Cataclysm Finally Re-installed

YES IT FINALLY REINSTALLED, 15gb download is seriously... way too much :<, although about 4.2gb hasn't been downloaded, not sure why but hell I can play so thats cool. Although I haven't uploaded the specialisation of druids or the last part of durotar... IM IN THE MOOD for blasting through barrens and ashenvale tomorrow, so I am going to do that.

GOING TO TAKE ME FOREVER TO WRITE UP ALL OF IT, but hey, better I get all the content done and then take 3 hours per area (ye.. it probably takes at least that long) to write it up. I am tempted to get to like around 55 or 60 and just take 2 days and write it all up, which might be cool and like CONDENSED so all the feedback is in consecutive posts.

But ye.. gonna be sort of MEGA CHINA LEVELLING/FEEDBACK GATHERING over the next few days, obviously testing the zone rigorously and taking screenshots means I probably end up taking around 3x longer in a zone than I normally would, tbh I would say I was a pretty damm fast leveller so maybe that's not that much longer for the average player.

Anyway, watching a bunch of starcraft 2 tournaments at the moment, my boyfriend entered a starcraft 2 tournament for tomorrow :OOOOO gonna try and support him and stuff, (he isn't actually that bad, hes like diamond level :<). Also going to a bbq tomorrow so WOAH BUSY DAY, but ye gonna try and post some stuff tomorrow, hopefully finished durotar + druid specialisation post.

Cataclysm Download Testing

Ok, so lets get some testing thoughts out here, 1) like the gnome starting area is here.. (and u don't have to do special stuff to test it) so I decided to just make a gnome char to test out the download.

Basically it took the download about 10 minutes on my shitty 5MBit/s connection (at best :/) downloading at around 300kb/s to able to play, (after having to install a 600mb part, which I presume

When going to the character selection screen it took around 10-15 seconds for the character stuff to be downloaded and to see a picture of my character on the generic background, if I selected a different character and went back to that character the background would be loaded after around 5-10 seconds. Overall pretty easy. When creating a char each specific "face" or facet of the char creation process took around 1 second to be loaded, it was pretty streamlined and you couldn't really notice you weren't playing the complete game.

When loading up into the game it took around 2-3 minutes for everything to be streamed properly, I presume this was like the animations of the races and this sort of thing, so I could have a streamlined experience. However, once all that loaded and I was in the game, it ran pretty much smoothly at around 300ms. I presume this was at the cost of downloading the overall game, but tbh I couldn't notice whether it was downloaded or full ingame.

All the sound files were present, and all this jazz. I couldn't put a finger on anything i saw that was missing, other than like the FINAL POLISH, but then I play on low graphics anyway (although all my screenshots previously were on ultra settings :D) so I doubt this change really affects me at all.

I really am liking this downloader, it is very impressive to be able to play after around 5 minutes of a 15.5gb (SERIOUSLY WTF!??!!??!) download, and currently my downloader is on like 6% and I can't really notice any difference.

Going to hold off on levelling the druid until after the download is complete in case questing is actually affected in someway, like missing textures for those awesome portrait things or perhaps missing animations.

Regardless though BIG THUMBS UP for this new downloader, although having to re-install the beta is rough and annoying as hell, I much prefer being able to play with seemlessly little interruption in play (apart from world server going down :DDDD) and surprisingly little lag. Kudos tbh.

Today O:

Just posting to say that I probably won't be writing anything today... mainly because all my bandwidth is going to be taken up by downloading Cataclysm beta.. again. Maybe if it's quick I'll do Mission 06 in my walkthrough, I might also comment on the patch changes for beta, again using my amazing (WAIT WHAT?) knowledge of classes :).

Depends though, mixed reports on how easy it is to download the client. I am gonna try and test out some simple gameplay whilst its downloading, but realistically I don't have good enough bandwidth to play.

Research Discussion

Right so in the Starcraft 2 Campaign there are Protoss Research upgrades and Zerg Research upgrades, 20 in total for each side, but you can only choose 10, and they come in pairs so you choose between 2 similar upgrades and decide what is best.

Basically the way it works out is that the "LEFT" side is the offensive option and the "RIGHT" side is the defensive option in a pair.

Firstly lets go on about Protoss Research

Ultra Capacitors - Your Attack upgrades now increase your unit's attack speed by 5% per upgrade

Vanadium Plating - Your Armor Upgrades now increase your unit's Hp by 5% per upgrade.

Now, this depends on your playstyle really, if you are ultra aggresive, I.E YOU WANT TO RUSH AND NOT TURTLE SO MUCH, then it actually turns out the life upgrade is better, it means you can move out that much faster.

