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The thing about 2.25 speed is that it's not a "useful combat unit" speed.
Generally, if a unit moves at 2.25 or slower, it has some sort of major benefit in combat.
siege tanks and colossi have 13 and 9 range.
casters cast spells.
The closest unit to the hydralisk in lack of overwhelming awesome is the Immortal, which I think could use another +1 range to make up for its slow speed, but others might cry over it...
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United States17042 Posts
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On October 26 2011 14:11 Exyia wrote: I think the Hydra is weak in the same sense that the Carrier is weak
it's almost a 100% BW port, but there are so many more units/dynamics in SC2, it's as if the hydra/carrier missed the beta test with the NEW SC2 units because they were assumed "balanced from BW"
Carriers are still great dps, but with the introduction of the Viking/Corruptor, and no adaptation to the Carrier, it's rendered very cost in-efficient. As well as the strengths of the new roach and marauder, making Protoss in need of AoE tech. The Carrier is simply there for a role from BW that doesn't exist anymore in SC2
Same concept with the Hydra - a high (somewhat burst) dps, but with Marine balls protected by Marauders at the front, the higher attack speed of the Marine, smart tank-fire, and still having a high cost relative to BW, it's in a niche that rarely opens in SC2
NO. no just no..
The sc2 Hydra is COMPLETELY different to the bw hydras. The similarity ends with them being called 'hydra'.
+They evolved backwards when going over to sc2. +Losing ability to morph to lurkers, +Taking more effort for the overmind to control. +Slower. +Bigger target. +Clumps too much. +Takes more effort to produce
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On October 26 2011 14:07 foxmeep wrote: See, the thing about Damage Per Second... it actually requires the unit to live longer than 1 second to deal it. sums up the situation nicely
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On October 26 2011 14:15 me_viet wrote:Show nested quote +On October 26 2011 14:11 Exyia wrote: I think the Hydra is weak in the same sense that the Carrier is weak
it's almost a 100% BW port, but there are so many more units/dynamics in SC2, it's as if the hydra/carrier missed the beta test with the NEW SC2 units because they were assumed "balanced from BW"
Carriers are still great dps, but with the introduction of the Viking/Corruptor, and no adaptation to the Carrier, it's rendered very cost in-efficient. As well as the strengths of the new roach and marauder, making Protoss in need of AoE tech. The Carrier is simply there for a role from BW that doesn't exist anymore in SC2
Same concept with the Hydra - a high (somewhat burst) dps, but with Marine balls protected by Marauders at the front, the higher attack speed of the Marine, smart tank-fire, and still having a high cost relative to BW, it's in a niche that rarely opens in SC2 NO. no just no.. The sc2 Hydra is COMPLETELY different to the bw hydras. The similarity ends with them being called 'hydra'. +They evolved backwards when going over to sc2. +Losing ability to morph to lurkers, +Taking more effort for the overmind to control. +Slower. +Bigger target. +Clumps too much. +Takes more effort to produce
This. Not only does it cost an additional 25/25 to create, they cost double supply, require lair tech to make, and move almost as fast as a snail on dry ground.
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They cant morph into lurkers anymore 
I have a weird feeling though if they weren't lair tech and had speed upgrade that it would break the game somehow.
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Your analogies are wrong and you are comparing apples with oranges.
Hydras need to be faster because during a battle, fast hydras are able to more quickly get into position to be able to deal damage. If you don't believe me on this, try a 20 hydra vs 20 hydra simulation - where 1 side has speed and the other side doesn't. Because of speed boosts, marines and zealots (who have charge later on, and are quite weak without) don't have this drawback.
Secondly, you don't understand how zergs fight during battles. Since their army is generally less cost effective (or more accurately, supply ineffective), zergs rely on a constant stream of reinforcements to be able to break a front. Terrans don't generally have this (they can entrench a position) or they can even stim to be able to reinforce quickly. Protoss have warp-ins to deal with this.
