Good Race/Secret Tech Synergies

[Promethian]

Amazons do really well with Prometheans. Their plant creatures root enemies in place while the Purifiers light the ground on fire. Its good synergy and available early. Later you get delayed effect ops that work with the roots as well. The tank synergizes as well by providing mobile cover so the archers get their range bonus.

 

[Arilou]

That sounds amazing and I'll have to try that soon.

I started an Amazon Psynumbra game the other day, expecting little to no synergy, but the Amazon initiates have a special dark vine skill, and malictors have dark roots.
This game seems to follow 3 nicely, in that every combination gets something.

Alas, that is not entirely true: Dvar and Vanguard get nothing from Psynumbra, for instance. (I had a post in the suggestion forum where i listed out all the stuff that gets nothing)

EDIT: one fairly obvious one: Dvar Promethean units gets +20% damage to Purifiers/Phoenix Walkers. That's a significant chunk of extra damage.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

In general, Xenoplague and Celestian are pretty much race independent. It basically doesn't matter what race you combine them with, since almost all synergies are quite minor and they do equally well with nearly everyone. With Celestian, every single light bringer variation gets something special (but cannot use any weapon mods) and most mods can be put on nearly anything. With Xenoplague the units are completely separated from the race that spawns them (again, mostly can't use weapon mods) and the secret tech mods can be put on nearly any non-mechanical/non-animal unit. The only things of note are:

• Xenoplague + Kir'ko: Melee+biological unit mods for your xenoplague units and a few biochemical mods you can get limited value when combined with plague pods. Has no mechanical or animal units.
• Xenoplague + Assembly: Only other racial melee mods. Again has no animal or mechanical units.
• Xenoplague + Amazon: Get the minor synergy with biochemical mods, however also have large anti-synergy thanks to fielding large numbers of animals that cannot use plague pods. Even mechanical units can use plague pods for all other races.
• Celestian + Kir'ko: Get an AoE heal on their star guide and psionic weapon mods for later units.
• Celestian + Syndicate: Get an alternative status effect on their star guide and psionic weapon mods for later units.
• Celestian + Vanguard: Anti-synergy with their OWLs and PUGs, Celestian mods cannot be put on mindless units.

All pretty minor stuff that doesn't have a huge impact on how effective those races are with those secret techs.

Alas, that is not entirely true: Dvar and Vanguard get nothing from Psynumbra, for instance. (I had a post in the suggestion forum where i listed out all the stuff that gets nothing)

EDIT: one fairly obvious one: Dvar Promethean units gets +20% damage to Purifiers/Phoenix Walkers. That's a significant chunk of extra damage.

Amazon + Synthesis doesn't seem to offer anything special either. It also isn't a particularly good combination since there's no damage channel overlap and the amazons don't use mechanical units.

 

[TheGrinningMan]

Amazon + Synthesis doesn't seem to offer anything special either. It also isn't a particularly good combination since there's no damage channel overlap and the amazons don't use mechanical units.

Kir'ko/Synthesis is the kind of the same deal. I tried it out because the idea of the Kir'ko rebuilding a hive mind with cybernetic networking rather than psychic communion is really interesting and flavorful, but the actual results felt kind of meh; just sort of two separate things, off in their own place, that didn't really play well together at all. It's not terrible, Synthesis mods are strong and reliable, the Hidden quite like the targeting one in particular. IMHO, though, it lacks a certain "oomph".

 

[Ethorin]

Celestian + Vanguard: Anti-synergy with their OWLs and PUGs

yeah buuuuuut, resetting once per battle cooldowns is just good and Guiding Light+Targeting Laser is REALLY good.

like, yeah, you can't enlighten them but there IS a diminishing return on enlightening EVERYTHING.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

yeah buuuuuut, resetting once per battle cooldowns is just good and Guiding Light+Targeting Laser is REALLY good.

like, yeah, you can't enlighten them but there IS a diminishing return on enlightening EVERYTHING.

Yeah, they're all fairly small nitpicks. Celestian and Xenoplague are basically equally effective with all factions.

 

[wingren013]

Synthesis mods are strong and reliable, the Hidden quite like the targeting one in particular. IMHO, though, it lacks a certain "oomph".

Synthesis probably has the best mods in the game. Really the main reason to take it.

 

[Nussor]

Kir'ko/Synthesis is the kind of the same deal. I tried it out because the idea of the Kir'ko rebuilding a hive mind with cybernetic networking rather than psychic communion is really interesting and flavorful, but the actual results felt kind of meh; just sort of two separate things, off in their own place, that didn't really play well together at all. It's not terrible, Synthesis mods are strong and reliable, the Hidden quite like the targeting one in particular. IMHO, though, it lacks a certain "oomph".

