"The Ghost is a specialized infantry unit built from a Barracks with an attached Tech Lab once a Ghost Academy has been constructed. The Ghost stands as an Anti-Spellcaster unit and high damage versus Psionic and Light units. "
That sounds super cool - doesnt it?
Reality:
While focusing on even finding a new unit for Terran we often seem to forget to even discuss the Ghost. This specialized infantry unit is... hardly seeing any play what so ever.
I think we can count on one hand the number of games we have seen more than three ghosts in a game during this season of PL. The one time Terran seem to make Ghosts, they make 3 of them to bring with the boys push.
I find it sad that one of the cooler and more iconic units in Starcraft actually is a one match up one trick pony that nobody seem to notice.
Blizzard is currently trying to come up with ideas for new Terran units (they seem to struggle a lot with that) - meanwhile they are trying lots of new things on units, changing stats (hell the Ultralisk for an example), giving unused units abilities (eg. Infestor, Carrier).
And the ghost.. Just seem to remain useless.
Its a unit you pay 200/100 for - and you get a unit that hardly is better than a marine in most situations.
Topics do discuss:
Should the Ghost me mentioned more often when balance is being discussed?
What cool abilities could be added for the Ghost to make it usefull outside TvP?
Could the stats be changed?
The LoTV beta seems like a perfect moment to try some new stuff out. If it does not work. Well yeah, we can always enjoy the 3-ghost push every now and then
Post with some suggestions:
Hider has some ideas:
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On April 04 2015 00:44 Hider wrote:
In general, I am not a fan of the spellcasters in Sc2, but Ghosts are especially problematic. In my essay below, I first mention the reasons I dislike its current design, and later on I offer an idea for a new Ghost.
Some of you guys might agree with parts of it, and others might think my ideas require too much change. But this is just how I wanna see it changed;
EMP
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Snipe
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Cloak and Nuke
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Suggestions
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New Ability 1: Spellresist
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New Ability 2: Defensive Matrix
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New Ability 3: Nuke
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New Ability 4: Stim
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Last remarks
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In general, I am not a fan of the spellcasters in Sc2, but Ghosts are especially problematic. In my essay below, I first mention the reasons I dislike its current design, and later on I offer an idea for a new Ghost.
Some of you guys might agree with parts of it, and others might think my ideas require too much change. But this is just how I wanna see it changed;
EMP
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Never have I enjoyed spamming EMPs over the protoss army and whenever I offraced I never actually thought "hey that's so fun with the Ghosts draining all of my HTs energy".
My logic is that when there is nothing even remotely fun about an ability, scrap it and replace it with something else. I know we have had an EMP in Sc2 for 5 years and in BW for even longer, but right now, it's just a really boring ability and it only really works vs one race. So get rid of it and find other ways to balance terran.
My logic is that when there is nothing even remotely fun about an ability, scrap it and replace it with something else. I know we have had an EMP in Sc2 for 5 years and in BW for even longer, but right now, it's just a really boring ability and it only really works vs one race. So get rid of it and find other ways to balance terran.
Snipe
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Pew Pew Pew... Yeh it sounds cool, but unfortunately that's the only cool thing about Snipe. It's a spamable ability with no countermicro and therefore it simply cannot be properly balanced. Keep the snipe sound, but reuse it in a different way, because this snipe-ability needs to be removed.
Cloak and Nuke
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Unlike EMP and Snipe, there is potential here. Running around with cloaked Ghosts and nuking enemy bases or armies.... it's a kinda cool thing, and there definitely is alot of countermicro here. Perhaps even a bit, but luckily this is more of a numbers-issue than a general concept flaw.
Suggestions
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Okay, so what is the role of the Ghost gonna be if it doesn't have Snipe and EMP?
First of all, I wanna promote the nuke-role further. I wanna see more ghosts cloaking around the map and nuking enemy bases or zoning out the enemy army.
Secondly, it does ofc need utility with the army, but rather than thinking in terms of offensive abilities, I believe the Ghost could function better if it had defensive abilities.
First of all, I wanna promote the nuke-role further. I wanna see more ghosts cloaking around the map and nuking enemy bases or zoning out the enemy army.
Secondly, it does ofc need utility with the army, but rather than thinking in terms of offensive abilities, I believe the Ghost could function better if it had defensive abilities.
New Ability 1: Spellresist
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The ghost can activate Spellresist and a large bubble around the Ghost appears (like Guardian Shield) and all enemy spell- and splash damage is reduced by 20-30%. Yes, this isn't a super microintensive thing, but it's not really needed here. Rather, this is a way of giving bio a way to be less glass-cannon'ish against Fungal, Ultras, Storm, Disruptors and Colossus.... without being a hardcounter/anti-micro thing. It's the kind of ability that is supposed to feel "not frustrating" while at the same time give the Ghost a clear role in the game.
New Ability 2: Defensive Matrix
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Target a friendly unit and temporarily increase its HP by XXX. While Spellresist will synergize better w/ bio, Defensive Matrix works better with mech. E.g. you can make that Thor in the front slightly more tanky. If the enemy continues to focus fire it, they are in for a rough time.
