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Fezvez's' Co-op guide and hero review

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fezvez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France3021 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-04-06 12:06:02
November 16 2015 19:16 GMT
#1
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Last edit : 6 April 2017


Hello everyone!

I have been enjoying Co-op missions a lot. The heroes have good design, the missions are rather fast paced, and I have a blast playing them. For reference, I am ranked Master, and play exclusively Brutal after I leveled my characters. I will also assume that you know what Co-op missions are. This guide is not aimed to be an introduction on how to play Co-op, rather what are the possible strategies and strength/weaknesses of commanders. So, let's get down to business!


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Commanders ranking :

For the lazy, here are the rankings for standard missions:

At level 5 : Vorazun > Swann/Abathur/Nova > Kerrigan/Alarak > Zagara/Raynor/Artanis > Karax
At level 15 with no mastery : Vorazun/Zagara/Nova >Swann/Kerrigan/Raynor/Abathur/Artanis/Alarak >Karax*
At 60+ masteries : standard missions are trivial, every commander can solo them. Mutations are very varied, so it's hard to give an accurate ranking. In doubt, pick Nova, or Vorazun if you didn't buy any commander, and avoid Zagara/Kerrigan/Swann/Abathur

I mostly rate the commanders on their ability to carry the game if your partner cannot hold his/her own.

*Karax is tied for #1 on defense maps at level 15



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Commander guide

Each hero has a small section, where I discuss their most important features, as well as the usual army compositions and build orders for low level heroes.

For mutations, the typical weaknesses are the following :
- Vulnerable to AoE
- Weak versus mass air units
- Lack of mobility to snipe a crucial enemy on the other side of the map
- Hard to rebuild army (even if you are good, some mutations will simply kill all your units)

Raynor : Bio commander who mines more than anyone else
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Overall : A heavily mineral oriented hero. You are the only hero that can mine substantially more thanks to MULEs, and this obviously will make you spam marines all game long. Of course, you could try mass vultures, but I found them very lacking in straight up fights in high numbers (20+). You have so much mineral that it seems that you are lacking gas all game long, which means that you will be able to choose one or two units to build beside marines/medics. Marauder/Firebat, Tanks, Vikings/Battlecruisers, basically, pick one tech tree. And keep spamming marines. Honestly it's often more efficient to literally never build anything else than marine/medic for your main army. Note that you should try to play with a small squad of vultures all game long, it's good practice for your micro to drop mines regularly.
One very interesting point is that it's possible to play Mech Raynor on defense maps. It requires a bit of APM, but it mainly consists of making tanks and spamming vulture mines and turrets. You need to be able to spread mines and recharge your vultures efficiently (Jakatak's tricks for efficient spamming come to mind). Try not to fight with vultures, but losing them is not an issue as you have too much minerals anyways. I often end up building a small group of Vikings to help push out because you lack AA otherwise.
I find him very fun to play as you have to constantly split your huge bio ball. It is really easy to predict how a game will go : sometimes, you just roll over the first few waves, build orbitals after orbitals (try to get a dozen) and just spam marines all game long. Or you struggle a bit, have a hard time getting your 4th orbital and never go above 120 supply as your army keeps on getting being reset.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Marine, medic and a squad of 10 vultures

Leveling : Despite the fact that you have tanks, you often have trouble defending AI push at low level because you will always have small losses to AoE. You don't have the explosive DPS to insta-kill the wave (Vorazun Dark Templars), units to tank the wave (Kerrigan) or crowd control the wave (Vorazun Black Hole). Also, you can only spam Missile Turrets with your minerals, which is less efficient than the other heroes (Bunkers are pretty terrible to spam).
Power spike at level 2 and 5

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 2/5 relies on spells in the early game
- Army strength late game : 3/5. But you can easily remax, especially with 10+ orbitals
- Weaknesses : AoE



Kerrigan : Hero unit
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Overall : Your gameplay is really built around Kerrigan as she is the core of your army. She can easily solo the waves 2, 3 and 4. On some maps, she can even spawn just in time for the first wave, you will have to kite with zerglings for a few seconds. During the midgame, she is the cornerstone of your army.
You will love how strong the hero is, but also be completely lost for 60 seconds when she dies. Then, as the game progresses, your endgame unit will take precedence over her (lurker/ultra/brood lord). Still, she is crucial to your army survival. Talking about your army, the only truly good unit you have are ultralisks and lurkers. Brood lords are nice but can't use nydus worms, and hydralisks are just too squishy. You should also have a small squad of queens to spread creep and heal kerrigan if she gets dangerously low.
Mastery levels help her tremendously as it reduces the gas costs of combat units (take it, it's mandatory) which finally allow Kerrigan to get the units she truly needs. The reality is that you are still gas starved and you will still have to build queens anyways -_-
I find her very fun to play. It feels a lot like the HotS campaign missions. It is important that you use her assimilation wave smartly because it can yield a good amount of resources that she really needs overall.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Ultralisks, queens, nydus. Add hydralisks if there is air, lurkers if there is lots of ground.

Leveling :
At low level, you simply have to go hydra/lurker, but at high level, you unlock a ton of unit compositions : queen/BL, queen/ultra, hydra/ultra, hydra/ling, ling/lurker, ling/muta(niche), etc... This is mainly due to the fact that Kerrigan is so strong that she can make up for a lot of your unit comp deficiencies. And because you take advantage of the fact that she soloes wave to heavily tech at the beginning.
Power spike at level 2 and 3. Also, spread creep, at level 7, you and your ally gain 30% attack speed while on creep. It's an awesome, borderline OP upgrade!

