It seems that the special effects triggers are pretty limited. I assume it is faster to use them, in general. Is that the case? Otherwise they're only handy for attaching to units and stuff.
With units, I can resize them, change their colour, their transparency, move them around, play specific animations... As an example, I have 3 spells that have modified thunderclap models for their special effect. I can replace those 3 with one dummy with locust with the regular thunderclap attributes (size = 1.00, all colours are at 255) and then resize and recolour it how I want in the trigger that creates it. None of those can use the special effect version for the animation because of the size and colour. Since I need the thunderclap model on a unit, I can also use that in place of special effects for when I want the regular thunderclap animation.
TL;DR
Should I bother using special effects when I can just use dummies with locust? Are there performance benefits to using special effects as opposed to units?
With units, I can resize them, change their colour, their transparency, move them around, play specific animations... As an example, I have 3 spells that have modified thunderclap models for their special effect. I can replace those 3 with one dummy with locust with the regular thunderclap attributes (size = 1.00, all colours are at 255) and then resize and recolour it how I want in the trigger that creates it. None of those can use the special effect version for the animation because of the size and colour. Since I need the thunderclap model on a unit, I can also use that in place of special effects for when I want the regular thunderclap animation.
TL;DR
Should I bother using special effects when I can just use dummies with locust? Are there performance benefits to using special effects as opposed to units?