Weak Units

Since Blizzard is deciding to pump out overpowering units, who would want to even use rines? I mean so far, they get pwned by the colossus, reaver, high templar, and the soul hunter. So honestly, if blizzard keeps up this massive overpowering units just to balance this out, it typically is not going to work because no one will want to use the weaker units.

 

no, weaker units can do well against some larger units, but not one on one

ie lings vs. goons
hydras vs carriers
hydras vs BCs
marines vs BCs
marines vs carriers

and not everyone relies totally on marines for all of their ground forces for the entire game
by the time a protoss player has the units you listed, a terran player should have the required units to counter them - basically, siege tanks

if they don't have tanks by the time a protoss player has a colossus, then fugeddaboudit the game is done

 

well said.
banelings seemed pretty strong too, though that may be late game. I guess that makes it so that zerglings are always useful.

 

You're forgetting that the weaker units are cheaper. Obviously the likelihood of these units being used late game will be lowered based on more effective powerful units but the thing about them is that they cost more. Also being able to afford One strong unit or 8 marines i would prefer the 8 marines because of the damage dealing output is better. One strong unit can dish out however much dmg until it is destroyed. 8 marines can inflict lets say 10 dmg per marine (im just estimating i haven't played SC in years) then when one dies, 7 marines can still deal 70 dmg...and so on and so on thus making the group more effective. In my past game experiences I never noticed marines being used late game anyways. If someone went carriers you would go wraiths/the other things...goliaths i think they were called. Marines were just for early/earlymid game and if they were used late game it was because they were (like me as a noob to this forum) cannon fodder.

 

I wouldn't worry - Blizzard did a great job of making the early tier units important in the original Starcraft , I have no doubts about this sequel.

 

Plus with marines keeping stimpack, keeping their range upgrade, getting the shield upgrade boosting their health by 15, and still having medics around to heal them... I think they're still a very viable weapon.

 

The weak units will still be very useful.
Zealots got the new charge ability. Combined with their decent HP, they can still be used well into late games.
Marines like kehmdaddy stated, will also been getting a lot of boost. Even though units like the Reavers, Psi Storms, and Collossus will be owning them, the Marines will be a good counter to the Warp Rays. Not to mention, M&M's in SC2 are going to be a very deadly with the introduction of the shield upgrade for the marines and the Reactor add-on for Terran Buildings.

 

Watch tournaments and you will see the pros using zerglings througout the entire game. Heres a couple reasons why. Small units are more maneuverable and also usually have amazing upgrades. Marines get insane range upgrade, stim packs, and medics to boost them to 3x strength. Zerglings get almost 50% increased movement speed and double attack speed. Zealots just get bonus movement speed but their already strong lol. Another thing is usually those smaller units take only minerals or a little bit of vespene gas. Usually you have far more minerals then vespene gas so the only thing you can spend it on is smaller troops. Also small troops usually have a slightly higher damage to hitpoint ratio. The only bad thing about small units is they are affected by armor ALOT more. Carriers have 4 base armor making marines only do 2 damage per hit (ouch). Other than that small units are great. Also note small units make great distractions for your more expensive units to live. (reaver fires at zerglings rather than a defiler or lurker)

 

The banelings....why do those little green balls remind me of Critters so much lol

 

Like many have said already, the marines will have enough upgrades to keep being useful in late game. Also you have to take into account that their production will be faster this time because of the reactor addon which will let you produce 2 units at once, and the reinforcement ability of the ghost which to my understanding will create 6 or 8 marines out of nowhere.

 

I think you mean six or eight marines, but yeah I'd even say that the smaller units are getting the most impressive abilities so far. Zerglings have always been kickass, now they can bomb too. Marines are turning all kinds of tricks with those hardcore shields and bayonets. Zealots rush and it's mentioned they might even dodge occasional attacks but they might have not meant that literally. Ghosts and Reapers are both looking to be highly useful for being lightly armored units. The Dark Templar have a tricked out blade, there are just tons of weaker units that still hold so much potential. I do understand how it looks though, all these huge machines of death almost make you forget the hordes of ass kickers below them.

 

ya im an ok terran player and i use marines to get the enemy away from my better units so really its not that the overpowering units will be the core of some ones attack the smaller units will help out in say thors getting away or somthing like that so really small units r still the back bone of the fighting squad

 

Right, didn't realize I typed ghosts instead. Thanks for the warning.

 

do u honestly think that we wouldn't care about weaker units the reaper is a weaker unit so we would definably care about the weaker units owerup: owerup: owerup: owerup: owerup: owerup: owerup: owerup:

 

No problem, figured it was better for me to point out than have someone go "OMFG THEY DROP GHOSTS??? WTFZORS!!!".

To be honest, I was always a Zerg player, using defensive structures and Hydras to survive until I had Defilers and fast Ultralisks. However with all these distinguishing traits I'm actually extremely excited to play the other two races. The Protoss are surely stiff competition, but the Terrans have gone berserk.

Speaking of which, the Hydralisk is probably my most anticipated unit. Despite all the different strategies in SC 1, the Hydra never became obsolete. Rarely did I ever fight a Zerg player who didn't have any (and wasn't a new comer).

 

i played zerg for a while to and hydras seemed to be the basic unit

 

What about Marines versus Warp Rays? In the 20 minute game play trailer, the Marines totally pwned the new heads of the Protoss fleet.

 

Well lets just say theos marines did not have stim or the shild, and non the marines were backed by meds. the marine is going to be one insain little bastered when Sc2 comes out

 

The bad units are used for a number of reasons. First, they are cheap! Second, they are require very little tech buildings to produce. Third, most cannon fodder units require fewer control. Zerglings, for example require 1 "control" unit for 2 units! So you can, in theory, field a much larger zergling force than any others (in regular starcraft and BW). Lastly, many high tech units require gas and minerals and are slow in building and can mostly be beat by weaker units if not used properly. 6 marines vs 1 battlecruiser - who would win? The Battle carrier should be able to win, but its possible the 6 marines can out micro the BC. Either way, it is all situational.

 

I can't remember who said this, so let me know and I will edit the post and credit them:

I found a way to word it pretty well:
Let's say it takes 5 seconds for a marine to be killed by a battlecruiser. You have 10 marines. The marines attack the battlecruiser at the precise moment the battlecruiser attacks a marine. For 5 seconds, the marines are attacking at 100% of their possible damage per second or minute or whatever you want to call it. After 5 seconds, a marine is killed, and the BC starts attacking another marine. Thus, for 5 seconds, the marines are operating at 90% efficiency. After another 5 seconds, another marine is killed, and the BC starts attacking another marine. For 5 seconds, the marines are now operating at 80% efficiency, and so on and so forth. The battlecruiser does a steady amount of damage, but once it is gone, it's gone. It's like the binary system. On or off. BC or no BC. The marines, on the other hand, are like the decimal system, with greater longevity and utility, in terms of damage and effectiveness on the battlefield.