My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er! - Lets Play+Read Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void

[ShneekeyTheLost]

For the new unit, the Annihilator works, but you haven't unlocked the unit which is my personal preference for Robotic Assault. Also, if you don't like using Stalker blink-micro, go ahead and convert to 'goons. They aren't as mobile, but that doesn't seem like a thing you are capitalizing on anyway, and do hit harder.

[noob]

For the new unit, the Annihilator works, but you haven't unlocked the unit which is my personal preference for Robotic Assault. Also, if you don't like using Stalker blink-micro, go ahead and convert to 'goons. They aren't as mobile, but that doesn't seem like a thing you are capitalizing on anyway, and do hit harder.

The multishot immortal is great due to being hard hitting on an aoe.

[Keltest]

The multishot immortal is great due to being hard hitting on an aoe.

Theyre easily the best immortal variant. Protoss has a lot of competition for "killing armored units really hard" but the Vanguard is probably the best at that job on the ground.

[The Glyphstone]

We'll get a chance to re-cast the Ranged slot soon, so people can vote out the Stalker if they think something else is better. My army exists at your whims, after all.

On the narrative side, I did experiment a bit with throwing in some screenshots. Does that help break up the wall-of-text aspect, or does it just drag out those bits and disrupt the actual gameplay segments?

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: Update 8: In Which The Glacius Is Half-Full

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We left Korhal in the metaphorical rear-view mirror a few days later, with a year's supply of stasis-packed food and me none the wiser about why Hierarch Artanis wanted one slightly damaged Terran female in his galaxy-saving entourage. He'd proven remarkably good at avoiding me whenever I tried to get answers, too; the one time I managed to corner him, he changed the topic by asking me to interview the ship's Grand Preserver Rohana. She was the only Protoss on board who still had nerve cords, and from what I gathered, she was some sort of ultra-historian. And not a friendly one, either. It took a direct order from Artanis to make her speak to me at all, and only then if I was facing the other way so she didn't have to look at my 'orifices'. She was being a pretty big 'orifice' herself, in my opinion.

It wasn't much of an interview, at least in the sense of asking questions. She mostly just went on and on about ancient Protoss history, frequently interjecting with insulting comparisons to aliens in general and Terrans in particular. I listened and took shorthand notation, since my minicomp couldn't record telepathy.



“...what would be later called the Aeon of Strife. A great madness took hold of the entire Protoss race, who descended into civil war. Knowledge was forgotten, and there was much suffering.”

Something in her voice caught my attention – it had changed at the end.



“The Firstborn knows little of suffering. Infinite suffering, across an infinite cycle. All at the hands of the Xel'Naga.”

I peeked backwards over my shoulder, and swallowed hard. Her blue glowy aura had turned red and crackly, the way Artanis had looked when he was possessed.



“I will bring you all to freedom from the Infinite cycle. Allow me to grant you the gift of oblivion...”

She(they?) were slowly drifting closer, reaching out one clawed hand. I bolted, halfway down the corridor before I realized I'd left the minicomp behind and definitely not going back for it. I thought I'd gotten braver since those early days with Raynor's Raiders. Maybe I had. But I had looked into the eyes of an evil god, and the only thing in my head was getting as far away as I could without jumping into space. Might have run into Artanis along the way, literally. I collided with something, at least, and might have heard my name through the gibbering terror. It took hours before I was calm enough to crawl out of the maintenance conduit I'd found, much to the relief of a very irritated probe who'd been trying to clean it, and after a futile attempt at sleep interrupted by dreams of glowing red eyes, I shuffled off to see where the ship was headed.

When I got to the bridge, at first I thought I was still dreaming. We'd just come out of warp, and hanging in space ahead of us was the marbled-blue ocean planet I had seen when the artifact knocked me silly. Exactly like I remembered it, too – the only thing missing was-



“Tal'Darim warships! Their fleet is bombarding the facility!”

A facility sticking up out of the water, firing cannons back upwards into space.



And the Taldarim were shooting back...with a giant laser. Everything was playing out just like it had in the dreams – I was sleepy, still scared, and more than a bit confused. The only thing missing was the vault. Where was the vault?

Artanis looked at me, and I realized I'd spoken the last bit out loud.



“Deploy our forces immediately. We must secure the vault before the Tal'Darim can capture or destroy it.”

