The Zerg Roach

I thought I would start a discussion on the new zerg unit, the roach. I am curious to know what everyone else feels about it.

-THE NAME
Does anyone but me believe this name fits? I think a few blizzard devs got slapped with the fail stick before they came up with this name.

-THE VISUALS
Anyone dig the look for the roach? What about the attack animation? I haven't had a good enough grasp on the visuals so I can't make any fair judgement in this department.

-THE CONCEPT
Apparently, the roach is a unit with hyped life regeneration. I feel that this is a brilliant concept, so good job blizzard. Love it, hate it? What else can be added to give it more uniqueness?

-STRATEGY
How does the roach establish itself with the zerg strategy? How would you use it? Can it be an effective economy raider? How does it fit with the other zerg units? What can be changed to give it a stronger purpose?

-BALANCE
Does the roach seem a little too imbalanced? Though, the zerg seem to still be in concept phase and they are very open to change right now, it wouldn't hurt to leave your opinions for the roach as it currently is. A few of the people who got to test the zerg said some things that bothered me. The folks at IGN said that it was easier to just mass roaches and send them to assault an enemy base since they can attack both ground and air. So what can be changed to assure we don't get an overuse of the roach? Should it be limited to attacking ground only? Should it have very low life to counter the mega regeneration? What about the attack? Should it have a swift attack, but low damage, or a high damage but slower attack? What other changes can be made so the roach doesn't overlap with the zergling or hydralisks?

 

I think it looks too much like the lurker, I keep confusing them. I also feel that their roles are too similar.

 

I definitely think that the name needs to be changed. I mean, Roach? Come on Blizzard, you can do better than that. I also would say that the unit design should be changed as well. As other people have said, it looks too indistinguishable from the Lurker.

On the other hand, I think the fast-health-recharge mechanic is a brilliant one. I've never before seen something like it in a game. Requiring enemies to focus-fire and manually manage their troops could definitely be used to a player's advantage.

So basically, other than the look and the name (both aesthetic items) the new Zerg Roach is a pretty cool unit.

 

Make a poll about should it change its name.

 

I do like the hyper regeneration ability, forcing the enemy to focus fire, but I would weaken this unit in terms of attack and maybe make it more of a group unit with an aura or something so it doesn't interfere with the purpose of the zergling and hydralisk. It could also be used as a defensive unit with stronger attack and defense on creep to aid the regen but not interfere with the offensiveness of zerglings and hydralisks. I would like to hear other ideas as well.

 

I don't really undersatnd what is wrong with the name, maybe they could give it a more roachlike appearance though.

 

The thing I worry about the most is with it's high regen. rate, wouldn't players mass then since they are extremely hard to kill without late tier units?

Also, since it does regen faster, it's making the zergling become obsolete before they would really be of any use.

 

Yeah EonMaster, I am seeing the same things too. I love the concept behind it and I would hate to see it go, it just needs something to make it work.

***EDIT***

I think eventually the roach will get cut, and a new unit (hopefully with a better name!) will take the fast life regeneration ability. Similar to what happened with the terran firebat-->marauder.

 

I like the concept of the Roach, but just not as a Zerg unit. They shouldn't have units with an incredibly long lifespan. As already has been said, massing Roaches would probably be enough to gain a swift victory as the unit is at this moment.

I also think that it is to much like the other units. It is nearly the same as the Zergling and Hydralisk. Also, as GM_k already pointed out, the looks of the unit are almost the same as the Lurker. This irritates me, because you should be able to easily see what types units there are in a mass of Zerg, not get confused by them.

About the name: I think it's quite obvious that it is probably the worst name for a unit ever. How could the Zerg have assimilated something from earth? Or is this some kind of sinister plot twist and have the Zerg invaded the earth sector while the fleet was away to the koprulu sector...

@Eonmaster
I do not think that the Zergling will become obsolete when you get to the Roach. They will probably have some disadvantages that we havn't heard of. Maybe they can't burrow or something, or they have a really slow production speed. You have to remember that we haven't seen any mases of Roach units in the videos, so that's probably not what they are for.

 

Well if Blizzard didn't fuck up the Colossus there would be no problem with massing them.

Also it makes Zerglings more effective since they would force the player to either try even out their fire upon all or focus on the roaches. And upon focusing on the Roaches the Zerglings will decimate the army.

 

The concept on its own looks quite cool however the lurker looks too similar to the roach and the lurker needs to change, plus the lurkers are smaller than they were and i am disliking that

 

The roach looks like an interesting unti, to say the least, but I think itll just a distraction unit. Say 4 or 5 roaches attack the front of your base, you send the troops to counter, but he sends nydus worms behind your lines right at your HQ. however you're still dealing with the roaches. I think that's how Blizzard will use them, if they stay in the final.

 

I think the name is a good one.

Players who are difficult to destroy are described as roachlike.

It will be an interesting unit though I think dropping a few snipes on it is just the thing to eradicate it

 

They must be great for hit and run, against players who don't use correctly the structures/terrains to pose as barrier for their movement.

 

I like everything except the air attack... I think it should just hit ground, or people will just mass produce them as the IGN folks said.....

 

That IS the point. Roaches come in large numbers, but are all weak.
There is just the balancing issue...

 

Colossus would be great counter for roaches
if not for *cough*

 

Big news here! Cavez, the lead designer of starcraft 2, just confirmed that the Roach can only attack ground. The air attack was a mistake in the tooltip. He posted that on the b.net forums about 2 hours ago.

 

Very intresting!
I read somewhere that it has 80hp + very fast reg.
So a tank unit!?!?
I cant really find a role for it!?!?

 

would some one please link a pic I can't tell witch one is the roach.

any way yes the name is bad but the concept is good. blizz had a good job now just needs to come up with a way to put it into a unit.