• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 16:45
CET 22:45
KST 06:45
  • 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
Rongyi Cup S3 - RO16 Preview3herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational10SC2 All-Star Invitational: Tournament Preview5RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win0BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion8Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)19Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns7
StarCraft 2
General
PhD study /w SC2 - help with a survey! StarCraft 2 not at the Esports World Cup 2026 Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued Rongyi Cup S3 - RO16 Preview herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational
Tourneys
OSC Season 13 World Championship $21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) $70 Prize Pool Ladder Legends Academy Weekly Open! SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 509 Doomsday Report Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone
Brood War
General
[ASL21] Potential Map Candidates Gypsy to Korea Which foreign pros are considered the best? BW General Discussion BW AKA finder tool
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 Azhi's Colosseum - Season 2
Strategy
Current Meta Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Game Theory for Starcraft
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason Awesome Games Done Quick 2026!
Dota 2
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 Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread NASA and the Private Sector Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Navigating the Risks and Rew…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1420 users

Protoss Deathball in HotS is back !!! - Page 4

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 HotS
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 All
naastyOne
Profile Joined April 2012
491 Posts
January 27 2013 22:56 GMT
#61
On January 28 2013 03:34 CruelZeratul wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 27 2013 22:08 naastyOne wrote:
On January 27 2013 16:52 Goldfish wrote:
On January 27 2013 03:52 SheaR619 wrote:
That just how protoss works. Even in BW it was similar but their was actually some sort of timing attack and aggression that protoss can do with +1 zealot and corsairs. The problem imo, is that the economy of the game is kinda bad atm. 3 base is the optimal max efficiency economy. Protoss also need an early access to a third base other wise they will die to stephano 200 roach push. Since the game is balance around FF, the third cant be TOO expose otherwise they die to 200 roach push as well.

This lead to turtling since zerg have no reason to get a 4th base other than gas. This mean zerg will just tech up and turtle as well. One of the way to deal with turtling is the expand since you got map control but since the game doesnt encourage any way of grabbing more then 3 bases, it not really the optimal choice.


Yeah, it's the bases. The fewer minerals per bases maps (which sadly has fallen off) really helped fix the deathball problem in SC2 (while it lasted).

I'd like to add a few things which helps with the deathball, turtle until win issue in BW are:

1. Control groups (a bit basic) being limited to 12 or less.

2. The pathing - Units (even if you tried) rarely clumped up in a small space.

3. And a lot of people forget to add this - The spells. In BW, spells were way way stronger than in SC2 and it greatly discouraged deathballs (or attacking with everything in one place) and encouraged more attacks everywhere.

Every race had good defense thanks to the spells. This meant you were actually encouraged to attack with small groups of units instead of just one big unit (of everything you have). If someone attacked you with a maxed out army in BW, you had powerful spells that could take it all out if they weren't careful (so this encouraged attacking with small groups instead of large groups).

Storms did 120 damage and had a much bigger radius (it's 2.0 if you convert it from BW to SC2, and that's around 33% bigger radius).

A few storms would take out any death ball (nearly every unit, besides a capital ship, could be taken out by 1-2 storms as opposed to in SC2).

On the Terran side, they had EMP (which removed all shields and energy) and Irradiate. Vultures and siege tanks (yet more anti death balls).

Zerg side, Lurkers, Plague (up to 300 damage to all units affected, units cannot die from plague though).

Also all the AoE units in BW weren't a-move units (well, besides Archons). Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Vultures (with spider mines), and spell casters were all units that required micro to use.

So, this along with more bases (more spread out bases instead of just turtling on 3 base), the two important things IMO, prevented the death ball syndrome in BW.

And it made for a much better game because battles were happened more often (than in SC2) and were much less predictable too.


We'll see how HotS does though. If HotS is basically WoL with a few less death ball units, I really think they should try changing SC2 more with LotV.

Please, TvP was a tank deathball MU, always. Boring as shit, and predictable to the very core.


Even though I generally agree, it still had stuff like Vulture herass all game long, Reaver drops, Zealot bombs and whatnot. In addition the a-move part after the turteling was done was different to SC2 deathballs. It was even more about positioning and getting the tanks sieged up in time. Some SC2 PvZ games don't have any action sometimes until giant armies are massed because nobody wants to. Protoss could lose his third, or army, or because of that the game when moving out to early, Zerg generelly wants to prolong the game to get the strong lategame army out. On top of that the herassment options aren't all that great (because they are not great in general or a huge commitment).

