EPTOracle Update from Dayvie (10/17) - Page 7
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osiris17
United States165 Posts
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SnareSpectre
United States25 Posts
It's not very different from anything else, in fact it's very similar to Abduct. The only similarity it shares with abduct is that it moves enemy units from one place to another. Abduct would never be used for harass because it costs too much energy to only hit one unit. The Oracle would have to be directly over the units it plans on relocating, and the teleporting would have to take place within a certain time frame to keep it somewhat balanced. Abduct is a long-range projectile, so you can pull things from outside of harm's way...the Oracle has to be directly on top of units, so it can't just render groups of marines useless without dying. If there was still the threat of overlap, you could just make it not be able to move massive units. | ||
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sona
Canada52 Posts
1. Use it to harass mineral lines (eraser technique or individual target) 2. Use it with the army to get rid of important targets like HT/Ghost/Infestors 3. Fight units that clump up (Vikings, broodlords, phoenixes) This will give a reason to build oracles for the WHOLE game. Another spell that could be added is recharge - charge the shields of nearby units or buildings like a sheild battery from sc1. | ||
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Seinken
United States40 Posts
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gedatsu
1286 Posts
On October 21 2012 03:41 SnareSpectre wrote: The only similarity it shares with abduct is that it moves enemy units from one place to another. Abduct would never be used for harass because it costs too much energy to only hit one unit. The Oracle would have to be directly over the units it plans on relocating, and the teleporting would have to take place within a certain time frame to keep it somewhat balanced. Abduct is a long-range projectile, so you can pull things from outside of harm's way...the Oracle has to be directly on top of units, so it can't just render groups of marines useless without dying. If there was still the threat of overlap, you could just make it not be able to move massive units. Yeah and the only similarity that Brood Lord shares with Guardian from BW is that they're both slow flying zerg units with long range that are created by mutating another zerg flying units. Very different from each other. You can abduct your own banelings into the enemy's mineral line. You said something about never using it for harass? | ||
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Leviance
Germany4079 Posts
On October 21 2012 04:14 Seinken wrote: Change entomb to be single target, indefinite duration, can target either workers or minerals. Entomb will grant vision as long as it isn't destroyed. Entomb does .5hp/sec DoT to workers. Entomb has the same attack priority as other attacking units (use against bitbybit to suck up marine/mara shots). Reduce Entomb cost to 15-25 energy. Why not make it a spell thats castable on minerals, workers OR ANY OTHER UNIT. Would have many different uses that way and if you can't harrass with it anymore you can use it in a fight to lock down a tank or whatever. Second, I wouldn't mind a detection ability: When you activate it, the Oracle becomes a detector until you run out of energy or deactivate it. | ||
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xPrimuSx
92 Posts
On October 20 2012 23:22 GoldenH wrote: I find it hilarious that, even though oracles weren't doing any damage, they were considered overpowered by blizzard because they pinned the enemy army in their base That's the issue with a unit that only does harass and has no combat potential, it needs to be really good at its job, which the Oracle is. Entomb (as of its latest iteration) is a really strong harass (easy, effective, requires a disproportionately strong response from the opposing player), which it needs to be since the Oracle doesn't support army (outside of a few cute tricks). If it was weaker at harassing and didn't support the Protoss army, then it would be pointless to construct it, making the Oracle (as currently designed) a difficult thing to balance and led to its removal. I'm just gonna throw out some ideas I've had about Oracle abilities. Void Siphon (my own idea) A single target ability that targets structures. The target structure has its "power" shutdown. During this time if the Oracle remains within a leash range, it will regain energy at a rate of 1% of the target's health per second (this deals no damage to the structure, but it always could if it makes the Oracle more effective). Using it on defensive structures will never result in the Oracle recovering the energy it used up, but you can if you use it on something sturdier. Void Shroud A small AOE ability, all units and structures (structures can be removed based on balanced) that are caught in the ability (except the Oracle) are treated as cloaked with respect to both players and vice versa (if either player wants to interact with affected units, they need a detector), and units affected by Void Shroud lose their detection for the duration of the ability. Chrono Shell A small AOE