Starcraftwire/incgamer - Lategame Protoss/Terran Gameplay Impressions

[Triceron]

In the hands of a good player, I feel this ability will be way too powerful. It's simple as that.

Yes a great Vulture microer will dominate, and that's through skillful placement and movement of Vultures. Snipe is almost purely APM, as it's an instant-cast long range focused damage ability. That kind of ability is hard to counter. Spidermines can be microed and countered. Hunter Seeker can be dodged. Yamato has a long cast time and is on a big expensive unit.

Snipe can not be stopped.

[Aldrius]

I'm actually pretty sure it can. I think it can be interrupted and/or your unit can be moved out of range. Remember in the original Terran demo there's a pretty long cast time before the shot goes off.

[Pandonetho]

You've got to be joking me.

I doubt snipe will be any more deadly than psi storm in the hands of a skilled player.

What about irradiate huh? Wow, those things are imbalanced defiler killers aren't they?
What about plague? Instant cast and there goes your entire M&M army to ash.
What about Stasis? Instant cast, impossible to counter.

Stop trying to claim an ability is bad when we've never even seen it in action.

You FIRST made the point that it wouldn't even be used because it's useless!

It just feels like a tacked-on ability with no real purpose. There aren't many high-priority targets that can't be killed by more conventional means.

But now it's overpowered in the hands of a skilled player?

[Triceron]

You even said yourself, Ghost comes when medics come. All those other spells come from higher tech casters. Other than the Arbiter, the others can not attack, and those spells are their forms of damage. Arbiter's Stasis does not deal damage, which justifies its attack.

Here, the ghost has an attack that is worth having, and now also has a focused target ability. It's not JUST snipe as an ability, it's the combination of the ghost as a whole that makes snipe a potentially OP ability.

And yes, it's a useless ability to the basic player! Ask the typical casual SC player how many times they use Lockdown in a regular game. The basic player isn't going to bring ghosts and time snipes on enemy casters when they need to, it's just as easy to use a regular force.

[Pandonetho]

You even said yourself, Ghost comes when medics come. All those other spells come from higher tech casters.

What does high tech have to do with anything? You said in the hands of a good player snipe would be OP because it is an instant damage dealing weapon that is only used for "APM."

That doesn't have any bearings on what tech level any ability is on.
Also, clearly, it has purposes besides what you claim it's for. So clearly, it isn't just an "APM sink"

Here, the ghost has an attack that is worth having, and now also has a focused target ability. It's not JUST snipe as an ability, it's the combination of the ghost as a whole that makes snipe a potentially OP ability.

Oh yeah? Then explain all the potentially OP situations.

Snipe is currently listed as on the SC wikia as costing 75 energy. Each ghost can only use snipe twice, without the energy upgrade.

And if you want to use it 3 times with cloak? Impossible, assuming cloak costs 25 energy to initiate, then you'll have 225 energy the moment you activate it. 75 x 3 =225 so you'll only be able to use it twice while cloaked.

How many ghosts do you plan on bringing for your "OP" strategy?

Also, the ghost does 10 damage + 10 to light units.
That's decent damage. It can't do jacksquat against anything besides Zerglings and workers with its normal attack unless you mass them. And why the hell would you want to do that when you have marines?

And yes, it's a useless ability to the basic player! Ask the typical casual SC player how many times they use Lockdown in a regular game.

This is the worst argument I've heard yet. Ghosts in SC1 were pathetic, and the LAST TIER UNIT. There was no smartcasting. It costed 100 energy.

Ask yourself, how many PROFESSIONALS use lockdown? Like, boxer? Back when SC just came out when the metagame had hardly even developed yet?

The basic player isn't going to bring ghosts and time snipes on enemy casters when they need to, it's just as easy to use a regular force.

Snipe isn't MADE purely for caster killing. It kills a bunch of other units as well, including mutalisks which are a big deal.

So in conclusion, this ability is not just an APM sink.

Clearly, an APM sink is something like the macro mechanics. The difference is the applications of snipe actually have strategical uses.

The thing has ELEVEN (quoting Aldrius here) range. And the ghost can CLOAK. And it's early game.

Tell me, are you going to be massing ghosts early game? I don't see how you could see this as OP.

[Triceron]

There's no point in arguing since it's not even out yet and anything here is just theorycraft. I didn't want to get into any of that, but I got caught up in the discussion.

I still think it's a poor ability for a support unit, being so niche and broad at the same time. I don't like it. If that's not convincing enough of a reason to not like it, then whatever.

If you think it's a balanced ability, then I'm cool with that.

[Pandonetho]

To each their own.