Fan Site Q&A #5 - SC2Armory

[Gradius]

The fifth Blizzard fansite Q&A, SC2Armory's, is out:

1) Blizzard, how attached are you guys to the proton charge/mule extra macro-for-money system? I know nothing is set in stone at this point, but will these mechanics in all likelihood make it into the final game? - Voan
This is a mechanic that we would like to keep if possible. Because the game is not yet in beta phase, there may still be tweaks and changes to these mechanics, but we are looking forward to players trying it out themselves in beta. We will continue testing the macro mechanics internally and we really want to see how the players will adopt these mechanics into their gameplay.

2) With missile barrage and Yamato cannon, Battlecruisers' can deal with most threats. My question is, how effectively can a Battlecruiser be countered? How well do Hydralisks, Void Rays, and Vikings work vs Missile barrage? - camelmeat
Hydralisks are easily the Zerg's most important ground unit against air, including Battlecruisers. Void rays can be a good Protoss counter for battlecruiser, with focused fire and increasing damage over time on its attack. In fighter mode, the Terran viking does +10 damage against massive units like the battlecruiser.

3) Brood War Mutalisk micromanagement is an important aspect of the Terran vs. Zerg match up. Blizzard has been reported to be trying to implement some form of the Mutalisk stacking bug. My question is, how well do Terrans deal with stacked Mutalisks now that Irradiate is no longer in the game, Medics are higher tier, and a single control group can consist of much more then the eleven Mutalisks currently in StarCraft: Brood War? - Ursus
The ghost's snipe shot, which deals 60 damage (and ignores armor) to biological units like the mutalisk, can be a good defensive ability. The Thor's anti-air attack also has +2 damage against Mutalisk's Light armor. Additionally, the nighthawk's hunter seeker missile gives splash damage, making it a great counter against mutalisk stacking, considering it does 150 damage. One missile can effectively 1-shot a whole stack of mutalisks if the zerg player does not try to dodge the missile. Even though players can group up many more than 12 mutalisks in a stack now, with abilities like the Hunter Seeker missile on the field, they may still want to think twice about it.

4) When the Corrupters attack turns enemy flyers into "turrets" does the unit turned effect damage? In other words would a corrupted mutalisk do any less damage than a corrupted Battlecruiser or Mothership? - Warchamp
Once they are corrupted, all corrupted units will do the same damage.

5) If the Zerg Infestor uses neural parasite on a unit, will that unit still have all upgrades / abilities if the player researched them? - 5c012ch3d
Yes, the parasited unit will have all upgrades / abilities.

6) Goliath could benefit from the Charon Boosters in SC:BW, However the Goliath is now replaced by the Viking (air mode) as AtA unit. Is there still any range increase going to happen for the Viking, to extend it's missile range like the Goliath, or is it presumed unnecessary because Vikings can truly fly (and thus not limited in mobility)? - Scourge
There is currently no range upgrade for the viking. However, vikings can still move in and out combat by shifting modes. In regards to the unit's mobility, vikings will be much better than the original StarCraft's goliath due to its new transformation abilities.

7) When we were told EMP was removed from the Ghost, it wasn't mentioned what, if any, spell/ability would replace it. Can you comment on the current spells and abilities of the Ghost? And is EMP still a possibility for the game, whether on the Ghost or any other unit? - Dillinger
The ghost has regained the EMP ability again and EMP now does 100 damage to shields and drains all energy from player's own and enemy units in the targeted area.

8) Can Blizzard give a well detailed explanation on how the new mechanic of the ability hallucination work. It was said that it can spawn 8 fake probes, how many then to other units? Zealots, stalkers, immortals, air units? Can it be used on allies (Zerg and Terrans)? -spartan198
By using 100 energy, you can spawn one of these sets: 2 zealots, 2 stalkers, 1 immortal, 2 high templars, 1 archon, 1 void ray, 1 phoenix, 1 warp prism, or 1 colossus. You can only spawn Protoss units.

Source:
SC2Armory - Fansite Q&A 5: SC2A

[Perfecttear]

At least I now finally know that HSM can attack air units. Nothing seems to be safe from it.