that only affects your own units. All affected units receive a 50% increase in attack (or in the case of workers, mining) rate and movement speed. Units that regenerate receive a 2x bonus to their regeneration rate (Zerg regen, Protoss shield regen, energy regen), and Protoss units also get the out of combat regen wait cut down to 5 seconds out of combat rather than 10. + Show Spoiler [Special Interactions] + Units with abilties that take place over time - These kinds of abilities have their time to complete cut down in half. Ex. Strike Cannons will take 5 sec to perform (1s set-up:3s attack:1s exit) rather than 10 seconds (2:6:2) Abilities that last a set time on an affected unit - These kinds of abilities have their time cut in half. Ex. Fungal Growth will only last 2 seconds on an affect target instead of 4, but it's damage will remain the same. Timed life units - Affected units with timed life will have their timers cut in half for the duration of the ability. Ex. A hallucination will only last 30s instead of 60s. Warp Beacon ver. 1 The Oracle drops a warp beacon at a location (a temporary structure with health/shields that can be destroyed) and the next time this ability is used the Oracle and all nearby friendly units are warped back to the location of the warp beacon. Warp Beacon ver. 2 The Oracle attaches a warp beacon to the target. At the cost of a warpgate cooldown (sets a cooldown equivalent to a HT on the warpgate used) a unit with a beacon can be warped back to anywhere with an active power field (1 unit per warpgate). Prophecy A small AOE that only targets friendly units, all affected ranged units have their range temporarily increased by 2. Units with melee attacks receive no benefit. Foretell A single target ability that works on structures, this lets the Oracle set the rally point for the affected structure. All units that are produced out of the structure while it is affected will grant vision to the Protoss. | ||
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wcr.4fun
Belgium686 Posts
On October 21 2012 03:59 sona wrote: Giving oracle an irradiate spell (SV from sc1) would be epic and could give rise to interesting tactics. But call it ionize 1. Use it to harass mineral lines (eraser technique or individual target) 2. Use it with the army to get rid of important targets like HT/Ghost/Infestors 3. Fight units that clump up (Vikings, broodlords, phoenixes) This will give a reason to build oracles for the WHOLE game. Another spell that could be added is recharge - charge the shields of nearby units or buildings like a sheild battery from sc1. we're not allowed fun things. | ||
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SnareSpectre
United States25 Posts
On October 21 2012 05:27 gedatsu wrote: Yeah and the only similarity that Brood Lord shares with Guardian from BW is that they're both slow flying zerg units with long range that are created by mutating another zerg flying units. Very different from each other. You can abduct your own banelings into the enemy's mineral line. You said something about never using it for harass? I'm not concerned with similarities of units from an entirely different game, only the game at hand. Who cares if there is a similarity between a Brood Lord and a Guardian? And yes, you can abduct banelings into the opponent's mineral line, but saying that is a viable harass option is almost like saying you can use infestors to NP an SCV, then the SCV can tech up to medivacs and marines for harass. It's a round-about way of doing things that would never be effective in an actual game. Why use so much energy on a hive-tech unit to get banelings into someone's mineral line when you can just drop them 4 at a time from an overlord at lair tech? If you disagree with the idea, I'm cool with it, but there's really no reason to troll. | ||
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Th30nE
United States44 Posts
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Alex1Sun
494 Posts
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sona
Canada52 Posts
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Seinken
United States40 Posts
On October 21 2012 09:46 Leviance wrote: Why not make it a spell thats castable on minerals, workers OR ANY OTHER UNIT. Would have many different uses that way and if you can't harrass with it anymore you can use it in a fight to lock down a tank or whatever. Second, I wouldn't mind a detection ability: When you activate it, the Oracle becomes a detector until you run out of energy or deactivate it. If it can be castable on any unit it kind of allows a massing of pure oracle, at least with the changes I proposed. Those are the kinds of things you'd find out through playtesting though | ||
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Paper117
United States210 Posts
