EPTThis is a response to SKMC’s thoughts on SC2
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=427728
I don’t know how to word this without sounding overly whiny. I really do not like the direction StarCraft II is going and I hope that Blizzard realizes this and gives Heart of the Swarm a ‘Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’-style overhaul in terms of multiplayer unit design and balance philosophies.
I did say Heart of the Swarm by the way. HotS took three years to release after WoL and with the way the Korean and North American scenes especially are currently going, Blizzard cannot afford to wait another two years to prepare and release Legacy of the Void and hope to fix things then. Who knows how many viewers and players StarCraft II could face to lose by then.
We’ve already seen MLG come close to dropping SC2 entirely after it was confirmed their next event in Raleigh had replaced the game with Dota 2 and currently 2014 seems like a worrying year for the game.
Likewise in Korea we’ve seen teams such as Woongjin Stars and STX Soul lose their title sponsors and rumours that next year could be the last SC2 Proleague. There are even (badly kept) secrets going around that the motivation for MVP, Incredible Miracle and Prime to leave eSF and buddy up with KeSPA was that they could compete in an upcoming LoL Proleague. This has been all but confirmed as MVP has been bought out by Samsung.
Also, we've seen quite a few pros speak out against the lack of feedback Blizzard has taken about the game, which has even led to SKMC slamming the metagame in a recent blog post. I also feel like the problem that MC mentions of the metagame being one-dimensional is why we've seen players like JangBi, Sea, Jinro and Bisu retire so soon. JangBi was a two-time OSL champion who was suddenly denied of a third Golden Mouse by being told to play a completely different game. Sea retired and returned to Brood War's (now amateur and not KeSPA dominated) scene because he disliked StarCraft II. Bisu and Jinro retired more-so due to declining results but both look back on the golden days of Brood War.
Anyway, before I go off on too much of a tangent, here is the jist of what I am trying to say. Bear in mind I am going to keep this exclusive to just Terran because their metagame on average is the most one-dimensional and horribly designed out of any race.
The vast majority of key Terran units are horrifically underpowered and need a significant buff, if not complete overhaul. All factors of the Terran composition need a significant rework. Bio and Widow Mines need to be toned down while Mech and Sky Terran need to be significantly overhauled.
David Kim has promised time and time again to look at Mech then spends months desiring to make minor tweaks in order to tweak the current metagame which is completely broken.
Let me summarize the complete metagame for Terran in non-mirror matchups:
TvP: Marine, Marauder, Medivac, Hellbat, Viking, Ghost vs Zealot, Stalker, Sentry, Colossus, High Templar, Archon.
The specific problem with TvP is that in almost every single professional level TvP I have ever watched since Wings of Liberty came out, we see the same one-dimensional bio viking ghost versus all of the Protoss splash damage units and what determines whether the Terran wins or loses is how well Protoss can hold drop aggression and pick the perfect engagements. The only time you will ever see any sort of variation in terms of TvP is in the low leagues or with a few rare players like HTOMario and GoOdy who will go Mech. In fact, scratch that because GoOdy opted to play PvP instead of TvP in tournaments by late WoL because Mech was impossible to play.
The reason why you barely see Mech or Sky Terran in TvP is because it has a history of being horrifically underpowered. SC2 bonjwa and 4-time GSL champion LG-IM.Mvp once said it was impossible to win using Mech. If somebody of his skill level is saying this, it is definitely true.
I can highlight a number of problems with playing Mech in TvP such as:
- Susceptibility to early game aggression. Whereas going bio could help you hold certain aggressive builds like 3 gate pressure iinto expand, 4 gate, 3 gate blink stalker, 3 gate robo, going Mech will get you build order countered.
- Early expands often not being safe enough. Whereas in TvZ a fast expand into hellions is viable, the same build in TvP is only possible against a greedy, passive Protoss. And since it’s very difficult to scout early game aggression without a scan, it puts you in a weaker spot.
- Unless you have a criticial mass of (or around 16+) Siege Tanks backed by Hellbats and a good angle of engagement, the Protoss will win an engagement decisively, counterattack and wreck you. That is because of several big reasons such as Siege Tanks being nerfed and much of the Protoss composition being haphazardly designed to counter Mech. (explained more below.
The weakness of the Siege Tank - stemming from it dealing 35 (50 vs Armored) instead of 70 Explosive damage - is why Mech is currently underpowered and can be entirely hard-countered if you know your opponent is playing it.
