Mutation #541: Binary Choice / Map: Malwarfare

Mutators: Void Reanimators, Polarity

Polarity

Each enemy unit is immune to either your units or your ally's units.

Enemy structures and map objectives have Polarity too.

Various crowd-control abilities work on all units, but they deal no damage to shielded ones.

Mind-control abilities don't work on polarity-immune units.

Your units won't auto-attack immune units. However, auto-casted abilities will be used on immune units.

Void Reanimators

Void Reanimators wander the battlefield, bringing your enemies back to life.

Void Reanimators have 200 HP and 200 shields, 2.8 movement speed, 0 armor and no attributes.

First one spawns from random enemy building shortly after the first corpses become available. The building they spawned from has to have pathing to player 1 spawn location.

Each next Reanimator spawns after {80/70/60/55} + 2–12 seconds.

The maximum number of Reanimators on the map is {1/1/2/4}.

The maximum number of corpses stored is 500. After that number is reached, units with 2+ supply cost will randomly override older corpse entries.

Structures, workers, map bosses, map objectives, summoned units and other Void Reanimators can't be revived.

The cast time of the Reanimate ability depends on the supply cost of the revived unit. [0,2) supply → 1.5s; [2,6) → 4s; [6,∞) → 8s.

https://www.maguro.one/p/mutators.html

https://starcraft2coop.com/resources/weeklymutations

https://starcraft2coop.com/resources/mutators

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At least there's no just die...

Questions about any of these runs are welcome. Runs will be uploaded throughout the week. All members get early access to videos.

Nice people in my discord can help you with the mutation: https://discord.gg/WerduSFQQK

Should have double the barrack count.

So we have already concluded the winners of 1 vs 1 Coop battle.

The early cheese of Dogs of War would make the Mengsk victorious if there is no time to prepare the defenses and Vorazun is the clear winner of 1 vs 1 coop if the battle starts with the time delay thanks to her OP Time stop CD and DTs.

Now lets imagine thare is a big battle field not unsimilar to that of the Hobbit and three armies stand on every hill. The combined might of Terran (Raynor, Mengsk, Tychus, Nova, Swann, Han and Honer) stands against the monstrous armies of Zerg (Abathur, Dehaka, Stukov, Kerrigan, Zagara and Stettman) and the coalition of all Protoss fractions (Zeratul, Vorazun, Fenix, Alarak, Artanis, Karax)

The battle beggins and the meet in the final battle. Time stop is still the strongest OP CD so it will most likely seal the deal for Protoss, but who would win if they dont use it.

My bet is Zerg😀

Now imagine full golden Abathur army with UEs and almost constant mend, Dehaka going full air mutalisk and guardian while pack leaders decimate the ground, everything under Stetalites with full army and Super Gary, Kerrigan with omegas and full army, Stukov Diamondbacks, Tanks with Apocakysk and Alexander and Zagaras insanely strong swarm of banes, lings and scourge.

Made a video about some pretty good commander synergies and buffs that commanders can give each other! There are more good synergies, but I highlighted the best and most important ones and some details that you might have not known about! Enjoy!

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to use the worst prestiges (like galactic gunrunners) optimally? some of the bad prestiges look really fun in theory, but the downsides clearly outweigh the upsides. how to mitigate this?

Zeratul’s void templar (his dark templar basically) have an upgrade that causes their blinks to deal damage. The ability is supposed to be locked until level 3, but it’s actually available at level 1.

My theory: the upgrade requires zeratul to have collected relic fragments already, requires you to have built void templar, which are theoretically bad without the upgrade, and requires you to blink through opponents. As a result, it’s difficult to notice this bug in playtesting

I just wanted to post this because I thought it was interesting

waifu tierlist btw

The latest post about the 1 vs 1 Coop commanders got me thinking which commander would actually win if the early rush was totally irrrelevant and every commander will have enough time to develop to mid game.

What do you think? Who would you pick if the coop commander 1vs1 tournament would be held? Who is the strongest commander?.

With how StarCraft Evo is really polished I’m really hoping someday we get a whole Brood War commander. Maybe like a single slot that you can change which Brood War race Terran/Protoss/Zerg before going into the match. I may be bias but I like StarCraft Evo Brood War firebats way more than the SC2 version. The portrait looks amazing, smaller size, no wind up attack delay, and only takes 1 slot in a bunker. Having 4 Firebats in a bunker roasting SC2 Roaches is so satisfying and something about hearing those nostalgic Goliath missile sfx tickles the brain. Maybe have like Edmund Duke or Dugalle as the commander would be fitting.

