nice pace changer.
Units
Nova: A ranged hero sniper as you can guess. Enjoys perma-cloaking and a very powerful snipe that works on any unit, not just biologicals. Her default mode is great for picking off key units and of course, nuking locations. She has the following initial abilities:
- Snipe: like mentioned above, a very long range single strike that can target bio and mech alike. You can fire two in quick succession at full energy.
Cloak: free cloaking, what else is there to say? Be sure to take out any detectors to keep her safe.
- Sabotage Drone: deploys an invincible controllable drone that you can move to a location where it can burrow and eventually detonate for massive damage in an area. Very useful as an opener when assaulting locations.
- Detection: upgraded at your ghost academy, this makes Nova a detector. Not much else to say.
- Elite Marine: Beefy marines that come in sets of four. General purpose units that you will need to micro to keep alive. They do have 150 HP, but don't just A-move them; for 600 minerals for a single calldown, you don't want to throw them away. Initially you can get a nifty range upgrade for them, and an even more amazing one as you level.
- Marauder Commando: Beefy marauders that come in pairs. Can initially upgrade them to gain aoe concussive shells for slowing targets, and another upgrade later for more damage.
- Spec Ops Ghost: Finally, ghosts are in co-op. They come with an auto-cast snipe and can gain access to EMP rounds. Note that they do not have energy, but their abilities are time based. In fact, all abilities except Nova's are timer based. For a pair of ghosts, they are VERY expensive, so pay attention to them!
- Hellbat Ranger: Super hellbats that can gain the pre-ignitier and a "leap" attack similar to a charging strike. Perfect against swarmy enemies.
- Strike Goliath: IMO Swann's goliaths are better due to dual-targeting, but these are excellent in their own right. They can research upgraded range on both of their weapons, and eventually allow them to wreck Terran/Protoss air with a certain level perk upgrade.
- Heavy Siege Tank: beastly tanks to say the least. Taking a page out of Sgt. Hammer from Heroes of the Storm, you can upgrade them to arm themselves with spider mines that can be deployed in front of them. Another level perk upgrades makes them ridiculous on defense and assaults.
- Raid Liberators: libs make an appearance with Nova as well. They work similar to the ones in multiplayer, just with bigger numbers. Can be upgraded to allow their air-to-ground attack to target buildings, and another one later with a level perk.
- Raven Type-II: an extremely important unit regardless of what you face. I'll remind you again that Nova's units are not energy based, so don't be shy in using all of their abilities. Railgun turrets are great against any ground target, as they do 30 damage in a straight line. Bio-mechanical repair drone is basically a flying medic that heals any friendly unit (not just bio). Predator missiles are seeker missiles that have no wind-up time. Later upgrades make them even more useful too. Note that this is the only unit that is called down one at a time; most of the others come in pairs.
Covert Banshee: air-to-ground flying specialists. Best used against heavy ground compositions obviously. You can research perma-cloak for them, and another upgrade with leveling perks.
Railgun Turret: a ground defense turret that shoots railgun shots, damaging everything in a line. SCVs can build them for 200 minerals a piece, and can be salvaged later. IMO they are emergency defense unfortunately.
Missie Turret: because every commander needs static detection.
Initial Calldown Abilities
-Defensive Drone: summons a drone that protects a target with a 200HP shield. Hotkey your cooldown abilities; usage of this ability is required at all stages of the game. Can be improved later with leveling perks.
- Instant Regeneration: should Nova fall in battle, you can pay minerals to instantly revive her at any visible location. The cost is based on how much time is remaining before she revives automatically. Until you max out your supply, you may want to hold off on using this skill unless you absolutely need her out.
Level Upgrades
1) Covert Ops: just defines her traits. 100 supply, instantly trained units that are deployed wherever there is vision, and buffed up units in general.
2) Griffin Airstrike: a new calldown ability. When used, you select where the strike will start and the direction. Then the Griffin will appear and carpet bomb the targeted location for extreme damage (I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot to say the least). Just one catch: it costs 1000 minerals! So always spending minerals on units is not always the best idea.
3) Assault Mode: a new skill for Nova. Swaps out her sniper rifle for a shotgun for close range action. Obviously, she cannot snipe, and loses her cloaking, but gains that sweet spread shot from her mission pack. She also gains a blink ability that also give temporary shields. Again, this skill requires planning and knowing what you are up against.
4) Barracks Upgrade Cache: unlocks new upgrades at the barracks tech lab. Super stimpacks heal marines over time instead of damaging them. Marauders can also gain an additional attack which fires every so often (30 seconds?). Doesn't sound like much, but it is free, front-loaded damage.
5) Tactical Airlift: Your other new calldown ability. Summon the Griffin at a targeted location to pick up all friendly units (even your allies' unit) to drop them off at another targeted location. A sorely needed skill for mobility. Oh yeah, this also costs 200 minerals to do. Why does everything cost so much -_-
6) Factory Cache Upgrade: new upgrades for mech units. Goliaths can gain lockdown missiles, stunning air targets they attack. Yeah - if you are against Terran or Protoss air, you want this. Also unlocks the Siege Tank upgrade where being in siege mode gradually increases their range to about double the range! Both of these are crazy good IMO and should not be missed if you go heavy mech.
7) Automated Refineries: just like Vorazun; you get to mine gas without SCVs. In Nova's case, this is even more crucial since that's 12 supply not needed in workers, and with a 100 supply cap, that's sorely needed.
8) Covert Ops Upgrade Cache: unlocks a ghost upgrade to enhance their snipe ability into a "triple tap", where they fire 2 more shots after the initial one, each doing about 1/2 the damage of the first shot. Basically doubles the damage. Also an upgrade for Nova's life regeneration.
9) Tactical Nuke and Holo Decoy: took long enough; you can finally call down nukes in stealth mode (sniper) and create a holo decoy in assault mode (shotgun). The decoy will act on its own. Because free stuff that causes damage is always welcome.
10) Starport Upgrade Cache: unlocks the banshee ability to do an aoe ground attack, and the liberator's transformation time. The former makes the banshee's job a lot easier; before they were simply air snipers. The latter makes liberators a lot easier to use.
11) Research and Development: halves the cost and time of research upgrades. Yes please. Simple and sweet. One big note: this does not affect weapon/armor upgrades. Bummer, but still very useful in getting your troops in top performance.
12) Raven Upgrade Cache: allows the target of their healing drones to be cloaked, as well as to allow an additional charge of all of its abilities. The former sounds great on paper, but consider that many bases will have detection, and that some of the latter Hybrids are detectors themselves. The latter is amazing though; this allows you to spam their skills a lot more.
13) Military Hardware: allows you to store 2 more charges of the defense drone (to a maximum of 5), and lowers the cooldown by 30 secs (initially, it is 90 secs). Can't complain; its a skill you will use a lot, and this lets you use it more often.
14) Nova Upgrade Cache: upgrades for your hero. Snipe will refund 50% of its cost if it kills a unit, and the shotgun's ability gains increased range. Basically, more opportunity to snipe, and a much meaner shotgun blast.
15) Stance Dance: When switching between stealth and assault mode, you instantly refill your energy. The cooldown to switch is also reduced by 15 seconds. This creates some interesting micro potential for Nova, as you can spam abilities, switch, and spam some more. In addition, you get a damage buff when switching to stealth mode and temporary invincibility when switching to assault mode.
Pointers
- First thing to note: no supply depots required. Sounds amazing until you see the costs of everything she owns. Couple that with the fact that she cannot convert command centers into orbital commands; this means no MULES :( I always find myself more mineral starved than gas starved; be sure to saturate your mineral fields before saturating refineries.
- Because of how expensive everything is, you need to figure out what units you need. Units from your production buildings have a cooldown on calling them down, and it always feels like an eternity. In addition, her own calldown abilities have price tags. You really need to plan our your actions before engaging.
- Base management is simple. No need to worry about how many production buildings are needed; just make one of each. No supply blocks other than being maxed out. This means more focus on your army. Losing any unit can hurt a lot, especially in the early game where she still needs to research all of the good stuff.
- Try to be active with Nova at all times. Snipe units and deploy that sabotage drone as much as you can. Don't forget you can control where the drone (and readjust as necessary before it burrows on its own, or manually burrow it early), and that it cannot be destroyed - it appears cloaked, but cannot be attacked at all.
- Planning your attack/defense is crucial for victory. Ravens in particular need to setup their turrets and deploy their missiles; Nova needs to snipe and/or use her drone; defense drones can be set; tanks sieged up, liberators in place, etc. There's a lot of abilities to go around, and you need to use them all. "Classic" stutter-step micro can only get your so far with a low unit count. Practice using hotkeys.
- Similar to the above, planning what to spend your precious resources is also important given the prices. Except for the Raven, you need to know what you need at the right time. Save up for a Griffin Airstrike? Train goliaths for that much needed anti-air and lockdown? Ghosts for EMP against Protoss? Hellbats for zerglings? Fortunately the decisions are not so much based on what production buildings you have, since you need to build all of them anyway.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Alarak (Edgy McEdgelord)
Overview
Alarak is a Protoss commander, who unlike the others, takes a direct part in the battles. In fact, a big thing about making him as buff as he can be. He is the one that should lead an attack, and will always be the last one standing at the cost of your entire army if need be. Once you unlock all of this skills, he is a force to reckon with.
Units
Alarak: A melee hero that is empowered by his "allies" (more like sacrifices). He himself doesn't have a lot of health or shields, but is sustained by the army behind you. He's also got some skills to back up all his smack talk too. He has no energy; all of his skills only have a cooldown.
- Deadly Charge: charges at your selected target or area. It will inflict 200(?) damage if it does connect. Useful for sniping key targets, like disruptors or lurkers. Also gets him into the fray.
- Destruction Wave: an AoE skill in the shape of a rectangle that starts a little bit behind Alarak and extends in front of him. Does 50 damage and knockback. The knockback can act as a short stun, and can wipe out weak enemies. Very effective against smaller Zerg units, and Terran bio.
- Soul Absoprtion: explained later, but it's his ability to steal life from your own units to survive.
- Empower Me: buffs both his normal and skill damage based on how many friendly units are near him. This includes both your own and your ally's units. It can get ridonkulous if you time it just right with your ally. Even gets more powerful after a certain level.
Supplicant: A light, short ranged warrior that you warp in pairs. No zealots for you. They do cost 150 for each pair though, and will eat up supply. They are mainly to keep Alarak supplied with life during a battle as well as weak damage support. They are also used as sacrifices for your ascendants as well.
Slayer: A stalker that needed to be even more edgy. Can blink and gain a skill to avoid damage for a brief moment after taking a hit. More like emergency anti-air if you ask me.
Havoc: A pure support unit from the gateway. It has no attack, but acts as a detector which is rather nice, but also can buff the range of non-melee attacks for you and your ally, and make enemies take more damage. It's worth having a few around, but not too many. Do note that they only cost 1 supply.
Ascendant: The edgy HT. No psi storm, but has a psionic orb skill that launches a ball that travels in a straight line and does AoE damage to anything near it. Mind Blast is a powerful single target skill which is also for sniping. Sacrifice basically kills off a supplicant to restore energy. Later on it also permanently buffs the ascendant and gives it a neat archon like effect.
Vanguard: An immortal that shoots rocket clusters onto an area of ground. Pretty powerful, and can be buffed to be even more effective. Not sure if they are worth it though since they are a robo unit, and the other main robo unit has a unique role in your army. You also have Alarak and Ascendants to do AoE as is.
Wrathwalker: A colossus that replaced its thermal lances for a powerful blast of enregy. You can upgrade it to attack air and ground, and later, a faster attack speed. Note that it has a fairly slow attack speed regardless, but it hits very hard. Also has 9 range to boot. Unlike Karax, these don't cost and arm and leg to make.
War Prism: Because being a warp prism isn't enough. It functions like one, but can actually attack while in transport mode. Otherwise, it's main use is to allow you to warp in anywhere you have them.
Photon Cannon: Because each commander needs static defense available.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Structure Overcharge: temporarily grants any friendly building the ability to defend itself like Photon Overcharge in multiplayer. You can store up to 3 charges at a time. Useful in the early game, and works well in supplementing defense later. Note that you can use it on your ally's structures too.
- Summon Death Fleet: explained later, but it's a summon ability on a long cooldown.
Level Upgrades
1) Soul Absorption: Alarak gains 20 life and 20 shields when an enemy is killed near him. Gives him some ability to sustain himself. This also sacrifices the life of one of your nearby units if Alarak takes fatal damage so he can recover. So in essence, if Alarak dies, that means your whole army was destroyed.
2) Overcharge Amplification: when using structure overcharge, the structure also gains a 200 HP barrier. Helps with defense, so no complaints.
3) Aggressive Tactics - your deadly charge can strike from a further distance, and has a shorter cooldown. Sorely needed since I always felt like I'm waiting on this skill.
4) Death Council Upgrade Cache - unlocks upgrades to grants 25 more shields to supplicants to make them beefier, and the slayer ability to avoid damage for 2 seconds after taking a hit. Both are made to make your standing army last longer.
5) Empower Me: explained earlier, but it's a new ability for Alarak, giving him a lot of power (and I mean a lot in the later game if you build up your numbers).
6) Robotics Bay Upgrade Cache: unlocks the upgrade to the Vanguard's splash area and the Wrathwalker attack speed. Both are useful, the latter even more so. Your anti-air is somewhat limited, and they provide hard-hitting damage against heavy air units.
7) Lightning Surge: basically, when you sacrifice a supplicant, Alarak's next deadly charge is buffed up to do AoE to 4 targets near your primary target. It's amazing once the other upgrade is unlocked for him at level 15.
8) New Unit: Ascendant: Powerful caster. Explained earlier. Strangely I find myself more mineral starved than gas starved, so you should be able to fit some of these in your forces. They do have a normal attack as well, but it does not target air units.
9) Havoc Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades at the cybernetics core, one for increasing the target lock damage and increased range of force field and squad sight. I don't use FF that much, but the buff to the other skills are welcomed.
10) Summon Death Fleet: summons a Mothership and a squad of Destroyers (Tal'Darim void rays) to a targeted location with timed life. Perfect for adding additional punch to an attack or for emergency defense. And they all can attack air targets. The Mothership can use recall to port itself and nearby units to a targeted location. Also gets another ability later. Destroyers are similar to the ones from the campaign with their evil chain lightning attack.
11) Overpowered: just like what it says. Using empower me makes Alarak do AoE with each attack. Yeah.
12) Ascendant Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades to allow psionic orb to travel farther, and allow sacrifice to permanently buff your ascendant's shields and ability damage. It also turns him into an archon (in looks only, but still cool). If you like casters, you'll love this upgrade. Psionic orb can mow through weak units ground and air alike.
13) Burning Skies: your summon death fleet will summon 4 more Destroyers. Your Mothership also gains the thermal lance ability, which does damage across a line that originates from the Mothership itself. It's called a Death Fleet, so it should bring forth death to your enemies.
14) Alarak Upgrade Cache: finally, more upgrades for him. Unlocks the ability to stun with normal attacks (wow), and doubles the knockback from destruction wave. I dunno about the latter since there are some cases where knocking your enemies around may screw up certain things like your ally calldown skills, but the former is very welcomed. Though the knockback also works like a stun, as well as giving your army more distance between them (your Wrathwalkers in particular).
15) Wrath of the Highlord: reduces the cooldown of Alarak's deadly charge and destruction wave abilities when you sacrifice a supplicant. In game it says by 10 and 5 seconds respectively, which I think are almost their normal cooldowns. That means you can spam these a lot whenever Alarak leads the charge.
Pointers
- Photon, I mean structure overcharge, can handle initial attack waves, sometimes by itself. I'd suggest creating a hotkey for abilities like these, since by default the game does not do this.
- You'll be making quite a few suppliants. Consider this in your build order; you don't need to mine gas that quickly.
