Mutation #27: Explosive Results

spirit2011gg

Korea (South)498 Posts

November 13 2016 19:16 GMT

Description: Amon is determined to destroy Sgt. Hammer's Fortress at all costs. Explosions rock the compound as nukes rain from above and Amon's minions detonate themselves upon death. Do what you can to mitigate your own casualties as you take out the Void Thrashers.

Map: Void Thrashing

Mutators:

Going Nuclear
Nukes are launched at random throughout the map.

Mutually Assured Destruction
Enemy Hybrid units detonate a Nuke upon death.

Self-Destruction
Enemy units explode and deal damage to nearby player units upon death.

play Video : Artanis & Nova

Ez... ...

Broadcast in twitch tv... sometimes...
https://www.twitch.tv/spirit2011gg // following please~

Ouga

Finland645 Posts

November 14 2016 11:46 GMT

Quite easy. Mostly because the base mission is the easiest in game, I think this could've been very hard on some of the other missions. The fact that there's no waves with hybrids makes this quite manageable.

Beaten it already with Vora, Nova, Karax, Swann, Aba. It felt like Aba was the weakest of them, but then again I played ground only again, maybe the gspire builds make it easy for him. Karax mass carriers worked pretty well. Vora DT snipes seems like the best strat, if done well he's probably #1 commander for this as I think he could entirely solo the mission without help from ally. Nova is strong enough to just brute force it, although for once I found more use for cloak form with nukes and attack drones over shotgunning everything.

If you can control your view decently and not get nuked, I'd say hybrid nukes are the only thing that kills you. They just occasionally sneak under everything you have, specially if you or your ally goes heavy air so they kinda get cloaked below your army

29 fps

United States5724 Posts

November 14 2016 12:26 GMT

Zagara scourge bomb makes it easy, especially with a Vorazun or Artanis ally.

Ouga

Finland645 Posts

November 14 2016 12:45 GMT

Any air "cheese" seems to work. I've bombed them with scourges, went vulture/viking (20+ viking) as Raynor, Carriers as Karax. No doubt Vora VR would dominate this, seen ally Artanises mass tempest it (and just snipe them without clearing units from outer corners). No doubt aba guardian/devourer would do this easy. Even Alarak can rely on the air callout to clear 2 of the areas np.

lastride

2390 Posts

November 14 2016 16:08 GMT

Yeah I think we should expect a mine nurf soon imo. Mines Vikings is insanely strong. You just need a decent start that's all

GamerJatt

63 Posts

November 14 2016 17:25 GMT

Did it quite easily with Swann. I was actually thinking it'd be harder but realized this map has barely any hybrids so there's no need to worry too much about their nukes, just gotta watch out for the normal nukes and only when they hit in quick succession when dodging the first nuke and the 2nd one drops where u were headed are they dangerous. My ally lost his whole army to a couple hybrid nukes at the last set but I managed to clear it easily enough.

I went full Goliath + SVs and didn't mix in any tanks or thors to keep the army compact and easy to dodge the nukes.

Malhavoc

Italy308 Posts

November 14 2016 18:02 GMT

Easy, but I wouldn't suggest Artanis: I lost a bit too many Tempests due to their slowness.. nukes strike quite quickly as soon as you see the red circle

CruiseR

Poland4014 Posts

November 14 2016 18:41 GMT

basically as Ouga said - reading the mutators I thought "oh this is gonna be hard" but did it easily for first time with bonus as Raynor. oh, and don't build your CCs near the rocks - nuke will kill it xd

also there are almost no hybrids on the map

Tuczniak

1561 Posts

November 14 2016 19:02 GMT

I played with all commanders. It's possible with everyone. Hard to say who is on the top. I would probably vote for Artanis (tempest) and Nova (bio/liberator), because they reinforce straight to battlefield and can take out enemy forces safe from distance.

Ouga

Finland645 Posts

November 14 2016 20:44 GMT

#10

I also beat it with all but Artanis already. Indeed not worth making lists: imo ANY commander with ANY composition can beat it. It's harder with ground only armies, quite easy with any commander's air armies. I think I had 9 wins and 2 fails, even the fails could've been turned around but I kept eating hybrid nukes that I didn't see under air armadas.

