[Suggestion] Feedback Upgrade

General Discussion
1

Originally, Feedback was a soft-counter to Medivac drops if the Terran player was neglectful in artificially reducing its energy prior to attacking. Even if the Medivac wasn’t destroyed, it was often damaged enough that it could then be shot down with Stalkers, and similarly could be used to remove Vipers from the fight, which otherwise remain too far behind the front lines to really get hurt by any follow-up attack (as long as you don’t rush them forward with “Select all army”).

Rather than suggest just reverting the damage Feedback used to do (it used to do damage equal to the energy removed - now it only deals half damage), I would like to suggest a late-game upgrade that restores the damage and hence is a bigger tech commitment if you intend to use it to counter multi-pronged drops or heavy Viper or Infestor play.

Twilight Focus - Researched at Templar Archives, costs 150m 150g, takes ~71 seconds (100 units) to complete. Damage caused by Feedback increased by 100% (so 1 energy = 1 HP, up from 0.5 HP)

If possible, I would suggest giving the Feedback visual effect a red glow to indicate to opponents that it’s upgraded.

(The name is based on the fact that Feedback was originally a Dark Archon spell, implying that High Templars are learning to tap into the powers of the Void - thus with Twilight Focus, they seek to learn both disciplines in tandem, as Tassadar did)

Being on the Templar Archives, it competes with Psionic Storm, so is not something you can get quickly, and you definitely want to get storm first in most situations - the only exception is possibly when you’re dealing with a lot of enemy Phoenixes.

Thoughts?

(Possible additional restriction, if its timing needs to be kept in check or otherwise provide a bigger tell for the opponent… requires Dark Shrine, due to the High/Dark duality of Feedback)

7 Likes
2

It would be an excellent idea. It will help a lot in PvZ with Vipers/Infestors and in PvT in several directions. Considering that the main Templat counter -Ghost: recently received a 80% buff, one would consider this option long overdue.
+1000000

3

I don’t see the need for a new research, it’s stupid that it was nerfed to begin with.

It’s not like Protoss had been dominating everybody through the mass usage of feedback LEL.

4

Mass Feedback doesn’t dominate, no, but it provides some much needed support against Medivacs, Vipers and Phoenixes (and the latter is fine because Twilight is supposed to counter Stargate, and Robotics counters Twilight, which still holds because none of the Robo units have energy). Of course, if Feedback damage was reverted back to 100% from the beginning, then yes, there would be no need for this upgrade.

I just seek to find a compromise and build from there.

1 Like
5

I understand your point of course, I just don’t see the need to “compromise”, the fact the spell got nerfed so hard is ridiculous.

How often did feedback actually kill a unit? And considering that even at full damage, it’s almost always better to use HT energy for storm, even less so.

Still the inbred team decided the spell was so dominant and OP that it needed a 50%(!!) Nerf. They’re not interested in your compromise, their bias is tangible.

2 Likes
6

The full-power Feedback I found most useful against Vipers, since they would usually be at full energy, and for softening up an incoming Medivac drop. It had some use against Overseers as well, which was otherwise a very beefy mobile detector that didn’t use its abilities as often as they should (although they can dump their energy into Changelings in a flash).

The other one, which isn’t a concern now, is that it often insta-killed Infestors, but since mass Infestor isn’t a thing now, that isn’t a huge concern and it could be argued that the full-damage Feedback won’t affect things here.

Brood War was different because a lot of spellcasters were quite fragile, so Feedback was a very nice spell, albeit on a much more expensive unit: things like Medics, High Templars, (Brood) Queens and Defilers were favoured targets. In StarCraft II, most spellcasters have quite a bit more HP.

7

Infestor Rip, Viper Rip, Raven Rip

8

Member when you had to EMP medivacs so they wouldn’t get instagibbed when dropping? I member.

1 Like
9

Good point, it feels useless because vipers get transfused and recharge energy and 10 seconds later you are back to stage one and EMP has longer range plus the radius advantage

10

They can try a non-lethal type of FB:

FB deals 2HP points for 1 energy up to the target remaining 5HP.
This FB can’t kill a thing but on the other hand deals a great deal of damage.

11

The irony of your post is, that’s often more or less what happened with the original FB anyway.

2 Likes
12

My issues with the current feedback is that it costs too much and does too little. A feedback is 50 energy, so its 2/3 of a storm. That usually makes it unused except in the late game where you feedback vipers. But other than that, its kinda bad.

3 Likes
13

Yea, up to a certain point. It would be still better than the current one. Very few players use the current iteration because for 25 more energy they can do more damage and in AOE with Storm.
Current FB would be balanced only if it would be changed from single-target to an AOE spell.