Starcraft 2: 8 Medivac drop

[Traab]

I thought the exact same thing too and built about half as many swarm hosts, spines, and hydras around there as the other 2 ramps. Turns out, the hydras by themselves killed everything before they could get through the rocks. I only had like 6 hydras, and most of them couldn't even hit the nemy hydras. Fortunately, 1 could barely stay in range with the enemy hydras. (Thank you 6 range evolution.)

I built a squad of mutalisks to kill the tyranosaur or whatever it was, then used them to keep slaughtering the groups that attacked the rocks. Also for swatting enemy fliers that would show up from time to time. It just worked well. Plop a spore colony along their general route just to hold them up and send in the mutas to wipe em out. I didnt bother producing any other units but that squad of mutalisks and the swarm hosts. Plugged like 10-12 at each opening then summoned locusts whenever I felt like it.

I really enjoyed that mission, the swarm hosts are an awesome unit. Really handy for keeping a bottleneck shut to your base. I cant wait for the chance to put them to use in later missions. Even just slapping down 4-5 would be enough to delay if not halt an enemy attack, meanwhile I can keep producing my swarm and destroying whatever has earned the queen of blades ire this week.

[Karoht]

Lurkers when you get them just aren't worth the cost IMO.
100m 50g, then 50m 100g? Instead of 200m 100g for Swarm Host, which can hit air as well if you want. Yeah, I'll stick with the Swarm Hosts.
The only advantage I could see with Lurkers is that they are much quicker to get into position, quicker to uproot and advance forward. They might have a place supporting my Swarm Hosts, but that is about all.
Much like a Perdition Turret in front of a Bunker.

Evolution Missions are freaking awesome.
Extra Fast Triple Spawn Zerglings with Speed Boost + Banelings who explode into 2x baby banelings.
Oh man, so many Banelings! All the time! In your face! In your base!
I can't wait to replay some of these missions with all of the upgrades.

[Traab]

Lurkers when you get them just aren't worth the cost IMO.
100m 50g, then 50m 100g? Instead of 200m 100g for Swarm Host, which can hit air as well if you want. Yeah, I'll stick with the Swarm Hosts.
The only advantage I could see with Lurkers is that they are much quicker to get into position, quicker to uproot and advance forward. They might have a place supporting my Swarm Hosts, but that is about all.
Much like a Perdition Turret in front of a Bunker.

Evolution Missions are freaking awesome.
Extra Fast Triple Spawn Zerglings with Speed Boost + Banelings who explode into 2x baby banelings.
Oh man, so many Banelings! All the time! In your face! In your base!
I can't wait to replay some of these missions with all of the upgrades.

I actually picked the hopper banelings. I figured, while the extra kabooms are great and all, I would prefer to be able to go around the heavily defended choke point and melt an entire base from behind. Much more bang for my buck than losing half my banelings on approach because im trying to send them up against a pair of bunkers backed by siege tanks or whatever. Also, something I wasnt sure of. Do my banelings hurt my own units when they go splash? Its hard to tell in a huge swarm. I know I can pick the upgrade that lets them heal nearby units, but I wasnt sure if they do damage otherwise.

[huttj509]

I actually picked the hopper banelings. I figured, while the extra kabooms are great and all, I would prefer to be able to go around the heavily defended choke point and melt an entire base from behind. Much more bang for my buck than losing half my banelings on approach because im trying to send them up against a pair of bunkers backed by siege tanks or whatever. Also, something I wasnt sure of. Do my banelings hurt my own units when they go splash? Its hard to tell in a huge swarm. I know I can pick the upgrade that lets them heal nearby units, but I wasnt sure if they do damage otherwise.

They do not, they only harm enemies.

Edit: I went with hopper Zerglings and Banelings so they could more easily reach/surround targets in a mob of mixed units.

[Traab]

Ah cool, the thing is, after dealing with siege tanks for so long, I kind of expect things like hurting myself. :p

[Aotrs Commander]

Kinda snuck out, didn't it? Or maybe it's just me, but the first I heard of the actual release was when Amazon sent me an email yesterday to say my copy had been dispatched! (Not come yet, might be a day or two, which is probably as well, as I have quest-writing to do in the meantime...)

[Karoht]

Snuck out?
I couldn't watch a single youtube video without seeing an ad for the game.
Every gaming website I visit had multiple ads on each page.
Facebook had something on the sidebar.
They had a massive launch party, which was advertised in the games launcher as well as on several websites.
If anything, this launch was bigger than WoL. It was actually pretty cool.

