P and T HOTS units.. Thoughts

Looks like a lot of fun. The fact that it is slow and expensive are turn-offs at first glance but people are being ridiculous. Here we have a functionally useful unit that doesn't do TERRIBLE TERRIBLE DAMAGE. Isn't that what we've been asking for since the dawn of Sc2 time? It is a purely positional unit that encourages engagements without actually forcing them and has usefulness in many different situations ranging from economic harass to picking off units in key locations. It is slow so
it needs units to babysit it but that's a good thing. This is a unit that doesn't fit in the traditional death ball and gives both players more to think about in terms of positioning it and countering it. I really like how this unit works in theory. Hopefully, it works like that in practice.

PvT: Can pick off mech units (slowly) with very little risk of being caught and killed as long as it is being babysat properly. Won't do as well against bio
Bio which people seem to forget is still a way to play the matchup since nothing the P is getting does better against bio than before.

PvZ: Finally, an answer to broodlord infestor. Can pick off infestors, can pick off broodlords, all while sitting behind the glory of stalker colossi.

PvP: I'm not expecting it to be very useful in PvP tbh. Blink stalkers will counter it too hard. Possibly limited uses as a ledge camper but thats it really..

Fun fun fun. Moves fast, doesn't do direct damage. Has uses throughout the game. Entomb isn't quite what I want it to be though. I would rather entomb block off 2-3 patches but be harder to get rid of. Like, give the ff 2 armor or something so that small amount of army needs to be used to clean them up. It would make the unit a lot more strategic because you would need to entomb the mineral patches farthest from the army so they would be hardest to get rid of and the other player
would need to prepare for this spell to be used and defend accordingly. As it exists right now, it's a
shiftclick unit for both the protoss, and the unit defending it and that isn't quite as cool as it could be. The truesight thing will be nice because it makes protoss air play viable against cloacked banshees and gives another means of scouting. Finally, the mass cloak is just awesome. That will have many uses that can't be shown in a couple of battle reports.

PvT: Scouting, economic harass, cloaking. Extremely useful unit that once again doesn't add to deathball. Will be useful against both bio and mech.

PvZ: Same thing. Useful. Very useful.

PvP: Don't honestly know. PvP is so difficult to understand already, I don't know how this unit will affect it, or if it will at all. Mass cloak will be the biggest deal here as entomb won't do much to a 1-2 base player (his army will be readily available).

Adds a lot to protoss macro. This unit will make the difference between noobs and pros much more apparent on a macro level as it will make chronoboost a more central aspect of it. It's uses are so plentiful so I look forward to seeing it. In fact, it's my favorite protoss addition simple because it will make protoss a race that requires more skill to macro with. Hopefully, it will get people to flame a little less. Time will tell though lol. Mass recall is amazing since you have to make
the choice to get less chronoboost potential therefore slowing down your build in order to poke at them so it isn't a free attack because of the opportunity costs. I don't know how I feel about the defense cannon thing. The range seems a little long but maybe a little defenders advantage is exactly what protoss needs in the early game (aside from sentries ofc).

PvT: Macro stuff. Mmmm. Recall? useful for defending drops in the mid game if army is out of position. Purify? Kills 1-1-1

PvZ: Macro stuff. Mmmm. Recall? Will be very very useful in forcing units from zerg obv. Purify? Stops Lame roach allins.

PvP: Macro stuff. Recall, I don't know how useful it will be since this MU is generally decided by 1 engagement anyways. Could be used in tandem with blink attacks which would be cool to see. Purify? Really depends on how strong they decide to keep it. If it is strong enough to cancel out a colossus than it will have a huge affect on how the MU plays out.

Theoretically an improvement. Haven't seen enough of it to know obviously. I like the air-stasis. It will make broodlords less of an answer to everything which will make zerg need to make actual decisions on how to play the MU. It doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose in PvT simply because of emp. and mass viking.

PvT: Don't see it being used much

PvZ: Much better unit than before

PvP: Time will tell

I like the idea of having a mech firebat. I'm concerned about the strength of hellion drops though. You could run in with them (or drop them) abusing their speed, and then get into a good position and instantly transform into a legit fighting unit. It seems like a low-risk, low-cost, high reward unit. Still though, it's nice that terran is getting a unit that can tank damage effectively. PvT is going to change quite a lot.

TvP: An effective answer to chargelots. Imagine that. I don't know how the protoss is supposed to deal with them in tandem with tanks and warhounds (at least on the ground). I'm concerned that being able to change into normal hellions after an engagement will turn a bad mid-game engagement for p into a slaughter of workers and therefore a game ender. It's just too early to tell but it seems like the HP is a little too much in battle mode given the splash damage and the capacity for mobility.

