Starcraft II: Stukov Plague Warden Revisited

Starcraft II Co-Op Mission: Lock & Load
Stukov's Plague Warden allows his infested banshees to load infested infantry and unload them at a specific spot, at the cost of reducing the timer on the infested, breaking hotkeys in co-op, and being really laggy. To maximize this, I maxed out on Banshees and loaded infested in all of them.
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[@kennyshannon4914]

Hey thank you for uploading so consistently I appreciate people still holding true to StarCraft 2 co-op

[@CtG-Games]

Thank you for watching!

[@funkydgarp4985]

They should defnetly rework this prestige. Banshees can produce marines like bunkers and transport up to 8. Marines in the banshees can shoot at air and ground. Liberators can research the armor and self healing upgrades. No Bunkers. Banshees cost more to match the cost of bunkers.

[@lukebaughman2987]

Then there would be no use of bunkers really, would kind of be a waste to rework something if it just breaks another prestige.

[@Tharifas2207]

CtG, it's in the name: P-LAG-ue Warden...

[@CtG-Games]

They should rename it to Pworstue Warden

[@Tapademic]

This prestige really isn't as bad as people say. You can just play like normal Stukov. Build towards a starport and when you get banshees Load marines in them and you have a powerful air support for your marines and your banshees have powerful anti air they can just drop down if they get ambushed by flying units. If your marines get into a tight spot you can just grab them cloak and fly away. If your banshees get low just burrow and heal up. Not to mention the ability to pause the decay on marines is really pretty good. Loading civilians in your banshees is literally trash though. And waiting around in base for a new batch to spawn every 30 seconds while your team mate does all the work is the most awful way to play this prestige.

[@rozmarinideas5340]

Y'know, I've been playing this one quite a bit. I think the biggest problem with it is that you have no early game at all, but it's quite powerful once you have enough Banshees. Still kinda hard to use. I think it would be better if it was reworked a bit, like maybe the Banshees work more like Bunkers and spawn their own infested to fill them, or maybe turn loaded civilians into Volatile Infested or something. A weird and interesting prestige, but definitely not the strongest in its current state.

[@CtG-Games]

It's not interesting at all. It's like saying trying to brush your teeth using a spoon is interesting. Yeah you technically can, but... why?

[@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786]

@@CtG-Games idk if this is what OP meant, but for me the prestige is interesting in the sense the idea of it is cool (who doesn't want meat wagons from WC3 in Starcraft), but the actual execution of it in gameplay mechanics is straight up inferior to base Stukov

[@CtG-Games]

@@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786 Nah. Not even cool. All this did for me is break my hotkeys and make me lag. For regular brutal I prefer P1. For mutations I prefer P3. There is no scenario where I would say "Gee I wish I could cram more conflicting hotkeys into banshees when there are other perfectly viable units I can put some hotkeys into".

[@xvaara]

It be interesting if they'd spawn infested marines when burrowed, so you could load them up without the micro.

[@DrumMonkeyG]

@@xvaara oh snap that would be cool. My apm might still be too low to make the prestige good, but that would certainly help haha

[@abyssalphoenix4541]

You can load the infested marines much faster into banshees. that’s how I find this prestiage useable. that being said it’s not the most fun. Micro intense one when used to its best ability it can be good. majority of the time. There’s much better ones on the list

[@amateurishauthor2202]

I enjoy this prestiege, 6 racks to fill 6 banshes with liberators acting as anti air escort, then you dump the rines on a target and let them go to town

[@edschramm6757]

i'm working on unlocking this prestige, but do the infantry get launched like a brood lord, or is it closer to a dropship

[@sebru]

They should just add a buff for liberators too like use infested as explosive ammo for lockdown mode

[@dehakaburger5410]

0:53 Thank YOU! Stukov Plague Warden prestige seem to be more like QoL for I.Banshees for me. Heck, why don't they make this prestige to bring permenant Aleksander (with Plague Warden Prestige) or even enable Stukov to bring DoN special infested?

[@charliemallonee2792]

Having plague in the name makes me think defilers would be a fun unit for Stukov. Pretty sure the unit models and stuff exist from the Nova campaign. You should totally make a video on this.