Reavers drops vere very rare. Zelot drops also rare. And SC2 has medivac drops, warp prism, and dancing arround your warp-in pylon, and you could dance arround infestor-broodlord ball cutting zerg expos with zelots warp in or your army and using mothership recalls. And Zergs could counter-attacking with lings. And Nydus worms. PvZ was unique in that infestor-broodlord was so good, you needed archon toilet to kill it, but now P has tempests, and T has new raven seeker missle, and fungals are nerfed, so XvZ should not be that bad any more.

Also, you can not compare by using few games, BW had some crappy games as well. Especially if played by somebody why were not KeSPA players.
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
January 27 2013 23:38 GMT
#62
--- Nuked ---
Steglich
Profile Joined September 2011
Denmark282 Posts
January 27 2013 23:54 GMT
#63
Did the deathball leave at any point in time?
It was there in all matchups for protoss - PvP with mass collossus, PvZ with mothership/templar/archon/collossus and PvT with chargelots/collossus/templar
sagefreke
Profile Joined August 2010
United States241 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-27 23:59:40
January 27 2013 23:55 GMT
#64
On January 28 2013 08:38 Emzeeshady wrote:
ZvP - Awful in every sense of the word. From the no fighting early game to the predictable mid game to the no fighting late game. Worst matchup in the game.

#Remove Toss (JK but seriously Toss needs to be redone)


Just played about 8 games today with about 4 of them being against Toss and this is absolutely right.

Early game
1. Open two base against Protoss with a quick tech to Lair
2. Fend off the incoming Oracle harass

Mid game
3. Take 3rd after Lair finishes
4. Begin Hydra den and Infestor pit and research roach speed and missile attack upgrade
5. Pump out Hydras, Swarm Hosts, Roach
6. Attempt to poke Protoss but NOPE has Collossi and Void. BACK UP SO I CAN GET CORRUPTORS! Take more bases for gas production

Late game
7. Make about 8 Corruptors and begin Hive tech
8. Start harassing Toss 3rd and 4th wiht Swarm Hosts.
9. Engage Toss army which now consists of Tempests as well
10. Pump out 3-4 Vipers
11. Win the game.


Seriously boring. There's no real chance for action mid game without the risk of either Protoss losing their entire army or Zerg losing their entire army. It's literally one battle and the game is essentially over.
yo yo yo
CruelZeratul
Profile Joined May 2010
Germany4588 Posts
January 28 2013 00:00 GMT
#65
On January 28 2013 08:55 sagefreke wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 08:38 Emzeeshady wrote:
ZvP - Awful in every sense of the word. From the no fighting early game to the predictable mid game to the no fighting late game. Worst matchup in the game.

#Remove Toss (JK but seriously Toss needs to be redone)


Just played about 8 games today with about 4 of them being against Toss and this is absolutely right.

Early game
1. Open two base against Protoss with a quick tech to Lair
2. Fend off the incoming Oracle harass

Mid game
3. Take 3rd after Lair finishes
4. Begin Hydra den and Infestor pit and research roach speed and missile attack upgrade
5. Pump out Hydras, Swarm Hosts, Roach
6. Attempt to poke Protoss but NOPE has Collossi and Void. BACK UP SO I CAN GET CORRUPTORS! Take more bases for gas production

Late game
7. Make about 8 Corruptors and begin Hive tech
8. Start harassing Toss 3rd and 4th wiht Swarm Hosts.
9. Engage Toss army which now consists of Tempests as well
10. Pump out 3-4 Vipers
11. Win the game.


Seriously boring. There's no real chance for action mid game without the risk of either Protoss losing their entire army or Zerg losing their entire army. It's literally one battle and the game is essentially over.


If you find that boring, why don't you use Mutas in the midgame?
sagefreke
Profile Joined August 2010
United States241 Posts
January 28 2013 00:02 GMT
#66
On January 28 2013 09:00 CruelZeratul wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 08:55 sagefreke wrote:
On January 28 2013 08:38 Emzeeshady wrote:
ZvP - Awful in every sense of the word. From the no fighting early game to the predictable mid game to the no fighting late game. Worst matchup in the game.

#Remove Toss (JK but seriously Toss needs to be redone)


Just played about 8 games today with about 4 of them being against Toss and this is absolutely right.

