This is why I want the Bulwark Field generators to affect the Blackhammers themselves. I would even forego buffing other units, since the extra armor makes the mechs even more attractive. 9 armor at rank 3 makes them virtually immune to small arms fire.
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Thor aura is not worth it. Thor is too slow and the aura to small. Troopers are rarely affected by the buff
Given that the Inferno Volley is basically a Javelin Missiles on steroids, I kind of wish they didn’t have the Javelins in favor of using Punisher Cannons on Walker Mode.
This makes their basic mode single target dps for general purpose attacking on stray air units and ground forces, instead of having two air splash weapons.
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I’ve always found this mastery to be incredibly strong because of how potent all the 3 star masteries are. Mengsk has one of the fastest economies so nerfing a mastery I stopped using hasn’t impacted me. The difference between 2 and 3 star units is unbelievably impactful so I love this.
True, but in theory you want thors to counter BCs (Yamato) and Tempests, which wouldn’t care about the
Yes. So much yes. And then we can even give them the 11 AA range they have in 1v1. (We could anyways, but we have more reason to push the co-op team this way).
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That, and quite honestly, Punisher Cannons make Thors look really cool with those giant cannons perched on the shoulder. Aesthetically, given how cool the Blackhammers look already, walking around with those guns extended would be a visual plus in addition to a tad better gameplay.
I was a tad disappointed, because the art team did a splendid job on the Blackhammers, but one cannot really see the great work they did on the artillery barrels since Overwatch Mode doesn’t deploy them. The cannons are basically superfluous since they are permanently tucked away, and quite honestly, it’s a waste of the effort put into Blackhammer’s design.
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Honestly, if they actually want it to compete with starting mandate, that mastery should increase the health of Royal Guard units.
The XP difference just doesn’t matter nearly as much.
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Actually, it could matter very much. I think boosting the raw stats of the Royals works as a mastery, but is better suited for Set 1, to replace the entirely pointless Royal Guard Mandate Generation mastery, which should be lumped with the other choice for just a catch-all Mandate Generation mastery. This frees a mastery slot to compete with the top-bar based Mandate Generation mastery
Since each Rank gives a 25% boost in attack damage, health, and for Shadows, energy max and regeneration, a mastery fits perfectly to boost that, incrementing up to 15% max, for 40% stat gain per Rank. It’s similar to the Combat Unit Attack Speed mastery that other commanders have, but uses Mengsk’s unique spin with the Ranking system of boosting stats rather than attack speed, which makes this idea a favorite of mine to ponder.
Thus, by having a Top Bar vs Royal Guard mastery choice in each Set, the synergy actually helps make an improved Royal XP Gain more attractive. Between having Royals with better stats with that mastery, and the ability to crank out more with the Royal Cost mastery, it absolutely becomes a viable pick to want to get more Royal XP if it was boosted to 30% or 45%.
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I can agree with that. The problem still lies that in order to to make use of one mastery you’re pretty much required to build entirely around that with your mastery points.
It works in providing a different option for a playstyle, but that’s at the cost of hindering his typical playstyle by quite a bit.
i don’t know how that would work in practice but I’d be willing to test it to find out.
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Me too. I really hope they consider my idea or an idea similar to that.
Obviously, everyone’s mileage may vary, but personally, I like it when masteries synergize for certain combos like that, like they do on certain other commanders, allowing people to spec to their favored playstyle.
Like Nova, for example, with both Combat Unit Life Regen and Combat Unit Attack Speed on separate Sets, competing with a Nova mastery on each, allowing one to favor either Nova or her Army, depending on player preference.
Likewise with Kerrigan and her absurdly overpowered Expeditious Evolutions, which saves well over 1,000 minerals and gas and 10 minutes of research/evolution time, and her Combat Unit Vespene Reduction mastery, competing with two Kerrigan hero unit masteries on those sets.
Fenix comes to mind as the obvious exception, where the devs strangely went a different route, putting two Fenix masteries together in one Set, and two Champion masteries together in the other Set. Way off topic, but I still do wish they would swap 'em so one could focus on either Fenix or his Champions.
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There is no buff which will made this mastery viable. Even if it would make all the RG start on level 3 right after their building, I wil still choose starting mandate, cause you have to go with troopers in early game, and impact from the RG only start to be significant in the end game.
So this mastery needs to be changed to something else.
I think best way to buff the exp mastery is to make the “bunker mastery” unnecessary.
Mengsk can get bunkers fast (100 min, fast build) the real bonus is the instant 6 troopers (48 seconds of worker build time)
Perhaps if Mengsk had “Command Center Reactors” people would feel like they could skip the starting mastery by just building bunkers and troopers.
I could dig that. Make it an individual upgrade per command center, like Raynor’s orbitals. Given how important they are for trooper production, this would help with that as well.
No, for free from beginning of game, that allows Mengsk to get that defense + economy setup so that he can use the bonus exp mastery
Mengsk already has the fastest worker production of any terran commander combined with Swann’s multibuild, AND his troopers can build his supply structures, AND his workers are cheaper than any other commander’s save Zagara. How much more of an econ boost does he actually need in the first 10 seconds?
Apparently a lot because that’s the main use of the starting mandate…bunkers and trooper/workers.
They would still cost minerals even with a reactor.
Its not like there are any other ways to use starting mandate remotely effectively. And the alternative is RG XP, which as this thread demonstrates is extremely low priority unless youre going for a Battlecruiser based strategy.
Well the other change is to beef up the xp rewards.
Perhaps instead of RG imperial support being
supply*(stars+1)/2 it can be
supply*(stars+1/2)
And then boost the exp ability bonuses of the other units (especially vikings and thors)
The only problem I have with the existing XP rewards is that the Battlecruiser’s most useful abilities are both locked behind leveling, and they are otherwise not especially helpful without them. I’d rather see the range aura be the level 2 ability, with the splash damage yamato being their researched upgrade.
It still feels pointless because Blizzard rushed the changes for Mengsk and of course it is a mess what they did. They did not address masteries prooerly.