How important is uppgrading?

[agentheart]

best to start upgrading mid game and maybe 1 at a time because you can switch up your army sometime during this period
upgrades are very important and for some units more important
like the bc the armor or weapon can easly change what it can do in a battle
you should consider +1 armor/shield early game because it can change amount of hits for units be killed especially workers

[UnFoly]

I guess I just think it's better to be the guy with the bigger stick, lol

and a bigger army with the correct stick.

[coolswampert]

It depends on what build you're running as well. Obviously, if you're rushing, most of your resources will go to building units and tech buildings.

However, in a game that is going to last more than 5 or so minutes, upgrading is usually a good idea. I usually stick to terran infantry attack upgrades, protoss attack (both ground and later air) and shield upgrades, and missile/armor upgrades for zerg.

[FoxSpirit]

I'll make it shorter: if you can afford to upgrade, do so.
A 10 ball of 3/3 Shield Marines vs a 10 ball of 0/0 barebones Marines focus firing each other down.
I kid you not, 9 upgraded Marines survive this fight, with one having 15HP left.

Small units life and die by their upgrades during a fight. For Marines, dealing 6 or 9 damage is a big difference in cost efficiency. Not to mention that upgrade also works for Marauders, Tanks n Thors. In a way, it's an invisible boost to economy by improving your cost efficiency.

Armor is not as straight forward but generally does a lot against all units which deal low damage. Not as good against tanks or Ultras obviously. I often get that first because it's a tad more effective early game while units still deal less damage.

So yeah, upgrade