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I disagree with pretty much all of this, though I do play terran :P

While the mothership core's abilities are still in need of refinement and will continue to be balanced I think the unit adds a nice dimension to the early game. It keeps things interesting and creates more decisions for both players other than just the default fast expand.

The Tempest I haven't really made up my mind about yet, they're expensive as shit and drop like flies in small numbers but they make the protoss death ball seem even more ridiculous. So I dont know. I feel having a unit that powerful without the fleet beacon seems very silly to me at the least

I don't agree that protoss needs yet another air unit. There are plenty, and with the oracle + warp prism there are that many fast moving harassment options for protoss it's not funny.

I'm not sure the Carrier will ever be much more than a novelty in SC2. One thing that doesn't get enough attention is the different pace of SC2 to BW. Sc2 is a hell of a lot faster, both in the tempo of attacks and in how quickly you reach your late game tech.

Example, the most common place to see Carriers was TvP. The reason they were such an interesting unit in BW was that they changed the balance of that matchup. Slow pushing terrans could be tech switched on to devastating effect and they were much more cost effective than the standard protoss ground composition. The great Giyom Patry was a master at delaying terran pushes with smalls squads of protoss units while switching to Carriers. The real point is that the Terran usually didn't have 100 supply of goliaths or wraiths ready to roll, they didn't want to be building these except in small number during the mid game.

At present the default terran composition MMM+Vikings is going to own carriers. Even if things become more mech oriented, Vikings are still going to be an essential component of the composition due to the sheer amount of air options the protoss has. PvZ I'm not going to claim any expertise on, but again you're going to be facing compositions of Corruptors + Infestors which are the counter to Carriers.

Unless Blizzard buff the Carrier to the point it's crazily strong (which would be retarded) it's never going to have the AHA! factor it did in BW. Nony's suggestion would make it less of an A-move unit which would be cool, but the problems remain.

Finally the Oracle seems to me a really cool unit even if the siphon ability is lame as hell. I've had protoss harass me with entomb and there's real potential there for high apm players to take advantage of their multitasking skills to great effect. Definitely a keeper.

To be honest there is so much that could be improved in the overall design of Protoss that its hard to know where to start but...
Remove/replace collosus and give protoss a way to survive for the first 10 minutes without living or dying by forcefields.
...would be nice

One mothership core wouldn't have the energy/be in location to purify all of the nexuses for say, drop defense. If each nexus has it's own energy for that, it would probably give toss way too much defensive power (with the current purify cannon).

I agree the mothership core seems kinda lame atm with all of it's abilities requiring the nexus to work anyway... :/ if you want it to work on the nexus, I could see an OC style nexus upgrade to allow these abilities requiring a gateway to produce.

EDIT: obviously misread the shared energy thing. I'm sure there's still a cast range on purify though, so you can't just insta-defend your main and your third, or w/e and ignore the fact you got caught way out of position.

This changes nothing except take away the unit portion and add an additional special case of "shared nexus energy" which is the kind of complication they like to avoid. Additionally you're not clear on how you would get this ability, is it an upgrade or do you get it for free? if it's an upgrade how do you show that and does it step too much on the oribtal command? The fact that it's a unit also has some additional interesting bits like being able to snipe the core without having to kill the nexus.

I also wouldn't discount the strength of having a flying unit that can move at such an early timing with no tech requirement, it has it's own repercussions that are interesting in terms of scouting, picking off walls and being effective against ground-only compositions (like those that will let mech be strong and roach/ling or baneling attacks).

If I could remove one word from the shared balance changes vocabulary it would be "gimmicky", it's absolutely meaningless and is being used as a catch all when people don't like something that is unique to a unit or race.

What is it about the abilities that you don't like?

Siphon to me seems like a decent way to get someone who is containing you or all-inning you to turn around and go home, but it also seems like if it has to stay there and channel it's just going to get shot down by a few marines or queens or stalkers. Additionally because it costs energy, cancelling it early isn't really an option, as it's just wasted and that could have been entomb.

Entomb on the other hand seems to be more about ensuring that "build more bases" isn't the correct response to a stargate so what don't you like about it? Is it because it's guaranteed damage? Is it too easily denied? Do you think it's so good that it makes the opposing player completely passive?

Just my 2c, I think the feedback is valuable regardless, definitely not trying to shoot down your ideas on premise, but I think they could be more specific.

I'll respond to all the above comments at some point soon (when I have time to sit down and actual create a reasonable response. I value all input so thank you

don't forget to #saveHOTS on Twitter~

Yeah I'm afraid I disagree with all of it too. The Tempest is one of the best units in the game right now, it really bothers me to see so many people begging for it to be removed. You know people asked the same thing to happen to Hellions in WoL beta because they were "useless"? Learn how to transition to them properly and they're great. They have a role, and just like Brood Lords & BC's, they need to be used and supported adequately in order to shine.

Also the #saveHOTS bullshit really needs to stop.

First and foremost, thank you all for taking the time to read my blog. I value and appreciate all feedback and respect your views.

Remember this is beta and therefore the perfect time to mess around with ideas and I'm not afraid to break the game and upset a few people in the interest of progress so my suggestions may seem extreme to some but I don't think they're necessarily bad so much as different and certainly not overpowered. Furthermore they are only concepts and can be balanced.

OK.

I'll cover my thoughts about the Tempest below in response to Dox.

My suggestion was to remove one unit and add another... so not too many units after all. I also mentioned that I thought the Oracle should be a support unit rather than a harass unit. The reason I think Protoss needs a versatile air unit is because I think the Void Ray is bad in small numbers unless it's charged and that the time it takes for this unit to charge makes it ineffective (relatively speaking) in straight on battles unless they enter the battle charged. As such I don't believe they make an effective stepping stone to the more powerful air units (specifically the Tempest or Carrier). A versatile air unit whilst boring would remove the need to "charge up" prior to engaging. I'm thinking a unit almost exactly like the banshee except that it cannot cloak and can attack air would be a reasonable idea.

