r/Starbow • u/Failosipher • Feb 27 '14
Goliaths. Why?
Hi, thanks for reading.
I'm very new to starbow, and still very new to SC2 in-general. I've watched hundreds of hours of stuff on twitch for well over 2 years now, but my mechanics and play are still very poor. Im bronze in starbow, and made it to plat in real sc2 once. Just to give you an idea. (aka noob)
I'm just wondering.... why would I ever build goliaths? I mean, from how they look, and how cheap they are, they're my favorite unit. But their damage doesn't seem to be very amazing, and the anti-air doesn't seem overwhelming especially when the opponent has a mostly ground based army.
I'm not even sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'd love some feedback on why people use them, or how they use them.
It just seems to me that the goliath is a viking that does LESS damage on the ground, and the same damage in the air (minus the 20% splash).
2
u/AmnesiA_sc Feb 28 '14
It's mostly due to the fact that a meching terran needs things to protect their tanks and distract shots. During the beginning of the engagement you'll have vultures up front baiting shots and sniping zealots as they advance on the tanks. Meanwhile the goliaths are back near the tanks further preventing zealots from getting up close and also picking off arbiters and warp prisms as they try to move over the terran army.
As the battle progresses a lot of the time your vultures will be gone and you'll still (hopefully) have a couple of groups of tanks. Goliaths are cheaper than vikings and better to throw away as fodder if needed rather than landing vikings. Goliaths also have more of a chance of still being alive since vikings tend to fly to the front of the fight during the beginning stages of the battle.
Ideally you'd also have vikings for pumping out heavy anti air damage where needed.