The Zerg Roach

Yes, and in that topic i wrote that it wasnt true...
Blizzard stated that the air attack was a mistake of their in the tool-tip of the unit:

The Roach: Post-Irvine, Browder has informed us that the Roach has a ranged ground attack only. The GtA attack was apparently an error. There appears to be some differeneces in the display builds between the Korea, Irvine, and China announcements. The Roach is apparently a melee unit in the China build. When Blizzard figures their display out, we will update.

http://sclegacy.com/showthread.php?p=4083
Fastest link i could find.

 

I think these are dead wrong. I remember seeing somewhere that Roaches cost the same as Hydras. And Hydras are better than Roaches because of range and cool-down, so they're not obsolete at all. Roaches have HP, lings have numbers and Hydras have damage. Ultras have HP. Mutas fly. They all live happily ever after.

 

I think alot of you are missing my point. The fact that hydras can attack air doesnt make them automatically worth building. Why make a unit which takes more space, costs more resources, is likely to be higher tier and has no special ability when you can have a roach. Sure there is the air factor, but thats just an emergency. If you need AA fast and you dont have sunkens (or whatever they are called now) or corruptors you can use hydras, but as a standart unit I would take roach any time, I can make more of them using less amount of resources + they have cool ability.

I think what Blizzard needs to do move hydra into lower tier, make it 1 supply again (cant get why it is 2 now) and make it cost atleast the same as roach. Atm the hydra is worse than hydra in SC1 which makes no sence to me.


Bonus 200 minerals for a great post

 

The hydralisk has always been the backbone of the Zerg and it might just secretly murder all the roaches when your AFK lol = don't build them together (might end in a zerg brawl)

 

If the Roach is GtG only, so we are defenseles from air units until we can get Hydras or Mutas?

 

You are not getting my point: it's not about hitting air or not. It's about damage output. As soon as you get nice long ranged damage-dealers as enemies, Roaches become useless as they attack too slowly. Hydras are a machine-gun in terms of damage output, because even if they do the same dmg as Roaches they fire much much faster. When 5 Stalkers kill a roach in one shot, who cares about resilience? Let the Hydras join in and kill them faster than they kill you. That's what Hydras are all about. And also: hydras can morph into Lurkers. That's already a neat ability.

 

Morphing into lurkers isnt really an ability, its just making another unit but in much more slower and expensive way. Unlike banglings which can run through base and mutate in matter of seconds.
Now I dont know about hydra vs roach dmg output. Yes, roach ahas 2 less dmg which is no big difference and I have no real information about its speed but also bear in mind that for certian amount of resources you can have 20 hydras or almost 30 roaches which adds up. Youre right that 5 stalkers kill one roach np but then it forces the opponent to micro all the time and pick on targets one by one which slows his killing rate.
And as I said, I am happy with hydras as they are IF they make it more of an *ordinary* units like zerglings. That means move it to lower tier, make it cheaper, make it take 1 supply, like in old SC.

 

The hydra shouldn't be lowered in any way, its fine the way it is.

 

Dose any one know the attack speed of the roach. how often dose it strike, or could some one compare it to another units speed.

 

I think its a 2 or three seconds longer then the zergling attack.

 

Yeah thats slow. well atleast it makes up for there ablitiy to live.

 

They also do twice the damage per hit that Zerglings do (10 base damage), So their damage output is probably only slightly lower than that of the Zergling.

 

Considering lings hit at 0.5 secs, 2 secs more is way longer...

Besides, if their acid (their attack) has a missile animation that takes long to hit, that also adds to hitting time. Hydras hit instantly and uber-fast: it's the middle between a regular Marine and a Stim-packed one. Should they have a longer range, it also gets into play, as more Hydras will be able to hit a same target at once, killing more sorts of units in 1 shot than a Roach would. If only a certain amount of Roaches can aim at the same unit (on account of range), then sayonara to the strength in numbers.

 

Wasn't the Roach's acid attack a bug in the system? I've been hearing lots of yes's and no's to that question, and now I'm just plain confused ???

 

Going back a bit...

Why would Zerg need their tier one units to attack air? Zerg will already have Hydralisks or Mutalisks by the time the enemy gets air units, so it hardly matters if they're defenceless against air units early on.

 

Actually Zerg won't have Hydras by the time their enemies get air units, unless you teched really fast and got to tier 3 by the time they got to tier 2. As of now Roaches and Mutas are the only anti-air for tier 2.

 

According to sc2armory.com, the Hydralisk Den only requires a Lair, meaning they're tier two, not three.

 

You will not:

 

I don't follow what you're trying to say.
Basically, if your opponent has had time to get up to air units, you will have had time to get up to air units. Blizzard won't make it biased so that one team will be able to get air units before another one can. So if the Protoss have their Phoenixes or Terran have their Vikings, then the Zerg should have been able to get Mutalisks. Seeing as Hydralisks are the same tier as Mutalisks, they should be able to get Hydralisks as well.

 

Protoss air:

Gateway -> Cyber Core -> Stargate

Terran air:

Barracks-> Factory-> Starport

Zerg hydras:

Spawning-pool->Lair->Hydralisk's den

And zergs don't need a new structure to build defenses, as the Queen will be available right after spawning-pool. It is easier than it was back on SC1 where you had to build a drone for every new sunken/spore.

However, I still hope Roaches get GtA because it would create diversity in strategies. But I wouldn't be sad if it was just GtG.