The Tempest - What's the point?

Hi guys,

In general I am very excited for HOTS and am definitely buying it. But I want to know, what is Blizzard thinking with the Tempest? To me it does not seem to have much worth. OK, with the upgrade and 22 range it may be useful in some harassment situations but consider.

1) It costs 300 gas!!! That's a fuckton of gas. If it had a high DPS I might understand but...

2) It has such crap DPS. 60 damage (only vs massive) every 6 seconds is 10 DPS!!! The carrier costs the same amount of gas and does 80 DPS!!

3) No splash damage. For this cost, and such low firing speed, you would expect some splash damage to make up for it. Sadly, it has none. Why Blizzard?

4) Massing these tier 3 units is not powerful. Tier 3 units in general (BCs, Carriers, Broods) are extremely powerful when massed, but the Tempest is not. The Colossus is not a great unit to mass, it is better to only get 3-4 and have it as a support unit, but the Tempest is not the same, since its DPS is so much lower than the Colossus'.

I am scared they are trying to put in a new unit since no one makes Carriers but that this new unit will be even worse. Is there something I am missing? Please someone, tell me the point of the Tempest!

If a Black Death could spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full. The state of affairs might be unpleasant, but what of it? -Sith Lord Bertrand Russell

ChuCky.Ca Canada. June 16 2012 13:46. Posts 2473

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22 range

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FYRE New Zealand. June 16 2012 13:47. Posts 283

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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KingofGods Canada. June 16 2012 13:47. Posts 347

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The counter to terran mech.

reDicE United States. June 16 2012 13:48. Posts 181

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Personally, I think it's to do stuff like break siege lines, or FORCE engagements/retreats.

With 22 range you can pick off siege tanks and force them to either push in, or retreat.

Perdac Curall June 16 2012 13:48. Posts 214

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Ok so you're parked off a mineral line 22 range away and picking off some workers or a siege tank line then they send some vikings or corrupters and they all die and you killed a few workers or a siege tank for 300 gas each Tempest? WTF that is not useful!!

Ruscour June 16 2012 13:50. Posts 5116

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How about...you stop pointlessly speculating on a game we know next to nothing about that's almost guaranteed to completely change?

Archile United States. June 16 2012 13:50. Posts 359

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autowin vs brood lords

gogo TLO!~~

johnny123 June 16 2012 13:51. Posts 483

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all one should really care about at this point in time is the actual idea of the unit. The values/the stats can be changed if needed. I quite frankly like the idea, it will be interesting what tactics this unit creates.

Seems like it can Harass enemy bases for a small amount of time before a counter comes out, and it will pick apart "deathballs" from a range.

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cvgHuShang Canada. June 16 2012 13:51. Posts 95

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I think personally that this will be most impactful in pvz where you will be able to snipe broodlords while corruptors are unable to hit your tempest's.Despite the low dps, you could easily snipe more than a handful with a couple tempest before zerg could even engage you.

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Archile United States. June 16 2012 13:52. Posts 359

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On June 16 2012 13:48 Perdac Curall wrote:
Ok so you're parked off a mineral line 22 range away and picking off some workers or a siege tank line then they send some vikings or corrupters and they all die and you killed a few workers or a siege tank for 300 gas each Tempest? WTF that is not useful!!

well, 22 range away from a mining base or seige tanks is where your stalkers are... or voids.... also known as : where you DON'T want to run in unsupported vikings

gogo TLO!~~

McFeser United States. June 16 2012 13:52. Posts 2451

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On June 16 2012 13:47 KingofGods wrote:
The counter to terran mech.

I'm glad the Protoss finally have that.

The tempest wasn't really needed as a counter to Mutalisks and now they are trying to pigeonhole it in to another role. I don't expect it to have this role when HotS is released.

Promethelax still hasn't changed his quote

Tur Brazil. June 16 2012 13:52. Posts 234

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Why would you do that? It's the same if youask a Zerg to do that with a Broodlord, how often do you see it? You need to protect them like any other expansive unit.

Last edit: 2012-06-16 13:54:30

Leeoku June 16 2012 13:52. Posts 1076

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Protoss Air siege tank

enemy2010 Germany. June 16 2012 13:52. Posts 1966

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Good points. Why don't you send that stuff right to Blizzard's dev team and tell them about your concerns?

I mean, the tempest has alpha status, nothing is final. In a recent interview I heard that this number "range 22" is a number that "Browder can change in like 1 minutes at his desk".
So they trying to find the right numbers and the right stats for the new units. And every little thought could help them

Yeah, you are right, currently the tempest is totally unbalanced.

1on1 auf azze no he no flash no awp only holztor.

Perdac Curall June 16 2012 13:53. Posts 214

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I don't see how it will be good vs death balls since it does no splash damage

Lavit2099 United States. June 16 2012 13:54. Posts 363

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This isn't a unit designed to be massed. It's for VERY specific purposes. Like being an anti-siege unit (eff you broodlords). Just like with Carriers, you don't JUST have a group of them and call it good. I imagine you'd mix 1-3 in with a ball of blink stalkers (to destroy the Vikings/Corruptors). This isn't a harass unit any more than the broodlord is. No, you can pick up 3-4 Oracles for that instead. This unit is designed for super-late game to force the other guy to either go all in against you and attack into YOUR defended position, or to run away from his defended position or get picked off one at a time. Use the stalkers for AA and you're golden.

starcraft911 Korea (South). June 16 2012 13:55. Posts 1261

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They are great for counter siege. If enemy vikings or corruptors move up to do anything you just pull back over your stalkers. They are forced to push or retreat as stated above. If the tempest had 'good' dps they would be OP as fuck with 22 range. Their range balances out their lack of DPS just like the setup time balances the siege tanks range. There is a give and a take. Despite you not viewing the tempest as a good unit, many of us think it's very good and has great potential to force some amazing engagements.

Perdac Curall June 16 2012 13:56. Posts 214

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Thanks for all the replies guys I'm starting to get a few ideas of how it will be useful. Gotta go to bed now I'll check to see what else people tell me tomorrow. Cheers!

TAMinator Australia. June 16 2012 13:58. Posts 1284

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What's the point of making a thread about whether a unit is useful or not when the game hasn't even come out yet? Wait for beta ffs.