Benwa collected the following information regarding the GC 2008 build at ESL Finals 2009 in Paris, France:

All games were limited to 30 minutes, and there were 10-15 computers with the game. One of the Blizzard staff mentioned the next battle report, and said that we will be very pleased with it. This might be an indicator that battle report 2 is coming closer to completion.

Be advised that the build playable there is older than BlizzCon 2008, it is the GC 2008 build. There is no Nighthawk, just the Nomad with the Turrets which cost energy and the Queen is still a unique unit like the Mothership. There is nothing new about the macro system, it reverted to the mechanic where it’s necessary to pay 100 minerals and refresh your geyser. There is only one version of Dark Templar in this build as well.

There is a strange UI feature which I haven’t noticed before. When you "ctrl" select units as groups under "1-2-3..", there is a little icon which shows up with the number of your group, the number of units in it, and a wireframe of one of the units. It's just above the space where you see the details of a unit you have selected.

I had a good TvT against another player. Missile Turrets detect invisible units and Sensor Towers have a really huge field of vision. You can see the opponent's towers as well. Ghosts are powerful units when cloaked, they can destroy a Siege Tank really fast. Nukes are still fun like in the original StarCraft and Battlecruisers are very very powerful units, and really expensive
too 400 minerals, 300 vespene. But with four of them I managed to destroy an army of Marines and Vikings.

In addition, a burrowed unit near a Xel-Naga tower does not activate it!

Protoss

What is the Void Ray's magnitude of effectiveness over structures and units?
Benwa: I did not manage to use this unit correctly, the range is very short but the unit is very deadly when used stealthily on a building. If you micro against them well they wont do squat.

Hammy: Well the Protoss seemed to have many "assist" units like Void Ray, Carriers, Collossi and stuff like that. So basically the Void Rays were great at doing damage, but pretty fragile, and if you micro against them they wont do squat unless they have an army around them. Somehow they had the same feel to them as the Colossi, but one is specialized versus low hitpoint units, and the other versus high hitpoint units.

What is Warp-In's cooldown period and initial research cost?
The research cost is 50/50 and 35 seconds. The cooldown after you warp a unit is the same length for the unit to be built normally.

How large is the High Templar's Psi Storm area of effect and second ability usage.
It's small, much smaller than in the original. It makes it harder to use (but Zerg players are gonna be happy). It's not as large as a ramp for example.

What does 5 x 2 damage mean for Interceptors? Does that mean Interceptors make two passes before returning, or are they actually dealing 10 damage to unarmored opponents?
It's something many units have. It means the unit shoots a unit twice in a row for 10 damage. But if the unit attacked has 1 damage reduction, it will take only 8 damage [(5-1)*2]. It's important because many big units like the Mothership and Thor make a lot of damage in one shot.

Does the Immortal prevent all but 10 damage, or 20?
Benwa: I'm not sure, I used an Immortal to shoot another but the Immortal does 30 damage against an armored unit, and my other Immortal took only 10 damage, so I don't know if they prevent 20 damage or just take 10 damage for all attacks higher than 10.

Hammy: I don't have the exact values, but i can tell you that Immortals are really great. They hard counter tanks and hydra and stuff, but they are still useful in your army when you're fighting roaches or marauders. In my opinion, it's working out really well to have split the old dragoon in two functions (stalker and immortal)

Unit Stats

Colossus
HP: 300
Shields: 150
Supply: 6
Built by: Robotics Facility
Damage: 20
Bonus: none
Range: 7 (+2 with upgrade)
Armor: 1 armored

Nullifier
HP: 40
Shields: 40
Supply: 2
Built by: Gateway (with Cybernetic Core)
Damage: 5
Bonus: +5 vs shield
Range: 5
Armor: 1 light
Abilities: Force Field and Anti-Gravity

Phoenix
HP: 120
Shields: 60
Supply: 2
Built by: Stargate
Damage: 10*2
Bonus: none
Range: 4
Armor: 0 light
Abilities: Overload

Carrier
HP: 250
Shields: 150
Supply: 6
Built by: Stargate (with Fleet Beacon)
Damage: 5*2 (8 Interceptors)
Bonus: None
Range: --
Armor: 4 armored

Mothership
HP: 600
Shields: 600
energy : 1000
Supply: 0
Speed: "slow as hell"
Built by: Nexus
Damage: 8*8
Bonus: no
Range: 7
Armor: 4 armored

Archon
HP: 10
Shields: 300
Supply: 4
Built by: Templar, Dark Templar
Damage: 35
Bonus:
Range: 2
Armor: 0 light

Can the Thor be transported?
Definitely not.

How much bonus hp does having a shield grant the Marine?
10(from 45 to 55), for a cost of 150//150

Does the Planetary Fortress gain extra hp over a Command Center?
No, it stays at 1500hp, and I did not see if it gains armor. This building is really frightening, it has saved my life against a bunch of Zealots. It doesn't attack air.

Does the Tech Lab still upgrade infantry weapon and armor?
The Tech Lab has the following upgrades: Stimpacks, Shields for Marines, and Mines for Reapers.

What does the Engineering Bay upgrade/research now?
Infantry weapons and armor. However the Engineering Bay could no longer fly in this build!

