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[LP] Seeker Missiles
September 12th, 2010 16:12 GMT
Liquipedia Weekly #4
Now on Sundays!
I'm actually really excited to be writing about my favourite part of the wiki this week. You see, we may seem candid when we talk about Liquipedia doing its E-science in some underground research facility, yet at times, the truth isn't too far off.
Spells are a pretty intricate part of the StarCraft universe - Did you know that an Irradiate in a Stasis Field still deals splash damage?? - and at Liquipedia, we strive to get to the very bottom of this. We want to know exactly what the spell does, elaborate on how and when to use it, provide some excellent example games in which the spells are used and, last but not least, find out all the little quirks that come with them, leading to those cool Did you know...?s we nerds like to pick up girls with. I'll close this article off with a couple of them 
First though, I'd like to draw your attention to a couple of spell articles that really shine. I want to thank Volshok for his excellent work on Auto-Turret and Point Defense Drone, as well as Lejving and Sqalevon for sitting through a two hour long session of testing Fungal Growth and Neural Parasite with me. Today's feature however, is:
The instant you load the Seeker Missile page you are met by one of our trusty Infoboxes. If tells you everything about the spell: Caster, Manacost, Hotkey, Research cost and time and even a pretty icon.
But what does it do?! We try to be as detailed as possible. The description reads:
Seeker Missile is a single target offensive spell cast by the Terran Raven. Upon casting, a projectile with normal speed is created and travels towards the assigned target. When the missile is within 2 range of its target it accelerates, becoming impossible to escape from. Upon reaching its target, it explodes and causes area effect damage. Seeker Missile becomes less effective against skilled players, as they are able to better position units to mitigate damage. Despite this, Seeker Missiles grow increasing powerful as the game progresses, due to splash against larger army sizes and its constant 100 damage (allowing users to ignore enemy armor upgrades).
This isn't where it ends. Liquipedia is so advanced it can actually provide detailed illustrations of the Seeker Missile's workings. Observe how these images demonstrate both Splash and Cast range.
What more is there to know about the Seeker Missile? Well, if there is anything, it should be on the 'pedia. Such as is the case as we read on: The Seeker Missile can actually be upgraded!
Try running from this now Viable? Don't know - but if someone uses it 5 years from now to revolutionize the Terran metagame we will know what's going on.
Let's get to the actually useful part: How and when do you use this Orb of Destruction? I won't go into much detail, but a quick glance shows we've done our homework, per race there's a list of what units can and can't outrun the missile.
The following units cannot outrun a Seeker Missile: - High Templar
- Observer (Gravitic Booster allows evasion)
- Carrier
- Mothership
The following units have equal speed to a Seeker Missile: - Zealot (Charge allows evasion)
- Sentry
- Immortal
- Colossus
- Void Ray (Flux Vanes allows evasion)
Of course, this part is also accompanied with complementary images with gratuitous amounts of gore, making sure people get the point.
See any Zerg units? No? It's cause they're all DEAD
That's it for the Seeker Missile. The spell pages I mentioned above are fairly well done, but some still need a lot of work - and we need your help! We mainly need exemplary games and details on how the pros use these spell. You see your favourite player use your favourite spell? Add it to the wiki! All the pages are there, they just need some content.
Well, that's about it for this week, but not before I leave you with:
Did you know...?
- ...the Point Defense Drone regenerates energy almost twice as fast as other caster units (1.0 energy per second vs 0.5625 energy per second)?
- ...Seeker Missiles damage structures, despite being unable to target them?
- ...you can Neural Parasite a Mothership - any recalled Larvae will crawl back to the nearest Hatchery?
- ...Mass Recall and Blink will evade the Missile, causing it to explode on the unit's previous location?
- ...you are able to NP either type of Cocoon, but cancelling it won't return funds to either player?
- ...that, as a mechanical unit, the Point Defense Drone can be repaired by friendly SCVs?
- ...Fungal Growthed Templars can warp an Archon if they are close together?
- ...any Changelings, Infested Terrans and Auto-turrets you create from a Neural Parasite are yours to keep?
See you on the wiki! 
-Liquipedia staff
Question of the week: Well, did you?
