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Active: 1656 users

Mech seems weaker now

Blogs > targ
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targ
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Malaysia445 Posts
June 03 2013 18:46 GMT
#1
I thought HOTS was supposed to focus on buffing mech with the changes - battle hellions and widow mines added, siege mode free and thors getting the high impact mode to deal with heavy air. But it seems that mech is even less viable than before, it wasn't good in TvP in WOL and it still isn't, while in TvZ it used to be ok, but vipers seem to own it now.

Anyone else feel the same way?

***
http://billyfoong.blogspot.com/ my other opinions are here
Schelim
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Austria11528 Posts
June 03 2013 18:59 GMT
#2
pretty sure everybody except Strelok and Goody feel this way
TY <3 Cure <3 Inno <3 Special <3
Sn0_Man
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
Tebellong44238 Posts
June 03 2013 19:06 GMT
#3
I think its because of the medivac speed boost tbh.
LiquidDota StaffSCIENTISTS BAFFLED | 3275929302
Pursuit_
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
United States1330 Posts
June 03 2013 19:24 GMT
#4
From my experience, it's much worse in TvZ, slightly worse in TvP outside of 2 base all-ins, where it's slightly stronger, and about the same or maybe a little stronger in TvT.
In Somnis Veritas
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
June 03 2013 19:37 GMT
#5
--- Nuked ---
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
June 03 2013 19:49 GMT
#6
On June 04 2013 04:24 Pursuit_ wrote:
From my experience, it's much worse in TvZ, slightly worse in TvP outside of 2 base all-ins, where it's slightly stronger, and about the same or maybe a little stronger in TvT.


I don't see how it can be much stronger in TvT when the medivac boost basically buffs the one major weakness of it: doom drops in the production line.
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
June 03 2013 19:50 GMT
#7
On June 04 2013 04:37 Emzeeshady wrote:
Yes, and HOTS is better for it

Why? Mech has so much positioning and careful defence involved, and such a low (almost non-existent) margin for error which makes it exceedingly fun to watch and play.
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
June 03 2013 19:54 GMT
#8
Personally, I'd much rather watch someone doing sick drops and microing marine/tank than watch someone turtle and max to an unbeatable army.
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
June 03 2013 19:56 GMT
#9
On June 04 2013 04:54 armada[sb] wrote:
Personally, I'd much rather watch someone doing sick drops and microing marine/tank than watch someone turtle and max to an unbeatable army.

That's not mech
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
June 03 2013 19:57 GMT
#10
Huh?
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
June 03 2013 20:00 GMT
#11
Mech isn't just turtling to max to get an unbeatable army. Mech is slowly moving across the map, taking expansions, securing a defensive position, harassing your opponent with drops or runbys, and slowly choking him until he's forced into engaging into your perfectly positioned army. Mech is a lot more than turtling, and you're extremely narrow-minded if you think that's all there is to it.
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
June 03 2013 20:06 GMT
#12
My bad, it is turtling with some hellbat drops until you get a max army that you leapfrog across the map.
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
June 03 2013 20:07 GMT
#13
Yep, you're extremely narrow-minded.
Targe
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
United Kingdom14103 Posts
June 03 2013 20:22 GMT
#14
I have to say that Mech TvT seems stronger, not that I go mech, I've actually semi swapped to bio for some games.
11/5/14 CATACLYSM | The South West's worst Falco main
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
June 03 2013 20:35 GMT
#15
--- Nuked ---
CecilSunkure
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States2829 Posts
June 03 2013 21:13 GMT
#16
On June 04 2013 05:07 kollin wrote:
Yep, you're extremely narrow-minded.

You can't expect a SC2 dude with no BW perspective to understand.
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
June 03 2013 21:21 GMT
#17
--- Nuked ---
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
June 03 2013 21:26 GMT
#18
Nah I've got a fair bit, been following both sc2 and bw in my time here. Also tha guy failed to understand the key concepts behind what mech should be, rather than the much more boring version we have today in hots.
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
June 03 2013 21:35 GMT
#19
--- Nuked ---
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-03 21:44:12
June 03 2013 21:42 GMT
#20
On June 04 2013 06:13 CecilSunkure wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 04 2013 05:07 kollin wrote:
Yep, you're extremely narrow-minded.

