I haven't been fortunate enought to get beta access to Hots. And I have been really eager to know if its fun to play or not. According to a buddy of mine, he's really liking Hots so far and it reminds him of Broodwar.
I've been searching the net for POSITIVE feedback about Hots ,and so far all I keep googling up are whining posts and all negative posts.
Now I want to hear from people who do find Hots fun and I would like to ask them here for the positive things they have to say about it. I want to hear what makes it fun to play and why they are excited to play game when its launched.
I hope the campaign will keep me entertained and hopefully I can find some motivation playing some ladder games if the balancing goes well in the next month and a half. I have beta for a couple of months now (since Late September, early October), I have been playing the game until recently. The balance direction is not what I expected to be, and I really seem to get tired of the game a little bit. So I started to play some DotA 2 now. Hope the game gets better when it is launched.
Well, as a protoss i feel hots as a very fun game, i dont use new units always, most mothership core which its cannon can really help early defenses and even mid game like 10min medivac timming
I like the graphics overhaul a lot (many bits and pieces across the board, like Creep tumors, overall unit and building graphics a bit better...). This includes physics engine with new death mechanics where limbs fly around, fluids spill etc..
Also the worker count on buildings is something I really like. This topic is approached with negative and positive attitudes though, but when I play WoL again, it just doesn't feel as complete.
New units and upgrades are of course a huge + for me as they open up more choices and unit combinations in armies. Bio-mech is very fun to play vs Protoss now and Mines go well with every composition if used properly. Protoss can open Stargate vs terran and transition into basically anything later on.
I mean, its hard to point out Specific things, but I love HotS a LOT. Though I loved WoL as well so I might be generally starcraft-biased ;D If you appreciate upgraded visuals and pure fun from new units, I think you should consider it.
I don't know if the multiplayer game flow will be too different. But there will be a lot of other stuff added to the game (clans, physics, skins, groups, more AI, better UI, campaign, replay resume, .... ). I'm really looking forward to all of this.
When I think about it replay resume means there will be watching replay with other people. I didnt realised that before...
The new texutres and physic system are amazing. The gameplay itself as Terran, is almost the exact same as it was in WoL, maybe except for TvZ, which definitely makes me less excited for HOTS.
I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
I think HotS has brought some interesting new strategies and an overall more dynamic playstyle (even tho some might say PvZ is boring).
From a terran PoV ZvT is even more active than before (thanks to the fungal change and the widow mines, viper and so on...) by far the most fun match up.
TvT is still pretty interesting.
TvP is like in WoL, really unforgiving when playing bio, mech is... almost feasible. Still need a bit of work on it (mostly due to toss ability to sit on 0 units and make bunch of air unit, knowing they can warp an army in 2 sec if need be...) and tempest being 5000 range
But overall i'd say the game is fast paced, dynamic and pretty fun. Plus you can meet people worldwide (korean/USA/Europe...) which make it interesting too
I like the new UI (and hopefully the observer) features. And the new ragdoll physics looks pretty cool especially TvT with Marine Tank. I like the new statistics as well. I know that should be in wol 2 years ago but hey improvement is improvement so...
And the gameplay? Well its simple if you liked WoL you will like Hots, if you disliked WoL you will dislike Hots. And if you hate sc2 overall well then hots cant help you.
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
Isn't zerg with early burrow different?
I've been playing a lot with early burrow and it's really really fun in all matchups, but it's very pressure-orientated and really quite allin.
You can't really just get burrow as standard; if you're droning up it's not a huge use. But burrow roach allins are really really fun; like, blink stalker micro kind of fun, and I always enjoyed that.
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
Isn't zerg with early burrow different?
I've been playing a lot with early burrow and it's really really fun in all matchups, but it's very pressure-orientated and really quite allin.
You can't really just get burrow as standard; if you're droning up it's not a huge use. But burrow roach allins are really really fun; like, blink stalker micro kind of fun, and I always enjoyed that.
A couple of questions:
Have you tried 1 base roach rush with the burrow? If not, would that not be really effective? I got the beta myself, I just havent had time to try it out.
Also, do zerg now START with burrow or does it still have to be upgraded?
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
Isn't zerg with early burrow different?
I have tried a few games with it but to be honest, it sacrifices so much economy earlier on that I just don't like it. I am not a gas opening type of zerg so maybe I am just not used to taking gas earlier on.
I am not sure if it's worth the early investment, I could have gotten earlier ling speed instead for denying scout and get map control.
I think it's good for some cheese play like someone posted in the strategy earlier on with burrow roach ZvP. But I would prefer to have some other non-gimmicky play that allows zerg to harass and not just defend defend drone drone drone until lair.
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
Isn't zerg with early burrow different?
I have tried a few games with it but to be honest, it sacrifices so much economy earlier on that I just don't like it. I am not a gas opening type of zerg so maybe I am just not used to taking gas earlier on.
I am not sure if it's worth the early investment, I could have gotten earlier ling speed instead for denying scout and get map control.
I think it's good for some cheese play like someone posted in the strategy earlier on with burrow roach ZvP. But I would prefer to have some other non-gimmicky play that allows zerg to harass and not just defend defend drone drone drone until lair.