If you want to turtle in your campaign, use bunkers, siege tanks etc to defend then the attack speed upgrade is better, because they mean you fire more often before the enemy hits you, and because you are in bunkers or your tanks are in entrenched positions, their hp doesn't matter so much.

This upgrade is entirely up to the individual player, I personally prefer the attack speed upgrade, I would recommend it if you like Siege tanks in anyway shape or form :D.

Orbital Depots - Supply Depots now Drop in "Instantly"

Micro-Filtering - Your Refineries now harvest gas 25% faster.

This research is more dependent on how "good" you are, if you are bad, like me, Orbital depots is BY FAR the best option, it means you don't have to constantly produce depots and can just produce 2-3 at a time by 1 scv every so often and not be supply blocked.

If though you are good at managing your supply, then Micro-filtering is better, but to be honest I have gone through all missions and there was no mission I really thought I needed my gas 25% faster, considering medic marine is like such a powerful strategy, you just don't need this upgrade unless you have no use for Orbital Depots because you are awesome :D.

Automated Refinery - Your Refineries now harvest Vespene Gas Automatically

Command Centre Reactor - Your Command Centres can now Produce 2 Scvs simultaneously.

Ok, this choice is pretty simple to me: AUTOMATED REFINERY, every time. Although the reactor is useful, the point is that on alot of missions you can't produce 2 scvs at a time at the start anyway because you don't have the mineral income to support it. Also the Automated Refinery means you usually get a few free scvs per mission because they were given to you to go on gas ideally at the start, but now you can put them on minerals instead.

There is also one mission, Supernova, that having the automated Refinery is just SO USEFUL. In my opinion this upgrade is mandatory.

Raven - Drops PDD, Turret and can use Hunter Seeker Missiles, Detector

Science Vessel - Can use Irradiate, Repairs Vehicles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Detector.

Now although you can't get science vessels in multiplayer, my god I wish you could, they are amazing, there is no choice here you HAVE to get vessels here in my opinion, the raven is just not worth the money in single player, it requires too much micro to be good, but to have a free heal on your mechanical units (IT DOESNT COST EXTRA MINERALS/GAS :D) from science vessels makes this upgrade pretty mandatory imo. Once you get vessels you will be making them, pretty much asap.

If you want to practice "TERRAN PLAYSTYLE" for multiplayer then get a raven sure, but science vessels are like 9000% better :D.

Tech Reactor - Combines the Tech Lab and the Reactor

Orbital Strike - Units from your barracks now arrive in drop-in pods at your barracks' rally point.

Now, this depends on your style, if you are protoss, or like their style over terrans. Orbital strike basically converts barracks into Warpgates, although you still queue, you get to reinforce anywhere, you can basically drop in a force anywhere on the map, which can be awesome for certain missions, Shatter the sky for one. It's also awesome if you basically only want to go medic/marine since you just need reactored barracks for that strategy (later on).

However, I personally prefer lots of siege tanks, banshees, medics and marines. So I would go for the tech reactor as it allows multiple siege tank and banshee production. It also means I don't have to buy the medic upgrade of course. This is really down to personal taste, neither of these are mandatory.

Right. ONTO THE ZERG UPGRADES.

Shrike Turret - Adds a turret to your bunkers that attacks ground and air.

Fortified Bunker - Adds 150 life to your bunkers.

There isn't much in this really, It really depends how you use your bunkers, if you use them primarily for defense, alone, then you are probably better with the Shrike Turret. If you use them, like I do, as like a stopper for your Siege Tanks to obliterate your enemy when defending then the Fortified Bunker is a better upgrade.

Really though, the differences here are minor, just go with what you feel like :D.

Planetary Fortress - Allows your Command Centre to be outfitted with a cannon at the expense of being able to lift

Perdition Turret - Flame Turret

This is again optional, HOWEVER, I will say that the final mission is MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH easier by going with the Planetary Fortress option, The Perdition turret is just really weak in the final mission compared to the fortress. The Perdition Turret has more uses in like other missions than the fortress does though, since mostly you can't expand on most maps in the campaign, where the fortress shines in multiplayer.

However I would personally go for PLANETARY FORTRESS, just because it makes the last mission so much easier.

Predator - Anti-Infantry Cat like Vehicle

Hercules Transport - Massive Transport that unloads units almost instantly

The difference between these 2 are minor, Hercules takes alot of tech to use and isn't that useful in most missions, however I would say it was better than the Predator because it means you can ignore medivacs in the campaign.

The predator is only really useful in like one mission (welcome to the jungle) otherwise it just isn't that great, you really won't make them once you can make siege tanks.

