• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:30
CEST 13:30
KST 20:30
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview8
Community News
MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon135.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes18Weekly Cups (June 22-28): Zergs thrive in new patch2[TLMC] Summer 2026 Ladder Map Rotation05.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)98
StarCraft 2
General
MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon Is the larve respawn broken? ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play 5.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! INu's Battles#17 <BO.9> Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 532 Nuclear Family Mutation # 531 Experimental Artillery Mutation # 530 One For All
Brood War
General
ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool ProGamer Paychecks Story BW General Discussion Best thing happen to StarCraft since Remastered? Data needed
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Grand Finals The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL22] GosuLeague Casts - Tue & Thu 22:00 CEST
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration?
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
[94721]Better Good-Health Signs Than 3-15 Bans/Yea TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Men's Fashion Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
How to clean a TTe Thermaltake keyboard? Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Listen To The Coaches!
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3444 users

Math on Widow Mines -- How STLife Dodged the Shots - Page 3

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 11 12 13 Next All
Morton
Profile Joined July 2012
United States152 Posts
March 19 2013 17:40 GMT
#41
wow, really cool job with the math.

personally the easy solution to this is to enable hold fire and target firing commands to the widow mines.

To most "normal" ladder players, both sides control will be such that widowmines will do decent amounts of damage, without target firing.

But when it is Life vs Flash, both players have the control to both punish un-targeted mines, and to target them correctly.

Adding target firing would simply add effectiveness to the unit for those with great micro.
Clazziquai10
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Singapore1949 Posts
March 19 2013 17:42 GMT
#42
Not bad son, your thread that you made with only your third post got spotlighted

Great research btw!
Manch1ld
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada27 Posts
March 19 2013 17:46 GMT
#43
On March 20 2013 02:29 Ryndika wrote:
Does the mine take closest target or random target in range?

The mine takes the first target to enter the range. If the target exits the range before the mine fires, it will then reacquire another target. If more than one target is in range, it will acquire the closest target within range.
Natalya
Profile Joined December 2011
Belgium287 Posts
March 19 2013 17:48 GMT
#44
In terms of gameplay, this roughly translate by the following rules

- Dont place mines on creep unless the Z is using roaches or unless you lead with a sacrificial little pack of marines that will bait the whole ling army and hold position on top of mines (so that everything dies)

- if you want to place mines alone on the field (as opposed to use them with your bio), you should not place a mine on its own but create a field with mines within 3-4 range of each others (so that there is no safe path to run trough it without triggering anything)

- finally the best use of widow mines offensively seems to burrow them just in front of your bio with a good split from your part (so they're guaranteed to trigger to a good pack of lings because one ling would die to your bio before the mine actually firing)
AnachronisticAnarchy
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States2957 Posts
March 19 2013 17:49 GMT
#45
Now that's some cool information.
"How are you?" "I am fine, because it is not normal to scream in pain."
Kontys
Profile Joined October 2011
Finland659 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-19 17:56:23
March 19 2013 17:52 GMT
#46
Good job! If the assumptions are accurate, the implications seem stunning.
DavoS
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
United States4605 Posts
March 19 2013 17:57 GMT
#47
Awesome research, can't wait to try it out myself! Thank you very much
"KDA is actually the most useless stat in the game" Aui_2000
Prplppleatr
Profile Joined May 2011
United States1518 Posts
March 19 2013 17:58 GMT
#48
On March 20 2013 00:09 Ahli wrote:
I made an Example image with Speedlings on creep not activating mine.

The ling in the south enters the range first, but leaves it. This allows the rest of the speedlings to directly travel over the mine.

Here is Ahli's example, with explanation...ty ahli for example pic

[image loading]
http://i.imgur.com/BIZ18Vi.jpg
🥇 Prediction Contest - Mess with the best, die like the rest.
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33643 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-19 18:07:20
March 19 2013 18:01 GMT
#49
in non-math : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=403618&currentpage=3#49

