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To be honest, neither option really appealed to me when I played… solely because I got hung up on them losing their anti-air attack. Didn’t matter how rare air actually was in the campaign, or how Kerrigan could just mulch them solo anyways, I just couldn’t get past losing the one thing hydras have over most Zerg, so I almost never bothered.
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Feb 18, 2024 05:41
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It's not really a hydra replacement so much as another unit option that gets built from a hydra. You're not really losing the anti air bwcause that hydra was always earmarked to be the imapler you needed. Lurkers/impalers fill a very, very different role than hydra, and the number of times you would bother with the morph outside of your base are minimal.
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Feb 18, 2024 05:52
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BisbyWorl posted:
Fun Fact #1: The Cinematic Impaler Hydralisk doesn't look anything like the in-game version of the Impaler Hydralisk:  Fun Fact #2: The Cinematic Impaler Hydralisk was used as the basis for the Noxious Hydralisk premium skin.  Fun Fact #3: The Noxious Hydralisk premium skin is definitely not worth its pricetag. 
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Feb 18, 2024 05:57
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Oooh, only 2.50 for a lovely skin that makes the game even more of a visual mess where it's too difficult to tell things apart or what's going on? A total bargain. Why does Daggoth's old "brood" planet have banelings, that didn't exist back when he was alive?
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Feb 18, 2024 09:46
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Why does Kerrigan care about "The Zerg" not being anyone's pawns when she doesn't ever actually care about them? The generic Zerg have animal-level intellect and just get thrown at things to explode and die, but Kerrigan doesn't seem to really respect any of the named, speaking Zerg either. She sure as hell didn't respect the Cerebrates back when they existed, that one brood mother just got left in space, she treats Iszha as an organic laptop, Abathur gets put into a psionic headlock the moment he expresses any sort of individuality, and Dehaka just sits in a corner screaming "ESSENCE ESSENCE ESSENCE" like a deranged parrot. It's the sort of statement that would make sense if Kerrigan had some sort of long-term planning thing going on where she wanted to make the Zerg less of a threat to other intelligent life(after she used them for her revenge, of course): wind down the hostility of the animal types, give more freedom to the intelligent ones and help them find hobbies that don't involve peeling other sapients alive for their juicy DNA, etc. but as it stands it just feels like the sort of broad, noble-but-angry statement one of the writers saw in an X-Men comic once and and thought would sound cool. I wish that I knew if all these dangling little chunks are the result of sheer bad writing or a ton of rewrites leaving clunky shrapnel everywhere.
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Feb 18, 2024 11:33
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PurpleXVI posted:I wish that I knew if all these dangling little chunks are the result of sheer bad writing or a ton of rewrites leaving clunky shrapnel everywhere. It's Blizzard, nothing being written here is something to take at anything other than extreme face value. This has not been thought about as an ongoing narrative about a woman and the bioweapon she controls in her quest for revenge growing, learning about their predecessors and changing their place in the galaxy, as much as we probably kind of wish it was/ it has to be to have Kerrigan not be a total monster. Instead, its a combination of bits that Blizzard thinks they can monetise later (whatever you feel about her design, Kerrigan as a Zerg-human is probably one of the most well known/ iconic Blizzard characters) and visuals that they think they can get in while driving this train directly to the finale. Kerrigan has a certain number of things and story beats that have to happen here for the story to get to where they want before the finale of SC2 and if any detail gets in the way of that, that detail probably had to be removed. This will come back to bite them. Torchlighter fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 12:16
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Kerrigan identifies herself as a zerg, possibly because of the shared commonality of being a pawn for someone else: the Confederacy, Mengsk, the Overmind, the UED, Amon in turn individual zergs strongly identify with Zergdom as a whole, to the point where individual survival is less important than the welfare of the community. this is where Dehaka's philosophy overlaps with the Swarm's - one dies, one grows stronger - and where the other primal pack leaders differed
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Feb 18, 2024 12:30
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BisbyWorl posted:Intermission 7 You missed an essence
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Feb 18, 2024 13:10
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Poil posted:Oooh, only 2.50 for a lovely skin that makes the game even more of a visual mess where it's too difficult to tell things apart or what's going on? A total bargain. Those aren't banelings. They're zerglings who had taco bell for however many years between daggoth dying and now.
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Feb 18, 2024 13:27
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PurpleXVI posted:Why does Kerrigan care about "The Zerg" not being anyone's pawns when she doesn't ever actually care about them? She's projecting. She's been the pawn of many different entities: the Confederacy, Arcturus Mengsk, the Overmind, Valerian Mengsk, Amon, and even The Prophecy. She's the survivor of unimaginable levels of manipulation and abuse and she identifies with the Zerg being used as a tool because both she and the Zerg as an entire race have been used as tools for pretty much their entire existence. Of course, the story will never mention this in any significant capacity because it will be too busy portraying the only barest of surface level narratives because, and I really need to emphasize this here; Heart of the Swarm's story was a first draft with only very minor revisions made as gameplay demanded. I should also mention that Kerrigan and Sylvanas share extremely similar attitudes and plot beats and it's not too much of an exaggeration to say that they're basically the same character, right down to their spiteful attitudes and the "the abuse isn't the problem, it's that I specifically was being abused, it's fine when I'm the one doing the abusing and actually being an abuser rules" outlook.