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 5/5. Kerrigan can solo the first half of most mutations. Too bad the second half is much harder
- Army strength late game : 2/5
- Weaknesses : Mass air, hard to rebuild army, gas starved


Artanis : Gives a cheat death to everyone
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Overall : Artanis is weak on his own and feels like a support hero. But he is awesome to have as an ally, because his level 2 upgrade is incredible : ally units that would receive lethal damage instead become invulnerable for 5 seconds. I believe that to compensate, his units are not as OP as other heroes. He is among my favourite heroes to have as a partner, and actually opens up unit compositions that would not be possible otherwise. I feel that he pairs extremely favorably with Zagara and Raynor, as both have extremely fragile units (zerglings / marines) that can use the 5 second invulnerability to deal an insane amount of damage. Kerrigan can actually go pure raptor ling for a fun troll build.
All his units are a bit lackluster, so the usual unit compositions are zealot/archon and dragoon/immortal. His powers are very strong though, with very potent crowd control, that allows his otherwise mediocre units to actually kill the AI's stuff. Fun stuff, Whirlwind zealots have no collision and can stack! You can manually activate the ability to go through units (think of mineral walking). I like spamming 30 zealots, because it feels like the LotV cinematic!
Recommended cookie-cutter army : tempests and zealots (who are mainly here as a mineral dump). And a couple of obs

Leveling : You can actually play Brutal at level 2 because you will help your ally so much. His first true power spike is at level 5 with the reaver. Use them ASAP.
Power spike at level 2, 3 and 5 as explained

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 1/5. Even your spells don't help much
- Army strength late game : 3/5
- Weaknesses : Lack of mobility, his army is just weak overall


Swann : Amass the mech army of death
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Overall : Swann is the mech commander, and boy will you feel the awesomeness of mass tank drops! He is really weak until he gets the level 5 upgrade "gather more vespene for both players" as he will be crippled by the lack of gas. But as soon as you unlock this, you are in for a wild ride. This ability to harvest gas for both players makes him and Artanis the only two heroes which can significantly open up compositions for their allies. His early game relies on turrets as they are quite potent and 100% refundable. I build 3 rocket turrets to clear the rocks and refund them instantly to build my CC. Note that his laser drill is not as potent as controlling Zagara or Kerrigan, it clearly lacks the firepower to clear a wave, so be careful. You should get tanks as soon as the 2nd wave. Midgame, you should build a core mech army, and the cookie cutter build is tank-goliath with some Hercules transport. Don't forget the transport, they are not only awesome to use, they give Swann's army incredible mobility, as each Hercules can transport 8 tanks sieged! And can teleport! And are extremely cheap! Don't forget the upgrades in your factory tech lab. I typically add some science vessels for repairs and hellbats versus Protoss as Immortals can destroy armored units quickly (with Swann, you should aim to lose 0 units that cost gas all game long). Wraiths are worthwhile only on the air map, but they don't perform really better than goliaths. Late game, you should just roll over anything. Swann has one of the strongest late game army.
I find him quite fun to play when I micro his tanks with the Hercules. He is a bit bland when you play mass goliaths/thors as you just 1A your way through, but you should try it once for fun. His hero powers are a bit weaker than other commanders, but the laser drill ends up doing a lot of damage over the course of a game. Power spike at level 5 as stated.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Tanks, hercules and sprinkle with science vessels and goliaths

Leveling : You may want to wait until lvl 5 for Brutal as you will be lacking gas. He is incredibly slow at building an army so be careful with it. Spam turrets, they are refundable.
Power spike at level 2, 4 and 5

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 1/5 perhaps the slowest commander to get any meaningful army
- Army strength late game : 5/5
- Weaknesses : Hard to rebuild army


Zagara : Swarm of cheap units, capped at 100 supply
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Overall : Zagara embodies the Swarm, spawning millions of small units that all die in an instant. I like her a lot, despite the fact that you will always make the same units every single game. Her drawback is that her supply is limited to 100, which is a huge problem at low level, so you will need to spam static defense more than any other hero.
She has overall terrible anti-air early game, and relies on scourge which are really good when you tech enough (only build scourge if you have the Hive tier upgrade that make them cost 50 less gas, never build those underperforming corruptors) and the hydralisk spell. You can actually cheese the usually very hard last wave of the air map (Void Launch) by flying past the 37+ enemy battlecruisers and targeting the transports with scourge. Other than that, her army has very good mobility, especially due to the fact that, like Kerrigan, Zagara can solo a lot of early waves and allow you to spend all your resources in upgrades.
I feel like the hardest part about playing Zagara is keeping on top of spreading your creep as well as not forgetting the many many upgrades you have to reasearch, and finally babysitting Zagara because sheis so squishy in comparison to other heroic units.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Zerglings, Banelings, Scourge

Leveling : Unexpected power spike at level 7 with the free banelings. From there on, make a baneling nest with your very first 50 gas, it is that good. They can make you solo the first wave, and are awesome to have all game long. At level 15, Zagara's army becomes really strong. Her baneling/scourge become enough to clear the AI waves efficiently, and she becomes one of the the strongest heroes.
The main point when learning Zagara is to always remember to remake scourges and banelings. These are the real damage dealers, and your zerglings (and abominations if you make some) are mainly here to do the cleanup.
Power spike at level 2, 3 and 7

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 5/5
- Army strength late game : 2/5. If you can reset the entire AI army with bane/scourge, you are 5/5 but it's often not possible endgame
- Weaknesses : AoE, the Zagara hero unit is nowhere as good as Kerrigan or Alarak