Did you know for instance that:
- Siege Tanks take 5 hits to kill Zealots in both Brood War and StarCraft II. However, Charge not only closes the gap quicker than Leg Enhancements but also guarantees the Zealot a hit on a Siege Tank. This means that Zealots (still) hard-counter the Siege Tank.
- Stalkers have 20 less Life than the Dragoon but take an extra hit to kill? This is becuase the Siege Tank does 20 less maximum damage than it could in Brood War. The Blink ability also breaks the balance between Stalkers and Siege Tanks by allowing them to Blink on top of a tank line, abusing both the ‘dead zone’ of individual Siege Tanks and friendly-fire mechanics. Thus, Stalkers hard-counter the Siege Tank.
- Archons were the second-tankiest unit against Siege Tanks in Brood War (second only to the Ultralisk) and were an expensive but effective adversary against the Siege Tank, taking six hits to kill due to them being a Large unit. In StarCraft II they are the second tankiest unit in the game, taking eleven hits to kill because they are not Armored and thus only take 35 damage. This means that Archons WTFPWN Siege Tanks.
Colossus take seven hits for a Siege Tank to kill. They are tankier than the BW Archon used to be. Its predecessor, the Reaver, slithered at about a quarter of the speed and took three hits to kill. Thus, Colossi WTFPWN Siege Tanks. - The Immortal is the single tankiest unit in the game against the Siege Tank, and are overly tanky against all hard hitting units. They take fourteen hits for a Siege Tank to kill and are only tier 2. Even if you EMP an Immortal, they still take four hits to kill (the same as a Stalker.) Words cannot describe how dunked a Siege Tank line gets when Immortals are in the mix.
A lot of pro and amateur gamers have suggested that the Immortal be nerfed or removed but let me reassure you on one thing. The Immortal isn’t the only problem. The Siege Tank is. It deals reduced damage against all Protoss units and no longer works as a method of unit control. For instance you never see a bio player able to suddenly switch into Biomech or Mech because Siege Tanks are now so weak at zone control because everything can now a-move and ROFLstomp it.
The only way to legitimately come close to victory using Siege Tanks now is to pray your opponent doesn’t drop or take every base on the map then turtle and simcity to perfection. Only an abundance of Orbital Commands makes this remotely possible,
Bio is mobile, has the clout to actually take down the Protoss tier 3 provided it hasn’t reached a critical mass and thanks to the abundance of Stimivacs, can really punish a Protoss player with multi pronged drop aggression just for leaving their base. Likewise, if you lose a bio army, you can remake it with ease provided you have the economy and production to back it up. This lets you be liberal about drop harassment and whittle down a Protoss opponent quite effectively if they leave themselves open.
TvZ: Marine, Marauder, Medivac, Widow Mine vs Zergling, Baneling, Mutalisk, Ultralisk.
There is a reason we see biomine in every single TvZ. It is:
- Cheap - Doesn't cost much to commit to.
- Expendable - Lose your army? You can remake it instantly. Look at a lot of TvZs and TvPs where Innovation reaches 3 bases and uses his patented bio train to unleash relentless, nonstop aggression.
- Punishing - This is why you see mutalisks every game. If you can't snipe Terran drops in time, multi pronged drops are going to wreck your economy and number of bases in seconds. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT WHAT TIER 1 UNITS SHOULD DO
- Easy - Widow Mines will do much of the work for you. Sure you may need to micro bio in a few engagements but if you are good at that, you are golden.
- Aggressive - Suits anybody with an aggressive playstyle.
- Defensive - It's better at defending a lot of ultra early game timings like ling baneling all ins and ling bane roach all ins or early muta than mech or sky terran is.
- Powerful - Watching any pro level Terran game makes this word speak for itself.
Widow Mines are so game breakingly overpowered that they have entirely phased out the Siege Tank. They take less time to root than a tank takes to siege up, even before the Drilling Claws upgrade, deal much greater single target damage, has higher splash damage versus light units (40 compared to the 35 of Siege Tanks), are relatively cheap, can be massed in complete abundance and do spell damage (which makes armor/weapon upgrades irrelevant.)
We seldom see pure Mech in TvZ due to its weak anti-air only solvable by a large number of Thors and a large number of Vikings coupled with Ravens to throw down PDDs. Of course you would likely get completely fucked by 40 to 50 mutalisks by the time this transition happens. And no, Thors will not help you because their splash damage does not work in the StarCraft II game engine. This is thanks to magic-boxing, a micro trick that has made meching Terrans cry manly tears for three years straight.
