• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:44
CEST 10:44
KST 17:44
  • 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 EWC 202532Tournament Spotlight: FEL Cracow 20259Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202580RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15
Community News
[BSL 2025] H2 - Team Wars, Weeklies & SB Ladder8EWC 2025 - Replay Pack4Google Play ASL (Season 20) Announced38BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams10Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0
StarCraft 2
General
Classic: "It's a thick wall to break through to become world champ" Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings Serral wins EWC 2025 EWC 2025 - Replay Pack
Tourneys
Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) TaeJa vs Creator Bo7 SC Evo Showmatch Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $10,000 live event Esports World Cup 2025
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 484 Magnetic Pull Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL BW General Discussion [BSL 2025] H2 - Team Wars, Weeklies & SB Ladder Brood War web app to calculate unit interactions
Tourneys
Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL] Non-Korean Championship - Final weekend [BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China
Strategy
Does 1 second matter in StarCraft? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Beyond All Reason Total Annihilation Server - TAForever [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok)
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Gtx660 graphics card replacement Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Link Between Fitness and…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Eight Anniversary as a TL…
Mizenhauer
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 551 users

ghosts drops

Forum Index > Closed
Post a Reply
comet1
Profile Joined May 2012
United States24 Posts
August 11 2012 21:08 GMT
#1
This has been posted about 1 time before in very little depth 2 months ago.

[quote="63079039934"]Hello, this is an idea that came to my head yesterday about my favorite unit the ghost. eveen though the ghost has been nerfed (heavily) it is far from useless in any matchups. I beleive this is a clever way to use an underutilized unit.

----The Power of Snipe----

Assuming all ghosts are at 200 energy. (it is the late game) snipe is 25 damage 25 energy insta cast spell that means 8 snipes a ghost. a drone takes 2 snipes to kill. so if you are doing the same math that I am doing, that is 16 drone kills! instantly! that is enough to level a whole mining base. I had to take this idea to the unit tester.

----The Unit Tester----

here I was in the unit tester. it worked exactly how I had expected, I compared it to other harrasment units ( marines and BF hellions) and ghosts were heavily superior. but through further thought there are some weakness to this strategy.

----Weaknesses----
This strategy is late game only, even in the late game if you lose the dropship you are put far behind. Because it is so crucial to keep the dropship alive you should only do this when you know were his army is, always scan ahead to your dropsite to keep sure there isn't a couple of corrupters or mutas waiting there for you. this strategy is also completly void if there are 2 or more spine crawlers there. when looking at the weaknesses I also realized the strengths.

----The Strength----
This is very good agenst infestor based compositions, espicaily Infestor broodlord. you can snipe the infestors before they get in range of your dropship for a fungle. It is also a great way to get back into a game 1 successful drop can cripple your opponent and put you on equal footing if you were behind. The surprise factor also helps you greatly. There is one more way the Ghost can be used for the extremly late game.

---Nuclear Launch Detected----
If his army is on the other side of the map dropping a ghost into his main and nuking the larvae can help greatly agenst a remax.

sorry that i got a little sloppy at the end of writing this post

Would love to have some higher leagued players to try this out agenst zerg.[/quote]
Whatever you do in life, do it the very best you can with both your heart and mind. - Excerpt from Lakota Instructions for Living. passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
101toss
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
3232 Posts
August 11 2012 21:09 GMT
#2
4 ghosts? I'd rather have 2 thors
Math doesn't kill champions and neither do wards
comet1
Profile Joined May 2012
United States24 Posts
August 11 2012 21:10 GMT
#3
This is supposed to be high risk high reward for the extremely late game. The idea is that you don't lose the drop ship either thought a Viking escort, a scan ahead and knowing exactly were his army is.
Whatever you do in life, do it the very best you can with both your heart and mind. - Excerpt from Lakota Instructions for Living. passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
comet1
Profile Joined May 2012
United States24 Posts
August 11 2012 21:12 GMT
#4
Thors would get you very few drone kills, thors are very useful for sniping an expansion late game. But that's not what this thread is about.
Whatever you do in life, do it the very best you can with both your heart and mind. - Excerpt from Lakota Instructions for Living. passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
nyoken
Profile Blog Joined February 2003
United States100 Posts
August 11 2012 21:18 GMT
#5
why would you use snipe when you can 2 shot drones w/ ghosts anyways? also "extremely late game" zerg doesn't care about 15 drones
chuky500
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
France473 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-11 21:25:12
August 11 2012 21:22 GMT
#6
I also thought about it but it's hard to do. I think it might be doable earlier in TvP if you spend an emp on probes and then snipe them, but you have to be really fast.