1. Tribute. Spends X energy to start the ability. Either drains energy until cancelled/ empty or has a set duration. I don't know which would be better. The oracle opens up a small portal inside itself, connected to the supply lines of the army. While the spell is active, the oracle can target workers carrying a resource and steal it from them in addition to doing a small amount of damage to the workers from forcefully removing their cargo. The attack has a short range and a slight delay before the resource is stolen. You can't just shift click a bunch of workers, b/c you probably won't be able to predict exactly which one will be carrying a resource at the moment it reaches the queue. If the target becomes invalid, the whole queue would cancel. You would need to pay attention to which workers you can steal from. Works on gas and minerals. Fulfills 1) Something that makes use of the fast movement speed of the Oracle It'snot using the speed too much, but the speed would help in getting into the mineral field and out. . 2) Serves as a constant threat to the enemy base until the enemy destroys the Oracle. Allows the oracle to do economic damage, in a way other than just killing workers. You're both gaining resources for yourself and denying the enemy of his resources. It's not just lost mining time, those are resources he can't get back. You would also be damaging the workers with each hit, so repetitive attacks can start taking out the workers. 3) Greater difference between amazing use of the Oracle vs. an average use. Because the oracle can only steal from workers with resources, the player would need to target only workers returning their cargo, while also accounting for the slight delay after the attack is started and the resource is stolen. Though the window is short, there may be lots of windows opening and closing all the time in a saturated field. With good timing and the appropriate attention, a good player can steal a lot more than a poor one. 4) Is more spectator friendly. Spectators can watch a player concentrate on catching as many workers as possible. Because it would require so much concentration, they can watch the really good players steal large amounts in their limited time frame, while simultaneously keeping up whatever else they need to take care of. Also, b/c it's such an involved harass, it gives the player plenty of opportunity to get distracted and miss something else on the map. They can also watch the attacking player's money start going up faster, while the defender's starts slowing down. Concerns: I don't know if the oracle should steal the full amount, or only a portion of the resources. The attack speed of the ability might be difficult to balance. Either it's way too fast, stealing a large amount of resources, or too slow to risk the oracle. I don't think it's especially great for spectators. It might be, but I'm not sure. Maybe it should need to return to a nexus to deposit the loot. 2. Chain of Fate. For either a smallish flat cost per cast or a larger cost to enable multiple uses, the oracle targets nearby light ground units with a spell, encasing them in a ball similar to Entombed minerals. The ball is then linked to the oracle by means of some kind of energy "rope." Multiple targets can be captured, linking them to the last unit captured. Once chained to the units, when the oracle moves, the captured units get dragged with it. However, the oracle will be slower while dragging. Possibly even slower with each unit captured. (Possible addition: a weak DOT on chained units. You can kill the units just by dragging them long enough). The chain is broken when the bubbles are attacked and destroyed. Maybe only the unit in that specific bubble and the units further down the chain will be released. Maybe everything. The chain is broken when the oracle is destroyed. The chain is broken if the captured units die. If there is a channeling energy cost, the chain is broken when out of energy. If there is a maximum duration, the chain is broken when the timer ends. Victims can only be dragged along the ground through areas they could normally path. You cannot drag units through buildings or up/ down cliffs. They will get stuck on whatever obscures them. The "rope" has a maximum stretch distance between links. If the oracle tries to stretch the "ropes" beyond that point, the chain will be broken. If any link in the chain gets caught on something and stretches too far, the whole chain breaks. There should probably be a maximum amount of links in the chain. Fulfills 1) Something that makes use of the fast movement speed of the Oracle The oracle's speed, although slower, will allow it to run around with its captives, avoiding the units that will inevitably try to get their shit back and also trying to navigate through the enemy base while dragging victims. The high speed will also help the oracle reach the mineral lines, as the spell has a very short casting range. . 2) Serves as a constant threat to the enemy base until the enemy destroys the Oracle. At any given moment, the oracle can swoop in and capture units. If units are captured, the defending player would need to chase the oracle around his base, if he wants his units back. If the base is open or unattended, the units may be dragged out and into the clutches of the rest of the army. 3) Greater difference between amazing use of the Oracle vs. an average use. Lower skilled players may only be able to snag 2-3 units, b/c they would be unable to properly drag larger amounts without getting caught on something. Higher skilled players may sustain larger chains, in addition to dodging whatever resistance there is. At high levels, good simcity might make dragging difficult, but that just offers another opportunity for good draggers to show their skill. The amount captured can also be a factor, if the player is too greedy or too reserved, he might not use the ability to the best of his ability or just be punished. 