u/Wake90_90

I'm around 1100 MMR, and every single game I play I see a line of marksmen in the backline. I consider this the laziest strategy because it's good single target damage, and works in every comp due to the ridiculous range it gets. It also scales well where others do not, like a rival starting unit in the saber.

You can go to air with something likes wasps and rays make things difficult for these units, but wasps and rays are pretty vulnerable units. The strategies around them require a lot more planning and techs than the braindead line of marksmen.

I don't see the upside to this unit's design. I wish it wouldn't have a large presence in every one of my games.

People don't remember the balance council particularly positively, but the balance council would never have given zerg a clear advantage in their economy, and give protoss a likely nerf with warp gate changes.

We don't know how good we had it until we witnessed Blizzard firing from the hip on what makes good balance.

Rant:

I say "more units should come with ranged upgrade" built-in because marksmen have 140 range automatically, and other units generally start between 75m - 110m range, then the upgrade (+40m) puts them at 115m - 140m range.

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It's pretty rare that you take a melting point, and don't think ranged is vital to the unit staying alive to do what it is expected to do on the battlefield. At 115m range without an upgrade it's a requirement not to be in front of other units when it engages the enemy. Even people who play it as a tanky unit still get range upgrade on it from my experience.

The unit comes with a 200 unlock cost, then has a nearly mandatory 300 range cost, which then costs another 200 towards the next upgrade if you want it to be anything more than a long range single target damage dealer. That's a 500 cost before it can sit in the back and target a unit down NOT counting the unit cost of 400.

40m range upgrade is way too much to pass up in standard play. Without this upgrade the unit is in front after chaff, but once it gets it the unit moves to the back of the crowd of other carry units. Energy Diffraction (multimelter) undoes most of the range upgrade leaving it at a vulnerable 125m all with the 200 cost penalty additional to the 150 upgrade itself. Not including the cost of the unit cost, that's a cost of 650 in fees for a multimelter that isn't just diving in with the chaff to do some damage, ridiculous. What if range costed 150 or 200 in most cases? Would having less costly transitions ruin the game? Would having clear pricing to take a unit harm the game instead of all these additional costs beyond the unlock and original tech? I wouldn't mind capping round income at 1500 or 2000 just to stop round to round changes from becoming too drastic.

They should really just have a 300 unlock cost, give me the range upgrade built-in and let me make the unit into something interesting.

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Range upgrade costs too much on starting units in particular. During early rounds when you're straining to make anything but low cost units it generally costs 300 to keep your relied on chaff clear viable because if you aren't mirroring the opponent's range, then you die after the chaff phase.

Requiring range by normally round 4 makes more costly units like chaff clear or single target damage less viable down the road because you must pay for a new unit's range along with the unlock and unit cost, then anything to make it have a cool, impactful feature.

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Farseer should come with more range than it currently has at 125m built-in, and not bother to include a range upgrade in its tech. 125m range leaves it in front of arclights or mustangs 135m range upgraded which it always is by round 5 when this unit may become viable. Give farseer 140 range like the marksmen, and I don't take on an additional cost of 500 on most of my boards by getting it from a drop (initial cost), getting range (300), and 200 more for it to be useful with the tech of my choice, maybe I need missile intercept without it being targeted first or Scanning Radar without dying before all of the carry units.

I really believe there are major flaws with the range system and developer's vision on this topic. It's too impactful to if a unit stays alive, typically required, never cheap, it begins the penalty to additional tech upgrades hindering creativity. If you don't use it even in a head butt aggro scenario you wonder if it's best to put it on to avoid some of the farther back units targeting your unit first, and probably end up getting it.

I play around 1200 MMR, so this experience may not match the higher end MMR player's experience, and that's why I suggest cheaper range only and a few more units to be gifted range automatically to avoid large changes to the game.

I hope this made sense, and I won't be available to respond to comments for some time.

With zerg getting a 16% larva respawn time buff, I didn't see anything from the Terran portion that was compensatory to keep balance aligned.

Protoss with warp gate giving a 40% production time seemed pretty nutty, so I think they may be okay with their compensatory buff to the zerg's.

So is Terran just disadvantaged from this change as is or am I not accounting for something? It seems like they should get a mule buff or something.

I didn't want to tank my MMR testing this, so I ask here: how viable is it to not get ranged upgrade to win?

Is it really only in aggro headbutt scenarios, defensive units that it, and rare moments where it would make no difference that it shouldn't be chosen, as I think?

I've always considered ranged upgrade a gatekeeper for a carry unit. It is never cheap, and the 2nd tech is always +200 because of it. The steepest upgrade in damage is often this upgrade from my experience. This is the case besides marksmen who for some reason are gifted the 40 range with a 140 start.

Something that I noticed is very effective in internet interactions is responses in comment sections that are simply "doesn't sound like an all-powerful God to me". It pokes at the cognitive dissonance and excuses story people have had to manufacture to continue to believe. Many people go a very long time without questioning their beliefs, and people noting that it's questionable given a situation may raise those questions.

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It's also a good tactic because it's not personal to them often avoid a backlash effect.

This tech makes mustangs a counter to all flying units which don't have the armor tech active. Paired with how common marksmen are, and marksmen also having the Aerial Specialization tech makes flying units too disadvantaged, one for big units and the other for small the formula is too straight forward. If it was removed from mustangs, then wasps wouldn't disappear quite so fast since they're costly chaff, and range upgrade on mustangs would still make them a good counter, but without the targeting priority Aerial Specialization gives.

I feel the balance is tilted against flying units with mustangs having this tech given the marksmen context, and I would like to see it pulled off mustangs.

After spectating this game for a while I decided to play, and I have found the MMR climb to be really odd due to the reoccurring strategies.

Why is a line of marksmen SO popular under 1100 MMR? Who is telling these players to continue to try this strategy? I think I wreck most of the opponents who try it, and I've seen it many times more than I thought.

What's a strategy that's popular that you see a lot, and don't approve of in your MMR range?

Talking to some very experienced players, I was told that armor doesn't scale well, and they avoid it.

Personally, I feel like chaff units just die too quickly, and reach my carry units too quickly. Armored rhinos, scorpions, worms or hounds, typically elite recruited, are a good way to take the heat off the chaff units and allow the carry units to do more before they start taking fire. I'm a big fan of 1 armored unit mentioned in each game based on what is needed. Am I wrong to try to do this each game?