New Ability 3: Nuke
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So I actually spent some hours in the editor previously, and I discovered that the following changes feels the nicest:
- Time it takes for Nuke to land = roughly 10-12 seconds.
- Damage reduced from 300 to 175
- Splash damage changed so it oneshots workers in a much lower radius
- Nuke research time reduced to 15-20 seconds (from 60 I believe)
- Nuke cost reduced to 50/50 from 100/100
The effect of these changes is to make the Nuke somewhat more reliable and cost-efficient... as a zoning tool ofc. The enemy should still be able to spot it the majority of the time, but if he doesn't spot it (which is more likely to occur w/ these changes), he is not gonna lose his whole army. It's a big deal but not something that automatically is gonna result in a win.
- Time it takes for Nuke to land = roughly 10-12 seconds.
- Damage reduced from 300 to 175
- Splash damage changed so it oneshots workers in a much lower radius
- Nuke research time reduced to 15-20 seconds (from 60 I believe)
- Nuke cost reduced to 50/50 from 100/100
The effect of these changes is to make the Nuke somewhat more reliable and cost-efficient... as a zoning tool ofc. The enemy should still be able to spot it the majority of the time, but if he doesn't spot it (which is more likely to occur w/ these changes), he is not gonna lose his whole army. It's a big deal but not something that automatically is gonna result in a win.
New Ability 4: Stim
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Yeh this is the most controversial suggestion probably. Some may initally say "nonono you can't do that, it's not intended to be like a Marine or Maurauder". And they are right in that its not intended to be llike that. But there are two reasons I want to see it added:
(1) Ghost needs a mobility ability to further promote cloacked harass play
(2) I just hate having Ghosts w/ my army. It messes up control grups. Adding in stim makes it more simple to control bio + ghost as you can have Ghosts with your MMM in one control group.
With regards to the latter, I also know a lot of people will say that it's good to have different control groups because it (a) rewards you for splitting up your army or (b) because it increases the skillcap.
The former complaint is straight up wrong. Ghosts in Sc2 are typically really deathball'ish and pure bio is one of the most multitaskbased compositions in the game.
The second complaint is correct, however, I don't think its a fun way of increasing the skillcap. I want the game to feel easy to play while having endless micro opportunites. Micro means stuff like splitting, focus firing, pulling back injured units, casting abilites well and dropship pick-up interactions. 1a2a3a isn't micro for me, but just an annoyance.
But, don't overfocus on the stim-part here. There are other types of possilbiites. For instance it could also just be straight up faster when cloaked (instead of getting stim).
(1) Ghost needs a mobility ability to further promote cloacked harass play
(2) I just hate having Ghosts w/ my army. It messes up control grups. Adding in stim makes it more simple to control bio + ghost as you can have Ghosts with your MMM in one control group.
With regards to the latter, I also know a lot of people will say that it's good to have different control groups because it (a) rewards you for splitting up your army or (b) because it increases the skillcap.
The former complaint is straight up wrong. Ghosts in Sc2 are typically really deathball'ish and pure bio is one of the most multitaskbased compositions in the game.
The second complaint is correct, however, I don't think its a fun way of increasing the skillcap. I want the game to feel easy to play while having endless micro opportunites. Micro means stuff like splitting, focus firing, pulling back injured units, casting abilites well and dropship pick-up interactions. 1a2a3a isn't micro for me, but just an annoyance.
But, don't overfocus on the stim-part here. There are other types of possilbiites. For instance it could also just be straight up faster when cloaked (instead of getting stim).
Last remarks
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This Ghost will overall promote longer battles, it will work vs all races and it's not a "prevent stuff from happening" spellcaster. The intention is that you have maybe with your army for defensive matrix and spellresist, and then maybe 2-3 that you send around the map and nuke your army or perhaps use the stimmed Ghosts to snipe off workers or other isolated enemy units.
In regards to having a more damagefocussed spellcaster, I reserved that role for the Raven. Imo PDD needs a real replacement and Seeker Missile needs to be tuned as well, but that's an essay for a different day.
Tactically it also has more utility in the Nuke being more reliable at zoning out the enemy army.
In regards to having a more damagefocussed spellcaster, I reserved that role for the Raven. Imo PDD needs a real replacement and Seeker Missile needs to be tuned as well, but that's an essay for a different day.
Tactically it also has more utility in the Nuke being more reliable at zoning out the enemy army.
JulDragon regarding the Spectre ability:
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On April 04 2015 00:49 JulDraGoN wrote:
What about that spell Ultrasonic Pulse that Spectre had in the WoL campaign?
Like an EMP for biological units, you make it only affect bio and reduce the area of effect.
Maybe too strong?
What about that spell Ultrasonic Pulse that Spectre had in the WoL campaign?
Like an EMP for biological units, you make it only affect bio and reduce the area of effect.
Maybe too strong?