StarCraftII: HOTS Beta thoughts by Arew

If Blizzard removes stuff like, autosplit, written workers per base it would be even greater.

On September 09 2012 21:58 Deyster wrote:
This kind of review of HotS is awesome. I hope you do another one following the Warhound and Swarm Host nerfs.



I'm not sure why anyone would be against this. Wouldn't that help you as an aspiring player to spend less time practicing splits and less APM spent on checking saturation? The dull mechanical aspect of Starcraft 2 isn't what's appealing to someone like me who likes to watch it as a spectator sport.

On September 09 2012 18:17 arew wrote:


Hello, this is Arew, former StarCraft:BroodWar progamer and not so yet known StarCraft II player, semi-pro, protoss user, 6times GrandMaster player on WoL and now got into GrandMaster league at HotS, even though the ladder itself is kinda broken. I've been playing HOTS for about 4days now and I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts.

Terran
Most of time playing against a Terran you'll face the mech play by them. Like 14 games out of 15, they'll do Warhounds, Hellions, Thors and Vikings. It is really hard to play against Warhounds for the moment as a protoss and a zerg, Even though they got nerfed a little bit, I don't think its enough, still. To win against a Terran you gotta play superb, be ahead by economy and upgrades, otherwise you'll get crushed. For example, I've been playing against not so good terrans, of course they've opened with
Warhounds and did some sort of preasure, opening with 2-3gateways + Stargate to go for Void Ray oracle you kinda stop it for the first 10 minutes of the game. But later on it kinda becomes unstoppable. Within the main fight when I got maxed I got Immortals, Archons, Voidrays and charge-lots but my army just got crushed. After battle supply (from 200 to 80 against his 190 to 160) even though I got 2-0-2 upgrades and he got 1-1. This happens most of time, but within more time I think it will be fixed so the game itself will be more fun, because this is something what happens mostly every game. Of course, you can transition to Tempests later on, but again, mass vikings + thors will kill it.
The Window Mine is a pretty nice unit for the terran to camp, I actually like it, looks like a StarCraft:BroodWar to me, it is good. But I'm not sure yet, maybe its a bug, but it doesnt see and kill Dark Templars, played against mouzHeroMarine and DT's just could go through.
You know how effective Hellion drops were in WoL, but in HOTS, Battle Hellion drops are even better, your mineral line is gone just within a few seconds, even faster than it was with the hellions. This need some fix too, I think. Zealots cannot even kill them, Stalkers need quite some more hits to do so.
Couldn't say much about the reaper change yet, since almost everyone opens up with mech, not the reapers tho.
Over all about the Terran I'd say, people who play on this race should be happy. But for me, myself its kinda fun to play as a Terran, maybe just till the next fix.

Zerg
As a protoss player I'd say an early observer is kinda a must now, especially if zerg opens up with Swarm Hosts, what is a really strong unit. Honestly, I think, that especially with an upgrade which lets Locusts live even longer its ridiculously strong ground unit, of course its HP isn't high, but it deals tons of damage. The best counter I could think of it is an early observer + Void Ray after the Forge Expand into Storms/Colossi tech. I think, that Locusts living time should be nerfed, I think most of the people would agree with me, or at least for now the upgrade should be removed or something should be fixed. Especially when they spawn Locusts, they could go almost half a map and still live. Over all, its a fun unit which brings a lot of various strategies to the game.
Viper, it's a really expensive unit, if you do it, you really need to make sure you use it right. Now it's good for a zerg player to get Siege Tanks, Colossi killed easier. Even though it is really low on HP, but the abilities are really nice. I haven't seen much usage of Blinding Cloud, but it reminds me a Dark Swarm from the Defiler (SC:BW unit) late game zerg should be really strong now. I don't think this unit needs a fix yet. Its seems to be ok.
Hydralisk speed should bring them more to the game, especially into the later stages, but still, colossi, bio+tanks will rape it any day, any time. So hard to call it. Maybe midgame usage of it will be better.
Also, about the Ultralisk charge I couldn't say much, since I dont think it changed anything much. Maybe in ZvT it is better, but in ZvP I didn't see it done for a good use.
Over all, I'd say that Zerg got a lot stronger within this patch, of course it will be Zerg expansion, so no reason to be surprised. But I think that within some fixes I've mentioned it will be well balanced.