Early game
1. Open two base against Protoss with a quick tech to Lair
2. Fend off the incoming Oracle harass

Mid game
3. Take 3rd after Lair finishes
4. Begin Hydra den and Infestor pit and research roach speed and missile attack upgrade
5. Pump out Hydras, Swarm Hosts, Roach
6. Attempt to poke Protoss but NOPE has Collossi and Void. BACK UP SO I CAN GET CORRUPTORS! Take more bases for gas production

Late game
7. Make about 8 Corruptors and begin Hive tech
8. Start harassing Toss 3rd and 4th wiht Swarm Hosts.
9. Engage Toss army which now consists of Tempests as well
10. Pump out 3-4 Vipers
11. Win the game.


Seriously boring. There's no real chance for action mid game without the risk of either Protoss losing their entire army or Zerg losing their entire army. It's literally one battle and the game is essentially over.


If you find that boring, why don't you use Mutas in the midgame?



Because if he's already opened with Stargate tech and I go Mutas, he's eventually going to pump out Phoenix which will make my Mutas pretty pointless. There's also the possibility that if he scouts me going 2 base Muta, he can just all in me and win right there from the get go.
yo yo yo
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
January 28 2013 00:20 GMT
#67
--- Nuked ---
Sabu113
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States11075 Posts
January 28 2013 00:23 GMT
#68
On January 28 2013 07:56 naastyOne wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 03:34 CruelZeratul wrote:
On January 27 2013 22:08 naastyOne wrote:
On January 27 2013 16:52 Goldfish wrote:
On January 27 2013 03:52 SheaR619 wrote:
That just how protoss works. Even in BW it was similar but their was actually some sort of timing attack and aggression that protoss can do with +1 zealot and corsairs. The problem imo, is that the economy of the game is kinda bad atm. 3 base is the optimal max efficiency economy. Protoss also need an early access to a third base other wise they will die to stephano 200 roach push. Since the game is balance around FF, the third cant be TOO expose otherwise they die to 200 roach push as well.

This lead to turtling since zerg have no reason to get a 4th base other than gas. This mean zerg will just tech up and turtle as well. One of the way to deal with turtling is the expand since you got map control but since the game doesnt encourage any way of grabbing more then 3 bases, it not really the optimal choice.


Yeah, it's the bases. The fewer minerals per bases maps (which sadly has fallen off) really helped fix the deathball problem in SC2 (while it lasted).

I'd like to add a few things which helps with the deathball, turtle until win issue in BW are:

1. Control groups (a bit basic) being limited to 12 or less.

2. The pathing - Units (even if you tried) rarely clumped up in a small space.

3. And a lot of people forget to add this - The spells. In BW, spells were way way stronger than in SC2 and it greatly discouraged deathballs (or attacking with everything in one place) and encouraged more attacks everywhere.

Every race had good defense thanks to the spells. This meant you were actually encouraged to attack with small groups of units instead of just one big unit (of everything you have). If someone attacked you with a maxed out army in BW, you had powerful spells that could take it all out if they weren't careful (so this encouraged attacking with small groups instead of large groups).

Storms did 120 damage and had a much bigger radius (it's 2.0 if you convert it from BW to SC2, and that's around 33% bigger radius).

A few storms would take out any death ball (nearly every unit, besides a capital ship, could be taken out by 1-2 storms as opposed to in SC2).

On the Terran side, they had EMP (which removed all shields and energy) and Irradiate. Vultures and siege tanks (yet more anti death balls).

Zerg side, Lurkers, Plague (up to 300 damage to all units affected, units cannot die from plague though).

Also all the AoE units in BW weren't a-move units (well, besides Archons). Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Vultures (with spider mines), and spell casters were all units that required micro to use.

So, this along with more bases (more spread out bases instead of just turtling on 3 base), the two important things IMO, prevented the death ball syndrome in BW.

And it made for a much better game because battles were happened more often (than in SC2) and were much less predictable too.


We'll see how HotS does though. If HotS is basically WoL with a few less death ball units, I really think they should try changing SC2 more with LotV.

Please, TvP was a tank deathball MU, always. Boring as shit, and predictable to the very core.


Even though I generally agree, it still had stuff like Vulture herass all game long, Reaver drops, Zealot bombs and whatnot. In addition the a-move part after the turteling was done was different to SC2 deathballs. It was even more about positioning and getting the tanks sieged up in time. Some SC2 PvZ games don't have any action sometimes until giant armies are massed because nobody wants to. Protoss could lose his third, or army, or because of that the game when moving out to early, Zerg generelly wants to prolong the game to get the strong lategame army out. On top of that the herassment options aren't all that great (because they are not great in general or a huge commitment).

