I have completed every Mutator on Brutal with a friend up to this one and I have to say this was not the hardest but was up there. Love watching you Lowko you are way better then I am haha. Used Zagara with lots of banes and my friend was on Abathur. Once Abathur is max with evo units he can handle most waves but the end wave was still super close. GL guys!
Karax was my favorite commander for a while. If you are good with geometric shapes you can get used to laying out the cannons, shield, and monoliths in a way that maximizes the coverage and still allows a gap for troops to get through. Normally i end up with 4 monoliths, 5 batteries, and around 12 cannons in the front and during large encounters i might lose 2 or 3 cannons. But i also use the spear when it looks like their forces might overwhelm my defenses.
There are three zerg compositions in total, and only one of them spawns scourges. Also, you could have maintained your defenses a little better if you grouped up your shield batteries at the front, with no gaps in between for the enemy to squeeze through and start fire-damaging your stuff.
On this map with Karax, another build is to place three huge walls of Monoliths around your bases (2 around your main and one near the top entrance) and some smaller formations on the other side near your ally, then a row of batteries and a couple cannons. Put some Energizers behind 'em for extra juice. Should do fine on regular brutal.
Imagine having achievements such as "don't salvage or let any building die" or Destroy the Zenith stone within 5 minutes of spawning in this mission? We need this blizz
My first impression is oh god in reaction to imagining a loop of infested terrian spawning broodlings then broodlings spawning infested terrian and looping forever
nove is a really good choice here, 2nd attempt with here. The Shotgun skill of nova 1shots everything which is very usefull because there are so many units
a proper turtle is organized and neat. your placement is so random. Expansion needs a pylon and two cannons placed so that they can each get one gas. You then need to keep melee units off your cannons so build a wall of batteries and pylons. Follow cannons with monoliths and energizers to turbo charge your cannons and friendly units. I deploy them in energyfield so that they don't attack and draw fire and increases your warp in space. Once the walls are up or when you have excess money start spamming zelots. Zelots are Cannon fodder to keep units occupied while cannons and monoliths take them down. as the game progresses get mirage to occupy ground units and take out any air units.
@Lowko, any reason you don't densely pack in the cannons? On this map, have 3 to 4 rows of them without any empty space between them. Mucho firepower is nice when they really come at you like they did there, and it would conserve energy to spread out your Orbital Strikes more! I also build almost right up to the ramp to choke them off more. OTOH, I don't bother with shield Batteries :x
This arrangement slightly fools the enemy AI. The enemies try to move around the shield batteries to get to the cannons, which takes more time for the enemies.
It has to do with how the AI works. The batteries aren' a threat, and therefore the units will walk by and attack the cannon behind it instead. However they will have to move past the batteries, resulting in some weird clunky movement for the units.
I have a question Lowko (or anyone who's qualified to answer). Is the Roach/Ravager timing attack that you made a video about a few monts ago still viable?
Haha Haha All the videos on the roach/ravager style are at least 7 montys old. The pro's don't play it anymore but I wonder if it's good enough to play on the ladder.
Lowko can you please tell me how do you use the slide in thing at sc 2 videos? Please and what video editor do you use and can I make it in SONY VEGAS?
Kindless Traitor I feel they're not as convenient as the campaign's since you can't use warp harmonization like in the campaign. They're more expensive too unless you set masteries to decrease combat unit costs. Plus you have to research the range and set fire upgrades. And most of the time, the zealots, energizer, and immortals are good enough. And you have spear of adun to back them up of course.
You need to research an upgrade for them to burn the ground, and they are rather expensive, so it's difficult to get more than a few, though a few is all you really need. Their damage is excellent. Karax will end up with a lot of excess minerals to make a lot of Sentinels to protect them. The only weakness in that army composition is a lack of a good anti-air option outside of your orbital strikes, or teching up to Stargate (and using precious gas). If your ally can keep the skies clear though, then it's an extremely powerful army. His Immortals can get the Shadow Cannon ability (which the Annihilators in the campaign have) and they are great for punching out the Hybrids and other big targets.
Collosi are pricy (Karax' units cost roughly 50% more vs. "normal"). However, that would be his only way to do splash damage. I'd go for fire upgrade over range though, if not possible to do both.
