Often times when discussing important upcoming buffs/nerfs for a certain unit, there are always two sides: those who rejoice at the news, saying it’s long overdue, and those who immediately express their concern/rage with how imbalanced said unit will become, pointing out how, in their experience, said unit didn’t need the change, and that said change will negatively affect the balance of the game
Ultralisks are not such units. In fact, there’s nothing balanced about them, because let’s face it, they kinda suck.
Maru vs Dark: In the final game of a best of 5 series, Dark has Banes and Ravagers, Maru went terran bio. Dark transitions into Ultras, loses game 5.
Reynor vs INoVation: Reynor opens up with Mutas against INo, who’s going mech. Reynor techs up to Ultras, gets wrecked by un-upgraded Cyclones, loses the game.
soO vs zest: soO goes from Swarm host Nydus to Ultras, against zest, who went Archon Immortal Zealot. 15 fully upgraded Ultras evaporate to 6 Immortal and a few Zealots.
The list goes on and on, and it goes to show that even Pro players struggle to make the unit work. Even Serral said that he avoids going for ultras even when he’s ahead, because they’re a gamble. And it’s sad to see such a cool looking unit, the maximum expression of zerg ferocity, being delegated to the worst unit in the game.
But what makes Ultras bad? they might be the most armored unit in the game, and its splash damage is no joke, but its large size, slow speed, and overall clunkiness more than make up for its strengths, often times leading for them to trade extremely inefficiently. So, how do we fix it?
Attempts have been made in the past to make Ultras more viable, but such attempts have proven un impactful in practice (Anabolic Steroids, or Ultra speed, is a joke) because Ultras still dont manage to close the distance before melting to Marauders, Immortals, or Lurkers. They don’t even make good meat shields, and for 300 minerals and 200 gas, that’s just depressing
Introducing Burrowed Charge: An ability from the campaign that allows Ultras to move quickly and unimpeded through the ground, emerging right on top of your target area, stunning units for 1 second and dealing a tiny bit of damage. This would solve nearly every single problem Ultras have: being able to quickly cross liberations zones, chase down cyclones and stimmed bio on the run, effectively reaching the front line in battles without derping in the back while the rest of your army gets massacred, thus making them better sponges. It would turn the unit into a siege breaker of sorts, instead of the dumb A move “tank” it currently is.
I’ve personally tested it (out of boredom) with a campaign mod against friends in several of these scenarios, the only changes I’d make would be to make the upgrade cost 150/150 and remove its auto cast function, just to make them a bit more interesting.
Thoughts?