a while ago i was thinking of possible ways to incorporate bio play into TvP but I realized that doing so would be near impossible with reavers. After thinking for a while I thought up a new way for Terran or any race to avoid the scarabs. As you know the reaver's scarab takes time for it to reach its target, so during its mid flight you could pick up your unit in a dropship allowing the scarab to dud and go away as shown in this picture.
If the marine doesn't avoid the scarab i think one of the following 3 things will happen 1. once the marine is targeted by the reaver it is put on a timed life span and will die in the dropship 2. it and the dropship will die 3. the least likely of the three would be the marine not being able to go inside the dropship after being targeted.
(p.s. I am relatively new to starcraft, I have been playing for 4 months now so i don't know if this is common knowledge or not also i personally have never tested this theory in game)
This theory is just like every other theory I see about bio TvP--it requires terran to have VASTLY VASTLY superior micro to your opponent. In fact, this particular micro seems impossible to pull off consistently unless you stop macroing entirely
In addition, it doesn't even begin to address psi storm, the REAL killer of bio, not reavers
Bio against terran is tricky, it can work very good if the protoss is not aware of it. The real problem is high templar with storms and of course reavers. I recommend a game from 2007, Nal_rA vs UpMaGiC on Nemesis. + Show Spoiler [VOD] +
About the reaver shot, if the marine doesn't avoid the scarab it will either die, or the scarab will go dud. It doesn't die in the dropship and neither does the dropship. The way it works is simple, once the scarab enters the exploding animation it will do splash damage to whatever is near, entering the exploding animation can be tricky and it can often dud and not do anything. How the animation and triggered and why does it fails sometimes I do not know.
Also, to be noted is the nerf that Reavers had during the early stages of broodwar, they were apparently too godly and shooted too fast after being dropped from the shuttle.
The thing is, how are you supposed to know which marine is being targeted by the reaver? If you guess wrong, you've just lost your entire marine force. You're much better off just spreading the marines to limit splash.
It's not really a new discovery. People have been doing shuttle reaver micro in PvP for ages since it lets you dodge shots. In any case, this isn't really an answer to templar since the storm hits the dropships as well.
Btw op, the micro you describe is done all the time PvP when protecting reavers from enemy reavers. Also, I think you should just take our word for it (as players who have played much longer than 4 months) that there are an innumerable amount of reasons why the dropship micro you described is impractical for bio TvP.
-Actually now that I watched the Flash video again, it looks like coincidence. Seems like he thought his vultures went too far into the group of goons so he was just pulling them back. The commentators don't mention anything about it either, unless it went completely over their heads.
^ you could always test it in a game.. but yes that's how it works. in pvp, as soon as the reaver shoots its scarab, it should get picked up into a shuttle so it won't get damaged by the opponent's scarab. that's basically what reaver micro is
On January 21 2011 07:54 Weasel- wrote: So what you're saying is that if a reaver shoots at a unit and that unit gets loaded into a transport, the unit doesn't end up getting hit?
I'm gonna have to remain skeptic on this one until I see some proof.
On January 21 2011 08:41 aeroH wrote: ^ you could always test it in a game.. but yes that's how it works. in pvp, as soon as the reaver shoots its scarab, it should get picked up into a shuttle so it won't get damaged by the opponent's scarab. that's basically what reaver micro is
Sometimes you can see them dodge goon shots too ^^
On January 21 2011 07:54 Weasel- wrote: So what you're saying is that if a reaver shoots at a unit and that unit gets loaded into a transport, the unit doesn't end up getting hit?
I'm gonna have to remain skeptic on this one until I see some proof.
The loading in to dropship is extremely common and quite important in PvP already. You won't be able to use to trick well enough to a) fight a middle to large sized P army with multiple reavers firing simultaneously, especially since you don't know which unit his scarab is targeting. b) be effective vs storm c) fight even a pure goon army against a P that knows how to chose his battles
The only bio play you will see at high levels is a deep four/five/six, which is all-in already already extremely rare.
On January 21 2011 13:12 Grobyc wrote: The loading in to dropship is extremely common and quite important in PvP already. You won't be able to use to trick well enough to a) fight a middle to large sized P army with multiple reavers firing simultaneously, especially since you don't know which unit his scarab is targeting. b) be effective vs storm c) fight even a pure goon army against a P that knows how to chose his battles
The only bio play you will see at high levels is a deep four/five/six, which is all-in already already extremely rare.
yea. i thought doding scarabs was a common knowledge already? it has been done for a long long time already.
Zergs have been known to dodge scarabs by loading into overlords, and Terrans to micro tank/etc. against goon/shuttle/reaver with dropships. But this really doesn't bring anything to bio vs P. At the timings you would want to push with a bio army, it is too much of a diversion to invest in a starport and a dropship. Even if you did, lifting marines against reavers would be a huge (luck-based) waste of micro APM when you need to be microing marines in other ways like splitting and fighting zealot/goon. The investment is too great for no gain.
On January 21 2011 07:54 Weasel- wrote: So what you're saying is that if a reaver shoots at a unit and that unit gets loaded into a transport, the unit doesn't end up getting hit?
I'm gonna have to remain skeptic on this one until I see some proof.
On January 21 2011 07:54 Weasel- wrote: So what you're saying is that if a reaver shoots at a unit and that unit gets loaded into a transport, the unit doesn't end up getting hit?
I'm gonna have to remain skeptic on this one until I see some proof.
Successful troll is successful.
No, that would be "sarcasm". Welcome to the internet.
And for the sake of content I'll just add that a lot of people doesn't seem to know that a reaver scarab does much less damage to a unit moving away from it. This is especially important for terrant microing tanks against reavers, but is also useful in several other situations.
EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/cmkLB.jpg)
That is some insane vult micro. Pimpest plays!