Ok, thanks for the explanation, I haven't logged in to beta for a couple weeks and never play Zerg. From what you and the other guy in the thread said it sacrifices to much economy to transition to a normal game without doing significant damage.
Maybe they will reduce the cost slightly so as to not make it all in? Or do the roaches just have to much of a gas cost?
I feel it is just not that useful because what can you really do with an early burrow to make that investment worthwhile?
Burrow ling for more vision = can be done with a ling (only that it will be sniped off)
burrow roaches harass = costly especially when roaches won't have speed and hard to justify the cost of getting those early roaches.
burrow drones = cost could have been used for making queens for defence instead, no gas required
blocking expo = depends on his build I guess, can stop early fast third build but now that Toss has early detection in both robo and stargate tech, detection isn't that lacking anymore.
Burrow only really shines in mid game when the lair tech units are out, burrow banelings, blocking expo along with overlord creep, burrow infestors etc
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
Oh yeah, when it was released i was like "i'm going to disable this after the first match", but now it's awesome to see these numbers popping up when you kill stuff.
Overall i think HOTS will be awesome and i think the community is too pessimist about it. It is still one of the best PC games ever.
The campaign may not have a perfect story but it was still funny to play it in WOL. The mission are really well designed.
Hello there fellow countrymen haha. As for me I like HotS more then WoL (at their current status). I can see a better potential in HotS , I enjoy it more, game play is more diverse in general and also good new features in game like the clan tag, chat channel, online communities, unranked matchmaking etc. etc.
And also I think the possibility of comebacks in multiplayer is more likely to happen because of the new units. You know, players can be creative with the addition of those units.. really unpredictable, hence more exciting and fun to watch.
The only three things I dislike about HOTS currently are of subjective nature: - being a Zerg player, Zerg early and mid game (until late mid-game) is nothing different than in WoL, and they're back being "survive the initial onslaught" race, even though they said they want to make Zerg players able to harass in the early stages of the game - since the game is in beta, many changes have gone through and there are many clear imbalances that can ruin the gaming experience - Zerg match-ups are both fun and frustrating at the moment: ZvP - Skytoss viability and Oracles can put a hurt on Zerg player ZvT - Widow Mines will need to be balanced as they are currently ruining the match-up ZvZ - From being the most volatile MU, it became a Muta vs Muta war (80% of my ZvZs are this, the other 20% are ling/bling allins that I manage to defend or lose to them)
On January 23 2013 01:54 ysnake wrote: The only three things I dislike about HOTS currently are of subjective nature: - being a Zerg player, Zerg early and mid game (until late mid-game) is nothing different than in WoL, and they're back being "survive the initial onslaught" race, even though they said they want to make Zerg players able to harass in the early stages of the game - since the game is in beta, many changes have gone through and there are many clear imbalances that can ruin the gaming experience - Zerg match-ups are both fun and frustrating at the moment: ZvP - Skytoss viability and Oracles can put a hurt on Zerg player ZvT - Widow Mines will need to be balanced as they are currently ruining the match-up ZvZ - From being the most volatile MU, it became a Muta vs Muta war (80% of my ZvZs are this, the other 20% are ling/bling allins that I manage to defend or lose to them)
You should re-read the OP. :\
As far as HOTS goes I've enjoyed the viability of Ultras, especially mixed in with Vipers and a few Infestors. I keep trying to get Hydras to work in ZvP and ZvT but have still had limited success. It feels like they should be viable in HOTS so that's exciting but I keep failing with them.
Well, there are a lot of new cool things about hots: resuming from replay, new UI, new campaign. But sadly, multiplayer is not one of them . New units in my opinion are terrible. And most of them are casters or ones for specific job, therefore your army composition looks about the same (at least same units in it), and you just have to use few more spells... This is heart of the swarm after all, and zerg didn't get a single new unit just for pure combat, to replace borring roaches and lings (or at least give another option). This game is still great, just hots is not that refreshing as I thought it would be.
I play protoss and have really enjoyed playing against terran and zerg so far in HotS. The swarm host and viper add new dimensions to the matchup and really slow down some of the big battles that would be short in WoL. Really reminds me of the back and forth slug fest battles of brood war.
I think terran mech needs some help on the meta game side of things. PvP has mostly been voidray wars for me so far, but sky toss isn't a very developed strategy, so i think it will get better once the pros get in and can set some examples for the rest of us.
I like the re-introduction of Stargate play as Protoss, it feels like Brood War corsair harassment but with that brand-new SC2 edge. I think with the new units the game is just a lot more dynamic overall. It's not the usual econ-cheese into deathball fights anymore.
