The Zealot. He has two swords.
Apparently not.
Is it a shocker that we started with a title we immediately decried? Of course not. You know us all too well.
Today’s post is about two things. First, the still alive-and-kicking Protoss superiority complex, and second, the growing issues that professional-level gamers are beginning to have with the Beta. With out further adieu, let’s get on with today’s offering.
First, the rush.
We’re Terrans at heart, and we’ll admit it. Zerg just don’t do it for us, but we do have a sort of love/hate relationship with those pesky ‘Toss. Right here and now, we’ll state that their voice-overs are ridiculous and sort of sound like they’re coming through a Dairy Queen drive-thru speaker, but they have a lot of really cool units, and hands-down the most powerful initial ground unit that can be built.
Sure, the Zealots cost two Psi spaces, but they have shields, dammit, and two swords! TWO SWORDS.
In any case, we’ve been owned any number of times, as any and all of the races, when an opposing player builds a rush of Zealots and comes base-hunting. We were wiped out once by five Zealots. Seriously. Five.
So, we’ve adopted this strategy ourselves. Some might call us copycats or cheaters, but we like to think of ourselves as pioneers who were just a little behind the curve. Not our fault someone got there before we did.
Not shockingly, this strategy has worked very well, against both Zerg and another Protoss, earning a 2 wins out of 3 matches for today, which is the best day we’ve ever had. Hooray for us.
The point, however, is that there are some mechanics in the game, such as this Protoss rush, that still seem very unbalanced, and extremely hard to counter.
And it appears that the experts agree.
In an interview here, at The Androidbit, a professional Starcraft: Brood War player and early Starcraft II adopter by the name of “Louder” voiced his opinions on the current state of the Beta.
To him, the thing is busted up. His main points are that several rush techniques, including our co-opted strategy, are overpowered, and that if units are not microed very specifically when a rush attack comes, disaster will be the result.
As well, he argues that the melee vs. ranged unit mechanic is currently not functioning as it should. From what he has seen, ranged units are taking far too long to acquire targets, essentially handicapping all ranged attackers.
Louder, who is by all accounts a very quiet fellow, is barely playing the Beta anymore, and hasn’t even been bothering with ranked play, as these issues have him so irked.
His biggest concern, he tells the interviewer, is that Starcraft II will be unduly influenced by Warcraft fans, who will encourage Blizzard to make the game into more of a Warcraft/Starcraft hybrid that the true sequel fans have been waiting for.
From our limited perspective, the game seems fun, if still unbalanced, but it seems that the larger, more professional gaming community has some more serious issues with it. These can certainly be fixed before launch, so long as Blizzard aren’t fools who rush into an early launch.
Hopefully, they’ll listen to what wise men say, but as for us, we just can’t help falling in love.
With the Beta. And a little bit with the Protoss.
