Everything stated here is my opinion unless noted and/or cited otherwise. As a progamer for several years now, I have a wealth of personal experience and observations to draw upon. With that said, I sometimes have to speculate due to lack of studies/concrete facts.
Overview:
The disruptor is Protoss's new area of effect damage dealer in Legacy of the Void. It requires a robotics bay to build and comes from the robotics facility. Due to the colossus's nerfs in LoTV (-1 range & 20% damage reduction), many protoss use the disruptor to replace the colossus. The disruptor requires significantly more control and management than the colossus of old and is only really effective when paired with a warp prism. If your opponent is paying attention they can mitigate most of the blast, but even if the disruptor misses you can still save it with the extended pick up range of the warp prism. Without a warp prism's support, a disruptor will almost always die after exploding due to its low movement speed and hitpoints. In addition, the disruptor is much less effective against faster units due to their increased ability to split as well as larger units compared to the colossus because it will tend to hit fewer of them at a time. In terms of positioning and utility, the disruptor is more similar to psionic storm in that you want to come from the sides and back while pressing the front to force your opponent into taking a lot of damage from the blast. Flanking with the disruptor is pretty difficult, but critical to using it effectively.
By the numbers:
Cost: 150/300 Health: 100/100 Armor: 1 armor Movement speed: same as a marine, slightly faster than a stimmed marine while purification nova is active. Purification Nova: Gain 67% increased movement speed, invulnerability and lose all unit collision for 3 seconds. Then deal 145 damage in a small AoE around the unit. Splash is ~1 radius. ~21 second cooldown. Note that the disruptor deals friendly damage.
Terran vs Protoss
As things are right now, the disruptor sees limited use in this matchup. Until protoss is able to get a substantial amount of blink stalkers to accompany the disruptors, terran will usually have the option to lift everything up and boost away if they are unable to split in time. Stimmed bio has little issue splitting against a disruptor given enough warning time, but demands that the Terran remain on edge. The primary danger to Terran is when the disruptor comes from an unexpected angle as your reaction time will be reduced as well as the area in which you can flee. If a disruptor comes from the back, you may have to run to the side while in range of your opponent’s army leaving you vulnerable to forcefields and potshots.
Mana uses the disruptor to harass my army.
By bringing the disruptor in from the back Mana makes it much harder for my army to effectively split by reducing reaction time and safe area in which to retreat to.
Protoss vs Protoss
There are 2 main problems with gauging the disruptor's usefulness in PvP. The first is that few protoss actively play LoTV ladder and weekly tournaments besides Take's LOTUS Cup. So there haven't been as many games to see how the meta is developing. The second is that adepts dominate the early game of this matchup and can end the game very quickly. As players get better at surviving the early onslaught of adepts, the mid and late game will be seen much more often, but right now games tend to be on the shorter side. In the most recent LoTV patch preview, disruptors will be receiving bonus damage to shields making them more effective in this matchup. With the bonus damage disruptors may be the answer to the mass Adept style that is so common right now. Disruptors have a lot of potential vs adepts because adepts are relatively small and thus clump. Add to that the fact that adepts move relatively slowly, and there's a lot of potential for disruptors to counter them effectively.
Mana uses the disruptor to harass Nightend's mineral line.
Mana drops a disruptor on the high ground forcing Nightend to split his army. While the prism dies, the disruptor is able to escape due to good forcefields.
Mana uses the disruptor to force Nightend to split his army up and reduce his overall DPS in this fight.
Mana's Disruptor does little to Nightend's army. Due to the obvious approach and lack of a fight, Nightend is able to split and take almost nothing. Despite that, the warp prism allows the disruptor to escape.
As the fights get bigger and there are more things to do, it becomes harder to react to the disruptor in time.
Mana's disruptor comes directly through Nightend's retreat path leaving little space to escape the blast.
