Heart of the Swarm Update including Battle Report

[Wulf]

It looks like the current mix of new units has been confirmed to be:

Protoss:

Oracle
Mothership Core
Tempest

Zerg:
Viper
Swarm Host
As well as significant updates to Hydras and Ultras.

Terran:

Battle Hellion
Warhound
Widow Mine


Video of the current units:



Battle report, Zerg vs. Protoss.



Update: official Q&A from Team liquid can be found here:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view..._id=343491#two

My favourite question being....

"Q: Will there be a beta test? When will it start?

A: Yes, we do intend to run a beta test for Heart of the Swarm multiplayer, and we expect it to start sometime in the summer of 2012. "

Update: Battle Report 2

[NAH Grahm Cracker]

My reaction:

Oracle - economy harassment without anything actually happening or skill involved? boring. And I feel like cloaking was done so poorly compared to SC1 cloaking, this does not look like an improvement.
Mothership Core - they realize that the planetary fortress was a bad idea right? but they go with the concept of making your base a defensive structure (I guess planetary fortress was only really bad because of repairing, so maybe this will be better), I also hate warping stuff home when you screw up, you should be punished if you walk your units in the middle of the other guys army
Tempest - just a flying siege unit and it really brings nothing to the table

Viper - standoffs aren't really that common which is the primary situation that one would find a use for such abilities. The 'hook' ability is just a gimmick and the reduce range ability is just a bad attempt at a 'dark swarm' for SC2.
Swarm Host - interesting, but I suppose it will be worthless, it isn't a harass unit, and unit spawning units have usually been pretty bad in RTS in my experience
Hydras - I didn't see notes on the upgrades, maybe I missed it, but unless they get a population cap/cost nerf (and corresponding damage/hp nerf), I won't be happy. It's Zerg FFS, they're supposed to have cheap dispensable units but roaches and hydras in SC2 never seemed Zergy to me...
Ultras - boring

Battle Hellion - hellions are boring units and this doesn't change anything
Warhound - I wanted goliaths and this is what they gave me, not really disappointed or excited. The only thing i got from the video was that it is more powerful than siege tanks on the ground, but blizzard has fucked siege tanks up so bad since SC1 that I'm not really surprised
Widow Mine - when I saw the name I was pumped because I loved vulture mines, and then I saw it in action and was terribly disappointed. Rather than doing real mines like SC1, they went with another gimmick that just tells people to 'click this unit and move it away'. All they had to do was make a bomb explode and they can't even do that right

[Wulf]

I honestly think Terran is getting screwed in this one... but it might be ok.

The hydra upgrade is a speed upgrade at hive tech, watch the replay

[Saxiphone]

Wulf. I just want to let you know, that you are my VERY favorite poster. I love you.
I didn't see this anywhere before, yet somehow catacombs delivered.

[Wulf]

Wulf. I just want to let you know, that you are my VERY favorite poster. I love you.
I didn't see this anywhere before, yet somehow catacombs delivered.

<3 <3 <3

Catacombs ALWAYS delivers