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Which unit gives the most utility for cost?

Forum Index > SC2 General
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AaBbCc
Profile Joined February 2016
New Zealand110 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-02 08:19:57
September 01 2018 11:51 GMT
#1
In your opinion, which unit (other than workers ofc!) grants the ‘most’ to player for its cost?

This isn’t necessarily just about cost efficiency or DPS or but the overall utility/power gained for the resources invested. The answer will of course depend on the match up / the stage of the game, when it first becomes available and any tech/upgrade investment required. Similarly, consideration must be given for units that require higher numbers to be powerful.

To illulstrate - marines are often cited as ‘best unit’ and for good reason (low cost/low supply/T1/high DPS/attack ground and air) but because they need numbers, research +/- upgrades (not to mention medicavs) before they are that powerful. One vanilla marine for 50 minerals doesn’t represent a lot of utility and the actual cost (infrastructure aside) of their deadly utility is much higher.

For my answer, I’d argue that the warp prism has got to be up there. For 200 minerals (and 0 gas!) the player gains ability to quickly deploy anywhere on the map, with a cooldown-less defensive blink for 8 supply. It is available quite early and and gives the player the potential to initiate and counter attack.

Or perhaps it’s the queen? Or the Oracle?

I’d love to see what others think if anyone can be arsed to share their thoughts.

Edit For fun, how about across all the iterations of the game? WoL: the Infestor? Pre-nerf BF hellions, HoTS: MSC?
Life is a meaningless interruption to an otherwise peaceful non-existence.
virpi
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Germany3599 Posts
September 01 2018 12:03 GMT
#2
Definitely the queen. Injects, creep spread, base defense, blocking, heals, attacking utility in some allin builds. Best zerg unit period.
first we make expand, then we defense it.
Jasper_Ty
Profile Joined July 2017
101 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-01 12:27:10
September 01 2018 12:26 GMT
#3
Probably workers

edit: I can't read

Other than workers, I guess it's queens?
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16021 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-01 13:04:52
September 01 2018 13:03 GMT
#4
High Templar

no other unit is that valuable in fights against almost every composition
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
September 01 2018 13:03 GMT
#5
Queens have to be up there, other then that zerglins are probably the most versatile unit in the game being super cheap extremely fast and useful at almost any point in the game. You don't necessarily need other unit to complement them,you also don't need to invest in any infrastructure to get them apart from getting speed and they are pretty larva friendly. They also have one of the best micro potential in the game, 20 lings can win you almost any game at any time if you are able to find the hole in the opponent defence or get a good surround.

Sentries could also be consider, although they are way less useful in LOTV than in earlier expansion, one sentrie can do a lot by itself. Same goes for DT, they are good but not as good as they were before the 12 workers starts.

Outside of that phoenix are also pretty great at everything but you need a bunch of them and they are supper expensive so maybe not the same goes for carrier by far the best unit in the game to have but super expensive.

Other then that I think we can all agree that BC is the worst unit in the game, cost a shit load, need a huge infrastructure swap and can't do anything by itself unless you have like 10 of them, also they take a lot of supply.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
FrkFrJss
Profile Joined April 2015
Canada1205 Posts
September 01 2018 13:54 GMT
#6
On September 01 2018 20:51 AaBbCc wrote:
For my answer, I’d argue that the warp prism has got to be up there. For 200 minerals (and 0 gas!) the player gains ability to quickly deploy anywhere on the map, with a cooldown-less defensive blink for 8 supply. It is available quite early and and gives the player the potential to initiate and counter attack.

The warp prism is definitely one of the most versatile units for Protoss, but remember that they need warp gate research, the actual gates to warp from, and the actual units to warp in. In the same way that marines represent a lot of tech behind them, the warp prism is pretty useless without these parts of Protoss tech.

For Protoss, I would probably say the oracle would be up there. The ability to tag units over and over again if very, very useful, and stasis wards are very good at catching opponents unaware. There is basically no part of the game where the oracle isn't useful in some way or another.

For Terran, I would say Marines + stim (and of course barracks). Even 0/0 marines with stim are pretty good at killing most things in the game. Their small size and high dps in conjunction with stim means that, although they struggle against splash and armored units, they have the highest density of dps per area as well as the ability to act as a scout, harassment, raiding, and main army. Of course, they generally need the medivac to harass, but sometimes stimming marines and running them to the opponent's expansion can be very effective.

For Zerg, I would say the Queen. The queen is extremely important in spreading creep, very important in early game defense, and has the bulk of hp and lack of armour tags to deal with most early game threats. It has very nice AA dps for its tech level, and it only costs minerals, which means you can buy a lot of them in the midgame and late game.
"Keep Moving Forward" - Walt Disney
FarmI3oy
Profile Joined May 2011
United States255 Posts
September 01 2018 13:59 GMT
#7
Queen.

This isn't even a contest.
allmotor1
Profile Joined December 2017
153 Posts
September 01 2018 14:08 GMT
#8
I get what you guys are saying about Queen, but I disagree.

Good queen use is a absolute must for zerg to not just win but not to die period.

Zerg will die without injects much less good injects and zerg will die without creep spread. When I think of good utliity I think of a unit that has a higher skill ceiling and can be utilized by a player to win not just to NOT DIE. The queen is part of zerg in a way that chronoboost is part of protoss and mules for terran, I just don't see them as a normal unit.

