Hellions the new Vulture?

[DemolitionSquid]

No they don't.

Indeed. Hydralisks are classified as light so they take 14 and then 24 damage with Igniter from Hellions.

[Hammy]

Not everyone has to skill to own hydra with hellions though. You need to watch out for that theorycrafting. Without critical mass, and with a decent spread, the hydra will do very well.

[DemolitionSquid]

Hellion
100 Min
90 HP
14 (24) Damage
Range 6
Attack Speed 2.5

Hydralisk
100 Min, 50 gas
80 HP
12 Damage
Range 5 (6)
Attack Speed 0.75

A Hellion will kill a Hydra in 6 shots, then 4 shots
A Hydra will kill a Hellion in 8 shots, at 3 times the attack speed of the Hellion

Unsurprisingly, the more expensive Hydra will win straight up if both units aren't microed. But WITH a little micro, the Hellions superior movement speed to avoid the Hydras 3x attack speed, and its splash damage, make both grouped and lone Hydralisks nothing but toast. Anyone beyond bronze will never have any trouble microing Hellions against Hydras.

[GRUNT]

Not everyone has to skill to own hydra with hellions though. You need to watch out for that theorycrafting. Without critical mass, and with a decent spread, the hydra will do very well.

I gotta say that this isn't true . I learned the hard way very early in the beta that even a-moving Hellions into Hydras is very good for the Hellions. The only way Hydras will appear to be cost-effective against Hellions is in a small engagement where the Hydras are all spread out and are not very effected by the Hellion's crossfire, or if there are a good number more Hydras than Hellions.

[mikill]

I hate Hellions in TvP, most toss players like stalkers and they just aren't the unit for my hellions. I usually only use hellions for zerg. ............MMMMM........TOASTY ZERGLINGS...*drools*

[dejai]

Speedling into Hydralisk can effectively counter Hellions if done correctly. 2 spine crawlers with speedlings in the front on creep to trap the Hellions with hydras will work for the early / early-mid game and then perhaps a transition into roach is a safe bet if you fear more hellions. Roaches are not really just a direct counter to Hellions unless placed in defensive positions simply due to the speed and range disadvantage. As zerg I like to move out from my choke and spreed the creep, advance my spine crawlers with plenty of roaches, some hydras (depends on opponents composition) and lots of speedlings. With Hellion play it is extremely positional based and if you try defend in the choke you will get owned.

Some good plays by Artosis in his second asian replay pack and games of painuser vs TLO(as zerg) really show how a good zerg player can deal with hellions. One of the more important issues is if you want to use hydras against hellions IMO you need creep to back your play up. Speedlings can catch Hellions on creep but not off creep and if the lings get a surround they die pretty quickly. It is reasonably micro intensive though as your lings need to not get burned in the process. Infestors and fungal growth will destroy whole armies of hellions as you can trap them and just rush them with speedlings.

Hellions should fear speedlings on creep and not get too ambitious.

[TheEconomist]

There was a time not too long ago when Vultures weren't used very much either. Give it time.

[dejai]

The Hellion can kite zeals forever and with ok micro can actually defeat large forces of them. With pre-igniter they can take on a stalker mix.

[Twilice]

Pre igniter only works vs light units.

[hyde]

Hellions are too easily countered. They are weak. Mutalisks trash them, easily. Roaches trash them. Queens are not bad against them. Spine crawlers kill them. Hydralisks kill them.
Wow.
Basically, they are only good against massed zerglings.

Newb.
Pre-Ignition Hellions destroy Hydralisks. Obviously mutalisks own them...because they're dedicated ground units -_-??... Jesus that's why you have other units....


Uh yah hellions are weak...they are attack bikes....that's why you have a battalion of tanks backing them up..you drive around, piss their forces off and draw em into firing range and smoke them. Mix up your units and those hellions will really shine.