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[G] Shield Battery

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
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Shade[AoV]
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States43 Posts
March 18 2011 06:51 GMT
#1
So I made the "Shield Battery" Liquipedia page x100 longer, and here it is, a guide.

Overview
The Shield Battery is a rarely used defensive building which can repair the shields of an injured Protoss unit. It generates energy which can be quickly converted into shield hit points on nearby units, either a single unit or a group. When constructed it starts with 100 energy, each energy point can heal two shield points. Unlike the medic's heal, the unit receiving the shield recovery cannot move or attack while it happens. To the majority of Starcraft players, the Shield Battery is a mysterious and misunderstood building.

Useages
Because of their low cost they can be effective in supporting carriers and archons, both of which can take a lot of shield damage. They are also sometimes used in PvP early game when a defender needs to hold his base against a greater number of zealots. Because of their lack of mobility they are most useful when placed in direct support of a defensive position, such as at the top of a ramp the player is trying to defend. In very rare cases a protoss player proxying a pylon near an opponent's base will proxy a Shield Battery to make the attack more powerful.

On maps where starting locations are close to each other, like on hunters, you can build a Shield Battery to help you contain an enemy.

Shield Battery useages are situational, meaning that you can't often predict using them beyond the spur of the moment, an example being when you expect a tough fight. It is not viable to put Shield Batteries well in advance and to plan on using it. Because going both Photon Cannon and Shield Battery is overkill, you have to opt for one or the other. Opting for a Photon Cannon with range will also enable you to use the required Forge for a +1 upgrade to two hit kill Zerglings. Photon Cannons may be better defense overall than Shield Batteries, however you may not have adequate time to make them. If this happends to be the case, you should opt for the Shield Battery when you don't have time to make the Pylon, Forge, and Cannons. A Forge takes 50 seconds to morph in, and then you have to build Photon Cannons that take another 50 seconds each. A Shield Battery only takes 30 seconds to morph in, which is about a minute faster than making a single Photon Cannon.

As defense, Shield Batteries aren't effective to use on units being attacked by heavy damage dealers. In the amount of time the unit spends not attacking and charging, he may lose more than the regained Shields. This is a reason why they aren't extremely effective in the late game. In the late game it may not be worth it to use on units when you have too many and cannot take them out of combat for enough time to recharge. Also, it may be ineffective to use a Shield Battery since you will only be able to recharge a limited amount of units in your maxed out army.

When pairing a Shield Battery with Archons or any other unit, you have the disadvantage of having to bring the unit away from the fight to the Shield Battery. You will have to wait for a stop in the fighting to take your units back to the Shield Battery.

On certain maps, Shield Batteries become even more viable. On maps without a geyser at the first expansion, like Nostalgia, you will not be able to make the large amount of gas intensive units that are so crucial. You may want to preserve Archons, Reavers, High Templars, and Dragoons; And in doing so, it may be as effective as having another of those units. In island games, where gas is also limited due to difficult to obtain expansions and where air units and dropping is more common, Shield Batteries become more viable as well.

A Dragoon or two with a Shield Battery can be used in combination with Micro to great effect against many Marines. You may need several Shield Batteries to recharge a large amount of your own Carriers. You may benefit from using a Shield Battery in defensive PvZ situations where you use it with a Reaver to hold off an all-in enemy. Corsairs, as well, can benefit from the Shield Battery recharge. In PvT and PvZ and PvP, a Protoss can benefit from having a Shield Battery in aiding his Shuttle/Reaver harass. Low shields on Shuttles or Reavers can be recharged. After a fast expansion, you may benefit from a Shield Battery while being behind on numbers of units.

2v2 Useages
You may opt for getting a Shield Battery in 2v2 when you have a Zerg ally since you won't need the detection Photon Cannons offer. In fact, Shield Batteries are more viable in 2v2 games. You may need to hold your ramp as long as possible while your ally's painfully slow Marines or Zealots come to your aid. In conclusion, in 2v2 Shield Batteries are more viable than in 1v1 because there are more "spur of the moments" in games when you may need them, and you may need to hold off the enemy until your ally arrives to help you.

A Shield Battery can be used in conjunction with just about any other unit. Although it requires more clicking around, they can help you fortify a defending location. However just like the previous paragraph mentioned, they aren't terribly viable in 1v1 but in a 2v2 they can really help you defend both you and a teammate, especially with a couple archons with them.

