Karax Joins Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void Co-Op Missions

One of the best features of Legacy of the Void is the introduction of Co-op missions, once dubbed as Allied Commanders. It is now possible to do campaign like missions against AI with a friend for maximum entertainment. The Co-op mode has different commanders for all races and they all have different units, abilities, talents, structures etc.

Blizzard will be adding more missions and commanders to this Co-op mode. However, these additional commanders will sadly be purchased with money. Although fortunately for us the first commander that was introduced is available to all players for free and this commander is Karax the Phasesmith. I should mention again that from now on, the next commanders being added to the game will have to be purchased.

I was happy once I read that another Protoss commander was joining the ranks as I'm a Protoss player myself and Karax boasts some of the best units that the Protoss arsenal can offer. Immortals, Carriers and Collossus, what more can I want? (except my most favourite units Dark Templars; but my main commander, Vorazun, provides that fix for me).

But my happiness was immediately transformed into severe anger and frustration for a number of reasons once I got a chance to play Karax. Karax is possibly the most defensive commander of all. He has Monolith, Photon Cannons and Shield Batteries as structures. He can also use Energizers as force fields to be able to warp in these buildings or units which works really well with other Protoss commanders. However, Karax himself can only warp in Zealots and Energizers from Gateway so he can't fully take advantage of these Energizers until after his level 11 ability which lets him warp in Pylons and other defensive structures I mentioned instantly. His main offensive units come from Robotics Bay and Stargate.

Karax's main problem lies in the prices of his units. A regular Carrier costs 300 minerals and 250 vaspene gas whereas Karax's Carriers cost 525 minerals and 375 vaspene gas. These inflated prices are applied to every single unit of Karax which makes him one of the weakest commanders in early game especially for aggressive maps. His anti air is also almost non-existent in early game; but towards mid and late game, you can warp in Phoenixes and Carriers, for a price of course...

Yes, Karax's units are brutally expensive but the Phasesmith has certainly perfected the Spear of Adun to fully utilize its powers for maximum advantage. Solar Forge structure allows Karax to upgrade Spear of Adun with a number of abilities and utilities. Until you level up to unlock new upgrades, the initial upgrade in Solar Forge allows Karax to gain more energy to use Spear of Adun abilities a lot more often. One of the best features of Karax's Spear of Adun is being able to cast unlimited number of Orbital Strikes with no cooldown which naturally becomes your prime ability to aid your ally in early game. He also has a Chrono Boost ability that gives a 200% bonus speed to production time for him and his ally (upgraded to 500% as you level up). I find this rather useless as Karax can't queue up that many units to begin with due to their extremely high costs. So far I only truly got maximum use of the Chrono Boost to saturate my 2nd base as quickly as possible.

The second big problem with Karax is that his level 11 ability should definitely be swapped with 1. Once Karax reaches level 11, he is then able to warp in Pylons, Shield Batteries, Monoliths and Cannons INSTANTLY, similar to his hero ability during a certain campaign mission in Legacy of the Void where his body acts as a force field and he is able to warp in a Cannon instantly to aid you. This ability is very important for Karax as he will be able to use his Cannons offensively as well as defensively. With this ability, he can instantly warp in Cannons in the middle of battle on the force fields provided from Energizers or Pylons that can also be warped in instantly. If this level 11 ability was level 1, Karax would also become pretty effective in early game as well and he would be much more fun to level up. Because in his current state right now, it's just such a terrible drag that it feels like torture. I feel like I'm punishing myself when I play Karax, and this is extremely upsetting because he is an intriguing commander with a fresh take on Protoss gameplay.

When I did a mission with my ally as Artanis, by the time I could warp in only 2-3 Immortals, he was already pretty much done with the entire mission. If I had level 11 ability, I could have at least felt more useful. I really hope that Karax's abilities will be tweaked because currently; until late game, there is nothing substantial to do but spam Orbital Strike until you get your economy up and running which just happens too late...

Karax might be pretty weak in early game but he is definitely one of the best commanders for late game. He just isn't that very entertaining to play... Instead I'll just get back to my OP Vorazun, who really needs to be nerfed, and solo Brutal missions with my most favourite units, Dark Templars! :P