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**Dingobloo** · Tue, 4th-Sep-2012, 9:24 AM # 1

The Beta:
What to expect

Reports are trickling in that the Heart of the Swarm beta has begun and amongst all the excitement it's easy to be confused by the many different iterations, features and announcement that have been released over the past 2 years. Do not fear though, we're here to help you separate the wheat from the chaff in order to uncover what is in, what is out, and what has changed in the current public beta build of Heart of the Swarm.

The Zerg

The Zerg have seen relatively few changes with some of the changes coming through upgrades to existing units. The Ultralisk should no longer be as bumbling, now that it's capable of charging when burrowed and the Hydralisk's much maligned speed will be modified by a hive-tech upgrade that allow it to travel the same speed off creep as it does while on. Additionally the Nydus Worm is rumoured to have been given multiple types of worms that it can summon including one that can attack by itself and another that is capable of creating a creep highway.

Video of the new Nydus Worms courtesy of TL user MavercK

The first of the new swarm units, the Viper is designed to compliment the fast and populous low range armies of the Zerg, it has no attack of it's own and instead relies on it's positional based spells. The first spell Abduct is capable of pulling high value targets from areas of safety in to the awaiting Zerg army. The second ability, Blinding Cloud, blinds biological units causing them to lose all range, perfect for ensuring that ranged bio units like Marines or Hydralisks cannot squeeze into tight spaces and become difficult to engage. The final ability Consume is able to siphon life out of friendly buildings in exchange for mana in a similar fashion to the Broodwar Defiler's Consume allowing for clutch defence.

Video of the Viper courtesy of TL user MavercK

The Swarm Host is designed to improve Zerg's mid-game pushing power. By creating waves of free units it is capable of pressuring entrenched positions and walled areas cost effectively and in doing so provides an aggressive slow siege alternative to the passive, expansion focused Zerg strategies. The only significant change to the Swam Host since it's announcement was the ability for the locusts to hit air, which has been revoked in the current build.

Video of the Swarm Host courtesy of TL user MavercK

The Terran

In an effort to increase build diversity, a lot of the Terran changes are focused around the Factory. By including additions to the existing units like the Hellion's Battle Hellion mode and introducing new units Blizzard hopes to turn the factory into a more robust alternative to the barracks with it's own strategic solutions and problems. The Battlecruiser has also seen changes, originally given a speed boost ability that was scrapped in favor of a damage increase that reinforced the original role of the Battlecruiser as a high damage, high durability but slow unit. The Reaper also got some much needed attention trading in it's devastating building attack for an out of combat health regeneration upgrade and lowered build time to better compliment the active scouting role the reaper has found itself in.

Video of the Battle Hellion courtesy of TL user MavercK

One of the units to undergo the most changes, the Widow Mine started life as the Shredder during Blizzcon 2011 which provided a pulsing area of damage if enemy units were nearby but became inactive if friendly units moved inside it's radius. This turned out to be much more complicated than anticipated and once dropped into mineral lines they became very difficult to dislodge. It was soon scrapped in favor of the first version of the Widow Mine, a kind of modified Spider Mine that would latch on to a target and after a reasonable amount of time, explode. It was changed some time between the preview at Gamescom and the release of the beta to instead explode instantly causing less area damage and more single target damage.

Video of the Widow Mine courtesy of TL user MavercK

Possibly the most controversial units introduced in the expansion, the Warhound is a reasonably fast, bi-pedal robot specializing in destroying other mechanical units. It is capable of firing range 10 haywire missiles that cause 30 damage per volley and ignore the Immortal's Hardened Shield. The Warhound was originally pitched as a unit similar to the Broodwar Goliath and a replacement for the Thor that was capable of squeezing into tight spaces and providing anti-air, but by allowing the Widow Mine to latch on to air units it was deemed no longer necessary and it's anti-air capabilities were scrapped. It retains it's auxiliary role as a forcing unit capable of dissuading players from attempting to play Robotics or Mech against a factory focused strategy unless they want to be run over by an army of Warhounds.