A side note, though. I'd love to learn from you, Lowko. I've played SCII since 2012, and not once have I decided to delve into leagues or tournaments. Mostly because my computer before the one I have now couldn't load a TH-cam video worth a damn, but that's for another time.
like 98% of my coop games now are with nova's. it seems like everyone plays nova. so if you play a non nova commander you'll be paired up with novas. it's crazy how many people play nova.
not just simplicity. she's op as hell. tiny army so she had resources to spare so her special abilities are super good and you can spam it. then there's the nova hero herself. holy shit she's stupid strong. and triple tap snipe is ridiculous
im new to starcraft but i was wondering if going straight into carriers would have been a good strat since all the ground forces that would be spawned on enemy deaths would not be able to do anything to them?
I think some kind of a unit composition made of air units could be good, especially if you had Karax on your side to block the entrances. The fire wouldn't be able to touch you, and would only affect the static defense at the front. Although, I'm quite bad, so don't listen to me :D
Carriers would be really hard to get in enough numbers early on in the game. One carrier is almost useless, two is only slightly less so. Just like in multiplayer, Skytoss (Protoss all air units) is completely useless if they are attacked before there are enough carriers to be useful (like about 10 or so). And I promise you will not have more than 3 by the time the first wave hits, and I only say that because I don't play much co-op so I don't know exactly when the first attack wave comes at you.
Carriers are powerful but it takes a long time to tech up to be able to build them, and they cost a lot. It'd take some time before he'd be able to get enough of them out, but since Karax tends to end up with excess minerals when building Carriers, he could've tried to hold with some photon cannons and orbital strikes until a few Carriers are out. I don't think air units get hurt by the fire on the ground either, so they're a solid option if you can afford them. Still, the early aggression you face may very well be overwhelming before your Carriers are ready, even with a good ally.
Nova is good though I prefer Alarak and his Ascendants for this strategy. Having the death fleet calldown helps too for defending across the map, and his overcharge helps a lot in a pinch (and for fast expanding) especially with mastery points on it. In any case though it's good to have a Karax to defend 3 of the sides heavily and turtle, with an ally who can hold the remaining side and attack the void thrashers when they appear. Nova is good both at defending and punching out thrashers, plus her airstrike is very handy, so I think she's a really solid choice.
Hey Lowko, have you considered doing a weekly commanders round-up segment for your VLog? Seems to be demand for more Co-op content on the Co-Op forums = us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/20752086081 Potential for more viewers to your channel.
I m playing on brutal on non mutations missions but i cant do it on mutations too because mostly my ally expects from me to carry him and at this particular mission it was brutal on normal already :P
Static defenses really is not the best choise, because when they come from one side all static defenses you have in other sides are not being used... is like you spend resources on unused stuff
I have completed every Mutator on Brutal with a friend up to this one and I have to say this was not the hardest but was up there. Love watching you Lowko you are way better then I am haha. Used Zagara with lots of banes and my friend was on Abathur. Once Abathur is max with evo units he can handle most waves but the end wave was still super close. GL guys!
I once created a Custom mutator just like this and me and my friend got wrecked nice to see it getting done Lowko
Was so confused at first why Abathur was talking.
Abathur announcer
i read that in Alaraks voice
I mean I got that he had an announcer, just took a moment.
instantly recognized, you would be a powerful ascendant Lowko
The CtG build works great as Karax. I like the gateways in the front, because they look stupid, but tank a ton of damage.
Karax was my favorite commander for a while. If you are good with geometric shapes you can get used to laying out the cannons, shield, and monoliths in a way that maximizes the coverage and still allows a gap for troops to get through. Normally i end up with 4 monoliths, 5 batteries, and around 12 cannons in the front and during large encounters i might lose 2 or 3 cannons. But i also use the spear when it looks like their forces might overwhelm my defenses.
When i get home im going to have to play co-op and set up the defenses and take a screenshot to send to you so you can see it.
There are three zerg compositions in total, and only one of them spawns scourges.
Also, you could have maintained your defenses a little better if you grouped up your shield batteries at the front, with no gaps in between for the enemy to squeeze through and start fire-damaging your stuff.
I think he tried to set those cannons like that to avoid and reduce splash damages from fire and banelings
Less shield batteries and more canons will help. Need more firepower to kill all the units, infested units and spawnings.
On this map with Karax, another build is to place three huge walls of Monoliths around your bases (2 around your main and one near the top entrance) and some smaller formations on the other side near your ally, then a row of batteries and a couple cannons. Put some Energizers behind 'em for extra juice. Should do fine on regular brutal.
Imagine having achievements such as "don't salvage or let any building die" or Destroy the Zenith stone within 5 minutes of spawning in this mission? We need this blizz
the last few seconds were INTENSE
Skyterran compo is a PITA in this map. The zerg compo were far easier wins (Nova/Swann).
