Blizzard Reiterates: Mothership being crappy is a-ok

[Lupino]

Well, perhaps not in those words, but the meaning is the same
Link

There are some units that just aren't going to be used at "high" levels of play and the Mothership is probably one of them. We currently don't have any plans to change this unit.

Yes, I understand (as Nethaera outlines later) that Blizzard doesn't want to make too many drastic changes resulting in dire, unforeseen consequences, but the fact that they were perfectly happy to put in a largely useless unit into their multiplayer game is just unacceptable from a game design standpoint. You want to give the player greater choice, not false choices, especially not units whose own description calls them "their oldest and most powerful weapons" which "can instantly destroy squadrons of enemy ships or even entire planets." It's doubtful if the MS could beat anything one-on-one at the moment, never mind groups of units.

And no, trick plays like Vortex + Archons doesn't count (how many people are going to tech to both Mothership and Archons consistently?); outside of highly situational instances at best the MS is a somewhat decent base defender, due entirely to its ability to recall better units back to base, and with the cost spent building her you might as well just make a larger army instead and get the same outcome.

Nor does it make much sense as a support unit, as some argue it should be considered as (despite going against its unit description, but whatever), as even here it fails utterly: it is far too slow, far too expensive, and its abilities too lacking compared the former Protoss support flyer, the Arbiter, which you could get more than one of.

What the Mothership needs is some massive changes to justify its continued inclusion into multiplayer. Base stats need to be increased across the board; at the very least, for a unit of its cost, the Mothership should be able to defeat a Battlecruiser one-on-one. It needs at least one powerful damage-dealing spell, offset by corresponding costs and disadvantages (i.e. Vortex which does damage, but needs more mana to cast and still sucks in friendly units). It also needs useful support spells too; cloaking is just blah, Mass Recall is still a good ability, but I wouldn't mind if both were replaced by Time Bomb and, for example, some sort of aura ability (MS would make for a great Shield Battery replacement). Since the Mothership would be awesome now instead of sucking, its cost in min/gas/supply would similarly need to be adjusted, and it would keep its current one-unit limit and place in the tech tree.

[spychi]

I wish you could make more than one MS, increasing it's shield would be also nice

[DemolitionSquid]

I fully agree. I loved the idea of the Mothership. I loath its implementation.

[Gradius]

Blizzard has already confirmed they're good w/ worthless units. Protoss clearly has the most, so I can't wait for the 2 expansions when they add even more.

[spychi]

The Mothership in all honesty should be a game wining unit or at least game breaking unit
it's expensive by itself and to tech add to that : there can be only one unit at a time

bring back the WWI 07 Mothership, it was very well balanced back then

[Twilice]

Why do you even get starport as protoss...

[sandwich_bird]

If you can't see how a well placed vortex can make you win then I can't help you there... The mothership is well balanced and worth the cost. The arbiter was not balanced. In fact, the arbiter is one of the major reason why SC1 was so unbalanced at lower level for T in TvP. One recall in your base and you were pretty much dead or at least the 2 side were gonna base trade for sure. Yes, there were counter measures (mine your base so they'll recall on the mines and suffer a lot of damage, intercept with science vessel) but TvP was so APM intensive for T that at lower levels, you would probably lose anyways.

[Blazur]

The mothership ended up being a huge letdown in this game

[senervo]

well, we already have paper planes, x-ray chechup flights, mini-bombardments and they're all damn expensive...

i think a circular snail was an interesting choice...

but really though, i'm hoping for there to truly be an all general purpose flyer for protoss in the future or a powerful spellcaster but really, i'm waiting for another potential complaint on the mothership from a low bronse player so it'll be nerfed once more...

bah, who am i kidding, i'll keep trying forever... i can't be mad at a game...
....
only the players...

@Blazur
no one honestly thought an ability like the black hole would remain, right?

[Blazur]

@Blazur
no one honestly thought an ability like the black hole would remain, right?

Not in the least. What I was hoping for was a unit that was a little more clever than the current incantation with some new abilities or spells. For the most part it's just a slower, more expensive arbiter that hardly sees the light of day. Given that I'd rather they just kept the arbiter in instead of this boring evolution.