• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 12:42
CEST 18:42
KST 01:42
  • 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
Serral wins Maestros of the Game 227ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7
Community News
Weekly Cups (June 29-July 5): Solar Doubles0MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon415.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes40Weekly Cups (June 22-28): Zergs thrive in new patch5[TLMC] Summer 2026 Ladder Map Rotation0
StarCraft 2
General
Serral wins Maestros of the Game 2 Is the larve respawn broken? 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start) 5.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes Weekly Cups (June 29-July 5): Solar Doubles
Tourneys
Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL CK #5 Race War HomeStory Cup 29 RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Vespene Cup #1 — $300+ USD, July 10
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
Mutation # 533 Die Together The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 532 Nuclear Family Mutation # 531 Experimental Artillery
Brood War
General
Snow On New ASL S22 Map, Zerg Nerf BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Starcraft vs Retro Category on Twitch Data needed
Tourneys
CSLAN 4 is Coming! Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 The Casual Games of the Week Thread [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration?
Other Games
General Games
Dawn of War IV Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Summer Games Done Quick 2026! ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor 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
TL Mafia
NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance TL Mafia Community Thread TL Mafia Power Rank Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Tennis[sport] Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop How to clean a TTe Thermaltake keyboard? Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Major Shifts in the Gaming I…
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 12123 users

[D] And Then There's the Mothership... - Page 9

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 7 8 9 All
nein
Profile Joined May 2010
Romania2 Posts
May 27 2010 03:59 GMT
#161
Most of you seem to be talking about something you never encounter or use.

Recall - useless??
How useless is something that can save your army if it's caught in a bad position when positioning is almost everything late game? Damn I didn't see those hidden hydras coming from behind and owning my collosi - guess all I have to do is recall and get another chance to win the game.

How useless is something that can help u get rid of enemy expos with minimum casualties(this requires air army most of the time as ground army is too slow)? Just get some carriers and void rays(or just void rays with upgraded speed) and go straight for the mineral gathering bases. If u get surrounded or start losing too much - recall. You can combine this with some warped in zealots on some lower defended expansions. Ofc you can use blink stalkers too for this. Won't be simple but if it was it would've been overpowered, right?

You can also use recall just to defend ur base or to bring your army into enemy base. The second one is pretty hard to do because of slow speed, scouting, ghost emp and neural parasite - but if u can do it your enemies base is doomed - forcefield on ramp and that's it. If he chooses to defend - split his army on the ramp and it might be gg right there. If not and he goes for base trade you're still in a better position as you started the attack.

About vortex - well this is motherships in-fight spell. Splitting an enemy army can do wonders. Let's say u made canons at your natural and just got your mothership. You also have some much smaller then your enemies army. Just vortex a big part of the army and kill the rest. He can retreat while vortex is active but usually this will give you the edge you needed to survive(some free kills + the time to get the energy on your high templars for example). You can also try to focus down his detectors while the army is in vortex. While most say it's really easy to destroy the mothership that is easy in open ground. When cloaking an protoss base with cannons and units it is really hard to go into defences without taking big losses - just to descover he had energy for vortex.

I think even more importantly then splitting is you have 20 seconds to position your army. If you actually manage to get whole his army in vortex, just bring ur zealots/archons inside the vortex. When it ends u'll have your melee and low range units attacking their ranged(this is especially usefull against terran who don't have a melee unit but might work against hydras/stalkers too).

About the suggestions - many sound cool but I think making a big psi field around the mothership is natural. It would allow for some easier zealot sneaky attacks and it would help mothership be more offensive(you can use recall for this but i think it costs too much). Maybe make it an 150-150 upgrade - using a warp prism + mothership brings about the same with a plus for motherships bigger range).

Mothership should be made after you saturate the natural. One thing that went unnoticed is that you cannot make probes while mothership is built - so just make it after natural fully saturated. It should help with expanding to third base and defending.

Carriers are powerfull after you reach the critical number of 6-7. With mothership's recall just use them for sniping expansions - upgrade damage to full and you'll probably win if u get to those numbers. The real problem I see with them are the interceptors that go down too fast if numbers are small.

