My random idea for new Oracle ability to replace entomb I thought of while in the shower:
Name: Dimensional Warp (or something like that) Energy: 75-100
Two options for targeting: 1) can be an AOE attack underneath the Oracle with a rather small radius, or 2) single target ability
Description: Warps a unit into a void dimension for x seconds (proportional to targeted unit supply?). Cannot attack/use abilities (like mine) in the primary dimension. Can be used on friendly units to allow them to attack enemy units in the void dimension.
Warped units can still be seen but are put under a purplish hue
Replaces mothership vortex ability
Too OP? Sorry not 100% sure on the numbers. I was thinking an AOE attack might be good to use on workers but could be too OP for CC'ing engagements; which is why I stuck in the line about the duration being proportional to the unit's supply. Perhaps a damage over time effect in the warped state which would kill a worker in one hit. Targeting onto friendly units adds skill/micro by allowing one to control which units engage which.
On October 18 2012 13:15 RifleCow wrote: I would like it if the oracle were to remove detection from buildings for a short period of time.
Also, something that would be crazy but might be interesting to try out would be a spell that you cast onto a unit such that all damage done to that unit becomes splash damage in a certain radius around the target.
With these two changes the oracle becomes the super utility unit that is pretty much useless by itself but when combined with other things becomes incredibly powerful. For instance an oracle + dt harass would mean the shutting down of turrets and spore colonies so your dts would be much better. Or oracle + pheonix harass could have the spell cast on overlords or mutas making the pheonix able to psi harass as well as take care of mutas. Bad idea, good idea?
I like both of those ideas... very unique and helps open up late game options (and is non-deathball) when every base has tons of defense. The anti detection thing sounds like a weaker version of disruption web, which is fairly appropriate. The splash option would need a lot of testing and tweaking, but should be doable. It allows opening oracle an option, and not a complete risk.
Why not just give Oracle a delayed explosion ability? You target an area of the ground and 1-2 seconds later it blows up (kinda in the same spirit as HSM or the original version of the widow mine).
Pros: high damage possible to workers, but can be defended by quick reflexes Cons: not good enough in high level games?
...or, honestly, forget about the Oracle for now. Focus on making other Protoss units more interesting (an improved Carrier might be more interesting than the Tempest, and replacing the Collosus or another a-move unit might be good as well), then after making these drastic changes, see what Protoss is missing and make the Oracle fill the gap
Am I the only one that feels a bit lost on how you are supposed to make the oracle pose a constant threat while it has only energy based attacks? I mean, it is harmless for like two minutes once out of energy. Feels like thats the first thing they should look into.
On October 19 2012 07:44 Fenris420 wrote: Am I the only one that feels a bit lost on how you are supposed to make the Infestor pose a constant threat while it has only energy based attacks? I mean, it is harmless for like two minutes once out of energy.
I don't think being energy-limited is a problem as long as you can do a great deal of burst harass with the energy.
On October 19 2012 07:44 Fenris420 wrote: Am I the only one that feels a bit lost on how you are supposed to make the oracle pose a constant threat while it has only energy based attacks? I mean, it is harmless for like two minutes once out of energy. Feels like thats the first thing they should look into.
More than that is the effectiveness of direct combat/harassing spells that early in the game - if all the Oracle requires is Core and Stargate. A spell that has direct combat utility coupled with Gateway units at that point in the game may be problematic in the form of direct attacks. The same may also apply if the spells have direct support utility. Gateway units with 2 combat support units in the form of Sentry and Oracle could be deadly. Although, I suppose, making the spell energy intensive may be one way around these concerns. That and making the spell have some sort of set up giving adequate response time.
It all feels overly complicated, IMO. Personally, I'd rather they shelve the Oracle for the nonce and buff SG tech,
I'd like to see an aura, centered around the Oracle similar to guardian shield (though smaller), that simply does damage to ground and air within the radius. Nothing complicated, you turn it on and for a little while the Oracle is a flying little ball of pain. I'd also rather see it be reasonable damage and 25 energy, than crazy high damage and 75 or 100 energy.
The Oracle would still be super low hp, and the radius would be low. So it'd be of no use whatsoever in a deathball, and really of limited use in a straight up fight against any unit able to return fire--a single queen or a few marines could kill it easily. At the same time, it could be very dangerous if flown over a mineral line (and its not like the workers can really escape since the Oracle is faster). it could hunt overlords and medivacs. If the energy cost was low, it could remain a consistent threat.
