I really love Tychus, but I very quickly settled into a set line up of Rattlesnake, Nux and Sirius. If I add a 5th, it’s cannonball.
When you play Tychus, do you use different outlaws or have you settled on a set team as well?
(You can totally skip this next bit)
Semi useless suggestions on improving the other outlaws;.
Blaze doesn’t have any synergy within the Heavens devil’s. Does his oil slick slow down units? Idk, i only use him by accident? Allow Nux Psi storm or Tychus shredder Grenade set off Blazes oil slick
Sam’s speed up his Charges, by a lot. Everything is dead before they can deal damage. I hear Sam is actually pretty good, but I just don’t see his value. Maybe you could elucidate Sam’s roll for me.
Vega is great, and a lot of fun…but why does his MC’d units lose their upgrades? Bleh…I still him the most of the low tier outlaws.
Nikara…replace her entirely with something useful. Sargent hammer maybe? Or, idk give her a weak auto attack so she won’t constantly run into her Demise. Imo, Nikara is the lowest tier outlaw. Rattlesnake is far and away the superior healer.
I’m not a huge fan of Tychus as a commander because of the slow ramp-up but each outlaw does have their specific niche depending on comp/map/mutators. The damage isn’t even the most impressive for Sam, the stun is super helpful against hybrids, the damage is great for high HP targets/objectives (think P&P hybrids, trains, etc). Vega is amazing for attack waves that have big beefy units like Terran Mech comps, the confusion also helps immensely. Grounding air units is also never a bad thing. Blaze is great for infested maps, just to have a bit of fun. Nikara is good for some mutations like Double-Edged. They all have their place. Doesn’t mean they can’t use some improvements which I’d wager we will see sometime this year.
Right now Blaze is only good at infested map, especially if there are Alien Incubation and Walking Infested mutators, but nothing else.
Sam’s regular attack dps, against single target, is the second highest among all outlaws and only behind Tychus himself. He charge is best against high HP target, such as hybrid, shuttle, and map objective especially train. Usually I would recruit him as 3rd or 4th outlaws in Oblivion Express or Void Launch, but not 2nd one, because of his poor hp and lack of aoe.
I believe the true power of Vega is her second gear, which confuse all enemy around the mc’ed unit, which may kill a lot of them by themselves with one cast. The mc’ed unit itself may be just a bonus. I would like to use her as 3rd or 4th against Terran or Protoss air-heavy composition.
Nikara is a pure healer. In most case, Rattlesnake, or even using medivac only is enough.
But there are a few mutations that do not require firepower but need a higher healing from the beginning of the game, such as against laser drill. In these cases, Nikara may have higher priority. They are rare, but there are a few such mutations.
Sam. His auto attack is one of the highest. More on him at the end.
Either Sirus, Cannonball, or Nikara comp (map) depending. Air for Sirus, ground for Cannonball, Nikara for zombie maps.
Nux.
I’ll add a 5th merc comp depending, either Rattlesnake for super high damage comps, or Vega for capital ship comps. Big thing for Vega is that her target is instakilled so high health targets are trivialized by her.
Sam really is great, the only outlaws that beat his auto attack are Tychus and Cannonball (and with him it’s only for ground, with upgrades).
His charges do take some micro work, but with the stun upgrade they can lock anything out for the 5 seconds, even hybrid. Then just attack them until they hit the 500/1000 dmg threshold and ignore them. Same with objectives, they hit that point and you can move on to something else, cool guys dont look at explosives.
Tychus
Rattlesnake or Sirius
Sirius or Rattlesnake
Sam
Nux or Cannon Ball
Personally i find nikara, blaze and vega to be never worth picking.
I experimented with Vega quite a few times and she is niche as best and needless gimmick at worst… but she can be FUN at least.
You can mock it and all but most regular brual maps I do them as Tychus->Blaze(replaced by Sirius against terran air)->Nux/Sam->Nikara without being carried except when playing with speedrunner-like players.
Tychus solo whenever possible because it’s too much work to make other Outlaws and upgrade them.