I enjoy HotS very much so far. Here´s some sweet things about it:
1) Terran players using hellbat drops with nice individual pickup-micro like the good old days. It seems to pay off. 2) Burrow at hatch-tech. 3) Twobase swarmhost pressure against P. Try to snipe observers with hydra or queen and keeping your overseer alive while hoping not to get flanked and killed. Swarmhosts is definately my favourite unit so far. 4) Fungal a bit harder to use and easier to dodge. 5) Carrier micro and skytoss overall seems to be a big step in the right direction. 6) Vipers are fun and requires micro from both sides.
zvt - widowmines make this matchup so damn boring since its hard to be aggressive at all zvp - the msc cannon has the same affect of the widowmine and it just combats aggression so well zvz - early game burrow makes all ins a gamble since your opponent could just have a few burrowed banes at his natural ramp
So yea, turtling is just too damn strong in HotS at the moment
Ravens. they are just ridiculous, the double seeker missle blows up everything. so much fun, ive been going sky terran in every matchup and been having a blast
On January 23 2013 06:35 PaperPrinter wrote: zvt - widowmines make this matchup so damn boring since its hard to be aggressive at all zvp - the msc cannon has the same affect of the widowmine and it just combats aggression so well zvz - early game burrow makes all ins a gamble since your opponent could just have a few burrowed banes at his natural ramp
So yea, turtling is just too damn strong in HotS at the moment
I disagree that improving defensive capabilities makes games boring. In brood war, the strength of siege tanks, reavers, lurkers, etc. gave races a strong defenders advantage. Arguably, this resulted in significantly more engagements and harassment than Starcraft 2, because if a player were to have a significant portion of their army on the map, they could still defend a counter push by their opponent's entire army.
In WoL, if a significant portion of one player's units are busy attacking another player's bases, the other player can often simply counterattack and win due to the lack of units defending their opponents base. In HotS, photon overcharge, recall, swarm hosts, and widow mines increase the defensive capabilities of the respective races. I think the Starcraft 2 metagame would improve more if even more defender's advantage was added to the different races in the mid to late game.
To respond to the OP, this is one of the things that could be really fun about HotS. Strong defensive units could increase the strength of drops and harassing air units and reduce the risk of losing the game after losing engagements, increasing the frequency of engagements throughout the game. I could be wrong about this, however, as the metagame hasn't developed yet.
First I'll go over the non-gameplay features. Unranked play is awesome. Basically all my friends used to suffer from "ladder anxiety" and had trouble playing more than a couple matches a day, and personally I think it's awesome for serious players as well, since I feel after a certain point you have to learn the other races to fully learn their vulnerabilities and timings, and if you tried that in WoL you would destroy your rank.
XP is another fun feature, especially now that it was announced that you will be able to unlock unit skins in addition to portraits/decals. Also gives players more incentive to not give up and fight until the end, which is usually more fun for both players.
BNet feels a bit more complete this time around compared to WoL release. Also, the fact that Browder said they are going to make more big maps, and work to include the tournament maps in to the game, is going to be awesome for the future of the game.
Now on to the gameplay itself. From a Zerg perspective, things are a lot more like Brood War. Honestly, every change to Zerg is basically something that Zerg lost from Brood War. T1 burrow, Ultralisks are back to their original style, Vipers have a new version of "Dark Swarm", and a "Consume", which makes the unit feel a lot like a flying Defiler. But also has an Abduct ability, which is similar in functionality to Spawn Broodlings (snipe a single big unit) but placed in a better position since you don't have to make a unit just for that ability. Hydra speed is back, which is something they really needed. And we have a siege unit again - but it's not a Lurker for sure, Lurkers were very easy to use in comparison since they attacked constantly and did large AoE damage to hold ground even with a couple. Swarm Hosts are much harder to use in comparison - you have to spread them out and spread creep ideally for them, and protect the locusts in order for them to do damage. Their locusts actually do very big damage if they can get in range to attack, but die easily and there is a pretty long time before they attack again, another thing making them harder to use than Lurkers.
The effect all these changes have on the game - mid-late game feels MUCH more like BW. We have all the options we used to have in addition to the SC2 WoL options. So while we technically did not get anything "new" (just old stuff from BW), we have a lot of new ways to use the WoL units that we didn't have before, so that's new in a way.
As others have mentioned, early game isn't very different. Early game burrow is nice and probably gives us some undiscovered potential, but it's been hard for me to find a strat that works consistently. On first glance you think that 100 gas could just be moved from Ling speed to Burrow, but the biggest effect on the build order is actually that you have to use one of your hatchery slots. This makes it so you still need to have an early 2nd, and makes it harder to fit in both queens and lairs. If you hold off the lair upgrade you leave yourself vulnerable to air since you won't be able to make as many queens. So there will need to be a pretty drastically different build order in order to take advantage of this build without damaging the economy, and I haven't discovered that one yet. But it's probably possible.
With that said, people are still discovering new ways to use these new units. Vipers/Hydra Speed/Ultras are pretty easy to integrate in to your existing armies. But Swarm Hosts are a different story. On one hand most units have obvious units that they are strong/weak to, even the other races siege units have obvious strength/weaknesses , but the timeout on Swarm Hosts spawns are so different to use compared to any other unit it's hard to say what units they are strong/weak against. It's almost like their functionality is more similar to a support unit, except unlike a support unit they aren't very effective with just a handful mixed with your existing army. This unit MAY need some further balancing, but considering how different they are it's hard to say.
When it comes to the impressions of the other races units, Widow Mines are awesome and arent used right by most Terrans imo, they can ravage huge amounts of the common WoL ZvT units if you don't micro around them perfectly, and to counter them takes a bit of preparation. They aren't the most useful in big battles, but they are DEADLY when used in split armies and drops. I'm scared of what Terran players will be able to do once some top players start multitasking with these things. It's very hard for Zerg to handle as it forces them to multitask on the Terran players terms, and takes more micromanagement for the Zerg player than it does for the Terran. Also think of the typical Siege Tank counters - if you have mine underneath the tanks those units will take huge damage trying to take out the tank.