Synthesis generally lacks oomph, because their units are only conditionally useful and have medium range, and medium range sucks in city battles (which means all of them). To play Synthesis you need a faction with strong base units that can profit from mods. I'd say Kir'Ko is a pretty good choice, because Synthesis mods should in theory allow you to shortcut Transcendents.

 

[beckermt]

I like voidtech with the Vanguard. The ability to run through cover and partially negate enemy cover on ranged attacks really helps them make the most of the battlefield to set up solid firing lines. A major weakness of theirs is a lack of melee ability, which the very first void tech unit helps cover. Additionally, I believe the doctrines they can access either complement or make up for deficiencies in the Vanguard's core doctrines.

Combining the tier1 defense mods from Void Tech and Vanguard onto your basic troopers gives them Move through cover, -40% chance to be hit, and +2 Armor (or +1/+1 Arm/Shield, I forget). Those basic units are TANKY.

 

[Windscion]

What do you mean roll back on you?

Well, I looked at the description, and one of the four listed effects was a random 2-hex teleport. That could be inconvenient. (Given the usual ranges in combat, also probably meaningless.)

 

[Ethorin]

it disrupts melee basically every time and DOES disrupt repeating attacks every time.

which makes Void Tech units all being repeating kind of weird.

on the other hand that's the last effect IIRC so if you are playing well you probably kill any given trget well before the debuff stacks that high.

 

[Foofmonger]

I'm testing assembly right now as they are by far my favorite, here are my general results.

Voidtech is the best secret tech for assembly with synthesis a close second. Promethean and Psynumbra are both pretty bad on assembly overall. Xeno can work, but it had an inherent lack of synergy, that being said it is already a snowball tech and assembly is a snowball faction so it's really an all in strategy. I haven't tried celestial assembly, mostly because it seems like it would just be terrible. I will try it though to confirm.

If I were to rate best to worst:

1. Voidtech
2. Synthesis
3. Xenophage
4. Promethean
5. Tie between celestian and psynumbra. (As I haven't tried celestian yet, I'm not sure which is worse).

So after more testing here is my updated list. I'm 99% sure of these rankings. I have roughly 55 hours of testing Assembly secret techs and strats done so far.

High Tier:
1. Assembly Voidtech (best all around)
2. Assembly Synthesis (best versus heavy mechanical armies and therefore best against certain match ups even stronger then VT. However it's not very good versus biological armies so I give the overall edge to VT but it's close.)

Medium Tier:
3. Xenoplague. (Assembly are a snowball faction, Xeno is a snowball tech, the majority of assembly units can use Xeno mods, and there are some assembly mods that work well with the Xeno playstyle)
4. Celestian. (Heavy focus on defense and survivability on a faction that already has a lot of strong defensive options, however there is a lack of overall synergy that makes it worse then the former 3 combinations.)

Low Tier:
5. Assembly Psynumbra (a distinct overall lack of synergy, but the assembly psy units are good and allow for some extreme fodder strategies. This combo gets a low rating due to just how many hoops you need to jump through and the specific playstyle you need to adopt, which is using your psynumbra units as effective suicide bombers to absorb fire and spawn into chorus while you clean up with your assembly units)
6. Assembly Promethean. (Huge lack of synergy and assembly specific prom units are nothing special, can't use the majority of promethean mods to any real effect on assembly units)

All of that said, no combination is bad or unplayable or you can't win games with. This is a relative ranking of the ST combos with Assembly so remember I am not comparing them in a void but in relation to each other. If your response to a list like this is to say "well I've used x combo you listed as not the best and I did well with it" that's fine and totally expected. What I would respond with is to try the combo that I list as better (if you already havent) and see if you still come to the same conclusion. For instance if you have only tried celestian and promethean assembly, then in comparison celestian seems really good! Now go try voidtech or syndicate and see how much stronger those are then celestian!

 

[RNGesus322]

Heard of an absolutely broken combination, Syndicate + Psynumbra.

Basically you fight with two stacks, one with a hero + 5 indentured and the other with a hero + 5 initiates. Since Syndicate Initiates gain +1 base dmg per Indentured on the field (they don't even have to be in the same stack), you can basically rush your enemies early-mid game with a combo that can't be beat, as the Initiates deal 12 base damage a hit that pierces armor and has 7 range (damage can also increased by mods).

Best part is the units that are normally resistant to Psionic dmg (machines) are also weak to Arc from the indentured.

 

[wingren013]

Another great Psynumbra synergy is with Amazons. The scan ability on the biomancer really helps getting the debuffs and mind control off.

 

[Booo]

Heard of an absolutely broken combination, Syndicate + Psynumbra.

