Why is Viking Assault Mode so maligned?

And I mean more than just using it for harass, but as a a genuine part of your ground army in battle. It has the same health, range and dps (vs. unarmored) as a Marauder, and it'll beat most other units one-on-one (i.e. Stalker, Hydralisk). With some Marine meat shields in front, it'll last a lot longer too. If the enemy has no air force, or a small enough air force, than landing some Vikings to take part in a ground assault sounds like a pretty good idea. Saying the Viking is only useful for its air mode does the unit an injustice if you actually make use of assault mode during ground fights.

I might play Protoss mostly, but it seems to me Terrans don't realize that the Viking on the ground is actually pretty decent; better than a Stalker at least. Suggesting things like increasing its ground DPS would just break the unit IMO. The only change I think the Viking could use would either be slightly more HP, between 5 to 15, since it does lack some actual armor protection and could use more survivability.

The viking is onyl sparesly used ingrond-mode becasue its less cost effective athan the untis it fights agsianst and alongside, and dies more easiyly than when its up in the air.

that said, landing a pack of vikings in or before a battle can certainly help turn the tide, only not as much as if the resources they cost had been used for more infantry/mech.

vikings primary utility obviously coems from ther long range high damage air-to-air attack. sometimes, terrans needs some of this, and sometimes, its hard to tell how much ofit they need; if the terran manages to grab an economic lead, it might be wise to favour more vikings, even if mainly as a precaution vs Broodlords, colossi or what have you; rather too many than too few, since they do alright on the ground anyway, and can maybe use their ability to fly to take some favourable positions.

It is decent, but the other terran units are more decent. Viking count needs to be high in tvp so that they can one-shot colossus. Using vikings to actually fight is less than optimal. Also, marines aren't really meat shields.

Assult Mode is more viable in some match ups than others. There are many reasons for this. For example, pumping Marauders over Vikings for GTG is simply more economical, from overall cost to quick Barrack's unit swaps to MMM healing. There is also the superior AtG damage provided by the Banshee. If the Banshee didn't exist, the Viking's Assult Mode would be the best substitute for harassing.

In TvT, landing your Vikings is usually frowned upon because you need enough Vikings alive to maintain air dominance over the enemy Vikings. Air dominance lets your Siege Tanks reach their full power through extended vision. If you land your Vikings instead of running away with them, they can end up taking a lot of unnecessary damage from enemy Tanks, or enemy Vikings as they transition back into air mode. Once you lose air dominance, the enemy is free to use his better Seige Tank range against you. Its a game of push and pull.

In TvZ, Vikings just aren't that cost effective. Mutalisks really hurt them, as do swarming Zerglings. Marines and Thors provide a better, if perhaps less mobile, option. Then again, with Medevacs mobility and healing become a non-issue. Vikings are good for Overlord sniping early, and really shine late game killing Brood Lords, but neither of those scenarios require the GTG mode.

I agree with you in that I think the most viable matchup for Assault Mode is TvP, but its not by much. If the enemy P is going air or Robo, you can use Vikings to seriously hurt his Phoenix/Void Ray/Colossus numbers then land and wreck some shit. But a Gateway army is a serious Viking dismantling force. Zealots swarm like Zerglings, Stalkers will pick you off very as you fly and transform, especially with Blink, and Sentries cut your damage and disable your pathing like any other unit. Vikings have superb mobility, but with Warp-In that can become a non-issue.

In summary, Vikings are by far better as AtA units, especially with that 9 range. Assault mode is more like an extra to keep them useful when there's nothing else in the sky to hit. Vikings are often more useful in TvT and TvP than in TvZ, because of their ATA. The best situation to use GtG Assault Mode is once the enemy army is weakened or gone, to quickly take out undefended structures using the mobility of the Fighter Mode to jump around the map. Kind of like flying a Medevac of Marauders around to harass.

Added to that they nerfed the viking ground damage many months ago. Remember the complaints that vikings in ground mode were superior to hydras.:p The ground mode does ok damage. Only real benefit is TvP when making blind vikings. If there's no colossus/air units to attack then they can contribute to the fight by landing.

The main problem is the time taken to switch between modes. It makes the viking vulnerable in that time. But reducing the time for that would make vikings a bit too strong unnecessarily. And TvZ it always seems like ghosts are safer to tech to than vikings when facing broodlords. That way an ultra switch is less effective.

Overall the ground assault mode is just something used in specific situations to add utility to the viking.

Also vikings doesn't have stim. And doesn't benefit from those badly needed upgrades vs protoss.

in a logner run development of the metagame, we may see significantly more vikings, adn them getting used in a wider variety of ways, in a certain type of games; games where terran play an air-centric style, taking every oportunity to use basnhees, nt only for economy harassment, getting air upgrades from armories and making some Battlecruciers eventually; comprehesnive terran gameplans that use air units throughout the game, where vikings become a good tool both for picking off light air suppriority aka phoenix/muta to allow banshees more free reign, and to provide covering firefor BCs in air to air battles vs heavier air units taht tyypically get amassed as a response to BC's (Corrupters, VR's, Vikings) ... whenever a big battle for air supriority is won wil obviously be good times to land them and hopefully even find some creative ways & locations to land them.

They also take more space. They can bolster ground dps as support by flanking or the rear. Better yet, one or two microed away to decimate some workers while the opp's forces are away.

They were OP once in ground mode, iirc.

The Transform in/out takes way too much time/micro, better off just flying them off and managing your Marauder deathball. Like others have said, they're just not cost effective as ground units and you're better off saving them to snipe colossus.

Your marauders can deal with their stalkers and zealots to an extent, they just need that air support for the colossus death beams.

....STRIDER!!!!!!!!!...
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The one thing I haven't heard mentioned yet as to why the Viking ground mode isn't used is that it's mechanical, aka the Medivac doesn't work on it like it does infantry units. That fact alone means that Marines, Marauders, etc are going to be more effective on the ground than the Viking is, not to mention the stim and attack upgrades, and so forth. I have yet to see a successful Terran force that wasn't swarming with Medivacs.

-Dread_Reaper

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Originally Posted by Dread_Reaper

The one thing I haven't heard mentioned yet as to why the Viking ground mode isn't used is that it's mechanical, aka the Medivac doesn't work on it like it does infantry units. That fact alone means that Marines, Marauders, etc are going to be more effective on the ground than the Viking is, not to mention the stim and attack upgrades, and so forth. I have yet to see a successful Terran force that wasn't swarming with Medivacs.

-Dread_Reaper

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I mentioned it.

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

For example, pumping Marauders over Vikings for GTG is simply more economical, from overall cost to quick Barrack's unit swaps to MMM healing.

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