On March 18 2013 14:15 MorroW wrote:
how widow mine works
they lock onto a target. first one who enter within 5 range OR best unit (which is basically the closest unit to the widow mine)
once they lock into a target it begins channeling for 1.5 seconds (ingame)

if the unit leaves the 5 range, dies or player manually switches target during the channeling period - the widow mine repeats the process


so this is why mines sometimes dont attack, sometimes kill terran and sometimes kill zerg
so lets say you run in with zerglings against marines and a widow mine. the widow mine locks onto the first zergling who enters.
if the zergling dies to marines, it changes target and has to wait another 1.5 sek, if that ling dies to marines it changes target etc. so it appears not to be attacking at all.
if the zergling runs past the widow mine, behind the marines for example it switches target as well (the target has to be within 5 range the entire lockdown process)

as terran
so in a fight, you basically as terran ideally want to switch targets between the zerglings until the banelings enter range and then you target the bane and let the mines be.
second option is to stay with the marines, burst down as many lings as you can, and hopefully (and probably) you will kill all zerglings which were targetted automatically by the widow mines before they finish channeling and then banelings enter and you target the mines onto the banes

as zerg
as a zerg player, you know that your first zerglings will be targetted, so use your frontal line in move command behind the terran army and attack with the rest of your zerglings normally. if you do this just right (and terran doesnt) the mines will all fire on your lings that are behind his bio army and kill everything he got


widow mines appear random at the first glance of it. but the more you play around with them the more you realize how much you (as terran or zerg) can manipulate them and make them do exactly what you want them to. its not a user friendly unit at all because of how it can completely backfire using widow mines where as a siege tank you know will do a certain amount of damage. things like this is really beautiful and what is making bw a very different game from sc2. in bw there were tons of "OP" units that crushed your opponent or did close to nothing or killed yourself where as in sc2 its much more predictable whats expected of a unit because the complexity of it its not very deep

i think the widow mines are slightly too strong right now. but if your a zerg reading this i hope it helped abit how to make the widow mines turn against the terran instead of raping everything you got
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
atarianimo
Profile Joined June 2007
United States82 Posts
March 19 2013 18:07 GMT
#50
On March 20 2013 02:58 Prplppleatr wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2013 00:09 Ahli wrote:
I made an Example image with Speedlings on creep not activating mine.

The ling in the south enters the range first, but leaves it. This allows the rest of the speedlings to directly travel over the mine.

Here is Ahli's example, with explanation...ty ahli for example pic

[image loading]
http://i.imgur.com/BIZ18Vi.jpg


Should note that the Terran can counter this trick by manually targeting the larger pack of zerglings.
tili
Profile Joined July 2012
United States1332 Posts
March 19 2013 18:11 GMT
#51
This significantly increases the skill-cap of counter-mine control. Excellent (albeit, I don't think I'd be able to pull it off regularly)


+ Show Spoiler +
Record for spotlighted thread with smallest OP post-count?
Rainling
Profile Joined June 2011
United States456 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-19 18:24:38
March 19 2013 18:14 GMT
#52
Nice analysis! Having an exact equation is helpful. It might be worth mentioning in the OP that you have to right click, not a left click, different units to change targets with a widow mine. I think a lot of terrans don't realize that yet.

Edit: Please, please, please Blizzard don't change the mine mechanics. They make the unit harder to use, but they allow for so much micro potential, which makes widow mines much more interesting to watch and play with and against. If the widow mine is deemed too weak because of this, just buff the damage of the widow mine or something.

It's possible to countermicro versus this kind of ling positioning, for example by retargeting other zerglings than the one that initially entered the widow mine radius. This does not make the widow mines useless, it just adds the ability to micro against them and countermicro that micro, and so on.
Swords
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
6038 Posts
March 19 2013 18:29 GMT
#53
This is a great post. I hope as the game develops we see lots of interesting mine related micro to take advantage of it's AI.
nidhogg11
Profile Joined September 2012
Romania24 Posts
March 19 2013 18:32 GMT
#54
Widow mines - the reavers of SC2: they blow up your mineral line and in battle are quite unpredictable. Maybe we should start calling them reaver mines.

Yes, I know this post proves they're totally predictable, but when watching Life vs Flash they totally felt like reavers.
ZjiublingZ
Profile Joined September 2011
United Arab Emirates439 Posts
March 19 2013 18:34 GMT
#55
Curious what this means for Terran micro. Conc Shell (halfs the units speed!) Marauder micro? Walls to stop units from running past the mines? Or just closer positioned mines?
Ender2701
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States581 Posts
March 19 2013 18:38 GMT
#56
Really love stuff like this. It's these things that made BW so awesome sometimes.
Ender2701
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States581 Posts
March 19 2013 18:38 GMT
#57
On March 20 2013 03:32 nidhogg11 wrote:
Widow mines - the reavers of SC2: they blow up your mineral line and in battle are quite unpredictable. Maybe we should start calling them reaver mines.

