Mothership vs. carrier

I am tired of people complaining about this overpriced arbiter. I'm sure you noticed that there is no arbiter in SC2. It's not like you're paying 3x the price for a unit you could've had sooner. You can't ahve the arbiter; you can onyl have the Mothership. Strategies have changed in the new game. Where once the arbiter's cloaking, stasis, and recall were integral parts of Protoss strategy (I assume, because I never played competitively), they're now a high-end, limited part. Blizzard wanted fewer chances to insanely manipulate the field. Protoss is a little more balanced toward straight combat now, I guess. It's not like that stuff is gone; if you get a Mothership and you're careful, you can still dominate. You didn't waste your resources. Those abilities, which once were wielded by the humble arbiter, are now more valuable to a Protoss player, and thus you have to pay more.

Now, I'm not saying that the cost of a Mothership is perfectly balanced to its utility (though it's close, at least). I am saying that you should no longer expect to get those abilities in mass and for the price of an arbiter. I can only assume that the regular Protoss army is just a little more viable without those abilities, but I don't know this for sure. (I know that they are viable without them, even if they were in SC1, already.)

Plus, the Vortex also sucks in any units that approach after its creation. I'm pretty sure the Stasis didn't do this. This allows escape of wounded units, and an unwary opponent might end up losing additional units in dense bases. Sound the charge! Into glory ride!