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Why Protoss Drops Are Rare (Warp Prism Analysis) - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Moody
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States750 Posts
May 02 2011 21:50 GMT
#21
Well, just something to point out about the warp prism:

It has a speed upgrade making it hella fast
AND
It can drop 4 zealots, then warp in as many as you have gates...
A marine walks into a bar and asks, "Where's the counter?"
Mashmed
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden198 Posts
May 02 2011 21:51 GMT
#22
If you upgrade your warp prism it is the fastest of the 3 supportunits and even before upgrade the Warp prism and the medivac is still faster than an upgraded overlord. Something you also failed to consider is the fact that overlords require 2 upgrades to be useful. So the warp prism is not as useless as you make it out to be.

Considering that overlord drops cost 200/200 why can't a protoss invest in an extra robotics to focus on warp prisms?

Also, the fact that the warp prism scales with the amount of gateways you have I would say is rather awesome. I would gladly swap my amount of overlords for the chance to morph my overlords into nydus networks for free.
Gosh Digglydarnit
Silent331
Profile Joined June 2010
United States356 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 21:56:43
May 02 2011 21:51 GMT
#23
Not saying anything about QQ but by saying that making a warp prism takes up collosus time is equivalent to overlords taking up larva and medivacs taking up banshee BC and viking time.

Also id like to see a warp prism with the army of a toss player. just deploy it behind your army when the battle starts and get a free refresh of 10 stalkers as soon as the first 10 die, giving you a sort of 220 food push (sort of like the 300 food push from zerg).

As for larger drops the other races need to bring may more drop ships when protoss only needs 1 prism and a bunch of WGs. Drop oriented play might be cool using more gates than you can support to give stronger drops. but the down side is you cant allow all of those units to escape if you wanted to do.

They cant beat you, They only hope you beat yourself.
Steel
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Japan2283 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 21:52:00
May 02 2011 21:51 GMT
#24
They'll probably become more common on bigger maps where it's not that easy for an army to move around. They have a lot of potential versus meching terrans; but for zerg if they are ready for DT they are ready for drops unless its really big.

yeah just saw a previous post and did you guys know that the Warp Prism with speed is faster than a pheonix
Try another route paperboy.
Highwinds
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada955 Posts
May 02 2011 21:51 GMT
#25
I'm sure someone will find a point to use them but as is there is no point for protoss to do it. As Liquid Tyler said on state of the game, Protoss has a lot of strategies they could use but they don't really lose tournaments so they don't need to use anything else. When the time comes that protoss is consistently losing doing the current strategy they will switch it up and try to find a use for the warp prism I'm sure.

As is Overlord drops were only really used vs Terran early on with baneling drops because Z always had issues with T at release.

And now Z is having trouble vs P so we use drops and it works with quite a lot of success.
Yes It's a Good Day. 저는 아이유 사랑해요!
Veasel
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden159 Posts
May 02 2011 21:51 GMT
#26
Problem with your analyzis is that you don't take alot of things in considiration. Example: Yes its true you can fit 8 marines, but not 8 zlots, but thats because zlots are better isnt it soo?

Another one is the powerfield thing. It's super good and no other dropship has this kind of unique thing, it is super.

Also Warp prism dropping ht's or warping in dt's are an extremly good harass option, which cant be compared to anything really.

Warp prism can be used in all kind of ways, it's just that protoss players dosn't use it enough. Late game it is super good imo.

My thoughts on it is Medivac -> Warp prism -> Overlord.

Nothing imbalanced with this thou
Rest in Piece
Striding Strider
Profile Joined February 2011
United Kingdom787 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 21:52:30
May 02 2011 21:51 GMT
#27
The main problem in my opinion is that it interferes with Observer/Immortal/Collosus production. All vital units used throughout most games.

The Robotics Facility is just too busy.
I have a beard. I'm unprofessional.
Fuego
Profile Joined April 2011
United Kingdom166 Posts
May 02 2011 21:52 GMT
#28
I think they key here is it not having armour and being slow as hell. Yes there is a speed upgrade, but that will always come after Thermal Lance anyways, so it's always going to be a fairly late game option. If they had the armour/HP buff to make their slow speed viable in the mid game then we would see a lot more use from them.

