[inFeZa]

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...3491#Newsintro

Courtesy of Blizzard

This document lists the new units and abilities in the MLG Spring Championship preview build of StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™. Please keep in mind that Heart of the Swarm is still in development, and all of the units and abilities you see described below are subject to change. It's even possible that some of these units and abilities will be discarded and new ones will be created to replace them as we continue to iterate on the game design. What we've listed below is just a snapshot of where we currently stand on multiplayer Heart of the Swarm.

Protoss

Upon analyzing data from their most recent battles, the protoss have identified a few areas of improvement that would help them maximize effectiveness against their enemies. Based on their findings, the protoss have augmented their arsenal with an extremely long-range attacker, additional psionic units, and a new form of enemy harassment.

Tempest

Description: The tempest is a new capital ship that can fire at both ground and air targets from long range, doing additional damage to massive units. A further range upgrade can be researched to give the Tempest the ability to fire from incredible distances (note: 22 range with upgrade, compared to 13 for siege tanks. Relatively low DPS to balance it out.).

Oracle

Description: The Oracle is a psionic warship, built from a Stargate, that uses several unique abilities to raid and harass the enemy. The first is Entomb, which can temporarily block mineral fields from being harvested. Another ability, Preordain, grants detection and vision around a targeted building, allowing the protoss to see which units or technologies are being researched. Rounding out its kit is Cloak Field, which temporarily cloaks everything around the Oracle (note: has mana cost and is temporary, isn't a permanent passive like the mothership.)

Mothership Core

Description: The Mothership Core is unique in more ways than one. Only a single one can exist in your army at once and it's also immobile, attaching itself to a nexus. There are four abilities available from the Mothership Core. Teleport allows you to move the Mothership Core to any of your other nexuses. Energize tops off the energy stores of any target unit or structure. Purify is a defensive ability that temporarily grants the Mothership Core a powerful, long range attack. Finally, Mass Recall allows players to quickly recall units back to the Mothership Core.

Mothership

Description: It's not really a new unit in Heart of the Swarm, but the Mothership abilities are slightly different from Wings of Liberty. The passive cloaking field is gone, with the cloak now available as an activated ability on the Oracle. The Mothership retains its Recall ability, and the Vortex spell from Wings of Liberty now affects ground units only. A new ability called Stasis is available, which puts the mothership and all air units around it into stasis for about 20 seconds. The Mothership is now created by upgrading the Mothership Core after a Fleet Beacon is constructed.

**In the current multiplayer build of Heart of the Swarm, the Protoss are not able to deploy Carriers. However, we have not yet made a final determination on the Carrier's status..


Terran

The resourceful terrans have also been improving their technology to better survive their battles in the Koprulu sector.

Widow Mine

Description: The Widow Mine is a new suicide unit built from the Factory that allows the terran player to control areas of the battlefield. The Widow Mine moves into position and sets to stationary mode, which burrows and activates it. When an enemy air or ground unit moves into range, the Widow Mine briefly flashes before moving and attaching itself to that unit. After several seconds, the mine detonates, dealing 200 damage to the unit and a smaller amount of damage to units in the surrounding area.

Warhound

Description: The Warhound is a walking ground mech that is specialized as an anti-mechanical weapon. Smaller and more nimble than a Thor, the Warhound has a standard weapon to hit ground. Its true strength is an additional ability that fires powerful missiles at ground-based mechanical units, making it particularly well suited to taking out enemy siege lines and many protoss ground units. (note: anti-mech missiles auto-launch at mechanical units independent of the warhound's normal attack)

New Abilities

The Hellion has been upgraded to a transforming unit similar to the Viking. When constructed from the factory, the Hellion spawns in its new battle mode, which gives it additional hit points and a stronger flame attack that covers a short forward-facing arc. This makes the Hellion more effective in late-game fights against large clusters of light units such as Zealots. The player can opt to transform the Hellion into its original, more mobile form as well.

In Heart of the Swarm, the Battlecruiser gains a cooldown-based speed-boost ability called Redline Reactor. Finally, the Reaper no longer has a special building attack. Instead, it gains a passive health-regeneration upgrade that allows it to recharge hit points quickly when out of combat.


Zerg

The zerg continue to evolve and adapt to changing environments, particularly the dangers they face on the battlefield. New creatures will help the zerg stage more effective sieges and add unique enemy-manipulating abilities to their arsenal.