Reavers drops vere very rare. Zelot drops also rare. And SC2 has medivac drops, warp prism, and dancing arround your warp-in pylon, and you could dance arround infestor-broodlord ball cutting zerg expos with zelots warp in or your army and using mothership recalls. And Zergs could counter-attacking with lings. And Nydus worms. PvZ was unique in that infestor-broodlord was so good, you needed archon toilet to kill it, but now P has tempests, and T has new raven seeker missle, and fungals are nerfed, so XvZ should not be that bad any more.

Also, you can not compare by using few games, BW had some crappy games as well. Especially if played by somebody why were not KeSPA players.


Reaver drops were very rare? I call shennanigans.
Biomine is a drunken chick who is on industrial strength amphetamines and would just grab your dick and jerk it as hard and violently as she could while screaming 'OMG FUCK ME', because she saw it in a Sasha Grey video ...-Wombat_Ni
Z-Ganon_the_Boss
Profile Joined February 2012
Germany11 Posts
January 28 2013 01:09 GMT
#69
On January 28 2013 07:56 naastyOne wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 03:34 CruelZeratul wrote:
On January 27 2013 22:08 naastyOne wrote:
On January 27 2013 16:52 Goldfish wrote:
On January 27 2013 03:52 SheaR619 wrote:
That just how protoss works. Even in BW it was similar but their was actually some sort of timing attack and aggression that protoss can do with +1 zealot and corsairs. The problem imo, is that the economy of the game is kinda bad atm. 3 base is the optimal max efficiency economy. Protoss also need an early access to a third base other wise they will die to stephano 200 roach push. Since the game is balance around FF, the third cant be TOO expose otherwise they die to 200 roach push as well.

This lead to turtling since zerg have no reason to get a 4th base other than gas. This mean zerg will just tech up and turtle as well. One of the way to deal with turtling is the expand since you got map control but since the game doesnt encourage any way of grabbing more then 3 bases, it not really the optimal choice.


Yeah, it's the bases. The fewer minerals per bases maps (which sadly has fallen off) really helped fix the deathball problem in SC2 (while it lasted).

I'd like to add a few things which helps with the deathball, turtle until win issue in BW are:

1. Control groups (a bit basic) being limited to 12 or less.

2. The pathing - Units (even if you tried) rarely clumped up in a small space.

3. And a lot of people forget to add this - The spells. In BW, spells were way way stronger than in SC2 and it greatly discouraged deathballs (or attacking with everything in one place) and encouraged more attacks everywhere.

Every race had good defense thanks to the spells. This meant you were actually encouraged to attack with small groups of units instead of just one big unit (of everything you have). If someone attacked you with a maxed out army in BW, you had powerful spells that could take it all out if they weren't careful (so this encouraged attacking with small groups instead of large groups).

Storms did 120 damage and had a much bigger radius (it's 2.0 if you convert it from BW to SC2, and that's around 33% bigger radius).

A few storms would take out any death ball (nearly every unit, besides a capital ship, could be taken out by 1-2 storms as opposed to in SC2).

On the Terran side, they had EMP (which removed all shields and energy) and Irradiate. Vultures and siege tanks (yet more anti death balls).

Zerg side, Lurkers, Plague (up to 300 damage to all units affected, units cannot die from plague though).

Also all the AoE units in BW weren't a-move units (well, besides Archons). Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Vultures (with spider mines), and spell casters were all units that required micro to use.

So, this along with more bases (more spread out bases instead of just turtling on 3 base), the two important things IMO, prevented the death ball syndrome in BW.

And it made for a much better game because battles were happened more often (than in SC2) and were much less predictable too.


We'll see how HotS does though. If HotS is basically WoL with a few less death ball units, I really think they should try changing SC2 more with LotV.

Please, TvP was a tank deathball MU, always. Boring as shit, and predictable to the very core.


Even though I generally agree, it still had stuff like Vulture herass all game long, Reaver drops, Zealot bombs and whatnot. In addition the a-move part after the turteling was done was different to SC2 deathballs. It was even more about positioning and getting the tanks sieged up in time. Some SC2 PvZ games don't have any action sometimes until giant armies are massed because nobody wants to. Protoss could lose his third, or army, or because of that the game when moving out to early, Zerg generelly wants to prolong the game to get the strong lategame army out. On top of that the herassment options aren't all that great (because they are not great in general or a huge commitment).