I really wanted to grab him and shake his stupid psychic eight foot-tall self until he explained what the hell was going on, but this wasn't the time.



The Tal'darim mothership's laser was systematically demolishing the platform's anti-orbital cannons. Whatever was here, they probably wanted to steal it too.



A handful of Centurions warped down as an advance guard, to hold the ramp while we built up an assault force.



It turns out when the facility was abandoned, a bunch of robotic Sentries had been left behind in stasis. Karax was able to reactivate them remotely.



Just in time, too, with a Tal'darim hit squad looking to clear us off the platform before we could get dug in.



Having the sentries as backup made all the difference for the centurions on guard, who fended off the raid easily.



The beam kept on going, though, knocking off cannon emplacements one after the other. There wasn't any more time to waste, even if it wasn't going after our own nexus directly.



A couple of ugly-looking mechs joined our own assault team, looking like Immortals with a bunch of extra guns welded on. A Dark Templar design by the look of them; they wouldn't be as sturdy but I'd bet that extra arsenal made for one hell of a punch.



By sheer bad luck, the beam's path was cutting right across their marching route. Rather than waste time waiting for it to move, the assault team went looking for another way forward.



More Tal'Darim guarded a raised area to one side, which also had a big chunk of Solarite left over from somebody's research project. We nabbed it, of course.





Unfortunately the diversion meant we got laser-blocked again. This time, there was no choice but to wait it out, circling around once it wasn't directly in the way.



The Annihilator immortals proved more than able to live up to their name – just as I'd expected, those extra guns instead of shield generators made for a brutal opening hit. We nabbed a second stash of Solarite along the way, now racing the clock (and the laser beam).



Tal'Darim transports tried to cut us off – if they'd made it to solid ground, they would have been beaming in troops and defensive cannons. They got...Annihilated...before that could happen.



A third laboratory held even more Solarite, ready to be shoved into our moon-ship gas tank. Or however that worked.



Now it was just us, the tech vault, and a small army of Tal'Darim between the two. They couldn't get past the vault's defenses until the beam took them apart, but they could sure try and keep us out till then. But we had giant lasers of our own, of course.



There was no finesse or strategy, just a head-on assault into their teeth with solar beams raining down from the sky. It was the brutal sort of attrition warfare Protoss hated, but I suppose that was why they send in the Annihilators – the guys driving them had died once already anyways.



Up above, whoever was aiming the beam decided to cut their losses. Instead of picking apart guns, it started cutting a swathe directly towards the vault.



Too little, too late though. We got there first, beaming out alongside its contents – some sort of advanced prototype warbot Karax was practically drooling to examine.





The Tal'Darim commander hailed us as we high-tailed it out of the system, a real pasty-looking guy named Alarak. Oddly enough, he didn't seem too angry that we had swiped his prize. Still gave me the creeps though, even over a comm screen – hopefully I'd never have to see him again, especially because I now had even more questions than before.

Our next planet will be Ulnar, but in lieu of that vote, we've got a bunch of fancy new robot tech to play with!

Melee Warrior

1) Zealot: Has an AOE whirlwind attack
2) Centurion: Has an AOE stun and can charge through allies (CURRENT CHOICE)
3) Sentinel: Can resurrect itself on death, with a 120-second cooldown. (New Option)

Robotic Support (New)
1) Sentry: Can recharge friendly shields, 2 units at a time, and project a field that reduces incoming ranged damage.
2) Energizer: Can buff friendly units with a 50% increase to movement and attack speed, and transform into an immobile pylon power field.

We also have a total of 100 Solarite now:

Solarite Total: 105

Tier 1:
-Deploy Pylon (0 Solarite): Instant free Pylon at any location.
-Chrono Surge (25 Solarite): Target building acts 1000% faster for 20 seconds, warping in units or researching upgrades.
-Warp In Reinforcements (50 Solarite): Instant free Pylon at any location, but it also comes with 2 Melee Warriors (Centurions) and 2 Ranged Warriors (Stalkers).

Tier 2:
-Orbital Bombardment (0 Solarite): Strike 5 circular locations for 50 damage (+50 vs. Armored).
-Temporal Field (25 Solarite): Freeze 3 locations in time-bubbles that stun enemies for 20 seconds.
-Solar Beam (50 Solarite): Strike 3 line-shaped areas for 200 damage each.

