First look at SC2: HOTS Beta

SC2: HOTS, Heart of the Swarm Beta has been released by Blizzard. However, at this stage, only a selected number of players are able to participate in this Closed Beta. Those invited include most of the professional SC2 gamers and random players that signed up for the Beta Trial in your Battle.net account profile. If you are one of those lucky few managed to get your hands on this piece of treasure, congratulations. However, most people like me are not able to get into the beta at this stage, until Blizzard plans to release it to the mass public before actual release of the game itself. If you want to know the actual release date for HOTS, you will probably won't find the answer so soon as this is Blizzard here we are talking about. The awesome gaming company will only release the retail version after it has been perfected and they do not fear to prolong the date. (I predict it to be released during Christmas time or early next year)

Lets, come back to the actual first look at SC2 HOTS at this release of Beta. If you cant get your hands on the Beta trial key, you can always watch the live streams available as well as VODs. There are even tournaments for HOTS beta currently.


The Imbalance of Warhounds
SC2 Heart of the Swarm Beta is all about Warhounds. This is probably the first thing you will notice after you watch the games. Every Terran just make Warhounds and more Warhounds. This is the current metagame in hots. You see them in every Terran matchup, from TvP, TvZ and even TvT. Warhound is currently imbalanced. They are a versatile unit and require minimal micro and they do so well against nearly everything except air.

Warhound is probably very closely resembled the Goliath back in Brood War without the anti air ability. Initially the unit is created to replace the clunky Thor in the expansion. According to Blizzard, Warhound is an anti-Mech and anti-Siege unit. They are strong against anything armored on the ground. Not to forget its mighty ability, Haywire Missiles. What it does is basically shoots a long range (10 range) missile at a Mechanical unit. What's more it is autocasted.

Thus, Warhound is currently having the most impact in the Hots expansion metagame. It has been nerfed once by Blizzard. Blizzard are still figuring things out to balance it. Do not take all the actual units as the final unit design, as Blizzard will always redesign certain units during this Beta stage.

Swarm Host is a Good Unit
Next, lets move over to Zerg, the main focus race in Heart of the Swarm. Zerg was given the most new design including the Viper, Swarm Host, Hydra Speed, Ultralisk charge etc. At this stage Swarm Host has crazily high DPS for the locust. A strategically spawned Locusts can easily face the Protoss death ball. Talk about high damage per second.

The good thing is that, we actually see Zerg players to rely less on the Infestors unlike in Wings of Liberty, where basically the Infestors counters everything. Zerg is looking very good in this expansion. However, we have yet to see the Viper making much effects in the Zerg matchup. Probably the Gas requirement is too high?

Protoss is just Terrible in HOTs Beta
This is another thing that is most noticeable at this stage. Protoss race is just terrible and too identical to Wings of Liberty. The play style remains near identical. Protoss gets gimmicky units such as the useless Tempest, which cost an arm and a leg (300 minerals, 300 gas, 75s build time and requires a Fleet Beacon), the highest tech for Protoss. It basically deals laughable damage, with long range.

Carrier is a much better unit compared to the Tempest. If Blizzard wants a long range unit that can break siege lines, give back the Carrier and buff it slightly. Remove the cost for interceptors, longer range or fix so that Carriers can be microable like Brood War. Tempest do not justify for its cost at this stage.

Oracle is just another gimmicky unit. It is very interesting with the Entomb ability, Revelation (Reveal clock units) and Preordain (Give vision for enemy buildings). This unit alone does not justify Protoss players to get the Stargate in some matchups like PvT. If another Stargate units like Void Rays, Pheonix, Carriers or even Tempest are better units, then we will see more players going for Stargate. In PvZ we are seeing some play with Stargate units at most. You can do the Oracle haress but nothing stops a Terran player from killing you.

Hots Outlook Overall
I personally like where the expansion is heading at this stage. Maps are generally getting larger compared to WOL. Thus, players can expect for longer more macro oriented games as oppose to all ins, although 1-2 base all ins will still be strong.

Finally, this is just the Beta phase, where changes are very likely to be made in the near future until the full release of SC2: HOTS retail version. Blizzard is currently looking into all these factors and taking them into consideration. And Dustin Browder's brain child the Collapsible Rocks fails to make any impact at this moment. Hope this game gets released as soon as possible.

UPDATE!!!

I have just received my Sc2 Hots Beta Invitation!!