Celesta Feedback

Pursuit · December 2015

Pursuit’s Celesta Review

Build 177

Experience and Overview

I’ve played Celesta for ~15 PvP games and probably another ~20 or so bot games. A majority of those games were on the Gameplay map on the 2v2 side, with maybe ~5 on the 1v1 side and ~2-3 on the Art Map. I also played a lot of Marine / Tank in SC2 so the mechanics of Celesta generally feel very familiar to me. Overall I think a lot of the depth in this game is unexplored and ~15 PvP games certainly isn’t enough to fully understand the squad so a lot of my thoughts could be wrong, but this is how I feel based on my experience.

Early Game: 4/5
Celestas early game is quite powerful in my opinion, especially when paired with a squad that can slow it might be one of the strongest in the game. Wisps have the second highest DPS / Cost in the game (behind the Bramblethorn Goliath) and have decent survivability in the early stages, and have a lot of micro potential. Celesta’s regular ability is also one of the best scouting tools in the game, letting you know where and when your opponent is expanding.

Mid Game: 5/5
Celesta might actually have the strongest all around mid game in Atlas at the moment. Purifiers control space extraordinarily well in the early stages where most units have smaller collision sizes and lower HP, and Wisps with the health upgrade dominate the field while AoE is relatively rare and easier to dodge in small-mid size engagements. For most squads I believe the optimal strategy for dealing with Purifiers is to skip tier 2 in favor of a faster tier 3, which gives Celesta a timing window and slight gem advantage.

Late Game: 2/5
Celesta has one of the weakest late game compositions in the game in my opinion. The Wisp / Purifier combo does extremely well in mid game but once high health tanky units with initiation and more AoE abilities come into play, the army simply can’t keep up, and Precognitors don’t supplement the Wisp / Purifier backbone enough against such units. I often feel like in big late game team fights Celesta simply isn’t able to provide as big of a difference as the other squads outside of her Ult.

Units

Celesta: 4/5
Celesta is one of the most interesting heroes in the game in my opinion. Her regular ability doesn’t deal a lot of damage or slow / stun units, but it can be used to scout from far ranges or aggro creep camps when enemy armies are walking past. Her ultimate ability has the potential to change games but will rarely connect without the slowing / stunning abilities of a fellow squad, and even then the enemy teams often have some kind of counterplay. Overall she feels more dynamic and interesting than most of the other hero’s to me.

Wisp: 4/5

Good Against
* Straight Up Engagements (little to no ability use, no micro on either side)
* Slowed / Stunned Units
* Plate (fast attack speed tears through it)
* Small -> Medium Size Engagements

Bad Against
* Area of Effect spells
* Slows / Roots / Stuns
* Large Engagements

The Wisp is another unit that just feels really solid and fun to me. It doesn’t have an special abilities, but its small collision size, short range, high dps, fast movement speed and relatively low health make it benefit greatly from good control and generally just feels fun to use. Based on the early and mid game alone, I would give the unit a 5/5, but it really falls off in late game with little to no counterplay. Once you start to get into big team fights, controlling them becomes extremely difficult as units tend to be clumped up bumping into each other, and with large amounts of AoE abilities flying around Wisps often end up being collateral damage even if they’re not the primary focus. If you plan on making more than 10-12 Wisps (which you’ll want to do in most situations) the +30 HP upgrade is basically necessary. The +2 range can also be very effective against large amounts of AoE damage, letting your spread your wisps out more without losing as much DPS.

Purifier: 4/5

Good Against
* Most Tier 1 / Tier 2 units
* Low -> Medium HP units
* Small Collision Size units
* High Gold:HP ratio units

Weak Against
* Most Tier 3 Units
* Long Range Burst Damage
* Initiation Abilities
* Plate
* Most Hero’s Ultimates

The Purifier is one of those units that your opponent has to build their strategy around to some extent. It dishes out lots of damage from a long range and you can’t just attack move into it, you need to have a plan to make something happen against them. The more obstacles the map has the better Purifiers will do, especially vs low range / melee units, and positioning is key with them. The +4.5 Range upgrade is pretty much a must-have if you’re getting 3-4 Purifiers and the Siege / Unsiege speed increase is good situationally. Two problems I have with the Purifier is that in a lot of situations it feels like the unit puts the game more into your opponent’s hands than your own. For example, no matter how well you position and target fire with your Purifier against a plated Aquadillo using cannonball to rapidly close the gap there’s not a lot you can do in terms of counter play. The second issue is that Purifiers are extremely strong against players who haven’t yet figured out with good ways to deal with them, to the point that they feel ‘unfun’ and ‘unfair’ to play against. This is especially true for people playing Vex who actually doesn’t have a good way to deal with Purifiers imo. Despite these issues I really like the Purifier and think it definitely has a place in the game.

