The Reaver

[Odinian]

At a certain point, this might be "an offical guide" :-O, but maybe not. :umm

The reaver is truly an amazing weopon, and I am just begining to discover its full potential.

I have found several uses for reavers:

1. Defense. The reaver is great for when your cannons are gone. I typical like to place reavers a little way back from my cannons. See the diagram below:

[ C ] [ C ] [ C ] [ C ]
[ C ] [ C ] [ C ] [ C ]
[ P ] [ P ] [ P ] [ P ]
[ C ] [ C ] [ C ] [ C ]
[Length of a gateway]
[Length of a gateway]
[Length of a gateway]
[ R ] [ R ] [ R ] [ R ]

Where C are cannons, P are pylons, and R are reavers

2. Drops. The reaver is great for dropping in right by an enemies command center/ nexus / hatchery. Make sure to use about 4 of them, and make sure to move in with the shuttle slowly, so you don't get caugth off guard by cannons. If you do discover cannons, hallictante a lot of shuttle or use 6 arbiters and recall them in.

Drops, however, require alot of micro control. You should have a few zeolots and maybe some corrsiars.



Did I miss anything, leave anything out, or get somthing totaly wrong? All comments and help are gratfully excepted.

 

[Phoenix2003]

Reaver drops can be fine. It just needs alot of attention and micro to pull off.

PvT: 1 reaver and 2 zealots
PvZ: reaver drop accompanied by sairs(with D-web) can be quite devastating.
PvP: Used often whether they're drops or for sieging.

 

[Guest]

Reavers pwn quick defenses like cannons and bunkers. Only two suitable counters, air and tanks.

 

[betaalpha5]

lol i remember playing with my friends. he attacked me and destoried all my forward defences. only thing that stopped his hydra and lurkers under swarm were my reavers and the splash. he tried it again and i killed them all agin. haha that was cool he was getting mad. but i had to leave since star trek was coming on

 

[Odinian]

Nice. Really nice.

 

[uber_nerd]

ya, mass hydras get owd by reavers

 

[Odinian]

As does mass anything ground, even tanks. However, massing reavers against mass reavers requries real micro skill. Once you figure out your enemy is massing reavers, you should instantly go for air..

 

[Biske]

Aye, a Reaver drop on the resource line can be a pain in the arse for your opponent - teach them to put bunkers/turrets/cannons there, won't it?

 

[uber_nerd]

not really, the only thing that can stop the hydra wave is either reavers or tanks in seige mode with bunkers

 

[Odinian]

uber_nerd, call me a moron, but I do not understand your reply.

Krikkit: True, but then you just drop reavers on the cannons.

 

[Xecutor]

As does mass anything ground, even tanks. However, massing reavers against mass reavers requries real micro skill. Once you figure out your enemy is massing reavers, you should instantly go for air..

True, reaver wars are really awesome to watch, but the execution is harsh on micro.

Another retort to mass reavs is storm. With zeal/goon/temp, use zeals as decoys for scarabs and aim your storms at the reavs while your goons focus fire.
If done well with the goons a little separate from each other, the reav force can be gone pretty quick. It is a little risky of course, since if you lose your HTs before you had a chance to storm, then it'll have all been for nothing.

Getting air is usually not advisable in PvP since it would take too much resources to have a decent air force (assuming the reference is to carriers) before your opponent's ground can overun you, unless you have like 2+ expos than him...Then yeah, you basically won.

Edit: how do I get my sig to appear? I have enable all checkmarks and even previewed it before saving it (TWICE!), but it is still invisible!!
Help plz?

 

[betaalpha5]

well i guess webs would slow them down enough for some range attacks.

 

[Xecutor]

The thing is that any decent opponent would immediately choose a tech that could gain him an advantage over you if, e.g, you went sair/web reavs, he could as well get carrier/goon/temp and Web does not affect spellcasters' abilities to cast nor does it air units, and carriers would eat sairs alive esp with proper upgrades. Templar are sufficient to counter the reavs.

All of the above would be in late mid-game/late-game phases.In mid-game, provided there are enough resources, reavs are perfectly viable and goon/reavs are almost unstoppable ground, but HTs and a few zeal/arch with your regular goons can beat it. No perfect counter exists. At that point victory relies on the skills of the players. The strats I mentioned are meant to counter each other. If one player makes an error, it could be a very fatal one.

The game dynamics are amazing...really.

 

[Xecutor]

Did I miss anything, leave anything out, or get somthing totaly wrong? All comments and help are gratfully excepted.

1. Defense. The reaver is great for when your cannons are gone. I typical like to place reavers a little way back from my cannons. See the diagram below:

[ C ] [ C ] [ C ] [ C ]
[ C ] [ C ] [ C ] [ C ]
[ P ] [ P ] [ P ] [ P ]
[ C ] [ C ] [ C ] [ C ]
[Length of a gateway]
[Length of a gateway]
[Length of a gateway]
[ R ] [ R ] [ R ] [ R ]

Where C are cannons, P are pylons, and R are reavers

This ^ is just wrong! :hop

 

[Snagg]

max 2 reavers because they must be carried by a shuttle. Which raises the question, do you really want to build the tech just to make 2 expensive reavers?

 

[Xecutor]

No. The reason for teching to reavers is to be able to gain a significant early-mid game advantage in PvP when your opponent is trying to overwhelm you with zealots, or it is just an economic advantage that you gain by killing as many probes as possible (via drop harass) while you out-macro your opponent and get an expo while he is behind on econ. When he does recover, you're already way too far ahead for him to catch up.

Another reason to tech to reavers is if you are going to contain your opponent. Having 3+reavs supporting your goons can handle any zeal/goon mix trying to break out of their choke. Your reavs will destroy his speedzeals while your goons handle his goons. The only drawback is if he gets temp tech and succeeds in storming your reavs to death; thus, vigilance and prompt micro is necessary to make sure the reavs remain alive.
Once you have an expo or two running, you can add a second robo and pump pure reav/goon and a couple of obs and overhwhelm.

Usually, though, when one P has 1+expo than the other, it means gg.

 

[Renzokuken]

I've only ever gone Reavers to drop in their eco. Usually works. If it fails (And by fail i mean, all of it including the Shuttle, die on entry to their base), then you're in trouble :-/

 

[Lord of Nukes]

Unless it's your first drop, always always always have support with your Reavers. Reavers are slow, and can get owned by weak ranged units if the player has a Dropship. Reavers are great because of the 100 (150) and the splash but they become a big waste of resources likely costing you the game if you haven't got sufficient support for them.

 

[AZN_FLEA]

reavers are usless against me since i usually mass air.

 

[Xecutor]

reavers are usless against me since i usually mass air.

What race do you use?

Reavers are not a universal ground weapon, but if used with enough goon or sair support, it is really very tough to deal with.

From your post, it seems you mostly play zerg. Reav/sair is really nice on cliffy maps or hybrid maps.