Useful Liquipedia Links: Liquipedia Feedback Thread PM a Liquipedia Staff Member: Aesop, Pholon, Imperator, Mystlord, Steeeeve, TheFallofTroy, Slugbreath, Julmust
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Didn't know everything. Crawling larvae, cool, need to try that sometime. Nice trivia, thx.
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i guess seeker missile can also rape interceptors
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Oh thanks LP, you just made Terran players overpowered, now I gotta deal with seeker missiles on ladder
grrrr....
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I'm glad you called it "Seeker Missile", and not "Hunter Seeker Missile." A lot of people seemed to have missed the memo that the name was changed.
Keep up the god work!
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NP cocoons sounds awesome. Think about it: You have 3 infestors in your army pushing an expansion and he starts to make 3 ultras there, NP cocoons and cancel them, you just killed 3 ultras :D
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Nice article, didnt know about that larvae, seem really cool.
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On September 13 2010 01:24 Cofo wrote: I'm glad you called it "Seeker Missile", and not "Hunter Seeker Missile." A lot of people seemed to have missed the memo that the name was changed.
Keep up the god work! but the acronym is so much cooler! also less... inappropriate...
i mean, would you rather call it HSM or.... SM?
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wow that is cool im happy you posted this but as a zerg i feel you just made terran even harder to defeat maybe a zerg one next?
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Yay for liquipedia!
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On September 13 2010 01:17 ZidaneTribal wrote: i guess seeker missile can also rape interceptors
That and mutas. I've had a whole pack of my mutas obliterated by one + a few rines.
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i will try some seeker missile actions next time :3
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ow god now lots of terrans will do this because Liquidpedia showed us how. I will be scared when i meet terrans from now on.
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the explosion is alot bigger than the damage actually is. only thing which makes it better than fungual and storm is that its instant damage making it stackable. other than that the other spells are better imo
just look at that if the army stimpacked they woulda lost alot more hp than that silly missile and still that is maximum damage lol
on top of it the cast range is so small that u practically have to suicide the unit if u wanna shoot out one of these missiles
i love this spell so much tho
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If you recall a bunch of larvae, can you manually click on them and morph zerglings(or other units) while they are in the middle of the map?
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I do hope we start to see more seeker missiles used in matches, I like them as a spell a lot. Also, I want to see larva crawl across the whole map now...haha.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Brat_OK has been using these suckers a lot more recently against mondragon and against demuslim i think!
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On September 13 2010 02:06 Klive5ive wrote: If you recall a bunch of larvae, can you manually click on them and morph zerglings(or other units) while they are in the middle of the map?
Yes you can! If you didn't know you can also manually morph larvaes that are left of a dead hatchery.
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On September 13 2010 01:26 deth2munkies wrote: NP cocoons sounds awesome. Think about it: You have 3 infestors in your army pushing an expansion and he starts to make 3 ultras there, NP cocoons and cancel them, you just killed 3 ultras :D
i believe LP refers to broodlord cocons and maybe banelings as larva makes eggs,
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On September 13 2010 02:12 Plexa wrote:Brat_OK has been using these suckers a lot more recently  against mondragon and against demuslim i think! ye u use them in tvt late game
u can also use them vs terran in midgame if he plays mass air
vs zerg i dont know, maybe can be good im not sure. we see jaedong split irrodate muta under 1 second which is alot harder than sending away the raven missle mutalisk because they are not stacked so it will probably become very useless once zergs get mouse precision and reaction speed like jaedong (will take a while lol)
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Such a cool, but underused spell
Can't wait for people to start using these :D
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As a diamond T player who solely uses mass ravens against zerg I could probably recommend a few things reguarding HSM against zerg.
As I like to call them... Jihad ravens are extremely effective against mutalisks. Obviously mutalisks can outrun the HSM if cast at a long distance, but I'll fly 2 ravens in amoungst the group of mutalisks, fire 2 HSMs at point blank range, and then yell the quote off the Matrix film; "Dodge this..". Watch how an army of 20 mutalisks turns into 3 low HP ones. It's usually followed by a GG.
