Phase Cannon No Longer Phasable

Bout time you came to Psion's assistance Remy. You are right the Protoss have the lowest overall damage output but that is because there lack of numbers on a unit by unit basis they have the highest damage output and hp. I didn't say offensively overpowering, I just said overpowering, which is what they because it takes quite a bit of effort to severely damage an offensive or defensive force because of their resilience, unless you could be more efficient. The Protoss are only efficient in that they get a lot out of their units before they die, but they are horribly inefficient as far as avoiding damage and the repair of damage is concerned (at least by comparison to the other races). While this mechanic may subscribe to the Protoss's efficiency it feels more like it is subscribing to the Terran's efficiency (at least the repairing of damage side).

To be honest, I forgot about MBS which the lack there of would drastically change the situation, so I'm not as opposed to this idea as before but I still don't like it. If just not liking it isn't enough to argue against it here are a few alternatives. First simply don't have any abilities on the Phase Cannon just a stat increase from the Photon Cannon to make it more resilient. Assuming that isn't a possibly I still like my earlier idea of giving Phase Cannons the "Shrieker effect." Another idea I have been thinking about that should in theory have a similar effect to what's being proposed is giving the cannons a phasing ability; call it Phase Shielding for the moment. Basically all but the center of the Phase Cannon phases out so it easier to move around. The Phase Cannon goes down to just its shields for defense but the shields either get a massive armor bonus (or a version of hardened shields depending on balance). In this form the shield slowly drains like the energy of a cloaked unit. The shield would also drain some small amount when the cannon attacks (on top of receiving damage of course). Finally if the cannons run of sp while phased one of 2 things could happen (depending on balance) it could either just die or return to its normal form the same way it would if manually de-phased. When cannons are de-phased they would have a short warp in during which its shields are not recharging and it can't attack.

@i2new, eh I would rather that over this shield channeling idea, but it doesn't feel like it would fit the Protoss very well.

@Psion I fully understand the possibilities of this shield channeling idea, I just think the bonuses will either be irrelevant or only noticeable at a very high level of play. I would rather give the cannons a stats bonus over the shield channeling, because in the end I think it would be more helpful.

 

I see what you're saying about it being useful all the time. But ask your self this, were normal cannons useful all the time?
They helped either early detection and mineral raids, thats just about it. If a game did get to mid-game they'd pretty much be useless due to obvious reasons.
Its just a simple concept, similar to that of the Zealot charge. If the Zealot charge idea was introduced to you like this would you prefer the Zealots got a stat increase or retain this new ability?
We all know of the Sc 1.5 argument and I won't go too far into that but this is a new game which does require new aspects of many things, this being defense to be changed in a way which allows richer dynamics instead of simple placement.

Giving the cannons a stat increase only makes them that more spammable with that original single purpose to defenss and eliminate units effeciently.
But compared to the new changes, for example the tank; it has been given a longer range and is seemingly more powerful, how would cannons cope with that since they have less chance of repelling a tank push than in Sc1?
Also the tank doing an immense 100 damage to armor in siege mode also opposes the Stalker. Yes, it has blink but simple tank placement would beat the not-so-tough stalkers.
But we know Stalkers are not the direct counter for sieged tanks, that being the Immortal. But Immortals are not readily available like a tank is early game, so whats to stop tanks getting in your base without wasting valuable Protoss units which would be against their way of doing things.

Now heres where the shield channeling comes in. It not only reflects a unit ability where Protoss units with energy can transfer it but it works exactly how you want it to. In Sc1 you had full control of almost everything allowing an effecient response to a situation to made, for example: making some cannons at your mineral line to repel Reaver drops.
Now normal cannons could repel a Reaver drop, but this being Sc2 we have now more dangerous threads such as the cliff jumpers.
You now have to deal with possible whole armies instantly getting into your base whether it be via Phase Prism or Nydus Worm.
A stat increase would not help at will when dealing with those kinda situations simply because the obvious counter for lots of cannons is going to be units with armor/structure bonus along with weaker units since the stronger cannon would be wasting their fire power on weak units which is not effecient and not being effecient is not Protoss.

