This is based off suggestions I’ve seen from other players and my own gameplay in solo queue random commander, random mission, brutal+1 settings. If you’re one of those elitists who queue for a Brutal+ in a party, check the mutators, quit, then retry the mission with more appropriate commanders and prestiges then this isn’t targeted for you.
Underpowered means I’m proposing a buff. Overpowered means I’m proposing a nerf. A lot of my proposed changes are focused around making prestiges less niche.
I wrote this all in about an hour so flame away.
Raynor p1 underpowered Medics are constantly out of energy and you can’t take advantage of the speed increase for Drop Pod Units since you can’t just drop Marines from the heavens with impunity.
Proposed changes: Add Advantage Biological combat units train 100% faster and Medics heal Raynor’s biological combat units for an additional 100% of the main heal amount
Raynor p2 balanced This prestige should be considered overpowered since it’s just a better p0 but I’ve seen some people complain about the changed unit costs.
Raynor p3 underpowered The extra 50% in mineral cost is huge. You get stuck on just keeping air units safe in your base and only using call downs and leapfrogging bunkers early in the game. The commander is fine once it gets going.
Proposed changes: Remove old disadvantage entirely. New Disadvantage Starport units cost 50% more minerals.
Kerrigan p1 underpowered Lacking Nydus and Omega Networks isn’t that big of a loss as some people say it is, but I’m unsure of why people get uncomfortable looking at this prestige. There needs to be an easier way to spread creep around the map beyond just the current advantage or having a Stukov ally.
Proposed changes: Add Advantage Creep tumors can not be targeted by the enemy.
Kerrigan p2 balanced Perfect for those players who never deselect the Queen of Blades for seconds at a time.
Kerrigan p3 balanced I’ve seen some people complain that p3 is just a straight buff to p0 but I have yet to see any real p3 hero solos.
Artanis p1 underpowered The current advantage just isn’t balanced by the current disadvantage of combat units costing 30% more. Every unit becomes too precious.
Proposed changes: Add Advantage Guardian Shield now refreshes every 60 seconds for Artanis.
Artanis p2 balanced Everyone in testing used it back when Project Power Field costed 10 energy. I still see people using it at 25 energy.
Artanis p3 balanced I don’t like this prestige because Guardian Shell is the entire point of selecting Artanis in the first place but I still see people using this prestige for the faster expand. Unbound Fanatics do be buggy though.
Swann p1 balanced Initially I thought the disadvantage was a little too much but it covers Swann’s weakness of a lack of a motile force at the start. If you have a protoss ally that just spams observers you can full clear the map with minimal fighting.
Swann p2 balanced Not much of a buff. Not much of a nerf. Makes Swann the best defense commander.
Swann p3 underpowered Science Vessels being able to use Tactical Jump is great because they tend to lag behind your main army or get stuck healing each other. The problem with this prestige is that the Hercules buff is pretty underwhelming.
Proposed changes: Add Advantage Hercules are given the ability to pick up units at a range of 5.
Zagara p1 balanced Clear buff and clear nerf. You and other people love it.
Zagara p2 underpowered No one uses this prestige. I’m not even really sure what to propose as a change here. I feel like this prestige would be better if the advantage was entirely replaced with something that made Zagara a zerg I DEF commander since it would make the losing free banelings disadvantage more reasonable. I mean the title of the prestige is literally the Mother of Constructs, I expect buffed static defense.
Proposed changes: Add Advantage Bile Launchers have 25 more range.
Zagara p3 balanced Deep Tunnel being 20 seconds instead of 10 seconds is a bit odd but I like to think of it as a bonus ability.
Vorazun p1 balanced Clear upsides and downsides. Your dead units will recall to the Pylon you place down in battle and then immediately die permanently seconds after when they return to the fight. But then again, why are you losing units as Vorazun?
Vorazun p2 underpowered Lots of discussion about how to make this prestige work. Initially combat units dealt 50% reduced damage instead of 25% reduced damage so we’re making progress. Currently Confusion and Dark Coil now affect heroic units in full while the other crowd control changes are essentially the same so I’m assuming they wanted people to go Zealot and Dark Archon. I have thought that maybe having Mind Control take zero supply like it did in the old days would be a decent change but it wouldn’t fit the name of Withering Siphon. I’ll just propose removing some of the disadvantages.
Proposed changes: Remove Advantage This effect cannot kill. Remove Disadvantage Stasis ward duration reduced by 75%.
Vorazun p3 overpowered Being able to summon Shadow Guard at 3:00 in game time and then again with the first Time Stop nullifies any initial game weakness Vorazun had. On the test server, Chronomancy reducing the cooldown of Time Stop from 5 minutes to 4 minutes was not working with this prestige. I think that was a suitable disadvantage to this prestige.
Proposed changes: Add Disadvantage Chronomancy talent disabled.
Karax p1 balanced Karax has the best prestiges. I know it, you know it, everybody knows it.
Karax p2 balanced See above.
Karax p3 balanced See above.
Abathur p1 balanced You won’t have that huge early game power spike that Brutalisks give but since lost combat units now drop 100% of their biomass on death you never truly get eliminated from the game. You can now delete objectives with mass muta.
Abathur p2 balanced Slight advantage. Slight disadvantage. Some people might prefer p2, some people might prefer p0.
Abathur p3 balanced For those people who enjoy ending the game with 12 round boys.
Alarak p1 underpowered Even back during testing when canceling warping Supplicants worked towards the prestige it was still underwhelming compared to mass Ascendant. Reducing the cost of Supplicants is the solution here. It would also make Alarak a more active hero.