- A simple go to army composition is Alarak + supplicants + wrathwalkers, with a few havoc sprinkled in there. You might have to build some slayers to start if you desperately need more anti-air capabilities, but Alarak does have a ground-to-air attack, and can use destruction wave to attack air units.
- If you haven't noticed already, he does not have access to stargates. You might want to rely a bit on your ally at first, then later have wrathwalkers or ascendants to help.
- Keep an extra eye on your supply. Supplicants come in pairs, and cost 4 supply each time. You may find yourself supply blocked faster than you expected.
- If Alarak dies, you can warp in supplicants near where he is reviving. He will sacrifice them to gain health to revive faster.
Alarak is a Protoss commander, who unlike the others, takes a direct part in the battles. In fact, a big thing about making him as buff as he can be. He is the one that should lead an attack, and will always be the last one standing at the cost of your entire army if need be. Once you unlock all of this skills, he is a force to reckon with.
Units
Alarak: A melee hero that is empowered by his "allies" (more like sacrifices). He himself doesn't have a lot of health or shields, but is sustained by the army behind you. He's also got some skills to back up all his smack talk too. He has no energy; all of his skills only have a cooldown.
- Deadly Charge: charges at your selected target or area. It will inflict 200(?) damage if it does connect. Useful for sniping key targets, like disruptors or lurkers. Also gets him into the fray.
- Destruction Wave: an AoE skill in the shape of a rectangle that starts a little bit behind Alarak and extends in front of him. Does 50 damage and knockback. The knockback can act as a short stun, and can wipe out weak enemies. Very effective against smaller Zerg units, and Terran bio.
- Soul Absoprtion: explained later, but it's his ability to steal life from your own units to survive.
- Empower Me: buffs both his normal and skill damage based on how many friendly units are near him. This includes both your own and your ally's units. It can get ridonkulous if you time it just right with your ally. Even gets more powerful after a certain level.
Supplicant: A light, short ranged warrior that you warp in pairs. No zealots for you. They do cost 150 for each pair though, and will eat up supply. They are mainly to keep Alarak supplied with life during a battle as well as weak damage support. They are also used as sacrifices for your ascendants as well.
Slayer: A stalker that needed to be even more edgy. Can blink and gain a skill to avoid damage for a brief moment after taking a hit. More like emergency anti-air if you ask me.
Havoc: A pure support unit from the gateway. It has no attack, but acts as a detector which is rather nice, but also can buff the range of non-melee attacks for you and your ally, and make enemies take more damage. It's worth having a few around, but not too many. Do note that they only cost 1 supply.
Ascendant: The edgy HT. No psi storm, but has a psionic orb skill that launches a ball that travels in a straight line and does AoE damage to anything near it. Mind Blast is a powerful single target skill which is also for sniping. Sacrifice basically kills off a supplicant to restore energy. Later on it also permanently buffs the ascendant and gives it a neat archon like effect.
Vanguard: An immortal that shoots rocket clusters onto an area of ground. Pretty powerful, and can be buffed to be even more effective. Not sure if they are worth it though since they are a robo unit, and the other main robo unit has a unique role in your army. You also have Alarak and Ascendants to do AoE as is.
Wrathwalker: A colossus that replaced its thermal lances for a powerful blast of enregy. You can upgrade it to attack air and ground, and later, a faster attack speed. Note that it has a fairly slow attack speed regardless, but it hits very hard. Also has 9 range to boot. Unlike Karax, these don't cost and arm and leg to make.
War Prism: Because being a warp prism isn't enough. It functions like one, but can actually attack while in transport mode. Otherwise, it's main use is to allow you to warp in anywhere you have them.
Photon Cannon: Because each commander needs static defense available.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Structure Overcharge: temporarily grants any friendly building the ability to defend itself like Photon Overcharge in multiplayer. You can store up to 3 charges at a time. Useful in the early game, and works well in supplementing defense later. Note that you can use it on your ally's structures too.
- Summon Death Fleet: explained later, but it's a summon ability on a long cooldown.
Level Upgrades
1) Soul Absorption: Alarak gains 20 life and 20 shields when an enemy is killed near him. Gives him some ability to sustain himself. This also sacrifices the life of one of your nearby units if Alarak takes fatal damage so he can recover. So in essence, if Alarak dies, that means your whole army was destroyed.
2) Overcharge Amplification: when using structure overcharge, the structure also gains a 200 HP barrier. Helps with defense, so no complaints.
3) Aggressive Tactics - your deadly charge can strike from a further distance, and has a shorter cooldown. Sorely needed since I always felt like I'm waiting on this skill.
4) Death Council Upgrade Cache - unlocks upgrades to grants 25 more shields to supplicants to make them beefier, and the slayer ability to avoid damage for 2 seconds after taking a hit. Both are made to make your standing army last longer.
5) Empower Me: explained earlier, but it's a new ability for Alarak, giving him a lot of power (and I mean a lot in the later game if you build up your numbers).
6) Robotics Bay Upgrade Cache: unlocks the upgrade to the Vanguard's splash area and the Wrathwalker attack speed. Both are useful, the latter even more so. Your anti-air is somewhat limited, and they provide hard-hitting damage against heavy air units.
7) Lightning Surge: basically, when you sacrifice a supplicant, Alarak's next deadly charge is buffed up to do AoE to 4 targets near your primary target. It's amazing once the other upgrade is unlocked for him at level 15.
8) New Unit: Ascendant: Powerful caster. Explained earlier. Strangely I find myself more mineral starved than gas starved, so you should be able to fit some of these in your forces. They do have a normal attack as well, but it does not target air units.
9) Havoc Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades at the cybernetics core, one for increasing the target lock damage and increased range of force field and squad sight. I don't use FF that much, but the buff to the other skills are welcomed.
10) Summon Death Fleet: summons a Mothership and a squad of Destroyers (Tal'Darim void rays) to a targeted location with timed life. Perfect for adding additional punch to an attack or for emergency defense. And they all can attack air targets. The Mothership can use recall to port itself and nearby units to a targeted location. Also gets another ability later. Destroyers are similar to the ones from the campaign with their evil chain lightning attack.
11) Overpowered: just like what it says. Using empower me makes Alarak do AoE with each attack. Yeah.
12) Ascendant Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades to allow psionic orb to travel farther, and allow sacrifice to permanently buff your ascendant's shields and ability damage. It also turns him into an archon (in looks only, but still cool). If you like casters, you'll love this upgrade. Psionic orb can mow through weak units ground and air alike.
13) Burning Skies: your summon death fleet will summon 4 more Destroyers. Your Mothership also gains the thermal lance ability, which does damage across a line that originates from the Mothership itself. It's called a Death Fleet, so it should bring forth death to your enemies.
14) Alarak Upgrade Cache: finally, more upgrades for him. Unlocks the ability to stun with normal attacks (wow), and doubles the knockback from destruction wave. I dunno about the latter since there are some cases where knocking your enemies around may screw up certain things like your ally calldown skills, but the former is very welcomed. Though the knockback also works like a stun, as well as giving your army more distance between them (your Wrathwalkers in particular).
15) Wrath of the Highlord: reduces the cooldown of Alarak's deadly charge and destruction wave abilities when you sacrifice a supplicant. In game it says by 10 and 5 seconds respectively, which I think are almost their normal cooldowns. That means you can spam these a lot whenever Alarak leads the charge.
Pointers
- Photon, I mean structure overcharge, can handle initial attack waves, sometimes by itself. I'd suggest creating a hotkey for abilities like these, since by default the game does not do this.
- You'll be making quite a few suppliants. Consider this in your build order; you don't need to mine gas that quickly.
- A simple go to army composition is Alarak + supplicants + wrathwalkers, with a few havoc sprinkled in there. You might have to build some slayers to start if you desperately need more anti-air capabilities, but Alarak does have a ground-to-air attack, and can use destruction wave to attack air units.
- If you haven't noticed already, he does not have access to stargates. You might want to rely a bit on your ally at first, then later have wrathwalkers or ascendants to help.
- Keep an extra eye on your supply. Supplicants come in pairs, and cost 4 supply each time. You may find yourself supply blocked faster than you expected.
- If Alarak dies, you can warp in supplicants near where he is reviving. He will sacrifice them to gain health to revive faster.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Abathur (Biomass useful, must collect)
Overview
Abathur is a Zerg commander that appears to be the flipside of Zagara; instead of cheap throwaway units, you build up units in your swarm to increase in power by collecting biomass from slain enemy units. He is also the first Zerg commander that does not directly take a part in your Zerg army, but can supply your team with defenses and support in his own way. He is more like the Zerg version of Swann. He is all about evolution - as the game progresses, your army will evolve into tougher units, or entirely new units altogether. He is also the first pay-to-play commander too.
Units
Roach: Your basic unit. You do not have access to a spawning pool. These also do not cost any gas unlike the multiplayer version, though they do cost 100 minerals each. However you can get their multiplayer upgrades and some extra ones from the campaign, making them useful no matter what build you go for.
Ravager: a morph of the roach, trading a little bit of health for extra range no armor type. They can serve as a siege unit as well as AoE against ground and air. They can serve as anti-air against AI enemies quite well if you get a lot of them. Note that a lair is needed before you can morph ravagers.
Swarm Queen: The HotS campaign queen makes an appearance here. Since you can't make a spawning pool. your queens require a roach warren instead. You cannot inject with them, but your hatcheries can have a higher max amount of larva each (9 I think). Note that they do cost 50 gas a piece. They can also serve as anti-air, since they aren't slow as molasses off-creep.
Swarm Host: They work sort of differently from the HotS campaign and multiplayer. Attack-moving with them will have them stand a good distance away from enemies while spawning locusts even while they are not burrowed. They can also be upgraded to be not super terrible, though I have trouble finding a proper use for them other than wanting variety in a roach/ravager army. Can be upgraded so their locusts can attack air units, and can gain the deep tunnel skill to teleport to any place you have creep.
Mutalisk: Works like the Brood War version believe it or not. They can morph into other air units described below. They can also gain some nifty unique upgrades from the spire.
Guardian: Massive air-to-ground specialist morphed from a mutalisk. Think of a brood lord, but does not fling broodlings, just a strong attack than be upgraded for additional range. You don't need them in every game, but in certain games they are immensely useful for breaking heavy ground units.
Devourer: Air-to-air specialist morphed from the mutalisk. Not quite the same from Brood War, but do pack a punch, and can be upgraded to do splash. Perfect against large air armies regardless if they are armored or not.
Viper: Aerial caster. Insanely powerful with a set of skills useful to pick off single units or disable clumps of units. Though not really necessary, they can be useful in the hands of a good player.
Overseer: Because you need a detector.
Brutalisk: Ultimate evolution of any ground unit. Very massive, powerful unit that can melee ground units and spit at air units. They can also deep tunnel as well (without needing research).
Leviathan: Ultimate evolution of any air unit. Doesn't have the skills of the HotS version, but are amazing on their own anyway.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Deploy Toxic Nest: place a toxic nest ANYWHERE YOU HAVE VISION. They are not required to be placed on creep. In fact, they generate creep like a creep tumor. They will automatically explode when an enemy walks over them. You can disable this if you want to keep it to maintain creep, which I personally do a lot in situation where I can spread creep quickly. You can hold up to 5 charges (more with mastery levels).
- Mend: Recovers health of all friendly units in a large area. Necessarily to save weakened units. Later upgraded to be doubly useful. It will give a burst heal, and then a heal-over-time. Protoss allies will revover their health, not shields.
Level Upgrades
1) Biomass Harvester: Your units can collect biomass dropped from slain enemies to improve their stats. They can hold up to 100 biomass, in which they gain the ability to undergo an ultimate evolution once unlocked.
2) Ultimate Evolution: Allows units to undergo an ultimate evolution based on whether it is a ground unit (Brutalisk) or air unit (Leviathan). Obvious powerspike since they are amazingly powerful and tanky units. However, you can only have 3 of them at a time; any others will not be allowed to evolve until one dies.
3)Virulent Nests: double biomass from enemies hit by them, and makes them untargetable once fully deployed. Very useful for spreading creep and early defenses.
4) Roach Warren Cache Upgrade: gives Hive tech upgrades for roaches - extra armor when at less than 1/2 health, and improved damage from Ravager bile shots. Decent upgrades based on what you are going for.
5)Improved Mend: allows you to store 2 charges and cuts the cooldown by 30 seconds. Solid power spike, allowing you to be more liberal with the skill's usage. Don't forget you can heal your allies' HP too, and it works on anything.
6) Evolution Chamber Cache Upgrade: allows research for hatcheries and queens. One upgrades allows a double queue for your hatcheries, and the other allows queens to heal a lot more efficiently.
7) Biomass Recovery: Units you own may drop all the biomass they collected upon death. At baseline it's a 50% chance. Not bad, though ideally you wouldn't want them to die at all, though that is sort of hard to avoid as a Zerg player. Can't really complain though.
8) New Unit: Viper: Powerful aerial caster. Can use abduct, disabling cloud (like a superfriendly, more powerful blinding cloud), consume (eat for energy), and parasitic bomb.
9) Infestation Pit Upgrade Cache: upgrades to allow deep tunnel for swarm hosts and a longer stun for the Viper's abduct ability. Deep tunnel is great for quickly defending a position or catching up with an army. The other is more of a gravy upgrade, just to guarantee the abducted unit doesn't get away.
10) Symbiote:Grants all Brutalists and Leviathans a symbiote resembling the ones from Heroes of the Storm (if any of you play that). It looks like some floating hat that will shield it's host as well as attack any hostile unit near it. A simple buff to your heavy hitters.
11) Spire Cache Upgrade: allows research for unique air upgrades. Mutalisks can do double damage to armored units (and don't lose their bouncing glaives), guardians can increase their attack range to absurd levels (though not Tempest range, but still really long), and devourer attacks can become AoE. Not a big power spike, but useful if you can squeeze in these upgrades.
12) Mutagenic Potential: Halves the costs and morphing time of any roach or mutalisk morph. Immensely useful for saving resources (gas in particular). Not much to say but a great level upgrade.
13) Locust Injection: Slain enemy units have a chance to spawn a locust on death. A "win more" level upgrade, but it's passive so I'm not complaining.
14) Roach Evolution: Vile Strain: Roach attacks will now slow their targets by a significant amount in terms of movement and attack speed. Makes roaches very A-move friendly
15) Biotic Leech: Your units can heal every time they attack for 1% of their damage per stack of biomass. Doesn't sound really amazing, but it's free of charge.
Pointers
- Toxic mines augment any defense early on, and can later be used to spread creep anywhere you can see. Abathur will even remind you to use them if you have 5+ charges. Don't forget that your queens can still drop creep tumors - and those don't even cost energy. Work on your creep spread!
- Based on your strategy, you may not need a ton of gas early on. Roaches do not cost gas, and later on, ravager costs aren't extremely gas intensive. Even if you want to focus on air units, try to saturate your mineral lines before taking your expansion's geysers.
- Units that have biomass will grow in size and even start glowing. Keep this in mind if you want to rush to an ultimate evolution. Some builds do not have your massing a ton of roaches; you can simply make a few and focus collecting on those few to reach brutalisk evolutions faster.
- Speaking of biomass, they are dropped when an enemy dies regardless of if you participate or not. If there are any enemy waves that split between your base and your ally's, you might wanna check where your ally fought to see if you can get some free biomass.
- Practice micro with your units. Burrow damaged roaches, move low HP units away before re-engaging, etc. Keeping units alive is very important, especially if you are only building a few units to save money while acccessing an ultimate evolution.
- From my experience I only get gas starved if I go with a heavy air play. Even then, spare minerals should go to roaches if your supply is good.
Abathur is a Zerg commander that appears to be the flipside of Zagara; instead of cheap throwaway units, you build up units in your swarm to increase in power by collecting biomass from slain enemy units. He is also the first Zerg commander that does not directly take a part in your Zerg army, but can supply your team with defenses and support in his own way. He is more like the Zerg version of Swann. He is all about evolution - as the game progresses, your army will evolve into tougher units, or entirely new units altogether. He is also the first pay-to-play commander too.