Protoss vs Zerg
While the colossus cleaned up zerglings with little trouble, the disruptor does not deal with zerglings effectively due to fear of friendly fire and the speedlings high movement speed. That doesn’t matter as much, though, because the adept has basically outlawed heavy speedling compositions in this matchup. Adepts are so incredibly strong vs speedlings that most compositions from zerg will center around roach/hydra/lurker or mutalisks. As the disruptor’s explosion doesn’t hit air, mutalisk based compositions with a relatively quick tech to vipers as needed can greatly reduce the disruptor’s usefulness. If you opt for a ground based army, then creep spread will be incredibly important to mitigating the disruptor’s explosions. Off creep, hydras, in particular, will have a tough time splitting against disruptors.
Nightend efficiently uses 2 disruptors to clean up some roaches from a nydus.
Nightend stacks 2 disruptors in order to oneshot Neuro's lurkers.
Nightend deploys disruptors mid battle forcing Neuro to run and split his units.
Off creep, Neuro has a lot of trouble splitting his units enough to avoid taking damage even though there's no battle currently going on.
In summary
The disruptor is a powerful area of effect damage dealer but requires a lot more babysitting and micro management than any other unit in the Protoss arsenal. It's a big investment in both tech, resources and its demand for support units, as a warp prism is almost required to keep it alive. Initially, players may find the disruptor to be relatively useless due to its high skill requirement, but the disruptor has the potential to completely swing fights when used effectively.
Thanks to Nightend for providing replays and Protoss insight about the disruptor and its utility, and to Bly for helping me understand the situation better from Zerg's perspective.
I have some reservations about the disruptor being indestructible while it is charging up for the explosion. This really is unfair against immobile units like lurkers and siege tanks which cant move out of the way in time. Rather, the disruptor should get an armor buff during its charge up period, which would allow it tank low tech units like zerglings, but not high damage units like siege tanks.
On June 18 2015 02:53 Loccstana wrote: I have some reservations about the disruptor being indestructible while it is charging up for the explosion. This really is unfair against immobile units like lurkers and siege tanks which cant move out of the way in time. Rather, the disruptor should get an armor buff during its charge up period, which would allow it tank low tech units like zerglings, but not high damage units like siege tanks.
It's a 300 gas single melee range unit.
It needs to be able to get in and do damage. Unless it's invulnerable on its way in it will just die immediately.
Reaver comparisons were pretty common when the beta first came out but since Reavers can shoot from afar I think this is actually even more glass cannon-y.
On June 18 2015 03:03 prplhz wrote: from the description this sounds a lot like the reaver
Well it's a protoss AoE dealing unit which needs a lot of micro and attention, which goes in pair with protoss air transport, and which is less effective otherwise... so yeah!
On June 18 2015 02:53 Loccstana wrote: I have some reservations about the disruptor being indestructible while it is charging up for the explosion. This really is unfair against immobile units like lurkers and siege tanks which cant move out of the way in time. Rather, the disruptor should get an armor buff during its charge up period, which would allow it tank low tech units like zerglings, but not high damage units like siege tanks.
Ugh, mindless fixing turned my post upside down. Refer to the slightly later one... lol
On June 18 2015 02:53 Loccstana wrote: I have some reservations about the disruptor being indestructible while it is charging up for the explosion. This really is unfair against immobile units like lurkers and siege tanks which cant move out of the way in time. Rather, the disruptor should get an armor buff during its charge up period, which would allow it tank low tech units like zerglings, but not high damage units like siege tanks.
Siege tanks can be picked up by medivacs now, while in siege mode. And I'm not too knowledgeable about the disruptor but qxc said that it can't hit air units, so if players pay attention and micro properly, there shouldn't be problems getting siege tanks out of harms way.
For lurkers, the small VODs shown, showed that you need at least 2 disruptors to actually kill a lurker. I'm not too knowledgeable about how the disruptors work but are vipers allowed to yank disruptors out of mid air, possibly away from the battle to minimize/negate their damage, possibly allowing for Zerg units to deal their maximum amount of damage? If not, I don't think an armor buff would do much. Throw in a few mutalisks and sacrifice a few hydras or have a few queens around and you negate the disruptor completely.