Maybe after the 2 rax ghost build MKP (was it him ?) was doing a long time ago. It was powerful against the immortals Protoss were doing at this time but then Protoss started rushing colossus and it didn't work anymore. Protoss usually go for fast HT nowadays so I can see this build working again. You could transition with medivacs and drop your ghosts.
comet1
Profile Joined May 2012
United States24 Posts
August 11 2012 21:23 GMT
#7
It takes time to time to remake those drones, you income will be severely weekend for about a minute. If you can pull this off a coup,e of times it can make a huge diffrence. 45 larvae and 1050 minerals is a lot for any race. That is a remix of larvae right there.
Whatever you do in life, do it the very best you can with both your heart and mind. - Excerpt from Lakota Instructions for Living. passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
Phisk
Profile Joined June 2010
166 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-11 21:27:41
August 11 2012 21:23 GMT
#8
How can you snipe infestors to prevent fungals when you just blew all your energy on sniping drones...? The risk vs reward ratio is also way worse than standard marine drops or blue flame helllion drops. You can also just take the marines and hellions to the next base while ghosts will have to wait for 200 energy before you do it again.

EdiT:
I also thought about it but it's hard to do. I think it might be doable earlier in TvP if you spend an emp on probes and then snipe them, but you have to be really fast.


Aren't probes non-bio? So you shouldn't be able to snipe them...
TheGreenMachine
Profile Joined March 2010
United States730 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-11 21:28:05
August 11 2012 21:25 GMT
#9
How long does it take for 1 dropship with 8 marines with 3/3 to kill 16 drones? Not that long lol. And its a fraction of the price and a fraction of the apm.

The only benefit is the nuke which is a very different kind of drop.

Heres some math for you:

Lets say both zerg and terran have 3/3. So 3 armor drones and 6+3 damage marines = 6 damage per shot vs drones

40/6 = 7 hits to kill a drone. 16 drones in 7 hits each is 112 hits

8 marines do 112 hits in how long?

1 marine does 1 hit per 0.8608 seconds or every 0.5738 seconds when stimmed
8 marines do 1 hit per 0.1076 seconds or every 0.0717 seconds when stimmed

112x0.1076= 12.05 game seconds
112x0.0717= 8.03 game seconds when stimmed

AND there are almost always more than 16 drones at a base
AND a ghost drop is much more expensive
AND a ghost drop involves a LOT more apm and attention
AND a ghost drop requires attention to pick out full energy ghosts where any marine would work
AND marines have opportunity to kill a hatch or rallied zerglings if using micro

Don't do ghost drops unless you are nuking. AND if you are nuking don't use 4 ghosts to drop 1 nuke
Don't forget to get everyone you know to play HOTS so this game we love called Starcraft will live on. Every little bit helps. ^^
Whatson
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States5356 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-11 21:27:30
August 11 2012 21:27 GMT
#10
The only reason a ghost drop would be better than a standard 8marine drop is for nukes. And why in the actual hell would you snipe a drone when you can two shot it. And stimmed marines have higher DPS anyways.
¯\_(シ)_/¯
monk
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States8476 Posts
August 11 2012 21:30 GMT
#11
Please read the strategy forum guidelines. This really isn't very close to what we expect from topics.
Moderator
comet1
Profile Joined May 2012
United States24 Posts
August 11 2012 21:30 GMT
#12
Again the idea of the ghost drop is it deosnt allow time for a drone pull it is instantaneous. When's the last time a marine drop has killed 16 drones without the Zerg making a major mistake. Also you should never lose the drop. So therefore the drop cost 0 gas 0 minerals. You are basically trading energy for larvae and drones if you do it right.
Whatever you do in life, do it the very best you can with both your heart and mind. - Excerpt from Lakota Instructions for Living. passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 7h 16m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
Larva 707
Nal_rA 603
TY 339
Mong 227
Jaedong 160
Killer 144
PianO 133
BeSt 112
EffOrt 96
Sacsri 30
[ Show more ]
Sharp 25
hero 24
Free 18
Bale 14
sorry 9
Hm[arnc] 7
ggaemo 2
Dota 2
XaKoH 287
XcaliburYe197
ODPixel77
League of Legends
JimRising 657
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K929
olofmeister577
shoxiejesuss572
Super Smash Bros
Westballz24
Other Games
summit1g8017
singsing1143
ceh9526
SortOf118
crisheroes68
Happy0
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH334
• davetesta21
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota269
Upcoming Events
WardiTV European League
7h 16m
MaNa vs NightPhoenix
ByuN vs YoungYakov
ShoWTimE vs Nicoract
Harstem vs ArT
Korean StarCraft League
18h 16m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 1h
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 3h
Mihu vs QiaoGege
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs TBD
WardiTV European League
1d 7h
Online Event
1d 9h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
Bonyth vs TBD
WardiTV European League
2 days
Wardi Open
3 days
[ Show More ]
OSC
3 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 20 Non-Korean Championship
FEL Cracow 2025
Underdog Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
CC Div. A S7
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025

Upcoming

ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
WardiTV Summer 2025
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
HCC Europe
CAC 2025
Roobet Cup 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
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 © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.