Making Corruptor Harass-errific

The Corruptor is a pretty lame unit. Balance-wise it has a role -- it's good against Colossi and it's good against Battlecruisers, but gameplay-wise, it's just lame. Vikings, Banshees, Ravens can effectively harass. Phoenixes and Void Rays can effectively harass. But for the Zerg it's only the Mutalisk. There was also some bit of BlizzCon interview circulating that said Blizzard acknowledges that Zerg harass options are limited in tier 2.

This got me thinking about changes we could get with HOTS. The moment Terrans scan a Spire going up, they start building Missile Turrets, right? In 99 games out of 100, that Spire is making Mutalisks, and those Mutalisks are going economy hunting.

What if we turn such presumption into a mistake?

Spawn Broodlings -- 75 energy, 9 range

The Corruptor sends out a sac targeting a building. The sac shows up as a giant glowing larval sac with a timer. Once the timer (say, 15 seconds) reaches 0, 5 Broodlings pop out ready to unleash hell.

By itself a Corruptor would be able to accomplish little. Broodlings naturally have a lifespan of only 8 seconds. But even in small packs of 3-4 they'd be able to wreak some definite havoc on any Terran who decides that Missile Turrets are defense enough for an OC expansion. The idea behind the 15 second delay is that there would be no warning when the sacs hit the structure. If there IS a warning, no delay would be necessary.

What I like about this is that the counters to this and to Mutas -- the other unit that could come out of a Spire -- are polar opposite. Thoughts?

I really like idea!
Since Corruptors turn into Broodlords anyways, it seems fitting that the "lesser evolved" form would have something to do with broodlings too.
And I totaly agree; besides their avatar, Corruptors are lame as hell

its a nice thought but it would need to be tweeked a lot in order not to totally make broodlords worthless

Originally, corruptor where able to prevent a building to produce. This ability is now on the overseer. This is an harass spell on the wrong unit imo. The actual spell of the corrupter is a little lame too and very underused.

Your idea bring up something interesting.

Interesting spellcasting is what I hope we see added in hots, not more units shoehorned in. Great idea.

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Originally Posted by Lopan91

its a nice thought but it would need to be tweeked a lot in order not to totally make broodlords worthless

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Pretty much this. I like the idea but this ability might be too powerful that will overshadow the purpose of brood lords. If this ability were patched in-game, I might as well mass corrupters to harass a base instead of morphing them into BLs. Of course, them being able to spawn only on buildings also helps them not to be too powerful. Great idea though

what if you could make the corrupter explode out broodlings and its based on the corrupters health(sacrificing corrupters). for example you have a corrupter at 100% health so it will spawn 4 broodlings when it sacrifices itself 75% 3 broodlings, 50% 2 broodlings, and 25% 1 broodling. I feel this way it wouldnt make corrupters over take broodlords and you have to make a tuff decision on what you want to do with them.

Very original idea...I dig it!

nah, since its not instant it is going to suck.

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Originally Posted by dustinbrowder

nah, since its not instant it is going to suck.

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:S not all spells need to be amazing. Can u imagine 8 corrupters (which is a reasonable amount) instantly spawning 40 broodlings in an expansion, think about the OPness of it. The 15 seconds is a great balance idea so the move doesnt get abused.

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Originally Posted by dustinbrowder

nah, since its not instant it is going to suck.

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Seeker missile, nuke and spawn larvae suck.

I don't really like this idea too much. It overlaps too much with the brood lord.

The corruptor has a pretty good role, if you splice them with your mutas, they take care of other muta splash (they have like 2 armor to start right? Pretty much nullifies muta splash)

And they're good heavy damage guys against other anti-air.

One thing if you ask me I'd like changing is their range:

7 range

And make the corrupt skill more obvious and faster casting.

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Originally Posted by MajinX

The 15 seconds is a great balance idea so the move doesnt get abused.

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I'm with that.

Furthermore Corrupters right now spawn with 0 energy so this would delay the use of the ability too.

It would be great to use a pack of Corrupters, cast the spell and then mutate then into BL.

And I think the ability had to be only against buildings too.

An alternative (animation) would be a sort of infest command center revamp but on any building so that the Corrupter is actually corrupting the building to be a one time nest

60s cooldown anyone?

Why don't we just add a new Zerg harassment focused unit in HotS? Its not like a unit that's only good for harassment is unprecedented *cough* Reaper * cough*

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

Why don't we just add a new Zerg harassment focused unit in HotS? Its not like a unit that's only good for harassment is unprecedented *cough* Reaper * cough*

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Because as it turns out units that are only good for harassment are inherently imbalanced and will be nerfed into the ground. And then some.