Now with these larger threats, you enter the channeling cannons which can respond to most situations, yet still be countered with the fact some cannons get stronger, others get weaker. Its a simple response to the increased danger level which has been introduced into Sc2.
It also seperates skills levels which is important.
During a game would you be happy if you made an intricate defense only for a noob to mass Zergling you?
Of course you wouldn't. That is an imbalance when the best a skilled player can do vs a lesser skilled player can get trumped with a simple tactic.
Giving the cannons this ability opens up that wide window of you proving your the better player by responding correctly to the situation, which could be 1 of 2 things in this scenario:
The player orders all the Zerglings to take out one cannon at a time.
The player orders the Zerglings to be spread out onto each cannon.
Either way without you controling a factor of these cannons it will be the same result, you either lose some cannons or all are heavily damaged meaning you're severly weakened for the next raid.
With the shield channeling you could respond to the first situation be focused 2-3 cannons on the cannon being attacked by all the Zerglings which would greatly boost its survival rate allowing you to take out more Zerglings, where with normal cannons you'd be helpless, speaking defense wise.
On the second situation you'd have to equally spread shield out to the multiple cannons being attacked but not as much as the first since theres less damage being taken.

I'm mad tired so my post may not be worded right or structured correctly so forgive me :]

 

Nice explanation on how shield channeling would work. However there is nothing new in it I already said I understood how it worked (in fact I give a decent explanation earlier in this topic). It doesn't however change how irrelevant the ability may be in all but a few specific situations.

First off the ability is completely useless against any kind of siege unit you can't respond to. All that would happen is the prolonged death of 1 or 2 cannons and the quick death of the reast once the siege unit is in range. A stat increase would increase the total hp of your cannons meaning it would take longer for all of the cannons to die.Ultimately if you can't respond to the siege units both a stat increase of Shield Channeling is completely useless. If you could respond it depends on how the long the response would take to decide which thing the Phase Cannon would get a bonus from.

Against cliff jumpers and assuming they focus fire on your cannons it really comes down to how big the stat bonus is to determine which one is better. Assuming both fall in a similar amount of time and do a similar amount of dmage the stat bonus would be better because you wouldn't need to give orders to your cannons. Assuming they don't focus tire the stat bonus is just flat better. The same is also true for situations involving mass trnasport (ex. the Nydus Worm or Warp In from the Phase Prism), unless there is a chance of killing the mass transporter before it can activate, in which case the stat bonus is flatly better because it has better chance of killing the transport.

Against overwhelming assualts (ie, your Zergling example) again it comes down to how large the stat bonus so there is really no clear winner here except the the stat bonus cannons would need user intervention to be at there maximum effect while the shield channeling ones would.

So the real question becomes is the requirement of user intervention a good thing? I say no when it comes to static defenses (atleast when all else is equal), but this is obviously something that is subjective.

 

Hey LK. Heheh, I'm really not here to rescue anyone. I'm just starting to like the Shield Channeling idea that's all. I have always been posting based on what I personally believe to be correct, true, or make the most sense. Yes, Remy is a selfish bastard.

First, about the Protoss again. While what you say is true, to compare all the races, in all practical sense it is more reasonable to account for things such as unit food/supply cost, mineral/gas cost, attack cooldown, etc. Since in actual games where all players are doing what they're supposed to, you will never be going against Zerglings or Marines in equal count, same for everything else. It is for that reason that when considering and evaluating damage output, I go with damage per cooldown per supply. By which, Protoss was dead last in damage output back in SC1. Terran was the firepower race, and Zerg still had excellent damage output where it was needed.

It's completely fair and justified that any individual may or may not like an idea simply based on there their personal bias and preferences. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with that. However, since we generally try to have meaningful discussions or come up with reasonable ideas, I feel it is best everyone get more thorough on all their input. That's at least what I'm personally hoping for from the main SC2 boards anyway. With that said, I don't think it is entirely accurate to attribute Shield Channeling to healing or repair, because you are really not healing or repairing anything in actuality. All you are doing is juggling the same amount of the maximum HP pool on hand much like you do with regular units. Same amount of stuff, not getting more anywhere, but just putting the same stuff elsewhere.

I don't think I am completely understanding the Phase Shielding idea. Are you saying making the Cannons move in phase mode as before? Or are you saying phase mode drops the Cannon's ability to attack altogether and goes into some kind of defensive mode with an armor bonus? I need a little more elaboration on it, if you don't mind LK.

