Guess We're Doing a Heart of the Swarm Campaign Unit Tier List Now

0:00 - Intro
1:02 - Swarm Queen
2:30 - Raptor Zergling
4:21 - Swarmling Zergling
6:17 - Splitter Baneling
7:25 - Hunter Baneling
8:23 - Corpser Roach
9:29 - Vile Roach
11:06 - Hydralisk
12:14 - Mutalisk
14:00 - Aberration
15:27 - Carrion Swarm Host
16:50 - Creeper Swarm Host
17:42 - Impailer
18:50 - Lurker
19:42 - Infestor
21:21 - Brood Lord
22:55 - Viper
24:00 - Noxious Ultralisk
26:16 - Torrasque Ultralisk
27:32 - Outro

[deathspade]

I think it's funny that Raptorlings do a fantastic job of highlighting the strengths of zerglings while Swarmlings do a fantastic job of highlighting the weaknesses of zerglings.

[Ghi]

Me, who has 0 micro and cannot remember to use abilities:
Infestor is E tier

[macfeilmeier]

Only disagreement is Vile Roach should be at least A tier. It makes is so things like Thors/Colossus/Archon can attack only once, maybe twice in an engagement. Its SO much better than the Corpser. The amount of tanking from the roachlings is not even close to the damage reduction of the vile roach.

[thyrussendria]

Ah the Tarrasque, it's basically "What if Ultralisk, but even more durability."

[spec]

Grant could do a playthrough of each campaign using only C and D tier units. It would be sooo good...

[JoshSweetvale]

On Vile Roaches: In the last few seconds of any engagement, Thors and Bunkers get - effectively - stunned.
On Hydras: They're Queens but with less bulk. I always take the range upgrade to keep 'em out of harm's way. Works well against air or thors.
Aberration: It's your Ultralisk before Korhal, exactly.

[justaguywhocandraw]

Heart of the Swarm campaign has a lot of great units, especially with the evolutions, but it's a shame that we don't get to use kinda half of them before half of the campaign. if all the units would unlock earlier, we could just have more options to use them in the campaign overall. evolution missions should be available right after we get a unit, it would be cool if we could use Impalers on the Crucible for example

[daddysempaichan]

The thing with Gassy Ultras is that they're good against melee units, because they have a tendency to surround the Ultra, and bulky/decently durable units like Archon and Roaches, where the DoT can rack up a decent amount of damage before the unit dies, especially if the Ultra can get in the middle of the army.
By the time you get Gassy Ultras, you're only fighting against Terran, and Terran has neither of those things. You can make the argument that it can do a number to Mech but Mech units, aside from Thors, isn't that durable to begin with, and Siege Tanks kind of murders Ultras real well.

[thompsonel-melloi]

Creeper swarmhosts have one niche mission where they're 'ok'. On Infestation, I use them to defend the virophages.

[Templarfreak]

11:03 i have never had these problems with the Hydralisk on Brutal. The Adrenal Surge ability, i think is what it is called, combined with the Kerrigan ability, gives Hydralisks such a stupidly high DPS that they take out things above their weight class, tearing through them like they're made of paper (Thors, Tanks, Hellbats, Battlecruisers, Immortals, Archons, Hybrid, etc), and also very nicely solves their problem of not being very durable. The DPS you get per supply when they are fully-buffed im pretty sure is _the most_ by a very very large margin in the entirety of HOTS outside of Kerrigan. Even splash damage from Banes or Lurkers probably doesn't really compete, although Ultras might. As far as doing damage goes, nothing else really comes even close to competing with it (again, outside of Kerrigan).

[halfthefiber]

The Reckoning is so much fun with Infestors. I'd build a group of eight Infestors with Kerrigan following them around with mend. Because her mend ability doesn't affect mind-controlled Terran units, I need to make sure I don't do as much damage on a group while I work my way towards mind-controlling the heavy-hitter mercenaries.

I have a saved game where I have 50 Sky Furies, 8 Pride of Augustgrads, 15 Shock Divisions, and 10 Blackhammers. The hero Vikings alone can assault Mengsk's palace and clear it out.

[asnyder]

I really like the symmetry of your finished list, that is very pleasing.

[hiei]

if for some reason you dont want to use zerglings, the swarmling can at least work for baneling fodder. The quick spawn means that you can easily defend an attack wave if you can buy 10 seconds to morph them, and the swarmlings themselves can but that time. But yeah, they suck.

As for the hydras, i think they are pretty good as anti air in mend kerrygan comps. They dont excell but they are hardly outclassed by anything except maybe the viper once you can mend the hydras back to full

[Vnx]

Impaler is one of my favorite units here. I'm a Terran fan and the Impaler is very nearly a biological burrowing siege tank.

[nivannakingsman]

I love the aberration a lot and wish it got some more love in the campaign. Some mutations to pick from would have been cool like something along the lines of

1. On death they spawn to banelings

2. They offer damage reduction to units under them

3. I couldn't think of a third so maybe lifesteal but actually good

[Abuzz_]

I love this format of video, not many people have your insight on the campaign and all of it's units especially in what scenarios you've had to use them in. Hoping you're going for a LoTV one next cuz I'm excited to see it!

[Wraithfighter]

I have a soft spot for the Creeper Swarm Host. The teleport ability is actually really useful for a, erm, creeping siege, since you can just reposition the swarm hosts closer to the enemy defenses immediately, and being able to teleport around the map really helps on missions (particularly the final one in the campaign) where you need to switch your attention from one side of the map to another.

Its slow as balls, don't get me wrong, and not everyone's idea of fun, but if you go Mass Creeper Swarm Hosts and get enough of a count of them, eventually you kinda just win. Kerrigan tanks on defense, you can retreat from one side of the map to the other in an instant if needed, and once you get a large number of them, you just let them whittle away at the enemy until they're all dead...

[ragnarmongo]

i actually thought specifically because the hunter Banes dont connect they are stronger. they leap into armies and occupy all units with running away, meaning your enemy cannot attack. that makes it possible to preserve some squishy hydras for example, so they can deal a ton of dps to practically stunned units

[dahklmeyer]

Every time that I watch Grant's videos and hear him explain the technical details of a game's units, mechanics, and their interactions I feel like a lightbulb turns on in my head as my whole worldview changes. It's so interesting to have these things be pulled apart and examined beneath the surface level of understanding that I tend to content myself with.

[CappnRob]

For me, swarmlings were basically a means to getting more banelings, lol. Yeah they make decent emergency defenders too, but the real reason I wanted them was to pop out more banelings, who I took the leaping mutation for to compensate for not having raptorlings, and let them go hog wild. They proved extra useful against the Hybrids in the Stukov missions where they can just jump over whatever terrans are in the way and explode en masse on a hybrid and kill it instantly.