You can't expect a SC2 dude with no BW perspective to understand.


I have plenty of BW perspective, however, we are not talking about Brood War.
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
Markwerf
Profile Joined March 2010
Netherlands3728 Posts
June 03 2013 21:51 GMT
#21
TvZ i'd say it's a little bit stronger but still not that great. It's played quite a bit and really good on narrow typical mech maps though, akilon waste being the only one of those at the moment.
Yes vipers are good against it and even swarm hosts have their uses against it but the mech buffs outway that compared to wol really. Hellbats are better hellions that don't need an upgrade to excel, siege tech upgrade is free and shared air upgrades is fantastic. Improved muta's can be quite problematic but it's still just about seeing it and planting some turrets while adding some thors. The fact you basically save blueflame and siege tech upgrade compared to WoL makes it possible to open much greedier and do far stronger timings, especially since roaches do lousy against the helllbat/tank ball way before you're at 200/200. If the maps weren't so open and MMMM wouldn't be doing so damn well we'd be seeing it more really, it's definately a viable style, vipers can be countered by some vikings and splitting your tanks fairly well. The broodlord transition is no longer a real risk either since you'll be far ahead in air upgrades and thors do a bit better damage against them.

TvP mech is still completely terrible. It's hard to say if it's off worse since it is not even close to viable in WoL or HotS. Hellbats and tanks got a nice buff and widow mine is useful for opening but MsC and the air buffs make it so easy for protoss to play greedy and just transition into an unkillable air ball now. Doesn't really matter too much your vikings will have a slight upgrade advantage, protoss can easily pick up and just dominate with massive warpgates in the end.
PineapplePizza
Profile Joined June 2010
United States749 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-03 22:05:29
June 03 2013 22:05 GMT
#22
On June 04 2013 06:26 kollin wrote:
Nah I've got a fair bit, been following both sc2 and bw in my time here. Also tha guy failed to understand the key concepts behind what mech should be, rather than the much more boring version we have today in hots.


Blizzard doesn't want traditional mech.

They saw vods of TvP and TvT, and immediately said to themselves:

Wow, all these guys are doing is building tanks and sitting around. They haven't built more than 4 or 8 marines in a single game...hell, they're just floating their barracks out in the middle of the map! We have to do something about this!


Thus, they made the Immortal, increased siege tank costs, neglected to carry over the old damage system from sc1 (where shields took full damage from all attack types), and set about buffing bio to high-heaven.

HotS had a heavy focus on "breaking up tank lines":

- The Warhound had an anti-mech attack, but was scrapped because even Blizzard thought they were boring
- The Viper could use Abduct to yank tanks or other high-value units
- The Tempest has absurd range, and was intended as a Carrier replacement (partially because the dev team knows fuck-all about SC1 and the Carrier's role, and partially because vikings / corruptors are the perfect counters to Carriers as a concept)
- Blizzard considered the addition of some sort-of "long range missile truck" that would destroy tanks, but then reconsidered...probably because it would be too similar to a siege tank.

For Blizzard, factory units are intended to be support units for a barracks core. You build tanks to defend your marines from banelings and infestors. You build Hellions and Mines to defend your marines from large masses of zealots and zerglings. Battle Hellions have all of these buffs (18 damage vs nonlight targets, pre-igniter damage vs light without an upgrade, a bio tag for heals, etc) because if they didn't, people wouldn't want to build them if they were committing to Bio. They just wouldn't be worth the resources.
"There should be no tying a sharp, hard object to your cock like it has a mechanical arm and hitting it with the object or using your cockring to crack the egg. No cyborg penises allowed. 100% flesh only." - semioldguy
CecilSunkure
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States2829 Posts
June 03 2013 23:57 GMT
#23
On June 04 2013 06:21 Emzeeshady wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 04 2013 06:13 CecilSunkure wrote:
On June 04 2013 05:07 kollin wrote:
Yep, you're extremely narrow-minded.

