HotS and WoL

I’m a few days out of HotS now. I thought it would be like armageddon. I thought it would be like going back to the stone age.

But the truth is that it’s almost exactly the same. Looking back on my time in the beta, I can’t help but feel what a light multiplayer change to the game it is. It seems apparent to me now that the largest change in the game was really the Mothership Core. It heavily changed all of the multiplayer matchups. For zerg, I’m still convinced that the Mushroom Men new unit is largely worthless. Only the defilers really change the matchup, and they’re a late game unit.

What a difference it makes, playing on the WoL server. The first thing I noticed was the amount of cheese. Back on the HotS server, I was 15 hatching like it was nobody’s business. But a few days on the WoL server has me 14 pooling. I’ve already held off more cannon rushes in a single day than the entire beta combined.

The best opening for zerg, the one I’ve been having great success with, is 2 base ling bling. Just as early as you can, with only one base saturation, start pumping ling bling. It works wonders in every matchup. As a matter of fact, the only time I’ve had it lose, has been to toss players with perfect SimCity AND perfect FFs. I even have a replay of me beating a Master’s level player with my 2 base ling bling attack. So I know I must be doing something right.

I also had the chance to play some custom games with a friend whose a few leagues ahead of me. I’m in plat, btw. This is specifically in the PvZ matchup. I had been opening with an unorthodox 2gate rush into 4x zealot attack. By playing a more orthodox FFE and attacking with my first Zealot + Stalker, I’ve been having great success.

Don’t worry Blizzard. I’ll buy the game soon enough. Probably on my next paycheck. But thanks for letting me into the Beta. I can’t help but look at the experience kind of like going to a theme park. It’s like the theme park opens at 10 am. But you let a few lucky people into the park for free at 8 am. The only stipulation is that come 9:45,  you’re going to kick us out and make us buy a ticket. And so, here I am, at the gates, anxiously awaiting the grand opening.