Pyrochemik´s Raven guide

Hello and welcome to this guide. Please make sure you read the basic and advanced guides for this awesome support ship first. They cover the description way better than I would be able to express.

This page will focus on a single approach, one that I use a lot and it keeps me at my decent rank. IN PUBLIC GAMES. This guide also describes only situation, where you are the only support in team, because even if you have 2 good people on supports, you lose, since there is usualy remaining no good player to deal damage. In most cases, you can´t trust an ally support to do what is needed anyway.

So, how do I do it?

## **Start**

Buy ***EMP* skill** and **+1 engines**. This is a crucial build every raven should use. Every time I take seeker, I end up needing to rush *EMP* ability, because enemy has voidray, or uses a lot of abilities. Your role is a support, you need to keep your team alive, and denying enemy to use skills is the best way to do so. Seeker may decie the game in first five minutes, but if you can kill someone so soon, you can kill him later as well. If you see anyone starting 2 each of speed and range, they are basicaly useles ship until first back = *Deadweight*. People who start 1 speed + 4 lasers on support ships are *trolls*, or worse, *dummies* that copy *trolls*. Not only their help to team is the same as the *deadweight*´s I mentioned above, but they also steal farm from useful players.

For **gamepla**y, your role is to deny enemy skills, which hurt your team. Bonus objective is to hit multiple ships, as *EMP* also does significant amount of damage to shields. Valid targets are *Arbiter*, which turns into *Deadweight* without energy, *Overlord*, if he started *plague* (no mutalisks and 275 energy at start), *dreadnought*, if he has bombard skill. If there is *dreadnought* with *explosive charges*, you need to be ready to deny it when he attacks, so sit on 125 energy all the time. Each charge is cheap energy wise, so you need to wait with EMP, to prevent that skill from hitting your team repeatedly. If the enemy was shopping first, and there is a frigate with no rocket upgrades, use EMP. Same for carrier with no interceptor upgrades. Most likely, they built torpedo and vortex, and that is not what you wanna hit your team so early.

Your **positioning** should be always behind an ally, and you should be pumping your shields to a tank or injured carry. Always keep some 2000+ shields on you, so you can heal an ally on retreat. This positioning should also reflect positively on your farming, your laser should always be shooting enemy minions, but they should not be shooting you. Learning this positioning skill is crucial for both your ability to heal tanks, and farming, because any damage to your shields stops their regeneration for 10 seconds. Since you do not fight, you should be able to farm more with your lasers than your allies, who engage enemy ships in chaotic combat.

## **First back**

This should happen between 4th and 6th minute, and you should have atleast 400 minerals. What you need to buy is speed (50 minerals), energy (6 upgrades, 225 minerals). That gives you enough to throw *EMP* casualy. Now the big decision is ahead of you.

1. *Defensive matrix* + 50 mineral upgrade. This is always my prefered option, as you can use this AWESOME skill for every 13 seconds. And it costs only 50 energy to do so. This skill lasts only 5 seconds on the target, so timing it is crucial. Please note, that targeting the correct ship can be also difficult, if the situation is too chaotic, and your allies are mixed together, just assume enemy targets the most injured one. This skill is an amazing counter to enemy *Barrage*, *Seeker*, *Ion cannon*, *Yamato cannon*, *Bioplasmatic discharge*, *Scourge* and *Psi blast*. It however blocks damage from all sources, with exception of *Plague*, *Torpedo* and *Nuke*.
2. *Radar*. This skill has a huge advantage, does not cost any energy, and is cheap. It´s effect is, that it reveals positions of enemy ships on map. Not the whole map, like Battlecruiser´s scan ability, just limited range around the *Raven*. Nevertheless, it allows you to predict a warp trick. Go for this option everytime, when there is a good *Dreadnought* in the game. Since it is useful against *Void ray*, as it shows a red mark where invisible ship is located, it is good to take it against them. There is no need to buy it so soon, if skilled Battlecruiser buys scan. *I have not met skilled battlecruiser in public games yet, though.*

**Gameplay** at this point should be denying enemy ships. Good teammates will tell you what ability which ship has, and you should prioritize what helps your team most. Also remember, that *EMP* is area effect spell, so hitting several ships will do a lot for your team. Be careful with Arbiters, trading poorly results in you losing 300 energy, and they may try to put you into stasis. Denying energy from Overlord is pointless, if it is after he used Plague, but if there is no one plagued in your team, go for it. Plagued ships leave a short trail of red hue behind them. If it is too risky to go to frontline, just stick to denying energy from their tanks, battlecruisers and frigates. You never know which one of them can be hiding an early ability.

**Exception:** If the enemy has two good, or just three frigates (random pick + 2 F), forget what I said and rush *PDD* skill and energy. Tell your team to not stick together, so *Ripwaves* do not melt entire team. Try to deny *Torpedo*.

