Countering the mothership

[TerranGod]

when it does the shield ability, get your units and run away
when it does the ground lazer ability, get your units inside the dropship/overlord
when it does the dark hole ability...you...uh...this one you cant dodge. for dark hole, use everything you got :P

how to kill it

lockdown
then hit it with everything you got

[DDDx]

well if your terren cant you just use the shock wave thing sci vessle uses that takes the shiled away then use the thing the ghost dose to freeze it, and then alot of valks or you know what ever kind of anti air units the terrens will have.

[kehmdaddy]

Although lockdown seems like a very viable choice to counter it, I have a feeling the Mothership will not be targetable by it. It would simply make killing this behemoth far too easy. The Mothership is going to cost an absurd amount of resources and supply; for it to be taken down by a mere Ghost seems a little unfair.

[Itsmyship]

You also have to remember that we don't know if Science Vessel or Valks are coming back or even if Ghosts still have lockdown (they damn well better though!)

[generalrievous]

waiting until it does its planet cracker attack then launch a counter attack would be effective like have some bcs come from the side and use some marines as decoy

[t4k9]

use vikings, if it planet cracks, u fly, if they black hole, u walk. just wondering, will collasus be pulled in my black hole as it is suseptable to AA.

[DDDx]

some of the units i metiond might not be comeing back but the abilltys might go to another unit.

and you might be able to use lockdown on mothership becuase no one will send the mother ship anywhere by its self it would be alot more effective to send a army with it, so lockdown might work on the mother ship, but with a army there it wont be matter.

[DDDx]

use vikings, if it planet cracks, u fly, if they black hole, u walk. just wondering, will collasus be pulled in my black hole as it is suseptable to AA.

that is a good idea but, but dose black hole only work for air?

[Itsmyship]

Yep, only to air units. We even had a thread a while ago saying how un-black holeish it really was because of it ^_^

And that is a rather good question t4k9. I would assume not, although it would be a fun little animation seeing the Colossus getting ripped in half by a black hole :P

[BaneOfHumanity]

Well if you can....

Lock down and nuke it...

[kehmdaddy]

Actually, the Swede who leaked the first images from the new info flux said he blackholed the entire army of his Protoss opponent (don't remember if he mentioned ground units were in it, I know he said Tempest armada) but that also included the opponent's own Mothership! So right now, you can indeed blackhole another Mothership! This is definitely subject to change however.

[Major Willy]

Zerg players could fly assloads of Scourge at this thing from more than 2 directions.

Terran players would utilize both ground and air AA to avoid having an entire group wiped out from 1 of the Mothership's offensive abilities.

[TerranGod]

Zerg players could fly assloads of Scourge at this thing from more than 2 directions.

Terran players would utilize both ground and air AA to avoid having an entire group wiped out from 1 of the Mothership's offensive abilities.


scourges arent confirmed yet but sounds like good idea

[DDDx]

yeah i think it says ghost still has lock down, i forgot were i read it though.

[Nikzad]

ghosts without lockdown would be like reavers without scarabs

[TheFearless]

it's the ultimate unit for protoss, it should have invulnerability to spells

[Wlck742]

Invulnerability to spell? So you need an a**load of units to kill it? Anyways, it's very easy to counter the Mothership. Provided there are no detectors nearby, cloaked Ghost + Lockdown + Nuke will wipe the Mothership's brilliant blue arse off the planet.

[Hadean]

I think a combo of Viking ground-form and viking air-form should do the trick. You'd need a fair bit though. A flight of BC's with Yamato researched would also do the trick. If you remember the gameplay footage, they stopped yamato-ing the Mothership because it would have been destroyed. I think 6-7 yamato's would drop it, so spread out your bc's and then yamato that thing.

Or just nuke it twice.

[Wlck742]

The easiest tactic would be to not let it happen at all. Rush em before they even get their Gateway up. SCV rush!

[MarineCorp]

i got a counterattack for the black hole but it is includes sacrificing your own units
firstly get your swarm of muta/ bc etc
secondly set them into 2 groups
Finally IF the mothership uses the black hole onto your 1st group SEND in your second group and pwn the mothership
but of course the mothership would prob use it twice but atleast it has aa cooldown xD

[Hadean]

Thor can shoot air, it's been confirmed. Bye bye mothership.

[JudicatorPrime]

Attack it early on and force it to use as many abilities as possible... Either than or just 'scramble' air units so they don't ALL get pwned by the Black hole and kill them. Make a dozen Vikings as lambs for the slaughter and then roll in some real units. :) It's not victory without sacrifice.

25 Battlecruisers ought to do it. And a couple Thor's. I suspect they shoot slowly, and Motherships are slow.. so thats a good counter.

[Wlck742]

Cobras might be able to counter the mothership, since it can fire while moving, but it would be very risky. It would be easiest to lock down the mothership and yamato it 4-6 times.

[Ych9]

If you are using Protoss, a few WarpRays will probably take out the Mothership in no time givin that the Mothership doesn't decide to Blackhole all the WarpRays. So in order to do that, I'll need to spread out my WarpRays before I go in for the kill.
Psi-Storm and Statis Field would work decently if you are using Protoss.

