Why not simply listen to the community and make Widow Mines balanced being a 1-supply unit? This unit is extremely useful to block DTs and drops now, but lore-wise sounds a little off. Why would a "missile turret" need to burrow? I like that they're willing to try new mechanics, but once again it is Terrans getting a very cost-effective unit.
And now Oracles are very expensive workers lol. Expanding will be a pain when a unit can either block your mineral line our earn minerals while attacking your main structure or gas structure. I'm curious to see how players will use it, but I expected a combat ability.
@Ahli634: Go Yeah I got it. I misunderstood it at first, thikinh that it would be cast from a Nexus, automatically recalling you MS Core and the surrounding army. Anyway, it doesn't look noob-friendly to me, you know, selecting MS Core and in the heat of battle move to the desired nexus to target it. Maybe it could be set to allow minimap casting?
They followed several suggestions made in blizz forums to give MS Core a "leash range" from a Nexus, but only for the Purify ability. And now your Core is supposed to follow your harass so you can recall the entire group? Harass with a unit as fast as... check Ahli's list.
I'm curious to know what will happen to recall then. And with Recall moved to nexus can we expect 'mass' Recall? And by that I mean Recall being used all the time.
Ohhh Blizz, you don't really know how to balance the Swarm Host, do you?
Same goes for battle hellion and its bio unit filter - I highly doubt it will stay bio, it was probably just a quick way to test its compatibility with medivacs, and they'd probably just replace the bio unit filter with a validator in the medivac ability so that the BH can be healed without being bio (Or they'd just scrap the idea.) I don't see why people are complaining about blizzard trying out stuff - Maybe they added the bio unit filter to see how firebats would do in the game? Who knows, they might scrap the BH next patch and just add the firebat instead if they like the results of the bio-BH. Its a beta, they are testing the game to see what they can do.
While I doubt they would do that, because as I said it could feel cheap to add a unit that was in WoL campaign, I'd love to have Firebats instead of Battle Hellions. I don't like all the Transformers feel in SC2, and the other transformer unit, the Viking, is rarely used in ground form, we would be better with Wraiths or Valkyries replacing them.
Ohh and about a previous discussion about Medics over Medivacs, and the need to nerf Marines: Marines got extra range and extra life comparing BW to WoL, and I feel Medics heal faster than BW version with a longer range. Nobody tried to balance those things before changing the game. They made the Medivac because "Medics couldn't keep up with Reapers", but have you seen anyone use a Reaper + Medivac composition? No, the Reaper can now heal itself. Its just a series of bad design decisions that could have gone an entirely different way.
@Bogdan254: Go They wont, simply because every decision they made so far shows us they don't admit some of the older units are good enough for melee.
Browder said they could see the Firebat was better than Hellion in the campaign. Now we have Battle Hellions trying to be Firebats, to the point they are considered biological so they can be healed by Medivacs... This is stupid. People could argue that adding the Firebat to melee tech would be 'cheap' for an expansion, because the unit was already in WoL, but seeing what they are doing in beta makes me think I'd rather pay for the Firebat.
Widow Mines are problematic. Some of the Spider Mines' mechanics would work better. Widow Mines' mechanics force them to be more expensive and cost more supply, and still they are not that efficient, because their damage is focused on the main target with little AoE damage, but I think Blizzard is trying to change that. Then again people could say a change like giving Spider Mines to Hellions would be cheap and not worth paying for.
Of course each case must be evaluated carefully. Swarm Hosts are not Lurkers, their mechanics are very different. But which one is needed the most? Which one is easier to balance? Sometimes they trip in their decisions. Terran had the opportunity to use Warhounds in the beta and most players agree it was op. Blizzard said it was op. Tempests overlap more and more with Void Rays. But in WoL they removed Lurkers before players had a chance to use them, without a valid argument for that.
Another terrible design faliure for SC2 in general is that many high tier units are useless or rarely useful, capital ships being the best example. Too many units (and not as expensive) counter capital ships. The very concept to teching up means you try to access units that should be obviously better than the ones you start with, but in SC2 the counters to high tier units come early in tech. Units should counter lower tier, not higher tier. The fact that Marines are a good counter to some high tier units, that Zealots (with charge) are good counters to mech, and so on, already tells us something about game design.
I think the campaign will make HoTS worth my money. New aditor features and lots of new assets too. The ladder? I'm not sure, but I'm not a competitive player anyway, so my opinion on HoTS differs from ladder players. As for cool campaign stuff I'd like to see this:
@Bogdan254: Go How come they want to boost factory by adding another BIO unit??? BIO will get stronger!!!
Stupid Blizzard could simply add the firebat to the Barracks, and if they want it to be late game add an armory requirement.
EDIT: Now their stupid development decisions are called bugs. Buff BC gorund damage, want to take it back? Call it a bug. Vipers and Oracles should be psionic but aren't? Another bug!!!!
@rikky333: Go Why do you make so many crazy assumptions? Of course by the way it's going Tempest will overlap more and more with Void Rays, but your other ideas are based on what? Spider Mines to Ravens? They want the Widow Mine to be an area-control unit from the Factory and they lowered the tier so that doesn't make any sense.
In SC2 forums there are players asking them to do waht they first wanted to do with the Warhound, replace the Thor's AA role and make Thor the siege breaker unit. I think it makes a lot more sense. Just make them attack air again (would be very similar to Goliath but they wont admit it) and make Thors only attack ground, and replace 250mm Cannons with the campaign's 300mm Cannons.
