Forum Overview :: Starcraft II: Heart Of The Swarm :: New units

[quote name="fabio"]So picked this up hoping the new units would do for the original SC what Brood War did: turn it away from mindless unit massing and back to trump and counter trumping. So far I'm not really seeing it. Either the new units don't seem to fill a niche that needed filling, are redundant of an existing unit, or they're too out of place on the tech tree to do what they were meant to do. <b>Terran</b> Medivac after burner- Makes medivacs go super fast for 8 seconds. WHY? What alternate dimension were medivac drops underpowered and rarely used? Reapers- A bit more ridiculous Hellbat- A ground mech unit with a short range AoE attack. Can be researched to transform into Hellion and back. Basically a weaker, cheaper Thor available at the same point in the tech tree. What was the point? Widow mine- A callback to the spider mine from SC1. The difference is it's its own unit and isn't used up, just releases mines while burrowed with a long reload. Neat, but I'm not sure why Terran needed it. They already had 2 cloaking combat units. <b>Zerg</b> Swarm Host- Callback to the Lurker from SC1, except without the AoE to make it slaughter infantry and arriving much later in the tech tree to try and fulfill that roll anyway. Is supposed to be a mid game siege option for the zerg, but you need to invest in another expensive, long time to research upgrade for it to be any good at that role at which point you might as well just go for brood lords. Viper- This was the unit I was looking forward to the most. A flying unit with a long range ability to pull enemy units to it. Looked like an answer to countering siege tank and colossus rape. The problem is you don't get it until you upgrade to a hive, some time after Protoss and Terran can commence said rape. <b>Protoss</b> Oracle- Air unit that uses energy for a ground attack that decimates workers. This is the only new unit I've seen a lot of use in online games. Mothership core- Can give your nexus a decent attack, comes too late to help against early rushes. Biggest use is an earlier detection unit than observers without having to make the investment in a robotics facility. Tempest- A long range aerial siege unit available the same time as carriers? So...a carrier? I seem to recall they were going to replace carriers entirely with this but fan outcry made them keep them. Disappointing show so far. I haven't seen any real change to online strategies other than oracle worker harassment and more reaper rushing. [/quote]