November Monthly Discussion Topic: The Terran Ghost

* Do you like the new StarCraft II Ghost?
I do not because if Ghost are called "Shadow Ops", then why are they're white? Please change the color scheme. The model is fine with me. I would like Lock-Down to return
* Will the new Ghost change your strategy?
I will build it more often since its in the 1.5 tier
* How would you utilize the Ghost?
Hit, Snipe in this case, and Run. Call down marines near enemies' Mineral. Recon
* Additional Feedback you would like to give
Since it looks like the ghost has some optical gears, make them see further than marines or other infantry unit

 

Yes very much, its design is good and currently looks like a far more powerful unit in the battlefield.

100% Yes.... with the arrival of the ultra powerful abilities the ghost now has, I can see myself using a number of new tactics on the ever changing battlefield of starcraft. The Ghost has now become a reasonable support and scout unit than can quickly scan the battlefield up ahead of my main army or (with its drop pods and snipe) it would take down a lightly defended expansion easily by sniping whatever units are there (assuming they are biological) then calling down a large Marine assault group to finish the expansion off. As a support unit the ghost could possibly be added into your main army and quickly micro ed to snipe oncoming enemies while your main army takes care for the rest. Or it could be used as a highly deadly working killer as if one could get a single ghost over to the enemy worker line and drop a drop pod it may severely damage the enemies worker line (assuming its lightly defended).

Since the ghost has now become a very capable scout/light assault unit i recommend giving it the sight to fit its new abilities (increasing the sight range).

 

Do you like the new StarCraft II Ghost?
Yes. It looks good, has sweet abilities, is extremely useful, is baller, etc.

Will the new Ghost change your strategy?
Yes. I'll admit that in the original Starcraft the Ghost was a unit I rarely used. One of the only times was during a single-player mission with cheats, where I would drop Nuke after Nuke. Now that the Ghost is so ability-filled and unique, I will utilize it much more. My Terran strategy used to center around turtling and building a fleet of unstoppable Battlecruisers with support. Now, while I most likely will end up the same way, this time I will concentrate more resources on Ghosts during army build up to harass the enemy to no end.

How would you utilize the Ghost?
On Defense:
Keep a few around the homestead to snipe enemy casters and important units. Place some in Bunkers due to their new effective attacks and pop them out for the occasional EMP. Huge new defensive factor.
On Offense:
Obviously cloak and nuke. Boom. Snipe enemy casters and important defenders, and launch EMPs to soften enemy army for assault. Drop Marines on enemy mineral patches for harassment. Basically a great support unit for my main army.

Additional Suggestions
None. Blizzard is doing a wonderful job on the new Ghost.

 

looks to cartoonish

it should be black

 

??? Is it just me, or is the picture on the topic showing the orange attempting to nuke his own base?

 

Do you like the new ghost?
Yes.

Will the new ghost change your strategy
Yes, in several ways. If I am playing with Terran, which is usually the case, I will actually be investing my resources into getting ghosts. If I have an army built up I will take into account the presence of my ghosts and be very mindful to take advantage of tactial situations as they arise.
If I am playing against Terran I will have to be very mindful of the enemies ghosts. They will be a priority target as they pose a threat of a disproportionate magnitude compared to most other units. Relying on casters for tactical support will be much riskier as one of the tactical advantages of ghosts is neutralizing the enemies strategic units.

How will you utilize the ghost?
The old ghost had a limited usefulness. While nuke was fun it was only rarely useful. Their only real assest was as support against enemy mechanical units. Lockdown was the reason to get ghosts. The new ghosts have a much braoder range of uses. While nukes will still likely only be rarely useful, they will still be very fun. The snipe ability will make ghost excellent against zerg and the 3 non mechanical protoss units. Zerg units and the ever dangerous High Templars will have something to fear. Snipe alone will make ghosts a must against Zerg and Protoss. While this ability seems weighted for usefulness against the zerg this is balanced with EMP. Giving ghosts EMP is an excellent idea. It makes their tactical usefulness much greater. It can be used whenever your facing protoss and is good at neutralizing any race's casters. Together snipe and emp make ghost tactically useful in the majority of possible senarios. The last thing to talke about are drop pods. This is another very tactially useful ability. It will allow a player to get marines to an otherwise hard to get to strategic position quickly. For example, if an enemy has siege tanks on a hill and you need to take them out, dropping 6 marines right on top of them could alone be enough to destroy them all and will certainly destroy many of them as tanks tend to be very self destructive once enemies get in amoungst them.