Lastly, there is a general consensus amongst pro-players that hydras are too slow off-creep. That alone would be enough evidence already. The hydra speed upgrade will go a long way of making them more viable.
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The Marine doesn't seem like a slow unit does it? Even without Stimpack, the Marine is a very versatile and effective unit
marines doesn't cost gas, and have insta-shot, thats the reason why they are so versatile.
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When Browder made Roaches 2 supply and zerg didn't have a 1 supply unit, it broke my heart. Zerg IS the race of numbers and no 1 supply tier 1 unit. Just zerglings and a bunch of 2 supply units. Meh. Either make roach 1 supply and balance accordingly, or make hydras 1 supply tier 1 and balance accordingly.
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Dustin Browder is holding the hydralisk back.
edit: and, yes, ^ agreed with 0neder completely. the lack of a 1 food unit for zerg is really silly, and even messes with how larva works.
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Well, it's very lackluster stats wise, but more than anything it simply lacks any useful well-defined role since the Roach kind is just far more cost efficient as a ranged unit. Its only real purpose is as an anti-air unit, and even then Zergs reluctantly make it because of its incredibly high gas cost and how if they over-make it, it can become a huge liability due to how easily countered it is. Giving it a speed upgrade at lair-ish level would help it somewhat (lol Hive level), but even then I don't think players would consider it worth the 50 gas. I think more than anything it needs a damage type change, so at least it can be used as a situational unit for countering something. Changing its location in the tech tree, lowering its cost (and tweaking its stats to match the new cost) would also all sort of help, but at the end of the day all it really offers over roaches is an attack that hits hair and very slightly more range.
tl,dr: It's a relic unit shoehorned into the game, and not even shoehorned very well at that. It has a very forced niche in the Zerg army, and doesn't even fulfill that niche well.
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Q: What is holding the Hydralisk back?
A: Creep Spread
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Faulty argument.
Zerg is based on engaging the army on your terms with easy re-positioning, being able to do hit and run attacks, and to counter attack the enemy.
The hydralisk does not keep up with any of the three just listed. Which is why you do NOT see the hydralisk being used.
If zerg was a deathball race, with A+click, then your comparisons to terran and protoss would be valid. However, that isn't the case.
The Hydralisk is slow with high dps, which already breaks the zerg principles. But lets put that to the side shall we? Fine, its a glass cannon, weak with high attack. However, glass cannons must have mechanisms or traits that prevent them from being killed too easily. Example, colossus is a glass cannon. Its trait/mechanism is its 9 range to stay far from enemy units.
The Hydralisk, doesn't have speed, doesn't have range, doesn't have a spell or ability, doesn't have cloak, its not a flying unit, it frankly.. doesn't have any means of keeping itself alive.
/thread
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the fact that its hp to cost ratio is horrendous for a unit that's so slow.
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United States7483 Posts
On October 26 2011 13:40 fdsdfg wrote: Um... this is a misguided topic.
"What is holding the hydralisk back"? A lot of things. Its low HP, its inability to exist with colossi on the field, its terrible benefit from upgrades, and it's speed.
The OP is just 'compared to slow units from other races, the hydralisk isn't much different!' I know. It still sucks past the 12 minute mark.
The worst thing about them IMO is the upgrades.
With each +1 attack, Hydra goes from: +0: 12 +1: 13 +2: 14 +3: 15
Meanwhile the Roach gets
+0: 16 +1: 18 +2: 20 +3: 22
The Zergling
+0: 5 +1: 6 +2: 7 +3: 8
It's awful. +3 hydra does 25% more damage than +0, compared to 37/60% more from these other two units respectively.
That and their role in the metagame is very dumb.
ZvT I've very rarely seen hydras used, but I have also never tried it very much so I can't say much about it. I've used hydras in a lategame army after I've economically won, but that isn't saying much
ZvP hydras have a very weird role. Hydras are good against every opening. Hydras are great against phoenix/voidray, immortal/warp prism, and blink stalkers. With a pure gateway build, hydras are great against every unit. Hydras are not bossed around well by forcefields.