Vorazun : Invisible army and powerful spells
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Overall : Vorazun only issue is her early game. Otherwise Vorazun has OP units. Her DT can insta-kill entire waves, even the toughest ones. Dark Archon has great CC, and mind control is really great on 6-supply units like carrier. Mass Void Ray with some corsairs allow Vorazun to solo the offense maps... at level 3. I don't joke, I did it. Corsairs are actually great, and can make for some very fun "entirely invisible and invincible" army at level 13 (cloaked units respawn instead of dying. 5 minute cooldown). DT + Corsair is probably the best cookie-cutter army composition at level 15.
Vorazun has OP spells. Well, she has one OP spell, Black Hole is an 8 second CC that only costs 25(!) energy. And it CCs everything, even the toughest hybrids! She also has Shadow Guard, which you should use exactly once at the beginning of the game to clear your rocks and solo the first wave. The easy way to use it is to cast it next to your rocks at your natural as soon as the red dot appears on the minimap. Clear the rocks and then go clear the wave.
Vorazun has OP upgrades. Automated refineries, or whatever their name is, allows Vorazun to be mineral starved during the early and midgame. Mass DT is mineral starved. Mass Void Ray is mineral starved. What game is this? It was even more impressive when she could go 4 gas before Cybernetics Core, but Blizzard added rocks on extractor just for her. The only annoyance is that she relies on Oracle for detection which forces you to get a stargate. And the Oracle has a bad tendency to die.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : DT, Corsair and 1 or 2 oracle for detection

Leveling : She has no real power spikes after level 3, she is the easiest hero to level. By the way, Void Rays can actually keep on damaging the train while moving.
Power spike at level 2, 3

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 2/5
- Army strength late game : 5/5
- Weaknesses : Mass air, hard to rebuild army if you manage to lose it twice in less than 5 minutes


Karax : Mastered cannon rush and spells, forgot to have an army
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Overall : Karax is the weakest hero to level by far, but ends up being one of the strongest at high mutation levels. Karax has the strongest hero powers by far. He also has the strongest static defense by a significant margin. The drawback is that his standing army is really weak, or rather, his army is damn small. Because his units cost 50% more, you shouldn't play Karax like you play any other hero. Typically, the first half of the game, Karax has nearly no units. The start of the game is about researching the tech you will need and dropping some static defense. You help your partner thanks to your spells. Only in the second half will you start ramping up production.
I personally find Karax challenging. He is quite well designed with strengths and flaws, and plays very differently from all the other commanders of the current roster. It's just that his army is really weak. To give you an idea, when I only invest in his spells and carriers, I end up with 6~8 carrier at the end of the game on offense maps. And the strong feeling that I was carried by my ally.
One last thing, Karax's partners really appreciate when Karax writes in chat "Chrono wave soon" (all production/research are much faster for 20 seconds) 10 seconds before actually using it. It's a really awesome team power, especially for the attack/armor upgrades.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Carriers and zealots (mineral dump). You probably have more resource invested in static defense than in your army anyways

Leveling : At low level, I suggest that you use the Energizer (sentry) as much as possible vs terran and protoss as you can mind control mechanical units. At higher level, normally, you pick one unit (immortal, carrier,colossus, etc...), and spam zealot/cannon with the remaining minerals. Your first decent standing army is mass immortal when you get the upgrade that deals 200 damage to a ground or air target. I suggest you stick to non-offense maps when you grind levels, because your photon cannon + battery shield are a very potent combo.
A note on Energizer : this unit is extremely interesting. On one hand, it is very potent. It can boosts your structures, your units or your allies units, can mind control battlecruisers, etc... On the other hand, it costs a ton of gas, and Karax already has a lot of trouble regarding gas. I suggest you skip them entirely versus Zerg and add just a couple versus Terran/Protoss in the midgame because they feel really rewarding to use.
It's really hard to build any kind of decent army before having the immortal ability (level 9), it's the first time when you can reliably carry the game on all maps.
Power spike at level 7, 10 and 11, that's why he is so terrible to level

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 4/5 as long as you don't have to attack too much
- Army strength late game : 2/5. If you are under constant attack, then your cannons are going to do so much work and you are worth 5/5
- Weaknesses : Hard to rebuild army, lack of mobility, gas starved


Abathur : Amass the big Zerg army of death
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Overall : I feel that Abathur is a really strong and balanced hero. Balanced in the sense that there is a flow : in the early game, do everything so that a single roach collects all the biomass. You should have a Brutalisk really early. And this flows smoothly in the late game, where Abathur tends to have a truly unkillable army which can out sustain anything sent at it.
There are a lot of different army compositions, but his truly OP unit is the Viper, in particular the Blinding Cloud. The basic army compositions are roach/ravagers (at low level), pure muta (at level 15), roach/guardian/devourer, roach/swarm host/guardian, etc... His army requires micro mostly for the Vipers, otherwise, you can 1A your way through.
One of the strongest lategame armies (with Vorazun/Swann), mainly because nothing dies. That is even more true with the level 15 upgrade. It's very deathbally, but somewhat lacks extreme mobility. The only way to instantly deal with a problem on the other side of the map is Deep Tunnel which is only for Brutalisk/Swarm Hosts.
Similarly to the two other Zerg commanders, you can tech a lot in the early game thanks to the mines and your Brutalisk. It is actually possible to rush Hive in order to unlock the highest possible tech, and not die in the process.
One tip is that it's possible to turn off the Brutalisk/Leviathan upgrade. This is mainly useful is you plan to go pure muta (at level 15) as a muta with 100 biomass is arguably stronger than a Leviathan.
I personally have big trouble being efficient with Swarn Hosts, even with the Deep Tunnel upgrade. On standard maps, everything works, but I find them lacking on most Mutators. In theory, you can take fights and have no loss, but thanks to Mend and the level 15 upgrade, Abathur already never loses units generally. And Swarm Hosts are so big that you invariably tend to lose some, if they had a smaller collision radius, they would be significantly better. They are terrific defensive units though (note : it seems they were changed and have much better AI)
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Roach (mineral dump), queen, and either muta flock or guardian+devourer flock

Leveling : Just stick to roach/ravager/queen until you get enough upgrades for your air units. You may want to stick to pure mutas until you reach the upgrades for devourer/guardian
Power spike at level 2, 5 and 7

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 2/5 it's tough to get a Brutalisk soon enough
- Army strength late game : 5/5
- Weaknesses : Hard to rebuild army, lack of mobility