But again, it doesn't matter: neither play a pivotal part in the campaign, just go with how you feel.

Cellular Reactor - All units start with +100 Energy and +100 Maximum Energy

Regenerative Bio-Steel - All Mechanical units slowly regen life.

Basically: TAKE CELLULAR REACTOR, if you followed my advice and took the science vessel.

Regenerative Bio-Steel is kinda useless if you have a science vessel able to heal your units with your mech units. Cellular Reactor means all your energy units have 125 energy+ out of the gate, which is just immense and means they can use their abilities right at the start, it's particularly useful on the mission "Supernova" and on other missions aswell.

Hive Mind Emulator - Allows you to mind control zerg units in a SMALLLLLLLL!!!! radius around the target.

Psi Disruptor - Slows nearby zerg AND THEIR ATTACK SPEED by 50%.

Do not be conned by the hive mind emulator into thinking that it is cool, although you might want a pet ultralisk, on most missions they die too fast or don't go in range of your stinking emulator for you to be able to use it. Basically the Psi Disruptor is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good, it means that the zerg units are 50% slower so your siege tanks have twice as long to kill them before they reach your lines, (Or even your bunkers).

So yeh take the Psi Disruptor, it is SOOOOOO useful, on sooo many missions (wherever you will be attacked by zerg) the hive emulator is too gimmicky to be of any real use D:.

a TLDR of Sorts will be listed here:

Protoss: Ultra Capacitors, Orbital Depots, Automated Refinery, Science Vessels, Tech Reactor

Zerg: Fortified Bunker, Planetary Fortress, Hercules Transport, Cellular Reactor, Psi-Disruptor.

Mission 05: The Evacuation

Ok, firstly onto what the Mission Introduces, gameplay style of the mission. This Mission introduces you to the Firebat (YAY BROOD WAR ONLY UNIT :D), however as i stated on the previous mission unless you fork out the cash they are really dire, especially against anything but lings, however if you do fork out the cash they are really powerful against zerg, they make excellent tanks and roast lings for breakfast. Just remember you marines are infinitly better, so don't make any firebats other than the 2 you are given.

The only other thing this mission introduces is the Mercenary Compound, basically when the mission begins a countdown begins and when it is up you can summon in the mercs, basically if I don't primarily state it call in these ASAP, skipping a round of unit production if necessary, they are simply your best troops and are worth it, they also produce instantly.

This mission is primarily an escort mission, the colonists are evacuating on the slowest truck possible (and indeed the weakest :D) and go whenever they want and not when you are ready, this leads to the weird scenario that the only difficult escort is the 2nd, instead of the last wave, which is stupid imo but ye.. inevitable.

Mission Objectives:

Main: Reach the Colonist Outpost

Escort Colonists to safety (50)

20 Colonists can't die

Bonus: Recover the Chrysalis (3 Zerg Research)

Achievements: Do not let a Colonist Truck be destroyed on Normal

Do not salvage or lose a structure on Hard Difficulty.

You Start with 2 firebats and 2 medics, and you see the colonist base to the west. It contains 1 CC, 1 Mercenary Compound, 1 Refinery, 1 Supply Depot, 1 Barracks with Tech lab and 4 SCVS.

These will eventually be yours, now an interesting thing you can do if you want to make the mission a little easier, is wait 5 minutes at the start with your firebats, the cooldown on the merc compound starts when you start the mission, so then you can automatically call in 6 troops and the mission goes alot smoother this way, regardless when you enter the zone with your firebats proceed west to the compound.

You have to fight zerglings and just attack-moving into them should kill them easily, if your medics get focused by zerglings, PULL THEM BACK!!!!!!, you don't want to produce any medics for the first 2 waves of escorts, and it is imperitive you don't lose one to a stupid zergling attack at the beginning. There are 2 cash rewards north of the road to the compound, 1 is gas and 1 is minerals, pick them up! and then proceed to the green mark on the ground.

Once you do this you get access to your base, put all your scvs on minerals and send your 4 man squad north of your barracks and slightly west and there is 1 100 mineral cash reward on the ground, pump marines and scvs exclusively.

Here is a somewhat flexible Build Order.

17 Supply Depot

24 Supply Depot

31 Supply Depot, Barracks

38 Supply Depot, Barracks, Reactor

44 Supply Depot, Engineering Bay, 3 Scvs in Gas

55 Supply Depot

61 Supply Depot (Constant), Reactor, Barracks, Attack Upgrade

73 - 2 Bunkers (1 at each choke already with a bunker)

91 - Armor Upgrade, Cut Scvs (you want extra to repair the bunkers, hence the late cut)

Macro (You may want to make the last Barracks a Reactor, but you will run out of Minerals before you can really make use out of the reactor though, so just 2 reactor, tech lab and no addon barracks are perfectly fine.)