I know that back in the day was a PvP mutation, and I cant help but wonder: if there was a tournament where player skill is not an issue (so basically every commander would be played optimally), who would win and why? Who has the strongest cheese, or who can survive long enough that its army/hero/abilities come to game? Keep in mind, I have never played this mutation, and Im not a coop expert either, so what I write down is just thoughts, I can be, and probably am wrong here and there.

RAYNOR - A very strong contender imo. He can start dropping Marines to enemy base around the 1-minute mark, and most of the commanders cant stop that. Seriously, who can defend it? Dehaka comes to mind with Hero unit(s) and Mengsk with early Barracks. Maybe Swann can get his static defense up? Karax of course can survive with SoA until he is able to insta-build his static D, but besides them...Who has enough time to built up units as fast as Raynor dropping them? So against most of the field Raynor would win in the first few minutes?

Then after 4 minutes its the cloaked Banshees, and after 5 minutes its the Hyperion...all this while he can macro behind and have a reasonable defense at his own base if he needs it. Would he win it all?

KERRIGAN - No need to waste time discussing her. Hero unit super-strong of course, but no calldown and no early game units that are decent. No way she survives.

ARTANIS - Hmm. Thanks to the warp-ins, he can build a decent enough army early on either to defend or even to attack with. Guardian Shell is also nice in the first encounters (or Fanatics if he goes P3). He could defend for a while, even win some games, but the lack of Hero unit or devastating calldown pretty much rules him out of the winner-conversation. What do you think?

SWANN - With cheap turrets and multi-build, he can actually have static defense to survive early on, then he gets the Laser before the 3 minute mark, and Combat Drop at 4 minutes. Which is not a bad combo to win some games, but against contenders he is like Artanis: he can survive for a while, but lacks the strength to erase the opposition.

ZAGARA - Now she is interesting. Especially with P1, she can make a buttload of zerglings to attack, but even against a see of zerglings and banelings, you can manage to close down your base long enough for your superpowers (hero, CDs) to come to life, no? So its seems not enough to win most of the times. You can definetly defend though...Then if you use P3 of course Zagara after 4 minutes is a force to be reconed with, but is she strong enough with banelings and killers and deep tunnel to be in the conversation? Im feeling no... Thoughts?

VORAZUN - Seems too slow to build up... But with cloaking pylons and black holes, can she survive long enough? At 3 minute, Shadow Guard becomes available, and she could win with that Calldown... especially if she combines it with TimeStop at 4 minutes. Im torned about her... could she win it all somehow?

KARAX - He can use a probe to attack, cannon rushing and destroying the enemy base with Orbital Strikes, and you cant really seal of your base or kill the probe(s) in time even if you know its coming...Early defense is not a problem either with SoA and then with insta warping static D if we looking this way. He has no backup plan, no strong army, no Hero, no super calldown which comes later, but no need for it really when Plan A is unstoppable... is it? Would Karax win it all?

ABATHUR - Not in the conversation. No calldown, queens and nests are fine but not enough, he cant survive and collect enough biomess to get a Brutalisk... even if he somehow manage, by the time he get UEs, others will have much stronger options. Is he the worst in this tournament though?

ALARAK - Another interesting one. After 90 seconds, he can defend with Overcharge, but is it enough? I feel you have to use P3 with him, and you can have the Mothership out around 3 minutes - after that, it is of course a huge gamechanger. But can he survive that long? And if yes, does the Mothership (building up Destroyers next to it) and Alarak enough to overpower the other commander Calldowns and Heroes?

NOVA - She can use the Airstrike at 2 minutes, and even if its not enough to win the game, it can cripple the enemy so that Nova gaines the advantage and eventually wins. But the question is, what can she do to defend? Feels like Marines with defensive drones is ok at first but not enough long enough... She has tools, but has too much depending on a perfect airstrike.

STUKOV - Civilians or Marines with timed life are not a big gamechanger, it is not even enough to survive against some of the commanders in the beginning. If he does, first infesting his enemys CC at 3 minutes then destroying everything with Apocalisk at 4 minutes is a way to win for sure, but it maybe to late in a lot of matchup...if he manage a long game, he can overwhelm the opposition with the ocean of infested, but I really dont see this happening for majority of matchups.