You can't expect a SC2 dude with no BW perspective to understand.

what a stupid thing to say. Why would you need BW experience to deduce how fun mech is to watch in SC2? It might have been fun to watch in BW but that really does't have anything to do with SC2 mech.

Besides, Kollin is only like 13 or 14 so I doubt he had much BW experience anyway.

It isn't stupid to say. It's just hard to understand to have an appreciation if you haven't seen it before, and in general it's safe to assume the average TL user has mostly just a SC2 perspective.
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
June 04 2013 00:12 GMT
#24
I mean, it is pretty stupid to say. You come across as a snob and are making a baseless assumption because someone is saying that the playstyle isn't entertaining to watch in SC2.

For me, it was much more entertaining watching mech in BW because of the limitations that BW imposed on the players.
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
aZealot
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
New Zealand5447 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-04 00:31:14
June 04 2013 00:29 GMT
#25
On June 04 2013 03:46 targ wrote:
I thought HOTS was supposed to focus on buffing mech with the changes - battle hellions and widow mines added, siege mode free and thors getting the high impact mode to deal with heavy air. But it seems that mech is even less viable than before, it wasn't good in TvP in WOL and it still isn't, while in TvZ it used to be ok, but vipers seem to own it now.

Anyone else feel the same way?


I think they gave up halfway through the beta. To be honest, I am not fussed. The game seems fine enough without Mech. At least traditional mech. There is the possibility of mech variants in HOTS which are interesting and should develop further.

Too much is made of BW mech. Especially for TvP. SC2 is a different game and HOTS does not need it.
KT best KT ~ 2014
CecilSunkure
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States2829 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-04 01:05:43
June 04 2013 01:05 GMT
#26
On June 04 2013 09:12 armada[sb] wrote:
I mean, it is pretty stupid to say. You come across as a snob and are making a baseless assumption because someone is saying that the playstyle isn't entertaining to watch in SC2.

For me, it was much more entertaining watching mech in BW because of the limitations that BW imposed on the players.

I was actually more of advising Kollin on how to respond, not insulting or snobbing at you. Didn't mean to offend anyone though, so I apologize if I did.
YPang
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
United States4024 Posts
June 04 2013 01:55 GMT
#27
I think mech is really entertaining to watch. It's really suspensful. But i understand why some people don't like it, people don't like change. Also on a side note: entertaining is completely subjective.
sMi.Gladstone | BW: B high| SC2: gold T_T
armada[sb]
Profile Joined August 2011
United States432 Posts
June 04 2013 08:40 GMT
#28
On June 04 2013 10:05 CecilSunkure wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 04 2013 09:12 armada[sb] wrote:
I mean, it is pretty stupid to say. You come across as a snob and are making a baseless assumption because someone is saying that the playstyle isn't entertaining to watch in SC2.

For me, it was much more entertaining watching mech in BW because of the limitations that BW imposed on the players.

I was actually more of advising Kollin on how to respond, not insulting or snobbing at you. Didn't mean to offend anyone though, so I apologize if I did.

My apologies, I misunderstood who you were talking to. A lot of people are still really snobby about the sc2 vs BW nonsense and it really rustles my jimmies.
#Hitpoint @ GameSurge (IDLE=BAN)
GTPGlitch
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
5061 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-04 09:20:54
June 04 2013 09:16 GMT
#29
Definitely weaker in the sense of traditional mech. Sea's TvP mech style is still semi-valid, but in my eyes the only mech composition viable at a high level in non-tvt is hellbat/thor/raven.