Ok, so a few things, getting the normal achievement is pretty easy: the only time you will likely fail this is on the first/2nd waves. It's a similar story with the bunkers and the other achievement, basically the first 2 waves are much harder than the rest because you have a very limited force and only begin with 4 scvs (Seriously wtf...).

This is also the first mission that really taxes you to multitask, you have to constantly move your mobile force and macro, the build order above has lots of steps at similar times because basically they are good timings between waves to do stuff, a perfect player (not me) could do all this micro and have a better build order, but I try to be as simple as possible with the build order. If you find yourself getting supply blocked or just overrun just select your units with the convoy and right click the truck, they will follow it, just switch back when they get attacked.

At the end (after getting the chrysalis Bonus objective) Your money will spike, just don't worry about it, you want some spare minerals to repair the bunkers, if you run out of minerals just leave around 200 minerals in the bank for repairs.

Onto the actual Mission, at around 24 Supply the 1st Convoy truck thing will move out, take your entire force and rally your barracks to your units and produce on the way. Take an scv with you aswell, move up the road just staying around on the convoy, you will get shown that there is a bunker on the Road, Ignore this and continue to move up the road, a first stream of zerglings, and a Hydralisk will attack you.

Take them out but keep ahead and around the truck, pick up the Gas cash reward on the left side of the road and when you reach the path heading east another wave of zerg will attack you, take it out quickly and get the 1 mineral cash reward (DO NOT GO FURTHER IN AND TAKE THE OTHER YET).

After this RUSH AHEAD of the convoy and u will see another bunker, if you want the achievement send in your scv and repair it and take out this attack force quickly, after this there is a Hydralisk on the right side of the road next to a chrysalis, take it out along with some burrowed zerg and pick up the chrysalis and the 2 mineral cash rewards on either side of the road. Put 6 Marines in that bunker and leave your scv here. Make your way with the rest of your force back to base.

Hopefully you should have both your sets of mercenaries at your base or at least before the next convoy sets out, as soon as you have 6 marines (or 4 marines and 1 Marauder) head with them straight to the first bunker with an scv. The Rest of your force should be with the convoy.

Remember this is the hardest wave to Escort, make sure you bring an extra scv to repair the truck (this is optional, I didn't need it but if you want to be safe do it). Keep your Moveable force around the truck when you are moving, continue to rally all your unit producing structures to this force. On this wave the 1st choke gets attacked by 2 waves of zerglings (with the occasional roach/hydra).

After the 1st wave ends, ignore the next wave with your attack group, (your bunker can take care of it (DONT BE AFRAID TO STIM INSIDE THE BUNKER)) and rush again to that middle path, you will be hit by a wave of zerglings before you reach the path, and another once you reach the path, I think you get hit by mutalisks here after you go past the path along with a 3rd wave, remember you have a bunker at the third choke, don't rush to it until you have dealt with the waves from the middle path.

Once this escort is dealt with, you are through the worst of it, it's not that the waves don't get tougher, it's just you end up with like 80-100+supply for the rest of the waves so nothing can really stop that force the zerg send at you. Immedietly send 2 additional scvs, 1 to each bunker area, and make a second bunker (Don't block-off the south ramp entirely). Put in 6 marines (4 marines, 1 Marauder if you want) to each bunker. Also start producing Medics from your tech labbed Barracks from now on.

Just a small note on upgrades, mostly in these missions it doesnt matter what you upgrade first (until you get your research option) but if you are using lots of bunkers in missions it is more important to upgrade attack first for your infantry than armor.

Now, with your more substantial force, hopefully reinforced with a second set of war pigs and hammer securities (probably halfway through the escort on the marauders) move out, again there are 2 waves of zerg coming at the bunker, but this time there is a wave that unburrows on the left side of the road, take them out swiftly but DO NOT fall behind the convoy, zerglings will be streaming in from the east passage, take them out safely and keep up with the convoy, A final 2 waves of zerg will come streaming in from the north bunkers, and an additional force will unburrow directly north of these Bunkers.

Once dealt with it is time to get the chrysalises, Go to the Middle path heading east, and well head east and follow the path round to the south (DO NOT GO FURTHER EAST - there is a large Zerg base there) The Chrysalis is in the middle of the field, zerg forces will unburrow to defend it, just take them out with ease and head back out to the Road.

Now head to the south bunkers and head down the ramp, go further west and you hug the treeline and you will see the final Chrysalis, there are more zerg than before defending this, quite a few roaches but they should be no problem for your pretty large force. Grab the Chrysalis and head back to escort the convoy, which should be just about leaving.

