HotS - Multiplayer Unit Update Video

[Rake]

Dont forget mines hit air - cant wait fer them smartass zerg to fly into my base with a couple of mines near the cc - then take the mines with them. - HA!

Does mine damage hit all units or just enemy units? Because if it is all units you can send in one sacraficial muta to pick up the mines and explode them on the SCVs.

Also, tempests can hit air. I'm not convinced about the unit but the animation looks cool.

[Alar]

I feel mixed about the changes.

I feel they really need to make Abduct more punishing for the user, because in the video he was throwing Abducts out like crazy. I understand making the unit useful, but why not give people more reason to use the new Dark Swarm instead? Increase cast range, or duration, or something else. Constantly grabbing the most useful units with barely any cost to change the entire way a battle turns out seems a bit imbalanced.

I'm a bit iffy about the Swarm Host. While I like the interval on how long it takes to get them, I would think they should be a -little- bit squishier, closer to Broodlings so they don't last several volleys of fire. I can see them soaking up one or two waves of attack, but any more than that and it seems like the Zerg have a constant shield of flesh protecting their units (unless you micro fire).

The Hydralisk changes seem to make them... a bit too strong. You could essentially chase down ANY force as far as I can tell, and needle at them while they run away. This makes them pretty much unstoppable in chasing down understrength groups of enemies.

Ultralisk charge looks cool, but... as others have said, seems like a bit of a cop-out.

The Spider Mines 2.0 are cool, but a shorter timer would be best if they're not going to be instantaneous. Some might complain that they're just Terran Banelings, but I don't quite see them like that.

Warhound still seems like a waste.

New Hellions... ehh, I don't know. It looks to strong-arm Terrans into going mostly Factory if they want to have a beefy, tough army. I'll wait to see how they compare to Marauders before making my final say on them.

I miss the Ripper.

As to the Protoss changes, the Tempest seems both OP and underpowered at the same time. Massed, I could see them easily wreaking havoc on someone without mobile AA, but they also seem very easy to kill when cornered. Grouping them with Void Rays seems like it would be a perfect way to decimate enemy bases.

I like the Mothership Core, especially how early it can be obtained. All the abilities seem solid, and giving it the chance to upgrade into a Mothership is good. Hopefully you can have one Core and one Mothership at the same time.

The Oracle looks super strong at shutting down enemy economy, and I like the new Cloaking Field mechanic.

I was hoping they would give us some interesting new mechanic for Archons, but alas...

Overall I like the direction of the changes, but the Zerg seem a bit strong and the Terran too weak. Hopefully we'll get another Battle Report with Terran in it to showcase their changes.

[KDraconis]

Since I got to play the MLG build, I'll post some answers/clarifications here.

I just don't get the Mothership core... thing. Just give those abilities to the Nexus.

It's a good way to limit the number of Mass Recalls to 1, give the Protoss a great early-game defensive option, and up the cost of the Mothership effectively allowing the developers to shape the Mothership more into the "hero" unit it was meant to be.

What I mean by upping the cost is, first, you cannot have multiple Mothership Cores at the same time, and you cannot have a Mothership Core at the same time as a Mothership. Obviously this means that you have to give up the defensive benefits of the Core for the offensive benefits of the Mothership, which is a pretty big decision. Second, besides the obvious fact that you need to build a Core before you can upgrade it to a Mothership, thus costing more minerals and gas, it also costs more time in more ways than one. Since the "Upgrade to Mothership" ability is on the Core, and the Core is not a structure, you can't Chronoshift your Mothership to get it out faster. Third, your Core can die, either by being targeted directly or the Nexus it's sitting on being razed. All of this makes Protoss more interesting.

These mines seem like they can be more a liability than anything. What advantage would they have over Spider Mines?

Widows can hit both ground and air, and currently they don't deal splash damage to allied units. They also don't detonate if the latched-onto unit dies before the timer is up. Also, they're directly made from the Factory with no need of any other tech, which means they get out much faster and much more readily than Spider Mines, which have to be researched, then placed by Vultures, with one Vulture only being able to produce a maximum of three.