From the 1up website, they stated that Vikings were very strong anti-air units. I'm sure a handful of these little gadgets would take care of the Mothership. A few BattleCruisers would also be able to take them down with Yamato Cannon. Not to mention, our old and trustworthy lockdown.

So yea, there are lots of ways to counter the Mothership.

[Wlck742]

I could just imagine a bunch of noobs teching straight to the mother without building a single unit thinking that it's as unbalanced as C&C, then getting their mothership blown out of the sky by lockdown + vikings, 60+ hydras, BCs. And remember that you have to research the Black Hole ability too, which takes 300 mins and gas and some time.

Noob 1: Hahaha, I've got a mothership! GG!

Noob 2: Ohmygod you're going to whup my a**. I'm dropping.

(Noob 1 sends mother at non-noob, Noob 2 quits)

Noob 1: Hahaha, I have a mothership and all you have are Vikings. HAHAHA!
Feel my Black Hole!

(Noob 1 realizes he has to research Black Hole ability)

Noob 1: Dammit, the Black Hole doesn't work. I'll still be able to whup your a** without a Black Hole!

(Noob 1's mother gets locked down)

Noob 1: WTF??? Now my mothership can't do a thing! WTF you hacker?

(Noob 1's mother gets blasted out of the sky by vikings)

Noob 1: WTF? Stop cheating!

(Non-noob techs all the way to Thors at his own leisure, building BCs, Tanks, and more Ghosts while he waits.)

(Noob 1 is too shell-shocked about his loss of the mother to get back into the game)

(Non-noob goes banging on the Noob 1's door with 5 Thors, 20 Tanks, and 12 BCs.)

Noob 1: WTF??? How the hell did you do that? You damn hacker! Play fair!

Non-noob: STFU and gg.

[CapMan]

Does the motherships blackhole ability even attack ground? i thought it only affected air units

[DontHate]

immagine a mothership vs mothership. There can be 2 right? they only mean there is only 1 for each team. It'd be a black whole fest.

[MaliciouS]

I doubt you can use lockdown on the Mothership, a much more easy way to counter it is for having by example a small squadron of Battlecruisers, spread them apart from different directions so that they do not get sucked in by the Black Hole, and simply fire their Yamato Cannons on the Mothership. If you saw the gameplay trailer, you could notice that ~3 Yamato Cannon blasts or such would be able to bring it down.

But otherwise, the Mothership can be countered just by spreading your troops away from eachother to avoid full effect from e.g. Planet Cracker and Black Hole.

[Wlck742]

I'm prepared to bet that most games will end before the tech gets high enough for the mothership.

[mc2]

Protoss vs Mothership:
- Psionic Storm
- Feedback (if it's returning)
- mass Colossus + Immortal (??)
- Warp Rays
- Mind Control (if it's returning and possible)

Terran vs Mothership
- Lockdown (obviously)
- EMP
- Yamato
- Nuclear launch detected

Zerg vs Mothership (all assumptions here)
- mass mass mass Hydralisks
- mass mass mass scourge
- Plague
- mass devourers (or any new heavy air to air units)

[Wlck742]

I doubt the mothership will be so hard to take down that it requires a specialized force for it. About 12 scourges, provided the mothership uses no abilities and uses only its normal attack, should be more than enough to bring it down as zerg. Psionic storm would work as well, and if you're very good at micro, you could probably take down the mothership with 12 stalkers and their blink ability.

[DontHate]

yea, feedback from the TA's would be pwnage.

[burkid]

MS got nerfed hard. they pretty much suck now according to ign.

[Wlck742]

Eh, the MS seems like it really sucks now. They should have kept the old MS.

[GuiMontag]

maybe all the noobs should have stoped shouting about it being overpowered, its a better alternative than removing it like the soul hunter

[Smokiehunter]

well seeing that it doesn't have any anti-air any more just send some air units. however I think if they put the dark hole in again it should be its only anti air then it wouldn't really be over powerd

[Wlck742]

Yeah, as long as the Mothership has no air attack, the Black Hole could be a good ability to keep. Think of it as a Psi Storm for air only.

[BoydofZINJ]

As of right now, a marine that is unenhanced should be able to defeat the mother ship! Given more time it --might-- take 2. Given enough time a zergling will be able to go toe to toe with it at this rate with the mothership.

[Fo®Saken]

As of right now, a marine that is unenhanced should be able to defeat the mother ship! Given more time it --might-- take 2. Given enough time a zergling will be able to go toe to toe with it at this rate with the mothership.
LOL, only if the crew of the mothership is in coma or something. :P
But it seams lockdown won't be in the game either, so destroying a mothership will become a lot harder since it can easily avoid nukes now.

And with the black hole becoming way less powerful (it will probably only kill units right at the center and only slow down others), the MS is just underpowered now and far to expensive for what it can do.

But in the lore on the official ST2 site it says that the mothership used to house priests, but now it is packed with warriors, so why doesn't Blizzard add the ability to load some units in the MS that can shoot ATA or something. :S

[Major Willy]

Mothership, I'd like you to meet a lone Viking.

GG.