Reavers drops vere very rare. Zelot drops also rare. And SC2 has medivac drops, warp prism, and dancing arround your warp-in pylon, and you could dance arround infestor-broodlord ball cutting zerg expos with zelots warp in or your army and using mothership recalls. And Zergs could counter-attacking with lings. And Nydus worms. PvZ was unique in that infestor-broodlord was so good, you needed archon toilet to kill it, but now P has tempests, and T has new raven seeker missle, and fungals are nerfed, so XvZ should not be that bad any more.

Also, you can not compare by using few games, BW had some crappy games as well. Especially if played by somebody why were not KeSPA players.


The new HSM is bullshit...I mean the target unit is shown in red color and even a bronce player could move them out in 5 seconds...
Three seconds would be much better but 5 is a joke but thats not the topic of that thread.

The Protoss Deathball has his comeback in HotS and I agree with the most of you all.
The most boring match up is with Protoss as the oponent.

-TvT ist awesome, no explanation needed
-since the Infestor was nerfed TvZ become interesting and funny to watch
-ZvZ is not that interesting but better than PvP
-TvP is always the same...mid game aggression from Terran and turtling from Protoss and than mostly nothing
-ZvP is the turtle MU atm and not even worthy to be in SC2...

Protoss needs some rework like removing Collossus and buffing the High Templar like in Broodwar with 120 damage storm and more area-size (or maybe put something like the reaver into HotS), nerf the Voidray and make Tempests interesting (massing and a-move atm).

The most tactics of Protoss (hight level) are basically built a huge army composition and just attack move (because the Collossus design is bullshit).
Get a compliment, say Tank´s to me!
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
January 28 2013 01:13 GMT
#70
Yeah with how death bally toss has become I have started to play less and less hots cause I get zvp 90% of the time. I can only handle such a boring mu so much. Past week or 2 it's gotten worse and I would say it's now worse or as bad as WoL PvZ which I thought wasn't possible.
When I think of something else, something will go here
TheManInBlack
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
Nigeria266 Posts
January 28 2013 01:14 GMT
#71
It would help if 3rds and 4ths weren't so easy to take.

Newkirk City has this sort of right where the Natural has a wide ramp and it isn't a short distance between the natural and the 3rd.. but that is one map out of several.
Goldfish
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
2230 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-28 06:36:37
January 28 2013 06:15 GMT
#72
On January 27 2013 22:08 naastyOne wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 27 2013 16:52 Goldfish wrote:
On January 27 2013 03:52 SheaR619 wrote:
That just how protoss works. Even in BW it was similar but their was actually some sort of timing attack and aggression that protoss can do with +1 zealot and corsairs. The problem imo, is that the economy of the game is kinda bad atm. 3 base is the optimal max efficiency economy. Protoss also need an early access to a third base other wise they will die to stephano 200 roach push. Since the game is balance around FF, the third cant be TOO expose otherwise they die to 200 roach push as well.

This lead to turtling since zerg have no reason to get a 4th base other than gas. This mean zerg will just tech up and turtle as well. One of the way to deal with turtling is the expand since you got map control but since the game doesnt encourage any way of grabbing more then 3 bases, it not really the optimal choice.


Yeah, it's the bases. The fewer minerals per bases maps (which sadly has fallen off) really helped fix the deathball problem in SC2 (while it lasted).

I'd like to add a few things which helps with the deathball, turtle until win issue in BW are:

1. Control groups (a bit basic) being limited to 12 or less.

2. The pathing - Units (even if you tried) rarely clumped up in a small space.

3. And a lot of people forget to add this - The spells. In BW, spells were way way stronger than in SC2 and it greatly discouraged deathballs (or attacking with everything in one place) and encouraged more attacks everywhere.

Every race had good defense thanks to the spells. This meant you were actually encouraged to attack with small groups of units instead of just one big unit (of everything you have). If someone attacked you with a maxed out army in BW, you had powerful spells that could take it all out if they weren't careful (so this encouraged attacking with small groups instead of large groups).

Storms did 120 damage and had a much bigger radius (it's 2.0 if you convert it from BW to SC2, and that's around 33% bigger radius).