Current metagame is focused on timing attacks. As time will pass people will know more counters to these timing attacks, and second and third expansions will become more common. With this necessity for defending / disrupting these expansions will become more important and mothership will prove to be key in toss defence and mobility.

I'm currently diamond ranked 27 and built motherships/carriers many times. About mothership/carrier rush - it won't work against diamond but it will work on gold just because of the shock(and making MS/carriers will surely make ur opponent happy even if u own him). Just start with some cannon contain or something to make him think you are trying a sneaky early game push or just delay his tech while you tech to fleet beacon.
Budzlight
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States578 Posts
May 27 2010 04:11 GMT
#162
i think the mothership is a great unit depending on the build and counter you are going to go.
I was the 5% that voted for thorzain in the TSL for round 1
GX.Sigma
Profile Joined April 2010
United States49 Posts
May 27 2010 06:20 GMT
#163
If you Vortex an enemy army and put a few Archons into it, they will instantly kill the entire enemy army the moment the vortex ends.

Or so I hear.
Ideas
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States8173 Posts
June 09 2010 02:41 GMT
#164
looks like blizzard isn't planning on changing the mothership at all:

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25170443827&sid=5000&pageNo=1

from Bashiok:

There are some units that just aren't going to see certain levels of competitive play (unless it's an LOL LOOK HOW MUCH MUNEY I HAV! dig at the other player), and that's fine, and we're aware and ok with that being the case, just as long as it's something we've planned for and are balancing for.


I know he's not necessarily saying "we know the mothership sucks but we're OK with that" but why else would he post what he did on a thread complaining about the uselessness of the mothership? Between this and Blizzard's design of the archon it almost feels like bizzard is purposefully keeping Protoss from being more diverse so that they aren't any more-so than the other races or something lol.

I guess we'll have to wait for the expansion and see if Blizzard decides to change the Mothership at all. Hell I'd still be OK with it being useless as long as it wasnt so godawful boring and uninteresting.
Free Palestine
JiYan
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States3668 Posts
June 09 2010 04:29 GMT
#165
when i first read that response from blizzard on the forums, my heart sank T_T
Backpack
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States1776 Posts
June 09 2010 04:37 GMT
#166
BW did fine with Queens being pretty much useless


As for Motherships, I don't think they need to be changed, but they just aren't needed unless the game goes on for a REALLY long time and you have the money/time to tech fleet beacon after your main tech. (Since nobody goes carriers)
"You people need to just generally care a lot less about everything." -Zatic
hellokitty[hk]
Profile Joined June 2009
United States1309 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-09 04:50:59
June 09 2010 04:49 GMT
#167
CHANGE ATTACK ANIMATION BACK PLEASE!
It was absolutely sexy before.
And change attack damage from 6x6 to like 12x3.
People are imbeciles, lucky thing god made cats.
McPwnage
Profile Joined June 2010
Canada48 Posts
June 09 2010 05:58 GMT
#168
Honestly I think they should just bring the Arbiter back to replace the mothership, make it buildable at the stargate with the fleet beacon and make it much more cost effective than the mothership.

There really isn't a point to having the mothership anymore now that blizzard decided to nerf it to a rediclous amount
Sentenal
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States12398 Posts
June 09 2010 06:13 GMT
#169
I like the Mothership being bad. With the Mothership being bad, that makes my Mothership rush extremely more hilarious when I manage to beat newbies in Placement matches with it.
"Apparently, Sentenal is a paragon of friendship and tolerance. " - Ech0ne
groms
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada1017 Posts
June 09 2010 08:00 GMT
#170
On June 09 2010 15:13 Sentenal wrote:
I like the Mothership being bad. With the Mothership being bad, that makes my Mothership rush extremely more hilarious when I manage to beat newbies in Placement matches with it.

this.
I have a recurring dream that I'm running away from a terran player but the marauders keep slowing me down. - Artosis
makoplux
Profile Joined April 2010
88 Posts
June 09 2010 08:06 GMT
#171
It's getting used a decent amount in custom games between good players PvT. It's an effective tool for dealing with terran who go mech and play very slowly/turtle. Recall gives a toss army great mobility and can allow you to bypass a mech wall altogether.

