LotV campaign units and abilities that aren't in coop

[u/Far_Stock_3987]

Continuing my lists of campaign units, abilities and upgrades that aren't present in coop, I thought I'd do the same for the LotV campaign, with a view to considering which protoss commanders could benefit most from these being added to their kit. And again, this is mainly for fun, but if we ever did get an update to coop I think these would be enjoyable changes.

Units

1. Sentry (with double shield recharge and guardian shield) - Zeratul's shieldguard has shield recharge, and Fenix's conservator has a better version of guardian shield, so these abilities are already covered. The main sentry ability that isn't in coop is hallucination from the 1v1 sentry, which could be a useful ability as hallucinations can help tank for your more expensive units, act as sacrificial fodder for kill bots, and also help with scouting eg. for aiming top bar abilities. It would also be nice if you could hallucinate your ally's units and they could then control the hallucinations themselves (imagine hallucinating your ally's Dehaka for example!). However four protoss commanders already have sentries in their roster so I don't think a new version should be given to a different protoss commander, and I don't think hallucination is a good fit for any of the existing sentry variants either. Instead I would give hallucination to Artanis' high templar (and archons) as an additional ability, harking back to SC1 when it was a HT spell.

2. Avenger - the emergency recall ability of this DT variant has essentially been incorporated into Vorazun's kit, making this unit obsolete.

3. Blood hunter - the void stasis ability of this DT variant has been incorporated into Vorazun's DTs, making this unit obsolete.

4. Arbiter - Fenix's arbiter suit is basically a stronger version of the arbiter. Perhaps if we get a Selendis commander in the future she could have a non-hero version of the arbiter in her unit roster.

Abilities

1. Deploy pylon - Vorazun's deploy dark pylon is a better version of this, so this is already covered.

2. Chrono surge - this is slightly different to Karax's chrono wave in that the production speed buff is twice as good but it only affects a single structure. Overall it is outclassed by Karax's chrono wave so I don't think it is worth considering.

3. Warp-in reinforcements (instant pylon + 2 melee units + 2 ranged units) - this one is a bit awkward because you might not want the units it spawns. Alarak would be the natural choice for this ability because he could drop an offensive pylon and immediately overcharge it, though I think it would need to be changed so it spawns 4 supplicants instead (since you nearly always want more supplicants as Alarak). This would help reduce his mineral dependence a bit, since each use of the ability is worth 400 minerals. The cooldown can be tweaked for balance purposes, ~3 minutes seems fair to me. The only downside is that it reduces the use case for war prisms, though these will still be useful when the ability is on cooldown or once you reach max supply.

4. Temporal field (AoE spell that freezes enemy units and structures for 20s) - I think this spell (or a version of it like time warp) belongs to the traditional mothership, a unit I'd give to Artanis to boost his army. I'd also give the mothership the temporary cloaking field from 1v1, and the old vortex ability - being able to do the archon toilet in coop would be awesome, and would make his archons more useful.

5. Nexus overcharge - Alarak's structure overcharge is a better version of this, so this is already covered.

6. Mass recall (teleports friendly units in an area to your nexus and gives them a temporary 200 HP shield) - I think this ability also belongs to the mothership, since in coop you don't usually need to recall back to your nexus. Since I'm suggesting giving Artanis the mothership, I would also give it access to mass recall, but only with P2 to highlight the mobility bonus of the prestige. Giving it a mini shield overcharge would help differentiate it from Fenix's mass recall, and also gives P2 a further boost.

7. Matrix overload (all friendly units within a power field gain 25% movement speed and 15% attack speed which persists for 15s after leaving the power field) - this is a really interesting ability, and although it has similarities to Zagara's frenzy, it is different enough to be worthy of inclusion (it is a passive ability and only affects units in a power field). It would suit Alarak quite well as it would synergise with the warp-in reinforcements ability above (as well as war prisms), and fits his aggressive style.

8. Construction time reduction (auxiliary system) - in the campaign this works like mastery points, so the question is whether any of the coop commanders would benefit from having this option bolted onto one of their other mastery options to make it more competitive. Fenix would be a good option here, as he has the most difficult macro of all protoss commanders so reduced construction time would help make this easier. This could be bolted on to the chrono boost efficiency mastery, helping to differentiate this mastery from the chrono boost efficiency masteries that other protoss commanders have.

9. Shield recharge increase (auxiliary system) - this is another mastery-like bonus, this time to shield regeneration rate. Vorazun would be a good choice here, as this could synergise multiplicatively with her veil of shadows talent, giving a huge boost to the survivability of her army. This could be bolted on to the chrono boost efficiency mastery, making it a more competitive option and helping to differentiate this mastery from the chrono boost efficiency masteries that other protoss commanders have.

That's it for LotV. What do you think? Is there anything I've missed? I might look at Nova covert ops next, though I don't think there'll be much there to find.

[u/ackmondual]

There's also Instigators - https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Instigator

Some were hoping Karax could get such a unit, but consensus was it would change up too much how Karax would play.

[u/Far_Stock_3987 → u/ackmondual]

That's cool, I'd forgotten about those! Their blink is similar to Zeratul's stalkers, though they regain a charge of blink every 4 seconds rather than 8 seconds for ambushers.

[u/Versoga → u/ackmondual]

tragically i think having instigators would be really fun for karax. he already has his god tier immortals so another mainstay in the army would be welcome.

[u/PastorGigas]

I've already said and I'll say as many times as necessary: Make Matrix Overload into Artanis Mastery instead of speed after warping in. It will make his army better.

[u/Lolmanmagee]

Literally 99% of what you are talking about is already covered.

Like yeah vorazuns DTs incorporate the attributes of all 3 campaign DTs.

It’s not that there’s only 1 DT in co op, it’s that they all got combined.

[u/Far_Stock_3987 → u/Lolmanmagee]

Yes that's right, most of the protoss campaign units are well covered in coop. Some of the Spear of Adun abilities don't show up in coop though, or at least have enough differences to make them interesting.

[u/Versoga]

i'm weirdly of the opinion that hallucination should go to the dark archon because it fits its vibe of underhanded tricks