As an Anarchist I love fire. I have been playing Kinsano non-stop because she lights -Yoink- up and has a mech. Not because I heard she was OP. But I like stealth and I heard Shipmaster is a sneaky beaver. I’ve also heard he is maybe the worst Leader in the game, and I haven’t played a single ranked game as a Covenant leader. Just some games against the A.I. when I was considering switching to the Covenant. If anyone has any advice on how to play Shipmaster please share.
I’m also in the “Halo Nation” club on XBL. I recommend people get on there. I met some people to party with and its pretty handy for coordinating games with others.
I would help you but I’m a fascist myself.
> 2716903703776124;1:
> As an Anarchist I love fire. I have been playing Kinsano non-stop because she lights -Yoink- up and has a mech. Not because I heard she was OP. But I like stealth and I heard Shipmaster is a sneaky beaver. I’ve also heard he is maybe the worst Leader in the game, and I haven’t played a single ranked game as a Covenant leader. Just some games against the A.I. when I was considering switching to the Covenant. If anyone has any advice on how to play Shipmaster please share.
> I’m also in the “Halo Nation” club on XBL. I recommend people get on there. I met some people to party with and its pretty handy for coordinating games with others.
Thanks for the heads up buddy, will join the club, …always looking for a couple of good team mates.
Shipmaster is far from the worst leader in the game. He’s probably the second or third best. He’s definitely top-tier, though.
How you play him will largely depend on your goals. If you’re booming tech 2 he’s exceptionally good with locusts. He can also rush with ghosts or jump brutes like a lot of Atriox players. Mid to late game will rely a lot on his Displacement ability. With its very short cooldown, you can displace entire enemy armies far distances for only 300 power, allowing you to focus on other issues such as another army or a base.
I don’t have the time to post a full comprehensive guide but just know he is FAR from the worst leader in the game, lol.
Shipmaster
-get displacement
-walk hero cloaked into enemy base
-teleport enemy army either far away or right in front of your base so they get demolished
-walk into opponents base and slaughter them
OR
-walk leader cloaked into base
-teleport your entire army of locusts into the back of enemy base
-level base in 10 seconds
LASTLY
-build army
-head to opponent base
-see opponent army, transfer them far away
-proceed with annihilating base
I don’t like Shipmaster gameplay, but anytime I have faced one those are the 3 things that happen. Displacement is probably the single most annoying leader ability. To watch your whole army dissappear to somewhere else is frustrating. It’s not OP or anything, just annoying.
He’s amazing. After playing Cutter for ages and then swapping to Atriox I realised I could not handle how slow his army is hen you add infantry.
Becuse shipmaster gets banished raid your hunters aren’t quite as slow so you can actually add them to locust compositions and not get totally out-speed, which is nice. Also his locusts have longer sight range than most which is also nice.
The huge teleport is very helpful as is extraction. Great for sniping minibases with locusts - teleport 'em over, then extract them to safety after getting the kill. And displacement is just glorious… Glorious. Teleporting vulnerable enemy forces behind you into your suicide grunts and then wiping them as they try to run past your army to escape. Glorious.
He also has a far stronger spirit support ability. Since 1 lv3 hunter+2 engineeers is way better tahn 2suicide grunts AND his spirit hangs around and shoots at enemies unlike the atriox.
And while not quite as durable I like ghosts because they are faster than choppers. That is not so good vs marines, but vs JRs it is awesome. You can usually kill 1-3 in the early game before the foe gains critical mass of them with upgrades. Hard to do that with a chopper.
> 2533274812650916;4:
> Shipmaster is far from the worst leader in the game. He’s probably the second or third best. He’s definitely top-tier, though.
>
> How you play him will largely depend on your goals. If you’re booming tech 2 he’s exceptionally good with locusts. He can also rush with ghosts or jump brutes like a lot of Atriox players. Mid to late game will rely a lot on his Displacement ability. With its very short cooldown, you can displace entire enemy armies far distances for only 300 power, allowing you to focus on other issues such as another army or a base.
>
> I don’t have the time to post a full comprehensive guide but just know he is FAR from the worst leader in the game, lol.
Why is Shipmaster good with Locusts? That seems like something I’d be able to learn quickly as I mainly played Kinsano for the FlameHogs and would regularly go for 2 Garages to double pump and I’m assuming I could almost mirror that with a Covie Locust build just by building an extra Gen instead of extra supply.
But I’d rather play with Jump Pack Brutes. That sounds really cool to me and I’ll end up trying that I’m sure. I love the idea of amassing an army of Brutes. Is there mine ability good?
> 2716903703776124;7:
> > 2533274812650916;4:
> > Shipmaster is far from the worst leader in the game. He’s probably the second or third best. He’s definitely top-tier, though.
> >
> > How you play him will largely depend on your goals. If you’re booming tech 2 he’s exceptionally good with locusts. He can also rush with ghosts or jump brutes like a lot of Atriox players. Mid to late game will rely a lot on his Displacement ability. With its very short cooldown, you can displace entire enemy armies far distances for only 300 power, allowing you to focus on other issues such as another army or a base.
> >
> > I don’t have the time to post a full comprehensive guide but just know he is FAR from the worst leader in the game, lol.
>
> Why is Shipmaster good with Locusts? That seems like something I’d be able to learn quickly as I mainly played Kinsano for the FlameHogs and would regularly go for 2 Garages to double pump and I’m assuming I could almost mirror that with a Covie Locust build just by building an extra Gen instead of extra supply.
