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The Void itself bleeds into reality, warping the very fabric of space and time. Battlefield Conditions change at random and never stay stable for long. All bets are off, commanders. Be ready for anything.
Lock and Load
Chaos Studies Mutators are chosen at random and periodically cycle throughout the mission.
Polls for commander of the week and mutation difficulty (the latter poll is rather useless here as the difficulty is obviously not uniform and due to chance).
Notes from the reddit thread / battle.net thread: + Show Spoiler +Mutators Found So Far:
Aggressive Deployment -Alien Incubation -Avenger -Barrier -Blizzard -Concussive Attacks -Darkness -Evasive Maneuvers -Lava Burst -Mineral Shield -Orbital Strike -Outbreak -Scorched Earth -Self Destruction -Speed Freaks -Temporal Field -Time Warp -Twister -Void Rifts -Walking Infested -Twister -Darkness -Self-Destruct -Orbital Strike -Mineral Shield -Aggressive Deployment -Lava Spouts
- There are three mutations at the start of the map. Mousing over them in the lower right corner is helpful.
- Every 105 Blizzard seconds, starting at 4:45, a mutator is switched off and a new one takes its place
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Haven't seen nukes, hybrid transformation, mag mines or void rifts, so the heavy stuff seems not to be in the rotation, making the difficulty - while still varying - overall rather easy. Since the map is Lock and Load, I voted for Karax as the best commander. Mass tower defense at the locks plus Spear of Adun abilities negate the dangers of most mutators.
Some combinations of mutators, however, can be hefty, like Void Rifts combined with avenger and slim pickings.
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i think they're running out of ideas. My guess now is that they're going to do wheel of misfortune every few weeks with a different map.
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I think the mutations picked by Chaos Studios are chosen from the same list as the one available in custom mutations, minus those needing to be active at the start of the mission to take effect (Mag mines and Power Overwhelming I believe, would have to do more testing to see if you can start with one of them though). Thankfully no Vertigo or Polarity, but Slim Pickings is on the list.
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The game I played wasn't hard. But neither particularly interesting. Apart from watching an ally to fail at splitting the army or warping in a unit to capture a lock even if there was a pylon.
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There's actually a specialized list in the Editor that lists whether each Mutator is compatible with Chaos Studios or not. None of the newer mutators seem to have been enabled to be randomized, at least as of this current patch. Things might change tomorrow when all the new patch stuff are released.
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United States8476 Posts
The really difficult mutators are Void Rifts, Slim Pickings, and Blizzard. Void Rifts especially can make this mutation impossible with certain commander combinations. There's two ways to do this mission. One is to blaze through it before mutators can stack up and cripple you. The other is to play it slow and steady. Artanis, Zagara, and to some extent Raynor and Vorazun excel at the faster approach and the other commanders are more suited towards the slow and steady one.
Rankings:
- Artanis: Helps a lot vs all the random AoE mutators. Can be very aggressive with Zealot/Archon in combination with his calldowns. Can handle early Void Rifts.
- Zagara: Similar to Artanis, she can clear the map before mutators really kick in. Can also handle early Void Rifts.
- Karax: Plays the long-game effectively, is good at holding locks while his ally takes the others. Can also handle early Void Rifts.
- Vorazun: Invisibility and emergency recall help Vorazun survive vs AoE.
- Kerrigan: Nydus is Kerrigan's main selling point here. This lets her zip back and forth across the map
- Swann: Swann is another slow-pusher. Hercs are especially good here as they can prevent locks from being taken.
- Raynor: Good at pushing early on. Really weak to the various AoE mutators though, especially Blizzard.
- Abathur: Abathur just doesn't contribute enough in the early game and his late game just barely doesn't make up for it.
- Alarak: Alarak isn't horrible here, but he lacks good consistent static defense and his ascendents can get overwhelmed in this mission. Also, not great pushing power in the face of so many chaotic mutations.