Units
Roach: Your basic unit. You do not have access to a spawning pool. These also do not cost any gas unlike the multiplayer version, though they do cost 100 minerals each. However you can get their multiplayer upgrades and some extra ones from the campaign, making them useful no matter what build you go for.
Ravager: a morph of the roach, trading a little bit of health for extra range no armor type. They can serve as a siege unit as well as AoE against ground and air. They can serve as anti-air against AI enemies quite well if you get a lot of them. Note that a lair is needed before you can morph ravagers.
Swarm Queen: The HotS campaign queen makes an appearance here. Since you can't make a spawning pool. your queens require a roach warren instead. You cannot inject with them, but your hatcheries can have a higher max amount of larva each (9 I think). Note that they do cost 50 gas a piece. They can also serve as anti-air, since they aren't slow as molasses off-creep.
Swarm Host: They work sort of differently from the HotS campaign and multiplayer. Attack-moving with them will have them stand a good distance away from enemies while spawning locusts even while they are not burrowed. They can also be upgraded to be not super terrible, though I have trouble finding a proper use for them other than wanting variety in a roach/ravager army. Can be upgraded so their locusts can attack air units, and can gain the deep tunnel skill to teleport to any place you have creep.
Mutalisk: Works like the Brood War version believe it or not. They can morph into other air units described below. They can also gain some nifty unique upgrades from the spire.
Guardian: Massive air-to-ground specialist morphed from a mutalisk. Think of a brood lord, but does not fling broodlings, just a strong attack than be upgraded for additional range. You don't need them in every game, but in certain games they are immensely useful for breaking heavy ground units.
Devourer: Air-to-air specialist morphed from the mutalisk. Not quite the same from Brood War, but do pack a punch, and can be upgraded to do splash. Perfect against large air armies regardless if they are armored or not.
Viper: Aerial caster. Insanely powerful with a set of skills useful to pick off single units or disable clumps of units. Though not really necessary, they can be useful in the hands of a good player.
Overseer: Because you need a detector.
Brutalisk: Ultimate evolution of any ground unit. Very massive, powerful unit that can melee ground units and spit at air units. They can also deep tunnel as well (without needing research).
Leviathan: Ultimate evolution of any air unit. Doesn't have the skills of the HotS version, but are amazing on their own anyway.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Deploy Toxic Nest: place a toxic nest ANYWHERE YOU HAVE VISION. They are not required to be placed on creep. In fact, they generate creep like a creep tumor. They will automatically explode when an enemy walks over them. You can disable this if you want to keep it to maintain creep, which I personally do a lot in situation where I can spread creep quickly. You can hold up to 5 charges (more with mastery levels).
- Mend: Recovers health of all friendly units in a large area. Necessarily to save weakened units. Later upgraded to be doubly useful. It will give a burst heal, and then a heal-over-time. Protoss allies will revover their health, not shields.
Level Upgrades
1) Biomass Harvester: Your units can collect biomass dropped from slain enemies to improve their stats. They can hold up to 100 biomass, in which they gain the ability to undergo an ultimate evolution once unlocked.
2) Ultimate Evolution: Allows units to undergo an ultimate evolution based on whether it is a ground unit (Brutalisk) or air unit (Leviathan). Obvious powerspike since they are amazingly powerful and tanky units. However, you can only have 3 of them at a time; any others will not be allowed to evolve until one dies.
3)Virulent Nests: double biomass from enemies hit by them, and makes them untargetable once fully deployed. Very useful for spreading creep and early defenses.
4) Roach Warren Cache Upgrade: gives Hive tech upgrades for roaches - extra armor when at less than 1/2 health, and improved damage from Ravager bile shots. Decent upgrades based on what you are going for.
5)Improved Mend: allows you to store 2 charges and cuts the cooldown by 30 seconds. Solid power spike, allowing you to be more liberal with the skill's usage. Don't forget you can heal your allies' HP too, and it works on anything.
6) Evolution Chamber Cache Upgrade: allows research for hatcheries and queens. One upgrades allows a double queue for your hatcheries, and the other allows queens to heal a lot more efficiently.
7) Biomass Recovery: Units you own may drop all the biomass they collected upon death. At baseline it's a 50% chance. Not bad, though ideally you wouldn't want them to die at all, though that is sort of hard to avoid as a Zerg player. Can't really complain though.
8) New Unit: Viper: Powerful aerial caster. Can use abduct, disabling cloud (like a superfriendly, more powerful blinding cloud), consume (eat for energy), and parasitic bomb.
9) Infestation Pit Upgrade Cache: upgrades to allow deep tunnel for swarm hosts and a longer stun for the Viper's abduct ability. Deep tunnel is great for quickly defending a position or catching up with an army. The other is more of a gravy upgrade, just to guarantee the abducted unit doesn't get away.
10) Symbiote:Grants all Brutalists and Leviathans a symbiote resembling the ones from Heroes of the Storm (if any of you play that). It looks like some floating hat that will shield it's host as well as attack any hostile unit near it. A simple buff to your heavy hitters.
11) Spire Cache Upgrade: allows research for unique air upgrades. Mutalisks can do double damage to armored units (and don't lose their bouncing glaives), guardians can increase their attack range to absurd levels (though not Tempest range, but still really long), and devourer attacks can become AoE. Not a big power spike, but useful if you can squeeze in these upgrades.
12) Mutagenic Potential: Halves the costs and morphing time of any roach or mutalisk morph. Immensely useful for saving resources (gas in particular). Not much to say but a great level upgrade.
13) Locust Injection: Slain enemy units have a chance to spawn a locust on death. A "win more" level upgrade, but it's passive so I'm not complaining.
14) Roach Evolution: Vile Strain: Roach attacks will now slow their targets by a significant amount in terms of movement and attack speed. Makes roaches very A-move friendly
15) Biotic Leech: Your units can heal every time they attack for 1% of their damage per stack of biomass. Doesn't sound really amazing, but it's free of charge.
Pointers
- Toxic mines augment any defense early on, and can later be used to spread creep anywhere you can see. Abathur will even remind you to use them if you have 5+ charges. Don't forget that your queens can still drop creep tumors - and those don't even cost energy. Work on your creep spread!
- Based on your strategy, you may not need a ton of gas early on. Roaches do not cost gas, and later on, ravager costs aren't extremely gas intensive. Even if you want to focus on air units, try to saturate your mineral lines before taking your expansion's geysers.
- Units that have biomass will grow in size and even start glowing. Keep this in mind if you want to rush to an ultimate evolution. Some builds do not have your massing a ton of roaches; you can simply make a few and focus collecting on those few to reach brutalisk evolutions faster.
- Speaking of biomass, they are dropped when an enemy dies regardless of if you participate or not. If there are any enemy waves that split between your base and your ally's, you might wanna check where your ally fought to see if you can get some free biomass.
- Practice micro with your units. Burrow damaged roaches, move low HP units away before re-engaging, etc. Keeping units alive is very important, especially if you are only building a few units to save money while acccessing an ultimate evolution.
- From my experience I only get gas starved if I go with a heavy air play. Even then, spare minerals should go to roaches if your supply is good.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Protoss and the Archon/Chargelot/Immortal combo
This seems to be the new go-to strategy for Protoss in ZvP. I do tend to run into this more and more.
Protoss open with a few phoenix to harass mineral lines and snipe wandering overlords. This will force a few spores at each base, and possibly hydralisks. Then transition into this strong combination of units and push after getting 3-4 archons.
Zealots will take care of lings and deal upfront damage with charge.
Archons can take a lot of punishment while dealing a lot as well.
Immortals are similar but are more against roaches and ultralisks.
Overall it's a very strong composition right now:
Zerglings can be dealt with by zealots and archons.
Roaches get owned by immortals. Ravagers can force them to move though.
Hydras are too squishy.
Mutas are warded off by archons.
Ultralisks can be countered by immortals.
If they sprinkle in a warp prism it can get pretty dicey.
There are counters to this. Good positioning of zerg units can do well, so where the battles take place is crucial. If zerglings can get to immortals it's not as rough. If you throw in more types of units, you can expect the Protoss too as well:
Lurkers could do well, but you need to snipe observers. Surviving phoenix can lift them, and immortals are tough enough to kill them straight up. Protoss can also respond with disruptors.
Brood Lords do work well too, but are at the very end of the tech tree, and I'd expect the Protoss to be at the end of their tech tree too. That means tempests can be added to snipe your brood lords.
Infestors can help obviously, but how much is not really known; I haven't seen or used infestors against this comp yet. Usually, HT's are added into the protoss comp, and they can feedback any caster you bring. Not to mention storming your army to soften them up as well.
Vipers could be useful in pulling immortals/archons into your army, but that's about it. Nothing in that composition is required to be stationary, so blinding cloud may not be appropriate.
So for now, this seems to be a focus point for mid/late game ZvP. How would you handle this?
Protoss open with a few phoenix to harass mineral lines and snipe wandering overlords. This will force a few spores at each base, and possibly hydralisks. Then transition into this strong combination of units and push after getting 3-4 archons.
Zealots will take care of lings and deal upfront damage with charge.
Archons can take a lot of punishment while dealing a lot as well.
Immortals are similar but are more against roaches and ultralisks.
Overall it's a very strong composition right now:
Zerglings can be dealt with by zealots and archons.
Roaches get owned by immortals. Ravagers can force them to move though.
Hydras are too squishy.
Mutas are warded off by archons.
Ultralisks can be countered by immortals.
If they sprinkle in a warp prism it can get pretty dicey.
There are counters to this. Good positioning of zerg units can do well, so where the battles take place is crucial. If zerglings can get to immortals it's not as rough. If you throw in more types of units, you can expect the Protoss too as well:
Lurkers could do well, but you need to snipe observers. Surviving phoenix can lift them, and immortals are tough enough to kill them straight up. Protoss can also respond with disruptors.
Brood Lords do work well too, but are at the very end of the tech tree, and I'd expect the Protoss to be at the end of their tech tree too. That means tempests can be added to snipe your brood lords.
Infestors can help obviously, but how much is not really known; I haven't seen or used infestors against this comp yet. Usually, HT's are added into the protoss comp, and they can feedback any caster you bring. Not to mention storming your army to soften them up as well.
Vipers could be useful in pulling immortals/archons into your army, but that's about it. Nothing in that composition is required to be stationary, so blinding cloud may not be appropriate.
So for now, this seems to be a focus point for mid/late game ZvP. How would you handle this?
Sunday, January 31, 2016
High Diamond Low Masters (ahem)
Yeah, it's an old, overused statement from back in the day, but it's rare that I can get into dimaond league so quickly after a new season starts. And this came with a patch that nerfed vipers a bit.
I still struggle against a Terran a lot, though my promotion came from a ZvT. Pretty entertaining too: fending off some hellbat/banshee pressure into fighting off early SkyTerran with a crapton of corruptors with hydralisk support surprisingly.
The game immediately placed me at the top of my division too. Don't think that really translates into easy masters.
I still struggle against a Terran a lot, though my promotion came from a ZvT. Pretty entertaining too: fending off some hellbat/banshee pressure into fighting off early SkyTerran with a crapton of corruptors with hydralisk support surprisingly.
The game immediately placed me at the top of my division too. Don't think that really translates into easy masters.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
The state of ZvZ (as of January 2016)
Each mirror matchup seems to have its own set of complaints (TvT is all about tank drops, PvP is disruptor ping-pong). But ZvZ is an entirely different beast in my opinion on how ridiculous it can be. Right now it is almost a coin-flip matchup where early scouting doesn't help and ling/bling wars reign in the early game even more so than HotS and WoL. The matchup in its entirely isn't bad, but I'll sound off on the negatives first.
Because each match begins with 12 workers instead of 6, this means build orders can be executed faster. Notably, the 13/12 is a powerful opener in any ZvZ matchup. If you drone scout to find this, you cannot react fast enough to properly counter-build; you will have most likely already put down your pool or hatchery. At best you'll have to fly overlords in their general direction to see if any rush is coming.
Following this of course is ling and bling micro. Because agression/rushing/whatever you want to call it is prevalent in this map pool, you'll have no choice but to micro your zerglings in every engagement, as well as proper baneling micro to either avoid a huge detonation from your opponent, or not to detonate one of your own to 1-2 enemy lings. Separate your lings and blings into different control groups at the minimum.
OL placement is pretty key too. Usual places include just outside your opponent's ramp, or common pathways to your base. They'll only be in danger of ravagers and mutas for the most part. Queens can shoo off overlords that float too close to a base.
If you can get past the ling/bling stage, the matchup can diversify a bit. Some will get a "safety" roach warren for a few defensive roaches to plug up a choke point against future ling aggression. Others may just focus on mass roaches with some ravagers. The other, older option is mutalisks. Mass mutas was a thing in WoL, then died down in HotS, and is now making a comeback. This is mainly due to changes with the spore crawler. Right now they do bonus damage to biological units, but not as much as the HotS days, so they won't 3-shot mutalisks. While solid counters in the infestor and viper exists, teching to them in a muta vs muta war is incredibly difficult; maintaining a mutalisk flock is very gas intensive, and if your opponent finds out you are slowing down muta production at any time they can just fly in and kill you outright. ZvZ tends to be very snowbally in general, with muta wars being the biggest culprit. The lone expection of slowing down muta production for something else is for the +1 flyer carapace upgrade, because it affects every part of the muta's glaive worm attack.
Upgrades of course are very important too. +1 range attack will allow roaches to kill a zergling in 2 hits. This will ensure the end of the zergling rush phase of the game (not that zerglings can't be useful afterwards; run-bys are still very potent). As mentioned earlier, +1 flyer carapace has huge benefits in mutalisk wars. Speed upgrades for any unit doesn't even need to be mentioned on their importance.
After entering the mid-game, roach compositions can start to include lurkers for zone control. Hydralisks seem like the natural answer to mutalisks for Zergs that prefer to stay on ground, but you need a lot of numbers. They are still just as flimsy as ever, and can still be countered by flanking banelings. Making them to get to lurkers is a different story. Because of their long range they do create positional play in ZvZ matches where both players go this route.
If games get to the late game, ultras are basically the end-all of ground forces. 8 armor really toughens them against all ground units (they deal with Terran bio rather handily, and they have much better DPS than a typical zerg ground force). Mass air could still work, but you have to watch for vipers, because parasitic bomb can absolutely wreck your flock if you don't pay attention even with the impending nerf. Brood lords are still very good as long as you don't require them to fly across the whole map to do some damage.
ZvZ starts off as a blind knife fight in a telephone booth, but has the potential to become very engaging. Thankfully, Blizzard has rescinded on making any nerfs to spore crawlers so ZvZ doesn't return to muta vs muta all the time.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Reactionary Play still exists
The Zerg is most known for their ability to adapt to whatever conditions they are in (which is strange to me, since I've played BW and they were known for swarming more than that back then). In this game's terms, you'll need to be able to scout your opponent and make the necessary tweaks to your build or strategy.
Generally, the very first things you should do when a game starts is to build a drone (unless you're doing a cheesy 12 pool haha), and then send your overlord towards your oppoenent's base. I tend to send it towards an expansion or ramp of where I think my opponent spawned. It doesn't always have to head straight over either; on some maps, you may want to send it to common areas where a proxy would be set up, or wait for your 2nd overlord to do that.
Now for the hard part: what intel are you getting from scouting, and what does it mean? Granted I'm at Platinum as I write this, but I can get an inkling on what my opponent's general strategy is. Also important is when you scout, because you can estimate certain timings based off of it.
Scouting Terran
In General: add-ons can tell a lot about the Terran's opening strategy. For quick access and swapping, usually the production buildings will be close together, allowing a scouting drone to get an idea of what units will likely be made.
