Best AA Build

[Bomba923]

Out of the choice (from the poll), which is the best defense against AIR ?
(Not ground....JUST air..)

{Missile Turret
Spore Colony
Photon Cannon}

[Darkmatter]

I personally like spore colonies. They have more life then the other defences to my knowledge, and they have a neat attack. Photon Cannons die fairly easily, as well as turrets. Fact is, none of them are useful versus guardians unless the player moves them in too close.

[Magikarp]

Missle Turrets. I haven't taken a look at how much damage the spore colonies do (I'm sure that the Photon Cannons probably do the least damage against air, since they can attack ground as well), but the Missle Turrets have a trump card: they can be repaired.

And I guess it depends on what kind of map you're playing on. For a money map, spore colonies would probably be better, but on a Blizzard map, where resources can be scarce, repair is a very handy feature that I use frequently now.

[B)ushid(o]

I choose missile turret for the same reason Leviathan said, plus, it can be built on on any suitable terrain right off the bat, unlike a spore colony, which needs creep, or a photon cannon, which needs a pylon, and the best part, it spins.

[Hot Action Akule]

and theres a little guy in the turret gogogog turret guy!

[Sakuhta]

missile turrets, because the word turret looks like jew.

k?

[TrongaMonga]

To give you the stats:

Missile Turret - 200 Terran HP (thus they start going down when at red, but can be repaired), 20 explosive attack.

Spore Colony - 400 Zerg HP (regeneration always active), 15 very fast normal attack. Plus is generates creep.

Photon Cannon - 100 Protoss HP (cannot be repared), 100 Protoss shield (regeneration, but can be cast away by EMP), 20 normal attack.

For those reasons, I pick Spore Colony. It's far better than the others as an AA.

[ReiGn]

Turret, just because it looks cool.

[CerebralChain]

Spore colonies, definetly. :angry

[Phoenix2003]

Spore colonies.

[Crimson-Shade]

Originally Posted by Leviathan

Missle Turrets. I haven't taken a look at how much damage the spore colonies do (I'm sure that the Photon Cannons probably do the least damage against air, since they can attack ground as well), but the Missle Turrets have a trump card: they can be repaired.

And I guess it depends on what kind of map you're playing on. For a money map, spore colonies would probably be better, but on a Blizzard map, where resources can be scarce, repair is a very handy feature that I use frequently now.

do u realize how newb you sound?

lol, jk

Missle Turret is best. Cheapest cost, erected fairly quickly, can build it anywhere where u need detection & AA.

[betaalpha5]

spores i would say. i think they have longer range. turrets are nice but.. get damaged and it cost money to get it repaired

[Ntrik_]

spore, it looks like its hitting harder and faster, and it does!.

[Zerglite]

spores do less DMG, but the increased fire rate more than makes up for it

tha ADV of cannons is that they can hit ground as well

and turrets....

they just suck

GOLIATHS are much better for antiair

[Crimson-Shade]

u can mass turrets easily with a few scv, which makes turrets better than spore colonies realisitcally speaking. much more superior AA on an island map as well since you can drop a few scv's and you have instant AA def on an expansion island. spore colonies.... you gotta make drones which takes away larvae from making something else. not really critical unless you care about making something else

and what you said bout goliaths, although they are much better for anti-air, turrets are still only 75 mins and provide solid AA protection for ur base. do you really plan on keeping ur goliaths on guard duty instead of with ur assault force as protection against air? i dont think so.

plus, i love being able to make a wall of turrets two or three deep in my base (even making one line of turrets is easier than making a line of spore colonies) you cant do that with spore colonies unless you got a lot of time on ur hands to make all those drones and ur opponent (s) aren't doing anything.

now if you do a side by side comparison of a spore colony and a turret, spore colonies come out on top, but i don't think two sole AA buildings are going to be duking it out anytime soon... you gotta look at the big picture and missle turrets are better.

oh and turrets can be replaced easily by pulling an scv from somewhere, unlike a drone which must be made, thus taking time (or if you took a drone from ur min line, u gotta make another one to replace it)

[Darkmatter]

Despite being able to be repaired, Turrets in no way last half as long as Spore Colonies do in a heated battle. Since Spore Colonies have double the HP, they are much more durable in the heat of battle. See the stats for both below:

Spore Colony
Cost: 50
Hit Points: 400
Damage: 15
Damage Type: Normal
Detection Range: 10
Armor Type: Heavy
Armor: 1


Missile Turret
Cost: 75
Hit Points: 200
Air Attack: 20e
Ground Attack: N/A
Sight Range: 11
Detection Range: 7
Armor Type: Heavy
Armor: 1
Requires: Engineering Bay.

What I think makes the Spore Colony better then the Missile Turret is overall durability. Sure, you can build Turrets anywhere, anytime, but why would you build them anywhere? It's more logical to build them by an expansion then around your opponents base. They do build faster then spore colonies. But they don't have as much life nor shoot as fast as spore colonies. Speed and life make the Spore Colony better in the heat of battle then the missile turret. 15 Damage with great speed beats 20 damage with semi-fast speed, I would think.

