Starcraft 2: 8 Medivac drop

[Mutant Sheep]

1v1 multiplayer on the ladder. You know, the one that gets all of the e-sports attention?

If I'm debating whether to even get the expansion, I don't think I'm pining for a Grandmasters spot. (I lean towards team games anyways. Less static.)

I I do like Blizz campaigns, and zerg is my favorite race, so I really like the customizating. I also like this hero-unit thing we only got twice in Wings. The problem is cash. And not having an actual computer that isn't brother-owned.

[Kyeudo]

I I do like Blizz campaigns, and zerg is my favorite race, so I really like the customizating. I also like this hero-unit thing we only got twice in Wings. The problem is cash. And not having an actual computer that isn't brother-owned.

I didn't really like the hero unit thing in HotS. Kerrigan was powerful enough at the end that I just sort of attacked and won, no real strategy or tactics needed. Sort of like Warcraft 3 on later missions.

I would have preferred more of a WoL like experience, with more cool (campaign only) units to play with, a few optional points in the story, carry-overs from your last WoL play through, and being able to spend mutations on stuff I actually wanted instead of only one mutation per species. The different strains were occasionally interesting (I liked Raptor-strain zerglings), but they were secondary to such problems as not being able to get Zergling Speed and Adrenal Glands at the same time.

[Spuddles]

Starcraft 2 campaigns, despite having a bunch of fiddly choices, don't have much replayability for me. Until there's a map pack of missions available (which will be never), there's no reason to buy HotS. Just play through the campaign on your brother's (or friends') computers.

The only exception would be if you want to grind through the game on brutal. But that's just tedium, for me. If I wanted an exercise in tedium, I'd play diablo or something.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I actually enjoyed the HotS campaign, and had a lot of fun replaying it.

Yes, Kerrigan in the later levels is easily strong enough to roflstomp anything that gets in her way if you have the right skill choices. However, by that point, you've already gotten all you need to roflstomp them anyways. I mean, come on... this is campaign mode we're talking about. It only bares a passing semblance to multiplayer units anyways.

I liked making choices about the mutations and strains. It was a nice way to limit things without actually doing a lot to nerf your ability to roflstomp people. For example, Lings. I always went Raptor Strain, and usually went Adrenal Glands. I rarely ever picked up speed boost. If I felt the need to close quickly, I'd just creep spread and use the creep speed boost instead.

That's another thing I think a lot of 'newbies' don't do in the campaign which really makes it so trivial... creep spread. They get so focused on their micro that they forget their macro, and creep spread, particularly with Malignant Creep, is pretty advantageous. Gives most of your units significant bonuses, and the AI rarely used any detection to take out your creep tumors... even at higher difficulty levels.

[Spuddles]

I actually enjoyed the HotS campaign, and had a lot of fun replaying it.

Yes, Kerrigan in the later levels is easily strong enough to roflstomp anything that gets in her way if you have the right skill choices. However, by that point, you've already gotten all you need to roflstomp them anyways. I mean, come on... this is campaign mode we're talking about. It only bares a passing semblance to multiplayer units anyways.

I liked making choices about the mutations and strains. It was a nice way to limit things without actually doing a lot to nerf your ability to roflstomp people. For example, Lings. I always went Raptor Strain, and usually went Adrenal Glands. I rarely ever picked up speed boost. If I felt the need to close quickly, I'd just creep spread and use the creep speed boost instead.

That's another thing I think a lot of 'newbies' don't do in the campaign which really makes it so trivial... creep spread. They get so focused on their micro that they forget their macro, and creep spread, particularly with Malignant Creep, is pretty advantageous. Gives most of your units significant bonuses, and the AI rarely used any detection to take out your creep tumors... even at higher difficulty levels.

But honestly, how many hours of play did you get out of that? 10? 20?

I could drop $10 on Torchlight 2 and get that many hours of fun for a quarter of the price.

[Gandariel]

But that is not the point of the game.

