A new video on HotS is uploaded by Blizzard on youtube.

It is nice to see a video with Terran. =)

One of the objectives of the video is to show case the new changes in HotS. Rob Simpson has been emphasizing that this is not final at the start of every battle report video. He sounds like he’s reading from script. (I like his voice)

Dakim is one of the players in the video, and I think he’s David Kim.

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Since it is an exhibition game to show case the new units and changes in HotS, it is logical to have a reaper opening. As mentioned in the last post, reaper will stay as an early game unit and provide an alternative to hellion map control opening. Reapers cannot engage with a queen face to face, even if it is three against one. With Zerg favoring to have multiple queens in the early game as defense due to the increased range, it is hard for reapers to do more than just tiny harassment and scouting. The new regen upgrade certainly helps reaper to stay useful rather than just parking it at the xel narga tower when it has been wounded.

Reaper opening is then transitioned into a mech tech route in the video. Battle hellion spawns as battle mode and its impact in the video is within expectation. On various forums, the discussions focus on widow mine. The views are divided, as some call it imbalance while some feels that it is a good addition.

Widow Mine has a rather low cost with 75/25 resources, and it takes a production time of 20 second with a supply cost of just 1. Some are crying that it is OP since it has a low cost. As it stands now, it can be built from factory with reactor. It can be attached to both air and ground units.

There were several questions in my mind when it was first introduced in MLG Anaheim. One is whether it has to be manually activated like burrowed banelings and what is its range or activation? I am hoping that the new battle video can provide me with an answer.

At 7:10 (video time, not game time), the reaper baits the queens to the widow mines. It seems like the opponent unit has to walk on top of the widow mine in order for it to be attached (or a rather slow radius). It appears that they do not require manual activation. At 12:25, the widow mines attach to the units so quickly that it does not look like manual activation. Also, the AI is pretty smart that it will stack the widow mine to the nearest target but attached to an unattached nearest target within its radius.

Widow mine certainly looks strong, but I doubt its practical use in a battle whereby it is not burrowed. It takes time to walk near the enemy and burrow under the ground. Before they can actually get to that position, they may be targeted down. Hence, it is hard to burrow while engaging, which is like siege tanks. I doubt it can be unburrowed and repositioned again, since it does not happen in the video. It requires high tactical awareness in order to use it well.

Despite it is a new unit, Warhound isn’t produced in the video. It is ineffective against Zerg since it is used against mechanical units. The mech composition of Terran in the video does not have an answer against the ultralisk. The new ultralisk ability just makes it worse.

Looking forward to more battle report videos.

P.S. The image of the regen upgrade for reaper in the production tab is not the same as the image of upgrade in the tech lab.

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The original source of the images of the new units above is unknown. There are several sites which have the same images.