• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:35
CEST 14:35
KST 21:35
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview5[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21
Community News
Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28)8[BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June4Weekly Cups (May 25-31): Clem doubles, 2v2 circuit heads toward finale0StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th156Weekly Cups (May 18-24): MaxPax wins doubles0
StarCraft 2
General
TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? RSL S6 finale at Blizzcon Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners High level ptr replays? where can I find them?
Tourneys
Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) GSL Code S Season 2 (2026)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
Mutation # 530 One For All The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 529 Opportunities Unleashed Mutation # 528 Infection Detected
Brood War
General
Where is EffOrt? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion vespene.gg — BW replays in browser Quality of life changes in BW that you will like ?
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Grand Finals [BSL22] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CEST Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2
Strategy
Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration? Any training maps people recommend?
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread PC Games Sales Thread ZeroSpace Megathread
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT] TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Does Workplace Frustration D…
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8622 users

Some initial thoughts of Heart of the Swarm

Blogs > blabber
Post a Reply
blabber
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States4448 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-06-09 07:31:38
June 09 2012 06:45 GMT
#1
here are some initial thoughts as well as some info on the new stuff in Hots. I'll be writing a "review" blog later after i get 2 more days of playing in and gather all my thoughts.

Terran
Widows mines: can move. can be built from factory + reactor. 75 minerals / 25 gas, 1 food each. Can catch air and ground units. Does 500 splash damage after 10 seconds of being latched on. Meaning in a TvT going fast banshee can be quite risky if a widow mine is placed well. pretty good early game, but in later game not as useful as you will probably be using the factory build time to build other stuff and also you want the food for other stuff. it also would take too much time to control. so good for early scouting (blocking expos, etc). they MIGHT be triggered by workers, i'll have to check. need to test out its range vs range of other units too

Warhound: made from factory, requires tech lab. 150/75, 2 food. Called "anti-vehicle." tbh i think this unit is kinda meh. marauders seem to already fill its role. need to test more

Battle hellion: when you make a hellion, it is by default the battle hellion. moves slower than hellion, has more armor, and fires sort of horizontally in front of it. basically a regular hellion but requires less micro. i think this (along with mines) does make mech more viable (especially tvp). basically i dont think you will see terran players just float the factory and scout with it. it will actually be used

so the reaper has an upgrade at the tech lab (costs 100/100) to make the reaper regen out of battle. regen acts pretty much the same as protoss shields. no more reaper speed upgrade.

Zerg
Swarm host: 200/100, 3 food, requires infestation pit. has an upgrade at the infestation pit that gives the locusts 10+ survival time (upgrade costs 200/200). while burrowed, the swarm host spawns 2 locusts every 25 seconds, and last for 15 seconds (without the upgrade), meaning if you get the upgrade, you can have a constant force of locusts instead of having a 10 second gap between each force. Each locust does 16 dmg with 1.2 attack speed with range 2 (locusts are surprisingly fast at killing stuff in low numbers). i feel like they are useful only in small battles. versus death balls they wont do anything. i would imagine these are very good for defense.

There is a new hydralisk upgrade at the hydra den. basically for 150/150, hydralisks move 50% faster off creep (ie. same speed as on creep). Will probably see more hydra busts zvp if pvz were to stay the same.

Viper: Requires spire. Costs 100/200, 3 food. It has a few abilities: one is consume (costs no energy) where it consumes a *structure* (doesn't destroy structure, only takes 200 health off it) for 10 seconds, where the viper then receives 50 energy. Haven't tested if you can have multiple vipers consume off same building. With queen transfuse the lost HP is pretty negligible. There is also the abduct (the grab and pull skill that you have seen) for 75 energy. Blinding cloud (125 energy) is kind of like dark swarm but not quite. Basically any ranged units under it will have its attack reduced to melee range. Meaning they will still do damage but will have only melee range. It doesn't make much sense typing that out, so i will need to test it out more to better understand it.

ultras have charge ability that let them go underground and charge towards a target area and knocks back any units there. 30 second cooldown. need to test more

Protoss
Mothership core: costs 100/50, no food, takes 30 seconds to make. No building requirements needed to make. You can make only one. you cannot make probes at same time, so have to figure out when is a good time to make this and not probes. It is placed on top of the nexus it was made at and cannot be moved (unless you teleport it).
Has 4 abilities (dont remember names of all):
teleport - for 75 energy, you can move the mothership core to another nexus.
energy - for 25 energy, you can charge the energy of any nearby unit to max. Meaning you can warp in a high templar or sentry and use this ability, and it will have full energy. Meaning you can theoretically get only 1 sentry and be safe for a decently long time. also meaning really fast gateway pushes become stronger since you can get less sentries + more other gateway units and have same amount of force fields.
Recall - for 150 energy, you can recall a group of units back to the nexus. I imagine it works exactly like the original mothership recall (can recall fungaled units). Because you can get this pretty early, you may see protosses commit to more attacks knowing they can just recall out of it.
Cannon - morph the nexus core into a cannon that shoots things around it (believe it costs 75 energy). only temporary.

Once you get a fleet beacon, you can morph the mothership core into a mothership for 300/350 and 8 food. The mothership has recall, vortex, and stasis (which will put cause the mothership and nearby air units to be put into a stasis). The mothership does not have a cloak field. The aforementioned mothership core abilities are lost. The transformation from core to mothership cannot be chronoboosted. Also you cannot use any core skills while it is morphing.

Tempest: costs 300/300, (forget food count), needs fleet beacon. has 10 range but can get 22 range with range upgrade at fleet beacon. Does 40 damage and 60 to massive but shoots real slow. This thing sucks, actually.