Archons and a Shield Battery are particularly effective against masses of Zerglings. A couple Archons being used in conjunction with a Shield Battery at your ramp will rack up dozens of kills against two Zerg opponents massing Zerglings. If you Fast Expand, you may want to put another Shield Battery at the Expansion so you don't have to retreat back to the original. Also, a Shield Battery can be placed near your mineral line, for your Archons, if you anticipate Mutalisks.

Methods to use the Shield Battery
There are three methods to using the Shield Battery. 1) You can use the Shield Battery on an empty area near your own units to recharge multiple units at a time. 2) You can use the Shield Battery on individual units. 3) Finally, You can select the desired units and then click on the Shield Battery.

If you use the Shield Battery on any units out of range, however little the amount, they will have to stop attacking and walk back to the Shield Battery. Whenever you use the Shield Battery to recharge units, all units targeted will have to stop attacking while being recharged. This may have a bad outcome for you when you are being attacked on your ramp. An alternative is only targeting the weakest units. Perhaps the most effective method is pulling the wounded units out of the line to the rear to recharge and regroup later. One should note using the Shield Battery on a unit results in it losing its hold position. Zealots can be lured away by Zerglings.
POWEROUTAGE
Profile Joined February 2010
Singapore884 Posts
March 18 2011 07:06 GMT
#2
Complementary ballin' with shield battery VOD:
Stats. The new standard bearer of the protoss.
flamewheel
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-18 07:07:37
March 18 2011 07:07 GMT
#3
Nice guide^^
I never really thought too much of Shield Batteries, so I definitely learned something here. Especially in 2v2s--this'll help me in my efforts to defend quite a bit.

Ah, and POWEROUTAGE stole my edit :[
Writerdamn, i was two days from retirement
malady
Profile Joined November 2010
United States600 Posts
March 18 2011 07:14 GMT
#4
there was a recent PVP where bisu used a shield battery to defend against shuttle/reaver
but the game has slipped my mind
dumchu
vectorix108
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States4633 Posts
March 18 2011 07:17 GMT
#5
wow this is really cool. Its one of the things I miss in SC2. Thanks for the guide!
Aka XephyR/Shaneyesss
DarkPlasmaBall
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States44195 Posts
March 18 2011 07:23 GMT
#6
On March 18 2011 16:06 POWEROUTAGE wrote:
Complementary ballin' with shield battery VOD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG1U25luMOA&feature=player_embedded


WOW. What a baller game.
"There is nothing more satisfying than looking at a crowd of people and helping them get what I love." ~Day[9] Daily #100
ArvickHero
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
10387 Posts
March 18 2011 07:32 GMT
#7
When I feel BM and I have a lot of Carriers and a huge advantage, I build a bunch of Shield Batteries near an area I'm going to attack and use an exorbitant amount Shield Batteries to make the Carriers invincible
Writerptrk
Nyovne
Profile Joined March 2006
Netherlands19133 Posts
March 18 2011 07:55 GMT
#8
Stratguidiments!
ModeratorFor remember, that in the end, some are born to live, others born to die. I belong to those last, born to burn, born to cry. For I shall remain alone... forsaken.
YejinYejin
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States1053 Posts
March 18 2011 08:13 GMT
#9
Nice guide. Also, consider mentioning the offensive shield battery if you're proxying 2 gates and you NEED your zealots to do damage, or if you proxied your robo in PvP, and went reaver first without shuttle. Then you can proxy a shield battery outside your opponent's natural, and bring the reaver up to the battery.

Just some interesting situational stuff.

I used to use them to hold my ramp against protosses who 2 gated vs my 1 gate tech. Now I play Terran. :D
안지호
TheNessman
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States4158 Posts
March 18 2011 08:13 GMT
#10
Great post! Thanks a lot, it WAS very mysterious to me, until now. hahah Thanks for helping out the liquid wiki!
~~! youtube.com/xmungam1 !~~
Spazer
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Canada8031 Posts
March 18 2011 08:19 GMT
#11
On March 18 2011 17:13 DTK-m2 wrote:
Nice guide. Also, consider mentioning the offensive shield battery if you're proxying 2 gates and you NEED your zealots to do damage, or if you proxied your robo in PvP, and went reaver first without shuttle. Then you can proxy a shield battery outside your opponent's natural, and bring the reaver up to the battery.

Just some interesting situational stuff.