Viper

Description: The Viper is a new flying unit with three unique abilities. Blinding Cloud temporarily reduces the attack range of biological ground units inside the cloud to melee range. Abduct allows the Viper to physically pull a unit to the Viper’s location. Finally, the Viper can use Consume, a channeled ability that allows it to gain some energy back at the expense of damage to your own zerg building.

Swarm Host

Description: The Swarm Host is a slow-moving ground unit that has no standard attack. When burrowed, the Swarm Host spawns a continuous stream of slow-moving units called Locusts that can be used to lay siege and pressure entrenched enemy positions (note: free spawn every 45 seconds).

New Abilities

Ultralisks have a new Burrow Charge skill that lets them dive underground and quickly surface at a target, allowing them to initiate the fight faster on a crowded battlefield. However, its "frenzy" passive from Wings of Liberty has been removed, meaning the Ultralisk can now be snared by abilities like Fungal Growth. The Overseer has been retained from Wings of Liberty, and changelings can now be spawned from siege range. Finally, the Hydralisk has a new upgrade that allows them to move faster while not on creep.

TL;DR Version:

Protoss Tempest has a range upgrade to boost to 22 (almost 2x siege tank range) Additional massive damage (ie. vs broodfuckers)
Oracle now has mothership cloak but drains energy. (kinda arbiter)
Mothership split, into core (cannot leave base, 4 abilities, - Teleport to another nexus, energize your units (HT/Phoenix/Oracle/Nexus) Purify! Recall) - Actual mothership has no cloak, has recall, and vortex effects ground units only.

Terran get spider mines (attaches not chases)
Warhound anti mech mini thor. (another ******* marauder, just from the factory) Anti mech missles auto launch
Hellion transform still exists
Battlecruiser and reaper abilities still exist.

Zerg Viper, Imbalance cloud, abduct still exist. now has consume ala BW
Swarm Host Same shit.
Ultras still have burrowed charge, now no more frenzy.
changelings have seige spawn range.
Hydra upgrade still exists

You Tube

You Tube

pretty much Protoss OP

[Dingobloo]

Tempest is just so unnecessary in so many ways, I also have concerns about the viability of tanks in ANY match up right now.

But overall I like how it's looking I think the oracle is extremely improved to how it was when they first showed it, it used to be able to harass and then just not be able to defend, now has a really unique method of defense. I worry the cloaking might come out too early and we might just see 2 base oracle warp gate pushes with cloak that would be a bit ridiculous.

The mother ship core is nice, it consolidates a lot of the stuff they were going to shove on to the nexus making it a lot more interesting while still retaining usefulness of an end-game mother ship and making them mutually exclusive.

It's also just different. I think the worst thing that could have happened is that they leaned too much on the status quo and got something uninteresting.

[FaDeHellfyre]

While i enjoy zerg finally getting a siege unit... is it just my low level and lack of knowledge or are zerg's still getting a raw deal?

I can certainly see that PvT is going to be much much more interesting come HotS as well. All these new abilities on units that will make spectating high level games much more exciting. Can't wait.

[Chappo]

I like the spider mines and the oracle. Everything else is breaking my brain.
That abduct ability just seems insane though.

[mGGDrGooSe]

For the love of god, give zerg an anti mana spell.

Quick Comments

	mGGAequitas:	neural parasite?
	FsDronesInJail:	neural parasite sucks with its low cast range,, theres a reason why pros dont use it anymore

[Kepler]

I guess they changed Spider Mines slightly so they can give it a name change, I'm fine with that.

No unit gives passive cloaking anymore, the arbiter is dead and gone.

Blizzard confirmed for hating Protoss.

[TABottles]

I'm still going to be making marines and maruaders.

[Peleus]

22 Range - What - The - ****

[Dingobloo]

Originally Posted by mGGDrGooSe

For the love of god, give zerg an anti mana spell.

They're intentionally not doing this to make the races different, if all they wanted was balance we'd play TvT all day.

[jayaiwhy]

less deathbally, or at least thats what they're trying to do in the video...

[Heady]

So the mothership is now a hat for the nexus? I am sold.

Quick Comments

	inFeZa:	valve influence!
	TCPLemminks:	INB4 Hats for all units

[VB_Rhuubarb]

I wonder if the Warhound is ground only?

