Things that SC2 needs to improve tactical play rather than unit composition

[Wankey]

SC2 is slowly devolving to who ever has the best combination unit ball wins.

There are less and less of tactical gameplay in terms of big fights, just 2 balls going up against each other. If your ball contains a ghost, Protoss balls better contain high templars to feedback.

The game feels that rather than increasing tactical battles, it aims to shut down the opposing team. For instance, force field absolutely shuts down melee units, while Psi Storm is nearly undodgeable with the autocasting, there's also no way to dodge emp blast. In SC1, psi storm was very easily dodged, and it took true skill to blanket an area with psi storm.

What I feel SC2 needs to improve reactionary tactical play is the following:

Psi Storm:
Have it hit the area a second later, have the high templar "paint" the ground with lets say a glowing emblem with a storm incoming. Good players will notice this and try to move out of the way.

EMP blast:
Introduce at least a bit of projectile lag to the EMP blast. It's currently instant and completely destroys protoss way of waging war considering it gets rid of shields AND mana. Maybe have a .5 second of laser sighting, them boom EMP blast.

Fungal growth:
Have it take longer to splash onto units, and instead of instantly stopping units, slowly slow them to a stop, ie, start from 25% slow, to 75% slow in a matter of seconds.

Force Field:
Make the force fields setup slower. That is, they have a setup time. The cast time is still the same, you can easily spam 50 force fields but it takes 1 second to set up (some sort of animation showing it?) It at least gives melee units a fighting chance to see that you're getting force fields. And with the knowledge that force fields have a 1 second setup, you'll probably be casting them earlier to block ramps and such.

Raven:
The Seeker drone needs to be faster. This is one area where they had the right thinking but it isn't effective at all. Just speed it up a lot, and remove the jump at the end. Just make it a castable floating spider mine, also make it so that there is setup time as well (ie same as spider mine)

Any other ideas? Currently, I feel there are way too many spells in the game that are just twitchy, and insta cast with insta effects. Instead of improving gameplay (ie, lets say plague vs the infestor skill. Plague removes HP slowly off your units, but doesn't kill them, forcing you to withdraw. The infestor skill sticks them into place, while often times killing the unit. That to me completely destroys the gameplay since there are absolutely no reactionary tactics to deal with you units being stuck in place.)

[Kknewkles]

Then for Storm, what about changing it to the way it was in BW, adding delay you speak of?
And animation - it could be ripples in targeted place which then transform into a usual thunderstorm.

[Pandonetho]

I'm guessing you read that TL article before you posted this?

[kyr200]

i guess i agree with OT

[moosh]

I like this idea!

[Gradius]

No need to nerf storm anymore. It's already useless enough that it's better to just get Colossi instead.

[Todie]

i agree on the general issue but im not sure about the details, mostly its hard to imagine FF or psistorm not being isntant. + i beleive these abilities are acutaly of great tactical worth even now - no matter which side you're on.. its only under extreme cirucmstances caused by terrain / unit positioning that these abilities are truely "undeniable"


fungal gradual slow would be interesting, but thats a whole otehr ability: i do think its good as is too... for this, i could see a delay though (along with buffs to damage / duration to compensate)

i totally agree about projectile speed on EMP and seeker missile, that thing is just too weak too slow and too expensive atm.

[Kknewkles]

No need to nerf storm anymore. It's already useless enough that it's better to just get Colossi instead.

I forgot to note I'd increase radius of spell, my bad.
But yeah, I never prefer Storm over Colossi.

[Asfastasican]

The pathing is too good in the game. If you had built in formations so your units become more cluttered as opposed to being fluid balls of units, ranged units will become less effective and the game will be less about unit compositions.

[Jdawsman]

In SC1, psi storm was very easily dodged, and it took true skill to blanket an area with psi storm.

I never found it to take any real skill because i would just magic box 4 templars. I also see where you're going with this by trying to give the defensive side of things a chance to get out of the way. However, the reason people build these units is to use their sets of abilities and they aren't good for much else. The attacker needs to be able to use the set of abilities at the most crucial times, which would be hard to achieve with a lag time between each ability. For example a key psi storm can win you a fight but if you can't get that storm as easily because the people attacking you can move before it hits it can cost you the fight and you'll be left wondering why you bothered making templars instead of just massing units or something.