I’ve been hearing a lot of trash talking of certain commanders, so I wanted to give myself and everyone else a sounding board to shout out our favorite undervalued and under-appreciated commanders, the ones who don’t get enough love.
My top two commanders who deserve more credit are Artanis and Zagara.
Artanis is in a weird spot. A lot of people seem to think he sucks, and a lot of people respond to the people in the first group with “are you crazy? Artanis rules!” But regardless of the general consensus, I love him. The ability to warp in units anywhere, starting with max supply, blessed Guardian Shell, some of the most cost effective units in the game (I’ll stop spamming dragoons when it stops working, but that day is not today), and a ultimate calldown that, while not as effective as some of the more powerful summons, can obliterate almost any target, all come together to make one my favorite commanders. He might not be one of the most interesting choices, but he sure can pull his weight.
Zagara meanwhile I haven’t heard much trash talk about, but that’s probably because these days I hardly hear her name mentioned at all. I feel like a lot of folks just sorta forgot she exists. And man, she’s still ridiculously fun to play. Her economy is great, with drones morphing two at a time and costing half a supply along with early game power, she can acquire and fill out her expansion absurdly fast. Combine that with a fast moving and disposable army that can be replaced in seconds, and suicide units that deal massive damage, and Zagara really deserves more credit, and is an absolute joy to play.
What about you guys, what are some commanders you think deserve more love?
Which is probably why she’s so much fun on maps like Lock and Load, Rifts to Korhal, and others where the game can be over as soon as you complete the objectives rather than being timed. I can’t have a weak late game if there is no late game.
This is a weird thing for me, because any good player knows that every single commander is a powerhouse, and that every single commander is more than viable for regular missions. It’s only in some of the more difficult mutations where one commander or another may not be so hot. But that isn’t a power issue. That’s due to some mutators being inherently difficult for some commanders to overcome or manage. It’s a design thing. Some units counter other units. And some mutators counter some commanders. Welcome to SC2 co-op. That’s just how it is, and that’s how it should be.
As far as which commanders are really popular, and which aren’t so popular, I think that’s a separate issue, and one that is more about the design of the commander overall, rather than their power level. And, again, having some disparity amongst commanders is fine. It’s to be expected; it’s unavoidable. The best the devs can do is to make each commander feel unique in some key areas so that each commander provides its own specialized experience, feel, and fun. Not every commander is going to be equally popular.
“But Artanis’s Dragoons are better than Tempests!”
“Okay, so you enjoy Dragoons. We like to mix in Tempests.”
“Trash, why make Tempests when Dragoons are better.”
“So we all enjoy Artanis…”
“Only if you make Dragoons.”
“Okay… got it, people like Dragoons.”
Lol, jokes aside, I think that other topic are full of Artanis enthusiasts.
I mean sure Artanis doesn’t hold a whole lot of records but he’s just as much fun to play as any other. I definitely enjoy playing him a lot.
Lol, I admit, Artanis’ Dragoons might possibly be a little too good. They’re very long range, deal good damage, can attack air and ground, move reasonably fast, are fairly tanky, and are cheap and replaceable. Combine that with Guardian Shell and it’s pretty easy to see why people (myself included) see little reason to build anything but Dragoons on most missions. But yeah, Artanis has other good units. I’m personally also a big fan of the Reavers, since they cover one of the Dragoon’s main weaknesses, that being swarms of fast units like Zerglings.
Artanis is great; he’s just not as flashy with overall commander design / highly unique gameplay features as most of the other commanders. That’s where the majority of his perceived lackluster status comes from. But he’s every bit as effective as any other commander, and his guardian shell is still probably the single best support ability in all of co-op. Artanis + Zagara, Stukov, Raynor, or Kerrigan (among others of course, but these especially) = next level damage potential for those commanders, all because of Arty’s G-Shell yea boi throws up Protoss gang signs
It is really amusing to me just how good Guardian Shell is, especially since it’s an ability he gets at level 2. Like, that’s better than many level 15 talents, and he has it almost from the very beginning. Add to that the extra bonus from the mastery, and yeah, it’s definitely one of the best abilities in the game.
Couldn’t agree more. It was also buffed a while back, making the baseline stronger, in order to make the alternate mastery choice more competitive. So even if you go for the alternate mastery, you still keep a nice amount of the heal from guardian shell being activated.
God I’m so glad they reworked Unity Barrier. I remember back when it was just 10 extra shields that never regenerated. Yeah, that was a pretty disappointing level 15…
I think they were thinking “Karax is supposed to be a support commander but he has absolutely no synergy with Zagara, let’s have him throw her a bone.” Even then it still sucked.
I’m not really sure how to determine which commanders are the underappreciated ones, because I play my commanders relatively well and as long as I plan my strategy according to the map and enemy unit comp, I always find a way to win. But if I’m going to judge by what I see on general chat, in random matches, and sometimes on the forum, I’d have to say the least favored ones are Karax, Swann, and Stukov.
And I see a trend here. People tend to underappreciate commanders with a slow ramp up time that force you to be a little bit creative with how you handle your early and mid game, which these three . These three in my opinion, have some of the most powerful armies at maximum supply. Swann has excellent firepower with siege tanks and goliaths, and the laser drill, if maximized early, can erase multiple attack waves, add to that his static defenses that are probably the best tools to use for spawncamping. Karax’s army has deceivingly high dps with energizers and immortals, can regenerate and is backed up by the Spear. And Stukov with his uprooted bunkers, infested liberators and a swarm of infested that costs no supply or resources to produce can easily overwhelm and outmatch anything you can throw at it.
Am I the only one to find Dehaka too weak ? I mean he really lack anti-air, he is not that tanky, his CD are long, can’t really find a way to play it and be as strong as Abathur and Stetmann.
Um… I don’t want to say you’re the only one, but you’re definitely in the minority. His Mutas do double damage to air units with the upgrade and are vary effective. Tyrannozaurs are also a viable choice for anti-air if you’re not expecting too many air units. As for him not being tanky, he can have up to 3000 hp and heals 25% of his max hp every time he devours a bio unit. He’s pretty damn tanky, and even if he dies you can just feed him drones to revive him quickly.
Dehaka’s clearing power lies in the player’s ability to quickly identify psionic units, position him accordingly, and devour them to burst down the enemy. Firepower-wise, his calldowns, especially Glevik, are strong enough to clear entire bases on their own. Also, a common mistake Dehaka players make is devouring high hp targets instead of going for low hp bio units, if you choose the units you devour well Dehaka will rarely die.
In addition, these things are very difficult to take down because of Primal Reconstitution and are still considered to be Dehaka’s best unit comp to go with since it can easily keep up with Dehaka’s mobility.
Not if you micro them.
Tyrannozors have a 10s cd AoE ability that deals 100 damage in a huge area. If you move 5 of them below a mob of air units and use it, regardless of size, and regardless of composition, everything in it will die instantaneously.
I’d say his Mutalisks are vastly overrated.
I’ve been playing said Tyrannozors even before the rework that gave them fast health regeneration, they were still that good back then, now they are insane with barely any drawback.