Complexity of balance

Actual title I couldn't use without spoiling the GSL:

Mc's "abuse" debate

There are a few things that need to be brought up in the current FF/warpgate/protoss balance debates.
I'm not trying to talk about any changes or balance itself, just some very important points that people need to be more aware off concerning the balance around FF's and warp. There are a lot of factors to consider, so here is my two cents on what some of those hugely important factors are and how interconnected things like FF's and warp gates are to the rest of protoss design.

I'd first like to focus on the Metalopolis game, where MC put 7 consecutive FF's on July's ramp to shut down any re-enforce.

#1 is there are other options for zergs to defend 4gates or early aggression. Instead of trying to defend with roaches and 2 spine crawlers and some ling in the metaloplois game, July could have made more spine crawlers. If he had 5 or 6 or them and 2 of them were close to his ramp, maybe even one at the top of the ramp overlooking it, than MC would not have been able to run sentries up to it and FF the ramp over and over. I think defending with just lings and spine crawlers could have worked better than defending with ling, roach, and only 2 spines. The range advantage spines provide should not be underestimated. There dps when combined with lings great as well. They also would be a great thing to have around on metalopolis when taking a 3rd. They can be repositioned as a wall between the main ramp and 3rd ramp later on.
#2 when July was scouting in that game he used all of the lings he had out on the field at the same time, which was a mistake. Had he used them 1 at a time and spaced out the times he scouted he could have seen the nexus cancel and responded sooner to the incoming attack. Also, he could have had a few lings left out on the map which brings me to point #2.
#3 I didn't see any kind of counter attack. Always having a small group of lings 6 to 8 stashed on the map somewhere is a must for zerg. He very well could have forced MC to warp some of the units into his base, increasing the multi tasking and weakening the attack greatly.


Blizzard has already added options to overcome FF's and nerfed sentries dmg from 6 to 8. Ultras, colossus, and thors can kill FF's. Roaches and infestors can burrow under them. . All of these options are rarely used in comparison to FF.

Stalkers, Zealots, and sentries are horrible in cost effectiveness in terms of DPS, compared to MM + stim (even without stim really) when med evacs are added it becomes a joke. They are almost just as bad in cost effectiveness vs lings, and roaches, with hydras added it becomes a joke. But wait, hydras and medevacs are a higher tier you say? Yes they are, but look at protoss's available next tier units, Void rays, and immortals. The real problem with these IMO is they are countered by the same units that counter the gateway units before them, both Voids and immortals get smashed by Marines with stim. Terrans are almost always going to have an abundance of marines out by the time immortals or voids come into play. Furthermore they don't help much dealing with the next step from terran, which is usually medevacs, the slow speed of immortals and voids is also important to note. They can't catch a stimmed bio ball any better than the gateway units getting hit with concussive. In zergs case there are hydras, which are far more cost effective than zealots, stalkers, sentries, and hydras smash immortals and voids. I should also add that speedlings are great against all of these protoss options except zealots and voids ( voids do take forever to kill lings and cant chase them at all) also the problem here is that zealots are the cost effective unit vs lings but terrible vs roaches and hydras. FF's are really the only thing that gives protoss a way of evening the playing field.

The problem with FF's is a deep issue, it goes to the core of sc2 protoss design. The warp mechanic is another issue entirely, but it is just as deep in the design. Many people are under the mistaken impression that protoss "can instantly make an army anywhere" NOT TRUE, warp gates have a cooldown and the rate at which they can make units on a constant basis is comparable to terran or zerg. If all of protoss's warpgates are sitting there waiting to be used than protoss is missing production cycles (or at least forgetting to do them on time) this production time cannot be replaced, it's no different than a terran with rax or factories sitting idle, or a zerg with unused larva and money sitting in the bank. FF's and warpgates are powerful, no doubts about it. But there power is to make up for the lack of power protoss's early units have. This point is exactly why we see so much FF usage and toss rushing to colossus! Protoss would be completely broken in its current state without FF and warp gates.

Lets look at the unit upgrades. Twilight upgrades are not as cheap and readily available as stim, combat shield, concussive, ling speed, and roach speed. Terran and zerg have all the upgrades for their early units cheeper and more easily available than protoss. The cost of getting a twilight and leg speed is almost the same as the cost of getting a tech lab, stim, concussive, and combat shield combined. It is more expensive to get a twilight and blink than to get roach speed and ling speed, units which already get a speed boost on creep. There is also the issue of the tech tree, for toss to get these upgrades as early as the other races, they would have to skip a robo. The gas costs of getting sentires to survive, getting a robo and obs, and getting the twilight and an upgrade is impossible to do while keeping up in army strength and in the same time frame as the other races early upgrades. To skip a robo is extremely risky. Burrow or 1 banshee can crush you. Also, toss needs obs early as it is their key to scouting in the early mid game.

So looking at FF's, warpgates, unit cost effectiveness, tech trees and upgrade availability as a whole we can quickly see that they are all intertwined in protoss's design and protoss matchups vs the other races. To change any of them significantly would require a change in almost all of these factors slightly. Basically, a huge overhaul of protoss as a race. Let's agree that there are some problems but that they are so deep in protoss design that we should be very patient in getting them worked out. This is an incredibly difficult balancing act. Any hasty change or nerf to these things could break protoss matchups.

As an expample, when roach range got buffed I basically had to re learn pvz, the same goes with the forge build time nerf and the zealot build time nerf. The ironic thing is none of these changes were even targeted at pvz. (as far as I'm aware) but they actually changed the matchup in such a drastic way, it actually made FF's incredibly more important in PvZ than they had been previously. Zealot rushes were no longer viable, forge fe's become more difficult, cannons behind gateways could no longer deny early roach aggression, early pools and roach rushes became much scarier.

Just some things I think needed to be entered into peoples minds, consider all the factors and side effects, This game is so very complex! Blizzard can't just nerf FF's or warpgates without looking at a lot of aspects.