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I love the Hydralisk. I used to max 200/200 hydralisks every game in brood war on Big Game Hunters. I loved watching Julyzerg Micro Hydralisks in pro matches.
needless to say, I was extremely dissapointed with the Wings of Liberty Hydralisks. But now that HotS is just around the corner, I am very excited about how Blizzard is actually making them NOT TERRIBLE.
Uses
Versus Terran: in combination with roaches and Vipers, they can take Terran Mech Head to head.
when they have the Range upgrade, they can destroy widow mines out of detonation range. since blue flame doesn't effect hellbats, Hydra's are quite good against a terran who is going heavy on Hellbats and tanks.
Versus Protoss: Hydra's paired with roaches are now Mobile and Deadly. getting a good concave is still very important to prevent forcefields, but hydras can actually retreat if the engagement turns out poorly. its easier to spread out with the new speed, so fighting low numbers of colossi isn't impossible anymore. When 3+ Colossi are out, vipers are easy to make and compliment the Hydra extremely well. We are going to see Hydras become a core unit in this matchup with the addition of the new Star gate units and Mothership Core.
Versus Zerg I still do not like Hydras ZvZ. they are too slow to deal with Mutas, and take far more research investment then Roaches. 300/300 to even be comparable to mutas is a huge huge deal. Having projectile fungal's currently leaves the Non Muta player at a huge disadvantage, and makes for a very frustrating match up. the Spore Crawler won't change anything here.
Awesome: more Mobile, great synergy with roach, viper, and Ultralisk. makes for more styles of play in ZvT and ZvP. can chase down and kill most air units now off creep.
Negative: Still not a solution for the problems that zerg has versus air in ZvZ.
too fragile versus AOE and air compositions late game.
It is the only Zerg unit that does not have a special ability or evolution.
For 300/300 in upgrades just to make them comparable to other units, there are better tech options.
Possible Changes:
Reduce the cost for upgrades to 100/100 each. an alternative would be to Give them 6 range normally, and increase the speed cost to 200/200. I feel that Hydra's are not OP, but are definitely good. neither of these changes would hurt.
give +25% bonus movement while on creep . it would help for defending drops. Something that a zerg without mutas has alot of trouble with. It would also help dealing with mutalisk harass which is almost impossible with the nerfed infestor.
Give Hydralisks an upgrade similar to Combat Shields. boost their potential in the late game when insane amounts of AOE are prevalent.
and if blizzard is Very bold, they could make the Swarm host Evolve from a Hydralisk to give both the units a new dynamic.
Comments, and other ideas are appreciated! help the Hydra Evolve for the future of Starcraft!
 
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I feel like Z is already so strong in WoL and HotS that buffing Hydralisks even further would make Z OP. Just IMO 
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I agree with most of this.
I don't think a stat increase would be the best way to change the unit, as it's pretty strong and already has a nice role in the army. But the upgrades do seem a bit much.
I've said many times, compared to other units, Hydras need 2 "functionality" upgrades, for both range and speed. Other units that have 2 upgrades are typically no more than 1 functionality and the rest just a quality of life increase. For example, Marines stims (functionality) shields (stat increase/quality of life). Roaches speed (functionality) burrow move (quality of life).
Are there any other units in the game that actually need 2 upgrades before being functional? This is on top of Hydra being outside of the required tech path (you don't get these units automatically for your tech path towards higher tier such as Marines). Also melee/armor are the "Typical" upgrade path (with the T3 units both using melee) so the ranged upgrades are for the most part an investment for Hydras as well. This is kind of overkill.
I think Hydras would be perfect with any sort of tweak to the upgrades. Whether they combine both in to one upgrade and up the cost, or automatically grant one, or w/e.
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On February 08 2013 16:53 guN-viCe wrote:I feel like Z is already so strong in WoL and HotS that buffing Hydralisks even further would make Z OP. Just IMO
There's more to HotS than just Hydras being buffed... you know, things like new units.
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In my opinion Hydras need a kind of buff against air units.
If they were patched this way round (maybe just like +2 or +3) against air untis they would be more viable against Mutas and against Drops, as you mentioned.
Also, as we see Skytoss is very hard to beat as a Zerg, Hydras could be an better option compared to how they are mostly useless now.
But I am not sure, I have doubts that, given their actual insane DPS right now, this is maybe to much.
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Hey gix, cool blogs. Way to go, nice to see players doing more of these. ^^
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I would love to see Hydra's get a +bio to their air attack, as that would mean you could go hydra's against muta, and it doesn't even need to be that strong AT ALL. It could be really weak in honesty, but a little more damage against mutas would be sexy.
But overall I like where hydras are now. I feel they're a staple against vP if you plan on going Roach too, as Roach Hydra destroys gateway units, and rip apart immortals so you're safe from those immortal pushes. Then as soon as you've pegged back the P a little, go for air (or even do this before a battle if you see collosi) then into broods with roach support...It's nice :D
Still think that they're garbage against airtoss though...my god is airtoss strong 
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I loved hydras in BW then cheated on them with lurker and they never were the same after that! Hydras should get a Seige mode!
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Nice overall. Good thoughts
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I like these thoughts and improvements. I was pretty mad when the unit that defined Zerg in BW was relegated to a Lair tech glass cannon that rarely saw usage in pro games, which disappointed me. If some of these changes (or others) were to be implemented, we might finally see Hydras become a staple in every match-up.
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EPT
