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Co-op Commander Guide: Alarak

Highlord of the Tal'darim

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Commander Summary

Alarak uses the presence of his own army to improve the power of his own abilities. He has powerful army units that can deal large amounts of damage in a short period of time.

Level Unlocks

Level/Icon	Name	Description
	Soul Absorption	Alarak heals 20 life and restores 20 shields (per supply) when a nearby enemy unit is slain. Alarak steals life from nearby units you control to heal himself when he is near death. This ability has no cooldown.
	Overcharge Amplification	Structure Overcharge now also grants a Barrier that absorbs up to 400 damage.
	Aggressive Tactics	Increases the range of Alarak's Deadly Charge by 3 and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds.
	Death Council Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Death Council: Supplicants gain +25 shields. Allow slayers to become temporarily invulnerable after taking damage.
	Empower Me	Unlocks Alarak's Empower Me ability, which grants him increased attack and ability damage for each nearby friendly unit. This effect lasts for 20 seconds.
	Robotics Bay Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Robotics Bay: Increase the vanguard's splash damage area by 30%. Increase the wrathwalker's attack speed.
	Lightning Surge	Sacrificing a supplicant causes Alarak's next Deadly Charge to deal an additional 50 damage to 4 enemy units near the primary target.
	New Unit: Ascendant	Potent psionic master. Can use Psionic Orb, Mind Blast and Sacrifice. Can attack ground units.
	Havoc Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Cybernetics Core: Increase Target Lock's bonus damage by an additional 15%. Increase the radius of Squad Sight and the range of Target Lock and Force Field.
	Summon Death Fleet	Unlocks the ability to warp in a Tal'darim Mothership and an escort of destroyers with timed life. Summon the Death Fleet from the top panel.
	Overpowered	Alarak's attacks deal area damage while Empower Me is active.
	Ascendant Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the ascendant archives: Increase the travel distance of the ascendant's Psionic Orb. Sacrifice grants ascendants a stacking permanent increase to ability damage and shields.
	Burning Skies	Unlocks the mothership's Thermal Lance ability and warps in 4 additional destroyers when summoning the Death Fleet.
	Alarak Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at the Forge: Allow Alarak's basic attacks to stun enemies and slow heroic enemies for 2 seconds. Increase Destruction Wave's knockback distance by 100%.
	Wrath of the Highlord	Reduces the cooldown of Alarak's Deadly Charge by 10 seconds and Destruction Wave by 5 seconds whenever a supplicant is sacrificed.

Highlighted rows denote large power spikes for the commander.

Achievements

The commander-specific achievements for Alarak are:

Achievement	Name	Description
	A Good Day to Die	Sacrifice 500 Supplicants to Alarak or Ascendants.
	Fleeting Death	Deal 50,000 damage with the Death Fleet.
	Power Play	Deal 100,000 damage with Alarak while he is empowered.
	You're Welcome	Use Structure Overcharge on allied structures to deal 30,000 damage.

Calldowns

The calldowns for Alarak, at level 15, with no mastery points added are:

Calldown	Name	Description	Recommended Usage	Numbers
	Structure Overcharge	Energizes target friendly structure or War Prism in Phasing Mode, allowing it to attack nearby enemy ground and air units.	Use the first overcharge to clear out rocks and contested expansions. Use overcharges to add extra DPS when pushing and defending against attack waves. Overcharges can also be used to destroy objective structures during the early game, while you get higher tech units out. Lasts 45 seconds.	Coolup: 90 seconds Cooldown: 90 seconds Max Charges: 3 Damage: 40 Range: 10 Atk Spd: 0.641
	Summon Death Fleet	Warps in a Tal'Darim Mothership and 8 Destroyers that are controllable and will fight for 60 seconds.	Useful for adding extra DPS to pushes and defending attack strong attack waves. Use the Mothership's Mass Teleport ability to give your army extra mobility. If using the Shadow of Death prestige, the calldown costs 400/400, with each Destroyer costing 125/75.	Coolup: 600 seconds Cooldown: 360 seconds

The Summon Death Fleet ability brings a Tal'Darim Mothership onto the battlefield. This unit has abilities itself, shown below:

The Summon Death Fleet ability also brings Destroyers onto the battlefield. They do not have abilities or upgrades. Additionally, their bounce damage is not affected by attack upgrades.

