Swann tips: - Putting your 3rd power set into the Vespene Harvesters is a much wiser choice since it benefits you much earlier in the game, and allows you to pump out your SCVs even faster, while having spare resources to defend the first wave. To get my gas income started, I just drone my ally's gases. And power build my Refineries later. - If you power build your Factory with 3 SCVs, and put two Blaster Billies in your expansion instead of one, you can clear out your rocks so much earlier, including the gas. I use 8 SCVs to build my 2nd CC, so I can actually have it ready to mine a whole 30 seconds earlier than you showed. This means I can get two extra SCVs out faster. All while having a Flaming Betty ready for the first wave. - Great focus on upgrading your Laser Drill. Much improved from your first few missions as Swann. - As you mentioned, Swann has a very slow ramp up. I would rather priotitize getting a few units out first so I wouldn't have to rely on my ally to carry me. But if you need to get an upgrade first, you should go for either the Goliath health, or the double attack. The range is the least beneficial upgrade of the three, since we're attack-moving. - The enemy composition had Adepts and ground Protoss. This means that Siege Tanks would have fared much better against it. Siege Tanks than Goliaths if the enemy is Roaches, Terran Bio/Mech, or any variation of ground Protoss. Goliaths are only optimal if the enemy composition is Broodlords, Skyterran, Liberators, or Skytoss. - Thors are also great to add into your late-game army, especially in mutations, since they have Immortality Protocol; you can revive them once they get destroyed. - I would say the best map for Swann is actually Miner Evacuation or Mist Opportunities. The former has so many infested that his Tanks and Goliaths shred through like paper, and Mist Opportunities is such a long map that he can get into the super late game maxed out army, AND have excess income to build and upgrade his static defense for the last wave to further supplement his forces. - Hercules are a great mobility option for Swann. If you're on Temple of the Past, or Chain of Ascension, these things can help you jump quickly to different fights.
This is the most common Swan build, sadly. Let ally carry you for half the game until you have enough goliaths that it doesn't matter what the enemy throws at you...ground/air/templars, who cares. You saved a large amount of units to overpower them. XD
1. Billy was put on the wrong location, so it did not destroy all the rocks 2. You have to set up gas drones asap, the time of one game is limited, so the earlier you set them up, the more profits you will get 3. You'd better start upgrading drill once it gets completed. 4. Goliaths are really not the best choice against Protoss, you were lucky that you did not encounter mass immortals and disrupters. My recommendation is to start with tanks, get its upgrade done, and build dropship. With 8 sieged tank in the dropship, you can become way more useful in the early game instead of relying on your teammate and combat drop
Yeah, I also disagree on the maps where Swan shines. Swan shines best on "Defensive" maps, like Temple, Mists, Miners. With the right combination of turrets and tanks, the lines hold with little to no losses and you get to bank 1000's of resources while hovering 200. You might even get to build a bunch of Science Vessels to follow your Tempest Spam partner that you just carried! ;)
Kerrigan is OP but no need for an army? Your statement is absurd! Could you please upload vids how to win Coop Missions on Brutal difficulty using Kerrigan exclusively? I like to use her a lot but still need an army in order to beat the missions.
You need full mastery points and just ability spam, I do make an small army to protect my base and sometimes in the end stages of the game to help Kerrigan. Further its pretty easy
I am at level 90 mastery. And I still need an army, I strongly use Kerrigan to soften the defence and all the mastery points are spent for her abilities. Like Temple of the Past, Void Launch, etc.. There is no way for me to accomplish the missions without an army. Would love to see your vids so I can improve my play.
I like to get my vespene drones up much sooner (mastery points help) because it allows you to get your upgrades a lot more quickly. Swann's upgrades are excellent and it makes even a small army of his very potent. The combat drop is more than enough to defend after the first wave of aggression, and they can take early objectives too.
You play Swann suboptimaly :( Open with 8 tanks, Hercules and 1 sci vessel to support your ally and then mass goliath/sci vessels. Tanks provide INSANE dps and stopping power.
Two advices for you, Lowko : 1. Hercules transporters. You can basicly teleport everywhere instantly and just drop tanks / thors / whatever. It's a pure death. I like using them for tanks only. 2. Science vessels have an upgrade that gives you protection barrier. It is just as amazing as the one that Nova has. You can basicly prevent all your units from dying in any scenario. By the way. I was experimenting with my friend (we are both 90) and we could finish every map playing Kerrigan / Alarak / Nova (heroes) ONLY. So yea... brutal is nothing (+ top panel skills).
Keep doing the Co-Op advice. My friend and I spend more time playing this than anything else and SC2 and we want to be able to finish brutal. I've definitely benefited from your advice already.
Very interesting guide Lowko! Swann was the first co-op hero I leveled up to lvl 15, and I really agree with your unit composition. However, I think the best unit in Swann's army is the Hercules, which is mentioned by many other people in the comments as well. The Hercules Teleport allows you to switch from defense to offense in no time, especially when combined with siege tanks. Mixing sieged up tanks with Goliaths and doom-dropping the enemy with two or three fully loaded Hercules just seems incredibly powerful to me. Plus, the Hercules turns out to be very useful in a variety of Mutation Missions (e.g. "micro-transactions"). Nice video anyway!
Hey Lowko, just played a bunch of missions with Swann using this army makeup, and it was amazing. He's definitely a late game master. By the end, I had like a million goliaths and science vessels and cut through the map like a knife.
