• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 15:35
CEST 21:35
KST 04:35
  • 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
[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall10HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy6
Community News
Weekly Cups (June 30 - July 6): Classic Doubles2[BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China9Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL66Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form?14FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event22
StarCraft 2
General
The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form? Weekly Cups (June 30 - July 6): Classic Doubles Program: SC2 / XSplit / OBS Scene Switcher
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV Mondays Korean Starcraft League Week 77
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome Mutation # 478 Instant Karma
Brood War
General
ASL20 Preliminary Maps [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall SC uni coach streams logging into betting site Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China [BSL20] Grand Finals - Sunday 20:00 CET CSL Xiamen International Invitational The Casual Games of the Week Thread
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative Summer Games Done Quick 2024! Summer Games Done Quick 2025!
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2025 Football Thread NBA General Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Culture Clash in Video Games…
TrAiDoS
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
Blog #2
tankgirl
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 625 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
RotterdaM Event
16:00
Rotti Stream Rumble 4k Edition
RotterdaM895
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 895
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 1105
firebathero 210
Bonyth 94
sas.Sziky 53
Rock 9
Stormgate
NightEnD2
Dota 2
Pyrionflax111
League of Legends
Grubby3938
Counter-Strike
fl0m1559
Fnx 1557
ScreaM1537
shoxiejesuss798
flusha355
oskar188
sgares148
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu257
Other Games
summit1g2115
B2W.Neo993
ceh9662
KnowMe199
mouzStarbuck176
ToD161
Hui .135
Mew2King125
Trikslyr64
ZombieGrub52
Sick43
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick51036
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 22 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• kabyraGe 283
• LUISG 21
• davetesta14
• OhrlRock 7
• Reevou 6
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 15
• Michael_bg 4
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota2604
League of Legends
• Jankos2154
• TFBlade1269
Other Games
• imaqtpie1919
• Shiphtur515
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
4h 26m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
14h 26m
WardiTV European League
20h 26m
MaNa vs sebesdes
Mixu vs Fjant
ByuN vs HeRoMaRinE
ShoWTimE vs goblin
Gerald vs Babymarine
Krystianer vs YoungYakov
PiGosaur Monday
1d 4h
The PondCast
1d 14h
WardiTV European League
1d 16h
Jumy vs NightPhoenix
Percival vs Nicoract
ArT vs HiGhDrA
MaxPax vs Harstem
Scarlett vs Shameless
SKillous vs uThermal
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
1d 20h
Replay Cast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs Reynor
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
3 days
Classic vs Cure
FEL
3 days
RSL Revival
4 days
FEL
4 days
FEL
4 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
4 days
Bonyth vs QiaoGege
Dewalt vs Fengzi
Hawk vs Zhanhun
Sziky vs Mihu
Mihu vs QiaoGege
Zhanhun vs Sziky
Fengzi vs Hawk
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
FEL
5 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
5 days
Bonyth vs Dewalt
QiaoGege vs Dewalt
Hawk vs Bonyth
Sziky vs Fengzi
Mihu vs Zhanhun
QiaoGege vs Zhanhun
Fengzi vs Mihu
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL Season 20
HSC XXVII
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025

Upcoming

2025 ACS Season 2: Qualifier
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSL Xiamen Invitational
2025 ACS Season 2
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
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 © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.