*If using the Shadow of Death prestige, this cooldown is increased to 60s, and no longer teleports allied units.

Sub-Ascension Leveling

Difficulty: Moderate

Use a Slayer/Supplicant build as your main attack force. Use Alarak's Destruction Wave ability to push enemy units away from your army. Additionally, ensure you have a War Prism which you can Overcharge to provide you with additional DPS when pushing into enemy bases. Clear your expansion with two Overcharges.

While leveling through Mastery levels, allocate points into Power Set 3's Structure Overcharge mastery until you hit the desired number of points, before allocating them to Chrono Boost efficiency.

Masteries

Below are the three Power Sets for Alarak with the recommended point allocations for each. Note that these are meant to serve a general, all-purpose build that is effective across all maps with no Prestiges selected. You are highly encourged to change these masteries to suit your playstyle and particular challenges you face (e.g. Weekly Mutations).

Power Set 1:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Alarak Attack Damage	1 per point 30 maximum	?	The choice here mostly depends on how you use Alarak and if you prefer to use skill-based units (like Ascendants) or attack-based units (like Wrathwalkers).
Combat Unit Attack Speed	0.5% per point 15% maximum	?

If you are working with an Ascendant-based build, Alarak Attack Damage is recommended as Ascendants do not benefit much from the other mastery.

Power Set 2:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Empower Me Duration	1 sec per point 30 sec maximum	?	Empower Me Duration can provide a lot of mileage for mastery points, especially when used with the No Cooldown Alarak technique. However, it does require a significantly higher level of mechanical ability.
Death Fleet Cooldown	-4 sec per point -120 sec maximum	?

This is a personal preference. Those that use the No Cooldown Alarak technique (below) may want to consider putting all points into Empower Me Duration instead.

Power Set 3:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Structure Overcharge Shield and Attack Speed	2% per point 60% maximum	22	Players that prefer to use Structure Overcharges more offensively can choose to add more points into that respective mastery. It is generally not recommended to go below 22 points, as it will prevent the Structure Overcharge from clearing expansions.
Chrono Boost Efficiency	1% per point 30% maximum	8

The 22 points into the first mastery is just enough to clear both, the main and the gas rocks at your expansion. The rest are put into Chrono Boost.

Prestiges

Below are the prestiges for Alarak. Note that "Effective Level" is the level at which the prestige achieves it full effect.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
1	Artificer of Souls	Advantages: When a supplicant dies, it increases the damage and attack speed of one of Alarak's nearby non-heroic mechanical combat units. Disadvantages: Deadly Charge and Destruction Wave damage reduced by 50%.	1	Stacks get applied within 15 range. Each stack adds 10% damage and attack speed Slayers and War Prisms get two stacks per Supplicant Maximum stack count is 10.
This prestige adds further utility to Supplicant deaths by allowing them to buff Alarak's mech units. This does mean that Alarak cannot 1-shot Zergling waves by using Destruction Wave. However, adding Ascendants to deal with attack waves is very beneficial anyway, as Supplicants can be sacrificed for Power Overwhelming stacks as well as buffing Mech units.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
2	Tyrant Ascendant	Advantages: Empower Me cooldown reduced by 50%. Disadvantages: The Death Fleet is unavailable.	5	None
This prestige sacrifices Alarak's mobility from his Death Fleet to add extra power to Alarak pushes by making his Empower Me more frequent. Death Fleet damage is not considered due to its relatively low damage compared to Alarak's units. For players that are aware of mission timings, they will very rarely get caught unawares, and combined with the No Cooldown Alarak technique, this prestige can be very valuable.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
3	Shadow of Death	Advantages: Summon Death Fleet has no duration or initial cooldown. The Mothership may construct Destroyers. Disadvantages: Destroyers are no longer summoned with the Mothership. The Mothership and Destroyers have resource and Supply Costs. Mass Teleport now has a 60 second cooldown and no longer teleports allied units.	10	Mothership costs 400/400. Each Destroyer costs 125/75. Mothership and Destroyers are unaffected by Unit Attack Speed mastery. Destroyer bounce damage is unaffected by attack upgrades.
A trap in using this prestige is using it to mass up a large fleet of air units. Because Destroyers deal small amounts of damage with a high attack speed, they are heavily weakened by armored targets, especially considering that bounces are unaffected by Attack upgrades. They are also susceptible to splash damage, like Parasitic Bombs. A better utility for this prestige would be to invest in the initial Mothership for a big early-game power spike, and then use the Mothership as a mobility tool throughout the course of the mission.

