Blizzard recently posted an article here with an update for Heart of the Swarm. Many of the abilities shown in the video have been seen before, but the balance video and changes are below for those who are curious.
Protoss Status
The protoss have access to the "mothership core" unit, which is a stationary caster capable of defending the base and using powerful abilities.
The oracle is back, this time packing a powerful cloaking field.
The tempest returns with a long-range offensive attack.
Terran Status
Battle Hellions are still in the game, and are great at close-combat situations
Warhounds are also still in the game, and excel at taking down mechanical units.
Widow mines can be built at a factory- they attach to nearby foes and then detonate after a few seconds
Zerg Status
Swarm hosts now spawn 2 locusts each, but the locusts are ranged and can hit air targets
The Viper still has it's abduct ability (which uses a tentacle to pull units around) as well as it's blinding cloud
The Ultralisk still has the burrow charge ability, which allows it to move into range quickly
Day[9] was recently invited to blizzard headquarters to commentate on a HotS melee match. You can check it out below.
Tempest's range alone is too good. Tempest needs to be more like terran tank, go siege mode, become immobile, gain range. But I'm glad to see toss gain back a caster with cloak field, poor old decommissioned arbiter finally can be forgotten.
Warhound's strange, apparently the missiles only target mechanical units, ground or air, and fire periodically no matter what. Its main railgun attack works normally.
Zerg Deathgrip looks fun to use, I'm glad they gave them such an ability. I can see the tempest being changed, the sllooww attack and move speed doesn't really make it a great unit, we'll see what happens. New spider mines are kinda interesting i guess, but I think it'll get removed.
Tempest, the new protoss brood lord...great. As if Collis aren't enough trouble already. -_-
Warhounds seem like Zone Raiders from Kane's Wrath.
Collosii are not really a problem to get rid of for zerg any more, and never were for terran, Zerg can now just use the viper to pull Collosii towards them.
Though I hate it because, 1 its cool that it can take out those Seige tanks, but protoss still have no GOOD Anti-Air that is flying, the pheniox, is a good unit, but is terrible vs Mutas, Corruptors, BCs, Carriers, Overlords.... yeah it take slike 10 hits to kill 1 overlord lol.
plus they are not cost effective in the least. 150/100 is a bit much for AA thats not all that great.
Honestly I wish the Tempest was a Transform for the Phoenix, and just keep the carrier. and make the tempest Protoss Tier 5
Also the ultralisk upgrade could have been just a patch, its not expansion worthy.
and finally I wish that the swarm host, were a Mutation of the Roach, That would have been nice too, Maybe make it require an upgraded Roach Warren.
Would have been really cool. And would have been more Zerg like, they dont need new units, they need to Evolve the ones they have, thats the way of the zerg.
P/Z changes are great, Terran not so much, but that's just judging from the two Battle Reports.
Viper will be an every game unit for zerg. Hook will probably be nerfed a bit in some capacity, but it's going to be good regardless. Swarm Hosts also look to be an every game unit, depending on cost. The Hydra upgrade is awesome and long-awaited.
For P, the Oracle was originally a moronic idea when presented last year at Blizzcon, but it's pretty sweet now, honestly. The cloaking field addition is great for early-game pressure, and the unit itself is a good micro unit that will put extra APM requirements into elite P playstyles, which is something that's required in my opinion because P has always been the race involving the least amount of skill and variety in playstyles. Also the Mothership Core is going to make PvP a lot more interesting, which is a lifesaver. PvP is by far the worst matchup but the Core will allow for more economic playstyles. Also a lot of people hate on the Tempest but I really like it, it will never have vision 22 units away so the P will have to use the Oracle's vision ability to let the Tempest do harassment and observers or other means will have to be properly used and microd to make the most of that unit. I think it's a great idea to put in a unit with long range like that, that makes you use your other units effectively to use it properly.
For Terran, the changes are just pathetic really. The Battle Hellion is the only great idea in there, and will be a welcome addition to T players. The Warhound is nice for TvT and will probably open up TvP to more mech playstyles as well as the missiles will dominate Stalker/Colossus compositions and offer alternatives to viking production, but it's just not an interesting unit. Beyond that Protosses will be more Stargate-centric in PvT it looks like anyway, so that may not even be important. The Widow Mine is nice for early game map control, but no pro player is ever going to let a pack of their units get AoE'd by those things and to make them do anything later in the game you'll have to make so many of them that whether it's cost effective or not is a complete wash. They feel like banelings in that regard.