Precognitor: 2/5

Good Against
* Single Target Physical Damage
* Immobile Ranged Units
* Slowed / Rooted Ranged Units
* Small Collision Size Units

Weak Against
* High HP Melee Units
* Mobile Units
* AoE Abilities
* High Magical Damage
* Initiation Abilities

I really like the idea (I assume) is behind the Precognitor; a support unit that supplements the Wisp / Purifier backbone. Unfortunately I feel like the Precognitor isn’t able to keep the Wisp / Purifier backbone relevant in late game in its current state. Blinding Smoke is a good support ability, but the small AoE and duration makes it easy for most enemies to quickly disengage and re-engage or shuffle to the side. The 90% damage reduction does an okay job of keeping Purifiers alive against physical damage, but the problem is by the time that becomes relevant against most high physical damage units they’ve already closed the gap on the Purifiers (often with a stunning ability as well). Lastly Precognitors are simply bad combat units on top of all of this, with a low 120 HP (upgradable to 160) they’re just as vulnerable to AoE as Wisps, and while they add a decent amount of DPS after their upgrade (Up to 31.8 from 18.8) it’s not worth the 350g a piece you ended up paying for the unit. I didn't play around with the smokescreen upgrade but I can't see it being a game changer like wisp health or purifier range.

Pursuit · December 2015

Versus Ryme

Early Game: Even, maybe Slight Disadvantage
Early game vs Ryme as Celesta feels like a chore. Ryme’s tier 1 units are able to slow huge amounts of wisps and trade fairly evenly even in a straight up fight (for a comparison, 2 Wisps have a combined total of 180 HP and deal 23.4 DPS and 1 Glacial Ranger has 285HP and deals 13.1 DPS. When one Wisps dies the DPS is halved, so in a straight up fight with no micro from either side, 1 Glacial Ranger actually beats 2 Wisps!). Your hero ability is superior to Ryme’s hero ability at this stage however, as the only real target for it is Celesta (freezing a wisp won’t make much of a difference).

If you have an ally who can slow or root the Glacial Rangers (Alder, Hydros, another Ryme) then fighting Glacial Rangers becomes a lot easier. Wisps have some of the best stutter step micro and once you get on top of Glacial Rangers you’re guaranteed to do quite a bit of damage (this will be a common theme in early game actually- pair Celesta with a squad that can slow!).

Mid Game: Slight Advantage
Mid game I feel like you definitely want the Health upgrade for Wisps due to the AoE and slowing effects from Glacial Rangers, Frostcallers and later in the game Ice Frogs (this is especially true if he has an ally with even more AoE). So my build looked something like 18 Wisps -> Health Upgrade -> 4 Purifiers for the mid game against Ryme. I go for Purifiers even though Ryme has a pretty tanky build overall (Even Glacial Rangers at 285HP and a medium collision size do okay vs them) simply because there isn’t a better option.

Once you get a decent Purifier count, you’re actually in a pretty decent spot vs either Frostcaller or Ancient Ice Frog in my opinion. Ice Frogs are slow and don’t have an initiation ability so as long as you don’t let your Wisps all get hit by their breath ability and have a decent Purifier spread you should be able to DPS them down with minimal losses. Meanwhile Frostcallers are powerful vs Wisps but their low-ish HP and cast range makes them great targets for the Purifier. Overall I feel like going up against Ancient Ice Frog’s is much scarier than going against Frostcallers.

The biggest midgame threat from Ryme is actually his hero ability at this point. Especially when you only have 1-2 Purifiers you need to keep some wisps between Ryme and your Purifiers at all times so he can’t Frostbolt them. Frostbolt takes a Purifier out of the battle for a long enough time that the rest of his army can run in and deal a bunch of damage (probably taking the Purifier down as well).