 

First post here, long time reader/SCer (since the beginning), but I feel the need to chime in on the Ghost (as a Terran loyal, too!).

Do you like the new Ghost?

Yes and no. I love the idea of the Ghost's new Snipe and attaching EMP to him, as well as nukes. Let's be honest and realistic - getting Ghosts in original Starcraft was NEVER the most efficient course of action - too many upgrades and time with rarely worth it benefits. He could Lockdown and Nuke, with Cloak as a means to only do those two things. You never see pros go for Ghosts/nuke except for being flashy/showmanship.

I love the new Ghost with these abilities - Cloak, Snipe, EMP, Nuke.
EMP and Nuke go hand in hand so well its like milk & coffee. You always EMP the Protoss before Nuking - with excellent results. Mmm, Protoss expansions for breakfast.
Snipe is awesome because well, why else does he have that long-barrel rifle with a scope. Makes sense, and gives him an assassin feel. Cloak is obviously a given as a necessity to be able to do these things.

Why don't I like the new Ghost? As of now he has too many abilities! Cloak, Snipe, EMP, Nuke, Drop Pods? 35 dmg vs light units + 5 abilities? What is he, superhuman? It reminds me of the Kerrigan hero unit (even though she had 4 like I would like on the Ghost... lol). Anyway the Drop Pod has never made sense to me. Sure, Dropships were slow and frustrating to use, and Drop Pods vs. Zerg economies would be amazing...but let's take it back to the Protoss again - when are you ever going to want to drop in 6 marines on a Protoss camp, or force? First of all, cannons will likely be around = dead marines. Second, marines (even with medic backup) were never the weapon of choice against the Protoss (nor enemy Terrans). They just get overpowered way too quickly. I fail to see what a Drop Pod can do that a Reaper raid wouldn't.

I feel like the Ghost is just doing too much with the current build.

Will you use him for new strategies?

Yes - like I said, EMP + Nuke is awesome. What you once had to do with two Tier 3 units can now be done with one. With the Ghost as 1.5 tier, he no longer becomes that far off, not-really-worth it option. Essentially he becomes a great mid-game scout/support unit. Would be great to take along to pick off defilers, HTs...especially with the Snipe, he becomes all spellcasters worst nightmare.

Anyway that's all. Thanks for letting us put in all this input.

 

* Do you like the new StarCraft II Ghost?
Yes, I really like the ghost, since now it's really a useful unit. I love the new abilities, and the damage boost. I however don't understand the increase in hit points, since it's still a support unit, not a combat one. You should keep it away from melee with marines, firebats etc, so there's no need for more hit points. I'd also like, if the ghost would be black instead of white, cause it's a shadow ops unit meant to be in shadows, hence the black color.

* Will the new Ghost change your strategy?
Definitely yeas! The new abilities will make it a much more useful unit, and I think it'll feature in many of my strategies.

* How would you utilize the Ghost?
I would use it for marine support, and for the abilities.

* Additional Feedback you would like to give
Not much really, I think I've mentioned everything already. Keep up the good work blizzard .

 

EonMaster:

There's a swarm of zergligns coming on so i guess he's nuking the attack.
can prove effective if done correctly ^^

 

I wonder.... does the EMP ability affect buildings within the radius? if yes, that would be pretty cool.

 

Oops didn't see them there.

As for if I like the new ghost:

Yes, the new abilities make him much more useful than in the original. The nuking ability is still great for the terran arssenal, personal cloaking field, EMP, snipe, and drop pods make the ghost a much better tactical fighter than the original.

For the snipe, I thought it would do more damage than just 50. Sure that would kill a marine, but it won't help much against protoss unless you have a couple of them, and you need to upgrade the amount of energy they have to be able to use it.

Drop pods sound fun. It would be great for enemy raids on bases. I wonder if there is a limit to how many pods each ghost is allowed to use.

 

The snipe does 50 damage to biological units, and +100 damage to light armor, which I think includes infantry, and maybe some other units. Even then it wouldn't kill a zealot, but you can of course shoot it with the ghost't normal attack afterwards.

 

So, would it do 50 or 150 damage to zealots?

 

I think 150, since probably zealots would be classed as light armor, but I'm not sure.