## **Second back**

This should be about 9-11 minutes in the game. Assuming you farmed well, you should be coming home with another 400-600 minerals. This time, you need to buy +2 laser, so you stay at 2-hit farming. 3-hit laser would mean you start falling behind your allies. 1-hit laser at this point is 7, and there are very few instances when it is needed: carrier builds scouts or there is a lot of zergs messing up your farming.

Apart from your lasers, you need to get more **speed**, **energy** and **shields**. Why shields? Because your *Defensive matrix* scales with shield level. Also your shield regeneration rate scales with shield level, and the more you regenerate, the more shields you can pump to your tank´s defenses. Spending a few points to *Shield transfer* is an option as well, but only if your team is fully terran/protoss, otherwise it is better to upgrade *Defensive matrix*.

If you have the money, buy the radar now. It helps with clouds as well, and can be used offensively to set up your own warp trick, or defensively to let allied voidray safely backfarm.

**Weakness**: Rocket ships are definitely your weak side. *PDD* would block all their damage, but you would not be able to deny their skills, because how much energy it consumes. But you have your *Defensive matrix* and *Shield transfer*, which can save most players. *EMP* also prevents significant amount of damage done to your team.

## Further into the game

As you could have already guessed, you need to build according to what enemy team does. So at roughly 20 minutes, you should consider next ability, in addition to *Defensive matrix*, *Radar* and *EMP*.

1. ***Blackout*.** This is your ultimate ability, which works only on mechanical units. It makes them useles for 20 seconds, by blocking their skill, locking cooldowns, stopping shield regeneration and turning off all weapons. But it also hits allies. Enemy can´t warp onto blackouted ships, so if you are nearby, you can PREVENT warp trick. This skill is best counter to *Voidray*, and can be used to avoid, or turn around a warp trick.
2. ***Warp*.** This skill is not your priority, because you should always stay with the team. If support goes home alone, it can not do much supporting. But if everyone gets it, you can escape enemy warp tricks with it. Be very careful when you use it to warp to your team, if you get caught by enemy, there is usualy no one to help you. After warping, you lose all speed, and are a sitting duck. Thus it is not wise to teleport on tanks, and it is better to let an ally know you are coming. (Alt + click)
3. ***PDD*.** At 20 minutes, this skill is often needed to keep team alive, as frigates scale a lot. Downside of this skill is high energy consumption, you should have atleast 500 points of energy, if you want to use *PDD* reliably, and you still have to give up most of *EMP* casts. Energy consumption for usingthis skill goes up a lot, if enemy uses *Thermal lance*, *Missile pods*, *EMP*, *Bombard* or *Feedback* to kill your drones.
4. ***Seeker*.** If you did not start seeker during the early game, now it is quite late to get it. You can still use it to help in chaotic fights, especialy if allies are rather poor in targeting enemies. But do get some seeker missile upgrades, as everyone is now faster. This skill remains an effective harrassment against overlords, forcing them to drop chasing your team. Big downside of this skill is, that while casting, you cant take another action. Your ship will be floating in the direction it was traveling, when the casting of the skill was activated. This may lead to you drifting helplessly into enemy team in the worst case, however it almost always results in you not using defensive matrix when team needs it.

## "Hidden" Usage of some skills

While everyone can read skill description, many people do not know about some of their applications. This is the arsenal of knowledge, which makes you a capable support.

1. *EMP*. Yes, your first skill has a hidden usage to it. Not only it deals 200 points to enemy energy reserves and halves their energy regeneration for five seconds, reveals invisible units, and does 1500 dmg to shields. This shield damage is also including carrier´s units, which always have 50% HP as shields. If you combine it well with an ally, you can kill interceptors together. Timing is key, you need to hit first. The damage to shields includes Scouts as well, and here it is very significant help. However you need to hit them, before they hug your ally, since EMP affects all units. Sometimes your EMP reveals enemy mines, and you should tell your team you noticed them, so they can build a better skill to counter them.
2. *PDD*. While everyone knows that this skill blocks enemy rockets and lasers, people often forget, that this skill does not apply only to main ships and minions. In fact, this skill counters *Wraiths.* Those are on board fighters released by frigate, and can be equipped with cloaking ability. Frigate then works similarly to carrier. *PDD* completely neutralizes their attacks. There is only 10 of them, and their reload is 2 seconds, so they do not consume more energy from *PDD* than 2 *Frigate*s attacking without *Quick reload*. There is a player Lanka, who keeps using this build last 8 years with great success, as newbies never know what hit them. The very same applies to *Scouts*, and it is even more important, as scouts do even more damage and are much more common in the game. *Scouts* have a lot of base armor, and it is further scaling, so your team requires high amount of lasers to get rid of them. *PDD* also works on corruptors, but since those are mixed with minions, it is not effective. *PDD* ignores *Carrier*´s *Interceptors*.
3. *Blackout*. This skill can hit invisible units. *Blackout* also cancels skills like *stasis*.
4. *Irradiate*. I did not mention this skill in the guide, because it has very niche use. When newbies test it, it is just weak version of plague, which needs to be targeted and does not scale in cast range. Also *Raven* needs to face enemy he selects, like if sending a seeker, though the cast delay is shorter. But, that is not how to use *Irradiate*. This skill exists solely to counter *Guardian*´s units. It deals tremendous amount of area damage to his minions. And most importantly, it can be casted on allied Terrans and Protoss ships. When combined with *Defensive matrix* and shield transfer, your tank can freely waltz into fleet of *corruptors*, plus while you are near him, you are protected from *broodlings*.
5. *Shield Transfer*. *Raven* transfers his own shields, and while doing so, his regeneration is turned off. However, the more shields you have, the more you can transfer. The faster you do so, the longer your shields can regenerate. Placing a lot of points into this skill can offset voidray´s or leviathan´s damage output. It is great counter to *Voidray*, because defensive matrix can be canceled by purify skill. However keep in mind, that you should always put your safety first, because without support your team crumbles.