[Bisso]

hsm sounds like the new valkerie against air to me. Very interesting

[SpiderBrigade]

I think HSM as an updated version of Irradiate is awesome. It keeps the ability to one-shot most Zerg units, and potentially take out massed troops with splash. It's still on a detector which gives you good synergy. But now it's not a guaranteed kill even on the unit you cast it on - the enemy can run away (assuming they deal with the point-blank-casting issue...).

[sandwich_bird]

The question now is "how well can muta dodge the HSM? TBH I hate the fact that they are trying to still keep the damn muta ball. My opinion is kinda bias since I'm more of a Terran player but I would like them to remove the glitch. It's too much of an easy op noob killer, even more than a 4 pool (most players can overcome the 4 pool ling rush easily but I can't say the same for the mutaball). Furthermore, apparently the marines don't have their range upgrade anymore, countering mutas should be even harder if you don't have a nighthawk ready yet.

[DemolitionSquid]

The question now is "how well can muta dodge the HSM? TBH I hate the fact that they are trying to still keep the damn muta ball. My opinion is kinda bias since I'm more of a Terran player but I would like them to remove the glitch. It's too much of an easy op noob killer, even more than a 4 pool (most players can overcome the 4 pool ling rush easily but I can't say the same for the mutaball). Furthermore, apparently the marines don't have their range upgrade anymore, countering mutas should be even harder if you don't have a nighthawk ready yet.

Mutas separate much more than in SC2, and the Mutaball is limited to 23. A single Thor is enough to deter the formation of a Mutaball. I think it'll be OK.

[RolleR_RATM]

The most interesting thing here (my opinion at least) is the new function of the EMP. in the current build it removes 100 points of shiled from a protoss unit (or a group of units in radius) . Now this can be a more tacical choice than in SC:BW, because u must decide that "WHEN" and "WHICH" enemy force should suffer from a succesful EMP attack.

in SC:BW (mainly in TvP matchups) pro gamers used EMP to nullify the energy on ARBITERS (it is basically a micro-managed counter to STASIS FIELD).

it seems a little more "nerfed" if we comapre it with the EMP from SC:BW, but it is more competitive, now protoss players have to decide when to use EMP in SC2 (assuming u dont want to drain only the energy, but u want to drain the shields of critical enemy units too)....

may change during the BETA, but it is interesting for sure.

sorry for non perfect english :S

[Nicol Bolas]

the Mutaball is limited to 23

No, it isn't. You can't have more than 24 in a control group (I don't know where 23 comes from), but you can select as many units as you want.

[DemolitionSquid]

No, it isn't. You can't have more than 24 in a control group (I don't know where 23 comes from), but you can select as many units as you want.

Muta-stacking (as it is in SC1) can only be accomplished through hotkeys. You can only have 11 Mutas stacked because you need the 12th spot to be another unit (like a Larva). Because Blizzard is fully aware of the Mutaball problem I hypothesize that the "24 to a hotkey" in SC2 exists to keep it at bay. By making Muta-stacking work like in SC1 where it requires the hotkey and the selection limit is unimportant (ie. 6 Mutas won't stack, but 5+ 1 Larva will [even if the limit is 12]), the max stacked Mutas you could have would be 24. Adding that it may potentially require another unit (like a Larva) added into the control group to actually work, we arrive at 23 Mutas.

You can have 255 Mutas selected, but you cannot set them all to one hotkey. They will not stack, and be be too spread out to achieve the purpose of the stacking - make targeting them much harder.

[Nicol Bolas]

Muta-stacking (as it is in SC1) can only be accomplished through hotkeys. You can only have 11 Mutas stacked because you need the 12th spot to be another unit (like a Larva).

Let me make sure I understand this fully.

You expect Blizzard to deliberately implement StarCraft 2 so that when you hotkey Mutalisks with a distant unit, the Mutalisks will clump together more.

Um, no. When they said they were bringing back Muta stacking, they said nothing about making them stack up through some horribly convoluted mechanism like this. Similarly, there is no reason for "patrol" to have any gameplay effects other than what it has (as opposed to SC1, where it apparently makes units fire quickly).

I freely admit that I may be wrong, but I seriously doubt Blizzard implemented Muta stacking that way.