Lastly, about stat increase for the Cannon, I believe it is needed regardless of additional mechanics/abilities are added to it. The laughable stats of Cannons was a bigger problem, that is first priority IMO. And it is having considered an increase in stats for the Cannon, that I still support Shield Channeling. In fact, I believe with greater stats, it will only make it easier on the average player.

EDIT: Your reply got in before mine LK, just want to address something in your last reply. On the first scenario you gave, Shield Channeling would still be useful. You might already be trying to take down the Tanks with Zealots for example, but Terran is determined to beat down your door while taking some losses on units, it would be a race of time. Or if your are currently producing the units needed to take out whatever siege unit it is that's knocking at your door, again, a race of time. It will still be useful in situations involving siege units.

 

In response to your second section LK, what siege unit would that be, excluding the tank?
Also, everything in Sc has a time when it is irrelevant. Nothing can be useful in every thinkable situation.
Also, the fact your are holding back a possibly fatal attack means the defense works. A defense doesn't work if the enemy units get inside your base and do big damage.
Channeling allows the somewhat useless cannons to be useful for the moment, possibly allowing for your own units to get into place or to aid the desruction of those attacking units.

Another thing. What happens when you do not kill the transport? which can be hard if theres multiple transports, a stat increase isn't going to help you as the counter units are already in your base meaning the defense has failed.
Now if that inital defense fails you have a second chance to use your own inititive to defend as much as you can instead of being helpless and hoping those Dark Templars are produced in time. Now you have a chance to take full control.

In response to your last question.
I say the perfec balance is achieved when you can do something effectivly but do it better if you want to.
Edit:
A fine example is the Marine.
Normally it moves at a decent speed and has a decent fire rate which does the job when applied correctly. But you can increase the speed at the expense of 10 hitpoints.
That is something you can do normally, being it killing a group of Zerglings or taking out a ciritical target. But with stimpack this allows you to do better than normal. Its simple really :]

 

@Remy
In response to your edit, I know thats why I said a siege unit you can't respond to.

Phase shielding: The Phase Cannon has the ability to phase out its physical sections leaving only its shield to tie it to this dimension. This allows the shield to be maluable when stopping attacks meaning the attacks do far less damage than normal. However because the cannon is nearly completely disconnected from the Pylon matrix it becomes partially reliant on its shileds capacitors to power its weapon, the same shields that are keeping it tied to this dimension.

Normal mode: The cannon is normal Phase/Photon Cannon.

Phased mode: The cannon is still immobile (just to clear up that miscommunication). The Phas Cannon only has its shiealds and the health bar is removed. All incoming attacks only do 3 damage to the Phase Cannon (Or something it can either be this way, or just add 100 plasma armor or give it some kind of hardened shield pick your poison). The Phase Cannons slowly drain at 1 sp every 2 seconds. FInally, whenever the Phase Cannon attacks its shields drain 4 sp.

(I added in numbers to provide an example they are no where near balanced)

@Psion, besides the Tank the only real siege unit is the Carrier, atleast as far as range is concerned. Any other situation besides a siege one really comes down to how large the stat increase is, because in theory if you have more hp/sp and damage per cannon but are losing the first ones faster than the shield channeling situation its still possible to do more damage, it just comes down to the numbers, both offensive and defensive.

If thats your opinion why arern't we adding abilites to the Missle Turret, or Sunken/Spore Colonies (not counting their movement which doesn't help once they are directly involved in a battle)? Or how about the Sensor Tower? Its not like these things could do their job any better than a Phase Cannon without an ability. Thats why I said no as far as static defenses go and its also why your Marine example is somewhat invalid.

 

Because the Marine has a passive ability. It functions without it but when used it becomes more worth while, and allows it to become stronger where it wouldn't be normally.

Don't forget Guardians are a formidable siege unit.

Not everything can respond to everything which is pretty clear and I'm sure you knew that. Of course against a very large assult of siege units the cannons probably wouldn't stand much of a chance, with or without an ability but neither would sending stimmed Marines to attack a group of sieged tanks. As the point their is that siege units are designed to take out such things where defenses are there to handle a broad range of opposition.

 

how will a nuke effect or cannons effect??

 

Your post did not make any sense (expecially the first part) so I'm sorry if I aassumed you said something other than what you did.

