Like the the title says Wraithguard Targeting it has always been a problem that hasn't been fixed.
The main point is when Wraithguard are attacking a group or groups of enemies, sure when you attack one enemy like a Elite their great but when it's a group it all comes apart. Wraithguard always target the closest enemy to them so when dealing with a group all three shots go just to one unit in the group and doesn't affect the rest, wasting the other two specifically when the unit dies due to the first shot; and because of the Wraithguard's attack speed this is even more a problem.
What needs to change is that each Wraithguard in the group needs to target individually, so when dealing with three or more units in a group there will always be three units that always get hit instead of just one unit.
Also the Rift Blast doctrine should be changed to help deal with groups, even if the above does/doesn't get fixed.
Rift Blast should convert Armor-Piercing Damage into Normal Damage yes but also cause each shot to deal Splash Damage to nearby enemies, making Rift Blast an effective Anti-Infantry ability.
Comments
Nautiloidor
But don't all the units in the game work like that? Select 3 group of Tacticals and right click and they all attack that one squad... why should it be different for Wraithguard? Also, all units auto target the squad closest to them initially. Making WG auto target different squads would make them OP imo. Like they are currently, what you suggest can still be achieved though through good micro.
An improvement for me would be being able to redesignate the WRs target up until they fire, as correctly I find that once they start charging their attack, you can't switch their target. This gives you a better opportunity to micro and reselect each squads target manually.
jonoliveira12
Wraithguards are so powerful that they have to be purposefully dumb and slow, otherwise they would be an "I win" spam type tactic.
Burninalways
Not true. Some units like melee can engage different units in entirety different groups, like one squad of Assault Marines can engage 2/3 enemy groups by just attack one unit within each group, Annihilators also because of their arcs of fire they can target 3 different groups of enemies.
Why should Wraithguard be different? Because of their attack speed, they have one of the slowest in the game, so every shot matters. But the other two shots of the three are always being wasted on a already dead enemy unit. No matter of micromanaging can alter this current outcome.
I'm not saying that Wraithguard should target entirety different groups, that all their damage should affect the whole of just one group and not just one unit within that group.
So example of what's currently happening:-
You have 3 Wraithguard units in one group they attack one group of 5 Tactical Marines. Wraithguard charge and fire, all 3 shots target 1 Tactical Marine in the group. The Tactical Marine dies on the first shot, the other 2 shots dissipate where the Tactical Marine died. So now their are 4 Tactical Marines in the group. Wraithguard wait, wait, wait, wait and charge again all 3 shots target 1 Tactical Marine in the group. Same thing happens again Tactical Marine dies on the first shot, the other 2 shots dissipate where the Tactical Marine died. So now their are 3 Tactical Marines in the group. This goes on till all Tactical Marines are dead.
What should happen:-
You have 3 Wraithguard units in one group they attack one group of 5 Tactical Marines. Wraithguard charge and fire, each shot targets 1 different Tactical Marine in the group. Each Tactical Marine of the 3 dies on the first shot, no shots were wasted. So now their are 2 Tactical Marines in the group. Wraithguard wait, wait, wait, wait and charge again 2 shots targets 1 Tactical Marine and the 1 shot targets another 1 Tactical Marine. Both Tactical Marines dies on the first shot, the odd shot dissipates where a Tactical Marine died. All Tactical Marines are now dead.
Nautiloidor
@Burninalways Wait, in your example, by 3 Wraithguard units/groups, do you mean 1 SQUAD of Wraithguard with 3 MODELS? Or 3 SQUADS?
Burninalways
3 models
Svanh
Rift Blast already has AOE.
Nautiloidor
Damage is dealt to the entire squad, not individual models to my knowledge. It might not look like the blasts are hitting a model, but they will be dealing damage to the squad.
And as @Svanh said, rift blast does AOE damage already, or are you talking about increasing the area of effect?
Burninalways
The damage is dealt to individual models. All 3 blasts lock on to the closest model and have no effect on the rest of the models in the squad.
Because of how WG they target AoE doesn't exist, you would have to have models from different squads stack at the exact same location for Rift Blast to do AoE to the other squads.
Also the range of the AoE should also be increased regardless to be counted as AoE, because it barely has a width that of model of a Marine.
Nautiloidor
Are you sure? I thought the game worked on a squad based health rather than individual models, for ranged anyway, though I may be wrong.
Tbh, if it does work the way you say, I think it should stay that way. WG are anti vehicle units. They should not be effective vs infantry imo. Rift blast lets them deal with infantry, and in my experience of the game, rift blast can be devastating.
Svanh
Health does work at the squad level. It is possible for the squad to lose the model that was targeted before all of the shots hit but that goes for most units.
Larkis
There is squad health. if a squad has 5 Units and 50hp and you deal 30 damage, 3 units die. There is no unit based damage.