It’s not paranoid if you are actually being rude. You’re round-about saying ‘anyone who says Rob is niche is trolling’.
If you actually understand:
Then you wouldn’t be making the comments as you are. A simple “I meant no offense” would have been just as appropriate but you’d go as far as “you’re paranoid, I wasn’t being rude”.
Too used to calling you out on this kind of stuff. But I guess to take your own word “Each on to their own I guess”. I felt you’re being rude, and you don’t. At least I’m not further calling people ‘paranoid’ for no reason or assuming they’re just ‘trolling’ in the first place.
Now back on topic, another unit that’s super rare to see is actually broodlords. With the new prestiges being the way they are, it’s even more rare to see them than before (which is already fairly rare).
If I need a frontline unit, usually Hellbats or Goliaths, depending upon the composition. Otherwise, no. Just hard make them and make a few Science Vessels for detection and healing.
I haven’t seen Spider Mines from Raynor used in the longest time. TBF, I believe the update that made them targetable when unburrowed made them unpopular.
Yes. Hellbats vs Swarmy comps, always.
My main go-to builds on Swann are actually Hellbat/Goliath/Vessel, Hellbat/Goliath/Thor/Vessel, Hellbat/Goliath/Cyclone/Vessel, Hellbat/Cyclone/Vessel, or Cyclone/Vessel.
Just played a game with Nova on malwarfare and, as the enemy comp was swarmy zerg, I gave a try to hellbats, at first they are really nice, but late game I found them kinda weak (so I’m keeping my Tank+goliath build)
The reason Nova’s Hellbat is a waste, and people generally don’t use them is because:
They aren’t that tanky without Drone protection.
The resource spent getting them (drones included) is better spent on Griffin Strike.
Spider Mines from tanks cost far less, has far more uses, and does far more damage.
Overall, getting Nova’s Hellbats is just for fun. For any form of efficiency, not having them is just better. They cut into valuable research time (since you’d want the 2 research upgrades), they cut into better mineral dump of a number of things in Nova’s toolkit, and they take far more damage than is ever needed for Nova’s units in general.
Basically, for an elite unit army CO, Hellbats are the literally wrong-design. Now, if they had a self-healing of sort then perhaps it makes them better. Otherwise, they remain niche and pointless.
That said, in regards to how “never used they are”? Given Nova’s units don’t come in abundance as a rule of design, they still end up getting used by a good portion of players anyway. I think if you magically changed Nova’s design to “you can make as many as you want without cooldown restrictions”, then literally nobody would ever make Hellbats except for memes.
My issue with them is it’s hard to tell if you’re getting the bonus or not. I can’t always watch the enemy hp like a hawk to make sure it’s going down in larger chunks than otherwise. I really do miss the old upgrade that just gave a flat bonus damage, even if it was less
My understanding of the consensus on this is to reward stutter step, so the lack of visual is why there isn’t one.
Much like marines stutter step, there isn’t a visual queue. Although I’m not sure if the mechanics are exactly the same per se.
My experience and many other accounts puts the bonus buff at roughly maximum acceleration reached. And that in itself makes it slightly different and difficult compared to marine stutter step.
Unfortunately, Strike Goliaths are far from niche. They have a core role in Nova’s army against Terran or Protoss with any air mixed into the comp. Their stun missiles are ridiculous vs mech.
Vanguards. They’re a cool unit conceptually, but their implementation is so damn mediocre. I wish they leaned super hard on the glass cannon aspect, especially because of the unit’s lore. They’d need a total overhaul IMO, but I can see the potential in them.
