How to use Stukov

Co-op Missions Discussion
21

After patch 5.0.0. Infested Marine cost decreased from 25 min to 15 min.

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22

Right, forgot about that. Shows just how long it’s been since I looked at Barracks.

Guess point stands, I’m not entirely sure it’s 1infested/30sec. It does say that on the wiki page I used but tbh it feels like it should be shorter. Then again, haven’t touched P0 in a long time too lol.

Go for Mech! Hoorah!

2 Likes
23

B/c at the end of the game, it’s still fun. Every now and then, I like more relaxed and brainless games. As far as “one-dimensional” goes, I had somebody tell me that when “Bunkerlisks” costed 300/0/4, after he gets enough of them set up (which is far easier since they’re now 100 min cheaper), he would change the psi emitter every now and then, while watching Netflix!

Although nowadays, it’s not as clear cut. A bad comp can force you to think outside the box.

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24

For P0 in general, time your attacks so that they coincide with infested walkers, marines, and Db’s (diamondbacks). Layer your approach…
0- Infest structure. Ideally, behind their front lines to split their fire and focus. (Bonus if that Hybrid wastes a “super psi blast” to take out a just, one broodling :sunglasses: )

1- Walkers up front to absorb damage
Comp ain’t smart enough to just go around and target Rines and Dbs. Ofc, these are free units, so they’re VERY disposable.

2- Rines behind them to deal damage more safely
They’re temporary, but still need to be protected so they stay alive as long as possible and dish out damage

3- Db’s and or Tanks from afar.
Dbs have a range of 8, so that should be sufficient. If not, they’re nimble, and can fire while moving, so you can easily kite and retreat. If you get the “slime trail” upgrade, that slows ground units that come in contact with it, making it easier to keep your distance!
Tanks are immobile when rooted (aka “sieged”), but FWIW, they have disgusting range. Use deep tunnel sparingly, since it’s got a 1 minute cd (cool down, in lower case letters).

Ofc., you’re not always going to have all 4 of those above. Starting off, you may not have any Dbs (#3). If you’re on P1, it’s easier to do, but then you won’t have #1 (in which case, substitute by building a smattering of Inf. Marines from Rax). Any time, you may be out of Inf. Structure charges (#0)

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DEFINITELY use Infested Marines from Barracks, even early on. I tend to float thousands and thousands of minerals, so no need to be too stingy with them. They can be a serviceable “panic button” for when your CDs aren’t available. Just don’t go TOO crazy with them! You still need mins to expand, make more workers, etc.

If you need AA and/or Detection, make Infested Missile Turrets! They only cost 100/0/0 and eat up a 2x2 block of building space, so even though Bunkers are superb, they’re costly, and eat up 4 supply. Turrets can also uproot and move to other areas! They need creep to root, so bring an Ol that can dump creep, or wait until mid game to position them to key areas that are up to (I’m going to say) 8 screens away?

Try to move Rax and your ICC closer to the action. The risk is they’re more likely to get destroyed by attack waves being out in the open, away from your bases where reinforcements are easier to get to, and likely where towers are at. This is where having your Turrets and Bunkers move with them to protect them can help. Your towers alone may not be enough, but it’ll let you delay destruction to help out. Rewards are you get more killing power with them since they can spend more time shooting (as opposed to traversing the map, even if creep is out that far!).

If you have the APM, micro your Apocalisk! Use the burrow charge to get to targets quicker, and take out huddled up groups of units. Vs. a large contingent of Immortals, burrow charge will give it a fighting chance… you get to them quicker, stun them temporarily, and they can’t fire on you while you’re “underground dashing”. Otherwise, you get a rare “treat” of seeing the Apocalisk cut down.

I had an enemy comp where it was Colossi, Disrupters, Reavers, Immortals, and Adepts. This excels vs. armored and swarmy comp, so switching to Banshees made sense here.

If there are rocks, I usually make a Bunker next to it. Then uproot and move that Bunker to get the other geyser if they’re all far apart. Then move it somewhere for better defense. I’ve never tried using Infested Marines from Barracks before, but it can be worth it to save the $$ if you really don’t feel like you’ll get more use out of that Bunker. Bonus if you can redirect the Infested Marines to somewhere else before they expire like with Vorazun’s Shadow Guards, Raynor’s CD’s (call downs)… Hyperion and Dusk Wings), and anything else that’s on timed life.

If it’s a contested exp., then send in infested walkers from ICC (Infested civvy Compound), or use Rines, with well placed Infest Structure. Do it on AG (Anti-Ground) towers, which keeps your inf. walkers alive longer. If you can’t target enemy buildings with Inf. Structure yet, then target your own building that can uproot. Root the building first (fun fact, uprooted buildings lose the “Structure” tag when they’re on the move), THEN uproot them and move them towards the enemy base.

Using Apocalisk may be worth it since you’re trying to establish an exp. earlier than later. I find it worthy since it can snowball things quickly enough to better tackle pushing into bases, even without it.

1 Like
25

Stukov is like the old Cancerhost in hots era. Set rally and win. Not much thinking to do there.

26

Well I appreciate the tips, noticed the starport was never mentioned though :rofl:. I guess I have to get used to the timed nature of his army.

At some point I am probably going to be asking about either Mengsk or Swann, so hope you all are up for more fun discussion.

