Point Defence Drone trivia with Sahara and Grunt

Sahara kindly helped me run a couple tests with the point defence drone (PDD), and we learned some interesting things :p. Also, Sahara is hardcore for doing this at 4 in the morning :p.

1) Although the Point Defense Drone's laser doesn't affect Roaches, it still loses Energy. Probably a bug, as Sahara suggests.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZ_vhomwUo


2) Point Defence Drones kick ass, but you all probably know this one already :p. Here are 6 Hydralisks vs 10 Marines. Normally, the Marines would all die, but with the PDDs acting like a one-sided Dark Swarm in this encounter, the Marines win with only 3 casualties. And keep in mind that the drones took quite a few hits just before the Marines arrived.

Bob, the Changeling Marine spectates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjilcXvgtJc


3) The Hydralisk's melee attack is ignored by the Point Defense Drone. Apparently, the melee attack animation for the Hydralisk isn't purely aesthetic :p. As you can see in the video below, the meleeing Hydra's attacks are being ignored by the Point Defence Drones which have full Energy. Not sure why my Hydra is using the ranged attack animation, though.

This probably won't have much impact in an actual competitive match, but I think it's a very nice touch :).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCrg0PDN0qo


It seems that only the Hydralisk's melee attack is ignored by the PDD - it does not automatically ignore all projectile attacks fired at point-blank range. As confirmation, check out this test which Islandsnake helped me with. He attack with his Marauder at point-blank range, but the attack is still negated by the PDD. Makes me wonder whether or not Guardian Shield actually affects the Hydra's melee attack or not :p.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJlHEWE91E8

Interesting. Test any affected unit very close to it's target, to see if the PDD drone can still stop the attack. Maybe it needs a minimum amount of time to react.

Nice, thanks for posting this!! This actually sounds like a pretty awesome ability. Maybe we'll see more ravens in games once this catches on!

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Originally Posted by GRUNT

3) The Hydralisk's melee attack is ignored by the Point Defense Drone. Apparently, the melee attack animation for the Hydralisk isn't purely aesthetic :p. As you can see in the video below, the meleeing Hydra's attacks are being ignored by the Point Defence Drones which have full Energy. Not sure why my Hydra is using the ranged attack animation, though.

This probably won't have much impact in an actual competitive match, but I think it's a very nice touch :).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCrg0PDN0qo

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I found this to be incredibly interesting. Thanks for the info!


X :cool:

Incredibly nice find! =)

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3) The Hydralisk's melee attack is ignored by the Point Defense Drone. Apparently, the melee attack animation for the Hydralisk isn't purely aesthetic . As you can see in the video below, the meleeing Hydra's attacks are being ignored by the Point Defence Drones which have full Energy. Not sure why my Hydra is using the ranged attack animation, though.

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THAT'S SO COOL.

I guess they couldn't figure out how to make it work graphically. For the Roach at least this should be really useful micro-wise. Walk up next to the enemy and start meleeing.

Why was that hydralisk dancing next to the barracks?

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Originally Posted by Wankey

Why was that hydralisk dancing next to the barracks?

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It looks better in-game.

Actually it looks pretty cool in-game IMO.

Um, there's a difference between video and ingame?

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Originally Posted by Wankey

Um, there's a difference between video and ingame?

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The Hydralisk actually has a couple melee attack animations which it uses when it's attacking at point-blank range. I don't know why it didn't use them here - it was just a glitch, I guess.

That's why I was moving the Hydra around - I thought maybe it wasn't close enough to use its melee attack animation, but it was.