As for your second part I said a siege unit you can't respond to mean you are being attack by siege units you can't strike back at before you cannons die. In a situation like that bth stats and shield channeling are useless. However if you can respond if depends on how long it takes you to respond to know whether stats or channeling is better. A response that takes longer would favor stats because they provide a large overall health pool even though you are going to lose some cannons you aren't going to lose as many as channeling. A response that takes almost no time will favor channeling because you probably won't lose any cannons while the stats make lose a couple before you can stop the siege units.

12new you made less sense than Psion.

 

I edited the post.

@i2new
Are you being funny or is that a serious question?

 

I cant see what he's saying and I'm asking you would a nuke have any different effect on your phase cannon idea or would it just overpower the effect all together and clear it out or would it still be left standing? Cause if it can survive a nuke blast your idea gets a double thumbs up from me.

 

In the first part of your post if thats all your responding to you completely ignored what I was saying.

As far as the second part I know not everything can respond to everything. It was directed at Remy's edit where he said what if you had Zealots about ready to attack the Tanks.

EDIT: Oh, I get what your asking about i2new (Psion hes asking about my Phase Shielding idea). I don't know to be honest, that's something that is determined by balance. But if it did resist nuke blasts it should resist all abiliies which could be overpowered.

 

Well i see it this way if the immortal shield can resist a nuke( which i'm not even sure of) then your cannon should be able to as well. The big upside i see to your cannon idea is that it will make the baneling 100% useless which i'm sure will be enough to make any zerg player cry so i can say the idea is a freaking good one but needs real game testing to balance correctly.

 

I don't know why anything making the Banelings useless, epsecially static-D VS unit, would automatically make it "a freaking good one." But anyway...

You should all remember something. No static-D with any kind of mechanic should be allowed or expected to be effective VS siege. I just gave theoretical examples where Shield Channeling might still give the player just a little bit of juice even when sieged. But at the end of the day, siege units/mechanic needs to always beat static-D by default. That's to say, disregarding genius micro or anything else coming into the equation, static-D VS siege, siege need to win out by innate design without question. So Shield Channeling, or any other idea/improvement/mechanic, should not really be guaged VS siege. That is not their role nor function, and never will be.

I think I'm kinda start to get the idea of your Phase Shielding ability now. I initially thought you suggested some kind of movement/repositioning, sorry about the confusion. It sound kinda like the "ethereal state" in WC3, from my understanding. I think that could work pretty good too, although I'm not entirely sure about having SP drain just from attacking. I doubt there will be hold-fire command for towers, meaning, the player has no way of preventing your Cannons in Phase Mode draining their own shields. Unless, you meant that you can get out of Phase Mode at will.

There is something else that I'm kind of confused about, but I think that's because you haven't made up your own mind yet. I don't know what is to happen to Cannons in Phase Mode that finally is drain of all their shield. I think you said it could either just be to return to normal Cannons or that the Cannons would be destroyed. I see possible problems with either method.

If it just returns you to normal mode Cannons, then there is no down side, no balancing factor. It'll just be a super power mode whenever you want, you aren't really losing anything in return. More so if the Cannons actually got bonus shield points in Phase Mode, it'll be sudden increase in the max SP pool, and additional armor(which is a big thing, btw) out of nowhere, all for free.

If it destroys the Cannons once all SP is depleted in Phase Mode, then it takes on a sacrificial trait, which I don't think would really go with the Protoss. BUT! Remy cares very little about lore. At least it is nothing in the face of good gameplay mechanics and proper balance, for me. However, even then, a problem still remains. Enemy players are given very little reason to even fight these super cannons at all. They can press their attack(for real, not even feign one), go as they have planned, but anytime Protoss players shift Cannons into Phase Mode, they can just withdraw and come back after all the Phase Mode Cannons have killed themselves and are gone.

While I don't think like it sounds like a bad idea, I think it not quite close to being complete in its current state. But another question that I have is, heheh, how is it any less micro intensive than the Shield Channeling idea? They are both set-and-forget mechanics for the most part, and at least with Shield Channeling it is possible to preset everything before there is combat, not so with the Phase Shielding. Not trying to be difficult, just curious. I really have no bias one way or the other. If anyone thinks I have love for anything Protoss, then you are crazy. It's all about the Zerg, go Zerg~~!!!