Fun to watch you play as everytime! Gg
I feel so inadequate after watching you play mutas on Brutal xD
(hope you had a blast at Blizzcon)
My first impression is oh god in reaction to imagining a loop of infested terrian spawning broodlings then broodlings spawning infested terrian and looping forever
Raynor seems to ba a good idea here with firebats in bunkers. You need good splash static defense
Love the nuke launched at the end :)
nove is a really good choice here, 2nd attempt with here. The Shotgun skill of nova 1shots everything which is very usefull because there are so many units
karax/nova and abathur are the best commanders for this mutation :D
a proper turtle is organized and neat. your placement is so random. Expansion needs a pylon and two cannons placed so that they can each get one gas. You then need to keep melee units off your cannons so build a wall of batteries and pylons. Follow cannons with monoliths and energizers to turbo charge your cannons and friendly units. I deploy them in energyfield so that they don't attack and draw fire and increases your warp in space. Once the walls are up or when you have excess money start spamming zelots. Zelots are Cannon fodder to keep units occupied while cannons and monoliths take them down. as the game progresses get mirage to occupy ground units and take out any air units.
What a game! Good job.
you keep forgetting to research some key upgrades for karax.
@Lowko, any reason you don't densely pack in the cannons? On this map, have 3 to 4 rows of them without any empty space between them. Mucho firepower is nice when they really come at you like they did there, and it would conserve energy to spread out your Orbital Strikes more!
I also build almost right up to the ramp to choke them off more. OTOH, I don't bother with shield Batteries :x
Because anything that does get in, like the flying hybrid, will fire damage /everything/.
And shield batteries OP.
that was really cool, watching a starcraft tower defense game, keep it up
I tried to watch this. I need something fun and light to get my mind off what has happened. I just can't
agreed
what are you talking about? did i miss something?
Hi Lowko, I would like too know if the mastery levels go to all commanders or each commander has his mastery level.
I love your videos. :)
Basically there is only one shared set of mastery levels, but none of the commanders can level it up or access it until they reach level 15.
just curious, why are your batteries in the front lines seeing as they cant shield themselves
This arrangement slightly fools the enemy AI. The enemies try to move around the shield batteries to get to the cannons, which takes more time for the enemies.
It has to do with how the AI works. The batteries aren' a threat, and therefore the units will walk by and attack the cannon behind it instead. However they will have to move past the batteries, resulting in some weird clunky movement for the units.
batteries do heal each other. so wall batteries close together is always best
I have a question Lowko (or anyone who's qualified to answer). Is the Roach/Ravager timing attack that you made a video about a few monts ago still viable?
Haha Haha All the videos on the roach/ravager style are at least 7 montys old. The pro's don't play it anymore but I wonder if it's good enough to play on the ladder.
Lowko can you please tell me how do you use the slide in thing at sc 2
videos? Please and what video editor do you use and can I make it in
SONY VEGAS?
Did anyone notice that all the mist on the map is moving towards the temple?
This muta with raynor and Kerrigan/Nova/Alarak is super easy even on brutal
How does the Karax's Collosi are in here? I heard that they're like LotV Purifier Collosi, which was awesome against lot of swarming foes.
Kindless Traitor I feel they're not as convenient as the campaign's since you can't use warp harmonization like in the campaign. They're more expensive too unless you set masteries to decrease combat unit costs. Plus you have to research the range and set fire upgrades. And most of the time, the zealots, energizer, and immortals are good enough. And you have spear of adun to back them up of course.
You need to research an upgrade for them to burn the ground, and they are rather expensive, so it's difficult to get more than a few, though a few is all you really need. Their damage is excellent. Karax will end up with a lot of excess minerals to make a lot of Sentinels to protect them. The only weakness in that army composition is a lack of a good anti-air option outside of your orbital strikes, or teching up to Stargate (and using precious gas). If your ally can keep the skies clear though, then it's an extremely powerful army. His Immortals can get the Shadow Cannon ability (which the Annihilators in the campaign have) and they are great for punching out the Hybrids and other big targets.
They are very strong.
Collosi are pricy (Karax' units cost roughly 50% more vs. "normal"). However, that would be his only way to do splash damage. I'd go for fire upgrade over range though, if not possible to do both.
Hay Simon have they said anything about optimizing a game a little bit at blizzcon?
+StigmADiabolicuM They did not. Nope.
Wait, Lowko's really name is Simon? .-.
A side note, though. I'd love to learn from you, Lowko. I've played SCII since 2012, and not once have I decided to delve into leagues or tournaments. Mostly because my computer before the one I have now couldn't load a TH-cam video worth a damn, but that's for another time.