I'm messing around with a 2 immortal drop to pick off add ons on barracks at the moment, pretty fun and quirky but very difficult to pull off without speed. I'm trying to increase my micro to warp in sentries to FF the ramp while doing this but a lot of times I fail and almost lose/do lose my prism with immortals
talecK
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada35 Posts
May 02 2011 21:52 GMT
#29
On May 03 2011 06:46 NicolBolas wrote:
All of these points could be used against the Shuttle from SC1.

Really, the only reason you don't see more Prism usage is because of the lack of a droppable unit that can do serious damage. There's no equivalent to a Reaver (the primary thing people carried in Shuttles). Immortal drops would be strong at picking off tech structures quickly, but that's about it. Storm drops still work, but that's pretty late-game stuff.


Essentially this and theres no reason for protoss to drop at this point. Toss generally wins head on engagements on an army vs army basis. Terran or Zerg can't really win head on engagements vs toss so they need to use drops for harassment to gain an edge. Blink stalkers, phoenixes and lowground / high ground pylon warping fullfill the same sort of role as drops for protoss.

As the game evolves toss players may find themselves needing to work drops into their builds but atm it wouldn't really matter how cheap / buffed a warp prism got it wouldn't be seen much more than now.
Tomer
Profile Joined June 2009
United States105 Posts
May 02 2011 21:53 GMT
#30
Regarding point 3, part of the reason drops are effective in the first place is that they allow you to do damage and then save the units. Because the warp prism can't carry many units you can't warp in many units during a drop and keep them all alive.

On May 03 2011 06:46 NicolBolas wrote:
All of these points could be used against the Shuttle from SC1.

Really, the only reason you don't see more Prism usage is because of the lack of a droppable unit that can do serious damage. There's no equivalent to a Reaver (the primary thing people carried in Shuttles). Immortal drops would be strong at picking off tech structures quickly, but that's about it. Storm drops still work, but that's pretty late-game stuff.


I think that this is also relevant to warp prism use.
pig-dude
Profile Joined March 2011
United States170 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 22:04:00
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#31
Absent here is discussion of relative speed. With Gravitic Drive, warp prisms have speed of 3.375, which is far faster than the Medivac's 2.5 or the Overlord with Pneumatic Carapace's 1.87. Before the upgrade, Prisms still match the Medivac with 2.5 speed.
TheBanana
Profile Joined December 2010
Norway2183 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 21:58:49
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#32
Warping chargelots into enemy mineral lines is my favorite thing to do in the game.

People should do it more, it's very satisfying.


Actually all my 3 favorite things in the game is done with warp prism.
The other two being DT drops/warp ins and Immortal drops with warped in backup.
If you're not getting better faster than everybody else, you're getting worse.
Surili
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom1141 Posts
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#33
I would also like to add that protoss units (that are likely to be dropped early in the game) are not good at killing workers, making the change of a cost efficient drop very low. On top of which, in terran and zerg air to air (which are built in more or less every game against protoss (to combat the collosus)) make it even more likely that drops will fail. What is more we don't have overlords spotting or the possibility of sensor towers.

Don't think that i think this is unbalanced however, i am very much in support of race asymmetry, which is what made SC a great game, and the play styles of the three races and been deviating more and more recently, so i like the idea that protoss is the race that one does not wish to face straight up (which in most games in the case) but needs to be forced out of position.

The advantage we do have is in late game drops however, with warp prism speed (which makes it far and away the fastest dropship), and the ability to warp in many units at once as the number of warp gates increases, i would like to see more drops be done then perhaps?

Good OP,
Surili
The world is ending what should we do about it?
CanadianSCgamer
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada64 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-02 21:57:06
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#34
First off, thanks for taking the time to write this up. Your analysis is very accurate, but really adds nothing new to what most people already know, including the Prism's robustness, build time, opportunity costs, etc.