During all this Matt Horner will be like ZERG HAVE ENTERED THE ATMOSPHERE, basically this means they will be raining zerglings at your convoy from above, this sounds scarier than it actually is, Basically in this 4th Escort you have the occasional 4 zerglings spawn from the sides of the road along with 2 waves of enemies from each path. (Note that the south and north bunkers have banelings attack them, these are suicidal zerg units that blow up and do massive aoe damage to both infantry and structures, focus these down if you want but they should never break your bunkers). This is a pretty easy wave really, just escort it and you will have 1 final wave to deal with.

This time Matt Horner is like WE HAVE DETECTED UNDERGROUND ZERG, these are basically Nydus Worms, these are a Zerg Structure that transfer units between them, on the campaign they actually spawn units, in multiplayer they are a cool way for zergs to transfer their units across the battlefield.

Again, this sounds much more dangerous than it actually is, there is only 1 dangerous Nydus Really, and it is only a Danger if you let it. Again, like the previous 2 escorts, you get 2 waves of zerg per path. You get a few of the dropped zerglings like in the 4th Escort but you also get Nydus Worms, take out the first Nydus Worm, which is at the bottom of the South Bunkers with marines from the overfacing cliff above it. (Just on the Road basically).

After this QUICKLY get ahead of the convoy to the middle path, STIM IF NECESSARY, do not hold back on stimming if you are far behind. A Nydus worm spawns in the path, take it out asap then run straight to the north bunkers, again stim if necessary.

Now a Nydus worm will spawn on the North path, DO NOT take this out. You don't need to take this out at all, just keep all your units on the right side of the road where a final nydus will spawn, THIS IS THE ONLY DANGEROUS ONE, take it out asap and then just sit back and finish the mission.

After finishing the mission you will gain access to the Ship's Laboratory and Research, I'm going to make a separate post about research options, which are optional and which are mandatory in a separate post.

Basically though you somehow should have 4 protoss research and 6? zerg research (I guess saving the rebels in the 3rd mission grants you 3 research). Which means you can choose between fortified bunker or Shrike turret, I would go with Fortified Bunker myself, but it really doesn't matter.

Onto the Armory and you have now unlocked the Firebat Upgrades

Firebat: Incinerator Gauntlets - 40% Bigger Aoe Damage

Juggernaut Plating - +2 Armor.

Basically if you want to actually use firebats, these 2 upgrades are mandatory, they turn them from nitpicky niche fighters to AWESOME TANKS, that take ALOT to kill. I would personally advise against taking their upgrades, unless you exploit the bug I told you about in mission 03. They are useful though if you get both those upgrades, if you don't like firebats, just ignore them: they aren't necessary for any mission other than a late mission, and thats only because you get them for free :D.

You should have 110,000 credits. I would go for Stabilizer Medpacks from the medics and skip firebat mercenaries. You don't need them for the next mission and having more efficient medics is just essential really. Definitly you want this upgrade, if not now then the next mission. Alternatively, if you want the firebat mercenaries, take the Combat shield upgrade for marines and buy the mercenaries.

Onto the next mission and Tosh O: :).

Mission 04 Smash and Grab

Alright, back to Starcraft 2 Walkthrough, onto the 4th mission: there is a choice here to go to either Agria or Monlyth, this is the Monlyth Mission, the agria mission is also easy but like i said previously firebats are pretty much useless without both of their bought upgrades and marauders are useful.

I don't think I mentioned but the second mission of the 2 that you do nets you mercenaries, which are powerful versions of certain units, they are the number one buy you should buy in the campaign, they are pretty much useful in every mission, the only ones that are questionable are the firebat mercs and perhaps the battlecruiser merc, because it isn't that useful in any of the final missions where you can use it..

However onto this mission, I'll just briefly explain the mission and what it introduces. Firstly this mission Introduces Marauders (obviously) and Research Bonus objectives.

Marauders are the backbone of any infantry army, they demolish armored units, this is amplified in multiplayer where marauders also have access to stimpack, making them very powerful in Multiplayer, they are also powerful in single player, especially if you know the enemy has alot of armored units or melee units (later), mostly they are a compliment to your marines in the campaign where you would rather go like 4 marines:1 marauder : 1 medic type armies in most missions, however on hard (note: not brutal) there are no air in this mission so you can go mostly marauders and be pretty good.