Also, Starcraft Universe has made it big on the SC2 Arcade. It's just the prologue up so far, but go check it out. It is extremely cool. Awesome fan made project, totally worth a look.

[Artanis]

I am disappointed in this thread's lack of "having the HotS for Kerrigan" puns

[Karoht]

I am disappointed in this thread's lack of "having the HotS for Kerrigan" puns

...aaaaaand we just found our next thread title when we hit cap.

[Aotrs Commander]

Snuck out?
I couldn't watch a single youtube video without seeing an ad for the game.
Every gaming website I visit had multiple ads on each page.
Facebook had something on the sidebar.
They had a massive launch party, which was advertised in the games launcher as well as on several websites.
If anything, this launch was bigger than WoL. It was actually pretty cool.

Clearly was just me then...

Which surprises me a bit really, since I completely missed it until the aforementioned email. I know it was due out some time this year (as I'd put my Amazon pre-order in), but last time I checked, the release date was still in that nebulous concept of Blizzard-time...

[Silverraptor]

Holy Evolution Ultralisk Mission Batman! Holy Crap!

Anyways, hope this isn't a spoiler for anyone, since it should be really obvious, but I'm invading Korhal now. (I know I spelled that name wrong somehow). Anyone want to discuss which evolutions they got with which mutation choice for each unit and the reasons behind it?

Don't talk too much about the missions and plot yet. Lets give it a week before spoiling too much stuff.

[Traab]

I picked the hopper zerglings. Iirc, they get a damage increase to go with the hops.

Slow down roaches because, slow is awesome!

Hopper banelings because sneak attack is better with fragile flasks of rolling acid

I picked the impaler hydralisk because meh, dont really care either way. I dont think I will ever bother upgrading them.

Swarm hosts I picked the tunnlers. Because that is just freaking epic being able to plop down a dozen of them at any point my creep covers.

Thats as far as I have gotten. I am working with the infestors now, which was another awesome map. So im sure korhal is coming up soon. Havent unlocked ultralisks yet.

[LordShotGun]

I don't know why people would ever not pick the raptor zerglings (cliff jumpers). Between the extra engage speed and the FREE 2 ATTACK UPGRADES, they just seem so much more valuable in getting you your cost versus effectiveness ratio up.

Roach upgrade was difficult but I chose slow roaches if only because I hate having to fiddle around with summoned units.

Hydra upgrade was pointless but I chose the armor piercing one, not that I ever used it.

Swarm hosts....another unit I never ever used but I got the flyers if only for the damage boost.

Banelings...never used, got cliff jumper

Ultralisks, now these are the powerhouses. Got the immortality upgrade, makes them so much more useful when combined with burrow charge.

Mutalisk, got the broodlord upgrade, never used it, stuck with mutalisks all game.

As for the missions them selves...I dislike zerg the most out of all 3 races and I was always really meh about any mission with base building since I hate larva management but on any hero centric mission or sidequest, I enjoyed it greatly. The zergus planet was by far the most fun.

I almost always ended up spamming an army of hydralisks and roaches and steamrolling the enemy in any base building mission.

As for the ending...

Spoiler

Show

Rather disappointed with the final mission. I just used the drop pods ability and over ran the entire base after just 2 cycles. This felt more like a campaign to show how Kerrigan regains control of the swarm while still being human as apposed to any real plot development (death of Narud as an exception but even then not much of one).

Still. I think I got my 40 bucks worth. WoL campagin was more fun but that was only due to how the Terran race plays.

[Silverraptor]

I got the raptor ling upgrade. With the extra 2 damage and the gap closer, I grabbed the adrenal gland upgrade for more attack damage.

The roaches, I grabbed speed. I saw it as, the mini-roaches would become the tanks for the roaches, but roahces don't have problem tanking. Their main problem is big powerful anti-tank units, such as seige tanks hitting them too often. Slowing down the attack speed of those units really benefits their tank. (They also came in use against hybrids where it slow down their speed whereas the mini-roaches wouldn't have done jack with no other units around to benefit from.

Banelings, I got the mini-baneling upgrade. It was so fun to spam a bunch of banelings and then roll them into and enemy base and melt it off the map in acid and still have a bunch of mini-banelings left over.

Hyrdas, I got lurkers cause lurkers in brood war. Logic makes perfect sense, don't judge!

Mutalisk, broodlords cause I don't want to think. Brood lords also made good use in korhal invasion. Sent 5 broodlords A-move towards one gate while I was dealing with getting additional bases and securing drop zones. Come back several mintues later to A-move somewhere else.