## Less known tactics

1. **Armor** to counter carrier´s *interceptors*. It may not seem like much, but few points in armor can drasticaly reduce carrier´s damage. This does not work with scouts, but you can block those with pdd. Placing measly 10 points (550 minerals) into armor means 30 points of it, and that can be 50% of carrier´s damage. **Armor** can also reduce effectivity of plague, as the burning state eventualy triggers at 4 hits, instead of 3. This is huge, as *Raven* is great target for *Overlords* in late game.
2. **Speed** (*engine upgrades*) is more important, than people think. Stay ahead of Frigate, and they cant chase you down, when locked or blackouted. It is most crucial against *Leviathan*.
3. **Range** (*sensor upgrades*) influence your farming. If you need to fight pdds, tempests or broodlords staying behind tank with large range keeps you safe, while helping your team. Downside of range upgrades is, your lasers will automaticaly focus main enemy ships, if they enter range, however you can catch farm which would escape otherwise. Though good team does not leak farm. Each range upgrade increases reach of your *radar* by 5.
4. Do not throw ***EMP* at *voidray***. Wait until it aproaches, and do it unexpectedly. You will die, if it dodges it with *blink*, and you do not have *blackout*. He must commit to the fight first.
5. If lone **Battlecruiser** comes from side and behind you, he has a nuke. Do EMP him. Stay out of nuke´s range if you fail to deny it, it has lockdown effect, and team will need you. Deffensive matrix does not block nuke, but will protect your ally´s HP from other attacks, so nuke will not one shot him.
6. Enemy **ships need to face toward target**, when using their targeted skills. So you can catch the shot with defensive matrix easily. Easiest is Frigate, whose front end turns purple. *Overlod*´s *Psi blast* is hard to catch, as it is quick cast, but cooldown is 5 seconds, and you can predict his target. *Leviathan* does not show any change when casting *Biodischarge*, but he still faces the targeted ship, while drifting and slowing down.
7. Ships can´t die from *Plague*, but you need to give them shields, or on board fire will end them.
8. If you are coming to base burning and there is *nuke* or *seekers* behind you and about to hit, buy shields. Each shield upgrade means instant gain of 400 HP.
9. Use **Q+click** to rotate your ship toward where you intend to send your *seeker*, that way you have more precise control over the skill usage, as you separate the travel+turning actions from it´s casting time. You can also send seeker while retreating, similarly as *dreadnought* fights on retreat.
10. *Raven*´s shield regeneration scales TWICE as much as other terrans: 8,8 per shield upgrade level.
11. *Defensive matrix* receives +200 HP for each shield upgrade. For example, 14 shields *Raven* produces 4800 HP Defensive matrix.
12. Shields do not regenerate, when using shield transfer, so upgrade it.

## Farming table

[min]
[min]
 10
 20
 30
 40

As a support, you still need to farm, or you become weak. 1-hit lasers are the maximum you should ever go for, and only if it is neccessary due to enemy team composition. In most games 2-hit farming is sufficient.

Please note, that your laser will focus the minions your ship is facing toward. You can rotate your ship direction with Q.

## Weakness of this build and ship

Or in other words, how to lose the game.

1. Going too close to *carrier*, death by *interceptors*. Here only good allies can save you with 2 area skills. Use *EMP* to remove 50% HP from *interceptors*, before they touch you.
2. Going in range of strong *Leviathan*. Hope that carrier, overlord or arbiter will stop him. You can´t do anything but getting radar and staying out of range. *EMP* him, it may stop *biodischarge*. Do not use *seeker*.
3. Getting chased down by rocket ships before you get *PDD*. Be faster, rely on tank, safe positioning. If you hug them, their rockets can´t target you.
4. Warp trick. Good blackout will save you. At all costs, do not get caught first.
5. *Voidray* using *pulse nova* skill to fight. *EMP* only denies 200 energy, and that is not enough to stop it. Only *blackout* can help, and you need your team to split apart.