Trends i've noticed that could use changes

[Aldrius]

Btw are yamato's and nukes finally smart casts?

Except for blink (maybe charge... but charge is auto-cast), everything is smart cast.

Does it have some kind of a radiation effect or Emp?(That's a stupid question i forgot that blizzard likes to distant itself from reality )

No. That'd be pretty arbitrary...

[PosImpos]

Maelstorm??? What? Oh you think about Force Field... Guardian Aura creats aura around Sentrie that reduce every missile attack by 2. Which means your units are actually getting +2 Armor vs ranged attacks which is extremely powerful for that low cost! And I like it.

My mistake; I said Maelstrom, I meant Dark Swarm. Guardian Aura protects against ranged attacks kind of like that.

Guardian Aura may be very useful, but I think it's uninteresting because it's just an aura. I like spells like Force Field and Psi Storm because they're very powerful but have to be used properly; they require skill. You don't just turn them on and reap the benefits (like you do with an aura).

[arthas]

Except for blink (maybe charge... but charge is auto-cast), everything is smart cast.



No. That'd be pretty arbitrary...

Hmm yes and some abilities like siege/unsiege,viking transform.,cloacking,but those are obvious...btw can you check about the nuke damage potential and the yamato siege range?

[Blazur]

My mistake; I said Maelstrom, I meant Dark Swarm. Guardian Aura protects against ranged attacks kind of like that.

It's similar, yes. While dark swarm nullified all ranges attacks from the outside, guardian simply reduces its effectiveness. Still, for all intents and purposes the ability is nearly identical and thus not interesting.

Seems like so many of the abilities in this game are rehashes of the original. Very disappointing...

[Xeonio]

Speaking counters....

Hydra's have a 'fast' attack speed... but how does it compare to a roach's? Will the same number of hydra's beat the same number of roach's? I haven't spent much time tech'ing into them unless my opponent has air (which hydra's rape).

Question: Do larva spawn faster from a lair or hive than a regular hatchery?

[Nicol Bolas]

There is absolutely no way to predict reapers via scouting too

So, if I use an Overlord to spot double-Barracks with Tech Lab, and I see a Reaper come out, I can't predict Reapers?

Guardian Aura may be very useful, but I think it's uninteresting because it's just an aura.

It's uninteresting because it's an aura. That's way stupid. Though not as stupid as:

While dark swarm nullified all ranges attacks from the outside, guardian simply reduces its effectiveness. Still, for all intents and purposes the ability is nearly identical and thus not interesting.

It's interesting because it changes targeting. You can stop Guardian Aura, by killing the generating unit. Phoenixes with Graviton, Mutalisk sniping, Banshee raids, or just good old-fashioned focus-fire if they get too close.

Once Dark Swarm goes down, there's nothing you can do except wait it out. And it stops ranged attacks, rather than just weakening them slightly. Guardian aura is great against units that rely on fast attack speed. It is terrible for units that rely on single-shot damage (60 damage AoE won't notice -2). Dark Swarm works equally well on everything. Dark Swarm is immobile, while Guardian Aura is not.

So no, it is not "for all intents and purposes ... nearly identical." Indeed, the only similarity between the two is that they affect ranged attacks. Everything else is completely different.

Hydra's have a 'fast' attack speed... but how does it compare to a roach's? Will the same number of hydra's beat the same number of roach's?

It depends. Is Burrow micro being used by the Roaches? If so, does the Hydra side have an Overseer?

Is the battle on Creep? If so, are the Hydras kiting the Roaches?

Question: Do larva spawn faster from a lair or hive than a regular hatchery?

Why would they even add that? There's Spawn Larva; if there's one thing the Zerg don't need anymore, it's faster larva spawn rates.

[moosh]

Yea, I was saying the roaches are the counter to zealots / marines / lings... the base units.

I'm not playing at the high end so its probable the pro's have already seen a better work around. My current problem is that Immortals seem to be the answer to most things ATM. Roaches and Marauders are the bread and butter unit which is EASILY countered by Immortals. With each attack upgrade the Immortals get another +4 damage to Armored units... which as you can imagine is pretty nasty.

