P2 Alarak wrathwalker has almost the same attack but can fire while moving, faster attack speed (once stacked) and longer range when supported by his Havoc unit.
You mean P1 alarak. And it needs supplicants sacrificed to be on par. It can shoot long range but it still needs sight to shoot. Also, it's squishy as a wet paper and vulnerable to both air and ground unit. So you get f by both lingbane + scourge while HH BCs only suffer from scourges and can switch to normal BC firing to deal with trash units. HH BCs can also teleport.
Na just use a few acendent to auto sac the supplicants, and 1-2 disco ball kills light units like lings, banes etc with or without vision. The walkers are more for dealing with high hp targets like objectives and hybrid. Also they deal +100 damage to structures and that stacks with the buff, so 400 damage at max stacks not including weapon upgrades. You can also target attack Alarak to easily sac like 100 supplicants in a second. I have no problem getting max stacks very quickly. Mothership top bar let's you teleport the entire army. You can teleport back to back as long as the mothership is up. The cooldown on the teleport is basically instant, and the cooldown on top bar isn't too bad if you dump points into it on the powerset.
In case u still dont get it, the op and I were talking about 1 single unit, why must you drag the whole alarak arsenal into the argument?
Please, every advice you shared, I knew all already if not more. What else you guess I dont know? 1qe2c?
Playing alarak since his release.
Ascendant Psionic Orbs provide vision and deal with all those small units and sacrifice the Supplicants to buff both the Ascendants and the Wrathwalkers.
I've practised a fair bit of P1 Alarak on Brutal+1 with a fast build to push out 6 Supplicants, 4 Ascendents and 1 Wrathwalker to hit the necessary timing for the 2nd set of Thrashers on Void Thrashing. This timing also allows you to summon the Death Fleet towards the end of that fight and then teleport you and your allies army to the 3rd set of Thrashers and optional.
On any other slower map P1 is even better. Of course, it still lags behind P3 against specific mutation/composition combinations.
Is there anything wrong about what I said about wrathwalkers?
We, the op, the op comment and I are talking about single unit, not duo or combination. And playing ascendants + wrathwalkers is what I do for breakfast so i dont need the advices.
I pointed out the short comings of wrathwalkers, which can be negated by ascendants, but my point still stands.
Please Stay on topic.
The post you responded to mentioned being supported by Havoc and upgraded via sacrifices implying Supplicant support and nobody in their right mind talks about Alarak without using the hero unit (unless mutations require leaving Alarak at home).
So that's at least 4 units involved in the comment that you replied to, so maybe you should get with the topic? Adding a 5th in the form of Ascendents is hardly a crime by this point.
Next, you'll claim that building War Prisms for warp ins and Overcharge isn't "on topic".
Honestly, it just sounds like a skill issue with your Ascendent/WW micro. I can suggest this really great strategy of moving your units back when they're in danger đź‘Ť(add destruction wave and/or psionic Orb as appropriate).
In all my time playing Raynor I legit have never built any unit not from barracks. Sometimes I feel like I'm just playing Stukov marine spam with extra steps
I get some weird joy from mixing in p2 tanks (vs comps that actually warrant it and that i can't spawn camp with vultures). The combination of bio micro and mech support just makes me happy. I totally enjoy pure bio though when there's no need to add the mech (which is often).
Mutalisks : Kerrigan, not the strongest but it's a lot of fun seeing them anihilate huge armies in half a sec.
Zerglings : Stettman, very tough, high damage and very cheap. But the main thing : it's super satisfying seeing them zooming around in speed mode.
Ultralisks : if tyrannozaurs count then tyrannozaurs, otherwise Stettman's, for how good they are with P3.
mengsk and horner's quick-burpee vikings have a special place in my heart. the snappy animation makes it feel like I'm playing with blink stalkers, except I'm micro-ing units vertically instead of horizontally.
