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?
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
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.
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