@frozen_byte said in T1 bombers are too good at hunting down expanding engineers:
I think it should be possible to have "first bomber" a valid strategy that have to be considered.
Still, I agree with Blodir playing against those are very annoying.
But as Femboy said (in a rude way): It is very possible to counter this with intel and intie quickly.
In my opinion, the bomber may need to get "less frustrating" instead of "weaker".
And to do so: Increase cost to make it a tougher risk vs value calculation for the attacker.
I actually don't mind first bomber either, but that's probably because I don't personally struggle against it. While defending is very doable it does also have the signs of a high volatility play at min 2 which I'm philosophically opposed to. Despite that I like that it's a differerent kind of beginning to an otherwise pretty boring first few minutes of the game. Like you might as well start with a factory if first bomber is not a factor. Anyways idk how I feel about it, might be better if it's gone since a lot of people find it very frustrating.
As for bombers being counterable... this is sort of true. Here's a few points:
- Early bombers are very common even at high level ladder games. Players wouldn't build them if they didn't perceive them as worth it, and as expected when observing some games you'll find that bombers regularly do decent damage. I would take that as empirical proof that countering bombers is non-trivial
- It's very rare to see this, but it is possible to get an undodgeable bomb with some very difficult micro by stopping the bomber on top of the engineer and firing straight down (the bombs drop much faster than normal). So if we're splitting hairs bombers are actually technically uncounterable (other than with your own air)
- Speaking of going air that's not so easy either. If your opponent went second air bomber first and you went second air scout+inty first then you are certainly winning. However what if opponent went land? Then you are quite honestly pretty fucked since your inty is not doing anything. You could go scout first and then wait, but it's not really worth doing (here I must refer to nobody doing it since the explanation is out of scope of this post...). In the end, the meta is that if you go second air, then you make a bomber (and it is that way for a reason). And so a very common situation is bomber vs bomber where you must both dodge the enemy bomber and land your own bomb.
The point of the proposed changes is not that bombers are op and need to be nerfed. It is a design change, and I would consider it more a buff than anything. Ideally you'd see bombers used throughout the t1 stage for various tasks, rather than just sniping t1 engineers. So yes, I agree completely with your statement that "the bomber may need to get 'less frustrating' instead of 'weaker'".