the Thor, a hypocritical goliath

The changes to the thor stinks, it has lost its stardum...

I would like to see the thor revert back to its former glory as a juggernaut meatshield. Instead of an AoE attack, have both its ground and air attack do massive damage to single targets. Allow the thor to be built by SCVs again, but make it more expensive. To make up for the lack of GtA superiority, have the viking in ground form have a GtA attack very similar to the goliaths. Also for the viking, I think its attack in air form should be adept at taking down light ships, like the predator initially was thought to do.

 

That idea is not very good. Do you honestly believe that you can point a massive bombardment at only one target without area of effect damage? That goes against all the laws of physics. You need missiles for that, not artilly. Further, the Viking is supposed to be the most mobile terran unit. If you add more firepower, it would need lower speed to compensate. -for obvious balance reasons- That would destroy its role as a fast raiding unit.

 

Yes, I do ... this is starcraft, not world war 2 lol. Concerns are not if it makes sense but how it plays and looks. A thor that can do massive damage to single targets would be adept at taking down large capital ships, perfect for its tier placement. Making a viking adept at fighting light air crafts would NOT be adding more fire power, just changing its role... that's not a viable reason for making it slower. The GtA attack for the ground viking would be for compensating the lost of the Thor's former GtA attack.

 

I do not know since when you followed the thor, but it was originally designee as a heavy support unit to quickly cripple an enemy base before moving in -with bombard-, not as a walking tank that just does a lot of damage. The original thor attack was no stronger then an undeployed siege tank. If it were to do single target damage, then a rail gun would be best. It fits the terran since the tech is not super sci-fi and they already have gauss freaking rifles, so rail guns are good. For thor ground to air some sort of flak would be best.

 

I have followed it since it was first introduced. Its original role didn't "fit in" with the terran armada, and so it was turned into a designated anti-air ground unit. I was struck at awe by its original design, but now I feel the changes has made the thor less iconic. So to bring it back to icon status, I am suggesting turning it into a meat shield/capital ship killer, making it huge again, and built by the SCV again. The thor's ground weapons right now are particle accelerators, and for its air attack, I would suggest just simply having shoulder mounted particle accelerators pointed towards the air.

To be an effective meat shield, the thor would need to dish out a lot of damage, otherwise enemies will just ignore the thor and take out the real damage dishers and then pick off the thors. For attack damage, this remodeled thor could one shot kill almost every unit type (units like ultralisks and capital ships would be able to take a few hits before dying) however the delay between attacks would be excrutiantly long. Its drawback would be the fact that it can only target one unit at a time, making massed units an effective counter against it. The ground attack would have shorter range, and damage, while the air attack would have longer range (like a deployed siege tank) with more damage.

 

Because designated anti-air units are known for having a ground attack with the best DPS in the game against a single target, the ability to defeat Archons in 1 on 1 combat, and the most HP of any combat unit.

Seriously. The Thor is not a goliath. It will never be a goliath. The unit it resembles most closely is the Mammoth Tank from a C&C, with the ability to destroy just about anything and endure the same. Mammoth Tanks are awesome and badass. So is the Thor.

The original version of the Thor was retarded. The Terrans already have the iconic and powerful Siege Tank for all their bombardment needs. A big meaty, all purpose unit is the perfect late game Terran unit.

 

Poor choice by Blizzard. Making particle accelerator that small and strong is something even the Protoss do not have. And one last thing about its role: you said it did not fit in, while it was actually the opposite. It had to much overlap with both the siege tank and the bc, so it got nerfed and assigned a new role. Check the articles section. It should be in one of the batches.

 

That's actually what I meant when I said it did not fit in with the terran armada, with its role overlapping with other units. Its current role seems to work well for the terran, I just hate to see the thor get dumbed down from such a juggernaut.

 

I am SO going to make a custom map with the original queen, thor, tempest and mothership. I would like to see how the thor performs in an actual battlefield situation, not just 1 vs 1 on some drawingboard. Talking about the original all the time just makes me want to watch the thor bombard animation all the time. That probably is unused at the moment, adding even more to the humiliation the thor has been put through.

 

Seeing as those havent been balanced, it would perform terribly.

 

Its only resemblance to the goliath is that they both specialized in anti-air from the ground. I agree that the original thor's barrage ability was a bad idea, which is why I feel my version would bring it back to its iconic status better then before, and with some other unit adjustments it could fit well with the terran armada without much role overlapping.

 

And what, precisely, is wrong with its current form? You wish for it to be a juggernaut meatshield, but that is exactly what it is already.

 

No, it is a larger version of the goliath with a long range aerial bombardment attack ... to me, having the thor as a dedicated GtA attacker is a waste of a good icon.

 

"No, it is a larger version of the goliath with a long range aerial bombardment attack ... to me, having the thor as a dedicated GtA attacker is a waste of a good icon."

Except it's not a dedicated GtA attacker. It even does more ground than air damage. You have a really strange definition of "dedicated GtA attacker".

 

It can murder flocks of small air crafts, when the full damage divided by the amount of targets is calculated you can see that its GtA can do WAY more damage then its GtG attack ... and that range, who even needs it for attacking ground units? Its only effective against numerous air units, I would call that a dedicated GtA attacker.

 

Perhaps I should make this clearer:

Goliath is good against Light Air and Heavy Air, bad against Light Ground and Heavy Ground. It has bad HP for its cost.

Thor is good against Light Air and Heavy ground, average against Heavy Air and Light Ground. It has good HP for its cost.

In short, the only thing that the Thor and Goliath have in common is that they are good at killing light air units. They do not in any way occupy the same niche. In fact, the Goliath's attack works better on heavy air units, not light ones. Just because the Thor looks like a Goliath, and has GtG gun attack and GtA missile attack, doesn't mean it is in anyway supposed to replace the Goliath. It occupies an entirely new role that the Terrans didn't have before, that of heavy ground support, acting as the backbone for late game terran forces.

 

That's not true.

The 400 hp, Mechanical Rebirth and reasonably high ground damage make it very effective at "tanking", leading the charge against fortified positions. In this way, it's very similar to a zerg ultralisk. You need to analyze the stats and watch videos in action (Blizzard showcased it attacking ground targets very effectively at WWI 2008, and I believe it only had 300 hit points then, too).

 

I will have to see it in action then before I am satisfied. I believe blizzard knows what they are doing, I just miss that big mofo.

 

It has 800 HP, deals 80 damage a shot to ground units, and can fight an Ultralisk on decent terms, what's not to miss?

 

Thors look ok. It s almost like a Goliath agianst air (add splash damage and longer range but less good vs capital ships but better agianst low armored targets) and it has a great gta attack as well and losts of hp. One major wekkness is of course the cost.