Hellbats I surprisingly don't see as often, so I can't say as much, but they make the traditional Terran army compositions a bit harder to counter as well, you can still do it but it takes a bit more micro, which is a good thing for the game imo.
Havent seen the new Reapers really so I can't say anything about that.
If enemy Terrans play with traditional WoL strats ling/bling/muta is still strong vs them, but if they incorporate the new units that strat is much harder to counter. Likewise if Zerg incorporates their new upgrades Roach/Hydra with the new Vipers is now actually viable in ZvT vs their new units, but enough tanks still own Roach/Hydra pretty badly, it comes down to a micro battle if the Vipers will be able to take out enough tanks and marines to win. I actually enjoy using Roach/Hydra in ZvT quite a bit though, its a fun change of pace, just gota watch out for those tanks. Alternatively when Zergs not going Mutas, dropship play is a lot more effective for Terran, so I could imagine this fight is fun for Terrans as well. Zerg dropship play is a bit more viable/fun in this style as well. I hope the timings of the match encourage this type of play more in the future.
ZvT feels a lot more dynamic so I'm pleased with that match. And I don't see any reason why some Terran players seem to be upset, when they actually use the new units they are pretty damn strong and useful. Terrans should be happier than Protoss players imo.
Protoss matches do feel a bit more similar to WoL imo, except for the fact that you see a lot more air toss (probably just the current metagame since hte recent patch changes). Hydras are still the way to go, and Hosts/Corruptors seem like a pretty strong composition in this matchup since their main counter for a lot of Roaches is Tempests (best use I've seen for Hosts so far). These fights take a bit more micro than before though, and there is a little more of a sense of urgency since 200/200 Protoss is strong and Tempests are a bit harder to counter than Colossus with their range. This match still feels slightly too "hard counter" based for my taste, but again that might be because basically every Protoss player is going air right now. It could theoretically be more dynamic if all their other units were being combined better forcing Zerg to change their composition more, rather than "stick to their plan" the whole game.
ZvZ was a lot more muta heavy, but is a lot more experimental this patch with roaches/burrow trying to be used more. This is basically more like BW though since Mutas were pretty common there. I'm not going to say much until things settle a bit more outside of Muta vs Muta. But mirror matches have never been the strong points of SC imo.
My final opinion is I'm pretty happy with HotS. Numbers may need to be tweaked a bit for balance of course, but the fundamental roles of units seems pretty solid and a lot more BW like atm. Zergs new units may not be combative, but they gave us something we needed badly - more spells and more units that we could actively micro to turn around the battle rather than just surrounds (that's all we really needed to do with micro in WoL, other races have a lot more ways they can out-micro). Swarm Hosts may or may not need further changes (hard to say). I would love if it we got another slight change to early-mid game encouraging earlier aggression (burrow is a start but not quite enough). Maybe move Vipers or Hosts a little bit earlier in tech, or make T2 a little less upgrade-heavy (since with all the new units/upgrades it takes a little too much of investment/time that by the time you have it finish it's not really mid game anymore). Once they start using the Tournament maps a lot of the 200/200 turtling meta will ease up a bit, so that's something else great to look forward to. If they tweaked early game for Zerg at all, and buffed Hosts if necessary, HotS would be perfect from a Zerg perspective imo.
Personally, if I get HOTS it's because of the campaign, and even then I might not get it by release. Multiplayer looks the same as WOL for the most part. And in some aspects worse. Tempest is such bad design -_-.
Most notably the Reaper. Blizzard is really experimenting with this unit and I love it. It was used in the beta / early Wings but was nerfed and hardly touched afterwards.
Most fun is still tvt rine tanks vs rine tanks, Other than that I'm having fun dropping Zerg and Protoss with the new drop ships, If the drop ship boost wasn't in the game, I would probably have zero fun as trrrran tho sadly
As zerg my favorite thing is hydras changes, and the early burrow
On January 23 2013 06:35 PaperPrinter wrote: zvt - widowmines make this matchup so damn boring since its hard to be aggressive at all zvp - the msc cannon has the same affect of the widowmine and it just combats aggression so well zvz - early game burrow makes all ins a gamble since your opponent could just have a few burrowed banes at his natural ramp
So yea, turtling is just too damn strong in HotS at the moment
I disagree that improving defensive capabilities makes games boring. In brood war, the strength of siege tanks, reavers, lurkers, etc. gave races a strong defenders advantage. Arguably, this resulted in significantly more engagements and harassment than Starcraft 2, because if a player were to have a significant portion of their army on the map, they could still defend a counter push by their opponent's entire army.
In WoL, if a significant portion of one player's units are busy attacking another player's bases, the other player can often simply counterattack and win due to the lack of units defending their opponents base. In HotS, photon overcharge, recall, swarm hosts, and widow mines increase the defensive capabilities of the respective races. I think the Starcraft 2 metagame would improve more if even more defender's advantage was added to the different races in the mid to late game.