The second thing in this mission are the bonus objectives granting you research, you want every single bonus objective because a) you want to max protoss/zerg research asap as they unlock abilities/units/structures that are essential for making the campaign easier and once you max these you gain extra money from bonus research to unlock upgrades. If you want to do achievements and stuff I advise making sure the last playthrough you do nets you all the artifacts you want.

Right, onto the mission basically the mission format is that the zerg is racing you to get to the artifact, the zerg will send units over to attack your base occasionally, the protoss will not besides the first stalker attack. Essentially I think it takes the Zerg around 30-35 minutes to get to the artifact on hard, and around 25 minutes on Brutal, takes forever on normal and casual :P.

Basically, on Hard difficulty or easier you don't have to care about the zerg, you can max your army before pushing if you want and the Zerg won't reach the artifact before you do. On Brutal it's a little harder and you have to move out at around 100 or so food or the zerg will beat you to the artifact.

Firstly Mission Objectives

Main: Recover the Artifact

Bonus: Recover the Protoss Relics (4)

Achievements: Take 0 losses from the Artifact Guardians on Normal Difficulty

Finish the Mission in less than 15 minutes.

Ok to start with you are given 1 Command Centre, 5 scvs, 1 Refinery, 1 Barracks /w Tech Lab, 2 Supply Depots, 3 Marines and 1 Medic. Also you will get 4 marauders via drop-in (3 on Brutal), To start with pump scvs and marines and follow the build order below, remember these are rough guides, how much damage you take from zerg waves will affect your supply rounds, I'll make some comments on specific parts of the build after.

25-Supply Depot

27 - 2 Scvs in Gas*

33 - Supply Depot

39 - Supply Depot

47 - Supply Depot

50 - Barracks

54 - Engineering Bay

55 - Supply Depot

57 - Reactor, Stop Scv Production, Barracks, 3 Scvs in Gas

59 - Attack Upgrade, Bunker

63 - Supply Depot (continuous from now on), Tech Lab, Barracks, Turret

69 - 2nd Bunker

83 - Armor Upgrade

Macro out of your 4 barracks from now on, you don't need an addon on your last Barracks.

A few comments on this build order.. Firstly you may think that putting that putting 2 scvs in gas is actually too much, but 2 means you can build up gas to get upgrades earlier and can have continuous production later, you will definitly need to cut some marauders for marines early on for supply depots.

Your Barracks should be producing 1st: Marauders, 2nd: Marines, 3rd: Medics and 4th: Marines. Note: If you lose your first medic to a zerg attack, produce one immedietly from your 1st barracks or you are going to lose way too many troops.

When making your barracks load them with 4 marines and 1 marauder each, this is probably the most optimum barracks lay down until you get the last zerg research (discussed later)

Also note that you can probably stim on every engagement with your marines, stimming and letting your medics heal them back up can be very powerful. The key thing is, don't save stimpack, use it as much as you want to (you can use it in bunkers).

Last thing is that the turret is there to deal with the 2-3 mutalisks that come, it is optional on hard mode, but you need this on Brutal, perhaps a second and you want to position your first barracks like on the top of your ramp to the left and your second one behind this with the turret right next to it.

Right, depending on whether you want to do the hard achievement you have a leisure of when you want to push out, its nice to push out around like 100 supply if you don't care for the hard achievement, if you do care about the achievement you should move out at around 70-80 supply, you get a couple of auto-saves so if you are late just move out earlier and repeat.

Onto the actual walkthrough though: I am going to move out at around 100 supply, leaving both bunkers full with the above composition and have all 4 barracks rallied to my main force, firstly move down your ramp and grab the artifact there.. move to the west towards the zerg and push up the ramp, there are 2 spine crawlers that will attack you as you move up: attack-move micro works wonders here and just attack the crawlers as you move up the ramp. There is a spore crawler (anti-air) and an overlord here aswell, take them down if you want but not necessary.

Continue moving west and south. Do not go north into the zerg front lines, although you could perhaps take it out, I personally haven't tried and don't want to :D. Once you move off the zerg creep (the purple stuff on the ground) continue moving south till you see 2 cannons, 2 pylons and a lone stalker (3 on Brutal), attack-move micro through them and take the small path to your east and pick up the artifact. Then move back to your ramp.

Ok, once you are back at your ramp you can start to push east, take out the units and the pylons first, taking these down powers down the cannons and they no longer attack. The golden rule is that taking down 1 cannon is quicker than 1 pylon, but 1 pylon is quicker than 2 cannons. Continue moving across the bridge where you will run into a new unit: the sentry, they forcefield you on the bridge, take down the pylons to the north and south of the bridge and then kill the sentries (On Brutal there is a High Templar here who storms your units, move them out of the storm and then kill him asap when the storm ends). Once this is done take down the powered-down cannons and the continue moving east around the path.