27

My preferred expo method is to build the CC next to rocks early, at ~17 supply, and infest it as soon as it’s done (be sure to uproot it). With minimal control you can get the main rock. As I play p1, I use my first diamondback or 2 to get the gas rocks. With any other prestige you’re not starved for gas at all early on, so you can take your time and use any alternative method to destroy the gas rocks (rax marines, bunker, etc) that is, if you’re even taking your expo gas at all

2 Likes
28

My friend, you speak but the truth. I’ll tell you what tho, p1 made me enjoy him a lot more than I used to

29

Stukov’s tanks are awesome and mean you don’t have to wait for calldowns before pushing the next base. Diamondback damage output is great, but they’re rubbish for pushing fortified bases and can take large losses against heavy ground. 10-15 tanks + two overseers can clear the heavy ground waves and base defenses while the DBs mop up everything else. Though when it’s just Brutal and you have an ally you can afford to lose DBs and just rebuild.

For P3 the Infested Infantry Duration mastery gives you 30s more life on infested to keep that bulk around longer. The difficulty with P3 is the longer ramp time and single direction infested stream. You lose the bunker+turret+tank spawn camping. For shorter maps you can just skip bunkers entirely and do mass marines. The main long maps P3 underperforms on are Mist Opportunities, Miner Evac, and Dead of Night (if you don’t save the rocks). I love P1 and usually just leave P3 for some brutations where I fancy Stukov rather than another CO.

30

Starport is good in some scenarios and it is not really that good until you have a high enough level to unlock some of the crucial researches.

Factory or Barrack or Bunker on the other hand can handle everything else by themselves.

Of the 3 Starport units

  • Liberators can only attack air and they only get better when they have the research that allows them to reduce incoming damage by 85%.
  • Banshee are good against small group of ground units. They can’t really deal with large group of anything that can shoot up (except sentries).
  • Queen requires good micro else you risk losing them and each of them cost 100 gas while only has 120 Health.

Except for playing Barrack build, you don’t really have to pay much attention and the timed life of his army.

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31

Exactly. Libs need L11 upgrade and queen needs L13 upgrade. Starport units can be good fun once upgraded, like wiping out the trains with queens. Or libs that eat yamato with their massive damage reduction.

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32

With P1 dbs + tanks the two key upgrades that give their abilities fast casting are available from L1, so be sure to get them early.

33

Not as extensively but mostly for good measure.

You’re starting off Stukov and learning, so none of the Starport units will be easier to use.

You can always get infested liberators against air compositions, that should make it easier. Or combine them with infested DB, but be aware both are vulnerable to Plasma Blast and Psi Storm from Hybrid Dominator. It’ll happen regardless so it’s more of an FYI.

Don’t use infested banshee or brood queens. As a decorative or trial, they make sense for someone who’s learning but otherwise it’ll be quite the cost investment for little value returned.

34

Because of how ungodly slow Bunkers are to build and how slow they refill at lower levels, Barracks are faster. Way faster.

35

Bunker v Barracks (assuming infantry mastery)

For maintaining a big army:
Bunker= constant level of 2.4 troopers for 400 min and 4 supply
(25 seconds per trooper that lasts 60 seconds)
Barracks…a constant stream of 2.4 troopers costs 2.4 supply and 36 min/2 minutes-18/minute

Mineral wise Bunkers are better if there are 400/18 minutes left in the game. (22)

For replacing losses, 15 minerals v. 400 for 1/25 seconds…(400/15-6)*25 seconds=~516 seconds =8 min36 seconds

So early to midgame you build bunkers. Mid to late game you build Marines
(when you are somewhere from 100-150 supply switch)

*For P3 Bunkers are better until the last couple minutes of the game.

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36

I like p1 specially when paired with a non-p1 Karax ally. He adds a lot of survivality to them, wich helps reaching the critical mass faster.

37

Strong enough to trivialized most of the mutators in B4~B6 just with bunker build.

My ally loves to play P3 Stukov.
https://i.imgur.com/twG3PfA.jpg

At one point, he can even solo Heroes of the Storm mutator without my help.

38

I am having a fairly difficult time believing this.

So as someone pointed out on this week’s mutation topic, to be above B6, the total score has to be >20 of the 3 mutators. So in that list you’ll see many of the harder mutators repeatedly appear (and they are also common for B4-6), such as:

  • Black Death
  • Avenger
  • Void Rift
  • Just Die
  • Polarity
  • Propagator
  • Etc.

Many of these are not a good match for mass bunkers at all. I’m not sure P3 can be deemed B4-6 “trivialized” as a prestige, especially when P1 is clearly stronger. I’m not even sure (as a whole) any/many prestige trivializes B4-6 level of difficulty (out of the 54 choices, not counting P0’s).

And for OP, in regards to how P3 really performs. You can see in his attached image link that they finished on DoN at N4. To be honest, that is quite late as far as a “good performance” goes.

I think it very clearly highlights why P3 mass bunker is not exactly a “strong choice” for many players. Regardless of where your current performance level is at now, DoN before N3 is fairly standard. By standard I mean quite possible with a good enough player (as long as the other does any minimal performance).

39

The same as a low-difficulty Tychus P2 game: unleashing all the hatred and annoyance accumulated with bad games and allies upon Amon, without making any effort while efficiently drowning him in ever lasting suffering, that sadly don’t match what we had to go through, but it’s still a little plus :smiling_imp:

40

So true. P3 hard counters a few B4-B6 combos, but then there’s a lot of prestiges that have their ideal B4-B6 combos. On the other hand I can’t think of a scenario where bunkers P3 can even handle the first wave of invis-speed-poops on Malwarfare.