Blizzard Cuts and Adds StarCraft II Units

Blizzard was teasing the new multiplayer features prior to BlizzCon 2011, but now that the show is underway, a lot of detail was made available. Protoss, Zerg and Terran factions will all be getting new units and upgrades, and some familiar units will no longer appear on the battlefield.

The Protoss Mothership and Carrier, as well as the Zerg Overseer are all getting cut. Some of their abilities will be transferred to other units, but if you happened to have a particular fondness for any of these units, they will no longer be playable.

In terms of new units, there's quite a bit, which is sure to dramatically change how players both casual and professional approach online competition.

Terran players in Heart of the Swarm will be able to build a Shredder unit from the Factory structure, which while moving can't actually attack. If you park it in one spot, however, you can do damage over time to units on the ground and in the air. Blizzard says it shuts off when a friendly unit enters its area of effect, so it sounds like this unit will work best when deployed on a base's perimeter to alert you to incoming attackers.


Also added to the Terran side is the Warhound, a fast, ground-based unit that will attack other air units with splash damage. It can deal bonus damage to mechanical units on the ground as well, and Blizzard points out it'd be especially effective at attacking Siege Tanks.

Thor units are also getting some attention. You'll no longer be able to mass Thors in Heart of the Swarm. Only one can be out on the field at a time, the tradeoff being you can do even more damage to units on the ground and its defenses are even better. Its anti-air cannons have been taken off, and it can be set up for a bombardment attack to pummel a large area of ground. This attack will require a setup time, so you can't just trigger it instantaneously.


On the Protoss side, the Tempest will be made available, a new capital ship unit, meant to be deployed to control the sky with an air-to-air area of effect attack. The Oracle, another new air unit, comes equipped with a number of abilities. It can stop enemies from harvesting mineral areas temporarily, and can use Preordain to peek at enemy buildings to see which upgrades are being researched and units constructed. Its third and perhaps most interesting ability is Phase Shift, which renders a targeted structure useless. Something suffering from Phase Shift can't be attacked, but it also can't produce units, research technologies, or anything else.

Another new Protoss unit is the Replicant, which seems like an especially devious unit type. It's able to completely transform into any non-massive unit. This includes units on the enemy team, so you could as a Protoss player be able to put together a small Siege Tank army. In terms of new abilities, the Nexus can now deploy Arc Shields to other Protoss buildings, which lets you transfer a limited-time additional protection as well as Photon Cannon-like offensive capability. It sounds like it's meant to be used just to give you a little extra time to get an army in there to help out. The Nexus can also use Mass Recall to bring armies back to your base.


The Zerg get some cool new changes as well, including more effectiveness when sieging. This is mostly due to the addition of the Swarm Host, which on its own above ground can't actually attack. If burrowed, though, it pops out slow-moving ground units called Locusts that will assault enemies. These guys will constantly spawn, so if your enemy doesn't do something about burrowed Swarm Hosts, it sounds like there could be major issues for an enemy as the number of Locusts increase.

The Viper will also be added to the Zerg army, which is a flying unit that relies on abilities to mess up enemies. Its Blinding Cloud severely limits the sight range of any affected targets and locks out any energy-based abilities from being used. The Abduct ability seems especially useful, as you can grab and pull a unit from a distance to the Viper's location, letting you snatch units off ledges or snag a Colossus from behind a line of Zealots. Ocular Parasite is the third ability, which allows it to transfer its detection ability to a friendly, non-massive unit.


Those are the major new additions, but there's a lot more new. Ultralisks will be able to charge while burrowed, Banelings can be upgraded to move while burrowed, the Battlecruiser will get a speed boost ability, Hellions will be able to transform to increase its effectiveness in close-range combat, and more. There's still no release date for Heart of the Swarm, but you can expect a beta period to occur before the game goes live, as was the case with Wings of Liberty.



So what do you think? Has too little changed, just enough, or too much?

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