As usual, suggestions and feedback are welcomed.
[edited with both briefings and details, should be much easier to read]
COMMANDER INTRO
- A relatively easy commander that is hard on its “heavy-decision making” aspect.
- Requires average skill to pull off, yet veteran players have ways to unleash its full potential.
The Golden Armada Returns
A bit higher shields and equal damage split to ease the control of Airtoss units. A mechanic is implemented to restrict the quantity of the fleet. Warp in units has a chance to be its elite version.
TL;DR
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Selendis’s air units have slightly higher shields than their counterparts.
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Special shields and hull design leads to all air units equally split all damage taken to one another, rather than single-handedly receives it.
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We have decided not to implement unit tax to the fleet but it is strongly advised you don’t warp in too much- you will see what would happen if you do that from another section below.
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All air units have access to warp to another location of a power field.
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Warping in Golden Armada units has a chance to get an elite version of the unit.
Void Corruption
Core mechanic- occur when air units are attacking and receiving damage. Corruption alters the unit into a completely different unit. Several methods can be use to delay and cleanse corruption.
TL;DR
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Though the pilots remain intact by separated their nerve cords, the ships that are deployed by the fleet would not be that fortunate. As they continuously exposed to void energy, some disturbing changes might occur throughout the battle.
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Void Corruption occurs when the player deploys far too many Golden Armada units at a time.
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All air units will begin to accumulate void energies each time they are attacking and receiving damage, leading to Void Corruption.
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Void Corruption change the unit completely for a long time, which results in bringing advantages and disadvantages to the player.
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Void Corruption also delays the affected unit from receiving commands.
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There are ways to avoid Void Corruption.
- Optimizing your assault.
- The aura from Selendis’s permanent heroic Mothership unit - the Retribution.
- A structure that takes a long time to be warped in. This structure is also available to be deployed from the top-bar, which instantly warp in the said structure.
- An upgrade that can be researched before reaching mid-game.
- After the duration has ended, the player can also use these methods to cleanse the corruption, returning the affected units into their original form.
The Glorious Battle is Upon Us
Selendis ground units take similar design as Stukov’s infantries.
Uses Warp Platform to control the quantity and power level of these units, a total of 5 as maximum.
Uses Warp Conduit to deploy these units, as this can boost the aspect of the commander, and enrich the gameplay.
Pylon Recharge WP —> WP gather armies —> WC deploy units gathered from WP
TL;DR
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In addition to the Golden Armada, Selendis can also be assisted by her fearless Templar.
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Templar can only be warped in from the Warp Conduit, which will be randomly generated throughout the entire map.
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Depends on the map, the numbers of Warp Conduit available will be altered.
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Warp Conduit does not have a spawn timer like Zeratul’s artifact. This means you can choose to liberate them from Amon’s grasp if you have the capability to do so. However, extra forces are deployed from the enemy to safeguard the conduit, and it varies with how much conduit the player has liberated.
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By using one friendly unit to Interact with the beacon of the conduit for a couple of seconds liberates the Warp Conduit.
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Beacon of the conduit appears when at least 50% of the defense force has been eliminated.
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Templar has a maximum unit count determine by 5 Warp Platform- a structure you can see in the first cinematic of the LoTV campaign.
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The status of Warp Platforms are shown from the top-bar manual, similar to Tychus’s Medivac but bigger.
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In order to have the Warp Conduit warping in reinforcements, the player must construct additional Pylons to provide a power source to each Platform.
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Gaining power from Pylons allows Warp Platform to gather warriors on it so that the player can warp them into the battle.
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More Pylons can be used to improves the Warp Platform-
- Each power level allows the Warp Platform to gather more warriors.
- Each power level increases the duration of the Templar warriors.
- Each power level grants warriors one of their passive.
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Warp Platform has 3 power levels. The power level of the Platform returns to 0 after deploying units from it.
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Templar is units with limited life timer, similar to Stukov’s infantries.
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The player can select which comps will be deployed from the top-bar manual.
The Retribution
Selendis’s permanent heroic Mothership. Veteran players will have ways to gain the hero much earlier. Two modes- Active Unit and Map-wide Top-bar Provider.
TL;DR
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Unlike most of the heroic units, this unit takes longer to become available from the beginning [(For example, takes 6 minutes to become available)This is merely just an example]. Yet, the player has a chance to gain it much earlier by reclaiming a Warp Conduit.