No Rax at ramp: proxy. Immediately get defenses up: lings, queens, spines. Assuming you did go hatch first, you'll have to decide if your natural is worth saving. Certain maps make proxy rax rushing very powerul, so note those maps and be sure to scout areas where proxies are built (usually a drone scout at 17 can find it before an OL reaches your opponent's ramp). You'll also have to do whatever it takes to delay production; even using the scouting drone to attack the SCV building the rax. If marines and bunkers are in position you're in trouble.
Rax at ramp with no add-on producing: usually for the first reaper to scout and annoy you. Haven't met a Terran yet that used it to make a marine to kill your OL, but don't put your scout right over the barracks to temp them.
Factory with Reactor: may be for 4-8 hellions for harassing your drone line, or for hellbat timing. For the latter you need more information.
Factory with Reactor and Armory: hellbat push. Best way would be to try to hit them with a lot of zerglings while they are in mid-transit, or roaches with some kiting to handle hellbats. This comes in a variety of flavors:
- No starport = no medivacs, but the push will come quicker
- Barracks w/ tech lab: marauders instead of marines for support. Roach/ling and a couple of ravagers work.
- All 3 production buildings: medivacs most likely.
- Some odd combination of the above could happen too.
Factory with Tech lab and Starport: possible tankivac play. Ravagers are need to force tanks to get picked up. Be wary of positioning; you may need either roaches or lings to quickly reach that tank that is getting plopped in areas hard to reach.
Starport with Tech Lab: banshee harass. Queens and spores will need to be ready. Extra queens preferably; they can either heal, or place extra creep tumors if banshee harass is light. If you find a fusion core, they're getting banshee speed as well; you'll have more time, but the attack will hit harder.
Starport with Reactor or no add-on: liberators incoming. You will need 4 ravagers to shoot them down with bile shots. Queens usually cannot handle them alone. Waiting until you get mutalisks/corruptor may take too long unless you went spire tech on 2 bases (even then that's risky)
CC at Natural: should be safe to take a 3rd base.
CC at 3rd base: should be safe to take a 4th base.
Scouting Protoss
In General: your second OL should hover over your expansion site. Watch for any probe that tries to warp in pylons behind the mineral line. You'll need 4-5 drones to kill off a pylon in a somewhat timely manner - they can mine at the expansion if you went hatchery first.
No structures at ramp: proxy. Check your expansions.
1 Gate + Cybernetics Core: general 1 gate build; could be another gate behind it for adept pressure.
Twilight Council: adept or blink research
Starport: oracle or phoenix harass. You can see what unit is producing if you pay attention to the outline in the starport. Both can be countered with a spore in each base. If phoenix, reposition your OLs to either be in locations phoenix will likely not pass by, or over spores.
Robo Bay + Low # of Gates: probably for a warp prism for some drop play. Adept harass currently terrorizes Terrans, and are also very annoying for Zerg too.
Robo Bay + High # of Gates: if more than 4 gates are seen, then there will be some timing attack incoming. 4 gates can be supported from 1 base; 7 from 2 bases. Keep those numbers in mind. Immortal/sentry pushes are not dead, even if ravagers exist.
4 Gates on 1 Base: all-in attack. May want to see the gas count too; it could come with a +1 attack variation, meaning your zerglings are going to suck against zealots even more if it does.
Scouting Zerg
In General: drone scouting is not advised because of how fast ZvZ tends to be. That drone that is scouting is a drone not mining, which can be a deciding factor in the meta of 13/12 and 14/14.
Hatchery at Expansion: you'll need to see how much HP it has. If it has a lot, then most likely your opponent went hatch first. If low, a pool first.
Extractors: if you click on them you can see how much gas remains. This can tip you off on whether the enemy may try to add banelings, roaches, or mass lings (the latter would have pulled workers off of gas). If you scout a bit later, count how many extractors your opponent has.
Multiple Spines at Entrance: more often than not it's a delay tactic to get mutas. Spines cost no gas, and the limiting factor for mutalisk play is gas obviously. Related to the previous tip, if your opponent is on 2 bases and already has all 4 extractors, that means he/she is banking up gas for mutalisks.
Ling Pressure: this one is a little hard to explain and gauge properly. Mostly, the beginning of the game will have ling fights, and then bling/ling fights. You have to get a feel on who is winning these, and if the opponent is reinforcing a lot. No reinforcements = droning. There is no simple way to tell if you should counter or not because of how fast things can go in ZvZ fights and the mind games that go on (retreating = losing, or baiting you into a baneling trap?) Even if you are taking favorable engagements, a single baneling can change everything.
Buildings in General: most zerg buildings shiver or shake when they are researching something. Some animation is always going on for any building of any race, but it is usually easier to notice against T and P.
Generally, the very first things you should do when a game starts is to build a drone (unless you're doing a cheesy 12 pool haha), and then send your overlord towards your oppoenent's base. I tend to send it towards an expansion or ramp of where I think my opponent spawned. It doesn't always have to head straight over either; on some maps, you may want to send it to common areas where a proxy would be set up, or wait for your 2nd overlord to do that.
Now for the hard part: what intel are you getting from scouting, and what does it mean? Granted I'm at Platinum as I write this, but I can get an inkling on what my opponent's general strategy is. Also important is when you scout, because you can estimate certain timings based off of it.
Scouting Terran
In General: add-ons can tell a lot about the Terran's opening strategy. For quick access and swapping, usually the production buildings will be close together, allowing a scouting drone to get an idea of what units will likely be made.
No Rax at ramp: proxy. Immediately get defenses up: lings, queens, spines. Assuming you did go hatch first, you'll have to decide if your natural is worth saving. Certain maps make proxy rax rushing very powerul, so note those maps and be sure to scout areas where proxies are built (usually a drone scout at 17 can find it before an OL reaches your opponent's ramp). You'll also have to do whatever it takes to delay production; even using the scouting drone to attack the SCV building the rax. If marines and bunkers are in position you're in trouble.
Rax at ramp with no add-on producing: usually for the first reaper to scout and annoy you. Haven't met a Terran yet that used it to make a marine to kill your OL, but don't put your scout right over the barracks to temp them.
Factory with Reactor: may be for 4-8 hellions for harassing your drone line, or for hellbat timing. For the latter you need more information.
Factory with Reactor and Armory: hellbat push. Best way would be to try to hit them with a lot of zerglings while they are in mid-transit, or roaches with some kiting to handle hellbats. This comes in a variety of flavors:
- No starport = no medivacs, but the push will come quicker
- Barracks w/ tech lab: marauders instead of marines for support. Roach/ling and a couple of ravagers work.
- All 3 production buildings: medivacs most likely.
- Some odd combination of the above could happen too.
Factory with Tech lab and Starport: possible tankivac play. Ravagers are need to force tanks to get picked up. Be wary of positioning; you may need either roaches or lings to quickly reach that tank that is getting plopped in areas hard to reach.
Starport with Tech Lab: banshee harass. Queens and spores will need to be ready. Extra queens preferably; they can either heal, or place extra creep tumors if banshee harass is light. If you find a fusion core, they're getting banshee speed as well; you'll have more time, but the attack will hit harder.
Starport with Reactor or no add-on: liberators incoming. You will need 4 ravagers to shoot them down with bile shots. Queens usually cannot handle them alone. Waiting until you get mutalisks/corruptor may take too long unless you went spire tech on 2 bases (even then that's risky)
CC at Natural: should be safe to take a 3rd base.
CC at 3rd base: should be safe to take a 4th base.
Scouting Protoss
In General: your second OL should hover over your expansion site. Watch for any probe that tries to warp in pylons behind the mineral line. You'll need 4-5 drones to kill off a pylon in a somewhat timely manner - they can mine at the expansion if you went hatchery first.
No structures at ramp: proxy. Check your expansions.
1 Gate + Cybernetics Core: general 1 gate build; could be another gate behind it for adept pressure.
Twilight Council: adept or blink research
Starport: oracle or phoenix harass. You can see what unit is producing if you pay attention to the outline in the starport. Both can be countered with a spore in each base. If phoenix, reposition your OLs to either be in locations phoenix will likely not pass by, or over spores.
Robo Bay + Low # of Gates: probably for a warp prism for some drop play. Adept harass currently terrorizes Terrans, and are also very annoying for Zerg too.
Robo Bay + High # of Gates: if more than 4 gates are seen, then there will be some timing attack incoming. 4 gates can be supported from 1 base; 7 from 2 bases. Keep those numbers in mind. Immortal/sentry pushes are not dead, even if ravagers exist.
4 Gates on 1 Base: all-in attack. May want to see the gas count too; it could come with a +1 attack variation, meaning your zerglings are going to suck against zealots even more if it does.
Scouting Zerg
In General: drone scouting is not advised because of how fast ZvZ tends to be. That drone that is scouting is a drone not mining, which can be a deciding factor in the meta of 13/12 and 14/14.
Hatchery at Expansion: you'll need to see how much HP it has. If it has a lot, then most likely your opponent went hatch first. If low, a pool first.
Extractors: if you click on them you can see how much gas remains. This can tip you off on whether the enemy may try to add banelings, roaches, or mass lings (the latter would have pulled workers off of gas). If you scout a bit later, count how many extractors your opponent has.
Multiple Spines at Entrance: more often than not it's a delay tactic to get mutas. Spines cost no gas, and the limiting factor for mutalisk play is gas obviously. Related to the previous tip, if your opponent is on 2 bases and already has all 4 extractors, that means he/she is banking up gas for mutalisks.
Ling Pressure: this one is a little hard to explain and gauge properly. Mostly, the beginning of the game will have ling fights, and then bling/ling fights. You have to get a feel on who is winning these, and if the opponent is reinforcing a lot. No reinforcements = droning. There is no simple way to tell if you should counter or not because of how fast things can go in ZvZ fights and the mind games that go on (retreating = losing, or baiting you into a baneling trap?) Even if you are taking favorable engagements, a single baneling can change everything.
Buildings in General: most zerg buildings shiver or shake when they are researching something. Some animation is always going on for any building of any race, but it is usually easier to notice against T and P.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Basic Zerg Openers
I wanted to use this to discuss my basic openers in all matchups, and maybe get some feedback and share other possible openers and builds. So without further ado...
ZvT Macro Opener
17H / 18G/ 17P
19 OL, halt drone production for now
@pool, 2x queens, 2-4 lings
@100 gas ling speed
2-4x lings if necessary, resume droning
32 3rd hatch if safe
31 OL
My most common build against Terran. With this setup you can immediately start production of 2 queens, ling speed, and 2-3x pairs of zerglings based on whether you think you can handle reaper openings. After this, you may pull 2 workers off of gas for extra mineral income, or leave them for roach/ravager production. If you scout with a drone, if you notice no expansion from the Terrans, do not make your 3rd hatchery yet. If you see no expansion after 4 minutes or so, expect some all-in. Roaches should handle hellbats, queens for banshees, ravagers for liberators (3-4 ravager bile shots to kill a liberator). More lings against more reapers; as long as you micro them a bit and avoid mines. Your first set of lings should pop up just in time to handle a standard reaper opening on any map. It gets a lot easier to defend once speed is done.
ZvP Macro Opener
17H / 17P / 17G
19 OL
@pool, 2x queens, 2-4 lings, resume droning
32 hatch if safe
Here, this accommodates the possibility of some proxy shenanigans or offensive cannon rushes at your expansion. You could also use my ZvT macro build if you feel safe, and even omit the ling speed if you want to really rush ravagers; just remember to get ling speed at some point because lings are always good reinforcement units and you want them ASAP (I didn't mention to get ling speed because you may skip it in some cases). Your initial zerglings can either scout or deal with pylon blocks at your expansions. Gas isn't needed ASAP like against reapers. You'll probably have adepts to contend with, in which queens and zerglings can hold them off. You may need up to 8 lings to deal with 2 adepts backed up by a queen.
ZvP Safety Opener
17P / 17H
@pool, queen, 4 lings
@100 minerals OL
If for whatever reason you suspect some really cheeky play by the Protoss, you can open with a pool first to ensure that any proxy can be dealt with. After this, the rest of the build sort of follows the macro opener, except of course you can't get speed nearly as fast. Just ensure you have 250 minerals when the pool finishes to make a queen and 4 lings immediately. Also watch your supply count; what I just mentioned needs 4 free supply. That would normally mean halting drones at 18/22 supply until you start producing lings. Only issue with this is that since the hatchery is later, there is a higher chance of a pylon block occurring.
ZvZ Blind ling/bling rush
13G / 12P
13 OL
14 6 lings, ling speed
17 lings
18 queen
20 lings
21 lings
@50 gas bane nest
21 OL
Yes, this is a very quick gas and pool. As much of a rush strategy, it is almost standard given how drone scouting in ZvZ puts you at in inherit disadvantage right now, even on 4 player maps. After getting lings at 21, you should get to your opponent's base and decide if you want to continue the attack or resume drone production. Saw this first explained in Fenner's stream, and it's quite used at high level play. Success is determined mostly by how your opponent reacts if their opener wasn't 13/12 or 14/14.
ZvZ rush defense
17P / 17G / 17H
A safer opener, but obviously puts your economy behind a hatch first opener. Faster access to queens and lings, and spines if you need it. Right now, OLs can't get proper intel in a timely manner; usually you can see a ling rush while your OLs are still flying to your opponent's base. Start practicing your ling/bling micro. You could also swap the gas and hatch timing if you are committed to defense, but I still prefer the faster speed. If a rush is spotted, get a spine crawler. Good sim city is also preferred to prevent surrounds on your queen, spine, or getting into your mineral line.
14/14 speed opener
14G / 14P
Not as extreme as the 13/12 ZvZ opener, but can really punish certain T or P builds that expand quickly. I don't use this much in LotV, since OL scouting isn't quick enough to determine if this can punish an greedy build unless you do a really early drone scout. In HotS there was an extension of this which was a quick +1 carapace build. You'd get ling speed immediately and continue to get gas, and then start an evo chamber once you got 72 gas, allowing you to have 150 gas when the evo chamber finished. In the current meta, I'd doubt you'd finish +1 armor before pressure arrived at your doorstep.
What's so magical about 17?
16 workers will give optimal mining at your mineral line. That 17'th worker will make buildings without disrupting it.
Why is drone scouting bad in ZvZ?
A big change from HotS to LotV was the initial worker count doubling from 6 to 12. This means you can execute a build much faster. It mostly removed the initial stages of the game where almost every build order just built workers and supply up to a number in the teens. Now this just cuts that part out, which speeds up the game overall. It also means your scouting information will come later than compared to HotS. Usually, with a drone scout it will already be too late.
This is obviously not comprehensive; there are other sites that have builds that go into huge detail about timings and what to expect. But this is a listing of builds I consider at my level for now. I'll try to incorporate more as I play more.
ZvT Macro Opener
17H / 18G/ 17P
19 OL, halt drone production for now
@pool, 2x queens, 2-4 lings
@100 gas ling speed
2-4x lings if necessary, resume droning
32 3rd hatch if safe
31 OL
My most common build against Terran. With this setup you can immediately start production of 2 queens, ling speed, and 2-3x pairs of zerglings based on whether you think you can handle reaper openings. After this, you may pull 2 workers off of gas for extra mineral income, or leave them for roach/ravager production. If you scout with a drone, if you notice no expansion from the Terrans, do not make your 3rd hatchery yet. If you see no expansion after 4 minutes or so, expect some all-in. Roaches should handle hellbats, queens for banshees, ravagers for liberators (3-4 ravager bile shots to kill a liberator). More lings against more reapers; as long as you micro them a bit and avoid mines. Your first set of lings should pop up just in time to handle a standard reaper opening on any map. It gets a lot easier to defend once speed is done.
