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A look at the Raven's role in TvZ - Page 7

Forum Index > SC2 General
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shadymmj
Profile Joined June 2010
1906 Posts
October 22 2010 04:12 GMT
#121
still far too slow...mutas will dodge it. and anything else will just tank it, while minimising splash damage. on the other hand 2 successive storms will wipe out a huge amount of zerg.
There is no such thing is "e-sports". There is Brood War, and then there is crap for nerds.
ROOTheognis
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States4482 Posts
October 22 2010 04:15 GMT
#122
I agree with the HSM not being cost effective atm. A single siege tank shot has roughly around the same amount of splash on banelings as a HSM does.
It is ideally best vs mutas but yea.... really slow to get energy up to 125 and wastes starport build time.;/
If you avoid your weakness, it will remain your weakness. www.twitter.com/#!/rootheognis Follow me!
drdovetalk
Profile Joined September 2010
Singapore27 Posts
October 22 2010 04:35 GMT
#123
Low diamond (1200) zerg here. I recently got pwned by a 2-base mass raven + marine. It was a really fun match and i hope to see more of these builds soon. I attribute part of the loss to shock factor from seein this build, but I definitely agree that it feels well thought out and could be a very solid anti-zerg build.

I normally go FE -> ling -> fast infestor -> bling -> ultra. No mutas for me until I am approaching the 150 supply mark. I like early infestors because with good micro/creep and sling/bling, you can decimate a terran push that is 3 times your army value before they reach your base.

The raven-massing terran opened with early dual gas and dual starports. As my infestors popped, 2 banshees and 2 ravens came, which I fended off easily with FG and queens.

I normally keep a low bling count since I feel that they should be morphed only if necessary. Then the turning point came. 6 ravens and a ton of marines starting marching in just as my ultras were being made. The marines wouldn't normally be a problem with infestor/bling, but they held back while the ravens flew over a chasm, dropped ~15 auto turrets inside my base and flew off. The ball of 150hp turrets proved too much for my lings to take on and I was trying to reserve the banes for the potential marine push.A decent amount of dmg was done to my tech buildings and eco before the ultras popped to mop up the turrets. I was trying to FG and IT-snipe the ravens but getting close was a real problem as more turrets were being dropped and the marine threat loomed closer. My 2-base gas income had to be split between more infestors (to get more FGs off the ravens) and ultras + armor upgrade to take out the turrets. The creep I had earlier spread halfway cross the map has been killed off and I scout forward. Ultras eventually fell because their armor was not high enough to deflect most of the autoturret damage. Eventually I was contained to 2 base as ravens massed. Starved out and GG.

On reflection, I felt that I should have switched from ultras to hydras (1 ultra = 4 hydras of gas) and used some blings on the clumped turrets to break a safe path for my infestors and hydras to get at the ravens. This way, it might have been possible to snipe down the ravens faster after a good FG. Perhaps a way against mass raven/marine is to go for a little more infestors (FG the ravens/marines), spend some gas on hydras to snipe FGed ravens (say 10 hydras?) and the rest into ling/bling in a 3:1 ratio. Conserve a little gas to tech to ultra since ravens are helpless against them. Once you break the mid-game push, you got a decent window to expand because ravens take a long time to build and u need only fear a critical mass of ravens. If the Terran tries the same push after that, go aggressive with Ultras at the front. With high armor, ultras barely take damage from marines and autoturrets.
mardi
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1164 Posts
October 22 2010 04:45 GMT
#124
i've found that 1 or 2 ravens can shut down zerg expansions in the late game. 1 or 2 ravens drop down some auto turrets around a hatchery w/o spine crawlers and that expo is down.
MrArarat
Profile Joined September 2010
Argentina132 Posts
November 03 2010 20:07 GMT
#125
I feel safe, if a raven or two, are roaming by my main army, or even in the back, with the SCV's...
Resting on the mountain side...
TedJustice
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Canada1324 Posts
November 03 2010 20:14 GMT
#126
Is it possible for a raven to launch a point defense drone and then a seeker missile right afterwards?

If not, I guess ravens are intended to be used in large numbers, unless you just have one for PDDs and detection.
starckr
Profile Joined September 2010
26 Posts
November 03 2010 20:16 GMT
#127
I think it's the build time more than anything. I don't even know their exact build times, but I would definitely be more open to making them if they didn't take up my starport production for a seeming eternity.
NikonTC
Profile Joined September 2010
United Kingdom418 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-03 20:29:53
November 03 2010 20:24 GMT
#128
Inappropriate post edited out.
"IdrA crushes the marine push, absolutely demolishes this 2 rax play. Would not be suprised to see a GG from IdrA at any moment" Day[9]
out4blood
Profile Joined July 2010
United States313 Posts
November 03 2010 20:32 GMT
#129
1 Raven is easily cost effective just for the anti-creep capability. If you save just one scan, you have already paid for your Raven.
http://sc2sig.com/s/us/1228872-1.png?1290726543
adius
Profile Joined May 2007
United States249 Posts
November 03 2010 20:33 GMT
#130
At the very least you should make one raven when you can in order to blast creep while saving CC energy for mules. Blasting creep constantly is really important for maintaining pressure while keeping your marines from dying to banelings, don't you think? Also nullifies burrowed banelings. The auto turrets provide a perfectly fine means for your raven to contribute to a battle that doesn't involve a lot of ranged zerg units, and you can sorta zone with them a little.
Hider
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Denmark9433 Posts
November 03 2010 20:44 GMT
#131
On November 04 2010 05:32 out4blood wrote:
1 Raven is easily cost effective just for the anti-creep capability. If you save just one scan, you have already paid for your Raven.


