Heart Of The Swarm Zerg Strategy

Learn all about the new Heart Of The Swarm Zerg Strategy 



The zerg are the central species in the aptly titled Heart of the Swarm, and these creatures are confirmed for both single player campaign and multiplayer, though more campaign-specific units are expected to come. In the meantime, let’s look at what the brood has cooked up for the Post-Queen era:

The epitomy of the Zerg ideology, the Swarm Host is a dangerous beast which warrants extreme alarm from enemy forces. The slow moving, cumbersome unit ambles around with no attack, but becomes a powerhouse when burrowed into the ground. The husk of the creature will begin to pump out a non-stop, continuous stream of slow-moving zerg units called Locusts, which can begin laying down the pressure on enemy defenses. The Swarm Host is a great siege unit which will likely have a waypoint ability when burrowed, and the ability to apply constant pressure on enemy forces will no doubt be a great bonus to the Zerg swarm.


Viper

The Viper is an energy-attack flying unit which predictably is born from the Spire. It has three main abilities to utilize:
Abduct: The unique attack allows the Viper to pick up a victim and pull it to the Viper. You can do this to friendly or enemy units at your discretion.
Blinding Cloud: Temporarily reduces the attack range of all affected ground units to melee range while at the same time preventing energy-based abilities from being used. If timed correctly, this could devastate an army.
Ocular Parasite: The handy spy-attack can only be used once per Viper, which detaches its eye stalk and melds it onto any friendly, non-massive unit. This unit will now act as a mobile detector, and will no doubt be used often by Zerg players.

With the ability to essentially create one mobile detector per Viper, the flyer is no doubt going to be a popular zerg unit in the near future.

Changed Units and Abilities

The Overseer is the only Zerg unit to be cut so far, as its main purpose has been made redundant by the Viper’s Ocular Parasite ability.

Banelings have now evolved tunneling claws and can now move whilst burrowed, just like the Roach. There’s nothing more dangerous than an explosive patch of Banelings, and an underground mobile heard means bases will have to utilize detectors or face losing all of their mineral gatherers in one hefty explosion.

The Curruptor no longer, ironically, has the Corruption ability. Instead, it has gained the ability called Siphon, which will allow the Curruptor to slowly siphon health off of enemy buildings and turn them into mineral resources for the player. We’re not sure how that works, but it’s a handy tool for a handy unit.

Ultralisks are known to be a rather cumbersome, albeit powerful, unit. They now have a Burrow Charge ability, which lets them quickly dive underground and resurface a split second later at a nearby target, effectively rushing them without taking damage.

Lastly, Hydralisks receive a new upgrade which will allow them to move faster whilst not on creep.