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[D] are nukes cost-effective

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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lastmotion
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
368 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-12 20:52:17
December 12 2010 20:50 GMT
#1
I feel like Nukes are very cost effective, especially in TvP, and should be used a lot more often. Think about it:

Every TvP I play, if Protoss player goes either Storm or Colossus if it gets to mid-late game. If he goes Storm, I get EMP for sure, and thus, I'm forced to build Ghost Academy anyway, as well as 1 or 2 ghosts. The only thing I invest in, is the 100/100 Build Nuke cost. I would probably go for the cloak upgrade 200/200 as well, because it makes EMP + Nuke so much easier. Total Cost 300/300.

Lets assume he didn't get Storm, and went for a Colossus army instead. In that case, it's debatable. EMP would help regardless, but many good Terran players I talked to, there isn't a general consensus if P goes Colossus. Some yes, some no. As for myself, I like to get EMP either way because I always have an abundance of gas since I go strictly MMM. Viking support does cost gas, yes, but I feel like 2 base gas is still sufficient. And his colossus-heavy army still suffers a lot from getting EMP'd.

Additionally, if you can do a drop + nuke at the same time, it can cause a lot of players to panic and only pay attention to one of those things. I actually went nuke-heavy against my friend, and did a simutaenous dual-nuke, where he panicked and only thought 1 nuke was launched and did a lot of damage.

I guess it all comes to multi-tasking too. Some players might be too "busy" to do a drop nuke. On the plus side, it will give you an excuse if you lose :D. And Terran's humiliation strategy is much more cost efficient and actually recommended compared to Protoss/Zerg's humiliation strat (mothership win, etc.)



[image loading]
Ahhh..thats the stuff...


EDIT: grammar error in topic title...can someone change that lol
batmankiller
Profile Joined December 2010
13 Posts
December 12 2010 20:55 GMT
#2
Yeah, it tends to pay dividends when used in pro games. It can be surprisingly effective all game - even if you are only nuking pylons or preventing an army from defending whilst you kill an expansion.
Sotamursu
Profile Joined June 2010
Finland612 Posts
December 12 2010 21:11 GMT
#3
I think jungle basin is a really good map for nukes. Especially when you start fighting in the middle after both players have their 3rd up. You can use nukes to force him to move away and deny his third. If he engages, you can try to nuke his army. The backdoors offer really good possibilites for distractions while nuking.
.Aar
Profile Joined September 2010
2177 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-12 21:14:46
December 12 2010 21:12 GMT
#4
I would recommend you look up that FE into double nuke build I saw floating around the Strategy forums a while ago. 2 Nukes destroy Warpgates if they're close enough to the point of impact and can basically end the game if they positioned their WGs poorly (which is often because Nukes aren't used too much).

And yes, nukes are amazing and should be used more often. Constantly, even. Either they force pumped Observers, which overall weakens the Protoss army by taking up Robo time and gas, or they just win.
now run into the setting sun, and suffer, but don't mess up your hair.
lastmotion
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
368 Posts
December 12 2010 21:17 GMT
#5
On December 13 2010 06:12 .Aar wrote:
I would recommend you look up that FE into double nuke build I saw floating around the Strategy forums a while ago. 2 Nukes destroy Warpgates if they're close enough to the point of impact and can basically end the game if they positioned their WGs poorly (which is often because Nukes aren't used too much).

And yes, nukes are amazing and should be used more often. Constantly, even. Either they force pumped Observers, which overall weakens the Protoss army by taking up Robo time and gas, or they just win.


I'll look into that build

That's a reallly really good point about how pumping Obs take up Robo time/gas
slith
Profile Joined October 2010
Germany165 Posts
December 12 2010 21:25 GMT
#6
MMMGN, making the MMM more explosive, about time.
When in doubt, empty your magazine.
Tsabo
Profile Joined September 2010
Russian Federation266 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-12 21:40:41
December 12 2010 21:40 GMT
#7
Nukes can be realy strong against a waek/avarage Protoss. But realy strong players will be able to handle your nukes and you will be loosing ghosts+nukes without doing much or any damage.
jacobman
Profile Joined December 2010
217 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-12 21:52:06
December 12 2010 21:51 GMT
#8
I really don't think nukes are cost effective. The only things they kill are little things like, addons, supply depots, pylons, spinecrawers, ect. If you can find those things clumped up together, and you think you can land the nuke, it's worth it. Otherwise it is extremely risky. If you're aiming at units there is a huge risk that the units will move or that your ghost will be spotted and killed. That's a lot of wasted resources if that happens.