A few storms would take out any death ball (nearly every unit, besides a capital ship, could be taken out by 1-2 storms as opposed to in SC2).

On the Terran side, they had EMP (which removed all shields and energy) and Irradiate. Vultures and siege tanks (yet more anti death balls).

Zerg side, Lurkers, Plague (up to 300 damage to all units affected, units cannot die from plague though).

Also all the AoE units in BW weren't a-move units (well, besides Archons). Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Vultures (with spider mines), and spell casters were all units that required micro to use.

So, this along with more bases (more spread out bases instead of just turtling on 3 base), the two important things IMO, prevented the death ball syndrome in BW.

And it made for a much better game because battles were happened more often (than in SC2) and were much less predictable too.


We'll see how HotS does though. If HotS is basically WoL with a few less death ball units, I really think they should try changing SC2 more with LotV.

Please, TvP was a tank deathball MU, always. Boring as shit, and predictable to the very core.


I say deathball very generally.

In SC2, battles end in like 5 seconds.

In BW, the battles were much more tug of war which were way more fun to watch than death ball vs death ball into gg 5 seconds later.

TvP BW was more fun to watch compared to TvP SC2 (IMO). TvP in SC2 is basically just amass MMM + Vikings then ram all units into Protoss army. While there are some really good TvPs in SC2 (MVP vs Squirtle games), a lot of them mostly are mostly the same.

Edit - Thinking about it, the potential for good games in TvP is definitely better in SC2 than in BW. While most of the games do end involving just one big battle into GG, the games that aren't that are really good. Ok, so TvP is probably better in SC2 than in BW.

Besides that, BW definitely had boring games but they were far less than SC2.

BW had a much better foundation for better games than SC2.

Edit - Speaking of that, I honestly wonder if Mutalisk micro should return (being able to attack move into attack without slowing down) in SC2. It's definitely possible to do in the Galaxy Editor.

I can see this making Mutalisk too much of a dominate unit (especially with fungal being a projectile now) in ZvZs but in other match ups, it could be more interesting.

I remember when the crowd cheered so loud when Jaedong built Mutalisks for the first time in SC2.... but sadly the crowd did not know Mutalisk are terrible in SC2 (compared to BW).
https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsServerFeedback/feedback/details/741495/biggest-explorer-annoyance-automatic-sorting-windows-7-server-2008-r2-and-vista#details Allow Disable Auto Arrange in Windows 7+
BerthaG
Profile Joined December 2012
France74 Posts
January 28 2013 07:06 GMT
#73
You can't avoid death ball as a P player, due to the synergy between the differents units and sentries. Gardien shield ff.
Speed ling could be countered if all unit stay together if you split it you loss.
Death ball is the result of multiple things that cannot be avoid even in HOTS, but what is the problem of it?
Never surrender
ETisME
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
12636 Posts
January 28 2013 07:20 GMT
#74
On January 28 2013 16:06 BerthaG wrote:
You can't avoid death ball as a P player, due to the synergy between the differents units and sentries. Gardien shield ff.
Speed ling could be countered if all unit stay together if you split it you loss.
Death ball is the result of multiple things that cannot be avoid even in HOTS, but what is the problem of it?

biggest problem:
the game becomes who gets a better ball AND once you lose an engagement, there is almost no coming back because a counter will just kill you.
其疾如风,其徐如林,侵掠如火,不动如山,难知如阴,动如雷震。
EuSpex
Profile Joined April 2011
Germany73 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-01-28 11:21:41
January 28 2013 11:19 GMT
#75
I just want to throw something in:

Yesterday I watches TLS Broodwar and it was a hell lot of fun (especially tvz). All around the map are small skirmishes and the terran player can get strong positions by just setting up some tanks and marine / medics with spider mines.
What I noticed was, that I really see a big problem in sc2 with xel naga towers give you a huge vision on the most important paths of the game.
For example on daybreak. In TvP I (the terran player) just get the watchtower and then get 1 marine on the top and one at the bottom path of the map and I'm done. I can spot every army movement from my opponent. My main base gets turrets and a sensor tower and I will be immune against every harassment at all.