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The revive timer of this heroic unit remains as short as most of the heroic unit.
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This unit has an aura that can reduce Void Corruption of nearby Golden Armada units and cleanse the Corruption after its duration ended.
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Planet Cracker is an ability with a long cooldown that Scorch the ground beneath the Mothership, causing damage to enemy units below.
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Khaydarin Barrier is an ability with an acceptable cooldown that grants all friendly units nearby a damage immunity for a short time.
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The Retribution can Ascend to orbit and spread its influence throughout the entire map.
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The Retribution can not attack nor be attacked during Ascend.
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The Retribution gains new sets of abilities during Ascend.
- Time Wave unleash energy on an area and gradually expand itself in a large radius. Enemy projectiles inside the effect zone will have a 50% longer travel speed. When the zone expands to its maximum, it explodes, applying a movement and attack speed decrease to all enemies inside it. The larger the zone, the less efficient and shorter duration to the effect.
- [Void-corrupted unit make contact with the zone will result in an immediate explosion]
- Psionic Infusion restore a friendly unit’s vitals and energy to full after a short delay.
- All abilities from the Retribution consumes energy. The Retribution does not restore energy naturally and can only be recharged near some of the structures.
PLAYSTYLE
Selendis is a macro commander who requires less micro to reach acceptable performance but demands more decision-making from the player.
The main component of her army- the Golden Armada are units which have fewer abilities when comparing to units in Co-op from other commanders. They are, to some degree, a-moveable just like their counterparts from the ladder (excluding all human-involved elements). But because of the existence of the “Void Corruption” mechanic, the player must always pay full attention to the units and try to avoid engage in unnecessary fights as much as possible.
Stukov’s infantries, on paper, provide excellent synergies to its mech infested unit as they can work as a distraction, meat shields, and sustain damage provider. Selendis’s Templar, on the other hand, can still fit-in such a role in ideal situations. Yet, it is advised to use them primarily during the absence of the great fleet, delay the void corruption from occurring.
Selendis’s heroic Mothership- the Retribution is a new type of hero which function as an active support unit and top-bar ability provider with a “can’t have them both” fashion. In order to make good use of it, understanding each of its abilities and strategically switching between each version will be a crucial aspect of how to play this commander.
Lastly, Selendis can perform fine with the original method of saturating resources but can become even better with her special ways of gathering resources by utilizing Phase-smiths. If you can handle your army and the econ at the same time, be sure to do so as the delayed but instant-more minerals and vespene income will mostly bring more advantages than drawbacks, since how the Protoss air comps are usually built.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
“Basically how to make F2A playstyle more appealing to both average and veteran players.”
Why Void Corruption
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The theme of Golden Armada restrict the option of tweaking the quantity and quality of the army, and to imply more micro-interactions to enrich the playstyle.
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A way to make F2A become more strategic.
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Corrupted units are altered into different units, which can compensate for the lack of variety of Selendis’s army.
Why Templar
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To be frank, Golden Armada on mission “Salvation” did not just come up with air units.
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Ground units should be crucial to a commander that only has air units as its primary army, given by no-AA enemies will ignore them and cause potential problems to the player.
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Boost up the commander’s feature- decision-making, also work as a safeguard of the Void Corruption mechanic.
TOP-BAR ABILITIES
Warp In Suppression Obelisk
- Deploys a Suppression Obelisk at the target location. All units inside the radius of the Suppression Obelisk’s power field accumulate less void energy and can be cleansed if corrupted.
Rearrange Reinforcements
Decide which composition the Warp Conduit can be deployed. When this ability is on cooldown, replaced with Redirecting Assault Line.
[I really have no idea of how to name these comps]
Zealots+Adepts+Sentries
Zealots+Immortals+High Templars
Dragoons+Sentries+Avengers
Zealots+Reavers+Colossuss
Adepts+Immortals
About these Templar units
Zealot
WP Lvl 1
- Faster attack rate.
WP Lvl 2
- Attack a few enemies on its path when using Charge.
Adept
WP Lvl 1
- Attack can be improved for three times when attacking the same target.
WP Lvl 2
- Attack faster, can pierce through enemies but deals less damage when having shields.
Sentry
- All abilities can be set to auto-cast.