ZvP Macro Opener
17H / 17P / 17G
19 OL
@pool, 2x queens, 2-4 lings, resume droning
32 hatch if safe
Here, this accommodates the possibility of some proxy shenanigans or offensive cannon rushes at your expansion. You could also use my ZvT macro build if you feel safe, and even omit the ling speed if you want to really rush ravagers; just remember to get ling speed at some point because lings are always good reinforcement units and you want them ASAP (I didn't mention to get ling speed because you may skip it in some cases). Your initial zerglings can either scout or deal with pylon blocks at your expansions. Gas isn't needed ASAP like against reapers. You'll probably have adepts to contend with, in which queens and zerglings can hold them off. You may need up to 8 lings to deal with 2 adepts backed up by a queen.
ZvP Safety Opener
17P / 17H
@pool, queen, 4 lings
@100 minerals OL
If for whatever reason you suspect some really cheeky play by the Protoss, you can open with a pool first to ensure that any proxy can be dealt with. After this, the rest of the build sort of follows the macro opener, except of course you can't get speed nearly as fast. Just ensure you have 250 minerals when the pool finishes to make a queen and 4 lings immediately. Also watch your supply count; what I just mentioned needs 4 free supply. That would normally mean halting drones at 18/22 supply until you start producing lings. Only issue with this is that since the hatchery is later, there is a higher chance of a pylon block occurring.
ZvZ Blind ling/bling rush
13G / 12P
13 OL
14 6 lings, ling speed
17 lings
18 queen
20 lings
21 lings
@50 gas bane nest
21 OL
Yes, this is a very quick gas and pool. As much of a rush strategy, it is almost standard given how drone scouting in ZvZ puts you at in inherit disadvantage right now, even on 4 player maps. After getting lings at 21, you should get to your opponent's base and decide if you want to continue the attack or resume drone production. Saw this first explained in Fenner's stream, and it's quite used at high level play. Success is determined mostly by how your opponent reacts if their opener wasn't 13/12 or 14/14.
ZvZ rush defense
17P / 17G / 17H
A safer opener, but obviously puts your economy behind a hatch first opener. Faster access to queens and lings, and spines if you need it. Right now, OLs can't get proper intel in a timely manner; usually you can see a ling rush while your OLs are still flying to your opponent's base. Start practicing your ling/bling micro. You could also swap the gas and hatch timing if you are committed to defense, but I still prefer the faster speed. If a rush is spotted, get a spine crawler. Good sim city is also preferred to prevent surrounds on your queen, spine, or getting into your mineral line.
14/14 speed opener
14G / 14P
Not as extreme as the 13/12 ZvZ opener, but can really punish certain T or P builds that expand quickly. I don't use this much in LotV, since OL scouting isn't quick enough to determine if this can punish an greedy build unless you do a really early drone scout. In HotS there was an extension of this which was a quick +1 carapace build. You'd get ling speed immediately and continue to get gas, and then start an evo chamber once you got 72 gas, allowing you to have 150 gas when the evo chamber finished. In the current meta, I'd doubt you'd finish +1 armor before pressure arrived at your doorstep.
What's so magical about 17?
16 workers will give optimal mining at your mineral line. That 17'th worker will make buildings without disrupting it.
Why is drone scouting bad in ZvZ?
A big change from HotS to LotV was the initial worker count doubling from 6 to 12. This means you can execute a build much faster. It mostly removed the initial stages of the game where almost every build order just built workers and supply up to a number in the teens. Now this just cuts that part out, which speeds up the game overall. It also means your scouting information will come later than compared to HotS. Usually, with a drone scout it will already be too late.
This is obviously not comprehensive; there are other sites that have builds that go into huge detail about timings and what to expect. But this is a listing of builds I consider at my level for now. I'll try to incorporate more as I play more.
SC2 Abbreviations and the Like
Throughout these posts (and in most things SC2 and even non-SC2) related, there will be much use of abbreviations, shortenings, or alternate names to many terms. I'll use this post to clarify what I mean when I use them, though a lot of them can be figured out by simple context.
Since this is a Zerg blog, I'll start with them. Not everything has a nickname, like Roach or Ravagers. But I will try to be as complete as I can be. Here's a list of ones used frequently:
Zergling: ling
Baneling: bling, bane
Overlord: OL, ovie
Hatchery: hatch, H (used in describing openers)
Hydralisk: hydra
Mutalisk: muta
Infestor: WINfestor (they were in Wings of Liberty at least, but they are creeping back up in LotV)
Brood Lord: BL, brood
Ultralisk: ultras
Swarm Host: SH, money host, cash hosts (mostly referring to the HotS days)
Extractor: gas, G (similar use as H)
Evolution Chamber: evo, evo chamber
Spawning Pool: pool, P (similar use as H)
Spine Crawler: spine
Spore Crawler: spore
Nydus Network/Worm: nydus
LBM: ling/bling/muta (zerglings, banelings, mutalisks)
Morphing: building a unit or structure (technically, drones morph into structures, larvae morph into the various zerg units, and some zerg units can morph into other zerg units)
Droning: building drones
Now with the other races, starting with Terran:
MMM: marine, marauder, medivac
MMMM or 4M: MMM + widow mines
Bio: unit composition that is primarily made up of units produced from the barracks. It does not only contain those units, as medivacs are always included (MMM for example is bio)
Mech: unit composition primarily made up of units from the factory
SkyTerran: unit composition made up from the starport
Siege Tank: tanks
Widow Mine: mine
Liberators: FREEDOM, libs
Battlecruiser: BC
Medivac: boostvac, speedvac, vac
Tanks + Medivac: tankivac
Command Center: CC
Orbital Command: OC
Plantetary Fortress: PF
Engineering Bay: ebay
Missile Turret: turret
Barracks: rax
Factory: fact
Starport: port
Fusion Core: core
Refinery: gas
1/1/1: one barracks, one factory, one starport build
Pull the Boys: bringing SCVs into an attack
And now, the Protoss:
Zealot: zeal
High Templar: HT, temp
Psionic Storm: psi storm, storm
Dark Templar: DT
Observer: obs
Colossus: col
Immortal: immo
Warp Prism: WP
Phoenix: nix
Void Ray: VR
Mothership Core: MSC, momma core
Gateway/Warp Gate: gate
Assimilator: gas
Cybernetics Core: core, CC (rarely used since CC is mainly for Terrans)
Forge Fast Expand: FFE (building a forge, then a nexus)
Gateway Expand: building a gateway, then a nexus
Twilight Council: TC
Stargate: SG
Robotics Facility: robo
Fleet Beacon: FB, beacon, bacon
Templar Archives: archives
Dark Shrine: shrine
Photon Cannon: cannon
Photon Overcharge: PO, photon overrustle, photon overskill
Non-specific race ones here:
Wings of Liberty: WoL, WOL
Heart of the Swarm: HotS, HOTS
Legacy of the Void: LotV, LOTV
Starcraft: SC
Brood War: BW
Build/BO: build order; a set of instructions used when you start a game. Each instruction is given as a number and a structure or unit. An example:
- 13 OL, 17 H, 17 P, 17 G
- Translation: At 13 supply, morph an overlord. At 17 supply, make a hatchery. At 17 supply, make a spawning pool. At 17 supply, make an extractor.
- The number refers to your supply count. Usually, this is the number of workers you have, since you won't have any other type of unit at this point. Following the number is what to make obviously.
- In this example, note that it is to make the hatchery when you reach 17 supply, then make the spawning pool when reaching 17 supply again, and then making the extractor after reaching 17 once more. It does not mean reaching 17 supply, then making all 3 structures. Remember that Zerg use up a drone when making a building, so each time you make a structure you essentially lose a worker and go to 16 supply. To clarify, after making a hatchery, you build another drone to get to 17 supply again before making the pool.
- Sometimes, the 13 OL may be omitted because it is assumed you will need to make one to reach the supply needed in the build order.
- Later annotations can include @100 [resource], simply stating to build a unit/structure or research an upgrade whenever you reach 100 or a resource. Most common example: @100 gas ling speed.
- Some may just state a time to perform something as well. Example: 3:20 3rd hatch.
Worker: SCV, drone, or probe
Mineral Line: the area where your workers mining minerals is.
Gas: vespene geysers
Natural: the expansion players are most likely to take first/
Third / Fourth / Fifth / etc.: refers to expansions.
Gold: refers to an expansion that has gold minerals.
Good Game: gg; used to surrender before a match usually (some exceptions exist, like said at the beginning just to mean to have a good game)
Good Luck, Have Fun: gl hf; usually said at the start of a match
Pause Please: pp (courtesy to say before pausing)
Fast Expand: FE
Proxy: building structures away from your base, usually near the enemy's location for quick aggression.
Bad Manner: BM, an "inherited" way of saying poorly mannered
Cheese: has different meanings based on use. Can refer to an opener that is easy to execute but hard to defend against, or a strategy that is frowned upon in general.
All-In: a strategy where all resources are dedicated to an attack. Sometimes intertwined with a "timing attack" or "timing push", which is a strategy that is designed to make an attack at a certain time frame
Rush: a strategy that focuses on getting to a certain point in a strategy above all else. Most commonly used to refer to building up to attack quickly. You can "rush" to make a zergling attack, or "rush" to DTs.
Turtle: a strategy that is all about defending your position as much as possible.
Teching: rushing to achieve a specific unit or building in your technology tree (e.g. rushing to DTs is teching to DTs)
Tech Switch: somewhat self-explanatory; switching your army composition based on unlocking or expanding a tech path.
Death Ball: refers to the idea that armies work best when grouped up together. Instead of splitting up forces to cover more ground, they all need to bunch together for the most effectiveness. This holds true when units synergize with each other.
Doom Drop: a tactic of loading your entire army into dropships (medivacs, overlords, etc) and dropping them on top of your enemy's base or forces.
Pathing: the path a unit takes to reach a destination.
Run-By: a tactic of ignoring defenses to reach a key destination, such as a mineral line (e.g. hellion run-by to attack a mineral line).
Saturation: reaching the optimal amount of workers for a base. Saturating a base requires 16 workers on minerals and 6 (2 x 3) workers on geysers.
Floating: refers to having extra resources. Usually, you don't want to do this, except in cases where you are planning to do a tech switch or saving up to produce a lot of units at once.
Area of Effect/Splash: AOE, or AoE. Referring to an ability that affects an area instead of just a specific target.
Greed: a strategy that focuses on developing economy before technology or military. Involves expanding sooner than expected, or saturating a base to maximize income quicker.
Macro: macromanagement, referring to controlling base infrastructure and economy.
Micro: micromanagement, referring to control of individual or groups of units
Meta: a term that is loosely referring to what is "in" at the moment, or the over-arcing norm.
Kiting/Dancing/Stutter-stepping: continuously backing up and stopping to attack. A common tactic used by marines to maximize damage output before taking damage, or to spread out against AoE (obviously not limited to just marine control).
Sim City: referring to building placement. Usually, this means making pathing difficult for the enemy to get to key locations, or preventing surrounds on important structures or units. An example is making a maze of supply depots (or a full wall of depots) to prevent zergling run-bys from entering your mineral line.
Grandmaster: GM; the highest league a player can be in.
Diamond: dia; an upper league just behind masters and above platinum
Platinum: plat; a middle of the road league
There's probably a lot more I have missed, and like mentioned earlier I'll update this post as I remember or come across more.
On another note, here are "controversial" slang:
Ebola: parasitic bomb used in mass by vipers
Cancer Mech: turtle mech strategy
A-Move: controlling an army by simply pressing the A key to attack and clicking on a location, without any micromanagement on the units.
Since this is a Zerg blog, I'll start with them. Not everything has a nickname, like Roach or Ravagers. But I will try to be as complete as I can be. Here's a list of ones used frequently:
Zergling: ling
Baneling: bling, bane
Overlord: OL, ovie
Hatchery: hatch, H (used in describing openers)
Hydralisk: hydra
Mutalisk: muta
Infestor: WINfestor (they were in Wings of Liberty at least, but they are creeping back up in LotV)
Brood Lord: BL, brood
Ultralisk: ultras
Swarm Host: SH, money host, cash hosts (mostly referring to the HotS days)
Extractor: gas, G (similar use as H)
Evolution Chamber: evo, evo chamber
Spawning Pool: pool, P (similar use as H)
Spine Crawler: spine
Spore Crawler: spore
Nydus Network/Worm: nydus
LBM: ling/bling/muta (zerglings, banelings, mutalisks)
Morphing: building a unit or structure (technically, drones morph into structures, larvae morph into the various zerg units, and some zerg units can morph into other zerg units)
Droning: building drones
Now with the other races, starting with Terran:
MMM: marine, marauder, medivac
MMMM or 4M: MMM + widow mines
Bio: unit composition that is primarily made up of units produced from the barracks. It does not only contain those units, as medivacs are always included (MMM for example is bio)
Mech: unit composition primarily made up of units from the factory
SkyTerran: unit composition made up from the starport
Siege Tank: tanks
Widow Mine: mine
Liberators: FREEDOM, libs
Battlecruiser: BC
Medivac: boostvac, speedvac, vac
Tanks + Medivac: tankivac
Command Center: CC
Orbital Command: OC
Plantetary Fortress: PF
Engineering Bay: ebay
Missile Turret: turret
Barracks: rax
Factory: fact
Starport: port
Fusion Core: core
Refinery: gas
1/1/1: one barracks, one factory, one starport build
Pull the Boys: bringing SCVs into an attack
And now, the Protoss:
Zealot: zeal
High Templar: HT, temp
Psionic Storm: psi storm, storm
Dark Templar: DT
Observer: obs
Colossus: col
Immortal: immo
Warp Prism: WP
Phoenix: nix
Void Ray: VR
Mothership Core: MSC, momma core
Gateway/Warp Gate: gate
Assimilator: gas
Cybernetics Core: core, CC (rarely used since CC is mainly for Terrans)
Forge Fast Expand: FFE (building a forge, then a nexus)
Gateway Expand: building a gateway, then a nexus
Twilight Council: TC
Stargate: SG
Robotics Facility: robo
Fleet Beacon: FB, beacon, bacon
Templar Archives: archives
Dark Shrine: shrine
Photon Cannon: cannon
Photon Overcharge: PO, photon overrustle, photon overskill
Non-specific race ones here:
Wings of Liberty: WoL, WOL
Heart of the Swarm: HotS, HOTS
Legacy of the Void: LotV, LOTV
Starcraft: SC
Brood War: BW
Build/BO: build order; a set of instructions used when you start a game. Each instruction is given as a number and a structure or unit. An example:
- 13 OL, 17 H, 17 P, 17 G
- Translation: At 13 supply, morph an overlord. At 17 supply, make a hatchery. At 17 supply, make a spawning pool. At 17 supply, make an extractor.
- The number refers to your supply count. Usually, this is the number of workers you have, since you won't have any other type of unit at this point. Following the number is what to make obviously.
- In this example, note that it is to make the hatchery when you reach 17 supply, then make the spawning pool when reaching 17 supply again, and then making the extractor after reaching 17 once more. It does not mean reaching 17 supply, then making all 3 structures. Remember that Zerg use up a drone when making a building, so each time you make a structure you essentially lose a worker and go to 16 supply. To clarify, after making a hatchery, you build another drone to get to 17 supply again before making the pool.
- Sometimes, the 13 OL may be omitted because it is assumed you will need to make one to reach the supply needed in the build order.
- Later annotations can include @100 [resource], simply stating to build a unit/structure or research an upgrade whenever you reach 100 or a resource. Most common example: @100 gas ling speed.
- Some may just state a time to perform something as well. Example: 3:20 3rd hatch.
Worker: SCV, drone, or probe
Mineral Line: the area where your workers mining minerals is.
Gas: vespene geysers
Natural: the expansion players are most likely to take first/
Third / Fourth / Fifth / etc.: refers to expansions.
Gold: refers to an expansion that has gold minerals.
Good Game: gg; used to surrender before a match usually (some exceptions exist, like said at the beginning just to mean to have a good game)
Good Luck, Have Fun: gl hf; usually said at the start of a match
Pause Please: pp (courtesy to say before pausing)
Fast Expand: FE
Proxy: building structures away from your base, usually near the enemy's location for quick aggression.
