I'm a protoss player, so obviously i love them, but i'm afraid they will be nerfed dramatically in later builds. Here's some games i recently played: 1 v 1, P v P Opponent attacked my base with a couple of VR's. I had 2 VR's of mine own, plus some stalkers, but until i could get there, he charged up on one of my buildings and destroyed my forces in a matter of seconds. (I could probably charged attacking my own building, but still the damage would be unproportional to the attacking forces). 3 v 3 Multiplayer games are best for VR's. I've won 6 out of 7 3v3 games (not a large sample, i know), by getting VR's out of 3 stargates in midgame, and getting speed upgrade asap. VR's with speed are faster then most other units (speed 3,15 i believe), you can destroy expos really quickly and run, or engage their main and after getting VR's charged kill vikings, hydras, marines really quickly. 4 v 4 I just finished my first game, and that's when i decided to write this post. My team was PP,ZZ. One zerg player left right after start, the other made 3 expos and no army . The other 2 of us went straight to VR's and with like 6 rays each we first destroyed expos and then mains. On this map all of their bases where combined, so our Vr's never lose charge and destroyed vikings, hydras, thors, missile turrets, etc.. At the end of the game i had like 2 rays left from the attack and 12 in the base ready for second strike. So basically it was 2 v 4 and they were crushed. Now, of course they weren't great players (none of us was), and probably if they had 1 pro amongst them we would lose terribaly, but my point is that against players with similar skills, VR is imbalanced, especially if you are the attacker (normally defenders have bonuses). Sorry for a long post, just wanted to share.
This has been an issue since beta launched, and its been covered. Voids are so expensive that if an opponent spends an equal amount of money on anything that even kind of counters, you don't stand a chance. In nooby bronze league games they might be a bit overpowered but in higher levels imbalance is nonexistent
I find it funny how often people forget that there are other ways to counter a certain rush than just building the right unit. Sure Hydralisks can cleave through Void Rays, but so do Mutalisks accompanied by a few Corruptors using Corruption. Infestors can use Neural Parasite use the opponent's Void Rays against them or attempt to cancel out that obnoxious damage buff by immobilizing the Void Rays with Fungal Growth; A Ghost can use their EMP round followed by Hunter-Seeker Missiles from Ravens; A well placed Black Hole can take almost all of the Void Rays out of play, allowing you to run away or Recall your forces to deal with them once they reappear.
I understand sometimes feeling that void rays just roll through whatever you throw at them, but the truth behind all of that comes down to something that people are getting better and better at: scouting. I know that may sound like a really boring answer, but it is a very simple situation. Void rays are expensive and require a stargate which also doesn't come cheap (plus some sort of basic early defenses that may or may not be overrun by a standard push). Keeping in mind that void rays are most effective when in slightly large numbers (If I run into 1, 2 or even 3 void rays, I don't break a sweat), you find that protoss players have to devote a large amount of their resources to getting the void ray numbers up that high. Often times, it doesn't even take a huge rush to put void ray production to a halt. A huge rush may end the game, but often times if I spot void rays I just grab some economy wreckers or pylon snipers. A good group of hellions can toast some probes, two cloaked banshees can demolish pylons and economies alike which stop the building from functioning, as zerg you can pop some banelings for probes or pylons, your choice. All in all, there are obvious void ray build stoppers which include mass traditional anti-air, there are quirky things that work (no pylons=no stargates, catch them with below optimal amounts of voidrays= they are a lot less scary) buttttt, despite the many ways with dealing with them, there is still that dangerous element of them being extremely strong when done right. So as far as I am concerned, the risk/reward for the protoss player, and the defensive options for the second player work out excellently. So I don't think you have to worry about any huge changes to void rays in the near future, especially as scouting becomes more and more ingrained in people's game styles.
Maybe i wasn't very clear, i'm certainly not saying that void rays are answer to everything, obviously not. What i was saying, was that when players aren't prepared for them (yes, scouting) they have very hard time repelling void ray attack, since in big enough numbers they deal pretty easily with their counters. We'll have to see what blizzard does, i would say that it would be increasing their armor slightly and making them tier 3 instead of 2 (with fleet beacon necessary).
Void Rays got plenty of attention and adjustments during Beta testing, so it's looking like they're going to remain the way they are. 2v2/3v3/4v4 is already imbalanced and no one really cares about the format so the impact of Void Rays is negligible. The previous posters pretty well covered Void Rays in 1v1 and why they're fine as is.
If rays aren't overpowered, can someone please tell me what I could have done to win this attached game? I not only made a ton of the counter, Stalkers, as well as colossi to counter his ground forces, I upgraded and he didn't. I am in Gold League and trying to get better. I believe I've improved a lot since I started, but one thing has remained the same. I always lose to void rays.
Void rays are best utilised when allies offer protection and allow you to build them without any real defenses.
Honestly, I think PvP is the best time to use void rays. Most people think stalkers counter void rays... which is half true, they do wreck void rays if they aren't charged. But if the void rays charge on your buildings, or if they build a proxy pylon and charge up on that, then your armored stalkers are going to get creamed (unless you have like a 5 to 1 advantage) The only true counter protoss have is phoenixes, who are capable of beating void rays even if they are charged. Sentry's guardian shield helps a lot as well; lowering the void rays' damage from 10 to 8 is pretty significant.
I watched parts of your replay and the void rays weren't responsible for your loss. Some things I noticed 1) use chrono boost during the whole game 2)don't stop building probes 3)scout! he was able to expand although you had a bunch of additional units - containing would have been better 4)watch your units when you attack! some of your stalkers died quite badly 5)keep your minerals low so far, Aritmar
I never really use Void Rays. They help me out occasionally but I like to explore different things to the Protoss race. If anyone ever Void rushes, usually I'd have scouted and made an early push to either win the game or do some serious (or terrible, terrible) damage to the opponents base. I also take pride in being different to my silver and gold counterparts in random 4v4 where it seems to be almost every Protoss I come across says, "I'll go air." Personally, Void's are one of my least favourite of the Protoss units just because they get boring, hearing the same Bzzzzz sound every game.