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Feb 18, 2024 13:42
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You missed the impaler trick in the evolution mission, where there's a check to make sure you actually have hydras to morph, which happens slightly after getting the ability to morph them, so if you do your existing hydras quickly enough it'll spawn a bunch more and you get double impalers, which is completely useless but it's fun to stunt on the terrans. Impalers and lurkers are both pretty useless imo, the campaign just doesn't really have much defensive action and their siege capabilities aren't really worth the effort you need to burrow micro. The impaler range is nice but I'd usually rather just have units that can walk and talk. Lurkers get a better showing in co-op, at least.
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Feb 18, 2024 13:55
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the impaler hydras look cooler
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Feb 18, 2024 14:01
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Qwertycoatl posted:You missed an essence Noted, thanks.
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Feb 18, 2024 14:59
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Kith posted:She's projecting. She's been the pawn of many different entities: the Confederacy, Arcturus Mengsk, the Overmind, Valerian Mengsk, Amon, and even The Prophecy. She's the survivor of unimaginable levels of manipulation and abuse and she identifies with the Zerg being used as a tool because both she and the Zerg as an entire race have been used as tools for pretty much their entire existence. This was true for much of WoW, but they diverged enough in Shadowlands. I mean, their ultimate (?) fate could hardly be more different. Heart of the Swarm's story is really nothing to write home about, but it never really bothered me compared to some of the things in WoL and LoV.
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Feb 18, 2024 15:26
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BisbyWorl posted:Zerus 3: Supreme This makes much more sense after you figure out that the Zerg aren't an insectile hive mind based on equal parts Warhammer Tyranids and Alien Xenomorphs (themselves the major inspiration for the Tyranids), nor are they Warcraft Dragons, but are in fact D&D Slaadi. You know, the absolute embodiment of creativity and chaos, which happens to manifest in the form of slight color variations on Frog except for 3-4 dudes who bully the rest because they can afford to buy a unique model We are long since past the point where while originally playing I realized SC2 was up there with the absolute worst media-tie-in writing I'd ever seen, it wasn't going to get better, and I completely checked out. I'm just here for the laffs now. Torchlighter posted:
Like that. Thank you. PurpleXVI posted:I feel like one thing that makes Kerrigan a bit less interesting as a character in HOTS is that Raynor had to deal with a bunch of, supposedly, equals, who could tell him he was being a moron or disagree with him. Turns out the real reason the Overmind sullied the perfect unity of purpose in his hivemind swarm by generating cerebrate generals with egos and weird personality quirks is because he was just so effing bored, you guys.
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Feb 18, 2024 15:45
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bladededge posted:Turns out the real reason the Overmind sullied the perfect unity of purpose in his hivemind swarm by generating cerebrate generals with egos and weird personality quirks is because he was just so effing bored, you guys.
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Feb 18, 2024 17:17
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well done
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Feb 18, 2024 17:19
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BisbyWorl posted:
This character, man, this character. Why isn't it the main protagonist? So much better than anyone else.
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Feb 18, 2024 19:27
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But not perfect?
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Speech pattern annoying. Unsuitable for main character.
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Feb 18, 2024 19:48
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Xarn posted:Speech pattern annoying. Unsuitable for main character. Analysis flawed. Disregards evidence. Illogical. Essence flawed.
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Feb 18, 2024 20:13
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Warmachine posted:Analysis flawed. Disregards evidence. Illogical. Essence flawed. Poster never heard of Mordin. Paragon of character type. Pitiful. Significant knowledge gap. Should correct. Probably won't.
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Feb 18, 2024 20:30
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Xarn posted:Speech pattern annoying. Unsuitable for main character. Much like your posting 
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Feb 18, 2024 22:01
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Impalers are pretty useful in a couple of points later in the campaign. The biggest one I can think of is that in the last mission, there's a side objective to defend a point that can be handled for pretty much the whole mission with 2-3 impalers set there and forgotten.
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Feb 18, 2024 22:19
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Admiralty Flag posted:Poster never heard of Mordin. Paragon of character type. Pitiful. Significant knowledge gap. Should correct. Probably won't. I don't see Abathur suddenly breaking into a Gilbert & Sullivan adaptation. But yeah, we could have had Abathur special evolutions instead of Nova covert ops and it's a tragedy.