The other use for HSM I find is to move a significant number of units away from your army. Again, mutalisks are a good example. If you fire a long range HSM at the group, they will fly away. This keeps your ravens safe (or other army if you aren't going mass ravens) while you plant auto turrets or push into their base.
HSM is also good at killing drones though I generally prefer auto turrets. If you drop a few auto turrets in a zerg's mineral line, he usually runs his drones to his natural. I try to put a HSM on one of the retreating drones and if they don't seperate it, it will chase them to the natural and end up killing all of the drones that came from the main (as they are still grouped up) and a few from the natural that were allready at the mineral patches.
One last word of advice. Don't use HSM on ultralisks or other large melee units. Especially if they are in your mineral line. HSM does hurt friendly units and I once made a mistake and nuked an ultra that was in my mineral line. I don't need to go into further details...
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whenever i rageterran on ladder after losing a few to many games as Z, i always make ravens an important part of my army. i feel that they will become a far more important part of terran armies than they are now. i make as much use of turrets and PDDs as i can, but i never get hunter seeker missile. you have to get your raven dangerously close to the opponent's army to launch it, a lot of things can outrun it, the actual splash radius is rather pathetic, and it seems that the 125 energy you spend on it could be better used on PDDs or turrets.
all of the units that can't outrun it seem like units that it would be aworthless/terrible idea to HSM. there's no point wasting 125 energy to kill an observer when you could just shoot it down with a marine, or, should you be insane and not have any units that hit air, drop a turret. 125 energy isn't worth damaging the shields on a carrier or mothership (and how often are those ever used in 1v1?). and i wouldn't dare allow my ravens to get anywhere near a high templar for fear of feedback. a ghost would be a far better choice of spellcaster against templar.
so yeah, i do still think ravens will become more important, but of all the raven's spells, it's unlikely that the seeker missile will be the one players get the raven for.
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Netherlands6142 Posts
On September 13 2010 02:33 MorroW wrote:Show nested quote +On September 13 2010 02:12 Plexa wrote:Brat_OK has been using these suckers a lot more recently  against mondragon and against demuslim i think! ye u use them in tvt late game u can also use them vs terran in midgame if he plays mass air vs zerg i dont know, maybe can be good im not sure. we see jaedong split irrodate muta under 1 second which is alot harder than sending away the raven missle mutalisk because they are not stacked so it will probably become very useless once zergs get mouse precision and reaction speed like jaedong (will take a while lol)
My fave moment was when NTT went Raven/Rine/Tank vs Slayer who played excellently. When the Z got out the Broodlords he cloned the SMs on them to see the BLs disappear in a mist of red. <3
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On September 13 2010 01:31 seRapH wrote:Show nested quote +On September 13 2010 01:24 Cofo wrote: I'm glad you called it "Seeker Missile", and not "Hunter Seeker Missile." A lot of people seemed to have missed the memo that the name was changed.
Keep up the god work! but the acronym is so much cooler! also less... inappropriate... i mean, would you rather call it HSM or.... SM? FIRER THE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!!
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Brat_ok used them to chase away Demuslims mass banshee's which was hillarious.
Ty for the info Liquidpedia!
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Wow thank you Liquipedia staff impressive and very detailed article, looking forward to see more of them 
About the Seeker missile, yes it it underused, but anyway I feel that atm a lot of caster units are underused.
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I wonder how effective HSM would be against a hatch saturated with larvae - it may be an unlikely situation, but it feels like it would devastating to get target a dozen+ larva for the zerg that was stockpiling his larva after maxing out supply.
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...you can Neural Parasite a Mothership - any recalled Larvae will crawl back to the nearest Hatchery?
That's definitely my favorite random fact from above.
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Would be badass to neural parasite a mothership lol
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On September 13 2010 02:33 MorroW wrote: vs zerg i dont know, maybe can be good im not sure. we see jaedong split irrodate muta under 1 second which is alot harder than sending away the raven missle mutalisk because they are not stacked so it will probably become very useless once zergs get mouse precision and reaction speed like jaedong (will take a while lol)
watch the BratOK vs Mondragon on HD's channel, its great play with the ravens. (its ofc TvZ). Also, when irrodate was used in SC1 it told you which one of your mutas is the target, I don't think the hunter missile shows the enemy which of the flock you targeted, so its not so easy to pick out and run from. (personally though I would just split my ball in 3 groups while running away and work on eliminating the targeted unit of the group its following from there.)
