It's easy to use and still shuts down early harassment just as well if not harder.
The uptime per energy is nerfed by 25%, but it can be used on several pylons at once, providing a lot more damage output and decent pylon placement will still cover all angles of a Protoss base.
Also there's Pylon rushing, which has been toned down, but can still be really annoying.
Poll: Are you satisfied with the Pylon Overcharge?
No, remove/replace completely (183)
75%
Yes (44)
18%
No, needs more changes (9)
4%
Yes, but needs balancing (9)
4%
245 total votes
Your vote: Are you satisfied with the Pylon Overcharge?
(Vote): Yes (Vote): No, needs more changes (Vote): Yes, but needs balancing (Vote): No, remove/replace completely
There was nothing wrong with the design of Overcharge (Nexus being usable as a defensive structure with the use of Energy) what was problematic was the implementation.
It was easy to use but, because of that ease of use, it was difficult to balance properly.
Had they made "overcharge" a single shot spell that could be cast by the Nexus (with a tech to unlock it of course) it would have been much easier since every shot would require micro from the player instead of a single click use. Something more akin to Snipe instead of what ended up happening of a Mothership spell to temporarily give you an uber planetary.
It's way more interesting than the old "nexus cannon" because that random pylon placement actually matters a lot now. Something something strategical choices. I like it, maybe needs a dps nerf.
It is a little bit better because pylon placement matters and you obviously can snipe a pylon pretty easily compared to a nexus. But in the end it is still a "click for defence" mechanic which simply shouldn't be in sc2. If protoss "neeeds it", that only means there is something wrong with the protoss design, so yeah nothing new here.
Original photon overcharge was bad, but it had limitations. You needed to cast it on a nexus and it was kind of costly with a lot of energy tension. The pylon overcharge doesn't have those limitations. It's made for abuse and and pretty mindless usage. I mean when people start using such a spell to deny scouts you know it's bad. It so cheap that I think Protoss players will seriously consider just putting 1-2 extra pylons up early to be completely unscoutable by something like overlords or reapers. Or that one zergling that slipped by? Well, doesn't matter, just spend 25energy and it still sees nothing. That's how cheap it is, you want to use the spell just to kill a zergling.
I don't mind it at all. It's something which can be sniped, it's something which can be avoided much more easily than the Photon Overcharge. It's also something which is a lot more short in terms of duration. Just move out of range and find another angle (sort of like versus the Liberator).
On October 05 2015 23:56 purakushi wrote: Battery shield
Done.
Indeed
Seriously the fact you can turn the cheapest Protoss building AND one of the only 2 (I do not count assimilators) buildings you can build without powerfield and builts very fast, into one of the most powerful DPS dealer is so stupid.
I would've though the 1st thing Blizzard's design thing would've realize after 10 minutes of "internal testing" was how open to "static D" rush and "door busting" it would make the game. But no lets make it so mamacore can cast 2 of 'em wight after warpin and cast about 8 at once or 12 in a row.
Seriously Photon overcharge is a crutch, but in essence not that broken of a mechanic after few balance patches (the 1 minute long one was dumb). But now they made it broken in LotV by design and unless nerfing it to the point of un-usability or changing it there's no rescue.
In LotV with the mamacore having the small viewdistance (less scouting ability/blink help), not working time warp (less impact on death ball battles) it is purely a "spam free DPS" unit and maybe a recall tool.
Seriously why not removing it, tempest and even maybe oracle and bringing the Arbiter back?
On October 06 2015 00:04 Big J wrote: Original photon overcharge was bad, but it had limitations. You needed to cast it on a nexus and it was kind of costly with a lot of energy tension. The pylon overcharge doesn't have those limitations. It's made for abuse and and pretty mindless usage. I mean when people start using such a spell to deny scouts you know it's bad. It gets to the point where I think Protoss players will seriously consider just putting 1-2 extra pylons up early against zerg to be completely unscoutable by something like overlords.
Well this is mostly a balance thing though, increase the energy to cast it and voilà.
