EPTSo in general this patch I have very positive thoughts towards it. I am a zerg player so I will go through the match ups as zerg and will not comment on PvT, tvt or pvp as I don't know how those are being played in hots.
Zerg vs Zerg
So in general this match up I feel has changed towards the better and more fun. Most zvz's I have played are muta play now and while a lot of players may not like this I am loving this change. The player with better mechanics/multi tasking is going to win in the muta/ling war. It is so satisfying to send 3 groups of lings 1 to the third - nat - main while engaging his mutalisks with yours.
In general this match up feels a lot more fun to play and infestor nerf has made infestor not the mass unit anymore. Of course this could change, but as I feel right now this match up has improved for the better and is a lot more fun to play. I am curious if this will change or if mutalisks will remain dominant for awhile.
Zerg vs Terran
So this one I have had the most fun playing so far in hots since the patch. Already I have had 2 epic zvt ultra/ling/bane/viper vs bio of terran. I had a ton of fun in those games and even though I thought I was going to lose one of them, I didn't care! I was having so much fun in the game (I seriously thought I lost) I didn't care if I was going to lose this one. I haven't had that feeling really since Broodwar when you'd have those epic games that you just had a blast playing.
While I am pretty sure the terran player didn't agree and said zerg is still broken, he never went past 4 bases for some reason while I had 6-7 and by the time he decided to take his 5'th (which he could have taken a lot earlier) he was mined out of almost all his bases and I was able to win. This one was a really close one that I was just able to come back on thanks to him not expanding past a 4'th till to late.
I also love the ultra buff. You can really tell how much stronger ultralisks are now in general and think you can easily remain ultras all game long and not have to transition as long as you have viper support. I am extremely happy about this as this means tier 3 won't be broodlord focused ^_^.
In both the zvt matches vs bio they were incredibly fun action packed games. This makes me even more excited for the prospect of this match up when hots is released and korean terrans are playing.
Mech is starting to get a little more figured out how to fight it with mech. Terrans are starting to incorporate vikings and missile turrets so that vipers can't just run in and get a blinding cloud out. This will be an interesting thing to see, but I forsee the air transition being incredibly strong now. I think the best thing a zerg can do when playing mech is to make sure to have double spire and upgrading so that when you see his BC transition you can have 3-3 and not be at 0-0 to his 3-3 since air units get upgraded with mech.
In short this match up is a lot more fun to play and I can't wait to see this match up evolve when korean terrans start playing in GSL and stuff ^_^.
Zerg vs Protoss
So this match up I feel is a lot more fun then in WoL, but still kinda boring at the same time. While I am not hating zvp as much as in WoL I still am not the biggest fan of this match up.
Stargate play is as expected being opened every single zvp I have played. It's definitely a lot stronger and I played a korean toss who decimated me the first time I played vs the voidray/oracle composition. It's definitely a lot stronger then in WoL and I think carrier/voidray will be a very, very powerful army in the late game. This is all theory at the moment though as I haven't faced a toss change to air yet after initial stargate opening.
Roach/hydra/viper is very powerful and I have seen more and more tosses hallucinate colossi so that vipers can't just abduct the right ones. This means as a zerg you will want overseers so you can abduct the right ones.
In general the way I have seen tosses play vs it is immortal/chargelot/templar and this is a lot more exciting as a spectator to watch the match up then colossi and what not. I do think this match up has improved a ton from WoL as stated previously. I think this match up has more potential to be exciting then WoL zvp has ever been which is nice, but only time will tell.
I haven't tried ultralisks in this match up yet but I am going to soon as I have heard they are good vs toss to. I don't know yet but I hope this is true as I have been wanting ultralisks to be viable vs protoss since the dawn of sc2 ^_^. Can't wait to try them and see how good/bad they are in this match up.
Overall thoughts so far
So in short I am very excited for the prospect of heart of the swarm. While some of the changes may seem drastic, only time will tell on this one. I am having so much more fun in hots then I have in WoL in all match ups which is nice. I am very curious how korean pros are going to use the new units or play hots in general.
3 long months remaining and then we can see hots in GSL/proleague/etc and I think hots will be a lot better then WoL in every regard! Thanks for reading!
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