I agree with what u said about defenders advantage but to make it work properly the game needs othes economy flow, if 3 bases is the max income like it is now turtle mode is really viable and useful.
also hots is going to be much better than wol imo, but sc2 need a lot of work yet to be THE GAME it was supossed to be
On January 23 2013 06:35 PaperPrinter wrote: zvt - widowmines make this matchup so damn boring since its hard to be aggressive at all zvp - the msc cannon has the same affect of the widowmine and it just combats aggression so well zvz - early game burrow makes all ins a gamble since your opponent could just have a few burrowed banes at his natural ramp
So yea, turtling is just too damn strong in HotS at the moment
I disagree that improving defensive capabilities makes games boring. In brood war, the strength of siege tanks, reavers, lurkers, etc. gave races a strong defenders advantage. Arguably, this resulted in significantly more engagements and harassment than Starcraft 2, because if a player were to have a significant portion of their army on the map, they could still defend a counter push by their opponent's entire army.
In WoL, if a significant portion of one player's units are busy attacking another player's bases, the other player can often simply counterattack and win due to the lack of units defending their opponents base. In HotS, photon overcharge, recall, swarm hosts, and widow mines increase the defensive capabilities of the respective races. I think the Starcraft 2 metagame would improve more if even more defender's advantage was added to the different races in the mid to late game.
I agree with what u said about defenders advantage but to make it work properly the game needs othes economy flow, if 3 bases is the max income like it is now turtle mode is really viable and useful.
also hots is going to be much better than wol imo, but sc2 need a lot of work yet to be THE GAME it was supossed to be
Good point, reducing the income and/or amount of resources per base would probably make passive play less viable. I think this should be tested and would probably improve the game, but it seems unlikely that Blizzard will experiment with mineral income based on their previous behavior. The only patches I'm aware of since release involved changing the prevalence and location of gold mineral fields.
As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
On January 22 2013 23:54 ETisME wrote: I feel it is just not that useful because what can you really do with an early burrow to make that investment worthwhile?
Burrow ling for more vision = can be done with a ling (only that it will be sniped off)
burrow roaches harass = costly especially when roaches won't have speed and hard to justify the cost of getting those early roaches.
burrow drones = cost could have been used for making queens for defence instead, no gas required
blocking expo = depends on his build I guess, can stop early fast third build but now that Toss has early detection in both robo and stargate tech, detection isn't that lacking anymore.
Burrow only really shines in mid game when the lair tech units are out, burrow banelings, blocking expo along with overlord creep, burrow infestors etc
I suppose that in the end, even if you don't use burrow, it forces you're opponent to be wary of it before lair, especially if you go gas first.
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
Just send an overlord or two to tank damage then use your mutas...
As a random and main race zerg : The animations and new graphism are awesome, and just for that and the campaign I think HOTS is worth it. There is more variety in units in general because of new unit and change on old unit (thor cannot be feedback etc). I love play with widow mine, hellbats, and speedivac even if terran is quite hard in term of micro. The armory defense upgrade work on air and ground so you can use more BC and air in late game. For zerg the change i like the most is ultra attack buff, the notinstant fungal is more challenging also. But i hate to play or be against swarmhost. In toss more tech switch and possibility is nice.
HOTS look great for me, and will be awesome for streaming (if they nerf free unit like broodling and swarmhost) with the wonderful animation.
The new Protoss playstyle of incorporating a lot of stargate and often forgoing big investments in robo units is way more fun to watch and play imo. More skill intensive and multitask heavy than boring old Colossus play.
For me, terran is starting to feel silky smooth. Small changes like the medivac speed make the race feel more polished and add more diversity and possibilities into the game which is interesting. Like for instance, currently I really like doing a technique I call "napalm strike" where I speed medivacs and drop mines either as harrass or all over something immobile like swarm hosts or tanks. With the burrow upgrade its basically a tactical air strike :D
I like what they did with the raven too as it was kind of stupidly OP before and didn't really let your opponent, say a zerg, not lose all his corruptors or BLs, which as lulz as it might have been was pretty broken.
However, battle hellions seem a little OP and are tanky as shit so dropping them as harrass (2 at a time with 2 medis) kind of gets a little silly sometimes hahaha...
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
The viper is actually a really fun, micro promoting unit. Watching tvz or pvz almost gives that brood war feel at times with blinding cloud going down, forcing the enemy to retreat and Zerg to advance, causing a series of micro battles rather than a deathball clash. Battle hellions have made mech slightly more viable than before which is good. Fungal will probably be balanced at some point with its new projectile mechanic. Sky toss is a bit funner to watch than the usual toss deathball (though it too needs rebalancing). Finally I like the direction blizz is going overall, if they manage to make mech viable tvp i will be satisfied with their progress. Not blown away, but satisfied.
For me, the animation is great. The physics are awesome as well. The death animations are really cool with blood spattering everywhere. I'm a terran player and I've been having a lot of fun playing HotS and for me, HotS is about 1000x better than WoL just because in multiplayer there are more options to account for and gives different feel to the game. I liked WoL a lot as well and I have been a big fan of the Starcraft franchise for a long time and personally I think blizzard is doing a really good job of making a game that is fun to play and to watch as well. I love playing the campaign modes as well and I am sure HotS will not disappoint in that aspect. Buy the game! You'll enjoy it for a long time :D
The new game units really change the dynamic of SC2.
