On March 27 2010 05:37 Zeke50100 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 27 2010 05:13 lololol wrote:On March 27 2010 03:09 Zeke50100 wrote:
It's Blizzard's "subtle" way of making a push towards mech, not to mention that Vikings cost less gas now. Viking on the ground is basically a mech unit that is better than the Stalker in many, many ways.
Vikings on the ground aren't more powerful than stalkers, and they have a higher cost and lower mobility, so no, they aren't better than stalkers in many many ways, they are better in one specific thing - destroying air, which is their main purpose(and the best unit in the game for that purpose) and the ground form is mostly to use up what you have left over, if the opponent stops making air or to harass undefended expos and such.
Vikings have a ground cooldown of 1, and a base attack of 14. Stalkers have a cooldown of 1.44, and a base attack of 10 (+4 vs Armored). Vikings also equal the Stalker's range. The only thing a Stalker beats it at is movement speed, with 2.9531 compared to 2.25.
Mobility isn't too big of a deal because it can transform into air, which is much more mobile than the Stalker, even with Blink (albeit requiring more micro and APM).
They out-price the Stalker by 25 Minerals and 25 Gas, which I can grant you; however, that is a small price to get the top anti-air unit, along with a decent ground unit.
It can soft-counter Banshees and Brood Lords (pretty well

) by being un-hittable, while the Stalker cannot. The Corruptor does not have enough range to be a successful counter, as well as Phoenixes (however, the Phoenix's speed can make up for it; a Viking can still transform into ground and be unhittable temporarily, and transform back to pseudo-hit and run). Both Roaches and Marauders can be beaten by a Viking much more efficiently by a Stalker, and even pseudo-hit and run via Transform micro.
Both suck against Immortals, although the Viking can just fly away, while the Stalker can be trapped by ground units/terrain. Stalkers are evenly matched against Stalkers, while the Viking's superior attack speed will overpower a Stalker. Zealots are...melee

And so are Archons, Zerglings, etc.
Only Hydralisks, Marines, Stalker, and Sentry cannot be pseudo-hit and run by the Viking as ground units. However, a Hydralisk matches the Viking in movement speed, while having less range un-upgraded. Same can be said for Marines and Sentries, although their range cannot be upgraded (although Marines have stim).
Note that Vikings will kill things 44% quicker than Stalkers against Armored, and 101.6% quicker than Stalkers against Light, due to both base attack (compared to bonus) and attack speed.
Enough to support that Vikings are better than Stalkers, even as anti-ground?