Alarak : Hero unit reloaded
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Overall : Alarak is another commander centered around a hero unit, like Kerrigan. Like her, you spend most of your time microing just him. Unlike her, you don't have to fear getting one-shot and having your entire army crumble. That is because the gimmick of Alarak is that he can sacrifice supplicants (zealot-like units) to regain life, and thus you will always have your blob of supplicants following him like a group of cheerleaders. This leaves you a lot of gas to invest in other high tech units. The robotic units are pretty straightforward to use, the ascendants (Tal'Darim templars) are much more interesting. They can get absurdly strong if you sacrifice enough supplicants to them, but the sacrifice cooldown is 1 minute, so you have to babysit them a lot. Losing them lategame is crippling as it takes 10 minute to put them fully online. Finally, don't forget that your sentries are both incredibly useful support units, they are also you only detector.
My cookie cutter build is Alarak-supplicants-wrathwalkers-ascendants (colossus-templar). This is because alarak and the ascendants provide incredibly good AoE, so the wrathwalkers are here to provide long range high single target damage. Note that on maps with lots of anti-air, like scourges, you may want to skip the wrathwalkers. Rush ascendants as they really take a long time to be powerful.
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Supplicants, Wrathwalkers, Ascendants and a couple of sentries

Leveling : Stalkers seem to be a good unit you have at low levels, but they are quickly outclassed by nearly everything else. Basically, go for robotics units and wait for ascendants until you get the upgrade at level 12
Power spike at level 2, 3 and 5

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 4/5
- Army strength late game : 4/5
- Weaknesses : Hard to rebuild army, lack of mobility



Nova : Small elite squad capped at 100 supply
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Overall : Nova is all about controlling an elite squad of unkillable units. You can only have 100 supply, only one Barracks, one Factory and one Starport. And you have one Nova, who is halfway between Kerrigan and Zagara in terms of being completely OP strong. She is strong but she requires a lot of micro especially because she has 2 modes of play : stealth mode and combat mode. Typically, you assault an enemy position by starting in stealth mode and getting 1 or 2 invisible mine explosions. The cooldown is pretty long unfortunately. Then switch in assault mode, blink in the middle of the enemy pack (this grants you a shield), use a defensive drone and blast everything with your shotgun. You may want to add the Griffin Airstrike / Holodecoy / Nuke for really fortified positions.
The default units to spend minerals on are marines and goliaths, but you should try to slowly build a gas intensive army throughout the game and spend all your excess minerals in spells. The default gas dumps are ghosts and ravens. By the way, Nova's first spell called defensive drone is a defensive ward which is the single most important spell in your arsenal. It will save your units more time than you can count. Note that tanks can spam mines for 50 minerals, and thus can get rid of your excess minerals
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Ghosts, Ravens, Marine/Goliaths (mineral dump). Tanks if you can afford them

Leveling : Quite an easy process, you have much more time in standard missions than in mutations, so you can fully use that time to micro Nova and her vast array of tools. You may want to use marauders at the start, but they are quickly outclassed by every other unit.
Power spike at level 3 and 7

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 4/5
- Army strength late game : 4/5
- Weaknesses : Impossible to rebuild army, good thing it's mostly unkillable


Stukov : Swarm of free units
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Overall : Stukov is another variation on being the Swarm. Instead of overwhelming your opponent with legions of cheap units, you overwhelm them with... free units! His gimmick is a building which spawns a group of infested civilians regularly. This can go up to 64 units, which is quite a lot. But half his units also spawn things in some way, bunkers autospawn infested marines, tanks throw infested civilians in enemy lines, queens use "Spawn broodlings" from Brood War, etc...
What I like most about Stukov is that he is the only commander that plays like an A.I : you typically don't win with one big push that lasts less than 30 seconds, it's often a much longer process that relies on attrition. Some like it, some don't, personally, I find this refreshing
Recommended cookie-cutter army : Bunker and tanks. Add diamondbacks(net) or queens(fungal) if there is too much air

Leveling : The bunkers are not really good at low level, so you will rely a lot on tanks and diamondbacks (just here for anti air). It is quite funny to spam queens as it's a caster that can really hold its own thanks to being fast, flying and possessing an array of useful spells that can be used from afar.
Power spike at level 2, 3 and 4 (you can count 5 if you intend to spam bunkers all game long)

Mutations :
- Able to get online early game : 2/5
- Army strength late game : 4/5
- Weaknesses : Low mobility


Some commander combos

Really good synergy combo
- Artanis + Zagara/Raynor/Stukov : Artanis 5 seconds of invulnerability pairs extremely well with Zagara's zerglings banelings and scourges / Raynor's marines and medics / Stukov free units.
- Swann + Karax/Kerrigan : Early game, Swann is pretty slow, so Kara's Spear of Adun and cannons are extremely handy to clear the first waves / Kerrigan soloes the eraly game. Karax's passive heal of mechanical units are really useful to save Swann's first units. Late game, Karax and Kerrigan are incredibly gas starved, and Swann goes a long way to alleviate this. This is the only way for Karax/Kerrigan to obtain a true army of powerful units.
- Raynor/Stukov + Vorazun/Nova : With your partner's approval, Vorazun/Nova can take 6 gases thanks to automated refineries, while Raynor/Stukov sticks to marine+medics/bunker spam on 2 gases. This allows your ally to ramp even faster toward their endgame army, and doesn't really cripple Raynor/Stukov.