Protoss
There is not too much of changes as for the protoss, but the current changes are pretty fun.
The unit I like the most is Oracle. It has such a nice abilities! The one I like the most is to block enemies mineral line just within 100 energy. Maybe it should be something like 125, I dont know. But the strategy I've thought (You could see it in the replays) it really works well. Firstly you make a mothership core, then you get an Oracle, with M-Core you make Oracle's energy full and just go to block his mineral line both at same time, natural and main and your opponent is kinda screwed for that time, you could even expand, do some pressure at the same time. The other ability to get vision of his building is kinda nice, but not so much usage for a while. I think its a nice unit, but it needs some sort of ability fix, with more mana per some skill, not sure.
Tempest is the longest range unit in the game, I think, that it's range is kinda too big, maybe 10+8 with an upgrade would be enough. Now you can destroy zerg spine crawlers, other stuff, units from such a big distance, that your enemy doesn't even know where the Tempests even are. The damage they do seems to be ok, IMO, but the range will get nerfed just a little bit, I'm sure of that.
Mothership Core brings a lot of interesting openints to the protoss, with a good timing you could defense an enemies 4gate with just 2gate+M-Core without even making more than 1 sentry, it's a pretty nice unit with good defensive abilities. I like the usage of spell, which makes selected unit/building mana(energy) to full. Also, as a protoss player you can do some pressure and if you see it's going bad to recall your army back with Mass Recall ability from the M-Core. Of course, in the late game you can transform M-Core to the real MotherShip with just making a Fleet Beacon.
Anyway, I think this race will be nerfed the least, since it doesn't need so much fixes as the other. In my opinion, this race is kinda weakest for the moment. Maybe I'm the one who feels like that, but I do.
Over all, It is really fun to play as a protoss with a lot of various stuff to do. (Maybe not so fun to play against warhounds yet, but still!)

Final words
It is cool that Blizzard launched the BETA and let us take a look how the game looks like. Within some fixes this game will be even better to play, and I think that HotS will be much better than WoL. If Blizzard removes stuff like, autosplit, written workers per base it would be even greater. Anyway, its just a BETA yet, we should be happy we got to play it!

Some of my HotS replays (sorry, not that much, if people would like, I could get more): HotS replay pack
You could like me at facebook and see when I'm streaming, releasing replay packs, etc: Arew @ FaceBook
My stream link: Arew @ Twitch.tv

Sorry for my English, it's not my first language, so I tried to do my best!

On September 10 2012 08:58 LuckyFool wrote:
Arew absolutely was a pro broodwar player. And all he said was a semi-pro sc2 player, what's wrong with that?

On September 10 2012 09:19 LuckyFool wrote:
being one of the "top players from Lithuania who competed at WCG and many top foreign teams." is a broodwar progamer in my book.

maybe your view of broodwar pro is vastly different than mine.

On September 10 2012 09:19 LuckyFool wrote:
somebody who was playing full time or putting in full time hours qualifying and playing in major events deserves the right to call themselves a pro in my book regardless of how much they got paid or made.

On September 10 2012 10:04 LuckyFool wrote:
I'm trying to understand why you're getting so worked up over this.

basically your saying he is wrongly comparing himself to that of a KeSPA league player by saying he was a broodwar pro? I personally don't see "broodwar progamer" and read it as if they're making a living playing broodwar. I think its pretty common knowledge that basically no foreign players actually made a living playing broodwar. that doesn't mean no foreigner was putting in "full time/pro" hours into the game and playing at near pro levels.

Would you consider a player like JF a progamer? He won TSL1 and was on top foreign teams making salary but never dropped out of school or anything. He turned down going to Korea to stay in school. What about Mondragon, a huge name in all kinds of foreign events and WCG, he never won courage or played in Korea. Was he a broodwar progamer?

I define broodwar pro by actual skill not some ideological principal or unrealistic definition. Arew was on professional foreign teams playing at a professional level in the foreign scene, qualifying for wcg etc. Regardless of how financially shitty the scene was I don't let the scene define personal work ethic. If somebody put the hours in to compete a professional level they deserve the right to call themselves professional gamers. Arew is in broodwar international tlpd, typically I draw my line of professional player if they're in there, playing in professional tournaments/leagues/events. Of course there really is no definitive definition of what makes a foreign broodwar pro. Or what makes a progamer in general, there have never been official licenses in the foreign scene like there are for KeSPA so technically any foreigner (minus the 3 or 4foreigners who actually got KeSPA licenses) calling themselves a progamer by your definition would be a lie.

On September 10 2012 11:03 LuckyFool wrote:
whatever, I feel like we're arguing silly semantics.

Pro-Am, Semi-Pro, I don't really see a difference, or why it even really matters. arew was better than your random D+ kid off the street and I have no problem with him saying so.