Also the 22 range will make my TvP mech interesting as it will change the dynamic me being able to be passive until I feel it's ok to fight. (Note, I said interesting, not unfair) The rest of the terran changes make me happy for my TvP Mech

[eCKo`Tazerenix]

I really really like the ability for the oracle to add detection to friendly buildings. If nothing else I'd love blizzard to keep that. Would really allow protoss to safely go stargate tech against protoss and terran.

Quick Comments

Dingobloo:

I actually didn't know it added detection that's awesome.

[xGKingdelete]

looks awesome to me

Quick Comments

TAavanar:

your awesome

[Dingobloo]

Originally Posted by Acies

So the mothership is now a hat for the nexus? I am sold.

Not quite, it's a hat for the nexus UNTIL you want a mothership, you just get to use some the abilities of the mothership pre-mothership for a fraction of the cost, and then once the mothership is built it acts like normal and your nexus hat is gone.

[mGGDaedalus]

The beta build doesn't look as stupid as I thought it would at this stage. Of course there's gonna be massive imbalances discovered in beta but overall the units seem more fun than what we saw with the last HotS preview.

[eCKo`Tazerenix]

Does anyone know if you can have a mothership core if you also have a mothership?

Quick Comments

inFeZa:

core can transform into the mothership

[inFeZa]

Originally Posted by Tazerenix

I really really like the ability for the oracle to add detection to friendly buildings. If nothing else I'd love blizzard to keep that. Would really allow protoss to safely go stargate tech against protoss and terran.

Well if you go oracle and he goes banshee, then you can just use the cloak to counter cloak his cloak.
:P

But seriously, it can be used defensively vs a cloaked banshee while you get out an obs.

[Rage]

Anyone else totally bored by MLG now that we saw those two demo battle reports?

Play rest of MLG on HotS computers plz thx

Quick Comments

VB_Rhuubarb:

Yep!

[Free]

22 range ? And the mothership has a child ? O.o

[VB_Rhuubarb]

I know that game in the battle report probably isn't a typical PvZ, but it looked really fun!

Quick Comments

Rage:

[Snx.Mufasa]

Originally Posted by Rage

Anyone else totally bored by MLG now that we saw those two demo battle reports?

i'd be totally bored as well watching...

mc vs drg

stephano vs polt

violet vs leenock

symbol vs mkp

>_>

mind you... im a zerg so im totally biased ^_______^

[RicocheT]

Hellions can transform into new more tanky version.
Vikings can transform into chaingun wielding two legged robot monsters.
Next, Siege tanks will get a robot mode.
You know what that means?
Autobots, rolllllll out.

You Tube

You Tube

By the way...22 range??? Anyone else thinking wtcrap?

Quick Comments

	Rage:	yeahhhhh
	syfPhoenix:	just a lil

[Rage]

Originally Posted by VB_Rhuubarb

I know that game in the battle report probably isn't a typical PvZ, but it looked really fun!

this is my thoughts too! Speedhydra/viper/swarm host looks like a really fun and mobile hive tech army - same with speedhydra/ultra in the TvZ earlier too

[VB_Rhuubarb]

Where is this TvZ you speak of?

[MooZfY]

I'm switching to toss in HotS!! Oracle is awesome

[ToRSpartaz]

Originally Posted by ZooMforYou

I'm switching to toss in HotS!! Oracle is awesome

Hahahaha another for ToR Zoomy?

It looks pretty fun across all races man, Zerg looks scary with ultralisk burrow charge >< hate to see that thing charge towards you!

[Daboo]

Not done watching the video yet...but one thing:
That "get over here" move..was that abduct? It reminds me of running away from molten shielding waller vortex extra health avenger........and then poof! your back in the middle due to rubber band lag lol.

Zerg hydras actually look like they are useful now, and seems like they enable more play styles for the zerg. Need to watch the terran video but they sound okay-ish. Protoss feel really gimmicky. Not really liking the tempest, feels like a boring flying unit or the mother ship core. Something about them just feels clunky. Will watch the others videos and see how they match up.
Do like the oracle though.

[FsDronesInJail]

tempest 22 range: HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[Rage]

Originally Posted by VB_Rhuubarb

Where is this TvZ you speak of?

it was streamed on SC2Red on MLG's live page at about midday sydney time.

They are restreaming day 1 now, you should catch it sooner or later, and it might be on Youtube soon.

Quick Comments

VB_Rhuubarb:

Thanks

[VB_Rhuubarb]

Originally Posted by Rage

it was streamed on SC2Red on MLG's live page at about midday sydney time.