4) Is more spectator friendly. Who wouldn't want to watch things get snatched up and dragged to their deaths? Also, navigating simcity while trying to keep the chain from getting snagged and also dodging whatever attacks might be coming could possibly be really entertaining if done properly. Concerns: The biggest concern was the units applicable. The "light ground units" point was to emphasize workers, but give it some use against some smaller units. I don't know how broken it would be if other units could be targeted. The only defense I would have for that would be that bigger units would probably have the damage necessary to free their comrades in numbers very quickly, losing only when they are caught exposed in small numbers. Being able to punish like that could be good. If bigger units can be captured, maybe the speed penalty should be greater for them. Another concern is if it can be cast on friendly units. It might be useful to drag some of your own units out of unfavorable situations, saving zealots from zerglings or pulling sentries out of a failed attack. If bigger units can be targeted, it might also be fun to see people use oracles as tugboats for quickly hauling the massive protoss air units. Allowing it to be cast on friendly units could open up a lot of uses and tricks. I don't know if it should be able to drag down cliffs or up them. I doubt it, but if someone has an argument for that, I would like to hear it. I'm just worried that there would be maps with exposed mineral fields by a cliff that an oracle could raid then drag the victims into an area the defender has no way of reaching.\ Would probably be best if it required research. This might be way too good if it comes too early. The energy costs, bubble duration/ health, speed penalties, and stretch distances would probably require a lot of balancing. Might be too much. I don't know much about programming. A mechanic like this might not come out well. Disclaimer: You might think this is too similar to abduct. I guess it might be, but I think the use and experience would be totally different. Abduct says "I'm over here. I'm going to grab you over there and bring you to me." Chain of fate says, "I'm going to where you are, I'm going to grab you, then I'm going to drag you wherever I want to go." You can also fight back, freeing your units. | ||
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My_Fake_Plastic_Luv
United States257 Posts
Instead of making stupid shells over minerals, lets up the damage and entertainment value of our little round friend, the oracle. Furthermore having it pee out a laser beam isn't that cool. So we have abduct, which might already be a name of a different spell, so I propose abduction because thats what actually happens. Like any other classic flying saucer the oracle will use its energy to abduct scvs and drones! Literally suck 3,4,5 of them into its compartment and fly away. Then it can set them down somewhere....or hey if you have more energy it can convert the stolen workers to probes. Maybe you go even further have the oracle pick up other things, maybe pick up turrets and spore/spine crawlers, so you can dt/air harass... Maybe if it has enough energy if can pick up annoying things like barracks that are used to wall off or planetary fortresses, which btw happen to be a bitch to kill. Also give it a big upgrade late game where it can pick up multiple buildings-- that way toss can deal with spine crawler forests or a toss can do devastate a mech production line. Does it convert all these buildings to probes, I don't know, I think it would just go set buildings down somewhere (off creep!). How will energy work... well I will let the experts handle that. Fulfills 1) Much like fast harassing units, its still a fast harassing unit, but its more obnoxious, sort of like blue hellions or banshees. Plus toss gets an economic benefit if they chose to convert their stolen workers to probes! 2) Again sort of like a mineral shell thing but more fun. It comes back and steals more workers if you don't deal with it. 3) Well I thought the workers abduction was a little amateur and wouldn't require pro skillz. However if you can pick up spores and spines and wall offs, I think it could be utilized in a number of different timing attacks/ combination harassments with dts or air or maybe just allowing a warp prism to get in range . Furthermore if it can pick up production stuff in the late game it could give toss a window to counter attack after a big battle... 