Co-Op Mutation #370: Astigmatism

The rogue Tal’darim personality has activated the surveillance jammer, which severely impacted your forces’ targeting systems. Charge in with detection and purpose, or you’ll be flailing in the dark.

Long Range - Enemy units & structures have increased weapon and vision range.
Shortsighted - Player units and structures have reduced vision range.
We Move Unseen - All enemy units are permanently cloaked.

Rating:

Video Replays on Brutal difficulty:

Player 1                                   Player 2
[CtG Toxic Tyrant] RMasterJ Queen of Blades
[CtG Keeper of Shadows] [Twotuuu The Powerless]
[CtG Primal Pack Leader] Nostrebor Best Buddy
[CtG Technical Recruiter] 잘싸우는구조물 Best Buddy

[Reddit Post Link]

Notes:

  • The first enemy wave [4:00] is cloaked.
  • Enemy buildings are not cloaked.
  • Long range makes enemies much more effective in sniping spellcasters like Ascendants, High Templar, and Infestors.
  • Units have a shorter attack and vision range than usual. This does not affect Melee units.
  • The Aleksander will steal the vision of units it mind controls.
  • Raynor’s scan works perfectly to give vision and detection for the mutation.

Commander of the Week: Commander of the week [Astigmatism] - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com
Mutation difficulty: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUE03WFZfPAz00OE5kIixYw/community?lb=UgkxYhJ7EmiRld6d_zS8ILr2uwWLZgeMvEh0
Do you like this mutation? https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxEa01rPgU5u1XmG91PLNrZgYYUMXCuYSf

Commander of the Week winner of last week:

Links:
Weekly Mutation Database
Maguro’s Mutation List
starcraft2coop.com

3 Likes

Mutation overlap 184 this week 2nd

1st clear Mengsk P3+Tychus P3

Mutation (Astigmatism) play list.

This mutation needs detection and map awareness, cause they will harass your units with cloaked enemies. Recommended Commanders:

  • Abathur P3
  • Karax P3
  • Vorazun P3
  • Kerrigan P0
  • Swann P2
  • Raynor P3

#184 Astigmatism – SOLO ALL CLEAR

Mutators: Long Range, Shortsighted, We Move Unseen

Submit your run and I’ll provide any relevant feedback.

Most ranged units will outrange static defenses, so mobile detectors will be needed. Terran enemy comps will be more difficult because almost all their units are ranged. You’ll need more units than usual because some of them are gonna get hit before engaging the enemy.

Make more detectors than you normally would just to make sure that you don’t lose detection in the middle of a fight.

Aurana heals 5000 hp before moving to the next terminal, so you can macro/clear the next area if Aurana has more than 3000 hp. This is especially useful for the first suppression tower.

Successes [and key points]

Abathur (p0) https://youtu.be/oTYrAHHRiao [get an air army so overseers don’t get attacked as much]

Abathur (p3) https://youtu.be/IW-CIlVdaZk [a few brutalisks, then leviathans]

Alarak (p3) https://youtu.be/tQqlCd5zhhw [ascendants throw orbs at the waves]

Artanis (p3) https://youtu.be/Y_kbRiTpsOA [babysit observers]

Dehaka (p1) https://youtu.be/d0KJI_9SfdU [calldowns can handle the early game]

Fenix (p2) https://youtu.be/pwts7tyikzU [the usual but with more observers]

HH (p1) https://youtu.be/j0MCcgyqWXI [more hellbats to tank]

Karax (p2) https://youtu.be/t9fqBHgMeUI [the usual but with more observers]

Kerrigan (p0) https://youtu.be/aoV0zWxQnRw [hero only]

Kerrigan (p2) https://youtu.be/ZZtQ9Vb0rfQ [the usual but with overseers in case you can’t place omegas]

Mengsk (p1) https://youtu.be/DyEnE58iXME [the usual ESO pushing]

Nova (p1) https://youtu.be/WJGtSdwtd40 [the usual]

Raynor (p3) https://youtu.be/DG5SW0E3x-c [mass BCs and orbitals]

Stetmann (p2) https://youtu.be/nNOQxvn409k [the usual]

Stukov (p1) https://youtu.be/Mvq-slpfjdY [this was before I started using queens]

Swann (p0) https://youtu.be/jy2Xq8Te0kY [ground army]

Tychus (p1) https://youtu.be/cTjs-h-pCI4 [the usual]

Vorazun (p3) https://youtu.be/OF_ACEx-7Kc [snipe detectors during time stop]

Zagara (p1) https://youtu.be/-rg-3VRLuTw [the usual]

Zeratul (p2) https://youtu.be/X0utKdNPtkg [cannons and DTs]

Questions about any of these runs are welcome. Some runs will be uploaded tomorrow.