Side note: Why would Nuke's effect on any Cannon mechanic idea presented so far matter in anyway? You see Nukes in less than 1% of all games played, and that is an EXTREMELY HIGH estimate. In actuality, it's probably more like 0.00015%, if even that.

 

Actually I forgot to to explain 3 things in my earlier post involving Phase Shielding. First the cannon takes up less space while phased out so units can move around and get to them easier. Second, it can be deactivated at any time but it has a small warp in time where it can't do anything and is just sitting there with its hp and its shields at 0 and not beggining to recharge until the warp in is complete. Third, this ability was meant to be researched before it could be used.

Actually this would probably require more micro than shield channeling, but it actually feels like your getting something for your effort. This would actually stop if not slow down a siege instead of just delaying the inevitable death of the first cannon while the others take a pounding. Like I said from pretty much the beggining Shield Channeling didn't seem worthy of the actions needed to make it worth while, I think this is worthy. Also this just seems more fitting lore wise of the Protoss as well as the namesake of the Phase Cannon. Finally, this is just an example of an alternative I still would be happy if they just gave Phase Cannons a good stat increase and called it a day. Let the other 2 races have there nice and complex defensive systems, give the Protoss something simple, effective and a all-in-one package that doeasn't require any tricks to be good at its job.

 

You say it doesn't seem worthy. Lets say a few tanks are in range and you wanna kill them, normally you'd lose the cannons but with a few clicks you can save those frontline cannons from being destroyed meaning the other opposing units cannot own you, that is a skill seperation as you took advantage of his mistake by allowing the tanks to come into range.
My idea works with many scenarios not just siege.
To be honest yours seems too complex and I don't really catch the main concept of it. Its probably cause I'm tired, so I will leave for now

 

I don't think the Cannons shrinking in size is a good thing. It would benefit enemy melee units more than it would help you, and it's likely to be heavily tilted toward bad than good.

I don't quite understand what you mean when you say the Cannon's just sit there with 0 HP and 0 shield. Does it then die to anything in a single hit? Or are you proposing that the Cannons be invincible in that state? I don't think either is right.

If it worked like any other Protoss buildings being warped in from scratch, the "blob" would still have HP/SP. In the normal case, it builds up very rapidly until it reaches its proper HP/shield value which would be max HP/SP minus total damage it took during "blob state." If the enemy manages to overcome the extremely high generation rate of a blob's HP/SP and bring it down to zero, the structure is then destroyed even if it has never finished building. If having to warp back into a physical state is the balancing factor, then it probably should take on the same properties as any other Protoss building being constructed/summoned.

I also think that it would be better to just go with increased armor value or Hardened Shield instead of getting a bonus increase in SP. As that would be getting more of something you never had out of thin air. However, even then, you are still faces with some problems(well, more like details to work out at this point).

If you go with bonus armor, then it would actually be much less useful than Shield Channeling against Siege Tanks assaults, so long as you stay within reason on the armor bonus. Going with SC2 stats that we know so far(Cannons being 150/150 and Siege Tank fire being 100 per hit), a normal Cannon would die to 3 shots from Tanks. If Cannons now have at least 1 armor and Tanks have no upgrades, then it would have barely just enough to take a 4th shot(3HP). Just to stay on par with normal Cannons against Siege Tanks, Phase Mode Cannons would need to have 50 armor to match 3-shot survivability and 62 armor to match 4-shot survivability. That's not even accounting for shield degeneration over time, and that's to just MATCH your normal Cannons at this point. Even with the armor value need to just barely stay on par with normal Cannons, it is already absurd. It makes virtually all units other than Siege Tanks and Banelings deal ZERO DAMAGE against it.

The highest armor any combat unit has had in SC1 even after full armor upgrades is the Carrier at 7 armor(4 base + (1x3)), but that was not at all unreasonable. It was extremely high on tech, and cost a fat load of resources and time. Even then, there were balancing factors such as it still having to build Interceptors(more resources, more time, even later tech timing), and those being its only method of attack being destructible. And even THEN, it was still relatively easily taken down. There were also things that bypass(negate) its high armor, such as Plague and Acid Spores(from a Zerg stand point, since I'm Zerg main), both easily making quick work out of Carriers.