Tier 3:
Nexus Overcharge (0 Solarite): Nexus structures get a photon cannon glued to their roof, letting them defend against attackers. "Your probes are under attack!"
Orbital Assimilation (25 Solarite): Assimilators become automated and no longer need probes to harvest.
Warp Harmonization (50 Solarite): Robotics Facilities and Stargates can transform into Warp Gates, and all warp-in cooldowns get cut by 20%.

[noob]

I vote for Energizers.
Really they are absurdly strong.

[Traab]

My votes go with centurion, energizer, pylon, solar, and warp.

[Techwarrior]

My votes go with centurion, energizer, pylon, solar, and warp.

This honestly. Great episode as always.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Spoiler: Update 8: In Which The Glacius Is Half-Full

Show

She(they?) were slowly drifting closer, reaching out one clawed hand. I bolted, halfway down the corridor before I realized I'd left the minicomp behind and definitely not going back for it. I thought I'd gotten braver since those early days with Raynor's Raiders. Maybe I had. But I had looked into the eyes of an evil god, and the only thing in my head was getting as far away as I could without jumping into space. Might have run into Artanis along the way, literally. I collided with something, at least, and might have heard my name through the gibbering terror. It took hours before I was calm enough to crawl out of the maintenance conduit I'd found, much to the relief of a very irritated probe who'd been trying to clean it, and after a futile attempt at sleep interrupted by dreams of glowing red eyes, I shuffled off to see where the ship was headed.

Excellent as always! I’m going to ask though since I’ve not played this myself: why is a prototype warbot a ‘who’?

[noob]

Excellent as always! I’m going to ask though since I’ve not played this myself: why is a prototype warbot a ‘who’?

Because protoss warbots are really smart.

[The Glyphstone]

You will learn the answer to that question next update.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

You will learn the answer to that question next update.

Okay good.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Honestly, I feel the choice between Sentry and Energizer is a bit more of a difficult one than the others, although I'm still in full agreement that Energizer is flipping amazing.

Sentry is a backpack. Healing shielding is basically using a Sentry as something like a medic from the first campaign, the damage mitigation bubble isn't bad, but that's not why you get Sentry. However, this favors a small unit composition, not a Protoss Deathball. As you get more and more units in the formation, the Sentry's abilities become less impactful.

Energizer, by comparison, is a DPS buffer. Optimal use includes buffing your strongest hitting units and turning into a temporary pylon. Why? Because you can call down reinforcements to your position. It's just as busted as the capstone Protoss research from the Terran campaign to call in drops anywhere on the map. Actually, with Warp Harmonization, it is even more busted because you can summon mech and air units down in the middle of the battlefield to reinforce the assault *immediately*. I mean, yea, in theory you have Summon Pylon. But that a) has a cooldown, and b) eats up charge that can be used for the big freaking lasers of DOOM. And we can't have that, now can we? Any time you need to reinforce your assault, have a sentry transform into a pylon, summon everything down, have him shift back and continue on your merry way. It's like a mobile pylon that also buffs your heavy hitters.

So yea, stick with Centurion, and grab Energizers.

But there's an even better advantage to using Energizers. Because you don't need to Summon Pylon, and we have some extra Solarite, we can now take advantage of Chrono Boost. Now, I get that most people are going HAM on Solar Beam/Warp Harmonization, and that's not bad. But I offer an alternative: Get stuff up faster.

Your only unit that can really take advantage of Warp Harmonization is the Sentry, and Energizers aren't exactly front-line units. You'll have waves of zealots in front of them, possibly interspersed with DT's and supported by a ranged attacker. So it isn't going to be common for them to go down, especially if you keep one hung back explicitly for the purpose of acting as a mobile reinforcement platform. Yea, the 20% faster warp-in is nice, don't get me wrong, but you know what is even nicer? Fully saturating your mineral and gas lines twice as fast so you can steamroll that much quicker. Getting 1/1/1 and even 2/2/2 upgrades out on your troops that much faster. Which you can afford because you've saturated your economy.

So as an alternative for Solarite, I offer: Chrono Boost/Solar Beam/Orbital Assimilation. Because not only can you saturate your mineral line twice as fast, you can also obviate the need to saturate gas, bringing your economy up to full standing that much faster, and getting your upgrades on your units completed that much sooner.

