having terran PTSD flashbacks from Heroes from the storm mutation at that map
If you play Zagara you can fly scourge into slivers, making it one of the easiest maps.
I’d have to say Cradle is hardest, because you can’t do it without ally. And I had allies who can’t move the truck even on cleared map.
FOr shure Scythe of Amon is the hardest map - but i took the chalange, and managed to solo it with Mengsk multiple times (including all bonus objectives in it ) It was extremely hard, yet satisfying.
Cradle of Death is the worst map. I barely play random but when I do it, I curse every time I get it. I really dislike it.
You solo a map many times and call it hardest? I can’t follow that logic. Try to solo cradle and see how that goes.
It’s been like that for quit some patches actually, it’s just worse on some compositions, most notorious/obnoxious are mech and air.
Also don’t really get the SoA thingie, if my ally is questionable I just skip bonus, and the scythe timers are quit forgiving.
Hate PnP/CoD more, cause on both map’s the timers can be really unforgiving if you mess up and your ally doesn’t make an impression.
On Malfare I basicly tell my ally to guard the ship while I do the turrets/bonus/map clearing/hard part
I simply don’t agree with this; failing if your ally is AFK doesn’t mean the map is “hard.” That just means your ally is inconsiderate.
Otherwise casual CoD is harder than brutal SoA, which is obviously farcical.
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Are you one of those people that duffs around on the first bonus while the ship sails in to the 3rd terminal? That is the #1 reason I fail on malwarefare.
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It literally says “clearing the map part”… Take an accurate guess…
Heh, I was teasing. But seriously, so many people do this.
The lava map. I forget its actual name but you know the one. You have to get the crystals within a time limit and avoid the lava. So annoying.
Scythe is one of the easier maps i think. You have a lot of time to prepare cooldowns for every push. Its not like trains or shuttles that come at a specific time and you HAVE to engage. The only thing that absolutely needs your attention is the bonus, which was even buffed to have more time between movings to make the mission easier.
Also, playing that map with zeratul mass stalkers gets me the job done in 12-14 minutes which and ofcourse the bonus not done due to it being so slow lol
Definitely Scythe of Amon:
- Multiple large spread-out enemy bases
- All paths go through said bases
- Expo is guarded by enemy base + rift enemies + map objective
- Long walk to shards from main base, so reinforcements don’t arrive fast.
Chain of Ascension:
- Too much reliance on ally knowing when to push Ji’Nara, and when not to.
- If early armies don’t stick together while clearing expos etc., that 9th minute wave can wipe out what’s left.
- Heavily guarded expo which frequently aggros other nearby enemies or sometimes even attack waves.
Both of these have “make or break” moments before the 10 minute mark.
Vermillion Problem.
Annoying != Hard. The waits between “the lava is here!” also gives you a buffer against enemy waves. I think it’s the second wave that gets delayed thanks to the lava. Fun map if ally is also using workers to collect crystals.
You can turtle up on Oblivion Express. Not as much fun but that’s all that’s needed for the win. On Void Launch, you can snipe the shuttles with air units and head back to base(s) and both players go “idef” (without guarding the warp gates). There are just 3 choke entrances/areas to defend if you want to do it that way.
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I find Sythe of Amon much harder if you really care about the bonus objective. There is fair amount of hybrids to clear for the second evacuation shuttle, and the timing of the 3rd shuttle I just find really rough it typically puts me in a very tight spot.
With Malware I find the first bonus timing to be a bit rough as you aren’t really that strong yet (typically requires you and your ally to split up; hard to manage solo). By the time of the 2nd bonus I typically find myself in a much better situation.
PnP is never difficult if you realize you get 0 time for killing the hybrid
So I give you a choice:
Kill hybrid with a 30 supply army+ balius
Kill hybrid with a 140 supply army+ extra time
Unless your time runs out before even the first hybrid, due to a mutator restricting your ability to collect parts quickly enough - that is the majority of the lost games I had on this map.
Also, you get extra time when the balius is repaired, but I don’t think that can happen before you kill the previous hybrid, so the +extra time in your equation may be as well be -extra time, if your average time to collect a part is more than what you gain from it, but the time you get when you collect all 70 makes up for that.
And Balius dps is not insignificant, I think it’s better to keep it alive.
And as for army … for 1st hybrid I don’t think you need 140 supply, and for the others, if you were only able to obtain 30 army supply by that time they are freed, going to 140 while clearing enemy camps (which seems harder to me than fighting the hybrid) might be difficult.
But obviously you should keep collecting the parts while waiting for Balius to walk to its target and/or just 1 player could be fighting the hybrid while the other one collects parts (esp. for the 1st hybrid, that can be soloed with just a hero unit or calldowns)
SoA remains the uncontested hardest map in coop (where all maps are easy enough to begin with, so never forget that grain of salt).
There is also a very distinct difference between hard by map progression versus hard due to cooperative failure. CoD is notoriously bad for this very reason (pre and post change). Similarly, you’ll find people complaining or even quitting maps like VP, CoA, or even LL.
Despite SoA hard by design feature, it is the most versatile in gameplay progression. This makes it quite robust and to-date remains interesting as a map.
I did solo Craddle, and the bonus objective there is stationary, while on scyth of amon is a moving one (much harder to get)
For me, Scythe of A. It’s a map that requires you to be able to push sooner than later, and I tend to favor COs that aren’t geared towards that (e.g. Swann, Karax, Stukov). Later on, you really need to get your deathball at peak efficiency. Unless you “sequence jump”, the later Void Shards Slivers have more hp, shields, units, and support (e.g. Void Rifts, Death Grip Crystals).
Furthermore, they’re further away, so unless you can teleport there (e.g. Zeratul, Tychus, Nova, deep tunneling with Zerg) or directly deploy there (e.g. Protoss deploying into Power Field, Nova, Raynor, and Horner units), you need to add extra time for them to physically travel there. That’s less time for you to work with, which knocks off some units you’d otherwise have.
CoD isn’t as bad since save for a few Mutations, they NEVER attack your expansion. Granted, your main base has 3 chokepoint, but I tend to have the tools to set up d at least. However, this one still requires you to push, and not take your time.
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On a related note, that’s one reason I enjoy Temple’s bonus mission. It’s the only bonus mission that isn’t timed, and can be made immediately available 
I’ve had 3-4 matches with Terran & Protoss air comps attack my expo on the left on CoD. Two of those times it may have been my fault, for building Canons at the bottom of the expo which aggro’d units on the lower ground…which then came to investigate I suppose. That happened earlier in my co-op days so for the longest time I built static def at my CoD expo, expecting attack waves to show up.
It’s a bit like the expo on Oblivion Express against air comps. They sometimes get aggro’d to the expansion, coming over the hill(?) on the left, especially if you’ve built static def near the mineral line that got vision and attacked, or if you’ve built static def along the corridor overlooking the tracks.
Edit: Thinking back on it now - the other two times, when I didn’t build def at the expo, it may have been mutations. Okay, nvm.