Giving the Nexus Argus Link

[Crazy_Jonny]

I don't think the protoss really need an emergency ability because the warpgate IS like their emergency ability.

[n00bonicPlague]

Geez Archer — you make it sound like adding channeling will make it have zero clicks or something. It's not like CB will automatically stop when the process at the targeted building is done. You will have to stop it yourself. It will actually take about the same number of clicks that a one-shot boost would. Plus you will actually have to pay more attention to it so that you don't waste a single drop of energy. In some ways, making CB a channeling ability will actually require more macro than its current incarnation.

[ArcherofAiur]

Geez Archer — you make it sound like adding channeling will make it have zero clicks or something. It's not like CB will automatically stop when the process at the targeted building is done. You will have to stop it yourself. It will actually take about the same number of clicks that a one-shot boost would. Plus you will actually have to pay more attention to it so that you don't waste a single drop of energy. In some ways, making CB a channeling ability will actually require more macro than its current incarnation.

Your right n00b it wouldnt make it zero clicks. But it would decrease the clicks and focus required to macro.

It would make it a "change only when your decision change". Weve approached this from a unit production angle when we talked about autocasting workers/units. There is no default "only click when changing decision" convention in Starcraft.

[DemolitionSquid]

Seriously. The Phoenix has ZILCH in common with the Scout.

Yeah. The Scout acctually did ok AtA damage.

All the Phoenix does is poke at Mutalisks.

[Triceron]

On that matter, wondering if people have tried Void Rays vs Battlecruiser. BC's have 3 armor naturally, so at the start your beam only does 2/s until it ramps up to lvl 2. Since the change, lvl1 beam lasts longer (since there is no lvl2) and it does VERY WEAK damage to BC's. Void Rays are supposed to be Protoss' counter to Armored Air units, but it seems they got really nerfed in this way.

Void Rays can be countered by Vikings as well, so a BC there to take hits and Vikings taking down protoss Air seems to be a pretty rough combo.

I faced this off on Twilight Fortress, the massive 2v2 turtle map (I hate is so much) and I couldn't figure any way to beat this other than mass stalkers; which is really dumb since the opponent had mass marauder early on swapping tech to viking/BC support. I had Zealot/Sentry/Void Ray to counter this, but even 8 Void Rays were unable to really put a dent on 2 BC's with viking support. I was able to take out 1 BC at the cost of way too many VRays.

[n00bonicPlague]

Your right n00b it wouldnt make it zero clicks. But it would decrease the clicks and focus required to macro.

If someone sat at their gateway and made nothing but Zealots, yeah, he/she would only have to click like once per Nexus. But that's not how the game goes, is it? Players are constantly switching between buildings making all sorts of units and doing all sorts of research. The number of clicks needed for a channeling version of CB would fluctuate from nearly nothing at the beginning of the game to far more than the one-shot CB could ever hope to come near to.

And focus? What focus? People are using TIMERS so that they know EXACTLY when to go back to cast CB again. If it was a channeling ability, the time would always change according to whatever was being trained or researched — and everything has a different amount of time. If that unit or upgrade finishes before you go back to switch CB to something else, you waste valuable energy. The focus required would be ridiculously high.

Also, channeling CB could only be used on one thing at a time. The current version is literally fire-and-forget. You drop a few CBs and go right back to what you were doing — rinse and repeat. If something stupid happens, you start up a few units and hit the training buildings with CB. With channeling, players would have to regularly go back and either target something else or turn it off. Also, if crap happens, they'll have to move CB to something else in order to get those reinforcements faster, while the special research will have to wait.

All around, channeling CB will require MORE macro, focus-wise and click-wise. The catch is that it will actually make more sense than what we have now and will thus be more comprehensible and less annoying.

It would make it a "change only when your decision change".

Decisions can change in less than a second — far more often and far more random than every 30 seconds. Are you sure you actually support more challenging macro?

Weve approached this from a unit production angle when we talked about autocasting workers/units. There is no default "only click when changing decision" convention in Starcraft.

There also is no default "must click every 30 seconds" convention.

[Aldrius]

Yeah. The Scout acctually did ok AtA damage.

All the Phoenix does is poke at Mutalisks.

Cost-for-cost Phoenix do quadruple the damage that the Scout did to Mutalisks in SC1.

So no. Killing Mutalisks is something the Phoenix does well.

Since the change, lvl1 beam lasts longer (since there is no lvl2) and it does VERY WEAK damage to BC's. Void Rays are supposed to be Protoss' counter to Armored Air units, but it seems they got really nerfed in this way.

Sorta... they're not going to spend much time NOT charged up against a unit with 600 health.

[DemolitionSquid]

Cost-for-cost Phoenix do quadruple the damage that the Scout did to Mutalisks in SC1.

So no. Killing Mutalisks is something the Phoenix does well.

Its the ONLY thing it does well. Its completely useless outside ZvP. Its a piece of shit.

[Krikkitone]

Sorta... they're not going to spend much time NOT charged up against a unit with 600 health.

Actually the amount of Time a Void ray spends 'not charged up' has little to do with the units health....
the unit's health has to do with whether the Void Rays charge up at all.

Basically if you have a group of Void rays it will be X seconds before they can be charged up.
IF they get charged up, they can only do that if they fail to kill a unit in that time.

so basically Void rays are a "Battle time limit" They are only Really useful if they survive for X Seconds.

So if you are Fighting Void Rays, you want to Focus Fire as much as you can, to kill as much as you can before the Time limit.

If You have Void Rays, you Don't want to kill Anything before the time limit. (the less you kill before the time limit, the more you kill after the time limit)

So you don't want to focus fire...unless those are units you won't be able to get the boost on anyways (Marines/Hydras, etc.)

[Rake]

As much as I would love to see chain-storm, I think it would be much too powerful.