Buffed up Ghost

"Terran Ghosts are currently being tested as an effective Tier 1.5 unit, capable of sniping down high profile enemy targets, have an increased attack damage towards light armored units, as well as an upgradable EMP against Protoss and energy using threats. If that isnt enough, these highly advanced Terran soldiers at higher techs can also be equipped with a personal cloak ability, and launch drop pod reinforcements, as well as call down a massive nuclear strike. The StarCraft II Ghost will surely be bringing a whole new meaning to "You call down the thunder and I'll reap the whirlwind." Of course, I should mention, all of this is subject to change."

It sounds to me like the Ghost is gonna be the ultimate early support. It wont have invisibility and such early on, but I think that Stalkers(If they are counted as partially biological) and Zealots will be raped by Snipe really early on in games. Also, using EMP around tier 1.5-2 against protoss sounds like a 'when', not a 'if'.
Ghosts sounds pretty compulsory right now. (but I don't mind, all of this sounds great)

 

i dont know :-\
that seems awfully a lot to but on a single unit. to me thats too much.
it sounds like they want you to make ghosts every match using snipe against the zerg and emp against the protoss( almost like the science vessel except with irradiate instead of snipe) haveing nukes and able to call in reinforcement, and of course the cloaking ability. sure the nukes are not that hard to hold off, nor bringing detection. but it still seems to much to me.
tho i still dont know :-\

 

ghosts are starting to seem like the marines of tvp. They have emp, snipe(for the high powered toss units), and they're a lot more powerful now against zealots and whatever.

 

Stalkers aren't organic units, I think. I don't know tho. However, Ghosts take a long time to snipe. They might not be enough to hold a lot of Zealots. They might not be better than Marines and Medics, or Marines in bunkers, for instance.

 

A zealot charge or stalker blink would kill the ghost, and then there's always the DT which if rushed right can counter uncloaked ghosts well.

It really depends on the ghost's health in SC2.

 

i really like the new ghost, i think they sound great and like something i would actually use. in the regualr game i never used ghost because there really was not much of a need. only if i really needed one, say for nuke or emp, then i would bring some with me. but the way they make it sound is really kool.

 

I like the new abilities for the ghost that allow him to do more damage to the enemy rather than just hitting someone with a nuke if he's lucky.

 

I like ghost to become stronger. I always thought they should have more abilities.

 

I think the ghost might be a little to usefull now.

It was fine when it had cloak, nuke, drop pod and snipe.

Thats already 4 abilities

 

I agree with birdofprey, although i want the ghost to be a much better unit than it was in SC1, 5 abilities is overdoing it a lil... Maybe they could make the ghosts attack drain a larger portion of a protoss's shield and also make them drain a very small amount of energy with each normal hit instead of giving them an emp ability.

 

That'd be an interesting ability, but I don't really see how it would work in reality (not that StarCraft has to work in reality, but it's better if it does). What about this; Instead of damaging shields more and draining energy, if the Ghost did 20 damage in its normal attack, then it would deal 20 damage to the Protoss shields and 5 to 10 damage to the Protoss unit's health. This would indicate that the Ghost is able to find the weak points on its target. It wouldn't really be a replacement for the EMP, but it would be a different way of making Ghosts more effective against Protoss.

 

I like the idea of draining energy with normal shots like marinefreak said, but in large groups Ghosts would become to powerfull this way. Example: they won't be able to actually kill a mothership, but firing a lot on it would render it's planet cracker and time bomb useless. That's just to much.

About the Ghost having 5 abilities: why can't they combine certain abilities, or just don't let a single Ghost have all 5? I mean, wouldn't it be a good solution if let's say, the nuke ability and the drop pod ability would have to be upgraded on the unit itself? That way you have to micro more, so the Ghost would be a little harder to use AND the problem of having to much abilities on one unit is solved.

But the Ghost being the ultimate low tier support unit? I don't think so. They are way to expensive to use them in large numbers and are killed quickly when not using cloak. I would say the Medic is better, it can heal your troops and use blind. In combination with Stim Packs this is a way more deadly unit then the Ghost. You can say: "But the Ghost can drop nukes!" That's, of course, true, but not on low tier. :thumbup:

 

@Itzahexgor Good idea, but it might be hard to balance since that would mean that the ghost is the only unit in the game to be able to bypass shield no matter what unit it is targetting or how much shield it actually has for example if it was shooting a carrier or nexus. Of course it might work if it happened on small units or if damage was split so if it normally did 20, then it would do 15 to shields, and 5 to health

@ ForSaken My idea would only work if ghosts were very costly (100 mineral 250 gas?) so that massing them against units wouldn't be an option. I like your idea of combining abilities though :good:

 

@ Marinefreak. Great idea. Having them split their damage between the shields and health would still make them more effective against Protoss units but they wouldn't actually be able to bring them down faster. I reckon this way would make Ghosts more effective against Protoss, but not overpowered. Also, it makes more sense than draining their energy does.
@ Forsaken. The Ghost wouldn't really be an ultimate tier 1 to 2, because as Marinefreak said, they would be made much more expensive. Also, we don't know how much energy these abilities are going to use. If Snipe required 100% of the Ghost's energy then it wouldn't be worth it, but if it cost 1 energy then it would be overpowered. It all depends on how Blizzard balances it.

 

what if EMP burst is a lockdown spell? i mean the nomad already has EMP

 

@ItzaHexGor
You are right that in the end its all about the values Blizzard sets for all of the abilities, unit costs etc. However, I think we already can agree that having five abilities on only one unit is way to much. It isn't overpowered or something like that, it's just to complicated and unrealistic. Just look at real soldiers, they don't have like five specialities to, they only have one or two. (like bomb expert, sniping etc.)

 

But Ghosts don't actually have five abilities. They have Cloak, Snipe, Drop-Pod and Nuclear Launch. That's four at last count. They really don't need an EMP or Lockdown spell. The idea of having Ghosts bypass the Protoss Shields was a different way of implementing an EMP like ability. Instead of totally wiping out their shields so that they can damage their health, they can bypass straight to their health each shot. This idea isn't another ability. Calling this an ability would be like calling the Firebat's splash damage an ability.

 

I don´t really understand how 5 abilities are too much. They are pretty much equally exclusive in each situation.

 

Better to lean them onto the Ghost than giving each unit a different ability. Anyway, I suppose EMP for the Ghost is weird too. I'd rather keep the snipe up, and leave the rest till after Special Ops is built. Snipe does kill zealots, and leaving medics and Marines on front as a shield, Ghosts might be very effective in countering them. If Stalkers don't fit into the organic description, the enemy would go for them when the terran gets ghosts. However, Stalkers don't do bonus damage vs. infantry, balancing the early game mechanics of P v T.

 

Here's how I see Ghost's abilitites:
Cloak - no doubt, he's special agent

Snipe - great against infantry, with halved/quarted effect to larger units. Ignores shields (find weakness) . It would be vs zerg AND vs Protoss ability.

Nuke - ghost calls nukes. Obviously.

3 abilities so long...

Drop Pods - nope. How about making it a midgame Marine upgrade?
Emp - nope. Ghost will ignore power shields. It'll be enough.

So what?

SOME PSIONIC ABILITY (examples):
PSI Drain - target unit losses of all of its energy, Ghost gains half of energy lost.
or
Distraction (like HT's Hallucination from SC1) - creates illusion of ghost, which behave like unit
or
Jump/Run - to unnaturally jump on high cliffs/move very quickly for few seconds
or
Stuning - causes all units in small area to stop without command

Tell it Blizzard