It's not as bad as people make it out to be. The abilities are really useful if you use them properly.
who is john galt?
0mgVitaminE
Profile Joined February 2009
United States1278 Posts
June 09 2010 08:21 GMT
#172
I actually enjoy units such as the mothership in its current state. The speed is annoying ya, but units that don't currently have a definite purpose always have that possibility of being awesome at one point or another.
Hi there. I'm in a cave, how bout you?
endGame
Profile Joined June 2009
United States394 Posts
June 09 2010 08:48 GMT
#173
I enjoyed reading your article, very well written. I disagree with some of your assertions though your major point can be very well agreed upon: the Mothership seems useless. I believe that even though the Mothership is useless now, the "meta game" hasn't developed enough to really determine that it will forever be useless. Regardless, having a useless unit doesn't make a race less able to be interesting or unique. Take the scout in Starcraft Brood War for instance: although an entirely useless unit the race was able to function without it and put on an interesting enough display. Still, the primary issue with the Mothership is balancing it; there needs to be a way where adding this unit to your composition will remain effective, yet still not throw off the entire balance of the race versus other matchups. Another issue that I believe you touched upon was that the Mothership is a highly vulnerable unit, which I believe stems from its lack of speed. For a 400/400 unit, it should definitely be more mobile, at least in its current state. Nonetheless, the unit still may need time though things don't look good for it now. And again, great write-up ^^ b
"...As the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must." -Thucydides
Prev 1 7 8 9 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
BSL: GosuLeague
14:00
S22 - Final Stream
Spine vs OctZerg
Radley vs WIZARD
ZZZero.O110
Liquipedia
CrankTV Team League
11:00
Crank Gathers S4: Group Stage
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RushiSC 121
MindelVK 1
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 29373
Shuttle 1888
Sea 1049
Jaedong 999
Mini 725
EffOrt 483
Soma 470
Light 371
firebathero 351
Hyuk 338
[ Show more ]
Larva 264
BeSt 247
Stork 237
Snow 212
ggaemo 178
Mong 165
ZZZero.O 110
Rush 96
hero 81
Hyun 79
Sharp 68
Zeus 64
JYJ 58
ToSsGirL 29
910 28
sorry 22
Hm[arnc] 21
Bale 17
Barracks 15
Sexy 15
IntoTheRainbow 12
Free 11
Sacsri 9
Terrorterran 8
Dota 2
Gorgc7826
qojqva1630
XcaliburYe89
Counter-Strike
fl0m1561
x6flipin440
edward76
kRYSTAL_42
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King108
Heroes of the Storm
XaKoH 185
Other Games
FrodaN1254
B2W.Neo715
ArmadaUGS96
C9.Mang049
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick31785
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 106
• mYiSmile140
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV396
League of Legends
• Nemesis4108
• TFBlade926
Other Games
• Shiphtur344
Upcoming Events
OSC
18m
Cure vs SKillous
Lambo vs goblin
Cham vs YoungYakov
ArT vs Harstem
Krystianer vs Iba
Replay Cast
7h 18m
Replay Cast
17h 18m
CrankTV Team League
18h 18m
OSC
20h 18m
Big Brain Bouts
23h 18m
Replay Cast
1d 7h
RSL Revival
1d 16h
Serral vs Bunny
ByuN vs GgMaChine
CranKy Ducklings
1d 17h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 17h
Snow vs Jaedong
YSC vs hero
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
2 days
Solar vs Rogue
Maru vs NightMare
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
GSL
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
CrankTV Team League
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
HSC XXIX
Eternal Conflict S2 E1

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
YSL S3
CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
SCTL 2026 Spring
Heroes Pulsing #3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W2
ASL Season 22: Wild Card Qualifier
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Eternal Conflict S2 E3
Eternal Conflict S2 E2
Logitech G Connect 2026
StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
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.