Meanwhile, Terrans still have a massive hole in their endgame arsenal and will still have to try to end games or tilt them heavily in their favor by the 12-14 minute mark. Battlecruisers are still awful, Thors are still pitiful against all Hive tech, Ravens still suck and no other mention-worthy upgrades were added to any T lategame units. Tanks look to be awful with the addition of Tempests, Viper Pull, Blind, and Warhound missiles. Protoss and Zerg got even stronger late-game while T's already-shitty lategame didn't even get looked at. Terran players should be pissed.
P looks like they'll be a lot of fun to play with the new additions. Right now they seem extremely boring and one-dimensional. Can't wait to see their new strategies.
Collosii are not really a problem to get rid of for zerg any more, and never were for terran,.
No way lol...
You don't really see mech in TvP because it gets hard countered by robo so hard that it's not even funny. So basically it's almost always bio (with tanks, vikings or ghosts thrown in). Vikings are great, but they aren't going to win you a fight every time; there are Stalkers and HTs in the deathball too. So the only options are to stop P getting into lategame by non-stop harass or all in.
I'm glad that mech is getting a buff at least though. With the Warhound and BH it should be more viable instead of having to go bio in every game.
Still, lategame P is getting even better while T is getting more early/midgame buffs. Why not simply nerf T early/mid slightly and buff lategame instead?
plus they are not cost effective in the least. 150/100 is a bit much for AA thats not all that great.
Stargate tech is piss poor atm, that's true. But the Tempest is pretty much that long ranged anti-air and anti-ground unit P have always been asking for. With 22 range, I don't see why P players would be missing the Carrier. It may attack slow, but it lets you kite to your hearts content against Vikings. You won't see that happening with a BC.
I do hope Blizz will actually do something about TvP instead of just acknowledging that there's a "problem" with it. It's still early and things will change, and this is one of the changes that I hope isn't kept.
You spying on me, bro? I typed up the following post when I got the "1 new post was made while you were working on your own." message and your link popped up.
There's no video >.> I get an ad for IE9, and the stream never shows anything after that, except for one of those usual small ads that appear on the bottom after 10 seconds...
I must say, I find this a bit disappointing. First they got rid of the Reaver. Now they're dropping the Carrier, too. Does Blizzard just want me to stop playing Protoss or something?
I do like their ability that shields the minerals so you can't mine.
Is a Warhound's mine going to be visible to the enemy once it attaches to a unit? They should make it so it isn't. The splash damage would only be effective if the other player can't just separate out the units with a mine on them.
I feel you with the iconic units, but Protoss gameplay is going to be totally evolved with the new units they're getting. Stargate openings are going to take a completely different meaning with HotS. Recall will allow for new early aggression builds that Protosses can't currently do because if they do it now, it's basically all-in. They'll have a host of new openings where they can mix aggression with recall, greedy early expansion builds with the mothership core purifier, and even harass openings with Stargate using Oracle/Phoenix.
Going further, the Tempest is actually really awesome for a Tier 3 unit too, because P's will likely almost surely have Stargate tech out anyway by the time they hit the lategame that it would be a pretty natural transition. A group of 4-5 Tempests with the range upgrade will be great for sniping opposing lategame units from distance in engagements. They'll be great for sniping Colossus or HT/Archons in PvP, Broodlords, Vipers, Swarm Hosts or Infestors in PvZ, etc.
I personally hate the Colossus and think it's boring as hell and would rather have the Reaver, it's just way more interesting. But for Carrier vs. Tempest, there's really no way to make the Carrier a good unit without making it too strong. If you increase its range and/or speed/acceleration so that Vikings/Corruptors don't own them, it becomes way too good because of its insanely high DPS. Also interceptors are always going to be terrible versus Marines no matter what you do, and Hydras now that Zerg will be using them a lot once they hit Hive.