This really is this easy because of the mission's base difficulty. I don't think there's ever been mutation that feels hard on either this or Rifts to Korhal, the two shortest missions. These mutators on the newest mission (terrazine one) and we might be talking about how only Raynor can carry it, even then way harder than previous ones as his mines die to nukes - you can't carpet whole map with them like you could the last 2 times on it.

krlwlzn

118 Posts

November 14 2016 21:17 GMT

#11

I beat the mission with Nova only. Neglecting to make an army meant I could spam griffin air strike and the rest of the spells without any issue.

Ouga

Finland645 Posts

November 14 2016 22:50 GMT

#12

And now that I did it with Artanis, I kinda want to say he's the best. Ofc it may not be as simple vs. zerg, but tempest with some backup zlots are pretty ridiculous vs. P/T, something like 20 tempests & <16min win with bonus was fastest out of the completions I did. Although I guess they pretty much all fell within the 15-20min range as you fail the mission pretty fast after that anyway.

Shellshock

United States97276 Posts

November 14 2016 23:26 GMT

#13

yeah I just ran through with artanis and it was pretty much a joke. only time the hybrids really seem to come into play is on the last set where theres a couple near the back and less room to maneuver but overall on the easier side of the mutations

the first time I played it as Swann I actually died at the end because I forgot about the hybrid nukes and got my army blown up. so just remember all 3 parts of the mutation :D

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

November 15 2016 01:55 GMT

#14

On November 15 2016 06:17 krlwlzn wrote:
I beat the mission with Nova only. Neglecting to make an army meant I could spam griffin air strike and the rest of the spells without any issue.

Haha, this actually worked pretty well... I made ravens to help support my allies Tempests and kill the thrashers faster, but spent all my minerals on airstrikes, drones and reviving nova a couple times when I mis-microed.

monk

United States8476 Posts

November 15 2016 02:06 GMT

#15

This is actually the hardest mutation I've ever done for me. Something on this mutation really lags my terrible computer, causing me to have less than 1 fps at all times after 10 minutes, meaning I can't dodge nukes whatsoever. So help rank this week as well!

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

November 15 2016 02:15 GMT

#16

On November 15 2016 11:06 monk wrote:
This is actually the hardest mutation I've ever done for me. Something on this mutation really lags my terrible computer, causing me to have less than 1 fps at all times after 10 minutes, meaning I can't dodge nukes whatsoever.

Well you know what that means... Just beat it in under 10 minutes!

GamerJatt

63 Posts

November 15 2016 05:26 GMT

#17

Tried this one with a couple different commanders, pretty easy so far. Beat it with Artanis but kept losing a few Tempest to nukes since they're so slow, it's hard to move them all out of the nuke radius and then another nuke drops before the death cd is up.

I'm going to try the solo Nova strat now

Although I'll probably get Ravens for my ally.

Shellshock

United States97276 Posts

November 15 2016 07:17 GMT

#18

after playing with Monk, Zagara actually looks much better than I was expecting in this mutation. I think Artanis and Kerrigan have been the easiest for me. I don't have any of the pay to play heroes unlocked though so I can't comment on them

Amui

Canada10567 Posts

November 15 2016 09:18 GMT

#19

Played Artanis. Not bad at all with mass tempests, even though my tempest ball got fungal+nuked at the end and we killed off the last thrasher with about 400HP remaining with yolo tempest/zealot warps to finish it off.

I figure that if you aren't going up against fungal+nuke, it shouldn't be anywhere near that close.

monk

United States8476 Posts

November 15 2016 11:17 GMT

#20

Here's my first go at this:

Artanis: Guardian Shell prevents both allies from the nukes and Tempests work well against both MAD and self-destruction.
Alarak: Ascendents' long range can kill everything before they have an opportunity to explode.
Nova: All her units have naturally high HP so they can shrug off self-destruction. Tank mines obliterate everything in its path while pushing. The griffin can be used in an emergency.
Abathur: Abathur units are sturdy and they can shrug off self-destruction.
Raynor: Great pushing ability, but requires a lot of micro. Can get instantly wiped by a single nuke.
Swann: Herc/Tank can work, but Hercs can get taxed quite heavily from the large number of Nukes. Cyclone/Hellion/Vessel works really well here.
Kerrigan: Kerrigan solos the start really well, but she tends to struggle near the end when Ultralisks get decimated. Broods are workable, but again, only work against the ground compositions. She also has the typical lack of anti-air problems.
Vorazun: No really good fighting options due to both DTs and air being weak to self-destruction.
Karax: Mass carriers is the best strat, but can be slow due to high ramp-up time. Also his interceptions tend to die to nukes.
Zagara: Low sustainability.