Bad Manner: BM, an "inherited" way of saying poorly mannered
Cheese: has different meanings based on use. Can refer to an opener that is easy to execute but hard to defend against, or a strategy that is frowned upon in general.
All-In: a strategy where all resources are dedicated to an attack. Sometimes intertwined with a "timing attack" or "timing push", which is a strategy that is designed to make an attack at a certain time frame
Rush: a strategy that focuses on getting to a certain point in a strategy above all else. Most commonly used to refer to building up to attack quickly. You can "rush" to make a zergling attack, or "rush" to DTs.
Turtle: a strategy that is all about defending your position as much as possible.
Teching: rushing to achieve a specific unit or building in your technology tree (e.g. rushing to DTs is teching to DTs)
Tech Switch: somewhat self-explanatory; switching your army composition based on unlocking or expanding a tech path.
Death Ball: refers to the idea that armies work best when grouped up together. Instead of splitting up forces to cover more ground, they all need to bunch together for the most effectiveness. This holds true when units synergize with each other.
Doom Drop: a tactic of loading your entire army into dropships (medivacs, overlords, etc) and dropping them on top of your enemy's base or forces.
Pathing: the path a unit takes to reach a destination.
Run-By: a tactic of ignoring defenses to reach a key destination, such as a mineral line (e.g. hellion run-by to attack a mineral line).
Saturation: reaching the optimal amount of workers for a base. Saturating a base requires 16 workers on minerals and 6 (2 x 3) workers on geysers.
Floating: refers to having extra resources. Usually, you don't want to do this, except in cases where you are planning to do a tech switch or saving up to produce a lot of units at once.
Area of Effect/Splash: AOE, or AoE. Referring to an ability that affects an area instead of just a specific target.
Greed: a strategy that focuses on developing economy before technology or military. Involves expanding sooner than expected, or saturating a base to maximize income quicker.
Macro: macromanagement, referring to controlling base infrastructure and economy.
Micro: micromanagement, referring to control of individual or groups of units
Meta: a term that is loosely referring to what is "in" at the moment, or the over-arcing norm.
Kiting/Dancing/Stutter-stepping: continuously backing up and stopping to attack. A common tactic used by marines to maximize damage output before taking damage, or to spread out against AoE (obviously not limited to just marine control).
Sim City: referring to building placement. Usually, this means making pathing difficult for the enemy to get to key locations, or preventing surrounds on important structures or units. An example is making a maze of supply depots (or a full wall of depots) to prevent zergling run-bys from entering your mineral line.
Grandmaster: GM; the highest league a player can be in.
Diamond: dia; an upper league just behind masters and above platinum
Platinum: plat; a middle of the road league
There's probably a lot more I have missed, and like mentioned earlier I'll update this post as I remember or come across more.
On another note, here are "controversial" slang:
Ebola: parasitic bomb used in mass by vipers
Cancer Mech: turtle mech strategy
A-Move: controlling an army by simply pressing the A key to attack and clicking on a location, without any micromanagement on the units.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Karax (you got any more of that Solarite?)
Overview
Karax is a Protoss commander that specializes in mechanical units and powerful defensive structures. Tower defense is totally his thing, as his photon cannons can get some impressive upgrades. As for building an army, he can do it, but there is a huge drawback in that ALL of his units (except probes) cost 50% more resources than other commanders. This makes creating direct support to your ally rather difficult. Fortunately he has ways to cover for this in abilities.
Units
Sentinel: Karax's mechanical zealots. Can be upgraded to auto-revive every 2 minutes. Other than that, they are overpriced zealots to be honest. Emergency units are more of what I'd think of them. Even then, a photon cannon costs just the same, and is more durable. Once you get insta-build cannons, I can't see many situations where I would warp in sentinels instead - just bring a probe and proxy pylon your way into an attack.
Energizer: a sentry like unit that can give a speed buff to friendly units and structures as well as act as pylon power when in phasing mode. Gas intensive, but very useful as a support unit to units and defensive structures.
Immortal: Tough robo unit with the barrier ability to absorb hits. Can also be upgraded to gain the shadow cannon for a very long range, single target nuke.
Colossus: towering siege unit that resembles the campaign version with the upgraded ability to burn the area it attacks. Powerful, but very expensive.
Observer: because every race needs a detector.
Mirage: a variation of the Phoenix. Instead of gaining the ability to pick up more enemy units, it has more defensive capability in that it can avoid damage by phasing out for a short time.
Carrier: capital ship that can repair other mech units after being upgraded. Launches interceptors to attack its target. Like the colossus, very powerful and insanely pricey.
Photon Cannon: listed here since Karax's version is better with the ability to get some good upgrades on them (faster attack speed, better range)
Khaydarin Monolith: these impressive looking towers with crazy range and slow, but powerful strikes are available to Karax. Note that it alone is not a detector, but you should support them with photon cannons anyway.
Shield Battery: replenish the shields of any friendly unit OR STRUCTURE. Also gains a researchable ability to make a barrier for structures to absorb more damage.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Orbital Strike (5 energy): resembles Artanis' ability, but is different in use. Karax's version has no cooldown, and costs 5 energy to fire once. Overall much more friendly to use, as it also does not bring up that annoying HUD. Can be upgraded later to stun anything it hits. Works great as your primary defense while you are still building up infrastructure.
- Solar Lance (50 energy): similar to the one in the campaign. Fire 3 lasers that sweep in a line where you can dictate where the laser sweeps. Not as impressive as the orbital strike, but can be upgraded for a damage over time as well.
- Chrono Wave (50 energy): increases production of all friendly structures by 200% for 20 seconds. Quite handy for speeding up upgrades or high build time units. Communicate with your ally on when best to use it.
Level Upgrades
1) Orbital Assault: orbital strike only costs 5 energy to use and has no cooldown, but fires only 1 laser. Let me rephrase this: you can spam lasers as long as you have the energy for it. Some strategies involve using this as your offensive tool to support your ally's army. This also means rushing upgrades for your energy too. I'll go into it later.
2) Spear of Adun: Chrono Field: grants you and your ally 15% increased production speed on all structrures. Makes both of you train things faster for free. Pretty nifty.
3) Khaydarin Monolith: unlocks the warp in of these defensive turrets. Powerful, but slow rate of fire. But the immense range is nothing to scoff at. Works against tough, lone high HP targets like ultralisks and capital ships.
4) Twilight Council Upgrade Cache: grants upgrades at the TC for your energizers. They can gain the ability to do a 2-minute mind control on mechanical units (afterwards they simply die), and increased energy regen (400% is a lot). Both are quite useful if you support your ally often with energizers.
5) Spear of Adun: Chrono Overload: Enhances Chrono Wave to boost production of all friendly structures by 500% for 20 seconds. Amazing if you can time it right with your ally. Be sure to communicate with your ally when to use it. Decent power spike for accelerating key upgrades.
6) Forge Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades for your cannons and batteries. Increased range, increased attack speed, and the shield battery ability to construct a barrier for structures. The cannon upgrades are very good to say the least. Another decent power spike.
7) Spear of Adun: Reconstruction Beam: Automatically repair 3 damaged mechanical units passively. Also works with allied mechanical units. So even a Swann ally would benefit a lot. Saves on building replacement army/structures.
8) Solar Forge Upgrade Cache 1: reconstruction beam can repair 4 mech targets at once, and an additional energy upgrade at the solar forge for extra energy regen for the Spear of Adun. The extra regen is quite useful for laser spam.
9) Robotics Bay Upgrade Cache: allows you to research the shadow cannon for Immortals (200 single target damage on anything) and allow Colossi attacks to set the ground of whatever they hit on fire. Both worked pretty well in the LotV campaign, and work well here too. You probably can't afford to make both at the same time though.
10) Spear of Adun: Purifier Beam: gives your a new calldown attack skill. Works like the one in the campaign - a big beam of death you can control or let loose automatically. A good wave clear skill.
11) Khalai Ingenuity: warping in pylons, photon cannons, khaydarin monoliths, and shield batteries is now instant. Wow. Huge power spike. You can optimize your build orders with instant pylons, and even more so with instant production of defensive structures. You can play games without ever making a single unit, and this helps do that tremendously.
12) Solar Forge Upgrade Cache 2: grants more research at the solar forge: your orbital strikes can stun, and your solar lance also sets the ground on fire for extra damage over time. The former is worth it for how often you will use that ability. The latter, well, not so much.
13) Spear of Adun: Purifier Protocol: your purifier beam moves a lot faster, and lasts 5 seconds longer. Sort of unnecessary, as it is quite powerful at baseline. Just makes it a little better at managing.
14) Fleet Beacon Upgrade Cache: grants upgrades to make your Mirages invincible for a moment after taking damage, and carriers to gain repair drones. The latter is amazing, even if carriers cost an arm and a leg to produce.
15) Unity Barrier: grants a 10HP barrier to any newly produced unit from you or your ally. This shield does not stack or regenerate at all. Er, I dunno what to make of this. It doesn't sound impressive, and works best with throwaway units, like marines or zerglings. A flat HP buff only that cannot be recovered once lost. Karax himself doesn't benefit much from it either. Strange.
Pointers
- Karax is mostly a defensive commander, who's strengths are in his defensive structures and abilities from the Spear of Adun. His armies are very expensive to create with that hefty 50% extra cost. It may be a little weird adjusting to his style of play.
- A lot of his power comes from the Spear of Adun, and you should consider rushing upgrades to it. Especially any upgrade that increases energy generation so you can spam lasers more often. You gain the ability to buff it as you level, so you may struggle at lower levels initially.
- If you like tower defense games, then you'll love this guy. His other main strength comes from this cannons. While Swann can build multiple types of turrets, Karax's cannons are the best defense so far in the game.
- Level 11 is a turning point for Karax, since warping in pylons and defense becomes a breeze.
- Usually I tend to rush getting upgrades for energy generation for the Spear of Adun. It's debatable whether that should go first or the cannon upgrades, because those are amazing as well.
- Following up on that, at some points you can forego producing units in the early and mid game. It's possible to just cannon up, support your ally with lasers, and slowly build up a deathball of carriers or colossi. Other times it may be better to build up energizers a bit earlier to support your ally too. Based on your strategy, you may or may not have the gas to do so (IIRC energizers are 175 gas a piece, so don't lose them carelessly).
- His power spikes really define him; it's hard to play on brutal if you don't reach certain milestone levels, especially 2, 6, 8, and 12.
Karax is a Protoss commander that specializes in mechanical units and powerful defensive structures. Tower defense is totally his thing, as his photon cannons can get some impressive upgrades. As for building an army, he can do it, but there is a huge drawback in that ALL of his units (except probes) cost 50% more resources than other commanders. This makes creating direct support to your ally rather difficult. Fortunately he has ways to cover for this in abilities.
Units
Sentinel: Karax's mechanical zealots. Can be upgraded to auto-revive every 2 minutes. Other than that, they are overpriced zealots to be honest. Emergency units are more of what I'd think of them. Even then, a photon cannon costs just the same, and is more durable. Once you get insta-build cannons, I can't see many situations where I would warp in sentinels instead - just bring a probe and proxy pylon your way into an attack.
Energizer: a sentry like unit that can give a speed buff to friendly units and structures as well as act as pylon power when in phasing mode. Gas intensive, but very useful as a support unit to units and defensive structures.
Immortal: Tough robo unit with the barrier ability to absorb hits. Can also be upgraded to gain the shadow cannon for a very long range, single target nuke.
Colossus: towering siege unit that resembles the campaign version with the upgraded ability to burn the area it attacks. Powerful, but very expensive.
Observer: because every race needs a detector.
Mirage: a variation of the Phoenix. Instead of gaining the ability to pick up more enemy units, it has more defensive capability in that it can avoid damage by phasing out for a short time.
Carrier: capital ship that can repair other mech units after being upgraded. Launches interceptors to attack its target. Like the colossus, very powerful and insanely pricey.
Photon Cannon: listed here since Karax's version is better with the ability to get some good upgrades on them (faster attack speed, better range)
Khaydarin Monolith: these impressive looking towers with crazy range and slow, but powerful strikes are available to Karax. Note that it alone is not a detector, but you should support them with photon cannons anyway.
Shield Battery: replenish the shields of any friendly unit OR STRUCTURE. Also gains a researchable ability to make a barrier for structures to absorb more damage.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Orbital Strike (5 energy): resembles Artanis' ability, but is different in use. Karax's version has no cooldown, and costs 5 energy to fire once. Overall much more friendly to use, as it also does not bring up that annoying HUD. Can be upgraded later to stun anything it hits. Works great as your primary defense while you are still building up infrastructure.
- Solar Lance (50 energy): similar to the one in the campaign. Fire 3 lasers that sweep in a line where you can dictate where the laser sweeps. Not as impressive as the orbital strike, but can be upgraded for a damage over time as well.
- Chrono Wave (50 energy): increases production of all friendly structures by 200% for 20 seconds. Quite handy for speeding up upgrades or high build time units. Communicate with your ally on when best to use it.
Level Upgrades
1) Orbital Assault: orbital strike only costs 5 energy to use and has no cooldown, but fires only 1 laser. Let me rephrase this: you can spam lasers as long as you have the energy for it. Some strategies involve using this as your offensive tool to support your ally's army. This also means rushing upgrades for your energy too. I'll go into it later.
2) Spear of Adun: Chrono Field: grants you and your ally 15% increased production speed on all structrures. Makes both of you train things faster for free. Pretty nifty.
3) Khaydarin Monolith: unlocks the warp in of these defensive turrets. Powerful, but slow rate of fire. But the immense range is nothing to scoff at. Works against tough, lone high HP targets like ultralisks and capital ships.
4) Twilight Council Upgrade Cache: grants upgrades at the TC for your energizers. They can gain the ability to do a 2-minute mind control on mechanical units (afterwards they simply die), and increased energy regen (400% is a lot). Both are quite useful if you support your ally often with energizers.
5) Spear of Adun: Chrono Overload: Enhances Chrono Wave to boost production of all friendly structures by 500% for 20 seconds. Amazing if you can time it right with your ally. Be sure to communicate with your ally when to use it. Decent power spike for accelerating key upgrades.
6) Forge Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades for your cannons and batteries. Increased range, increased attack speed, and the shield battery ability to construct a barrier for structures. The cannon upgrades are very good to say the least. Another decent power spike.
7) Spear of Adun: Reconstruction Beam: Automatically repair 3 damaged mechanical units passively. Also works with allied mechanical units. So even a Swann ally would benefit a lot. Saves on building replacement army/structures.
8) Solar Forge Upgrade Cache 1: reconstruction beam can repair 4 mech targets at once, and an additional energy upgrade at the solar forge for extra energy regen for the Spear of Adun. The extra regen is quite useful for laser spam.
9) Robotics Bay Upgrade Cache: allows you to research the shadow cannon for Immortals (200 single target damage on anything) and allow Colossi attacks to set the ground of whatever they hit on fire. Both worked pretty well in the LotV campaign, and work well here too. You probably can't afford to make both at the same time though.
10) Spear of Adun: Purifier Beam: gives your a new calldown attack skill. Works like the one in the campaign - a big beam of death you can control or let loose automatically. A good wave clear skill.
11) Khalai Ingenuity: warping in pylons, photon cannons, khaydarin monoliths, and shield batteries is now instant. Wow. Huge power spike. You can optimize your build orders with instant pylons, and even more so with instant production of defensive structures. You can play games without ever making a single unit, and this helps do that tremendously.
12) Solar Forge Upgrade Cache 2: grants more research at the solar forge: your orbital strikes can stun, and your solar lance also sets the ground on fire for extra damage over time. The former is worth it for how often you will use that ability. The latter, well, not so much.
13) Spear of Adun: Purifier Protocol: your purifier beam moves a lot faster, and lasts 5 seconds longer. Sort of unnecessary, as it is quite powerful at baseline. Just makes it a little better at managing.
