Well we have all seen that the new Gateway will be able to turn into the Warp Gate for a moderate sum of resources. With this new Warp Gate a protoss player can warp in any unit produced at the Gateway to any pylon powered area. the unit takes a few seconds to warp in, in witch it is vulnerable to attack and can not retaliate. We all already know that this is a great way to support front line troops and can also be used as a way to defend expansions were troops aren't readily available. My question is how many Warp Gates will it take to make the warp in mechanic useful? You will need more than one and you will most likely need more than three. Then the question becomes is it worth the minerals and time to build 4-8 Gateways and then spend extra resources to change it into a Warp Gate? I believe it does end up being worth it seeing as if you are overwhelmed by an air force you could warp in stalkers or if you are being shelled by tanks you don't have to retreat you can warp in immortals.However, I wanted to see the communities opinion on the mater and to also discuss the draw backs to the mechanic.
Yea it seems like you'd need 12 to bring 12 units to the battlefield instantly, then wait for the cool down (build time after production) to warp in some more. To me warp-in seems more of a last resort then a good tactic to use since you can't produce any units after for the cool down, meaning you're very vulnrable to counter attacks.
I see so it should be more of a o crap the enemy is in my base tactic than I lets make a quick raid one.
Or maybe you're making that final raid and if you wait for units to build, it could be back to square one, so you instantly reinforce your troops. As opposed to using gateways and Phasm Prisms to transport units everywhere which costs.
hehe imagine money maps where a player has a buttload of warpgates and they just warp an entire army of zealots in at once.
Just to clarify a few things. First all that is needed to activate Warp Gates is an upgrade, once you have that and Gateway/Warp Gate can switch back and forth between each other for just the cost of a few seconds, no minerals/vespen required. Also the cooldown time for units built from Warp Gates is directly proportional to the build time of the Warped-In unit. So in theory if a player is constantly warping in units right after the cooldown is up it would be just like building from a normal Gateway except you could place the units anywhere in Pylon power. With all of that in mind Warp Gates will probably replace Gateways in the later tiers of pro play and Gateways only seeing use in ametuer matches where a player needs to rely on the build quene for efficiencys sake. So to answer your question, you won't need to build an extra 4-8 Gateways you will just use the ones you already have and switch them back to Gateway form if you need the build quene.
I agree. If you have good macro, you Warp Gates have a huge advantage over Gateways. As long as you can remember to hotkey your Warp Gates and macro right, you'll be much better off. But there's also the risk of the unit dying during Warp-In, which really sucks because then you've wasted all those resources and the cooldown on a unit that literally died before it was born. But of course most players will be warping in units in relatively secure locations, so it's not really a big risk as long as you can keep your head. The way I see this happening is, as people start playing the game, they'll start off with Gateways and only a few Warp Gates, but as they get better they'll switch over to Warp Gates.
Yea thats true, it would improve your macro a lot since you're skipped the time it would take to bring them to the battlefield, then you can use them to flank and stuff. Good stuff, I like it. But either way, if you wanted 12 units instantly, you would still need 12 warp gates.
yes, this could be really interesting, how many Gateways / Warp Gate, does it take to be economically and unit production stable without MSB? , this feature wouldnt be so great without MSB to give it the extra edge.
Yes it wouldn't be great without MBS, as you could never hotkey units and the whole hotkeys would be full up with buildings, only being 9.
there will definetly be an advantege to haveing mulptiple warp gates the protoss race in genreal has be come far more mobile considering the stalkers blink, the colseses cliff climbing ability, and the phase prisim so the warp gates will help the other esntial units keep up with the fight
Hmm... I wonder what will happen if a unit that's warping in is hit by stasis and then lifted into the air, and while in stasis the pylon it warped under is destroyed. Blizz has a lot of glitches to work out >.> Also, anyone think that a building hotkey should hold a bit less than the normal, unit selection one? As of now it seems way too rigged, but with around 3 it will stay true to what it originally intended for anyways. Noobs wont have more than 6 production buildings, so they only need 2 hotkeys, while pros will still require all 9 to macro correctly.
YC: I do not think it is a good idea to limit the hotkeys. It is completely arbitrary and unnecessary. Remember that, not only do buildings have to be hotkeyed, but critical units as well. BoP: When I played last year, I typically built most of my Gates in my main base, then defended it. With Warp Gates, you are right that it doesn't matter where you place them, you could stick them in expansions if you'd like, but it all comes down to whether you think they're safe there. It costs more to spread out, but if you're already there- mining and defending that expansion, you might as well. I don't think people will actually make bases dedicated to Warp Gates, however: the average player in the average game does not need nearly enough to warrant huge dedicated plots of... Gate farms. Addressing the main thread: the number of Warp Gates you would need depends on how well you can macro the placement of units. If you can keep up with the Gate's recharge, you'll be fine, even without a build queue. If you need to focus on other things, keeping a proportion as Gateways can help a player build up armies. In the games I played, 6-8 Warp Gates was fairly common. One can't usually maintain constant production with that many Warp Gates, especially if they're spending on other things, but it's good if you intend to dump a large number of units somewhere, quickly. If you intend to use the Phase Prism for offensive Warp-in, 10-12 Warp Gates might be in order, but oftentimes an initial group of 6-8 units (especially, say, Dark Templar) can stay alive in an enemy base long enough for the Warp Gates to cool down, and for another set of units to arrive.
What I meant by gate farms is someone taking an expansion and building 4-6 gates their. Doesn't have to be the base's sole purpose. The way I play I usually only like to have half of my production structures in my main base and the other half spread out in the expansions. That way I can reinforce the bases quickly since there isn't any travel time to move troops and it also allows me to make armies in multiple locations and attack form different vectors. It also gives me some redundancy so if I lose a base I still have production structures.
