Sorry for rapid firing questions about Alarak, I just got him two days ago. I’m only level 10 btw.
I find him a lot, I mean a LOT slower than other commanders. He can tank waves pretty well with the backing of Supplicants but I could hardly kill anything efficiently early on with that set up. If I spend gas on Slayers I run low on teching to Wrathwalker and Ascendents, because it means I also have to upgrade Slayers. I’m always low on gas, and if I spend mineral dump on Supplicants they clump up and prevent each other from dpsing (especially on uphill). Alarak and his units are also slow in pace unless teleported by Mothership (which I just got and it has a CD)
There must be something I’m missing, because this is one commander whom I consistently kill less than my teammate, and always lag behind on unit count when my teammate pushes out. I suspect Slayer is that missing link?
You’re not really missing anything. Alarak is one of the few that really requires proper positioning (more so than others). His army is definitely slow(er…ish).
What this means is that you need to know the maps better to position and move in pace. More proactive than reactive. And to his detriment and again the only CO to heavily punish if miscontrolled. Not being where you need to be will further exacerbate this.
That said, you are level 10 only… which means expanding quicker isn’t quite optional to alleviate it with macro. That said, he’s entirely viable on 1-base. This again means better Alarak micro.
In time, you’ll get comfortable with it. So don’t sweat it. And in time, you’ll also have mastery and higher level tech between 11-15.
He may be slower to get started but he’s also able to expand at the start of the game.
Slayers are all you really need and once you have enough of them you can tech to your other units, with proper control you should be able to handle everything with just Alarak.
Try the tips from Sprite’s guide, but do keep in mind that Alarak is one of the hardest commanders to play consistently well. It’s worth the effort since when you get it right it’s awesome the way he melts waves and insta-kills avengered units.
I don’t really understand why are you trying to judge Alarak even without reaching mastery level. Everyone feels slow there. Especially if it’s new commander for you.
On 90+ lvl Alarak hero with support of couple Supplicants (to not accidentaly die) and Overcharges can safely carry you to ~10 minutes while you tech up to Ascenfants, Robo or whatever you like.
Alarak is definitely on the slower side, though once you get used to using the hero unit you can hold your own pretty well early on. Not really recommended to bring your army in until it’s fairly strong, as it’s a glass cannon affair, though a few Supplicants can help with the hero solo.
Best thing to do imo is rush tech, go straight for your chosen units and get your expo early. Without mastery you can still get your Nexus down quick by putting your second Pylon with the rocks and using the top bar ability on it. Without mastery, put it so it’ll attack the Nexus rock first.
His strength is late game, but efficient teching can get that reasonably earlier.
The general strategy with Alarak is to go straight to your tech unit choice whether that is Wrathwalkers or Ascendants and building nothing else until then. Rely on Alarak as your hero and Overcharge cooldown to survive until this point.
However, Ascendants aren’t a composition option until level 12 when they unlock Sacrifice. So, it’s Wrathwalkers. On shorter maps you can experiment with Slayers and Vanguards.
Alarak relies on a number of “short cuts”:
- Ascendants are only useful if you use “rapid fire”, if you don’t know what this is google will help.
- Alarak is a commander capable of a “fast expand” - you’re 2nd pylon at 17 probes goes next to the rocks or enemy encampments guarding expansions and is overcharged to allow a Nexus to be built a lot quicker than most other commanders, coop guides have maps of how to fast expand on all contested maps.
- In the coop guides you’ll also find the 1eq2c method which maybe is something you come back to later once you have the other Alarak mechanics mastered
- Level 15 unlocks masteries which mean your overcharge gets better (better early game defense, better ability to fast expand) and Deathfleet cooldown reduction (better mobility)
- Prestiging is much easier as P1 gives a massive boost to your mechanical army and gives a great snowball once you get a few Wrathwalkers with a few stacks.
Good luck!
And hey, if you need even more motivation, once you get his P3 unlocked, he becomes one of the fastest CO’s in the game. Having a massive flying mothership out BEFORE Alarak himself even spawns is magical.
2 Likes
I’ve been playing his P1 and it’s still weird. I forget to do the “splicing thing” to add stacks to his mech, but usually win anyways, so I’m dealing with his (-), but not getting any (+) out of it! 
If his P3 is too long for some of you, at least consider his P2. Empower Me with a 120s cd (vs. the standard 240) is really fun to use and abuse. Much easier to deal with than his P1. You lose Death Fleet, but TBH, I would just see if you can get to P3 for that. It’s a nice way to focus on those rather than getting only the standard benefit of both that you can use every now and then.
This isn’t “judging”, it’s me asking questions base on my difficulty with Alarak in comparison to other pre-mastery commanders I’ve played thus far, which is everyone except Tychus.
And base on those experience, Alarak is the slowest commander I’ve played thus far with its lack of mobility, and having core units (Wrathwalker and Ascendent) being at the highest tier. When playing other commanders, I can rely on base units for both offense and defense, without needing to tech as vigorously or rely on the hero unit as much. I understand this is perhaps what makes Alarak unique, which is why I’m here to learn more, evident by questions I raised in my OP.
That said, I’m still uncertain on the number of Supplicants I should bring with each army, because as mentioned above, they clump up a lot if I bring more than 20 of them, but they also die very quickly against any type of AoE, leaving Alarak and Ascendants without food. I’ve brought War Prism with me to compensate this set up, though I want to hear what folks have to say about it.