14) Fleet Beacon Upgrade Cache: grants upgrades to make your Mirages invincible for a moment after taking damage, and carriers to gain repair drones. The latter is amazing, even if carriers cost an arm and a leg to produce.
15) Unity Barrier: grants a 10HP barrier to any newly produced unit from you or your ally. This shield does not stack or regenerate at all. Er, I dunno what to make of this. It doesn't sound impressive, and works best with throwaway units, like marines or zerglings. A flat HP buff only that cannot be recovered once lost. Karax himself doesn't benefit much from it either. Strange.
Pointers
- Karax is mostly a defensive commander, who's strengths are in his defensive structures and abilities from the Spear of Adun. His armies are very expensive to create with that hefty 50% extra cost. It may be a little weird adjusting to his style of play.
- A lot of his power comes from the Spear of Adun, and you should consider rushing upgrades to it. Especially any upgrade that increases energy generation so you can spam lasers more often. You gain the ability to buff it as you level, so you may struggle at lower levels initially.
- If you like tower defense games, then you'll love this guy. His other main strength comes from this cannons. While Swann can build multiple types of turrets, Karax's cannons are the best defense so far in the game.
- Level 11 is a turning point for Karax, since warping in pylons and defense becomes a breeze.
- Usually I tend to rush getting upgrades for energy generation for the Spear of Adun. It's debatable whether that should go first or the cannon upgrades, because those are amazing as well.
- Following up on that, at some points you can forego producing units in the early and mid game. It's possible to just cannon up, support your ally with lasers, and slowly build up a deathball of carriers or colossi. Other times it may be better to build up energizers a bit earlier to support your ally too. Based on your strategy, you may or may not have the gas to do so (IIRC energizers are 175 gas a piece, so don't lose them carelessly).
- His power spikes really define him; it's hard to play on brutal if you don't reach certain milestone levels, especially 2, 6, 8, and 12.
Vorazun (EZtoss mode)
Overview
Vorazun is a Protoss commander who focuses on Shakuras-designed units (unsurprisingly). A combination of striking from the shadows and the spear of adun arguably make her the strongest commander in the game right now. Even at level 1, she is probably the best option for tackling brutal difficulty missions with proper ability usage.
Units
Centurion: the "dark" zealot. Initially works like a standard zealot, but can be upgraded later to be a lot more potent at the front lines.
Stalker: similar to the ones in multiplayer. Can also research the ability to gain shields over time after blinking.
Dark Templar: a lot better than their multiplayer counterpart. For one, they cost less gas, and also gain some abilities that IMO are just broken. You can win missions by only spamming these units due to the Shadow Fury ability. After researching it, DTs can attack all enemy units/structures in a small area by blinking around and slashing them. It's crazy to watch a legion of DT just wreck whole waves or bases with this ability alone.
Corsair: somewhat similar to the campaign version, but also get an upgrade later for free cloaking. Sort of OP when massed up; they synergize quite well with certain upgrades. You can research the disruption web ability which stops any enemy from attacking underneath it. Very powerful ability, as it lasts a fairly decent time and has a respectable radius. If you are skilled enough you can take it off autocast and do it manually to get the most out of it.
Void Ray: the other unit you can mass up and tear every enemy down with, especially with upgrades. Yes, there are some builds where you can rely ONLY on making these, and using calldowns to handle initial defenses.
Oracle: Vorazun's detector. Don't need to use an ability like revelation or whatever; the unit itself is the detector. If not for that, I'd say it's more of a fluff unit. It does have the stasis ward ability which could be useful in delaying enemy waves.
Dark Archon: ground spellcasters. You don't morph them from combining DT, you just warp them in as normal units. Very gas intensive, but are rather powerful. Besides their own attack, they also have some nasty spells like mind control and confusion. A few in your army helps a lot, but can be focused on since they are not cloaked.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Deploy Dark Pylon (25 energy): drops down a dark pylon anywhere with vision. It provides supply and a free cloaking field to anyone near it. It also has the ability to recall your forces after leveling up a bit. A bit crazy as it gives you a lot of mobility. Plant one at key locations can you can bounce around the map.
- Black Hole (25 energy): creates a black hole anywhere with vision that traps all targets within it while it is on the field. There is no cooldown on this ability it's ridculous. Any AoE will decimate anything caught in it. It is so versatile of an ability and I can't understand how it is so cheap to use.
- Deploy Shadow Guard (50 energy): spawns 2 (4 after leveling) Shadow Guard units that last for 60 seconds. They are essentially beefed up DTs with all abilities unlocked. They alone can clear the initial wave of any enemy, and can also clear rocks afterwards (or before hand).
Level Upgrades
1) Shroud of Adun: your DT have enhanced shields and cost less vespene gas. Basically, her DT are tough cookies. This is just the beginning.
2) Spear of Adun: Orbital Assimilators: your assimilators no longer require probes to harvest gas. Insane power spike. You can quickly get 4 gas up and save on probe production with this, funding gas for everything else. Huge power spike for sure.
3) Shadow Legion: using the Shadow Guard calldown ability spawns 4 units instead of 2. Doubling the effectiveness of an already powerful skill. As if she wasn't OP already.
4) Twilight Council Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades at the TC to allow your zealots to stun targets and stalkers to recover shields after blinking. Both are pretty good, but not really needed either when your composition is mostly DT or VRs.
5) Dark Archon: allows you to warp in Dark Archons once you get a Dark Shrine. Excellent support casters that can confuse enemies into attacking their own units. Later gets upgrades to be even more effective.
6) Dark Templar Upgrade Cache: unlocks researchable abilities for your DTs. Now DTs can blink and disable structures for a limited time. I didn't mention their shadow fury ability earlier - this doesn't require a level up, and turns DT into killing machines. Both abilities are gravy at this point.
7) Veil of Shadows: increases shield regeneration of cloaked units by 400%. This affects units in a dark pylon's radius, helping Protoss allies too. Seems like a "win more" trait.
8) Spear of Adun: Event Horizon: reduces the armor of units in a black hole to zero. Just a fluff upgrade.
9) Dark Archon Upgrade Cache: research the ability of mind control and to spawn on the field with full energy. Makes warp in casters a lot stronger and gives them even more utility to steal big, powerful units. The former is quite useful, and the latter is somewhat useful, but more gravy since DTs and VRs can usually handle anything that comes their path.
10) Spear of Adun: Time Stop (300 second cooldown): grants you the ability to freeze and reveal all enemy units and structures for a 20 seconds. Another OP ability to add to her checklist. Kerrigan's lesser version was already pretty good, but Vorazun's version is map wide and does not require any positioning to use. It even gets another upgrade at level 14! Like WTF seriously?
11) Dark Pylon: Recall (60 second cooldown): unlocks the ability for dark pylons to recall forces to it. Basically, you can call back your forces to any place you have a dark pylon. Theoretically it is super useful, but isn't truly necessary in the current mission map pool, except for Lock and Load where you can quickly defend different locations at a moment's notice.
12) Fleet Beacon Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades for stargate units at the fleet beacon. Corsairs can be permanently cloaked; VRs get a range boost with their damage boost when firing for a longer period of time, and units caught in a stasis ward from oracles can be attacked while stunned. The first upgrade is nuts, not just because they are cloaked, but another level upgrade later gained. The VR upgrade is also really nice; it served me well in the campaign, and continues to do so here.
13) Spear of Adun: Emergency Recall: cloaked and burrowed units that take fatal damage are instead teleported back to your main structure (e.g. Nexus). DTs and corsairs just got a lot more cost efficient. It includes burrowed units; so Lurkers can benefit from this as well. Somewhat of a power spike.
14) Spear of Adun: Chronomancy: reduces the cooldown of time stop by 60 seconds, so you can use this OP ability more often. Great. Can't say much about it.
15) Strike from the Shadows: 25% damage boost to all friendly cloaked and burrowed units. A nice top level skill to round off this ridiculous commander :P
Pointers
- She is listed as a commander for experienced players, but I feel like she is the most powerful commander by far. Even at level 1 she can tackle brutal difficulty without much issue.
- As soon as you reach level 2, you'll probably go with heavy DT compositions and notice you are mineral starved most of the time since DTs only cost 75 gas a piece. Doesn't seem to hold true for corsair or VR compositions. In any case, you can incorporate getting 2 (even 4 if you take the geysers at your expansion BEFORE clearing the rocks) assimilators quickly to take care of any gas resource issues.
- My build usually goes 14 pylon, 14 gateway, 14 2x assimilator. Yes, I go with 14/21 probes on minerals, optimal saturation of a mineral line before your first pylon lol. Of course this is assuming you are level 2+. If you are still at level 1, you'll just have to go 14 pylon 15 gateway 15 or 16 assimilator. When I go DT I try to rush to the DT shrine for the shadow fury upgrade because of how broken that ability is.
- If I build zealots it is because I have extra resources due to trying out an unusual build or macromanagement slip-ups. Stalkers for emergency anti-air, though dark archons can do nicely in that role. Mass DT is the prime choice of strategy for Vorazun users for a good reason.
- I always save my initial 50 energy for Shadow Guard. Use it right when the first wave of enemies appear to clear rocks, then kill off the wave. If you have spare time, you can use them to break the rocks at your ally's expansion. If you coordinate well with your ally, you can also use this to guard against waves with a VR build. Save up 400 minerals too for when you clear your expansion's rocks.
- DT/Sair was a powerful composition in Brood War, and it holds true here as well. 7-8 corsair for d-web, and DTs handle the rest. If you need more anti-air just make more corsairs or get dark archons.
- Void Ray based comps can also work too. You just have to ensure you can survive to that point with Shadow Guard or with your ally's help. Don't have to rush to the Fleet Beacon, but you should eventually save up 300 minerals and 200 gas for it. VRs do not manually activate their increased damage buff like in multiplayer; it functions like the classic version of focusing on a target for periods of time to get the damage buff. Even with a VR comp, get 6-8 corsairs to shut down any ground-to-air threats.
Vorazun is a Protoss commander who focuses on Shakuras-designed units (unsurprisingly). A combination of striking from the shadows and the spear of adun arguably make her the strongest commander in the game right now. Even at level 1, she is probably the best option for tackling brutal difficulty missions with proper ability usage.
Units
Centurion: the "dark" zealot. Initially works like a standard zealot, but can be upgraded later to be a lot more potent at the front lines.
Stalker: similar to the ones in multiplayer. Can also research the ability to gain shields over time after blinking.
Dark Templar: a lot better than their multiplayer counterpart. For one, they cost less gas, and also gain some abilities that IMO are just broken. You can win missions by only spamming these units due to the Shadow Fury ability. After researching it, DTs can attack all enemy units/structures in a small area by blinking around and slashing them. It's crazy to watch a legion of DT just wreck whole waves or bases with this ability alone.
Corsair: somewhat similar to the campaign version, but also get an upgrade later for free cloaking. Sort of OP when massed up; they synergize quite well with certain upgrades. You can research the disruption web ability which stops any enemy from attacking underneath it. Very powerful ability, as it lasts a fairly decent time and has a respectable radius. If you are skilled enough you can take it off autocast and do it manually to get the most out of it.
Void Ray: the other unit you can mass up and tear every enemy down with, especially with upgrades. Yes, there are some builds where you can rely ONLY on making these, and using calldowns to handle initial defenses.
Oracle: Vorazun's detector. Don't need to use an ability like revelation or whatever; the unit itself is the detector. If not for that, I'd say it's more of a fluff unit. It does have the stasis ward ability which could be useful in delaying enemy waves.
Dark Archon: ground spellcasters. You don't morph them from combining DT, you just warp them in as normal units. Very gas intensive, but are rather powerful. Besides their own attack, they also have some nasty spells like mind control and confusion. A few in your army helps a lot, but can be focused on since they are not cloaked.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- Deploy Dark Pylon (25 energy): drops down a dark pylon anywhere with vision. It provides supply and a free cloaking field to anyone near it. It also has the ability to recall your forces after leveling up a bit. A bit crazy as it gives you a lot of mobility. Plant one at key locations can you can bounce around the map.
- Black Hole (25 energy): creates a black hole anywhere with vision that traps all targets within it while it is on the field. There is no cooldown on this ability it's ridculous. Any AoE will decimate anything caught in it. It is so versatile of an ability and I can't understand how it is so cheap to use.
- Deploy Shadow Guard (50 energy): spawns 2 (4 after leveling) Shadow Guard units that last for 60 seconds. They are essentially beefed up DTs with all abilities unlocked. They alone can clear the initial wave of any enemy, and can also clear rocks afterwards (or before hand).
Level Upgrades
1) Shroud of Adun: your DT have enhanced shields and cost less vespene gas. Basically, her DT are tough cookies. This is just the beginning.
2) Spear of Adun: Orbital Assimilators: your assimilators no longer require probes to harvest gas. Insane power spike. You can quickly get 4 gas up and save on probe production with this, funding gas for everything else. Huge power spike for sure.
3) Shadow Legion: using the Shadow Guard calldown ability spawns 4 units instead of 2. Doubling the effectiveness of an already powerful skill. As if she wasn't OP already.
4) Twilight Council Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades at the TC to allow your zealots to stun targets and stalkers to recover shields after blinking. Both are pretty good, but not really needed either when your composition is mostly DT or VRs.
5) Dark Archon: allows you to warp in Dark Archons once you get a Dark Shrine. Excellent support casters that can confuse enemies into attacking their own units. Later gets upgrades to be even more effective.
6) Dark Templar Upgrade Cache: unlocks researchable abilities for your DTs. Now DTs can blink and disable structures for a limited time. I didn't mention their shadow fury ability earlier - this doesn't require a level up, and turns DT into killing machines. Both abilities are gravy at this point.
7) Veil of Shadows: increases shield regeneration of cloaked units by 400%. This affects units in a dark pylon's radius, helping Protoss allies too. Seems like a "win more" trait.
8) Spear of Adun: Event Horizon: reduces the armor of units in a black hole to zero. Just a fluff upgrade.
9) Dark Archon Upgrade Cache: research the ability of mind control and to spawn on the field with full energy. Makes warp in casters a lot stronger and gives them even more utility to steal big, powerful units. The former is quite useful, and the latter is somewhat useful, but more gravy since DTs and VRs can usually handle anything that comes their path.
10) Spear of Adun: Time Stop (300 second cooldown): grants you the ability to freeze and reveal all enemy units and structures for a 20 seconds. Another OP ability to add to her checklist. Kerrigan's lesser version was already pretty good, but Vorazun's version is map wide and does not require any positioning to use. It even gets another upgrade at level 14! Like WTF seriously?
11) Dark Pylon: Recall (60 second cooldown): unlocks the ability for dark pylons to recall forces to it. Basically, you can call back your forces to any place you have a dark pylon. Theoretically it is super useful, but isn't truly necessary in the current mission map pool, except for Lock and Load where you can quickly defend different locations at a moment's notice.
12) Fleet Beacon Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades for stargate units at the fleet beacon. Corsairs can be permanently cloaked; VRs get a range boost with their damage boost when firing for a longer period of time, and units caught in a stasis ward from oracles can be attacked while stunned. The first upgrade is nuts, not just because they are cloaked, but another level upgrade later gained. The VR upgrade is also really nice; it served me well in the campaign, and continues to do so here.
13) Spear of Adun: Emergency Recall: cloaked and burrowed units that take fatal damage are instead teleported back to your main structure (e.g. Nexus). DTs and corsairs just got a lot more cost efficient. It includes burrowed units; so Lurkers can benefit from this as well. Somewhat of a power spike.
14) Spear of Adun: Chronomancy: reduces the cooldown of time stop by 60 seconds, so you can use this OP ability more often. Great. Can't say much about it.
15) Strike from the Shadows: 25% damage boost to all friendly cloaked and burrowed units. A nice top level skill to round off this ridiculous commander :P
Pointers
- She is listed as a commander for experienced players, but I feel like she is the most powerful commander by far. Even at level 1 she can tackle brutal difficulty without much issue.
