Warhound Hypothesis: No Purpose in TvZ

[DemolitionSquid]

Warhound

Costs
Minerals: 150
Vespene: 75
Supply: 2
Time: 45

Stats
Health: 220
Armor: 1
GtG Damage: 23
Range: 7
Weapon Speed: 1.3
Movement Speed: 2.81

Abilities
Haywire Missile
Cooldown: 6, autocast
Blasts target ground mechanical unit, dealing 30 damage

Someone please tell me I'm wrong, but it appears that there is no reason to build Warhounds in TvZ. Ever. Zerg have no mechanical units, making the Haywire Missile passive ability useless. The Warhound has no anti-air attack, so it cannot help out versus Mutaballs, Brood Lords, or Vipers. It does have a high but slow regular attack, that might help against Roach or Ultralisk centric play. However, I believe the clearly more versatile Widow Mine can deal with Roaches more effectively. Also, the Thor is still in the game unchanged. Unless you're willing to pump out Warhounds in preparation for Ultralisks because you can't tech switch fast enough to Marauders from your new Factory heavy play, I honestly see no viable purpose for this new unit.

Is my analysis completely off base, or am I not alone in my worry? Poll and comments please!

[phazonjunkie]

I thought you could only build one Thor now, when did this change?

If Thor production is the same as in WoL, why is the Warhound even neccessary? Just give the haywire missile to the Thor.

Oh, and as regards your question original question. No I don't think it's a necessarily a problem, as BW had units/abilities that didn't see much use in specific matchups. An annoyance maybe but not a serious problem.

[DemolitionSquid]

I thought you could only build one Thor now, when did this change?

If Thor production is the same as in WoL, why is the Warhound even neccessary? Just give the haywire missile to the Thor.

Oh, and as regards your question original question. No I don't think it's a necessarily a problem, as BW had units/abilities that didn't see much use in specific matchups. An annoyance maybe but not a serious problem.

Super Thor isn't in at MLG, just regular, so yeah I'm wondering the same thing you are.

My whole issue here is, every other unit has at least some reason to built in every matchup even once in a blue moon. Carriers, BC's, Reapers, whatever. They're still viable in some state with some strategy. But i can literally see no possible reason to ever build a Warhound in TvZ and that really bothers me.

[Kimera757]

I voted for the 1st, but it's not entirely bad, since the warhound's basic stats seem pretty decent. It does high damage, and has lots of hit points. It's like a super-marauder, and those are pretty decent against some zerg units (eg roaches). Having said that, if it's just a marauder plus, perhaps marauders should just get a haywire missile upgrade. (Like the marauder needs more power...)

[phazonjunkie]

As I mentioned before, the Terran arsenal is already pretty solid, with no glaring gaps in it's arsenal. I don't truly see a need for more units. Abilities or a new defensive structure maybe, but their tech tree is pretty bloated.

Like Kimera mentioned, the Warhound (at least in it's current form) is just a bigger, stronger marauder, it doesn't do anything the marauder can't reasonably do (or conceivably do with some tweaking/buffing).

And the battle helion, basically just the campaign firebat in disguise.

One of the problems is Blizzard trying so desperately to avoid cutting units at all cost. If they were more willing to do that, then overlap, or units with no discernible purpose in some match ups wouldn't be a problem. Just look at the Protoss. The loss of the Carrrier, even though 'iconic' opened up the floogates in terms of possibilities for protoss air.

[DemolitionSquid]

I fully agree on every point, PJ. Blizzard's unwillingness to scrap units has been a huge gripe of mine for years. The Carrier and Thor should never have been in WoL. And now they're desperate to force broken units like the Reaper to work somehow. Its depressing, frankly.

[Jconant]

It might be a problem, but I see this unit as an alternative to marauders if terrans want to make a mech army against zerg.

a terran would have to if they want to counter the "defiler" spell that effect bio units only.

[DemolitionSquid]

It might be a problem, but I see this unit as an alternative to marauders if terrans want to make a mech army against zerg.

a terran would have to if they want to counter the "defiler" spell that effect bio units only.

Interesting point about Blinding Cloud. They really do seem to be giving Terran a "Factory Marauder." I'm really not sure how I feel about this.

[Aldrius]

And the battle helion, basically just the campaign firebat in disguise.

Except it converts from a Hellion. Which actually is a huge difference and makes the Battle Hellion a whole lot more useful than a Firebat. (It's also mechanical.)

Honestly the Battle Hellion is more to provide the Hellion with late game use. The Hellion is just too fragile to be useful in large numbers in the late game. (When you're trying to kill like 30 Hydras or whatever.) Battle Hellion mode lets them be used as meatshields at worst, and lets them get close enough to kill the Hydras at best.

And when you don't need that, you can convert them back into hellions and use them for harassment.

I thought you could only build one Thor now, when did this change?

Dunno, but the Mothership is back in the game, so presumably that's why.

I think they should really just cut the Thor and give it's stuff to the Warhound (mainly it's air attack). The Thor is such dead weight at this point.

(Personally okay with them trying to fix up the Reaper, though. Good aesthetic and mechanics, worth salvaging!)

[RamiZ]

Except that Reaper now is even less useful than before, because they are slow while Queens have 5 range. The only thing that I really disliked from previous Alpha stage, is that Reaper is getting "healing out of combat" ability. Without their speed, they are too slow, and will be killed a lot more often than staying alive with low health, and now they don't even have grenade attack to snipe creep tumors, or destroy buildings that are in the making.
I feel like that they are trying something that won't work at all. When I watched TvZ HOTS battle report, the Terran opened with 4-5 Reapers, while Zerg had 3-4 Queens, and Reapers were completely shut down. They did some minimal damage, but even with micro, and healing, they killed like 5-6 workers, or something like that, and for what? For the cost of 3-4 Reapers?

About the Warhound, I don't know, I feel satisfied with the unit, even tough it doesn't have real purpose in TvZ, it still is mechanical, so Blinding Cloud doesn't work on it, has pretty good HP and damage for its cost. I like that Terran will have to change strategies, and that they will start to play mech with Thors/Vikings/Tanks/Hellions/Mines/Warhounds. And I really like that they have changed the look of the Warhound, it looks really good now.