The other question being Slayers: How many should I make without hindering mid-late teching? Do we upgrade Slayer even if the aim is for WW/Ascendents?
Honestly I never used Slayers through leveling Alarak to 15 4 times.
Alarak is literally one of the slowest and hardest commanders to play with the greatest consequences for mistakes.
As P0 I guess try different things but WW’s are the go to until level 12 when Ascendants come online. As P1 WW become awesome even if P1 is even slower early game.
Slayers are usable in their own right (though not necessarily as strong as other mech, and certainty fall behind Ascendants with high PO stacks), but I wouldn’t recommend building them if they aren’t your chosen comp, better to bank the gas for the late tech if you’re going for it. Biggest issue with them is it’s another layer of micro for the army, as they gain a huge amount of extra damage when blinked.
That said, they’re also the fastest way to increase Alarak’s empower me damage, and they aren’t bad units. In my opinion, they’ve got a stigma from before they got buffed.
Hmm, I releveled commanders a lot and even on different servers and never felt that Alarak is significantly slower than all others. Yeah, he’s probably in lower tier in terms of slowness and difficulty compared to monsters like Zeratul/Tychus/Dehaka, but is he really that bad compared to Swann or Artanis? I don’t think so. Alarak hero unit compensates slow army ramp up pretty good.
Number of Supplicants - whatever free minerals are left. They shouldn’t die too fast because Alarak is supposed to be tanking everything and aggro enemies. And even if you are losing them it’s fine since they’re just a mineral dump. Just make sure that you’re not sitting with 0 minerals and thousands of gas because overmade Supplicants.
Slayers - I usually go mass Slayers for fast maps like VT and L&L where teching up makes little sense since clearing the map with low tech is just faster. For long maps I skip Slayers completely to not waste any gas and just rush Ascendants/WW. Alarak with little support is usually fine until high tech kicks in anyway.
I need to remember that. It’s true, on faster maps objectives tend to require much quicker responses, before teching can be completed. Those are the ones I more frequently feel the “slowness”.
Thank you for this info, I will practice more.
Hi Griffon,
Alarak’s the main commander I play. If I could relevel him again I would but alas.
I’d be happy to do some games with you with my mastery points disabled. Btag is Balkoth#1847
Great point here about Swann and Artanis being much slower, Alarak is a great early game unit even on P1 compared to desperately teching to whirlwind or desperately microing a few Siege tanks in and out of a Hercules.
Some early game strategies that can be employed though primarily around offensive pylons to clear contested expansions or clear objectives and its important to be actively microing Alarak while also teching and macroing behind.
Most of the kills comes from Alarak himself using D wave (/w or /wo empower me). You have to micro between him and his army, like Slayer build, between blinking and D waving.
I would just mass slayer and have 2-3 Ascendents floating around for bigger damage. Alarak + Slayer is usually my goto build.
Like someone said lvl 10 is still slow for some COs. Also you need practice to play Alarak properly.
UPDATE
So I reached level 15 and have all the master pts. Alarak certainly performs better with lowered CD on mothership. Extra damage on himalso helps with his killing speed.
I also noticed that part of my problem is that I didn’t go Ascendants first. Ascendants with their saccing benefit from an early start, and with a few of them in the fight I was able to take my time with leveling the Robo/Forge.
I’ve been using 8 Ascendants, and I suspect I don’t need that many… or maybe I need MORE?
I believe usually 12 or so was what is proposed as optimal. I’ve never thought too much on exactly why…
That said, giving it a brief thought. On 2-base economy, you’ll have something like 12 full mineral patches. That translates to ~1200 mineral per min. Sacrifice has a 60sec cooldown, and Supplicants cost 150minerals for 2.
What that all lines up to be is roughly 1200minerals / 150min = 8 sets of supplicants. Or 8 x 2 = 16, 12 of which are sacrificed (at least for a good 10min or so, assuming no losses or delay on re-cast). The extras you do need to have a few here and there.
That isn’t to say the player should make 12 ascendants, then proceed to do 8sets of supplicants, etc. In reality, that number builds up. The calculation does show why 12 would make sense as a rough optimized number (as it supports them).
If we move beyond to 16 ascendants, the entirety of income is now locked into sacrifice m, which may become a riskier point for some. This is also why you see players with more than 16ish generally don’t have them all maxed at 10 stacks. Then again, ascendant play varies widely in skill…
12 is a great benchmark, from there you can add or subtract based on the map, mutation, composition and preferred playstyle.
On a longer map you can go as high as 24 Ascendants as an absolute maximum I would say. Obviously only some of Ascendants would hit max stacks but if you aren’t building any other tech units building more Ascendants can let you split up your forces (perhaps to defend 2 lanes in Temple of the Past). Identifying your (almost) max stack Ascendants and putting them in their own control group is an extra step to help build up your younger forces and let’s you save your “big guns” for nuking hybrids etc.
P2 and P3 might prefer slightly less Ascendants and a more aggressive Alarak with supplicants split between the 2 sacrifices especially on shorter maps. As P1 I like more Ascendants as it suits the hit-and-run tactics better and slightly less PO stacks doesn’t hurt a deathball that is rarely in range of any enemy forces.