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Feb 18, 2024 22:21
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Admiralty Flag posted:Poster never heard of Mordin. Paragon of character type. Pitiful. Significant knowledge gap. Should correct. Probably won't. That fucker was annoying as well, but at least he could sing. (Also still not a main character)
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Feb 18, 2024 22:23
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Omobono posted:I don't see Abathur suddenly breaking into a Gilbert & Sullivan adaptation. Of course not. Now, Rage Against the Machine, on the other hand…
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Feb 18, 2024 22:38
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Omobono posted:I don't see Abathur suddenly breaking into a Gilbert & Sullivan adaptation. I'm the very model of the evolution architect
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Feb 18, 2024 22:41
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Kith posted:Much like your posting billions dead
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Feb 18, 2024 22:42
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Szarrukin posted:I'm the very model of the evolution architect  Have information. Vegetable. Anima- ESSENCE COLLECT
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Feb 18, 2024 22:42
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Worth noting: Not only are Lurkers laughably inferior to Imaplers for the purposes of the campaign, Lurkers are also inferior to their own Co-op and Multiplayer counterparts. Campaign Lurkers have a Range of 6. Multiplayer Lurkers have a range of 8, which can be upgraded to 10, while Co-op Lurkers have range 9, upgrading to 12. Though it's also worth noting that Co-op and Multiplayer Lurkers get their bonus damage vs Armored instead of Light. Also, I think that first Kaldir conversation with Dehaka may happen no matter what? I suspect we'll see that after the first Char mission, but it's an important conversation that clarifies a spot of confusion about Dehaka that came up previously. Dehaka collects Essence just like any of the Pack Leaders Kerrigan just mulched, but the difference is, he's not aiming for Power. He's aiming for constant change. Constant adaptation. He is a river, flowing, adapting, changing. The Pack Leaders accumulate power, and try to stand against anything that challenges them - no matter how much more powerful that challenger may be. Dehaka recognized a superior force when he saw it, and decided to follow Kerrigan, rather than challenge her. The other Pack Leaders just saw a threat to their Power, and attacked.
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Feb 19, 2024 00:07
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Even if power wasn't a consideration, Impalers are just so much cooler. The way they send huge tentacles to rip things apart from underneath is peak schlocky sci-fi horror. Super fun to use. This one might be the biggest no-brainer of the evolutions. And the first time I went into it expecting to want the Lurker just for nostalgia's sake, but the Impaler is just rad.
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Feb 19, 2024 01:44
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JohnKilltrane posted:Even if power wasn't a consideration, Impalers are just so much cooler. The way they send huge tentacles to rip things apart from underneath is peak schlocky sci-fi horror. Super fun to use. This is why I miss sunken colonies from SC1. Seeing that thing just spike out of the ground and split a marine in two was always beautiful. Spine crawlers don't have the same feel, being basically just thornwhips.
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Feb 19, 2024 04:27
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Kith posted:She's projecting. She's been the pawn of many different entities: the Confederacy, Arcturus Mengsk, the Overmind, Valerian Mengsk, Amon, and even The Prophecy. She's the survivor of unimaginable levels of manipulation and abuse and she identifies with the Zerg being used as a tool because both she and the Zerg as an entire race have been used as tools for pretty much their entire existence. The fact it's a first draft makes sense. It feels like somebody had the basic outline of a wrote it up, then never really got to expand on the things that needed expanding and excising the stupider elements. Zerus could be better explained if the brood leaders you fought were only on Continent A rather than Leaders of the entire planet. Which is something a LOT of sci-fi tends to ignore (the fact that realistically a planetary invasion would take a LOT more than one fight at the capitol). At least it's not as much of an "Oh crap what do we do now" as THe Last Jedi vs the rest of those trilogies.
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Feb 19, 2024 05:03
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Calax posted:The fact it's a first draft makes sense. It feels like somebody had the basic outline of a wrote it up, then never really got to expand on the things that needed expanding and excising the stupider elements. Zerus could be better explained if the brood leaders you fought were only on Continent A rather than Leaders of the entire planet. Which is something a LOT of sci-fi tends to ignore (the fact that realistically a planetary invasion would take a LOT more than one fight at the capitol). Given how played out tropes like "one big battle to conquer a planet" are, the genre could use a few more 'oh crap' moments and some introspection to reckon with its own scale.
