The fact is that I am severely dissatisfied with the balance changes in one of the latest patches, where the cyclone’s hook was removed. This is not a change towards the versatility of the Cyclone, but simply the destruction of the idea of the unit and its characteristics.
Previously, the “Cyclone” was a long-range unit, which, due to its attack range, made it possible to cope well with Protoss air units in the early stages of the game. Now, if I went out in the mech, and the protoss decided to push me with emitters from under the bases, then the “Cyclone” is essentially an unnecessary unit due to its range (Almost identical to the emitters).
The new Cyclone from the balance update is a very different unit.
In TvT
It’s better than before. The first cyclone arrives at an earlier time with less cost while still resolving many early unit aggression like the Reaper. Due to the reduced cost it plays well sprinkled in through stim marines and siege tanks as a support role.
TvZ
Cyclone is much better than before. The removal of the lockon cooldown means that Zerglings are almost soft-countered by Cyclone with speed. They still have the range advantage vs. Roaches for skirmishing. They are better overall fighting units for the cost and less of a specialist unit and this helps against units like Queens and Mutalisk. Finally and most importantly their combined air-ground lockon along with their speed and range does an excellent job of being a reliable factory unit that chews up spawn host attacks. Cyclones working together with Siege Tank and Hellion make simple “mech” vs. Zerg.
In TvP
It’s much worse than before. The 6 range and apparent delay before firing/lockon similiar to the Helion, slower speed before upgrade, etc. Make the margins for the Cyclone to lockon and deal damage too small to be effective against the alpha damage and durability of Protoss units. The Stalker and the Cyclone cost the same, and mass Stalker will easily overpower mass Cyclone. I think this is a welcome change as it makes early game TvP less favored for Terran and in fact more balanced overall.