Resurrecting the Hellion in StarCraft II

Of all the Terran units I find that the Hellion needs the most work. That’s not to say that all Terran units need some tweaking but for the sake of this post, let’s focus on the Hellion. There have been hundreds of threads already discussing different desires for the successor of the Firebat and I know my own here might fall upon deaf ears but that doesn’t really bother me as much as the fear that this unit will be lost in the mix.

First off there are a few things that need to set straight. As it stands the Hellion can be a really fun unit and a useful unit to devastate overreaching enemy expansions. It’s relatively cheap to build and can be spawned in double time with the aid of a Reactor add-on. Against all workers, Protoss T1 units, and especially Zerglings and Hydralisks the unit shines and can cause some real damage. In the late game it’s nice to be able to send 4 or 5 of these units to an enemy outpost while my Barracks and Starport are busy trying to bulk up on Marines, Marauders, and air support – the harassment they dish out isn’t on par with pre-nerf reapers but it’s still something.

The main issue with the unit is it has some pretty big shoes to fill. Here are a list of setbacks that I don’t believe are part of the game balance.

• 90 HP is rather pathetic for an armored vehicle and the armor is non-existent unless you upgrade.
• The unit fires at max range inherently and the AI needs to be changed. The Flamethrower is an iconic weapon that deals splash damage and only really shines if the Hellion is at point blank fighting rows of enemies. The way the AI paths and reacts makes this insanely hard to pull off.
• Weapon damage has no bonus against biological units, which confuses me because it’s fire damage. Perhaps a DOT effect or enveloping the +10 dmg to Light upgrade into the unit as standard.
• It serves a very minor niche in the game and doesn’t accomplish anything that two Marines or an investment in Reapers can’t trump.

So how do we fill the gap?

• As sad as it feels, scrapping the unit and bringing back our Goliath walker would pretty much satisfy any Terran player for a long while.  Well at least, it should – but players complain an awful lot. But the Goliath left a big hole that unfortunately the awesome THOR mech has not bee able to fill. It’s walking speed is terribly slow, the supply cost of 6 doesn’t allow you to build more than a few, and the fact that it’s locked away behind a Tech Lab and Armory make it all but impossible to build in the mid-early game. It doesn’t help that the unit it so massive in size that an enemy with half a brain cell can micro his units to focus fire on the THOR and destroy it rather quickly. From personal experience, I’ve killed two THORs before with a single bunker full of Marines and Marauders (upgraded bunker capacity) and a cloaked Banshee before my Supply Depot and Barracks wall-in fell.

• Give the unit the ability to house a mini-bunker instead of it’s weapon upgrade in the Tech Lab allowing you 2 storage in the Hellion. The Engineering Bay’s upgrade of Neosteel Frames could give another 2 storage would still apply. This would fit the kit of the Terran race perfectly since they’ve always been about adaptation, innovation, and mobility. They lack the numbers of Zerg and the power of Protoss so the only way to survive has been to change up combat on the fly. A Hellion with 4 Marines in the back would be amazing for backing up any army especially with the dire lack of good AA on the Terran faction.

• Don’t do anything dramatic but simply give the unit more armor, add a Vespene Gas cost to it, and allow the turret on top to rotate and fire while the unit is moving. This technology is not lost on the developers at all since the Protoss Void Ray air unit can fire constantly as it moves.

The Hellion by itself really feels out of place with all the Terran units and their predecessors in Starcraft 1. Robot mechs fit the Terran kit perfectly, especially the Viking which is conceptually a really cool unit. The Hellion really just feels like a weak waste of 100 minerals and a building that could otherwise be pushing out Siege Tanks. I understand that the Marauder is a must since the Firebat is gone in multiplayer (still around in single thank Metzen) and I wouldn’t even see a major use for it in multiplayer, but something has to be done about the little space buggy that can’t.