Use mastery points on vespene drones and don't forget to put them on your ally's geysers too. Most of the Swann's I play with don't seem to know they can do this. Two Blaster Billys can take out all your expansions rocks, and then you can salvage them and get all your money back if you don't think you'll need them later. Speaking of turrets, Swann is also high on the priority list for defending the first wave. A lone flame turret goes a long way, though you'll usually want 2. Use your war bots on the first objective. Goliaths really only work well when you have at least a small group. Don't forget to "stutter step", at least, as much as you can with Goliaths XD If your ally somehow hasn't cleared their expansion yet, the laser can manually target the rocks to speed it up. While Swann is largely about the death ball, he doesn't always trade blows effectively against other death balls. Use the concentrated beam for most attack waves, use the laser nuke for breaking bases/encampments. Try to use the defensive matrix before engaging the enemy. Especially if your ally has a hero commander so they possibly take the hint to charge in first (and keep them shielded). Try to bait the enemy as much as possible. No need to take on their whole army at once if it doesn't benefit you.
Lowko, nice Swann strategy. You touched on the siege tank not being as mobile. I've been playing Swann with the drop ships and mass tanks on brutal. Siege up all your tanks, load them in the drop ship (I believe you can load up 8 at a time), and us the drop ship's transport ability (same ability as Battlecruisers), and unload all siege tanks. The result is "face-palm" overpowered. 3 ships = 24 siege tanks dropped on top of the enemies.
Would love to see more in this vein. Could go for two separate strategy guides for alarak's mech and ascendant play, as just an example, since that commander has two really different builds. Nova would be a good one to review as well. Can't wait to see what you highlight next.
That last bonus. Got it just before the win. With all commanders, it really depends on your ability to adjust to your ally's build, and the RNG of the opponent. Generally, you want to focus on anti-air, because some folks skip that for a devastating ground army.
I've been playing Swann for a long time. He's my favorite commander because of the Awesome Laser Drill that you get. Anyway here is what I do instead: I get Concentrated beam Width and Damage cuz its generally better, you hit more and harder and Vespene Drone Cost, -30 minerals for each drone for example can save a total of 240 minerals. I build Billy in the mineral line and put it to shoot gas rocks as well, usually with Shift command. I get the defensive Matrix for Science Vessels and I keep around 6 of them, more is unnecessary.
try mixing in 4-5 hercules transports with your goliath army. their teleport gives swann's army SO much mobility, especially in big maps where your army can sometimes be out of position to deal with attacks. they are also cheap (100m/50g), and are stupid tough - perfect for tanking against scourges, phoenixes, vikings and other AA that would otherwise hit your expensive science vessels. oh, and hercs can also pick up siege tanks while they're sieged. this is huge in the early-mid game, where 2-4 tanks dropping from a herc can provide long-ranged fire support to a beleaguered ally.
Been playing this method for a while now so I started testing around with other build and I found the Cyclone + Hellion(mineral Dump) + Science Vessel (Healer) to be quite fun by turning off Cyclone Lock on and Use them like how you use Shadow Cannon on mission with specific target
0:59 Now about this. I havent tried out all of the commanders yet, but so far the ones that is says are for experienced players are easier to use straight from level 1 than the three labeled as for players of all skill levels. I did ok with Artanis, but Raynor and Kerrigan were both struggles until the higher levels. I still havent figured out the trick to being good with Kerrigan
Yes! Been waiting for a while for you to max out Swann. Have you tried using a squad of Thors in a couple of Hercules and use the tactical jump to take out any optional objective fast, or to easily flank and neutralize fortified positions?
SubSonic 16 Thors aren't as good as herc siege tank drops. Get 2-3 hercs filled with sieged tanks and everything on the ground gets rekt. Goliaths for anti-air.
Swans tanks and thors are his best. They can rebuild after being destroyed, the 330mm cannon barrage does 500 damage in an area from EACH thor and his tanks can get one more range and 40 extra damage. Can pump firebats (with double upgrades) while you work towards tanks and thors. Or goliath to tank/thor. Not to mention you can build the Hercules, put like 20 SIEGED tanks in it, and they auto shoot as they drop out of the Hercules. Then you just teleport to next objective. Can even drop shuffle the tanks to keep them safe between shots. Mad op.
Swann was a mystery to me before this video, i tried him once and i really didn't like him, turned out i was playing really bad lol Great guide Lowko :)
As a mainly multiplayer person, I can honestly say multiplayer is very frustrating at times, but it is easier to see all your growth and improvements in a single month alone, which is the most satisfying thing of all for me. But then again, I would not be what you call a casual player, as this is one of the only games I play anymore...
Karax (unit based) and Swann are underated ahah, Goliaths are so good it gets boring after sometime though :T Cyclone/Hellbats/Sci.Vessels is usualy my favourite comp with Swann
I was playing swann on the vermillion problem (cuz random missions op) and was level 5 (was trying to power level). I got paired with a level 6 zagara. We won with 40 seconds left. It was painful lol. Just goes to show how much stronger swann is when he has an early expo.
Personally. My Swann build is not Goliath spam. I usually have. Hellbats, Goliaths, Tanks, and Thors. Sci Vessels always. But I only adjust amount of my ground units based on mission. Otherwise the following. Hellbats crush light units. Goliaths spam everything and crush Armored Flyers. Tanks crush armored ground. Thors crush light Air. Needless to say. They cover all enemy unit types.
Shoulda put the cannon in the mineral line to make sure you got all the debris, woulda save you a bit of effort. Also, two perdition turrets can basically stop the first few waves easy which frees up your ally to focus more on the objective which means things go more smoothly. Thats just a personal playstyle thing tho. Oh and Siege tanks are fun an neglected them! Note to self: dont comment partway through the video. Im impatient, and like seige tanks with the teleporting transport ship things, is super awesome.
