Blink and shadow also share a second trait. They are with few exceptions one way abilities. Blink is only stopped by fungal. Shadow is invulnerable and has no unit collision.
Goal: Institute counter play to Stalker blink and Adept shadow while introducing minimal novelty. Promote stable gateway based armies.
Proposed Change 1:
Blink costs 20 shield
Shield Regeneration activates immediately after blinking
Note: Shield values cannot go negative. If Stalker with 0 shield blinks, it stays at 0. If stalker with 10 shield blinks it goes to 0. Stalker with 21 shield goes down to 1 and so on.
High Shield Stalkers are nerfed
Low Shield Stalkers are buffed
The Numbers (in blizzard seconds because that is what liquipedia has):
Blink cool down – 10 seconds
Shield Regeneration Cool down – 10 seconds
Shield Regeneration rate – 2 shield per 1 second
Example Situation 1:
Full health stalker with 80 shield blinks.
Stalker at 60 shield
After 10 seconds, blinks comes off cool down and stalker is back up to 80 shield.
Example Situation 2:
Stalker took damage and is down to 0 shield.
Blinks
Stalker still at 0 shield
After 10 seconds, stalker is at 20 shield (greater than starting point)
Note- without change the stalker would be at 0 shield due to 10 second delay on shield regeneration
This increases counter play by creating a short period of vulnerability for blinking stalkers where opponents can deactivate the shield regeneration buff.
+ Show Spoiler [some pros and cons] +
Pros:
The mechanism of shield regeneration is already in place.
Perfect Blink Stalker Micro is rewarded but risky.
Weak stalkers with 0 shield have a pseudo-heal (see example situation 2). Stalkers CAN be more sustainable but not necessarily.
All stalker aggression is more sustainable but less front loaded. The first round of stalker aggression will be weaker but saving stalkers is more beneficial.
Note: can decrease blink research time if needed
Blinking groups of stalkers haphazardly is punished but not game ending. Protoss would have to sit and wait an extra 20 seconds or go in with weakened shields.
The first round of a blink all-in is weaker but sustained aggression is better. Blinking straight onto a bunker means immediately taking 20 shield damage on your healthy stalkers. Even having small defenses in the main to deactivate the regeneration buff is meaningful.
Small numbers of stalkers that are easily to micro perfectly cannot be used as gap closer
Forcing out blinks meaningful if capitalized on
*Forcing a blink out and moving forward with even 5-10 zerglings to cancel shield regeneration could prove beneficial
Surrounding/flanking maneuvers are stronger because they cancel out the regeneration buff.
Blinking onto units after winning a fight or while chasing is more easily punished. Could lead to an extra stalker or two dying.
Cons:
Low health stalkers are difficult to kill.
Retreat is slightly nerfed. After blinking to escape, taking any damage means turning off the shield regeneration.
Blinking forward to snipe things (gap closing) is very dangerous.
Note: if survivability is an issue, health-armor values can be slightly varied. For example 90 health and 70 shield to give them more survivability with armor upgrades and guardian shield.
Proposed Change 2:
Adept shadow-
Cost 20 shield
Can't go below 0 shield just like the stalker
The Numbers:
7s duration for shadow
11s cool down
The shield regeneration buff starts once the cool down starts. The longer the shadow is out, the longer period of vulnerability the adept has.
Example Situation 3:
Adept took damage and at 0 shield
Cast and cancel shadow immediately
After 10 seconds will be at 20 shield vs 0 shield (natural regeneration rate)
+ Show Spoiler [pros and cons] +
Pros:
Adept still can be used for scouting. 11s cool down means 22 shields regenerated so a full shield adept will always regain its full shield when the ability comes off cool down.
Counter play is possible. Having even a single marine or scv to attack an adept that has just warped deactivates the regeneration buff
Promotes back and forth and sustained fighting. An adept at 0 shield and using its pseudo-heal would be in better condition to fight the second wave of attack.
*techniques like this can utilize pseudo-heal abilities
Cons:
Small adept groups are slightly weaker at harassing directly because worker surround cancels regeneration buff.
If you've looked through the pros and cons, you could probably tell my list of cons was rather small. I was wondering what types of cons do you see with this idea? I think this concept is subtle enough that implementing it wouldn't create too many issues that weren't foreseen.
TL;DR: Adept shadow and stalker blink cost shield to cast. After casting abilities, gain Protoss shield regeneration boost that is already in the game. Stalker and Adept at full shield are nerfed but slightly buffed while at low shield. Opponents can now slightly punish Protoss that uses these abilities carelessly.
Copy-pasting response from reddit thread
When I say "better off" I'm saying if my suggested change was in place, Protoss would be better off.
You can start around 18:20
18:41 blink- 4 stalkers blinked. 1 low shield 3 high shield
18:48- The 3 high shield stalkers would be fully recovered. The 1 low shield stalker would be better off.
18:56- blinked into a bunker and running around your opponents base blinking would be punished harder.
20:05- blinking forward could be punished here. Only 1 stalker took damage so no actual changes due to this blink.
20:26- 2 stalkers blink away with low shield. Protoss would be a better off.
20:42- 4 stalkers blink with low shield and therefore would be better off. Advantage would have been compounded by event at 20:26
21:03- 2 low shield stalkers blinked away. Protoss better off.
21:11- Terran catches stalkers on cool down and could punish slightly.
Things like blinking into a bunker on the high ground and running around your opponents scv line would be punished harder. Getting caught with your blink on cooldown by a flanking medivac would be punished harder. Controlled consistent aggression is buffed.