They are restreaming day 1 now, you should catch it sooner or later, and it might be on Youtube soon.

THANKS :

btw, for others wanting to watch it, it starts at around 2:09:00

[Welshy]

Originally Posted by VB_Rhuubarb

it starts at around 2:09

thanks rhuubarb

the new changes are going to be fun to play in-game, 22 range tempest sounds cool haha

[Dingobloo]

Something interesting to me is how important air control is and not just like...marines either but long range stuff, vipers pick apart high value armies that don't have longer range air control, mines seem really good if you don't have detection and mobile detection generally requires air control if you're contesting it, the oracle's cloaking field as well seems really neat if your opponent isn't contesting air.

Overall that's a good sign, needing more robust unit compositions to get together for a big frontal push should be the norm.

[VB_Rhuubarb]

Yeah I agree, from the 2 battle reports I've seen, especially the PvZ, tt seems like combat is a lot more 'brood-war-esque' where there is a constant need to repositioning, small retreats and re-engagements. I love the tempest and swarm host... things that force engagements but don't dominate that engagement. The little pottshots that happen or the locusts spawning (signifying time for the zerg to move forward) was more intriguing for me, rather than just 2 deathballs colliding and 5-10 seconds later, a winner emerging.

[EveMassacrisM]

I dislike how each new unit is designed in too specific role in specific matchup. Like the battle hellions are supposed to combat chargelots, but I dont know if Blizzard consider its effectiveness in TvZ. If it's dps is the same then Hellions/Marauders timing will be pretty much unstoppable in TvZ.

The Tempest also boggles my mind. What IS it for exactly ? Arent Colossi good enough for ground siege unit already ? The answer is obvious that it is specifically designed to counter Swarm Hosts cuz of its imba range and it won't get abducted by Vipers.

Simply too shallow design so far imo.

[Dingobloo]

Originally Posted by EveMassacrisM

I dislike how each new unit is designed in too specific role in specific matchup. Like the battle hellions are supposed to combat chargelots, but I dont know if Blizzard consider its effectiveness in TvZ. If it's dps is the same then Hellions/Marauders timing will be pretty much unstoppable in TvZ.

The Tempest also boggles my mind. What IS it for exactly ? Arent Colossi good enough for ground siege unit already ? The answer is obvious that it is specifically designed to counter Swarm Hosts cuz of its imba range and it won't get abducted by Vipers.

Simply too shallow design so far imo.

Hellions in battle mode move significantly slower then normal mode and will likely just be surrounded and killed if they are used in those kinds of all-ins because their strength in low numbers is their ability to take minimal hits while doing their full damage. We'll see I guess, but I feel like the battle hellion while good at that role has some pretty interesting trade offs.

The tempest I think everyone agrees isn't there yet, even dustin browder made a face when he said the 22 range part like "we're not sure yet, just testing the limits of it". Ultimately the long range isn't just for swarm hosts but to give an option on the stargate that can break entrenched positions with a lot of static defense which is the carriers current role (at range 14). It honestly needed something to make it stand out because it's a really boring unit by all other metrics and they're still internally debating whether they should keep the carrier.

I had that same fear with the oracle in the previous build but they swapped that around real fast with the addition of the cloaking field, it's still a while until release so I think they'll get there.

[InteGrand]

TWENTY TWO range?

Really? Blizzard? U sure its not a tactical missile launcher?

[rezyn8]

Originally Posted by Acies

So the mothership is now a hat for the nexus? I am sold.

TF2 has invaded SC2!

[Zombie.]

'anyone making comments about balance right now is absolutely ridiculous, and should wear their underwear as hats.' - TLO, I thought it would be touching to add to this thread just to make sure no one comments on balance as we haven't see proper unit combinations as of yet :]

Lots of Love
Zombie

Quick Comments

mGGDaedalus:

leave balance for beta, right now just wanna see if it looks fun

[Meatex]

Well zerg new stuff looks fun, really adding to the matchup.
Nothing I have seen from terran looks interesting from gameplay standpoint
Concerned that protoss additions will encourage deathballing even more

Quick Comments

mGGDaedalus:

widow mines look alright

[faithHunter]

The oracle changes looks great. It's role as a harassment/scouting hybrid is going to be really great. Maybe we will now see people open up with Stargates more in HoTS for scouting.

I just watched the HoTS battle report video. Hydras with their speed upgrade are REALLY good lol. Also, the abduct animation looks dumb as ever.