I would love to see Blizzard incorporate a small window before the disruptor goes off where it is vulnerable, to allow for players to focus on killing the disruptor before it goes off. It forces players to have higher amount of focus, concentration, and micro but it grants them the ability to stop the disruptor from doing its damage while being able to properly engage opposing armies. IF this isn't a thing already.
My thoughts on countering Disruptor if these don't exist. EMP should make Disruptor targetable. Storm should damage Disruptor. Fungal should lock down Disruptor.
On June 18 2015 04:05 BisuDagger wrote: My thoughts on countering Disruptor if these don't exist. EMP should make Disruptor targetable. Storm should damage Disruptor. Fungal should lock down Disruptor.
Then you make Disruptor only viable in a short time phase of the game. After that, is paperweitght countered by 1 spell of each race, specially Terran and Zerg. Disruptors being damaged by storm is not a bad idea after all since Disruptors are very mobile and would take little damage, but taht would matter after a few engagements if the HP gets low enough for shields to run of and the Disruptor just dies.
I think it is not bad at all to have it invulnerable, but it wil need some additional balance for sure. It's relatively competent to work around it with positioning and micro and the unit is very very vulnerable.
On June 18 2015 02:53 Loccstana wrote: I have some reservations about the disruptor being indestructible while it is charging up for the explosion. This really is unfair against immobile units like lurkers and siege tanks which cant move out of the way in time. Rather, the disruptor should get an armor buff during its charge up period, which would allow it tank low tech units like zerglings, but not high damage units like siege tanks.
I actually think it's got an excellent utility in swinging in and smashing through their defenses, but on principle, I too feel a bit iffy about the full invincibility during the nova phase. Maybe it could receive some additional shield, similar to the Immortal's barrier ability that also has a lot of armor on it. Let's call it the Void Shield. 200 HP, 3 default armor, stacking with shield upgrades. This makes it tough for bio to smash through it before it detonates, forcing the splitting, but a wall of tanks will blast it down without much issue. Unfortunately, with Protoss units' high damage per shot output, it might not do a great job of surviving to reach the center of Protoss armies. Perhaps it could still be useful when multiple Disruptors are used at once, but if you're going to require 2 or 3 iterations of a 150/300 unit just to have any chance of being useful, the price (and possibly damage for the other matchups) would have to be adjusted. Ultimately, I have a hard time seeing a non-invincible Disruptor being worthwhile for 150/300. 75/225 and I'd be fine with purification nova simply putting up a temporary armored shield, instead of becoming invincible.
You nearly convinced me the disruptor was interesting. I still think the colossus should either be removed from the game or made into something useful again.
The disruptor just needs to be less binary. There are plenty of ways to do this like lowering the cost and damage (so you have more disruptors that individually do less) or changing the mechanic to a DoT.
On June 18 2015 04:41 Athenau wrote: The disruptor just needs to be less binary
David Kim said that this particular problem is being addressed internally at the moment.
From my very personal perspective, the disruptor is just too difficult to use. I have 130 apm, ok micro for my level, and I'm having a really hard time microing this unit properly. It's by far the hardest protoss unit to play with.
On June 18 2015 04:34 [PkF] Wire wrote: You nearly convinced me the disruptor was interesting. I still think the colossus should either be removed from the game or made into something useful again.
I think Colossus should be changed from generic splash unit to a concentrated splash damage. So instead of two beams doing two full swipes, the two beams colliding over one unit, in the middle, with slower animation Then the damage and cooldown moved back to the initial WoL levels, feeling like a more "siege" unit. We have enough "anti-minions" (minor units) splash.
A colossus like that will be optimized for tactical focus firing a bit more than the actual ones, but at the same time weaker vs splits. I can't concieve a colossus that is not able to 1 shot Zerglings at +3.
On June 18 2015 04:34 [PkF] Wire wrote: You nearly convinced me the disruptor was interesting. I still think the colossus should either be removed from the game or made into something useful again.
