Recent change to Wraiths

Co-op Missions Discussion
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The most recent, non-credited, ghost fix/patch made wraiths functionally much better than before. While I don’t have the detailed notes on it, but my understanding was that previously the Burst-bonus had to reach a movement speed x, whereas now it is simply tied to stuttering steps? (Or perhaps that value has been decreased so low that essentially it is… again, I don’t have the exact details haha).

Point is though, seeing the change in their in-game in-practice damage output change (noted with a few friends using them here and there, but they seem to perform better than previously I remember). I gave them a few tries recently, and so far it has been a 3 for 3.

Most notably for me, compared to previously iterations of wraiths, this single change seem to make them quite a bit more viable. I’ve yet to come across every single compositions of course, but so far the results are promising. Here’s a most recent game done on OE:

https://file.io/n3nRRvs6cS5Q

The end game stats was something like 360 to 480 kills, 68k to 65k train damage. As my ally actively sought out enemies and pushed the west base as Vorazun P1 (off of 3 bases). The enemy composition was Classic Terran Mech (oh wait, or maybe just Terran Mech, either way… lol). Oh, I should also mention, it is done on 12-workers. I try to evaluate their relative true viability with that.

These tests so far mostly changed my perspective on how good Wraiths can be by comparison to their hotly debated cousin strategies: Herc/Tank and Cyclones. With some reservations at the moment (as it is early) but I’d almost put them all equal.

Edit: Oh happened to find the other 1 of 3 by chance. This one was on VP, almost a bit painful as I was down to 1 worker at the end… for… let’s just say reasons you’ll see in the replay lol.

https://file.io/Aoknn7BGW5HF

Assuming this was the correct replay, where I was Swann P0 12w, down to 1 worker at the end of the 19/20 crystals lol.

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The only one I’m aware of is when it went from “is using move command” to “has velocity”. I can’t think of any time they changed the minimum velocity though. :thinking:

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  • Pulse Amplifier buff condition on the Wraith’s Gemini Missiles depends on move command instead of unit speed

From Orphar’s post.

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Ooohhhh, so they set velocity for the atg laser, but missed the missiles. Or maybe they intended to do velocity, but didn’t do either. Who knows, either way, yup, definitely didn’t see that earlier. Heh.

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This change is just making it slightly easier to get the +100% damage on the Wraiths air-to-air attack right?

Probably puts Wraith in exactly the same spot as they were before: excellent except in any situation that they can be punished with splash damage. Which is most of the time. So, high risk, high reward unit comp.

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so let me get this straight. to get the damage bonus for the next attack you just need to give your wraiths the move command?

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Yeah, surprisingly this makes a noticeably difference for me (at least).

I’d say that’s half right. Yes, still high risk, high reward in that sense. The difference though is that many objectives end up being an air target, which meant using Wraiths to push them down is quite a bit more work (unlike OE’s trains). The move command part though (I feel applied to both the AG and AA attack, aka for the unit as a whole).

They are more prone to splash AoE spells cuz they are air units, but outside of that not any worse off. That ground burst against Hybrid Dominators are actually quite a bit stronger than most units can output (even compared to cyclones).

Essentially, but here’s the technical definition of Stutter Step:

**Stutter Step** is a technique where a unit is ordered to move right as its attack animation starts. This way it will deal damage but instantly start moving again, allowing it to keep up with fleeing units and attack again. This technique is most often employed by [Terran] players with [Marine] and [Marauder] compositions; however it can be used with nearly all ranged units. The only ranged units that do not benefit from Stutter Step micro are those with high rates of fire compared to their acceleration. The [Hydralisk] is an example of this, where [Attack move] is most ideal.

The damage output though (for information sake) are:

  • AA Gemini Missiles: 5 (+5 armor) x 2 x 200% = 20 (+20 armor), DPS = 40 / 1.25 = 32DPS.
  • AG Burst Lasers: 8 x 1 x 400% = 32, DPS = 32 / 1.25 = 25.6DPS.

That’s for each Wraith, where now presumably you can stutter step much easier than previously reaching some x acceleration (I can’t recall), but it has a 1.25 accel and a speed of 3.75. Based on a guess of what I recall of them, you’d have to reach a >2.5 ish speed to trigger this (as you can see, can take a lot longer than stutter step).

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In effect, yes. Basically if they have any movement when the attack hits, regardless of how or why, the bonus will kick in.