Depending on the player's prefered playstyle, Artificer of Souls or Tyrant Ascendant both offer Alarak potential power level increases to their respective playstyles. Those two prestiges are recommended for general play.

Hero Unit

Spawn time: 4:00

Respawn time: 1:00

The abilities for Alarak are:

Ability	Name	Description	Cooldown
	Deadly Charge	Alarak intercepts target enemy unit and strikes it for 200 damage.	10 seconds
	Destruction Wave	Unleashes a massive wave of force in a straight line, dealing 50 damage to enemies in its path and knocking them back.	5 seconds
	Empower Me	Alarak's attacks and abilities deal increased damage for each allied unit nearby. Mechanical units grant him double the power. Resets the cooldown of Deadly Charge and Destruction Wave. Biological units provide a 5% damage bonus per supply up to 100 supply, and then provide 2.5% per supply onwards. Mechanical units provide 10% damage bonus per supply up to 100 supply, and then provide 5% per supply onwards. Supply count is additive, with biological units favored first. So if you have 100 supply in bio and 1 supply in mechanical units, the mechanical units will provide the reduced rate of 5%.	240 seconds

The upgrades for Alarak are:

Upgrade	Name	Effect	/	Research Time
	Imposing Presence	Allows Alarak's attacks to stun enemy units for 2 seconds. Heroic units are slowed.	150/150	90 seconds
	Telekinesis	Increases the knockback distance of Alarak's Destruction Wave by 100%.	150/150	90 seconds

Recommended Army Composition

The recommended army composition for Alarak is below. Note that this assumes no Prestige talent selected and recommended Mastery Allocations. This is a basic recommendation for your army framework. It is recommended to gain an understanding for each of the units in the Units section and further add tech units so that you are able to better handle the situations you face.

Ascendants, with the Power Overwhelming upgrades, can deal extremely large amounts of damage to units, allowing Alarak to handle attack waves and unit-based objectives with ease. Supplicants are required for Alarak's Empower Me as well as keeping Ascendants filled with energy through Sacrifice.

Add Wrathwalkers to your army composition if you are dealing with objectives that are structures.

Add Vanguards to your army if you need extra damage sustain and splash damage.

Combat Units

For more information on Alarak's unit stats, comparison between units and upgrade calculations, visit the Data Tables page.

Alarak's combat units are listed below:

Build Order

Below is the standard economic build order for Alarak. For more information on how to read and construct your own build orders, please check the Build Order Theory page.

14 Pylon
15 Assimilator (No Probes)
18 Pylon (Overcharge)
20 Nexus
Probes -> Assimilator
21 Assimilator
22 Gateway

Gameplay Guide

Playstyle Traps

A possible playstyle trap is to focus on building a mass of Supplicants without adding any other tech units. While Supplicants are used to keep Alarak alive, and massing a large number increases Alarak's power when he uses Empower Me, Supplicants do not have a high DPS by themselves. Specific tech units (Ascendants, Wrathwalkers, etc.) will be needed to further improve a player's performance in the mission.

Fast Expanding

One of the perks of playing Alarak is his ability to fast-expand, even on contested maps. While other commanders will need to wait for their hero unit to spawn, or make an army to clear contested expansions, Alarak can use a probe with an overcharged pylon to clear contested expansions.

