Ultralisks Role?

[mr. peasant]

I say bring back the Omegalisk and give it an attack attribute where upon acquiring a target (a la Charge), the Omegalisk shoots out a tentacle that impales it into place (worth one attack's damage); thereby allowing the Omegalisk to take its time to close the gap.

[Eligor]

I say bring back the Omegalisk and give it an attack attribute where upon acquiring a target (a la Charge), the Omegalisk shoots out a tentacle that impales it into place (worth one attack's damage); thereby allowing the Omegalisk to take its time to close the gap.

If the Omegalisk/Ultralisk needs to "take its time" to close the gap, won't it defeat the whole idea of a charge?

Besides, still doesn't solve the problem of large groups of infantry and isn't it really just a glorified missile attack?

[mr. peasant]

What I'm suggesting is that the tentacle immobilises the unit; allowing the Omegalisk to close in the gap and preventing it from simply kiting it. You could even increase the number to the closest two (making three immobilised units) to increase its effectiveness against groups of fodder units.

[XSOLDIER]

Maybe Ultralisks need a "Charge/Trample" ability that simultaneously does two things:
A. quickly brings them closer to large/armoured/vehicle targets such as Siege Tanks dealing to those targets instant damage in the range of 100 to 150 on impact.
B. Severely damages/kills any infantry units in the path of the Ultralisk's charge (in a sort of "lawnmower" fashion, the Ultralisk's charge would leave behind it a swath of dead infantry units if it charges through thick clusters of them).


Differentiating it from Zealot's "Charge" will be several things:
1. It will be a manually cast ability with a significant cooldown that you won't be able to use all that often.
2. It will have a significantly greater range (perhaps as great as the extent of a zoomed out camera) with the only obstacles capable of stopping the Ultralisk being buildings, cliffs and large/non-infantry/vehicle units.

All in all such an ability would outbalance the Ultralisk's native weaknesses helping it deal both with such heavy units as Siege Tanks and Immortals as well as large clusters of Marines and Marauders (the cooldown could always be tweaked to keep it from being abusable and overpowered).

I think some combination of our ideas might work. I think that wherever it stops, it attacks in a full AoE, but it deals it's structure damage as a Head Thrust (makes sense when charging), followed by thier normal Kaiser Blades attack to all the enemy targets in range (possibly double Head Thrust damage to structures). That way, you don't directly have to target a unit for it to charge at, you can target a location, and run them forward when dealing with force fields, and still affect anything within range of where they stop.

You want the Ultralisks to be able to open up blacked paths for the other Zerg to charge in behind, thus bumping smaller units out of the way, and dealing smaller damage to them, thus taking a small disadvantage in damage to those units, for the opportunity of opening up force fields and allowing them to penetrare and attack. As for dealing heavy damage to / killing infantry units, I think that with the Ultralisk's recently increased speed, as well as a fast linear charge ability ending with a small AoE hit, they should be much more capable of dealing with some of the problematic things they run in to now such reaching close clusters of units / single heavy units.


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[Operatoring]

Melee was ruined in SC2 by perfect unit blobs and the introduction of ranged tanks. They need to get rid of all this hard counter bullshit, make Melee tanks again, and start making dynamic unit counters that work based on usage/skill rather than stats and bonuses.

[Eligor]

I think some combination of our ideas might work. I think that wherever it stops, it attacks in a full AoE, but it deals it's structure damage as a Head Thrust (makes sense when charging), followed by thier normal Kaiser Blades attack to all the enemy targets in range (possibly double Head Thrust damage to structures). That way, you don't directly have to target a unit for it to charge at, you can target a location, and run them forward when dealing with force fields, and still affect anything within range of where they stop.

You want the Ultralisks to be able to open up blacked paths for the other Zerg to charge in behind, thus bumping smaller units out of the way, and dealing smaller damage to them, thus taking a small disadvantage in damage to those units, for the opportunity of opening up force fields and allowing them to penetrare and attack. As for dealing heavy damage to / killing infantry units, I think that with the Ultralisk's recently increased speed, as well as a fast linear charge ability ending with a small AoE hit, they should be much more capable of dealing with some of the problematic things they run in to now such reaching close clusters of units / single heavy units.




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Agreed on all counts.

The ability to target ground as well as specific units is most useful. The amount of damage dealt to infantry during the charge should probably be in direct proportion to the cooldown (shorter cooldown -> less damage), and yes, bumping them out of the way if they're not killed.

What I'm suggesting is that the tentacle immobilises the unit; allowing the Omegalisk to close in the gap and preventing it from simply kiting it. You could even increase the number to the closest two (making three immobilised units) to increase its effectiveness against groups of fodder units.

I think it's a little too reminiscent of WC III Mountain King's Stormbolt and still may not be effective enough. A Charge on the other hand encourages micro and more dynamic battles since it's not going to be as effective if the enemy player takes the effort to keep his infantry units scattered.

[n00bonicPlague]

They should let certain friendly zerg units walk under them by default: Drones, Broodlings, Zerglings, Banelings, Roaches, Hydras, and possibly even Infestors, though that last one may be considered too big (plus it can already move under stuff while burrowed). This trait alone would vastly increase the protection it offers other units. Wanna be able to focus-fire my Hydras? Gotta take out my Ultralisk first!

I will say that the Frenzy ability is a valiant effort, but it's not enough imo, plus it's obscenely obvious that the only unit it's for is the Ultralisk. I think that ability should get removed and the Ultralisk should get its 600 HP back, along with the ability to let certain friendly ground units walk under it.

[mr. peasant]

Perhaps. But under what premise (a.k.a. unit tag such as 'massive') would that fall under?

[n00bonicPlague]

Perhaps. But under what premise (a.k.a. unit tag such as 'massive') would that fall under?

What is this "that" that you speak of?

You even talkin' to me?

[XSOLDIER]

Agreed on all counts.

The ability to target ground as well as specific units is most useful. The amount of damage dealt to infantry during the charge should probably be in direct proportion to the cooldown (shorter cooldown -> less damage), and yes, bumping them out of the way if they're not killed.

This also deals with the issue of 2v2 bumping friendly non-Z units away, so that there aren't just Zerg-specific units that Ultralisks can bypass, but they get stopped up by your ally's random SCV/Marine. Essentially it's a simple ability that can be applied universally. It would be blocked by structures, sieged Siege Tanks, and likely other Massive Units.

Again, my main thinking here is something that's not a passive ability, but something that adds in some strategy / micro for the Ultralisk, while still leaving it as a really large unit that can run into pathing / collision issues and block off units normally.

With the last patch not touching Ultra's, I'm wondering what Blizz thinks of their current status, or if there's even been enough time to test it...


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