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what happens if you load the targeted unit into a transport? or SCV into a command center?
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This is some awesome information, really useful as a T who has been struggling against muta/bling destroying my MM balls. It will be good to nullify/reduce the threat of mutas!
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On September 13 2010 06:00 Steelflight-Rx wrote: This is some awesome information, really useful as a T who has been struggling against muta/bling destroying my MM balls. It will be good to nullify/reduce the threat of mutas!
Nullify mutas with a SM? Hahahaha. Split, half that doesn't have a SM following kills the raven, the other gets halved again until the targeted unit can be selected individually and sent to escape. Not hard after a bit of practice.
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tis good for taking out the carpet of banelings if the T doesn't suspect it or isn't paying attention.
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On September 13 2010 06:24 deL wrote: tis good for taking out the carpet of banelings if the T doesn't suspect it or isn't paying attention.
Oh really? TvZ Zerg get's hunter seeker missile vs. the Terran banelings? good to note.
I have been using HSM more and more but upgrading it sucks. It's pretty good if you have like 5 ravens.
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I was hoping no one would see this for a while but one way to stop mass muta is missle seeker. Just rapes =[
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Hi. Can you guys test something for me?
If terran shoots a seeker missle and the protoss uses the black hole thing, will the seeker missle go into the black hole?
if so I can see some pwnage 8D
Terran shoots seeker at an zealot. Mothership uses black hole and runs zealot into it. Everybody warps back in and boom!
oh, if this is a new idea. We are nameing it after me, xxSK8rGUy277xx
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Interesting read. I think it's odd how often they were used at the start of the beta and now we rarely ever see them. Also, "revolutionize the Terran metagame" ...
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Ahhh one of my fav spells. If I ever go on a rut i just play FFA and take 3-4 bases on 0 army and than just mass ravens. 2 bases can support 3 starport ravens, but more bases never hurt. The best part is you're nearly unstoppable once you have your raven flock out. The only things is have seen stop this are spread out BCs, or 1 ghost >.<
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Great article all around! I especially enjoyed the "Did you know" tidbits at the end, e.g. larvae crawling back, that sure is funny Liquipedia rocks, I use it all the time. Thanks!
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Can broodlords outrun the missile? you didnt include them but i know they're pretty darn slow
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can missile your own units to make targetting easier, wasnt mentioned in the OP ;P
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Excellent exposition! Does the list mean that BCs can actually outrun a HSM?
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On September 13 2010 05:45 bL1Nd wrote:Show nested quote +On September 13 2010 02:33 MorroW wrote: vs zerg i dont know, maybe can be good im not sure. we see jaedong split irrodate muta under 1 second which is alot harder than sending away the raven missle mutalisk because they are not stacked so it will probably become very useless once zergs get mouse precision and reaction speed like jaedong (will take a while lol) watch the BratOK vs Mondragon on HD's channel, its great play with the ravens. (its ofc TvZ). Also, when irrodate was used in SC1 it told you which one of your mutas is the target, I don't think the hunter missile shows the enemy which of the flock you targeted, so its not so easy to pick out and run from. (personally though I would just split my ball in 3 groups while running away and work on eliminating the targeted unit of the group its following from there.) stacked mutas it dont tell which muta it is. thats why the zergs have to split all of them or 1 by 1 unti lthey find which one, takes a brutal amount of apm to do this, and each fucking 0.5 sec u lose more and more hp
the raven missle shows a nice clean orange line between the missle and the target also units are not stacked like mutas were in sc1 thats why its alot ALOT easier to dodge the missiles and thats also why i dont think its gonna be super effective vs zergs. vs stacked broodlords sure, or throw some at corruptors and then come in with vikings to kill broodlords. but then again pure viking also beats that
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Did you know... that SCVs with auto-repair, who happen to be close together upon impact, can survive more than 2 consecutive Fungal Growths (I believe at least 4) after infestor drop? 
