[D] Why is protoss doing so bad in the GSL? - Page 102

Before 1.1.2, two or three VRs could melt a Command Center/Nexus/Hatchery in a matter of seconds if they weren’t handled swiftly, and basically wreak havoc in any enemy base if the welcome party wasn’t substantial enough, even more so when they were precharged on rocks or friendly units. It was a real problem for players of lower skills. The good maneuverability of the unit also made it possible to kite ground units (notably marines) quite well, at higher levels.

In order to fix this, Blizzard’s reasoning was pretty much straightforward:
- Damage level 1 increased from 5 to 6 (+4 armored);
- Damage level 2 decreased from 10 (+15 armored) to 8 (+8 armored);
- Flux Vanes speed upgrade bonus decreased from 1.125 to 0.703.

1) A Protoss doesn’t go air like a Terran goes air. The Terran needs medivacs (sometimes ravens) anyway; it’s only a question of time before he gets a starport, while the Protoss gets dropships and detection from the robotics facility. He doesn’t go air like a Zerg goes air either, since mutalisks are good in almost every circumstances: a safe bet. Thus, getting one or more stargates, as Protoss, is by comparison a risky decision.
However, a risky decision must be adequately rewarded. In other words, it must represent a risk to your opponent, too. The first VR fitted this description: it was a high risk-reward unit. Which spelled, especially for newcomers, the word C-H-E-E-S-E. Blizzard got rid of that, but in doing so they also got rid of the high risk-reward value of the unit, therefore rendering it unappealing. As a matter of fact, a decent Terran or Zerg now doesn’t have to prepare in any special way for VRs. The normal amount of marines, vikings, queens, hydras or mutas entering in one’s standard build usually proves sufficient, unless you’re going for a totally all-inish build. Since Terran and Zerg opponents barely have to worry about VRs, not only does it make rushing towards VRs a bad option (compared, let’s say, to banshees), it also reduced the number of variables Terran and Zerg have to take into account, therefore making their standard builds even safer.

2) In mid and late game, pre-1.1.2 VRs were good enough to be an important part of your main army. Indeed, incorporating them in large groups of units almost always meant that, in big battles, a good portion of your VRs would have enough time to charge up; while this is still the case today, the fact is that charged-up VRs deal a ridiculously small amount of damage compared to what they used to do before. Let’s not forget that VRs were initially designed (so Blizzard said) to bring down capital ships and other massive units in those big battles. As they currently are, they hardly serve such a purpose.

To summaries, the question is:
1) How can we make the VR into a high risk-reward unit, while preventing it to become a cheesy unit?
2) How can we make the VR into a unit that can still be a part of a big army?

To do so, we cannot close the gap between damage level 1 and damage level 2, as Blizzard tried to do, for the aforementioned reasons.
Nevertheless, we can, and, in my opinion, we should rather focus on the type of damage dealt by the VRs. As I see it, VRs should deal close to no damage against everything that’s not armored, but a tremendous amount of damage to armored units.
What would that do? First of all, early game, VRs wouldn’t be a death treat anymore: a handful of marines, a queen or two would be more than enough to repeal them. But that doesn’t mean that they would be ineffective. They would easily be able snipe an isolated supply depot, a spine crawler, a gas geyser, etc., but, unless the opponent is an utter newbie and/or left his base totally unattended, they wouldn’t be able to take on a command center or a hatch by itself.
The VR would thus become the perfect building harassment unit in the early game, skirting an enemy base and waiting for the least occasion to do a hit and run on a tech lab, and somewhat pinning the Terran infantry, although much less than in its pre-1.1.2 form. And a pretty decent unit for mid-game pushes.
It would also be a much more potent part of a big army, since the level 2 damage would not be as puny as it is now. It would still be able to bring down massive units, but would be much more easily countered by hydras, mutas, marines, sentries, phoenixes and such. VR + colossus or VR + carrier would probably become very powerful mixes.

An example of what the VRs stats could become:
+ Show Spoiler +