The Ultralisk had up to 6 armor with full upgrades, and that's because the only thing it offered the Zerg was damage soaking at late-game. It's damage output was laughable. You can't say the same thing for the Cannons. Cannons are buildable at tier 1, cost much less, and serve other functions than just soak damage. Still, 6 or 7 armor hardly compare to 50+. So we'll discount the flat armor bonus idea.

So we then have the Hardened Shield, which would indeed make it more useful in defending against Siege Tank assaults. However, the opposite problem exists, in that, though more resilient against Siege Tanks, the Cannons are now weaker against all other units due to only having 150 shield and no HP. But the real problem is, you now gave the Cannon a mechanic to directly counter its natural counter. Like I've said before, siege is meant to beat static-D, and it's not even meant to be close. So Hardened Shield is also out of the question.

There are of course other ways you could go about it, such as stop wanting the Cannon to serve a function it was never meant to(last against Siege Tanks) and just go with reasonable, practical, and balanced solutions. Just giving a smaller and more reasonable amount of armor bonus would probably be one of those things. You could also let a Cannon's max SP in Phase Mode equal to the total HP pool(HP + shield), so you don't have to worry about having to make the armor so high just to match Normal Mode due to having only 150 SP vs 300 total. How the lore would be explained for that is beyond me, but one thing is, any SP lost to damage or the steady loss over time in Phase Mode would still need to be reflected to the regular SP/HP when returned to Normal Mode. Otherwise it would be OP due to abuse.

It might seem like we've then finally come to something close to being practical and useful. However, I'm sorry to say, we still have another problem, the Phase Shielding mechanic is has one major weakness. Anytime an enemy pulls back against Phase Mode Cannons, the Protoss player is at a loss. You either warp Normal Mode Cannons back in and become vulnerable, or you stay in Phase Mode in fear of the enemy returning while continuing to drain your own shield. The enemy could actually sit just outside your Cannons' range and dance around while your Cannons kill themselves off either way.

In any case, Phase Shielding really isn't much more useful against siege without being OP or imbalanced. But I say again that neither Phase Shielding nor Shield Channeling should be expected to be. Shield Channeling by its nature just happens to have some usefulness when enemy siege is taking a slower approach. That should not be the what is used to gauge the usefulness of a mechanic that's to belong to a static defense building.

In its current form, I don't believe the Phase Shielding is useful or practical, not yet. And to be honest, and this is to LK specifically, if you hate having more micro requirements it is in my personal opinion that Phase Shielding would pain you far more than Shield Channeling ever will in real game applications. Just my opinion.

And LK, please don't think I'm out to destroy your idea and put Shield Channeling on top, because that's not it. I don't favor one over another. In fact, I started out disliking Shield Channeling quite a bit, especially because I got so sick of all the crazy Protoss shield ideas. I never meant to support it. My first reply was based on something like "omg, you gotta at least make it so and so, just for it to even be close to being practical at all," put in a polite way of course. I was more ready to argue its faults than its merits. But as I do before I argue for or against anything, or take a position on something, I give it a whole lot of thought.

I try to evaluate how things would be in real game situations, imagine possible in-game applications, try to think when and how it would work and not work, play around with theoretical numbers to see if something might be OP, so on and so forth. It is after such examination, that I came to the conclusion that Shield Channeling would probably be practical, useful, and balanced for the most part. It still doesn't mean anyone has to like it, and nothing is definitive by any means, but that's just the conclusion that I came to. This post mostly on Phase Shielding is the same. I merely tried to examine all in-game possibilities and factors that come to mind, just as I did with Shield Channeling.

Just letting you know where I'm coming from. I do this once in a while. I put up text wall after text wall debating with someone, then I feel bad and put out one of these "I hope you know that I'm not after you" kinda things. Ehh~ whatever.

 

Lord i back you what your saying. Reducing all damage to only 3 is a hell of a wall even tho it wont last its still going to geave you atleast a second to think.

 

@Remy I don't think you were out to destroy my idea at all, my goal was to simply propose a mechanic that I thought would be more fitting than shield channeling, so we would have something to contrast with. However my personal preference on the matter is really simple give Phase Cannons the shrieker mechanic with a stat bonus, thats seems like a fair trade for the ability to move static defenses around, also it would be quite a bit simpler to use and implenent than Shield Channeling.

