Beta Diary: “Whiplash” talks Protoss

Whiplash has been been playing beta as Protoss. He took a few minutes to talk about his impressions of the game so far.

AndroidBit.com: Do you like SC2?
Whiplash: Yes.
AndroidBit.com: Had you played StarCraft 1? And if so, how good were you?
Whiplash: I was C- on ICCup. I played Protoss and ZvP.
AndroidBit.com: How does the sequel compare to the original? Is it as good?
Whiplash: It some ways it’s as good, in some ways it needs improvements.

AndroidBit.com: What improvements need to be made?
Whiplash: They need to get rid of auto-surround. This is the main concern I have. It pretty much elliminates having to make a good position in half the battles you do.
Whiplash: Also the sounds in SC2 really suck, I hope they revamp most of them.

AndroidBit.com: Do you think that the skill ceiling is low because of auto-surround? As in, some people say that BW players have been getting better and better for 10 years but this can’t happen in SC2 because micro is easy. Do you agree?
Whiplash: As for the skill ceiling I think it has lowered because of that and auto-mine/MBS/unlimited secection. However I think MBS/auto-mine is a nice welcome to SC2 along with unlimited unit count. Blizz went too far with the auto surround though. I think that if certain changes aren’t made to SC2 it won’t live as long as SC1 due to that skill ceiling being hit.

AndroidBit.com: What race(s) have you been playing?
Whiplash: I have been playing random and Protoss mostly.
What’s your favorite race? And why?
Whiplash: Protoss. I love advanced technology and the Protoss really capture that. I’m also REALLY enjoying the Colossus and Warp In abilities.
AndroidBit.com: How is Protoss different in SC2?
Whiplash: well in addition to other races, they are much more mobile. The meta-game at the moment has really changed from mid-game Templar tech to mid-game Robo tech. High Templar and Archons kind of suck now while Colossi and Immortals rock! They have kind of taken their place there as the heavy hitter/tank in the Protoss army. In addition, Dark Templar rushes are much rarer due to Observers being able to get out faster; but this may be abused in the future.

AndroidBit.com: In your opinion, what is the most significant gameplay mechanic change?
Whiplash: O think the queen’s mutate larve is. Zerg are played completely different now and they dont need to be ahead 1 base vs Protoss (at least at the moment).

AndroidBit.com: About how much SC2 have you been playing per day?
Whiplash: Well, since i goto college it varies, and in addition Battle.net has been giving me some bad latency problems at times. It was good today though and I have been playing from around 6 eastern and its 4pm as of now; taking an occasional break.

AndroidBit.com: Personally, what are your plans for SC2 (if you’ve even made any)? Do you plan to play seriously or is it just casual?
Whiplash: It’s a dream of mine to become a professional progamer. This year I will be playing a lot and I’m going to see where it can take me. If not around this time next year I will go into the visual language track of digial media, my major

AndroidBit.com: What would say about how the game looks? Some people have been complaining that it is hard to follow from a spectators point of view. Have you had any trouble or do you like what you see?
Whiplash: It takes a bit of adjusting at first but now I can pick out things pretty easy. I’m sure theres some small improvements blizzard will make though. The game is beautiful though.

AndroidBit.com: Have you run up against any opposing strategies/unit combos that you’ve found unbeatable or at least extremely difficult to play against?
Whiplash: Mass Mutas, and Mutas incorporated into a large Hydra army are hell to deal with. Also I recently lost to a Toss that got 4 Void Rays and harassed me, and eventually added them to his main army. Lets just say they were quite effective. By the way, the Void Rays arent hard to beat you just have to counter them with your own Void Rays.

AndroidBit.com: What’s one thing in the game that Blizzard got completely right? As in, what’s your favorite new feature?
Whiplash: I’d have to say Warp Gates are my favorite new feature. Blizzard really did good with that concept. You can use them to negate the defender’s atvantage and they warp in units a lot quicker almost wherever you want. They are great in tight spots.

AndroidBit.com: How do you like the new Battle.net capabilities now that you’ve had time to play with them?
Whiplash: Well except for the ranked matches Battle.net 2.0 is a pretty big step back from SC or WC3′s Battle.net. I really dislike the friends system and how people are named; I hope they put more effort into making it easier to deal with.