WP Lvl 1
- Shield Recharge has a cooldown on each target every 5 seconds, restore 30 shields per 8 energy, recharge does not consume energy when the target has no shields.
WP Lvl 2
- Guardian Shield reduces incoming ranged damage to friendly units by 15%. The shield has a significantly shorter radius but can also function as a force field to push back enemies.
Dragoon
- Fewer shields, more health than its counterpart.
WP Lvl 1
- Damage dealt to health increases maximum shield points, to a maximum of 100%.
WP Lvl 2
- Switching target increases attack speed by 10%, to a maximum of 60%. This effect decays after 2.5 seconds if the Dragoon does not switch targets.
Avenger
WP Lvl 1
- Has a 15% chance to immediately attack its target with each attack, regardless of cooldown.
- Has a high chance to tear open a wormhole and warp in one random unit on the Warp Platform, have it attack its target for once with each attack.
WP Lvl 2
- If composition consist of Avenger is selected by the player, the level of the Warp Platform will always remain in 1 after deploying warriors from it.
High Templar
WP Lvl 1
- Phase Shift grants this unit immunity to damage and higher ability cast range through the duration.
WP Lvl 2
- Phasma Surge can be applied to this unit after casting abilities. This effect grants the unit shield regeneration during combat and a damage aura.
Immortal
WP Lvl 1
- Bonus damage against massive units.
WP Lvl 2
- Has a 45% chance to not take damage from projectiles when its shield is up.
Reaver
WP Lvl 1
- Scarabs take longer to detonate but can remain as a projectile and reselect target if the origin died too early.
WP Lvl 2
- Has an auto-cast ability to launch all Scarabs at once.
Colossus
WP Lvl 1
- Armed with anti-air weaponry, in addition to the Thermal Lances.
WP Lvl 2
- Attack speed increases depending on how much damage the unit is taking per second. Attack has a low chance to trigger Solar Flare, damage enemies within it in a circular area.
The Golden Armada Descends
- Warp all available air units from Selendis’s current army and have them bombard enemies from orbit in the target area. All ships will descend back to the end of the target area once the duration of this ability has ended.
THE GOLDEN ARMADA
Scout
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Anti-Matter Missile can attack ground units.
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An auto-cast-available ability Photonics Barrage has been used to replace Photon Blaster.
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Photonics Barrage damage all air units in a straight line around the target. Each attributes from the target increase the damage of this ability.
Corrupted
Anti-Matter Missile also deals 15% damage to all enemies on its path.
Photonics Barrage becomes a weapon with lower cooldown instead of ability during corrupted.
Every friendly air unit within a 3.5 range radius increase all damage dealt to corrupted Scout by 50%. Every Scout within a 2 range radius to the corrupted Scout increases all damage dealt to it by 20%, to a maximum of 100%.
Warp Ray
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Attacks stun its target for 0.5 seconds every 5 seconds. When the target is freed from the stun effect, it will be warp to a location that is 2 range more between it and the Warp Ray.
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As the Warp Ray charge up (similar as the Void Ray’s Prismatic Alignment) to further stages, the duration of the stun effect and the warp range after the effect ended will be increased.
Corrupted
Attack no longer stun the target but apply a gradual damage effect to it.
After the effect ended, the target will be pulled closer to the Warp Ray instead of further.
Corrupted Warp Ray receives movement speed decrease, and affected by an effect that makes the enemy’s spell (for example Parasitic Bomb) deals more damage to it, plus ignoring shield points.
Aribiter
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Glorify is an ability that can be used to grant all friendly units on an area higher movement and attack speed for a short time.
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Mass Capacitor grants additional shield armor to friendly units nearby.
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Reveal reveals enemy cloaked and burrowed units in the target area, and makes enemies within it to provide vision to both commanders for 30 seconds.
Corrupted
Corrupted Arbiter gradually take damage over time.
During Void Corruption, Mass Capacitor grants friendly air units a damage aura, which can still be functioned when using The Golden Armada Descends.
Corrupted Arbiter shrouds its allies into the void for a few seconds when using active abilities. However, the Arbiter will remain visible to the enemies thus very likely to be exposed to a lot of damage.
The more damage the corrupted Arbiter received, the more powerful the damage aura granted by Mass Capacitor becomes.