I used to use them to hold my ramp against protosses who 2 gated vs my 1 gate tech. Now I play Terran. :D



Such an awesome game.
Liquipedia
Raii
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Philippines194 Posts
March 18 2011 08:19 GMT
#12
I remember the time I actually won a game because of a shield battery keeping my archon alive lol

Awesome guide! I hope Protoss players do not overlook this baller and extremely clutch building.
Interesting comeback. How long did it take you make one?
anatem
Profile Joined September 2010
Romania1369 Posts
March 18 2011 09:04 GMT
#13
talk about a godly goon

as for the proxy gate zealot rush with battery, this was pretty good, they both used it to micro battle

'Tis with our Judgements as our Watches, none / Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
aimaimaim
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Philippines2167 Posts
March 18 2011 09:12 GMT
#14
This is a really awesome building for Carrier builds in 2v2s and 3v3s :D
Religion is a dying idea .. || 'E-sport' outside Korea are nerds who wants to feel like rockstars. || I'm not gonna fuck with trolls on General Forum ever again .. FUCK!
YejinYejin
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States1053 Posts
March 18 2011 09:16 GMT
#15
On March 18 2011 17:19 Spazer wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 18 2011 17:13 DTK-m2 wrote:
Nice guide. Also, consider mentioning the offensive shield battery if you're proxying 2 gates and you NEED your zealots to do damage, or if you proxied your robo in PvP, and went reaver first without shuttle. Then you can proxy a shield battery outside your opponent's natural, and bring the reaver up to the battery.

Just some interesting situational stuff.

I used to use them to hold my ramp against protosses who 2 gated vs my 1 gate tech. Now I play Terran. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDxhjkWU-1Q

Such an awesome game.


This is the exact reason I switched from P to T. PvZ and PvT were fine, but that mirror match-up makes absolutely no sense to me. How can he build 20 cannons and still live for so long? And he doesn't expand, so he contains, and then stays on the same # of bases as his opponent? And as soon as Sun breaks out, he... double expands???

You try shit like this in TvT and you get your ass handed to you
안지호
Navane
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Netherlands2748 Posts
March 18 2011 09:59 GMT
#16
What about life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery?
EquilasH
Profile Joined April 2009
Denmark2142 Posts
March 18 2011 11:09 GMT
#17
On March 18 2011 18:59 Navane wrote:
What about life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery?

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=8733 For anyone who doesn't know what he's referring to - it's a must-read.
wat
AnxiousHippo
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Australia1451 Posts
March 18 2011 11:25 GMT
#18
Great post!
An apple a day keeps the Protoss away | TLHF
Sayle
Profile Joined October 2010
United Kingdom3685 Posts
March 18 2011 12:59 GMT
#19
Sorry, but I didn't really gain much from this. You gave a bunch of general situations where they might be useful but didn't back anything up with examples from replays or VODs. In 1v1s, shield batteries are probably used the most to augment a proxy 2gate rush, but you only made a passing mention of that. You also wrote a long paragraph comparing them to cannons in PvZ, but never made a real conclusion besides "they warp in faster". Are you suggesting it's somehow viable to use shield batteries instead of cannons in a standard FE build?

Regarding 2v2s, I think I've seen a shield battery once in all of the games I've watched. This includes many pro 2v2s (when it was still used in Proleague) and of course all the games I've casted of top 2v2 teams (like Bella + Semih). You mention that they might be thrown down "while your ally's painfully slow Marines or Zealots come to your aid". This implies that you're either playing P/P or P/T, which are almost never seen in top level 2v2s due exactly to the fact that zerg has so much early mobility.

The only decent point I think is the one about maps with mineral-only natural expansions. I've never played a game on these maps so I can't speak from experience, but what you're saying about using the extra minerals to support your valuable gas units does make sense. On the other hand, I'd probably just make more gateways/zealots. There's also the fact that nobody uses those maps any more.

As I said before, I think the most common use for shield batteries is to support a proxy gateway zealot attack, and also in a few specific defensive situations (1gate tech vs 2gate, sair/reaver vs hydra bust). Other than that, they might be used spectacularly in 1 game out of 1000 as shown in those VODs, but overall I wouldn't recommend using them in normal play.
CCa1ss1e
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada3231 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-18 13:10:56
March 18 2011 13:10 GMT
#20
If this happends to be the case..

*happens

A Forge takes 50 seconds to morph

*better to say warp in? (protoss structures).


interesting though, love seeing defensive batteries in progames.

XD
~ The Ultimate Weapon
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