The Colossus should be removed, it's a garbage no skill unit that has no place in the higher skill cap LOTV.
I am kind of a critic of the binary "all or nothing" approach with Purification Nova but the Warp Prism drop thing does add a hefty lair of micro management and skill cap potential which is so desperately what Protoss needs as a race (i.e. Protoss needs a unit that in the hands of Parting it looks completely different then a high masters player which is where the Colossus falls on it's damn face design wise)
Disruptor needs a tweak, I think it should cost a bit less, do a bit less damage so it's not broken against immobile units like the Lurker and Siege Tank, but have a more reliable escape mechanism.
Perhaps still have invulnerability when PN is activated, but movement speed remains the same until the blast goes off, as soon as the blast goes off, the speed boost applies, that way armies have more of a chance to dodge but the unit itself has a greater chance to escape with good control.
I don't know, the unit is a step or two away from being the unit that Protoss deserves, but the lack of escape without Warp Prism is the biggest thing holding it back.
On June 18 2015 04:34 [PkF] Wire wrote: You nearly convinced me the disruptor was interesting. I still think the colossus should either be removed from the game or made into something useful again.
The Colossus should be removed, it's a garbage no skill unit that has no place in the higher skill cap LOTV.
I am kind of a critic of the binary "all or nothing" approach with Purification Nova but the Warp Prism drop thing does add a hefty lair of micro management and skill cap potential which is so desperately what Protoss needs as a race (i.e. Protoss needs a unit that in the hands of Parting it looks completely different then a high masters player which is where the Colossus falls on it's damn face design wise)
Disruptor needs a tweak, I think it should cost a bit less, do a bit less damage so it's not broken against immobile units like the Lurker and Siege Tank, but have a more reliable escape mechanism.
Perhaps still have invulnerability when PN is activated, but movement speed remains the same until the blast goes off, as soon as the blast goes off, the speed boost applies, that way armies have more of a chance to dodge but the unit itself has a greater chance to escape with good control.
I don't know, the unit is a step or two away from being the unit that Protoss deserves, but the lack of escape without Warp Prism is the biggest thing holding it back.
Being able to look like a different unit in the hands of Parting is exactly why the support via Warp Prism makes this exactly the unit Protoss has needed.
I mean are we gonna nerf Banelings/Widow Mine splash at this point too? Why shouldn't this unit do a shitload of damage when you don't micro against it?
We need to stop being pussies and get better, instead of whining when shit gets hard. That's exactly why SC2 is in the boring state it's in. I want things to be AWESOME, not boring.
The disruptor is too good against ground mech, hellbats and thors are too slow, and you will never have enough medivacs to lift up your tanks.
The biggest problem of course besides the all-or-nothing nature of the disruptor is the need for mech to stay together so much, since positional play is so weak you either have all your army together and lose because is one tight ball, or you spread it and then you lose because tanks are shit.
But right now its hard to say if the problem is with mech, with the disruptor or with something else, so it requires more analysis.
On June 18 2015 06:24 Grumbels wrote: 3. why doesn't at least forcefield block it?
A question that leaves me mesmerized too. Same for adepts shades by the way. I just don't understand ; those two simple changes would make PvP a thousand times better.
On June 18 2015 06:24 Grumbels wrote: 3. why doesn't at least forcefield block it?
A question that leaves me mesmerized too. Same for adepts shades by the way. I just don't understand ; those two simple changes would make PvP a thousand times better.
I'm glad they don't, because using these units together with Forcefields kind of blows my mind in my little realm of possible tactics you can pull off as a Protoss player.
On June 18 2015 06:24 Grumbels wrote: I'll repeat my questions from the earlier thread, for which I'm curious about the answers.
1. why is the disruptor so expensive? 2. why not a damage gradient? 3. why doesn't at least forcefield block it?
