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Blizzard Announces New StarCraft II Units

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Blizzard Announces New StarCraft II Units

Published: by Cheat Code Central Staff | Leave a comment

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Blizzard promised that they were going to tease new StarCraft II units right up until the release of the Heart of the Swarm expansion, and they are making good on that promise. Eight new units were revealed at Blizzcon last Friday: three for Protoss, three for Terran, and two for Zerg. Below are the official descriptions, straight from Blizzard’s fact sheet.



Protoss

  • Replicant: Microscopic robots can fuse themselves to copy a targeted non-massive unit. The replication also auto-enables any specific upgrades of the targeted unit (ex: cloaking, etc.)

  • Oracle: This flying support unit can scout and disrupt the enemy economy. It can reveal what structures are making and also temporarily disrupt building production and resource harvesting.

  • Tempest: Powerful capital ship that can dominate the skies with massive area-of-effect attacks against light enemy flyers and a strong beam against ground targets.



    Terran

  • Warhound: This versatile factory unit is great against mechanical ground targets and can dish out area-of-effect anti-air attacks.

  • Battle Hellion: New transformation mode to gain durability in exchange for slower movement. Great for fighting mixed forces using light troops combined with area-of-effect attacks.

  • Shredder: Mobile unit that can deploy and create a whirlwind of death around it. Safety protocols auto-disable the attack if other friendly units enter the danger zone.



    Zerg

  • Viper: Flying unit with support abilities. It can grant detection to units, create a cloud to hinder ranged attacks and abilities, and quickly pull units to safety (friendly) or their doom (enemy).

  • Swarm Host: This Zerg host can gradually spawn endless waves of attackers while burrowed to overwhelm your enemy.



    Personally, I’m a Protoss player, and I think the new Protoss units will be very powerful. The Replicant will allow you to counter armies with their own units and even copy builders to play with the other force’s tech tree. The Oracle is just harassment for free, while the Tempest is a heavy ship alternative to the Carrier.

    To me, the Terran Warhound seems like a powerful defensive counter against strategies that employ lots of expensive units, while the transformed Battle Hellion reminds me of the old days of Firebats. The Shredder, whose model has not yet been revealed, is a pretty interesting turret. It deals incredible AOE damage but only if there are no other friendly units in the area; basically, a turtler’s dream.

    Then we have the Zerg Viper, which seems to simply be a new flying caster to replace the old functionality the Queen used to have in the original StarCraft. The Swarm Host will most likely create Zergling type units while burrowed. I think the Swarm Host in particular will be a unit to watch out for, as a force without a detector might be in for a horrible instant death.

    By Angelo M. D’Argenio

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