Video of the Warhound courtesy of TL user MavercK

The Protoss

Protoss have seen some of the most significant changes focusing largely on the Stargate tech path. The Carrier is gone and some of the functionality of the Mothership is available significantly earlier in the form of the Mothership Core which while previously stationary and attached to the nexus is now a very slow moving unit. The Mothership Core's first ability Purify gives the unit a powerful attack allowing for additional early game defense and it's second ability Mass Recall works the same as the original Mothership allowing you to recall all units in the target area back to the location of the Mothership Core. It also brings with it an additional macro mechanic called Energize capable of granting energy to a nearby unit or structure it provides an energy tension between a significant increase in Chrono boost and it's other two abilities as well as providing additional synergy with the three energy based casters of the Protoss army the Sentry, the High Templar and the the Oracle.

Video of the Mothership Core courtesy of TL user MavercK.

The Oracle is a flying caster that fills some of the biggest holes in Stargate play by providing a spell to detect invisible and burrowed units combined with a non-devastating harassment ability. It's Entomb spell traps your opponents minerals in shields which allows players who choose the Stargate to even out the gulf between their tech advantage and an economic one should the opponent choose to expand quickly. While it's entomb ability has been kept largely unchanged, it's secondary abilities went through several iterations including an ability that was able to shut down static defense and a cloaking field that cost energy to use. What they ended up with are two abilities, one which provides vision of a enemy building and what it's building for 120 seconds which interacts with the Tempest's long range and another that acts in a manner similar to EMP revealing all cloaked units in the targeted area and preventing any unit hit from cloaking for 30 seconds.

The Tempest has been another controversial addition to the game, with a 22 range upgrade giving it what Blizzard has titled "Strategic Range". The range does come at a heavy cost as the unit does a measly 10 damage per second for a hefty price tag. Originally designed as an anti-air splash unit capable of annihilating Mutalisks, the addition of the Anion Pulse-Crystal (Phoenix Range) upgrade to Wings of Liberty left it without a distinct role. Meanwhile Blizzard was having difficulty finding a place for the Carrier who's low hp interceptors were having a hard time in a game with such high dps anti-air units. Blizzard liked the synergy between the the Observer, Stargate units and the long range of the Tempest and positioned it as a siege-range air alternative to the Carrier capable of applying pressure to a turtling opponent and eventually replaced it all together.

What not to expect

The Campaign,Team Games and Blizzard All Stars

A no-brainer. The beta is multiplayer only and we will likely not even get a peak in to the single player campaign until HotS is launched. Additionally team games are disabled in order to focus the testing experience on the 1v1 portion of the game. Similarly, All signs indicate that Blizzard are still experimenting with Blizzard All Stars and will not be releasing it for testing during this beta period.

Battle.net 2.5

Multiplayer replay watching, resume from replay, groups and clans and unranked matchmaking these are just some of the features not at all likely to be in the beta based on the MLG interview with Chris Sigaty. They are scheduled for the more nebulous "Heart of the Swarm launch window", whether that means we'll see them by the end of the beta is uncertain.

That nothing will change

It should go without saying, but things WILL change during the beta. One of your favourite units might get cut, nerfed or changed in such a way that will make you unhappy. But there's little you can do about it except to let them work away until they've got something that they're happy with. This is also Blizzards second shot at making the game appeal to a wider audience combined with the large marketing push that accompanies any expansion. While they largely kept their interference to balance and out of game UI during Wings of Liberty early reports from the beta show that there are no sacred cows. Embrace change.

So whether you're one of the lucky few who got a beta key or just someone waiting on bated breath for every piece of information, I hope this has helped you put your thoughts in order before the inevitable rush.
The Beta is coming, and it's coming Soon™.

Learn More:

[HoTS] Beta Invites Almost Here

The HOTS beta has started...

HOTS beta coming soon

Words: Dingobloo
Layout: Dingobloo