Arbiter’s abilities have longer cooldown during Void Corruption.
Tempest
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While in combat, provide shield regeneration to all friendly units nearby. The amount of shield regenerate per second is equal to how many shield points a unit can regenerate when out of combat.
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Basic attack applies Disintegration to its target, dealing 100 damage over 10 seconds to it.
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Disintegration Blast allows Tempest to attack all enemies on an area at once after a few seconds of channeling. This ability also doubles the shield regeneration it provides to friendly units nearby during the duration of the ability.
Corrupted
- Basic attack deal more damage, while require longer to charge up and having significantly lower attack range.
- Energy (the projectile) remains for a short time after firing from the Tempest, deals little damage to all enemies around it.
- At the cost of draining shields from the friendly unit that has the highest shield points, corrupted Tempest’s basic attack and the projectile it launched gradually deals increasing damage.
Carrier
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Interceptors attack 3 times rather than 2, due to its unique design.
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For this variation of Carrier, one of its Interceptors will always be ordered to perform scans on visible enemies every 3 seconds after being launched from out of the Carrier.
- Friendly units that are near the Interceptors when it is channeling the scan deals more damage to scanned enemies for a short time.
- Specifically, when recalling Interceptors, having the last one to perform the scan will improve the effect, and result in having a longer duration.
Corrupted
- The duration of the Void Corruption can be halved when a corrupted Carrier’s shield is completely depleted.
- Interceptors do not require channeling to perform the scan and can cast this ability during attacking.
- Interceptors attack its target with Demise (a beam attack), which works similarly to the one of Colossus.
- Carrier, in particular, have a shorter duration from being affected by the Void Corruption.
- Corrupted Carrier adds additional time to the duration of Void Corruption but also decreases the maximum duration of it simultaneously with each interceptor built during the corruption.
- If fail to cleanse the corruption before its duration ends, corrupted Carrier will be destroyed, turning itself into a Void catalyst, which can be used for the player to trigger Void Corruption.
PROGRESSION
Redemption
- Selendis has a 130 supply maximum, her air units have higher shields, takes a shorter time to warp in, but have a risk to submit to the corruption from the void during the battle, altering them. Warp in air units has a chance to gain the elite version of the unit. Templar units do not consume supply.
Harmonized
- Reduce the time of Suppression Obelisk requires to be warped in from Probes by 30%.
Aquiring Assistance
- Allows Nexus to warp in Phase-smith. Phase-smith can accelerate the warp speed of all structures near it and improve Photon Cannon. Specifically, Phase-smith can be stationed inside a Nexus to optimize the gathering process.
Forge Upgrade Cache
- Unlocks the following upgrades at the Forge:
- Increases the duration of Phase-smith’s High-efficient Operation.
- Alter Photon Cannon into Phase Cannon. Phase Cannon can be disabled to warp onboard the Retribution and provide additional armaments for it during Ascend.
- The Nexus’s Photon Overload now leaves behind unstable energy that attacks once for 200% of its weapon damage.
- Grant Pylons an additional charge of Recharge.
The Golden Armada Desencd
- Warp all available air units from Selendis’s current army and have them bombard enemies from orbit in the target area. All ships will descend back to the end of the target area once the bombardment has ended.
The Last Archive
- Unlocks The Last Archive for Probes to warp in. This structure holds valuable upgrades that can be used to counter or perfected void corruption.
War Conduit
- Granted the Warp Conduit these following passives:
- When no Warp Conduit is liberated, each Warp Conduit cyclically reveals enemies on it for 5 seconds every 5 seconds.
- Enemies on Warp Conduit take 15% more damage.
- Warp-in Reinforcement cooldown reduced by 30%.
The Retribution Is At Hand
- Unlocks the following upgrades at The Armada Beacon:
- The Retribution can reveal the whole map for 15 seconds upon Ascend.
- A new ability which allows the Retribution to cloak all friendly units around the map and makes them become undetectable to enemies detector for the first 5 seconds. This ability consumes energy from the Retribution.
- Increases the maximum capacity of Onboard Phase Cannon from 5 to 10.
- The Retribution can restore 1 energy per second while Ascend.
From a Fruitful Relationship
- Scouts and Arbiter can now be altered from the design of Corsair and Oracle respectively.