I am mostly a ladder player but I still love to see how the story unfolds.
Most of the negative posts online are mostly people joining the band wagon. For me, it is worth to shell the money to buy the game. I've been playing beta and it is a lot of fun!
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
Which new dynamics? Sitting in your base, rushing to hive so you can actually engage a tank composition? I'm excited.
On January 22 2013 22:49 ETisME wrote: I hope the campaign will be good enough to keep me entertained. honestly, the multiplayer is quite fun already, definitely worth my money to preordering a copy.
Personally I am most impressed with the new collapsible rocks, it gives more variety into the game and future map design can get even more interesting.
The in-game XP number popping up was one of the biggest things I like the most. Sure they are random pointless numbers but seeing a lot of xp number popping up when I kill off a tonnes of lings with a baneling for example, is even more satisfying than before.
What would be perfect is IF playstyle can be more diversified. Personally I feel the early game for Zerg is too similar to before, I wish something could be done to add a little here and there. TvP is too similar to WoL. (hoping mech would get more viable) Any matchup involving Protoss however is way different. Skytoss is completely legit now
Isn't zerg with early burrow different?
I've been playing a lot with early burrow and it's really really fun in all matchups, but it's very pressure-orientated and really quite allin.
You can't really just get burrow as standard; if you're droning up it's not a huge use. But burrow roach allins are really really fun; like, blink stalker micro kind of fun, and I always enjoyed that.
A couple of questions:
Have you tried 1 base roach rush with the burrow? If not, would that not be really effective? I got the beta myself, I just havent had time to try it out.
Also, do zerg now START with burrow or does it still have to be upgraded?
I've not tried 1 base burrow roach allin; i usually expand first then burrow allin off 2 gas and a couple more drones. I've not played with the timings much but with the research time I'm not sure 1 base burrow would really be done in time to make it effective.
You need to upgrade it, same cost and time as it was before
Thanks for the feedback! Since I'm a big sc2 fan I will get it no matter what, really happy to hear that its better than WoL and that a lot of people having fun with it.
I'm also hoping the pro scene flourishes even further once HotS comes out. I hope HotS will bring in alot of new fans and see why we love starcraft.
In the event I get beta access, I will post my positive experiences with the game as well.
2 months of waiting is too long, can't wait to play!
Please feel free to share more Positive and interesting things about HotS for us without beta access.
Hey. The coolest thing so far for me is being able to try out a lot of new builds. Each race has enough changes that there are new things to try and the meta is not super developed.
As a Zerg I find little things like burrow on hatch, spore w/o evo, hydra speed, have all added cool new options without even mentioning our two new units.
Also (and this is apparent in WoL as well) I really like the more aggressive patching with cool changes right now. I hope they keep it up.
The only complaint is I wish they could have been even more aggressive and fixed a few things from WoL that still linger and will have to be dealt with in LotV.
Well, now that Blizzard added SHARED REPLAY WATCHING, you'll be able to show off your games to friends without it being a royal pain in the ass (imagine how much easier it will be for pro-teams to study replays now).
And you can start a game from any point in a replay! Which means you can attempt to do a build as well as a pro (and evaluate the benchmarks) over and over again. Definitely some of the most worthwhile changes in HOTS.
On January 24 2013 06:14 ErikThorsson wrote: For me, terran is starting to feel silky smooth. Small changes like the medivac speed make the race feel more polished and add more diversity and possibilities into the game which is interesting. Like for instance, currently I really like doing a technique I call "napalm strike" where I speed medivacs and drop mines either as harrass or all over something immobile like swarm hosts or tanks. With the burrow upgrade its basically a tactical air strike :D
I like what they did with the raven too as it was kind of stupidly OP before and didn't really let your opponent, say a zerg, not lose all his corruptors or BLs, which as lulz as it might have been was pretty broken.
However, battle hellions seem a little OP and are tanky as shit so dropping them as harrass (2 at a time with 2 medis) kind of gets a little silly sometimes hahaha...
The thing about WoL is that everybody says it's boring at pro level. But have you been watching Code S this season? A lot of non-stop action games and beautiful sick micro is being done. Zergs no longer do the turtle into infestor/BL as often (it's a lot of muta/ling now, and it's really cool - todays games between Gumiho and Sniper as an example of great games!), and protoss players are struggling against terrans because the overall level of players have improved so much. And this is the 'boring' WoL.
So I believe that in a few years, games in HotS will be awesome. Even more awesome than what would have been if WoL would have been the game to play for a few more years.
As Zerg, Vipers are sooo fun to use with your current army, it really feels like a much higher skill cap. Swarm hosts seem neat... but I feel like they will be more for extremely well planned out builds than just trying to "go" for them. Also, ZvP is extremely fun right now. I've been going ling muta bane into ultralisk, and toss usually goes air. It really has the old style of Zerg having much better economy and Toss having a much more powerful army, and Zerg just throws tons of units at them. Now more BL infestor and it's soooo great!!!
Also, with the little that I've played with the other races, Terran medivac speed is really fun and I love air play as Toss now.
For starters, the game engine is REALLY responsive. It's just so good. Compare the time it takes to lift/land buildings or raise/lower supply depots in WoL with HotS. Heart of the Swarm has no lag at all! It's beautiful. ;o;
Gameplay is vastly improved, tons of options people asked for are actually in the game now.
