Scythe of Amon..Why?

Is there actually a reason to play this unreasonably hard map?
Unless you have a commander with an absurdly powerful arsenal like Mengsk, there’s just little to no way to actually do this map. The timer is too short, the bonus objective is just Pointless to try and get since the suicidal warp prism just rams into all enemy defences very early in the game, there’s no buildings to abuse with things like infest, heroes die within seconds…

I HATE this map.

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Have you tried looking and learning from some gameplay? Read about it more? Try here starcraft2coop.com and YouTube.

SoA is probably one of the best designed maps overall, in terms of robustness, difficulty, and variability.

I guarantee you, once you learn how it works. You’ll appreciate its nuances.

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First shuttle is/was annoying to defend (i think they changed this), but this map is actually quite well done. Timers are actually very forgiving without mutators as well.

They’ve given it a 20 sec notification before the bonus shuttle leaves. Don’t think it’s actually added time? But at least it isn’t just “hey we’re going c’ya”

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the bonus objective and main objective are almost at direct odds with one another, which is not the way I think I would have designed it, to put it mildly

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Are they though? The first shuttle may be slight out of way, depending on which shard you do first. You can actually route your order around the bonus as well

Not to mention almost all objective make you go out of your way anyway
Most defensive missions have you go out and play offensively, and offensive mentions’s bonus are usually not in super convenient spots either, which is why exp farmers often skip bonuses.

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What I find frustrating about SoA is not just the bonus, but the fact that the attack waves feel a billion times harder than any other map. Like, on Void Thrashing you get a couple of hybrids and a collection of units coming through a few obvious choke points. SoA, you get a force primarily composed of hybrids spawning 2 feet from your natural.

And then, yeah, the bonus is stupid because you’ll have an entirely different route depending on whether you beat the previous phases. It’s just the Void Launch bonus but worse.

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Love this map. I usually don’t manage to fo the bonus, but the main itself is certainly doable by any commander. I enjoy the challenge, just like I do the other maps people like to complain about. You can feel free to do thrashera over and over again if that’s more your speed

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There is a learning curve for each map. SoA is one of the harder ones in my opinion. The first three shards are easier to kill than the last two. The last two you should kill it with your partner if you have trouble.

First go for the shard at the expansion, it’s easiest. Then go to the shards next to your home base, it’s easy too. The third one, you can pick between west of the map or center. I usually leave the NorthWest for last.

For the bonus, I have a lot of successes with the first shuttle but you have to rush it and I push it with my partner. It is doable definitely.

To be safe, u can let the first shuttle die when it first summon. They have a second shuttle one ready to go. The second shuttle is easier to do.

It is only learning how to navigate the map and knowing when enemy waves comes. You will learn how to do it :+1:

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The north west Sliver is actually the hardest one, so it’s better not to leave it for last as each Sliver you kill the others get harder. It has the highest max power so taking it out sooner means the last one will be easier.

Personally I go expansion then counter clockwise from there, doing the west one last. Though if you leave the one just north of the base for last that’ll be the easiest to end with, you clear out the guards to let the shuttle through but don’t blow it up, it does possibly put a harder deadline for newer players though.

Funny thing is this map is one of the most consistent maps for speedrunners, which is why I exp farm on it at a faster pace than VT.

I would personally say this is the hardest map. Mostly due to the layout and how there are some very nasty elements, like deathgrip crystal. Hard doesn’t mean you can’t steamroll it if you know what to do, of course. Just that the curve getting there is more frustrating.

Stop showing off LilArrin :smirk:

By that time you and your partner would have your armies at critical mass and it shouldn’t be a problem. But it’s a good suggestion especially for the newer players.

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One major thing you need to ask yourself when playing this map is: do I have a way to deal with air units? Because it doesn’t matter what the enemy composition/attack waves are, shards three through five are going to have an assortment of air units. Shards are also armored so you need to take these things things into account when building your army. You will also need detection starting on shard three.

My order for shards is: Expansion shard, main base shard, top middle shard (after the attack wave that spawns up there, this is also the only bonus I do), bottom left shard, top left shard. I generally ignore the first two bonuses because they require a lot of early game clearing and thus require a very competent ally. I’m pretty sure this bonus requires more clearing/effort than any other map bonus. Though the bonuses are much easier to deal with if you go main base shard -> bonus ship 1. That said, don’t feel that you NEED the bonuses. Bonus EXP is severely lacking (especially on this map!) and it’s not a big deal to miss it.

And very important: do not ignore Void Crystals (not sure of their actual name on the map). They will shoot a beam at a ton of units and stun them, and after the stun those units will die, no matter what they are. It really sucks being Han and Horner and having a Void Crystal wipe out all 5 of your Assault Galleons, for example.

One final tip: to keep your units from walking through uncleared areas from their spawn structure (a big deal on the last shard), you can set a chain of rally points to force them to walk the path that you want them to by holding shift while setting the rally point. So I generally set the first rally point at shard four and the second at shard five. You will need to be careful of using Select All Army Units during this time.

There are actually multiple ways to tackle this map which is one of my favorite things about it - you just need to figure out which way is best for you. Good luck!

This is true, especially if you’ve got a high powered calldown it’s not going to matter how much is there. But yeah, just in the matter of tips if one’s having trouble with the map dealing with the top left one sooner means your max army power is higher than their’s.

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Some guys on forums : Fenix is a really bad character
Other guys: Scythe is too hard

I like playing scythe with Fenix and I don’t even consider to be a good player.

I love this map, it’s always been a great indicator for me when I’ve learned to play a commander properly. Yes, sometimes you get a bad ally or bad RNG and either fail the bonus or just lose, but I think some challenging maps like that are a good balance for the easier ones like Rifts to Korhal or Vermillion Problem.

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choosing between expansion and bonus is, to oversimplify, choosing between “win” and bonus

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You can slam home the first two shards+bonus pretty quickly though. Calldown commanders are optimal for that initial rush, but hero commanders do just fine too. Even Karax can put together a sufficiently sized army to knock both down in a timely manner. (Just make sure to get reviving zealots before pushing for the bonus.

I don’t know about most well designed. Highly cheesable, dramatically varying difficulty based on RNG of what abilities slivers get, and can have slivers chained is such a way that you can sort of “skip” difficulty. Oh, and the bonus lines up with attack waves so that unless you are intercepting these waves way early they will just kill the prism.

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