I don't like the disclaimer about "not a balance discussion" because I feel like if you're going to compare any aspect of any race to another, it naturally becomes a balance discussion. I suggest you change it to discourage "balance whining and QQ," since that more accurately addresses what you're trying to prevent.

Finally, since this IS a balance discussion, I would like to point out one big reason the Warp Prism isn't used that you missed. Simply put, it isn't needed. The Protoss ball becomes so strong at defending and attacking that Protoss players essentially do not need to harass to keep themselves ahead in the game, unless coming from a deficit. The assumption of course is that he/she is able to macro efficiently in the first place. On the other hand, Zergs absolutely need drops, either bling mineral line drops or roach drops, in order to play dominantly because they cannot confront the Protoss army head on. It is the same case for Terrans because they need to gain an advantage due to the main army not being as strong.

The balance part of the discussion is that currently in SC2, the macro mechanics of each race are almost EQUALLY strong, so when unhindered, all 3 can macro to 200/200 fairly quickly. There comes the problem when 200/200 armies of each race ARE NOT equal in strength. Zerg and Terrans need to do something "extra" to gain those advantages lost in total army strength.

*****Cut to the chase*****

Protoss's standard play is strong, so they don't really need for drop play to equalize the game or gain an advantage. Therefore the Warp Prism is not used. This is most likely the main reason rather than the more minor flaws, such as low health points and opportunity costs of producing at the Robo Facility.
ShamTao
Profile Joined September 2010
United States419 Posts
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#35
What's important to note is that warp prisms are less expensive than medivacs. 100 gas is a fair amount to throw up, so the fact they can heal and have more health makes complete sense to me. The bigger problem is the time it takes to make at the Robo - however, note that this can be somewhat averted if the player is going for colossus tech- if the player already has a suitable amount of observers, a WP can be made within the time it takes to create the Robotics Support Bay. I've used this time most often in PvP to make a warp prism to drop harass an opponent if being contained (which is an effective strategy if properly employed).
In the game of drones, you win or you die!
ClysmiC
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States2192 Posts
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#36
NASL spoiler (Tyler v Socke)
+ Show Spoiler +
Tyler did a sick warp-prism/immortal/warp-in unit timing attack vs Socke in NASL last night. It would've won him the game if he micro'd his immortals better, instead of letting them get picked off by the zealots.


I'd really like to see more of that kind of play. But I don't see much practicality in warp prism play besides unexpected timing attacks with them.
adius
Profile Joined May 2007
United States249 Posts
May 02 2011 21:54 GMT
#37
The typical protoss unit comps work especially well when all the units are concentrated in one spot. The other races' units are stronger in smaller engagements, relatively speaking.
Enervate
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1769 Posts
May 02 2011 21:55 GMT
#38
I think it's because a pylon is a better alternative to a warp prism. Units aren't at risk, way cheaper, and provides supply. The only negative is that you can't exactly place one in your opponent's base, but you can put it nearby, and warp in units like that.
Moofadoobada
Profile Joined February 2011
United States266 Posts
May 02 2011 21:55 GMT
#39
When you say the cost is an issue, I have trouble agreeing with you. Protoss units are all very expensive..true, but when the protoss user is going for a very gas heavy army (which is almost always) is 200 minerals for a dropship, and basically mobile pylon to warp in essentially anywhere on the map that expensive?

Otherwise I think we can relate the lack of warp prism usage to the lack of total understanding from the game so far. Right now we have Protoss with great turtling ability and great 200/200 food power, but once this style starts fading away toss will look to use other ways of getting ahead, and drops could be a huge part of that.
Cajun2k1
Profile Joined May 2010
Netherlands399 Posts
May 02 2011 21:55 GMT
#40
A little thing you could add is that for Zerg drops to work, speed has to be researched as well for overlords, which makes the tech cost 300/300 total (100/100 speed, 200/200 ventrical sacs). But that doesn't really affect your arguments. I do agree that toss could make more use of the warp prism, but as the game stands now, there's no real need for it, because Protoss army's are most effective when they're bunched up. However, I think that something like a 4 zealot drop in a mineral line could do a lot of damage to the opponents economy.
How can you kill, that which has no life?
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