Setup team AV weapons as upgrades vs standalone units
Posted: Fri 09 Sep, 2016 7:26 pm
Hi all,
Depending on which race you are playing, suppression spam can be a mild nuisance or almost impossible to decisively beat in T1. I mostly play IG and Eldar in 3v3 so my opinion on the matter may be skewed.
In T1, most races have ways to deal with a single enemy SUT; however, when that enemy purchases 2 or 3 SUTs, they become exponentially more difficult to deal with, particularly for certain races like IG or Eldar who lack jump troops - this problem is compounded by the tight lanes in most 3v3 maps. Come T2, having more than 1 suppression team has diminishing returns, as vehicles, new infantry upgrades, and new global spells become available. In theory, this could mean that people who spam SUTs in T1 enjoy an advantage in T1 but are punished come T2; however, HWTs, GWTs, Devs, Havocs, and Lootas can upgrade their suppression weapon to an AV weapon or in some cases an autocannon in T2. This means you aren't punished for purchasing multiple suppression teams in T1, since any surplus teams can convert their weapons into more mid-game and late game-relevant weapons with AV or anti-all damage. In effect you can purchase multiple SUTs in T1 and enjoy lane dominance without diminishing returns, then when the game reaches the stage where more than 1 suppression team is typically unnecessary, you can transition some of their weapons into more useful variants.
If anti-vehicle and/or anti-all SUTs were standalone units instead of upgrades (as the brightlance was in retail), people who purchase multiple SUTs in T1 would have to live with the consequences of purchasing multiple SUTs later in the game, rather than being able to mitigate the problem via fairly inexpensive upgrades. An analogous example to this would be GM flamers - they are a very potent upgrade in T1, but because you cannot swap them out with a plasma gun later in the game, you have a clear trade-off between a weapon that provides an early-game advantage or a weapon that provides optimal late-game power.
I wanted to see what other people think about this. I am not hear to say I absolutely feel SUTs are too powerful and that changes are desperately needed, I just wanted to hear people's thoughts on the matter.
Depending on which race you are playing, suppression spam can be a mild nuisance or almost impossible to decisively beat in T1. I mostly play IG and Eldar in 3v3 so my opinion on the matter may be skewed.
In T1, most races have ways to deal with a single enemy SUT; however, when that enemy purchases 2 or 3 SUTs, they become exponentially more difficult to deal with, particularly for certain races like IG or Eldar who lack jump troops - this problem is compounded by the tight lanes in most 3v3 maps. Come T2, having more than 1 suppression team has diminishing returns, as vehicles, new infantry upgrades, and new global spells become available. In theory, this could mean that people who spam SUTs in T1 enjoy an advantage in T1 but are punished come T2; however, HWTs, GWTs, Devs, Havocs, and Lootas can upgrade their suppression weapon to an AV weapon or in some cases an autocannon in T2. This means you aren't punished for purchasing multiple suppression teams in T1, since any surplus teams can convert their weapons into more mid-game and late game-relevant weapons with AV or anti-all damage. In effect you can purchase multiple SUTs in T1 and enjoy lane dominance without diminishing returns, then when the game reaches the stage where more than 1 suppression team is typically unnecessary, you can transition some of their weapons into more useful variants.
If anti-vehicle and/or anti-all SUTs were standalone units instead of upgrades (as the brightlance was in retail), people who purchase multiple SUTs in T1 would have to live with the consequences of purchasing multiple SUTs later in the game, rather than being able to mitigate the problem via fairly inexpensive upgrades. An analogous example to this would be GM flamers - they are a very potent upgrade in T1, but because you cannot swap them out with a plasma gun later in the game, you have a clear trade-off between a weapon that provides an early-game advantage or a weapon that provides optimal late-game power.
I wanted to see what other people think about this. I am not hear to say I absolutely feel SUTs are too powerful and that changes are desperately needed, I just wanted to hear people's thoughts on the matter.