1. 2. I think these 2 points go hand in hand, the disruptor is a unit that has to have a good burst efficiency to warrant its cost (or vice versa :D). And I honestly think damage gradients on AoE zones (which are already quite small) are always underwhelming. It's good that you can one-shot most small units no matter where they are in the disruptor's AoE. For example, if you didn't one-shot marines in the whole area, you would end up with a useless unit in cooldown and still a lot of DPS left on the other side after your release, it would deincentivize micro for the defensive player. 3. Good point, I didn't even know it didn't work haha.
I dislike the invulnerability on principle. It should not be capable of running into a 200/200 clump of Marines or Zerglings, doing its thing, and then getting away. Nothing should. Just give it a flat armor boost that is sufficient when the Protoss engages cost-effectively (whatever that is judged to be - one Disruptor versus 15 Marines? 20? I don't care), but not sufficient if the engagement is less cost-effective than that, and the Disruptor may die before its attack even activates.
I don't for the life of me understand how Blizzard didn't arrive at this conclusion themselves. There is literally no difference when the Protoss takes reasonable engagements, but bad engagements are appropriately punished as opposed to providing a sliver of a chance to a player who deserves none, and mech's high single-target damage can bypass the armor boost and deal with the Disruptor.
This is just an obviously superior way to design the unit.
On June 18 2015 11:20 pure.Wasted wrote: I like the article and I like the Disruptor.
I dislike the invulnerability on principle. It should not be capable of running into a 200/200 clump of Marines or Zerglings, doing its thing, and then getting away. Nothing should. Just give it a flat armor boost that is sufficient when the Protoss engages cost-effectively (whatever that is judged to be - one Disruptor versus 15 Marines? 20? I don't care), but not sufficient if the engagement is less cost-effective than that, and the Disruptor may die before its attack even activates.
I don't for the life of me understand how Blizzard didn't arrive at this conclusion themselves. There is literally no difference when the Protoss takes reasonable engagements, but bad engagements are appropriately punished as opposed to providing a sliver of a chance to a player who deserves none, and mech's high single-target damage can bypass the armor boost and deal with the Disruptor.
This is just an obviously superior way to design the unit.
This would be a good idea to test, especially while in beta, because if it does work out as you suggest then it would obviously be superior.
As it stands the Disruptor is pretty much an useless unit in the PvT matchup. The fact terran can just load up everything and take 0 damage makes it super easy to dodge it. I think the Disruptor should do at least a bit of damage versus air. I mean if Protoss goes into Disruptors and Zerg goes for mass mutas, it becomes almost impossible for Protoss to defend their bases after investing so much into what is 'useless tech' vs air.
I agree with previous comments about the fact that forcefields should at least block adepts. It seems silly that the shade can move past forcefields on the ramp. If disruptors can go through forcefields they should at least break them the same way as it does with a colossus going through forcefields. Going through forcefields is just silly.
On June 18 2015 12:25 MoonyD wrote: As it stands the Disruptor is pretty much an useless unit in the PvT matchup. The fact terran can just load up everything and take 0 damage makes it super easy to dodge it. I think the Disruptor should do at least a bit of damage versus air. I mean if Protoss goes into Disruptors and Zerg goes for mass mutas, it becomes almost impossible for Protoss to defend their bases after investing so much into what is 'useless tech' vs air.
I'm not going to touch PvZ because I know nothing about it, but why can't Stalkers shoot the Medivacs out of the air once the Terran attempts to GTFO? Get your Stalkers ready for a flank, bring in the Disruptor, and then blink under the Medivacs and pick a couple of them off for free.
There might be a good reason why this isn't possible, I'm genuinely curious.
On June 18 2015 02:53 Loccstana wrote: I have some reservations about the disruptor being indestructible while it is charging up for the explosion. This really is unfair against immobile units like lurkers and siege tanks which cant move out of the way in time. Rather, the disruptor should get an armor buff during its charge up period, which would allow it tank low tech units like zerglings, but not high damage units like siege tanks.
It's a 300 gas single melee range unit.
It needs to be able to get in and do damage. Unless it's invulnerable on its way in it will just die immediately.
I agree with you on the 300 gas melee unit that needs to be able to move through the battlefield.
