So a lot of people ask ‘what are your initial impressions on LotV’ in my stream, so I’d figure I’d put them here. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) there’s a lot to talk about other than ‘yeah this feels okay’ or ‘that doesn’t look good’. But I wanted to give a general impression before getting into the nitty gritty.

Warning: LotV is in beta. A small percentage of people even have the game, only some of them are GM, and almost none of them are taking it super-seriously (they have HotS tourneys to practice for!!). Everything will be different by the time the pros really get their hands on this, and everything will be different after that, too.

On The Fun Aspect + Use In The Game Aspect Of The New Units:

Basically all of the new units are fun and micro-oriented, so A+ on that aspect, actually. Blizzard sometimes says they want one thing and then does the opposite (oracles never killing a worker, anyone?) The one thing people would say they’re afraid of not being micro-oriented is the disruptor. I understand. Another Protoss unit that has severe splash against units AND buildings? GDI BLIZZARD. But not really. The disruptor’s key ‘weakness’ is that it is slow after exploding and easily hit at that point. That’s where a warp prism comes in handy. To those who don’t say you need a warp prism, that’s fair, I’m sure there’s a few disruptor busts on Terran that’s making people angry. But it is NOT an a-move unit IN A DEATHBALL, and as such I’m okay with the disruptor right now. Those busts are going to be (sort of) fixed when they decrease the damage (remember that Blizzard wants you to use the OP units the most and will cut back after testing, rather than the opposite happening). After using disruptor compositions in PvP and PvZ, I’ve seen the act of pressing the button and then microing it so it actually hits an army is quite micro-oriented, really. It’s honestly not the same feeling as hitting a storm on the army, which in my eyes still doesn’t require too much micro, just good positioning.



Of course I have to add here that Terran did NOT receive their second new mystery unit, and some of the units feel like they still need to find their place in the game. So as for ‘new units being useful’, I’mma give that a B-.



On The Topic Of Deathballs…

The initial impressions of both myself and the friends I’ve played with is that deathballing is much harder. As in, it’s harder to get to a deathball, and harder to straight-up win with it. For example, I played a PvP (archon mode!) where the other team went very HotS-PvP, so a lot of freakin colossus. You know what smashed it? Disruptor drops, archon, chargelot. I might’ve had ONE colossus in my army. I can tell you that disruptors are a much more fun alternative to colossus.



Or another example. My co-caster Rifkin played against Wolf, ZvP. He was so dead. Wolf was on four bases as a Protoss and Rifkin was running back and forth trying to save bases that died anyway. A 120 supply army to what must have been a maxed-out one. And you know what happened? Wolf freaking BLINKED ON TWELVE LURKERS AND TEN CORRUPTERS AND AND DIED. Five colossus died to corruptors who had also taken out any form of detection with their overseers. They didn’t help against the lurkers at all. Twenty+ stalkers just straight up died attacking into what few hydras were there. Okay, no problem, Protoss had four bases and Rifkin was out of cash! NOPE. LotV economy, baby. Wolf had barely enough to get up to half of his previous army.

You might say that just means corruptor/overser/lurker is an OP strat. I disagree (for now). Disruptors have proven themselves to be somewhat effective against lurker balls and don’t technically need detection. Blinks could have been micro’d to not clump up on lurkers. Not attacking up a ramp into a choked-in area is a good idea.



Comebacks are possible and likely, and not because someone turtles or gets a good doom-drop. Chokes and ramps are now as useful as they should be (and not just using it for forcefields and laughing in your opponent’s face as they push against them). Micro is key. You spread against lurkers, you win. You think you win and clump cuz there’s only two left? Your opponent suddenly takes a decent trade.



The Pace of The Game

The pace of the game ties in a lot to the weakening of deathballs. The most obvious way is that you just don’t have as much money on three bases to get a perfect deathball. Simple. You need to expand more and defend more and thus trade more. Also simple. But there’s one more way that you just might not understand until you play it.



It’s chaos.



A lot of the chaos comes from no one knowing what they’re doing, and that’s expected. Build orders will be fine-tuned and compositions will be perfected. But the constant expanding. In HotS you get to three bases and you take a breath. Not so much here. The key lurkers defending a fourth against ling run-bys. Roaches having tunneling claws immediately. Tanks that are sieged dropping in your mineral line. Ravagers trying desperately to hit medivacs with an ability that kind of sucks at that. Remember to keep detection with your army for that lurker. Remember that you can also drop tanks on that tank doom-drop that just hit your base. Remember to send a marine first so you don’t get rekt by unseen lurkers. Remember to split against disruptors and watch your mineral lines for disruptor drops and remember to micro your own army that suddenly has a lot more keys to press and a lot more economy-expensive and time-expensive units (hydras to lurkers and roaches to ravagers is expensive and takes a while, y’know?!)



Some Concerns

LotV is not magic and rainbows. Ravagers rushes feel too strong. The possibility that having to expand so quickly won’t lead to a faster pace and more attacks spread out on the map, but rather leads to a game where whoever denies the third gets the win no matter what. The key units that seem to add so much micro actually won’t, and they’ll be a part of a deathball (or not even used if we realize old units are still better) that will have an even MORE abrupt ending as remaxing will be impossible. The adept still feels…eh, and Terran doesn’t even have their other unit!!!



Overall

LotV is…actually doing what Blizzard intended, I think? It’s fun. It feels really different. I get more of the same feelings I do when I play Brood War, like feeling slightly overwhelmed at how much I have to do with my macro and my micro. It’s a game that will certainly change how we approach SC2, more than HotS did for WoL by a lot, and it’s exciting to think about. But this is all for now.



Oh, And Archon Mode

It’s amazing. You can read TotalBiscuit’s thoughts on it here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/legacy-of-the-void/481796-archon-mode-very-well-be-the-magic-bullet