What is the Thors missile pod attack description?
No text, the air attack is not the same as the normal attack. It's 4 attacks, each do 4 damage (+2 against armored)

Nighthawk, costs for all three deployed machines, energy or resources.
Still called the Nomad. Three deployavbles are Turret, Spider Mines, Targeting Drone. (No information was provided regarding costs)

Is the Battlecruiser overpowered and are its abilities useful?
The yamato and the air barrage are a must have. There is no need to research them, just choose one or the other for each battlecruiser you have. Really strong and expensive unit.

Do Missile Turrets detect now, or still need help from a sensor tower?
Missile Turrets detect invisible units. So do Sensor Towers, but you only see the red dot on the map, so you always need a Missile Turret.

Do units rallied to a Bunker enter the Bunker?
Yes, and into a Dropship too. You just need the bunker to be already built, if not they stay next to it.

Unit Stats

Medivac Dropship
HP: 150
Energy : 200
Supply: 2
Built by: Starport
Damage: none
Bonus: none
Range: none
Armor: 1 Armored
Abilities: heal one biological unit at the time

How do the Hydralisk and Roach fare together?
Benwa: In this build you can't really compare theses two units. One is Tier 1 the other is Tier 2. Hydralisks can attack air units, Roachs can't. On paper the Hydralisk is much better than the Roach. When I first heard about the fast regeneration of the Roach, I was wondering "how fast?". Well, I have the answer now, fast means rediculously fast! I created a duel between a Hydralisk and Roach on creep (Hydralisk does 13 dmg, Roach has 80hp), before the Hydralisk shoot a second time, the roach was already on full health. If you don't try to micro vs them in early game, you're dead meat. And in a ZvZ game, it's a powerful attack unit, with 6 of them I managed to kill so many Zerglings, which was pretty impressive (and I'm not really good at that).

Hammy:As a Zerg player, Hydralisks were a huge disappointment. Not only are they tier 2... but they cost a whooping 100 gas. Basically i treated them as designated GtA units, and expensive ones at that. They got completely obliterated by any form of melee units or small units. Their damage was good though, so i guess the "large" group of Hydras I made at some point worked well with the Roaches as long as they weren't getting hit. I tried to soak up the damage by microing my Roaches and the Hydras did damage. However that wasn't a very realistic situation since i just had a bigger army than he did.

To sum up: Hydras shouldn't be treated as Hydras anymore. I'm not saying they are bad, but they are just highly specialized units. They would get crushed by Zealots or Immortals for example (they activate hardened shields). On the other hand any air unit wouldn't stand a chance.

However Roaches are simply awesome. They work really well with Zerglings and Bbanelings, are cheap, fast, really cool to micro around and just overall awesome.

Tell us about the Overlord creep and current transport tactic.
Benwa: Awesome! When you evolve your Hatchery into a Lair, your Overlord can "drop" creep. The Overlord must stay still to continue to drop the creep, otherwise it slowly disappears. You can use that to spawn a Nydus Worm and unleash one billion Banelings into the enemy base! How joyful. When the creep disappears, the Nydus Worm will slowly die.

Hammy: Again, just awesome. Overlords have got two abilities: the first is to spout creep for an unlimited time. This spell doesn't cost anything and can be used anytime. When toggled the Overlord just keeps on spitting creep under it (you have to toggle it off to be able to move your Overlord again). Concerning Overlord transport... I'm pretty sure they don't have any in this build (but I'm pretty sure i read something online saying that their transport ability was back). Honestly, who cares about Overlord transport when you have a Nydus Network!! This is just amazing: you build the network (it's a building) when you hit Lair, proceed to hotkey it... and then just enjoy placing Nydus Worms all over the map, wherever you've got creep (or an Overlord making creep). Sure each Worm costs 100min, but it's still great. It only takes a few seconds to build each Worm. After that, all you've got to do is rally each hatchery to the closest Nydus worm (the nydus network counts as a canal) and your new units will automatically load up into this "virtual network". Once loaded, just select any Worm and hit "unload" and your units pop out. I couldn't think of an easier way to reinforce or move around your army. If you're attacking a Zerg you don't even need an Overlord to put creep down. And it's relatively early in tech.

Do you know how Nydus works in this version?
You build the building in Tier 2 and using this building you can build a nydus worm anywhere on creep, it will stay until it's destroyed (and the way it dies is neat), you don't need to send a Drone anymore. After that you can load your units into any Nydus (the building you create or another worm!) and unload to any other worm.

How much extra control does an Overseer give?
Benwa: Can't say, the tooltip says it does but it seemed to be bugged.

Hammy: I don't think it gives any more control.

Does the Infestor produce Infested Terrans, or Infested Marines?
Benwa: Marines, 7 or 8, even from Zerg buildings, they have an attack which does 6 dmg at 5 range.

Hammy: It produces Infested Marines. Even if you infest an enemy Hatchery, it will make an Infested Marine. However I think you can only infest production buildings.

Unit Stats

Infestor
HP: 120
Damage: no
Bonus: no
Range: no
Armor: 0 light
Abilities: same as Defiler in StarCraft: Brood War, no Consume but can Infest buildings.

Lurker
HP: 125
Supply: 2
Built by: Hydralisk
Damage: 10
Bonus: +20 vs armored
Range: 7
Armor: 1 armored

Swarm Guardian
HP: 200
Supply: 2
Built by: Mutalisk
Damage: 25
Bonus: no
Range: 8
Armor: 2 armored

This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/)
ESL Pro Series Finals 2009 feature article.

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