The Goliath was perfect. The Warhound (which was originally intended to replace the Thor and function as anti-air) would have worked perfectly too. Why did David Kim replace the Goliath with a slow, expensive and ultimately flawed behemoth?
The buff to Mutalisks giving them increased movement speed and quadrupled health regeneration has made them an even bigger threat in TvZ. The Swarm Host also allows you to throw free units and overwhelm a Tank line at a cost of nothing. And no, Sky Terran won’t work either as any Zerg with a brain would have brought Spore Crawlers..
The Ultralisk is also far tankier against the Siege Tank than it is against the Widow Mine. Widow Mines deal 40 splash (or 125 single target) damage against an Ultralisk which is anywhere between 8% and 25% of their health pool. This is despite the Ultralisk having 100 more HP than it did in Brood War. Likewise, the Siege Tank deals 20 less damage to them than it used to and takes 11 hits (due to their health regen) instead of the 6 they used to take.
This is why Mech is never used to TvZ. It is weaker than bio, more expensive than bio, and is more punishing than bio.
Of course there is one composition that doesn’t die instantly to Widow Mines and that is Roach Hydra. Unfortunately, said composition is far more expensive, far more susceptible to drops (due to the lack of Mutalisks able to pick off multi pronged Stimivac drops) and sucks even more in a straight up engagement than pure ling bane, even with Infestor support.
Other points:
Siege Tanks are more expensive in SC2 than in Brood War. In Brood War they cost 100 Minerals and 150 Gas. In StarCraft II, they cost 125 Minerals and 150 Gas and have done so since Wings. Not even the removal of Siege Mode as a researchable upgrade has improved their rate of usage.
This is despite dealing less damage.
Siege Tanks also have smart-targeting, which clearly helps when they are criticially massed, but even then units such as Vipers punish them for totally sieging up. While this may explain their lessened damage, the irrelevance of Mech in HotS only cements the point that it's clearly not working further.
Ten suggestions to improve Heart of the Swarm’s metagame:
I am by no means qualified to suggest balance changes. However, the ones I suggest are looking at current problem areas.
1. Nerf bio. Marines need to deal less damage yet still be able to take on airborne units. Even a damage nerf by 1 (and maybe a small health buff to compensate) is good enough. The Marauder either needs removal or a numbers nerf to not be so effective in the later game. Tier 1 should never be the entire solution to later tiers of units.
2. Buff Siege Tank damage to 35 (60 vs Armored, 80 vs Massive.) This will let them three-shot Stalkers, still 4-shot Immortals with an EMP landed down and still keep Roach Hydra just as tanky. This will however greatly improve buff their performance against Ultralisks, Colossus Thors and Archons while not affecting their currently intended counters (Chargelots, Immortals, air units, Swarm Hosts, Vipers.) Even if you have to remove smart targeting and make them overkill units so that we are forced to spread them in all situations, I feel this is a very fair trade-off. Nobody likes the idea of clumped up deathballs anyway.
3. Remove Blink as an ability and replace it with something different like maybe an ability that temporarily gives the Stalker extra range and damage. Blink Stalkers currently outright break the possibility of there ever being mech TvPs due to the sheer strength of Blink Stalker all ins. Temporary extra range and damage could also help greatly against Mutalisks.
4. Buff Psionic Storm damage back to 100 from 80. This was the way it used to be in Brood War.
5. Remove the Widow Mine and replace it with an entirely different unit. Ideally a small anti-air unit creatable from the Reactor but requiring Armory tech. Maybe the Goliath or the (original) Warhound?
6. Allow Hellions to drop Spider Mines in Hellion mode (but make it a researchable upgrade, and make them produce Spider Mines like Carriers produce Interceptors.) This can solve a few issues with zone control that the removal of the Vulture caused.
7. Nerf Hellbat damage by half but greatly buff their health and give them a base Armor of 1. This is what David Kim should have originally done with the Hellbat, not tried to increase their cargo size then nerf their damage to prevent Hellbat drops. The hellbat drops occurred because Hellbats were not fulfilling their original role.
8. Reduce the cost of Point Defense Drones to 75 from 100. This will allow Ravens to cast them upon creation with the Corvid Reactor upgrade.
9. Remove Battlecruiser energy and make Yamato Cannon free but cooldown based. A lot of worthy counters to the Battlecruiser already exist.
10. Remove Medivac boosts. They are the sole reason why Zerg have to make Mutalisks in ZvT. Terrans also had zero problems with dropping without these moronic ‘stimivacs’ put in game.
