Thoughts on Warp Gate Technology

Warp Gate Technology is the biggest must-have upgrade in all of StarCraft. For 50 minerals and 50 gas, you can convert your Gateways into Warpgates. This allows you to rapidly (in 5 seconds) warp in units ANYWHERE you have pylon coverage. It also reduces the overall time it takes to build units; Zealots can be warped in every 28 seconds, whereas Warpgates take 38 seconds to build one. Unless you’re Zealot-rushing or going mass Air Toss, there really is no good reason to avoid researching Warp Gate Technology. Warpgates are simply better in every single way compared to Gateways.

Sometimes, I wonder if we could make the Gateway vs. Warpgate decision more interesting because right now, it’s a no-brainer. Here are some (potentially game-destroying) thoughts. The general principle is how we can we make Gateways more attractive and/or make Warpgates less attractive.

• Units built from Gateways could be slightly cheaper or units built from Warpgates could be slightly more expensive. Make the price of warp-ins more than absolutely free after an investment of just 50 minerals and 50 gas.
• Units warped in via Warpgates could be warped in with 50% shields. Blah, blah, blah the warp-in process is painful and damages a unit’s shields.
• Instead of having Warpgates be able to produce units faster, reduce the unit build times so Gateways can produce units faster.

These may all be dangerous (some may call them stupid) ideas, but I think making the decision between Gateways versus Warpgate not so incredibly obvious would actually be pretty cool. Regardless, Protoss would still be super OP and would still only require A-moving to win games…