>
> But I’d rather play with Jump Pack Brutes. That sounds really cool to me and I’ll end up trying that I’m sure. I love the idea of amassing an army of Brutes. Is there mine ability good?
Mass cloaking is beast along with his teliportation abilities. You have an army of cyclops rushing and you buy mass cloak for 800 then you will easily kill all the cyclops. Mix in a few wraiths and your good. Cutter calls in close air support? No problem use mass cloak and they won’t even bother you.
He has a teliportation ability relatively early that you can upgrade to transport more troops away from danger or move your Locust across the map faster.
Scout mine is great for taking out 5-7 marine squads if you drop it correctly. Not only that but it’s good for keeping site on a crucial area of the map and Can be upgraded to do more damage and have an increased field of vision.
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Any specific build order for a Jump Pack Brute Rush?
Let 'Volir is my favorite leader, mostly because he is a Sangheili. But I think the key with him to be as annoying as possible. Using his abilties to distract and damage the enemy. But I’m not super pro so I can’t give you advanced strategies and stuff like that. I’m sure other people will though.
Stay determined. That’ll help.
Other than that, build up a good army with plenty of diversity, teleport behind the enemy base, wreck everything, rebuild any lost units, rinse, repeat. Take advantage of the Spirit Support ability if you lose any Engineers.
So do I drop the mines right on people and buildings? Does it work that way? Or do you usually put them on power nodes and whatever choke points there are?
> 2533274812650916;4:
> Shipmaster is far from the worst leader in the game. He’s probably the second or third best. He’s definitely top-tier, though.
>
> How you play him will largely depend on your goals. If you’re booming tech 2 he’s exceptionally good with locusts. He can also rush with ghosts or jump brutes like a lot of Atriox players. Mid to late game will rely a lot on his Displacement ability. With its very short cooldown, you can displace entire enemy armies far distances for only 300 power, allowing you to focus on other issues such as another army or a base.
>
> I don’t have the time to post a full comprehensive guide but just know he is FAR from the worst leader in the game, lol.
I also haven’t seen anyone go cloaked marauders (VIA. Leader ability) which could be pretty annoying at very least.
As has been stated… Shipmaster is easily the third best leader… I put Kinsano first due to her DLC OP nature at the moment. Turret drop red line JR rush… good luck… Atriox is clearly second. Not even close… and shipmaster comes in third. Abilities are pretty weak early game but mid game to late game. A Great shipmaster player will wreck almost anyone…
> 2533274820642782;13:
> > 2533274812650916;4:
> > Shipmaster is far from the worst leader in the game. He’s probably the second or third best. He’s definitely top-tier, though.
> >
> > How you play him will largely depend on your goals. If you’re booming tech 2 he’s exceptionally good with locusts. He can also rush with ghosts or jump brutes like a lot of Atriox players. Mid to late game will rely a lot on his Displacement ability. With its very short cooldown, you can displace entire enemy armies far distances for only 300 power, allowing you to focus on other issues such as another army or a base.
> >
> > I don’t have the time to post a full comprehensive guide but just know he is FAR from the worst leader in the game, lol.
>
> I also haven’t seen anyone go cloaked marauders (VIA. Leader ability) which could be pretty annoying at very least.
I actually had an ally do this the other day, and it was incredibly effective, fended off a mid game hammer brute rush and then took out about half an army of banshees, and didn’t lose more than a few marauders. Was pretty great execution too.
> 2533274793692756;14:
> As has been stated… Shipmaster is easily the third best leader… I put Kinsano first due to her DLC OP nature at the moment. Turret drop red line JR rush… good luck… Atriox is clearly second. Not even close… and shipmaster comes in third. Abilities are pretty weak early game but mid game to late game. A Great shipmaster player will wreck almost anyone…
I agree some of the best players I have faced are Shipmasters.
Would y’all say that Shipmaster is the most difficult to use? It seems like you really need to have a plan when you are using his Leader Powers.
I wish he was more of a competitor with units more unique than a simple honor guard (which you can’t actually control like the halo wars 1 Arbiter)
> 2533274793692756;14:
> As has been stated… Shipmaster is easily the third best leader… I put Kinsano first due to her DLC OP nature at the moment. Turret drop red line JR rush… good luck… Atriox is clearly second. Not even close… and shipmaster comes in third. Abilities are pretty weak early game but mid game to late game. A Great shipmaster player will wreck almost anyone…
Kinsano > Shipmaster > Atriox > Kinsano
The beautiful combat triangle strikes again!
TL;DR Shippy is top tier.
> 2716903703776124;17:
> Would y’all say that Shipmaster is the most difficult to use? It seems like you really need to have a plan when you are using his Leader Powers.
He’s the most technical, so maybe yes.
Other leaders, you can just aim to attack and use powers to increase your attack. SM doesn’t have much offensive/damaging powers. So, he’s about moving around, which (I think) takes a little more planning than just “where do I drop my turret?”
You’re best SM games will happen when you really use his transportation tactics to your advantage.
-Move units around quickly, buy yourself time,
-teleport 6 locusts behind a base and hit with the rest of your army from the front
-Pull units out of danger
-Displace everywhere/everyone (but, not only moving units away, this is also great for pulling units in when they are trying to run)
Personally, I think he thrives in team games. I love having SM on my team or playing as him with teammates. You can easily coordinate some great attacks.
In 1v1, he’s still good but he lacks the opening offensive leader powers that Kinsano and Cutter will rush with.
Also, I almost never use his cloaking powers. They’re probably super useful, but so many units can detect (friggin Jackrabbits AND marines, really?) that it’s not always as worth having as say a fully upgraded cleansing beam.