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Maybe I got lucky but I'm 2/2 on this, with Raynor and Alarak (both times my ally was Abathur). Raynor was way better IMO. I used my usual Raynor strat on this map anyway, which is mass bio + vultures. Bio for pushing, vultures to plant mines on the secured locks. And lots of turrets on the locks as well. I get 8 orbitals to have enough minerals for massing bio, as well as constantly renewing spider mines and spamming turrets. And it still leaves plenty of energy for that cloaking mutation. Alarak was a little more difficult; it was against the ling bane scourge comp, and the mutators were rougher (they had cloak and avengers for a good portion of the game).
For the most part this seems pretty easy. Though I haven't gotten rifts, microtransactions, vertigo, that enemy leveling up mutation, or that one from last week.
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On October 18 2016 04:46 The Bottle wrote: Maybe I got lucky but I'm 2/2 on this, with Raynor and Alarak (both times my ally was Abathur). Raynor was way better IMO. I used my usual Raynor strat on this map anyway, which is mass bio + vultures. Bio for pushing, vultures to plant mines on the secured locks. And lots of turrets on the locks as well. I get 8 orbitals to have enough minerals for massing bio, as well as constantly renewing spider mines and spamming turrets. And it still leaves plenty of energy for that cloaking mutation. Alarak was a little more difficult; it was against the ling bane scourge comp, and the mutators were rougher (they had cloak and avengers for a good portion of the game).
For the most part this seems pretty easy. Though I haven't gotten rifts, microtransactions, vertigo, that enemy leveling up mutation, or that one from last week. Rifts is the only one of those that happens in this mutator, and it is by far the only thing that makes this hard. Sounds like you got lucky that you didn't see void rifts, in combination with playing well enough to clear it fast enough that it never came up.
I think the best team here is Kerrigan + Raynor.
Kerrigan because omega worms + ultras is the best strat in the game any time there's shit like blizzards, or fire on the ground, or time slowing zones, or orbital strikes... you can hide your army in the worms while kerrigan dodges across the map nimbly, then when you fight drop a worm and burrowing ultras blow everything up then go back in the worm to avoid map wide AoE bullshit. Combo that with the fact that this is Lock and Load and requires your armies to move around rapidly to defend everywhere...
Raynor makes the best partner because of scans synergy with omega worms. We sniped the void rifts with hyperion, scans, and kerrigan popping out of worms. Bio makes a good complement to kerrigan's primary ultra unit comp, and if they are good enough to lay mines on top of everything else thats even better. Further more, bio's weakness to the blizzards and other random AoE damaging effects is countered by Kerrigan's omega worms (just hide in the worms when not fighting).
You can practically avoid clearing the map all together if you and your partner are coordinated enough... Just scan the point and deploy both armies from the worms... Kerrigan reinforces by rallying to her nydus networks and Raynor reinforces directly by drop pod...
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Tried Karrax. Got some really bad starting mutations in first game, and then lost another 2-3 for horrible horrible allies (hard to carry with Karrax!). Finally won it very easily with a Kerrigan ally.
Overall, a quite easy mutation, but luck is a big factor, both in the mutations and the ally, especially if you go with Karrax (lock and load is the worst map when you get a bad companion!)
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United States8476 Posts
On October 18 2016 05:47 imJealous wrote:Show nested quote +On October 18 2016 04:46 The Bottle wrote: Maybe I got lucky but I'm 2/2 on this, with Raynor and Alarak (both times my ally was Abathur). Raynor was way better IMO. I used my usual Raynor strat on this map anyway, which is mass bio + vultures. Bio for pushing, vultures to plant mines on the secured locks. And lots of turrets on the locks as well. I get 8 orbitals to have enough minerals for massing bio, as well as constantly renewing spider mines and spamming turrets. And it still leaves plenty of energy for that cloaking mutation. Alarak was a little more difficult; it was against the ling bane scourge comp, and the mutators were rougher (they had cloak and avengers for a good portion of the game).
