There's nova, and then there's nova with Swann. When you can afford any combo of units you desire, she definitely is pretty bonkers. Having an army of tank liberator goliath ghost with full upgrades just erases stuff, especially if you throw away another 20 SCV's or so around midgame when you start to max out.

29 fps

United States5724 Posts

October 30 2016 14:52 GMT

#802

For Swann's 3rd set of masteries, does everyone put all the points into cheaper gas drones? Is it worth it to put some points into a faster drill and faster upgrades? I feel that reducing about 10 sec on the drill/drill upgrades can be very helpful, whereas the first mastery just saves a few minerals.

Ganseng

Russian Federation473 Posts

October 30 2016 21:54 GMT

#803

this mastery doesn't affect the upgrades, so it isn't useful

or it didn't last time i checked

but i do put some points into it because the drones are almost free anyways

i'@ lvl 88 atm

Xsyq

143 Posts

October 30 2016 23:02 GMT

#804

Gas drones is much better because it is a huge boost in the early game (where Swann is weakest) and because you won't actually have enough money to upgrade the drill that early unless it's all you do, which is not recommended in the least. Full points in Drill Mastery means you might get one more use of both abilities per game but Swann's late-game army is already strong enough to beat anything it needs to and you have to sack your early game to research, so it's fairly pointless.

Tryneus

24 Posts

October 31 2016 11:03 GMT

#805

When this thread 1st post will be updated? Alarak under construction, Nova not even added.

Highways

Australia6103 Posts

November 03 2016 10:41 GMT

#806

What is the best composition for Nova?

Malhavoc

Italy308 Posts

November 03 2016 12:13 GMT

#807

They say tanks are great, especially with their mines. However, I don't like microing them, so I go for a more a-move composition: around 3 Ravens (following Nova), and mostly marines (with either one or two marauder/hellbat depeding on the enemy armor type). Late game I start getting some ghosts and goliaths, massing the firsts against zerg, while massing the latters against T/P, especially if they go air.

29 fps

United States5724 Posts

November 03 2016 15:33 GMT

#808

For Nova, I pretty much always get 2 marauders to clear rocks, then get ravens, gols, and ghosts. I get 4 tanks for mines. I don't worry about maxing out because marines are pretty useless unless the enemy is zerg and has lots of air/lings. I also get marines on rifts of korhal because the enemy attacks so soon.

I also leave Nova in cloaked mode so that I can use snipe and so that she doesn't die as easily. I switch her to assault mode early on when I don't have many units, but later on, it's all cloaked mode.

Rizare

Canada592 Posts

November 04 2016 19:41 GMT

#809

Well, I didn't expect him and another commander that soon. Still, I would have liked if there was a new map as well but we'll see.

Edit: Never mind, looks like there'll be 2 missions coming at some point. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/515984-starcraft-ii-updates-from-blizzcon

fezvez

France3021 Posts

November 04 2016 22:26 GMT

#810

Overall, I wasn't thrilled by this Blizzcon, but one thing is for certain, it could hardly have been better for SC2. Because if there was more SC stuff, it would have been BW HD or SC3.

AllSalesFinal

United States211 Posts

November 06 2016 03:45 GMT

#811

On November 04 2016 00:33 29 fps wrote:
For Nova, I pretty much always get 2 marauders to clear rocks, then get ravens, gols, and ghosts. I get 4 tanks for mines. I don't worry about maxing out because marines are pretty useless unless the enemy is zerg and has lots of air/lings. I also get marines on rifts of korhal because the enemy attacks so soon.

Honestly, I just rush to tanks. Format is jank, but it should be good enough lol.

My early build
Refinery
Refinery
Barracks
CC next to Rocks
2 Tanks with first 600 gas
Rush tank and Armory Upgrades
Start adding on starport upgrades (raven's extra charge is good as is liberator's structure-attack ability.

Notes:
Clear geyser rocks first and instantly make refineries. Long distance mining minerals is fine for a bit. We end up with a ton of minerals. This lets us easily defend with the air strike ability. You can keep pushing with Nova + 2 tanks once you have the increasing range upgrade. Her bomb ability is... bomb. You can clear most objectives without the enemy AI even coming at you.

Just keep adding on efficient Factory/Starport units.

