Fezvez's' Co-op guide and hero review - Page 36

Okay I made a guide for Alarak on page 35 and I want to make some tweaks:

After playing Alarak on all missions fully leveled on Brutal, I have found the perfect guide to beating even the toughest levels. My guide is NOT meant for mutators because I have yet to test. Please note: This guide is for level 15 Alarak.

Change to Ascendants

On my guide before, I said I loved these units and now I really, really love them. Orb is totally OP, just 8 Ascendants can do around 200+ damage in a line. Thats enough to send virtually everything packing to the void. Whatever is left is going to be so small in size that they are basically just target practice for mind blast. If you have enough power left. Note use Mind Blast on any kind of large mobs from Brutal no matter what, Orb them to death first, Mind Blast the rest.

You want at least 8 Ascendants bunched with around 16 Supplicants minimum at around 15 minutes on virtually any Brutal mission. Then you want Slayers, 2-4 Havocs, a War Prism, and 8 Warp Gates up to 12 at the very end.

What to do on openning for beginners

On all expansions, first pylon at the expansion, then forge as soon as possible, make 1 cannon on expansion and break main rocks then vespine rock with it, put 2 cannons at main and use 1st structure overcharge to clear first wave, unless you are with Karax, or someone who can do this first, then use 1st overcharge on rocks as well as second, do gateway after first wave and build the cybernetics as soon as gateway is done, and at 19 probes make a vespine (Yes really.)

By then use any extra resources for more gateways and do a quick melee upgrade at forge. (This helps a ton mid game.) IMMEDIATELY upgrade slayers to do phasing armor! If you dont do this, its a wipe. I mean make this upgrade before you even make slayers. Alarak should be able to handle any mobs ALONE no supplicants until this is all done, if you cant then you are microing wrong. I've tested this strategy on all maps. A single supplicant can make a gateway for early-mid game and that's an extra Slayer right there. The very first units you want to make is a phasing armor upgraded Slayer (Yes really, supplicants are mostly for Ascendants late game and this strategy ensures survivability until then.) You want to upgrade blink after phasing armor, blink AWAY from enemy and keep alarak away from front until you make supplicants!! Or its a wipe.

Also, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!!! Focus your upgrades, some are way more valuable than others. From best to worse, Phasing Armor, upgraded supplicant shields, then upgraded sacrifice ability for ascendants. Then make sure of course you do the forge upgrades, the upgrades for Alarak specifically that you get at level 14 are useless on Brutal mostly. Since Ascendant Orb makes them obsolete but the 100 percent Knockback upgrade goes great when you use destruction wave TOWARDS your army and your army is consistent of Ascendants and Vanguards but this is counter productive since whatever small amount left such as Aberrations can still do quick massive damage and you can simply micro orb back with ascendants and lose virtually no units. I dont recommend this.

Army consistence for specific mission and strategies for missions

On Temple of the past, Unit/structure composition should be Cannons on front immediately, after hybrids cannon on right. Put 1st pylon at expansion and second at front rocks (Unless you are with Karax, then go offensive, read an offensive map.) Then mass cannons and save up your gas. Immediately begin upgrading your supplicants and ascendants when possible (Around the 8 minute mark you should be at 2/2/2 (dont bother upgrading melee unless you want to go slayer which I recommend for bonus unless your ally can do then dont bother unless you have the resources.) and fully upgraded ascendants and slayers as well as a lot of cannons and a ton of gas. Begin to make a ton of gateways and dont bother doing warp, just pull back army when they are hurt, which should never happen. Mass ascendants and Orb first, mindblast latter. By late game when the 2 thrashers come out and the front enemies come pouring, I had around 20 cannons on front and 30 ascendants on side, took down the thrasher in 3-4 seconds and clearing a path was easy peasy. The back was covered with around 15 cannons left and the side was the only thing my ally had to do. Only. For back I had around 8 ascendants orb the transport and mind blast the hybrids. Used slayers to take down bonus and by late game they should all be dead unless you want to keep making them but 3 slayers < 1 ascendant. That should be it! I had 3 times more kills than my Ally if you care about that.

Mist opportunities This one is really easy early game for alarak since it's often massing zerglings or marines. Only thing to worry about is army placement, keep them ALWAYS close to the extractors since only 2 need to die and they can die in around 2 seconds. Here you want to mass wrathgaurds with air upgrade as first upgrade and vanguards for second with a few ascendants. This is really hard to do on brutal since it requires a bit of early game macro and supplicant micro. If you are up against zerg, instead mass slayers and ascendants. Why do I say this? Because on Brutal you will find Protoss units such as carriers and for Terran the Liberators massing and doing MASSIVE damage. Killing the extractors in seconds. And these are long range and ascendants and slayers often cant reach quick enough. (I emphasize on the QUICK enough.) I once massed slayers against these two races and we lost because on the last one, they are attacking from behind a ledge and my ascendants mindblast/orb and slayers couldn't reach them fast enough. One WILL die. Wrathguards can fix this. vanguards are more of a compliment to wrathgaurds but you can replace vanguards with ascendants and slayers and it will still work. Not as easily however. Since Protoss have high HP often and orbs will do good damage but ascendants will die faster than vanguards against these races on this map.

Void Launch Just go ascendants, Slayer, and Supplicant here and fully upgrade them. Not much to say apart from that, expand as usual with pylon at first expansion and the other to get cannon ready to clear first mobs etc. On the very last wave, keep your ascendant's at the warp gates and mind blast the ships since all you have to do is kill them and merely 10 ascendants should get the job done easily with a few supplicants. this is easy.