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Feb 19, 2024 05:34
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…and now I remember that whole sequence in the final movie of a literal mounted cavalry charge on the deck of a star destroyer that was currently in space
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Feb 19, 2024 05:36
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One thing that I thought was kind of cute that no one has mentioned yet. Take another look at Zurvan, the Ancient One and perhaps one of the oldest Zerg alive. Two visible front legs in a vaguely quadrupedal stance assuming he is still mostly below ground, fanged mouth, and two back mounted arms/wings. Conclusion: Zurvan is the universes oldest, biggest, and most pissed off Zergling.  Also, more or less I do agree that the story of Starcraft II is pretty stupid, but I enjoy it anyway in a popcorn-flick kind of way. I am even possibly willing to give the "only Kerrigan is immune to control" bit a pass, under the point that Zurvan and Abathur both said that the Primal Pool was possibly too potent even for her. Looking back at the Artifact going off in All In, it pretty much instantly destroyed/killed all of the Zurg matter, including the buildings when it went off, but Kerrigan survived. So when it came to the pool here, only Kerrigan could survive the complete dumping of her old zerg flesh/power in return for the Primal energy. Anything else that tried would not have survived. I also recall hearing/seeing that way back during development of HotS there were plans for a system relating to Kerrigans upgrades that dealt with how you would direct the swarm onto other planets. It was something like "you can just destroy all of the buildings on the planet, or you can choose to infest it." I assume that was the base building blocks of a sort of morality/ability development system, where you could play Kerrigan as trying to remain as human as possible, or dive straight back into full Zerg infest ALL THE THINGS and be a monster! There are a few more things I will want to talk about, regarding Abathur, Valerian, and Mengsk, but they will have to wait until we get there. One final note, and I can only talk about it now because I only found the thread and READ it now, Dr. Hanson and Haven. One explanation as to why she became Zerg in one branch and succeeded in curing the virus in the other relates to yuor choice. If you choose to support her, she has time to take things slow and work out all of the kinks before moving forwards, resulting in removing the infection. On the other hand if you support Selendis, she is panicked, desperate to try and find the cure before it is too late. She thinks maybe if she can find the cure now she can stop Jim from purging the colony. So she takes risks, is not careful, and just ends up Infesting herself. As to the "Zerg Virus" itself, I saw it as the colonists were not Infested, they were Infected. A sort of sleeper disease that EVENTUALLY can overwhelm them and lead to Infestation. No easy cure for the Infested except fire, but it is possible to cure the Infection instead, which Hanson manages. No easy explanation on the differences in LEVEL of Infestation on the mission though. Maybe its two different sections of the planet you are dealing with. In the Pro-Hanson version the Protoss started on the badly Infested side and burned that down, and are moving onto the mostly Infestation free side where you stop them. On the Pro-Selendis version a couple marines were able to take out the 5 Infested in Quarantine on that part of the map and the Raiders take out the badly Infested part that the Protoss would have burned. Chaosbrain fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 16:51
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Good LP, got me playing LotV again because I don't remember it at all. It's already very stupid. I think SC2 collectively is probably the most fun rts campaign ever to play but it really wrecked the lore and made me not care about the setting at all, when it used to be one of my favourites since I was a wee laddie
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Feb 20, 2024 00:40
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Unit Spotlight: Hydralisk Overview:
Evolution Pool Upgrades:  Frenzy
Really, really strong. It's Stimpack but with a cooldown instead of a life cost! A Frenzied Hydra actually deals the same damage as two stimmed Marines! The problem is that this is an active ability with no autocast feature, and unlike Wings (where Marines will be the default unit when you hit F2 the majority of the time) you'll have to tab away from Kerrigan each time you want to pop it.  Ancillary Carapace
Eh. With all the heals you get in Heart a small life boost won't really come into play.  Grooved Spines
A simple buff that's always helpful. Set and forget if you don't want to deal with Frenzy micro. Evolutions   Overview:
Can bond essence to hydralisk morph. create impaler. Attacks single foe. Tentacle shreds through armor, flesh, bone. Not really that good in your army, since by the time they can burrow the majority of what's in range will be dead, but really helpful when you really need to pump up your base defenses. Considering the majority of the campaign is against terrans, home of some very scary Armored units? Incredibly useful. It's not the handful of Marines in an attack wave you're worried about, it's the Thors and Siege Tanks behind them.   Overview:
Lurkers attack while burrowed. Spines strike multiple enemies at once. Effective against troops lacking sufficient armor. Significantly shorter range, a worse niche, and against a race that doesn't really send out enough troops to make the most out of the AOE. It just isn't the Lurker's day. Field Manual Artwork    Impalers don't get any art, sadly. BisbyWorl fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Feb 20, 2024 |
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Feb 20, 2024 04:53
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Sometimes less is more. Love the old hydra art. New ones look like the lifters who inject synthol after it deflates.
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Feb 20, 2024 07:25
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Once again the Marine owner of the Field Manual is wonderful. Amusing insight from a grunt on the ground about the "tactics" suggested by the manual, some trial and error with himself and other grunts - notably, he's the only one to have survived trying an unsuccessful tactic he wrote down on the Hydralisk page! Also, his utter confusion about where the Lurker Spines come from :P
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Feb 20, 2024 11:18
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