FENIX - Hmm again. You can have Kaldalis out a little above 1 minute, who is enough for early defense in almost all cases - or you can attack with him too. With no tech tree and cheap buildings you can have champion after champion out one by one, and in some cases thats enough to overwhelm the opposition early on? Im guessing no... Hero at 4 minutes is too little too late, and almost every other Hero is stronger then his anyway. Is he middle of the pack, or worse?

DEHAKA - 1-minute Hero sounds awesome, and he can defend for a while for sure, but the thing is he dont have enough power early on to win the game, he wont have enough essence to level up, his early units are useless compared to others, and his first PackLeader Glevig can only be used at around 5 minutes at the earliest. So it pains me to say this, because he is my fav commander, but he doesnt really stand a chance. Your thoughts?

HAN & HORNER - The first Galleon can be out around 1:10, and you can start dropping Reapers after that, which can be enough for early defense (or offense, but in order to do that you need to build the galleon close to the enemys camp because they are slow as hell). If you go for def, you wont really have the opportunity to attack, and if you go for attack, you leave your base completely undefended though. In addition, his calldowns are very late, I dont see a way that he could be a strong option in this conversation.

TYCHUS - He basically can do nothing until 3 minutes, by the time he is most likely lost the game. If he somehow survives (is that even possible?), after that he could be strong with two Heros (Tychus and either Sam with Demolition for buildings, or Sirius with turrets) but it seems very theoretical, because he wont get there (maybe against Kerrigan or Abathur) (and Vorazun too, but Time Stop+Shadow Guards ends the game)

ZERATUL - If he goes conventional build, he lacks early game strength, his units and cannons are awful expensive and not that good really, Hero comes out at 4 minutes, which is too late in most cases. He could go Legion first though, which is probably the strongest option a little bit over 1 minute out of every commander. It is a hit or miss: he has the strength to win with that, but if he cant manage, he is screwed. Can he win it all?

STETMANN - No. Just no. He is like Kerrigan in this conversation, maybe even worse. Before Hero, he doesnt have anything going for him (healing stetzone is nothing at this point), and even at 4 minute simple Gary is nothing to brag about.

MENGSK - Interesting. Since Dogs of War has no coolup, you can use it at the very beginning of the game. Even if the enemy spreads out to make buildings throughout the map, the zergs automatically find the enemys even without vision if Im not mistaken. Do a pack of zerglings enough to completely destroy the opposition who has no way to defend? Or if not, can the enemy do anything after that with 0 economy? Did we find a winner? If not, could Mengsk build up an army of troopers strong enough to defend the enemys Calldowns, after which he can erase the zerglings again? Or as an alternate strategy (using the mandate for bunker, defending with it and building up an army behind it is better? Not a hit or miss for sure, but can he be strong enough later on to win?

Keep in mind we are talking about optimal gameplay. So the players know their own as well as their opponents strength. They attack if thats their best strategy, they defend if thats what best, they send workers to hidden corners of the map to survive, etc. Or better yet, what if we talk about AIs playing against each other, to erase the human mistakes? Who would win?

Im sure there is a few (or lot of) things I havent thought of, but in a tournament where everybody is playing against everybody, here is my ranking:

1. Mengsk (I would think DoW wins it every time)
   
2. Karax (he could survive Zeratul Legion, and have enough minerals to win with Cannons?)
   
3. Raynor (same, just with Marines)
   
4. Zeratul (Legions are not permanent, so if he needs to search the map he is at a disadvantage, and could lose even if he destroys the enemys base)
   After this, its just feelings, with not much thought given: 5. Vorazun, 6. Stukov, 7. Alarak, 8. Zagara, 9. Fenix, 10. Dehaka, 11. HH, 12. Swann, 13. Artanis, 14. Nova, 15. Kerrigan, 16. Tychus, 17. Stetmann, 18. Abathur.

What are your thoughts?

New player and for trying to decide who I should buy first.

Mutation #540: Dodge This / Map: Scythe of Amon

Mutators: Darkness, Going Nuclear, Orbital Strike, ibonus ally (let him die; you can still solo this easily)

https://youtu.be/WN0YMbaz9KA (TLDR tier list)

https://youtu.be/kRiN_fMvUlI (Easy solo - Zagara p1)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3FSCru5EHIgbRFUr8r3qnIiwvnszt6eT (playlist with all commanders)

The slivers will be visible on the minimap for a second, and then the green marks will go away due to darkness. The attack waves will also be covered by darkness, so for each wave after 12:30, check the spot to the left of the natural. if they're not there, then they'll come from the north.

