Exactly how OP are Reapers?

Each race has a reliable early counter to Reapers, so I don't find them OP at all. Terran can just produce 3-4 Marines, as they usually should anyway, and just have them sit on your workers while in your base. Zerg can pump out a Queen faster than a Terran player can get 2 Reapers out and into your base, and the Queen does a good job with them. Protoss does have to go out of their way a bit, and put a cannon or two down to repel the early Reaper rush, but once they get Stalkers it's all gravy.

 

Reapers are the ultimate anti-noob unit, but against anyone who's played beta they are practically worthless except in 2v2. They require too much micro to stay alive, so I guess if you are jaedong or flash you can use them effectively but consider how many reapers you need to make an impact once the enemy gets past zealot/ling/marine - you need like 10 or so reapers to do damage fast enough to harass effectively. Thats 500/500 and 400 seconds of production time from your barracks. The time requirement is the biggest thing, imo, spending close to 7 minutes of rax time building a force that will get nullified by 3-4 armored units is just not worth it.

 

Reapers are basically a glass cannon, and even at that only work well against light units. They are really good for harassing your opponent's workers, but it can take a lot of practice to be able to keep them alive since they're so weak.

I haven't really found a use for them mid to late game yet, though some may arise in the future. They just take so long to train and are pretty gas heavy for a unit that can die so fast.

 

i'd give em a flamethrower so they can wipe the mineralline in about 2 seconds and a half.THERE, FIXED.