But, I think the problem a lot of people have is with the "invulnerability" combined with a Warp Prism, which makes the unit nigh impossible to kill.
People don't like the idea of 2 Disruptors running though and amoving army (I mean, they are quite hard to spot, especially on the current (TERRIBLE) minimap) and essentially destroying it instantaneously.
Could a massive shield work too? I would like to experiment with that. A 300 HP Shield (preferably with the effect the Immortal should have had; all damage over 10 is reduced max(10 ; 0.5*damage) to 10 or halved, whichever is higher) for the Disruptor. What this means is that the Disruptor has approximately 500 HP to play with when it rushes in AND a defensive mechanic upon activating the Nova. The Nova hits in 4(?) seconds, the shields are removed after 8 seconds (maybe a slight increase in movement speed during this cooldown period as well). Is that enough of a defense to last through a fight? I think it is. It is however not enough to rush into an army head-on. Additionally, EMP can now hurt them as well.
This is obviously me playing with some numbers, but what do you guys think?
On June 18 2015 12:25 MoonyD wrote: As it stands the Disruptor is pretty much an useless unit in the PvT matchup. The fact terran can just load up everything and take 0 damage makes it super easy to dodge it. I think the Disruptor should do at least a bit of damage versus air. I mean if Protoss goes into Disruptors and Zerg goes for mass mutas, it becomes almost impossible for Protoss to defend their bases after investing so much into what is 'useless tech' vs air.
I'm not going to touch PvZ because I know nothing about it, but why can't Stalkers shoot the Medivacs out of the air once the Terran attempts to GTFO? Get your Stalkers ready for a flank, bring in the Disruptor, and then blink under the Medivacs and pick a couple of them off for free.
There might be a good reason why this isn't possible, I'm genuinely curious.
In theory it's possible, but due to Friendly Fire you cannot jump under the disruptors (Terran can just unload and each marauders one-shots a stalker). Flanking their retreat path is a possibility, but you have to be very careful of reinforcements, Terran unloading, and being picked off / mispositioned for an engagement because your army is essentially split into two with the Terran army in the center (the Terran army will usually win the fight on either side).
It is possible but also very risky, is what I would say.
I agree with the last statement of qxc. The disruptor definately needs some small changes. In the hands of e pro, it could produce very possitive results, but it requires a micro play that is beyond the skill of regular ladder player in the low leagues and it shall not be used unless for some assault/guerilla attacks.
I like Qxc's analysis and enjoy reading them but I personally need to admit that I can't get over the bias of this unit even after generous positive spin from Qxc and its good points in its defense by Qxc.
Sorry but invincible unit that requires constant attention on your army as well as protoss's due to its huge range that are all or nothing doesn't add too much to protoss arsenal other than another form of gimmick in my non-pro opinion.
Its invincibility and speed, as other poster pointed out, not only serves injustice for immobile units like siege tank and lurkers, wouldn't really be fun for casuals and be cause of frustration on the receiving end while having equal woes on attacking end if it doesn't work due to 300 gas investment.
I think protoss needs less of these type of units.
Nice writeup from qxc, the multitalent of the community. My personal suggestion for disruptor PvP relevance would be making it a forcefield-breaking unit (massive).
On June 18 2015 16:18 jinjin5000 wrote: I like Qxc's analysis and enjoy reading them but I personally need to admit that I can't get over the bias of this unit even after generous positive spin from Qxc and its good points in its defense by Qxc.
Sorry but invincible unit that requires constant attention on your army as well as protoss's due to its huge range that are all or nothing doesn't add too much to protoss arsenal other than another form of gimmick in my non-pro opinion.
Its invincibility and speed, as other poster pointed out, not only serves injustice for immobile units like siege tank and lurkers, wouldn't really be fun for casuals and be cause of frustration on the receiving end while having equal woes on attacking end if it doesn't work due to 300 gas investment.
I think protoss needs less of these type of units.
Spread Lurkers, unburrow or reposition. Pick up Tanks with Medivacs.