Cute synergy combo
- Kerrigan + Abathur/Stukov : Kerrigan's level 7 upgrade is 30% attack speed for any unit on creep. If your partner spreads creep themselves, it's even more likely that they will take advantage of it
- Vorazun + Zagara/Karax/Kerrigan/Nova: Vorazun's black hole acts exactly like an Archon toilet, so easy access to AoE attacks can be really valuable. The three commanders that can use it to the fullest are Karax (Spear of Adun), Zagara (banelings), Kerrigan (Kerrigan's Dash) and Nova (Nova's shotgun). This is mostly valuable early game for ramping up your economy while having 0 units. It's more cute than really powerful

Specific army compositions
- Vorazun + Nova : Vorazun passive "saves" cloaked/invisible units with a 5 minute cooldown. Nova, her ghosts (and her banshees) are permacloak. This helps tremendously
- Vorazun + Kerrigan : Same thing as above, but with lurkers. Be just sure to have your lurkers buried when they are about to "die"!
- Artanis + Kerrigan : Kerrigan raptor lings are incredibly strong with their 5 second invulnerability. Kerrigan can go ling/ultra while Artanis takes care of anti-air. Don't hesitate to back off during a large assault and come back a minute later. It's a bit a troll build, and not that effective engame (which is a bit of a waste of gas if you got the upgrades for your lings)

Anti-synergy / Nonbo
- Swann + Raynor/Stukov : Swann provides gas to heroes that typically don't need any
- Kerrigan + Vorazun : Weak versus mass air
- Artanis + Alarak : The supplicants are sacrificed (to Alarak and Ascendants) and thus don't benefit from the invulnerability shield

Do you like hero units?
Kerrigan / Alarak > Nova > Zagara ( > Abathur's Brutalisks and Leviathans)
As you can guess, the stronger the hero unit, the weaker the army

You don't know what hero you want to buy?
Read the short guides, watch a couple of videos. Honestly, all commanders are powerful, so I would pick a commander you like. But if you want to diversify your gameplay experience, I feel that Stukov is the most original commander and my #1 pick. Nova is a close second. Alarak can be seen as a variation on Kerrigan, and Abathur as a variation on Swann, but you may still want to get them because they are among the best characters in terms of banter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


General ideas/tips :
+ Show Spoiler +
- Take everything I say with a pinch of salt. Your experience may differ from mine, and you may have found better strategies than me
- No heroes are bad. All heroes can start playing Brutal at roughly level 2~3 and hold their own if you are decent enough at the game (except Karax on offense maps). Some heroes are better at carrying the game though
- At low hero level, there are builds / unit compositions that are clearly better than others. At high level, on non-mutations, you can pretty much do anything you want. There are nearly no bad units, and you can feel free to experiment new things
- Most of the current map pool is really straightforward regarding macro : if your expansion is not defended by AI units, you have to take it roughly around the time the first push hits. Some commanders can expand before, some commanders have to wait just after. It is a mistake to delay after that in any case.
- Most heroes have massive power spike at level 2 (ultimate ability unlocked) , level 3 and level 5 (very strong upgrades). That is why I don't recommend playing Brutal before level 3. I will give the subsequent early level power spikes if you prefer to stay on lower difficulty settings for a bit. The main exception is Karax who is quite bad on offense maps for a long time.
- The race of the AI is randomized, but Protoss tends to be the easiest to defeat. For Terran, you have to be very careful about detection as the AI uses extensively banshees, ghosts and nukes (it seems I don't get nuked anymore, perhaps Blizzard patched it). For Zerg, the Scourge/Baneling/Viper combo can be really hard to handle, be sure to split, and sometimes, you simply can't go air because of the scourges.
- Be extremely wary of AI air compositions. Mass Mutalisks/Banshees/Void Rays can make your life hell in the early game. Observe carefully the first couple of waves, they tell a lot about what you will face



Map Specific info/tips
+ Show Spoiler +
Void Trashing and Rifts of Korhal are the first two offense maps, and used to be trivial. Basically go kill something on the map before the timer runs out. You could do troll builds such as mass vulture + Battlecruiser and win easily. Blizzard stepped up, and the missions are not so trivial anymore.
Void Launch is the air map and one of the two defense map. The easiest way to lose is to not realize that when the first shuttle comes, the enemy waves goes to an expansion, and if you lose your expansion, you are in deep deep trouble. Also, the last wave in extremely strong, so strong that it's usual to not be able the beat it. But you only have to snipe the shuttles!
Temple of the Past is the other defense map and the most annoying one in my opinion. It can be quite challenging to multitask, and one key step is to start spamming static defense around the temple when you enter midgame, starting with the northeast entrance. Also, AI drops start midway through and can really cause havoc if you don't anticipate them well
Oblivion Express is the train map and my personal favorite of all the maps. The easiest way to lose is similar to Void Launch, while you are attacking the first train, an enemy wave will attack your base from the south and can really set you back. Be wary of nukes versus Terran AI. It is recommended that you keep your ultimate (300 second cooldown spells) when 2 trains come simultaneously. If the worst happens, you can let one train go to lick your wounds. But you can only do it once!
Lock & Load is the first additional map. It is a zone control map where you have to get 5 zones under your control. It can be a bit challenging to split your forces but spending 1~2k minerals on static defenses as well as keeping your spells for defensive purposes simplifies a lot of things. The only map which requires cooperation as both players are needed to get a control point. If your partner AFK, you can as well leave. (However, if he disconnects, you can control his units and win!)
Chain of Ascension is the second additional map. I like it a lot, as you can't fast expand blindly like on the other maps. It requires some focus as the easiest way to lose is to not realize that Jinara is close to your pit, and lose because the hybrid pushes her to her death. Even though your standing army can clear the map. Be extra careful when you attempt the secondary objective, as it is the only secondary objective where you can lose your entire army if you simply 1A. And I like it, it requires a tiny bit of micro, but any challenge is welcome
The Vermillion Problem is the third additional map. It is an offense map where the places you have to attack are semi-randomized, and you have to protect a worker while it collects a special crystal. It is the second map that features a defended expansion. The fact that lava rises regularly makes the air compositions and the teleportation skills really good.
Mist Opportunities is the fourth additional map. It's a kind of offense/defense hybrid as you have to go far in enemy territory to start defending a place (actually a science vessel in this case). I always feel the need to kill the top base and it's a challenge I invite you to do!
Miner Evacuation is the fifth additional map. It's similar to Mist Opportunities in the sense that it's also a kind of offense/defense hybrid where you have to go far in enemy territory to start defending a place. Personally I find the aesthetics of this map pretty poor (it's ugly). Be careful to always watch for your expansions when you are fighting at an objective because you are regularly attacked there and losing your expo can majorly set you back
Dead of Night is the sixth additional map based on the campaign and the arcade map. You are assaulted by swarms of infested units at night, but during the day, you are free to clear the infested buildings. It's a defense map, except if you want some challenge and burn the infested structures at night, which I invite you to try. The biggest gimmick is that you have only 9 mineral patch and 3 gas, which forces you to try different types of army comps.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Conclusion :
I liked Co-op missions a lot when they were introduced, but I quickly found them very repetitive, and not that hard. That's why I was delighted when they introduced the Mutation missions. The missions themselves are quite varied now, and I really like the fact that they added maps where you can't expand straight away.