TvZ: Zerglings may end up being virtually useless in the midgame should the terran decide to mech and lets be honest, why wouldn't he? Hellion tank builds can create contains that will be much harder to break than before and it was already hard to start with. What's the answer? Banelings won't do jack against armored units, zerglings will be doomed due to fire-splash, roaches will be cost ineffective against tanks. Throw up a couple turrets and the only viable midgame option seems to be infestors... sort of. Swarm hosts might be useful for this. Hard to say. I know stopping the terran from getting into position is half the battle, but with battle hellions, it seems like catching a terran out of position won't hurt as much (in the early to mid game) because of how cost effective battle hellions will be against zerglings. If it takes longer for battle hellions and tanks to come out together than I am accounting for, than that solves the problem but that will depend on the
build times and stuff of the units which won't be set in stone for a while so it's a legitimate concern imo.

TvT: A unit that has lots of HP when it wants to for no gas will make for a powerful siege breaker as long as there aren't a LOT of tanks. Don't know how I feel about this. Personally, I like TvT exactly where it is although mech does seem less fun to watch than marine tank. I'm curious to see how the battle hellion interacts with opposing marines in large numbers. Hopefully it isn't so strong that mech becomes the only viable way to play TvT.

A lot of people hate the look and feel of this unit. I don't like it so much myself. It's so strong and doesn't seem to have any weaknesses. It exists as a seige breaker and it will serve that purpose well for sure. It also counters just about everything protoss. It isn't useful against zerg for obvious reasons but maybe someone pro will come up with a unique use for it in TvZ... Gimmicky and I doubt it. It really is essentially a mech marauder that is stronger than a marauder. The auto-missiles are just another means of making TERRIBLE TERRIBLE DAMAGE happen. This unit does seem like a step in the wrong direction.

TvP: Counters everything on the ground besides zelots. Moves relatively quickly, has range equal or higher to/than everything on the ground besides colossi. Has lots of HP so it isn't really vulnerable to storm. Seems OP in tandem with battle hellions. I don't think it's range should be so high since it kind of steps on the seige tanks role. I don't honestly know what should be done with this unit in this MU. I think maybe lowering its range so it exists as more of a buffer unit for tanks would be
an interesting way to make it less of a replacement and more of an intelligent positional unit. Also, since the potential to hard-counter this and hellions together is not apparent, making it kiteable is one way to make it more interesting to play against. The auto missiles are kind of stupid too. Idk, it certainly gives Terran the edge but at the cost of gameplay. Ugly.

TvZ: Pfft.

TvT: Another siege breaker. I know I'm not the only person who has a problem with the idea of siege tanks being so easily killed.

Note: this unit sucks. I don't have much in the way of possible improvements for it as it doesn't fit into a niche very cleanly.

The stats need to be, and will be, tweaked. Possibly the units functionality as well. What happens when a stray muta hits one of these near the opponents base and decides to be smart and go into the opposing player's mineral line? Disregarding its ability to be used against you once planted onto a fast flying unit (or say, a zelot with charge that isn't targeted) it is a neat idea. Taking supply away from the deathball is always nice and I like positional units like mines, especially
since they can be killed with detection before they have the opportunity to do damage. It is a unit that can be wasted, or can pay off quite well. The randomness of it is a problem though. Placement of these mines will have to do with which positions on the map are traversed by which units which will end up making the unit extremely metagame-ish. I personally like units that reward raw skill more than studying the patterns of players in general but to each his own.

TvP: The fact that friendly fire is a thing sort of negates the usefulness of this thing as an oracle killer. For the same reason, you won't want these near you in a straight-up fight. So what does that leave it for? I suppose you could put them in places where tempests would go but it takes more than one to kill a tempest... I am going to make the bold claim that this unit won't be particularly good in this MU

TvZ: Zerglings can and will randomly diffuse these things very cost effectively just by moving around the map. Overlords might take take them with them as well. Once again, the friendly fire aspect makes them not ideal for dealing with mutas in your base. Having them on random ledges could work but it's a lot of work. It seems obvious too that it will take more than 1 to kill a BL. OH, there we go, it will do well to stop burrowed infestor runbys... :\

TvT: Will make drops less appealing. Might kill off a couple hellions here and there but hellions only cost minerals so thats actually a good trade for the guy who runs into them. Could be legitimately useful for killing vikings during air battles by burrowing in during a fight but that isn't what the unit was really made for or advertised to be so idk. I'm not feeling it in this MU either.


Note:
I'm thinking the AOE damage aspect of this unit is not going to stick if they decide to keep the unit at all. Having a unit that is relatively cheap and a guaranteed 100-200 dmg on another unit could be enough if the price is shifted accordingly. Hell, having this mine kill whatever it attaches to but nothing else could make it a lot more useful. I'm going to make a suggestion. If you don't want that then just skip to the next paragraph. I think what terran really wants is a way to deal with expensive spell casters that isn't the ghost (an expensive spellcaster). Having the widow mine without aoe damage makes it simpler to balance, less random, and more strategic. I think that having auto target should be an option on the mine, but also turning off the auto-target function so that you could purposely attach it to BLs, infestors, or other units would be amazing. This way, people who don't have the APM (or people who simply don't want to babysit it) can just have the mine kill whatever comes near it, but people who are good can also purposely kill the unit they are setting out to kill if they opponent does not prepare. This is how I would redesign the widow mine personally.