Roach/Hydra melee attacks usefull?

So i'm sure everyone knows that the Roach and Hydralisk have melee attacks. But I always assumed that it was just eye candy and had no practical value.

But then i noticed that the damage done by their melee attack is actually un-effected by the Sentry's Guardian shield (which reduces incoming ranged attacks by 2).
Something i never knew, and may be usefull sometime. No?

And the Hydra's melee attack will bypass the Raven's Point Defence Drone.
Yet the Roach and Hydra benifit from range attack upgrades regardless of if they are attacking with melee or ranged attacks.

.....Makes Zealot/Sentry alot weaker then it should be.

didnt know this... it can be useful sometimes but its def not a huge game changer.. the hydras and roaches have large surface area and how often do u see them surrounding their targets?

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Originally Posted by MajinX

didnt know this... it can be useful sometimes but its def not a huge game changer.. the hydras and roaches have large surface area and how often do u see them surrounding their targets?

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Probably not gonna happen very often. But maybe it'll happen more often now that we know?
I think they should use melee attack upgrades while attacking with melee. Makes sense, yeah?
That or Blizzard should patch it so they do the same damage regardless.

Anyways, here's a video showing how Hydra/Roach melee damage actually makes a difference:
(keep an eye on Zealot shields)
Attachment 1715

I don't think it will have that much use. . . Because you really rather want to be kiting the zealots but FF will prob corner you off anyways.

The only real use I can see for this is too maybe burrow/unburrow roaches underneath the zealots/sentry army and surround that way?

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Originally Posted by GGsmung

I don't think it will have that much use. . . Because you really rather want to be kiting the zealots but FF will prob corner you off anyways.

The only real use I can see for this is too maybe burrow/unburrow roaches underneath the zealots/sentry army and surround that way?

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A smart protoss player won't have a big percentage of zealots if you have roaches. It's more likely that he or she will have a stalker ball with some colossi or immortals. This is definitely helpful as the protoss player will try to use forcefields to split your army and make the ball engage your untis more efficiently. Going underneath the stalkers helps get better positioning for some early damage. I believe this is essential so that your army is fully engaged and this is a slight bonus of doing this.

Good find. +rep

Uhhhh....I thought everyone knew this. Especially toss and zerg players. Making roach/hydra melee attack depend on melee ups makes things a lot more complicated. Plus i would think most zergs don't want their roach hydra all the way up front trying to do melee damage. Hydras are pretty slow. Basically doing that means they're considering the hydras dead unless they kill everything. Plus imagine hydras running forward to melee attack marines to bypass PDD.....not a pretty sight.:P

Side note: Quick google search revealed a TL thread from like august. Hence my thought that everyone knew about this (especially P and Z).

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Originally Posted by Woland

A smart protoss player won't have a big percentage of zealots if you have roaches. It's more likely that he or she will have a stalker ball with some colossi or immortals. This is definitely helpful as the protoss player will try to use forcefields to split your army and make the ball engage your untis more efficiently. Going underneath the stalkers helps get better positioning for some early damage. I believe this is essential so that your army is fully engaged and this is a slight bonus of doing this.

Good find. +rep

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I was talking about early game, ex: when the protoss goes 3gate-expand he will be making lots of sentries and some zealots (he'll be using guardian shield, roaches will use their melee attack when they are unburrowed underneath them so guardian shield will be useless, what the thread was about). . . He won´t have colossi immortals and a stalker ball so early in the game and he prob will have a obs already if he's going robo.


And yes burrow is quite effictive vs FF as you can just burrow under them. . .

Only time I see it is when I see some Roaches or Hydralisks into some miners and they're close enough to melee. For the rest, like Zealots and such, I'm too busy focusing on the battle.

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Originally Posted by JackhammerIV

Uhhhh....I thought everyone knew this. Especially toss and zerg players. Making roach/hydra melee attack depend on melee ups makes things a lot more complicated. Plus i would think most zergs don't want their roach hydra all the way up front trying to do melee damage. Hydras are pretty slow. Basically doing that means they're considering the hydras dead unless they kill everything. Plus imagine hydras running forward to melee attack marines to bypass PDD.....not a pretty sight.:P

Side note: Quick google search revealed a TL thread from like august. Hence my thought that everyone knew about this (especially P and Z).

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I knew they had melee attack, I just thought it is considered as range, with just different animation.

I use it alot with roaches against another Zerg, its roaches are a great meat shield against a mass speedling with the hydras in the middle, but thats the only time i actually see my roaches go melee, unless im using 2 to block off a ramp from a early ling rush