Lots of balance fixes. Like HOLY SHIT WoL just feels like an inferior piece of crap. (so wings feels the same as always hohoho zing)
Lots of new early game openers, for ALL races. And of course, the new units.
Terran Widow Mine = Lurker level micro and positioning Hellbat = easy mode hellion Reapers = Actually useable Thors = Better AA and no more energy bar Ravens = vastly improved seeker missiles Medivacs = speed is op as hell
Zerg Swarm Host = Coolness and really zergy, micros like a siege tank Viper = Amazing hive tech unit, will become a staple in late game zerg armies like the Infestor, but not massed due to cost Hydras = decent, the speed upgrade gives so much freedom Mutas = even faster but only to keep up with the new changes, passive hp regen ability is the real highlight of HotS mutas Infestors = 10 range fungals. 'nuff said Ultralisks = buffed amazingly well, actually cost efficient and kills things now without needing that retarded burrow charge gimmick (which was removed, yay) Special mention goes to Spine Crawlers, which completely wall off now And burrow tech at hatchery gives possibilities for new openers
Protoss Mothership Core = opens a whole new world for early game protoss, making all matchups less stale Oracle = livens up protoss harass, gives detection for pure stargate play, no more robo bay needed Tempest = amazingly fun seige unit that hard counters massive air units and has usefulness in pressing engagements Mothership = Now less op, having time warp on it is so cool, always hated vortex (glad that's gone now) Void Rays = Cost effective with new ability, supply cost raised to discourage massing! ;p Phoenixes = +1 range to keep up with new changes, makes getting the range upgrade even that much better Carriers = Leash range. 'nuff said
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
Which new dynamics? Sitting in your base, rushing to hive so you can actually engage a tank composition? I'm excited.
I'm going to pretend it's not obvious that you are just trying to troll me, because I already explained the dynamic...
If tank compositions are still your problem... You already learned the solution for tank compositions in WoL. Just because they come a bit earlier don't mean you need a different counter. Not to mention the WoL counter to tank compositions is even stronger now that Zerg has Vipers. With the Viper you can force them out of that composition, which leads you to the dynamic I explained.
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
Which new dynamics? Sitting in your base, rushing to hive so you can actually engage a tank composition? I'm excited.
I'm going to pretend it's not obvious that you are just trying to troll me, because I already explained the dynamic...
If tank compositions are still your problem... You already learned the solution for tank compositions in WoL. Just because they come a bit earlier don't mean you need a different counter. Not to mention the WoL counter to tank compositions is even stronger now that Zerg has Vipers. With the Viper you can force them out of that composition, which leads you to the dynamic I explained.
But widow mines make the earlier tank compositions stronger and your response of "Use vipers" is exactly what he was saying about you needing hive to properly engage.
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
Which new dynamics? Sitting in your base, rushing to hive so you can actually engage a tank composition? I'm excited.
I'm going to pretend it's not obvious that you are just trying to troll me, because I already explained the dynamic...
If tank compositions are still your problem... You already learned the solution for tank compositions in WoL. Just because they come a bit earlier don't mean you need a different counter. Not to mention the WoL counter to tank compositions is even stronger now that Zerg has Vipers. With the Viper you can force them out of that composition, which leads you to the dynamic I explained.
But widow mines make the earlier tank compositions stronger and your response of "Use vipers" is exactly what he was saying about you needing hive to properly engage.
Actually I said the typical WoL ZvT strat already can counter tanks. About Viper my exact words were it "is even stronger now that Zerg has Vipers". I never said Vipers were the solution, they only enhance the solution.
And Widow Mines are exactly what brings a different dynamic to the fight. They aren't as beneficial in battles with large armies due to the potential for friendly fire so you typically see them in earlier pushes, nor are they good if you do just a tank/mine composition since tanks are the easiest to destroy with friendly fire.
Not to mention they are spreading resources/supply on more than just tanks/rines as you see in WoL Terran, so it becomes a battle based on assessing countering the opponents composition, rather than a direct build. As mentioned heavy amounts of tanks still isnt very different of a strat, but if they are heavier on widow mines it becomes a micro battle. Also mines are typically paired with barracks units and/or hellion/hellbat openers, which well microed roach/hydra/infestor/host is actually very effective against. The less tanks are massed the more effective roach/hydra becomes, the more tanks the more effective WoL Zerg becomes.
This is gonna sound really dumb, but the Elite/hardest AI does really silly/fun micro tricks that you'll never see from people.
For instance, versus Zerg, they would send 3-4 overseers along with their units to let out changelings around a thor so that it could move anywhere and snipe it. It's pretty tight, I dunno if insane AI does it on WoL though.
This is gonna sound really dumb, but the Elite/hardest AI does really silly/fun micro tricks that you'll never see from people.
For instance, versus Zerg, they would send 3-4 overseers along with their units to let out changelings around a thor so that it could move anywhere and snipe it. It's pretty tight, I dunno if insane AI does it on WoL though.
Wait, they included insane AI in latest patch? Somebody told me they didn't. O.o
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
Which new dynamics? Sitting in your base, rushing to hive so you can actually engage a tank composition? I'm excited.