Starcraft is one of the few games that still cost a lot, because they put so much into it.

You get an awesome campaign, with super good cutscenes (the viking landing in fron of the Ultra will be one of the coolest scenes in a game for a loooong time). you get the multiplayer game (which is IMO the most important part) with great playability, balance, tactics (enough to make an esport of it). and, the Arcade, which features a LOT of great, free games. seriously, SCII gamers with the editor have created lots of wounderful games for when you wanna take a break from the ladder. the games are all made with the sc== editor, but many are not starcraft-y at all.

so yeah, the campaign alone isn't worth the full price. the game is, though.

[Talderas]

I actually enjoyed the HotS campaign, and had a lot of fun replaying it.

Yes, Kerrigan in the later levels is easily strong enough to roflstomp anything that gets in her way if you have the right skill choices. However, by that point, you've already gotten all you need to roflstomp them anyways. I mean, come on... this is campaign mode we're talking about. It only bares a passing semblance to multiplayer units anyways.

I've not found Kerrigan to be as roflstomp potent on Brutal and some Hard levels as she was on Normal difficulty.

[Kyeudo]

I've not found Kerrigan to be as roflstomp potent on Brutal and some Hard levels as she was on Normal difficulty.

Drop Pods, my friend. Drop Pods.

[Talderas]

Drop Pods, my friend. Drop Pods.

Are only accessible once she's high enough level. Doing a new campaign on brutal is a whole different story than replaying a level with a max level Kerrigan, if you even get that.

[Kyeudo]

Are only accessible once she's high enough level. Doing a new campaign on brutal is a whole different story than replaying a level with a max level Kerrigan, if you even get that.

We were already talking about the later levels.

On the early levels she still makes things easy. Targeted 300 damage snipes? Free zerglings? Free Hunter Banelings with no supply cost whenever I want? Yes please.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I found a core of Vile Roaches and Hydralisks surrounding Kerrigan with a vanguard of 'lings suitable for beating most every challenge the game presented me.

Kerrigan + Chain Blast + Spawn Broodlings makes for a horribly effective combo. If nothing else, opponents are too busy attacking the broodlings to worry about the zergball rolling over them.

Vile is crack. It's like... there is no other option for Roaches, Vile is just that strong. Even a single vile roach can trivialize many encounters with enough micro. It makes Hunter Lings the viable answer to anything not flying.

[Karoht]

My first playthrough, I never involved Kerrigan in combat unless I had to. She was an excellent base defender.
My second playthrough, I saw the error of my ways. Build many Hatcheries. Set Kerrigan as the rally point.
Kill stuff. Win.

The second playthrough, even going from normal to hard, was MUCH easier as a result.

[GolemsVoice]

I'm going to try the campaign again on Brutal. I used to be quite good at WoL, which, at Brutal, even required skill.

I've tried 1on1 unranked today. Damn I'm rusty.

[Mutant Sheep]

Is Spawn supposed to limit you to Terran? Because then it isn't any different than the Starter Edition. (I tried a game with Lego and it wouldn't let me switch)

[Thiyr]

It limits you to terran, but it opens up ranked/unranked matchmaking and HotS units (provided the spawner has hots, of course). Its not exactly the same, but still fairly close to starter edition.

[Gandariel]

I played a handful of games after not playing for a long time because school. And, i'm doing pretty ok. I got placed in Gold though (used to be plat). I'm winning some good games, but i can really see lots of stuff i'm rusty at.

I won a game in which i had many times thought about GGing.
I had 2 bases against a zerg with FIVE. I had tried to get up a third but it got destroyed twice. i managed to stay alive because i had 4 colossi with +3 attack. In the end i forced a base trade, i got in his main, and when he came up my ramp with his vastly superior army (at the beginning of the basetrade i had 140 supply, he was maxed) i MASSACRED him with splash damage from Archons, Colossi and Storm.

Otherwise i'm feeling pretty much ok with my play. PvP is still my worst matchup. I really can't figure out a good strategy for it. I suppose i should just be doing 4gate or 3gate robo things, but i don't know.