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

November 15 2016 19:01 GMT

#21

On November 15 2016 14:26 GamerJatt wrote:

I'm going to try the solo Nova strat now

Although I'll probably get Ravens for my ally.

This map is so easy in general that this works, but truthfully its not the best approach. Its just for fun. Having done it a few times now I feel like there's no reason not to make a few units. I drop some marauders to clear my expansion, then make as many liberators and ravens as possible and siege the thrashers from the lava like Artanis does with tempests while continuing to dump my minerals on as many airstrikes as possible to clear out the trash.

Shellshock

United States97276 Posts

November 15 2016 20:06 GMT

#22

On November 15 2016 20:17 monk wrote:
Here's my first go at this:

Artanis: Guardian Shell prevents both allies from the nukes and Tempests work well against both MAD and self-destruction.
Alarak: Ascendents' long range can kill everything before they have an opportunity to explode.
Nova: All her units have naturally high HP so they can shrug off self-destruction. Tank mines obliterate everything in its path while pushing. The griffin can be used in an emergency.
Abathur: Abathur units are sturdy and they can shrug off self-destruction.
Raynor: Great pushing ability, but requires a lot of micro. Can get instantly wiped by a single nuke.
Swann: Herc/Tank can work, but Hercs can get taxed quite heavily from the large number of Nukes. Cyclone/Hellion/Vessel works really well here.
Kerrigan: Kerrigan solos the start really well, but she tends to struggle near the end when Ultralisks get decimated. Broods are workable, but again, only work against the ground compositions. She also has the typical lack of anti-air problems.
Vorazun: No really good fighting options due to both DTs and air being weak to self-destruction.
Karax: Mass carriers is the best strat, but can be slow due to high ramp-up time. Also his interceptions tend to die to nukes.
Zagara: Low sustainability.

Idk if I would move Kerrigan up but I tried it again with her going more hydra heavy. I stayed on just Kerrigan through the first 2 waves of rifts and on the 3rd one I started adding hydras in (was vs terran air so i needed it). If you really babysit your hydras her AA isnt really that bad. I changed it up so i saved her time stop for the big air waves at the end that come at your base, use her to bounce attack the stacked units like banshees and put the hydras on BCs. keeping overseers alive was probably the most annoying part but if you reduce the gas cost of kerrigan's units a bunch it's not too hard to keep a pretty solid hydra AA army

BaneRiders

Sweden3630 Posts

November 15 2016 22:05 GMT

#23

Played it as Artanis (Tempest) with a Nova partner. After winning on the second attempt I have a movie title for this mission: Dances with Nukes

The tempest aren't exactly any greyhounds, so getting away can really be an issue. In the first round I got screened by a nuke into an incoming wave and the second follow-up nuke took out my entire army. It was a truly beautiful tipple pinch maneuver, I have rarely felt so outclassed in co-op.

krlwlzn

118 Posts

November 16 2016 00:05 GMT

#24

I actually like Zagara for this mission. Have beaten it with mass scourges several times allready. It's kind of a cheesy strat since you just make mass scourges and wait for thrashers to spawn. Defending with Zagara and free banes.

Ouga

Finland645 Posts

November 16 2016 07:58 GMT

#25

What exactly triggers thrashers to spawn? If you do nothing, they'll spawn after very long time. But to manually activate, I'm not sure at all. The set of 3 woke up when I threw Zag's drop on top of them all, but when I tried it again at the last set, they didn't. Had to clear most of the area around first 2 to-spawn thrashers before they'd emerge.

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

November 16 2016 18:58 GMT

#26

I don't think you can manually trigger them, they just spawn on a timer.