The Carrier is just a unit that even if you buff it to be worthwhile, will either be too good in certain situations or terrible in others, and that's not what you want. The Tempest is a really cool concept, will add tons of micro to the game for BOTH players, and has tons of different uses. So while nostalgia would tell you that keeping the Carrier is a must, it's really just a unit that doesn't fit in with Starcraft 2.
Is a Warhound's mine going to be visible to the enemy once it attaches to a unit? They should make it so it isn't. The splash damage would only be effective if the other player can't just separate out the units with a mine on them.
That'd make them grossly OP. They'd basically be free banelings with no real counter other than ALWAYS keeping ALL your units spread out.
Going further, the Tempest is actually really awesome for a Tier 3 unit too, because P's will likely almost surely have Stargate tech out anyway by the time they hit the lategame that it would be a pretty natural transition. A group of 4-5 Tempests with the range upgrade will be great for sniping opposing lategame units from distance in engagements. They'll be great for sniping Colossus or HT/Archons in PvP, Broodlords, Vipers, Swarm Hosts or Infestors in PvZ, etc.
This might make them pretty OP, though. The range is so ridiculous that in late-game, it allows you to do two things;
A) Keep your main army in a good position and harass expo's with 1-2 Tempests from really safe locations. Terran can somewhat counter this with Vikings, but he'll have to send a pretty large force or risk simply losing them to the Tempests.
B) In lategame players can often get in those 'not exactly' engagements where both armies are dancing just out of range with eachother. The Tempest's sick range will mean the Protoss player will pretty much always have an edge in these kind of engagements or at least force his opponent out of position, meaning they'll need to use completely different tactics to stay in the game. On the flipside, this is what top Zerg players like Nestea and top Terran players like Marineking or MC are doing already.
Is a Warhound's mine going to be visible to the enemy once it attaches to a unit? They should make it so it isn't. The splash damage would only be effective if the other player can't just separate out the units with a mine on them.
I guess the timer's model is visible for everyone. Also the widow mine is a unit produced in the factory and does not belong to the Warhound. The mines are produced very fast and can be constructed with a reactor in the build at MLG.
The Widow mine is not free. It is a factory unit. It is cheap, though.
Hmmm, that's strange. I thought Warhounds dropped Widow Mines. I was even pretty sure I saw that happening several times in the new updated video, but you're right - they're shown as completely seperate units there.
In that case the situation changes a bit, and it should definitely be interesting units... Without any sort of indicator it does get a tad hard to deal with them at all though, especially since the only way of scouting them is 'seeing a Reactor Factory that isn't constantly producing Hellions'.
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Curse PremiumHeart of the Swarm Update
Blizzard recently posted an article here with an update for Heart of the Swarm. Many of the abilities shown in the video have been seen before, but the balance video and changes are below for those who are curious.
Day[9] was recently invited to blizzard headquarters to commentate on a HotS melee match. You can check it out below.
Tempest's range alone is too good. Tempest needs to be more like terran tank, go siege mode, become immobile, gain range. But I'm glad to see toss gain back a caster with cloak field, poor old decommissioned arbiter finally can be forgotten.
Warhound's strange, apparently the missiles only target mechanical units, ground or air, and fire periodically no matter what. Its main railgun attack works normally.
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Curse PremiumZerg Deathgrip looks fun to use, I'm glad they gave them such an ability. I can see the tempest being changed, the sllooww attack and move speed doesn't really make it a great unit, we'll see what happens. New spider mines are kinda interesting i guess, but I think it'll get removed.
Tempest, the new protoss brood lord...great. As if Collis aren't enough trouble already. -_-
Warhounds seem like Zone Raiders from Kane's Wrath.
Collosii are not really a problem to get rid of for zerg any more, and never were for terran, Zerg can now just use the viper to pull Collosii towards them.
Though I hate it because, 1 its cool that it can take out those Seige tanks, but protoss still have no GOOD Anti-Air that is flying, the pheniox, is a good unit, but is terrible vs Mutas, Corruptors, BCs, Carriers, Overlords.... yeah it take slike 10 hits to kill 1 overlord lol.
plus they are not cost effective in the least. 150/100 is a bit much for AA thats not all that great.
