As far as I know, blizzard hasn’t announced any information about the Hybrids, but those who have played the bonus mission on brood war should know that their role in the sequel would undoubtedly be present. They may even play a bigger role then the Zerg swarm itself. But then I got to thinking, why steal the spotlight away from the Zerg as the ultimate villainous race? And we all know that blizzard won’t be adding any other race, so why not implement the Protoss/Zerg Hybrids into the Zerg Swarm? It was the Overmind's original goal to assimilate the Protoss since the beginning of Starcraft after all. Their affiliation with the Zerg Swarm will make Starcraft 2's story feel more complete I believe. So I came up with two Protoss/Zerg Hybrid units that could be fitted into the swarm. Both are medium to high tier units, and would be both massable and quite powerful. Also, please keep in mind that I came up with these two units just for fun; the main point of this topic is that I do think the Protoss/Zerg Hybrids will be affiliated with the Zerg. I even think Kerrigan will be a crucial part into bringing the Hybrids into the Swarm to better the story element, but anyways here are the two units . . . ----------------------------------------------------- PROTOLISK ----------------------------------------------------- Ground Unit Medium Size Can attack both air and ground • Appearance: The Protolisks have a slight humanoid form, standing on two legs at up to 10 feet tall, and fairly bulky. Their skin is a purplish-blue, covered in very thick and dense rock-like scales. Most of their body is covered in long slender spines, which are rock-like at the base, and made of crystals from the middle to the end. They have a large pointy head, without a mouth, light blue glowing eyes, and in the center of their head is a light blue crystal. Massive organic blades that are made up of highly dense and sharp crystals replace their forearms. • Performance: The Protolisks can move at high speeds and engage ground units with their blade arms. They are also highly resilient against most ranged attacks. When confronting aerial units, they will discharge psychic energy in the form of a beam to attack them. While this attack is not quite as effective as their ground attack, it can be effective against larger aerial units when performed by a large group of Protolisks. Two Protolisks can be merged together to form the Vantalisk. • Abilities: • Deflection: Each time the Protolisk is attacked by a ranged projectile it will have a chance to deflect it back at the attacker. However, the more attacks dealt to the Protolisk, the less likely it will be able to deflect all the attacks. • Merge into Vantalisk: Two Protolisks can also merge into a Vantalisk, an aerial spell caster with no normal attack, but specializes in powering up and protecting other zerg units. Merging a Vantalisk costs a few additional resources, but takes several moments of time to complete. • Overall Purpose: The Protolisks are ideal for dealing with larger ground and aerial ranged attackers. They are not so effective against swarms of smaller enemies however, and in fact are increasingly vulnerable against them. ----------------------------------------------------- VANTALISK ----------------------------------------------------- Air Unit Medium to Large Size Has no normal attack Is a spell caster • Appearance: The Vantalisk shares the same purplish-blue, rock-like scale covered skin as the Protolisk but loses most of it’s humanoid form. It’s about twice as big as a Protolisk obviously, with a much longer sized head that curves in forward at the end. The Vantalisk has 8 legs, with longer ones at the bottom. A large light bluish crystal encompasses almost the entire torso region of the Vantalisk. A thick chitinous armor shell covers the back and sides of the Vantalisk, and similar looking spines as the Protolisks run across it from two sides. The Vantalisk floats upright, but when it casts it spells, it stays floating lengthwise. • Performance: The Vantalisk cannot engage enemies in combat. It can however, provide excellent support for your zerg fighting forces. The support given is even more effective with a larger number of Vantalisks. Although, Vantalisks have no real attack, they are much less vulnerable against swarms of smaller enemies (especially aerial ones) then larger ones. • Abilities: • Deflection: The Vantalisk shares the same ability as the Protolisk, only it is more effective at deflecting numerous light ranged fire, and completely ineffective against large scale ranged attacks. • Energy Transferring: The Vantalisk becomes immobile for a short duration while stealing hit points from nearby enemy air units and transferring the hit points stolen to all nearby ally units. Hit points can be taken from both mechanical and organic air units, but life can only be given to organic units (either air or ground). The more nearby enemies there are, the more hit points are replenished before the spell ends. • Psychic Barrier: The Vantalisks creates a barrier made of pure psychic energy, that protects all ground units within it from ranged attacks. Until the effect ends, the Vantalisk cannot move or cast any other spell. • Adrenaline Boost: When cast, all organic units near the Vantalisk will receive a boost in movement and attack speed. • Unmerge: The Vantalisk can become two Protolisks once again when the need for them arises. This process takes just a few seconds, and you get no refund for the amount of resource it cost to merge. • Overall Purpose: The Vantalisk is the ultimate zerg supportive spell caster, but it is also highly versatile, able to lay ambushes as well.
sounds cool, but i doubt that kerri will get to add any hybrids into the swarm but hey ive been wrong before.
Nice ideas but I dont really like the name Protolisk xD And the unmerging of the vantalisk should be excluded. But overall nice ideas.