Issue with goliaths is they're so fragile. You need to have 10 before they stop dying. Thors on the other hand, you can have two out fairly quickly and they'll annihilate early attack waves. If you play it right you can have 6 thors before your expansion. If they are covered (by ARES or your ally) they can demolish an enemy base. They're slow, and you'll still need anti air, that's where wraiths come in. 10 Thors, 8 Science Vessels, then wraiths until 200 supply.
You don't need to be saturated on gas that early if you drone your ally's geysers. Also help out your Ally with a cannon that you salvage later. The fire cannons only cost 75 mins. 7 minutes in and I have paused this, because I feel that this guide doesn't work with out a strong early game ally like Alarak or Nova. If you don't have a strong early aggression ally, you need to play D. Some of the Eng bay upgrades (like range + firing rate) help with this. Dont get all of them, because its a bit of a waste unless you have $ to spare
lowko, you should really try Hercules dropships with swan. They work amazingly well with siege tanks as you can pick them up and drop them while they are in siege mode, giving them insave mobility.
Awesome content as usual Lowko, I'd actually really love if you did other actual guides like this, I've seen you play Karax a bit, but so far (I'm lvl 6 with him I think) I don't find him too great since I always play random missions and he's not too big on the offensive. Hey keep up the good work!
B0tt3rf1y Once you get to level 14, his pylons and defensive structures build instantly, so you can go on the offense just by making cannons and warping in energizers.
Maybe stupid question but does having max SCV's on each base matter? Like is it like multiplayer in HoTS when it said you 'could' have like 21 scvs at a base but anything over 14 was bad since only one can mine at a time?
Adds too much unnecessary micro and doesn't change, well, anything. Units hardly ever die when you get rolling. But I guess it's different story altogether when you go all Thors :)
LowkoTV, I have a question. i got a friend who is decent at the game. but he makes a lot of different mistakes when playing 2v2 matches. do you have any tips for playing as a team?
Swann is also the most mobile army of all. Hercules-ships can teleport. Fill up with tanks and thors, warp anywhere, drop tons of metal death. everything dies.
It's a pity that you didn't get to show Swann's static defense. Swann's static defense is ridiculously powerful. At level 90, your blaster billies, flaming betties and turrets have 50% more HP. They can heal themselves, have far range and attack at a pretty fast rate. They are immune from liberators. They can also be used for offense since you can build them quickly using multiple SCVs. 1 or 2 turrets may not show much differences. But at 10+, the difference is obvious. They're particularly great for missions like the one which you have to camp at the 3 conduits preventing shuttles from escaping, and the one which you have to protect the temple in the center. It also works quite well for the train-robbing mission. Flaming betties are very strong against lings and zealots, and they're really, really cheap, which works great for tanking damage. Blaster billies do the clean up job against any mid-range land units. And turrets pretty much rule everything in the sky except tempests and broodlords. I have tried pairing static defense with Thors /Wraiths /Goliaths /Hellbats before, and they all work fine. I also love using defensive matrix from the science vessels since energy is not needed for healing. They're particularly great for protecting frontline units and expensive units like Thors.
In contrast, I have tried massing Goliaths in some missions, but they tend to fail if I try to push out too early with less than 8 of them and without vessels (which some missions do require you to do so, especially if your ally is sitting back and not doing much). So I actually prefer to bring on some SCV and make some static defense on the spot of engagement.
I really like your content (I have never enough of starcraft :D) just a suggestion, what do you think about recording your leveling games with new commanders? Without commentary, and then when you make the guide like this one, you can later edit in small replays illustrating your experience, either during the game itself or at the end
ooh too bad I was gonna ask the same thing as etters07 but i guess ok.. I only started playing co op recently and since im a protoss player i chose vorazun as first commander, got her to lvl 15 just yesterday. think that gas control is somewhat hard and rather difficult to transit to voidrays late game, so i used more dark archons instead since they can control enemy battle cruisers immortals and sorts
i've been doing a combination of centurions/stalkers/dark templar myself...seems to wreck so much havoc when you have the centurion and dark templar abilities going.
Helping guide! As for future guides I would like to see a Vorazun guide but I know you haven't lvled her yet so a Zagara/Kerrigan guide would also be helpful!
i would like to point out that if ya build hercales (spelled wrong) then siege tanks are very mobile. plus thors and tanks have the immortality protocol. Requires more macro but alot more fun then just goliaths.
build two factories and two armories immediately, life is good at that point when you can produce double upgrades, dont need as many factories with the reactor and one tech lab. produce units yeah, but higher quality units just like in a tower defense arcade is better than having tons and tons of units that u can't use straight away. the rest is pretty solid. i'ld try that and remake the video doing a strat with double factories 1 of each upgrade, and double armories to produce upgrades asap. that's what you are missing here.
i manhandled normal with swann and let my co pilot take all available sites, used about 10 goliaths and 2 science vessels. you could do about 50% more with full upgrades. i build a basic 1 1 1 defense with a tank in siege at the door.. let the co pilot fuck about for about 4 - 6 minutes, no serious upgrades to the base, leave as is, can roll over them, now honestly with harder difficulties, ur gonna need more vespian gas, just leave your scvs sit for about 2 minutes, fuck about that long, then start building more scvs and and using those around your base to build everything, go from there. im telling u, swan can be totally op if u do it right, but this no double "goliath" "armory" shit has got to go, u need 2 immediately, and lots of supply bays dropped in front of your base to let the preliminary attacks hit your base if necessary while you repair on harder diffs.. two to three will suffice while you build what you need behind the main resource collector. it's good, but i see about 24 - 48 wasted unit spots right off the bat and about 15000 minerals gone down the drain. ur build is wrong, update it.
