EPT![[image loading]](http://sclegacy.com/features/pp/pp03/images/pphm_firebat.jpg)
Well... Almost any unit
Yet even now we can see the resurrection of old beliefs that despite this hard counter system currently cemented in the game, there are ways to overcome such concerns. The most basic, which is what is now visibly seen currently, is just out macroing the opponent to the point where hard counters are nothing more than a poor speed bump. This ironically correlates to old zerg thinking about just a mass swarm of units, constantly being chucked at the enemy till he eventually breaks. For awhile (as we have witnessed in Broodwar), this was the case where it broke down to who had the most stuff, it was not until quite much time later were more unique tactics developed and improved upon to further enhance ones chances of winning by relying on unconventional unit commands.
![[image loading]](http://img.youtube.com/vi/-hH2Wl168qE/0.jpg)
"Did you hear something?"
It of course brings us to the main problem in starcraft 2, it isn't the implementation of the hard counter system, but how the units in the game where developed and introduced that cause such a conflicting factor. It can be reasonable to accept that hard counters exist in Starcraft:Brood War. But to the extent that Starcraft Two is at? Hardly. When units were developed in Broodwar, they were designed for a specific 'niche'. Such as the lurker against infantry, or the corsair against air, and with the addition of micro and tactical awareness, additional use for these units could be achieved. Example can obviously be seen with mutalisk micro. It was intended to be a air support flier, but was it ever thought that it could prevent large waves of terran infantry? Oh heavens no! But nothing stopped such a thing from occurring.
Unfortunately, this philosophy did not return to the Blizzard team during the development of Starcraft 2. Rather, they sought to take the initiative by building a unit around the specific role they wanted it to fill, instead of just developing a unit to each race that filled a niche then leaving it to the players to develop its aspect. What this causes is overlapping, and limited life of units. An example of this can be seen with the reaper. It was designed with the full intention to be a raider, and it does it quite well, doing an astonishing 30 damage per 1.6 seconds to buildings. Unfortunately, that is all it does, and all it ever will. The fact that a reaper can't hold its own in any serious fight against other units is quite alarming, which forces the reaper in the very tight spot that it is in now. Whether this is something Blizzard sought to achieve matters not, but it raises valid controversy over the stock of these units who have limited use. Compared to broodwar, where every unit could have an extended use one way or the other (Vulture is a scary base raider after using its mines, hydras can morph into very devastating defending units, dark templars are an excellent scouting tool/expansion denier, and at times can be an accepted fighter in battles because of its high damage output).
![[image loading]](http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y61/fathom216/starcraft2lol.jpg)
Carriers : Making facepalms since 1998.
Now, I am not going to say Starcraft Two will ever evolve to a point where niche units wont be discovered, there are still plenty of unrevealed units who are begging for a place in gameplay and eventually, we will see them in standard builds. For all we know rushing for mothership could very well be a valid strategy in a couple of years time. But the dilemma that faces many of us, is that there is a large amount of units that have a limited life span in the duration of the game brought on even more rapidly with the current counter system. Obviously the great players out there will stretch a unit's use as long as possible, but only so much can be achieved.
OP status in 3...2...1..
I hope this smallish page is enough to stop some of those chanting "op!" and instead focus on finding extended uses for their units. Be creative, its a new game, and most importantly its a new start for those of us who want to become as unpredictable as possible. (TLO has already won many hearts doing this!) And if patches just so happen to bring about Nerf's/Buffs to your main race, try to use it to your advantage. Or if nothing else, use something more unconventional to use them. No one says you have to play a specific way to gain a win.
On April 25 2010 03:35 Energizer wrote:
For those of you who already mentioned - I am terribly sorry for causing such confusion with the terms "niche" and "role". It comes from my lack of proper writing skills
so to help clear the message, ill define what I mean more clearly as per below and add this into the OP. Again, terribly sorry for that.
When I refer to role, I purposely mean that a selective unit (whether it be a reaper, immortal, etc..) has been implemented for one specific purpose in the game without much leeway into additional uses. As like I said, reaper was designed for the harassment role, but it cannot be easily seen as a main army composition due to its lack of HP and attack power. Same can be said for many other units like Immortal which was solely introduced as a counter unit to everything armored.
As for the term niche, I refer that to any unit that was made as being part of a 'grouping' that wasn't necessary made to counter any specific unit and can easily change roles. Such as the lurker, it can be a very strong defensive unit securing expos, or it can be a very powerful anti-infantry tool on aggression. Or to become more modernized, the sentry which can be a strong defensive, or extremely ideal for aggression as Protoss while not having any major bonus damage being attributed to the unit to make it good.
Yes, I know both words have the same dictionary value, but I was troubled in finding another type of term to replace the existing ones, something I'm very sorry for!
For those of you who already mentioned - I am terribly sorry for causing such confusion with the terms "niche" and "role". It comes from my lack of proper writing skills
so to help clear the message, ill define what I mean more clearly as per below and add this into the OP. Again, terribly sorry for that.When I refer to role, I purposely mean that a selective unit (whether it be a reaper, immortal, etc..) has been implemented for one specific purpose in the game without much leeway into additional uses. As like I said, reaper was designed for the harassment role, but it cannot be easily seen as a main army composition due to its lack of HP and attack power. Same can be said for many other units like Immortal which was solely introduced as a counter unit to everything armored.
As for the term niche, I refer that to any unit that was made as being part of a 'grouping' that wasn't necessary made to counter any specific unit and can easily change roles. Such as the lurker, it can be a very strong defensive unit securing expos, or it can be a very powerful anti-infantry tool on aggression. Or to become more modernized, the sentry which can be a strong defensive, or extremely ideal for aggression as Protoss while not having any major bonus damage being attributed to the unit to make it good.
Yes, I know both words have the same dictionary value, but I was troubled in finding another type of term to replace the existing ones, something I'm very sorry for!
