Hi - long time follower, first time poster here Here's my observation. We all know that in sc1 a good Muta harass worked well, and was probably one of the more used, popular ways to harass (toss storm I guess was quite popular). But Terran never had any real kind of harass which was get in / get out fast at a mid game. Vultures would work to a certain extent but not as effective as say the Muta due to the Muta's evasiveness. With the use of reaper, it seems you can get a quick attack behind the mineral patches, maybe launch a D-8 charge and run away with speed. With a player who never scouted or has a slow reaction time, an attack of 8-10 reapers seems to pack quite a punch. They're quick and although they're not air units the ability to hop over obstacles seems to do the trick when fleeing. Think maybe the reaper harass will take over as the #1 type of harass in SC2? Any possibility of this being overused / unbalanced? What about with the combo of the medicvac to heal and then attack again? Finally, do you think blizzard map makers will take this into consideration when creating maps with respects to mineral placing and its surrounding terrain?
Reapers are indeed extremely effective raiders. Especially for attacks on mineral patches. However, Nighthawks should also be pretty effective. Just drop a Turret in a mineral patch, and come back 5 seconds later to fire a Hunter Seeker. -since troops will quickly clutter around the turret to take it out- But I think this should actually be in the strategy board. :s Also: welcome to the forum! Maybe post a thread in the introduction board? Anyway, nice first post.
Considering the Protoss will be able to cross cliffs with their Colossi and blink over anything with their Stalkers....and Zerg still have mutas....no. No, Terrans will not own the harass in SC2. Although, I do very much so look forward to using a Reaver/Medivac combo. Does anyone know much about the current state of D8 charges? Damage amount/type, radius, range, cooldown, ect...
You're forgetting one thing, reapers cannot stack. This makes it considerably easier to pick them off than mutalisks, they can also unlike mutalisks be attacked by ground units, a simple siege tank/sunkern/few zealots in the mineral lines should be fine to stave off reaper harass.
Watching the Korean Pros play, gives me the idea that not too many people put protection right next door to the minerals. Most of the time it's just a wall of buildings to keep units come getting there. I'm sure though things will change with SC2 and the ability to get over cliffs.
Things will change with SC2. The most excellent harasser was the little group of Muta, very rapid and very dangerous group which could move anywhere rapidly. With the reaper they can harass enemy bases but they will never be as effective as the Muta in SC1. However now I doubt the new Muta will be as harrassing than the Muta in SC1. The reapers jump, but still move slowly. Of course you can retreat them in spafe spaces but you will not have enough space and ability to use them as you did with the Muta. They can harrass a little bit. Anyway in classic missions the ground surface is always protected, defended by tanks, and ground anti-ground units, so the reapers will have a lot of barriers before reaching the workers. PS : REF, welcome to the forum and enjoy !
Thanks for the warm welcome! Okay, it appears that Mutas will probably be the #1 harasser still. Could be wrong, but something that the Reapers have that will be proven extremely useful are those d-8 charges. Not many people protect their minerals with actual units from their army, they defend their minerals with base defenses. Towers, Cannons or Sunkens (forgot what their names are in SC2). If these D-8's can be thrown from a distance, can't you see a huge opportunity for reapers to pop a couple Towers, plyons for the cannons or a couple sunkens and then they're free to do as they wish? Blink is useful yes, but isn't there a cooldown, making them vurnerble to attack? And being a quite large unit, you won't be able to clump them in massive groups as mutas or as reapers (according to the videos). The Colossus isn't considered a mid-game unit, is it? If that's the case, hell yea Colossus harass would be fantastic! Although I do believe a good harass comes from a large amount of 'weaker' units compared to 1 or 2 larger stronger units with a slow powerful attack. I think maybe I need more info on the D-8 charges, but I'm positive I saw a video of Reapers hopping around, tossing D-8 charges onto buildings from afar.
To awnser your quistions: - The D8 charges are actually thrown over a quite short range. If you look closely at the video, you see that it takes a short time before they go of. The Reapers are already further away by then. - The Colossi are sort of mid-game, but are pretty weak at the moment when used on their own. Stalkers are your best option, possibly combined with warping in some Zealots from a Phase Prism to distract the enemy. - Stalkers are medium size units, afaik Reapers are also considered medium size. - Sunkens are now called Spine Crawlers, they can move now, but easily get killed while doing so. Hope this helps.
I think reaper harass is going to be overused, but certainly not unbalanced. Their short range ensures they have to get within range of whatever the enemy has defending the mineral line, and while the D8 charges seem pretty powerful, they're only useful against structures or inattentive players since units can just move out of the way before they blow. Even if the enemy only has stationary defense at his mineral line, you have to waste precious time waiting for the charges to blow while he either attacks your reapers, pulls his workers, or brings in reinforcements. Also, they're certainly not as maneuverable as air units since they can still only get in your base in areas where there is open ground to jump from and the elevation is only 1 level apart.