2x Disruptors blowing up 4 roaches seems cool but for 1/3 of the gas you could do the same thing with 2x Immortals. In it's current state I think it is best to use against high value targets. Against Zerg as an example you got storm immortal and colossus against zergs bread n butter. Infestors, HT:s, mech units, lurkers etc, those units are generally slower and harder to split and represents a higher game impact per supply.
I love this data. But from what im seeing is that, Disruptor would be useless in pro player scene that plays Terran and to powerful against Zerg, mostly because Hydra/Roach is to slow to split it up, while Terran could just pick all the units, be it mech or bio in Medivacs and just dodge any Disruptors.
Warp prism/Disruptor harass would also be great against Zerg but really UP against Terran.
The unit is either to good or to bad, and it depends mostly on the match up. Suprising an enemy and flanking could work for months unitl the player adapts to Disruptors, then it becomes basically nothing.
On June 18 2015 21:00 aka_star wrote: Blizzard pleaseeeeeee...... This is not how you fix death ball
I think it is, stuff like Disruptor/Lurker/Liberator makes it impossible to blindly walk up a ramp, or attack moving across the map while macroing up. Players will have to be very delicate about splitting up their units at all times, when they need to spend time macroing at home.
Also as a small side bonus, players who are pre split will be at advantage. This means the defender gets more advantage, since attacking will clump up your units, unless utilizing flanks.
If people don't want it to be invincible during its charge up phase, then it is going to have to be a lot cheaper and faster to build. Its costs 300 gas, so that is going to have to be reduced if it is just going to die.
If you'd like to influence what my next post is about, please let me know via pm, post here or tweet @col_qxc. I'm considering doing another unit in review from LoTV or perhaps something a more general/game design related.
On June 18 2015 22:14 ZackAttack wrote: If people don't want it to be invincible during its charge up phase, then it is going to have to be a lot cheaper and faster to build. Its costs 300 gas, so that is going to have to be reduced if it is just going to die.
The "its invincible argument" doesn't make sense for the same reason "Why do they have infinite bullets" also doesn't make sense. This is a game, it has an invincible attack just like every other unit in SC2, no one ever complains you can't shoot a tank's bullet in mid-air and yet they care that this guy has a charge attack?
On June 18 2015 23:37 qxc wrote: If you'd like to influence what my next post is about, please let me know via pm, post here or tweet @col_qxc. I'm considering doing another unit in review from LoTV or perhaps something a more general/game design related.
I'd like your opinion on positional play in LoTV, i.e is it actually going to be a thing with the Liberator and Lurker?
On June 18 2015 23:37 qxc wrote: If you'd like to influence what my next post is about, please let me know via pm, post here or tweet @col_qxc. I'm considering doing another unit in review from LoTV or perhaps something a more general/game design related.
I'd like your opinion on positional play in LoTV, i.e is it actually going to be a thing with the Liberator and Lurker?
Yeah this coupled with Mineral changes, is turtling gonna work? just how cost efficient do you have to be. etc.
On June 18 2015 16:18 jinjin5000 wrote: I like Qxc's analysis and enjoy reading them but I personally need to admit that I can't get over the bias of this unit even after generous positive spin from Qxc and its good points in its defense by Qxc.
Sorry but invincible unit that requires constant attention on your army as well as protoss's due to its huge range that are all or nothing doesn't add too much to protoss arsenal other than another form of gimmick in my non-pro opinion.
Its invincibility and speed, as other poster pointed out, not only serves injustice for immobile units like siege tank and lurkers, wouldn't really be fun for casuals and be cause of frustration on the receiving end while having equal woes on attacking end if it doesn't work due to 300 gas investment.
I think protoss needs less of these type of units.
Spread Lurkers, unburrow or reposition. Pick up Tanks with Medivacs.
This will only work with bio, because you have a lot of medivacs and few tanks.
With mech you will never have enoguh medivacs for all your tanks, and even if you do you won't have enough for everything else (hellbats,thors, WM).