If you guys have forgoten, Protoss got PO mainly for 3 reasons: hyperspeedvacs, 1-1-1, and PvP. For PvP, it actually allowed Protoss players to taste a macro play in their own mirror match-up. As for the other 2 (PvT issues), well you can't deny that Protoss, even with warp tech, have the most problems of defense when it comes to spreading their units out thin. If Overcharge is to be removed completely, then there should be a bold compensation to follow in the defense department of Protoss.
On October 06 2015 00:04 Big J wrote: Original photon overcharge was bad, but it had limitations. You needed to cast it on a nexus and it was kind of costly with a lot of energy tension. The pylon overcharge doesn't have those limitations. It's made for abuse and and pretty mindless usage. I mean when people start using such a spell to deny scouts you know it's bad. It so cheap that I think Protoss players will seriously consider just putting 1-2 extra pylons up early to be completely unscoutable by something like overlords or reapers. Or that one zergling that slipped by? Well, doesn't matter, just spend 25energy and it still sees nothing. That's how cheap it is, you want to use the spell just to kill a zergling.
Do you think nerfing the energy cost to 50 is a solution worth testing? 25 energy is practically free.
Or, what about moving PO to the Nexus? Then there could be some energy tension between Chronoboost and PO. The Nexus has a casting range, but otherwise PO would work the same. (This is assuming we revert CB to HotS at nerfed efficiency, which I think is the way to go). Oh, and the obvious benefit of removing offensive PO.
On October 06 2015 00:04 Big J wrote: Original photon overcharge was bad, but it had limitations. You needed to cast it on a nexus and it was kind of costly with a lot of energy tension. The pylon overcharge doesn't have those limitations. It's made for abuse and and pretty mindless usage. I mean when people start using such a spell to deny scouts you know it's bad. It gets to the point where I think Protoss players will seriously consider just putting 1-2 extra pylons up early against zerg to be completely unscoutable by something like overlords.
Well this is mostly a balance thing though, increase the energy to cast it and voilà.
I'm not sure it's so easy. Like for 50energy, wouldn't you still use it so that you can cut the stalker/sentry and still kill the 100mineral overlord. Still cover your dark shrine. Or robo. Or stargate. Still defend your pylon at your proxy Stargate? I think the ability is way to abuseable. It's meant to defend Protoss from assaults, but as it is now it gets put into rushes. Pure pylon rushes. Or rushes to protect your proxy pylon. Or used to kill scouts. Or people just building 2pylons next to that building nexus with their gateway rush. Also, if they increase the energy they probably (have to) increase something else as well, like duration. At the end of the day the PO should still be good for defense. If they want to make a tool that is meant to defend bases, it's not that hard to come up with something that can defend expansions or grant some sort of defenders advantage. I don't see a reason why this tool needs to be viable whereever you choose to invest 100minerals. Or happen to have that pylon anyways.
But true, there is a lot you can do with balance. The easiest solution however is to just put it onto something that is not that abuseable. Basically any other building but the pylon, as those other buildings need a finished pylon to be started and are in general more costly. Or there could be many other ways to just implement something defensive for protoss.
One thing pylon overcharge does better is that it's not as OP at early-mid game, and not useless at mid-late game, like Nexus Overcharge was. Maybe needs to cost a bit more, but it's a much better solution.
The new overcharge is genius. The old overcharge isn't a good fit for the new economy which already hurt Protoss, now Protoss is so much more flexible. In HotS after the early-game you always brought the MSc with your army because overcharge was pretty useless on its own at that point, but now choosing whether to leave the MSc at home or not is a real decision. Sim city is now even more important .
On October 05 2015 23:56 purakushi wrote: Battery shield
Done.
Word.
A shield-medivac structure would help a lot
The new overcharge is genius. The old overcharge isn't a good fit for the new economy which already hurt Protoss, now Protoss is so much more flexible
The balance is wonky because the damage output can be like an order of magnitude higher than the old overcharge fairly easily. I also don't particularly like targetting pylons
If this is ok, is it really FUN? for either side? I don't really like my race being balanced around tools like that (though pvp obviously needed something in the WOL days) and even as a protoss, it makes pvp my least favourite matchup. I can't imagine how the terrans feel about this.