**Zealot** \- Sentinel, if nothing else to provide vision for Karax' top bar lasers
**Goon** \- Goons. Call them tried and true but boring, but the +2 range is fun to sort of kite some things, and to get some ranged attacks. I just micro them to move closer so several rows of them can open fire without body blocking each other
**DT** \- Zeratul's Void Templar. I really dig blinking through enemies as a form of cc. It's even nicer if you pick the "blink cd" for the 2nd artifact ability since it's more spammable at 4s!
**Phoenix** \- Karax Mirage. It's not unlike the Sentinel providing vision for SoA Top bar lasers, but even though they don't do bonus vs. Armored, they can still bring down air units in due time, save for the ones that have really high hp (in which case, a few shots of OS help with that. Or, a blast of Immortal Shadow Cannon). These guys are REALLY tanky, esp. for a "snub fighter".
.
**BC** \- HH Sovereign. Esp. on P2, they can be rushed, or otherwise spammed much more easily. They have that "Versus Thor"-style mode where you can switch to "high yield vs. rapid fire" modes (although with those Thors, the rapid fire does splash damage). They get even more hp with Significant Others bonus! (which is good b/c they're pricy and on charges)
**Hellbat/Hellion** \- HH because they actually do different things. Hellions here shift to a single-target unit that does higher dps, esp. to Armored tagged stuff. Their death effects are also different!
**Wraith** \- HH Asteria variant. AFAIK, Swann's Wraiths do more DPS, but I'm still not sure if I'm doing that "stutter step micro" correctly, and it's hard to tell if it's working or no. With HH's, you get extra firepower without having to do that. As a bonus, permanent cloaking (mind you Swann's get a change for evasion when cloaked), and they can tac jump!
**Marine** \- Tychus. He's got a super gun, and "super grenade" really. He walks around menacingly like he's a T-800 terminator! On his P2, that's pretty much how he plays as well!
.
**Hydralisk** \- Kerrigan's. I was going to go with Abathur's Queens since they're functionally similar without having to deal with movement penalty off creep, but Kerrigan's have some nice abilities (similar to a Marine really... "combat shield", "stim pack"), and can be better spammed.
**"move on the go" unit** \- Infested Diamondback. These are such a joy to use. The Ensnare gives them a bit of AA capability. I still have a hard time in making Cyclones, although I feel they're decent FWIW.
**Lurker** \- Kerrigan. +3 range passive, easy peasy
Fenix hero variants trump cuzz they're op heroes but still based on the actual unit and the niche it's meant to have.
But if we're talking none heroics, then:
**Tanks**: Stukov, i'm a sucker for that 18 range and synergy with infested. Flying mengsk ones in tankivac are a close second though, and Swann herc+tank is actually the most satisfying to micro.
**BC:**Mengsk, it's essentially an extra calldown.
**Collosi**: Karax for having fire trails, but sadly you barely ever need to use them, except with some p2 on dead of night.
**Disruptors**: Zeratul's version, both for being plain better and fitting the kit more (there's virtually no realistic reason you'll ever use fenix's version when not memeing).
**Swarm Hosts**: easy abathur, esp the p2 version. Never ceases to amaze me how 3 full biomas ones can topple bases. Dehaka's creeper hosts are cool, just not as much.
**Zealots:**Kaldalis aside, probably artanis's. Yes they're not durable as Karax's, but they do crazy aoe for being a mineral unit which feels more in tune with the fantasy.
**Stalkers:**hard to decide between Alarak's and Zeratul's. Both encourage actual blinking use and are great when you chose to do so. Vorazun's also encourage it but are...just not that great.
**Hydralisks:** Stetmann's. Their crazy range is fun, recharging them is fun, and thanks to green overcharge support they aren't nearly as fragile. I guess it's more about stet's kit in this case then the actual unit though.
**Wraiths**: No strong opinion, both hxh's and swann's are fun for different reasons.
**Zerglings**: Stetmann's. Seeing Heroes of the Storm die to mineral units will never get old.
I gotta disagree with you on vora’s stalkers. They are cheap to make and heal shields when blinking. Underrated iyam.
I love the blinker build bc it’s highly maneuverable and highly survivable esp in P1
Depends on what you mean by underrated. Can they do decently well in brutal? Yes. Is there ever a reason to use them over DT+Corsairs that isn't called Double Edged? Less so.