I've tried countering Immortals with Hydras but the ling's don't seem to stand up to Zealots long enough for the Hydras to finish the job. I don't know what the Terran's do cuz I don't play them.

I switched over to playing Protoss because it is WAY more user friendly than Zerg (mainly due to the building Q and the macro mechanic is much easier to use than going back for larva spawning). Mainly I've just been starting off with zealots and stalkers and as soon as I see the terrans massing marauders (I haven't seen a Terran strat that doesn't include massing them) or Zerg massing roaches (again... thats all they seem to do) I start spamming Immortals. I've won every game with that sad strat.

I think Immortals should be nerf'd at least a bit. Their relative power at tier 2 vs. the equivalent t2 units is quite devastating.

I don't think there is a zerg unit with a bonus damage to armored is there?

Keep in mind Immortals cost a whoopin 4 food. So they should be MUCH more difficult to mass than roaches.

[Xeonio]

Hydra's have a 'fast' attack speed... but how does it compare to a roach's? Will the same number of hydra's beat the same number of roach's?

It depends. Is Burrow micro being used by the Roaches? If so, does the Hydra side have an Overseer?

Is the battle on Creep? If so, are the Hydras kiting the Roaches?

Assuming no micro. Mainly I just want to know which one has more DPS. Yes, I know there are reasons to have one over the other, I'm not talking about niche scenarios.

Question: Do larva spawn faster from a lair or hive than a regular hatchery?

Why would they even add that? There's Spawn Larva; if there's one thing the Zerg don't need anymore, it's faster larva spawn rates.

I'd say thanks but you didn't really answer the question, simply gave a reason for it not to be in.

Keep in mind Immortals cost a whoopin 4 food. So they should be MUCH more difficult to mass than roaches.

Yea, they aren't easy to mass but you don't need a whole lot of 'em when they are hitting your armored units for 50 each hit. I think the problem you get into with them is the hardened shields (personally I think it should be researched).

1 Immortal hits a roach for 50... 4 Roaches hit an Immortal for 40 (w/shields) 64 (w/o shields).

3 shots from an Immortal kills a Roach
6-7 shot rounds from the 4 roaches kills the Immortal

Immortal (250 min / 100 gas)
Roach x4 (300 min / 100 gas)

I don't think its like WOW thats crazy OP but I think it does deserve a tiny nerf. It seems odd that one unit so crazily trumps another unit, especially after they took out Scourge (assumably because scourge mostly nullified air strats vs. Zerg).

[PosImpos]

It's uninteresting because it's an aura. That's way stupid.

It's uninteresting because you don't have to place it, you don't have to micro it, you don't have to have any skill at all to use it. Just press a button and turn it on. There is some trade off because you're using energy that you could use for Force Field, but that's all the thinking there is to it.

At least Dark Swarm took a little bit more skill because it was a placed ability so you had to actually micro where you placed it and keep your units within it etc. Guardian Aura is a dumbed down version of that ability (though not as powerful, as you explained). I agree that they are not "nearly identical," however.

In general, I dislike auras in RTS games because they are a passive way of adding strategic depth. There's no way for a player to distinguish himself through the use of an aura. One guy isn't going to be a whole lot better at using an aura than another. There were a lot of auras in WC3, but there were a ton of activated abilities in that game so it was fine. There aren't that many spellcaster abilities in Starcraft II, so I'd like them all to be a bit more nuanced than "press button to activate."

[Norfindel]

I don't see Immortals creating huge problems. They're very strong vs Armored units, and heavy hitters like the Siege Tank are totally useless against them (while the Shields are up), but they cost a ton of resources, and are weak vs a bunch of cheap units (that can eat the Shields pretty fast), several spells, have no defense vs air, etc.

About auras, you still need to micro the aura-generator, which is a very frail unit, unlike the heroes in WC3 that had a huge amount of HP. If the enemy focuses fire on a Sentry, it isn't going to last.