• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 14:32
CET 20:32
KST 04:32
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT28Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Feb 16-22): MaxPax doubles0Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0258LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)46Weekly Cups (Feb 2-8): Classic, Solar, MaxPax win2
StarCraft 2
General
Terran AddOns placement How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SEL Doubles (SC Evo Bimonthly) WardiTV Team League Season 10 RSL Season 4 announced for March-April
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 515 Together Forever Mutation # 514 Ulnar New Year The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare
Brood War
General
Soma Explains: JD's Unrelenting Aggro vs FlaSh Recent recommended BW games TvZ is the most complete match up BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/02
Tourneys
The Casual Games of the Week Thread [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [LIVE] [S:21] ASL Season Open Day 1 ASL Season 21 Qualifiers March 7-8
Strategy
Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular?
Other Games
General Games
Diablo 2 thread Nintendo Switch Thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Path of Exile Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine UK Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread Mexico's Drug War
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
YOUTUBE VIDEO
XenOsky
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Inside the Communication of …
TrAiDoS
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1928 users

Unit Analysis

Blogs > Shiladie
Post a Reply
Shiladie
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Canada1631 Posts
April 01 2011 21:45 GMT
#1
This is less focused then my past few blogs, and is mostly my rambling thoughts I jotted down while I worked, so take it how you will.


If I had to rank the stats of a unit in order of importance, I'd put it in this order
Range
mobility (speed/air/cliffwalk/blink/charge/stim etc)
dps/splash
survivability

Range is at the top due to the simple mechanics of the game making each ranged unit added to a group add more power to the group than the previous, up to a soft-cap related to the range of the unit and how open the space you're fighting is. This makes it difficult for blizzard to balance units throughout the course of the game though, as to make a melee unit worth using vs a large number of ranged units, it needs to be strong enough that if the ranged units DON'T have that critical number, then it just walks right over them, as shown right now with the zergling early game dominance and then fall-off towards mid-late game. This is generally attempted to be resolved with upgrades and other extreme synergies, such as were seen in broodwar with the much more powerful adrenal gland upgrade and dark swarm.

Mobility comes in a healthy second place. One of the only things the mutalisk has going for it is it's extreme mobility, but that makes it one of the most used and feared air units in the game, allowing it to strike a mineral line and then escape within seconds. On the other extreme we have the thor and the siege tank, who are statistically two of the most powerful units in the game, but their slow speed and siege mode transition time bring them into parity with the rest of the units. Where mobility is really hurting right now though is with the hydralisk and the ultralisk. These units by their numbers are actually frightening, but their low mobility makes them situational at best, and a game loser to make them at worst. The broodlord also has a slow speed, but this is made-up-for by it being both flying and having an extreme range. Protoss is very much in the middle of the road on mobility with most of it's units, not quite mobile enough to take full advantage of it in terms of harass except possibly with phoenixes, but also never at a disadvantage due to low mobility either. Once you hit late game however mobility takes an unfortunate back seat, as units trade away a lot of their staying power in an army for that mobility.

dps and splash are very similar, but markedly different in their effectiveness as the game goes on and armies get larger. early on, with small unit numbers splash is relatively useless. Splash however increases in power as you get more units on each side of an engagement, up until you cap out your targets hit with the splash damage. additionally attack speed and missile speed play a large role here, as overkill can mean a lot of wasted dps. There is a good demonstration video(shown below) of just how much the tiny missile delay of a hydralisk can affect the outcome of a fight. This is a less extreme scenario though, if you combine both a slow attack speed and a missile speed this gets even worse, as seen with roaches, where a theoretical example of 8 roaches attack a marauder, doing 120 damage, leaving the marauder with 5 hp, unless the player micros and has only 1 roach attack that marauder for the next volley, 115 damage will be lost as all 8 roaches attack that same marauder on their next attack. high mobility allows for good micro to minamize the negative effects of low attack speed, muta micro is good example of this in BW, but we don't see much of it now.