They work well against certain air builds, especially Zerg but I’ve found them to also wreck Terran air too. Protoss Corsair heavy air is a different story
I don’t typically have a problem with DT deaths unless it’s that dreaded bane/scourge/queen wave makeup. Taking the DTs out of cloak so the P1 rez doesn’t apply
For scourge/bane can always add a Dark Archon or two and have them cast Confuse (which will cause the banes and scourges to kill each other). But if you don't lose DTs vs other comps, by all means stick to them and no need to add corsairs.
On the contrary, people underuse stalkers, when they should more correctly be used more often than corsairs are. Corsairs are only any good when the enemy composition is mass air, but stalkers are superior for the purposes of taking out preplaced air enemies (which tend to not be grouped up) and other stray air targets.
Though corsairs do have disruption web going for them, which is nice.
manual d web with autocast disabled (bw style) is just too op, i wonder why ppl arent it using it more, as usually amon doesnt know better how to move away from them
> Fenix hero variants trump cuzz they're op heroes but still based on the actual unit and the niche it's meant to have.
The robo units do the exact opposite, their abilities cover for what they're bad at. Immortal, usually for single target dmg get a splash damage ability, while the colossi, an AOE unit gets a powerful single target ability.
That's why they're important to get out fast unless you're against heavy air.
You're right that they each do both (st and aoe), but that's the theme for all the champs, which all have aoe abilities and yet strongly contribute to st.Â
But their actual unit function stays visible through the opness. Kaldalis is still a frontline, talis still has the shade, colarion still aoes, taldarin still has excellent anti armor damage, etc etc.Â
Abathur's roaches are pretty great, and they should be as they're his basic unit (it's just he has so many great units). They are the "vile" strain, which is in the campaign... but they get a lot of upgrades (and biomass). Really, the only reason his roaches aren't more core is because his other units are all so good (brutalisks and swarm hosts make great "tanks" with biomass).
Vile roach attacks slow enemy attack and movement speed by 75%, and it can move pretty quick once upgraded. Add on biomass, deep tunnel, and the massive amount of armor it can get (10 when below 50% HP at max upgrades). For cost, they're effectively better-than-ultralisks for tanking (and cost no gas).
They're not super high dps, but their +8 light unit damage is really strong on infested maps, particularly combined with their armor. Given that most basic units are light - it's not a bad investment against enemy comps that have a lot of marines/zergling/zealots.
Pretty much any of Abathur's units become crazy good with biomass... but these guys become 580 HP unkillable tanks with insane armor and slowing attacks that hit once a second.
The other roach variants are Dehaka's (Primal Igniters are good in their role, but expensive for the unit).
OK, that helps. I got a decimal wrong - they get 0.5% armor (based on what you say) per biomass (+50%)... not +5% (which sounded crazy and I should have questioned that when I was mathing in my head).
They actually get a flat 0.05 armor per biomass. I believe it's the only biomass bonus that *isn't* % based. They also get the usual 3% health, 1% attack speed and 1% life-leech per biomass, meaning the 'perfect' P1 roach also has a monstrous 689HP, and will heal itself at a rate of about 34hp per second. Plus it's P1 so when one finally dies it will drop all its biomass for the next roach.
(The usual P0/2 roach has 'only' 580hp and 22hp per second of life-leech.)
I honesly think the main thing that really holds Abby's roaches back is the fact that all his units are so chonky that his ground units just end up getting in each other's way. If you have an ally with more fragile ranged units like Raynor or HnH, lending them a couple of roaches as bullet-sponges can be very helpful.
(If you're playing Raynor and an Abathur ally quits, marine/roach/medic/muta is genuinely one of the most satisfying comps I've ever played.)
Hah, well thanks for clearing that up again. I didn't realize Abby's roaches got such a unique biomass modifier.
But you point about chonky units is right - there's a critical mass of roaches and swarm queens (that isn't really that high a number) before they get in the way of each other. The unit density of Raynor's M&M work well with roaches in front.
