Ground Vikings - Page 6

On September 23 2012 00:48 Piousflea wrote:
With all the attention on Tanks and Hellions and Firebattlehellions, you'd think that people would think about one of the other Terran units that has been around for a long time - Ground Vikings.

Ground Vikings are weak. REALLY weak. They weren't always so bad. IIRC at one point in WoL Beta they had 1 Armor and 14 damage and could compete toe-to-toe vs stalkers and hydralisks. Thing is, a usable Ground Viking would actually fill a lot of the holes in HotS Mech.

What do I mean by usable? I think it would be a viable unit with just two changes:
- Vikings may use either Mech or Air upgrades, whichever is highest. (this is the big one)
- Attack changed from 12 damage to 7x2 damage. This is only a 17% buff against normal units, and not a buff against high-Armor units, but is a 40% buff vs immortal shields.

Why would a usable Ground Viking fit well with Mech play?
1) You'll have a starport anyways, now that medivacs heal your firebattlehellions.

2) Vikings cover the main weakness of mech which is Air.

3) Vikings are amazingly supply-efficient. At 150/75/2 they have a 112.5:1 cost:supply ratio which is higher than anything except spellcasters and Banelings (150:1). HotS mech uses a lot of hellions (50:1) and widow mines (50:1) so you really need a supply-efficient unit to make up the difference.

4) Vikings are surprisingly good against Archons. Throw a ball of ground vikings into a ball of archons in Unit Tester. The viking's fast attack busts through shields while its bulky size and Mechanical nature makes the archon's attack highly ineffective.

With these changes, Ground Vikings would still be fairly weak and not a unit you'd really want to mass, but you could sprinkle a few into that mid-range crescent in between your hellions and tanks. They would do wonders against Archon and Immortal shields, while making you much less nervous about an air switch.

I'm not the first person to think of something similar:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6606901403
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6606432476
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6572270602

On September 23 2012 15:54 Big J wrote:


Just a small correction to the OP:
Ground Vikings do actually beat speed/range hydralisks in the even supply battle - at least in the 16 vs 16 battle I did twice right now (creep to simulate the speed).

And well, I think there could be some small corrections done to ground viking, but to be honest, there are other units that need a lot of love first, before anyone should consider changing a unit that is being heavily used in nearly every TvT, ZvT and PvT.

On September 23 2012 17:50 Dephy wrote:

grounded viking cost 150-75 cant hit air, moves 2.25. Its one of most cost inefficent units in the game. It doesnt mean anything, that it can beat hidra who cost less per food and now actually in hots got speed buff, can burrow and hit air.

On September 23 2012 15:54 Big J wrote:


Just a small correction to the OP:
Ground Vikings do actually beat speed/range hydralisks in the even supply battle - at least in the 16 vs 16 battle I did twice right now (creep to simulate the speed).

And well, I think there could be some small corrections done to ground viking, but to be honest, there are other units that need a lot of love first, before anyone should consider changing a unit that is being heavily used in nearly every TvT, ZvT and PvT.

On September 23 2012 21:04 Rassy wrote:
Hmm viking on asault mode definatly is one of the worst ground units around i have to agree.
Think their dps is not the main isue though, its pretty decent with 12 and not that bad against immortals with only 2 damage wasted against the shield.
Biggest problem i find with landing vikings is that they almost die instantly,landing vikings turns out to be a bad idea 99% of the times you try it.not sure why lol.
Their hp is a bit low for their cost, only 125 hp and they count as armourded.
This is not so much a problem against zerg but against toss with immortal and to a lesser extend stalker its quiet a disadvantage.
To make them viable on ground they should get more hp in my opinnion and maybe change them to non armoured in ground version.

On September 23 2012 23:13 MoonCricket wrote:
I've mentioned it several times before, but giving Viking Assault Mode a greater role in Mech in order to defend vs Chargelots would be preferable to Battle Hellions as things are. Just letting Viking Assault Mode benefit from Vehicle Upgrades is already a step in the right direction, but they could do the same thing with Assault Mode as they did with Battle Hellion Mode and just give the Assault Mode a +50% HP buff.