Its just another one of those things thats forces mech to be only cyclone/hellion
On June 18 2015 16:18 jinjin5000 wrote: I like Qxc's analysis and enjoy reading them but I personally need to admit that I can't get over the bias of this unit even after generous positive spin from Qxc and its good points in its defense by Qxc.
Sorry but invincible unit that requires constant attention on your army as well as protoss's due to its huge range that are all or nothing doesn't add too much to protoss arsenal other than another form of gimmick in my non-pro opinion.
Its invincibility and speed, as other poster pointed out, not only serves injustice for immobile units like siege tank and lurkers, wouldn't really be fun for casuals and be cause of frustration on the receiving end while having equal woes on attacking end if it doesn't work due to 300 gas investment.
I think protoss needs less of these type of units.
Spread Lurkers, unburrow or reposition. Pick up Tanks with Medivacs.
This will only work with bio, because you have a lot of medivacs and few tanks.
With mech you will never have enoguh medivacs for all your tanks, and even if you do you won't have enough for everything else (hellbats,thors, WM).
Its just another one of those things thats forces mech to be only cyclone/hellion
With 13 range I'm pretty sure you can spread your tanks really efficiently to mitigate the AoE of Disruptors. Each disruptor costs 300 gas so that's almost 3 tanks.
In fact PLaying Hellion/Clyclone is the worse option vs Disruptors, since the units work well when clumped, unlike Siege tanks.
On June 18 2015 21:00 aka_star wrote: Blizzard pleaseeeeeee...... This is not how you fix death ball
Watching slow repetitive micro fights is BORING. I think that fits the definition of boring. Slow. And REPETITIVE.
eh, I don't think you can create a research paper on why the double harvest model is more exciting to watch and play than the current LoTV model.
I'm assuming the current LoTV model encourages more aggressive playstyles. That spells more exciting to watch and play to me.
The disruptor looks like it's going towards the right direction. It gives players more hope in making comebacks and keeps them more alert throughout the game, so cockiness is punished more severely.
he feels like he will be extremely strong at the beginning where people wont know the timings or the most efficient micro (think top tier WOL players and Hots - theres a huge difference)
IN the end he is a super baneling though.
1) costing way too much (making him need to hit something) 2) and cant truly be paired with zealots (splash friendly) 3) creating gimmicky wins or losses (i killed 40 supply vs i killed nothing)\
unlike banelings, he comes out at colossus tech and banelings auto detonate searching for their own target.
Guys, i know you want protoss to stay bad so youre defending a bad unit, but winter is coming and so are buffs for Protoss.
On June 18 2015 16:18 jinjin5000 wrote: I like Qxc's analysis and enjoy reading them but I personally need to admit that I can't get over the bias of this unit even after generous positive spin from Qxc and its good points in its defense by Qxc.
Sorry but invincible unit that requires constant attention on your army as well as protoss's due to its huge range that are all or nothing doesn't add too much to protoss arsenal other than another form of gimmick in my non-pro opinion.
Its invincibility and speed, as other poster pointed out, not only serves injustice for immobile units like siege tank and lurkers, wouldn't really be fun for casuals and be cause of frustration on the receiving end while having equal woes on attacking end if it doesn't work due to 300 gas investment.
I think protoss needs less of these type of units.
Spread Lurkers, unburrow or reposition. Pick up Tanks with Medivacs.
This will only work with bio, because you have a lot of medivacs and few tanks.
With mech you will never have enoguh medivacs for all your tanks, and even if you do you won't have enough for everything else (hellbats,thors, WM).
Its just another one of those things thats forces mech to be only cyclone/hellion
With 13 range I'm pretty sure you can spread your tanks really efficiently to mitigate the AoE of Disruptors. Each disruptor costs 300 gas so that's almost 3 tanks.
In fact PLaying Hellion/Clyclone is the worse option vs Disruptors, since the units work well when clumped, unlike Siege tanks.
Mech TvP is already on bit of fine line and a hit on buffer would turn table tremendously
All the units tend to clump and work poorly when split as a buffer