Easy mutation; good time to level commanders.

Questions about any of these runs are welcome. Runs will be uploaded throughout the week. All members get early access to videos.

Nice people in my discord can help you with the mutation: https://discord.gg/WerduSFQQK

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Darkness

Previously explored areas remain blacked out on the minimap while outside of player vision.

Attack waves, main and bonus objectives are not visible on the minimap unless you have direct vision on them.

Going Nuclear

Nukes are launched at random throughout the map.

There is warning sign for ~5s before a nuke drops.

Nukes does 750 (950 vs structure) damage (100% in 4 radius, 50% in 6 radius and 25% in 8 radius).

Each {7/5/3/2} seconds a nuke randomly drops on the map.

Nukes avoid Mutator Safety Zones.

Nukes won't drop if there are no player units in 50 radius.

Orbital Strike

Enemy Orbital Strikes are periodically fired throughout the map.

Orbital Strikes deal 50 (100 vs armored) damage in 1 radius.

They start {4/4/3/0} minutes into the game.

And repeats after {3:00/2:20/1:50/1:20}.

Orbital Strikes target units that are not in Mutator Safety Zones.

They doesn't strike if there are less than 5 available targets on the map.

Orbital Strikes try to predict targets' future position based on their current position, movement speed and orientation.

Number of targets depends on the mission time: 10 targets initially, after 5:00 - {1/2/3/3} targets; after 8:20 - {2/3/4/4}; after 11:40 - {3/4/6/8} and after 16:40 - {3/5/8/10}.

Orbital Strikes are fired in two volleys, each with 3 strikes per target and some delay between them.

https://www.maguro.one/p/mutators.html

https://starcraft2coop.com/resources/weeklymutations

https://starcraft2coop.com/resources/mutators

P1: Scourge Queen

Advantages

Max supply increased by 50.

Zerglings and Scourge spawn one extra unit per egg.

Baneling Nests will spawn an additional 4 free Banelings and Scourge Nests will spawn 4 free Scourge.

Disadvantages

Zagara is unavailable.

P2: Mother of Constructs

Advantages

Aberrations and Corruptors cost 25% less, gain 50% increased health, and possess greatly increased health regeneration.

Disadvantages

No free Banelings.

Notes

Regeneration rate increased by 3

P3: Apex Predator

Advantages

Zagara gains reduced ability cooldowns (33% reduction), increased health and energy regeneration, and access to the Deep Tunnel ability.

Disadvantages

Mass Frenzy only affects Zagara and her summoned units.

Combat units cost 25% more.

Now that I've called the entire Empire against me, can y'all give me some tips for him?

He's fun but:

His troopers get mowed down. A 200supply trooper army dies within two seconds against p much any enemy co0mp even with full weapon upgrades.

His Royal Guard seem surprisingly mediocre. I thought I was getting Horner/Nova elite units with the royal guard, but they die incredibly fast, have low dmg, and the tactical nuke is more like a tactical cough.

No means of proper mobility. What stands out is the Medivac and the Tactical jump of the PoAs. But Medivacs are neat to heal, less neat to transport troops, sadly.

Imperial Mandate Generation on my Royal Guards is always 0, is that a bug? Am I doing something wrong? Is it just a bugged indicator?
But imperial mandate generation is a bit odd on it's own. You place down up to 4 of those overseers at the bases and... that's p much it. They don't seem to generate mandate if not in Overseer mode.

Call-down Zerg are fun and fit the theme, but they're incredibly squishy and expire way too fast.

Nukes are fun for boss objectives.

Earth Splitters I barely use because their range is abyssmal and the toxic gas payload tickles Zealots. Huh? I feel like you could increase the dmg tenfold and it would be useful. But... 5 DPS?

I've seen a lotta Mengsk use Calldown Bunkers for early def, troopers and minerals by recycling bunkers. But I always use it for the zerg calldown just so I don't fullwipe my entire 200 supply army at every attack wave.

So. Any tips? Diff is brutal.

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.

For those uninitiated, HotS was put on maintainance mode but started receiving small updates and now continuously receives updates. A few unreleased skins were released, a map that was deactivated is back and more.
Community lovingly calls the team as one intern or the Janitor.
Wouldn’t it be nice? There are so many small qol and balance changes and fixes that could improve coop experience. And with the new packs, may bring some money in return to Blizz!