[@dehakaburger5410]

@@charliemallonee2792 I kind of did actually lol, I made a video Infested Banshees to add plague into the Infested which they can infect enemies over time. I didn't put Defilers into any commanders expecting they will be added into a new zerg co-op commander later. Annnnd Co-op declared ceasing production X(

[@stephenholland3801]

Hey, CTG. I think this prestige is a lot more fun when you play it from the beginning rather waiting until you’re maxed out. I do think it’s the worst of his four choices, but not the worst of 72. I thought I’d hate it, but I actually had a lot of fun leveling P2 up. Throwing out the infested then pulling them back felt like snapping Amon with a wet towel over and over. I guess I should be happy you didn’t say Swann P2 was the worst like some people say. I have fun playing Static Defense Buddies with my son’s Karax with that one. Anyway, keep up the good work, Brother!

[@stephenholland3801]

By the way, I made a ringtone for my Sons and me of your, “Hello, StarCraft fans. It’s time once again for some boring science stuff.” They love it!

[@Nemezidych_Killer]

No, Stukov P2 "Plague Warden" is clearly not the worst prestige. Completely playable with Banshees + Marines / Troopers (very strong ground attack + ability to fight vs air). Abathur P3 "The Limitless" is still the worst prestige ever.

[@fuzzwobble]

Limitless is completely overpowered. You're nuts. You can break the 3 limit a few minutes in, rock the +100% symbiote improvements, and just run away with the whole game. Most games as limitless I don't lose a single ultimate unit and finish with 25+ of them. Just start with a small squad of 3 roaches 3 queens, slowly transition to have 6+ queens and keep a few roaches mixed in. Some devourers will generate leviathans when they clear the air and fly over to get stacks of biomass. People who can't use limitless aren't optimizing army numbers. Have a small starting force, micro to feed one roach to become a brutalisk, and let it carry you to infinite brutalisks. One brutalisk with one queen can solo and entire wave of bane/scourge/viper til late game, and you'll end up with dozens. DOZENS. Symbiotes have a carapace shield that is the same strength as a science vessel defensive matrix, and with the mastery it's double strength with almost no cooldown. A 400 hit point shield. More shielding than an archon has, auto-refreshing. They also attack automatically at range 7 for 20 (40 with the mastery) and fire while moving. If you put even half a brain cell in and use vipers, you become an indestructible god. No enemy comp can even strain limitless. You also just defeat air units. Brutalisks have quadruple the DPS of vikings against air before you even account for the symbiote. One brutalisk kills an air unit like 7+ vikings, and does it with huge hits that deny armor. A couple of devourers with brutalisks and support queens has no weaknesses. The unit can duel the strongest hybrids thanks to the symbiote. The unit cleaves with heavy attacks that destroy ground in an area. The unit has freaking deep tunnel, so even massive tank lines that are a strain for most other ground-based armies are a joke because you can just deep tunnel to pop up under the tanks and they die instantly, and again, that's if you're too lazy to just have vipers.

[@BladeWinters]

Really makes me wonder why the liberator isnt just a medivac

[@fluffyfang4213]

I feel like prestiges are designed to supplement a commander's playstyle. Unfortunately, no one plays Stukov to drop enemy bases like the pros do. Most of us don't have the APM and enemy bases don't really have the weak spots. Though if bases were super defended in the front and weak in the back, this could've been his best prestige. Might still work if the plan is to backdoor the objectives, but there are better commanders for that. I could see this prestige being rather useful before level 15 (getting +30 infantry duration) and using Banshees to extend the life of your army. However, you have to unlock P1 first anyway and that one is just way too good.

[@archangeltan2077]

Here something interesting how about instead of banshees change it to siege tank and giving siege tank a ability to shoot out a huge amount of volatile infested from a far like a mengsk artillery cannon

[@ThisIsntAYoutuber]

Well, if there's one good thing you can say about Plague Warden... At least it's not Abathur's Limitless. Hot fucking garbage.

[@bunlaguigne21]

Totally agree

[@swordre5805]

I seen people play can get around 4 brutalisk in just 5minute even with this limitless prestige. In the late game, Half of the map screen is almost fill with brutalisk .... This prestige is insane.

[@charliemallonee2792]

Hey, limitless Abathur was powerful and fun... back when it was bugged and had no downside. Why’d they have to go and patch that? Don’t tell me somebody actually cares about balance in coop.

[@taewoosuh9323]

Oh... Actually, it is somewhat viable (and exotic and fun) if you go infantry for early game and transition to banshees around the last level of infested facility. This is a pure offensive prestige where you stock up on infested civilians and then bombard an enemy line bringing it down nearly instantly. Also you can keep launching and then reloading the infantry to maximize damage output. But I do agree, it’s still mediocre at best and unusable at worst...

