HotS - Multiplayer Unit Update Video

[mr. peasant]

I wouldn't say staged but at least directed - i.e. told to focus on using new units and not to go for the quick kill.

[Quirel]

-Mothership Core: Um...what? What genius protoss scientist decided that it would be a good idea to take out a mothership core and put it on a nexus? From a gameplay standard it works fine, but just give the nexus the same abilities. But from a lore one, it seems like an absurd decision.

Perhaps it's a core salvaged from a damaged Mothership? After several billion hours of WoL multiplayer, there ought to be a few lying around. ;D

Also, if you think about it, a Mothership has a lot of habitation and life support space that's not needed on the battlefield. I guess that stuff could be stripped away for a more battleworthy unit, but that's blown to hell by the fact that you can upgrade the Core into a full mothership.

-Tempest: Bit similar to the brood lord, but I can appreciate that the difference between attacks and spawned broodlings is indeed different. Like the unit overall.

I'm a little confused, as this seems to give the Protoss two aerial siege units. Does it perform better against units than the Void Ray?

-Battle Hellion: Personally, I'd rather have a firebat. Yes, that would probably be unit overlap, but it's still preferable to having a transforming buggy. And Hellions have a distinct place in multiplayer matches as hit and run units, even if I found them rather useless. Again, I'd prefer a firebat.

Gameplay-wise, it's an attempt to make the Hellion useful in late-game.
Lore-wise, it doesn't make sense. Where does the extra armor come from?

-Warhound: Don't like the new animation, but I like the unit itself.

-Widow mine: Mixed. On one hand, I like that spider mines are back in some form. On the other, why are the mines attatching themselves to ground units instead of just detonating? Balance reasons I guess, but again, I can't think of an in-universe explanation.

Well, it works for plasma grenades.
In-universe, the Widow mine is probably smaller than its apparent size, and would be designed to attach to the underside of vehicles. Much less noticeable than one would think, and the delay gives it time to crawl around and find a weak point.

The ability to latch onto infantry is a result of the programmer being a fan of Spider Mines II: They Walk. As for leaping dozens of meters into the air and latching onto air units, what can I say? Their hearts are in it.

-Ultralisk charge: Like the idea, but why underground? It seems a bit strange in-universe as to how moving underground is faster than travelling above it. On the other hand, love the animation behind the technique.

Yeah, it seems weird to me too, but I guess it's supposed to differentiate itself from the Zealot charge.

Otherwise:

Battlecruiser Speed Boost: It's about time.
Reaper Health, no grenades: Can't see this lasting long.

[RamiZ]

Yeah, it seems weird to me too, but I guess it's supposed to differentiate itself from the Zealot charge.

It is not that, but because of the gameplay. If they had just charge, it would be close to useless. Unlike Zealots, Ultras are fast already, but they have problem with being huge, so they start to bug around, not being able to attack because of Zerglings and other Ultras. With burrow charge, that problem is gone, because they can get underneath the unit.

[Kimera757]

Perhaps it's a core salvaged from a damaged Mothership? After several billion hours of WoL multiplayer, there ought to be a few lying around. ;D

I'm a little confused, as this seems to give the Protoss two aerial siege units. Does it perform better against units than the Void Ray?

In the first Battle Report, we saw it worked amazingly with a spotter, especially the oracle. (Void rays don't have great range, and don't benefit from a spotter.) With a range of 22, you pretty much require your opponent to have air to fight it.

[The_Blade]

I really don't know how Terrans will be able to deal with Tempests. They only have the viking to deal with them on only-air map spots, while the Zerg has Mutalisks, Corruptors and Vipers.

[topsecret221]

Gameplay-wise, it's an attempt to make the Hellion useful in late-game.
Lore-wise, it doesn't make sense. Where does the extra armor come from?

Well, how about this: is a structure more stable with all of the supports completely upright and parallel, or with the supports crossing over one another and supporting each other, as well as the house?

Lore-wise, I can understand, because the configuration of something can easily impact its toughness. That's why carbon nanotubes are so much stronger than, say, a slate of carbon.

On the subject of the Tempest, though, I really don't think it will be used in PvT. I mean, there aren't enough new units to change the basic layout of your average lategame army (maybe an extra Oracle, but that's it). Considering this, it means Colossi. Colossi mean Vikings. And of course, Vikings mean that Tempests can be shut down quite easily. For an equal investment in Vikings and Tempest, I'm fairly certain that Vikings would come out on top (feel free to correct my math on that).

[Jconant]

The tempest would be a good option to out snipe vikings and siege tanks. Colossi have the same range so you end up having the problem of needing a good number to even attempt to fight and you risk losing some in the process. Same goes for the void ray vs viking- they'll get in range of marines too.

What im unsure of though is the damage output of the tempest. How effective would they be at fighting corruptors or vikings? Am I going to need a large stalker force or void rays in the mix?

[Kimera757]

Tempests have a low DPS due to a slow cooldown. I think Vikings can deal with them pretty easily, unfortunately, they're probably the only terran unit that can do so.

Corruptors do bonus damage to massive units, whereas they are not themselves massive.

[Aldrius]

I wouldn't say staged but at least directed - i.e. told to focus on using new units and not to go for the quick kill.

I don't...see the point in that. Like are you basing all this on the fact that they're not making the tactical decisions you would? They could just be bad players.

As for the Tempest, I think it has a massive bonus. And large damage + slow attack rate usually means it's designed for taking on big things that there are few of. (i.e. If you're killing zerglings or mutalisks one at a time, you're not going to be very effective against them.) But I'm not sure how that works with the Void Ray. I like the Void Ray better mechanically, but the Tempest has such a cool design.

I dunno how they're going to make it work, though. Right now it's just so generic... it's a big floating capital ship with huge amounts of range. The fact that it's a 22 range flying unit is so crazy. It's not uncounterable by ground (uh... I don't think...?), but it's so sloppy and there's nothing really that interesting about it from a mechanics point of view to me.

[Jconant]

the zerg with the combo of hydra + the new caster proved to work well at taking them out.