For example, I agree warp prism is amazing for its costs, you basically get a blink, watching pros like parting do that and you see how scary it is, and good warp prism warp ins while the protoss is engaged elsewhere into a zerg's base for example are devastating.

I also think oracle is another candidate as, good oracle use is annoying as hell and with good timings and micro they can wreak havoc, such as freezing worker lines.

For terrans I'd say definitely marine and medivac, because of the high skill ceiling. Yea sure you have to upgrade marines, but marines are still very cheap as a unit and they are useless the entire game for the most part and a good T user with marine micro and constant drops gets so much value.

For zerg, I'd say its the zergling.
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-01 15:10:05
September 01 2018 15:09 GMT
#9
The concept of 'utility' is hard to pin down precisely, but I'd agree that the queen is the one with the most utility with the oracle being a distant second. The queen seems to be the unit that has to fulfill the most very different roles.
StarscreamG1
Profile Joined February 2011
Portugal1653 Posts
September 01 2018 15:14 GMT
#10
Queen, Warp prism, Marine, Zergling.
GreasedUpDeafGuy
Profile Joined August 2018
United States398 Posts
September 01 2018 19:51 GMT
#11
Marines
Cant catch me. You're wasting your time
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
September 01 2018 20:38 GMT
#12
Marines and then Queens. If queens would be fast walking off creep, marines wouildn't get a chance IMO
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
September 01 2018 20:42 GMT
#13
queen
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
SetGuitarsToKill
Profile Blog Joined December 2013
Canada28396 Posts
September 01 2018 21:02 GMT
#14
Queens are pretty much the all-purpose glue that holds Zerg together.
Community News"As long as you have a warp prism you can't be bad at harassment" - Maru | @SetGuitars2Kill
ReachTheSky
Profile Joined April 2010
United States3294 Posts
September 01 2018 21:04 GMT
#15
queens should also cost gas
TL+ Member
SetGuitarsToKill
Profile Blog Joined December 2013
Canada28396 Posts
September 01 2018 21:06 GMT
#16
On September 02 2018 06:04 ReachTheSky wrote:
queens should also cost gas

This kills the zerg
Community News"As long as you have a warp prism you can't be bad at harassment" - Maru | @SetGuitars2Kill
ReachTheSky
Profile Joined April 2010
United States3294 Posts
September 01 2018 23:12 GMT
#17
On September 02 2018 06:06 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 02 2018 06:04 ReachTheSky wrote:
queens should also cost gas

This kills the zerg


Would an added gas cost of 25 or 50 really kill zerg? I dunno. I definitely think it would be interesting to see how it would affect zerg builds and how many queens zergs produce throughout a game.
TL+ Member
Rodg_Chess
Profile Joined March 2018
3 Posts
September 01 2018 23:24 GMT
#18
No upgrades considered and in terms of utility, the queen and workers surely outdo everything else - upgrades considered it`s marines, zerglings and zealots, although marines even more so because they scale from shields and stim so much, especially combined with medivacs. Pretty sure you can make a good case for units like banelings, immortals and tanks too.
That's just my take on it, though.
terribleplayer1
Profile Joined July 2018
95 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-01 23:53:37
September 01 2018 23:51 GMT
#19
"would an added gas cost of 25 or 50 really kill zerg".

Wouldn't kill Z, but Im guessing we would be left with very few Zergs in the GSL. That's a humongous nerf.
I think at 50 gas you basically kill Zerg from the very top.

Zerg gets like 5-6 queens thats a ton of gas you have to harvest early which hurts your droning up speed considerably, imagine defending a 2-1-1 with queens being that expensive.


But on topic, yes I have to say it's the queen.
avilo
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States4100 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-02 00:07:52
September 02 2018 00:03 GMT
#20
Vipers give the most for their cost because a single viper can be worth 3 times it's own supply.

One viper is 3 supply. One blinding cloud can shut down 3 siege tanks, sometimes 5, which is equivalent to minimum 9 supply, maximum 15 supply.

A single viper at full energy can use two blinding clouds. One cloud can shut down 9-15 supply as said above. This means one single viper can shut down potentially 18-30 supply of an opponent's army. Two vipers at full energy can use 4 blinding clouds and theoretically shut down around 60 supply of tanks/lurkers/bio/etc. 6 supply can shut down 40+ supply of the opponent.

A viper can use one parasitic bomb, potentially killing 5-15 vikings if placed well, aka 10-30 supply theoretically.
The amount of combinations of abilities, double blinding cloud, double abduct, parasitic bomb, abduct + blinding cloud, with the ability to then re-use all of the vipers and regain energy through consuming buildings...makes the viper basically the best unit in the game.

2 vipers can theoretically shut down 10-30 supply themselves with just blinding clouds, or parasitic bombs on mass air.
On top of this, the viper is usable in every single match-up, with the worst match-up being ZvP due to feedbacks, but even then vipers are still usable.

The viper is the most cost efficient unit in the game for supply cost, resource cost, and for what it can theoretically do. There is no contest. No other unit comes close. Maybe the pre-nerf raven did, and potentially scrambler missile SOLELY in TvT could come close to the viper's efficiency, but then again, the viper still is uncontested because of it's usability in every match-up.
Sup
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