It is here that the benefit of me not playing Brood War kicks in cause I don't know what the pace is like for that game and it's not the "wow factor" I'm going for. I think that the Carrier is too easily countered and takes far too long to get in large numbers so that they are slightly threatening and so my solution is to provide a stepping stone to them (versatile Protoss unit) and give them some additional range to make them scary and fill the role of the Tempest thus making the Tempest a redundant unit. Dox thinks the Tempest has its place and so I don't have a problem with the Tempest staying if the Carrier goes instead. Once again see the Dox response for more information but in short I don't think the Protoss need both the Carrier and the Tempest.

OK. I think that with the MSC Protoss have more than enough harassment options that there is no need for the Oracle to be a hit and run caster harassment unit and would rather see another utility support unit.

I don't mind the necessity that is forcefields, but I understand your concern.

I've combined my response to you with my response to Dingobloo's first concern below.

The only difference I see between the MSC and my idea is that one is a flying unit that can be destroyed which I suppose has its merits. In saying that I really like the idea that Protoss can return to a chosen Nexus at a moments notice or turn their Nexus into a powerful weapon as needed. I think my idea can be balanced in a lot of ways and never truly gave thought to how you would get the ability. My suggestions for balance are as follows:

• Nexus Upgrade (like the orbital command) to give Nexi access to the Shared Energy pool. In this way you would have to research the upgrade at each Nexus you would like use these abilities on. The research could then have a cost associated with it that interrupts probe production and requires a Cybernetics Core before it can be researched. This is the limitation I like.
• Slow the rate at which Shared Energy is generated.
• Plus other ideas I'm sure I haven't thought of. Point is it can easily be balanced and I'm sure Blizzard is more than capable of extending this idea further should they want to.

It should also be noted that I have also suggested the removal of the Mothership so this would be the only "Mass Recall" ability a Protoss army would have and Protoss players could not Mass Recall their entire army into your base. I'm OK with this because I don't think there should be just one unit that is so powerful that victory and defeat can be determined with just one of that unit.

For starters I don't believe that the Oracle needs to be a harassment unit and I would rather see another support caster unit.

As for the individual abilities. Void Siphon deals too little damage to be threatening from a damage perspective and minerals are usually in high supply for Protoss players that I don't see the money gains from it to be useful. In one test session I had at one point I had 20 or so Oracles and it still took 20 seconds to destroy buildings and 10 seconds to destroy extractors (give or take). I'm sure 18 Void Rays would be much stronger.

In short Void Siphon is not powerful enough and that's why I think it's gimmicky. As for Entomb, I don't mind this ability but I don't see it as necessary with the number of other harassment options which exist for Protoss. So I suppose I don't see it as gimmicky as much as I think it's unnecessary.

I will now support my reason to turn the Oracle into a Mini-Mothership. As I stated above I don't think any single race should have a single one unit that is capable of determining the difference between victory and defeat. I use Zerg as the main example. If the Zerg player NP's a Mothership the Protoss player is (usually) doomed. If the Protoss player lands some amazing Vortexes then the Zerg player is (usually) doomed. With the Mass Recall ability on the Nexus or MSC there is no need for another Mass Recall leaving two abilities unaccounted for. Cloaking and Vortex. Both of these abilities have amazing utility and I would hate to see them go but if not on the mothership what unit? I've already mentioned I'd rather see the Oracle as a support caster rather than as another harassment unit so why not move those abilities to the Oracle and lower their effectiveness so that the Oracle doesn't become an overpowered unit? I nerfed Cloak by making it a channelled ability rather than a passive and Vortex by shrinking the size of the Vortex so that it can only capture a small number units rather than a large number (probably the same size as a Forcefield give or take?) so you would need multiple oracles to capture an entire Zerg army and also cloak yours. In addition the theft of a single Oracle would not be a great deal as it is weak enough to be destroyed and taking just one Oracle doesn't mean you lose cloak if you have backup Oracles.

Another example of the Oracle being great as mentioned above is in PvP with HT's able to remove cloak and the destruction of just one Oracle not resulting in the immediate loss of that player. With Motherships in PvP atm if your opponent loses all his observers and their Mothership they need to turn around and run until they have at least another observer out unless they will take less losses by destroying your Mothership first. This makes for an interesting alterative tech choice rather than simply colossus as well with access to cloak this early.

A balance concern is that you would need to nerf the speed of the Oracle if it were to be a support unit rather than a harassment unit.

I covered a lot in this and "disagree with all of it" is both broad and lacks reasoning, nevertheless I understand you're a busy person and I won't prompt for further responses.

You are specific about the Tempest however and so I will share my views on this. I haven't got a problem with this unit however in my opinion I don't think Protoss need two capital ships and I don't see the Carrier as amazingly useful. I would rather see either the Carrier take the role of the Tempest through the slight increase of range on the Carrier and the Tempest removed or simply the removal of the Carrier. I have had an afterthought however...

Afterthought: In saying that the Carrier still does good damage for a capital ship provided you can get to it safely and with enough numbers so perhaps my problem is with the Void Ray which I don't really like at all. I feel that the need to charge up prior to engaging is too unstable as an ability (as mentioned above in response to fur).

I agree with this.

I am fine with pretty much everything other than the oracle. But oh well I dislike a lot of things doesn't mean they should change it because some people like crying instead of improving ;P. I'd rather not think/talk on HotS until it is released. People thought WoL was super unbalanced in beta, just gonna stick it out and learn new stuffz!