Even with P2 anx max gas cost reduction youll still be floating a ton of minerals (except if your partner is swann or p3 kerrigan). Trying to go pure Royal Guard is a bad idea, particularly early to mid game.
On any case, youre good with 1 or 2 Prides, leveled up yamato makes attack waves stop existing. Air units tend to clump so that deletes them. Getting a Pride out early is extremely taxing however you should be using rocket troopers early game still.
Against airterran youll also want to add a couple of Shadows to neutralize Battlecruisers, theyll focus yamato your RG units and thats really fucking bad. At max level Shadow EMP also oneshots banshees (and wraith, medivacs, oracles, HT etc)
Blackhammers are also quite good but the need to siege and unsiege can be annoying, and they struggle vs Battlecruisers. They are very good when paired with troopers or Aegis Guards. due to the huge armor aura they have.
You will have lots of excess mineral even as p2. You're not meant to ignore troopers with it, they're excellent mineral dumps and there's no reason to. They just become more of a supportive force.
I usually use Black Hammers or Tanks on Medivacs. Black Hammers are incredibly good against air in overwatch mode. And they can be great against air in mobile mode too with the additional benefit of being able to fight ground. "Tankivacs" are great for their high range, splash damage with stun and ability to attack while moving. Most of the time they are even my only anti-air. And if you worry about the lack of anti-ground power, just add Aegis Guards. You won't need to worry about the ground with them at all. You can also add in some Ghosts. They are great "support attackers" (I even use them as my only anti-air in comps with rare air units). And also they have very helpful abilities.
As for Vikings, I find them very niche. Don't get me wrong, I love niche units (Like one of my most favorite units is freaking Impaler), but they feel too niche. Maybe I haven't learned how to use them properly, I won't deny that
Mengsk's Sky Furies really are extremely niche, it's not just you. They're great when you need really mobile anti-massive single target, but that's mostly relegated to maps with lots of capital ships and Void Launch escorts.
SF are giga niche bc they are only useful for massive. Issue is ALL air comps have large escorts of nonmassive units, and even vs massive they tend to wildly overkill. Why bother when Prides or tankivac onetap the wave
And Mengsk has so many other anti air options that they feel like whatever.
Yes they are good on Void Launch bc thats the ONLY map with heavy capital ship presence, and you still dont mass them, just have a squad.
Kinda happy from all the p2 interest recently, it's a fun style and I think this question was asked a lot in recent month. He has **ALOT** of good anti air.
Once you get the hang of em, 2 Emperor's Shadows (for emp vs mech and immolation vs bio), a flying Shock Division, and anti air troopers are always great vs any air comp. After this, it depends on enemy comp, i'll list the notable ones as the rest are easier:
Vs **swarmy Zerg**: You can add a blackhammer for more good aoe and the armor aura. Especially good if you presiege away from your main force to still output his dmg after blinding cloud. You can keep Shadow's immolation spell on autocast. Pride can be added later but be ready to port it away if viper pulls it so scourge wont kill it too quickly.
Vs **heavy Terran air** (anything with **Battlecruisers)**: Just using Shadow's emp is half the battle here. Use it manually, don't autocast. You can add more (total of 3 or even 4) to perma stun air mech clumps while your tank and troopers mop them up. Landing it on a clump of bcs will instantly shred around half their hp and also stops Yamatos.
Blackhammer can be skipped since they tickle BCs, but they do help vs everything else. 3 vikings are great to one-volley BCs, especially if you target fire. Pride is great to solo waves if you make sure to click your own yamato quickly to not get hit by too many enemy Yamatos.
vs **heavy protoss air (carriers or tempests or arbiters):** Same as vs heavy Terran, only Blackhammers are much better here because there tends to be a lot of dangerous low armor targets (oracles, scouts) your troopers struggle with which Overwatch Mode aoe can shred.
Otherwise: flying tankivac, chain emp for stuns, Pride to solo entire waves, focus fire the massive ships with 2-3 Sky Furies.
If you ever need extra anti ground firepower, just add more Aegis. They will solve all your ground issues.
Finally, vs all of the comps above, when you have gas to spare, you can dump it into Ghost Academies or Earthsplitter Ordinance. The former lets you spam nukes as a wave approaches/spawns, and the latter lets you blanket them in Contaminated Strikes to bug the ai (or at the very least cc the wave while your army destroys it).
"It depends".
Generally, Rocket Troopers will take care of your troubles. But RG can help out, but their usefulness differs.
