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[D] Hi sec Auto Tracking with mech

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
mousez
Profile Joined March 2011
Australia94 Posts
September 03 2012 00:08 GMT
#1
Hi, I want to discuss the Hi Sec Auto Tracking upgrade for use with mech in all three match ups. I am a high master player and have been using it and been finding good uses for it in all of the three match ups.

It is more viable with mech rather than bio because:
-engineering bay not used
-less mobile

First, lets look at what the upgrade is:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Hi-Sec_Auto_Tracking\
100gas 100minerals 80s build time Hotkey: H
Researched from: Engineering Bay
Increases the attack range of Missile Turrets, Auto-Turrets, Point Defense Drones, and Planetary Fortresses by 1.

So the upgrade of range of these things by one seems insignificant, and with the upgrade being so uncommon, why should anyone get it? I think that the fact that it is uncommon makes it even more powerful. The small investment reaps massive benefits throughout an entire game and I research this quite early in my games.

Now overall, i think of it like this: If this upgrade gets me one more muta kill, one medivac kill or one warp prism/observer kill, then it has payed for itself. And it almost always does due to players not being used to the range and pushing their boundaries. It has use through from the mid to the late game.

So lets discuss the three match ups and its uses:
TvT:
+ Show Spoiler +
-Tank vs Tank battles, easily wards away vikings when turrets are put near tanks
-Less turrets needed to cover against banshees
-less turrets needed to cover against medivacs
-protects behind mineral lines with planetary, allows it to reach (valid in all three)
-point defence drone reaches more vikings missiles
-As said above: Can get extra kills as players not use to turrets reaching so far
-strong late game to set up turrets to defend areas with mass tanks


TvP:
+ Show Spoiler +
Probably the least beneficial but still has its uses
-Turrets can often score colossus kills if they come too close (much more common than you think)
-Can kill observers more easily
-Less turrets needed to defend against warp prisms/voidray/pheonix


TvZ
+ Show Spoiler +
-Most obviously, defends against mutas very well, often gets you extra kills
-good for late game against broodlord/corrupter and once again can get shots off on broodlords if they are not careful
-useful against overlord drops


Other benefits present in all three match ups
+ Show Spoiler +
-Range on PDD
-range on Auto turrets
-range on PF
Helpful to raven, a common unit in mech compositions



So I believe that when playing mech, this upgrade is extremely powerful as it allows better defence against drops and harassment, which can be a big issue when playing as the immobility that is mech. I have not played a game in which this upgrade has not payed for itself.

So why don't people get this upgrade more often? It's price is reasonably cheap when going mech as you often go up to three bases quickly and it is very strong. Also, the engineering bay is not used, so you are not taking time away from other upgrades.

In conclusion, get this upgrade!
gday
NoisyNinja
Profile Joined February 2011
United States991 Posts
September 03 2012 06:20 GMT
#2
I get this upgrade all the time in tvt. Its a great way to discourage drops, especially doomdrops.
ThePlayer33
Profile Joined October 2011
Australia2378 Posts
September 03 2012 07:17 GMT
#3
i think building armour is better for TvZ because it makes PFs much stronger before ultras, and armour on turrets seem to be better vs mutas, but high numbers of muta (~20+) range may be better. then again if zerg makes 20 mutas vs mech, thor will be the main force here
| Idra | YuGiOh | Leenock | Coca |
aRyuujin
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States5049 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-03 07:26:05
September 03 2012 07:25 GMT
#4
I actually don't see why people get a lot of the building upgrades going mech.
One Ebay upgrading isn't that expensive, and in your slow pushes it helps a ton
edit: especially for defending small attacks, I like it with PFs (not sure if the building armor is better in that case though)
can i get my estro logo back pls
mousez
Profile Joined March 2011
Australia94 Posts
September 03 2012 08:12 GMT
#5
While building armour is good, the range means that units cant sneak behind planetary and pick off units! Although, both upgrades are definitely viable
gday
zhurai
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States5660 Posts
September 03 2012 08:15 GMT
#6
On September 03 2012 17:12 mousez wrote:
While building armour is good, the range means that units cant sneak behind planetary and pick off units! Although, both upgrades are definitely viable

or you could just get both.
Twitter: @zhurai | Site: http://zhurai.com
mousez
Profile Joined March 2011
Australia94 Posts
September 03 2012 08:32 GMT
#7
On September 03 2012 17:15 zhurai wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 03 2012 17:12 mousez wrote:
While building armour is good, the range means that units cant sneak behind planetary and pick off units! Although, both upgrades are definitely viable

or you could just get both.

I am not saying that you cant, I was just arguing that range is more effective (and cheaper).
gday
Elldar
Profile Joined July 2010
Sweden287 Posts
September 03 2012 08:43 GMT
#8
On September 03 2012 17:12 mousez wrote:
While building armour is good, the range means that units cant sneak behind planetary and pick off units! Although, both upgrades are definitely viable


In tvz the raid unit mainly lings can't benefit from the range, only roaches can use that but, roaches isn't the greatest raid unit overall either since it cost too much and can rarely poke in do damage and retreat. The benefit of having stronger defenses is more beneficial in this matchup.
However the building armor cost much more and that might cut into too much to what you are doing but overall, building armor helps better against lings and muta so I would go that first, besides it can't never be bad getting both tvz if the zerg goes for mutas.