Proposed changes: Add advantage Supplicant cost and supply cost reduced by 50%. Add disadvantage Supplicant vitals reduced by 50%.
Alarak p2 balanced You have Empower Me for 50 seconds every 2 minutes. That’s worth some mobility.
Alarak p3 balanced Some people might argue that this prestige is overpowered but p0 Alarak can do Hero solos just fine.
Nova p1 balanced Some people argue that p1 is a better p0. Some people argue that p0 is a better p1. It does make Nova less flexible and will probably delay your expansion unless you go Barracks first.
Nova p2 underpowered This is basically just p0 but with one fourth the Tactical Airlift cooldown. You don’t really need an Airstrike every 30 seconds so this is basically like saying a straight buff to p0 is underpowered but I still think this prestige could be better. The Tactical Airlift cooldown should be removed entirely or nearly entirely. Disabling ally transporting is also necessary since normally you split your army from your ally’s army before picking it up.
Proposed changes: Change advantage Tactical Airlift cooldown reduced to 8 seconds. Add disadvantage Tactical Airlift no longer transports allied units.
Nova p3 balanced I don’t consider this prestige overpowered simply because of how much attention all of Nova’s units require. There are definitely a lot of situations where the map would have been cleared faster if Nova just balled her army with her ally’s army and attacked across the map.
Stukov p1 balanced There’s really no downside to this prestige so I just consider this a better p0.
Stukov p2 underpowered Maybe if Infested Banshees now had the same properties as the Infested Siege Tank and automatically consumed and threw infested for large amounts of damage this prestige would work. The name of the prestige is Plague Warden so people have proposed giving Stukov units the ability to plague which could be another solution.
Proposed changes: no idea
Stukov p3 balanced I’ve seen people argue that p0 is better since it’s safer. Just make some Factory units to sit by your bunkers if you need some sort of anchor for preventing enemy units from getting on top of them.
Fenix p1 balanced Fenix makes the waves go boom but at the cost of losing the Cybros Arbiter Suit for one click detection.
Fenix p2 underpowered Overpowered on short maps but I want to propose the buff of removing the disadvantage of all non-heroic combat unit damage reduced by 50%. I’ve seen far too many complaints about this disadvantage despite the legions of people touting the greatness that is solo Kaldalis.
Proposed changes: Remove disadvantage All non-heroic combat unit damage is reduced by 50%.
Fenix p3 underpowered No one uses this prestige. This is just a worse p2. Maybe avenging protocol time could be uncapped instead of capping at 20 seconds or a dying champion could buff all units you own. I would just scrap this prestige though.
Proposed changes: no idea
Dehaka p1 balanced Weakens your early game for a much better mid to late game. Can’t really solo hero Dehaka as well but you can get some hilarious overkill army buffs off.
Dehaka p2 balanced I see this prestige used but I personally don’t like losing control of Dehaka.
Dehaka p3 overpowered This is a straight buff of p0 and the only commander prestige with no disadvantage. You can literally just choose to use Zweihaka for slapping your rocks only and play Dehaka like p0 if you want to. On the test server, Dehaka and his clone had 33% less life as a prestige disadvantage and people still used it. At the very least, this should be reimplemented.
Proposed changes: Add disadvantage Dehaka and Zweihaka’s maximum life reduced by 33%.
Han and Horner p1 balanced Mag Mines can now be used more aggressively in fights but everything costs more. Not much else to say.
Han and Horner p2 balanced Galleons being capped at 2 is probably a greater disadvantage than most people expect when using it. Finally get some air other than Reapers.
Han and Horner p3 underpowered The disadvantage of Bombing Platforms costing 100% more is insane. Even if you are a player who makes army first then adds Bombing Platforms later, they still cost supply so it’s not like you can go crazy with them in a super long game. If anything, Galactic Gunrunners ends up with less strike fighter use than p0. There needs to be changes to make Bombing Platforms used more.
Proposed changes: Change advantage Precision Strike cooldown reduced by 50%. Change disadvantage Bombing Platforms supply cost increased by 100%.
Tychus p1 balanced Tychus has the best prestiges. I know it, you know it, everybody knows it.
Tychus p2 balanced See above.
Tychus p3 balanced See above.
Zeratul p1 balanced Budget Time Stop or Immobolization Wave. Walking Zeratul to the next artifact fragment is like chasing after a pong-pong ball. Not a great feeling.
Zeratul p2 balanced I see some players spend an incredible amount of time searching for the next artifact fragment. The disadvantage well balances out the advantage. By the time you are getting fragments beyond your third you and your ally are probably well established anyway so I wouldn’t say this prestige is overpowered.
Zeratul p3 balanced For people who like hero solos or clearing the map before your ally gets out their first carrier.
Stetmann p1 balanced Big advantage and big disadvantage. Not having Super Gary for detection can be a pain but if you leveled Stetmann right when he came out you’re already used to the struggle. Stukov can no longer infest your Stetellites.
Stetmann p2 balanced Anything Super Gary gets in range of is now dead. I do find the disadvantage to be limiting though.
Stetmann p3 balanced Mass Brood Lords and this prestige just mows down stuff but you’re going to be hero only for a long time. I don’t believe this prestige crashes games anymore.
Mengsk p1 balanced Contaminated Strikes’s delay is frustrating but I still see people use this prestige just for the extra Imperial Support.
Mengsk p2 balanced If you want Mengsk to have a stronger early game you can do this prestige. But he normally handles the early game just fine post mastery.
Mengsk p3 balanced Some people argue that p3 is better than p0. Some people argue that p0 is better than p3.