Why no siegetanks? EDIT: that explanation should've come a little sooner. The trick to making siegetanks mobile is by using dropships. In SC Brood War this was the standard. Goliaths were there to keep other dropships away, etc.
Hey Lowko, can you buy and us some of the voice overs? this would help me, and no doubt more people watching you, to decide wether or not we want to buy them ( I'm thinking about Alarak/Abathur/Nova )
Radsberry Gaming Just mass marines and medics and get them to 3/3. Split decently and you'll be fine. Even if you lose your army due to AoE, mass mule let's you rebuild from 7 barracks at a time.
ooh Nice Battle can I ask.. you say Goliath are powerful units for that Swann soo I wanna ask.. if I use them in Campaing (sorry from Gramar if I write it bad) if I use it there... There they be too Powerful in Bigger Number?? ooh course with that Healing Things.. like you use..
Hi, you need try this new strategy with swann in the korhal. Tank in "siege mode" (without rmove siege mode) transporting with hercules. "don't droping with DROP ALL" BUT DROPING EACH ONE"
I like watching this if only because it demonstrates how piss easy brutal difficulty co-op is for players like loko without the mutations. Its just a casual walk in the park for him. Brutal is about as hard as casual.
yo guys I was wanting to buy starcraft for a long time but I just dont know wich one to buy, I was thinking of legacy of the void due that it's te leatest one right? and Is the gmae dead XD?
I really think Vorazun has the strongest army..period. She is pretty good early game but she is unstoppable endgame....how can you beat the Overbuffed DTs? You can't! (don't forget the "Doom" Rays)
"You really need that expansion". Yea, last time I played Swann, my ally just stole my expansion, so I cleared the other one and he tried to steal it too. I managed to get it at which point my ally took both my gasses immidiately. I kind of needed the gas as Swann.
Swann tips:
- Putting your 3rd power set into the Vespene Harvesters is a much wiser choice since it benefits you much earlier in the game, and allows you to pump out your SCVs even faster, while having spare resources to defend the first wave. To get my gas income started, I just drone my ally's gases. And power build my Refineries later.
- If you power build your Factory with 3 SCVs, and put two Blaster Billies in your expansion instead of one, you can clear out your rocks so much earlier, including the gas. I use 8 SCVs to build my 2nd CC, so I can actually have it ready to mine a whole 30 seconds earlier than you showed. This means I can get two extra SCVs out faster. All while having a Flaming Betty ready for the first wave.
- Great focus on upgrading your Laser Drill. Much improved from your first few missions as Swann.
- As you mentioned, Swann has a very slow ramp up. I would rather priotitize getting a few units out first so I wouldn't have to rely on my ally to carry me. But if you need to get an upgrade first, you should go for either the Goliath health, or the double attack. The range is the least beneficial upgrade of the three, since we're attack-moving.
- The enemy composition had Adepts and ground Protoss. This means that Siege Tanks would have fared much better against it. Siege Tanks than Goliaths if the enemy is Roaches, Terran Bio/Mech, or any variation of ground Protoss. Goliaths are only optimal if the enemy composition is Broodlords, Skyterran, Liberators, or Skytoss.
- Thors are also great to add into your late-game army, especially in mutations, since they have Immortality Protocol; you can revive them once they get destroyed.
- I would say the best map for Swann is actually Miner Evacuation or Mist Opportunities. The former has so many infested that his Tanks and Goliaths shred through like paper, and Mist Opportunities is such a long map that he can get into the super late game maxed out army, AND have excess income to build and upgrade his static defense for the last wave to further supplement his forces.
- Hercules are a great mobility option for Swann. If you're on Temple of the Past, or Chain of Ascension, these things can help you jump quickly to different fights.
Don't forget, Hercules also make great air tanks!
Dead of night turtle. Static in front Siege tank behind. And with the Herc you can move out and juggle tanks and jump back to base before nightfall
You can get starting gas by making empty refineries with cheap drones while rushing minerals with scv
"Now early game, I'm really just going to focus on allowing my ally to do all the defending."
Professional strategies.
I must have missed the quote. It is hilarious! Oh man! I have been laughing so hard
This is the most common Swan build, sadly. Let ally carry you for half the game until you have enough goliaths that it doesn't matter what the enemy throws at you...ground/air/templars, who cares. You saved a large amount of units to overpower them. XD
That strat may not always work
proffesional have standards.
1. Billy was put on the wrong location, so it did not destroy all the rocks
2. You have to set up gas drones asap, the time of one game is limited, so the earlier you set them up, the more profits you will get
3. You'd better start upgrading drill once it gets completed.
4. Goliaths are really not the best choice against Protoss, you were lucky that you did not encounter mass immortals and disrupters. My recommendation is to start with tanks, get its upgrade done, and build dropship. With 8 sieged tank in the dropship, you can become way more useful in the early game instead of relying on your teammate and combat drop
you forgot to Hercules yo your army. insta teleport anywhere on the map and rain death
And picking up deployed Siege Tanks. Saves quite a bit of valuable time.
Yeah, I also disagree on the maps where Swan shines. Swan shines best on "Defensive" maps, like Temple, Mists, Miners. With the right combination of turrets and tanks, the lines hold with little to no losses and you get to bank 1000's of resources while hovering 200. You might even get to build a bunch of Science Vessels to follow your Tempest Spam partner that you just carried! ;)
LoL, on full mastery points you dont even need an army with Kerrigan...you just need Kerrigan...