It would fulfill Blizard's goal of a primarily harass unit that doesn't add to the deathball. It would threaten consistently, and in a much more serious way than entomb. It would help against roach and marauder all-ins that skimp on anti-air, and give Toss an AOE option prior to T3, albeit one that would require tactical cleverness to use in an engagement without losing the Oracle almost immediately.
On October 19 2012 07:44 Fenris420 wrote: Am I the only one that feels a bit lost on how you are supposed to make the Infestor pose a constant threat while it has only energy based attacks? I mean, it is harmless for like two minutes once out of energy.
I don't think being energy-limited is a problem as long as you can do a great deal of burst harass with the energy.
I guess you are right, but then does that mean that the oracle does its intended role when it isn't attacking? I can't put my finger on it but there is something about the whole reasoning that doesn't make sense to me. Maybe im overanalyzing.
Prison Spell Single target spell. Disables unit inside which auto-attacks prison. Prison has 80 hit-points and one armour (e.g. workers suck at getting out). Other units can attack it too requiring micro. In big engagements it isn't really useful, but in small engagements opponents may have limited DPS options to kill quickly.
Channel Entomb Spell Target a mineral patch. Opponent cannot mine while entombed. Oracle mines as if it were 3 probes. Not economically useful as Oracle costs more than a probe, but combined with mineral theft works out ok.
Blinding Spell Target a unit, which goes blind and Oracle gains the units vision which also gains detection. Good for disabling detection for DT harass. Opponent can micro your new detector away in battles.
Single Unit Recall Recalls a single friendly unit to the Oracle. In small skirmishes can be used to save dying units. Can be used for some harassment.
I have a small suggestion. Kind like a taint ability. It would target a small number of units that would look like enemies to other friendlies (without losing control). Without proper micro, your own units would also attack those (giving them higher priority to force action on the enemy rather than keep on a-moving), yet with good target-firing and control, the penalty would be greatly diminished without actually making it free.
It would be pretty cool on something like a broodlord ball accompanied with either infesters or corruptors. In the first case, the infesters would get tainted and broodlings would attack them unless redirecting them to the enemy lines or taking them out to an area where no friendlies can attack rewarding positioning. In the second one, tainting broodlords would cause idle corruptors to attack broods unless moved away or targeting them to something else. Another example would be a line of minerals covered with static defense. Just taint the workers and SD does the rest.
You can play with energy, area and distance of casting to balance it and it serves both the army (but not in large numbers) and harassing.
Death Aura I like awesomoecalypse's idea of having the oracle itself have an aura that damages anything it touches. What an elegant solution to the problem... forces the oracle to remain solo, keeps it out of the deathball, but gives it real harass potential that requires micro. Bravo!
Destroy Mineral Patches It would also be cool if Oracles could destroy mineral patches. Currently, all the economic harass is focused on the workers. But imagine being able to destroy the minerals at a natural or a third before the enemy can expand there. It would be devastating and it would add an interesting dimension to the game.
On October 19 2012 08:44 awesomoecalypse wrote: I'd like to see an aura, centered around the Oracle similar to guardian shield (though smaller), that simply does damage to ground and air within the radius. Nothing complicated, you turn it on and for a little while the Oracle is a flying little ball of pain. I'd also rather see it be reasonable damage and 25 energy, than crazy high damage and 75 or 100 energy.
The Oracle would still be super low hp, and the radius would be low. So it'd be of no use whatsoever in a deathball, and really of limited use in a straight up fight against any unit able to return fire--a single queen or a few marines could kill it easily. At the same time, it could be very dangerous if flown over a mineral line (and its not like the workers can really escape since the Oracle is faster). it could hunt overlords and medivacs. If the energy cost was low, it could remain a consistent threat.
It would fulfill Blizard's goal of a primarily harass unit that doesn't add to the deathball. It would threaten consistently, and in a much more serious way than entomb. It would help against roach and marauder all-ins that skimp on anti-air, and give Toss an AOE option prior to T3, albeit one that would require tactical cleverness to use in an engagement without losing the Oracle almost immediately.
really nice idea. you could also make it do damage vs friendly units too so it definetly cant be used in a deathball since it would hurt your own units too.
it would also be a nice space control unit for protoss since you could use that spell also defensively vs lingrunbys or marinedrops.
you could combine this spell with the alpha spell that let the oracle shut down static defense since otherwise 1 turret/spore/cannon would completely deny harrass which would be lame.
whats nice about this idea is that you would have to actively micro the oracle towards workers. so if the opponent pulls his worker you would have to actively micro the oracle over the worker and since it is an AoE field it would force splitting micro on the worker from the opponent.
if you give the oracle both spells it probably would have to be a bit slower since the opponent couldnt do anything to prevent the harrass which also shouldnt be the case.
