EPTHere is my order from best to worse
Raynor Stukov Vorazun Kerrigan Zagara Nova Karax Swann Artanis Alarak Abathur Fenix
Good Rift Commanders:
Karax (with vision)
Raynor
Kerrigan
Vorazun (once area is cleared)
Zagara
Swann (Hercules)
Artanis
Good Defensive Commanders:
Karax
Raynor
Swann
Stukov
Kerrigan (ground with Lurkers)
Raynor
Composition: Bio/Tank (Defense)
Pros:
1. Call downs are very good for clearing Rifts.
2. Hyperion can be deployed anywhere and has Teleport.
3. Orbital Drop can be used to clear Rifts if a call down isn’t ready.
4. With Karax ally only scans are needed to clear Rifts and Spear of Adun
5. Fast units make clearing Rifts easier.
6. Tanks and Bunkers make defense an ease.
7. Enough Orbitals make 1 base economy possible without much drop off in production
Cons:
1.
Kerrigan
Composition: Ultra/Kerrigan/Zergling/Lurker (defense if partner isn’t able to help)
Pros:
1. Kerrigan is super mobile with Omega Worms and Leaping Strike.
2. Lurkers are great at defense and can deal with any ground attack force with a few Spore Crawlers for anti-air.
3. Ultras are the best units for dealing with Fear as the percentage of effect is based on HP.
4. Omega Worms can be placed at any island for quick movement.
5. Lings can help to pull agro if Kerrigan get Feared.
6. Immobilization Wave is OP as always.
Cons:
1. Kerrigan can be Feared.
2. Rifts can get out of hand easily if you aren’t on top of them and too many units attacking Kerrigan will get her killed.
3. Gas can be a problem with only one base so top tier units count might be an issue.
4. Ultras are a bit slow so make sure to get Burrow Charge to help get them to the front lines.
Artanis
Composition: Tempest/Zealot/Cannon
Pros:
1. Tempest can kill a Rift with one shot of Disintegration.
2. Zealots can help to pull agro away from Tempests.
3. Tempest have a very long ground attack range.
4. You will have plenty of extra gas after making Tempest, use them for Zealots (in the beginning) and Cannons at the expo island (mid to late game)
5. While holding the center island 4 Tempest and be sent out to hit all the new rifts and come back within a short time.
6. Solar Bombardment time out well with about every other attack wave.
Cons:
1. Tempest are slow to move.
2. Anti-air attack range is short for Tempests be careful when pulling away from Rifts and engaging enemy forces.
3. Orbital Strike as a super long cooldown and take a lot of energy.
4. Zealots get Feared quite often.
Swann
Composition: Tank/Goliath/Hercules
Pros:
1. Laser Drill mastery at 26% can kill a Rift with one shot and if they are in a line you can kill more than 1.
2. Tanks and Static Defense are more than enough to hold almost any number of Rifts.
3. Hercules with 6-16 Goliaths are great for dealing with new Rifts (be careful with cloaked Banshee if you use teleport as Science Vessels don’t have Teleport)
4. Fully Upgraded Laser Drill has great DPS for Rifts with vision.
5. You will have extra minerals after making attack units so spam those Turrets.
Cons:
1. Slow army while Teleport is on cooldown.
2. Hard to walk the line in the early game with defense and Rift killing as you will need to do both to reduce the number of Rift to a manageable amount for mid to late game.
3. Laser Drill attacks have a long cooldown so they cannot deal with every Rift make sure to have a mobile attack force.
Zagara
Composition: Bane/Scourge/Zagara.
Pros:
1. Banes can deal with attack forces and Rifts very easily.
2. Swarm Lings spawn very fast and can deal with the first Rifts, especially with Bane support for the second Rift of the first wave.
3. Zagara has great DPS against air (Hydra Spawn) and ground (Bane Spawn).
4. Lings are very fast so they can deal with far Rifts very fast (as long as there is no enemy encampment on the way.
5. Infested Drop can deal with any Rift in the middle of an enemy encampment or just hard to reach Rifts.
Cons:
1. If just let with Lings your army will get Feared super easily and will lose its DPS very fast.
2. Zagara can be Feared and will die fast without support. Think about Life and Regen mastery to help with that.
3. Scourge have low HP and can be Feared with one AOE attack be careful and think about pre-splits if going up against Ravens, Vipers, Templars, and Science Vessels.
Vorazun
Composition: DT/Corsair or Stalkers (when facing Scourge).
Pros:
1. DTs can clear Rifts super-fast, as long as there is no enemy encampment on the way. I send 2 DT’s to every new Rift and leave 2 at every island once its cleared.
2. Time Stop should be used all the time to help clear Rifts, enemy attack waves and enemy encampments.
3. Corsairs can help with crowd control.
4. If making Stalkers Oracles stay alive longer as the Stalker pull all the agro.
5. Black hole is very useful when dealing with large attack forces.
6. Dark Pylons Cannon make holding your expo very safe, you will have extra minerals as well so spam those cannons.
Cons:
1. You need to take you expo or it will be tough to build your army until mid to late game and Rifts might be out of hand by then.
