DemolitionSquid Reviews HotS Multiplayer Changes

[Jconant]

now that i think about it, you don't really need a carrier as an air to ground unit; the colossi technically fulfills that role. if you can get an air unit to fight off anti air though, you can make a stronger deathball that can effectively ward off mass viking and muta/corruptors.

I'd say replicant would only be usefull for stealing enemy tech; against a terran...copy a raven and throw seeker missiles back at him, use banshee to dive in and cloak/snipe siege tanks

[Sheliek]

now that i think about it, you don't really need a carrier as an air to ground unit; the colossi technically fulfills that role. if you can get an air unit to fight off anti air though, you can make a stronger deathball that can effectively ward off mass viking and muta/corruptors.

I'd say replicant would only be usefull for stealing enemy tech; against a terran...copy a raven and throw seeker missiles back at him, use banshee to dive in and cloak/snipe siege tanks

I know I'll be putting sieges by all of my photon cannons using them.

[JackhammerIV]

I know I'll be putting sieges by all of my photon cannons using them.

Think about it more....taking a gold base with a deathball+siegetanks. Having your own ghosts to EMP his ghosts. Almost makes Protoss seem like paying random.

[Drake Clawfang]

a) It does nothing against bioball or marine ball or death ball, it basically adds HP to an army and adds path finding problems to an attacking army.

Then don't bring them with your army?

b) It doesn't allow for tactical gameplay, ie I can't set a trap of swarm hosts since they spawn these obvious swarmlings that tell everyone they are there

You don't know that. I would presume the ability is smartcast and can be turned off.

c) They do no AoE damage, and again zerg is back to having no AoE damage.

Ultralisk, Mutalisk, Baneling, Infestor.

Why is lurker a vastly superior unit?

What does the lurker have to do with the Swarm Host? Nothing whatsoever, they're entirely different units with entirely different roles. Skipping this part.

The biggest problem with Zerg is there are tactics that make you do absolutely no damage, and it's just frustrating when the other player literally does nothing and loses 2 marines.

Then, um, don't use those tactics?

Tell me the gameplay skills that are required to setup 2 shredders?

The Terran player cannot have his ramp blocked off or any other units nearby, thus leaving his front door wide open for an attack by more durable forces that can smash the shredders and waltz into his base unopposed. And it wasn't a simple misclick, he had plenty of time to pull his lings back. It's no different than running your units blind into any other situation and complaining you lost them all, you didn't scout out your opponent well enough to know what you were getting into and didn't react fast enough to get out.

The swarm host does nothing in that game. Basically the terran guy is still in command of that scene. All he needs to do is unsiege his tanks, your 8 swarm hosts basically did no damage again.

Without the tanks the units would have lasted longer. My concern isn't with how little damage they did, but with how slowly they came out. But that's an easy balance tweak.

Blizzard is missing the idea of "every unit should feel overpowered".

That sentence is so subjective it's completely meaningless. The "feel" of a unit, specifically them "feeling overpowered" depends on how you use them, the circumstances in which you use them, how well you micro and macro them, and how much damage they do. If you use a unit properly, of course it will feel overpowered. If it doesn't, you obviously didn't use it well enough.

[Sheliek]

Think about it more....taking a gold base with a deathball+siegetanks. Having your own ghosts to EMP his ghosts. Almost makes Protoss seem like paying random.

I always think defensive before anything else. I can't wait to toy with it in campaign in LotV. Hopefully they lift the massive restriction for it. Ohai Odin.

[Aldrius]

I think the main thing is that the Swarm Host's units are getting killed. I'm sure they last at least as long as a single attack wave. Maybe two. Which basically means that... well, the issue I'm seeing with this unit is that if the recharge period is too short you can build up a lot of locusts VERY quickly.

[RamiZ]

Stop kidding yourself. That's like saying the Hellion is an AoE unit of Terran.

The only AoE units in the game are siege tanks, colossus, psi storm and fungal.

It just hurts how ignorant you are.

[RamiZ]

I think the main thing is that the Swarm Host's units are getting killed. I'm sure they last at least as long as a single attack wave. Maybe two. Which basically means that... well, the issue I'm seeing with this unit is that if the recharge period is too short you can build up a lot of locusts VERY quickly.

I am not sure, but I heard that the more they spawn, the faster they spawn.
Also, those little units got 90 hp and 16 damage, which is actually pretty strong.

[Aldrius]

Might not be accurate, but I hear the Swarm Host has an attack cooldown of 25 and the units have a lifespan of 16.

That seems... a little off. Probably going to need to be balanced a little better.

[DemolitionSquid]

I have 2 points.

1. Remove Observer, put Oracle in Robo Facility, give it detection.
- Gives Protoss earlier (more reasonable) harassment, at the same tech stage as detection
- Gives the Oracle reason to be in main army
- Tradeoff of Cloak vs Health is minor when accounting for Oracles "New Disruption Web" to nullify turrets/spores/cannons.

2. Swarm Host clearly needs a faster spawn time. I suggest to compensate, lowering Locust attack but maintaining their HP to ensure they can get in range of target.