Oracle: costs i believe 150/200 and 3(?) food. pretty fast moving unit. low hp, dies fast, and takes somewhat long to make. Has a few skills:
Preordain - (75? energy) target an enemy building and you get vision of the building and its surrounding area for 2 minutes. This along with 22 range tempest can be annoying, but only super deadly if you have like 6+ tempests.
Block minerals (forget actual name): 75 energy, area of effect, block minerals from being able to be mined with a shield. this shield can be killed by units and disappears after some time.
Cloak: for 100 energy, you can make units around the oracle cloaked. lasts 60 sec or until oracle dies. I believe you can move the oracle and the cloak field will move with it.
Oracle plus mothership core energy thing seems pretty good. I feel like in pvz it could replace or supplement the air harass some people do. but they die so fast that any number of queens or spores will make the oracle useless. tbh i dont see this unit getting much use (at least i dont see people getting a stargate just to get this)

i'll edit in more thoughts as i think of them.

blabberrrrr
Azera
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
3800 Posts
June 09 2012 06:47 GMT
#2
Seems like the Warhound and Reaper change are both pretty redundant -.-

Come on blizzard
Check out some great music made by TLers - http://bit.ly/QXYhdb , by intrigue. http://bit.ly/RTjpOR , by ohsea.toc.
Polar_Nada
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States1548 Posts
June 09 2012 07:05 GMT
#3
omgsh how do you remember all that lol.
[ReD]NaDa and fnaticMSI.SEn fighting~! ::POlar @ UC Irvine::
Incze
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
Romania2058 Posts
June 09 2012 07:20 GMT
#4
These changes make me want to play terran, wow. Zerg might need some work
Religion: Buckethead
cpc
Profile Joined June 2011
Australia126 Posts
June 09 2012 09:27 GMT
#5
I don't think I've seen it mentioned anywhere, can you build a mothership core after you have upgraded your mothership core to a mothership or can you only have 1 mothership core/mothership? (meaning you have to wait for both if your mothership dies)
FreshVegetables
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Finland513 Posts
June 09 2012 09:56 GMT
#6
Random all the way when the beta is out Btw. Does anyone think that range 22 on that protoss carrier thingy is a bit excessive or the 500 dmg mines?
yummy tomatoes
Imbu
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States903 Posts
June 09 2012 10:48 GMT
#7
On June 09 2012 18:56 FreshVegetables wrote:
Random all the way when the beta is out Btw. Does anyone think that range 22 on that protoss carrier thingy is a bit excessive or the 500 dmg mines?

The 22 range seems excessive when you look only at that, but you have to take into consideration its damage as well. At 40 damage per shot, that translates into taking 2 shots to kill a marine, and quite a few more for anything else. Without splash and its slow fire rate, it is by far a terrible replacement for the carrier. I would be surprised if a Protoss managed to turn this into anything besides a way to harass the mineral line, and for that, there are better options.

The 500 damage mines are pretty scary though D:.
@DreamingBird
blabber
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States4448 Posts
June 09 2012 16:36 GMT
#8
On June 09 2012 18:27 cpc wrote:
I don't think I've seen it mentioned anywhere, can you build a mothership core after you have upgraded your mothership core to a mothership or can you only have 1 mothership core/mothership? (meaning you have to wait for both if your mothership dies)

you cannot have both a mothership and a mothership core at the same time. also i do not think there was a way to "downgrade" the mothership into a mothership core.
blabberrrrr
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Wardi Open
11:00
#91
IntoTheiNu 1300
WardiTV827
Rex152
Ryung 80
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Rex 152
Ryung 80
SHIN 16
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 3782
Sea 1456
Zeus 1361
Horang2 1210
Mini 1101
Soma 410
EffOrt 343
Light 289
actioN 252
Soulkey 223
[ Show more ]
ToSsGirL 155
Snow 146
Rush 129
Pusan 114
Free 101
hero 80
Hyun 50
[sc1f]eonzerg 41
Sea.KH 41
Aegong 32
sorry 30
soO 25
scan(afreeca) 24
Sacsri 24
Noble 20
Shine 20
yabsab 19
HiyA 19
Barracks 18
Icarus 13
Bale 12
GoRush 12
zelot 10
ajuk12(nOOB) 8
Terrorterran 4
Dota 2
Dendi1202
XcaliburYe266
Counter-Strike
fl0m2894
olofmeister1813
byalli392
kRYSTAL_14
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King80
Other Games
Trikslyr1455
Lowko540
B2W.Neo455
hiko324
XaKoH 292
Sick274
amsayoshi52
MindelVK6
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream3008
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 1107
Other Games
BasetradeTV116
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 8
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Upcoming Events
Monday Night Weeklies
3h 26m
OSC
11h 26m
Replay Cast
1d 20h
The PondCast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
OSC
3 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
5 days
XuanXuan vs Jaystar
Mihu vs Messiah
eOnzErG vs Dewalt
Bonyth vs Jaystar
TerrOr vs Messiah
XuanXuan vs Mihu
eOnzErG vs Jaystar
Patches Events
6 days
BSL22 NKC (BSL vs China)
6 days
Dewalt vs Messiah
Bonyth vs Mihu
TerrOr vs XuanXuan
eOnzErG vs Messiah
Jaystar vs Mihu
Dewalt vs XuanXuan
Bonyth vs TerrOr
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #4 - GSB
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
SCTL 2026 Spring
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
Murky Cup 2026
Heroes Pulsing #2
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1

Upcoming

CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Douyu Cup 2026
BCC 2026
Heroes Pulsing #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.