Honestly I wish the Tempest was a Transform for the Phoenix, and just keep the carrier. and make the tempest Protoss Tier 5
Also the ultralisk upgrade could have been just a patch, its not expansion worthy.
and finally I wish that the swarm host, were a Mutation of the Roach, That would have been nice too, Maybe make it require an upgraded Roach Warren.
Would have been really cool. And would have been more Zerg like, they dont need new units, they need to Evolve the ones they have, thats the way of the zerg.
P/Z changes are great, Terran not so much, but that's just judging from the two Battle Reports.
Viper will be an every game unit for zerg. Hook will probably be nerfed a bit in some capacity, but it's going to be good regardless. Swarm Hosts also look to be an every game unit, depending on cost. The Hydra upgrade is awesome and long-awaited.
For P, the Oracle was originally a moronic idea when presented last year at Blizzcon, but it's pretty sweet now, honestly. The cloaking field addition is great for early-game pressure, and the unit itself is a good micro unit that will put extra APM requirements into elite P playstyles, which is something that's required in my opinion because P has always been the race involving the least amount of skill and variety in playstyles. Also the Mothership Core is going to make PvP a lot more interesting, which is a lifesaver. PvP is by far the worst matchup but the Core will allow for more economic playstyles. Also a lot of people hate on the Tempest but I really like it, it will never have vision 22 units away so the P will have to use the Oracle's vision ability to let the Tempest do harassment and observers or other means will have to be properly used and microd to make the most of that unit. I think it's a great idea to put in a unit with long range like that, that makes you use your other units effectively to use it properly.
For Terran, the changes are just pathetic really. The Battle Hellion is the only great idea in there, and will be a welcome addition to T players. The Warhound is nice for TvT and will probably open up TvP to more mech playstyles as well as the missiles will dominate Stalker/Colossus compositions and offer alternatives to viking production, but it's just not an interesting unit. Beyond that Protosses will be more Stargate-centric in PvT it looks like anyway, so that may not even be important. The Widow Mine is nice for early game map control, but no pro player is ever going to let a pack of their units get AoE'd by those things and to make them do anything later in the game you'll have to make so many of them that whether it's cost effective or not is a complete wash. They feel like banelings in that regard.
Meanwhile, Terrans still have a massive hole in their endgame arsenal and will still have to try to end games or tilt them heavily in their favor by the 12-14 minute mark. Battlecruisers are still awful, Thors are still pitiful against all Hive tech, Ravens still suck and no other mention-worthy upgrades were added to any T lategame units. Tanks look to be awful with the addition of Tempests, Viper Pull, Blind, and Warhound missiles. Protoss and Zerg got even stronger late-game while T's already-shitty lategame didn't even get looked at. Terran players should be pissed.
P looks like they'll be a lot of fun to play with the new additions. Right now they seem extremely boring and one-dimensional. Can't wait to see their new strategies.
No way lol... You don't really see mech in TvP because it gets hard countered by robo so hard that it's not even funny. So basically it's almost always bio (with tanks, vikings or ghosts thrown in). Vikings are great, but they aren't going to win you a fight every time; there are Stalkers and HTs in the deathball too. So the only options are to stop P getting into lategame by non-stop harass or all in.
I'm glad that mech is getting a buff at least though. With the Warhound and BH it should be more viable instead of having to go bio in every game. Still, lategame P is getting even better while T is getting more early/midgame buffs. Why not simply nerf T early/mid slightly and buff lategame instead?
Er...no. They're bad against Corruptors and Vikings. Not mutas. Not at all.
Stargate tech is piss poor atm, that's true. But the Tempest is pretty much that long ranged anti-air and anti-ground unit P have always been asking for. With 22 range, I don't see why P players would be missing the Carrier. It may attack slow, but it lets you kite to your hearts content against Vikings. You won't see that happening with a BC.
I do hope Blizz will actually do something about TvP instead of just acknowledging that there's a "problem" with it. It's still early and things will change, and this is one of the changes that I hope isn't kept.
Taken from TL, HotS TvZ battle report at 2:09.
Edit: it's now at 2:35.
@DuckyTheDuck: Go
You spying on me, bro? I typed up the following post when I got the "1 new post was made while you were working on your own." message and your link popped up.
@DuckyTheDuck: Go
There's no video >.> I get an ad for IE9, and the stream never shows anything after that, except for one of those usual small ads that appear on the bottom after 10 seconds...