Basically you fight with two stacks, one with a hero + 5 indentured and the other with a hero + 5 initiates. Since Syndicate Initiates gain +1 base dmg per Indentured on the field (they don't even have to be in the same stack), you can basically rush your enemies early-mid game with a combo that can't be beat, as the Initiates deal 12 base damage a hit that pierces armor and has 7 range (damage can also increased by mods).

Best part is the units that are normally resistant to Psionic dmg (machines) are also weak to Arc from the indentured.

The +5 isn't multiplied by damage multipliers, so the damage isn't as strong as it might seem. A unit with a base of 13 damage (like a lightbringer or wraith tank) with +40% damage deals 19 damage, a syndicate initiate with 5 indentured and +40% damage deals 15 damage per hit. It tends to even out rather well after a couple of mods.

 

[Evil_Fishy]

Well, I looked at the description, and one of the four listed effects was a random 2-hex teleport. That could be inconvenient. (Given the usual ranges in combat, also probably meaningless.)

True, but early game you never reach that status effect, you mostly notice the -2 kinetic resistance and maybe decreased stagger resistance because they just die too fast. But with quantum avatar you start seeing that all the time because they're proccing dimensional instability on themselves all the time.

So it's true that dimensional instability can throw enemies out of your melee overwatch, and putting a quantum avatar on ravenous will cause the enemy to teleport away if they get a chance to melee overwatch your attacks.

But on ranged units It's busted. I had a 6 stack of engulfers with a regen mod and auantum avatar valued at about 2k army power. They were trashing armies valued at 4k+ with no sweat. Swarm shield + quantum avatar is 5 additional shields and stagger resistance, so my engulfers were stagger immune and armor+shields were dropping damage to about a third of what it would be on top of shrugging off repeating attacks. They were so tanky that I could just ignore blinded and hallucinating, the battles just took a little while longer. Even auto resolve won these ridiculous fights, but it occasionally lost one, unfortunately.

The main weakness would be mind control effects and units that can hit hard with just 1 attack like tormented.

 

[Foofmonger]

it disrupts melee basically every time and DOES disrupt repeating attacks every time.

which makes Void Tech units all being repeating kind of weird.

on the other hand that's the last effect IIRC so if you are playing well you probably kill any given trget well before the debuff stacks that high.

So the last point is super relevant as I've played a lot of voidtech. It's extremely hard to get DI up to level 4 on an alive target. You need to hit them a minimum of 4 times with a DI causing attack/ability, get no resists at all (you will get resists) and have them survive all of that. Basically never happens unless you are attacking enemy commanders with like 3 scouts or terrible damage units who all have the di causing mod on.

That being said if you have a target that is alive and has di 4, then either don't use a repeating attack or use the repeating and kill them anyway cause they are probably almost dead.

Also as the poster above me noted, don't try to put a lot of di mods on melee units. Quantum avatar should go on ranged units. Also the teleport is random so sometimes it works in your favor where you pull a unit into a kill box and sometimes it doesnt, but voidtech is all about messing up enemy position so it all works out. It it's like you won't have rift gens and I forget the name the units that can abduct units in your army already causing massive positioning issues for your enemy. Part of playing voidtech well is just trashing whatever strategy your opponent has. Spread out? I abduct your units and kill them. Stay clumped, here get tossed around by my rift generator.

 

[Promethian]

The +5 isn't multiplied by damage multipliers, so the damage isn't as high as it might seem. A unit with a base of 13 damage (like a lightbringer or wraith tank) +40% damage deals 19 damage, a syndicate initiate with 5 indentured and +40% damage deals 15 damage per hit. It evens out rather well after a couple of mods.

You just wrote this in response to someone who explicitly states they are describing an early game rush strategy.

 

[Booo]

You just wrote this in response to someone who explicitly states they are describing an early game rush strategy.

The post said that the damage could be increased by mods, but the bonus damage isn't affected by mods. It deserved a comment.

The examples I used for comparison are also units that are suitable for rushing early, and +40% is a typical early game damage multiplier.

 

[Nussor]

Testing Kir'Ko + Voidtech atm, very spicy. 2 Frenzied, 2 Transcendent, 1 Hidden / Phase Manipulator + Melee Hero as standard stack steamrolls everything. Turns out being able to run through obstacles with your melee dudes is really good, especially in those ubiquitous siege battles. And you have a lot of tools to gain positional advantages, like shrouded step, abduct, rescue and various "shuffle" ops. Later on you get Heavy Units with Avatar mod, but I generally feel that those are never tanky enough and I stick to secret tech units and cheap Tier 1&2s.

There is also a "hidden" bonus in that you really only need very few techs to make this work.