TvZ I used to do 2fac/2port bfh/raven->mech+heavy raven army (in WoL), but the change to seeker missile makes it a lot easier to dodge when not being braindead, so it's a lot harder to hold off timings with a charge of the light brigade. Vipers, hosts, and tempests wreck mech really easily (abduct, cloud, and double thor range is absurd). Free units are free units (hosts are just a lot more effective and risk free ways of soaking up tank fire like infested terrans-they lose the forced FF ability but gain the ability to actually do damage before they die.

Honestly it feels like you just need your opponent to make a huge mistake to win with mech in TvZ/P. If you can get massive worker kills, or they run into a bajillion seekers, or they run at sieged tanks through a choke, it's not a hard fight... But if they use any of the plethora of anti-mech options they have, it becomes so much easier to deal with....
Jo Byung Se #1 fan | CJ_Rush(reborn) fan | Liquid'Jinro(ret) fan | Liquid'Taeja fan | oGsTheSuperNada fan | Iris[gm](ret) fan |
targ
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Malaysia445 Posts
June 04 2013 12:56 GMT
#30
On June 04 2013 09:29 aZealot wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 04 2013 03:46 targ wrote:
I thought HOTS was supposed to focus on buffing mech with the changes - battle hellions and widow mines added, siege mode free and thors getting the high impact mode to deal with heavy air. But it seems that mech is even less viable than before, it wasn't good in TvP in WOL and it still isn't, while in TvZ it used to be ok, but vipers seem to own it now.

Anyone else feel the same way?


I think they gave up halfway through the beta. To be honest, I am not fussed. The game seems fine enough without Mech. At least traditional mech. There is the possibility of mech variants in HOTS which are interesting and should develop further.

Too much is made of BW mech. Especially for TvP. SC2 is a different game and HOTS does not need it.


I agree that mech variants are interesting. The way I see it is that in HOTS mech is way better than before as a support to bio. In TvP I don't float around my factory anymore because mines are quite useful in early game, sieged tanks can be used to drive back blink stalker builds with no research needed and in the late game hellbats can be produced to fight zealots. Same in TvZ, widow mines are very useful beside bio all game.

But I'm still very keen on pure mech making a comeback, as another option is usually good for the game. I definitely enjoyed watching the various stargate openings in TvP, although I hate dealing with the oracle myself.
http://billyfoong.blogspot.com/ my other opinions are here
targ
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Malaysia445 Posts
June 04 2013 12:59 GMT
#31
On June 04 2013 05:22 Targe wrote:
I have to say that Mech TvT seems stronger, not that I go mech, I've actually semi swapped to bio for some games.


Ok I gotta admit this seems true, I think because of the hellbats being tanky and destroyers of mineral lines.
http://billyfoong.blogspot.com/ my other opinions are here
Targe
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
United Kingdom14103 Posts
June 04 2013 14:04 GMT
#32
On June 04 2013 21:59 targ wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 04 2013 05:22 Targe wrote:
I have to say that Mech TvT seems stronger, not that I go mech, I've actually semi swapped to bio for some games.


Ok I gotta admit this seems true, I think because of the hellbats being tanky and destroyers of mineral lines.


It's very hard to engage head on with a mech army, your only chance with bio is to engage early and prevent them getting bases I feel.
11/5/14 CATACLYSM | The South West's worst Falco main
Telcontar
Profile Joined May 2010
United Kingdom16710 Posts
June 04 2013 14:32 GMT
#33
People are right in saying SC2 is a different game, but you cannot fault some for wanting a different route that is viable. It always benefits a strategy game to have more variety. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll ever see Blizzard 'fix' mech, or even attempt to. Imo, they just don't have the passion anymore to make any drastic changes.
Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta.
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11385 Posts
June 04 2013 14:52 GMT
#34
We have never had a good version of mech play in SC2 (positional and harass based). And I highly doubt anything in HotS wil change that. Our loss. It's a completely unique gamestyle that I do not think has been replicated in any other RTS.
Moderator"In Trump We Trust," says the Golden Goat of Mars Lago. Have faith and believe! Trump moves in mysterious ways. Like the wind he blows where he pleases...
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