The marine's ballistic alloy combat shield grants more HP, giving them more survivability against high-damage units. As long as the marine can survive a hit, a medivac dropship can quickly heal it.[1]
Marines excel against immortals, given their vulnerability to low-damage units.[2] However, they are weak against the colossi, due to splash damage from their thermal lances[3] and the high templar's area-of-effect psionic storm. Marines are also ineffective in small numbers against heavily armored units such as thors, ultralisks, carriers, and battlecruisers. Groups of siege tanks in siege mode can also easily wipe out large numbers of marines far from the latter's range while hellions and hellbats can do significant damage to marines due to their bonus to light units. Lurkers and banelings will also beat marines.
They are a crucial component of the MMM strategy, which is particularly effective against protosszealot/stalker combo and massive zergroach, ravager army. Large formations of marines can also easily counter void rays and mutalisks.
Increases the hit points of marines by 10. The marine model changes to have a shield attached to the left shoulderguard.[4] The M98 combat shield is composed of 30 mm of bonded carbide.[5]
Enables affected infantry to attack and move 50% more quickly.
Stimpacks provide a temporary boost to the marine's attack and movement speeds by dosing him with a mix of adrenaline, endorphins, and aggression enhancers.
This frenzied burst does come at the expense of the marine's health. Medical treatment is highly advisable after multiple uses.
M98 Combat Shields are a vital upgrade for any marine fighting on the front line, 30mm of bonded carbide may not sound like much, but field tests have shown a full 25% increase in marine suitability when equipped with Combat shields.
Attack upgrades improve attack cooldown of affected units by 5% per level.[6]
These self-replicating ultra capacitors reduce the reload time of weapons and systems. Now each of the weapon upgrades at the armory and engineering bay increases attack speed by 5% in addition to increasing damage.
Armor upgrades increase health of affected units by 5% per level.[6]
We have created a new lightweight alloy called vanadium. Vanadium diffuses weapon impacts much more efficiently than traditional armor plating, and it better preserves the life of our units. Now each of the armor upgrades in the armory and engineering bay increases unit life by 5% in addition to increasing armor.
100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 60
100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 160
Effect
Damage: 7
Level 2
Cost
175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 190
Effect
Damage: 8
Level 3
Cost
250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 220
100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 100 Mastery: -2 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 40 160
Effect
Hit points Basic: 49.5 59.5 (with Combat Shield) With Backwatter Marshall: 99 119 (with Combat Shield) Armor: 1
Level 2
Cost
175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 175 Mastery: -3.5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 70 190
Effect
Hit points Basic: 54 64 (with Combat Shield) With Backwatter Marshall: 108 128 (with Combat Shield) Armor: 2
Level 3
Cost
250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 250 Mastery: -5 per Research Resource Cost mastery point. Down to a minimum 100 220
Effect
Hit points Basic: 58.5 68.5 (with Combat Shield) With Backwatter Marshall: 117 137 (with Combat Shield) Armor: 3
In Nova Covert Ops, marines can equip one of various provided upgrades and abilities for each mission. They become available to the player in "Sudden Strike."
Upgrades and Abilities
Laser Targeting System
Increases unit's vision by 2 and attack range by 1.
Early in development, the StarCraft II team experimented with changing the base tier 1 units for each race. This included replacing the frontline role of marines with the prison infantry guard, a much lighter armored terran infantry variant. However, this idea never made it past the concept art stage.[9]
Concept art exists for marine variants in StarCraft II (or possibly as separate units). These include a demolitions veteran, an anti-air veteran, and a heavy artillery veteran. Art likewise depicts marines equipped with a wrist cannon (or similar weapon) rather than the C-14 rifle.[10]
At BlizzCon 2007, marines had a bayonet attached to their rifles, but these disappeared from later versions of their model.[11]
Marines had different death sounds in 2007. Prior to eventually gaining 5 HP and 1 additional attack range, the Combat Shield upgrade increased marine HP by 15, and the U-238 Shells upgrade was still available. In October 2008, the Combat Shield upgrade doubled their HP to 80 and Stimpack was moved to the shadow ops, in an attempt to keep marines useful throughout a match.[12] By early 2009, marines had 45 HP and gained 10.[13]
Some marine quotes were updated or removed, including an unused line for stimpacks.[14]
Beta patch #6 increased marine build time from 20 seconds to 25. Beta patch #13 decreased the research costs of Stimpack and Combat Shield from 150/150 to 100/100. Patch 1.3 increased Stimpack research time from 140 seconds to 170. The Patch 4.10.1 Balance Update reduced it from 121 seconds to 100.
āYup, the Marines still have upgradable shields, making a huge difference late game against more high damage units. As long as those Marines can survive that initial hit, the Medivac Dropships does an awesome job of bringing them back to full health in no time. Karune. 2008-09-16. What happened with the marines and shields?Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-09-16.
Training Day