4) I think if would be pretty funny if player kept getting his scvs stolen, especially ones that are making things. I think it could have the entertainment value of say a banshee harass or a phoenix harass or any other air harass, but it would of course be more comical. =D Very reminiscent of the classic alien too. Seeing scvs being slowly taken into the sky lolz... Concerns My major concern is what happens to the scvs/drones that are in an oracle when the oracle gets killed. I think it would be only fair that the players somehow gets their scvs back. Also should the oracle get to move the buildings it has picked up? If the oracle can move the building what happens to them to the abductioned building if the oracle is flying over an empty spot on the map or over other buildings. Maybe the oracle drags the building in its wake with the abduction beam (which can extend and contract a bit) and is not allowed to drag the abductioned buildings over certain areas. Also how long should it taken to abduction something...Maybe the length it takes for a banshee to kill a probe? Also if you chose to have a mass pick up ability, the air space might get graphically crowded, especially if there is a battle taking place in the area. If you have this ability perhaps get rid of the mineral igloo ability... which is sort of dumb anyways This harassment ability is probably going to be ruined by fungal growth and infestors, but wasn't hasn't been ruined by fungal growthes and infestors Davy! Hey I got some more good ideas  about infestors and warpgates too. Wait this wasn't posted by Davy Kim omg =D OMG someone just closed the thread I was going to post this in........So its going here... Lol if anyone likes this idea and has a beta key go put it on battle.net | ||
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My_Fake_Plastic_Luv
United States257 Posts
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gedatsu
1286 Posts
On October 21 2012 11:19 SnareSpectre wrote: I'm not concerned with similarities of units from an entirely different game, only the game at hand. Who cares if there is a similarity between a Brood Lord and a Guardian? And yes, you can abduct banelings into the opponent's mineral line, but saying that is a viable harass option is almost like saying you can use infestors to NP an SCV, then the SCV can tech up to medivacs and marines for harass. It's a round-about way of doing things that would never be effective in an actual game. Why use so much energy on a hive-tech unit to get banelings into someone's mineral line when you can just drop them 4 at a time from an overlord at lair tech? If you disagree with the idea, I'm cool with it, but there's really no reason to troll. You're missing the entire point, or trying to avoid it. You can say "the only similarity is" about anything. You said it about two things which are, at their core, very similar to each other. I tried to make you see this absurdity by using another example of two things that are very similar. It's not trolling, it's using an example to get my point across. You tried to do it yourself with your infestor thing. Although that example was extremely far from the thing you were trying to liken it to. Maybe that's just a thing you do, confusing "similar" with "different". | ||
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Lightscythe
United States7 Posts
If the complexity of the spell was the problem, just make it simpler. Have it shield units from all damage and spells, but disable all abilities and attacks--a stasis without the root. An ability like this would have a lot of potential application for retreating, closing your zealots in on the opponent's army, or disabling a chunk of the opponent's army. The spell's power can be somewhat mitigated by the fragility of the oracle to pretty much any long range anti-air. Might not be balanced but he micro potential is what I think is the most important; balance tuning should be made to a unit that is already fun and microable. | ||
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Paper117
United States210 Posts
1) Anathema. The oracle pilot channels the collective racial hatred, suffering, and rage of the Dark Templar through the ages, summoning and launching forward a spectral warrior through the air. It is a being of extreme hatred, capable of spreading it's hatred to the foes it passes with its audibly loud psionic cry. Enemies feel compelled to chase and destroy the anathema, forgetting whatever task they were given. It absorbs their attacks, taking their hatred into its own. (Possible addition: The oracle temporarily cloaks while the anathema is in the air or for a brief time after casting). (Possible addition: If the opponent is in the process of aiming the ability of a unit nearby, the anathema is automatically selected. May apply to scans too, could seem really random though). Basically, it's a taunt. The oracle pays X energy to launch the anathema in a selected direction. It flies along that path for however long it lasts. Enemy units/ structures within a certain range of the anathema, perhaps within the opponent's sight range, basically get a right click command that overrides whatever they were doing. Units capable of attacking air (conveniently also the units that might otherwise attack the oracle) will target it and chase it. Units without an anti air attack simply move towards it. It harshly punishes chronic A-movers, or people not paying attention to the targeted units. Though skilled defending players would very quickly redirect their forces, the skilled oracle user would still be able to force the defender to take back control and even cancel queued up commands or units getting into position. Even if the defender redirects his units, they will probably have been pulled out of position just a bit or waste a few volleys on the anathema. This could either give the attacking player's army a better chance to advance, avoid some damage, or even escape. Players can also use this ability to sneak