Below are pictures that show how to fast-expand on maps. These require a lot of practice to pull off, but can put you ahead economically. It is also advisable to fast-expand with two probes, one as a backup in case you lose the first one to prevent you from wasting an overcharge. You will be using these probes to get vision for the Overcharge.

Map	Race	Player 1 Expansion	Player 2 Expansion
Chain of Ascension	Protoss Terran Zerg
Cradle of Death	Extremely difficult to fast-expand. The general idea is to place a Pylon and overcharge it to clear enemy defenders. Once the defenders are cleared, the Pylon needs to be cancelled before it is complete. Two overcharges are required.
Dead of Night	No contested expansion
Lock & Load	No contested expansion
Malwarfare	Protoss Terran Zerg
Miner Evacuation	Race doesn't affect Expansion
Mist Opportunities	No contested expansion
Oblivion Express	No contested expansion
Part & Parcel*	Protoss Terran
Rifts to Korhal	No contested expansion
Scythe of Amon**	Race doesn't affect Expansion
Temple of the Past	No contested expansion
The Vermillion Problem	Protoss Terran Zerg
Void Launch	No contested expansion
Void Thrashing	No contested expansion

* Zerg has been intentionally omitted from Part & Parcel due to the inconsistency in fast-expanding. This is due to a number of reasons:

• Defense Bots are present on the map, and they move randomly. They have a long leash which means they do not deaggro very quickly.
• There are a large number of Zerg units scattered near the ramps, requiring very precise pathing.

** Fast-expanding on Scythe of Amon means you have to clear the Sliver at the expansion. This is because of the Void Rift that will keep spawning units. Destroying the Void Rift does not solve the problem as it will respawn unless the Sliver is destroyed. You will need two Overcharges to destroy the first Sliver and any units nearby.

No Cooldown Alarak

The "No Cooldown Alarak" technique takes advantage of the "Wrath of the Highlord" upgrade for Alarak. Whenver a Supplicant is sacrificed (either to Alarak or an Ascendant), Alarak's abilities are reset off cooldown allowing him to spam his abilities repeatedly. Combined with Empower Me, this can completely devastate enemy camps and hard-to-push locations.

This technique is sometimes called the "1qe2c" technique, named after the hotkeys assigned to Alarak (1) and his Ascendants + Supplicants (2). The cycle is as follows:

• Select Alarak (1)
• Use both of Alarak's abilities (Q and E)
• Select the Ascendants (2)
• Cast "Sacrifice" (C)

Below is an example of what the technique looks like.

The above technique is quite difficult to master and requires a lot of practice, but you can see its power when dealing with the attack wave. By targeting a high-HP unit with Q, you can not only deal damage to it, but also push it back along with the rest of the attack wave.

Note: This technique only works due to the Wrath of the Highlord buff you receive at Commander Level 15. Additionally, this buff only applies within 15 range. The below picture gives you an example of the maximum distance this can be used.

In the picture above, the Ascendants are at roughly the maximum possible range to allow for Alarak's skill cooldowns to be reset from Wrath of the Highlord.

A detailed video of this technique is shown below

Playstyle Tips

• Clear all non-contested expansions with your first photon overcharge and a pylon.
• Mastering fast-expanding (above) can put you ahead economically.
• Alarak will sacrifice any unit to keep himself alive, including more expensive Robo units. Ensure you have plenty of Supplicants near Alarak to prevent him from sacrificing those more expensive units.
• If going for a pure Ascendant build, manually sacrificing Supplicants will allow your Ascendants to grow much more quickly.
• Getting the Soul Augmentation upgrade pushes Supplicants past the vitality breakpoint for Battlecruiser Yamato cannons, allowing them to be used to draw out Yamato Cannons so that your more expensive units do not.
• More skilled players can use the No Cooldown Alarak technique above with Empower Me to completely decimate enemy bases.

Video Guides

The below videos demonstrate the various fast expands explained earlier.

Note: All data generated on this site is based on Brutal difficulty. Timings, compositions and other elements may differ on easier difficulty levels.

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