- As soon as you reach level 2, you'll probably go with heavy DT compositions and notice you are mineral starved most of the time since DTs only cost 75 gas a piece. Doesn't seem to hold true for corsair or VR compositions. In any case, you can incorporate getting 2 (even 4 if you take the geysers at your expansion BEFORE clearing the rocks) assimilators quickly to take care of any gas resource issues.
- My build usually goes 14 pylon, 14 gateway, 14 2x assimilator. Yes, I go with 14/21 probes on minerals, optimal saturation of a mineral line before your first pylon lol. Of course this is assuming you are level 2+. If you are still at level 1, you'll just have to go 14 pylon 15 gateway 15 or 16 assimilator. When I go DT I try to rush to the DT shrine for the shadow fury upgrade because of how broken that ability is.
- If I build zealots it is because I have extra resources due to trying out an unusual build or macromanagement slip-ups. Stalkers for emergency anti-air, though dark archons can do nicely in that role. Mass DT is the prime choice of strategy for Vorazun users for a good reason.
- I always save my initial 50 energy for Shadow Guard. Use it right when the first wave of enemies appear to clear rocks, then kill off the wave. If you have spare time, you can use them to break the rocks at your ally's expansion. If you coordinate well with your ally, you can also use this to guard against waves with a VR build. Save up 400 minerals too for when you clear your expansion's rocks.
- DT/Sair was a powerful composition in Brood War, and it holds true here as well. 7-8 corsair for d-web, and DTs handle the rest. If you need more anti-air just make more corsairs or get dark archons.
- Void Ray based comps can also work too. You just have to ensure you can survive to that point with Shadow Guard or with your ally's help. Don't have to rush to the Fleet Beacon, but you should eventually save up 300 minerals and 200 gas for it. VRs do not manually activate their increased damage buff like in multiplayer; it functions like the classic version of focusing on a target for periods of time to get the damage buff. Even with a VR comp, get 6-8 corsairs to shut down any ground-to-air threats.
Zagara (how Zerg should be?)
Overview
Zagara is a Zerg commander who seems to embrace the concept of swarming. Her strength mainly comes from production of lots of throw-away units (save for one type) and overrunning enemies with sheer numbers and attrition. She may seem weak at lower levels, but gains some upgrades as levels progress to make her a powerhouse in the early game and onward.
Units
Zagara: your hero unit. Like Kerrigan, she hatches from your main hatchery after a certain time, or after 1 minute after being killed. She has the following abilities:
- Summon banelings (50 energy, 10 second cooldown): spawns a set of banelings that travel in a straight line for a certain distance. They will explode on contact with the first enemy they touch.
- Summon hunter killers (60 energy, 30 second cooldown): spawns a set of beefed up hydralisks that last for 20 seconds. They can serve as your main anti-air.
- Mass Frenzy (25 energy, 120 second cooldown): grants all units 15% increased attack speed for 15 seconds. Global wide buff too. Very nice.
- Infested Drop (300 second cooldown): call down a force of 10 roaches which do 50 damage on impact. Your ultimate skill if you will. The roaches last 30 seconds.
Zergling: your basic light melee unit. Can be upgraded later to swarmlings that hatch in triplets and build extremely quickly.
Baneling: your suicide bomber morphed from zerglings. Already somewhat powerful like in multiplayer, and can get upgrades to make them more effective, as well as the splitter strain to get more damage out of them. There's also another upgrade that gives you them for free!
Abberation: a large anti-armor unit that slaps around its target. It also allows other Zerg units to walk under them similar to how Colossi do so.
Scourge: anti-air units that in my opinion, should have stayed in multiplayer. Think flying banelings, but you need to upgrade them to do splash. They are gas intensive (75 gas for a pair), but fortunately there's a fix for that...
Corruptor: the other anti-air option. You really shouldn't have to build these, as scourge should be enough.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- You get to control Zagara on the battlefield, who comes with her own set of unique abilities.
Level Upgrades
1) Relentless Swarmer: drones hatch in pairs and cost only 1/2 the supply. Her units also seem to morph a little faster, and cost a little bit less than Kerrigan (and any future potential Zerg commanders). However, to balance this, her supply cap is 100. At lower levels, that cap really sucks, but is in place because she gets really strong later on.
2) Inftested Drop: allows Zagara to drop a bunch of roaches wherever she pleases. A power spike for sure since it is a new calldown ability, perfect for securing objectives or defending a wave.
3) Inject Larvae: doubles the amount of larvae produced from the queen's inject larvae ability. Another power spike, since you need a lot less injects to get the needed amount of larva for production. Also frees up time for creep tumors, since you'll be hard pressed to use all of your extra larvae early on.
4) Scourge Upgrade Cache: unlocks researchable upgrades for the scourge. The reduced cost upgrade is all but mandatory; the main drawback of massing up scourge was their gas cost, and this severely reduces that. The splash damange upgrade is more gravy than anything else. This alone should allow you to never morph corruptors ever again.
5) Bile Launcher: allows you to morph bile launchers, a defensive structure that must be manually used. They are theoretically great for defensive missions, though I do not use them. They do AoE damage to air and ground alike, so they have potential in missions like Temple of the Past.
6) Zergling Upgrade Cache: unlocks extra upgrades for the Zergling. The same as Kerrigan's version: you can add 10 health to zerglings, and give them the ability to reduce their target's armor to 0 for a short while. Can't complain really since after the mid game, you should have excess resources.
7) Baneling Nest: Birthing Chamber: baneling nests automatically spawn up to 4 banelings at a time at set intervals. Another big power spike, as it allows you to defend initial waves of enemies if you adjust your build order to get a baneling nest ASAP. Free units that explode!
8) Incubate Banelings: if you build Aberrations, this is for you. When they die, you get two banelings to pop out from their corpses. More free damage, and its great when you consider that Aberrations are melee units that are always near their target.
9) Evolution Chamber Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades at the evo chamber. One gives Zagara's basic attack some AoE, and the other grants Aberrations the ability to give 2 armor to any unit underneath it. The former is pretty good when you rely on Zagara for anti-air, and the latter is ok.
10) Darken the Skies: doubles the amount of roaches that spawn when you use infested drop. Just makes the ability twice as strong. Not much else to say.
11) Baneling Nest Upgrade Cache: allows researching increased blast radius and increased primary target damage for banelings. Both are excellent with baneling heavy compositions, which isn't that uncommon when the nest spawns them automatically and with another upgrade which makes zergling production a lot better.
12) Zergling Evolution: Swarmling: zerglings are permanently upgraded to the swarmling. This variant spawns in a set of 3 instead of 2, but they still cost 1/2 supply each. Still, 3 zerglings per egg for 50 minerals is a steal. Oh, and the morph time is incredibly fast. A power spike I'd say: you can mass a force much faster and reinforce quickly as well. Zerglings under Zagara are no joke.
13) Bile Launcher Upgrade Cache: allows researchable upgrades for Bile Launchers for increased attack radius and shorter cooldown of use. Can't comment on them since I don't use bile launchers.
14) Baneling Evolution: Splitter: banelings are now Splitters from the HotS campaign. That is, you get two smaller banelings when a baneling explodes. Each smaller one does a small damage, but you get 2 per dead baneling, and its still even more free damage. I wouldn't call it a power spike, but a bump in power nonetheless. It's totally free of charge too.
15) Broodmother: enhances Zagara's initial abilities. Both cost 50% less, and spawn 50% more units. In essence, makes Zagara a lot stronger, and easier to get those annoying achievements.
Pointers
- Do you like swarming the opposition with tons of throwaway units? If so, then Zagara is for you. Zerglings, banelings, and scourge with a few Aberrations sprinkled in should cover all of your bases.
- Drones cost 75 minerals to morph a pair. So when describing builds with her, it's a little different than usual. My opener does go 11 pool and gas, then bane nest at 50 gas. At 11 supply you have 22 workers, and should be able to stop worker production for the most part (I find 14/21 workers on minerals the main the most you need there).
- You should be able to handle initial waves with just zerglings and banelings. Afterwrads, Zagara will be available to take care of future waves. Note that her anti-air is limited, and usually relies on her hunter killers to handle it. Keep that in mind; you may want to tell your teammate to help out with anti-air if it is necessary until you get mass up a scourge fleet.
- My main strategy usually revolves around massing up tons of zerglings, eventually getting in 6-8 aberrations into the mix. Sometimes I morph banelings if I really need them against T or Z, but the free ones from the baneling nest usually suffice.
- Since you can morph a lot of drones, you could assist in defenses with lots of structures, even the bile launcher. If your macro is on point, you'll find yourself swimming in resources at the supply cap. Swarmings spawn in triplets, but cost 1.5 supply per egg.
- You can usually get to hive tech rather quickly, as there isn't anything really blocking you from going there. It's mainly just to unlock upgrades. If you find yourself floating a lot of minerals, make more hatcheries (you don't need to have queens at your extra hatcheries. It will make reinforcing your army a lot easier.
Zagara is a Zerg commander who seems to embrace the concept of swarming. Her strength mainly comes from production of lots of throw-away units (save for one type) and overrunning enemies with sheer numbers and attrition. She may seem weak at lower levels, but gains some upgrades as levels progress to make her a powerhouse in the early game and onward.
Units
Zagara: your hero unit. Like Kerrigan, she hatches from your main hatchery after a certain time, or after 1 minute after being killed. She has the following abilities:
- Summon banelings (50 energy, 10 second cooldown): spawns a set of banelings that travel in a straight line for a certain distance. They will explode on contact with the first enemy they touch.
- Summon hunter killers (60 energy, 30 second cooldown): spawns a set of beefed up hydralisks that last for 20 seconds. They can serve as your main anti-air.
- Mass Frenzy (25 energy, 120 second cooldown): grants all units 15% increased attack speed for 15 seconds. Global wide buff too. Very nice.
- Infested Drop (300 second cooldown): call down a force of 10 roaches which do 50 damage on impact. Your ultimate skill if you will. The roaches last 30 seconds.
Zergling: your basic light melee unit. Can be upgraded later to swarmlings that hatch in triplets and build extremely quickly.
Baneling: your suicide bomber morphed from zerglings. Already somewhat powerful like in multiplayer, and can get upgrades to make them more effective, as well as the splitter strain to get more damage out of them. There's also another upgrade that gives you them for free!
Abberation: a large anti-armor unit that slaps around its target. It also allows other Zerg units to walk under them similar to how Colossi do so.
Scourge: anti-air units that in my opinion, should have stayed in multiplayer. Think flying banelings, but you need to upgrade them to do splash. They are gas intensive (75 gas for a pair), but fortunately there's a fix for that...
Corruptor: the other anti-air option. You really shouldn't have to build these, as scourge should be enough.
Initial Traits and Abilities
- You get to control Zagara on the battlefield, who comes with her own set of unique abilities.
Level Upgrades
1) Relentless Swarmer: drones hatch in pairs and cost only 1/2 the supply. Her units also seem to morph a little faster, and cost a little bit less than Kerrigan (and any future potential Zerg commanders). However, to balance this, her supply cap is 100. At lower levels, that cap really sucks, but is in place because she gets really strong later on.
2) Inftested Drop: allows Zagara to drop a bunch of roaches wherever she pleases. A power spike for sure since it is a new calldown ability, perfect for securing objectives or defending a wave.
3) Inject Larvae: doubles the amount of larvae produced from the queen's inject larvae ability. Another power spike, since you need a lot less injects to get the needed amount of larva for production. Also frees up time for creep tumors, since you'll be hard pressed to use all of your extra larvae early on.
4) Scourge Upgrade Cache: unlocks researchable upgrades for the scourge. The reduced cost upgrade is all but mandatory; the main drawback of massing up scourge was their gas cost, and this severely reduces that. The splash damange upgrade is more gravy than anything else. This alone should allow you to never morph corruptors ever again.
5) Bile Launcher: allows you to morph bile launchers, a defensive structure that must be manually used. They are theoretically great for defensive missions, though I do not use them. They do AoE damage to air and ground alike, so they have potential in missions like Temple of the Past.
6) Zergling Upgrade Cache: unlocks extra upgrades for the Zergling. The same as Kerrigan's version: you can add 10 health to zerglings, and give them the ability to reduce their target's armor to 0 for a short while. Can't complain really since after the mid game, you should have excess resources.
7) Baneling Nest: Birthing Chamber: baneling nests automatically spawn up to 4 banelings at a time at set intervals. Another big power spike, as it allows you to defend initial waves of enemies if you adjust your build order to get a baneling nest ASAP. Free units that explode!
8) Incubate Banelings: if you build Aberrations, this is for you. When they die, you get two banelings to pop out from their corpses. More free damage, and its great when you consider that Aberrations are melee units that are always near their target.
9) Evolution Chamber Upgrade Cache: unlocks upgrades at the evo chamber. One gives Zagara's basic attack some AoE, and the other grants Aberrations the ability to give 2 armor to any unit underneath it. The former is pretty good when you rely on Zagara for anti-air, and the latter is ok.
10) Darken the Skies: doubles the amount of roaches that spawn when you use infested drop. Just makes the ability twice as strong. Not much else to say.
11) Baneling Nest Upgrade Cache: allows researching increased blast radius and increased primary target damage for banelings. Both are excellent with baneling heavy compositions, which isn't that uncommon when the nest spawns them automatically and with another upgrade which makes zergling production a lot better.
12) Zergling Evolution: Swarmling: zerglings are permanently upgraded to the swarmling. This variant spawns in a set of 3 instead of 2, but they still cost 1/2 supply each. Still, 3 zerglings per egg for 50 minerals is a steal. Oh, and the morph time is incredibly fast. A power spike I'd say: you can mass a force much faster and reinforce quickly as well. Zerglings under Zagara are no joke.
13) Bile Launcher Upgrade Cache: allows researchable upgrades for Bile Launchers for increased attack radius and shorter cooldown of use. Can't comment on them since I don't use bile launchers.
14) Baneling Evolution: Splitter: banelings are now Splitters from the HotS campaign. That is, you get two smaller banelings when a baneling explodes. Each smaller one does a small damage, but you get 2 per dead baneling, and its still even more free damage. I wouldn't call it a power spike, but a bump in power nonetheless. It's totally free of charge too.
15) Broodmother: enhances Zagara's initial abilities. Both cost 50% less, and spawn 50% more units. In essence, makes Zagara a lot stronger, and easier to get those annoying achievements.
Pointers
- Do you like swarming the opposition with tons of throwaway units? If so, then Zagara is for you. Zerglings, banelings, and scourge with a few Aberrations sprinkled in should cover all of your bases.
- Drones cost 75 minerals to morph a pair. So when describing builds with her, it's a little different than usual. My opener does go 11 pool and gas, then bane nest at 50 gas. At 11 supply you have 22 workers, and should be able to stop worker production for the most part (I find 14/21 workers on minerals the main the most you need there).
- You should be able to handle initial waves with just zerglings and banelings. Afterwrads, Zagara will be available to take care of future waves. Note that her anti-air is limited, and usually relies on her hunter killers to handle it. Keep that in mind; you may want to tell your teammate to help out with anti-air if it is necessary until you get mass up a scourge fleet.
- My main strategy usually revolves around massing up tons of zerglings, eventually getting in 6-8 aberrations into the mix. Sometimes I morph banelings if I really need them against T or Z, but the free ones from the baneling nest usually suffice.
- Since you can morph a lot of drones, you could assist in defenses with lots of structures, even the bile launcher. If your macro is on point, you'll find yourself swimming in resources at the supply cap. Swarmings spawn in triplets, but cost 1.5 supply per egg.
- You can usually get to hive tech rather quickly, as there isn't anything really blocking you from going there. It's mainly just to unlock upgrades. If you find yourself floating a lot of minerals, make more hatcheries (you don't need to have queens at your extra hatcheries. It will make reinforcing your army a lot easier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)