How will the changes to Stimpack's research time affect the 3 Rax Timing Push?

Question

As I understand it, one of the core ideas behind the 3 Rax Timing Push is to have your army at your opponent's doorstep as Stimpack finishes, or at least have it completed as your army pushes outwards. However, the 1.3 Patch includes the following change:

Stimpack upgrade research time increased from 140 to 170 seconds.

30 seconds is a long time in Starcraft 2. As a result of this change, would it be reasonable to change the push timing to rely on another upgrade, such as Combat Shields? Will the 3 Rax push become less viable? How else could this change affect this tactic?

Answer 1

Sure 30 seconds is a long time, and yes this will affect the timing push, but given the strength of Stim pushes, the effect can only play out in one of two ways:

1. Earlier Stim research.
2. Later push timing

A later push timing will likely mean a much stronger push around 6:30, while an earlier Stim will mean a slightly weaker Terran defense against earlier rushes.

Ultimately, while 3 Rax timing correlates with Stim finishing, the build itself is unlikely to significantly change.

Answer 2

Actually I see that's a lot of changes and we'll need to learn the game again

As for marines: yes, this push will be modified (i.e. it'll be with +1 attack) or even abandoned

Let's wait for path and see how pro-gamers will handle it ^_^

For viewers: 1.3 patch described here.

Answer 3

Since the production time of a marine is 25s, the push will come later but with three more marines in it. Therefore, it will be more powerful even if later.

I don't think the combat shield upgrade can lead to a timing push. Even with 55 HP, marines are much less effective than w/o combat shield but with stim. Maybe you can try to get the timings for a shield/stim combination push on three rax with two tech labs and some marauders in it (in fact, the time difference between combat shield and stim is now two marauders instead of one). It may be quite powerful around the 7 minutes mark.