All new HOTS units - screenshots(SPOILER)

[Wankey]

Zerg
- Swarm Host: Launching small, little, f***ing slow hydra-like creatures is ridiculously BAD and unimaginative. In the demonstration Blizzard made, they barely got to attack the buildings and that's because the freaking terran player decided not to go after the swarm host. It kinda overlaps with the infestor's ability to spawn infested terran, but the infestor has two more very powerful spells.

I would've like to see sort of an artillery burrowed unit, launching either small and slow attacks at a base or other units (like banelings) from a 9-10 range. The first time I saw the teaser image, this was what i originally thought of this unit.

My thoughts exactly. The terran guy literally did nothing. Again, this unit is absolutely useless by itself, and again it needs a slew of support units. For such an expensive unit, it has a very high chance of actually DOING NOTHING.

That was 9 Swarm hosts people. NINE, and they cost 200/100 each. That's 1800 / 900 worth of material, and it literally did nothing. There was no push, no real tactical change to the gameplay or strategic response required.

Putting 1800/900 worth of Siege tanks or Colossus would seriously make the enemy race scared shitless. I can't imagine people even thinking about the Swarm host at this time.

Can you imagine the Swarm host actually doing ANYTHING against a toss death ball? Me neither. All their "projectiles" will be killed before they reach their target. It's like sending banelings into marine balls and watching them disappear. At least with banelings you can get lucky and 1 baneling kills like 50 marines but seriously, none of these game design ideas are for sure.

I think what they should be doing is launching these swarmlings, a la ground based brood lords. Then again it'll be pretty overpowered. The problem with artillery is that it has to have impact damage otherwise you're just sending hordes of people over the top to be mowed down by machine gun fire.

[PuppyMaster]

You can't see how a hellion can be any more useful? For 100 minerals it roasts all the opponents workers then comes back later with the main army in meat-shield mode.

I'm not negating the utility of a fast moving and somewhat high DPS harassing unit, namely the Hellion. But the Battle Hellion, as was told in the multiplayer panel, was designed to be used late game versus light opponents. Think of a scenario where you can catch off-guard a bunch of marines clumped together or a bunch of zealots wondering around lonely after 15-20 minutes of play. They will always be backed up by siege tanks, marauders/colossi, stalkers. Not even against zerglings they don't pose a serious threat because they are slow.
Though, you have point there, they could be used as meat-shields to soak up the first round of fire, while your tanks (army) redeploy(s) (kinda like the zealots, but without doing much damage in return).

[RamiZ]

Ok, for all of you who said something about useless and useful units, you can read the article here about the units and their usefulness, from the guy that played this alpha version: http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft2/blogs/3427

[Aldrius]

That was 9 Swarm hosts people. NINE, and they cost 200/100 each. That's 1800 / 900 worth of material, and it literally did nothing. There was no push, no real tactical change to the gameplay or strategic response required.

Okay... what part of 'work in progress' don't you understand? =S The numbers can and will be adjusted.

It was a demonstration of a Zerg artillery unit. A ZERG artillery unit. The idea is overwhelming your opponent with numbers. Not blasting him to smitherines with sheer firepower. Same principle as the Brood Lord.

It was a group of them, trying to assault a concentrated position. The idea of Heart of the Swarm is to move AWAY from deathballs. The purpose of the Swarm Lord is to take map control. Like a siege tank. And spawning an army of what amounts to zerglings with 3x the HP and damage is going to be very strong, and very useful.

[PuppyMaster]

The problem is finding the thin line between too many and too few; too many of those little critters and no one will be able to defend against them. Spawning a small number of them, will make the unit useless.
You have to see the bigger picture: finding the magical number of units to be spawned is in direct relation with the damage made by the other units. If the tank receives a small buff or nerf then you need to rethink that magic number otherwise it will ruin the balance. And I'm not talking just about the tank. The concept is interesting but in reality I don't think it will work out as planned. I wish though to be wrong.

[DemolitionSquid]

The problem is finding the thin line between too many and too few; too many of those little critters and no one will be able to defend against them. Spawning a small number of them, will make the unit useless.
You have to see the bigger picture: finding the magical number of units to be spawned is in direct relation with the damage made by the other units. If the tank receives a small buff or nerf then you need to rethink that magic number otherwise it will ruin the balance. And I'm not talking just about the tank. The concept is interesting but in reality I don't think it will work out as planned. I wish though to be wrong.

Your wish has been granted; you are wrong. If they can balance the Brood Lord, they can balance the Swarm Host. If you consider the Swarm Host burrowing as equaling a Brood Lord attacking, there's basically no difference between the units mechanically when they produce Broodlings/Locust in set intervals.

[Aldrius]

The problem is finding the thin line between too many and too few; too many of those little critters and no one will be able to defend against them. Spawning a small number of them, will make the unit useless.
You have to see the bigger picture: finding the magical number of units to be spawned is in direct relation with the damage made by the other units. If the tank receives a small buff or nerf then you need to rethink that magic number otherwise it will ruin the balance. And I'm not talking just about the tank. The concept is interesting but in reality I don't think it will work out as planned. I wish though to be wrong.

This is no different than the Infestor's spawn infested marine spell, or the spawn broodling spell every building has... or the Carrier's Interceptors... it's not a hard thing to balance at all.

[Alar]

I also think the Swarm Hosts need to be buffed up if they're going to be useful. The range on them seems to be fine, at least. That, or make them a cheaper, weaker version of the Brood Lord that has burrow, rather than flying.

And I also really hope that the Battle Hellion is an Armory-enabled upgrade... something with a high gas cost to balance out how freaking amazing they become for only 100 minerals a pop.

[RODTHEGOD]

Does anybody Know if they changeling is still in the game/being improved upon. And if so does anyone know if the changeling can be used to keep the shredders off?

[Sheliek]

And if so does anyone know if the changeling can be used to keep the shredders off?

Now there's a neat idea...