Does anyone see a purpose to this, and do you think it will eventually be extended? I've played several games where a good amount of mind-control would, essentially, save me—but there are two factors making it an inviable strategy: - Units don't auto-attack an NPed unit - It lasts 12 seconds
The problem is it's still very powerful in very specific situations where you parasite a few key units and then use the abilities of the units you've stolen and totally wreck things up. Ex: parasiting templars and combining psi storm and fungal growth before they have a chance to kill off the infestors, devastating the enemy army with a double whammy AoE cluster**** and preventing the enemy from psi storming your own units. Even if it's not very powerful in a normal battle or just when the enemy is good at picking off the infestor before you can use the parasited unit, they still can't buff it because it's already so strong in certain situations.
I feel like those situations are not only few and far between, but also pretty difficult to pull off.
parasited units should definitely be made to be first priority to be attacked by the enemy. that would make it a lot more worth while.
The problem with Neural Parasite is that in the better leagues, a Parasite is devasting, but in the lower leagues, were people have worse micro, they are much less worth. The neverending Neural Parasite were OP, since you, if you got for example a Battlecruiser, Thor or Collosus, you had it forever, and could just destroy it if you wanted. Making the Neural Parasites target First Priority would be plain stupid, since it then would be far to abuseable.
I guess I'm not understanding where an indefinite-lasting NP is overpowered, especially considering Mind Control in original SC—which worked out fine. NP has a lot more restrictions than Mind Control: - You can only move a certain distance away from the Infestor. - The NP is nullified if either the NPed unit dies (naturally) or the Infestor dies. - The Infestor is essentially sacrificed during the NP, as it can't move, use any abilities, etc. - The Infestor is locked into place, meaning that wherever you NP, you've got to stay there for parasite's duration. Compare this to a Dark Archon's mind-control. You casted it, the Dark Archon walked (hovered?) away, and your mind-controlled unit was yours to do as you wish, as if you built it. I'm aware that SC and SCII are different games, but, in this case, I don't think that serves much against my comparisons. The point of Neural Parasite is to use it against a Battlecruiser, Collosus, or Thor. Therein lies its usefulness; that's not what makes it overpowered, that's what makes it valuable. If you couldn't use it against either of those units, it would be a worthless ability—even if it had no time limit. In the case of an NPed unit drawing fire, I'm having a hard time finding a situation where that could be "abused". Could you, Phoenix (or anyone else if you'd like), clarify? While I agree with you that people in better leagues could make better use of a 12-second NP (since, without a doubt, they're much better at microing, macroing, etc.), the fact that they can make better use doesn't ultimately make the ability any more useful; I still say a 12-second mind control is far too situational and restrictive to be of much use, or relevance.
I've used it. I think it works well. But would I want it to be more than 12 sec? Yes I would. It's a useful skill regardless of the 12 sec or not. But longer would be nice.
you talk about better leagues having the micro ability to manipulate an NP unit to utilize a function like psi or whatever. you are overlooking the fact that in those same leagues people aren't going to stand there while a unit gets NP'd and either not kill the infestor and/or the NP'd unit almost instantly. If you do utilize the micro to get off an instant psi storm as soon as NP takes effect you are going to be forced to disregard the rest of your force which at that range is almost definately fighting already. the 12 second timer is really irrelevant because anybody who can't be killed or kill it within that time span probably doesn't merit the necessity of even using it.
12 seconds is an eternity in StarCraft 2. If a battle isn't over and decided in twelve seconds, someone is doing something wrong! The NP ability is designed to target specific units, not allow you to abuse friendly fire (I assume this is why you're upset) from Siege Tanks. It's for grabbing a Colossus for 12 seconds and having him mutilate your opponent's own forces for a good length of time before he even realizes what's going on. NP used to be permanent. And it was imbalanced. I'm perfectly happy with the ability at the moment except for the RIDICULOUS animation.
