Hello! I’d like to share some of my thoughts on some of the commanders, especially from the gameplay-experience perspective.
- Abathur
I like the concept of leveling up through biomass and toxic nests; it keeps my early game focused on microing my first roaches. Plus, brutalisks and leviathans are fun to play with.
The thing with Abathur is that his army is too overpowered. In mid-late game, his army is unstoppable to the point where he can simply A-move into anything without consequences. There’s not much thought process or strategy involved - no weapons upgrade, no unit composition, no spell cast, no judicious spending of resources - just A-move into certain victory. I think this needs to be changed. Maybe drastically nerfing the overall biomass effects (health, attack increase) might make the player think twice before A-moving into another cheesecake victory.
Brutalisks and Leviathans are, for hero status units, bland. Though they are the essential core in almost any of Abathur’s army composition, they don’t have any special spell cast. You just attack or move. I think the addition of 2 or 3 spell casts for each of these units might add some flavor to Abathur’s game play.
I know some people would disagree with me on this point, but I think that swarm hosts don’t fit Abathur’s gameplay style. Currently Abathur is a deathball A-move commander. Swarm hosts do not fit well into the death ball. Although one might argue that swarm hosts could be used defensively or used in some situations as a means of complementing the lack of mobility in Abathur’s army, I think infestors or even ultralisks might have been better, since either would have complemented well with the death ball.
- Zagara’s corruptors
Zagara’s all about Zagara leading waves of mobile expendable units, mainly ling-ling with some aberrations or scourges. Corruptors don’t really fit that role; corruptors are not mobile. Instead, mutalisks would be a perfect replacement, since they are mobile and synergizes well with ling-ling. Mutalisks have the additional bonus of pairing well with scourges.
Instead of Zagara, corruptors would be a perfect addition to Kerrigan. Kerrigan’s unit composition is about the queen of blades leading a slowly advancing army that can hold its ground. She could go either ling/ultra, hydra with or without lurkers/broodlords, or air. The more I play Kerrigan, the more I realize the frail nature of mutalisks - they die too quickly, especially when compared with Kerrigan herself. On the other hand, broodlords and hydralisks are neither durable nor mobile and thus need some form of tanking damage from the air- something Kerrigan cannot do. That air tanking is something corruptors can do.
So why not give corruptors to Kerrigan, and give Zagara mutalisks instead?
- Karax’s expensive units
I understand the intent behind the original design of Karax - a defense building + air strike based supporter role. But things have changed drastically since his release. Fenix’s units are far more powerful than Karax’s, and arguably Zeratul’s static defenses are as good as Karax’s. In this current atmosphere, the heavy tax on Karax makes little sense. Plus, a downer for Karax’s static defense composition is its immobile nature. One can spend thousands of resources on static defenses, but the static defenses would not move an inch from that location. If that person decides to move forward, he or she needs to either build a whole army from scratch, or build an entire cannon rush valley from nothing - either choices that would cost that person a fortune even without the heavy tax. From Karax’s play experience, it feels kind of unfair.
I know you might not agree with some of my ideas, but I’m here to share with you mine and I am open to your thoughts. Please share, and thanks for reading.