Description: Amon has weaponized the infested. The ground is set ablaze as each one dies, and Void Reanimators raise them anew without remorse. Withstand the flames and guard the ships with your lives.
Map: Miner Evacuation
Mutations:
Void Reanimators [New!] Void Reanimators wander the battlefield, bringing your enemies back to life.
Scorched Earth Enemy units set the terrain on fire upon death.
Karax(+Vora) was ez at least. Didn't do bonuses. I didn't see too many animators during objective pushes, so this did feel almost like it was regular mission with burning ground, which isn't too hard on its own. As long as you can reach the animators, they should give no trouble at all. A bit biased opinion though, having only played as top-panel Karax.
Just did it as Stukov with a Nova partner. I went bunkers and tanks, relying heavily on apocalisk and aleksander until we had our expansions up. Nova fiddled around a bit early on but eventually went tanks + ravens and that is where it seemed like we were unkillable.
I mostly just rallied my infested civilians directly to my tanks to make sure they always had ammo and a meat shield to stop random melee units from walking up on them and spawning fire.
Nova carried quite well, with me scoring 1000 kills as Stukov and Nova claiming 1300 units slain. Airlift is incredibly amazing for this mutation, as are tanks/mines ravens as always.
Some general tips for the mutator: - You need to build some static defense, the reanimators spawn in totally random spots, bringing back units in areas of the map that you have already cleared out. This leads to random units attacking your base constantly. - The reanimators themselves look like large high templar. Just focus them down so they stop spawning stuff. The fact that the stuff they reanimate spawns more fire is the largest threat honestly.
First I lost one as Stukov, with a Vorazun ally. We where unable to defend the expos, and lost them a couple of times.
The I made it with Nova, and a Stukov partner. Actually, I'm not too sure that Stukov is a good choice, with all those flames..
Strategy was mainly me going around doing objectives, while he was mainly defending the expo, and sending what he could to help me. Actually, as Nova I was able to solo the objectives (apart maybe the last one), but what really is hard in this mission is just defending the center, especially when those damn Reanimators pop out of nowhere.
Just finished it a second time. Static defence Karax together with a DT Vorazun made the mission super easy. Holy shit are dark pylons with karax cannon, shield battery, sentries good for defending! Didn't really need the dts for anything other than clearing bases. One neat trick I found is to park observers around the map in the static extra vision mode. With all the vision you can basically snipe any attack wave or reanimator with top bar abilites!
First time I did it, I played as Nova. Bio+ravens do the trick pretty well. All her units are pretty tanky and with mastery into healing and ravens you regenerate really fast. At the second half of the mission I elected to let my ravens defend my natural. Auto turrets and hunter seeker missile makes for a solid defence vs both air and ground.
*edit: I find it really annoying that the first place to defend is random. I think the first place should always be at your natural. I don't really see the merit of randomness.
found it pretty easy with a nova + swann combo. turrets pretty much cover the expo so no problems holding it. double up on tanks with hercs to micro/move them. add in a little anti air and we beat it np with barely any of the ships getting damaged.
Nova is pretty good on this one. The only change in playstyle is that you have to invest more in defending natural and adding some tanks can be a good idea too.
It's pretty easy one, but people playing are worse than anything I remember.
Since I finished it now with all commanders I will do a little ranking of my own. My main criteria for the ranking is to what extent the commander can reliably carry the game if your ally is not that good/has a poor commander.
1) Nova: Having a hero unit will help you get through the early game, which is indeed the hardest part of the mission, and while Nova isn't the strongest hero she is good enough to make way for the strongest most durable army. Her units have high HP, dps and with masteries they regenerate on their own. Having ravens and tanks for defensive purposes doesn't hurt either.
2) Kerrigan: Arguable the strongest hero of all, Kerrigan will get you through the early (and even mid) game easily. I usually follow up with mass mutalisks who reign supreme do to the lack of strong anti air. Their speed means they can easily chase down animators too. Their only real weakness is terran air, so be sure to invest some mastery points to Kerrigan attack damage.
3) Alarak: Alarak+ photon overcharge is good throughout the entirety of the mission, and especially early on. Ascendants can kill zombies from afar, but sacrificing supplicants to carelessly will make you mineral starved for a while. There is no need to spam more psionic orbs than necessary.