List of edits :
+ Show Spoiler +

- Typos
- Clarified my stance on vultures
- Swann and Lock & Load added
- Karax
- Level 15 ranking
- February 2016 co-op changes
- Abathur patch refreshing of the whole guide
- The Vermillion Problem
- Some pictures (a bit too large unfortunately)
- Community Guides
- Downgraded Raynor due to the patch
- Alarak patch
- Stukov patch
- Updated a lot of the outdated information
- Dead of Night patch
- Popularity tweet
tokinho
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States792 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-02-28 22:24:06
November 16 2015 19:38 GMT
#2
Nice idea. I kind of enjoy coop, but I kind of disagree it is fast paced. It feels really slow and is kind of boring because of game speed........

Also, I kind of disagree with your zerg builds, there are 3 opening styles. 15 gas 14 pool (defend with lings), 14 pool, 16 hatch 22 hatch at natural by rocks (defend with 2 spines, 1 set of lings), and 14 ovie, extractor trick, 15 pool, 16 gas, 16 queen, 20 ovie (defend with queens).

In terms of Kerrigan, the best style i like is actually queen, hydra, into ultra. (faster ultra for storms) I think using the queens to tank is much stronger than lings and it snowballs much faster. I prefer fast 3 queens and about 10 sets of lings early for my build to get down the rocks the fastest, but the strongest build appears to be 3 hatch with spines when benchmarking.

#edit: Blizzard made the game speed faster on brutal so its not too bad now and I have all the acheivements.

A few of the achivements have tricks.
1. Swann's smooth operator Achivement. You can keep getting gas when on the score screen. So using void launch on casual you can easily get 12 gas off the 4 bases. Then you get about 4k gas/10 minutes. ~25k an hour. So you can just leave it on for a few hours and not grind for it.
2. Kerigan's acehivements are much faster if you get the ability efficiency upgrade at 100 gas every game.
3. Zagara's infested drop achievement is not too bad if you get a vorazun teammate to coordinate with you.
4. For the Bonus EXP achivement void launch is probably the easiest for the bonus objectives. The train level try not to walk through your base if you need to get the bottom train.
Smile
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
November 16 2015 19:53 GMT
#3
Hehehehe, agreed on Vorazun.

My evaluation of Vorazun:
Spells - OP factor : 11/10, probably 12/10, fun factor 9/10
Units - OP factor : 9/10(missing mothership), fun factor 10/10, probably higher (for me)
Style - 4 cats and 1 Lister

Bottom line = Protoss squared, with good ally it is Protoss ^ 4
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
BEARDiaguz
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Australia2362 Posts
November 16 2015 20:11 GMT
#4
Swann strat guide

open 15 cc at the rocks. 16 fac, then keep rallying scvs over to the natural. When fac finishes, build 3 Punisher Turrets (the bashing billy's, I think), use them to blow up the rocks to plant the CC. Then salvage them. Then add 4 gasses and go up to 3 fac (2 if tech reactor). Considering using 2 flame turrets to guard against the first or second wave tho tbh between your ARES bots and your allies equivalent ability, if they are artanis/vorazun/raynor, you do not need a single unit out until after the second wave is taken care of.

At that point just calmly saturate 2 bases and make a bunch of tanks and an armoury. Once you've got about 6-8 tanks add a starport for vessels and make Goliaths to beat enemy air units. Grats you have now won every level on brutal.
ProgamerAustralian alcohol user follow @iaguzSC2
weikor
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Austria580 Posts
November 16 2015 20:11 GMT
#5
I find both zerg heroes using mainly zerglings to be very strong as well. Especially with Artanis.
3-3 lings that reduce all armor to 0, and are invoulnerable for 5 seconds are pretty Op. Air units just get taken out by your ally, or scourge.
Scourge can also be used to kill void thrashers (its possible to beat the offensive void mission, just by suiciding enough scourge.

Swann is also pretty op, giving you and your ally what feels like twice as much gas to work with. Siege tanks, well... wtf? they are incredibly powerful.

I do agree that vorazun is OP as fuck though.
InfCereal
Profile Joined December 2011
Canada1759 Posts
November 16 2015 20:28 GMT
#6
Disagree entirely about Zagara o.O

The only static D I've made with her was a bile launcher thing because I wanted to see what it was. Scourge are unbelievably good, even without the gas reduction upgrade. Seeing as you have nothing to spend gas on as her, you're always floating 1k gas, so the price is not a problem.

My build, for what it's worth:

14 - Spawning pool
13 - double gas
14 - Overlord

Make lings to kill rocks. Your inject should pop before then first wave, giving you some 24 zerglings for it. Kill the rocks, expand, make only drones until you're saturated. Don't take 3/4 gasses until you need scourge. Just spend gas on upgrades.