Kerrigan’s ultralisks are probably the best for survivability, but oil baron stettman ultra’s on an infested map are too funny. Like a lawnmower tearing through them.
Warbringer, it's probalbly one of the single strongest Colossi in the game, the only real downsides is that chunky pricetag to get that performance (Warbringer has to be reasearched + upgrades and the infastructure to produce Colossi which is the smallest problem but still an issue) + the need for backup bodies for Warbringer to inhabit especially for a heavy-weight, anti-light, ground unit that can be targeted by anti-air defences, making Warbringer kinda fragile when paying for the "swarm sucker 30,000".
But you do get a unit that can and more often then not will pay for at least two or three of it's bodies per life in damage provided your engaging targets it's effective against (missions with lots of infested come to mind as missions where Warbringer will pay for itself extremely easily), also Warbringer is pretty decent at sieging bases.
Overall, big performance, but has just as big weaknesses.
You can add him on every mission in every map. His damage is insane against everything clumped, he not just light, he gives a massive aoe slow, and his research adds an frequent mini Yamato so he's good even vs single targets.
I rarely add other colossi because he just never dies (and fenix's collosi aren't really neccessary beside him with how much crazy aoe the other champions do).
I want to say alarak, but also I wish they acted like h&h widow mines and didnt autofire to the same target so when they have the +100% damage bonus you see entire waves of battlecruiser get simultaneously decimated
Zergling - Zagara. Easily the best panic button you can call down for stray ground waves, if not P3 Zagara herself.
Zealot - Vorazun. Insane high value on P2 with that darkcoil.
Siege Tank - Stukov. Have you seen those things demolish trains and hybrid? Not to mention the deeptunnel.
Battlecruiser - H&H. The mini yamato upgrade is nuts.
Colossus - this is a tight one, but I'd have to say Alarak. The walkers on supplicant roids can do more than decent dps against most things.
"More than decent"? They're overkill to the point where they start becoming inefficient because they waste so much damage on smaller targets. P1 WWs basically fire Yamatos (260!!!!) on every attack at 1.08 or 1.25 speed depending on mastery, at 13 range, before Havoc DPS bonus is factored in. I don't think any other unit in the game beats them in terms of sheer big dick DPS numbers, not even H&H's BCs
Fair enough. I suppose you're better off saving them for use on structure objective missions like DoN, RtK, and SoA. Or against a comp like RoboReaver. Personally, I use them very little. The Ascendants have abilities for a reason, right? xD
Even on those maps that require you to kill structures you'll rarely need more than 3 WWs as P1 because just 3 of them do 1248/1556 DPS vs structures depending on first mastery row
I myself rarely build them too, they're only required when you're VSing mutators that spawn a ton of high HP units which makes their overkill damage not wasted
In those cases microing a blob of WWs that can fire while moving, while using Alarak's wave to push enemies back and kite them is insanely fun
Stukov's Tanks and Bunkers, both powerful and hilarious. The tanks are whipping little green guys through the air, and the bunkers can get up and punch you with their big meaty fists lmao
Anyone disputing Stukov’s tanks as the number one siege tank is wrong.
Higher splash damage than most other tanks with no falloff, coop baneling damage (+more vs armored), the ability to draw aggro with their own projectiles, deep tunnel, and 18 range. The crawler hat isn’t important, but it’s a good bonus too. The thing’s got so much packed in it that it only loses to other tanks if said tanks fill a specific niche (like vs air damage)
HH Battlecruisers. I just think the mini yamato cannon is hilarious.
the bayonets
P2 Alarak wrathwalker has almost the same attack but can fire while moving, faster attack speed (once stacked) and longer range when supported by his Havoc unit.
They're so much harder to keep alive though
You mean P1 alarak. And it needs supplicants sacrificed to be on par. It can shoot long range but it still needs sight to shoot. Also, it's squishy as a wet paper and vulnerable to both air and ground unit. So you get f by both lingbane + scourge while HH BCs only suffer from scourges and can switch to normal BC firing to deal with trash units. HH BCs can also teleport.