2. Very hard to clear the expo without ally help as rushing to DTs will take all you gas and leave you will little to no anti-air.
3. First set of Rifts will be difficult to defend even with a couple Cannons. Once Shadow Guard is off cooldown you will be able to clear. Hold until then.
Karax
Composition: Static Defense/Observer (for Rift sniping)
Pros:
1. You will be able to hold any number of Rifts with you defense.
2. Holding your expo should be a breeze.
3. Energizers are great for adding extra heals and DPS.
4. Observers can be deployed throughout the map for vision if you don’t have a partner that can help get you vision.
5. Only takes 5 Spear of Adun shots to kill one Rift.
6. You can clear all the early Rifts with the Spear of Adun as long as they aren’t past enemy encampments.
Cons:
1. This is a defensive strategy so without an attacking partner you will lose.
2. You need vision to clear Rifts.
3. Without clearing Rifts, you will use all your energy just defending your base. Clearing Rifts saves you energy.
Abathur
Composition: Queen/Brutalisk/Muta
Pros:
1. Brutalisk can use Deep Tunnel to get anywhere on the map.
2. Toxic Nest can be used to keep your main ramps from getting over run.
3. Mutalisks are very fast and can be used to clear Rifts fast.
4. Queens can help to spread Creep and get you vision for more aggressive Nest placement.
5. Extra minerals can be used for Spine Crawlers.
Cons:
1. Very slow to start and without a hard carry you will find it hard to get to any unit comp that you want without the Rifts getting out of hand.
2. Units from the Rifts don’t spawn Biomass, if they did this would be an easy win.
3. You must decide if you want full Biomass Mutas or a few Brutalisks to start, as you will not have much Biomass in the beginning.
4. Without clearing Rifts Spine Crawler will be overrun fast.
Alarak
Composition: Alarak/Supplicant/Wraith Walkers/Ascendants
Pros:
1. Alarak can help deal with the first Rifts using Structure Overcharge if they are close. Then deal with newer ones when he comes out.
2. Structure Overcharge is great for defense and pushing if you keep a probe with you army.
3. Keeping a probe with your army will help to get crystals safely aback home once to clear the defending force. This will also reduce the time your probes are alone reducing the chance of Fear.
Cons:
1. Wraith Walker take a klong time to tech to and are expensive.
2. You gas count will be low for a very long time; top tier units will be on the low side most of the game.
3. With a one base economy Supplicants will be in low numbers make sure that Alarak takes as little damage as possible to ensure that you army size will grow.
Nova
Composition: Marines/Marauder/Goliath/Raven/Tank (for defense if needed)/Banshee (for Rifts)
Pros:
1. Super tanky build and can deal with any attack force and enemy encampment.
2. Marines Marauder Goliath as super low gas cost leaving room for Banshee and Ravens later in the mission.
3. High DPS means that you can prioritize attack upgrades and forgo defense upgrades.
4. Once an island is cleared your Cloaked Banshee can easily clear Rifts by themselves. Watch out for the lava if you queue commands.
5. Her army can just keep moving and Teleport to the middle island up until the lava is rising. Keep the DPS going until the last second.
6. Defensive Drone can save your army, sometimes they won’t target a Feared unit make sure manually cast its ability if you are worried.
Cons:
1. Slow army so you might feel that all you are doing is dealing with Rifts on your side.
2. With all the Defensive Drones, army you are building and a single base economy you might find it hard to use the Griffin Air Strike.
3. It’s a bit hard to clear the first two Rifts make sure to either make one gas or cut SVCs to get your Marines out in time. You will need at least two Defensive Drones to deal with both initial Rifts.
Stukov
Composition: Bunker/Tank/Infested Marines.
Pros:
1. Bunkers are great for defense.
2. Tanks add a great DPS to your defenses.
3. Infested Colonists are great for adding a large attack force to any attack wave. Timings can be tricky with the lave change your Psi Emitter to reflect that so you don’t lose them all.
4. Call downs are great for clearing Rifts and enemy encampments.
5. Apocalisk is great for attack waves so make sure the cool down mastery is used.
6. Once your defenses are set use at least 2 Barracks to help push out. You will be set with defenses and have extra minerals by then.
7. One base economy is fine as you mostly need minerals for this type of build.
Cons:
1. Can be a bit hard to push the center right, and right side of the map as detection is necessary to fully clear those areas.
2. Scourge will destroy the Alexander very fast so be careful.
3. With no standing army, the Psi Emitter must be used a lot to clear Rifts that are not on the way. Think about macroing your units out on the map and not just setting a new rally.
Fenix
Composition: Zealot Hero (to start)/Carriers
Pros:
1. Hero Zealot can deal with the first Rifts.
2. Carriers are high HP and that will help with the Fear. Although the Interceptors don’t soooooo.
3. Cannons can be made with the extra minerals that you will have after making Carriers.
4. Fenix can deal with the second set of Rifts giving you time to start Carrier production.
Cons:
1. Slow start so it will be tough to build your Carrier numbers.
2. Fenix has low DPS against the Rifts so be careful as multiple spawns will occur.
3. One base economy affects Fenix a lot so try to keep everything alive as replacing anything is costly.
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