Oh, and (at least at my level of play) Zergs who go hatch first freak out when you put a pylon and 2 cannons behind their natural's mineral line.
A few players just quit, some went for crazy 1base nydus plays, some just expanded elsewhere)
Anyways, it was always worth the investment

[Spuddles]

PvP is mostly one base play, cheese isn't uncommon- proxy, cannon rush, dts, 4gate, 2gate robo, 1 base blink stalker.

[Silverraptor]

PvP is mostly one base play, cheese isn't uncommon- proxy, cannon rush, dts, 4gate, 2gate robo, 1 base blink stalker.

Reason I hate PvP.

[Gandariel]

Same here =(

I just played a PvP, i saw he was one-basing so i went for a 3gate robo.
I lost my initial probe, i lost stupidly my MSC.
My enemy did Chargelots + DT rush.

I did have an observer, but it was with the army in the middle of the map. When i saw the DTs killing my probes i had no energy on the MSC to recall army and obs home, so i realized my only chance was to go for it. I took my remaining probes and went for the attack at his base. I narrowly won mainly thanks to Forcefields

[Silverraptor]

Same here =(

I just played a PvP, i saw he was one-basing so i went for a 3gate robo.
I lost my initial probe, i lost stupidly my MSC.
My enemy did Chargelots + DT rush.

I did have an observer, but it was with the army in the middle of the map. When i saw the DTs killing my probes i had no energy on the MSC to recall army and obs home, so i realized my only chance was to go for it. I took my remaining probes and went for the attack at his base. I narrowly won mainly thanks to Forcefields

I got into the habit of building atleast 2 obs and get the obs speed upgrade when I have the extra resources to afford it. It was just something I did and I noticed my mini-map could be covered a lot easier and stealth became less and less of an issue.

[Gandariel]

I just beat a cannon rusher with my MSC! Photon overcharge for the win!
True "When Cheese Fails" moment there :P


EDIT: Here it is =)

[Yora]

So I almost managed to finish WoL and are now in the final level.

Unfortunately, I went the route of taking out the Nydus worms, and now I have to deal with all the air attacks and Kerrigans ground attack.
Is there a way to get to the final level with air units being taken out of the picture? Then I could just spam siege tanks and fire turrets and cluster them at the factories, command center, and artifact.

But with both air and ground attacks from three direction simultaneously, I just keep getting swamped.

Edit: Silly me, one of the very genrous autosaves obviously did the trick.

However, All In is still quite difficult. I was hoping to just spam banshees and valkyries, but my banshees have to simultaneously defend four entrances into the base, clear out any nydus worms inside my base, and fly out to destroy any nydus worms outside. All the while I am trying to keep my bunkers and flame turrets rebuild.

[Spuddles]

I lose half my bronze league 1v1 games due to crashes.

I've taken to RPing starcraft.

Also, have you ever seen 20k minerals in overseers?

[Silverraptor]

I lose half my bronze league 1v1 games due to crashes.

I've taken to RPing starcraft.

Also, have you ever seen 20k minerals in overseers?

Yes. Enemy buildings can't do anything...EVER!

[Yora]

With the Zerg campaign being still 40€ and probably staying there, as well as money being a bit tight, I am undecided if I want to buy it in the near future, or keep it up until later, after I bought other stuff I want more right now.

The main issue is, that I really never was a fan of the Terran campaigns. The UED campaign in Brood War was okay, but I just can't give a minor amount of care for Raynor and Mengsk. To me, Starcraft always is all about the war between the Protoss and the Zerg, with some other guys occasionally cought in the middle, who don't seem important to me.
Now the big seller of the Zerg in SC1 were Kerrigan and the Overmind out-eviling each other and Kerrigan being mean to everyone and getting away with it.