Also, 22 range? I expect my siege tanks to be able to attack air now. Also make marines deal splash.

[ninja brett]

so excited for this,

[Crankenstein]

I hope they keep looking into the reaper. I wan't reapers to be good so badly and the healing just doesn't do it for me...

[Dingobloo]

Originally Posted by Crankenstein

I hope they keep looking into the reaper. I wan't reapers to be good so badly and the healing just doesn't do it for me...

There's also another change they didn't make a big deal about which is they reduced the time they take to build, it's something they couldn't do while they had the building attack because they'd just go around in big groups hunting town hall buildings so they might be worth having another look at when we get hands on.

[ROOT`iaguz]

My reactions, will try to keep it short but it probably will not turn out that way.

Shit which I like:

Battle hellions the most. Easily. Why? Because marines just got their replacement and I feel like I won't mind going 3 base vs protoss, whereas now I do it with a groan because it means I'm going to die horribly over 10+ minutes.

BUT I don't think battle hellions mean mech necessarily. I believe this because it's cheap to mix them into an army and they only cost minerals. They do shitloads with needing to be upgraded heavily from the armoury. Consider TvP. Currently the only viable units for terran are Marines, Marauders, Ghosts, Vikings and medivacs. Everything else is either for cutesy timings rather then strong macro oriented play or it's just too shit or clunky. Lategame Terran have a huge problem where their armies tend to get incinerated by the mixture of storms, colossus lasers, archons that do heaps of damage and chagelots that never ******* die and a few other units thrown in for jollies. Marines, which do really good against zealots normally, tend to die before they can actually do that so the chargelots never die so the squishier protoss units are never under any real threat from the marauders.

But hey, now we have something that (god willing) roasts the everloving shit out of chargelots! And they even have hitpoints so they can take a few laser beams/storms and keep functioning! I feel like using battle hellions instead of marines once you're getting into the later stages should be a good idea for terran, and it'll reward terrans who can have significantly larger economies then the Protoss but struggle to actually turn that into an advantage because Protoss just roast all your shit anyway without giving the slightest ****. And this is doubly cool cuz none of the new protoss shit makes their deathball stronger (yay!)

And of course it's extremely relevant in TvZ mech, though zerg are geting a ton of cool shit so I still see mech being hard to use. In WoL, hellions are this thing you begrudgingly get in TvZ mech. You get them because you have supply and minerals and it's inefficient not to spend these resources, but you hate it because hellions are a shit unit. They're only good against 1 unit; zerglings, and your opponent stops making those because blue flames make them look silly. Their only other role is to get shot by roaches and tickle everything else the zerg makes, assuming it can hit them, and occasionally run around and roast drones if the zerg fucks up. Battle hellions seem like they can take more of a punch and dish one out better, which is cool because zerg looks ******* scary now.

Widow Mines. I'm actually confused by this unit. What is it really for? It doesn't seem great defensively since there's still a window of time before it goes off and they're very expensive for a role where you need cost efficiency. For example, say I'm worried about a roach/ling all in about to hit me and I have a reactor factory. If I panic make a few widow mines then a careful zerg only loses 2 roaches to 2 widow mines. Or 2 zerglings. That's really not great. Especially if the explosion affects fellow terran units.

If the opponent sees you running around with them they seem easy enough to defuse harmlessly. Protoss have observers, overseers are fairly cheap and terrans.... might build a raven (HA!). So far the best use I can think for them is hiding them in areas where you expect the opponent to move dropships through, which is cool because it's like scourge only Terran have it for some reason.

I guess if they can be used to dissuade creep spread that'd be pretty ****** cool, but I kinda suspect it's gonna feel like nukes, ie, something clunky and expensive and hard to use that every 1/100 times gets you an awesome result so inconsistent bastards keep making them. I dunno, really would have to use that.

Warhounds. First up shit vs zerg but that's ok don't need 'em anyway. We got hellions for that! As for TvT/P... not sure. When I read the warhounds stats I thought they looked ******* sweet. 150/75, 2 pop for 220 hp, 7 range 23 damage 1.3 atk speed, 2.83 speed and these rockets that do 30 damage to random enemy mech units every 6 seconds. Ok that's pretty good. Except I don't feel like I really need them. Like, if it's TvP why do I get these over marauder/ghosts? They don't deal with colossus, they don't help vs much else and they cost a lot of gas. Plus if I'm massing them that means I'm going heavy factory style so that's a lot of gas investment and ahhhhhhh it seems worse then going marauder/hellion instead!