You are probably right actually; The Xel Naga will be the ones most undoubtedly to create the hybrids. What I meant by Kerrigan playing a part is her powers that control the zerg may help the Xel Naga finalize the Hybrids emergence into the swarm, and the Zerg acquire purity of form. I actually think Kerrigan will die before the end of Starcraft 2, and some other new character or powerful nameless entity will control the new and improved swarm. Getting into it even deeper, I believe the entire Xel Naga race will be incorporated into creating a new overmind. . . meaning, all the minds of the xel nagas will merge to form one all-powerful omnipresent bodiless entity that holds complete dominance over this new swarm. *edited-->* Think about it, the Xel Naga have constantly strived to create the perfect life form, but to what real purpose? To improve and speed up evolution through out the universe? Yeah, ok, maybe then, but now their ultimate goal is within sight and the completion of the Zerg Swarm will mean that no other lifeform in the universe is necessary . . . including them. And they've already had two experiments turn against them, even though they are far too comprehensive to let the sanctity of their own race come before the scheme of greater things. Either way, it is obvious the Xel Naga is the most advance race in the universe, knowledge wise. So why not incorporate that knowledge directly into the new and improved swarm, and at the same time secure the dominance of their race? With all the minds of the Xel Naga working as one single entity, the Zerg Swarm will be powerful enough to control the fate of the universe, and maybe bring about the end of all things as what could have been prophesized since the beginning of time itself (the apocalypse if you want me to get all religious on you). In the bonus mission of Brood War, Duran even mentioned to Zeratul that the coming of the hybrids was prophesized since time before. The Zerg's ultimate completion, and maybe their ultimate destruction will finally put the story of Starcraft to the most epic close in video game history !! I really hope Blizzard Entertainment does something like this of the sort. Yeah, you are right, I guess I went a little too overboard with the Vantalisk's abilities. Unmerging the Vantalisk would give it too much versatility, and versatility is not the Zerg's style. As for the names, I’m not big on naming. I came up with the name protolisk in like 5 seconds because "proto" for Protoss, and "lisk" for the popular suffix used in many Zerg unit names. I came up with the name Vantalisk from a wikipedia article hosted by amateur game developers not affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment. It was before Starcraft 2 was announced, and they were trying to make their own Starcraft 2 when their hopes for a sequel had been crushed. But they mentioned a 4th race that would be the Protoss/Zerg hybrids called the Vanix. I don't know if the name had any meaning to the hybrids, but using a bit of it for a prefix was worth a shot.
I like the name ''Protolisk''. It actualy inspired me, so here are few ideas of my own PHASELING Appearance: A gray blueish Zergling whose limbs are actually un attached from the joints, while blue spionic energy keeps them close enough for the Phaseling to move and attack. Unit type: Light ground unit Builds from: Infested Gateway Damage type: Melee (Deals the same amount of damage as the original Zergling.) Armor and HP: A shield similar to Protoss zealot, HP same as normal Zergling. Movement speed: Fast Abilities: 1. Replicate: The Phaseling has a passive ability to replicate itself once in 1 minute. This means that one unit copies itself and becomes 2 --->4--->8 ---->16---------->omg 32-------->.......shit...... and so on untill the unit cap has been reached or the passive ability has been turned off by clicking the skill icon. 2. Tunnel driller: (this ability requires a research from Infested gateway) Cooldown: 10 seconds The Phaseling recieves an ability to dig tunnels with its psionic claws and unleashing psionic energies to create underground pressure to make it move 50% faster while using this ability. Similar to burrow, but this ability allows the phaseling to move while underground for 8 seconds. While being underground the Phaseling gains armor bonus against incoming attacks. When the Phaseling is ordered to attack a unit while being underground, it will automatically unburrow when it reaches the melee range. The visual effect will be quite similar to Bugs Bunny tunnel effect Also note that infesting a Gateway is quite difficult if the enemy has a good defense. So think about it before claiming this unit too overpowered ;D I'll post more ideas later, but right now i'd like to see some comments. So what do you think?
Protolisk made me lol ^^ The hybrids are Xel'Nagas, probably "ordered" from something else then the Xel'Nagas themselves. Why would anyone want to order themselves? They're the purity of essence (toss) and form (zerg) combined, exactly what Samir were planning etc. So, they'll most likely not be playable... at least I hope not. .P
Phaseling *drools* that would be pretty sweet, and the idea on the xe'naga merging to be become the new overmind sounds very plausible owerup:
Cool ideas here, I like all of them, even if they would be a little imbalanced. I think the Hybrids will be like the Naga in WC3, playable in campaign or custom maps, but don't appear in the real games. Also, I don't think they would need an "Infested Gateway" because these hybrids are not just infested protoss, they're some crazy experimental creatures created by Samir Duran and his Xel'Naga buddies.
I think that the hybrid will show up in some form with zerg because for one i am biased being a zerg user heh and that blizzard has shown nothing from them maybe to unveil some big surprise like for terran and all their goodies
I think for the Vantalisk the Adrenaline Boost should be passive, and it shouldn't have Unmerge, because the idea about merging is to sacrifice two units to create one more powerful unit. Maybe you should add an attack to the Vantalisk too.
if you remember Duran was working for someone else. he/she could be the new overmind or something. with its own broods it would have the ability to create the hybrids in order to overthrow kerrigan but you all know that will never happen kerrigan is the queen of blades and will never die. she needs a king >. all hail the king and queen of blades. they could work together in order to kill the new enemy. the new brood will have all the zerg units except with the hybrids. for kerrigan