Kerrigan is OP but no need for an army? Your statement is absurd! Could you please upload vids how to win Coop Missions on Brutal difficulty using Kerrigan exclusively? I like to use her a lot but still need an army in order to beat the missions.
You need full mastery points and just ability spam, I do make an small army to protect my base and sometimes in the end stages of the game to help Kerrigan. Further its pretty easy
I am at level 90 mastery. And I still need an army, I strongly use Kerrigan to soften the defence and all the mastery points are spent for her abilities. Like Temple of the Past, Void Launch, etc.. There is no way for me to accomplish the missions without an army. Would love to see your vids so I can improve my play.
Haha Haha kerrigan + ability spam = 200 supply
Goliaths that shoot ground and air at the same time with double upgrades is so much fun. ^_^
5:30 "as early as i possibly want to" love the phrase :)
I like to get my vespene drones up much sooner (mastery points help) because it allows you to get your upgrades a lot more quickly. Swann's upgrades are excellent and it makes even a small army of his very potent. The combat drop is more than enough to defend after the first wave of aggression, and they can take early objectives too.
I also really like to power build my refineries with 3 SCV's so they can just get right to gathering :)
You play Swann suboptimaly :( Open with 8 tanks, Hercules and 1 sci vessel to support your ally and then mass goliath/sci vessels. Tanks provide INSANE dps and stopping power.
I loved the goliath units in broodwar man
Two advices for you, Lowko :
1. Hercules transporters. You can basicly teleport everywhere instantly and just drop tanks / thors / whatever. It's a pure death. I like using them for tanks only.
2. Science vessels have an upgrade that gives you protection barrier. It is just as amazing as the one that Nova has. You can basicly prevent all your units from dying in any scenario.
By the way. I was experimenting with my friend (we are both 90) and we could finish every map playing Kerrigan / Alarak / Nova (heroes) ONLY. So yea... brutal is nothing (+ top panel skills).
Keep doing the Co-Op advice. My friend and I spend more time playing this than anything else and SC2 and we want to be able to finish brutal. I've definitely benefited from your advice already.
So... have you beaten brutal?
Very interesting guide Lowko! Swann was the first co-op hero I leveled up to lvl 15, and I really agree with your unit composition. However, I think the best unit in Swann's army is the Hercules, which is mentioned by many other people in the comments as well. The Hercules Teleport allows you to switch from defense to offense in no time, especially when combined with siege tanks. Mixing sieged up tanks with Goliaths and doom-dropping the enemy with two or three fully loaded Hercules just seems incredibly powerful to me. Plus, the Hercules turns out to be very useful in a variety of Mutation Missions (e.g. "micro-transactions"). Nice video anyway!
Hey Lowko, just played a bunch of missions with Swann using this army makeup, and it was amazing. He's definitely a late game master. By the end, I had like a million goliaths and science vessels and cut through the map like a knife.
wowyaywowyaywow
I personally like artanis better, but probably just cuz I main toss. Mass archon or mass tempest is just fun to mess around with.
Use mastery points on vespene drones and don't forget to put them on your ally's geysers too. Most of the Swann's I play with don't seem to know they can do this.
Two Blaster Billys can take out all your expansions rocks, and then you can salvage them and get all your money back if you don't think you'll need them later.
Speaking of turrets, Swann is also high on the priority list for defending the first wave. A lone flame turret goes a long way, though you'll usually want 2.
Use your war bots on the first objective. Goliaths really only work well when you have at least a small group. Don't forget to "stutter step", at least, as much as you can with Goliaths XD
If your ally somehow hasn't cleared their expansion yet, the laser can manually target the rocks to speed it up.
While Swann is largely about the death ball, he doesn't always trade blows effectively against other death balls. Use the concentrated beam for most attack waves, use the laser nuke for breaking bases/encampments. Try to use the defensive matrix before engaging the enemy. Especially if your ally has a hero commander so they possibly take the hint to charge in first (and keep them shielded).
Try to bait the enemy as much as possible. No need to take on their whole army at once if it doesn't benefit you.
Lowko, nice Swann strategy. You touched on the siege tank not being as mobile. I've been playing Swann with the drop ships and mass tanks on brutal. Siege up all your tanks, load them in the drop ship (I believe you can load up 8 at a time), and us the drop ship's transport ability (same ability as Battlecruisers), and unload all siege tanks. The result is "face-palm" overpowered. 3 ships = 24 siege tanks dropped on top of the enemies.
Would love to see more in this vein. Could go for two separate strategy guides for alarak's mech and ascendant play, as just an example, since that commander has two really different builds. Nova would be a good one to review as well. Can't wait to see what you highlight next.
That last bonus. Got it just before the win. With all commanders, it really depends on your ability to adjust to your ally's build, and the RNG of the opponent. Generally, you want to focus on anti-air, because some folks skip that for a devastating ground army.
I've been playing Swann for a long time. He's my favorite commander because of the Awesome Laser Drill that you get.
Anyway here is what I do instead: I get Concentrated beam Width and Damage cuz its generally better, you hit more and harder and Vespene Drone Cost, -30 minerals for each drone for example can save a total of 240 minerals.
I build Billy in the mineral line and put it to shoot gas rocks as well, usually with Shift command.
I get the defensive Matrix for Science Vessels and I keep around 6 of them, more is unnecessary.
try mixing in 4-5 hercules transports with your goliath army. their teleport gives swann's army SO much mobility, especially in big maps where your army can sometimes be out of position to deal with attacks. they are also cheap (100m/50g), and are stupid tough - perfect for tanking against scourges, phoenixes, vikings and other AA that would otherwise hit your expensive science vessels.
oh, and hercs can also pick up siege tanks while they're sieged. this is huge in the early-mid game, where 2-4 tanks dropping from a herc can provide long-ranged fire support to a beleaguered ally.
