Reason for no lurker in SC2

[36drew]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sta ... the-lurker

Video explanation for SC2 programmer.

[KingKaramazov]

What he says is fine, but what he doesn't address is the fact that the Zerg have a limited selection of units, which is made even more limited by the high population cost of Roaches early on and the fact that Ultralisks suck major **** and take forever to acquire. Brood Lords are awesome but they also take the vast majority of an average game just to tech to and produce.

In my playing experience, the Zerg felt like they were playing with maybe 2/3 of the deck compared to the other races. Their units tend to be more general purpose so they can be used in numerous situations, but playing as the Zerg can be kind of boring sometimes because it feels like you're using one or two unit combinations in every match.

[36drew]

Keep in mind that sc2 will have two expansions, and that they will bring all new units to zerg.

[KingKaramazov]

Yeah. Unfortunately I'm not happy about having to wait a year for Zerg to feel complete. :-/

[36drew]

I had a page long response to this thread type. Then I realized:

COMPLETE

instead of

COMPETE

That changes things completely. Haha. Keep in mind that every race lost something cool too. No more reaver reaver reaver, for example!

[KingKaramazov]

Reaver = Collosus, which is a lot cooler imo.

What do the Zerg get to replace the Lurker? Banelings? Those aren't nearly as cool, honestly. They're grounded scourge, essentially, which makes them almost an adaptation of a unit that already existed.

I feel like Blizzard didn't have very many interesting ideas when it came to Zerg. The other races lost units, but they got better or more interesting replacements - e.g. Hellions or Marauders (Vultures + Firebats) or Vikings and Thors (Wraiths and Goliaths).

The Zerg lost Defilers and got Infesters - I'd say that's a wash. They lost Lurkers and got Banelings. Banelings are perhaps more versatile but less interesting, and also more difficult to use. Zerg also lost Devourers but got Corrupters, which are about as expensive but in my experience not necessarily as useful (lack of AoE). Mutalisks are also less powerful because they can't be micro'd the way they could in SC. The only unit that feels like a upgrade is the Brood Lord, which is a lot cooler and more powerful than the Guardian. Good luck ever making a significant number of them in a competitive match, though.

Roaches are a solid new unit but they nerfed the hell out of all of its interesting strategic elements - burrow movement, fast regeneration, a massable tank - all nerfed into the ground. Now it's just a slow moving Zealot with a bit of range and a vespene cost.

I dunno...I'm not saying Zerg are def. underpowered. It just feels like they got a lot less love in the development process (probably a result of being last and therefore rushed). Even their macro mechanic is the least interesting of the three macro mechanics - there's no strategy to it at all. It's something you HAVE to do every x number of seconds or else you're not being as efficient as you could be.