Yes, I know this post proves they're totally predictable, but when watching Life vs Flash they totally felt like reavers.


Reavers were also deterministic Kinda same deal
GoodSirTets
Profile Joined June 2012
Canada200 Posts
March 19 2013 18:39 GMT
#58
I'm so glad that that's how it worked. I watched life vs flash and thought the whole thing boiled down to luck.
High Diamond/ Low Masters :^)
Vindicare605
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
United States16124 Posts
March 19 2013 18:44 GMT
#59
On March 20 2013 03:07 atarianimo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2013 02:58 Prplppleatr wrote:
On March 20 2013 00:09 Ahli wrote:
I made an Example image with Speedlings on creep not activating mine.

The ling in the south enters the range first, but leaves it. This allows the rest of the speedlings to directly travel over the mine.

Here is Ahli's example, with explanation...ty ahli for example pic

[image loading]
http://i.imgur.com/BIZ18Vi.jpg


Should note that the Terran can counter this trick by manually targeting the larger pack of zerglings.


You can't manually target anything with Widow Mines. Their attack is automatic and there's nothing you can do as a Terran player to alter what it fires at other than unburrowing the mine to reset its lock on protocol.

Personally I think this mechanic is beautiful and exactly the sort of thing this game needs.

Widow Mines just like Spider Mines are units with great potential but the fact they are automated machines makes them a liability if the opponent is good enough, that raises the skill cap of other races playing against Terrans but it also means that higher echelons of play Terrans have to figure out other tactics and strategies to use if their Widow Mines are not going to be as effective.
aka: KTVindicare the Geeky Bartender
TheDwf
Profile Joined November 2011
France19747 Posts
March 19 2013 18:47 GMT
#60
On March 20 2013 03:44 Vindicare605 wrote:
You can't manually target anything with Widow Mines. Their attack is automatic and there's nothing you can do as a Terran player to alter what it fires at other than unburrowing the mine to reset its lock on protocol.

Yes you can, during the 1.5 second window after the time bomb triggers you can focus something else within the Mine's range; the time bomb will reset and the Mine will shoot if the new target is still in range.
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 11 12 13 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
KungFu Cup 2026 Week 13
IntoTheiNu 685
WardiTV321
RotterdaM311
TKL 97
SteadfastSC57
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko314
RotterdaM 311
Ryung 212
elazer 172
SHIN 144
ProTech103
TKL 97
SteadfastSC 57
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 27142
Horang2 1428
Hyuk 714
Zeus 468
Shuttle 443
Soulkey 302
BeSt 223
Soma 183
Hyun 177
Light 163
[ Show more ]
EffOrt 158
Last 131
ggaemo 121
Pusan 99
Rush 93
Dewaltoss 82
ToSsGirL 71
hero 70
ZerO 64
Killer 61
Snow 61
Mind 37
scan(afreeca) 36
Free 34
Shine 33
Barracks 32
Aegong 27
sorry 26
Noble 21
Icarus 19
[sc1f]eonzerg 17
Sacsri 14
Bale 14
IntoTheRainbow 13
Purpose 7
Dota 2
Dendi458
XaKoH 297
Fuzer 90
LuMiX0
League of Legends
JimRising 401
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1752
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King87
Westballz28
Other Games
singsing763
shoxiejesuss558
B2W.Neo498
crisheroes306
Happy280
Pyrionflax170
BEARDiaguz32
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick713
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream186
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 29
lovetv 11
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 82
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos2572
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
12h 30m
CrankTV Team League
23h 30m
Bombastic Starleague
1d 8h
The PondCast
1d 22h
HomeStory Cup
1d 23h
Replay Cast
2 days
HomeStory Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
HomeStory Cup
3 days
OSC
4 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

YSL S3
Douyu Cup 2026
Murky Cup 2026

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
SCTL 2026 Spring
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026

Upcoming

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
ASL Season 22:Wild Card Qualifier
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Heroes Pulsing #3
Eternal Conflict S2 E1
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.