Survivability is last on the list, as while it can definitely be important, it is more often that a unit will live or die on it's other merits instead of how much actual damage it can actually soak up. Ultralisk thor immortal, the 3 units in the game specializing in survivability. The thor is mainly used for it's high range splash, or it's high dps medium ranged ground attack though. the immortal sees sparing use right now, used primarily for fighting off stalkers early game, or for breaking tank lines late game TvP. The ultralisk however falls flat on both range and mobility, leaving it as simply high damage and high survivability, but that, as shown by how hated they are by zergs, is not enough.

Something that has baffled me is that all units that deal bonus damage to armoured are in fact armoured themselves. This has created an oddity with the remaining units. The roach for example can be said to counter any unit that doesn't do bonus damage to armoured, even countering stalkers to a degree. The same is nearly true for light, exempting thor anti-air and banelings. As it stands there isn't a lot of actual countering done by the bonus damage mechanic, except for the fact that everything dies faster, which in the end simply favors the higher ranged units. Though getting down to it, I don't know if we want an influx of bonus to armoured light units, or vice versa, as it would then create a much more hard-counter system than what we currently have, which is fairly muddy.

Higher tech units being lower food?
There seems to be an aversion to making a unit that you get later in the tech tree being something you mass more, which i think is a flaw that is limiting the game's design. For protoss I can see building up towards some grand fleet or what-have-you, but for zerg, I don't see why there can't be some hive-tech unit that isn't a massive death machine costing 4+ food.


This rambled and didn't quite get to a few of the points I wanted to make. A lot of musings and not a lot of conclusions, sorry about that.

*
AcrossFiveJulys
Profile Blog Joined September 2005
United States3612 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-01 23:12:31
April 01 2011 23:09 GMT
#2
Edit: double post
AcrossFiveJulys
Profile Blog Joined September 2005
United States3612 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-01 23:12:45
April 01 2011 23:12 GMT
#3
I wouldn't rank it this way, though I think you discuss good unit features. I would look at a unit's goodness of each feature, something like:

Range:
1: unit is bad at this
2: unit is okay at this
3: unit is good at this

And do the same for each feature, then do the ranking as

(Range=R1, Mobility=M1, DPS/Splash=D1, Survivability=S1)
(Range=R2, Mobility=M2, DPS/Splash=D2, Survivability=S2)
,,,
(Range=RN, Mobility=MN, DPS/Splash=DN, Survivability=SN)

Granted, this would yield a list of 81 items but if you have each variable take on two values instead of 3 it would be a list of 16 items instead which is more manageable. Then you could see which units fit each category and propose a unit ranking.

You might also consider taking cost and supply into account.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
15:00
Monthly #3 - March
uThermal955
SteadfastSC434
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
uThermal 955
SteadfastSC 434
mouzHeroMarine 112
BRAT_OK 77
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 30495
Sea 28521
Shuttle 444
Dewaltoss 164
Free 16
910 11
NaDa 10
Dota 2
Gorgc7089
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
fl0m4386
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox946
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor518
Liquid`Hasu396
MindelVK8
Other Games
gofns35065
tarik_tv17236
Grubby3366
Liquid`RaSZi1702
B2W.Neo673
KnowMe151
ArmadaUGS134
RotterdaM129
QueenE97
Hui .76
JuggernautJason29
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick857
Counter-Strike
PGL147
Other Games
BasetradeTV131
StarCraft 2
angryscii 19
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 21 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• HeavenSC 45
• Reevou 6
• Response 2
• Kozan
• Migwel
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 15
• RayReign 12
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1221
League of Legends
• Jankos3901
• Shiphtur417
Other Games
• imaqtpie1314
• WagamamaTV265
• tFFMrPink 15
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
13h 28m
Wardi Open
16h 28m
Monday Night Weeklies
21h 28m
Replay Cast
1d 4h
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
The PondCast
3 days
KCM Race Survival
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
[ Show More ]
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Acropolis #4 - TS5
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
WardiTV Winter 2026
Nations Cup 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025

Upcoming

ASL Season 21: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 21: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
CSLAN 4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
FISSURE Playground #3
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.