Diamond Harmonia he does look like one that could be named Simon.. Or Brian perhaps, but I'd prefer the first
nova alarak, first try, so easy, since these new commanders are in, the bounties are no more a problem :D
Air to ground units would probably be better at this than novas ground troops, not sure what though. I guess anyone with Liberators or banshees.
Abathur would eat that biomass
Why are you putting shield batteries in front of the cannons? You are loosing a lot of range
won't using Alarak be a lot better? his destruction wave will be able to push back all the mobs and thus won't set your buildings on fire.
like 98% of my coop games now are with nova's. it seems like everyone plays nova. so if you play a non nova commander you'll be paired up with novas. it's crazy how many people play nova.
not just simplicity. she's op as hell. tiny army so she had resources to spare so her special abilities are super good and you can spam it. then there's the nova hero herself. holy shit she's stupid strong. and triple tap snipe is ridiculous
How do you have Abather as your Voice UI? is that a new change?
Do I need all 3 expansions to play online (both co-op and normal 1v1) or just LoTV is enough?
Only LOTV
But some cop comanders are also F2P so i recommend checking the F2P first.
Just get the starter edition which is free for download. Gives you 3 commanders and you can play ladder. Just got my friend to do it.
im new to starcraft but i was wondering if going straight into carriers would have been a good strat since all the ground forces that would be spawned on enemy deaths would not be able to do anything to them?
I think some kind of a unit composition made of air units could be good, especially if you had Karax on your side to block the entrances. The fire wouldn't be able to touch you, and would only affect the static defense at the front. Although, I'm quite bad, so don't listen to me :D
Carriers would be really hard to get in enough numbers early on in the game. One carrier is almost useless, two is only slightly less so. Just like in multiplayer, Skytoss (Protoss all air units) is completely useless if they are attacked before there are enough carriers to be useful (like about 10 or so). And I promise you will not have more than 3 by the time the first wave hits, and I only say that because I don't play much co-op so I don't know exactly when the first attack wave comes at you.
Carriers are powerful but it takes a long time to tech up to be able to build them, and they cost a lot. It'd take some time before he'd be able to get enough of them out, but since Karax tends to end up with excess minerals when building Carriers, he could've tried to hold with some photon cannons and orbital strikes until a few Carriers are out. I don't think air units get hurt by the fire on the ground either, so they're a solid option if you can afford them. Still, the early aggression you face may very well be overwhelming before your Carriers are ready, even with a good ally.
cool. thanks for the comments everyone, very educational.
We need to do a joint Brutal Mutation video sometime. You're on EU server, right?
Why did you get reclamation? Zerg op. doesn't have mech. unit do they?
i just lost this with alarak and nova by 4 seconds on brutal.... so sad
why is abathur talking in the background
why in coop the saturation of the base say 21 when there's only 7 mineral fields?
3 per mineral field
You must. Complete. Additional research
I don't think nova is a very good choice for this one.
nove is a really good choice here, 2nd attempt with here. The Shotgun skill of nova 1shots everything
Nova is good though I prefer Alarak and his Ascendants for this strategy. Having the death fleet calldown helps too for defending across the map, and his overcharge helps a lot in a pinch (and for fast expanding) especially with mastery points on it. In any case though it's good to have a Karax to defend 3 of the sides heavily and turtle, with an ally who can hold the remaining side and attack the void thrashers when they appear. Nova is good both at defending and punching out thrashers, plus her airstrike is very handy, so I think she's a really solid choice.
Justin Thompson nova is excellent here. i handle that mutation almost alone with her without trouble as my ally was always dying...
Hey Lowko, have you considered doing a weekly commanders round-up segment for your VLog? Seems to be demand for more Co-op content on the Co-Op forums = us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/20752086081
Potential for more viewers to your channel.
for this mutation swann is better than karax because swann have aoe damage, try to use it is more easy
its so hard to find good coop commanders these days..
There are more than ever to choose from. What do you mean?
Haha Haha I mean people. I tried to reply but it won't let me
And I had a hard time defeating it on normal lol :P
I m playing on brutal on non mutations missions but i cant do it on mutations too because mostly my ally expects from me to carry him and at this particular mission it was brutal on normal already :P
Swann is the best im this mission.
Static defenses really is not the best choise, because when they come from one side all static defenses you have in other sides are not being used... is like you spend resources on unused stuff
why you no let me study
LOL
pff you have the best ennemie against zerg this is littarally impossible to much banelings
nietbas xoudenh that's why i love nova's shotgun ;)
Jack C yep ^^ in this mission karax is the best but in game nova and alarak are the most powerfull
first
Im da second commenter