I also hope they don't make tanks pointless in TvT because tanks are cool.

Reapers. 60 hp and a spot of regen makes them more viable, which is nice. I feel they will make gasless fe an exercise in torture though, which might lead to awkward reaper vs reaper wars. Hmm... micro! And it gives relevance to a unit which you can't really make anymore in TvZ, thank you queendralisks. The loss of speed or the building attack is unimportant since these things weren't great anyway (except for reaper cheese and shit we're ******* terran we can cheese without these things if we have to!)

ZERG

Swarm Host. This unit is also confusing. I don't understand what it's for. I understand blizzard were trying to make a broodlord that you could make in midgame that's not overpowered but I don't really see why you'd want it over infestors which come from the same place. The locusts it makes are certainly strong, sure, but you don't have enough time to wait through huge amounts of their spawns when you're trying to attack someone. When you invest money into an attack you need results and you need them fast. The exception is, well, actual broodlords where you can take all game if you want cuz they're imbalanced but that works because they are the strongest thing you can do. Swarm hosts seem expensive and clunky and shit. Not liking what I see from that unit.

The hydralisk. A lot of you probably didn't play Broodwar so you have no idea what this unit does. The hydralisk was the iconic Zerg unit of the original Starcraft that sadly couldn't make it to Starcraft 2 and was effectively replaced by it's retarded stunted cousin the Roach. The hydralisk was sort of like a marine, it moved around and had a range upgrade and a speed upgrade and you made shitloads of them and you used them to dodge storms and other aoe and they did pretty decent damage. It's incredibly difficult to predict how this totally new unit introduced to Starcraft 2 will impact zerg strategies but I'm excited to find out.

The viper, or the Deflyier so I call it, looks pretty strong as part of that scary lategame zerg ball of death. Abduct looks really gross, blinding cloud and fungal seems ******* absurd and makes me want to play mech (thank god it only works on biological targets!) and consume is... well that's kinda cool too. I wonder if you can abduct motherships...

Ultra charge. Groan....

PROTOSS

Tempest. This unit seems bad. Yea **** you I just called a unit with 22 range ******* awful, what about it? First up cost. 300/300 is tons and the unit is only useful when you're stalemated. The good thing about the unit is that it's ******* great at breaking stalemates. When you have a siege tank in range of something important the other player has to do something about it or lose something important and when they do it's going to hurt a lot because siege tanks are really good. Unfortunately the damage of the tempest is so meagre (45 damage/6 seconds = 7.5 dps. Yup you paid 300/300 for 7.5 dps. Enjoy!) that it's going to take a while for the issue to really be forced. Yea once you have like 4+ tempest shit is starting to get rather real (one shotting scvs, 3 shotting ghosts and vikings etc) but if the zerg/terran gets to that stage methinks he should feel sad.

Oracle. Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist. I'm going to hate this aren't I? This is actually a perfect protoss unit. It's annoying as hell, ridiculous to deal with and adds to the idea that 'perfectly' played protoss should be the best race. Kudos blizzard, I hate you.

So. Preordain doesn't seem amazing, but it's good. Currently it grants detection so I wonder if you can use it on friendly structures to fight cloakshees, thus meaning you don't have to open robo every game? Entomb seems super frustrating to deal with, especially when I'm FE-ing and I don't have a lot of units to spare routinely blowing up trapped minerals. Perhaps a lot of terran builds will require fast vikings just to keep these fuckers back. Grumble.

Oh and it can make all your shit invisible but that's not important. It's got like 0 hp, I have scans and emps and ****** w/e. The mothership's cloak doesn't really effect TvP much/at all currently and I see no reason for that to change. Although I can actually picture it being used with a warp prism to turn a zealot drop/warp in into a budget DT drop and FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK that sounds frustrating.

Mothership Core. I'm a bit nervous on this one. The main part is that you get a really sweet cannon for cheap. Yea it give protoss a get-out-of-jail free card in mass recall which is frustrating, but I feel protoss are going to be super greedy and be fine with their Purifier cannon. Grumble.

