I managed to return to one hero only for this map, which I'm rather proud of. I'll always try to do a map with a single hero first until I determine that it's just not possible to do so. The strategy here is the same I used in my walkthrough video, where we use forward choke points to try to jam up the enemies as soon as possible, preventing them from reaching the Glare and preventing enemies like Vile Spawners and Noxious Spitters from getting out of control. That lets us set up the back half of the map to catch leaks as well as prepare for the boss fight.
There's not much subtlety to the micro here, besides obvious tactics like using reinforcements to stall Void Blinkers next to Archers to take them down. It's largely just a matter of fighting hard to keep the choke points intact as much as possible, so it's a good map to judge heroes on their fundamentals.
Impressions
This is one of those maps where a hero either needs to bring strong tanking ability to keep the Bladeclaw Horrors and Flesh Behemoths contained, or else strong DPS to burn down mobs as fast as possible. As such, Raelyn takes a very rare but well earned 'A-' for once. Her strong tanking, along with her ability to bring a second tank nearly as good as her, really helps her hold the choke points, allowing the Tricannons to do their job efficiently. This is an important part of Tricannon strategy - while it's nice they can target three different spots, it's always optimal to have all three shots going to nearly the same point, allowing mobs to be hit by all three.
On the other end of the spectrum, Therien really struggled here, earning a rare 'C'. As I mentioned a while back, Mindless Husks really counter her hard, constantly throwing Glarelings into the back where she stands and wasting her time by tying her up in meleeing them. Which is odd because while Nyru has the same problem, she did really well on this map. The only explanation I can offer is that Therien's hero spell is pretty bottom tier - the damage it does is decent, but it generally is counterproductive, as the damage is generally less than the damage enemies would take from towers during the duration. It's shades of Razz n' Rags from Origins all over again.
Speaking of surprises, Onagro snags an 'A' here despite my expectations. On the last map the lack of blocking was a severe detriment, and I expected that issue to only be worse here. However, he simply tore it up. Granted, this map is near-ideal for his hero spell, so that definitely helps, but this guy is simply a rollercoaster in terms of performance. On some maps his inability to block is a huge drawback and his DPS just seems too low to make up for it, but then on other maps it feels like he's no-scoping mobs left and right. I've never done standard deviation calculations on heroes' grades before, but I have little doubt his would be one of the highest if not the highest of any hero in the series.
I was originally going to give Kosmyr an 'A+' for this map, but I went back and knocked him down to an 'A' after playing with Broden. What Broden does to this map is simply a war crime. He simply destroys everything in his way, and he deserves to stand alone on top grade-wise for it.
Final Grades
- Vesper - B-
- Raelyn - A-
- Nyru - B+
- Torres - B+
- Anya - A
- Grimson - B-
- Broden - A+
- Therien - C
- Onagro - A
- Warhead - C+
- Lumenir - A
- Kosmyr - A
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