That said, some maps where a clear 2nd Outlaw will make the run quicker, such as Sam on OE, Nikara for brutation, Sirius for heavy air, Vega for fun, etc.
I find Nux, Rob, and Blaze relatively boring. Blaze being clearly underwhelming since debut and has remained a hot topic of buff.
Kev is in his own bubble, as this Outlaw was clearly design favoured ahem so I rarely use him, as I personally find him cheap.
I get almost always these guys in order,
rattlesnake (his heals can easily match nikara)
sirius (his turrets have innate detection so no need for fixer)
sam (with upgrade, charges can stun hybrid, can also do massive damage to objectives)
cannonball (with upgrades, becomes damn near unstoppable vs ground)
I have a set core. Tychus > Rattlesnake > Nux/Sirius (depending upon which I need first.) > Sirius/Nux (Whichever one I didn’t pick third.) > Sam/Vega/Cannonball.
Unless it is a specific Brutation, I NEVER pick up Nikara, and I seldomly pick up Blaze.
I do Tychus, then Nikara, then Blaze, and add Vega if there’s any air units. Always get the medic first, her heal can’t be broken/doesn’t run out like the Marauder’s, and you can run straight into the enemy base once you have her. Plus you get her double-heal with Blaze’s damage shield and you never have to build any medivac platforms or anything.
The 'nade-storm combo is a guaranteed wave eliminator. It’s my go-to for most encounters. I just use medevac for heals and dont even upgrade armor bonuses… Then, Sam is the hybrid killer.
I’m told on Dead Of Night (but NOT Miner Excavation though), Blaze can easily rack up thousands of kills on his own since his oil spill + mass fiery explosions chain reacts like that
The disabling effect is QUITE NICE. Examples include but not limited to:
—Slayn Elemental bonus objective on CoA. An ally stuck a demo charge on it, and we could shoot at it with impunity. Never had to worry about dodging Solarite blasts, or diverting firepower to free those encased in them solarite bubbles
—Keeps one of the hybrids from cutting lose with storm, Psi blast (the hybrid version of Yamato), and other nasty abilities
—Many of the other bonus objectives and “boss units” have nasty effects to boot
If you have THAT MUCH firepower to begin with, then TBF, not many things would phase you anyways
Like with any MC effect, it’s a double whammy. Not only is it a unit for you, but it’s a unit less for the comp. Those with map knowledge can REALLY get a jump start on their army with a well played Vega.
I dunno if anybody ever uses the “lower to ground” effect, but some may appreciate that (not just Tychus’ Outlaws, but other COs).
See below as to why I like Nikara
I’ve seen people use Nikara and/or Blaze outside of Mutations and DoN and ME respectively which I will admit, is an interesting change of pace. Let’s face it… Tychus is powerful enough that even a decent Tychus player can still win with them. One player says he got bored with always picking “the optimal crew”. I suspect others who done the same would be for the same reasons.
Different strokes for different folks. I like Nikara b/c:
—yes, she does free up my micro
I’ve had a couple of Tychus allies quit on me. No way I can pile on Rattlesnake’s spell/ability in addition to my own CO’s abilities and army’s micro
Even the “burst heal” thingy is less micro than that
—It’s also easier to heal your allies
I loathe having to hunt down “heal circles” with a Rattlesnake ally. They’ll typically only be around during combat
—I’ve had a thing for Medics since Brood War
—less reliance on Medivacs
So they’ll be around more for hopping around more. However, I suspect this generally shouldn’t be an issue
—Nikara’s a detector
So is Sirius’ turrets. And Nux and Vega. But it does let you forgo them for other options. Otherwise, she’s a backup to whatever you use as your main source of detection.
Haha, it would be neat to get some weird design Outlaws. I remember reading about how one of the potential Outlaw ideas they had was a Sentient Widowmine, and when I read that, I realized how badly I wanted such a hero. Sentient landmine launching missiles everywhere? Who wouldn’t want to play with such a zany outlaw!