Either way is fine, both strategies are downright busted. Warp Harmonization does reduce cooldown of warp-ins, which is a hell of a lot better than a boot to the head (and one for Jenny and the Wimp), assuming you actually leverage that by warping in more units faster. If, however, you find yourself already resource-constrained and unable to call in warp-ins to their fullest advantage, then this is an alternative that can make sure you never run low of resources.

[noob]

So as an alternative for Solarite, I offer: Chrono Boost/Solar Beam/Orbital Assimilation. Because not only can you saturate your mineral line twice as fast, you can also obviate the need to saturate gas, bringing your economy up to full standing that much faster, and getting your upgrades on your units completed that much sooner.

Either way is fine, both strategies are downright busted. Warp Harmonization does reduce cooldown of warp-ins, which is a hell of a lot better than a boot to the head (and one for Jenny and the Wimp), assuming you actually leverage that by warping in more units faster. If, however, you find yourself already resource-constrained and unable to call in warp-ins to their fullest advantage, then this is an alternative that can make sure you never run low of resources.

If you reach supply cap the automatic gas also makes you have 3 extra supply of army per extractor you would have saturated normally.

[The Glyphstone]

Inmortals/Annihilators also benefit from Warp Harmonization, FWIW. And I would have loved to be warping in more Annihilators last mission, having them slowly clunk their way across the map was a hassle and a half.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Inmortals/Annihilators also benefit from Warp Harmonization, FWIW. And I would have loved to be warping in more Annihilators last mission, having them slowly clunk their way across the map was a hassle and a half.

Ahh, I'd forgotten that you had unlocked those already.

I suppose then I'll have to change my suggestion to Lasers and Warp Harmonization. Especially now that you have (potentially) Energizers to act as temp pylons to warp them directly to. This will make your deathball much less reliant on a logistical supply train, as you don't have to worry about units clunking across the map to get to them. For now. Next mission or two should give you enough Solarite to engage the Chrono Boost while still also having Warp Harmonization and Lasers.

[The Glyphstone]

Sure, but in a mission or two we'll also be unlocking Tier 4 upgrades to compete for that precious Solarite.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Sure, but in a mission or two we'll also be unlocking Tier 4 upgrades to compete for that precious Solarite.

Yea, but the best option in that tier is the free one. For reasons. Which we can get into when we get there.

[noob]

Yea, but the best option in that tier is the free one. For reasons. Which we can get into when we get there.

Which one was the free tier 4 one?

[Keltest]

Which one was the free tier 4 one?

Mass Recall, Shield Overcharge and Deploy Fenix, in increasing order of cost.

Personally i never use mass recall in LoV, so im wondering if they arent thinking of Tier 5, which is the next set of passives.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Mass Recall, Shield Overcharge and Deploy Fenix, in increasing order of cost.

Personally i never use mass recall in LoV, so im wondering if they arent thinking of Tier 5, which is the next set of passives.

Huh, I thought Deploy Fenix was the free one for some reason... or maybe I was thinking of the Tier 5 one.

[noob]

Huh, I thought Deploy Fenix was the free one for some reason... or maybe I was thinking of the Tier 5 one.

I believe the passive most people love a whole lot is the passive that makes pylons speed up units.

[Keltest]

I believe the passive most people love a whole lot is the passive that makes pylons speed up units.

All of the passives on that tier are the passive most people love a whole lot.

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: Update 9: In Which A Phoenix Rises From The Ashes

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Artanis was actively avoiding me, I was sure of it by now. I'd tried to sneak up on him a few times, but it turns out that's kind of hard when the other person can hear your thoughts. That left me alone with my weird dreams – alien carvings in stone with weird, impossible geometries and angles that made my head hurt even after waking up. The only thing I could think of it explain the coincidence was some sort of psychic leakage – Artanis accidentally beaming his plans for our destination into my head somehow. But I still couldn't sleep for more than an hour or two at a time, and the only thing that seemed to soothe the night tremors was that music – ship-song, Karax had called it. It was loudest near the core, so I started going there more and more to curl up in a corner out of the way and doze.

When I visited this time, though, there was something new besides Karax and his experiments. The keystone, obviously, but now there was also a huge mech idling off to one side.



Bright white and orange, it looked almost like an Immortal if someone took off the cannons and gave it a pair of crushing-claw arms. I could only guess it was the prototype warbot they had looted from the ocean base, but as soon as I entered it twisted to face me.



“I did not know there were humans aboard this vessel! Surely we have not become so desperate as to include alien mercenaries in our ranks.”



