Patch 1.4.0

[RamiZ]

Uh..I dunno, maybe because terrans already have more cost effective ways of dealing with 'huge numbers of small units' which can be obtained at earlier tiers?

That is still not the reason for choosing something you don't really need. If my enemy is going Muta/Ling/Banes and I have Marines, Thors and BCs, I certainly wouldn't choose Yamato Cannon for BC because it probably would be wasted. There will be certain situations where your Marines and Thors won't be able to deal enough damage to the mass Mutalisks, I would choose the Missile Barrage or even Defensive Matrix.

[phazonjunkie]

That is still not the reason for choosing something you don't really need. If my enemy is going Muta/Ling/Banes and I have Marines, Thors and BCs, I certainly wouldn't choose Yamato Cannon for BC because it probably would be wasted. There will be certain situations where your Marines and Thors won't be able to deal enough damage to the mass Mutalisks, I would choose the Missile Barrage or even Defensive Matrix.

So...you'd choose an ability that's a one trick pony and basically useless outside of one or two possible theorycrafted situations over a far more utilitarian spell that instakills the vast majority of other units (air and ground) and defensive structures in the game?

Remember, the key word here is permanent. What if the zerg player decides to transition out of mutaliks and go corruptors, or worse yet, hydras (which are far more cost effective at dealing with BC's anyway)? You'd be stuck with a spell that's basically useless for the rest of the game, whereas the yamato cannon can be useful in the majority of situations.

[sandwich_bird]

So...you'd choose an ability that's a one trick pony and basically useless outside of one or two possible theorycrafted situations over a far more utilitarian spell that instakills the vast majority of other units (air and ground) and defensive structures in the game?

Remember, the key word here is permanent. What if the zerg player decides to transition out of mutaliks and go corruptors, or worse yet, hydras (which are far more cost effective at dealing with BC's anyway)? You'd be stuck with a spell that's basically useless for the rest of the game, whereas the yamato cannon can be useful in the majority of situations.

Yamato is as much of a one trick pony as missile barrage. Sure, it can one shot some stuff but most of the stuff that it can one shot(stalkers, marines, hydra, etc), you don't want to waste it on them. It's really only useful in a straight up battle against vrays/corruptors/carriers/bc/ms and I'm not convinced that yamato would be better than missile barrage against those(except the ms of course) thanks to the AoE. I mean, a maxed thor army would beat a maxed bc army simply because of the AoE even though their missiles are supposed to be only good against smaller air units. I don't see why this would be any different with missile barrage.

[RamiZ]

So...you'd choose an ability that's a one trick pony and basically useless outside of one or two possible theorycrafted situations over a far more utilitarian spell that instakills the vast majority of other units (air and ground) and defensive structures in the game?

Remember, the key word here is permanent. What if the zerg player decides to transition out of mutaliks and go corruptors, or worse yet, hydras (which are far more cost effective at dealing with BC's anyway)? You'd be stuck with a spell that's basically useless for the rest of the game, whereas the yamato cannon can be useful in the majority of situations.

If he decide to transition to the Corruptors, missile barrage is still great since you won't be able to defeat few BCs with few Corruptors, but with many of them, where missile barrage is still better than Yamato because of the splash. And if he switch to mass Hydras, Yamato cannon certainly won't help there... and I will make new BCs with Defensive Matrix. That is the whole point of being able to choose between abilities, not to have one that is the best or to serve the purpose of being all-around ability.

[Drake Clawfang]

If he decide to transition to the Corruptors, missile barrage is still great since you won't be able to defeat few BCs with few Corruptors, but with many of them, where missile barrage is still better than Yamato because of the splash. And if he switch to mass Hydras, Yamato cannon certainly won't help there... and I will make new BCs with Defensive Matrix. That is the whole point of being able to choose between abilities, not to have one that is the best or to serve the purpose of being all-around ability.

Easier said than done, since BCs are such a costly investment.

[RamiZ]

Easier said than done, since BCs are such a costly investment.

Indeed they are, but the whole point is that Defensive Matrix and Missile Barrage are more useful than Yamato Cannon, at least in my eyes they are. I am talking if I have good economy and can remake them, If I can't, the whole story is pointless, since I would just use another kind of units.

[Jabber Wookie]

Completely off-topic for a second but relevant to new patches... Why don't they show my Win-Loss ratio anymore (I know this has been the case since season 3 or something)?!? Are they afraid people will discover that everyone isn't being matched perfectly cuz it's not 50/50? Are they worried it will crush our egos and discourage us from playing?

Cuz if so, stop coddling this game for kids. I want to know without having to check my match history. It's absolutely ridiculous to see my name displayed with 22 wins and not know if I've lost 10 or 100 times... I can handle the truth Blizz

[sandwich_bird]

Are they worried it will crush our egos and discourage us from playing?

If I remember correctly it was a bit of that. Also, since the system forces you to lose 50% of the time, they said that loses were irrelevant if you know how many times you won.

Personally, I think it's pretty stupid but... I'm still more pissed at the fact that we still don't have an ally resource counter in team games because they think it would make us rage over our partners more...

[phazonjunkie]

Indeed they are, but the whole point is that Defensive Matrix and Missile Barrage are more useful than Yamato Cannon, at least in my eyes they are. I am talking if I have good economy and can remake them, If I can't, the whole story is pointless, since I would just use another kind of units.

Well in my eyes, the fact that the yamato cannon can be used against air or ground, and can be used as a long range siege or sniping weapon against static defenses/high priority targets makes it a more useful abiltiy by default.

In any case, the play testers in early alpha, who did have access to the other 2 abilities for a time, for whatever reason decided to stick with YC in the majority of cases; presumably after giving the other 2 abilities a fair try. So apparently the other 2 didn't work as intended or just weren't all that good in the end.

[Aldrius]

Well in my eyes, the fact that the yamato cannon can be used against air or ground, and can be used as a long range siege or sniping weapon against static defenses/high priority targets makes it a more useful abiltiy by default.

In any case, the play testers in early alpha, who did have access to the other 2 abilities for a time, for whatever reason decided to stick with YC in the majority of cases; presumably after giving the other 2 abilities a fair try. So apparently the other 2 didn't work as intended or just weren't all that good in the end.

This is one of those things I wish they'd tried out in a more public beta instead of bailing on them during the alpha. I mean making mechanics like that, and the Corruptors corruption ability WORK would have been worth it.