the bunkers is still as powerful, they just cost more supply. leveling up stetmann was a nightmare because i got overpowered even on normal and the healing field(healing stetzone) was too slow so that my units got killed even with that on. i had no serious issues with karax however. statmann was the worst to level up.
2 Likes
To me artanis is easiest to level up. Once I get guardian shield at lv2 I can carry people in brutal, push their max commanders into shame like nobody’s business, because the only absolute key upgrade ability he need is guardian shield alone. I’m fine at brutal missions with just mass dragoons, observer and orbital strike.
Karax seems to be the worst in the bucket, because his units are more expensive and there is no heal before level 7. You need to be extremely good at aiming orbitals and baiting with immortals to be good, but even at low level his deathball can still steamroll hard missions. It is just very difficult to casual players as you need to keep your protoss army undamaged with no heal but regen shields, which means you need to pay attention to the amount of shields your frontline units have. This difficulty greatly diminish once you passed level 7 though. Just open an immortal asap it is fine.
Low level stetmann opening with 3 spine crawlers will do rather well at leveling.
Karax’s topbar doesn’t get enough love or credit. His Spear of Adun abilities are so strong, and so much fun to use. You can wipe wave after wave with good use of the Spear, and make short work of objectives as well.
In my opinion, Karax’s primary—and best—source of offensive power is via intelligent, efficient use of his three damage-dealing Spear abilities; hands down.
2 Likes
Fair, for me I remember leveling him when dragoons were bad, because I haven’t started him on a new account since then. I feel like as much as Artanis is quite capable at low level, he has one of the smoothest power curves for leveling in co-op. My only complaint is that it feels like you start pigeon holed for strategy, and unlock new strategies and comps with every level.
When coop first came out I’ve already figured out artanis was the easiest to level up, as said I always massed dragoons before their buff, it always worked on all maps if you cared to kite and rotate the shielded and unshielded units and snowball to a vast number of them. I was actually confused why they buffed this unit because I thought it was the best basic ranged attacker the commanders have even before buff due to its durability and how you can micro them, the buff was done probably because the majority of players in coop could only a-move and never massed dragoons to learn about dragoon micro in the original starcraft, that they never learned how you can kill ranged or melee units and siege bases without taking HP damage, with an army of only dragoons.
That’s why I mentioned level2 - where you still cannot upgrade shield regen in combat, and have only 1 charge per gateway. Range 7 dragoons still outrange marines in bunker that only marauders can hit them, while against spine or cannon you can pull the one under fire so that you don’t take HP damage on any of them (which was a basic play in BW). It was still rather easy to kill base with pure dragoons pre buff, now they are a bit overpowered if you ask me, but not game breaking. Consider many commanders have downright broken abilities the new dragoon is actually a fair unit.
not all people is good at using dragoons. i played with a player that kept losing all of his dragoons, running out of forces, requiring me to do more.
Speak for yourself… I had to relevel Swann and Karax from scratch, back to Ascension. I was on a public account. Wanted to authorize some purchases of new COs, but they flat out refused, saying it’s too much of a headache to allow this. I made the fateful decision to revert to my old Sc2 account.
I wanted to relevel up Swann and Karax b/c they were still my mains. Swann with no tech Reactors, no Improved SCVs (to “pile build” buildings quicker), no Vespene Drone Harvestor. Really felt like the Dark Ages 
BTW, I ended up getting the formula, and calculating the “hard figures” below…
Karax was interesting… no Recon Beam, so his units would die eventually, and less so his towers. Then you have buildings like his Khadarian Monument that actually had a build time of 80. That exceeds the bt of capitol ships for crying out loud! No Stun Strike upgrade either for his Orb Strikes. That helps you and your ally’s units when engaging enemy waves, as it’d incapacitate a subset of them for a decent amount of time.
.
What really eased the journey back into Ascension again was having both the XP boosts from CO bundle Stimpack, and the Warchests. +50% XP x2 REALLY did cut alleviate much of the “drudgery”
I always felt like Nova was the worst leveling progress simply because her level 2 and level 15 playstyle were exactly the same.
But it’s probably Stetmann if we’re going by commanders that feel like trash until they get to a certain level.
What’s a “public account?” Elaborate on that for me
Nova felt fine to me. Haven’t purchased Stetmann so I can’t really comment on leveling him past 5, but that’s because he’s the first commander to not interest me at all. Granted, there are a handful of commanders who no longer interest me, who I wouldn’t level up again if I had to start all over, but at the time when co-op was new, I enjoyed all of the original commanders, both leveling them and playing them at max commander level / max mastery level. Also enjoyed the same process for every additional commander… until Stetmann. He’s just not my jam.