Qikz
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United Kingdom12022 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-03 09:10:17
September 03 2012 09:10 GMT
#9
As a meching player I get both in all matchups since they're so useful. Turrets in TvT are especially useful later game when it gets to sky terran vs sky terran to get some nice extra damage on BCs and also vikings. In TvZ the range helps as you can have better positioned turrets which cover a larger area, but then armor is really helpful for turrets and PFs due to runbys and stuff so it's essential too. In TvP mech isn't exactly standard (me and a few others on the forum here play it), but turrets with range and armor really help if they try and go air toss against you, they're also useful to have to spot DTs and Observers as I've lost countless games to DTs just camping my factories.

So yeah, they're pretty damn good upgrades for mech.
FanTaSy's #1 Fan | STPL Caster/Organiser | SKT BEST KT | https://twitch.tv/stpl
rebotfc
Profile Joined March 2011
United Kingdom144 Posts
September 03 2012 09:50 GMT
#10
I always get both when Sky Terran. The Range upgrade researches quickly, and usually gets a couple of obs at least. The armour upgrade means you can repair your PFs much more easily and they can tank damage from many stalkers.
padfoota
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Taiwan1571 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-03 10:31:04
September 03 2012 10:30 GMT
#11
I tend to get this one if Im going mech, and on hard to defend maps I definetely get the building armor too...+1 range is huge when it comes to turrets and PFs - theres so many ways to get behind the mineral line and completely out of range from the PF without the upgrade.

Since the Eng bay isnt doing jack shit if I have resources from bad macro I just get them super early lol (my mech sucks ass)
Stop procrastinating
althaz
Profile Joined May 2010
Australia1001 Posts
September 03 2012 11:08 GMT
#12
I ALWAYS get it in TvT when I'm meching (which I usually do), it's an amazing upgrade. In TvP and TvZ it is useful if you mech, but definitely not as essential.
The first rule we don't talk about race conditions. of race conditions is
Absentia
Profile Joined March 2011
United Kingdom973 Posts
September 03 2012 23:35 GMT
#13
The building armour and range upgrades are both good to get - especially in lategame scenarios when it's going to be a lot harder to defend outer bases. You're always going to have an engineering bay so there's no reason not to get them both eventually. They're never a priority for me though unless I really feel I'm going to be stretched at some point in the near future. I tend to go for building armour first over range primarily to feel safer using PFs as static defense.

I dunno...doesn't really feel there's much to discuss.
They're good. You should get them. They're not a priority.
sour_eraser
Profile Joined March 2011
Canada932 Posts
September 03 2012 23:47 GMT
#14
I dont use both of them because I tend to forget these exist when I play lol. But for lategame, I think it is a good investment, maybe for mid game though.
"What's the f*cking point of censoring a letter if everyone and their mother knows what it stands for.... F*cking morons"
alpenrahm
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Germany628 Posts
September 04 2012 13:01 GMT
#15
Auto turrets with armor and range are beastly! i really like going for standart marine tank in TvZ and spend my lategame overgas on a big raven fleet. So as soon as i hit 3-3 bio i get range, armor, corvid, hsm and start putting down turret fields in zergs main and expos. the interesting thing here is that not only the turrets easily outrange every zerg ground unit, they also beat every zerg ground unit except for the ultra and highly upgraded roaches in a one on one. Auto turrets are also unaffected by fungal. so if you are up against a standart ling infestor broodlord comp, well place auto turrets (placed in a way that only a few rets can be attacked by the lings) trade super efficient. The range up helps out greatly here because the turret is immobile and if you dont get the range there will be fights where the back row of your turrets will not be firing when the front is engaged.

Also auto turrets rushes work great coupled with a double dropship with some tank marine. The idea is that you build a full wall of turrets around your drop and siege up. the nice thing about this is that the entire drop can be queued up.

pick ravens and dropships, queue unload, queue pdd, queue mass turrets --- then siege up as soon as your drop lands. this literally takes 3 seconds to do and requires quite a big reaction from zerg far exceeding your attention cost.
Generalul
Profile Joined March 2011
Romania114 Posts
September 04 2012 13:22 GMT
#16
I always get this upgrade in TvT and TvZ, not that usefull in TvP, only if i am on 3 bases ++ and with a great bank, then yeah, is good for the planetary to defend better against zelot stranglers. As the OP pointed out, the benefits in the other matchups greatly outweight the costs, as it effects a wide range of terran units. In TvT it could make the difference in having a full enemy medivac landed in your base or it being burned in the air and it makes the turrets even more annoying for mutas.
www.comanda-caricaturi.ro
MistSC2
Profile Joined February 2012
Sweden583 Posts
September 04 2012 13:56 GMT
#17
you can add that it kills motherships that are trying to recall into your main against mech in TvP!
Maru, TY, Clem <3
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