The state of Shipmaster

Games Halo Wars Series
1

Hey, I like shipmaster, a lot. I used to play him back when I didn’t suck at Halo wars.

I may suck now, but I do think I have a pretty good feel as to what made shipmaster good, and what could potentially make him useable again.

Anyways, shipmaster rose to the top of the ladder do to the unique circumstances of the Locust. Being the most mobile leader in the game- and by a lot- he was able to very effectively kite with Locusts and operate hit and run attacks. His ability to teleport in, quickly melt a base with his OP locusts, and teleport out was what largely made him top tier. However, mobility was all he really had. Shippy can’t directly engage units; he has no real army buffs and very mild offensive powers. As a result, when he could no longer melt a base with hit and run, he started to fall apart. Hit and run isn’t nearly as effective when you can’t easily net base kills. This isn’t a problem, that was OP as hell, but it is the fundamental problem behind shipmaster right now. Just buffing his teleports (which would still be nice, teleport feels pretty worthless with such small range now) won’t fix this flaw.

So, how can we “fix” him? I think the answer lies in his passives and lesser-used powers. Namely, raid, advanced cloaking, and mass cloaking. Shipmaster’s description says he favors cloaking tactics and rapid assaults against his foes, why not focus on that?

Now, analyzing those powers, one at a time.

Raid
Banished raid is weird. It doesn’t feel like it does a whole lot on tier one and 2- in fact, it feels like a recon training that takes two leader points and slightly buffs cap speed (so, it’s pretty useless). Cutter’s raid is great because it lets him kite and enables his troops to have very high mobility. Banished raid has this same effect- but on tier three. With 3 points invested into this power, it suddenly becomes amazing- the speed buff to Wraiths and Marauders allows effective kiting and actual rapid assaults against enemies. I feel like if these speed boosts were moved down a tier, so their current speed is maybe added on point 2, the ability would be an absolutely amazing pickup. It’d be cool to use.

Advanced Cloaking
This has pretty much the same problem as raid. When maxed, it provides some really useful and unique buffs- longer cloak times across the board and bigger shroud fields are amazing. But again, it feels like it does nothing on T1. Slightly cheaper shrouds and cloaking generators? …yay? At most you save 500 supplies with this pickup if you’re building a ton of cloaking gens. There are better uses for that point. If the increased cloaking fields and times were on T1 as well as T2, that’d make this a very fun power to use.

mASS Cloaking
Buffing this power would not only help shipmaster, but also Arbiter. It was mentioned that Arbiter may need a buff after he takes a nerf to compensate, and buffing this power would help both him and Ship. As it stands, Mass Cloaking provides very little benefit. It’s duration is short, and it’s siphon is hardly noticeable. The speed boost is really the most useful thing about it, since it’s basically and ultimate and at that point in the game any army will have detection mixed in. If you were to increase it’s duration and the health siphon, it would provide an actual army buff to allow Shipmaster to take engagements with other buffed armies. Also, if Advanced cloaking affected this power’s duration (which it already might?) and Mass cloaking was strong, it would provide even more incentive to pick up Advanced cloaking.

So, ye. That’s what I got. IDK if anyone will agree, but I think these would be meaningful changes to make shipmaster both fun to use and competitively viable.

2

Or could just halve displacement recharge time.

3

> 2533274916206345;2:
> Or could just halve displacement recharge time.

That’d kinda be straight broken, though. Shipmaster was in a pretty bad state before, we don’t want to go back to that

4

Maybe ship master should get a new unit a more realistic answer teleport 2 needs a buff and displacement and banished raid should have 2 tiers

5

Buffing Banished Raid would be fantastic, I’d love it. But honestly the T2 level of it is next to worthless.

6

> 2533274927740213;5:
> Buffing Banished Raid would be fantastic, I’d love it. But honestly the T2 level of it is next to worthless.

I completely agree. But on level 3, it’s actually amazing. The kiting ability it gives wraiths is insane. If someone of that buff could spill over to raid 2, it would be a more than worthwhile pickup

7

How about increasing the range of displacement and teleport and decreasing the cool down of teleport and displacement

8

> 2535408720103530;7:
> How about increasing the range of displacement and teleport and decreasing the cool down of teleport and displacement

If we were back in the days when hit-and-run with locusts was effective, this would be more than enough. But as it stands, high mobility through teleport isn’t enough to fix him. Displacement buffs would be nice, though.

9

Give his mass cloaking Decimus siphon for how ever long it lasts.
Maybe make it unable to detect since it’s an ultimate leader power or close to it and ultimate for Arby that way its actually useful. Now let me explain this only the mass cloaking will not be able to get detected, everything else that gives cloaking will work the same.
Banished raid 2 leader points.
Displacement 10 seconds faster cool down, we don’t want to buff it to much.

10

all good points and i agree that buffs need to be addressed more than anything else.
its tough going against an army that has buffs to make them virtually invincible, invisible and attack with more damage and health siphon… and our only option is to be able to teleport away.

i would like to see a combination of buffs and leader specific units be implemented.
have the ability to have special units for the Shippy such as a spec-ops Elite team (kinda like omega team, but not as powerful with health and NOT a hero unit) but also have a mix of vehicles too.

i love playing as the Shipmaster…and having the Elites in the Halo universe be such Honorable and powerful characters, it really sucks to have him be one of the weakest leaders in the game.

11

It’s not as if he’s unusable. Honor Guard is a very good hero, Scout Mine is OP, and his late game is one of the best in the game. He could use buffs, but I don’t think he should be underrated as it stands. Make Raid a two point power, add another star of veterancy to his Hunter/Ranger in his drop, and that’s all the buffing he needs.