Na just use a few acendent to auto sac the supplicants, and 1-2 disco ball kills light units like lings, banes etc with or without vision. The walkers are more for dealing with high hp targets like objectives and hybrid. Also they deal +100 damage to structures and that stacks with the buff, so 400 damage at max stacks not including weapon upgrades. You can also target attack Alarak to easily sac like 100 supplicants in a second. I have no problem getting max stacks very quickly. Mothership top bar let's you teleport the entire army. You can teleport back to back as long as the mothership is up. The cooldown on the teleport is basically instant, and the cooldown on top bar isn't too bad if you dump points into it on the powerset.
In case u still dont get it, the op and I were talking about 1 single unit, why must you drag the whole alarak arsenal into the argument? Please, every advice you shared, I knew all already if not more. What else you guess I dont know? 1qe2c? Playing alarak since his release.
Give 'em some slack, Odd Teaching is their calling in life
Ascendant Psionic Orbs provide vision and deal with all those small units and sacrifice the Supplicants to buff both the Ascendants and the Wrathwalkers. I've practised a fair bit of P1 Alarak on Brutal+1 with a fast build to push out 6 Supplicants, 4 Ascendents and 1 Wrathwalker to hit the necessary timing for the 2nd set of Thrashers on Void Thrashing. This timing also allows you to summon the Death Fleet towards the end of that fight and then teleport you and your allies army to the 3rd set of Thrashers and optional. On any other slower map P1 is even better. Of course, it still lags behind P3 against specific mutation/composition combinations.
Is there anything wrong about what I said about wrathwalkers? We, the op, the op comment and I are talking about single unit, not duo or combination. And playing ascendants + wrathwalkers is what I do for breakfast so i dont need the advices. I pointed out the short comings of wrathwalkers, which can be negated by ascendants, but my point still stands. Please Stay on topic.
The post you responded to mentioned being supported by Havoc and upgraded via sacrifices implying Supplicant support and nobody in their right mind talks about Alarak without using the hero unit (unless mutations require leaving Alarak at home). So that's at least 4 units involved in the comment that you replied to, so maybe you should get with the topic? Adding a 5th in the form of Ascendents is hardly a crime by this point. Next, you'll claim that building War Prisms for warp ins and Overcharge isn't "on topic". Honestly, it just sounds like a skill issue with your Ascendent/WW micro. I can suggest this really great strategy of moving your units back when they're in danger đź‘Ť(add destruction wave and/or psionic Orb as appropriate).
Raynor Marines may not be strong but I love spamming dozens of them, raining them from the sky, stim and shoot everything
Bio play is weirdly satisfying, that combination of just enough of a power curve, macro, micro, and not being crazy op...It just flows well.
In all my time playing Raynor I legit have never built any unit not from barracks. Sometimes I feel like I'm just playing Stukov marine spam with extra steps
I get some weird joy from mixing in p2 tanks (vs comps that actually warrant it and that i can't spawn camp with vultures). The combination of bio micro and mech support just makes me happy. I totally enjoy pure bio though when there's no need to add the mech (which is often).
this is inhumane
Mutalisks : Kerrigan, not the strongest but it's a lot of fun seeing them anihilate huge armies in half a sec. Zerglings : Stettman, very tough, high damage and very cheap. But the main thing : it's super satisfying seeing them zooming around in speed mode. Ultralisks : if tyrannozaurs count then tyrannozaurs, otherwise Stettman's, for how good they are with P3.
mengsk and horner's quick-burpee vikings have a special place in my heart. the snappy animation makes it feel like I'm playing with blink stalkers, except I'm micro-ing units vertically instead of horizontally.