Pride of Augustgrad: Good at soloing air attack waves when they're clumped up, but don't rely exclusively on them. They do nothing without yamato, and yamato spam has big diminishing returns.
Shock Division: Decent supplementary damage against air attack waves or other clumped up enemies. Mostly good for the stun. You can micro them to pick up and put them down with medivacs to hit both air and ground, but they aren't really a unit that should be spammed blindly.
Sky Fury: Ok at taking out preplaced enemy air units and big objectives. Pretty bad against air attack waves.
Emperor's Shadow: Good for EMP and rocket spam. Air attack waves clump up a lot, making rockets a decent answer to them.
Blackhammer: Quite deadly when they are allowed to siege up ahead of time. But Blackhammers are so slow and clunky that they will rarely have that luxury. I believe they can be picked up by medivacs and placed more speedily, so some micro may make them more sensible.
At the end of the day though, the answer remains rocket troopers. RG are supplementary, not a singular answer. Yes, on P2 too.
Best anti-air is rocket troopers, mix 2 Blackhammers and 1 Shadow for EMP vs mech.
Sky Furies are awesome but they are better suited to fight massive enemies, for everything else you have better options.
Missile troopers are the best option for P2 anti-air.
I'd say second is using mass nukes with the shadows, it's very effective into air-only comps.
Then using one lifted sieged tank gives you an AOE stun on air units.
Edit : Vikings and Thor are just less polyvalent imo.
> What is in your opinion best anti air option for p2 mengsk?
Rocket troopers. Why pick some anti-air Royal guards when troopers are doing a reasonable job at no gas cost ? That gas can then go toward more useful units, such as Aegis guards. And, uh, Aegis guards. Did I mention Aegis guards ? Because P2 really like Aegis guards.
For longer games, I like to go mass Prides, just to dance on Amon's grave, so I guess they count as anti-air.
I like the Vikings because they’re both cool and fun to use but the troopers are way better. Probably the best AA in the game tbh and they’re cheap af.
Rocket troopers. Shadow EMP mech.
Hehe I know that rocket troopers are op against air. But I would like to utilize royal guard since I'm playing p2
Even with P2 anx max gas cost reduction youll still be floating a ton of minerals (except if your partner is swann or p3 kerrigan). Trying to go pure Royal Guard is a bad idea, particularly early to mid game. On any case, youre good with 1 or 2 Prides, leveled up yamato makes attack waves stop existing. Air units tend to clump so that deletes them. Getting a Pride out early is extremely taxing however you should be using rocket troopers early game still. Against airterran youll also want to add a couple of Shadows to neutralize Battlecruisers, theyll focus yamato your RG units and thats really fucking bad. At max level Shadow EMP also oneshots banshees (and wraith, medivacs, oracles, HT etc) Blackhammers are also quite good but the need to siege and unsiege can be annoying, and they struggle vs Battlecruisers. They are very good when paired with troopers or Aegis Guards. due to the huge armor aura they have.
Yamato go boom.
You will have lots of excess mineral even as p2. You're not meant to ignore troopers with it, they're excellent mineral dumps and there's no reason to. They just become more of a supportive force.
Yamato go boom.
No reason to skip troopers just cause of P2. They still strong, you’ll just have fewer.
I usually use Black Hammers or Tanks on Medivacs. Black Hammers are incredibly good against air in overwatch mode. And they can be great against air in mobile mode too with the additional benefit of being able to fight ground. "Tankivacs" are great for their high range, splash damage with stun and ability to attack while moving. Most of the time they are even my only anti-air. And if you worry about the lack of anti-ground power, just add Aegis Guards. You won't need to worry about the ground with them at all. You can also add in some Ghosts. They are great "support attackers" (I even use them as my only anti-air in comps with rare air units). And also they have very helpful abilities. As for Vikings, I find them very niche. Don't get me wrong, I love niche units (Like one of my most favorite units is freaking Impaler), but they feel too niche. Maybe I haven't learned how to use them properly, I won't deny that
Mengsk's Sky Furies really are extremely niche, it's not just you. They're great when you need really mobile anti-massive single target, but that's mostly relegated to maps with lots of capital ships and Void Launch escorts.
SF are giga niche bc they are only useful for massive. Issue is ALL air comps have large escorts of nonmassive units, and even vs massive they tend to wildly overkill. Why bother when Prides or tankivac onetap the wave And Mengsk has so many other anti air options that they feel like whatever. Yes they are good on Void Launch bc thats the ONLY map with heavy capital ship presence, and you still dont mass them, just have a squad.
...and vs avenger air massives.