However, robo and templar tech grow up to get colossi and psi storm, both of which completely nullify Hydralisks. Once air units get too numerous, hydras can't attack effectively since they bump into each other, so they don't work against late game starport play either.
Hydras can be the damage dealers when they first come out, but they cannot sustain their role in an army for long. I go hydras often just so I can tech switch to something else once they respond, and they can be good before they respond - but they're just too easy to nullify.
Just to point out, the hydra attacks much faster than roaches, so the upgrade scaling isn't quite so easy to pin down. They attack more than twice as fast as a roach, so they scale BETTER with attack upgrades than the roach does (+1.2 dps per attack upgrade vs. +1 dps per attack upgrade of the roach).
Yeah, zerglings do scale better than hydras.
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The sheer paucity of hydralisks in almost all top-lvl tourneys for this whole year might not explicity show what their problem is, but even Helen Keller would be able to tell something is seriously wrong with the unit by now.
Speed? Cost? Durability? Or likely, a combination of some or all three of those?
Poor Hydra ;_;
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50 gas and not being an unit you will salvage if your push fails is holding the hydra back.
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To answer your question I think speed and health are holding hydralisk back, It's what is a defining factor. The reason hydras suck in ZvT is that Tanks even with only doing 35 damage shred hydras and they can't close in fast enough to deal with a good number or tanks/marines. I think hydras are very good in PvZ for certain situations the problem is they can't tank damage for shit against late game aoe damage. If Hydras had 120 life they would be very viable almost super scary even without increased speed.
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i believe the hydralisk would be a extremely good unit, almost overpowered, given zerg mechanics if the following things were true.
1) maps were TRULY wide open
2) hydras had their insane oncreep speed even off-creep
now when i say that, i really think hydras would be pretty much overpowered if all of that was true. thats right, overpowered.
now lets look at this objectively. I do believe the maps are terrible however there is one map out there in the pool that i believe is truly "open", and thats taldar arim. most terrans and protosses veto this map however i believe this map is actually how maps "should be". i believe terrans and protosses that hate this map against zerg really just are actually finally getting to fight zerg on even terms with a actual balanced map
taldar arim is very open. if the enemy is in the middle of the field you can easily flank his army with speedroach/speedling and hit his army from 2 or 3 sides. even if he is sieged or has forcefields normally theres enough room to win the battle if you are on equal terms
i honestly believe if speed hydras were thrown into that equation it would be even more ridiculously powerful for the zerg. but thats not how it is in reality because hydras are SLOW AS BALLS off creep.
currently in the game, if a zerg could magically have 10000000000000 apm and spread creep like a champ, realistically if you look at the math of it it would take a zerg maybe 4 minutes with 1 extra queen to actually spread creep across the ENTIRE MAP of taldar arim (or the entire center)
imagine that, if zerg could spread creep across the entire taldar arim map and have this done by 8-9 minutes (assuming you get 1 extra tumor queen at 5 minutes gametime)
that would be super overpowered, but it also would take 99999999 apm, which zergs just dont have. so creep spreading given human limitations can only happen so fast. if creep-spreading was somehow automated and tumors automatically casted themselves that would surely be overpowered and every game would see the zerg filling the entire map with creep in a couple minutes with 1 extra queen.
however my point here is this, hydras are being held back because they NEED TO BE SLOW off creep to stop this ridiculous overpowered scenario from happening which i explained above (about the speedroach/speedling/hydra flanks)
however also i will say that the overpowered scenario would only be true on taldar arim.
on a map like metalopalis or zelnaga caverns, even with fast speed hydras would be underpowered. but thats more to do with the fact that MOST MAPS in the map-pool are biased against zerg and make zerg a little underpowered
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They're slow as fuck off creep and have no speed upgrade...yet.
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