For lvl 13 and above Dehaka, SoA is really easy with creeper hosts that can target air. But do not rush for creeper hosts, instead fight with Dehaka’s structures at the early stage is more efficient.
First, clean the small camp on the bottom in front of the base with Dehaka and 1 ~ 2 primal wardens. Build a primal hive and clean expansion with Dehaka, 2 primal wardens, a primal hive, 1 primal wurm with or without your ally. Root your primal wardens to build creeper hosts. Meanwhile, clean the base sliver with Dehaka, 1 pack leader, 1st bonus site with another pack leader.
After this, you should have like 10 - 15 creeper hosts to clean the bottom left bonus site. 20+creeper hosts for the center sliver and the top bonus site.
Continue to mass creeper hosts and each of the remaining slivers just need one round of creepers that specifically targeting them. All the enemy waves can be easily wiped out with Dehaka, pack leaders and creeper hosts if they are around.
I never tried to solo this map but regardless of the skill level of the partners, this strategy always works for me. Only problem I have is sometimes makes the whole game pretty boring for the partner as it really needs minimal efforts of them.
You are right about that. The 20 seconds simply gives a fake illusion that the bonus is too short, since by the time the second one is done, the warning for the third one starts very shortly. I might have exaggerated the effects of the change.
If I have to think about the three elements (Main, Bonus and Attack waves) carefully, I would say the timing of those attack waves needs to be adjusted. There is one instance where Two attack waves spawn back to back, right after you finish the first one.
What’s the etiquette regarding bonuses in general?
I feel like people frown upon not helping with bonus but it’s also cleary bad to lose because you lost too much getting the bonus.
Obviously the solution is play good, get the bonus, win the game. But what’s the etiquette if it’s borderline rather getting the bonus is in the cards or not.
I’d agree this map is harder than the rest, if considering main+bonus.
Consistent how? Is it the shards being present on the map from the start and not a on timer or needing a trigger? (Unlike VT which spawns thrashers on a timer or when you kill a significant portion of nearby enemies.)
Doing this map with bonuses requires you to almost full clear it. The majority of everything near the shards (main objs) has to be cleared. The bases at the shuttle landing point aren’t light either. Also, one of the paths (either 2nd or 3rd) will take you through one heavily guarded objective, an enemy base, and a base at the origin/destination of the shuttle.
Compare that with Void Launch which has very little attacking the bonus (apart from inconvenient and intentional spawn timers) or Obliv Express where the bonus can be handled without meeting any enemy force. LnL has minimal forces around the trains (except the train might take a while to be destroyed with the opening army). The Mist Opps bonuses aren’t tough either, as long as you or your ally don’t try doing it while bots are out on the map (which happens more often than not).
Bonus changes paths based on you clear slivers. Add into the wave spawn pattern, if you don’t want waves running into shuttle’s path (or you can’t handle it before hand), then you need to know the map and patterns, in order to avoid it.
This is my favorite map with Abathur. I start with the first sliver and kite the starting units to nests, then quickly plant nests under the portal. Units will continually spawn in your nests and assuming your ally is cool with it you can farm the portal until you have your 3 brutalisks before you down the first sliver. The 3 brutalisks alone can clear the first bonus and exp sliver. My preferred order is sliver bonus sliver bonus etc.
If I’m understanding correctly, The common rule for soloing involves you not taking your ally main or expansion. They basically asks their teammate to stay put and not do anything.
The solo people talk about on the forum is doing it by yourself without taking ally’s resources.
You can expand to your own expansion but you are not controlling/taking your ally’s resources/base/units.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong though.
Edit: I’d encourage people to read about the map’s patterns, watch replays on solo and speedruns, and taking a look at your own replay… if you want to improve your gameplay on SoA.
As far as I remember, a speedrun with 2 people can drop this map down to around 5min (in game time).
Your partner has to leave the game in order for you to get the double resources. LilArrin’s partner stayed but did not do anything. You should take a look.
Speedruns are not consistent, at least for routes used for making records. They have high execution and RNG requirements, and records are made on huge mountains of dead replays.
However, I’ve adapted the speedrun routes to be less reliant on those factors while maintaining decent speed. Abathur and Raynor both have extremely consistent exp-farming routes that I have made and documented, and skilled players can practice to have a near-perfect success rate. Abby will consistently clear in 9 minutes regardless of race, while Raynor will consistently clear in about 12 minutes. Both are faster than the average Void Thrashing farm, which has huge variance depending on enemy race. I even have a full clear route with Raynor that can solo wipe the map clean in about 16-17 minutes (3rd bonus doesn’t even get to finish), and it’s also very consistent.
The map in general is very consistent for speedrunners regardless of actual speedrunning, simply because we’ve done the map so much that we have a good idea of what we can get away with. SoA heavily rewards experience and knowledge. It’s similar to how SSBM’s Puff is poor for new players due to Rest being difficult to use, but experienced players have the muscle memory and know many setups to consistently land the move.
That’s not how they do solo runs; they leave their partners afk in the game, so their income level is identical.
The only time they touch their their partner’s stuff is for things that require presence of the teammate, in which they will send a worker/truck/whatever.
When I first started co-op I got qued with someone asking to make a solo run video. Not knowing what that meant, I said sure, no problem, and quit the game.
Yeah…i’ve resolved how to make this map work: Just autoquit it. It’s NOT worth playing the map. Get more XP and a better playing experience by just quitting out of the worst map the game has to offer ^^.
An overly punishing timer, suicidal bonus objective…insane enemy waves…yeah… a crap map. I hate it.
Not that I assume you don’t know this.