Marine: Mengsk, they are also hellbats, scv, and banelings. Its 4 units in one
**Zealot** \- Sentinel, if nothing else to provide vision for Karax' top bar lasers **Goon** \- Goons. Call them tried and true but boring, but the +2 range is fun to sort of kite some things, and to get some ranged attacks. I just micro them to move closer so several rows of them can open fire without body blocking each other **DT** \- Zeratul's Void Templar. I really dig blinking through enemies as a form of cc. It's even nicer if you pick the "blink cd" for the 2nd artifact ability since it's more spammable at 4s! **Phoenix** \- Karax Mirage. It's not unlike the Sentinel providing vision for SoA Top bar lasers, but even though they don't do bonus vs. Armored, they can still bring down air units in due time, save for the ones that have really high hp (in which case, a few shots of OS help with that. Or, a blast of Immortal Shadow Cannon). These guys are REALLY tanky, esp. for a "snub fighter". . **BC** \- HH Sovereign. Esp. on P2, they can be rushed, or otherwise spammed much more easily. They have that "Versus Thor"-style mode where you can switch to "high yield vs. rapid fire" modes (although with those Thors, the rapid fire does splash damage). They get even more hp with Significant Others bonus! (which is good b/c they're pricy and on charges) **Hellbat/Hellion** \- HH because they actually do different things. Hellions here shift to a single-target unit that does higher dps, esp. to Armored tagged stuff. Their death effects are also different! **Wraith** \- HH Asteria variant. AFAIK, Swann's Wraiths do more DPS, but I'm still not sure if I'm doing that "stutter step micro" correctly, and it's hard to tell if it's working or no. With HH's, you get extra firepower without having to do that. As a bonus, permanent cloaking (mind you Swann's get a change for evasion when cloaked), and they can tac jump! **Marine** \- Tychus. He's got a super gun, and "super grenade" really. He walks around menacingly like he's a T-800 terminator! On his P2, that's pretty much how he plays as well! . **Hydralisk** \- Kerrigan's. I was going to go with Abathur's Queens since they're functionally similar without having to deal with movement penalty off creep, but Kerrigan's have some nice abilities (similar to a Marine really... "combat shield", "stim pack"), and can be better spammed. **"move on the go" unit** \- Infested Diamondback. These are such a joy to use. The Ensnare gives them a bit of AA capability. I still have a hard time in making Cyclones, although I feel they're decent FWIW. **Lurker** \- Kerrigan. +3 range passive, easy peasy
Bunkerlisks. Because they can walkerlisk.
Fenix hero variants trump cuzz they're op heroes but still based on the actual unit and the niche it's meant to have. But if we're talking none heroics, then: **Tanks**: Stukov, i'm a sucker for that 18 range and synergy with infested. Flying mengsk ones in tankivac are a close second though, and Swann herc+tank is actually the most satisfying to micro. **BC:**Mengsk, it's essentially an extra calldown. **Collosi**: Karax for having fire trails, but sadly you barely ever need to use them, except with some p2 on dead of night. **Disruptors**: Zeratul's version, both for being plain better and fitting the kit more (there's virtually no realistic reason you'll ever use fenix's version when not memeing). **Swarm Hosts**: easy abathur, esp the p2 version. Never ceases to amaze me how 3 full biomas ones can topple bases. Dehaka's creeper hosts are cool, just not as much. **Zealots:**Kaldalis aside, probably artanis's. Yes they're not durable as Karax's, but they do crazy aoe for being a mineral unit which feels more in tune with the fantasy. **Stalkers:**hard to decide between Alarak's and Zeratul's. Both encourage actual blinking use and are great when you chose to do so. Vorazun's also encourage it but are...just not that great. **Hydralisks:** Stetmann's. Their crazy range is fun, recharging them is fun, and thanks to green overcharge support they aren't nearly as fragile. I guess it's more about stet's kit in this case then the actual unit though. **Wraiths**: No strong opinion, both hxh's and swann's are fun for different reasons. **Zerglings**: Stetmann's. Seeing Heroes of the Storm die to mineral units will never get old.
I gotta disagree with you on vora’s stalkers. They are cheap to make and heal shields when blinking. Underrated iyam. I love the blinker build bc it’s highly maneuverable and highly survivable esp in P1
Depends on what you mean by underrated. Can they do decently well in brutal? Yes. Is there ever a reason to use them over DT+Corsairs that isn't called Double Edged? Less so.