The thing about the protoss changes that makes me happy is that nothing they get makes the deathball stronger (though recall makes it harder to kill which is going to be super annoying when I randomly waste stims to not kill anything). Late game TvP sucks. I hate it. I hate how I can feel when a game has effectively ended, where any of my attempts to hurt the protoss aren't going to do anything and it's just one long death animation, as nony describes it. It's pointless how many MMMVG's I make because they're all gonna get roasted and if by some miracle I do win a fight then he warps in a massive round of shit and uses one of his backup templar storms to keep me from actually gaining anything from it and none of my other units are any good. Well, BC's are good but they are expensive and clunky as hell and it's barely viable to stay alive and get enough of them out to make a difference. Except on metropolis where you can actually defend properly.

Zerg look scary. Buffed ultralisks, buffed hydralisks and vipers all look really good and I doubt battle hellions are enough to beat it all!

Quick Comments

	inFeZa:	I think the tempest is made mostly for dealing with broodlords.
	Criven:	Rep for a thought out well informed super-post of sweetness.

[yongming]

if you think spider mines are overpowered, this is worse. spider mines can be defused when triggered, widow mines pretty much dooms the unit when it facehugs. spider mines hit land, widow mines can hit land and air. both are cloaked when burrowed and can detect cloak. so the widow mine pretty much shuts down cloak banshee openings in tvt.

Quick Comments

inFeZa:

maybe you can gravaton beam it to save it?

[ROOT`iaguz]

They can hit cloaked? Now I just wanna throw a bunch around in TvP and randomly kill observers (then once they latch onto an observer I guess they just fly over my mineral line for some Daebak)

[HuT]

Originally Posted by xGKingiaguz

They can hit cloaked? Now I just wanna throw a bunch around in TvP and randomly kill observers (then once they latch onto an observer I guess they just fly over my mineral line for some Daebak)

If they attach to air, they will only do AoE to air.

Also, they don't do friendly fire atm.

[water666]

saw the vids for these cvhanges over say1 and 2 of mlg, some of them new zerg units and toss units just seem excessive and unnecessary... widow mine looks so freaking baller, abduct and burrow charge.... total bs in my opinion and that oracle caster seen so unnecessary but before they bring it out id like to see what pros could do with it... see if they can come up with interesting things that arnt just seemingly troll builds.

[Kepler]

Originally Posted by Acies

So the mothership is now a hat for the nexus? I am sold.

Dustin Browder is Gabe Newell's alter ego.


I'm pretty happy with the units so far, I really hope that it's not all limited to completely gimmicky play, and we get away from deathball syndrome and see more frequent small skirmishes (but that would really go against the concept of 'terrible terrible damage' in the sense that battles are over very quickly).

[inFeZa]

Originally Posted by xGKingiaguz

Tempest. This unit seems bad. Yea **** you I just called a unit with 22 range ******* awful, what about it? First up cost. 300/300 is tons and the unit is only useful when you're stalemated. The good thing about the unit is that it's ******* great at breaking stalemates. When you have a siege tank in range of something important the other player has to do something about it or lose something important and when they do it's going to hurt a lot because siege tanks are really good. Unfortunately the damage of the tempest is so meagre (45 damage/6 seconds = 7.5 dps. Yup you paid 300/300 for 7.5 dps. Enjoy!) that it's going to take a while for the issue to really be forced. Yea once you have like 4+ tempest shit is starting to get rather real (one shotting scvs, 3 shotting ghosts and vikings etc) but if the zerg/terran gets to that stage methinks he should feel sad.

It may be a good transition from a phoenix/oracle opener since you have the stargate tech, but fleet bacon is expensive too! T_T

[Shieldz]

WOW this is cool but they obviously need to fix some of it soon

[ToxicTiger]

Zerg:

Infestors seem completely useless now.

Vipers seem to be more of a replacement

I mean they can yank big threats and they can blind units to make banes work
Plus they can restore there energy off there own buidings which depending can be a -
but still I cant see pro's using both, and Vipers seem the way to go

Protoss:

I'm really really happy about Protoss I think the race was kinda of unstable as a race in WoL
and HotS seems to fix this very well, plus im zerg and vortex doesn't work on air units now YES!!

Terran: seems pretty good I think spider mines or whatever there call'd are going to add alot of skill
THAT DAMN MOFO'ING WARHOUND STILL LOOKS LIKE SHIT THO GRRR .............
I hope they fix that

Final:

alot of things seem op zerg toss and terran, either this means there's going to be more hard counters,
or the same as WoL things are going to change heavily as the beta goes on so yeah just remember its in beta