So there’s a small glitch (among others!) in the PTR currently where Infestors already have Microbial Shroud, but the option to research it is still present. It doesn’t do anything except cost 150m 150g, but it got me thinking. After seeing a few games, the 12-range Microbial Shroud is exceptionally strong because it allows Infestors to stay out of danger as they offer support to melee-based ground armies as well as to push forward by leapfrogging the shrouds.
Now, this power may come a bit too early, especially as you need an Infestation Pit to unlock T3 and an Infestor pops out with 75 energy, but it got me thinking of a couple of ideas with the upgrades:
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Reduce the casting range back to 9, but change the bugged Microbial Shroud upgrade so it increases the casting range to 12. Change name to Pheromone Projection. Cost is still 150m 150g.
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Reduce the starting energy to 50, but reintroduce Pathogen Glands that increases the energy regeneration rate by 100% (rather than increasing the starting energy by +25). Cost is still 150m 150g. This also has the effect of allowing EMP’d or Feedback’d Infestors to recover faster and not be dead weight, and requiring fewer Infestors later on so more supply can be put into combat units.
Thoughts?
(P.S. I do think the auto-attack should be removed though since stopping them from marching forward is a bit of a skill check, especially with the massive casting range)
Why not introduce an upgrade that allows Infestors to fly?
They could gain an ability similar to the Devourer’s Acid Spores from StarCraft: Brood War. This would allow them to keep up with air armies and provide a dedicated support counter against heavily armored capital ships such as Carriers, Battlecruisers, Vikings, Tempest and VRs. And while not flying, especially counter Thors.
The goal would not be to create another massable “super unit” that can win games on its own. Instead, Acid Spores could simply reduce armor without dealing direct damage. That way, Infestors alone would not be effective, and players would still need to support them with the rest of their army to take advantage of the ability .
This could encourage more diverse army compositions, limit excessive Infestor massing, and give Infestors an interesting anti-air support role without completely redesigning the unit.
Well, two problems there… one, it would cause overlap with the zerg’s flying caster, the Viper, and secondly, it will make them significantly overpowered versus Terran bio because not only can they keep their distance, they would be able to hover in the dead space out of reach of Ghosts, not to mention potentially nasty tactics like flying to a mining base, casting Fungal Growth a couple of times on all the workers, then flying out.
On the flip-side, it’s an upgrade that’s also a potential weakness. If the enemy goes for a dedicated air-based build, it would be an upgrade that you would NOT want to research because Vikings and Tempests would suddenly hard-counter them with their massive attack range, while an enemy Viper would almost certainly be able to kill one with Parasitic Bomb.
Honestly don’t mind either of these ideas, but I think that if Microbial shroud needs anything, it needs to be “sticky” again, and it should only effect friendly units.
As an aside, you would probably need to reduce the damage reduction on it given how good the actual damage reduction is.