Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm’s new units have been
unveiled
at Major League Gaming’s Anaheim Championship this weekend, and I’ve
just had a chance to play with them. Read on for advanced tactics* with
the new toys from a master of the game**.
*Hah!
**Hahaha!
1
New Terran Unit: Widow Mine
The Widow Mine replaces the cut Shredder. Like that unit, it’s a
small, autonomous spidery thing, designed to allow Terran players to
hold down sections of the map. But unlike that unit, it doesn’t seem to
have the potential to be game-breakingly unfair. Widow Mines have to
burrow before use; once in the ground, they’ll hop up and attach
themselves to the legs/body/horrible gelatinous eye of anything that
passes over them, before kicking off a short timer. Once the timer
reaches zero, they burst, doing mad amounts of damage (currently 200) to
their target. I tried building an army of fifty of them and scuttling
into my foe’s base. It didn’t go so well – they don’t target buildings,
and he’d built a few Photon Cannons at the front to detect cloaked or
burrowed units.
2
New Terran Unit: Battle Hellion
How to make anything better: add the word ‘battle’ to the front. The
Battle Hellion is still a Hellion, but now comes out of the factory in
its bipedal battle mode. Slower, fatter, and tougher, the Battle Hellion
parps out its superheated gas in a short cone rather than a straight
line. I parked five of them on my opponent’s ramp, stopping his
Zerglings from escaping and roasting them before they could pull back.
On the defensive, a gang of them morphed into waddle-mode stopped a
minimal counter-push in a way vanilla Hellions never would.
3
New Terran Unit: Warhound
The Warhound’s had its application changed heavily since its Blizzcon
outing. There it was replacement therapy for the Thor, shooting down
clumps of Mutalisks. Now it’s turned into a dedicated siegebreaker, its
rockets auto-targeting nearby mechanical units and turning them to
scrap. It also does well in a robo-fist fight, hand-mounted cannons
popping Zerg Roaches in moments. Coupled with the Battle Hellion, I can
see a new mini-mech style of Terran vs. Terran play emerging: a roving
band of commandos punching through defences and raiding bases. A sort of
halfway house between long, static Siege Tank lines and the drop-heavy
bio builds we see players like MMA pull off.
4
New Protoss Unit: Tempest
A Tempest upgrade can increase its range to a staggering 22. That’s
from one side of your Starcraft screen to the other. Think of it like a
glowing blue version of the Brood Lord, designed to pick apart turtling
players. I built up a fleet of seven Tempests and floated them miles off
the coast of my foe’s base. Moments later, I’d won the game, his troops
reformed into so much blue goo. In groups, they look to be
devastatingly powerful, but they’re also prohibitively expensive and
need to be supported by ground units: their sparkly weapons don’t do
much damage on their own.
5
New Protoss Unit: Oracle
The Oracle’s perhaps the most interesting of HotS’s new units. A
floating spellcaster, each of its abilities could be devastating in the
hands of a player like Genius. Most annoying for Zerg and Terrans will
be the Oracle’s ‘entomb’ spell, letting it tie up mineral patches and
restrict their mining for a time. It’s possible to destroy the glowing
prisms the Oracle coats your precious minerals with, but any Protoss
using the tactic extensively will mean you’ll need to leave a few troops
at home to crack through the coating. Oracles can also cloak nearby
units, albeit at a heavy energy cost. Stealth assaults will necessitate
an increase in detection: fortunately, the Oracle has that covered too –
it can use its ‘preordain’ ability to make any friendly building a
detector, spotting hidden and burrowed units. Game Director Dustin
Browder suggested that this gives Protoss more options when it comes to
openings, being able to use the Oracle to detect gambits like a Dark
Templar rush without being forced to invest in Robotics Bay technology.
6
New Protoss Unit: Mothership Core
After a few games with it, I started to use the Protoss’ new
Mothership Core like a Terran’s Orbital Command upgrade: I grabbed it
early. It’s a more offensive option than that upgrade, allowing Protoss
players to morph a whacking great cannon on their chosen Nexus to defend
against early attacks. It also comes packaged with the Mothership’s
Mass Recall ability, allowing Protoss poking in the early-mid game.
Previously, any Protoss force was committed to its attack, Sentries and
such too slow to retreat. Now, Browder hopes players will be willing to
commit their floaty, no-mouthed spacemen to early engagements, safe in
the knowledge they can be yanked out of battle. It also spurred me on to
actually use the Mothership – when you’ve got a large chunk of it
hovering in the centre of your view, it tends to stick in your mind.
7
New Zerg Unit: Swarm Host
Controlling a Spawn Host is horrible. Their horrible back spots burst
when they’re burrowed, making them look like an infected strawberry.
Nonetheless, they’re useful as siegebreakers, or as their own siege
unit. Browder said he wanted Zerg players to have a chance to capitalise
on successes, taking parts of the map as their own instead of being
forced to expand willy-nilly. Park a few Spawn Hosts outside an enemy
base and you’ll annoy the face off a Siege Tanking Terran, eventually
forcing him out to deal with your disgusting friends. From there, it’s
easy to send in the Zerglings and surround the cleanup troops.
8
New Zerg Unit: Viper
The Viper feels like a floating Infestor in tone, but with less of a
direct-damage focus. It’s been seemingly built to mess with Terran
armies: the ‘blinding cloud’ ability reduces biological unit range to 1,
and the ‘abduct’ spell lets it pull enemy units out of position. Both
Marine/Marauder drop-heavy and Siege Tank focused Terrans find a counter
in the Viper, even if its giant licky tongue can’t directly hurt
anything on the battlefield.
9
Altered Zerg Unit: Ultralisk
The Ultralisk remains as powerfully huge as ever, but he’s now learnt
how to muscle his way past pesky Marines. Press C and aim your Ultras
forward and they’ll hurtle underground like a chitinous torpedo. It
renders ramp defence pointless, allowing large quantities of Starcraft
2′s biggest monsters access to the heart of your base. But,
realistically, Ultras are a late game unit choice, meaning the HotS
change is one to reduce Zerg annoyance – Ultras would happily clump
around single units they should be able to trample over – rather than
add a new unit function.