Gas usage goes as follows (All when you have the gas)

Speed
Baneling Nest
@ 100 gas - Double evo
@100% evo - 1 - 1
lair
2 - 2
Ling upgrade on spawning pool
hive
3 - 3
Ling upgrades on SP
Zag upgrades
Cereal
Zode
Profile Joined April 2011
Canada297 Posts
November 16 2015 20:41 GMT
#7
On November 17 2015 05:11 BEARDiaguz wrote:
Swann strat guide

open 15 cc at the rocks. 16 fac, then keep rallying scvs over to the natural. When fac finishes, build 3 Punisher Turrets (the bashing billy's, I think), use them to blow up the rocks to plant the CC. Then salvage them. Then add 4 gasses and go up to 3 fac (2 if tech reactor). Considering using 2 flame turrets to guard against the first or second wave tho tbh between your ARES bots and your allies equivalent ability, if they are artanis/vorazun/raynor, you do not need a single unit out until after the second wave is taken care of.

At that point just calmly saturate 2 bases and make a bunch of tanks and an armoury. Once you've got about 6-8 tanks add a starport for vessels and make Goliaths to beat enemy air units. Grats you have now won every level on brutal.



LOL this is exactly how I have been opening with him as well. Diff comp but yea spot on.
ChristianS
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States3188 Posts
November 16 2015 21:13 GMT
#8
I couldn't disagree more about vultures. With a squad of 6-8 vultures constantly placing mines and rebuilding them, you can easily wipe out basically every ground unit that comes to attack you. Then your bio ball and special abilities are free to run around the map killing stuff – a lot of people tend to use the ultimate abilities as a panic button when an incoming attack is too big, but with just a handful of vultures you simply don't need to. The big red hybrid is usually the only one to survive the mine field, and even he's on low health by the end and you can probably just kite him with the vultures.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -Robert J. Hanlon
fezvez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France3021 Posts
November 16 2015 21:19 GMT
#9
On November 17 2015 06:13 ChristianS wrote:
I couldn't disagree more about vultures. With a squad of 6-8 vultures constantly placing mines and rebuilding them, you can easily wipe out basically every ground unit that comes to attack you. Then your bio ball and special abilities are free to run around the map killing stuff – a lot of people tend to use the ultimate abilities as a panic button when an incoming attack is too big, but with just a handful of vultures you simply don't need to. The big red hybrid is usually the only one to survive the mine field, and even he's on low health by the end and you can probably just kite him with the vultures.


So, mine fields are indeed nice, I can solo clear waves 2, 3 and 4 usually.

The problem is twofold :
- Constant APM grab, as well as small resources lost, which is roughly similar to the few marines you lose every engagement
- When you have to assault something, the vulture damage is very lackluster. Seriously, you kite the red hybrid with vulture? Even more APM grab

Most AI push are trivial to deal with. The problem are the big ones. Namely, the big red hybrid and the big capital airship wave. Vulture deals semi-decently with only the former half.
jinjin5000
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1425 Posts
November 16 2015 21:22 GMT
#10
I don't see why people say Raynor is really bad.

If you Continuously make macro OCs, it gives huge advantage as you get 3-6 base mineral eco off 2 bases with tons of mineral and endless marine medic parade with instant remax. It got to point I was filling the map up with ocs because I couldn't spend it all.
fezvez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France3021 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-11-16 21:36:36
November 16 2015 21:34 GMT
#11
On November 17 2015 06:22 jinjin5000 wrote:
I don't see why people say Raynor is really bad.


My second point is literally "No heroes are bad". And Raynor is noted as "Slightly weaker", not "Useless sack of shit"

So, yes, you can have a nearly infinite parade of marines. But not an infinite parade of medics (gas starved), which is actually an issue. Marines are awesome at dealing with the big air waves, but suffer from two issues :
- when you have to split your army to multitask (temple comes to mind) you start to lose a lot of marines/medics
- you just have huge trouble dealing with the red hybrid

By the way, you can't have more than 3 base eco in the long run, as you actually start to deplete all your mineral fields when you have ~50% more resources than your allies
fezvez
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France3021 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-11-16 21:35:48
November 16 2015 21:35 GMT
#12
-Mistake-
Ctone23
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
United States1839 Posts
November 16 2015 21:41 GMT
#13
For a challenge, try going goliath + cyclone (disable auto lock-on) with Swann. I do pretty much the same as Iaguz post above, but tanks are a bit stale imo
TL+ Member
BluzMan
Profile Blog Joined April 2006
Russian Federation4235 Posts
November 16 2015 21:50 GMT
#14
Disagree a little bit on Artanis. The way to go is goon/reaver with zealots added long afterwards after charge, archons may not be needed at all.

You can go 14/15, skip zealots entirely, warp in 2 goons (3 in about 10 more seconds) at your natural and clear the rocks before the first wave comes, it's very stronk. Then you nexus, robo and get your first reaver and win.
You want 20 good men, but you need a bad pussy.
Tuczniak
Profile Joined September 2010
1561 Posts
November 16 2015 21:57 GMT
#15
Vorazun is really OP and really fun. I wish the other heroes were as good as her and the difficulty higher.

Since OP didn't mention Dark pylons, there are awesome. 50 energy for recall point. It adds a ton to the game, especially on Temple and train missions. You can port all over the map very quickly. It adds to the game in very fun and skill-based manner. I wish more heroes had something like this. Kerrigan has omega worm which is ok, and as good as this. The other heroes lack this kind of mobility afaik.

Also with Dark Archons you don't need to make oracles, just grap any opponents detection. Especially terran is very annoying with a ton of cloaked banshees and cloaked ghosts. And you find yourself lacking detection with many heroes. This might have to be tweaked, terran opponents seems a lot harder/annoying than zerg and protoss.

Overall COOP is awesome. But it needs higher difficulty, heroes tweaked for that, more content (community contest) and system to not let very bad players join brutal on lvl1 (easy fixes, there are topics about this on b.net forums).
jinjin5000
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1425 Posts
November 16 2015 22:21 GMT
#16
On November 17 2015 06:34 fezvez wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 17 2015 06:22 jinjin5000 wrote:
I don't see why people say Raynor is really bad.