You should get to some protoss force at the bottom of the ramp consisting of some stalkers and zealots and cannons, take them out (on Hard mode there are 2 void rays here, stim your marines and take them out asap). There is a small path to the west, go down it and take out the 3 cannons and pylon located here, remember snipe the pylon first after the forward cannon and grab the relic.

Up the ramp is a Protoss base, attack move up there and demolish the force, you will see the sentries other moves here: Hallucination and Guardian Shield, you should focus on the Sentry first so your ranged attacks do more damage to the rest of the protoss army, take out the units first and then the cannons and then the probes (workers) and then the nexus then the rest of the buildings (on Brutal there are archons (and hallucinated archons) up here, they do lots of damage to your infantry so focus them down first).

Once the base is down there is the main bridge to the artifact and to the east of that is a small path with 2 pylons and a relic down here, just go and grab it and then go to the bridge, the sentries again forcefield you off. This time they have stalkers that hit past the forcefields which you can barely hit, snipe off the sentries then charge across the bridge and take out the stalkers.

Now depending on whether you want to do the achievement or not stop or just charge ahead to the artifact with your force. If you want to do the achievement, leave all your marines outside of the artifact area and take only your marauders and medics. When you go over the green thing the GUARDIANS will activate, they are basically reskinned colossii meaning they do aoe damage to your units, hence why you want to leave the weaker marines out of your force if you want to do the achievement, just choose the furthest left statue and surround it with your infantry and focus it down, then the south one and then the east one. If you want the achievement remember to pull back marauders/medics taking damage so they don't die.

Otherwise just attack-move to victory and watch the cut-scene. I was sure the dropship would get shot down since it showed it and had kerrigan saying I WONT UNDERESTIMATE YOU NEXT TIME, but alas it didn't (spoiler?).

When you get back to the ship you should have 110,000 credits and gain access to the mercenaries. Like I said earlier: YOU WANT THESE, hire the marauders for 30,000 leaving you with 80,000.

You now have access in the armory to Marauder tech

You Have 2 upgrades for Marauders:

Concussive Shells - The Marauders' attack now slows the Enemy (note it is in an area around the target unit and not just the target unit) (70,000)

Kinetic Foam - Increases the life of Marauders by 25 (90,000)

Concussive shells makes marauders so useful in a marauder/medic/marine ball in the campaign and so you should upgrade this without question, unless you want to skip marauders completely, if you do I would get the Combat Shield upgrade for Marines for the extra hp, Personally I like marauders in my ground army and they are very useful until you get 25 zerg tech.

Discussion: Because marauders are slow (relatively) to marines/medics a marine/medic ball is almost always more effective in the campaign because it is more mobile, however throwing a marauder or 3 in there to slow melee units definitly pays off. Marines and Medics are the backbone of any army really and adding Marauders means you have a low gas-usage compared to other options, you don't need the extra life on marauders but the aoe slow is soooo useful in balls.

Personally my strat will be a Medic/Marine/Tank/Vessel Army on most generic maps, with the mercenaries mixed in of course. However Marauders are very good till you get tanks and science vessels so I recommend getting these upgrades, and you will get the marauder mercs most games so you might aswell grab this upgrade imo, but getting faster combat shield is just as fine, I will get both.

Please note my strat above isn't that viable in multiplayer because you can't get medics and vessels in multiplayer, Marine/Tank is a reasonable strat, but it requires good macro and micro to pull off, the most similar strategy in multiplayer are MMM (Marines, Marauders and Medivac) armies, which is probably the easiest strategy to pull off, but I won't comment too much on multiplayer, just note it is far more viable in multiplayer because marauders gain stimpack.

Patrol Quest Hub (Durotar)

Ok, so before we get onto the actual quest feedback and whatever I am going to talk about Druid level 8, first a little pic to explain some stuff :D.

Ok, so you get Cat form at level 8, by the way this is AWESOME, it allows druids to try out both Balance and feral before having to specialise, this is super important imo considering that choosing your specialisation is meant to be a big deal and being able to try out both "flavours" of the class before choosing it, is important.

Secondly though, I'm going to talk about cat form for Trolls, the first time I saw screens for the troll cats I thouught "LOL!" they looked seriously dumb looking in my opinion. Actually seeing them in-game has made me seen that they do fit in, although their models need some work for one major reason

They look pretty much like Night elf Cats with a mane+tusks, I'd kinda like if they modelled them a little differently so they don't look like re-skinned night elfs, I'd also like it if they toned down the colors a little, not too much, but at the moment they seem a bit too ott that could certainly put people off wanting to be feral imo.