In general, nukes need to do more damage or have a larger damage radius to ever see real use. It's just too hard for them to kill anything right now.
noD
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
2230 Posts
December 12 2010 21:52 GMT
#9
they are pretty damn efective, the problem is making them hit ...
BuuGhost
Profile Joined December 2010
Netherlands340 Posts
December 12 2010 21:57 GMT
#10
They take too long to land,

20seconds + cloak research and the time to keep cloak lasting,
I find them only cost effective if multiple are dropped on either pylons probe lines or just everywhere at once,

Try getting ghosts and 5 nuke silos up before the enemy crushes you tough.
"Kinda like this thing but there’s something you should know, I just came to say hello."
exleos
Profile Joined September 2010
United States55 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-12 22:05:19
December 12 2010 22:04 GMT
#11
Heresy (hes was(?) in top 200 on NA) uses a FE into dual nuke (with 2 ghosts) on clumped warp gates. You can find the thread here, and hes got a youtube compilation of some nukes (search Heresy TvP)

From my gold level experience, it can wreck if they clumped them, but otherwise, is rather useless.
"I can't build there" TRY HARDER DAMMIT
niteReloaded
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Croatia5281 Posts
December 12 2010 22:06 GMT
#12
Nuke is likely the best way of robbing your opponent of the 3rd resource in Starcraft - attention.
Severedevil
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4839 Posts
December 12 2010 22:35 GMT
#13
For 100/100, nukes are definitely worthwhile if you're already getting ghosts. They're very distracting, and can be used for great positional plays. (Also, there's nothing more obnoxious than dropping a nuke in some unoccupied corner and freaking the opponent out for the ENTIRE period of time until the nuke lands.)

However, sacrificing 250/250 (and researching cloak) to nuke a mineral line that's just going to get evacuated before the nuke lands? Rarely worthwhile. You'd do better just to drop the ghost and have it kill workers with its basic attack.
My strategy is to fork people.
Antisocialmunky
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States5912 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-12 22:38:45
December 12 2010 22:37 GMT
#14
Nuke is only cost effective if you keep making nukes to amortize the cost of ghost tech. Eventually you will land one and get a Korean nickname if you did it in the GSL.

The problem is staying alive sinking that many resources into failed nukes until you get one that does something that pays for all of the duds in one go.
[゚n゚] SSSSssssssSSsss ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Marine/Raven Guide:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=163605
Kudo
Profile Joined December 2009
United States31 Posts
December 13 2010 04:46 GMT
#15
On December 13 2010 06:57 BuuGhost wrote:
They take too long to land,

20seconds + cloak research and the time to keep cloak lasting,
I find them only cost effective if multiple are dropped on either pylons probe lines or just everywhere at once,

Try getting ghosts and 5 nuke silos up before the enemy crushes you tough.

Guess you didn't play bw? they took FOREVER to drop. They aren't so bad now.
Conrose
Profile Joined October 2010
437 Posts
December 13 2010 04:55 GMT
#16
Opening a 4v4 With a double nuke drop is hilarious. Someone will always over-react with detection buildings.
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10343 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-13 05:27:41
December 13 2010 05:08 GMT
#17
Haha yes please fix the grammer error xD

I do agree, nukes are very cost efficient! I'm a bit surprised that ghosts+nukes are so underused (well may be only nukes in higher level of play, i assume many higher players go MMM G or such) especially how much better the ghost tech path tree is compared to SC1!

plus they're very fun to use :D I do agree with you, compared to P/Z this is a relatively cheap, effective way to humiliate/OWN your opponent

Edit: For those of you that may not realize... 1 nuke, forcing a player to pull off workers for 1 base (more realistically, it would be at least 2 bases since he probably won't be able to find the dot) for at LEAST 10 in-game seconds, with many people pulling off workers shortly after the nuke alarm goes off due to panic/fear, will cost them about 136 minerals and 38 gas (considering they were able to pull off all their workers at the same time). But of course, this will probably be the best conditions the victim would have (know where the nuke is, and have only a few extra seconds leeway from having workers die in a nuke). So especially for the not extremely high levels of play, if a player moves their workers from an average of 2 bases an average of 25 seconds (since they panic or don't know exactly how long it takes for a nuke to hit, and since they want to pull off their workers further away just in case), that's 680 minerals and 194 gas.

Geez, is that a lot or what? xD
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Soulish
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada1403 Posts
December 13 2010 05:20 GMT
#18
you can aim it at a corner of a nexus and they wont be able to see the dot.

Just something you might wanna try
me all in, he drone drone drone, me win
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10343 Posts
December 13 2010 05:26 GMT
#19
Really? Thanks.

Also, aren't they fixing that in 1.2 though? lol
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
DougJDempsey
Profile Joined April 2010
747 Posts
December 13 2010 05:34 GMT
#20
On December 13 2010 13:46 Kudo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 13 2010 06:57 BuuGhost wrote:
They take too long to land,

20seconds + cloak research and the time to keep cloak lasting,
I find them only cost effective if multiple are dropped on either pylons probe lines or just everywhere at once,

Try getting ghosts and 5 nuke silos up before the enemy crushes you tough.

Guess you didn't play bw? they took FOREVER to drop. They aren't so bad now.

They were also far more powerful, cost food and more resources. Cant be compared.
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