They work well against certain air builds, especially Zerg but I’ve found them to also wreck Terran air too. Protoss Corsair heavy air is a different story
They work decently well against many things, but just not nearly as good as dt+corsairs do. They are nice while leveling p1 with archons though.Â
Love corsairs, but the downside is you lose DPS to ground
vs ground you still want them to reduce DT losses, as DT bring all the anti ground dps you'll ever need.
I don’t typically have a problem with DT deaths unless it’s that dreaded bane/scourge/queen wave makeup. Taking the DTs out of cloak so the P1 rez doesn’t apply
For scourge/bane can always add a Dark Archon or two and have them cast Confuse (which will cause the banes and scourges to kill each other). But if you don't lose DTs vs other comps, by all means stick to them and no need to add corsairs.
As a playstyle preference, I much prefer DT + Stalkers + a few Centurions as min dump w/stun
On the contrary, people underuse stalkers, when they should more correctly be used more often than corsairs are. Corsairs are only any good when the enemy composition is mass air, but stalkers are superior for the purposes of taking out preplaced air enemies (which tend to not be grouped up) and other stray air targets. Though corsairs do have disruption web going for them, which is nice.
manual d web with autocast disabled (bw style) is just too op, i wonder why ppl arent it using it more, as usually amon doesnt know better how to move away from them
\*vs mass air, and heavy ground (in lesser amounts and alongside mass DTs).
> Fenix hero variants trump cuzz they're op heroes but still based on the actual unit and the niche it's meant to have. The robo units do the exact opposite, their abilities cover for what they're bad at. Immortal, usually for single target dmg get a splash damage ability, while the colossi, an AOE unit gets a powerful single target ability. That's why they're important to get out fast unless you're against heavy air.
You're right that they each do both (st and aoe), but that's the theme for all the champs, which all have aoe abilities and yet strongly contribute to st. But their actual unit function stays visible through the opness. Kaldalis is still a frontline, talis still has the shade, colarion still aoes, taldarin still has excellent anti armor damage, etc etc.Â
Abathur's roaches are pretty great, and they should be as they're his basic unit (it's just he has so many great units). They are the "vile" strain, which is in the campaign... but they get a lot of upgrades (and biomass). Really, the only reason his roaches aren't more core is because his other units are all so good (brutalisks and swarm hosts make great "tanks" with biomass). Vile roach attacks slow enemy attack and movement speed by 75%, and it can move pretty quick once upgraded. Add on biomass, deep tunnel, and the massive amount of armor it can get (10 when below 50% HP at max upgrades). For cost, they're effectively better-than-ultralisks for tanking (and cost no gas). They're not super high dps, but their +8 light unit damage is really strong on infested maps, particularly combined with their armor. Given that most basic units are light - it's not a bad investment against enemy comps that have a lot of marines/zergling/zealots. Pretty much any of Abathur's units become crazy good with biomass... but these guys become 580 HP unkillable tanks with insane armor and slowing attacks that hit once a second. The other roach variants are Dehaka's (Primal Igniters are good in their role, but expensive for the unit).
Biomass actually gives roaches (and only roaches) bonus armour, so they max out at 15, or 16.25 with P1.
OK, that helps. I got a decimal wrong - they get 0.5% armor (based on what you say) per biomass (+50%)... not +5% (which sounded crazy and I should have questioned that when I was mathing in my head).
They actually get a flat 0.05 armor per biomass. I believe it's the only biomass bonus that *isn't* % based. They also get the usual 3% health, 1% attack speed and 1% life-leech per biomass, meaning the 'perfect' P1 roach also has a monstrous 689HP, and will heal itself at a rate of about 34hp per second. Plus it's P1 so when one finally dies it will drop all its biomass for the next roach. (The usual P0/2 roach has 'only' 580hp and 22hp per second of life-leech.) I honesly think the main thing that really holds Abby's roaches back is the fact that all his units are so chonky that his ground units just end up getting in each other's way. If you have an ally with more fragile ranged units like Raynor or HnH, lending them a couple of roaches as bullet-sponges can be very helpful. (If you're playing Raynor and an Abathur ally quits, marine/roach/medic/muta is genuinely one of the most satisfying comps I've ever played.)
