What makes the Colossus worth its price? Are the Thermal Lances stronger than thought out to be?
In my opinion, the Colossus is the most effective when you have more than one. Three seems to be my optimal number, especially against Terran. Medivacs heal at a very fast rate, but only one target at a time. Against a group of Marines with a Medivac, one single Colossus would do virtually nothing, because the damage would be healed through easily. With three Colossi, the Marines would die in one sweep, negating any healing that could be done. A single Colossus is good at softening targets, but with more rapid healing from Medivacs and new units like Roaches, it may not be enough. At that point, you need enough to kill them in one sweep, and when you do have that, it will do significant damage to any army, especially with the additional range upgrade for the Colossus.


Karune, what are your thoughts on the Colossus attack mechanic? While the numbers can be adjusted in accordance to balance, there's concern that the current attack mechanic is itself a flaw in that it's too situational. Has your team considered enhancing it in any ways, or adding more control to the attack pattern is etches into the ground?
Even though the beam is currently shown visually in various ways, the damage is done to all units in that straight line at the same time instantly. That line will always be based on the position you are attacking from, so in that way there is a lot of control as how to use the Colossus.

I definitely wouldn't say the Colossus is too situational either cause this unit is quite useful in both Zerg and Terran matchups. As long as in these matchups, both players continue to adapt to counter each other's strategies, Colossi will surely be brought to the battlefield.
Source: Battle.net


Firstly what does the Nullifiers Molecular Displacement do? I heard that it shoots a beam of energy and deals extra damage to units of the same type? Can we get more detail on this.
The Molecular Disrupter is a new ability we are testing out on the Nullifier, in which the unit fires a psionic projectile which bounces between units of the same type, doing 10 damage with each hit, up to a maximum of 10 bounces. Thus, if you were to use this ability on 2 Marines (with 40 hit points each, not upgraded), both Marines would die easily. If there were 3 Marines, it would kill 1 Marine and leave the last two at 10 hp each. Currently, the ability costs 125 energy.
Source: Battle.net


Secondly I keep hearing of a Seismic Thumper ability for the Nighthawk (im positive I never saw this). Supposedly the Thumper stops Zerg from burrowing. Any input?
The Seismic Thumper is no longer in the multiplayer game, but was originally dropped on the battlefield, which slows all units within it's radius by 50% (including friendlies). The only way to stop it was to destroy the Seismic Thumper itself.


Are these targeting drones permanent or do they have a timed life? Also they appear to be invisible to the enemy. Does the targeted unit have any visual indication that it's being targeted?
The Targeting Drone is similar to the Auto Turret in the fact that it does not have a timed life. It currently costs 50 energy to deploy and has 120 hitpoints (all subject to balance of course). The Targeting Drone can target one unit at a time, and increases the damage that unit takes by 50%. You cannot have two drones targeting the same target. These drones are also flying, stealthed, and immobile. They may excellent perimeter defenses and can be coupled with Auto Turret raids to maximize the damage.

Even though the drone is stealthed, visually, there will be a red laser coming from the drone aimmed at the target, so you will know when there is one around.
Source: Battle.net, Battle.net

Whats units are the reapers good against? Ones they totally own. Also the marauders. Is it more anti toss or anti zerg? Better as a mixed in unit or stand alone? etc

Reapers are actually one of the best units against any light units in the game. They kill Zerglings, workers, and even Zealots pretty well with a little maneuvering. Their mines also decimate stationary defenses, as well as tech buildings. They are no doubt one of the best raiders in the game right now.

Marauders on the other hand are probably better mixed, unless you are going up against an all armored ground force. Marauders work well against both Protoss and Zerg. Early game, as mentioned above, they are great for slowing Zealots while Marines do the damage. Against Zerg, they are better suited against those pesky armored Roaches with the fast regen.


Even though the Warpgate is good enough, I was wondering if the Robotics Facility and Nexus warp-in as well.