Executive Decision
- An Armada-link Spire will now be warped in at the start of the mission. This structure allows you to assemble your own compositions for Rearrange Reinforcements.
The Great Fleet Become Whole Once More
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Increases Selendis maximum supply from 130 to 250.
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Also, unlocks the following upgrades at the Fleet Beacon.
- Scout’s Anti-Matter Missile can attack two ground enemies at once.
- Increases the movement speed of Warp Ray to 4.65 and acceleration to 3.76.
- Arbiter’s Glorify and Mass Capacitor also affects the Arbiter when cast.
- Increases Tempests’ attack range and ability cast range by 12, to a total of 22 range.
- Carrier requires 30% more minerals to build Interceptors. Instead of launching Interceptors, Interceptors warp themselves directly to the target location when receiving commands. Increased Interceptors warp range from 8 to 10.
The Invasion Fleet Stands Ready
- Warp Platform can now be empowered by Pylons to achieve level 3 power level, granting Templar units these following upgrades:
- To compensate for the long cooldown of Charge, Zealot can also use Engage to intercept its target. Zealot’s attacks ignore shields.
- Adepts gain attack speed increased with each attack, to a maximum of 50%. This effect can be increased by 100% when Adepts are either below the Retribution, near Selendis, or the Retribution is currently Ascend.
- Sentries can use Hallunication to produce false copies of units, absorb damage for its allies.
- Gain Particle Disruptors as an additional weapon that will attack another target. Dragoon will be revived into an Immortal after a 5 seconds delay once they received fatal damage.
- Upon taking fatal damage, the Avenger teleports to a random Warp Conduit and recovers to full shields and health. Requires a liberated Warp Conduit to activate.
- Both Feedback and Psionic Storm can produce similar effects of the other, but in a different way.
- Immortal’s Barrier can apply the same effect to all friendly units nearby in a small radius surrounding the Immortal.
- Scarabs explosion deals splash damage to enemies in a line after a short delay.
- Dual Thermal Lances allows Colossus to sweep an additional linear area 2 range after the origin.
- Warping in reinforcements from a Warp Conduit also deploys a Probe which will automatically warp in a Pylon for free.
Be Pure From The Stars
- The Golden Armada Desencd can reduce void energies that are being accumulated. The ability can also be used to cleanse void corruption.
The Inevitable
- Void Corruption now affects the Retribution, which can create opportunities for Selendis from either losing the battle or triumph in it.
En Taro Selendis
- From now on, either Selendis or the Retribution will be deployed onto the battlefield at the exact location of the other when it received fatal damage. The destroyed unit still requires one minute to be revived from the Nexus.
Selendis
Swift Vengence allows the unit to perform its basic attack on all enemies in its path when charging, and has a low chance to stun them for 2 seconds. Selendis also has a chance to deal higher damage to the target after using this ability.
Can use Resurgence. This ability can only be recharged each time Selendis has been deployed on the field.
Force of Will grant this unit a higher shield regeneration rate and health regen, it also allows Selendis to assemble warriors warped from Warp Conduit when they killed enemies equals to double the amount of their supply cost, turning them into permanent units as long as Selendis is on the field.
Templar units near Selendis are more zealous and unwilling to give up after receiving fatal damage, which makes them triggers their ability or attack for once if not possessing any ability upon dying.
Attacks ignore shields.
TIPS
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Warp Conduit as the first commander structure that is randomly generated throughout the map, are built underneath the map as a precaution to avoid blocking. Therefore it can be anywhere across the map.
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If possible, try to retake a Warp Conduit before reaching 2/3 of the early-game. As the Retribution and Selendis as a hero can be as powerful as or even, exceeds some of the excellent early-game units like Abathur’s Ultimate Evolutions.
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Given by the Suppression Obelisks from top-bar has limited charges, it is best to send out Probes to warp in more as the fight goes on.
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Phase-smith’s High-efficient Operation might not always be the best option to saturate resources, as it creates a gap period in your economy, which can bring devastating impact when forced to trade units in fights.
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Without the upgrade, Ascend from the Retribution does not favor the player in the long term due to its energy cost. Be sure to use it only when is needed.
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The Golden Armada Descend can be used for mobility purposes. Be sure not to use them only in attacking.
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Try to disable the auto-cast of some unit’s abilities as it will be more efficient when casting manually.