P1 is nice for when you need an early force but know they will die. Spend SoA on DP’s. Also great for mass void ray play. (Split your army coz you can’t teleport them.)
P2 relies too much on casters. And Darchons are a gas sink. Maybe they wanted more Centurion+Darchon play. And you might have nice dmg output but those stats we all love analysing despite their inaccuracy, will look worse. Maybe they should halve the energy cost of Black Holes, and give BH’s the non-lethal AoE dmg.
P3 is my new default. At 72 seconds with full mastery, SG’s are “fun” without making it OP.
With full SoA mastery points, you’ve got yourself a total of just 4 BH’s & DP’s without compromising on SG calldown. (Needs 10 extra SoA for 4, so delay the SG a wee bit after the first few calldowns.) That is a bit unfortunate coz situations that can be easily solved with a Black Hole now get escalated. But fun for the 20+ minute missions.
PS. Having recently finished the LotV campaign for the first time, I’m a bit surprised & disappointed by the SoA regen speed in co-op. In Campaign, you get 50 SoA in 2 minutes. In Co-op, you get 50 SoA in 3. None of the three SoA CO’s are “OP”. Strong, but not OP. Why is it different in the first place? Coz of “initial and max SoA” mastery?