12

> 2533274830489835;11:
> It’s not as if he’s unusable. Honor Guard is a very good hero, Scout Mine is OP, and his late game is one of the best in the game. He could use buffs, but I don’t think he should be underrated as it stands. Make Raid a two point power, add another star of veterancy to his Hunter/Ranger in his drop, and that’s all the buffing he needs.

Just how exactly is Scout Mine OP?

13

> 2535471149170617;12:
> > 2533274830489835;11:
> > It’s not as if he’s unusable. Honor Guard is a very good hero, Scout Mine is OP, and his late game is one of the best in the game. He could use buffs, but I don’t think he should be underrated as it stands. Make Raid a two point power, add another star of veterancy to his Hunter/Ranger in his drop, and that’s all the buffing he needs.
>
> Just how exactly is Scout Mine OP?

I wouldn’t say it’s OP. But Jump Brute stun + Scout Mine is pretty wild, and can do a lot of work.

However, this is the case with all stuns + mine drops, so it’s nothing unique to Shipy.

EDIT: Just so RTS Yoda vids will stop harassing me in PM’s, he would like me to give him “credit” for “discovering” the Jump Brute/Displacement + Scout Mine combo. Yoda is the first “documented player” to perform this combo, and thus, we all must give him credit whenever these combos are used and/or mentioned. To refuse this is a great sin and you will be sentenced to receiving harassment PM’s by Yoda himself.

These are the rules, friends.

14

> 2533274869891714;13:
> > 2535471149170617;12:
> > > 2533274830489835;11:
> > >
>
> I wouldn’t say it’s OP. But Jump Brute stun + Scout Mine is pretty wild, and can do a lot of work.
>
> However, this is the case with all stuns + mine drops, so it’s nothing unique to Shipy.

Displacing an army into a corner with a Scout Mine waiting for them will completely wipe their pop. I think that warrants calling it OP.

15

> 2533274830489835;14:
> > 2533274869891714;13:
> > > 2535471149170617;12:
> > > > 2533274830489835;11:
> > > >
> >
> > I wouldn’t say it’s OP. But Jump Brute stun + Scout Mine is pretty wild, and can do a lot of work.
> >
> > However, this is the case with all stuns + mine drops, so it’s nothing unique to Shipy.
>
> Displacing an army into a corner with a Scout Mine waiting for them will completely wipe their pop. I think that warrants calling it OP.

They’ll detonate the mine without taking damage. There’s a very brief invulnerability as the units teleport in.

16

> 2533274958100139;15:
> > 2533274830489835;14:
> > > 2533274869891714;13:
> > > > 2535471149170617;12:
> > > > > 2533274830489835;11:
> > > > >
> >
> > Displacing an army into a corner with a Scout Mine waiting for them will completely wipe their pop. I think that warrants calling it OP.
>
> They’ll detonate the mine without taking damage. There’s a very brief invulnerability as the units teleport in.

I got it wrong. Don’t have the Scout Mine waiting, but wait until they’ve teleported then drop it on them. It’s still OP and there’s still no counter play besides leader specific abilities like Bulwark.

17

> 2533274830489835;14:
> > 2533274869891714;13:
> > > 2535471149170617;12:
> > > > 2533274830489835;11:
> > > >
> >
> > I wouldn’t say it’s OP. But Jump Brute stun + Scout Mine is pretty wild, and can do a lot of work.
> >
> > However, this is the case with all stuns + mine drops, so it’s nothing unique to Shipy.
>
> Displacing an army into a corner with a Scout Mine waiting for them will completely wipe their pop. I think that warrants calling it OP.

The units won’t take any damage due to I-frames (as Naka said).

Alternatively, if you were to Displace, then drop the mine; the units would shoot it before the mine fully arms, dealing minimal damage.

This also feels like an issue with Displacement, rather than Scout Mine.

18

> 2533274869891714;17:
> > 2533274830489835;14:
> > > 2533274869891714;13:
> > > > 2535471149170617;12:
> > > > > 2533274830489835;11:
> > > > >
>
> The units won’t take any damage due to I-frames (as Naka said).
>
> Alternatively, if you were to Displace, then drop the mine; the units would shoot it before the mine fully arms, dealing minimal damage.
>
> This also feels like an issue with Displacement, rather than Scout Mine.

There would be no way to fix Displacement. Even if you increase cooldown, this would still be possible. Scout Mine, on the other hand, seems to over perform even outside of this LP combo.

Also, many players don’t realize they’ve been Displaced at first. They might be macroing when it happens. Most likely though, they just won’t see the Mine coming.

19

> 2533274869891714;17:
> > 2533274830489835;14:
> > > 2533274869891714;13:
> > > > 2535471149170617;12:
> > > > > 2533274830489835;11:
> > > > >
> > >
> > > I wouldn’t say it’s OP. But Jump Brute stun + Scout Mine is pretty wild, and can do a lot of work.
> > >
> > > However, this is the case with all stuns + mine drops, so it’s nothing unique to Shipy.
> >
> > Displacing an army into a corner with a Scout Mine waiting for them will completely wipe their pop. I think that warrants calling it OP.
>
> The units won’t take any damage due to I-frames (as Naka said).
>
> Alternatively, if you were to Displace, then drop the mine; the units would shoot it before the mine fully arms, dealing minimal damage.
>
> This also feels like an issue with Displacement, rather than Scout Mine.

The Invincibility frames from Teleport and Displace are fine I think, If they weren’t there it would be like Maelstrom + MAC or Erad, You couldn’t react and you would be in the dead center of the explosion and lose everything.