Most notably for co-op -Changes to Stukov mech units -Change to Zagara free baneling spawn from nest -Nova army life regen kicks in 10 seconds after not taking dmg. Think 5 was the original number?
Nothing about the weird overpowered enemy banelings. If they don't say it, then I hope they fixed them.
Edit: or the chain of ascension 2nd attack wave. I would really like it if they just said that they fixed them or did they ignore them again?
Really think Stukov mech units will be pretty awesome now. Especially much better if you can deep tunnel your tanks without actually needed any vision as long as there is creep. Although, to be far whenever I play stukov I generally just prefer to do the good ol' mass civilian / marine / bunker spam. Usually I just put like 10 bunkers down in the middle of the map just for the heck of it and to get constant marine spam, then put another 3 or 4 rax next to them and just time out massive hordes of marines.
I almost never used diamond backs before..like just never. Tanks very rarely as well.
Tanks will be interesting for sure. Hopefully the cooldown is low and can be done while sieged.
But still the mech will underperform. Increasing mineral costs doesn't make sense because you lack minerals the most. The problem with dealing with massive air will persist even if liberators got buff. Scourge will still be a pain.
Now that +duration effects infested troopers (bunker marines) too, spamming bunkers purely for the marine production is much more viable. Bunkers cost 300, marines cost 25, so when a bunker has made 12 marines it's paid for itself--and it starts with 6! The problem before was that bunkers, being as bulky as they are, would inevitably have to be too far from the front line for the 15 second trooper duration. I'll probably be spamming bunkers and mass unloading them when I want to make an attack.
Stukov's tanks were already good before this change, now they'll just be better. It's a QoL improvement for offensive missions, but INSANE on defensive missions as now all tanks will always be exactly where they need to be, instead of spread out over all possible attack vectors.
Diamondbacks, eh. Not sure. I'll have to see how they feel with the new range changes...I think one of the problems with them is that just don't fulfill any niche in Stukov's army; they just feel like a stronger infested marine. Perhaps they're meant for casuals who want to just spam tanks+diamondbacks.
Liberators are perfectly strong and were before this change, but their problem is that they don't feel impactful individually and don't scale well when massed (because they all tend to attack the same air unit). I don't doubt that it is optimal to make one or two liberators for your army, but does it really make much of a difference? This change doesn't fix their real issues, so I think they'll need some more love.
One important thing about Zagara you didn't mention - the free banelings applies to EACH baneling nest you make. So if you make 10 baneling nests, you get free banelings ten times as fast. Combine that with a bug in the latest patch that lets you get the free banelings at level 1, I I was able to easily win brutal Chain of Ascension at level 4 by spamming Baneling Nests. Only challenge is fitting in Scourge when you need them, since the nests will re-max you very quickly even when you send 40+ banelings to their deaths (and remember, that's WITHOUT the damage upgrade, AoE range upgrade, or splitting).
Another bonus is that since your units are free, you can lend your ally your expo.
On January 29 2017 12:17 Tohron wrote: One important thing about Zagara you didn't mention - the free banelings applies to EACH baneling nest you make. So if you make 10 baneling nests, you get free banelings ten times as fast. Combine that with a bug in the latest patch that lets you get the free banelings at level 1, I I was able to easily win brutal Chain of Ascension at level 4 by spamming Baneling Nests. Only challenge is fitting in Scourge when you need them, since the nests will re-max you very quickly even when you send 40+ banelings to their deaths (and remember, that's WITHOUT the damage upgrade, AoE range upgrade, or splitting).
Another bonus is that since your units are free, you can lend your ally your expo.
I thought Zagara could only make one baneling nest. Did they change that?
On January 29 2017 12:17 Tohron wrote: One important thing about Zagara you didn't mention - the free banelings applies to EACH baneling nest you make. So if you make 10 baneling nests, you get free banelings ten times as fast. Combine that with a bug in the latest patch that lets you get the free banelings at level 1, I I was able to easily win brutal Chain of Ascension at level 4 by spamming Baneling Nests. Only challenge is fitting in Scourge when you need them, since the nests will re-max you very quickly even when you send 40+ banelings to their deaths (and remember, that's WITHOUT the damage upgrade, AoE range upgrade, or splitting).