For the most part this seems pretty easy. Though I haven't gotten rifts, microtransactions, vertigo, that enemy leveling up mutation, or that one from last week. Rifts is the only one of those that happens in this mutator, and it is by far the only thing that makes this hard. Sounds like you got lucky that you didn't see void rifts, in combination with playing well enough to clear it fast enough that it never came up. I think the best team here is Kerrigan + Raynor. Kerrigan because omega worms + ultras is the best strat in the game any time there's shit like blizzards, or fire on the ground, or time slowing zones, or orbital strikes... you can hide your army in the worms while kerrigan dodges across the map nimbly, then when you fight drop a worm and burrowing ultras blow everything up then go back in the worm to avoid map wide AoE bullshit. Combo that with the fact that this is Lock and Load and requires your armies to move around rapidly to defend everywhere... Raynor makes the best partner because of scans synergy with omega worms. We sniped the void rifts with hyperion, scans, and kerrigan popping out of worms. Bio makes a good complement to kerrigan's primary ultra unit comp, and if they are good enough to lay mines on top of everything else thats even better. Further more, bio's weakness to the blizzards and other random AoE damaging effects is countered by Kerrigan's omega worms (just hide in the worms when not fighting). You can practically avoid clearing the map all together if you and your partner are coordinated enough... Just scan the point and deploy both armies from the worms... Kerrigan reinforces by rallying to her nydus networks and Raynor reinforces directly by drop pod... I have 20 games played on this, having tried every hero at least twice. Artanis + Zagara is by far the best combo. It's not even close. You just go full ground force and sweep through the entire mission in under 13 minutes. You're also not vulnerable to early Void Rifts. Kerrigan + Raynor both need to vastly alter their standard builds in order to combat that.
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So I completed this after probably 6 or so tries solo queuing, 3 times artanis, 2 kerrigan, then I went back to Artanis and completed it. I'm not the best player, but I ended up finishing this pretty quickly (Artanis+Kerrigan) when my ally actually stood on the point. Too many times I had an ally that did f2-A and took all their units off the point, causing the mission to drag on too long (Worst was had 4/5 and 80% cap on the last point, then ally took army away and within 30 seconds we lost another point, spiralling the game out of control)
Notably this mission's difficulty varies pretty intensely with what mutators you get, had a run where blizzard killed all of my allies units. Somehow I've only seen the mineral barriers in conjunction with "Enemy structures get photon overcharge" which is really annoying.
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On October 18 2016 07:23 monk wrote:Show nested quote +On October 18 2016 05:47 imJealous wrote:On October 18 2016 04:46 The Bottle wrote: Maybe I got lucky but I'm 2/2 on this, with Raynor and Alarak (both times my ally was Abathur). Raynor was way better IMO. I used my usual Raynor strat on this map anyway, which is mass bio + vultures. Bio for pushing, vultures to plant mines on the secured locks. And lots of turrets on the locks as well. I get 8 orbitals to have enough minerals for massing bio, as well as constantly renewing spider mines and spamming turrets. And it still leaves plenty of energy for that cloaking mutation. Alarak was a little more difficult; it was against the ling bane scourge comp, and the mutators were rougher (they had cloak and avengers for a good portion of the game).
For the most part this seems pretty easy. Though I haven't gotten rifts, microtransactions, vertigo, that enemy leveling up mutation, or that one from last week. Rifts is the only one of those that happens in this mutator, and it is by far the only thing that makes this hard. Sounds like you got lucky that you didn't see void rifts, in combination with playing well enough to clear it fast enough that it never came up. I think the best team here is Kerrigan + Raynor. Kerrigan because omega worms + ultras is the best strat in the game any time there's shit like blizzards, or fire on the ground, or time slowing zones, or orbital strikes... you can hide your army in the worms while kerrigan dodges across the map nimbly, then when you fight drop a worm and burrowing ultras blow everything up then go back in the worm to avoid map wide AoE bullshit. Combo that with the fact that this is Lock and Load and requires your armies to move around rapidly to defend everywhere... Raynor makes the best partner because of scans synergy with omega worms. We sniped the void rifts with hyperion, scans, and kerrigan popping out of worms. Bio makes a good complement to kerrigan's primary ultra unit comp, and if they are good enough to lay mines on top of everything else thats even better. Further more, bio's weakness to the blizzards and other random AoE damaging effects is countered by Kerrigan's omega worms (just hide in the worms when not fighting). You can practically avoid clearing the map all together if you and your partner are coordinated enough... Just scan the point and deploy both armies from the worms... Kerrigan reinforces by rallying to her nydus networks and Raynor reinforces directly by drop pod... I have 20 games played on this, having tried every hero at least twice. Artanis + Zagara is by far the best combo. It's not even close. You just go full ground force and sweep through the entire mission in under 13 minutes. You're also not vulnerable to early Void Rifts. Kerrigan + Raynor both need to vastly alter their standard builds in order to combat that.
