[A] Starbow - Page 441

A) Unique roles for all units - less overlapping.
B) Increased viability of all units in all matchups
C) More reactionarybased micro rather than "1-second micro".
D) More real battles instead of "runaway"-stuff.
E) Overall, more action and multitasking.

I suggest we remove the slow-thing from Shock and instead increase range to 10 (or so). This will make it a lot better against immobile targets like Siege Tanks and Reavers and less good vs Dragoons/Stalkers.
It will also add more remicro as the slow-thing kinda makes it impossible for otherwise mobile units to retreat.

I also suggest we add a second ability - otherwise Shock will just be mass spammed as there is no opportunity cost. I suggest we experiment with the Railgun-straight line attack as I think Dirtybag brought up. At a cost of 75 energy, I imagine a ghost could activate the Railgun and he would fire a straight-line attack (that goes through all targets) at a range of 8 (or so). Ghost cannot move while using the Railgun.

To nerf Stalker/Dragoon kiting vs bio, I suggest we give Medis stim again, but make it drain 0 HP from the Medi.

Sentinel atm. is useless vs zerg, but I think two new changes can help that.
1) Give it an avoidable Phase Missile that works like Seeker Missile. Perhaps it could be slightly harder to avoid than the HOTS version though. This will make it much better vs Queens.
2) Hydras are indirectly nerfed due to Stalker buff --> Zergs mixes in more Roaches vs protoss --> Sentinels better vs zerg.

Nullsphres range is bugged atm and could use some work (it goes off sometimes when 8range goliaths shoots at it, even though it only has 5 range. Also there may be a problem with its splash damage.

Alternatively, I suggest we increase activation range of Nullsphre from 5 to 8. But it takes 2 seconds for the Nullsphre before it fires the shot. During those 2 seconds it "reveals" it self in the same way as a Widow Mine does. Thus, while it is still cloacked, you can see it "uncloak" before it fires the shot.

This adds two new types of micro; 1) You can kill it before it fires the shot with range 5 units. 2) You have time to micro away the unit that is in the front of your army (as that is the likely target of the nullsphre).

I like that Viper has an anti-mech spell in Abduct, but I don't like the design of it for two reasons;
1) It adds no remicro for opposing player.
2) It is too much about dragging the opponent down before the battle occurs (which is kinda boring), rather than incentivizing real battles (which is fun).

I suggest we make the following changes to Abduct;

- Abduct range increased from 9 to 11.
- The abduct-process is slowed down a lot. I expect that it should take roughly 2 seconds for the Viper to move the unit away. During this proces, the Viper cannot move.
- The abduct-thing is targetable. It has 10 HP, but you need to manually target it.

This will make it worse in prebattes, as you then easily can kill the abduct thing (since nothing else is going on typically). However during battles it will become much much more challenging to kill it.

Breed also need a buff.

As discussed previously, the Viking is such a difficult unit to get correct. It seems like it will always just be bad for gameplay or just overlap quite a bit with Goliath/SV's.

Along with Dirty, I tought of a new suggestion where we A) Clean up the game (less overlapping units), B) Add something that has the potential to be awesome. Here it is;

- Remove Viking
- Give Goliath an air transformation (Viking mode)
- When Goliath is in flying mode (Viking mode), it has a weak AA. 6 range, moving shot, 14 damage vs light, 8 vs armored/medium (or so).
- Possibly also make Goliath produceable from Starport. However, when it is produced out of the Starport, it comes in the flying (Viking) mode.
- When Goliath is flying it has movement speed of 3
- Transformation proces takes 4 seconds.

Atm. you can't really do a whole lot with Goliaths. You have to play defensive with them and keep them with your main army. However, the ability to fly around with Goliaths, assist dropships or simply harass the opponent a bit, could add a new level to the game. On the Viking, the transformation thing is mostly just a gimmick, since the Viking isn't very good in ground mode. However, the Goliath is better on the ground mode and thus landing it (rather than having it in the air) will be the standard play.

Besides leading to more fun gameplay, this (if it works as intended) also cleans up the game as it removes a unit that doesn't really have any unique role atm (the Viking).

I think its better if the Defiler gets anti-spell block instead of the Devourer. This should be a single-target mechanic that blocks/remove Irradiate/other spells. To kill Guardians + Defilers, you will likely need a combo of air-Goliaths and ground-Goliaths

Problem with the Scout (and Devourer) is that I can't really think of any way to give it (them) any other purpose than AA vs armored. It can't be a spellcaster as Sentinels are the early "cheap spellcaster" and Arbiters are the "expensive spellcaster". IMO there is no real middleway for a Scout here. Further, it is very easy to make the Scouts spells OP since it is so mobile. Basically, I really believe it would be benefical for the cleanness of the mod to find a way to remove it while still giving protoss an answer vs tier 3 air units.

One potential solution may be to remove it and make the Arbiter the counter to anti-air armored?

E.g. what about an Ability where the Arbilter goes into AA-air mode. This mode costs 100 energy to access and lasts for 30 seconds.
When activated, it gains an 8 range AA attack with 25 damage + 10 vs Armored

Let's do the simple thing here and remove it. It doesn't work with BW econ and will probably always overlap with Lurker + lings.