Also... "for the lulz" drop a PDD over an enemy Missile Turret. ^_^ Unfortunately the PDD is a bit weak to make this a perpetuum mobile (though with supporting SCV repair from both sides lasts longer).
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OMG HUNTER SEEKERS CAN BE UPGRADED?
FML.
Never knew that.
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Netherlands6142 Posts
On September 13 2010 07:35 xxSK8rGUy277xx wrote: Hi. Can you guys test something for me?
If terran shoots a seeker missle and the protoss uses the black hole thing, will the seeker missle go into the black hole?
if so I can see some pwnage 8D
Terran shoots seeker at an zealot. Mothership uses black hole and runs zealot into it. Everybody warps back in and boom!
oh, if this is a new idea. We are nameing it after me, xxSK8rGUy277xx
lol, please test this for us and add it! If you need a +1 to help out hit me up on irc.
I LOVE ESCIENCE
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On September 13 2010 07:35 xxSK8rGUy277xx wrote: Hi. Can you guys test something for me?
If terran shoots a seeker missle and the protoss uses the black hole thing, will the seeker missle go into the black hole?
if so I can see some pwnage 8D
Terran shoots seeker at an zealot. Mothership uses black hole and runs zealot into it. Everybody warps back in and boom!
oh, if this is a new idea. We are nameing it after me, xxSK8rGUy277xx I would imagine the missle would just blow up as soon as the zealot went into the vortex.
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Is it my lack of sleep or is this news missing a link to the actual wiki article? Of course, it isn't hard to find it, but when you do a major news about a new entry, a link to this seems pretty abvious.
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Hungary11291 Posts
On September 13 2010 17:55 otacon wrote: Is it my lack of sleep or is this news missing a link to the actual wiki article? Of course, it isn't hard to find it, but when you do a major news about a new entry, a link to this seems pretty abvious. I think you're right, I added a prominent link. Thanks!
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Stacked mutas die to this shit.
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The only use for it i see is stacked muta. And even that is too risky.
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I think the Seeker Missle blows, maybe only good vs mutalisk or something. The viking is still a better choice, but time will prove what the experts will eventually use.
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Chile16 Posts
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On September 13 2010 20:28 Cheerio wrote: The only use for it i see is stacked muta. And even that is too risky.
Nah, HSM does big damage to Hydras and Zerglings as well.
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I tried ravens a lot (mostly for fun). But seeker missiles are soo strong when used correctly.
I realized that mass ravens somewhat hard counter mass void rays. Plenty of times i've annihilated a void ray army in 1-2 seconds with mass seeker missiles.
I know mass void rays arent used on progame scene, but as I see it, this spell is far too rare on the progame scene. Big potential :D
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One of those days 5 years from now a T will target 10 missiles onto 3 perfectly split ravens and fly 10 range into vikings, demolishing all opponents viking ball and take the biggest korean league win, mark my words.
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Calgary25980 Posts
Whoa, I feel like I just got a knowledge injection. Thanks LP!
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I feel seeker missile will only be good against Zerg and maybe Terran bio balls or mass Viking, but not against Protoss. Just my two cents. I feel this spell lacks depth.
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what happens to a missile if the target dies first?
hmm... eraser...
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't seeker missiles also faster than Brood Lords? They're a pretty sizable unit that wouldn't typically be stacked that much, not sure how comprehensive that list was supposed to be.
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On September 13 2010 01:59 MorroW wrote:
on top of it the cast range is so small that u practically have to suicide the unit if u wanna shoot out one of these missiles
i love this spell so much tho That's why I don't find myself ever using it 200 gas to damage some units, well, it really needs to be worth it I suppose.
The did you know section was awesome !!
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HD just did an epic replay of a ZvT where the T went for a raven heavy build. Ultimately, the zerg was outmacroing the terran like crazy, 5 bases to 3, and later still lost. That seems really imba, but to be fair the terran was down the entire game but because of heavy use of turrets/ seeker missiles he was able to stay in this game and win it. Eventually he did one epic marauder push to take out the two remaining hatcheries and won.
I'm sorry but they blizzard needs to do something about this lol.
