Can be produced two at a time from a Tier 1.5 factory. Attacks both air and ground. Does huge amounts of splash damage. One shots 75% of the units in the game. Is burrowed, invisible, and reusable. Literally has zero downsides.
Baneling 25/25 - Only attacks ground units, has roughly the same splash range as the widow mine, requires Tier 2 baneling speed to not be worthless in most fights. requires at least 6 to do the same splash damage attack as the widow mine. Needs a separate upgrade to be burrowed and then requires micro to attack when burrowed. Is not reusable.
Lets look at other units shall we.
Marauder - 100/25. Only attacks ground, attacks slow, does terrible vs anything that isn’t armored.
Adept - 100/25. Great early harassment, useless 90% of the game, can only attack ground.
Roach - 75/25. Only attacks ground, useless outside of huge numbers. Has a high population value.
Stalker - 125/50. Twice the cost of a widow mine. Can use blink with an upgrade. Outranges widow mine with micro.
Hydra - 100/50. Outranges widow mine with micro, one of the worst attacking units in the game. Near useless without roaches or banes to buffer damage.
As far as the Terran tech-tree goes. Anything out of the factory is at least Tier 2. This is one of the reasons why the concept of “tiers” is stupid
Self-immobilizing, friendly-fire, and being useless against most ranged units (hence their lack of use in TvT) are reasonable downsides.
Yes, but it can charge straight at them instead of needing 2.1 seconds to burrow and fire post-upgrade. The Widow Mine has range of course, but in the time Widow Mines take to burrow and shoot, an upgraded Baneling off creep can cover 8.85 units of distance.
Incorrect! Widow Mines have a splash radius of 1.75. Banelings have a splash radius of 2.2. Do the math, and the Baneling splash hits a 58% larger area.
Also wrong.
You could also just right-click to auto-cast unburrow, but that is usually less effective than a well-timed manual press. It should also be noted that the Baneling’s ability to attack without burrowing first, means that Banelings are better for offensive pushes; although the Widow Mine is a better unit overall.
Because the unit serves a useful purpose.
Because the unit is actually balanced, despite the complaints people have about it.
The Baneling’s inner radius is 0.375. Even if you subtract that full area, the Baneling’s remaining splash area is 53% larger than the Widow Mine’s.
Of course, depending on how the offset flags actually work, the Baneling’s splash may actually be centered on the edge or center of the unit being targeted. I don’t know those details very well.
This is the biggest load of hoopla I’ve ever read. 53%? Haha. There is thousands of games where widow mines have taken out 15-20 units at once. One unit. When has that ever happened with a single baneling??? You need six banes to even hit your target, let alone splash that many units because its MELEE.
Here’s some simple math for you:
((2.2 * 2.2) - (0.375 * 0.375)) / (1.75 * 1.75) - 1
2.2 is the radius of the Baneling’s splash.
0.375 is the radius of the Baneling.
1.75 is the radius of the Widow Mine’s splash.
PI ends up canceling out because it is a factor in both the numerator and the denominator.
That can happen regularly in ZvZ.
It doesn’t happen in TvZ so much because the Banelings (like Widow Mines) need 2 detonations to kill Marines, but assuming you have two Baneling connections, those connections can potentially be more devastating than a Widow Mine hit.
30 seconds of dead supply where it does literally nothing is a pretty sizable downside.
Frequently friendly fires your units is also a pretty sizeable downside.
Displaying its location after firing is also another downside (assuming armoury isn’t upgraded).
Having a visible marking on the ground where it’s burrowed (off creep) is another downside.
Oh and showing the unit it’s targeting is another downside too.
It takes a minimum of about a second (assuming it’s already burrowed) to lock the target it’s firing at - which means that it’s very possible even with slower units to back out of the targeting range, or cross through its targeting range depending on where you cross and if you’re on or off creep.
Easily outranged by pretty much any ranged unit that isn’t the roach or adept.
Eh, that depends on where it’s targeted to - something you can generally control - it targets the first unit that comes into range unless it’s manually targeted or the initial target leaves its targeting range before it can fire.
Scarlet vs Bomber is a particularly famous example where 2 banes blew up the majority of Bomber’s remaining army.