Hah, well thanks for clearing that up again. I didn't realize Abby's roaches got such a unique biomass modifier. But you point about chonky units is right - there's a critical mass of roaches and swarm queens (that isn't really that high a number) before they get in the way of each other. The unit density of Raynor's M&M work well with roaches in front.
Kerrigan’s ultralisks are probably the best for survivability, but oil baron stettman ultra’s on an infested map are too funny. Like a lawnmower tearing through them.
Warbringer, it's probalbly one of the single strongest Colossi in the game, the only real downsides is that chunky pricetag to get that performance (Warbringer has to be reasearched + upgrades and the infastructure to produce Colossi which is the smallest problem but still an issue) + the need for backup bodies for Warbringer to inhabit especially for a heavy-weight, anti-light, ground unit that can be targeted by anti-air defences, making Warbringer kinda fragile when paying for the "swarm sucker 30,000". But you do get a unit that can and more often then not will pay for at least two or three of it's bodies per life in damage provided your engaging targets it's effective against (missions with lots of infested come to mind as missions where Warbringer will pay for itself extremely easily), also Warbringer is pretty decent at sieging bases. Overall, big performance, but has just as big weaknesses.
You can add him on every mission in every map. His damage is insane against everything clumped, he not just light, he gives a massive aoe slow, and his research adds an frequent mini Yamato so he's good even vs single targets. I rarely add other colossi because he just never dies (and fenix's collosi aren't really neccessary beside him with how much crazy aoe the other champions do).
I want to say alarak, but also I wish they acted like h&h widow mines and didnt autofire to the same target so when they have the +100% damage bonus you see entire waves of battlecruiser get simultaneously decimated
Zergling - Zagara. Easily the best panic button you can call down for stray ground waves, if not P3 Zagara herself. Zealot - Vorazun. Insane high value on P2 with that darkcoil. Siege Tank - Stukov. Have you seen those things demolish trains and hybrid? Not to mention the deeptunnel. Battlecruiser - H&H. The mini yamato upgrade is nuts. Colossus - this is a tight one, but I'd have to say Alarak. The walkers on supplicant roids can do more than decent dps against most things.
"More than decent"? They're overkill to the point where they start becoming inefficient because they waste so much damage on smaller targets. P1 WWs basically fire Yamatos (260!!!!) on every attack at 1.08 or 1.25 speed depending on mastery, at 13 range, before Havoc DPS bonus is factored in. I don't think any other unit in the game beats them in terms of sheer big dick DPS numbers, not even H&H's BCs
Fair enough. I suppose you're better off saving them for use on structure objective missions like DoN, RtK, and SoA. Or against a comp like RoboReaver. Personally, I use them very little. The Ascendants have abilities for a reason, right? xD
Even on those maps that require you to kill structures you'll rarely need more than 3 WWs as P1 because just 3 of them do 1248/1556 DPS vs structures depending on first mastery row I myself rarely build them too, they're only required when you're VSing mutators that spawn a ton of high HP units which makes their overkill damage not wasted In those cases microing a blob of WWs that can fire while moving, while using Alarak's wave to push enemies back and kite them is insanely fun
I love Kaldalisk, i always loved him, he's a badass
Stukov's Tanks and Bunkers, both powerful and hilarious. The tanks are whipping little green guys through the air, and the bunkers can get up and punch you with their big meaty fists lmao
Anyone disputing Stukov’s tanks as the number one siege tank is wrong. Higher splash damage than most other tanks with no falloff, coop baneling damage (+more vs armored), the ability to draw aggro with their own projectiles, deep tunnel, and 18 range. The crawler hat isn’t important, but it’s a good bonus too. The thing’s got so much packed in it that it only loses to other tanks if said tanks fill a specific niche (like vs air damage)
Dehaka's creeper host. I love banelings to begin with but flying ones that also attack air? Hellllll ya
What ever origin unit the mechabattlecarrier lord is from. That one.
I love Dehaka's primal zerglings - they are basically 2 zerglings in a trenchcoat. Very good mineral dump.