Why not simply listen to the community and make Widow Mines balanced being a 1-supply unit? This unit is extremely useful to block DTs and drops now, but lore-wise sounds a little off. Why would a "missile turret" need to burrow? I like that they're willing to try new mechanics, but once again it is Terrans getting a very cost-effective unit.
And now Oracles are very expensive workers lol. Expanding will be a pain when a unit can either block your mineral line our earn minerals while attacking your main structure or gas structure. I'm curious to see how players will use it, but I expected a combat ability.
@Ahli634: Go Yeah I got it. I misunderstood it at first, thikinh that it would be cast from a Nexus, automatically recalling you MS Core and the surrounding army. Anyway, it doesn't look noob-friendly to me, you know, selecting MS Core and in the heat of battle move to the desired nexus to target it. Maybe it could be set to allow minimap casting?
They followed several suggestions made in blizz forums to give MS Core a "leash range" from a Nexus, but only for the Purify ability. And now your Core is supposed to follow your harass so you can recall the entire group? Harass with a unit as fast as... check Ahli's list.
I'm curious to know what will happen to recall then. And with Recall moved to nexus can we expect 'mass' Recall? And by that I mean Recall being used all the time.
Ohhh Blizz, you don't really know how to balance the Swarm Host, do you?
While I doubt they would do that, because as I said it could feel cheap to add a unit that was in WoL campaign, I'd love to have Firebats instead of Battle Hellions. I don't like all the Transformers feel in SC2, and the other transformer unit, the Viking, is rarely used in ground form, we would be better with Wraiths or Valkyries replacing them.
Ohh and about a previous discussion about Medics over Medivacs, and the need to nerf Marines: Marines got extra range and extra life comparing BW to WoL, and I feel Medics heal faster than BW version with a longer range. Nobody tried to balance those things before changing the game. They made the Medivac because "Medics couldn't keep up with Reapers", but have you seen anyone use a Reaper + Medivac composition? No, the Reaper can now heal itself. Its just a series of bad design decisions that could have gone an entirely different way.
@Bogdan254: Go They wont, simply because every decision they made so far shows us they don't admit some of the older units are good enough for melee.
Browder said they could see the Firebat was better than Hellion in the campaign. Now we have Battle Hellions trying to be Firebats, to the point they are considered biological so they can be healed by Medivacs... This is stupid. People could argue that adding the Firebat to melee tech would be 'cheap' for an expansion, because the unit was already in WoL, but seeing what they are doing in beta makes me think I'd rather pay for the Firebat.
Widow Mines are problematic. Some of the Spider Mines' mechanics would work better. Widow Mines' mechanics force them to be more expensive and cost more supply, and still they are not that efficient, because their damage is focused on the main target with little AoE damage, but I think Blizzard is trying to change that. Then again people could say a change like giving Spider Mines to Hellions would be cheap and not worth paying for.
Of course each case must be evaluated carefully. Swarm Hosts are not Lurkers, their mechanics are very different. But which one is needed the most? Which one is easier to balance? Sometimes they trip in their decisions. Terran had the opportunity to use Warhounds in the beta and most players agree it was op. Blizzard said it was op. Tempests overlap more and more with Void Rays. But in WoL they removed Lurkers before players had a chance to use them, without a valid argument for that.
Another terrible design faliure for SC2 in general is that many high tier units are useless or rarely useful, capital ships being the best example. Too many units (and not as expensive) counter capital ships. The very concept to teching up means you try to access units that should be obviously better than the ones you start with, but in SC2 the counters to high tier units come early in tech. Units should counter lower tier, not higher tier. The fact that Marines are a good counter to some high tier units, that Zealots (with charge) are good counters to mech, and so on, already tells us something about game design.
I think the campaign will make HoTS worth my money. New aditor features and lots of new assets too. The ladder? I'm not sure, but I'm not a competitive player anyway, so my opinion on HoTS differs from ladder players. As for cool campaign stuff I'd like to see this:
@Bogdan254: Go How come they want to boost factory by adding another BIO unit??? BIO will get stronger!!!
Stupid Blizzard could simply add the firebat to the Barracks, and if they want it to be late game add an armory requirement.
EDIT: Now their stupid development decisions are called bugs. Buff BC gorund damage, want to take it back? Call it a bug. Vipers and Oracles should be psionic but aren't? Another bug!!!!
@rikky333: Go Why do you make so many crazy assumptions? Of course by the way it's going Tempest will overlap more and more with Void Rays, but your other ideas are based on what? Spider Mines to Ravens? They want the Widow Mine to be an area-control unit from the Factory and they lowered the tier so that doesn't make any sense.
In SC2 forums there are players asking them to do waht they first wanted to do with the Warhound, replace the Thor's AA role and make Thor the siege breaker unit. I think it makes a lot more sense. Just make them attack air again (would be very similar to Goliath but they wont admit it) and make Thors only attack ground, and replace 250mm Cannons with the campaign's 300mm Cannons.
New icons for all viper abilites. The previous ones were replaced. Luckily I had exported them so they arent lost forever.
Tempest becoming a Void Ray in 4... 3... 2...
EDIT: "A bug was fixed that caused battlecruiser anti-ground damage to be more than 8." I thought Blizzard had buffed it to 10... wtf?