Late Game: Large Disadvantage
Once Late Game hits Ryme simply has too much AoE, too much slowing potential and too tanky of a build for Celesta to be able to hold well against Ryme on her own. Since Ryme does a good mix of both Magical and Physical damage and has the devastating Freeze ability there really isn’t a good way to counter them overall. Your best bet is to have a tanky ally with a slow / stun / snare that can keep his army off of yours and maybe let you get your Ultimate off.

Versus Hydros

Early Game: Large Advantage
The story of early game vs Hydros is that Wisps simply wreck Scuttleguards. Plate is a joke vs Wisps, their super fast attack speed plows through it and their superior range lets them focus down one Scuttleguard at a time. You don’t even really need to kite them as long as you engage smartly in chokes ect. Scuttleguards also move more slowly than Wisps so you can chase them down and maybe get a kill or two once they retreat. Overall vs Hydros you shouldn’t have any problems getting a gem and level advantage going into the mid game. Hydros’ best chance is to have a high DPS ally and get a good surround / slow on the Wisps.

Mid Game: ??? Mid
Mid game turns quickly from advantage to disadvantage against a good Hydros since Hydros will be going straight for Aquadillo’s after a few Scuttleguards. The Aquadillo is a powerful counter to both Wisps and Purifiers, and it actually does very well vs Precognitors as well. It’s important to grab the Health Upgrade against Aquadillo’s and I also think the Wisp Range upgrade can be worth it since the primary counter to the Aquadillo is spreading your units out. Your best bet is to pre-spread your Wisps and Purifiers over a huge area to minimize the effectiveness of both Cannonball and Vindication, and hope you’ve turned your early game advantage into a gold advantage to have superior numbers. 2 Aquadillo’s on their own can’t take on 18 pre-spread Wisps while you’re trickling in Purifiers, so the battle is still winnable at this stage.

Late Game: (Large?) Disadvantage
Once Aquadillo’s come out I feel like Celesta is already in a bad spot but you can actually fight well with the aforementioned massive pre-spreads. Most of the Aquadillo’s damage comes from it’s splash attack from which the Precognitor’s 90% damage reduction can only protect 1 unit from and as a Melee unit Aquadillo’s are immune to the effects of Blinding Cloud. Thus I don’t think Precognitors are very good except as a gold dump later in the game. Once Hydros starts to catch up in total army count though, adding on Quadrapus’ and more Scuttleguards, Hydros gets further and further ahead of Celesta. Hydros’ Ult also hard counters Celesta’s Ult, granting complete immunity to it’s effects and giving Hydros’ army a huge advantage. You end up not really spending your Ult on either side as a result, Celesta can’t spend hers or Hydros will counter it and Hydros can’t spend his or Celesta will nuke him.

Pursuit · December 2015

Versus Alder

Early Game: Slight Disadvantage
I would actually say this matchup is slightly Celesta favored if not for Alder’s hero ability. The combination of Alder’s hero ability and the Seedbot’s sapling ability makes it so that Alder can trap Wisps whenever they get too close and pick them off relatively risk free with a few sapling. Living Vines also does a considerably amount of AoE damage to Wisps (25+ vs their 90 HP). The inability to stutter step forward with your whole army due to the Sapling’s slow + Living Vines (in addition to the high health of Seedbot’s) means it’s difficult to target down individual Seedbots. Likewise retreating vs Living Vines can be difficult. Overall engaging Alder with just Wisps + Celesta is just really tricky and not recommended without an ally who can slow or unless you manage to dodge Living Vines and know it’s on cooldown. If you can ever get your Wisps on top of Seedbots though, you're going to do an incredible amount of damage.

Mid Game: Even
Once you start to add on Purifiers I feel like the matchup becomes much more manageable. Purifiers aren’t the best against the tanky Seedbots or Bramblethorn Goliath’s but they do zone them out well enough that Wisps are able to once again shine with their high DPS. This is one of the few matchups where I think Precognitors actually fulfills it’s role decently as having the ability to use Blind Cloud on saplings (which cannot escape) and the 90% damage reduction on Purifiers (which stops the Goliath from 2 shotting them) is very useful. The problem is that you need both Purifiers and Precognitors to counter the Goliath, which is difficult to achieve in mid game. Even if the Alder decides to go for Grove Tenders instead of the Goliath in the mid game though Grove Tenders are capable of adding plenty of damage and healing to Alder’s army.