[@CtG-Games]

Nah this is blizzard running out of ideas because they already made a prestige for mech and bunkers. This is viable in the same way Abathur P3 is viable. You can ram your head with it for hours and technically you can accomplish things, but literally any other prestige would work better.

[@taewoosuh9323]

@@CtG-Games Maybe, but I see this as a terribly underdeveloped idea that never got anywhere near its true potential. Not sure anymore as to what that potential was even supposed to be though...

[@fernandotorricourbano3041]

In my opinion, mecha infest 50% (1p); Lord of the horde 50% (3p)--> almirant infested (defect)-> plague warden (2p).

[@TheSlick44y]

Are you sure this is an infested infantry prestige, because then it would be that mastery over mech speed

[@Eloryan]

You haven't use Infested Marine in banshee... It's a pity 😞

[@emilchan5379]

The issue I have with this prestige is that it requires a bit of micro, on a commander that isn't known for needing micro. Perhaps that is why Blizzard made this prestige the way it is. Still though, even if micro'ed properly this prestige isn't that much powerful than default Stukov. Only thing is that you can backdoor enemy bases and such, which is novel I guess but not really useful when other commanders can backdoor better. I suppose the loaded Banshees can also be used as an ammo carrier for Infested Siege tanks, but again quite a lot of micro for not much gain. If it were up to me I would change this prestige a bit - give the unload ability to Liberators instead. Also give them the ability to constantly generate Infested over time like Bunkers and be able to consume nearby Infested for health like Infested Siege tanks. This makes the Infested Liberator see a little more use as it is a rather expensive and niche unit in Stukov's arsenal, even with P1.

[@Urza26]

I don't know if you read comments from old videos, but I think you might be focusing too much on the infested civilians. I don't plays stukov much but doesn't this prestige allow you to load any infested infantry and not just infested civilians? You can load up infested marines very quickly in the early game. Just say, two banshees (no need to mass), mass produce infested marines from multiple barracks and load them up. Throw them onto an enemy base and wipe it out. Whatever infested marines left behind, you can pick into the banshees again. You can snowball it by making more and more banshees and marines. Think of it as nearly infinite duration infested troopers on a flying bunker transport that can also attack. It might be one of the best commander prestige for non mutations hands down, as opposed to a bad prestige.

[@DragonglEvgeniy]

Now image this prestige at actual week mutation 🙂

[@samuraiwarrior87]

People coping in the comments, a lot of just load up infested troopers into the banshees it's fun. No just build your infested bunkers and move them closer to objectives and spawn your infested troopers. If you have to add an extra step when they can just walk to the destination it is not a good prestige.

[@dasisneduese9344]

You seem to not recognize that they can also load space marines so you could use barracks with it

[@kurzackd]

Is this some purchasable mission pack ?? :O Never seen this game interface as part of *MY* game, even tho I have *all 3* parts of SC2... O_o .

[@harryhoot1116]

27:16 This prestige in a nutshell

[@jozefbucany2310]

isn't it possible to load banshees with the infested marines from barracks? :O

[@pinroshan020]

Not from the barracks!

[@Ed87]

Meanwhile I like Stukov so much, but leveling P2 was as enjoyable as the visit at the dentist. That one "gg wp" I got around level 12-14 felt like a military award for the wounded, lol. After that, I had a few games with this prestige that I actually found quite amusing.

[@fluffyfang4213]

Yeah... I used P1 the entire time I was leveling P2 (and most of P3 as well). Even at level 15, I feel like I'm adding excessive amounts of micro for something Stukov normally does passively.

[@Ed87]

Yes, Stukov - to me - is the best when the micro is minimal. If I want to do a lot of micro, then I choose Stetmann. At least all that micro is useful, helps the ally too, but pooping and scooping infested non-stop is just for the lolz and insane lag.

[@swordre5805]

I think you should play stucov like normal when using this prestige. The good thing about this is that you can micro the infested during battle. Throw the melee closer to their target, throw the range unit to somewhere safe for them to dps. This prestige is definitely the best when used correctly.

[@firstnamenulllastnamenull1174]

Check the description for what plauge warden does. :p

[@CtG-Games]

Alternatively, check the dumpster for what plague warden does.

[@firstnamenulllastnamenull1174]

@@CtG-Games lmao. True true

[@sebru]

They should buff this prestige, like make the infested civilians regenerate time inside the banshee and make liberators use infested as explosive ammo on lockdown mode

[@Eloryan]

Also, Stukov top bar carry well 😂

[@baumanmarketinggaming]

Well, Espurr often has problems with lag, so perhaps it's because of him. That's why he hates mutations on DoN the most.