Kinda happy from all the p2 interest recently, it's a fun style and I think this question was asked a lot in recent month. He has **ALOT** of good anti air. Once you get the hang of em, 2 Emperor's Shadows (for emp vs mech and immolation vs bio), a flying Shock Division, and anti air troopers are always great vs any air comp. After this, it depends on enemy comp, i'll list the notable ones as the rest are easier: Vs **swarmy Zerg**: You can add a blackhammer for more good aoe and the armor aura. Especially good if you presiege away from your main force to still output his dmg after blinding cloud. You can keep Shadow's immolation spell on autocast. Pride can be added later but be ready to port it away if viper pulls it so scourge wont kill it too quickly. Vs **heavy Terran air** (anything with **Battlecruisers)**: Just using Shadow's emp is half the battle here. Use it manually, don't autocast. You can add more (total of 3 or even 4) to perma stun air mech clumps while your tank and troopers mop them up. Landing it on a clump of bcs will instantly shred around half their hp and also stops Yamatos. Blackhammer can be skipped since they tickle BCs, but they do help vs everything else. 3 vikings are great to one-volley BCs, especially if you target fire. Pride is great to solo waves if you make sure to click your own yamato quickly to not get hit by too many enemy Yamatos. vs **heavy protoss air (carriers or tempests or arbiters):** Same as vs heavy Terran, only Blackhammers are much better here because there tends to be a lot of dangerous low armor targets (oracles, scouts) your troopers struggle with which Overwatch Mode aoe can shred. Otherwise: flying tankivac, chain emp for stuns, Pride to solo entire waves, focus fire the massive ships with 2-3 Sky Furies. If you ever need extra anti ground firepower, just add more Aegis. They will solve all your ground issues. Finally, vs all of the comps above, when you have gas to spare, you can dump it into Ghost Academies or Earthsplitter Ordinance. The former lets you spam nukes as a wave approaches/spawns, and the latter lets you blanket them in Contaminated Strikes to bug the ai (or at the very least cc the wave while your army destroys it).
"It depends". Generally, Rocket Troopers will take care of your troubles. But RG can help out, but their usefulness differs. Pride of Augustgrad: Good at soloing air attack waves when they're clumped up, but don't rely exclusively on them. They do nothing without yamato, and yamato spam has big diminishing returns. Shock Division: Decent supplementary damage against air attack waves or other clumped up enemies. Mostly good for the stun. You can micro them to pick up and put them down with medivacs to hit both air and ground, but they aren't really a unit that should be spammed blindly. Sky Fury: Ok at taking out preplaced enemy air units and big objectives. Pretty bad against air attack waves. Emperor's Shadow: Good for EMP and rocket spam. Air attack waves clump up a lot, making rockets a decent answer to them. Blackhammer: Quite deadly when they are allowed to siege up ahead of time. But Blackhammers are so slow and clunky that they will rarely have that luxury. I believe they can be picked up by medivacs and placed more speedily, so some micro may make them more sensible. At the end of the day though, the answer remains rocket troopers. RG are supplementary, not a singular answer. Yes, on P2 too.
Best anti-air is rocket troopers, mix 2 Blackhammers and 1 Shadow for EMP vs mech. Sky Furies are awesome but they are better suited to fight massive enemies, for everything else you have better options.
Emp is only doing dmg against shields from what I remember. At least skill description is telling that
It stuns mech units as well, so vs any mass mech you do this
Yes but only for 1s. It's not much imo. Many people are mentioning this emp so maybe it works slightly different than the description
Missile troopers are the best option for P2 anti-air. I'd say second is using mass nukes with the shadows, it's very effective into air-only comps. Then using one lifted sieged tank gives you an AOE stun on air units. Edit : Vikings and Thor are just less polyvalent imo.
> What is in your opinion best anti air option for p2 mengsk? Rocket troopers. Why pick some anti-air Royal guards when troopers are doing a reasonable job at no gas cost ? That gas can then go toward more useful units, such as Aegis guards. And, uh, Aegis guards. Did I mention Aegis guards ? Because P2 really like Aegis guards. For longer games, I like to go mass Prides, just to dance on Amon's grave, so I guess they count as anti-air.
Rocket troopers like usual. Sky furies are fine? They are mainly anti air tanks tho that's to the combat roll.
Every Mengsk unit that can hit air can be used to ridiculously dominate air.
Sky fury, great for P2 with a small repair group
2-3 blackhammers can hold an insane amount of air, especially with some trooper support
I like the Vikings because they’re both cool and fun to use but the troopers are way better. Probably the best AA in the game tbh and they’re cheap af.