Yes, there is so much less of a focus on the early game now. Queens got a substantial buff with regards to holding off pressure and harass, but not nearly as much has been done to give Zerg an edge on early ground-based attacks.

Players play so much more greedily because there is a tacit understanding that that is how the game will progress, simply because that is how the game HAS progressed. If someone were to shake that up, think Bomber when he cheesed like 5 times in the finals or semifinals awhile ago, they could have a lot of success. They would certainly force a shift in the meta.

Part of it has to do with understanding the game. After seeing the same timing attacks over and over, players learn how to hold them. That's why most 2 base timings have gone out of style--Zergs understand how to stop these big blink stalker attacks now, so they're less effective and nobody uses them. It's not because the GAME has changed, it's because the players' UNDERSTANDING of the game has changed--a shift in the metagame, not a shift in the game's mechanics (there were some warp gate changes, but it's mostly how the players recognize and respond to these attacks).

And as players understand how to beat these timing attacks, the attacks become less and less popular (because they see less and less success), and players begin to ignore the possibility of these attacks hitting. When's the last time you saw a 4 gate in a non-PvP? When's the last time you saw a player concerned with a K4G? And so build orders evolve in a manner such that they no longer have to consider those timing attacks because nobody uses them anymore (because they were beaten already).

But now that these builds have undergone several cycles of that, and most of the timing attacks have been "figured out" and are now in the discard pile, these builds have become incredibly economically focused and greedy. So greedy that a lot of the 1 base builds that were discarded during the "safe early expand" phase of the meta (think WoL, 3 gate expand era) because they LOST to previous safe builds are now strong against these builds that no longer consider the possibility of these fast attacks.

So I think (and have thought, and have expressed) that there's a huge spot for rush builds to make a comeback within the scope of the current metagame. It's just about finding the precise window in which to strike.

DO YALL UNDERSTAND MY OWN MOTHER HAD TO SAY"SON PULL UR PANTS UP" BECAUSE MY COCK WAS HANGIN OUT DO U UNDERSTAND WAT LEVEL IM ON

The game actually has changed though, along with the understanding, and protoss has a planetary fortress cannon, and zergs have swarm hosts, terrrans have boosting medivacs, etc.

I don't know what else to say besides shaving off 20-30 seconds from stim research would help vs protoss all-ins without it being a problem for TvZ, and without nerfing blink.

It simply makes sense, the nerf to stim came around when everyone was trash at the game and before protoss had super cannon nexus, along with small ass maps.

111s were terrifying aswell
oh look what happened, people learned they need zealots and flanks
people were fucking awful 4 years ago.

Boosting medivacs and swarmhosts will not factor into any 1 base timing attacks. Yes, the mid and late game have become drastically different. But I'm talking about 1 base rush situations.

The only difference I see, along with understanding "oh this is how to hold this attack", is the map size. I'm not sure if it's a big enough factor to mitigate the effectiveness of these timings within the scope of the current super greedy meta.



You should read my tl;dr wall, I addressed this point.

Protoss gets Mothership core at like 5 minutes!

Blizz also buffed immortal range just to give protosses an easier time against 111

Yes, in TvP. Not in TvZ.

I grant you TvP will not be significantly different due to free auto-cannon, because people struggle with adapting builds to expect the overcharge...so planning the REAL timing for after the MSC drops its load and just doing an earlier poke without the stim upgrade in order to bait out the overcharge. May or may not be feasible, depending on the opening P does (as I already said) due to the increased time P has to react (e.g. only realistic against a Nexus first opening as the gates and core will be late + the Protoss will be fiscally constrained). So stim timing in TvP won't open up a new standard T opener. You are right and I admit being in the wrong on this point.

But let's focus on TvZ, which has only seen three significant early-game changes: queen range, overlord speed, and earlier spore crawlers.

as long as mothership core exists this game is broken.

wol toss= needed to make units to expand
hots toss= needs to make 1 msc until 830

even with blink same problem, no msc vision= they need robo and it becomes easier to hold.

indeed

its more than 8:30 before u can do anything vs a toss beside a mine drop...like 10 mins with medi its retarded lol

I do a 1 marauder 7-8 marine push but doesnt do much very often, so I just try to force a photon overcharge but its pointless cuz even when I force one...1 min later with 2 medi push, they have another and soon to have another after that

it should cost alot more energy...and msc should be slower so they would have to think twice before moving it inbetween bases + would help a bit vs blink stalker all ins to snipe msc or just when they travel on the map to the terran's base, its slower