I always want Raven in my army, but if I go P1 I build Barrack/Factory first I would have very few Raven out before the game ends. If I build Starport first, I don’t feel like there’s enough support early on due to heavy gas cost on ships.
Unless Raven isn’t as useful as I think it is therefore not vital to have more than 1~2?
I just ignore the Raven and get the Mastery healing
I go by the guide on sc2coop, have +2/sec out of combat. Is that enough?
What you’ve described is exactly the problem of P1. It is very much self limiting from resource income rate to complimentary units (your Raven).
To answer though, no it isn’t necessarily useful or useless to have or not have. Mastery is one way around it for sure. Your better bet is proper use of drones for protection. So whether you have +0 or + 2, it really comes down to how well you control that engagement. It is enough to have none, but only if you can operate as such.
If I go Starport first on P1 I clear uncontested rocks with turrets. I micro-focus Nova (good suit swapping is key) and add in some airstrikes/drone where needed. I’m usually doing this to get mass libs (which mostly focus objectives) or having some fun with mass ravens.
Knowing the enemy comp and map is essential for using P1 well.
Unless it’s against mech air I personally find Starport pretty overrated, either Barracks or Factory hard counter the other comps for the most part. With some exceptions like Reaver heavy ground, the only time I really use air Nova with P1 is on maps like SoA and DoN.
Ghosts and Tanks just sweep too hard for healing and seeker missile micro to be worth it for me. Plus both structures have their own forms of healing if needed.
That said, since Starport is so gas heavy, early on make sure to use your minerals aggressively, either through air strikes or Marines/Hellbats (and Nova, of course).
Its +6 out of combat (with full mastery) 0.2 per mastery point.
Also Marines get in combat healing and allies can also grant in combat healing (Karax/Swann if Factory, Arcturus if Barracks, Abathur, Kerrigan, Raynor, Dehaka, Stettman)
Ravens can be nice with the missile spam, but since I prefer F2A type play, I save starports for ground comps
Personally, it depends upon the matchup and map. If I can make good use of Liberators and Banshees, then I’ll go Starport first. Otherwise, I won’t.
Having more than 2 Ravens is pretty much pointless, IMO. That’s 6 charges of each ability. Unless you’re cheesing or memeing in a game, going full air isn’t necessary very often.
Plus Factory units can also be repaired with the boys in combat if desired.
You rarely lose units as Nova, generally speaking. When you do lose units, I find it’s cuz I’ve f’d up already. And you end up losing more than 1 during that f up.
And there’s no amount of Raven healing or passive healing that’ll remediate that after. As such, I don’t really bother with using them for healing specifically. When I do get it, it’s mostly to quell the inner OCD of everyone looking healthy.
It’s not. Hell, I forget to make them from time to time (relying solely on Nova for detection)! I usually just go “mass” ground units. For healing, SCVs can be brought in to repair your mech units. I usually have 15pts to 5hp/s’ worth for mastery (although I’ve been experimenting going even less than that). Bonus if your ally can help with healing (e.g. Abathur’s Mend, Karax’ recon beam, Stetmann’s green stetzone).
That said, they do provide a suite of abilities that if properly utilized, can turn the tide of battles.
I do use Raven for more than just healing. I find turrets, for one, to be great distractor for both defense and offense. Occasionally I send a Raven to assist my teammate in their endeavor while keeping 2 around my army. Maybe because I constantly use them, I didn’t realize it has 6 charges on each ability max. O_O
That said, rather than saying that I want more than 2 Ravens. I’m hoping to have at least two as early as possible, which is why I was concern with the longer CD if I made Starport after Barrack/Factory. I ought to give P1 a try though.
Build Barracks until it reaches 95% and stop building it.
Build Starport and finish building Barracks.
Destroy rocks or eliminate enemies in expo and build expo. Gas first, CC later.
You can do everything with Nova, 2 Liberators, and 1 Raven in early-mid game. Enjoy.
Lmao, what does this have to do with anything at all regarding what OP or anyone is talking about?
For the most part you will have mostly 2 ravens up, 3 for longer maps if you didn’t build starport first. Not really a big deal for me but if you want to be comfortable in Ravens I suggest playing the other Prestiges. And it will hurt if you screw up and lose them early on so you also need good raven control for p1.
Generally I find having 2-3 Ravens by the end is ‘fine’, except when you’re up against something like Scourge that will beeline for them. Then again, even if 2-3 is fine, more is better! Nova’s ravens are very good even if you don’t need more healing - their Turrets and Seeker missiles can tank and clear waves if they clump up just right (or turrets + an airstrike of course). I haven’t been able to make P1 Starport first work however. It’s playable but it feels worse than Factory/Barracks/P0.
I actually liked the idea of changing P1 from ‘First structure built’ (which was a great change from Barracks only!) to some kind of special Chrono boost where Nova’s production structures are naturally 50% speed, and the Chrono boost speeds it up by 4x (from 50% to 200%, only works on her production structures). Effectively the same as we have now, but we can swap it around mid-game as needed/desired.
I think he meant that build a Barrack without completing it, just so I could use mean time to scout and see what enemies I’m facing, then decide to either finish constructing Barrack or start building another.
Though after playing with P1 I realize I start off with Factory in most scenarios because of how versatile it is (Firebat meatshield, Goliath anti-air, Tank anti-ground), then I use units from Barrack and Starport as fill in (Ghost for big zerg, Raven for support, etc). What do people think about it?
The correct way to approach p1, and when I say that I mean optimized, is to start barracks and factory/Starport relatively the same time. And definitely not do 95% barracks, figure out what’s what, then continue.
The whole point of the simultaneous construction is to reduce the lag time, as well as take advantage of the no-tech benefit. If a player basically makes Barracks then and only then decide to start up their factory or Starport, then you’ve wasted the benefit of no-tech already. This would make P1 no different than any other prestige tech timing. Thus leaving only the “more units portion” of the benefit.
Any P1 Nova worth their money will guarantee to tell you, you start the two basically the same time. Starport takes 50sec while Barracks takes 65sec (or so I recall). So you can do a 10sec ish match up delay. This way you can still get the Starport FIRST but have the ability to make static/marine if you so choose (for expansion or defence).
I go 14 gas, 15 gas. Start barracks at 50 gas. Start starport at 100 gas (should have around 17 or 18 scvs). Starport finishes first. Get tech lab.
So Barrack is kind of “required” regardless of which route I take, unless the matching is with Reavers?