Ehm. Given that you need tech lab as well for raven. 1 raven = 4-6 scans.
adius
Profile Joined May 2007
United States249 Posts
November 03 2010 20:52 GMT
#132
On November 04 2010 05:44 Hider wrote:

Ehm. Given that you need tech lab as well for raven. 1 raven = 4-6 scans.


You can make banshees or medivacs out of it before and/or after the raven.
Smigi
Profile Joined April 2010
United States328 Posts
November 03 2010 20:57 GMT
#133
This reminds me of the infestor back in the day.

No one made it, everyone just massed muta+bling and hydra roach.

Now its a staple unit.

First off, aside from being a spellcaster, ITS A DETECTOR AS WELL.
PDD Is AMAZING in TvP and TvT.
Auto Turret is a nice compliment, can harass, Stop mining at expansions(or own mineral lines lol)or make last ditch defense from attacks.
HSM is the only thing that I feel needs to be reduced from 125 to 75, the spell is fine, it just hasnt been experimented enough in ZvT and PvT. HSM one hits Banelings, Sentries, High templar, Infestors, Ghosts ect.
People think HSM should be the terran psionic storm, its not, its ment to snipe or harass high priority units. I do agree that the cost of HSM energy wise is a little ridiculous, And I do agree that at its current energy cvost its not worth it, but reducing to 75 would make it a great spell.
Drone then Own
R0YAL
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States1768 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-03 21:09:01
November 03 2010 21:05 GMT
#134
On October 21 2010 17:01 Nazza wrote:
Seeker Missile - "Let's make an ability that people can RUN AWAY FROM!"

Once the SM gets close enough it accelerates and is impossible to escape from. Everything that can hit the Raven for Zerg is eaten up by PDD. You can drop a PDD to get close and then BOOM. There are also situations where you would want your opponent to run away such as breaking a contain, so thats another way to use them.
Going Marine + Medivac + Raven would be the best combo imo for strength per cost. It would make a very strong drop forces. If you had 3 groups of 3 medivacs all full of marines with 1 or 2 ravens escorting then you could execute a very powerful triple drop that would be very difficult for any Zerg to handle. This is my vision for future TvZ. The biggest reason for lack of Ravens and their SM vZ in my eyes is the infestors neural parasite. Sniping infestors will be a very high priority for Terrans in the future. This kind of plays biggest weakness would be a counterattack, luckily Planetary Fortresses exist
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
SichuanPanda
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1542 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-03 21:19:13
November 03 2010 21:15 GMT
#135
I keep hearing people say HSM is slow, doesn't hit targets, is easy to dodge, I think they are just not casting it properly. If you cast HSM from a distance obviously people will see it easily and run away. The clumping of units in SC2 should make HSM very easy to use and very effective, and if cast properly it is. Basically you must fly the raven to with 1 to 2 range (the max cast range being 6) of the unit you wish to target, and then use the shift-queue commands to safely get the Raven away, the key sequence of while holding shift, move command near the unit, press R to select HSM, left-click target, right-click safe location will cause the Raven to run up near the unit, fire the HSM, and run away. The Raven will likely take some splash damage from the HSM but it will not kill it. Specifically people say the Raven is underused in TvZ well I'd say that it is purely because Terran wants to play exactly like they did in BW, and don't give the HSM a chance. I'd say its far more cost-effective to suicide (only if need be) a 100/200 Raven to AOE nuke 15 Mutalisks than it is to pump out a 300/200 Thor and 1000s of minerals of Marines to handle them as well. By simply getting that one Raven to take down all of the Mutalisks to very low HP quickly, not only can the Terran shut down the Mutalisk harass faster overall, but in the long run will spend less on other Mutalisks defenes.

TL:DR - If you cast the HSM from close enough range it may hurt or even kill the Raven, but you can guarantee it will hit its target. Placing an HSM correctly in an SC2 unit ball even if it kills the Raven will do cost effective damage. Considering the reduced damage on Tank attacks, it could be even more effective than it once was.
i-bonjwa
Logo
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States7542 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-03 21:17:29
November 03 2010 21:17 GMT
#136
I think people underestimate the effect SM. It's actually really really fucking good in a bubble. Meaning if you have an SM heading towards something it's fucking awesome.

1. It's good damage with a pretty reasonable splash radius. That damage does not get reduced by anything like armor which is a nice benefit.
2. It denies a HUGE amount of space. A SM, when it's non-obvious what the intended target is, denies space in a radius that's pretty significant. It's not like storm that only denies a small area of it's actual damage. A pack of units targeted by SM have to run away or perpendicular to seeker missile, almost 180 degrees of movement is immediately denied for the pack of units.