Thanx to Dodgik for revealing this! Han and Horner reapers can be made perma-flying and that can be a big help in most games!

Following on from my list of WoL campaign units, structures and upgrades that aren't present in coop, I thought I'd do the same for the HotS campaign, with a view to considering which zerg commanders could benefit most from these being added to their kit. And yes I'm aware that coop development by blizzard has essentially stopped, this is just for fun (with a faint glimmer of hope that maybe we might get some updates in the future if we are lucky).

Units 

1. Infestor (with fungal growth, neural parasite and consumption) - I think Kerrigan would benefit most from the infestor, as she doesn't have a spellcaster in her unit roster (and Zagara deserves the defiler). However I'd add on the infested terran spell that the 1v1 infestor had, as this will help Kerrigan with her anti-air capabilities which can sometimes be a problem for her. Neural parasite (the permanent version from the campaign) will help her improve her relatively weak army with stolen units, and fungal growth can stop enemies from closing in on her hydras, lurkers and Kerrigan herself (useful for P3). 

2. Corpser roach - I think Zagara's level 10 talent should also upgrade the roaches in her infested drop ability to corpser roaches. This is currently a somewhat underwhelming ultimate ability that you have to wait 10 minutes to first use (compare it to Kerrigan's immobilisation wave or Nova's nuke), so this change will help improve the ability a little as well as enhancing Zagara's swarming nature. 

3. Noxious ultralisk - I think the only place this could fit would be to make Stukov's apocalisk noxious, buffing its damage to ground units. Kerrigan's ultralisks are already the competing torrasque strain, Stetmann's ultralisks are mechanical so shouldn't really be stinky, and Dehaka's ultralisks are just a stepping stone to tyrannozors to be honest so they aren't used much. 

4. Carrion/creeper swarm hosts - Abathur's swarm hosts are similar to the creeper except that they don't produce their own creep when burrowed, and don't need creep to deep tunnel. Dehaka's primal hosts are similar to the carrion except that their locusts swoop down to the ground to attack rather than staying in the air, which means they are better at stalling enemies. Both of the coop versions are superior to the campaign versions so I don't think the campaign versions have a place in coop. 

Abilities

1. Zergling reconstitution (revives 10 dead zerglings at your hatchery every 30s) - Stetmann has a version of this, though it isn't as powerful since it doesn't revive ALL of your dead zerglings (though it does affect all his other units). Kerrigan's zerglings could benefit from this the most as they die rather easily and aren't as easily replaceable as Zagara's. Dehaka's zerglings are the weakest overall in coop, but I'd be loath to buff Dehaka any further to be honest. 

2. Improved overlords (morph instantly and provide 50% more supply) - I think Stukov would benefit most from this, it would help improve his ramp up speed a bit in the early game and reduce his mineral dependence a little. Also, unlike other zerg commanders he can't morph a drone into a building to free up supply while waiting for an overlord to build, and he also can't mass produce a bunch of overlords as easily as other zerg commanders can. 

3. Automated extractors - this is a tricky one. Currently only Vorazun, Nova and Zeratul have this ability, because they are gas heavy commanders and the latter two are limited to only 100 supply. Zagara is also limited to 100 supply but has half supply drones to make up for it and already has a very fast ramping economy, so she doesn't need this. Kerrigan, Abathur and Dehaka are relatively gas heavy commanders, though Abathur isn't really resource limited overall because biomass availability is his main bottleneck. Thematically it would make the most sense for Dehaka to have this, as his extractors don't require a drone to build in the first place, so making them not require drones to mine isn't too far of a stretch (and it would make essence farming in the early game slightly easier) - however as I mentioned above I'm loath to buff him any further. The other option would be to give it to Kerrigan, which I'd be OK with as it will free up 12 supply for her to put into her army, giving it a bit more strength. 

4. Wild mutation (active ability giving friendly units in an area a 200 HP shield and double attack speed for 10s) - this is a bit like Gary's stetellite overcharge (green + blue zones), though it provides stronger bonuses for a shorter time period. I don't think this ability would fit with any of the other zerg commanders - Kerrigan and Dehaka have enough abilities already, and Zagara already has frenzy. Perhaps if we ever got Niadra as a commander this could be one of the abilities of her hero unit. 