“This human is called Nora. They are not a warrior, but join us as kalash'pokahri – Witness – for the human Jim Raynor.



“Ah! I still do not recall this 'Jim Raynor', but I have found footage of my battles alongside him in the ship's archives. He is a valiant warrior, and I can see why I would have called him a friend. It is a pleasure to meet you, Nora Raynor. I am Fenix, warrior of the Templar.”

I took a moment to answer, quietly thanking the stars that Sarah wasn't around to tap into my senses anymore. Something about the name seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it and put the itch aside.



“Just Nora, please. It's nice to meet you, Fenix. It's...good to see you are back in action?”



“Indeed! I am eager to master the capabilities of this dragoon chassis and return to the field of battle once more.”

He didn't look like any dragoon I had ever seen, but then I wasn't anything close to an expert on Protoss technology. That's what prototype designs were for, anyways, and he was content to ignore me like Karax did.

The next time we came out of warp space, I was almost scared to go visit the bridge – but I had to know, and sure enough, the sight in front of us was right out of my dreams again.



Some sort of carved black-stone thing, but the size of a planet. Just looking at something so big and clearly artificial made my head hurt. Who could even build something like that? Listening to the chatter nearby, apparently 'the Xel'Naga'. Well, 'gods' was a better answer than most. It was their homeworld, or something like one, and we had to get inside to wake them up and ask for help. Get a god to fight a god seemed like a solid plan to me.



Across the entire “planet”s surface, there appeared to be exactly one door. And it was locked up tight.





Five stone constructs seemed to function like locks – feeding power to all of them would open the door. Unfortunately, the Tal'darim and Moebius Corp had already set up camp here, and would counterattack any lock that we tried to secure.



Karax had finally managed to get the Spear's forges to produce aircraft, starting with Phoenix light fliers. They didn't seem like much at first, but then I saw them lifting stuff off the ground in gravity bubbles like angry laser pinatas and it was hilarious.



They weren't cheap to make though. To keep up with the hungry demand of the stargates, Artanis immediately set up a second mining base while churning out Phoenixes for a mobile defense force.





The first dozen or so went out and made short work of the closest lock's defenders, but keeping it online when the Moebius Corps base was practically next door would be difficult. Combined with the constant heavy attacks from them and the Tal'Darim, Artanis decided this whole job would be a lot easier if there was no one around to contest the locks with us.





Giant lasers opened the gate for the Phoenix air fleet, with a handful of Annihilators drudging along behind to break things too heavy to lift like buildings. This was a lightning raid aimed at gutting the Moebius command center, because the Tal'Darim would take advantage of our troops being committed.



With all the Moebius SCVs eliminated, the rest of the work would be done by giant lasers, while the Phoenixes fell back to provide base defense.



Some tanks trying to steal back our lock had the misfortune to be along the route they flew.



Out on the left flank, a single Dark Templar waited to give a few seconds of early warning against the next Tal'Darim strike force.



A few seconds were still enough to redeploy the Phoenixes in their path. I watched a couple of the pilots juggle an enemy Zealot just for fun, firing their graviton beams in turn and watching him go up and down over and over again.



Giant lasers continued to rain down on the Moebius base, with lone brave Phoenix pilots acting as spotters to target the factories and starports.



Once it was all but gutted, the Annihilators went back in to clear what was left.



Artanis promptly started looting their abandoned resources, since they didn't need any and this weird artificial rock wasn't going to be particularly dense in minerals or gas.



Now it was time for the Tal'Darim base to fall, using the same strategy at first.





It didn't work so well, though. Not being mindless thralls, the Tal'Darim had hidden their Nexus and probes safely in the back of their base. Anything we killed with giant lasers was rebuilt quickly, while an army stood to protect the entrance. We'd have to get sneaky, and that meant Stalkers. While a ground element built up, the Phoenix brigade went looking for easier prey.



A gigantic, carrier-sized warp prism had been roaming the area and beaming in reinforcements for both forces. With only a small group of airborne escorts, it looked like a good pick.



Beaming in troops to protect itself wasn't enough for survival, and now two of the three sources for enemy attacks were gone. We owned the ramps leading to their fort, so it was a stalemate for a little while.



Finally, enough Stalkers were ready. Behind a distraction raid by the Phoenixes, the walkers rushed up and blinked past the defenses, tearing into the unsuspecting probes at the rear while giant lasers rained down for support. The stalkers all died, but so did the Tal'Darim probes.