Been playing this method for a while now so I started testing around with other build and I found the Cyclone + Hellion(mineral Dump) + Science Vessel (Healer) to be quite fun by turning off Cyclone Lock on and Use them like how you use Shadow Cannon on mission with specific target
Jordan Randall
Or you could try to use karax by slamming down immortals. See a scourge? Shadow cannon :P
I really appreciated this guide! I would like to see Zagara or Raynor next, although any commander would be great. Thank you!
0:59 Now about this. I havent tried out all of the commanders yet, but so far the ones that is says are for experienced players are easier to use straight from level 1 than the three labeled as for players of all skill levels. I did ok with Artanis, but Raynor and Kerrigan were both struggles until the higher levels. I still havent figured out the trick to being good with Kerrigan
Can you make a zagara guide next?
That would be nice.
Yes! Been waiting for a while for you to max out Swann. Have you tried using a squad of Thors in a couple of Hercules and use the tactical jump to take out any optional objective fast, or to easily flank and neutralize fortified positions?
SubSonic 16
Thors aren't as good as herc siege tank drops. Get 2-3 hercs filled with sieged tanks and everything on the ground gets rekt. Goliaths for anti-air.
Swans tanks and thors are his best. They can rebuild after being destroyed, the 330mm cannon barrage does 500 damage in an area from EACH thor and his tanks can get one more range and 40 extra damage. Can pump firebats (with double upgrades) while you work towards tanks and thors. Or goliath to tank/thor. Not to mention you can build the Hercules, put like 20 SIEGED tanks in it, and they auto shoot as they drop out of the Hercules. Then you just teleport to next objective. Can even drop shuffle the tanks to keep them safe between shots. Mad op.
nice guide! btw: u can use laser drill to clean gas rocks too, also build gas with 3 svcs :)
Swann was a mystery to me before this video, i tried him once and i really didn't like him, turned out i was playing really bad lol
Great guide Lowko :)
Get Swann to 15, next day Swann Guide from Lowko... Damn you Lowko!
Great video! Can we expect a series, one (or more?) guide videos per commander? I really wanna see Kerrigan.
Tip: when building a blaster at the expo, put it near the gas so it can shift attack the big rocks and then kill the gas rocks afterward. Two for one.
Good games, coop is such a good playmode. No wonder so many people just play casual arcade / coop.
RIP multiplayer ;-;
As a mainly multiplayer person, I can honestly say multiplayer is very frustrating at times, but it is easier to see all your growth and improvements in a single month alone, which is the most satisfying thing of all for me. But then again, I would not be what you call a casual player, as this is one of the only games I play anymore...
Great guide, gonna go test this strategy right now!
Karax (unit based) and Swann are underated ahah, Goliaths are so good it gets boring after sometime though :T
Cyclone/Hellbats/Sci.Vessels is usualy my favourite comp with Swann
I was playing swann on the vermillion problem (cuz random missions op) and was level 5 (was trying to power level). I got paired with a level 6 zagara.
We won with 40 seconds left. It was painful lol.
Just goes to show how much stronger swann is when he has an early expo.
Personally. My Swann build is not Goliath spam. I usually have. Hellbats, Goliaths, Tanks, and Thors. Sci Vessels always. But I only adjust amount of my ground units based on mission. Otherwise the following. Hellbats crush light units. Goliaths spam everything and crush Armored Flyers. Tanks crush armored ground. Thors crush light Air. Needless to say. They cover all enemy unit types.
Shoulda put the cannon in the mineral line to make sure you got all the debris, woulda save you a bit of effort. Also, two perdition turrets can basically stop the first few waves easy which frees up your ally to focus more on the objective which means things go more smoothly. Thats just a personal playstyle thing tho. Oh and Siege tanks are fun an neglected them!
Note to self: dont comment partway through the video. Im impatient, and like seige tanks with the teleporting transport ship things, is super awesome.
Fuckin Thank you! I couldn't find any guides on how to play Swann that weren't at least a year old.
Issue with goliaths is they're so fragile. You need to have 10 before they stop dying. Thors on the other hand, you can have two out fairly quickly and they'll annihilate early attack waves. If you play it right you can have 6 thors before your expansion. If they are covered (by ARES or your ally) they can demolish an enemy base.
They're slow, and you'll still need anti air, that's where wraiths come in. 10 Thors, 8 Science Vessels, then wraiths until 200 supply.
You don't need to be saturated on gas that early if you drone your ally's geysers. Also help out your Ally with a cannon that you salvage later. The fire cannons only cost 75 mins. 7 minutes in and I have paused this, because I feel that this guide doesn't work with out a strong early game ally like Alarak or Nova. If you don't have a strong early aggression ally, you need to play D. Some of the Eng bay upgrades (like range + firing rate) help with this. Dont get all of them, because its a bit of a waste unless you have $ to spare
lowko, you should really try Hercules dropships with swan. They work amazingly well with siege tanks as you can pick them up and drop them while they are in siege mode, giving them insave mobility.
Awesome content as usual Lowko, I'd actually really love if you did other actual guides like this, I've seen you play Karax a bit, but so far (I'm lvl 6 with him I think) I don't find him too great since I always play random missions and he's not too big on the offensive. Hey keep up the good work!
B0tt3rf1y
Once you get to level 14, his pylons and defensive structures build instantly, so you can go on the offense just by making cannons and warping in energizers.
