Look, I think we all know that Warp Prisms are going to get nerfed. They are way too powerful in every match up right now and I think that’s pretty much a consensus at the highest levels.
The question is, HOW are they going to get nerfed? Maynarde said something in the In Depth chat the other night that I’ve been thinking about and I rather like, so I figured I’d share it.
His suggestion was to: Increase the Deployment and Redeployment animation time by 0.5 to 1 second
I like this idea a lot. I love the Warp Prism as a tool for micromanagement and for harassment. The problem with it is that it can do all of that and then be an even bigger threat when its deployed because of Warp Ins. I think for as powerful as it is in that role, it should be a bigger commitment for a Protoss to use it that way. By increasing the deployment time, a Protoss is taking a bigger risk in deploying it and will have a harder time protecting it. It gives Terrans and Zergs (and other Protoss players too) more opportunity to eliminate it.
I think this is a more elegant solution to the power of the Prism than just nerfing its pick up range.
But this pick up micro is typical for Protoss. Let them do this, its fun to watch. What is reall issue with WP is that it ignores defender advantage with Enhanced Warp field. Combined with Chargelots, even small push do job well, if not deadly.
I think it’s a decent solution but can’t say I love it. I’ve been thinking about it recently, so I will post my own ideas here:
If warp-in gets cancelled, units that are being called will be wasted.
Why? Because WP is a huge threat, just like, say double drop can be a huge threat. But double drop can be lost, if you don’t drop a scan in enemy’s main. There should be a scenario when reckless use of WP causes a big waste for protoss IMO.
Another solution:
WP needs time to accelerate to its full speed and vis a versa.
Personally, I see many advantages of this solution over increased time for switching between transport and phase modes.
Maynarde’s solution will make WP very vulnerable to Ravagers. I don’t even think there will be enough time for protoss to react to biles. Plus, there will be less time to implement WP micro between warp ins. Finally, and most importantly, there will be scenarios when you lose your WP not because you can’t react in time, but because you can’t predict near events perfectly.
That, and if a warp is cancelled all Nexus energy is reset to 0. Better, if a WP is killed, the last built-Nexus explodes spontaneously…
All this Terran/Zerg noise against a perfectly balanced unit resembles to an Organisation of Burglars that try to pass on Parlament a Law that gives financial rewards to burglars and thiefs caught red-handed!
After they are done with Prism their next target will be…the Probe.
Fixing the WP is simple. Get rid of the 6 pick up range and make it 3 again.
All dropships should have the same pick up range, which means the same risk and same micro potential. So either make all dropships have 6 pick up range or remove the 6 pick up range on the warp prism.
Right now with WP’s you can sit the WP back at 6 range and pick up units with no threat ever to the WP, even more so with the speed upgrade. This is like Tankivac all over again since you can give immortals and archons essentially free blink.
All P warp-ins should waste units being killed insted of only putting them on CD and refunding money. Its such powerful mechanic, that has literally 0 threat to hurt Protoss when being missused and punishes enemy if they dont target fire warping-in units.
The problem is not the micro, you and I both agree with that. The problem is that the reinforcements that the Warp Prism can warp in make the unit extremely deadly in every situation. The suggestion that Maynard suggested would make the Prism riskier to use as a warp in point and would open more counter play from opponents. That’s the kind of solution I like.
Honestly what I find advantageous in the wp drop (and nydus too) respect to medivac is that if I commit with a huge drop as Terrans and i make something wrong, I got the risk to lose all my troops committed with the drop on board of the medivacs. While Protoss can decide to warp in or not until the last moment, and if he committs and something goes wrong, he/she only lose warp gate cycles. Losing the money would be another story.
However I would not apply this rule to warp in general, because otherwise for Protoss would be gg as soon as the opponent is in range of base pylons.
Warprism pickup is just tankivac 2.0 it is also is really good against roach ravager since you can instantly just pick up and move away against biles and juggle units to avoid projectile attacks. Also just like tankivac it technically not op but it is just frustrating to play/watch against.
What exactly would nerfing the deployment do? It sounds like another lets nerf the research times of protoss upgrades while ignoring the actual problem.
When I see a stupid post defending Protoss imbalance against all odds - for some reason I don’t even need to look for the author to know it is Gooba.
Why is that?
The proposed transformation timer change will have marginal effect on the current ZvP problem of all-ins. Prism can just deploy outside of creep and there is nothing early-game Zerg can do about it.
Deploying outside creep means it cant be used as a micromanagement tool for immortals.
The problem with the current Warp Prism is that it can juggle units AND bring in reinforcements all with one unit, and it can switch between those uses easily. Nerfing the ability to switch back and forth between those roles nerfs the safety of using it in both ways. As a warp in point off creep the Warp Prism isn’t an issue. The issue isn’t that the Warp Prism can be either a warp in point or a fast drop ship that can help micro Immortals and Archons. The issue with the Warp Prism is that does both of those things.
What if the speed of the Warp Prism was slowed down a bit, and the extended pick up range was only active when the Prism is in phase mode? It would make it still a pretty versatile unit but make it more vulnerable when trying to do the fancy micro.
Also I don’t agree that killing the Prism that is warping in units should cost the units. Killing the prism means that you need to use time on the robo. If you kill a medivac, a reactor will make sure they can still pump them out while making vikings if they have too. Slow the Warp Prism down and make it easier to kill would be penalty enough.
I’m going to assume the guy saying put it’s pickup back to 3 is the easiest option. Is there some reason it needs 6 range pickup? Is there some specific strategy that must be around for. It could be reduced to 3 and give it some way to compensate for specifics.
Having it not be able to warp in units that don’t have pylon power would make sense. Didn’t that used to be the case in older version?
That or don’t nerf it and buff other things to give counters. How about giving back the zergs ability to get all overlords drop abilities with as single upgrade!! 8D
Deployed warp prisms shouldn’t even be able to load units. Right now Protoss can have cake and eat it when it comes to using the WP as both a pick up, dropship and a pylon field.