This is a genuine question as I have literally never once had cause to even experiment with them, they just feel like a dead unit slot that could be taken up by something cooler like the Defiler, Infestor or one of those unused units like the zerg artillery thing (which looks way cooler), “fatty” or tentacle monster.
I mean maybe there is some change or upgrade that can be made to the bile launcher to make it useful, maybe it could launch banelings across the map or maybe automate it and make it uprootable or something, it just seems kind of lame to have such a massive piece of dead weight in a commander’s arsenal whose choices are already fairly limited.
5 Likes
I think I tried it once, found it underwhelming and never used it again
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They’re okay behind another commander’s static defense to supplement it. Beyond that, no, they’re pretty underwhelming.
They were even worse back when you had to fire them manually.
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I like their current version quite a lot, but it’s mostly a matter of having the time and presence of mind to actually build, upgrade, and aim them.
They’re pretty good on the off chance that Zagara has to go iDef.
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Nope they’re pretty much garbage. Their only use is breaking mineral shields if you get that mutator.
They don’t have enough range to be used like ESO’s, and they don’t aim themselves so they’re not worth it to use on defense. “Defending” with Zagara is better accomplished by swarming the openings with units. I think they need to be entirely rethought if they’re going to serve any use with the rest of Zagara’s toolkit.
6 Likes
Bile launchers suck. They should autotarget, reduce attack speed to compensate and add AoE heal (could be an upgrade) so that they keep spines alive on defence maps.
Not a bad idea. I was thinking it would be cool if they added extra effects to the roach drop ability, sorta like ESO’s and contaminated strike. Each launcher would add a small area of DoT/slow to the roach drop, and if you had enough (like 8 maybe) the whole area would be covered.
But auto-targeting is basically a must.
Value? Yes.
I think without having to compromise anything, if we just made it build-able off creep, then it’ll bring a lot more value on any map.
Yeah, they do provide value, though the equation’s a bit odd. Bile Launchers can clear waves very efficiently, but they take quite a bit of work to set up well and won’t start paying off well until you’ve got a critical mass.
If you try to ‘go Bile Launchers’ in anything like the early game, you’ll be underwhelmed compared to real defensive commanders. And if Zagara’s economy (both resources and attention) was different they’d perhaps never get a look in. But if you fight efficiently, by the mid-game you’ll float a lot of resources (P0, even more true of P2, less so P1/P3 though) and potentially have attention to spare.
At that point the equation can turn out in favour of setting them up to cancel attack waves. Less because they’re genuinely efficient in a vacuum, more because… you can. They’ll do especially good work on Miner Evacuation and Temple of the Past, though.
Strongly disagree with them auto-targeting, as it’d suck away their identity. Smartcast would be really useful though for quality of life. For a strict buff, Scentmemory’s AOE heal idea is actually interesting. More so than Baneling ‘Regenerative Acid’ (ugh) because it does actually solve an interesting shortcoming: damage you take on tanking structures can get out of hand, and start demanding Queens and then more and more attention.
I find they’re only useful on defensive missions and you still need spines and spores in front but you only need to set them once then you can forget about them.
Agreed that they suck. They used to hyper suck in the past when you had to manually attack every time.
They should be either replaced by something more interesting or reworked entirely with auto attack, deep tunnel, or root/uproot plus provide creep around.
A lame decision by devs to keep them that way.
3 Likes
ive used them, but without auto attack(really need that btw), i just aim them into the base opening and leave them alone. on dead of night ill re-aim if a stank shows up, but really olny ever used them to suplement the d’ on a defensive map.
The whole identity of Bile Launchers is that they’re a high skill static defence structure, requiring you to predict enemy pathing. In return you get something that’s anti-ground, anti-air, splash and siege range all at once.
Adding a ‘dumb’ auto-attack to it (fire where an enemy is) would mean they always miss. Adding a smart one (predict where they’re going) is probably harder than you’d imagine, but also removes all interactivity from them and makes them really, really strong.
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They can be very effective if you use it right. For example recent mutation with lava bursts and blizzard on void launch. You could solo it with bile launchers only
Bile Launchers should have “deep tunnel” and should be place-able off creep.
If they could be tunneled around the map it would be like a mobile version of Mengsk cannons.
5 Likes
i see some abuse with that lol. 10 launchers pop up at base and one shot any area lol. still, would be fun\interesting.
I only use these on Temple, where I have them in the northeast area to take out the flying units before they can land their ground forces. It’s a mindless way to cover those waves.
I still want to see them auto-target and have more range.
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Bile Launchers are pretty good at spawn camping. So, they work on that temple defense map and Mist opportunity.
Maguro Map actually made a great concept design for Bile launchers.
They can be carried by Overlord and have better aiming mechanism.
At this point, any measure of making them viable would be great other than range increase.
5 Likes
They’re perfect if you hate mineral shields, but that’s it. They may look useful for turtling up, but the problem is that they’re unusable. For them to be effective you need a lot of them and you’d want to aim and dose them in a pattern similar to mengsk’s earthsplitters, which with the current interface is very close to impossible in any practical sense.
If the interface were better I think I’d use them. But I would also like it very much if they could uproot like spine and spore crawlers, and if Zagara could have those creep towers that can spew creep in a straight line. Overlords can bring creep, queens and drones to any remote location, but any uprooted structures would have to walk back and without a creep highway that would be impractical.