Maybe stupid question but does having max SCV's on each base matter? Like is it like multiplayer in HoTS when it said you 'could' have like 21 scvs at a base but anything over 14 was bad since only one can mine at a time?
Where's your defensive matrix? Looks like you didn't research it.
Yup , he didn't research it
Adds too much unnecessary micro and doesn't change, well, anything. Units hardly ever die when you get rolling. But I guess it's different story altogether when you go all Thors :)
I usually get it when I have a hero ally.
unecessary micro ?.. well your goliaths gonna get torn apart without shielding. Unless at least u have thors to aoe.
unnecessary micro is unnecessary micro... dont get your ideas and reality mixed... if he could micro that much he would be in the tournaments..
Wooo, new vid.
The Old Starcraft 1 Soundtrack
try swann-karax turret game :D its soooo much fun
LowkoTV, I have a question. i got a friend who is decent at the game. but he makes a lot of different mistakes when playing 2v2 matches. do you have any tips for playing as a team?
And, how do can you defend cheese strat in a 2v2. out of experience i found out that the difference is quite high.
I would argue that nova has the most powerful army when maxed out
her units have insane hp and damage, not to mention OP research abilities
Hellbat and Wraith are a good duo?
Swann is also the most mobile army of all. Hercules-ships can teleport. Fill up with tanks and thors, warp anywhere, drop tons of metal death. everything dies.
Yeah. the way I play Swann is Hercules + sieged tanks with enough wraith to take out air. I don't enjoy it when the enemy gets air.
It's a pity that you didn't get to show Swann's static defense. Swann's static defense is ridiculously powerful. At level 90, your blaster billies, flaming betties and turrets have 50% more HP. They can heal themselves, have far range and attack at a pretty fast rate. They are immune from liberators. They can also be used for offense since you can build them quickly using multiple SCVs. 1 or 2 turrets may not show much differences. But at 10+, the difference is obvious. They're particularly great for missions like the one which you have to camp at the 3 conduits preventing shuttles from escaping, and the one which you have to protect the temple in the center. It also works quite well for the train-robbing mission. Flaming betties are very strong against lings and zealots, and they're really, really cheap, which works great for tanking damage. Blaster billies do the clean up job against any mid-range land units. And turrets pretty much rule everything in the sky except tempests and broodlords. I have tried pairing static defense with Thors /Wraiths /Goliaths /Hellbats before, and they all work fine. I also love using defensive matrix from the science vessels since energy is not needed for healing. They're particularly great for protecting frontline units and expensive units like Thors.
In contrast, I have tried massing Goliaths in some missions, but they tend to fail if I try to push out too early with less than 8 of them and without vessels (which some missions do require you to do so, especially if your ally is sitting back and not doing much). So I actually prefer to bring on some SCV and make some static defense on the spot of engagement.
have you done a how to guide for Vorazun?
I've actually barely played Vorazun. I'll probably level her up as my final commander.
really?...i've gotten her to level 12 at least..she seems fun
I really like your content (I have never enough of starcraft :D) just a suggestion, what do you think about recording your leveling games with new commanders? Without commentary, and then when you make the guide like this one, you can later edit in small replays illustrating your experience, either during the game itself or at the end
ooh too bad I was gonna ask the same thing as etters07 but i guess ok.. I only started playing co op recently and since im a protoss player i chose vorazun as first commander, got her to lvl 15 just yesterday. think that gas control is somewhat hard and rather difficult to transit to voidrays late game, so i used more dark archons instead since they can control enemy battle cruisers immortals and sorts
i've been doing a combination of centurions/stalkers/dark templar myself...seems to wreck so much havoc when you have the centurion and dark templar abilities going.
Helping guide! As for future guides I would like to see a Vorazun guide but I know you haven't lvled her yet so a Zagara/Kerrigan guide would also be helpful!
Sebastian Sandu
Vorazun doesn't need much of a guide. She's similar to swann except she gets nothing but void rays (and maybe some corsairs).
so void rays and maybe stalkers comp ?
Void rays and cannons
I love your vids lowko :D
i would like to point out that if ya build hercales (spelled wrong) then siege tanks are very mobile. plus thors and tanks have the immortality protocol. Requires more macro but alot more fun then just goliaths.
What's your thoughts on Cyclones vs Goliaths ?
Mass wraiths with the bio-heal upgrade from the armoury. get both tech lab upgrades for them, and get 3/3. can't stop this army.
You can, their anti ground attack sucks.
build two factories and two armories immediately, life is good at that point when you can produce double upgrades, dont need as many factories with the reactor and one tech lab. produce units yeah, but higher quality units just like in a tower defense arcade is better than having tons and tons of units that u can't use straight away. the rest is pretty solid. i'ld try that and remake the video doing a strat with double factories 1 of each upgrade, and double armories to produce upgrades asap. that's what you are missing here.
i manhandled normal with swann and let my co pilot take all available sites, used about 10 goliaths and 2 science vessels. you could do about 50% more with full upgrades. i build a basic 1 1 1 defense with a tank in siege at the door.. let the co pilot fuck about for about 4 - 6 minutes, no serious upgrades to the base, leave as is, can roll over them, now honestly with harder difficulties, ur gonna need more vespian gas, just leave your scvs sit for about 2 minutes, fuck about that long, then start building more scvs and and using those around your base to build everything, go from there. im telling u, swan can be totally op if u do it right, but this no double "goliath" "armory" shit has got to go, u need 2 immediately, and lots of supply bays dropped in front of your base to let the preliminary attacks hit your base if necessary while you repair on harder diffs.. two to three will suffice while you build what you need behind the main resource collector. it's good, but i see about 24 - 48 wasted unit spots right off the bat and about 15000 minerals gone down the drain. ur build is wrong, update it.
