Is Venom really a Riot unit?

First thing - there is completely no balance issue with Venom, and balance is NOT a topic i want this thread to be about.

So - is Venom a Riot unit?

Let's try to imagine a most basic, plain Riot unit. I bet most players will think about Leveler or Warrior, they can literally wipe out huge swarms of raiders with ease, and trying to kill them with Glaives, for example, is a terrible idea.

A single Venom can be destroyed by 2-3 Glaives (depends on micro) with no losses at all. I bet most of people reading this will say - "dude, you don't use Venoms alone, you need other units to help them". Now think about it - isn't that a description of a SUPPORT type unit?

Venoms can be useful even as an Anti-Heavy unit, and their speed is closer to a raider than to a riot.

My little suggestion is, Venom should have more specific description. IMO it certainly can't be described as a Riot unit.
This adressess current issue with new players - if they know what riot is, they might try to use Venoms like they would use Levelers or Warriors, which will, in the end, look unsatisfying.

Banisher also works out as a Riot only partially, and it is kinda specified in it's description.

Does anyone agree? Does anyone disagree, and why? Please correct me if i'm wrong.

TL;DR Venoms should have their description changed.

If it was listed as a riot/support unit, then at least it would be implied that it doesn't greatly excel at just one of those roles but it is a novice at both.

Outlaw is sort of the same.

The problem is that spider vs spider is flea vs flea, which is a ridiculous matchup, and glaive counters the whole factory.

I agree, the venom is not really a riot unit (especially since it cant actually kill things). It is really a support unit to go in and hold units in place for the wildly inaccurate recluses.

I also agree with Saktoth about the whole factory being countered by glaives (see B188960 2 on Badlands). The spider factory is currently all but without a riot unit that does not cost 1600 metal and energy. Perhaps a good crazy idea would be to give the venom a lightning cannon with splash damage? Then it would be a proper riot unit that can kill raiders on its own.

+1 for giving vernom a minor real damage in addition to its "friend-or-evil-enemy" splash emp damage. damage value shoud be (to my unworthy opinion) in the region of current oplaw, but damage both again ("friend-or-evil-enemy")

does that mean spiders can finally get a damage dealer?

All I can say is, even if venom only dealt the tiniest bit of damage, it'd improve the spider vs spider gameplay a ton. It'd no longer be 100% fleaspam.

I like Anarchid's idea of chain lightning Venoms. It would make Venoms able to counter raiders without support (which is what riot units are for, right? Warriors don't need Rockos to kill the raiders so why should Venoms?) and not kill its own fleas. This way it would make spiders a valid factory choice for 1v1 (currently it is not as demonstrated in the battle I linked above) and it would still maintain its vulnerability to assault units.

How about a spider with a similar speed/chasse that has a short range weapon that is damaging but lacks AoE. It wouldn't make cost vs raiders or assaults by itself, but combined with vennom it would.

I think adding actual damage to Venom isn't a good idea, it might lead to massive Venom spam and the unit will be too universal.

The spider factory itself is a really long topic to discuss - i think it's the hardest factory to play(not counting amphibs), but the point is, it doesn't seem weak or underused because it is weak, their main strenght - being AT - is just barely useable on only few maps.