On October 19 2012 08:44 awesomoecalypse wrote: I'd like to see an aura, centered around the Oracle similar to guardian shield (though smaller), that simply does damage to ground and air within the radius. Nothing complicated, you turn it on and for a little while the Oracle is a flying little ball of pain. I'd also rather see it be reasonable damage and 25 energy, than crazy high damage and 75 or 100 energy.
The Oracle would still be super low hp, and the radius would be low. So it'd be of no use whatsoever in a deathball, and really of limited use in a straight up fight against any unit able to return fire--a single queen or a few marines could kill it easily. At the same time, it could be very dangerous if flown over a mineral line (and its not like the workers can really escape since the Oracle is faster). it could hunt overlords and medivacs. If the energy cost was low, it could remain a consistent threat.
It would fulfill Blizard's goal of a primarily harass unit that doesn't add to the deathball. It would threaten consistently, and in a much more serious way than entomb. It would help against roach and marauder all-ins that skimp on anti-air, and give Toss an AOE option prior to T3, albeit one that would require tactical cleverness to use in an engagement without losing the Oracle almost immediately.
I still think phase shield was a step in the right direction.
Perhaps a cross between guardian-shield and phase shield would be interesting on the oracle. It could prevent spell effects within it instead of granting armour. Kill the oracle, your EMPs work again. Because it's so fast, it could easily be moved where the shield was needed.
Oracle "latches" down on a mineral patch. It ticks every second for 3 seconds, consuming 10 mineral every second for up to 3 seconds.
When "latched" on mineral patch, it has a 30 energy shield and no hp. When shield is gone it is forced to "unlatch"
When oracle "unlatches" it deals 75 damage ( no idea about this number ) in an area of effect based on number of ticks it gathered. If it unlatches after 3 seconds it deals a large aoe, if it unlatches right after it got to mineral patch it has a very low aoe.
Why I think this is a good idea: - if opponent doesn't react in time ( remove workers from mineral line ) it can deal the full aoe damage thus doing lots of damage.
-if opponent sees it but has no defense he can remove workers.
-Oracle user can choose to unlatch immediately to do instant damage to a small area ( for example killing only the worker closest to mineral patch.
- this spell in conjuction with sentry drop and ff use can trap workers doing massive damage
- if opponent has army to defend he can reduce aoe.
- This spell can be used offensively on army as long as it is close to a patch.
You can defend your own mineral line by latching there in advance and "unlatching" when zergling are in your mineral line for example.
This might be a stupid idea, anyways just giving my 2 cents!
On October 19 2012 08:44 awesomoecalypse wrote: I'd like to see an aura, centered around the Oracle similar to guardian shield (though smaller), that simply does damage to ground and air within the radius. Nothing complicated, you turn it on and for a little while the Oracle is a flying little ball of pain. I'd also rather see it be reasonable damage and 25 energy, than crazy high damage and 75 or 100 energy.
The Oracle would still be super low hp, and the radius would be low. So it'd be of no use whatsoever in a deathball, and really of limited use in a straight up fight against any unit able to return fire--a single queen or a few marines could kill it easily. At the same time, it could be very dangerous if flown over a mineral line (and its not like the workers can really escape since the Oracle is faster). it could hunt overlords and medivacs. If the energy cost was low, it could remain a consistent threat.
It would fulfill Blizard's goal of a primarily harass unit that doesn't add to the deathball. It would threaten consistently, and in a much more serious way than entomb. It would help against roach and marauder all-ins that skimp on anti-air, and give Toss an AOE option prior to T3, albeit one that would require tactical cleverness to use in an engagement without losing the Oracle almost immediately.
EPT
Sorry not 100% sure on the numbers. I was thinking an AOE attack might be good to use on workers but could be too OP for CC'ing engagements; which is why I stuck in the line about the duration being proportional to the unit's supply. Perhaps a damage over time effect in the warped state which would kill a worker in one hit. Targeting onto friendly units adds skill/micro by allowing one to control which units engage which.
(second post in the thread).