Lock and Load Same with Void Launch because you need the Slayers for their quick movement. Since Alaraks weakness is that very thing. Make sure you build cannons at each point and use the saved gas for ascendants. It makes this so much easier. Save the mothership for when you actually need it and believe me, you will need it.

Oblivion Express Wrathgaurd this one and couple it with ascendants. Wrathgaurds will destroy trains in mere seconds, end game they should clear them in like 6 seconds tops. It takes me 3 seconds to destroy them. Orb everything. Put wrathgaurds on the expansion on the ledge and have no more than 10 there. In 3 seconds that's over 2k damage. In 12 seconds the train will die. For the other train, use wrathgaurds on the ledge with the front, first base. Where there is an intersecting line. Do this also when both trains come. Why not do this when the train is only coming to the top side? Makes them less likely to die. Since your army should be pushing back the mobs along with alarak. Put them in the front and they are more vulnerable.

Chain of Ascension First Pylon should be at Ji'narra with forge and cannons before first wave. Have forge in front of cannons. When Hybrid push her back, Make sure you and your ally have a probe near her. It will slow the process immensely. I noticed virtually nobody does this and its very frustrating because this is just so useful and could have stopped sooo many loses on this mission. Use Alarak and with a ton of supplicants to clear first hybrid. (This is where level 15 comes in.) Keep alarak on front line. Dont bother making a cybernetics until hybrid is dead, the rest should be easy as long as you both always keep a probe near her. Mass ascendants, slayers, and supplicants.

The Vermillion Problem This one is probably the toughest on Brutal for Alarak since Alarak has such slow movement speed and you are often needing to run back and defend. You will find yourself at times getting overruned so quickly that you are just fucked and need to rebuild. Mass cannons near your base (Unless you have a better idea.) then go ascendants. This level though is probably the toughest for him, I have yet to lose once to it on brutal with him. This is due to the ramps and me having ascendants to stay back micro orbing them with Ascendants. Keep AT LEAST two supplicants with 2 supplicants at ramp and at most double this with cannons. Make sure to surround your cannons with gateways or they will die quickly. Mass orb when mobs come. You want Slayers, Ascend, and Supplicants as your army. (You will find this is virtually always the most effective.)

Void thrashing Now I cannot stress enough just how badly you want buffed wrathgaurds and vanguards with buffed supplicants on this mission. You of course need maybe 4 ascendants to deal with the low level mobs but wrathgaurds are a necessity. Their rage and damage is so massive that thrashers will really be "dropping like flies". Vanguards can be replaced with slayers against the zerg and kill their scourge before they kill your wrathgaurds.

Rifts of Korhal This is basically the same as Void Thrashing except they dont do damage. Which makes it easier. With this you can simply mass slayers since its so easy and slayers are an APM sink. (Yep you read that right, with wrath you have to keep them away from damage and often times you are running around selecting them singularly. Much easier to blink somewhere.)

Ending notes

Okay, I feel like Ascendants are a necessity for ALL missions on ALL difficulties, especially Brutal. At first I thought they were situational but I was terribly wrong. Their Orbs are basically the only thing that will clear the Brutal mobs fast enough to keep your army alive and the rest of them are mostly for certain missions or Races. If you dont have Ascendants mid or late game, pull your army back and make them if possible. You will wipe if you dont. The Vanguards are mostly for against the Protoss or Trains, the wrathgaurds are best against anything with massively high HP like trains, thrashers, etc. Against the zerg, your worse nightmare is scourge since if you dont orb and pull wrath back quick enough they can wipe your entire wrathgaurd cluster. If you cant handle this APM then go Slayer, Ascendant, and Supplicant instead. However, if you can, you will find the mission to be soo much easier and faster. I didn't speak much about Havocs but this is for the simple fact that you need at least 2 at all times and be ready to make more and keep them fully upgraded. You can mass havocs but I dont suggest, recommend, or even think its possible on brutal without wiping. Definitely not against the zerg. Slayers are like your all around general purpose units that are good for newbs but can make a mission last longer than it needs to be. Vanguards and wrathwalkers almost always do such a better job at pushing things along but you just got to be able to micro your army and macro your base at the same time. With exceptions. You can easily lose them quickly if you run out of ascendants and supplicants or dont know what you are doing.

I feel like Alarak is such a great hero for both beginners and experienced players, his mech army is obviously for experienced players and his bio army is for beginners. His ascendants are like his main units and everything else is up to you to choose. I personally find using all his units to be the most potent at speeding along a mission at the end, especially with Karax or Swann. Since Karax heals your mech army and Swann gives you extra gas for upgrades and ascendants

On an ending note, I want to say the best Synergy by far is Swann. Karax surprisingly doesn't do too well with Alarak on offensive maps. He is probably the worse to be with there. Why? Because Alaraks army is so fragile and it's possible to lose your entire army very quickly if you aren't microing a little. Even worse, his army is costly and takes a while to replace. With him being gas starved and his main units revolving around gas, I think you can understand why this is the case. Even with quick upgrades, his survivability is still sketchy. Defensive maps however surprisingly IMO is best with Karax since Alaraks mech army has such high damage and Karaxes cannons are such great "tanks" and Alaraks army revolves around having these "tanks" on the front lines.Go mech, Split them up, push so Karax can push cannons, use wrathgaurds to take out hybrids, easy.

GG everyone and hope this helped someone!