Please don’t read the most into this, overall this thread is just a light touch suggestion to relative some things
I’m not talking of ground units. AFAI understood the VR speed was buffed recently to better deal with ground and not get as overwhelmed, so that’s intended.
But what about Air units of T and Z now, compared to new Voidray?!
Vikings seem really super slow now in comparison - again I’m not talking of making them as fast at all, but simply relativating the new gap… it is just too huge for a good strategy game IMHO.
Similar with Corruptors. Yes there is the don’t engage Charged-micro and stuff. But again I’m not talking of a drastic change to speed so Corruptors can easily do that and run away, BUT a small relativation so if you happen to play vs VR support that you can feel some control over your Corruptors. The gap again simply became too huge for good strategy game IMHO. New VR feel like Muta2.0.
That means the VR will keep their too high speed vs ground. But the normal Air play will be a bit better relativated for any game situation that can come up, be it more isle maps, and air shenanigans over empty space in Pro gamer 1v1 (or not to forget some fun modes by the way: Team games).
Blizzard, please cater the game more towards future game and gaming Quality, rather than only for current Korean-CodeS-Meta by giving these over-buffs.
As Artosis™ pointed out: Speed is the strongest buff a developer can do. Need an example? Pro: HeroMarine vs Diamond1 speeded-up, in Unfair Event:https://youtu.be/OQ_j6I-37WM?t=4519
FYI: I read their recent announcement, but surely small adjustments are welcome.
Dear Protoss, thanks for not over-freaking. I won’t respond to these answers, but thanks anyways for contributing, every one has the right to speak up their mind. Have a good one.
IMHO voidray is fine and this post was a pain to read. I won’t respond to these answers, but thanks anyway for contributing. Every-one has the right to speak up their mind. Have a good one.
while it is true that flux voidrays (4.65) are faster than vikings (3.85), they are the same speed unupgraded.
Corruptors (4.72) are slightly faster than even flux voidrays.
There’s a slight mistake in Liquipedia btw because they left the old description for fluxvanes (+1.1484 speed) while it is effectively +0.8 speed now (=4.65).
However, in real game condition :
Voidrays are prone to prismatic alignement and fungles, so the corruptors’ speed edge on them is greater than what their stats suggest.
Vikings must make small stops in order to kite, while the voidrays don’t. Which on the contrary effectively make the voidrays faster than the vikings (not even mentioning vikings’ acceleration). That does alter those two units’ relationship as the voidrays leeway means a kiting viking touched once by the beam won’t then be able to escape unless the voidrays changes course.
Early game ground threats to PvZ/PvT voidrays being on-creep queens (3.5), marines (3.15 speed), cyclones (4.73), mines (0 speed while armed). Previous voidrays speed were 3.15 and 3.5. The voidrays also are 6 range with 8 range leeway, implying that cyclones must step in into their range and take quite a lot of damage themselves at the start of each lock.
So aim was to make VR better at escaping queens/sniping overlords, but it simultaneously made them better against vikings and cyclones (which previously were among the best options against proxy VR-batteries). I wonder if going for a 3.675 middle-ground speed between a 3.5 queen and a 3.85 viking wouldn’t be a better compromise.
As for their current 4.65 lategame speed, considering the stim, amount of vikings, the possibility to escape hydras while being vulnerable to mutas and on similar grounds than corruptors, for me it’s fine.
Trias, your post is a really well thought out one.
To add to it, the void ray in its current state poses an issue in TvP with the Stargate shield-battery cheese specifically, though outside of that situation it’s debatable. An already difficult cheese to hold is now made significantly harder because vikings are no longer reliable. The range advantage that Vikings have relies entirely on them being able to kite the voidrays without them getting to much damage on them, so you can build up a Viking count for the inevitable transition into tempests.
The change effectively means that you can no longer make that transition and must rely on cyclones which deal with voids reasonably well, but deal with tempests extremely poorly. Squishy, slow to produce and vulnerable due to terrain, cyclones have to get in and out of tempest range and maintain that lock on which they simply can’t do with the vision they have. Vikings have the advantage of having long range while also being cheaper and faster to produce than cyclones, but most importantly they don’t have to deal with terrain which is arguably the most important thing about holding that cheese. But again, you need to reach that critical mass which is now that much harder to do.