4) Karax: If you invest into starting energy Karax has no issue blasting through the first enemies to fortify the first ship with cannons. I think static defence Karax is basically unkillable when walls of cannons, shield batteries, monoliths and sentry support gets up. However, he does struggle clearing up enemy encampments on his own, and if you don't start building cannons in time before a ship gets overrun it doesn't matter that they are unkillable. *Tip: Use observers on static extra vision mode around the map- means you can snipe down enemy units and reanimators all around the map.
5) Vorazun: Struggles a bit in the early game, while getting up tech. Dark pylons are as strong as ever though and once you get a critical mass of void rays, oracles and corsairs neither air units nor ground units can whithstand her might!
6) Swann: Let's face it, turrets+ siege tanks are amazing for this mission. The only problem is that they are very expensive to upgrade and get a critical mass of, and you kind of need to get carried through the earlier part of the mission. I invested mastery point into drill, which I found was really helpful for sniping reanimators manually.
7) Raynor: I reccomend going for bio tank here. Raynor kind of struggle in the early game and his bio units will melt in the fire. Fortunately several command centers means you have more than enough economy to replace them.
8) Artanis: Zealots are Artanis major offensive unit until you get higher tech and they are utter shit against both the fire and zombies unupgraded. I feel Artanis are kind of underwhelming throughout the entire mission due to his lack of reliable splash and dps.
9) Abathur: I found the early game really difficult since both roaches, spines and toxic nests don't seem to be enough to defend the first ship. If you manage to get through the early game you get kind of fast brutalisks. Brutalisks are really good at defending different points around the map due to deep tunnel, and Abathur mutas are still among the strongest most versatile air units in the game.
10) Stukov: What can I say. Zombies melt in fire. I feel that going for strategies that revolve around mass marines just don't work on this mutation. Lack of space around the ships kind of makes it hard to go for mass bunker strategies and banshees just don't have enough dps to defend ships on their own. I feel the best way to go about it would be bunkers and tanks, but Stukov's still pretty weak. He is utterly reliant on apocalisk and Alexander.
11) Zagara: This one is kind of a no brainer. All her ground units are weak melee units who die to fire before getting much done. Banelings aren't really that great vs. zombies either. I surprisingly managed to beat the mission with a Stukov ally, but it really was down to the wire.
Nova: High HP units, strong hero unit, strong defensive Tanks. Easy bonus clear. Not surprisingly Nova is yet again at the top.
Swann: Weaker players might struggle to solo the first wave, but it's easily do-able. He has the absolute strongest long-term army past the first wave. And he's in the top half in terms of bonus clears with Herc/Tank micro. Can defend your natural with Turret/Tank as well.
Alarak: Solos the first wave with Overcharge. Kills everything with Ascedents, especially reanimators, but you can lose a few units due to the fire. Note that you actually get more minerals on this map compared to other maps due to the mineral layouts. Easiest bonus clear in the game.
Raynor: Calldowns are really helpful with the start, including 2 minute Banshee Cooldown. Bio/Mine/Tank is good here, with Tanks and Mines defending your natural. Your calldowns are probably your best bet for clearing the bonuses.
Kerrigan: Kerrigan solos the start and Lurkers are your best bet for mid-game. Nydus helps with defense. Has a bit of trouble with bonuses.
Stukov: Bunker + Banshee is the way to go here. Calldowns solo the first Shuttle. Is a bit weak around the 2nd Shuttle.
Karax: Stable, but has slight difficulty pushing positions and long ramp-up time to Carriers.
Vorazun: This is the first commander that can't completely solo the first Shuttle. Mass air is best here, and you don't start developing a critical mass until after the 2nd Shuttle.
Abathur: Another commander that has issues with the first Shuttle. Also has major issues with the bonus.
Artanis: The weakest commander at the start, can't solo the first Shuttle at all. It also takes a fair bit for him to ramp up in power.
Zagara: Can solo the first Shuttle, but lacks greatly in the long-term. Bonsues are easy for her, however, because of Zerglings.
I did it with Kerrigan and mass mutas. My partner was Stukov. He went with bunkers, rax and mass tanks. He hold the expansion for both of us while I focused on defending the ships.
Cool list! At least we agree on the top and the bottom commanders. I think a lot of how you rank commanders comes down to favored playstyles and compositions. And I didn't really consider bonuses at all as I am lvl 90 and don't really find them all to fun anyway.