past static defense, allowing them to slip the oracle into a base while the defense targets the anathema. From a spectator's perspective, the ability might graphically be interesting. It might be like a large flying DT with particle effects. It might even be made to look like an effigy of Raszagal, adding to the lore. I don't know if that exactly fits, lore wise. Spectators can also appreciate seeing an entire army redirect its attention to a new target, and get excited when they realize that the defender hasn't fixed things yet. It would also be impressive if an exceptional defender completely negates much of the use, or an exceptional oracle user manages to outplay the defender's attempts. Another potentially impressive use is a skilled oracle user using the ability to save units at the last moment that are about to be destroyed. Concerns and considerations: I don't know if the anathema should be destructible, or just tank all the damage directed towards it. I'm inclined to believe that it would be more fun if it can't be destroyed, but that's a balance decision. Energy costs, cooldown, or research requirements might need a lot of consideration. I don't know if workers should ignore it. If not, it provides the opportunity for the oracle to harass the workers by pulling them off the line until the defender does something about it. It could also be a way to lure workers or really anything else towards other units that are ready to kill them. I have no idea how fast it should be or how long it should travel. It might be fun if it gets cancelled when it leaves your range of vision. If it does temporarily cloak the oracle, it could be fun to see an oracle launch the anathema then follow behind it, trying to prolong the flight as long as possible. If launched into a base, this tactic could allow the oracle to safely enter deep into a base that's unattended. If detection is really needed for the oracle, they might be able to add something like cloaked/ burrowed units unwittingly reveal themselves in their abrupt rage. Maybe it cancels cloak spells for terran units or unburrow units. That last part seems a bit much. Maybe it would be better if the anathema was considered ground and air like a colossus. That might imply making it really big, which could clutter the screen. Still, it could be cool if all units with attacks try destroying it. That might also be too powerful. I don't think the anathema should be controllable once launched. Maybe, but I doubt it. I don't think it should be able to do damage. If it does, perhaps it hurts units it passes over or explodes/ applies some effect when it expires--affecting the units that followed it and punishing unattentive players. Maybe units should return to their original tasks after the anathema expires. 2. False prophet. A simpler version of the above spell. The oracle uses energy to create a cloned hallucination of itself and cloaking the original. The false prophet is launched in a selected direction, banking if the original was in motion and launching the clone to the side or visibly maintaining the appearance of flying straight, if launched in the current direction. Once launched, the false prophet is controllable as any other unit, though lacking the oracle's spells. The false prophet retains the hp/ shields/ energy of the oracle at the time of casting, further making it difficult to differentiate it from the real thing. The cloak ends when the false prophet dies. (Possible addition: The false prophet explodes or has some kind of splash effect when it dies/ expires). Like anathema, this is also a kind of play on a squid's ink cloud. It provides a means of distraction, allowing the oracle to escape. The false prophet also gives the oracle a scouting option. It can launch the clone into a base, risking nothing but energy. The oracle might also wait to deploy it until it's inside the base, allowing the two to split up to cover more ground. Furthermore, if the oracle enters a base to scout or harass in some way, the false prophet can provide a distraction and the cloak necessary to get out in an emergency. The false prophet can open up attempts to bluff the opponent. If you launch the clone just through the edge of the vision of a skilled player, they may think they caught an attempt to harass and reposition to stop it. From a spectator's perspective, it be fun in that it allows close escapes. It may provide interesting mind games, situations like the one mentioned in the previous paragraph. If the false prophet has some kind of explosion or effect upon death, it could allow for more mind games. The user might charge an oracle towards units, making the defender think "That has to be a false prophet. Who would risk an oracle like that?" and pull back. Concerns and considerations: It might be better if there is no cloak, both from a balance and design consideration. If there are two identical units, you have to decide which one is the real thing and chase that. That might be as much fun to watch as an ultralisk drop harass, but possibly more useful. Depending on how the oracle ends up being able to harass, you may make the opponent think you have more oracles in the area for harass and are then a bigger threat. It might also be fun if you can cast more than one prophet, allowing a whole gaggle of oracles to pop into