Overall though I feel like the mid game is pretty even or maybe even slightly Celesta favored. Good control and positioning with your Wisps and Purifiers combined with the relatively slow movement speed of Alder’s units means that with good positioning you can deal with his mid game are quite effectively.

Late Game: Large Disadvantage
Late Game Alder just seems to wreck Celesta without the support of allies. Goliaths are able to tank massive damage, Seedbots are quite tanky as well, and the Grove Tender(s) add what is in my opinion the best heal in the game to this already tanky force. Add to this some of the strongest Physical damage in the game and powerful AoE magic damage + snare from the Hero ability and you already have a recipe for an army capable of wrecking Celesta, but Alder’s Ult also makes it extraordinarily difficult to ever engage into him. When at any moment a sapling can turn into a vortex of death that (seemingly) permanently stuns and damages all the units around it every single sapling becomes an obstacle to avoid.

Alder also benefits far more from Gold than Celesta. Most of Celesta’s racial traits are “okay” at best (excepting Purifier Range and Wisp Health) while all of Alder’s are great. The longer the game goes on, the more powerful Alder becomes and the stronger he becomes relative to Celesta.

The one advantage Celesta has in this matchup is her Ult. If you have an ally who can slow / stun Alder, Alder’s already slow units will struggle to escape Celesta’s Ult which will 1 shot all of Alder’s units except the Bramblethorn Goliath.

Versus Grath

Early Game: Large Advantage
Early game plays out very similar to how early game plays out vs Hydros. Wisps dominate the rocket turtles and it feels like there’s very little micro Grath can do to counter it.

Mid Game: Slight Advantage
Mid game plays out similarly to vs Hydros except the Grath’s tier 2 is actually pretty good vs Wisps and the Rustborn Rhino isn’t nearly as hard of a counter to Wisps as the Aquadillo is due to the linear path and relatively slow speed making it easier to dodge (it’s still quite good vs Purifiers though). I definitely give Celesta the edge here though, mainly because Celesta will have an XP / Gem advantage from the early game and Wisps are just incredibly powerful against everything Grath can make in small -> medium numbers. Purifier’s also add a solid amount of damage that Grath can’t ignore but also can’t risk diving in on due to the amount of damage Wisps would deal in the meantime. As the game drags on and Grath adds more and more tanky AoE however the tides begin to turn in his favor.

Late Game: (Slight?) Disadvantage
Again, once late game rolls around I feel like Celesta starts to become weaker than Grath. With the Tier 2 units that do AoE and Slow + the Tier 3 units that are able to stun in a huge AoE and quickly close the gap on Purifiers Grath takes a lead. Just like playing vs Hydros, you want to pre-spread a lot and consider grabbing the Wisp range upgrade. Your Ult is still effective here, while Grath’s ult might let him close the gap or dodge Celesta’s Ult more easily it doesn’t add a significant combat advantage and feel like the weakest Ult overall vs Celesta. Playing late game vs Grath feels like an easier version of playing late game vs Hydros.

Versus Eris

Early Game: Even
Early game Celesta vs Eris is an incredibly fun matchup, where Eris’ Sandstingers want to dart in, pick off a Wisp and dart out, and Celesta wants to get her Wisp-based army right on top of Eris’. There’s a ton of micro potential on both sides here and it’s one of my favorite 1v1 matchups. If either side has an ally with a slow that side will gain a huge advantage in the matchup.

Mid Game: Slight Advantage
Mid game feels even overall but I give a slight edge to Celesta. The optimal way for Eris to play from here is to go straight to tier three after Sandstingers and grab the Apocalyte(s). Two Meteors (or a Meteor + an Ult) can pick off Purifiers from afar and Sandstingers can dash in to close the gap on Purifier’s quickly. There’s no need to grab the Health upgrade vs Eris until later in the game (unless she has an ally with lots of AoE) but you instead want to rush for the Purifier Range upgrade to diminish the effectiveness of Meteor + the Sandstinger’s dash. Once you get up to 4 Purifiers with Range I feel like you have a small advantage until Eris maxes out on units.

Late Game: Even, maybe Slight Advantage
Late game Eris vs Celesta feels incredibly even and incredibly fun. Meteor is a great counter to Purifiers and when combined with a slow / stun / snare from another squad can wreck large groups of Wisps as well. The Aura from Eris’ tier 2 adds a ton of power to her army in straight up engagements and the high burst damage improves her ability to quickly focus down Purifiers.

