Fenix's Beta Blog

*Note: This is basically gonna be a spew everything out. I'll group it best I can. Also, forgive me if I mention something we already know (archaic info included). I've got a tough time keeping up with it.*

I've played a few games with each race, both against live opponents and AI (mostly to mess around with the units)

It's funny, there's so much that's familiar and so much that's completely different.


Race Neutral
This is mostly map and terrain stuff.

Pros

• Two Vespene geysers in your starting base and almost all expansions. Not only are gather rates much higher, but the fact that there's two sources right off the bat makes teching far easier. You can also tell a glance if a geyser is depleted due to colour change.
  
• There's 2 versions of many maps. One normal, one 'novice.' The biggest difference between the is the presence of rocks (with 2000 health) blocking one ramp in your base, presumably to prevent fast rushing.
  
• The Xel'Naga towers are awesome. An absolute must have for defense.
  
• The 'rich' minerals add a whole new aspect to the central bases (they were placed there in most the maps I played). Not only is the central expo the easiest o attack from, but it's also an economic must-have. Can't wait to see the battles for them in games like 2v2v2v2.
  
• Animations are incredible. Not only do they look nice and pretty, but in many cases are informative (fave example is the Protoss Stargate - shows the shape of the unit being warped in.)
  
• The building system is cool. As we know, it shows a little hologram of the building that's going to be made in that place. This is awesome for queuing up multiple buildings (like if you're building a bunch of Pylons or Supply Depots)
  
• IDLE WORKER BUTTON. It's great. A+++.
  
• Units have an icon in their frame showing what buffs and debuffs they currently have.
  
• Your hotgroups (CTRL+1, CTRL+2, etc.) show up just above your bottom UI, with the group leader's icon in a little window. Awesome if you, like I, group Air in one, Infantry in anoher, and vehicles in a third.
  
• Overall, a very pretty, slick interface.
  
• Ability to always show Health, Shield, Energy, and Progress over units and buildings.
  
• There's not 7 billion upgrades to make one unit useful anymore. At most, a unit will have two, usually an ability and a buff (like stealth and an energy upgrade)

Cons

• The rocks can sometimes be frustrating to the player it protects. Not only does your opponent have to fight their way in, you have to destroy them to leave.
  
• One deeper maps (ones with large canyons and such) your camera dips as as you go over them. Realistic, yeah, but it inhibits your view of the map sometimes.
  
• Queue lag and a lot of it. You have to wait almost half a second between canceling units.
  
• The pretty UI is sometimes distracting in the Protoss view. Very shiny and stuff.

Protoss
As my classically favourite race, I've spent the most time with them.

Pros

• The new units are worked in nearly seamlessly. You're never lacking for a unit for such-and-such a situation.
  
• The Void Ray is pretty much the coolest thing ever. Like we expected, it's not intensely powerful against weaker units with one exception. When the beam is fully powered, it will stay fully powered for about 1.5 seconds after it's done firing. If you can fully power it one a powerful unit while defending or on a building while attacking, you can utterly rip apart almost any infantry force. Absolutely delighted. I hesitate to make this claim, but it's replaced the Carrier as the backbone of air superiority.
  
• Don't discount the Carrier though. It's singular upgrade (you can make 8 interceptors out of the box - while spawning with 4!!) allows it to almost spew Interceptors at the enemy. Instant attack.
  
• The Colossus is a lot of fun to use. The wall-step is especially nifty since you can chill half up, half down.
  
• The Mothership is incredible. It's strong, resilient, and its abilities could make you care less about that. Vortex is a really cool ability, and incredibly useful. You suck a unit (or a few - i has a small area of effect though) into the ground, taking it completely out of the fight for a short time. My fave use for it was incapacitating Seiged tanks so my ground units could get close.
  
• The Nexus has the Chrono Boost ability, which boosts he production or research time of a building for 25 seconds. Can't be used on something being warped in, but otherwise really useful. Give you an edge early game with Vespene production.
  
• Archons got a speed boost. Simple, but turns them into real bad mama-jammas.