@TheAlmaity: Go
Works fine for me. Use chrome, press play, switch qualities, and when all else fails see if you need to download the plugin.
Dustin Browder said there would be a few months of beta in HotS.
I must say, I find this a bit disappointing. First they got rid of the Reaver. Now they're dropping the Carrier, too. Does Blizzard just want me to stop playing Protoss or something?
I do like their ability that shields the minerals so you can't mine.
Is a Warhound's mine going to be visible to the enemy once it attaches to a unit? They should make it so it isn't. The splash damage would only be effective if the other player can't just separate out the units with a mine on them.
@Mozared: Go
Rumors back in March stated that HOTS Beta would start Shortly after the Anaheim tournament june 8 -10 so we will see if they are true or not.
@dgh64: Go
I feel you with the iconic units, but Protoss gameplay is going to be totally evolved with the new units they're getting. Stargate openings are going to take a completely different meaning with HotS. Recall will allow for new early aggression builds that Protosses can't currently do because if they do it now, it's basically all-in. They'll have a host of new openings where they can mix aggression with recall, greedy early expansion builds with the mothership core purifier, and even harass openings with Stargate using Oracle/Phoenix.
Going further, the Tempest is actually really awesome for a Tier 3 unit too, because P's will likely almost surely have Stargate tech out anyway by the time they hit the lategame that it would be a pretty natural transition. A group of 4-5 Tempests with the range upgrade will be great for sniping opposing lategame units from distance in engagements. They'll be great for sniping Colossus or HT/Archons in PvP, Broodlords, Vipers, Swarm Hosts or Infestors in PvZ, etc.
I personally hate the Colossus and think it's boring as hell and would rather have the Reaver, it's just way more interesting. But for Carrier vs. Tempest, there's really no way to make the Carrier a good unit without making it too strong. If you increase its range and/or speed/acceleration so that Vikings/Corruptors don't own them, it becomes way too good because of its insanely high DPS. Also interceptors are always going to be terrible versus Marines no matter what you do, and Hydras now that Zerg will be using them a lot once they hit Hive.
The Carrier is just a unit that even if you buff it to be worthwhile, will either be too good in certain situations or terrible in others, and that's not what you want. The Tempest is a really cool concept, will add tons of micro to the game for BOTH players, and has tons of different uses. So while nostalgia would tell you that keeping the Carrier is a must, it's really just a unit that doesn't fit in with Starcraft 2.
That'd make them grossly OP. They'd basically be free banelings with no real counter other than ALWAYS keeping ALL your units spread out.
This might make them pretty OP, though. The range is so ridiculous that in late-game, it allows you to do two things;
A) Keep your main army in a good position and harass expo's with 1-2 Tempests from really safe locations. Terran can somewhat counter this with Vikings, but he'll have to send a pretty large force or risk simply losing them to the Tempests.
B) In lategame players can often get in those 'not exactly' engagements where both armies are dancing just out of range with eachother. The Tempest's sick range will mean the Protoss player will pretty much always have an edge in these kind of engagements or at least force his opponent out of position, meaning they'll need to use completely different tactics to stay in the game. On the flipside, this is what top Zerg players like Nestea and top Terran players like Marineking or MC are doing already.
The Tempest is really expensive, so i think it's fairly balanced.
The Widow mine is not free. It is a factory unit. It is cheap, though.
I really like the changes, but we will not know what is final, till the beta ENDS. Can't wait for it to beginnnnnnn.... AAAHHHHH!
I guess the timer's model is visible for everyone. Also the widow mine is a unit produced in the factory and does not belong to the Warhound. The mines are produced very fast and can be constructed with a reactor in the build at MLG.
The guys on teamliquid gathered quite a lot of information about the MLG build.
Hmmm, that's strange. I thought Warhounds dropped Widow Mines. I was even pretty sure I saw that happening several times in the new updated video, but you're right - they're shown as completely seperate units there.
In that case the situation changes a bit, and it should definitely be interesting units... Without any sort of indicator it does get a tad hard to deal with them at all though, especially since the only way of scouting them is 'seeing a Reactor Factory that isn't constantly producing Hellions'.