Ultralisk was REALLY HARD!!! I mean, you have the ultralisk that has a ton of extra damage, or an ultralisk that will come back to life every 60 seconds, cause an ultalisk coming back to life is EPIC!!! Plus, torrasque from starcraft campaign, so logic also applies!

Edit: Also, got the move burrow Swamhosts. Swarmhosts are really slow in general, so move about and free creep is good as well. Also, really annoyed by the not burrow swarmhost. Got the burrow mutation for practice with multiplayer and so units can go over them. Planted a bunch on the ramp in the swarmhost mission, and my hydras couldn't go down to get the mutas attacking them. Had to move swarmhosts just so both the hydras, and the swarmhosts in the back, could squeeze through to the enemy.

[Happy Gravity]

The minibaneling upgrade is good if you get Kerrigan's spawn 6 baneling attack.

Basically an army wiper. Combine that with the bouncing attack and spawn broodling on kill, and Kerrigan can create a broodling army out of a pack of infantry to take out a base with almost no other supporting units.

It's silly.

Starting a Brutal playthrough of HotS, like just about every other Youtuber that has access to it.

[Silverraptor]

The minibaneling upgrade is good if you get Kerrigan's spawn 6 baneling attack.

Basically an army wiper. Combine that with the bouncing attack and spawn broodling on kill, and Kerrigan can create a broodling army to take out a base with almost no other supporting units.

It's silly.

Huh. Didn't think about that...

[Traab]

Yeah, just picked broodlord. The viper strain did look handy, but im not a big fan of micro. I prefer to just send in the clowns, and overwhelm everything. Use kerrigan to nuke the biggest unit in the area, lift any nearby seige tanks or large squads of closely packed guys into the air, that sort of thing. Wish I had thought of the baneling thing with kerrigan. /cry.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

My thoughts on the campaign...

I like the leaper 'lings. Combo that with wings, and you have highly mobile units who are capable of scouting enemy positions rapidly. And with 'ling reconstitution... you just get 'em back anyways.

I also like the leaper banelings. Combo with the former, you can hit a base from an oblique angle and wipe out most of their defenses rapidly.

Also, Chain Blast + Broodlings = fun times. Six marines show up, now you have twelve broodlings to muck up their aiming while you start taking other things down.

Also, Mend is crack. Kerrigan in a mix of Vile Roaches and Hydras with upgraded range... really tough nut to crack.

Also, Piercer Hydras are an awesome thing to mix in with swarm hosts. It does something like 50 damage vs Armored, with a range of 11. So they deal with the heavy units like Thors, Siege Tanks, Colossi, and the like while the swarmies take care of swarms of mooks. Now, if you didn't have Swarmies, lurkers would be effective against lots of little mooks, but since swarmies now take that roll, exceptionally well I might add, Piercers are a great way to deal with the bigger and nastier things that might show up at your doorstep.

Also, deep burrow swarm hosts are sick yo. Since you are rarely attacked from more than one direction, it's pretty much 'I build one pile of 'em, and wherever opponents attack, that's where they go'.

Vile Roaches are very nasty. It's the reduction in fire rate which makes them so nasty, though. It's like they've got the toughness of an Ultralisk, since their targets are firing once in a blue moon. Great for neutralizing ground-based threats so the 'lings can mop up with the +50% attack rate mutation. Yet another reason I love the leaper 'lings.

[Silverraptor]

I didn't like the leaper banelings because normally when enemy untis move to engage your units, they group up. The leaper banelings jump where they are, when they are usually split up a bit.

[Traab]

That is a good point, but then you can always wait a second before sending them in. Lure them in with a small swarm then pile on then from the cliffs to the sides.

[Silverraptor]

That is a good point, but then you can always wait a second before sending them in. Lure them in with a small swarm then pile on then from the cliffs to the sides.

Too much work.


And... Normal campaign completed! Next stop, hard mode!

[Acanous]

So yeah, couple questions here:
Do the choices you made in WoL matter in HoTS? (Saving/torching Haven, siding with Tosh/Nova, Third one I don't remember)
Is there a secret mission like there was in WoL?
Finally: Kerrigan spawns Banelings now? That's pretty twisted if your banelings also multiply on death and kills spawn broodlings.

Who needs an army?

[LordShotGun]

So yeah, couple questions here:
Do the choices you made in WoL matter in HoTS? (Saving/torching Haven, siding with Tosh/Nova, Third one I don't remember)
Is there a secret mission like there was in WoL?
Finally: Kerrigan spawns Banelings now? That's pretty twisted if your banelings also multiply on death and kills spawn broodlings.