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On September 14 2010 05:48 Zvendetta wrote: HD just did an epic replay of a ZvT where the T went for a raven heavy build. Ultimately, the zerg was outmacroing the terran like crazy, 5 bases to 3, and later still lost. That seems really imba, but to be fair the terran was down the entire game but because of heavy use of turrets/ seeker missiles he was able to stay in this game and win it. Eventually he did one epic marauder push to take out the two remaining hatcheries and won.
I'm sorry but they blizzard needs to do something about this lol.
yeah. That was Brat_OK vs. Mondragon. Mon was up 3 bases for the majority of the game but theres very little zerg can do vs. that army. It's pretty much a sure loss for zerg even +2 bases.
Still, both did play well even though brat_ok was just using a joke build.
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Would it not be a good idea to include the non uppgraded duration of the Seeker Missile?
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that thing is powerful if you use it correctly, few out there can use it right. excluding tvz in one of my games as a tvt it dragged to mid game because we both were viking + tank and running off 1 expo. i lost the game because he seeker missiled my viking cluster during a critical battle. since then ive learned if you see a raven target that immediately.
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I didn't even know seeker missiles could hit ground LOL
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Time to go cruising through town picking up girls with those Did you know...?s. ^^
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On September 14 2010 05:48 Zvendetta wrote: HD just did an epic replay of a ZvT where the T went for a raven heavy build. Ultimately, the zerg was outmacroing the terran like crazy, 5 bases to 3, and later still lost. That seems really imba, but to be fair the terran was down the entire game but because of heavy use of turrets/ seeker missiles he was able to stay in this game and win it. Eventually he did one epic marauder push to take out the two remaining hatcheries and won.
I'm sorry but they blizzard needs to do something about this lol.
Just as soon as they do 'something' to infestors and HT. They can do the same thing.
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Netherlands6142 Posts
On September 14 2010 05:25 Arckan wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't seeker missiles also faster than Brood Lords? They're a pretty sizable unit that wouldn't typically be stacked that much, not sure how comprehensive that list was supposed to be.
On September 14 2010 08:39 SuperGnu wrote: Would it not be a good idea to include the non uppgraded duration of the Seeker Missile?
Obviously we left those things out to lure you guys into editing ~.~
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Should add to the article that a single seeker missile will kill all the larva at a hatch, meaning you can cut off the reinforcements they will receive at a base when you attack it. While two will kill an egg, meaning you can kill any units he makes after he spends the money on them and lose only energy yourself.
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On September 14 2010 08:31 Nu11 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 14 2010 05:48 Zvendetta wrote: HD just did an epic replay of a ZvT where the T went for a raven heavy build. Ultimately, the zerg was outmacroing the terran like crazy, 5 bases to 3, and later still lost. That seems really imba, but to be fair the terran was down the entire game but because of heavy use of turrets/ seeker missiles he was able to stay in this game and win it. Eventually he did one epic marauder push to take out the two remaining hatcheries and won.
I'm sorry but they blizzard needs to do something about this lol. yeah. That was Brat_OK vs. Mondragon. Mon was up 3 bases for the majority of the game but theres very little zerg can do vs. that army. It's pretty much a sure loss for zerg even +2 bases. Still, both did play well even though brat_ok was just using a joke build.
I watched that game, and I think Mondragon threw it away. He needed to throw away some of the drones he had because they were severely limiting what he could do. Also, seeing his opponent's tech choices he should have transitioned into muta broodlord or corruptor brood lord when he got the initial brood lords. That would have kept those lords alive and there was nothing T could have done at that point.
Ultimately I think Mondragon's mistakes were what cost him that game and BratOK was able to capitalize on that.
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On September 13 2010 01:17 ZidaneTribal wrote: i guess seeker missile can also rape interceptors
i don't think u can target interceptors.
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I would personally like to play more around with the missile for defensive usage. Much like a defensive nuke. Launching 2-3 HSM's will most likely force the opponents army to retreat for the duration of the missile, unless he is really good at isolating the target quickly.
This could be pretty useful against at least Zerg, with their huge fragile armies, but probably work well against P also.
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