 

* Do you like the new StarCraft II Ghost?
YES! but I'll discuss anyway to help make him BETTER.
GFX: Ghost is sly and stealthy, but he wears so bulky backpack.... make it smaller and grayish/camou
Feel: Ghost has great 'feel' as PSI specialist/covert ops soldier. I enjoy his return to SC II

* Will the new Ghost change your strategy?
I used Ghosts often (especially in casual/multiplayer). Mainly to drop nukes, sometimes - when lucky enough - locked down few enemy units during op's predictable assault, but mainly - for fun, because Ghost wasn't very powerful. Nowadays, he is so versatile that I surely add him to most of my terran's strategies.

* How would you utilize the Ghost?
If he'll keep great sight range - for recon, also: enemy distraction, preparing ground for greater assault, sniping solitary and expensive units (YES!)

***FEEDBACK***
He has too many abilities.
Cloak is necessary.
Snipe is great (thing which was lacking in SC1) altough I would see 'Ignore Power Shields' charactericstic added to this attack (It costs energy so its PSI Supported). It should deal damage to HP directly.
Nuke is very fun and shows that Ghost has very responsible job

Drop-Pods - good idea, but not for ghost. This and nuke is little redundant. Why not making this a Marine midgame upgrade? Imagine: "Here's Alpha Squadron. We're in serious trouble. Please send us some backup."
EMP - I'll rather see Snipe ignoring shields than this... Maybe Nomad?

Ghost need some PSI ability for example:
PSI Drain - causes loss of PSI energy in small AoE
or something like HT's Hallucination (but creating one ilussion of Ghost himself)
or Mind Stuning (stunned unit ceases to do anything for short period of time.)

 

I'm not sure about sniping ignoring shields, for it's true it uses energy, but the shields are still meant to stop any attacks, and if the Terrans would have figured a way to penetrate them, then they would be useless against Terran. Also, it would overlap with emp, but I'm not sure should the ghost have emp. It would be useful indeed, but I think it fits some other Terran unit better, maybe the cobra, since it doesn't have any abilities right now. It would also fit the unit pretty well.

I personally don't think the drop-pod shouldn't go to the marine. I however can imagine how cool it would be for marines to call for reinforcements, but it might suit a hero marine better. I for one would make officer units with practically the same stats, but with more abilities, like the drop-pod to a marine officer. Even then, I can't see that coming to competitive gaming :no:.

P.S. What do you think on the ghost's high hit points? I think it shouldn't be higher than an unupgraded marine, since you should keep them away from melee contact, and protect them with marines/firebats/medics. Also, ghosts shouldn't be able to take a siege tank shot and live. Marines can't without the shield upgrade, and they are still wearing those heavy power suits. Discuss.

 

The ghost is more agile and smarter than the marine, so he is able to anticipate an attack, and knows not to run in a straight line. When a siege tank fires the ghost is able to dive out of the way to avoid taking the full force of the attack. Marines aren't smart or quick enough to do this.

 

In this case, shields will be useless only against *Ghost using Snipe ability*. I don't think that will hurt game balance.
Many Protoss players complain about EMP, so I'm not sure about it'll stay in game. Possible overlaping? Well, in reality this sometimes happen. If Sniping would ignore shields it won't use advantage of EMP. However, all other terran units will enjoy this.

Thanks for support The closest thing to marine officer is VETerancy system (which won't be implemented). Enabling ability in units which have at least 10 kills score would make this un-usable. It isn't so game-breaking to not to give to Marine. Stimpack, U-238 Shells and this would be fine.

Ghost HP - this represents ghost's increased ability to survive/evade incoming damage. I would prefer to see them with 50-60 HPs and 'evasion' of some incoming damage (i.e. instead of 10 dmg it will get 9 etc.)
50-60 HP because they're better trained and control their body psionically ( -> increased effectivenes and endurance)

 

* Do you like the new StarCraft II Ghost?
Hell yeah! I love it! I do however agree with the few people complaining about the colour scheme. Sure it looks great in white'n'red, but how about a black and red to symbolize its 'secret-agent' status. But this definately doesnt have top priority.

* Will the new Ghost change your strategy?
Definately! With this new Ghost recon is going to be so much easier to recon, and call emergency backup if my force gets in trouble. Im visualizing myself being hopelessly outnumbered, and then calling down three pods; more than evening the odds. 'you called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind' hehe. Anyways.

* How would you utilize the Ghost?
Id use it for recon, for doing small scale worker raids on badly protected outposts, and perhaps make the situation at a battlefield a little more in my flavour before my main force arrives. Its my favourite unit so far after the Viking.

 

How will you utlize the ghost?

-recon of enemy base defences
-nuke!
-calling down drop pods during enemy base invasions