They nerfed nukes because not alot used them.
Roaches have 90hp. Terrans don't have anything that can stand up to these. Immortals are the protoss counterparts, just with a different system, so what will Terrans have to tank mass damage? They weren't the best tankers in SC1.
Terrans have the best firepower in the game. Every unit is considerably cheap for Terrans, and they are mostly ranged. The advantage is that ranged units can focus fire, or add up firepower relatively quickly. Terrans also have the longest range of splash damage and explosive rigs that are able to kill about anything in a few hits. If you've played
competitive melee, then you should've seen Vultures in action quite alot. Well Viper is the SC2 replacement, and now does effective damage vs Thor. The possible attack types are explosive or normal. They did 25 damage per hit, and they were fast too. If they really are vulture replacement, they could probably easily be massed- and overwhelm enemies at ease. Also, 10 Tiny Kittens
6 Cute Koalas
-2 Buttery Lobsters
9 Horde of Guinea Pigs
+2 EMP_Recruits
6 Pink Unicorns Roach included. Also Terrans always had to depend on their unit special ability to win games, not sheer strength. Units are too fragile for that. Such as Stim Pack increased their firing rate, which effectively doubled its attack, enable marines to 'dodge' lurker spines, and micro at much ease. Vulture mines was planted enmass all over the map, making players hard to move around without bringing a detector- or be screwed over. Siege tanks could 'siege' for a increase in firepower and range but giving up defense and mobility for it. Vultures make up for this. Have you seen the Banshee? That thing could annihilate the Zerg if used correctly.
Only with the snipe attack, [Micro city!] and nukes are cheaper and faster to launch.
Terran has always been a micro/macro race, once being picked as the hardest race of the 3 to play. There needs to be consistant mass and constant use of unit abilities.
You raise good points, I had forgotten about the banshee, they'll probably make an effective anti-roach weapon [being tier 2, so rushin banshees to defend against a roach mass is viable]
Vultures are good, but they're only used in specific cases [opponents using small units, or when they're being reckless with their army]
I haven't seen them in action though, very rarely in fact [yes, I do obs random pub games!]
The range is going to be rather obsolete with the nydus worm and infestor units running around underground, effectively being mobile cloakers, something zerg never had before!
And you say that the added up firepower of marines will slaughter marines, 2v1 agaisnt roaches WITHOUT REGEN marines would lose, at the moment, it takes 3 non-stimmed marines to hurt a roach for 1 damage per second. Per roach. With 90 hp, and costing only 75/25 they will rape the only massed defenders terrans will have at the point where roaches come into play, this is especially true as I've stated many times on a two edged front, you can't look after two armies!
If you want to use swarm tactics to beat zerg, you're a fool, roaches are cheapish swarmers perfect for fire-and-forget type tactics, you attack move them, and they'll mass in. If you wanted to use massed marines to kill roaches, a force of roughly 36 marines vs 12 roaches MIGHT win. Stim will be a good counter, but nonetheless, about 24 stimmed marines could stop a 12 roach mass, but it would be damn close. This is from the PoV of an average SC player who spends more time UMSing than meleeing, we shouldn't need large amounts of micro to defeat a foe using less micro than us! Roaches are quite simply the most horrible thing to see from a non-melee-ers PoV, they're tough, require micro or heavy units to kill, and they're ranged! The worst part is, and I'll keep saying it, they just have to hit A+Click. That's all zerg has to do with his roaches, you have to select your squads of marines, then click a roach, then click again at the medium-small target...
EDIT:
Err.
10 Tiny Kittens
6 Cute Koalas
-2 Buttery Lobsters
9 Horde of Guinea Pigs
+2 EMP_Recruits
6 Pink Unicorns
Wat?
None.