But back to Phase Shielding for a moment, why is the Phase Cannon having a potential counter to its natural counter a bad thing, expecially if it comes at a cost? I don't think it's a bad thing at all for a couple of reasons, first screw balance and counters for a second the lore just fits well with the Protoss and the technological breakthroughs they have made from Sc1 to Sc2. Another thing as far as static defenses go it makes the Cannon truly unique beyond what it currently is becasue they could slow down a siege. Finally, it would only hurt balance if the cost for the effect wasn't large enough to justify the ability, and remember you can still go after the Pylons since that is now what we are suppose to do anyways. So scrap my ealier Phase Shielding suggestion and think about this simpler one.

Phase Shielding: The Phase Cannon has the ability to modify continually modify the phase variance of its shielding, drastivly reducing the damage amount a Phase Cannon takes from powerful attacks. This abilitity is identical to Hardened Shields besides the difference in numbers justified by balance and this is a mode setting for the Phase Cannon, which can be turned on and off instantly, however when the Phase Shield is activated the Phase Cannon can't attack, making it vulnerable to larger amonts of weaker fast attacking units.

 

Giving any unit/building a way to counter what's designed to be its natural counter is bad, because it breaks balance. You defeat the purpose of having a balance model in place, as well a rob another unit of its intended role/purpose/function, just so you can have one unit do what it's not meant to do.

It's not unlike wanting Zerglings to be able to last against Colossus, or having Mutas endure Phoenix's Overload. What will it be for the other player who's went through the tech and spent the resources to get a unit to take something out, just to find out that it's no longer a direct and natural counter against the intended target? Colossi mopping the floor with my Lings? Phoenixes massacring my Mutas? Not a problem, I have other units besides them more suited for the job.

I think you are really starting to head in the wrong direction with the Phase Shielding idea LK. It would be more beneficial for the Cannon to gain effectiveness against lesser units(its job) instead of siege(not its job). Instead of trying to figure out a way to make the Cannons more resilient vs siege, I think it is better to go with something that improves the Cannons' damage output against lesser units.

Shield Channeling is useful, especially in the way that's in line with its intended role/function/purpose, because it raises the Cannons' damage output for a specific time frame. Even though your damage output is never increased directly, you still see a net increase in total damage output from your Cannons by keeping more of them around longer, for a limited amount of time, since you don't lose Cannons as quickly initially. Shield Channeling would ultimately still make the Cannons vulnerable to a proper siege assault, as it is supposed to be.

Not only does the latest version of Phase Shielding go against SC's general overall balance, in actuality, it would be even less functional IMO. If there was nothing but siege units assaulting your base, then sure, more armor, I get it. But realistically, people use a mix of units. And to completely turn off the damage output of your Cannons just because siege units are bombarding them from outside of their attack range, would only benefit your opponent. You effectively turn your Cannons into high armored supply depots, which your enemy would have little reason to attack. Even if you were to constantly switch back to Normal Mode to attack then back into Phase Mode when the positioned siege units attack your Cannons again, it would result in an insane amount(not level, just sheer amount) of micro for you.

Not that I really believe it would even be doable in the first place, but even if you do pull it off to some degree, I believe it would still lower your overall effectiveness in that encounter, by robbing you of so much micro. I think that amount of micro can be adequately compared to what is demanded of Zerg players assaulting a well positioned enemy army in the late-game, open ground, big scale battle, full on assault scenario.

I don't know why you would want to trade so much just so your Cannons can pull off something that's not even ever expected out of it in the first place. You put an insane amount of micro strain on yourself, but more importantly, you lose damage output on lesser enemy units, benefiting them directly. Lesser units are actually the real damage dealers. Even the almighty Siege Tank wasn't anywhere near the top on damage output, it achieved its effectiveness through innate mechanics alone.

By SC1 stats, at equal supply, even Stimpacked Marines deal 120 vs Siege Tank's 70 over the same cooldown. 2 Marines = 1 Seige Tank, with 50 minerals and 100 gas to spare. And that's just the Marine, it's not the exception, merely one example. I really believe you're stating to get the wrong picture LK. You're stating to want to trade Cannon's actual effectiveness just for the Forbidden Fruit. You need to get your focus back on SC. This isn't Cannon VS siege. This is a whole mix of different Protoss units, structures, and mechanics, VS another race(including another Protoss) and its completely lineup.