From there, it was just cleanup. Lasers singled out the enemy pylon network and dismantled them, leaving gateways and factories powerless. Centurion ground troops came up in the second wave to clear the abandoned buildings out.



Even if it wasn't necessary, Artanis set about harvesting their supplies too. Waste not want not, I guess. If nothing else, the Spear had plenty of empty cargo space to fill.





That only left the celestial locks to secure, which a giant flock of Phoenixes could do easily. The only sticking point was enemy Archons, who were also too heavy to be pinata fodder. But Annihilators were available to handle them.







What the air fleet couldn't kill, giant lasers could. Pretty soon, there was nothing in the area except us.







Five locks engaged, and the door inside Uldar was finally open. Hopefully the Xel'Naga weren't going to be angry for breaking into their house like this – I'd gotten the impression from Rohana's history lesson that they hadn't left the Protoss on the best of terms, all that long ago.

No spear upgrades yet, but two unit selections to decide on!

First, we finally get a chance to re-evaluate our choice of Ranged Warrior:

1) Dragoon: High-damage mechanical strider with extra durability
2) Stalker: Medium-damage mechanical strider with Blink (Current Choice)
3) Adept: Medium damage infantry with some sort of weird ghost teleport blink power.

And for our new Starfighter

1) Phoenix: Anti-air flier, can use Graviton Beam to levitate two ground units at once.
2) Corsair: Anti-air flier, can use Disruption Web to lock down ground targets and prevent firing.

[VoxRationis]

I think stalkers strike a happy medium between the inability of the dragoons to do much besides clumsily attack-move and the gimmicky micro sink that is the adept. (Also, don't adepts only attack ground? That seems like a pretty major limitation for this unit slot, though less so now that you have air superiority fighters.)

[noob]

I think stalkers strike a happy medium between the inability of the dragoons to do much besides clumsily attack-move and the gimmicky micro sink that is the adept. (Also, don't adepts only attack ground? That seems like a pretty major limitation for this unit slot, though less so now that you have air superiority fighters.)

I believe campaign adepts hits ground and air and so are quite good at murdering mutalisks.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah. Campaign adepts can fire air/ground, but their shadow clones can't attack like Co-op adepts can. Hard-mode attack waves tend to out-damage the stalker's blink regen past my micro cap though, so ive mostly been using them as more fragile dragoons anyways in the rare occasion when i need to make them at all.

[Traab]

Im still a supporter of the dragoons. Longer range, higher damage, murders units at long range both air and ground. I dont get fancy with blinks, I just pound defenses to rubble and move forward.

As for the air units, I honestly dont bother using these. But if I had to pick, the dual unit pickup thing would be handy to disrupt enemy attacks. Plus it makes them better for doing damage than the corsairs since air to air combat isnt really a huge factor in most of the maps and being unable to attack the ground units kinda stinks, though disruption web isnt bad by any means. Its just more micro for me and as ive established a long time ago, micro annoys me.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Im still a supporter of the dragoons. Longer range, higher damage, murders units at long range both air and ground. I dont get fancy with blinks, I just pound defenses to rubble and move forward.

As for the air units, I honestly dont bother using these. But if I had to pick, the dual unit pickup thing would be handy to disrupt enemy attacks. Plus it makes them better for doing damage than the corsairs since air to air combat isnt really a huge factor in most of the maps and being unable to attack the ground units kinda stinks, though disruption web isnt bad by any means. Its just more micro for me and as ive established a long time ago, micro annoys me.

I'll second the 'goons for your ranged attacker. If you aren't using blink stalker micro, there's really no point in using them, and adept micro is even more annoying.

For the Starfighter choice, I'll actually buck the trend and go with Corsair for a couple of reasons. First, it has higher damage, and I think it even has a bit of splash to it in a very small area (like they have to be practically stacked on top of each other) , but the biggest reason and go Corsair is for Disruption Web as you can use it to sequence break or at least trivialize certain parts of missions by just flying over the problems to get to the objective on the other side. This can also be used to clear areas with a couple of Corsairs to drop Disruption Web so the Void Rays can.. well... do what Void Ray do. By the time the disruption web is over, there's nothing left.

[Keltest]

Goons also have the advantage of not having the same range as immortals, and thus you can combine them better in mixed forces without them overtly getting in each others way as much.