I always just go mass wraiths. It's the only build that allows me to get anything done within a reasonable amount of time.
Why no siegetanks?
EDIT: that explanation should've come a little sooner. The trick to making siegetanks mobile is by using dropships. In SC Brood War this was the standard. Goliaths were there to keep other dropships away, etc.
Hey Lowko, can you buy and us some of the voice overs? this would help me, and no doubt more people watching you, to decide wether or not we want to buy them ( I'm thinking about Alarak/Abathur/Nova )
This guide video is really helpful could you do this for the other commanders as well?
I feel Swann's kinda one of the easier commanders to use and he seems to pair at least quite well with anybody.
Lowko can you make a guide for all heroes like you did with stukov and swann?
Sorry, for all commanders
What I do is just use siege tanks and Hercules with Goliath and science vessels there too, and it’s real strong
Hey Lowko can I you do this for Raynor?
Radsberry Gaming
Just mass marines and medics and get them to 3/3. Split decently and you'll be fine. Even if you lose your army due to AoE, mass mule let's you rebuild from 7 barracks at a time.
Am I missing something about goliaths? They have 4 effective ground dps per supply, that's like super low, no?
ooh Nice Battle
can I ask.. you say Goliath are powerful units for that Swann soo I wanna ask.. if I use them in Campaing (sorry from Gramar if I write it bad) if I use it there... There they be too Powerful in Bigger Number?? ooh course with that Healing Things.. like you use..
Jack/Blu Lukas
Yes goliaths are really good in the campaign. Make sure you get the regeneration in the lab: they'll let them repair even faster.
Thank you for info :)
Hi, you need try this new strategy with swann in the korhal.
Tank in "siege mode" (without rmove siege mode) transporting with hercules.
"don't droping with DROP ALL" BUT DROPING EACH ONE"
For large units like siege tanks, I've found drop all to work well if you shift click drop all to 2-3 locations
what do you think about a armycomposition around hellbaths and cyclones? it can be really powerfull and mobile
depends, old cyclones or new ones?
I like watching this if only because it demonstrates how piss easy brutal difficulty co-op is for players like loko without the mutations. Its just a casual walk in the park for him. Brutal is about as hard as casual.
yo guys I was wanting to buy starcraft for a long time but I just dont know wich one to buy, I was thinking of legacy of the void due that it's te leatest one right? and Is the gmae dead XD?
In term of finance, buy trilogy of Starcraft will be cheaper. If Starcraft is dead then Lowko would have never got 200k subscribers.
is there any chance to see in the future of Sc2 some sort of pvp with the commanders?, like in "C&C generals"????
ME262MKI
It's possible in the arcade.
I like this. More please. Maybe A-Z?
TheRealTrikein some likes pally time
he is my favorite.
the herc dropship can pick up deployed seige tanks and hold 8.... siege tanks do 110 dmg deployed
When you run short on gas, it is probably a good time to stop building science vessels. 6 - 8 is enough, more than 10 doesn't really do anything.
culd You tell me what's model of mouse do u have to SC2?
You can send 3 SCVs to build a Refinery. It's faster, and you don't need to send 2 SCVs after it's finished.
I love swann, he's so underrated. and who is the azure person?? they seem super nice wtf
I am the Azure person, greetings friendo.
Hello the Azure Person. Are you perhaps a friend of Bird Person?
How can you change color of the army?
You forgot to place your harvesting drones on Alarak's Geysers
Pretty sure you don't need 3 SCV per mineral patch on co-op... I have been doing double and haven't noticed a significant differance in income.
Can some 1 tell me what thors are good vs? Heavy units like bruatals?
Was this played on brutal or hard? Seemed so easy for a player of your caliber.
Bunson Baker Right after entering the mission,he stated it was on Brutal
Spersier I may have skipped that.
I really think Vorazun has the strongest army..period. She is pretty good early game but she is unstoppable endgame....how can you beat the Overbuffed DTs? You can't! (don't forget the "Doom" Rays)
"You really need that expansion".
Yea, last time I played Swann, my ally just stole my expansion, so I cleared the other one and he tried to steal it too. I managed to get it at which point my ally took both my gasses immidiately.
I kind of needed the gas as Swann.
Even if it was 2 years ago that's when you make a 8 tanks 1 herc and just kill all his stuff just for memes
that's why you just add vespine drones on his gasses--helps with the achievement ;)
they ever talk about doing a Megabrutal level like that plague game? ;3
power build reactors?
Pls Nova guide👍
Did u play Banshee+Vikings ball?
Goliants+vessels = that s how i play in WOL campain XD
It is just like MMM but mech
Swan doesnt have banshees or vikings ...
ah ok)
He does have Wraith the old units from SC1 but Swann got it upgrade to increase fire power speed 100% against ground.
I like to also add Hercules full of sieged siege Tanks. I Just drop them nerby mu goliaths and move them in secounds
Someone is not curious about what happens if you finish the mission before the second secondary mission comes out. Lowko almost did it
Lowko, you don't telling about lings in the description anymore. Spawn more overlords -- you're heavily supply-blocked!
If Thor in Multi could firing at both Ground and Air at the same time it going to be more popular.
Elranoaz thats what's called op or over buffed. terrans would jus build thors and vacs and drop them all over the place. forget mmm strats.
does everyone think we should have a competitive mode using these commanders against others?
FINALLY!!
haha in the description u put stukov instead of swan. with swan, I just max on gols and sci vess.
The Hercules can pick up sieged up tanks, warp anywhere and insta-drop them. Funtimes...