Stimpack versus Combat Shield

Question

A 2 or 3 Barrack rush with either Stimpack or Combat Shield versus any race.

You sometimes see the pro´s open with this and then expand behind it, or even doing it as an all in.

But in which situation would it be best with Stim Pack, and in what situaion would it be best with Combat Shield?

• Stim Pack is more agressive and take longer to research.
• Combat Shields focus on defence, and are faster to research.

Answer 1

This is based on research on the interwebs, not first hand experience

It depends on what race you are against.

• If you are against protoss then you should be researching Concussive Shells first - Marauders are very strong against Stalkers and Concussive Shells makes kiting Zealots much more effective

• According to Liquipedia Combat Shields are more effective than Stim Packs against Terran

  In TvT, Combat Shields are actually superior to Stimpacks, all other things being equal. A marine with shields will survive a fight with a standard 'stimmed' marine with 7 HP. Combat Shields also takes less time to research so in early TvT skirmishes one should not get the Stimpack upgrade first by default. In addition, a standard siege tank (unsieged) does 15 damage vs marines so it can kill a 45 HP marine in 3 shots. However, it requires a 4th shot to kill a marine with CS (55HP).

• So the only time you would take research Stim Pack first would be against Zerg