Casters current state.

[KadajSouba]

I was thinking lately about something, and its that race differentiation also applies to the casters in this game. In sc1, all 3 races had 1 air caster, and one ground caster, all of them offensive units. Pretty much the race differentiation was applied to the spells. In SC2, every caster has almost a different role. Lets see:

Terrans: Theyve got the ghost and the raven. Ghost is a ground-offensive unit, and the raven is an aerial unit. Both of them can see the battle field, but almost never at the same time.
Before they had the Vessel and also the ghost.

Protoss: Theyve got 3 casters: The never-used mothership, a sinlge "powerful" air caster. Then the High templar we all love. And finally the new Sentry, ground caster too. Mothership is almost non-existent, so i wont include it. But high templar and sentry, both ground casters, are almost always present on any battle, and its very common to see both of them into a big army.
Before they had the Arbiter and the High templar.

Zergs: Theyve got, the Queen, which never sees the battlefield. Its a completely deffensive unit. And the Infestor, ground caster too, and the only one that can go on with your army.
Before they had the Queen and the Defiler.

So we've got one ground caster and one air caster for terrans, 2 ground casters for protoss, and one offensive caster for zergs and one defensive.
There are like oceans of difference between the casters of the 3 races. Before, the thing was way more simple. Right now its a lot more complex, compared to the old game. Im not saying that nobody noticed this, but that almost nobody talks about it. RIght now the game seems balanced in that aspect, and the change was almost complete compared to SC1 casters "system". I think devs deserve a bit of credit for this.
Or what do you think???? Can this be the source of any balance problems??? Im not in Beta, im just playing versus hard and insane AIs, so maybe someone inside the BETA can elaborate more on this matter.

[arthas]

Protoss had Dark Archon,which was the real caster because it had 3 targeted abilities not 2 like HT and arbiter,So i guess the sentry is the main caster with 3 active now,HT and Mothership are with 2 active and 1 support/create,Terrans are also masters of units with a single powerful ability-yamato,250mm strike cannon,stim,heal,etc....,zerg on the other hand have burrow,mass disruption-fungal growth,because of hatcheries and now spawn larvae they are more oriented on mass units not casters...(that was pretty obvious though )

[Todie]

i dont really even see the queen as a caster, and as such, were stuck with ONYL the infestor. which isnt all that great. in theory you can do nifty things with burrowed movment etc, but it has never seemed practical to me.

so the infestor may need some sort of bursh-up, but also i think z need a more flexible airborn caster; more spells on the overseer? ... not for blaance, but to keep them exciting to play: i suck with terran, but becasue they have so many options and exciting units, i try to paly them anyway

[Aldrius]

I think some adjustments to the Infestor and some more spells for the Overseer are definitely necessary.

But the Queen also has some definite utility as a spell caster with her transfusion ability. I use it all the time. So I wouldn't count her out.

The mothership too... the Recall ability is just totally worthless. =\ I think she got over-nerfed personally.

[ironate]

Overseer needs more spells and Mothership needs more usefulness. Infestor needs to change something.

[Kimera757]

The overseer needs another spell, IMO.

The mothership needs something other than Rift. Cool, but I like damage too.

Fungal Scourge is too hard to micro. Too short range (I think), takes too long to hit the target area (very hard to hit moving targets), very hard to hit air targets with it (you have to aim at the shadows?), turning a great ability into a sucky one

[Perfecttear]

The overseer should have atleast 3 speals, and not only the changeling. One more caster could realy change the zerg gameplay and their options, so it wouldn't be just a-move with mass roach and hydralisk or mass mutalisk. I mean their is hardly anything to micro when playing zerg.

[arthas]

The overseer should have atleast 3 speals, and not only the changeling. One more caster could realy change the zerg gameplay and their options, so it wouldn't be just a-move with mass roach and hydralisk or mass mutalisk. I mean their is hardly anything to micro when playing zerg.

Maybe an other spell for the overseer,they should probably give it the ability to load and creep tumor from the queen...But otherwise 3 casters will be too much...And Zerg DO require lots of macro...Because just one A-move on a siege line on or a psi storm can loose you the game,roach burrow,muta manuvering etc....,,so i guess zerg has it's diffuculty in micro...

[Aldrius]

But otherwise 3 casters will be too much

Protoss has three spellcasters. And yes the Mothership counts.

So hardly...

Maybe an other spell for the overseer,they should probably give it the ability to load and creep tumor from the queen

Those would add absolutely nothing to the Overseer. (Yay, my overseers can transport things! Oh wait, I still have like 10 Overlords which can too and don't cost 100 gas...) I'm still a huge supporter of Spore Cloud. And I think there are a lot of great options for a third spell.

The mothership needs something other than Rift. Cool, but I like damage too.

Eh. She doesn't really need a damaging spell. She can attack. She's better as a support spellcaster.

[arthas]

Protoss has three spellcasters. And yes the Mothership counts.

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Casters with 3 Active spells/abilites....Protoss only has 1 which is the sentry...