Now there are problems with SM and I would put them like this...

1. Energy too much. DO NOT FIX THIS. SM is incredibly powerful and 2 SMs or 1 SM + PDD from 1 raven would be way too much.
2. Upgrades too expensive. This is the #1 problem imo. You pretty much need the boosted starting energy to cast SM so that's 300/300 to really get much out of SM. I'd like to see one, or both of the upgrades dropped to 100/100 and maybe reduce research time. SM is not as powerful as warp + storm, it should be more reachable. This is especially true with the 3rd SM related upgrade to increase its flight time that's also 150/150.
3. Range too short. While I don't think 9 range would be balanced, 6 range is ridiculous. There's almost no way for a raven to safely cast SM. Range 7 or 8 would help this spell tremendously.
4. Splash drop off a little too harsh. With the 2.4->2.0 range decrease the 1x damage radius should be boosted to something like .8 so it's 0-.8 = 1x, .8-1.6=.5, 1.6-2=.25 rather than what we have now.

As for ZvT ravens can be really strong. They deny creep and auto-turrets are really useful in battle for their ability to restrict space and tank damage. This is especially true when facing something like banelings where the Zerg player needs to be able to navigate around the turrets without taking heavy losses.
Logo
SichuanPanda
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1542 Posts
November 03 2010 21:22 GMT
#137
On November 04 2010 06:17 Logo wrote:
I think people underestimate the effect SM. It's actually really really fucking good in a bubble. Meaning if you have an SM heading towards something it's fucking awesome.

1. It's good damage with a pretty reasonable splash radius. That damage does not get reduced by anything like armor which is a nice benefit.
2. It denies a HUGE amount of space. A SM, when it's non-obvious what the intended target is, denies space in a radius that's pretty significant. It's not like storm that only denies a small area of it's actual damage. A pack of units targeted by SM have to run away or perpendicular to seeker missile, almost 180 degrees of movement is immediately denied for the pack of units.

Now there are problems with SM and I would put them like this...

1. Energy too much. DO NOT FIX THIS. SM is incredibly powerful and 2 SMs or 1 SM + PDD from 1 raven would be way too much.
2. Upgrades too expensive. This is the #1 problem imo. You pretty much need the boosted starting energy to cast SM so that's 300/300 to really get much out of SM. I'd like to see one, or both of the upgrades dropped to 100/100 and maybe reduce research time. SM is not as powerful as warp + storm, it should be more reachable. This is especially true with the 3rd SM related upgrade to increase its flight time that's also 150/150.
3. Range too short. While I don't think 9 range would be balanced, 6 range is ridiculous. There's almost no way for a raven to safely cast SM. Range 7 or 8 would help this spell tremendously.
4. Splash drop off a little too harsh. With the 2.4->2.0 range decrease the 1x damage radius should be boosted to something like .8 so it's 0-.8 = 1x, .8-1.6=.5, 1.6-2=.25 rather than what we have now.

As for ZvT ravens can be really strong. They deny creep and auto-turrets are really useful in battle for their ability to restrict space and tank damage. This is especially true when facing something like banelings where the Zerg player needs to be able to navigate around the turrets without taking heavy losses.


Auto-turret harass on out-lying Zerg bases not only slows their expanding, but can actually help to keep them from going out and harassing you. The turrets with upgrade have a 240 second timer, that means the opponent Zerg or otherwise HAS to come and deal with them, or let them kill everything where they were dropped. The game is young still and tons of harass, micro, and unit control trick have yet to be found. I really wish people would not dismiss spells/units as useless just because we haven't YET found a use.
i-bonjwa
yoplate
Profile Joined August 2010
United States332 Posts
November 03 2010 21:45 GMT
#138
PDD is an AMAZING ability in TvP and TvT, if you have the gas to get some ravens, PDD can make your vikings beat their vikings, or can negate stalkers entirely. I have not found a use for them in TvZ, as thors are much better against mutas, and I feel like banshees come out sooner and are better in general than ravens.
SichuanPanda
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada1542 Posts
November 03 2010 21:59 GMT
#139
On November 04 2010 06:45 yoplate wrote:
PDD is an AMAZING ability in TvP and TvT, if you have the gas to get some ravens, PDD can make your vikings beat their vikings, or can negate stalkers entirely. I have not found a use for them in TvZ, as thors are much better against mutas, and I feel like banshees come out sooner and are better in general than ravens.


They definitely are a niche unit but for those of us that remember, Sci Vessels and their current use in BW took a very long time to fully develop. I'm sure we should expect nothing less from the Raven.
i-bonjwa
out4blood
Profile Joined July 2010
United States313 Posts
November 03 2010 22:51 GMT
#140
On November 04 2010 05:44 Hider wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 04 2010 05:32 out4blood wrote:
1 Raven is easily cost effective just for the anti-creep capability. If you save just one scan, you have already paid for your Raven.


Ehm. Given that you need tech lab as well for raven. 1 raven = 4-6 scans.

LOLWUT?!

Tech lab is 50/25. How do you figure that is worth 1200-1800 minerals?!
http://sc2sig.com/s/us/1228872-1.png?1290726543
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