Currently only sentries with their tickled beams provide that and that is bad IMO. Yes, Karax has SoA that can serve as AA but:
1 It is hardly reliable
2 Sentries aggro the enemy and die when there aren’t other aa units and Karax cannot afford to lose sentries.
So my suggestion would be to give Karax Instigators (Purifier Stalkers) or give Immortals actual AA attack.
How is SoA unreliable? Upgraded lance can clear waves every 2 minutes and for pushing bases you can target down powerful units with buffed shadow cannons.
Sentries draw too much aggro and their Reclamation ability’s range is terrible, true.
Enemy doesn’t clump up = trouble
Enemy suddenly moves = trouble
Your ping is high = trouble
You spent your SoA nrg elsewhere = trouble
Now I understand that the problem is solved by either git gut or have your ally take care of AA but I would like an option for Karax to at least keep enemy flyiers in one place and occupied so that I can blast them.
Plus I genuinely think that Karax has a hole in his composition where Stalkers were supposed to be. 6 types of units is I think the lowest amount of any commander.
He is terrible but not because of just his terrible AA though. It the synergy between all of his weaknesses that make him terrible. More expensive unit mean he has less Dps which lead to those units easility overwhelmed by the enemy. The fact that his units have no mobility or AA doesn’t help either. Couple it with a ridiculous amount of things he has to upgrade on top of expensive units… yea…
The HP buff solve the issue of dying a little bit but when mutations take place, **** can get a bit crazy for these HP buff.
He has immensely good def and a very powerful top bar.
Solution to all of these is to retreat your army a bit then hit the wave with SoA again. But for people who wait too far back for the wave there’s nowhere to go. For example, I see so many waiting at the Void Launch exits rather than pushing forward.
Edit: Some more extreme examples - Scythe of Amon. Go with plenty of immortals to take down ground and objectives, and snipe the scattered air defenders with SoA. Use solar lance for waves. You’re even left with plenty of minerals to put down a quick cannon wall you can fall back to if you want.
One key with Karax is to upgrade your SoA energy ASAP.
I’ve always felt that Karax’s lack of ground-to-air damage has been one of his biggest weaknesses; while it’s true that you can use SoA and Shadow Cannons, both require micro, which can make things rough in hectic battles, and it means his valuable Energizers draw aggro from air units. The new health buff has certainly softened the blow of the latter, but it still makes things awkward. He could really use another Gateway unit like Adepts, they don’t have to be crazy or anything, just some source of ground-to-air.
I count the micro as a positive rather than a negative. Instead of making Karax more F2A friendly I’d much prefer this to be an opportunity to improve skill. After all if a certain difficulty is too much with a specific commander there are always lower difficulties.
I know that but I think the purpose of the change was to give Karax offensive options so unless I should be cannnon rushing Amon, static isn’t really the answer.
But Karax has difficulty pushing forward against enemy air. Defending objectives/attack waves is comparatively easy.
Like I appreciate the tips but I don’t see them as a solution maybe band aid at best.
Just to be clear, Karax doesn’t need Goliath or StetHydra level AA just unit that would draw attention away from sentries and give me time to use Shadow Cannon/SoA.
Would be nice if Orbital Bombardment drops 20% faster and
have Solar Lance cooldown be decreased to 90 seconds.
PS. Can we have Chrono Wave quickly Cooldown SOA?
IME, this hasn’t been that much different from other COs who require micro. Some battles are so hectic that it’s hard for me to aim with the heroes respective “Q attack”… Nova, Alarak, and Kerrigan. With Kerrigan, it’s worse since if you miss, you land next to a hybrid, but don’t do any damage to it
He could, but I fear if he got that, he’ll end up just like all the other Protoss COs… mass up their all-purpose AG + AA unit (Goon, Stalker, Slayer, Adept, XN Ambusher), A-move
Although TBH, I’ve felt this way about other COs as well…
It’d be nice if Nova could have more than one of the same type of production building so she won’t be gated by cd if she loses a lot of her forces
I’d like it if Nikara could heal herself
When searching for fragments as Zeratul, I’d like for the “restricting circle” on the mini map to appear ASAP. Yes, I know you can do tricks by using his other units to move around on the mini-map, and looking for waypoints and rally lines on his premonition bubble, but that’s still quite tedious.
It would be nice if HH had an actual AG tower. Their Mag Mines aren’t the same thing.
Agree.
(? characters)
Well it is a risk but one that could be reduced in many ways.
If we use versus Stalker than it is fairly fragile unit with limited dmg but great micro potential thanks to Blink.
Now Instigators would be more expensive but with more health so not that great as the core unit thanks to limited dmg. Thus other Karax’s unit would still be required plus Stalker cost gas which is major limiting factor for Karax.
Also Instigator could have some kind of mechanic/ability that would reward good micro even more than standard blink. Key would IMO be to not buff their stats (outside of the passive health increase) but give them high skill high reward tool.
Or leave them largely like in multiplayer thus still encouraging players to use SoA to gain more value.
It’s called 1 pylon and 1 cannon. If you need more time, add a battery.
Give Immortals an air attack like Artanis’ Dragoons when upgraded with the Shadow Cannon. That is, Shadow Cannon works just like currently does, but otherwise they can shoot lesser pew pews.
There, I fixed the game, give me monnys.
Blizzard has no monnies to give you, Activision cut their budget too deeply. They are willing to pay you in bits of string, however, just like their QA staff…which is why they no longer have QA staff.
Hey, I can use those bits of string to tie a coin and get free snacks! Thanks papa Blizz.
Thing is, messing up your micro with heroes may be less efficient, but as long as your army’s there, the target will still die eventually, maybe just with more cost than you wanted. With Karax, you need that micro to kill air units at all; mistarget with Shadow Cannon or Orbitals and those air units will still be around. A better analogy would be dealing with stealthed units while you have no detection, or need to use your micro to snipe them. Imagine fighting entire armies worth of stealthed units with no detection, and the only way you can deal with them is by clicking on each of them individually, sometimes repeatedly. That’s the tedium I’m talking about.
And while that’s certainly a valid concern, that’s why I said Karax Adepts don’t need to be crazy strong, just a unit you can include in your army to help deal with air, and- more importantly- draw aggro away from your squishier, more expensive and much more valuable Energizers.
Eh, as stated above, I consider this more tedious and awkward than requiring skill, like having to play whack-a-mole in every battle.
Pretty sure Blizzard justifies all of karax’s crappy early game, mid game, lack of ground AA, and obsoleteness in basically all regards because they think his top bar is god tier, but honestly its kinda meh, like you have commanders like abathur who only need 5 Ravangers to do twice what karax’s top bar can do, and commanders like Mengsk, Tychus, Artantis, and Nova who basically fire off a 100 orbital strikes worth with just a single nuke, then commanders like Zeratul, Dehaka, and Raynor who could clear an entire map in like just 15 by basically only relying on their top bar calldowns. So really Karax’s top bar isnt rely something that deserves so much praise that it should justify all other regards of the commander being weak because honestly his SoA is just pretty average.
Perhaps it might be tedious to you, but I’ve seen plenty of others manage just fine. Have you tried enabling the ground pointers below air units? It’s like just about any other power-spell, you can miss. Nova can miss half a wave with Griffin Strike, so should that be auto-aimed for us? Or maybe Abathur’s ravagers also need auto-aim since their bile shots can miss?