My second point is literally "No heroes are bad". And Raynor is noted as "Slightly weaker", not "Useless sack of shit"

So, yes, you can have a nearly infinite parade of marines. But not an infinite parade of medics (gas starved), which is actually an issue. Marines are awesome at dealing with the big air waves, but suffer from two issues :
- when you have to split your army to multitask (temple comes to mind) you start to lose a lot of marines/medics
- you just have huge trouble dealing with the red hybrid

By the way, you can't have more than 3 base eco in the long run, as you actually start to deplete all your mineral fields when you have ~50% more resources than your allies


Eh I had 20+ ocs built and there wasn't much signs of slowing down and brutal only lasts 20 minutes max. I just took all 4 and mule hammered all the time.
ChristianS
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States3188 Posts
November 16 2015 22:23 GMT
#17
On November 17 2015 06:19 fezvez wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 17 2015 06:13 ChristianS wrote:
I couldn't disagree more about vultures. With a squad of 6-8 vultures constantly placing mines and rebuilding them, you can easily wipe out basically every ground unit that comes to attack you. Then your bio ball and special abilities are free to run around the map killing stuff – a lot of people tend to use the ultimate abilities as a panic button when an incoming attack is too big, but with just a handful of vultures you simply don't need to. The big red hybrid is usually the only one to survive the mine field, and even he's on low health by the end and you can probably just kite him with the vultures.


So, mine fields are indeed nice, I can solo clear waves 2, 3 and 4 usually.

The problem is twofold :
- Constant APM grab, as well as small resources lost, which is roughly similar to the few marines you lose every engagement
- When you have to assault something, the vulture damage is very lackluster. Seriously, you kite the red hybrid with vulture? Even more APM grab

Most AI push are trivial to deal with. The problem are the big ones. Namely, the big red hybrid and the big capital airship wave. Vulture deals semi-decently with only the former half.

I see a pretty big difference between "vultures are bad" and "vultures require APM." Personally, I find the multitasking aspect of these fun, and anyway, they don't really require much more attention than keeping half your army back to defend. Frequently there will be a dynamic where, for instance, the game throws two attacks at you from different directions, while simultaneously expecting you to go after some objective that's out of your base. With ~20 supply of vultures and maybe a few turrets, you can just ignore one of those attacks, kill the other with your entire bio ball, and then go after the objective.

I'd consider it way more of an APM sink, and way more difficult, to split your army in half, and then try to micro both armies to defend both attacks while retaining enough bio that you'll still be able to go after the objective. Kiting with vultures is way easier than kiting with bio, for instance, and kiting with bio is usually what you have to do against the red hybrid anyway.

On top of all that, vultures are so cheap! You'll have to get a factory anyway, and you can easily just put a tech lab on it, research the 50/50 for the replenishment upgrade, and queue out vultures one at a time. Alternatively if you find them that useful, you can add just one more factory with reactor and get two at a time without even sacrificing your ability to make tanks. I mean, you're complaining about the resources lost on replenishing mines, but in the average attack against your base would you lose more than 8 marines? Because spending all 24 mines from 8 vultures and replenishing them costs less than 8 marines, and if I defended one of those attacks with all the hybrid and such only losing 8 marines, I'd call that a huge win.

I mean, don't build vultures if you don't want to, I don't care. But I'm amazed that vultures got specifically mentioned in your review as being bad, while you suggested people build battlecruisers. Every single game I've tried to make battlecruisers they've basically just been wasted supply.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -Robert J. Hanlon
lestye
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States4163 Posts
November 16 2015 22:24 GMT
#18
THEY'RE COMMANDERS, NOT HEROES, you noobs! (Kinda parallels how Dota players HATE when League players call heroes champions)

Oh, I love Dark Pylons. You can make the AI do really weird shit with it. Like ignore your terran's actual static defense by cloaking it, and leaving a barracks nearby uncloaked, so they beat on the barracks without losing cannons/bunkers/missle turrets.
"You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-11-16 22:31:56
November 16 2015 22:31 GMT
#19
On November 17 2015 06:57 Tuczniak wrote:
Vorazun is really OP and really fun. I wish the other heroes were as good as her and the difficulty higher.

Since OP didn't mention Dark pylons, there are awesome. 50 energy for recall point. It adds a ton to the game, especially on Temple and train missions. You can port all over the map very quickly. It adds to the game in very fun and skill-based manner. I wish more heroes had something like this. Kerrigan has omega worm which is ok, and as good as this. The other heroes lack this kind of mobility afaik.

Also with Dark Archons you don't need to make oracles, just grap any opponents detection. Especially terran is very annoying with a ton of cloaked banshees and cloaked ghosts. And you find yourself lacking detection with many heroes. This might have to be tweaked, terran opponents seems a lot harder/annoying than zerg and protoss.

Overall COOP is awesome. But it needs higher difficulty, heroes tweaked for that, more content (community contest) and system to not let very bad players join brutal on lvl1 (easy fixes, there are topics about this on b.net forums).

Against Terran I am stealing science vessels. Heals VR, detects.

Against T or P I usually ends up with half units stole, Zerg is harder. Their units are squishy and not that great for mind control

Anyway, Vorazun is so much fun I haven't thought about playing 1v1 yet! I wish coop gets more maps ASAP. That's so much fun!
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
jinjin5000
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1425 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-11-16 23:19:24
November 16 2015 23:14 GMT
#20
while brutal is really easy, I found it way easier to do it with raynor than swann.

Swann gets bit bottlenecked early on and needs ally to handle first 2-3 waves but raynor can just open cc first with bunker in front and mass OC way up and solo brutal pretty easily without much micro.

Done with lvl 1s so idk.

Theres hyperion and dusk wings that can fight off first two waves and do the first objective without much trouble so you can macro up with triple or quadruple ocs and flood opponent with marine medic.

I don't know how you would struggle with gas though. I was never short of gas, just mineral when parade pushing and after mule hammers unlocked with 7 ocs, there was 0 problem and I had time to build productions and ocs in middle of map.
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