Who needs an army?

There are some mentions of previous choices (I destroyed the char air platform and got a anti-air mission, dunno if the reverse is true). Nova talks about you not helping her if you went the tosh route, and tosh is included in a single throwaway line by whats-his-name Hyperion captain blandy-pants.

[Silverraptor]

There are some mentions of previous choices (I destroyed the char air platform and got a anti-air mission, dunno if the reverse is true). Nova talks about you not helping her if you went the tosh route, and tosh is included in a single throwaway line by whats-his-name Hyperion captain blandy-pants.

Matt Horner?

[LordShotGun]

Matt Horner?

YES! The only man that can make captaining a capital class battlecruiser IN SPACE, seem contrite and boring.

(Seriously, who the heck is this guy? Did I miss something in SC1 or brood war?)

[Traab]

There are some mentions of previous choices (I destroyed the char air platform and got a anti-air mission, dunno if the reverse is true). Nova talks about you not helping her if you went the tosh route, and tosh is included in a single throwaway line by whats-his-name Hyperion captain blandy-pants.

Yeah the char thing, I took out the tunnels so I was warned they had been filled with lava by the terrans. Had to make a run for it down the bone valley or whatever it was called and it was a pretty cool mission. I like this single player campaign, it has a fairly wide variety of missions, not repetitive at all. So far every time I have had a chance to use them, those swarm lords or whatever they are called have proven well worth the cost to build. I setup 5 of them at my main camp burrowed at the choke points or wherever the attacks seem to come from most, and let them protect the base. I got the anti air powerup and the tunneler strain so I can bounce them all over my base as needed. And if they arent able to handle the attack, I have time to create a swarm of whatever WILL handle it. That lets me concentrate on super charging my army to replace the losses I take as I move from objective to objective.

The double drone power is freaking awesome. It lets me max out my resource gathering so fast its scary. Right at the start I turn 3 larva into drones and get 6. Then I do it again, and am able to build a vespene refinery, a roach warren and hydralisk den because ive got cash pouring in. After that I produce a solid group of units to defend until I can finish maxing production and go full army time. I am also a huge fan of the drone counter that lets me know how many I need to maximize collection. Im usually on the move with a mid sized force of hydras and roaches in 5 minutes or less. I know that likely sucks compared to the pvp players here, but its usually more than fast enough to do the job in the campaign.

[The New Bruceski]

So once I pick an evolution I can't go back, right? I went for the ZERGlings and then remembered about the Three Stooges effect on chokepoints. Instant spawning is nice though. As a result I also went for hopper banelings so they're not stuck behind the swarm trying to reach people to blow up. I really like giving them healing splash, too.

Kerrigan's zergling resurrection, does it rez more if you go ZERGlings?

[Happy Gravity]

I just started laddering today/tonight. I have a silly replay I would like to show anyone who is interested. Seems to demonstrate the power of upgrades pretty well. I was behind in almost every other aspect of the matchup. XD (A bit of tech variety as well - I had an emphasis on Swarm Hosts and Hydras, he varied between Banelings and Mutalisks, and finally Infestors. We both threw tons of Roaches and Zerglings at each other as well.

...how do I go about sharing it?

Anyone got advice on file sharing sites they trust?

[Komatik]

http://drop.sc/

[Thiyr]

Lurkers when you get them just aren't worth the cost IMO.
100m 50g, then 50m 100g? Instead of 200m 100g for Swarm Host, which can hit air as well if you want. Yeah, I'll stick with the Swarm Hosts.
The only advantage I could see with Lurkers is that they are much quicker to get into position, quicker to uproot and advance forward. They might have a place supporting my Swarm Hosts, but that is about all.
Much like a Perdition Turret in front of a Bunker.

The big reason I find I like lurkers is the splash damage thing. Granted, I don't use them often, but I usually just spam lings and let kerrigan kill anything in the sky. Works far too well. But I did use them to amazing effect on the baneling mission. Killing whatsitcalled whenever it came out was easy when it was running into 10 lurkers soon as it left its front door. Handfull of lings added into the mix, and I just killed their base instead of collecting baneling eggs. Because eff your mission requirements, I just kill you to death.

But yea. Leapy-lings with maybe some antiair support seems to be enough for most missions. Except the one that gives swarm hosts, but for some reason I found it tricky. I'll have to go back and give it another run at some point.