Given how Starcraft 2 progressed so far, I do have my doubts that the whole evil badass thing will return. Without spoiling too much, how much is the new zerg campaign about having a blast with devouring the galaxy and terrorrizing the helpless protoss and terrans?
And do we get the Queen Bitch of the Universe back?

[The Glyphstone]

Very little. Like WoL was Raynor's story, HotS is Kerrigan's story - long-overdue revenge against Mengsk for what he did to her, using her latent control over the Swarm to do it and crushing anyone who gets in her way in the process. Less 'terrorizing the galaxy', more 'roaming the galaxy collecting scattered bands of Zerg into an army big enough to siege Korhal'. She's no longer evil, though, so if that's what you're hoping for you will be disappointed.

Hopefully that wasn't too spoilerrific.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Yeah, basically there's some stuff about Zerg evolution and all that, and reuniting the swarms under you. But the best part of the campaigns will always be the mechanics not available in multiplayer, and HotS delivers with its evolution missions (though the Mutalisk one is uninspired. Otherwise though, it's awesome. Zerglings? You have a choice between +2 to damage and the ability to leap up cliffs, or three lings per egg and one-second hatch time (what they don't tell you is each Swarmling egg takes up two supply: so basically good for emergency defense/temporary reinforcement, not so good for overwhelming foes)).

[Icewraith]

All in Air is beatable, but it is more difficult than the nydus version. However, the way I did it you really, really need the command center fortress things.

Here's how I did it on Brutal without mind control towers:

Spoiler

Show

The main reason for fortresses is that kerrigan just nukes bunkers and flame turrets.

Anyway, throw two fortresses to block off all but a narrow part of the western north path choke point near your high ground(salvage the bunkers immediately), three on the eastern choke point (again leaving a narrow path to your high ground), stack up on starports and some barracks and start building Vikings. Send the battlecruisers to hold the north, park some SCVs within range of them, build some turrets there when you have time and minerals. Immediately before you convert the command centers into fortresses drop their mules. Also throw up some missile turrets. I eventually had three starports with reactors, one with a rally set to north, east and west.

Get a force of marines and medics, once you know Kerrigan is coming down a particular path run your infantry from the high ground to in front of your fortresses. Just before she gets in range stim and pop the artifact to blow up her hydra honor guard and score free damage. Dodge her first aoe, then sit and nuke her down (she doesn't take a lot of damage from any one hit, so you want a ton of tiny hits i.e. stimmed marines). Kerrigan will spend her time one-shotting medics instead of your marines with her single target spell, so you shouldn't lose a whole lot of damage. Dodge any more aoes she manages to throw and remember to get your air units away from the side she's attacking as she will one-shot expensive units at very long range on a 2-3 second cooldown and can see up ramps. Expect to lose a good chunk of your marine force each time and remember to mix in a few medics as bait.

This whole time you should be making Vikings and set them to hover over the eastern and western edges of your fortresses. Once you get the positioning right they'll blow up just about anything that approaches, but be careful of the broodlords approaching from the east, sometimes they don't cooperate with this plan. Spawn the hero Vikings and park them south of your minerals, have some scvs and turrets (just a couple) there. Eventually you want Science vessels in all four of the locations the air comes from so you heal your units for free and save more minerals for your marine ball. Hero units are great here, get the hero siege tanks and spread em so they cover your base and especially your hero building to deal with the random drops into your base that would otherwise eat large parts of it. Don't have more than six siege tanks, you need your supply for Vikings, Marines and SCVs to repair your fortresses and missile turrets.

Right after a kerrigan spawn you'll get the big air beastie. By this time you should have a force of four different groups of Vikings and the three battlecruisers you started with (unless you got careless and let Kerrigan one-shot them. Don't do that) Move them all right in front of your northern missile turret wall, spread out so they can focus fire down the middile corridor and don't all get knocked out by his gigantic fungal stun. Lead with Yamatos and make sure you engage him near your base. Focus him down, the flyers he spawns will attempt to fly into your units and get eaten by missile turrets (this is why you engage him while still in range of your turrets). Do not use the artifact.

