I personally don't believe that the roach will make a very good tank. When the unit first came our I found out about its high regeneration rate, I thought otherwise. Now however I do not believe so because or its low health of ninety. While this decent for zerg units, I don't think this will allow the roach to survive for very long under focused fire, even with its high regeneration.

i consider the roaches as a tank during the early part of the game do to the fact that even at tier 2 it still have the most health and fastest regain of health of all the ground units except for the queen, nydus worm, and the infestor( and i doubt that people will use the infestor as a tank ) for the zergs, from the latest(still very old) new that we have heard, and im excluding the queen do to that there can only be one at the moment and most likely not going to be used offensively that often( and when used offensively i dont think people want to let the queen to be the tank for long ), and excluding the nydus worm do to it being a transportation unit and not meant to do anything else, and do to the fact that its health was supposed to be small. and the roach can be part cannon fodder as well(tho zerglings are most likely better at that most of the time) :P because of its cheap cost, every 3 hydras allows you to make 4 roaches, thats 120 more health health points to be taken down.

It's a fashion to necropost so here I am.

The model has to go. The range has to go.

• The model needs to reflect the unit's resilience. Currently it looks like a small immotal. What it should look like to reflect it being able to take punishment is somewhere between a cockroach and a millipede, or either of the extremes. That is, laying close to the ground, low CoG, hard and clearly segmented scales/carapace, small legs and thus relatively slow movement speed.

• The range has to go because currently Zerg have the zergling and the ultralisk as melee units (disregarding the baneling and drone), and they're supposed to have the most number of melee units because of simplicity and effectiveness. The hydralisk is being taken to tier 1.5 with increased versatality even in GtG combat, moving somewhat back to the SC1 role, so there's no need for a ranged roach.

Leave the poor Roach alone. it`s fine as it is. perhaps it should evolve the fast healing ability later at the game or it will cost more but it is a fine unit and don`t be so scared from a few bugs hehehe

I wonder how well the AI will focus fire roaches in the zerg campaign or in skirmish games.

if you played WC3 enough imagine how the insane computer auto targets and 3 shots a lvl 10 hero.

thats what its going to be like in SC2.

Bumpy bump

The roach got all sorts of upgrades and the model hasn't changed much since its debut so I'm guessing Blizzard likes the idea of it. Well I don't, and I just came up (ok, someone might already have mentioned it, which I missed) with a solution to it.

The tl,dr version is to remove the roach and reintroduce the lurker. Below is the elaboration.
The much-favoured tier 1.5 hydralisk, if it returned, would not only be a crowd pleaser, but would also remove the need for the roach. In the hydra's current place the lurker could be placed, with the healing upgrade of the roach. So if we said the lurker became a tier 2.0 or 2.5 unit then by tier 3.0 the hive could unlock at the lurker warren the ability to heal fast underground (or it could be a tier 2.0 upgrade). As for the hydralisk, a tier 2.0 upgrade could remove its spikes graphically and allow it to move underground - its body is pretty well suited for underground travelling if we disregard its protruding spikes. This would also promote melee ambushes to showcase the nice animation.

This way both the hydra and the lurker would return with a facelift, and I think that would please closed minded people and SC2 fans alike.

I don't like what you suggest at all. I want new units damnit, not another returning old one with upgrades!

Well I want units that make sense, and a roach with huge claws that do absolutely nothing or a ball-shaped creature moving underground is not that. And don't get me started on the lame name and attack animation.

Acutely if you get the roach close enough it will do a melee attack with its claws.