Pursuit · December 2015

Versus Vex

Early Game: Large Advantage
Celesta just wrecks Vex in early game. Wisps move faster, deal more DPS (per cost and per unit) and have similar health / cost ratio. The Speedbot’s higher range is countered by the Wisps faster movement speed. Overall I think a well played Vex has the potential to not get too far behind vs Celesta, but that feels like the extent of Vex’s ability vs Celesta in early game. If Vex has an ally who can slow when Celesta doesn't, that can turn the tides in Vex's favor.

Mid Game: Large Advantage
No matter which option Vex goes for (Ignitor or Pyrosaur), Wisp + Purifier is going to dominate it, and dominate it from an early game advantage. Overall I feel like the Pyrosaur is a better option than the Ignitor since Pyrosaurs have more potential to destroy a group of Wisps and can tank Purifier shots to a certain extent. The ignitor ability is relatively easy to counter by pulling the affected Wisp away from the others, and due to it's long time before 'exploding' I feel like a good Celesta player typically wont lose large numbers of Wisps to it. Especially since Vex is most likely coming from behind into the mid game I just feel like Celesta is overall stronger here.

Late Game: Advantage
Vex actually has one of the strongest Ultimates in the game, but sadly it just isn’t enough to compensate for his relatively low HP mid range army. Once the Purifier range upgrade comes out Vex is forced to engage into horrible positions time and time again. Vex does get a considerable amount of AoE in late game though and a few moments of miscontrol can result in large numbers of Wisps getting fried, so late game isn’t a total loss for Vex. At the end of the day though any strategy that relies on your opponent making big micro mistakes just isn’t solid.

Versus Celesta

Early Game: Even
As a mirror matchup, Celesta vs Celesta is by default even. That being said, I feel like Celesta vs Celesta is the best matchup to go for early Purifiers. Wisps have low HP, a small collision size and no good initiation ability, so Purifiers are fairly dominate against Wisps. This is especially effective when paired with a hero that can slow. I still recommend building at least 6+ wisps in the early game however.

Mid Game: Even
Mid Game Celesta vs Celesta is an interesting matchup. Both Purifier Range and the faster Siege / Unsiege ability are necessary, the former so you aren’t out ranged by your opponent’s Purifiers and the latter as a way to dodge Celesta’s Ult. Wisps with the health upgrade and well spread can assault unprotected Purifiers, which makes vision and map awareness super important for both sides.

Late Game: Even
Precognitors can use their 90% damage reduction to send a ‘tank’ unit forward to and use the Blinding Cloud to disable a Purifier for 6 seconds, so they actually work quite well as siege breakers. This is the only matchup where Precognitors feel 100% worth it to grab in my opinion, but this is also the matchup where you end up spending the most gold into upgardes. Something I'd like to test but never got around to is a Wisp / Precognitor build in this matchup, but without Purifiers I think it would be hard for Celesta to contribute in team fights.

Versus Vela

Early Game: Slight Disadvantage
Raptors outrange and outspeed Wisps, but Wisps will destroy raptors if they can ever get on top of them. Overall I have to give Vela a slight advantage due to the better micro potential but with an ally that can slow / snare and allow Wisps to get on top of Vela’s army Celesta will destroy Vela.

Mid Game: Advantage
Once Purifiers come out Vela really begins to struggle against Celesta. Raptors simply aren’t able to target down Purifiers without suffering huge losses themselves (and coming into Wisp attack range), and Deadeye’s are relatively easy to counter with Celesta’s hero ability or by quickly diving and sniping down the expensive immobile unit. None of Vela’s units have particularly high health either, so Purifier shots are guaranteed to do high amounts of damage even without target firing.

Late Game: Advantage
By the time Vela gets her range upgrade you should also have Purifier range, and the two cancel each other out pretty well. Windrays will add even more range to Vela’s squad but Precognitors are a decent counter to this with the single target damage reduction and Blinding Cloud abilities. Vela’s Ult will add more power and utility than Celesta’s Ult in a 1v1, but with the support of a hero that can slow / stun Celesta’s Ult can actually one shot every unit Vela has. Overall I feel like the matchup doesn’t change much from mid game to late game.