User:Kiljaedenas/WoL Upgrade Analysis

Wings of Liberty Upgrade Analysis
This guide is a tactical analysis of the various unique upgrades available in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign. Note that this is a subjective opinion and you do not need to agree with the concepts discussed here if they do not fit your playstyle.

Note that my overall preference is on more of an offensive damage-dealing mentality to hit harder and faster, and not on being more endurant.

LAB UPGRADES, PROTOSS


 * 5 POINT UPGRADE: Ultra Capacitors for the firing rate upgrade is superior. The faster you can kill the enemy, the less damage they can inflict on you which has the same effect of making your units last longer as increased hitpoints would from Vanadium Plating. It also makes you much deadlier at ambushes, causing more damage before the enemy forces can react.


 * 10 POINT UPGRADE: Micro Filtering is superior for better gas refining. Although Orbital Depot is useful for having instant support-depot construction, not only does this effectively become useless once you've maxed your depots it is slightly redundant if you've purchased Advanced Construction for your SCVs from Bay 12. Micro Filtering, however, is permanently useful; you always need more gas.


 * 15 POINT UPGRADE: Automated Refineries are superior. While doubling your SCV construction rate with Command Center Reactor is nice, this is useless once you have all the SCVs you intend to have for a base and has no effect on the amount of control you have available. On the other hand, Automated Refineries also saves you at least 3 control per refinery by saving the at-minimum 3 SCVs needed to harvest the refinery at maximum rate, and also gives you the option of quickly putting up a refinery on a remote geyser without bothering to also put a command center, giving you some extra gas income without extensive oversight.


 * 20 POINT UPGRADE: The Science Vessel, almost entirely for its Nano Repair beam. Being able to strongly remote-repair your vehicles without needing to bring vulnerable SCVs to the front lines is a massive boost to the survivability of your forces; the Raven's abilities, while nice, aren't particularly stellar.


 * 25 POINT UPGRADE: Tech Reactor, without question. To have one single add-on simultaneously unlock the advanced unit construction and double the production rate of all of your units is an order of magnitude more important than being able to drop your weak infantry where you want on the map.

LAB UPGRADES, ZERG


 * 5 POINT UPGRADE: Shrike turret. Not only is more firepower better, but this finally gives Terrans an un-manned anti ground turret which they desperately need.


 * 10 POINT UPGRADE: Perdition Turret. Although the Command Fortress is powerful it is too expensive to consider for a front-line defense turret, and if you've let enemy ground forces inside your base enough to get into range of one something is very, very wrong. The much cheaper Perdition turret that you can easily place on your front defensive line is far more useful and practical.


 * 15 POINT UPGRADE: Hercules, without question. The Predator is just too easy to counter by a large number of units, whereas the Hercules can give excellent mobility to your entire ground army.


 * 20 POINT UPGRADE: Regenerative Bio Steel is my personal preference because I don't focus as much on unit abilities, but Cellular Reactor is definitely viable. RBS lets me not have to worry as much on repairing my structures and vehicles, and speeds it up.


 * 25 POINT UPGRADE: Although the Hive Mind Emulator is cool, without being able to control drones it does not have anywhere near as much power as the Dark archon unit from SC1 Brood War. The Psi Disruptor will ultimately have much more of an effect in helping you.