3 Likes

Amusing. You talk about detection yet omit 2 commanders that have reliable, mobile, and constant detection in Nova and Dehaka.

3 Likes

P3 sounds like a bad choice here. Short Sighted screws up vision for Archon dropping, ranged units need to get into melee to be able to see anything, and Long Range means ranged units get even more hits before they are able to fire. Basically, there is no point here going for anything but melee, and lack of GS really screws up Zealots. Unless the plan is to push only when Shield Overcharge is up, you end up with no vision and everything dying all the time.

I think P2 is the best choice, since you can go full melee + keep hasted, and the enemy should ignore Observers most of the time because they have no weapons. Early waves will be a problem because no Archons to kill them (unless it’s Vikings, then even Zealots should be enough), but after that it will get easier.

Trolling as usual.

Because he doesn’t actually know how to play and is just trying to mislead new players.

p2 is probably a bit better than p1 for general solo content, but also worse than p0 or p3
in this particular one p2 is fairly decent, but I wouldnt put it above p3
p3’s true midgame power spikes comes from having semi spammable and affordable guardian shields
also the archons can deal aoe damage even without seeing

Kerrigan is probably the best in terms of being mostly straightforward with minimal change or need for adaptation this week
I suggest heavy gas comp with ultralisks/mutalisks unless the enemy comp severely punishes this (dont think there are really any that do unless your mutas keep getting stormed from some of the ht protoss ones)
p3 with macro masteries (gas and evolution discounts,) and energy regen

Tychus too. He has even 3 perma detectors. And Sirius turrets are detectors too.

And zeratuls observers immense Vision range in observer mode @3 artifacts, makes it the only unit with decent vision range, countering both shortsighted and cloak.

But to be honest if I would care to play this crappy weekly mutation, I’d probably go Raynor mass orbital for perma scans. F shortsighted… one of the dumbest mutators ever.

Well I managed to win with Tychus after a lot of near misses with Raynor P3 lol. Short sighted is definitely the most annoying thing on this mutation.

Orbitals are not enough you need turrets near the places aurana will stop

I tried a single run this morning and got wrecked because Amon’s long range missile turrets killed every observer I made through out the mission.

Oh, and on a separate note, screw long range siege tanks.

1st time failed with Karax P3 + Stukov P3 - in hindsight, I should’ve asked my ally to skip the first bonus. I got arrogant and thought I could push the 3rd terminal (at the top of the map) on my own.

2nd time win with Artanis P0 + Tychus P1 - Much easier to push here. I just made extra Robotics Facility to make sure I’d have Obs on hand. Have some of them in watch mode for vision at certain areas (like attack waves, or where suppression towers will spawn). Failed to get first bonus, but did get the 2nd one.

Lol… haven’t thought about long range. Guess only way for Zeratul to protect observers when attacking is to mix in void arrays so the turrets have something else to target.

Was thinking about Artanis, mass zealot archon. I would want to mix in a couple air units too… not for DPS, but just for drawing fire away from observers.

Also I wanna try is Swann mass hellbat ghost… his detection is pretty tanky and with a few cheap Hercules mixed in that should provide plenty of anti air protection. Guess P3 is the way to go.

I never thought about that one. I made 8 OCs and still ran out of scans. I was also thinking of reallocating mech attack speed mastery to medic chain heals so I don’t rely on MULEs to repair that much and have more resources to spend.

remember that turrets can be salvaged as well. unless you are soloing, get an ally who has decent early detection (most anyone outside raynor that is lol) while you go for a greedy build of 10+ orbitals. sprinkle some turrets, your calldowns, and a few early banshees/vikings depending on your ally and enemy comp
after you have enough orbitals (focus early energy on mules first and foremost to pay back the cost) you can start spamming scans (enough means 10+ imho. 10 as a general rule of thumb). you can delay taking 3rd and 4th gas at your expo to save up some minerals and mining time since you wont be cranking up that much gas expenditure early on anyway

another thing: medics are generally a meme for p3. they are 75 gas and 2 pop on slight heal that does practically nothing. you are better off dragging a few scvs on a separate control group for forward turrets/bunkers and repairs and repair your units after waves/bases have been cleared. trying to manage medics is more trouble than it’s worth except possibly on some very centralized maps like oblivion express, dead of night, and possibly miner evacuation. I have tried it, and well, I havent been impressed.
karax passive heal or swann tagging a few science vessels on your bcs is much better from support side

I think you might be able to float Factories arround the pod to grant “long range seige vision”, no? You can definately use it in the beginning, particularly to tank for that 1 or 2 Science Vessels you spent all your money on.