So my point is that the huge vision range you get with Xel-Naga towers combined with small amount of attack paths disencourages small army movements because the other player will see it easily and you wont get any real benefit from doing them. You can react with your main army too fast and defend right in time and then you go back and sit on that xel naga tower again just waiting to intercept the next wave. Without xel naga towers on key positions you maybe should leave some units at that 5th base position because you cannot spot them early enough to deal with them. So you need to get units at important positions just to make sure you delay his push or even stop it. You also have to control space around your main army so you wont get flanked or ambushed if you move out.
It would be just way more dynamic if maps wont have that standard tower right in the middle of the map or at key movement positions like entombed, antiga, daybreak and other maps have.
I think it really sucks and limits the game by a lot. With creep you see half of the map and with the xel naga towers the rest? Whats the point of fog of war? To hide some early game shenanigans cause everything up from the mid game you can predict anyway? Why oracle has a spell to get vision on the army if vision is no real resource?

Targe
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
United Kingdom14103 Posts
January 28 2013 11:56 GMT
#76
I'd rather see deathball sky toss than colossus, colossi are just so boring.
11/5/14 CATACLYSM | The South West's worst Falco main
ViperPL
Profile Joined March 2011
Poland1775 Posts
January 28 2013 12:13 GMT
#77
On January 28 2013 20:56 Targe wrote:
I'd rather see deathball sky toss than colossus, colossi are just so boring.


Doesn't matter if it's air deathball or colossi, it's still boring.
A dota player and lol player walk into a bar. The dota player says: "lol sucks". Lol player couldn't deny. http://i.imgur.com/FpLeTf1.gif
Targe
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
United Kingdom14103 Posts
January 28 2013 12:56 GMT
#78
On January 28 2013 21:13 ViperPL wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 20:56 Targe wrote:
I'd rather see deathball sky toss than colossus, colossi are just so boring.


Doesn't matter if it's air deathball or colossi, it's still boring.


It's less boring, Colossi are in my opinion the most boring unit in the game.
11/5/14 CATACLYSM | The South West's worst Falco main
Qikz
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United Kingdom12024 Posts
January 28 2013 13:08 GMT
#79
On January 28 2013 21:13 ViperPL wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 20:56 Targe wrote:
I'd rather see deathball sky toss than colossus, colossi are just so boring.


Doesn't matter if it's air deathball or colossi, it's still boring.


Atleast if it's an air deathball they actually take a while to make and are super expensive. Kind of like a large number of carriers in BW.

Admittedly they need to make it so carriers are the best toss air unit rather than the tempest, but it's hella more interesting than a collosus deathball as it's a lot easier to punish.
FanTaSy's #1 Fan | STPL Caster/Organiser | SKT BEST KT | https://twitch.tv/stpl
TheManInBlack
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
Nigeria266 Posts
January 28 2013 14:19 GMT
#80
Tbh I get irritated when people throw around the word "Deathball" so invariably. The word "Deathball" contains so much silliness and to me it points to everything wrong with the game.

But now you people use it like its actually supposed to be a mechanic or strategy. Maybe we should simply change our ideas of playing the game?
Prev 1 2 3 4 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 13h 16m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
mouzHeroMarine 515
elazer 169
UpATreeSC 142
ProTech129
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 406
firebathero 100
HiyA 13
Dota 2
Fuzer 280
Pyrionflax239
canceldota79
Counter-Strike
fl0m2261
Fnx 1411
byalli670
Foxcn211
allub49
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1015
Mew2King46
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu389
Other Games
summit1g3619
Grubby2453
tarik_tv1689
FrodaN1023
ToD251
QueenE94
ArmadaUGS89
Organizations
StarCraft 2
angryscii 34
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 43
• Hupsaiya 38
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• Kozan
• Laughngamez YouTube
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota2393
League of Legends
• Nemesis3937
• TFBlade1159
Other Games
• imaqtpie2071
• Shiphtur236
Upcoming Events
RongYI Cup
13h 16m
Clem vs ShoWTimE
Zoun vs Bunny
Big Brain Bouts
19h 16m
Percival vs Gerald
Serral vs MaxPax
RongYI Cup
1d 13h
SHIN vs Creator
Classic vs Percival
OSC
1d 15h
BSL 21
1d 17h
RongYI Cup
2 days
Maru vs Cyan
Solar vs Krystianer
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
BSL 21
2 days
Wardi Open
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
[ Show More ]
OSC
4 days
WardiTV Invitational
4 days
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-20
SC2 All-Star Inv. 2025
NA Kuram Kup

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Rongyi Cup S3
Underdog Cup #3
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W5
Acropolis #4 - TS4
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Nations Cup 2026
Tektek Cup #1
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
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.