Cons

• Area of effect abilities hit a considerably smaller area. (Protoss haters - Put this part in the Pros section )Psionic Storm, though still absurdly strong, hits an area the size of a half dollar on my screen. No longer an army killer.
  
• So many filler buildings. The Dark Shrine (prereq for Dark Templars) doesn't do anything. No upgrades, no special abilities. Just...sits there looking pretty. Silly. There's a few more buildings with 1 upgrade and a unit unlock.
  
• I'm underwhelmed by the Stalker's Blink ability. It needs either a slightly longer range or a slightly shorter cooldown. As is, it's a scouting gimmick.
  
• The Warp Gate is superfluous. It needs the ability to load existing units into it then warp them

Zerg
The new Zerg mechanics are, for the most part, absolutely phenomenal. I probably had the most fun with the new aspects of this race.

Pros

• First and foremost, the new creep growing aspects are awesome. You have two ways, either an Overlord spewing temporary creep, or the Queen spawning Creep Tumors, which in turn can spawn one more creep tumor. Your base can be covered in Creep in a matter of seconds, without bulky buildings
  
• Love the Nydus Worm. It's a blast loading up units and having them pop up in the middle of the enemy base
  *NOTE - DO NOT HAVE THE NYDUS WORM EXIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR BASE*
  
• Roaches are great. Underground movement makes the battlefield highly dynamic. NOt just two lines of units beating each other up anymore, plus cuts off route of retreat.
  
• The new creep is cool. Looks pretty, increases Zerg movement speed, and moves down ramps
  
• Overseer's spawn a unit called a Changling, which is more or less Hallucination 2.0. It takes the colour and shape of first enemy encounters (Actually, shape of that race's basic warrior unit). Good spy and silly way to scout.
  
• The Infestor can also move underground, and can even use its abilities while burrowed.

Cons

• I'm not sure if this was a bug, either on the map I tried, overall, or not even a bug. I was able to grow the creep down a ramp blocked by rocks, but not up. The creep showed up on the rocks, but not on the ground.
  
• The same strategy I've always used with Zerg is still the most viable (at least, in my games). The new units don't mix up classic strats almost at all.
  
• The Infestor unit is only marginally useful. Fungal Growth is the only useful abilitiy, as Neural Parasite doesn't last long enough for any real disruption, and he Infested Terrans die far too quick.
  
• Base defense is lacking. Spine crawlers are weak

Terran
Never liked them much; still don't a whole lot. Overall, they placed very similarly to the original. Not a bad thing, but not really good either.

Pros

• Battlecruisers are flying, metal encased sex. These things are near uncontested gods of the battlefield. Yamato charges up much faster now, making it more useful in skirmishes,
  
• The MULE is a really cool ability in the early game (though it's effectiveness is less noticeable once you have a few expos feeding you minerals). Gives the edge on setting up a base defense
  
• Speaking of base defense, the Bunker has an upgrade giving it 2 more slots. Awesome.
  
• The Banshee is really cool once you research its stealth ability. Reapers are supposed to be the harassment unit (?) but I found myself doing far more hit and run with cloaking Banshees.
  
• Reapers live up to their name, primarily against worker units. If your not careful, 5 Reapers can not just cripple but destroy your economy quite early in the game (In was the victim on this one, not the perpetrator )
  
• Building upgrades. Primarily the reactor (the name escapes me). Training 2 units at a time is awesome.

Cons

• Ghosts aren't near as effective anymore in TvT. Sensor Towers neuter them. Did not play as Terran against Zerg or Toss though.
  
• A lot of their units don't really have universal viability. Most tier 2 units are designed for counter from what I could tell.
  
• Weak units? I churned out more Terran units due to deaths than I did Zerg. That's probably cause I suck, but I didn't think I was THAT bad with them.

Disclaimer: I suck at this game. A lot of the pros and cons may be as such because I don't know the proper use/counter/whatever to something. I'm also a campaign kinda guy. A lo of the multiplayer mechanics, and by extension, Battle.net 2.0 properties don't really interest me all that much, so I didn't really play with them.