[@Carnagath82]

The prestige is not lagging you, it's just a connection problem on you or your ally's end (or a server fuckup). Some spammy commanders can cause frame rate lag, never connection lag. As for the prestige, you definitely don't have to max out on banshees. The point is to use 4-5 of them as APC's to drop a large number on troops somewhere and clear a base, especially in mutations with lots of environmental hazards or anything that wipes out your army, it's a way to reinforce faster than wait for spawns. It's not great, but definitely not the worst prestige, on an S to D scale I'd say it's a B.

[@Kamil-kv6lv]

If it was his ally he would have messages his ally is trying to reconnect

[@fluffyfang4213]

I second everything here and I will add 1: If you see a "reconnecting" box (as seen in this video), you're the one with the connection problem. If it's your ally, you'll see the usual disconnect box with a countdown until your ally disconnects entirely and automatically. 2: If you're gonna build more than 5 Banshees, you really need to build more Barracks or have an army of bunkers to supply the troops.

[@kamikazegargoyle]

I still wonder if there's a niche case, like a rare mutator combo that would make this viable...I still know the answer is ''no" lol Thanks for doing science stuff so we don't have to haha (i still haven't prestiged stukov past p1 yet because i can't be bothered with this one. It'd feel like I'm wasting my time.........)

[@charliemallonee2792]

You know you don’t have to play with the prestige you’re on, right? You can just reset and keep going P0/P1 if you want to work your way up to P3.

[@Dj0enderman3000]

You should give p1 stukov a try that is what I am doing atm, it is really fun and not micro intensive at all, just get all upgreades and put siege tanks in different groups to burrow and unborrow them I soloed as soon as I got my apocalist

[@TheNightower]

Plague Warden has a potential by using banshees as main units to produce. I agree to what one of the comments that Plague Warden should do a rework or improving it's use for every missions. I played stukov with Plague Warden as prestige earlier and my coop player said "It's trash prestige" i get his point because i took a hard time using it. You know if i can make a suggestion about banshees, they should have an ability to attack air units while they can attack ground units. Since banshees can load ground units and ejecting it in a selected area, banshees should also have an ability to give a minimum chance at least to produce own volatile ground units to eject. Besides, banshees is the main use in Plague Warden so might as well improve banshees' ability and means to attack both air and ground units. if there is a disadvantage for plague warden, at least the disadvantage is the cost of banshees to be increased by 30% maybe? and not reducing time for infected civilians to be produced.

[@CtG-Games]

I appreciate your comment, and you have some interesting ideas. However, while most people dislike P2 Stukov because it's not a strong prestige, I really hate P2 Stukov because he actually broke my hotkeys without me ever using it. There is no other unit in all of Starcraft 2 that made me rework all my hotkeys. The infested banshee did it twice [burrow/unburrow and load/unload used to be on the same hotkeys as cloak/decloak for me, but for some reason, Blizzard decided to cram them all in the same garbage unit], and that's why I really hate that prestige.

[@TheNightower]

@@CtG-Games yeah i understood that. Though as for me i have no problems much to hotkeys, it is just Stukov's P2 is not strong enough. You get sloppy while using his p2. Even if there is rush build, still you have to be consistent on making ground units so banshees can do something aside attacking ground units. Blizzard should do something about it. For sure there are feedbacks about Stukov's P2 hehe

[@iosdrake3458]

Why is this prestige even a thing? Did the devs run out of ideas for Stukov?

[@CtG-Games]

Yes

[@Taum1024]

Okay… But how am I suppose to actually use this Prestige in a more practical manner?

[@sinnibear]

Can't you load infested marines ? That's what I'm gonna try when I unlock it

[@user-ef9qd1no3u]

you truly do not know how to use this prestige right, I suggest you to check other youtubers on the way they play this prestige. and you had simple lags, the banshees are not responsible for your lags @CtG

[@baumanmarketinggaming]

This presige sucks big time, but what actually also sucked in this game was that you forgot the last compound upgrade so you were getting 32 infested per batch instead of 64. What a tragedy! Just like Stetmann's career!

[@levsonc]

He did all upgrades as can be seen on 11:27

[@baumanmarketinggaming]

​@@levsonc Yeah I can see it, but it's definitely bugged unless I'm blind! He is getting no more infested than before the upgrade!

[@baumanmarketinggaming]

Finally I see what is bugged. The number of infested is 64, so it's ok, but the number of eggs remains 32, so it must be 2 infested hatching from one, like Zerglings. Strange!