It used to be that when the attack hit the Wraith had to be using the move command (move icon on the command card lit up), now it’s just movement in general.

Before it was a very unreliable, now it’s quite easy to keep the bonus going as long as you use the above stutter step that Fearr mentioned. Basically, move command to empty space, then press the stop key or right click on a target and repeat, depending on the desired outcome: told to stop they will each fire at their highest priority target. The trick is to time the stops so they fire as close to their attack rate as possible. (though with the Wraiths, there’s going to be a lot of overkill from it)

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Come to thing of it, depending on the minimum velocity needed, you might be able to get the damage bonus from doing the setup of a magic box on top of a target as well. (at least the earlier parts of it :thinking:)

Actually, that’s both a waste and a good idea.

People talk about how vulnerable Wraith are to splash, but how many magic box before starting combat? It would also reduce the amount of overkill, since the Wraith would be spread out.

On the other hand, my original thought was to hit stop over a unit, and let the collision movement give the bonus. But that’s no better than stutter stepping, so meh.

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I would say “not surviving a Plasma Blast” makes them worse than air units that can survive 2+ (Carriers, BCs, Abathur Mutas with Biomass, Dehaka Mutas and Tempests). The ones that can’t survive 1 hit I avoid massing except in specific circumstances (kerrigan mutas, Wraith, Void Ray’s, Destroyers etc) as it can go downhill very quickly.

Despite that, Wraith are super fun when the opportunity allows and any little boost to then is appreciated.

How many supply of Wraith do you think is required to reliably kill a Dominator before it can Plasma Blast your Wraith?

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Didn’t really notice TBH when I was using them.

Wraith DPS has always been amazing when massed the problem has always been keeping them alive against splash damage and how much they stink in lower numbers.

So while it’s cool they get slightly better handling on their ground DPS it doesn’t really impact all that much.

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It probably depends on the pilot (player). I like to use Wraiths and actively work around Hybrids with Plasma Blast - Tactical Jump + Laser most of the time, or simply split Wraiths, or just the ARES on more alone Hybrids like on Part and Parcel. But once you have critical mass you just fly in and right click Hybrid and delete it.


I mass Wraiths as it’s the easiest comp if you prevent critical splash damage. They can take a few storms, so you have some breathing room.

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I tend to only really use them on Void Launch since their mobile anti-air is good for avoiding things like Nukes or other mutators when I pay attention to them.

There are other situations but that’s the primary thing I like them for is mobile anti-air.

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SWANN SWANN SWANN SWANN SWANN SWANN SWANN
Wraiths

It was annoying to not know which it is until the last paragraph (pre-edit).

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Wraiths are a fun unit but some things just hard counter them to oblivion.
Parasitic bomb, psi storms etc are extremely obnoxious to go against.

Very happy that this improvement to Wraiths has been implemented.
Kinda wish their “evasion” upgrade was changed to a flat health upgrade, since their biggest danger are spells - or perhaps their Cloak could give them bonus attack range, like Banshees get when cloaked.

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The biggest issue I’ve faced with Wraiths is actually vs Seeker Missile because it’s harder to see and if it detonates it does full damage. If it happens to detonate when my units are clumped up then it hurts bad.

On the other hand Wraiths are particularly good vs Tempests, and Battlecruisers because their damage vs high value targets is totally wasted.

So there’s some situational give and take. The problem with Swann though is that if you’re making Wraiths you can’t really pair them with anything because everything else Swann has is based on the ground or slow. Except for Cyclones, but good luck trying to micro both Wraiths and Cyclones separately, I tip my hat to the player who can do that on the regular, but that’s seriously more trouble than its worth.

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Not that many really? The math is pretty simple:

  • AG 32dmg (per burst, per wraith, as we want to count stutter step)
  • 1500 bulk from hybrid dominator, 3 second plasma blast charge up.
  • (1500 / 3) / 32 = 15.6 or ~16 wraiths

Most of the time you’ll be flying around with more than that. The exact number isn’t really all that important. Though I will mention that it is against infested structures on DoN.

You ok? Lost your marbles and found them I hope lol.

I actually quite like the cloak evasion in this case. One thing to note with wraiths is to target down the detectors. Let that cloak do it’s work. Sounds simple but the number of people I’ve seen use them like Herc/Tank… lol.

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