Once he dies, you have a short period of time to get your Vikings back into their defensive positions and prepare for another Kerrigan assault (which is why you didn't use the artifact), using the same tactics mentioned previously. When you have spare minerals build some extra fortresses as emergency fallbacks in case things go south as Kerrigan gets more destructive each time she spawns. Remember to upgrade your infantry weapons and air weapons and armor at the very least ASAP. Use those hero units.

The keys to the fight-
save often when things are going well
Fortresses (get them down asap and those stupid bunkers out of the way, and a missile turret to fight off the early and small waves of mutas)
Vikings (upgraded)
Artifact timing
Missile Turrets (upgraded)
Science Vessels once you have air defenses in place in all 4 locations and multiple starports.
Marines (upgraded)
(some Medics as kerrigan bait)
Hero Units (all the infantry, Vikings and Siege Tanks)
Upgrades (air, infantry)
SCVs (have em waiting idle south of the fortresses and they'll automatically repair them)
Unit positioning (if you get your Vikings placed right they'll kill a lot of incoming air without you having to do anything)
Vespene extractors (you can stay ahead on supply depots without the insta spawn and Vespene is the limiting factor on how fast you can build and upgrade, and you can use the SCVs that would normally go to gas straight to building or minerals so you start off much stronger than double scvs and insta depots)

Also you can spam mind control towers and just build up a free-supply air force of ridiculous power. I did it the hard way mainly to see if I could.

Ground:
Marines for kerrigan, engage her out of range of your siege tank army of doom, which should be positioned so their range is just past your wall of turrets/bunkers/fortresses and no closer. Banshees on nydus duty only, keep some science vessels floating in the middle to heal them and just park em there. Once you have enough siege tanks, things that assault your chokes should melt upon arrival. Park a couple in your base to deal with random airdrop annoyances that are quite deadly if ignored and make sure they cover each others dead zones if they get melee on them.

[GolemsVoice]

Very little. Like WoL was Raynor's story, HotS is Kerrigan's story - long-overdue revenge against Mengsk for what he did to her, using her latent control over the Swarm to do it and crushing anyone who gets in her way in the process. Less 'terrorizing the galaxy', more 'roaming the galaxy collecting scattered bands of Zerg into an army big enough to siege Korhal'. She's no longer evil, though, so if that's what you're hoping for you will be disappointed.

Mind you, Kerrigan isn't a NICE person by any stretch, and she can definitely be a bitch. But she's pretty far into good-guy territory by the end.

To me, HotS wasn't bad by any means, however, and some of it's flaws might come from WoL being so good that it pales a little in comparison.

First, and that's not a real flaw, but even on hard or brutal, the campaign was pretty easy, and could usually be beaten with 'lings + Hydralisks + Roaches + Kerrigan + whatever unit you fancied, or the current mission required.
Second, while there are a lot of very well rendered cutscenes, the ship that Kerrigan uses feels like a cheap knockoff of the Hyperion, with less rooms and less things to do there other than perfom the function this room was designed for and get the conversation.
All in all it felt like WoL light, especially the segments between missions. The missions themselves, however, are all exciting and certainly up to WoL standards.

[Gandariel]

HotS:

Story: Cool. I don't really really care that much for RP and story and such, but this one is really interesting, and you never get that "i wanna skip but then i wouldn't understand anything" feeling.

Missions: Maybe a tad too easy if you're a good player. The issue i've seen people have is that you don't really need every unit in the game.
They're all great and all, but you don't really **need** them.
Just get roach/hydra and you can smash through the campaign. Infestors, Swarm hosts, Mutas, etc... yeah, they're amazing, but you don't feel you need them.

Evo missions: Really fun. I think one of the most interesting parts of HotS is the evolution missions. They're really easy on themselves, but they have a great zerg-y feel, they make your choice matter a lot in the game, and the units themselves are really interesting, albeit some are definitely overpowered (both kinds of roaches are incredibly strong)