Making drones does take time. It does take the life of a immensely useful and non-abundant drone! But that’s the Zerg's way of saying that their 12 hatcheries are out producing your Command Center in making defensive structures in bulk. Would you have 12 SCV's making turrets everywhere, or 2? 2 Seems fine, doesn't it? Whereas 12 Drones = 12 Spore Colonies. If you make enough drones in a good amount of time, you can get a nice air defense before anything bad happens. Terrans would still win, speed-wise, but the Zerg would come very close to them with superior spore colonies. They die, you remake them. Same thing with Turrets. They don't always stay alive you know. At 200 HP, they can die quite easily against a large force. So can Spore Colonies. Since they're dead, you can't repair them.

Really though it depends on the situation. In the heated battles, I would take Spore Colonies over Missile Turrets any day. They do more damage and last longer. And you only need to build them where you have a base, which is necessary anyways so it's not like you run around making them in odd places just because or anything.

[TrongaMonga]

Spore colonys cost 125, not 50.

[-Azrael666-]

DM got owned by his inability to add creep colony cost

[Darkmatter]

It's logical since they're better. Right?

Blame Blizzards Main SC Site for that.

[Crimson-Shade]

Originally Posted by Darkmatter

Despite being able to be repaired, Turrets in no way last half as long as Spore Colonies do in a heated battle. Since Spore Colonies have double the HP, they are much more durable in the heat of battle. See the stats for both below:

Spore Colony
Cost: 50
Hit Points: 400
Damage: 15
Damage Type: Normal
Detection Range: 10
Armor Type: Heavy
Armor: 1


Missile Turret
Cost: 75
Hit Points: 200
Air Attack: 20e
Ground Attack: N/A
Sight Range: 11
Detection Range: 7
Armor Type: Heavy
Armor: 1
Requires: Engineering Bay.

What I think makes the Spore Colony better then the Missile Turret is overall durability. Sure, you can build Turrets anywhere, anytime, but why would you build them anywhere? It's more logical to build them by an expansion then around your opponents base. They do build faster then spore colonies. But they don't have as much life nor shoot as fast as spore colonies. Speed and life make the Spore Colony better in the heat of battle then the missile turret. 15 Damage with great speed beats 20 damage with semi-fast speed, I would think.

Making drones does take time. It does take the life of a immensely useful and non-abundant drone! But that’s the Zerg's way of saying that their 12 hatcheries are out producing your Command Center in making defensive structures in bulk. Would you have 12 SCV's making turrets everywhere, or 2? 2 Seems fine, doesn't it? Whereas 12 Drones = 12 Spore Colonies. If you make enough drones in a good amount of time, you can get a nice air defense before anything bad happens. Terrans would still win, speed-wise, but the Zerg would come very close to them with superior spore colonies. They die, you remake them. Same thing with Turrets. They don't always stay alive you know. At 200 HP, they can die quite easily against a large force. So can Spore Colonies. Since they're dead, you can't repair them.

Really though it depends on the situation. In the heated battles, I would take Spore Colonies over Missile Turrets any day. They do more damage and last longer. And you only need to build them where you have a base, which is necessary anyways so it's not like you run around making them in odd places just because or anything.

Turrets can almost be made endlessly (speaking in terms of micro-ing time costs) around ur base at almost neglible costs, while on the other hand you gotta make a drone, wait, build creep colony, wait, evolve into spore colony, wait, and finally do you get ur spore colony.

on the other hand, turrets just take an scv and placing ur turret where you want it and then you can leave it alone (basically a "set it and forget it" kind of thing) INSTEAD of microing around with drones and larvae, critical "game screen" time that could probably be better spent doing something else (cause ur almost always making spore colonies mid-game to protect against corsairs primarily and mid-game is the weakest time for a zerg player

now although spore colonies are twice as tough as a turret, turrets make up this deficiency with their numbers. Usually 2-3 turrets in a terran base are equilivant to 1 spore colony or 1 cannon in a zerg or protoss base. its much more common to see a line of turrets around a terran base than spores circling a zerg base.

that aside, i hardly think HP of w/e AA defense you got (spore, turret, cannon) will hardly matter against the primarily attackers of them: BC, Guardians, and Carriers. Those AA defense are gunna get hit hard when those massed air units attack and then their purpose switches from deterrent to air attacks to acting simply as food for those attacking air units until your army arrives to defend. any player always focuses their attention on AA def and that focused, massed firepower makes quick work of any HP on AA def.

also, kinda on a side-note, following an air attack on ur stationary AA defenses, terran can much easily regenerate their AA defenses by pulling a couple SCVs off their min line to make turrets. zerg players must permanently pull drones off their min line to replace the spore colonies or make more drones, critical larvae that should be used to replenish your depleted army force (after it gets pushed around from defending the air attack, although you'll probably make units first, then the drones, but you still gotta worry about ur wide open base subject to a follow up drop).

so... after all this explanation, it call comes down to making 2-3 turrets for every one spore colony then you'll find they are pretty equilivent in firepower, HP, and capabilities. you gotta go back to ur scv turret maker twice to equal one spore colony but the time spent i believe is a fraction than that spent on a spore.

and that i think is enuff!!