The second chapter in the StarCraft II trilogy, Heart of the Swarm is a science fiction-themed real-time strategy game for PC and Mac. Players take control of the vicious Zerg faction in an interstellar war against the hard-nosed Terrans and psionic Protoss.
I'm currently checking through all of my spam folders to make sure I haven't missed an invite. So who's excited for this? Has anyone here gotten in? How's the stability / performance so far?
Ohh cool thanks! I'm hoping Brad and the GB crew will do something with this, the first beta stream is one of my favourite things that's been done on the site.
Ohh cool thanks! I'm hoping Brad and the GB crew will do something with this, the first beta stream is one of my favourite things that's been done on the site.
@FluxWaveZ Oops, had no idea there was a thread about this already, my bad!
It's more appropriate for a thread in the HotS forums, anyways.
HO-LY crap. I would have been more stoked about this a few months back when I was getting a bit weary of Zerg and looking into learning the other races, but this is still cool. Good way to remove some of that "ladder anxiety", I would think.
And now I'm installing what I think is the beta client? But it doesn't grant access to the beta itself? Or something.
I'm a bit bummed that, so far, they haven't implemented any of the Nydus Worm variations that Blizzard was talking about before. Didn't know about that creep spread upgrade; pretty cool.
@FluxWaveZ Oops, had no idea there was a thread about this already, my bad!
It's more appropriate for a thread in the HotS forums, anyways.
HO-LY crap. I would have been more stoked about this a few months back when I was getting a bit weary of Zerg and looking into learning the other races, but this is still cool. Good way to remove some of that "ladder anxiety", I would think.
And now I'm installing what I think is the beta client? But it doesn't grant access to the beta itself? Or something.
I'm a bit bummed that, so far, they haven't implemented any of the Nydus Worm variations that Blizzard was talking about before. Didn't know about that creep spread upgrade; pretty cool.
yeah anyone can download the client, you just need an authorised acc to be able to login to it, and no there is no offline or guest mode for the beta, so all you're doing is making sure you can play the second your invited
@baldgye: Alright, thanks for the clarification. Not too sure I'll get to be a part of it, but I guess installing it as a precaution is better than not.
There's this new option that caught my attention:
an option at start, automatically Rally to Minerals, & starting Workers also follow that rally (default on)
If I'm understanding this right, it seems more efficient than not, so it's something that I envision enabling at all times.
@baldgye: Alright, thanks for the clarification. Not too sure I'll get to be a part of it, but I guess installing it as a precaution is better than not.
There's this new option that caught my attention:
an option at start, automatically Rally to Minerals, & starting Workers also follow that rally (default on)
If I'm understanding this right, it seems more efficient than not, so it's something that I envision enabling at all times.
yup... watching streams it seems it sends your workers to mine the instant the game starts... which kinda sucks.. IMO faster players should have an early advantage over slower players...
yup... watching streams it seems it sends your workers to mine the instant the game starts... which kinda sucks.. IMO faster players should have an early advantage over slower players...
Nah, for this I'll say screw that. Faster players will have an advantage anyways with superior micro, so it's not such a big deal, which is probably why they added it in the first place. It was always more frustrating to me than anything else (not knowing if I should use the Ctrl + F1 or the mouse box method, whether I should split the workers or not...) and it prevents players who are afk for a few seconds from just starting at a large disadvantage.
yup... watching streams it seems it sends your workers to mine the instant the game starts... which kinda sucks.. IMO faster players should have an early advantage over slower players...
Nah, for this I'll say screw that. Faster players will have an advantage anyways with superior micro, so it's not such a big deal, which is probably why they added it in the first place. It was always more frustrating to me than anything else (not knowing if I should use the Ctrl + F1 or the mouse box method, whether I should split the workers or not...) and it prevents players who are afk for a few seconds from just starting at a large disadvantage.
but if your afk you'll still be behind becasue as far as i know it dsnt start building your 1st worker....
@baldgye: Alright, thanks for the clarification. Not too sure I'll get to be a part of it, but I guess installing it as a precaution is better than not.
There's this new option that caught my attention:
an option at start, automatically Rally to Minerals, & starting Workers also follow that rally (default on)
If I'm understanding this right, it seems more efficient than not, so it's something that I envision enabling at all times.
yup... watching streams it seems it sends your workers to mine the instant the game starts... which kinda sucks.. IMO faster players should have an early advantage over slower players...
Given that it's a once-off action on which your opponent can have no influence over you, I really don't mind this switch. It's not like trying to maintain worker production without queuing which is easy enough at the beginning, but as you have more and more on your plate due to larger/more bases and attacks from the opponent it becomes much easier to slip up.
I just don't like the idea of things being automated... in BW probe splits where something to be in awe off, and in sc2 still super fast pro's can split like crazy, IdrA being a good example... and its just a quick easy way to practice unit control and unit selection that you have to do at the start of every game... I duknow, I just don't like the idea of it and would rather Blizz add something like Day9 to HotS's in little tutorial video's for people to help them learn the game
A Warhound walks into a Protoss bar... Where's the counter?
#HOTSjokes
Warhound has been removed in the current HoS patch. Does anyone know if the Battlecruiser got changed at all? I thought they had planned to give it a cooldown based speed boost, but I can't find anything about it since the beta went live.
I assume the warhound will be back as soon as they find a suitable role and good balance for it. The beta will probably last until the end of the year. The WoL beta lasted about 5 or 6 months I believe. But yea, from what I saw from the beta, the warhound seemed really imbalanced. It was a unit intended to be able to fight terran mech and protoss but it even got used against zerg. I hope they change the widow mine to make it more interesting because I don't really see it all the much in the beta videos and streams. Maybe make it more like the original spider mines.
It's kind of interesting that they brought the carriers back, just to see if they can find and interesting role for it along with the tempest.
Really interested to see where the game is going to end up when it is eventually released. I hope it will make the game more balanced and awesome to watch than ever.
Keep listening to that feedback Blizzard! Please make this game awesome!
Warhounds removed and Carriers are back? Kinda crazy, but it's a beta after all.
Man, I'm so jealous of the Protoss. Phoenix, Void Rays, Oracles, Tempests, Carriers... if I played that race I'd always go for a fleet.
Air-Protoss might acutally be a viable strat! :D
and yeah the warhound having an auto-cast ablilty kinda made it dumb by defult... I'm not sure mech actually needed it at all... and the stale TvT tank stand-off's have basically died away as terrans actually learn how to counter it and to multi-task.
And i think the temphest has the same problem, it requires little skill to get much use out of it, but is essentially useless. If they made the carrier a worth while unit, it would do so much more... instead atm its like a blind-side tech switch in late game pvz that usally just resets the Z army...
....but with airprotoss... where do u spend all dem minerals? mass chargelots? :/
My experience with the beta was pretty rocky so far and it has something to do with how frequently I lose against Protoss. Then again, I am really terrible playing against Protoss unless I stick to the Mutalisk Brood Lord combination I am so used to doing.
And is it me or do I find Swarm Hosts not very reliable to play with?
@TheMasterWhooves: they are pretty good... and the new muta's are the most broken shit on the planet.. you shouldn't need to go BL if you just mass muta with ling becasue muta's just cant die... even to mass storms and 0 micro from the Z, with ups they can just tank anything and heal while your fighting... its super dumb but really good...
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment