Spells in Warcraft III versus spells in Starcraft II

I mentioned on another thread, and of course everyone realizes, that the Blink ability of Night Elf Wardens, watchers and (inexplicably) L3 Beast Master Bears has teleported itself, sans name change, directly into SC2.

Well, this thread will concern the types of spells that were present in WC3 but not in SC2 or vice-versa.

- WC3 had lots of aura spells that added anything from armor (Devotion Aura) to flame damage (Immolation) to attack bonuses (Trueshot Aura, Thorns Aura, Vampiric Aura) to units. SC2 doesn't seem to have much of a place for auras, although they're easily plausible in cases like Zerg buildings / creep mechanics, Protoss troops ("the Khala, the Psi Energy gives us strength"), and Protoss buildings. Even Terran units have some aura tricks if you said that a science vessel (or a unit like the science vessel) were around it would add to the sight range or give some partial detection ability to all units within 2000 of it because it "processes telemetry constantly fed to it from terran vehicles."

- WC3 had a lot of line damage spells, whereas Starcraft doesn't have very much in this regard. Granted, Nuclear Strike is the ultimate AOE spell, and there are numerous AOE attacks in all games SC1, SC2, and WC3, but where are the line damage spells in SC2? I mentioned before that the Colossus's thermal lances might be good candidates for line damage as opposed to AOE damage. What about the Ghost's sniper ability, if it is more than enough to kill one Zergling might it damage another? Firebats and lurkers did line damage in SC1, but otherwise, there don't seem to be any line damage spells.

- WC3 had a bunch of ultimate spells with really spectacular effects. The Protoss Mothersip had such things with the original Time Bomb ability and of course Black Hole, but that's all been nerfed out. Terran Nuclear Strike belongs in the category of "ultimate" spells. The Dark Archon's Mind Control ability also echoed Charm in WC3, so that was an ultimate-style spell but it's also been evicted from SC2. I still feel that each race should have perhaps two ultimate-style spells, and since there are no heroes the way to do 'em is obviously to make two units cooperate the way you have to load a silo (for 8 supply units) before you can call down a nuclear strike. Protoss could have some sort of tornadic psionic storm cast by multiple templar, Zerg could create some sort of super-swarm of units like the Crypt Lord's locusts that increase the health of friendly units while tearing at enemy flesh.

Anyway, I'm obviously very used to modding WC3, where one of the principal things you do is create spells for new game mechanics. There's really no less of a place for spells in SC2 than there was in SC3, despite one being Sci-Fi and the other classic fantasy.

 

I said the same thing in the other thread, and in fact this is pretty close to being a duplicate thread...

But anyway, the difference is in the wording.

SC = Abilities

WC = Spells

 

Except that, in WC, you're much more reliant on abilities/spells. An interesting thread, but I don't think that there should be "ultimates" in SC. What I like about Starcraft, among other things, is that no unit is "omgwtfgg". I played WC3 since it came out and I found that games that don't have all-powerful units/abilities (like heroes) tend to be more centered on strategy and tactics. In WC it all came down to heroes and, even more significantly, luck too many times. Some people may like that but, personaly, I prefer games like Starcraft.

 

Sorry, will be more circumspect about duplicate or closely entwined threads in the future.

 

There is very little luck in WC3, almost everything that happens can be predicted.

 

But for instance, every attack is a little random. Example: 27-40 damage.
In SC every unit has a set amount of damage it does against certain targets.

 

Yes, that, and I don't like the fact that many games are decided by a single death coil (for instance). Someone could work very hard for the win for the whole game only to have it ruined because of a lucky spell.