I just started playing again after a few months and saw the prestige system. I started it on karax and leveling him again is just a chore. I can’t imagine doing this again and again.
He’s pretty damn week at level 1 and his power spike doesn’t come until level 11.
I have never been a great player and my skill level allows me to beat hard at best. I’ve tried brutal multiple times before and was successful a few times but I just couldn’t keep up with everything happening there.
In the earlier levels there are nothing good I can see about the commander. His offense takes ages and his defensive structures are just too slow to build. My first game I was pitted with someone on DoN and even though it’s a defense map I couldn’t do much. Even then my ally made nothing to attack and I had to handle both base defense and mass carriers. The nyduses almost killed us and my ally did nothing. The whole match was just a chore and extremely annoying.
Even after gaining a few levels on him I still don’t feel like grinding his levels
Is it possible to switch his level 11 with level 7 or lower for the first prestige because that’s exactly what that first one is suited for
Try farming void thrashers with army Karax. Your top bar should be able to clear attack waves, and build up to revive research and mass carrier with gas spent on air attack upgrades, and air upgrade. If you need you can use the spear to clear the mobs of first shard and micro your zealots out of aoe for first shards. Now Karax is a bit harder and bit slower but if left alone you can solo vt brutal with a lvl 1-4+ karax in 17-22 minutes with carriers or shadow cannons immortals.
This is your problem. Karax is not just a defensive commander. Sentinel/Energizer combo beats any enemy composition that has mech units thanks to Energizer’s mind control ability and Sentinel’s mineral efficiency and it’s available at lvl4. You never have to worry about the attack waves thanks to solar lance, just don’t waste energy on less efficient orbital strikes unless you see a bunch of clumped air units. You can order a couple of Energizers to follow you ally’s army too. After your first 1-15 run you unlock 40% discount on his army units so prestigeing two more times becomes even easier.
I’ve fully prestiged Karax first and had no problems with him whatsoever. I’ve had a harder time leveling Kerrigan, Alarak and Zagara.
1 Like
Just power through until P2, as once you have that unlocked, playing army Karax becomes quite the treat, and you can use it level the last prestige level, as well.
4 Likes
Well thanks for the comments. I’ll try what you said. Maybe I just got turned off by that first match
Just in case you didn’t know, you can still select regular karax p0 while leveling p1. I ended up doing that since p1 is not too helpful pre level 11. If your a karax fan than p2 is the prestige you are looking for as it makes most any army build viable due to the cost reduction. Losing cannons is a small price to pay imho.
2 Likes
Oh I really didn’t know that. I’ll try it now
1 Like
if you’re just playing with random people, and you don’t get bored easily, just play Void Thrashing because it’s probably the easiest and most time efficient maps (unless you know how to cheese certain maps with certain commanders).
Most veteran players also farm Void Thrashing so it is more likely that you run into someone that knows how to play at a semi-competent level than random mission, especially when you can run into people that only want to IDEF on DoN and ToTP.
1 Like
You can also play Scythe of Amon. If you are good enough, you can actually clear the map even faster than Void thrash and Rift Korhal.
If you are Zag P1 though, Just go Rift Korhal and run full scourge.
These two 
Use P0 to level up P1 until lvl 11. And I’d say stick with P0 all through to lvl 15. Not having Repair beam on your units while trying to level up is a pain, esp on Brutal. Otherwise, you have to canon push every mission until your army gets big enough.
Use P2 to level up P2 and P3. Even from level 1, P2 is pure joy. I once had a Karax P2 lvl 2 ally on Malwarfare playing Brutal. Thought it would a s-show but he/she/they actually karried themselves quite well. Sentinels for the early game and 1-2 energisers until you start non-stop Carrier production from 1 and then 2 stargates.
Until you get the immortal’s Shadow Canon at lvl 9, rely on Mirages (Phoenix) for anti air (or Carriers). Also ground area-damage, without the colossi fire upgrade, also at lvl 9, supplement army with Carriers.
Nice to know if this is faster than VT since I am definitely planning on leveling Zagara next. P3 deep tunnel cheese is nice to have.
The Zag P1 full scourge on Korhal strat work best if you have discount Scourge.
Try to ignore the entire front army and just sneak behind and snipe those objectives.
The one weakness that I find in this strat is that since your ally are most likely blind(due to random queue), they just keep on doing pointless work by killing enemy that leads to the objective that you have already sniped.
1 Like
Based on his own description of the situation, there isn’t much to change.
The dev is unlikely to change 11 to 7 or to lower level, as all 3 new prestiges affect Karax quite differently.
Matching only on hard or lower will likely give you someone as capable or less so than you. This will put you into a bit of a bind if it’s the latter case (as you noted on DoN).
This really is a case of “I recommend you to watch Karax gameplay and learn from it”. I can tell you that all 3 of his prestige can be used to level with no issue:
- p1 you unfortunately have to play more offensive cannon (especially if your army build order isn’t up to par).
- p2 you have a much easier time going army period for obvious reason (although I’ve seen more people still working with the ‘’more production than necessary” issue).
- p3 makes SoA very potent, so it should carry you quite fine until army is online.
I get that your skill isn’t quite there yet but if you learn from your replays and some really good videos on YouTube, you’ll do just fine.
2 Likes
Honestly, I just grinded Oblivion Express with P1. Once you understand the build order for it, and how to properly build your structures to defend (as well as when to Chrono and push out research…) it’s honestly a joke and a cake walk to play.
i also used oblivion express. on the first prestige, you can use chrono boost on your defenses from level 1 and on the second prestige, you can build a bigger army. karax`s units is tougher. you can easily compensate for the lack of instant build by building early.
Leveling Karax is indeed a pain. I got all of his prestiges out of the way first for this very reason, and would occasionally take breaks with Tychus.
He’s one that you may have to play on Hard rather than Brutal a bit longer than others unless you’re playing with friends (or don’t care what your ally thinks of you.)
But getting him back to Mastery has definitely been worth it, I play P3 on Brutal+ pretty regularly and can carry even there.
I think you already identified the problem. This is good, we now improve from here. Post a couple of replays, we will have a look and give you feed back about build order/decision making.
Karax was 1st commander I prestiged, it is piece of cake with the right approach.
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I’ll try posting replays. I’ll see how it is done.
And yeah switching down to p0 actually helped a lot. Been getting consistent wins on hard since then. I’m just waiting for level 11 as the main issue I face while making the army is getting supply blocked. But I think I’m getting the hang of it again.
2 Likes
The world needs more good people like yourself, sir.
1 Like
Just finished this weekend, good ol’ Void Thrashing, all Brutal.
P0, P2 when it was available, and then leveled P3 as P3. Karax is much weaker before level 4
Go gateway. If Protoss & Terran, reclamate. If Zerg, switch some of those Energizers to Immortals and Mirages.
Mirages aren’t very good before lvl 14-15, but they help break up the Zerg clumps of air, protecting the Energizers