Another bonus is that since your units are free, you can lend your ally your expo.
I thought Zagara could only make one baneling nest. Did they change that?
I think it's just bugged until level 7, where the game limits you to just one baneling nest. Before that, you can make as many as you want and the "free banes" seems to be unlocked by a bug from level 1.
On February 25 2017 04:01 Icysoul wrote: Everyone can steamroll vanilla brutal easily. But comparatively, off the top of my head, in terms of how many mistakes you can make and still win:
Top tier: Alarak, Nova, Stukov
Med tier: Swann, Raynor, Karax, Vorazun,
Low tier: Artanis, Zagara, Kerrigan, Abathur
This is a solid ranking as the commanders stand right now, but its also important to keep in mind that despite the ranking, these characters are all very close in power and are all viable except in some niche situations that can come up in certain weekly brutal mutators.
The key heroes that have niche weaknesses to be aware of right now are as follows...
Swann and Karax: These are "siege" or slow push heros... New/bad players get tempted to just sit and defend, you have to learn special aggressive play styles for each of these guys for the maps that will need it Abathur: Very slow starter, can easily be overwhelmed in the early game Zagara: Can't carry their team mate through the whole game at the very highest level due to economics of suicidal units Kerrigan: Gets overwhelmed by heavy air
This isn't to say that these heroes aren't good, in fact Swann and Karax are consistently two of the best, but these are the ones that have situational weakness to be aware of.
I would still rate Vorazun as one of the strongest commanders once you get higher level in mastery points. Spam a few dark pylons early to max out your economy. Use your first DT drop to clear most first waves & your expo. Time stop is without a doubt the best commander ability for all commanders and Dark Pylon recall is insane mobility.
Dts basically shred most ground base units and corsair are great vs most flyers + dist web to basically nullify anything else ground.
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Edit:
One thing I am curious about, is what is the optimal worker count to stop at?
I know most main bases are 7 minerals & 2 gas and expos are usually... 5 or 6 minerals and 2 gas?
Should you just get 2xMinerals and 3xGas for each base or should you get the couple extra workers to get that tiny little benefit? Part of me things to get that tiny little benefit but honestly you can get 14 workers really fast for 2xMineral saturation and really start to power units / upgrades very quickly.
I never played the arcade version so I woludn't know how different it is from the original WOL mission. So, the 2nd mission announced at Blizzcon is coming soon.
I am happy that they are making a new map, but as the derelict OP can suggest, I only play casually nowadays. Brutal is just too trivial, and mutators are often more annoying than challenging. I mean I still enjoy it, just less than ladder
Edit : Bah, I say this and I update the guide in the OP
On March 03 2017 22:40 fezvez wrote: I am happy that they are making a new map, but as the derelict OP can suggest, I only play casually nowadays. Brutal is just too trivial, and mutators are often more annoying than challenging. I mean I still enjoy it, just less than ladder
Edit : Bah, I say this and I update the guide in the OP
Same. As soon as your commander becomes a certain level, brutal just becomes trivial. I wonder what would make it challenging but not difficult...
Well imho the TopPanel abilities make Brutal that easy, because they simply wipe out a complete wave or fortified location on their own. If they would be changed to a less "pure damage" but more tactically supportive style, that would imho make things a bit more challenging. Especially if there would be synergy-effects between the abilites of different commanders.
On March 05 2017 14:36 dacSyzygy wrote: Well imho the TopPanel abilities make Brutal that easy, because they simply wipe out a complete wave or fortified location on their own. If they would be changed to a less "pure damage" but more tactically supportive style, that would imho make things a bit more challenging. Especially if there would be synergy-effects between the abilites of different commanders.
Vorazun's time stop comes to mind =)
But yeah, I agree with you for slightly different reasons. For me, the top panel abilities allow you to play greedy as fuck and have 0 units for the first wave and the first big hurdle (for example the first hybrid in the jinara mission), you just pump workers/tech and you reach the kind of army where you sustain nearly no losses
Brutal mutations keep you in check, and that's great. It's very noticeable for slow commanders like Swann/Abathur