No commanders really stands out to me as truly painful or frustrating to level, but commanders I personally wouldn’t level again—mostly because I haven’t wanted to play them at max level in forever—would be Raynor, Stukov, Swann, Karax (and Stetmann), cuz I personally don’t enjoy macro-heavy gameplay in the co-op gamemode; just not very fun to me… plenty of more entertaining options to choose from for my preferences.
1 Like
I play at a video game lounge. A public account is an account that’s owned by them.
Stukov
No Apocalisk, no Aleksander, and no Engorged Bunkers (without it, you have 4, not 6 rines to a bunker).
Zagara
-Banaling and Scourge upgrade caches
-Swarmling Zergling strain
-the Splitter strain
-lv15 upgrade to Zagara herself with cheaper to cast and better Banaling Barrage and Hunter Killer summon
Zeratul
Chronomancy was nice… halving the bt of all combat units. Lets you get away with fewer Gateways and Robotics Facililties
And then there’s being initially stuck with Stasis Beam as the only 1st Artifact Fragment top bar ability, as well as not being able to project towers. I use the Legion discount as one of my Masteries, so I’d miss that for a bit
Tychus
You have to work your way up to unlock Rattlesnake, Sirius, Cannonball, and then Vega.
More than one person has had concerns that Tychus’ AA seems lackluster, only to be told “try out Sirius when you unlock him”. I’m guessing those in the Rattlesnake side of the ‘fan club’ will lament on having to use Nikara for healing. Those who enjoy MC will of course miss Vega until he unlocks
Then there are the talent unlocks that let you build up to 3 Medivacs, give you half off on all gear, and half off on the 1st Outlaw you recruit.
Abathur
-No Ultimate Evolutions! Granted, these unlock at lv2, but having vs. not having these is like night and day
-Symbiote at lv10 for the EU are nice
-Extra Mending charges at lv5
-Biotic Leech at lv15 (“life steal” when attacking)
-Virulent Strain of Roaches at lv14 (Roach attacks slow enemy movement and attack rate)
HH
Need to re-unlock Strike Fighter Platforms, “improved supply depots”, Call In The Fleet, Space Station, and numerous upgrade Caches (especially the Strike Fighter’s attack to add flame, and BCs having their mini-Yamato gun mode)
Vorazun
No Time Stop, DT upgrade cache, Shadow Guard, nor auto-harvest gas from Assimilator.
I was able to clear brutal with all commanders from level 1 except for Karax.
I could not find a way to overcome his units cost and no insta built cannons, so I’d say he relies on ally the most till level 11. He is still amazing support during this time, but there is nothing he can do except leave if ally is incompetent.
1 Like
Having just last night finished getting all commanders to level 15 (my last one was Alarak), I’d also like to chime in and say that while he wasn’t that difficult to level to 15, prior to level 12 and the stacking Power Overwhelming buff on his Ascendants, Alarak certainly wasn’t that fun to play. At this point he’s hilarious and awesome, being able to blow up a battlecruiser with a thought is so much fun, but prior to that point, leveling him up felt like work.
You should try playing mech Alarak sometime. It’s peak power can’t rival that of ascendants, but it does take off faster and has a pretty smooth power curve. It’s especially good on infested maps and maps with high hp objectives. You’ll also get to see Alarak’s peak damage on empower me since mech units are worth double the supply although you don’t get access to the no CD technique.
As for commanders, Karax is definitely the most frustrating to level up. While other commanders have a few things missing from their kit before they hit 15, Karax still feels incomplete unless you have a decent amount of mastery points to invest into him.
1 Like
I’ve tried his mech units, and they’re fine, but his lack of anti-air is frustrating. Slayers are good, and Phasing Armor is really cool, but that’s his only option for anti-air, aside from the death fleet and Alarak himself.
Bring a Warp Prism with you, or go old school Alarak like me and bring a probe for proxy pylons. When dealing with an aerial attack wave, try to blink your slayers into or to the side of the wave so they don’t focus fire on a single unit, they’re especially good at deleting Protoss and Terran air once they trigger their damage bonus.
But yeah, I see your point on how that pales in comparison to seeing a wave of pink just wash over the enemy and completely erase them. Hahaha.
1 Like
Wraithwalkers hit air units actually, and Alarak can take care of scrawny units with his destruction wave. The trick to mech alarak is because you don’t have to babysit ascendents, you can micro Alarak and havocs a LOT more.
3 Likes
Huh, I had forgotten about that. You need to upgrade them first, but I suppose that could work. I’ll have to give it a shot later.
1 Like
As a mech Alarak fan, 11 range anti air is pretty damn good. It’s like Vikings that oneshot Battlecruisers… but also all target fires on a single enemy, so you definitely rely on Destruction Wave to handle stuff like Scourge.
Being able to kite backwards while still shooting is really nice though.
3 Likes