The Bottle

242 Posts

November 16 2016 20:15 GMT

#27

I have definitely gotten the impression, when playing the normal version of the map, that they have spawned much faster when you get there faster. In fact, I have never seen a case where we have wiped out the void thrashing site before they spawn, even though I know for sure that I have reached there tremendously faster with some commanders than with others. So I think you do trigger an early spawn. Though it's usually after you kill a bunch of stuff, so they don't just spawn automatically as soon as you step within range.

Ouga

Finland645 Posts

November 16 2016 20:21 GMT

#28

You can definitely trigger them somehow? On current mutation I've had games where the triple spawn haven't spawned at 13:30 in game time (when nobody has gone there). Other times I've beaten mission at 15:xx. However if I played ground armies and try to push towards triple fast, they're always up when I get there. I'm just wondering about exact data: maybe there's minimum timeframe between spawns and maybe vision related thing too.

monk

United States8476 Posts

November 16 2016 22:54 GMT

#29

Update!

Artanis: Guardian Shell prevents both allies from the nukes and Tempests work well against both MAD and self-destruction.
Alarak: Ascendents' long range can kill everything before they have an opportunity to explode.
Nova: All her units have naturally high HP so they can shrug off self-destruction. Tank mines obliterate everything in its path while pushing. The griffin can be used in an emergency, which is extremely useful.
Abathur: Abathur units are sturdy and they can shrug off self-destruction. Mass mutalisks works the best in my experience due to mobility. After the top four, there's a fairly big drop.
Vorazun: Cheesing with DTs and Time Warp is a good option if you can rely on your ally to take care of any anti-air.
Zagara:Zagara herself can take out the first two sets of thrashers while you save up banelings. You'll have to send all your forces to kill the second two sets and you have a chance to run out of resources depending on the wave you match up against.
Swann: Herc/Tank can work, but Hercs can get taxed quite heavily from the large number of Nukes. Cyclone/Hellion/Vessel works well here as well.
Kerrigan: Kerrigan solos the start really well, but she tends to struggle near the end when Ultralisks get decimated. Broods are workable, but again, only work against the ground compositions. She also has the typical lack of anti-air problems.
Raynor: Great pushing ability, but requires a lot of micro. Can get instantly wiped by a single nuke. MAD is hard for Raynor too as you'll have to split a lot.
Karax: Mass carriers is the best strat, but can be slow due to high ramp-up time. Also his interceptions tend to die to nukes..

Malhavoc

Italy308 Posts

November 16 2016 23:24 GMT

#30

I was unlucky enough with Artanis to get air zerg a couple of times.. always managed to win, but those times where really hard!! Nukes, fungals, AoE from vipers, scourge... it becomes really hard to keep your tempests alive against such composition..

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

November 17 2016 01:50 GMT

#31

Its rather impressive the depths of human incompetence one can sometimes encounter in co-op mode...

Rizare

Canada592 Posts

November 17 2016 02:55 GMT

#32

I'm guessing the way trashers spawn is similar to chain of ascension. If you push Ji'nara to a certain point, you can trigger an earlier spawn and if you don't, then the first spawn always comes at 9 minutes. I'm guessing for trashers and based on what I've seen, you can trigger it early by killing stuffs close to where the trasher spawns. For the final set of 4 trashers, the front isn't enough to trigger it so I'm guessing you have to kill deeper toward the middle of the 4 to trigger the spawn.

What I wonder though is the timer for spawns after the first trasher. Let's say you spawn the first one early. Does the 2nd set spawn earlier to compensate (like say 2nd set will always spawn X minutes after first one) or does it have a hard time set so it always spawns at that time if you wait?

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

November 17 2016 19:58 GMT

#33

I'm almost certain the first thrasher must be just a timer. I've killed all the units around it before it spawned before, and it seems to come up at the same time as if I ignore it completely.

For the others, perhaps it has to do with killing the hybrids that guard them?

riotjune

United States3393 Posts

November 18 2016 00:16 GMT

#34

They seem to spawn earlier (aside from the fixed timer) when you attack their respective base. We had both sides spawn at a similar time when my ally and I went to attack opposite sides. I think there was even one game where we delayed too much and the final 4 middle thrashers decided to join the fun for a total of something like 7-8 on the fortress bangbus. We failed.

Normal

Please or register to reply.

Mutation #27: Explosive Results

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming