I’m doing Swann’s P3, and it’s sort of pushing me to try out Thors. However, at the end of the day, I’d still rather make Gollies instead, and suffer the extra micro with carting them around via Hercules.
Any situations where Thors are better? Not expecting to completely replace them, but then how many do ppl usually make? I guess I should wait until I have Immortality Protocol for one. With their 330mm Barrage Cannon, I guess that helps them get some AG (Anti-ground) firepower that Tanks have?
Not gonna lie. They are hard to get a lot out of. I also want someone to tell me what’s their best way to use them.
Playing Thors well is a sign of a good Swann player. Playing Thors anything less than well is a sign of a poor Swann player.
That’s enough of a situation for me and serves quite the important alternative function, imo lol.
All the time. Much more durable. More damage. More range.
I only ever use Thors on defensive maps, where I’d be able to bottleneck enemies en mass like zombies, capitalizing with their Barrage ability. Beyond that? Beats me, really. x3
Thors have much better AG than Goliaths and better against clumps of light air. Goliaths are better against armored air.
I guess the strongest Swann’s composition is Tank/Goliath and if you’re good with it, you won’t find Thors very useful, because Tanks can cover AG role of Thors even better and Goliaths are not bad even against light air. But for me constantly repositioning Tanks is pain in the back, so I usually go Thor/Hellbat on non-defensive missions if know there won’t be a lot of heavy armored air.
A few Thors are great vs mutas, phoenix, etc. They’re just so darn slow to move.
Make sure you have double armory going. Get the range upgrade first. Gives them 10 ground range. They annihilate ground.
Once you get enough of them, upgraded and then eventually add sci vessels, it’s about pulling back the low health ones and not trying to lose any. You can even bring scvs to repair from the back line.
Just start out mass hellions so you’re saving all the gas for the armories. Make 2 factories.
I use them in combo with Hellbats v swarmy zerg. The Thors have more light aa range (for vipers/scourge), and are less mineral heavy (so more hellbats on the front line)
Their biggest problem is that they share the same targets as siege tanks, namely killing ground armies really well. However, they do bring a lot of durability to the equation, can fend off LIGHT air (don’t try to shoot BC’s with them) and can still push into bases fairly well.
The big thing you have to ask yourself if, can you effectively use BARRAGE? If so, you can decimate entire ground attack waves with only a few well placed barrages. Barrage has the same range as siege tanks, and can be a great counter to enemy siege tanks. Due to the slowing properties of barrage, they also have an easier time killing immortals, since you can kill them before they even get into range to fire. Even a single Thor in the beginning of the game can destroy an entire attack wave with a well placed barrage. Even better if backed up with some SCV’s to do free repairs in the early part of the game while pushing.
So, some quick suggestions for using Thor’s:
-Learn to use barrage effectively.
-Don’t build mass thor’s against air comps. You CAN get away with it against zerg flyers though.
-Do NOT drop them inside enemy formations. Drop them off in front of, then talk toward the enemy. This will allow best use of barrage and range.
-Make sure your thor’s aren’t shooting big air units. It’s just wasted shots. Either micro the Lazor or your goliaths to shoot down big air units.
With proper micro, positioning, and good use of barrage, you can go whole games without losing a single one. Of course, the same can be said about Herc/tank, but they have 2 different play styles that achieve the same goal, killing ground enemies before they get a chance to shoot back.
P.S. Personally, I still prefer Herc/tank with P3 and use thor’s more on his other prestiges. But that’s just me.
You can usually rely on the drill to take down any air problems. If not, mix in a few wraiths if needed.
why not make Barrage autocast or non-channeling
Problem with making barrage auto cast is the set up time. Without leading your targets, the barrage will more than likely miss. Plus overkill as 4 Thor’s target that one Zergling than that ran ahead of the pack.
As for non channeling… It would be better, but not as rewarding. Being able to calculate in your head the trajectory of the enemy, velocity, and whether they’re gonna stop for a second or not makes it that much more rewarding. Or end in tragedy as you miss that pack of banelings and they plummet right into your immobile Thor… Not that it could outrun them anyways. Plus the setting up animation and watching the cannons blaze away is so satisfying.
Clearly you haven’t used the barrage in a very long time. It hasn’t been properly documented but the setup time has become near instant, so barrage is almost like a channeled psionic storm. An autocast would be very accurate, but siege tanks are already very accurate so it wouldn’t be very useful.
An example of where barrage really shines is the moment just before hybrid dominators spawn together with a ton of other units which is very easy to time in scythe of amon, especially with p3.
Goliaths are superior if you have to babysit a wacko pilot rushing through the map (Malwarfare, Scythe of Amon bonus), but when YOU decide when things move (Cradle of Death, Chain of Ascension), getting the muscles out seems a more viable good idea.
That’s why the range upgrade helps them so much. They fire from so far away. Work on some stutter stepping to make sure the ones in the back fire too. They destroy the shards and the thrashers really fast. Any objective.
Why only build toward 1 unit when you can amass multiple type for every situation ?
Just go Thor and Hellbat at first then add Goliath to the mix to get 1 hell of a cocktail 
Besides, Thor en mass is somehow make you a good Swann player, gas = Thor immortality, can handle almost everything except Flying Hybrid (get some Goliath) and insta-kill ability
I am probably one of the few that enjoy p3 because i can just be lazy and load up another herc with thors and have strong ground and aa solutions to most problems anywhere on the map. Thors being slow is actually a benefit in this case because they don’t wander off too far so i can herc hop them like with sieged tanks. Goliaths are like a herd of cats, and much more squishy.
meh just make it into a Terran version of psionic storm and instead of constant stun make it do a 0.0001 ministun every 0.5-1 seconds
Thor versus air units are strong against zergs (extra light dmg).
But I always have a handful of thors out for tanking because of Immortal Protocol. My build is usually Thor / Goliaths vs air comp and Thor / Tanks / Goliath vs Ground Comp.
EDIT: When I face banelings / scourge comp, I only build Thors. When banelings are rushing at you, use barrage in front of your Thors before they can hits you. Goliaths would just die …
Having at least 5-6 Thors gives you the ability to wipe out ground waves, almost like having pulse cannon (only target ground) every minute. But for P3, tanks are better, load / unload it’s so much easier and fast.