On to the actual questing then like firstly, I like the interactions of this quest, like you head up to the quest guy and they are like THE GUY U NEED TO HAND THE QUEST INTO IS UPSTAIRS, I mean that sort of stuff is so useful to people, especially a newer player who might just be looking at the map for a guide and not reading the quest text.

Secondly this quest is awesome, but it does contain a fundamental flaw, I'll come onto this later because you only think of this flaw after doing the subsequent quests, but its cool you use your quest item, the spyglass 4 times and it shows you the 4 next areas you are going to be questing in, you are then sent to go help these people, similar to the zuldrak patrol, you have to complete their 4 quest hubs to complete this over-arching quest, I personally loved that zuldrak quest hub (although I hated the zone due to that shitty abomination quest... grrr).

So yeh you are shown where you need to go for this quest and then are sent out to help the 4 people you saw in the like "cut-scenes".

The first guy you are shown is Raggaran so I obviously went to him first.

He is like RAWR QUILLBOAR ARE ANNOYING ME HATE U KILL ALL MUST DIE etc, so you go out kill some quillboar and he is like ARALWRRLARHALRAR KILL EVEN MOREE!!!!!, so you go and kill more. There is a rare here, as shown in my picture and he is actually REALLY strong, his enrage is like so... powerful I killed him but he killed me at the same time, personally I feel he is a little too powerful for an area you are hitting at level 8, also some of the quillboar here tend to multi-aggro so perhaps spreading them out a bit wouldn't go amiss.

I dinged level 9 here though, and after killing those final set of stuff he is like AHH I FINALLY CALMED DOWN and tells you to leave before he turns back into the hulk or w/e he is trying to impersonate.

Next I went to the hut..

and here is what I realised a fundamental flaw of the spyglass quest. It shows you the 4 locations in like the worst quest Order Possible, this quest here is like ESCORT ME TO RAGGARAN, and I'm like I've just been there... seriously?... really the spyglass quest NEEDS to show the areas in the optimum quest order, which imo is probably, almost, the reverse of the order it actually shows Farm->Hut->Raggaran->Bridge, for the most optimum quest order, I suppose at Raggaran you could go north to the quillboars and escort her on the way back, but the south west quillboars are much nearer so unless you knew this quest was going to be this than you would naturally go south west.

This quest though is actually a really awesome escort quest, you barely fight anything other than a few raptors on the way and maybe a few crocolisks (Can't remember) but the old orc is like CBA SWIMMING GIVE WATER WALKING BUFF, and she gives u one (it's especially powerful because melee attacks don't cause you to lose the buff like water walking/levitate) and then she's like AHHH SPRAINED MY ANKLE and is like RAWR I'M THRALL LIKE POWERFUL and summons a cyclone to lift her to raggaran, pretty damn awesome if you ask me. Obviously I was kinda annoyed that I had already done the Raggaran quests but ye, I moved on to the bridge quests..

Ok, so this troll guy is like I WISH I WAS A MEMBER OF DEHTA or w/e they are called on wow and asks you to chase off some birds into the barrens (which is ironic because the orc girl in the barrens later tells you to kill them (Spoilers? D:)) but the mechanics of this quest are cool, you attack them and at around 30% health they run away to the barrens, pretty cool.

You then get asked to kill this raptor thats gone rabid or something, this is also the first time they show you their new PORTRAIT TO DO WITH QUESTS thing, and tbh I wish all quests had this feature, its so nice immersive and helpful, its a great summary of the quest text, gives u a great visual stimulii to help on the quest and yeh, it's just a great addition, I really hope this gets put on most quests tbh. Anyway you kill this raptor (he does nothing special, a bit disappointing :() and thats the end of that hub, so onto the last area.

And she is like YO GO COLLECT 250!!!!!!!!! teeth to make this necklace for my lost son. Whilst this is cool, immedietly I am like WTF 250?!?!?!, but actually thinking about it now its actually adding some realism to wow, It would be kinda weird to kill say a crocodile in real life and only be able to take 1 tooth per kill, here you are collecting around 30 or so per crocolisk, which is realistic and so immersive (again props to the little portrait thing). This quest also nets you the typical 8-slot bag that you get in every starting zone now.

After this you go back and hand in the patrol quests, I also Magically dinged here unlocking talent specialisation to me (I think this should be separately pointed out when you ding along with the talent points. I took some nice screenshots of the masteries stuff, I might have already posted about it so I'm going to check, but a few summaries on this quest hub I LIKE these ways of spicing up generic kill/gather quests, they give you a sense of progression and are having an over-arching quest I just feel adds to the immersion of the kill quests.

:D