Seems like Swarm Hosts have the upgrade to produce 4 Locusts instead of 2 at the time.

In the build available at MLG, there is no upgrade to produce 4 Locusts instead of 2, they just produce 4 by default (iirc). There is, however, an upgrade to increase the timed life of Locusts from 15 to 25 (25 being the cooldown for spawning Locusts).

I never saw locusts hitting air. You sure on that?

They definitely do hit air. They have a range of 2, I think.

Warhound: I'm failing this unit right now simply because I don't know enough about it. Does it replace the Thor completely, or is the Thor still in the Factory too? Is its "missile" attack an extra attack it uses only against Mech units in intervals, is it part of its standard attack, or is it an ability? Does it shoot flying units and solve the "Mutaball" problem, or s that still relegated to the Thor? These are important questions I need answers to before I can say this unit is a good addition to the Terran arsenal.

The missiles are an ability that's set to autocast by default, and has a 6-second cooldown timer. Separate from its normal attack, of course. On autocast, it just hits the nearest mechanical unit for 30 damage (it is still a targetable ability though). And no, it does not hit air nor deal splash, so the Thor is still the anti-air anti-mass unit. Thor is still in the Factory.

The Oracle's cloak requires energy and only lasts a few seconds.

Lasts a full minute. But it does take 100 energy to cast, is easily countered, and has a pretty small radius.

I feel they really need to make Abduct more punishing for the user, because in the video he was throwing Abducts out like crazy. I understand making the unit useful, but why not give people more reason to use the new Dark Swarm instead? Increase cast range, or duration, or something else. Constantly grabbing the most useful units with barely any cost to change the entire way a battle turns out seems a bit imbalanced.

To be honest, Abduct only efficiently counters Colossi, Oracles, Thors, and Battlecruisers. For anything else, it doesn't feel worth it to spawn Vipers and then waste energy on abducting when you could be blinding all bio units. Even against Siege Tanks, the range on Abduct is enough that if Marines are standing anywhere near the Siege Tank, they'll be able to shoot the Viper. In the end, Abduct will be used more against Protoss, and Blinding Cloud will be used more against Terran, and a lot lot more against Zerg.

[Aldrius]

Blinding Cloud is actually 100% useless against Protoss. They have no ranged biological units as far as I know.

[Rake]

For those who are unaware there is a TvZ HotS video on the MLG restream:

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/live#sc2

Around 2:09

[RamiZ]

Blinding Cloud is actually 100% useless against Protoss. They have no ranged biological units as far as I know.

Yeah sad that it ended up like that, but hey, Abduct is a lot more useful against Protoss, since they have really costly units that can be targeted. And don't forget pulling Colossi or Archons over forcefields.

And damn, those Widow mines look really good. I mean, they are cheap, small, and with good support, they can go straight in battle. I like it.

[Carsickness]

Lasts a full minute. But it does take 100 energy to cast, is easily countered, and has a pretty small radius.

I dunno... 3 gate, Stargate with an oracle seems pretty awesome to me.

Also, it doesn't really seem like Zerg has a strong counter to them early/game. It really would force the Zerg player to get some air to deflect constant entombs.

But I play toss, so what do I care :P

[Aldrius]

Eh, I think extra queens would work. Both for breaking the entombs and warding off the oracles.

[DemolitionSquid]

I dunno... 3 gate, Stargate with an oracle seems pretty awesome to me.

Also, it doesn't really seem like Zerg has a strong counter to them early/game. It really would force the Zerg player to get some air to deflect constant entombs.

But I play toss, so what do I care :P

3 Gate/Stargate push with Cloaking Field, if CF is inherent on Oracle and not an upgrade, could be crazy OP.

[RamiZ]

KDraconis, did you maybe take a look at Locusts stats? Hp, armor, damage? I am interested in how much did they change them from last build, stat wise of course.

And btw, no, they produce only 2 Locusts at time, seems like those Swarm Hosts that were spawning 4 Locusts were just for presentation. But hey, if you are going to mass them, that upgrade that make Locusts last 10 seconds longer is awesome as well.