a base or make it harder to catch the real one. I have no idea if that would be balanced or not. The random factor is a bit unappealing too. Maybe it should have a taunt feature like the anathema. Maybe it should have a set amount of health. Something much lower than a real oracle. Maybe it should have a similar vision of the clone requirement to maintain it, like the one suggestion for the anathema. Maybe sentries should be unable to hallucinate oracles. That might prevent opportunities to bluff oracle harass, but it might be too much if there's a giant flood of fake oracles that can rake through a base and see absolutely everything. Maybe the false prophet shouldn't be controllable, launching in a single direction upon cast. Maybe the exploding false prophet briefly detects, if it has an explosion. Maybe the explosion, if it has one, can be manually detonated. I don't know how to handle expiration conditions. 3. Nezarim Fire/ Shrouded vision. The oracle creates a wall of psionic flames/ smoke made with Nezarim energy. The wall acts as a temporary line of sight blocker. The oracle spends X energy to start channeling the spell. While channeled, the oracle shoots a beam at the ground, which the player can control by moving the mouse to trace shape of the desired wall. Energy depletes while tracing. This is both an army support spell and a harassment/ escape tool. If people want more positional play, this may be something the Protoss can have, The oracle can create line of site blockers to either force engagements or discourage them. besides just FF. This can help the protoss army engage other well positioned players, exploiting their lack of vision or air support by leapfrogging walls of Nezarim fire to allow the army to close in before the defender's units get in range to attack. As a harassment unit, the oracle might benefit from being able to create a smokescreen to help it make close get aways. This might be fun for spectators. The ability to force or discourage engagements can lead to really tense moments. Both players posture their armies to engage, but the oracles create line of sight blockers to change the terrain. Posturing may be more dynamic. Players can come up with interesting shapes with the flames, or even write stuff to BM. Wouldn't you like to see HerO burn "TL" into the ground in blue fire? Wouldn't you want to burn "GG?" in the ground in front of a turtle who basically lost the game several minutes ago? Concerns and considerations: I don't think the flames should do any damage. Maybe they should. They could do damage as oracle burns them into the ground, allowing the oracle to add some damage to a big engagement if it targets the ground under the army. Maybe that's too much. They might also apply a dot to units that are standing in or even above the flames. That might be necessary if the line of sight blockers alone aren't enough of a concern. Maybe a slow or armor debuff for those that pass? I don't know. The exact energy concerns, the duration of the flames, and the amount/ speed/ range/ damage of tracing are a mystery to me. If the walls do damage, I don't know if they should damage friendly units. Maybe too much BM from being able to write stuff. Blizzard might flip over profanity. 4. Nezarim Fire (Alternate version)/ Will o Wisp The oracle places a small, barely visible flame on the ground that after a certain amount of time detonates into a small AOE damage/ effect. It acts as a little time bomb. The flame goes out if the oracle is destroyed. This could be a harassment/ positional tool. The oracle sneaks into a base, drops a flame, then gets out. If the player doesn't notice it in time to pull whatever is targeted away if he can, the flame detonates. Spectators can watch in anticipation, waiting to see if the defender catches it in time. The spell can also be cast in a big engagement to damage/ affect the enemy army if they don't move back/ spot the flame in time. Before the big engagement, the oracles may also drop Nezarim Fire while posturing. It says, "If you engage right here and now, you're going to get hit." Concerns and Considerations: I don't know if it should affect friendlies. If it is an effect instead of just damage, I have no idea what it should be. Perhaps it should have a small AOE pull towards the center. It will be weak, only affecting stationary units and easily able to walk out of. I don't know if should stop workers mining, or if it should pull air. I don't know if the explosion should hit air. I don't know if each oracle should be able to place more than one at a time. Maybe the oracle must stay within a certain range. That could make the use even more tense while harassing. A lot of skilled players could catch it too often for it to be worth the cost, just as it is with entomb. Though I'd like it to be a positional tool, it may just be too good at harassment. If made more suitable for harassment, it might not be good enough to be a threat on the battlefield. It's kind of just a mini nuke. | ||
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Asgeir
Norway12 Posts
Slows attack, mining and movement for friend and foes in an area for a duration. A blurry visual effect should make the area pretty easy to spot. Simple, still limitless posibilities. | ||
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