Just wanted to bring Blizzard’s attention that orc’s spiked barricades are not used in pro and regular games at all. One of the reasons, as for example Grubby explained, is that they have a fixed damage and don’t scale well with the course of the game and with introduction of heavier melee units.
As a suggestion, you can fix it with making
Level 1: 1% out of full health reduction
Level 2: 1.5% out of full health reduction + some % of slowing
Level 3: 2% out of full health reduction + some +% of slowing
or something similar.
I would like to know what other people are thinking about how to make orc’s spiked barricades (at least occasionally) a part of the game (at least in some match-ups) and make the game better. Thanks.
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Just so you know, the actual damage that version of Spiked Barricades would inflict is much lower than the flat amount it currently inflicts.
Take a footman for example. The maximum damage a footman could take under your system is 8.4 damage per attack, but Spiked Barricades currently deals 24 damage to that same footman. An attacking unit would need 1200 health just to equal the current 24 damage per hit that it takes now, so there is no point.
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I mean…Even back in the day SPiked Barricades was kind of one of those niche things.
I def think buffing orc static defense would be a huge mistake at this point…they’re almost as bad as undead defense right now.
Wasn’t Grubby the one that fought for fortified tier 2 for orc? lolol
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Fortified defense at T2 was very good decision. It makes me laugh how players of other races complain about it while having their food supply buildings with fortified armor as default lol.
In my opinion barricades and fortified armor should be changed a bit though.
Barricades should be one-time upgrade and should deal damage similar to T2 barricade upgrade (or somewhere between T1 and T2)
Fortified armor should be 2 times upgrade - at T2 only for burrows with reduced lumber cost to 100 and at T3 for towers.
Base armor of heavy armored burrow should be increased or Peon’s repair speed shold be increased a bit. It’s really silly how burrowd melt to a couple of footmen with AM despite 4-5 Peons repairing it. Peons compared to other workers have way less special abilities anyway. They are even bad for scouting.
Why are you asking to change an upgrade that barely plays any role in an army vs army fights that most of the time happens mid map in melee mode?
aside from more damage the most sensible idea is to perhaps slow down the attack rate of melee attacks, as well as a cost reduction to research.
@TerranicII I agree with you that the numbers I’ve mentioned are less than the current ones which are 5+7+7. The idea though is to make spike’s damage as percent (per hp), not fixed amount. But that’s just an option.
@Saithis I am not pushing to buff spiked barricades. I would eager to see an upgrade that is more relevant to the gameplay. I am fine with reducing the dps, etc 
@TigerBonzo Your idea is interesting: take orc’s spikes and fortified defences and come up with something intermediate, maybe amalgamate them. One time fortified upgrade feels a bit discontinuous.
@Wrath That’s the point of the post, tweak the upgrade to make it (at least in some match-ups) to be relevant and give one more option to player’s possible tactics.
@Bogdanov Agree. Slowing the opponent’s units make sense, it gives a player a few extra seconds.
I believe that the upgrade should be reactionary. If one scouts AM + footmen attack, or DL + ghouls, or BM+grunts+raiders development, then in 60 sec that player has a chance to be better prepared for the attack. One more possible tweak is to make orc’s spikes give +2 (or +x) increase attack for peons in the burrow.
In most of the match ups, the spiked barricades are too situational. In the early game, almost no one aims to break down buildings in the melee, and those who do (foots, grunts, ghouls), aim only at 1 or 2 burrows and shop. Putting a warmill and buying a grade is a loss of timings for buying other more necessary things or units. In the late stage game all races has army based on ranged and / or magic units and have great mass healing(obsidian st, priests, healing scrolls, etc) so my opinion and suggestion is to make the grades mutually exclusive, as in Starcraft 2.
For example, instead spiked barricades you can get an upgrade for towers and burrows, increasing damage and/or range(great offensive upgrade, excellent for tower rush), available on tier 2. When upgraded, Fortified unavailable. Also vice versa.
This does not make any sense, the only reason you will need to upgrade the spikes is when the enemy has a reason to attack your buildings, and that is not a common thing (it happens mostly in base trade or when human footies make timing attack against your burrows).
The spikes upgrade does not fit the way the game plays in solo match up.