Only Gateways can be upgraded to Warp Gates. Gosh...warped in Carriers/Void Rays over an enemy base would be OP!

Source: Battle.net

do medivac dropships still load units at the same time but unload one at a time? or can dropships unload all their cargo at once?
if it can only unload one at a time, i have a sugestion, make it so that infantry can unload two at a time (researchable?) or at least at a much faster rate than vehicles so that the drops can b faster. it takes forever to unload 8 marines in comparison to unloading 2 tanks which are much more deadly, even if the dropships can heal

Loading is instant, but unloading has a delay between units. Will bring up the suggestion, but do note that the rate in unloading is already quite fast, and mass drops do usually include several dropships at the same time.

Source: Battle.net


As I was upgrading our Game Info section, I noticed that Starcraft-Source said the following in their review of Blizzcon:

"With the removal of the shield battery from Starcraft 2 all together. Blizzard has implemented a new shield mechanic for the Protoss. The shield recharge rate will increase the more time that passes since the unit last took damage. Sonkie vs. Yellow exhibition game video you can hear Dustin Browder discuss the mechanic."
http://communitystarcraft.com/news-rele ... -races.php
Do you guys know much about this shield recharge mechanic?

The rate of shield regeneration has been increased significantly from the original StarCraft, but will be a fixed rate, rather than an increasing rate over time. The shields will not increase until the unit is out of combat.

Source: Battle.net


Right now there is a build time after you drop a nydus worm, the thing that bugs the heck out of me is that the nydus worm grows from that squiggly thing that drones morph into when they turn into buildings.

Instead of having that squiggly thing to signify a build time, can't you make a more dramatic animation for the worm breaking through the surface? Just make it look like the worm is struggling more...it will function the same as it does now (enemies will still have the opportunity to attack them for the same length of time), except it will make nydus worms frightening again...rather than the mundane worms they have gradually become.

Yes, that is placeholder. In one of the previous builds, maybe it was WWI, the rock actually starts breaking and then the Nydus Worm comes out. It will probably be more along those lines.

Source: Battle.net

i've heard that Archons lost their splash damage

Archons still have their splash damage and are still quite the beasts they were in the original StarCraft. There is no better feeling than watching a group of Archons instantly pop a stacked group of Mutalisks.

Source: Battle.net


You posted a long time ago you guys were working on some new lurker art. I have yet to see this "new artwork"

The changes to the Lurker Art ended up being very minor, as they have chosen to stick with the original model, adding a bit more detail. I will keep you posted on any future changes that may come about for this unit.

Source: Battle.net

GeoN escribió:Blizz ya se pasa con la obsesion de exigir micro manejamiento para aprobechar cada unidad...
Basicamente, el coloso es bueno contra unidades numerosas con poco HP (mas precisamente, infanteria terran y unidades basicas zerg) y se necesitan por lo menos 3 para que realmente hagan daño

Yo no veo a estas altisimas maquinas de guerra rodeando a pequeños grupos de marines buscando la posicion ''perfecta'' para aprobechar su rayo... una unidad tan imponente no puede limitarse solamente a matar enemigos pequeños, es mas, en un video se ve como 2 colosos son eliminados por 8 zerglings + 2 hydras (2 reavers masacraban eso facilmente)


Ademas, el coloso es vulnerable a ''TODO'' desde tierra o desde aire, por lo que bajarle la vida y despotenciar su ataca lo hizo bastante contrarrestable, la unica ventaja es que se mueve libremente sin dar importancia a las diferencias de terreno

El coloso ''original'' , el que mostraron en el anuncio del juego, era a mi parecer PERFECTO
Tengo fe que le debuelvan si viejo rayo doble, ese ataque si podria micrearse para hace exactamente lo mismo que hace el rayo actual... barrer de un extremo a otro, o simplemente lo dejas a sus anchas y se defenderia bastante bien

GeoN escribió:
en un video se ve como 2 colosos son eliminados por 8 zerglings + 2 hydras (2 reavers masacraban eso facilmente)