I'm going to pretend it's not obvious that you are just trying to troll me, because I already explained the dynamic...
If tank compositions are still your problem... You already learned the solution for tank compositions in WoL. Just because they come a bit earlier don't mean you need a different counter. Not to mention the WoL counter to tank compositions is even stronger now that Zerg has Vipers. With the Viper you can force them out of that composition, which leads you to the dynamic I explained.
Are you even playing this game? One solution to mech in WoL was to trade roaches with tanks when they still have a low number. That's impossible now because of widow mines and battle helions which just tank too much. There is no dynamic in ZvT mech right now. You can't do anything pre hive. If sitting in your base for 15minutes is your definition of great new dynamics... fine.
I believe the funniest thing about HotS is that it's awfully unbalanced at the moment. Last night I pondered how to make HotS a lot better game than it is with the current patch. Here is the solution, I came up with during the night.
On January 23 2013 15:17 Xanbatou wrote: As a Zerg player, i strongly dislike the direction that the game is going. I have stopped playing the game because of widow mines and their ability to attack air. I'm completely flabbergasted that they still have that ability because it practically eliminates muta play.
It's a more dynamic match up now. Widow mines counter WoL style play. But Roach/Hydra/Viper composition makes it a micro battle between both sides, the player with better micro wins (as it should be).
Conversely, if the Zerg player can't go WoL style, Terran players can instead go tanks/medivacs and they can counter Roach/Hydra/Viper play. Which then leads the Zerg player back to WoL style play with muta/ling/bane to counter medivacs, except more micro has to be involved for all the different units involved.
I'm enjoying ZvT more than any other matchup atm because of this new dynamic. My advice is don't play the game like WoL and you will enjoy the matchup much more.
Which new dynamics? Sitting in your base, rushing to hive so you can actually engage a tank composition? I'm excited.
I'm going to pretend it's not obvious that you are just trying to troll me, because I already explained the dynamic...
If tank compositions are still your problem... You already learned the solution for tank compositions in WoL. Just because they come a bit earlier don't mean you need a different counter. Not to mention the WoL counter to tank compositions is even stronger now that Zerg has Vipers. With the Viper you can force them out of that composition, which leads you to the dynamic I explained.
Are you even playing this game? One solution to mech in WoL was to trade roaches with tanks when they still have a low number. That's impossible now because of widow mines and battle helions which just tank too much. There is no dynamic in ZvT mech right now. You can't do anything pre hive. If sitting in your base for 15minutes is your definition of great new dynamics... fine.
Yep this is basically how it is, with new hellbats to tank incredibly well you just cant trade roaches for tanks anymore, with widow mines now you also run the risk of losing a large potion of your army/damaging it all. Muta vs mech is not viable either since a few well placed widow mines = bye bye mutas.
If the maps had harder to take 3rd bases then none of this would even be a problem because then Terran would need to spread their army much more, but nope, all of the maps have easy to defend thirds which are insanely close to their natural/main which leads to boring turtle fests. HotS is in a really really bad spot right now imo.
On January 29 2013 05:12 badganondorf wrote: I believe the funniest thing about HotS is that it's awfully unbalanced at the moment. Last night I pondered how to make HotS a lot better game than it is with the current patch. Here is the solution, I came up with during the night.
So, this is the one thread on the forums NOT dedicated to whining but rather to discuss the good stuff in the upcoming expansion, and people STILL come in here to whine?
This community can be so fucking depressing sometimes.
--------------------------------
Anyway, I'll share what I like so far:
The new Raven seems really cool. Seeker Missile is actually very useful now, while still being dodgeable with anything but the slowest units. I've tried to go Marine/Medivac/Raven and I think it could actually have a lot of potential, in addition to being different and fun.
This is gonna sound really dumb, but the Elite/hardest AI does really silly/fun micro tricks that you'll never see from people.
For instance, versus Zerg, they would send 3-4 overseers along with their units to let out changelings around a thor so that it could move anywhere and snipe it. It's pretty tight, I dunno if insane AI does it on WoL though.
Wait, they included insane AI in latest patch? Somebody told me they didn't. O.o
Well on the "ai ladder" where you get auto-matched against "equally skilled" ai opponents there is an elite level where I believe the same ai as the insane ai is used except that it doesn't cheat with map vision and extra moneys. The best part so far about hots is Kerrigan's boobies in 3d. I kid I kid. HotS is just generally better in pretty much every way.
For those who put those whining posts, it doesn't belong here on this thread.
I'm dying to get my hands on a beta key and would really love to post the positive stuff that I would like about HotS. And based on the feedback here, I'm even more excited after hearing all the positive stuff about the game.
Looking forward to more posts from people that have the beta and have something exciting to talk about the game.
There is so much more potential for fun micro with a lot of units, like how pulling back damaged mutas pays off quite quickly now, or how reapers can snowball fast with good micro, or the new midgame agression toss can do with ms core recall. As a toss, before I always felt i was allin if I my army met the opposing army at any time, retreating felt pretty impossible in WoL.
The gameplay is pretty fun, but I am particularly liking some of the new animations. I had four immortals kill a few queens yesterday and they blew the corpses halfway across the screen. It was sick.
EPT
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