Other things I am finding useful (that most probably know):

Tank's Spider Mine ability is so sick. 2 tanks and spamming mines can clear almost any attack. If large air force, just use the air strike.

Liberator's attack structure upgrade can be useful on the xel naga defense map. You can use 4 liberators and clear every bonus without risk.

Defense Drone!!! USE IT. This is actually my favorite ability. On the "Energy Showdown" map, 4 marines + 1 defense drone can easily clear expo and Nova can handle the attack wave.

Sorry for the rant, just got done binging and wanted to share.

29 fps

United States5724 Posts

November 06 2016 05:35 GMT

#812

On November 06 2016 12:45 AllSalesFinal wrote:

Show nested quote +

Honestly, I just rush to tanks. Format is jank, but it should be good enough lol.

How do you deal with the first wave of enemies? Does your ally have to take care of it? Or do you stall until Nova pops out?

Kirena

United States6 Posts

November 06 2016 19:03 GMT

#813

^^^
Going Gas, Barracks, and then Gas, gives just enough gas to start a Factory as soon as the Barracks complete, and building only a few SCVs early on, you'll have enough minerals and gas to drop a Goliath Team as soon as the early attack arrives on Rifts to Korhal.

It's basically what I use to skip Bio and play straight up Mech, as two Goliaths are enough to hold the earliest attacks, and also have enough firepower to break rocks pretty quickly to get the expansion up and running. Like the other guy said, it's best to break gas rocks first.

IdiotSavant

United States88 Posts

November 07 2016 06:23 GMT

#814

For Nova I've just been doing:

Rax
Ref
Ref
1st set of marines
Factory
Goli
Starport -> You can starport before Gol if you wipe the 1st wave and not need to push anything.Really wanna get the starport out and a tech lab on it to start the cd on ravens.
2nd Base
2x Ebay, 1 armory

Ravens are so OP late game. Once you get high level and research the 3 extra abilities you can just spam turrets and seeker missiles and clr entire waves.

End game comp for me: Ghosts, Ravens, Gol, Marines/Rauders (they generally don't die once you build them and have some raven backing them up)

Gon

United States19 Posts

November 10 2016 19:51 GMT

#815

What are current opinions on current commander rankings overall? I'm starting to get into this more, but I don't have a lot of time, so I'm wondering which I should invest into. OP seems pretty out of date.

Icysoul

Canada254 Posts

November 10 2016 21:25 GMT

#816

It all depends on the enemy and your partner, theres no concrete set of rankings. Everyone is strong somewhere, in some mutation or another, and weak elsewhere. In normal brutal games, everyone can solo carry against most enemy comps (outside of exceptions like kerrigan vs T-air, which I think with creative use of cooldowns is still doable). No one is consistently weak or strong. Add on top commander balance shifting as you get more mastery points, its all a crap shoot. If you want a ranking, you'll have to be more specific in what you want the commander to do, against what comp, at what commander level, at what mastery level with what mutation active.

If you want to pick one, pick Nova. Shes pretty strong everywhere with few weaknesses and isn't at all hard to play.

monk

United States8476 Posts

November 10 2016 23:07 GMT

#817

Here is my list of normalized rankings:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lSmCvFn5ZD5xTHxfIBR_HeGVM5u3bFtCpQmP1pAOQsU/edit#gid=98287918

Ganseng

Russian Federation473 Posts

November 11 2016 09:42 GMT

#818

did anyone try to cast alarak's photon overcharge on a flying terran building?

that would be the absolute doom weapon =)

Rizare

Canada592 Posts

November 11 2016 20:38 GMT

#819

On November 11 2016 18:42 Ganseng wrote:
did anyone try to cast alarak's photon overcharge on a flying terran building?

that would be the absolute doom weapon =)

Yeah, I did that at some point a while ago. It's fun to see the birth of the strongest building that can move around. I don't know if it still works now or not.

AllSalesFinal

United States211 Posts

November 20 2016 06:44 GMT

#820

On November 06 2016 14:35 29 fps wrote:

Show nested quote +

How do you deal with the first wave of enemies? Does your ally have to take care of it? Or do you stall until Nova pops out?

Either works. Ally takes care of it through salvageable defenses/commander ability or delay for nova.