Protoss Stalker

That would make them less effective against larger, more heavily armoured unit and more effective against smaller, not-so-armoured units. They're basically supposed to be the opposite as it's the Colossus, Phoenix, Zealot, etc, who are better against smaller units.

 

The Blink mechanic kind of goes against Stalker's Anti-Armored profile. I supposed it's perhaps to make Stalkers more well rounded, kind of like how Goons and Hydras were all around useful units. But nonetheless, Stalkers having bonus damage VS armored seems very strange to me, concept wise.

 

Really? I thought it suited quite well. Things that stalk are usually smaller than the things they're stalking, and the Blink really just represents the pounce of the stalker rather than giving it Cloak or whatever. Why do you think it goes against its Anti-Armoured profile?

 

Thats what I was thinking Remy, I always saw the Immortal as the armor breaker since its big and is specifically designed to fight slow moving hard hitting targets, which is why I said early the Stalker should get a different type of bonus.
Just like Dark Templars, Stalkers should have a high power attack, their cool down time is slow anyway. It makes more sense and fits into their role kinda. Stalking those targets then blink all around them, attack with the high damage output, then blink away.

Also why would you wanna pit Stalkers against tanks when tanks will easily dispatch of them. Doesn't it make more sense to give the unit which is sturdy and works well against hard hitters to be the armor bonus unit?

 

You'd want to pit Stalkers against Siege Tank because Stalkers can immediately start the battle in their favour. They can Blink in from the fog of war, Blink into the Tank's dead zone, etc, etc. Blink is an awesome way to get to where the Tanks cannot fire much quicker than they otherwise would have been able to. Immortals only work against Tanks because they sit there taking the fire, but Stalkers have to get right in there, take out as many as possible, and Blink right out again.

I like the thought of having a unit that is vulnerable to what it is countering. If it was the Immortal that had the damage bonus against Armoured unit, then it'd just be like rock versus scissors. No competition whatsoever. With the Stalker and Siege Tank is could go either way and it would all come down to how good each player is. It would actually require skill to take out a Siege Tank with a Stalker or vice versa, but when it's an Immortal against a Siege Tank, there's no skill required because the Immortal's basically already won.

 

I think it is quite nesessary for the Stalker to deal extra damage vs armored. The Stalker is the only real Protoss GtA unit, and my guess is that a lot of air units will be considered as armored targets, and, well... imagine Hydralisks or Goons with concussive damage. You would HAVE to counter air units with other air units, and that should be avoided.

 

How can they blink in from the fog of war, siege tanks have like twice the range of Stalkers, they wouldn't even get close. Unless it was a cliff, and who sieges tanks under cliffs?
The only way you are gonna get a Stalker close to sieged tanks is by sending Zealots first, but don't forget in assult mode they shoot fast and still get that armor bonus.
I kinda contridicted my self a little as I've said in the past I don't want obvious counters since dynamics are sexy.
Just know that it won't be easy for Stalkers to kill tanks, as Blizzard said, they are not the best for direct combat.

 

Tanks aren't always set up. They have to travel at some stage and when they do it'd be relatively easy to ambush them with Blink. They may shoot faster in Tank Mode but they don't nearly do as much as when they're in Siege Mode. Stalkers may not be the best for direct combat, but getting when they get within the Siege Tank's dead zone, it will definitely not be direct combat.

 

Tanks have a bigger damage bonus either way. They also have more range.
But when they out number the tanks they'd kill them nicely.

 

I think the Stalker is an awesome unit, great mechanics and design. I also think that it rocks that it has Blink. However, Blink goes against its Anti-Armored profile. It's kind of for the same reason that the Cobra was a design flaw, since it was given a mechanic that gave it enhanced mobility, yet it was tagged as being Anti-Armored.

If you think about it, most Armored units are ranged units, and most deal damage with hard hitting single shots rather than quick repetition of low damage attacks. So a unit dancing circles around enemy Armored units with Blink or move-and-shoot(Cobra mechanic) is rather pointless, since the enemy doesn't rely on having to stay right in your face to deal damage anyway. If you think about why the relatively weak Vulture was awesome VS Zealots, and compare that to the pathetic display of Cobras circling the Thor while receiving damage the whole time(first Terran demo vid), then you would get the picture right away.

Mobility options by its very nature is advantageous VS light units, which are often weaker melee units, at least in SC. High mobility paired with a ranged attack is great VS those units since you can kite them to death, quickly dispatch individual targets and efficiently decreasing enemy damage output, while the whole time avoid taking damage. I will tell you right now that, save for some big changes, Blink will have very limited use VS armored.

But GasMask brings up a good point, which is pretty much what I thought to be the reason behind the Stalker dealing bonus damage to Armored. The only two possible reasons, that I can think of anyway, would be to make the Stalker a generally more diverse unit, or due to it having to pull some weight on GtA. It is definitely not because it complements the Blink mechanic well. But since I have no idea what air units are Armored and which ones are Light, I'm just letting that one be, since it's a cool unit and Protoss feels pretty close to being complete anyway.

 

I believe they wanted the stalker to still seem as though it were a sneaky unit. But the question becomes how do you make a clunky mech stealthy. You give it the ability to disappear and form on top of a ledge and start killing workers in the enemy worker line; give it blink.

 

why would the immortal turn, couldnet it just pivot the uper part to attack like the goliaths

 

i don't like the lore for stalker, shadow essence? comeon sound like warcraft...

 

I like the Wall Feature Idk whats it called but i saw it, and its pretty useful(llings :O) and the ability to teleport short distances sounds good for micro idk what that essence thing is called whats it do?

 

The essence isn't an ability. It's just an explanation for how the Dark Templar inside controls the Stalker shell.

Dragoons were controlled by Protoss connecting to them through essence translators and focusing through the Khala; in other words the exact same "essence" that some Warcraft-haters didn't remember.

 

no the khala explanation makes perfect sense controlling robotics through psionics since the protoss is still inside it its the stalker having the shadow essence infused into it that i don't get (i could be wrong but i read somewhere that stalkers are completely robotic and the "shadow essence" of the DT is infused into the stalker).

and i don't hate warcraft i just don't want starcraft to become "warcraft in space"

 

quoted right from here: http://www.starcraft2.com/features/protoss/stalker.xml
to the left of the blinking Stalker

"The stalker is a machine controlled by the shadow-essence of a dark templar warrior fused into a metal body to protect his people."

so it is like the Dragoon in that there is someone inside.

 

Wait is there a body in the Stalker or is it just the essence of the warrior

 

There is a Dark Templar body that is giving out the 'shadow-essence' in the Stalkers

 

See I assube the termplar's spirit left his body and infused into the Stalker.