Fair enough. I guess I've never really thought of Artanis as a super aggressive rush strat commander, but I trust your wisdom! Might be a new play style for me to look into...
On October 18 2016 15:12 ChaosOS wrote: So I completed this after probably 6 or so tries solo queuing, 3 times artanis, 2 kerrigan, then I went back to Artanis and completed it. I'm not the best player, but I ended up finishing this pretty quickly (Artanis+Kerrigan) when my ally actually stood on the point. Too many times I had an ally that did f2-A and took all their units off the point, causing the mission to drag on too long (Worst was had 4/5 and 80% cap on the last point, then ally took army away and within 30 seconds we lost another point, spiralling the game out of control)
Notably this mission's difficulty varies pretty intensely with what mutators you get, had a run where blizzard killed all of my allies units. Somehow I've only seen the mineral barriers in conjunction with "Enemy structures get photon overcharge" which is really annoying.
Mineral barriers + laser drill was particularly evil... the mineral barriers give the AI vision of your worker line so the drill just continually kills your workers!
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United States8476 Posts
After three tries with Zagara/Artanis, 13:09 is my record on this map with Artanis/Zagara. We got lucky with mutators as the only truly difficult/annoying one we got was mineral shields.
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United States97244 Posts
did the new patch go live today? anyone play it since? any changes to the mutators that appear like some speculated?
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United States8476 Posts
On October 19 2016 01:53 imJealous wrote: Any vods Monk? nope =( current computer can't handle recording sc2
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United States97244 Posts
you guys said polarity wasnt in it before? it is now
it's a much bigger pain on this map too since theres more than just like 2 places to go to fight
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Wasn't too bad. Played against airtoss as zagara and swann, and finished it in 18 minutes.
I pretty much solo'd the first 2 locks until he ramped up to an army, and we just swept through the rest of the map with a couple groups of units since fast upgrade zerglings are ridiculously strong.
Didn't get any hard mutators until much much later on in the mission with only a couple locks left that were mostly cleared.
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On October 18 2016 03:58 monk wrote:The really difficult mutators are Void Rifts, Slim Pickings, and Blizzard. Void Rifts especially can make this mutation impossible with certain commander combinations. There's two ways to do this mission. One is to blaze through it before mutators can stack up and cripple you. The other is to play it slow and steady. Artanis, Zagara, and to some extent Raynor and Vorazun excel at the faster approach and the other commanders are more suited towards the slow and steady one. Rankings: - Artanis: Helps a lot vs all the random AoE mutators. Can be very aggressive with Zealot/Archon in combination with his calldowns. Can handle early Void Rifts.
- Zagara: Similar to Artanis, she can clear the map before mutators really kick in. Can also handle early Void Rifts.
- Karax: Plays the long-game effectively, is good at holding locks while his ally takes the others. Can also handle early Void Rifts.
- Vorazun: Invisibility and emergency recall help Vorazun survive vs AoE.
- Kerrigan: Nydus is Kerrigan's main selling point here. This lets her zip back and forth across the map
- Swann: Swann is another slow-pusher. Hercs are especially good here as they can prevent locks from being taken.
- Raynor: Good at pushing early on. Really weak to the various AoE mutators though, especially Blizzard.
- Abathur: Abathur just doesn't contribute enough in the early game and his late game just barely doesn't make up for it.
- Alarak: Alarak isn't horrible here, but he lacks good consistent static defense and his ascendents can get overwhelmed in this mission. Also, not great pushing power in the face of so many chaotic mutations.
I think Alarak are among the strongest commanders if you: 1) play a robo based composition instead of ascendants 2) have enough mastery points to make overcharged buildings insanely strong. Overcharge automatically targets barriers on minerals as well.
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