The Blizzcon Thread.

[Kerensky287]

Originally Posted by Gregness

EDIT: I'm also kind of bummed that reapers are having their vs building attack removed in favor of HP regen because about half the time I use them it's to snipe tech buildings. This is more of a sidegrade though, since this will make them better at harassing workers.

I actually like this idea, because reapers were sort of impossible to balance previously. They were either useless, or gamebreaking T1 then useless T2-onward.

Now that they don't have to worry about somebody getting enough reapers to 1-shot buildings, they can focus on keeping them as harassment/hit-and-run units, and HP regen is a great step forward in that regard.

Protoss Oracles seem interesting to me in a lot of ways, but their building observation ability strikes me as utterly useless. For one, they're stargate units, which means they're T2. By tier 2, you've probably got a good idea of your opponent's build/army comp. For another, being able to see what one structure builds doesn't help much, especially if it's a limited-time ability.

Replicants are a cool idea but they'll probably be gamebreaking until Blizzard can find a good way to balance them. Build 1 Colossus, then start replicating it, and you get an army of cheap Colossi with all upgrades pre-purchased. I do want to see what it'd be like to use infestors in my protoss army, and Protoss + Medivacs seems like a ridiculous combination, but I'm skeptical about how it will all play out.

[Azisien]

Replicants can't turn into massive units. It would be cheaper to just build Colossi. Which is not to say there will not be balance issues. New units introduced will ALWAYS cause balance issues. I've used medivacs to support Protoss allies in 2v2s, it's pretty fun.

[synkr0nized]

lolderans

Looks kind of dumb, to be honest, but *shrug*.
Some of the changes to the talent system could be neat, though.

[Gregness]

Originally Posted by Kerensky287

I actually like this idea, because reapers were sort of impossible to balance previously. They were either useless, or gamebreaking T1 then useless T2-onward.

Now that they don't have to worry about somebody getting enough reapers to 1-shot buildings, they can focus on keeping them as harassment/hit-and-run units, and HP regen is a great step forward in that regard.

*snip*

Actually, I was having quite a lot of success with them in their current state as a mid-lategame option. In TvZ I've been getting lots of ghosts/hellions/marauders and since I have 8-10 barracks with tech labs in the late game, rather than go out of my way to get a starport and medivacs so I could drop, it's much easier to just research reaper speed and slam out one production cycle of reapers. There's basically no reasonable amount of static defense that can stop 8 reapers.

Essentially, the reason they're not used much is because 90% of terrans just do marine drops to harass so there's not a niche for them to fill. For those of us using different styles, they're a good option.