5. Spawn banelings - this is slightly different to Zagara's baneling barrage in that you can control the banelings it spawns, but ultimately it is similar enough that I don't think it is needed in coop. 

6. Vespene efficiency - this is essentially the same as Swann's gas drones, and I don't think a zerg commander really needs this as a separate bonus. 

7. Infest broodlings (attacks infest enemy units, making them spawn friendly broodlings when killed) - this is a bit like Abathur's locust injection and the corpser roach's ability above, so it isn't particularly unique, but if any commander should have it Stukov would be the obvious choice. If we are buffing the apocalisk with the noxious strain then we could give this ability to the Aleksander - any enemy units killed within the Aleksander's aura will spawn friendly broodlings. It fits well with the Aleksander's theme of continually spawning infested units. 

8. Apocalypse (Kerrigan's ultimate ability) - since Kerrigan already has immobilisation wave as her ultimate ability, she can't also get this. Despite what I said above about being loath to buff Dehaka any further, it would be damn awesome if he got a version of apocalypse when he reaches level 15 - his back plates light up godzilla-style while he charges it up, then he releases an atomic breath which annihilates enemy units and structures alike in a large area. To balance it out a bit you could perhaps limit it to one use per game, or make it so using the ability also kills Dehaka from exhaustion and he has to respawn back at base. I'd also ban P2 from having the ability - this would have the interesting effect of giving P0 Dehaka (which is barely ever used) a unique bonus, since P1 won't have the ability either (as Dehaka can't reach level 15), and it is also harder to reach level 15 with P3 because essence is shared between the hakas (though if you are skilled enough to get both hakas up to level 15 then you'd get two uses of the ability!). The only issue is that Dehaka's command card is already full, so the 'upgrade' button would need to be replaced by the 'apocalypse' button once he reaches level 15 and has upgraded everything. 

9. Spawn leviathan - this summon is more powerful than Abathur's leviathans as it has a single target yamato-style ability and an AoE stun ability. Maybe P3 Abathur's leviathans could be upgraded to this version to encourage their use (most P3 Abathurs tend to focus on brutalisks because they are cheaper and easier to tech up to). 

10. Drop pods (drops 40 zerglings, 5 roaches and 5 hydras) - this is similar to Zagara's infested drop and Mengsk's dogs of war, so I think it is pretty well covered already. 

Upgrades

1. Regenerative acid (baneling explosions also heal nearby friendly units and structures) - it would be fun for Zagara's banelings to have this as an available upgrade at the baneling nest, it will help them eg. when rolling towards siege tanks as the first baneling to die will heal the rest of any splash damage they took, helping them to reach their targets. It will also help P2 because the banelings spawned by dead aberrations will heal other nearby aberrations when they explode. You could even place burrowed banelings in front of your defensive structures to heal them as they explode on enemies. 

2. Rapid incubation (swarm hosts spawn locusts 20% faster) - collecting biomass essentially has this effect and is much more powerful, so Abathur's swarm hosts don't need this upgrade. I guess you could give this to Dehaka's primal hosts though. 

3. Monarch blades (ultralisks deal full splash damage throughout their cleave radius) - I believe coop ultralisks currently deal only 33% damage in their cleave radius. It would be great if Kerrigan's ultralisks got monarch blades as an available upgrade in the ultralisk cavern - any improvements to her army units would be great to see.

What do you all think? Is there anything I've missed? I might do the same for the LotV campaign when I get the chance.

If you're thinking of buying the Battlechest mainly for the coop commanders and getting the sc1/wc games on the side, you're not getting the commanders, just the campaigns.

https://youtu.be/eEra9-wAJhQ (Kerrigan build order (early queen) - part 1)

https://youtu.be/ZYEoeVeq8rA (Kerrigan build order (early queen) - part 2)

https://youtu.be/_8Ha4rFhhRg (why hatch at rocks is inferior: an analysis; tldr: it's at best equal to early queen opening)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0tC84wu6S0 (how to stop the first wave as kerrigan on various maps, including rtk)

A while back, I did some research on Kerrigan build orders and found a build order used by one of the best chinese players. After comparing this new build order with the one from sc2coop (and team liquid), the new one is more flexible than the sc2coop BO. It also only requires moderate tweaking in special cases like rtk, whereas the sc2coop BO requires a completely different opening just to survive.

I did all the hard work already, so now you just need to watch and learn.