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Storm Watch: Sgt. Hammer, the Siege Tank

by - 10 years ago

Fueled up and ready to go! Welcome to this weeks Storm Watch where we will be going over one of the recently added Heroes, SGT Hammer, the Siege Tank from Starcraft. SGT. Hammer is a siege unit that relies on positioning and good teamwork to be able to deal your damage. He also will be very good at holding people off from range and controlling bottlenecks in certain maps. But as always, first the Back story.

Back Story

The Terrans have always enjoyed giving creative monikers to its various tools of war; firebats, vultures, ghosts, goliaths, all are simply names that can at best give vague clues as to their intended purpose. When it came to the siege tank, however, the engineers behind it must have seen no reason to sugar-coat what their newest technoligical terror did best. Development of the siege tank began as simply another artillery project under the Terran Confederacy to develop a static cannon placement that could be used as a last line of defense. However, the Guild Wars between the Confederacy and Kel-Morian Combine introduced the goliath bipedal mech and reaffirmed the essential need for mobility in the modern era. The decision was then made to combine the current project with existing tank blueprints so as to allow the artillery to be placed at a moments notice while maintaining the ability to defend itself while on the move. Thus the Arclite siege tank was born and quickly became the backbone of all Terran ground forces. Sporting twin 80mm plasma cannons while mobile and a massive 120mm Mjolnir artillery cannon while deployed, the Arclite was able to make short work of any enemy position in a matter of moments. However, the Arclite Siege Tank was not without its weaknesses. Most glaringly, its armor was comparitively weak next to other tanks, causing them to fall quickly to close-range units. This became painfully apparent against both Zerg and Protoss forces, which maintained a fondness for melee combat that the Terrans had mostly abandoned.

A redesign of the Arclite brought about the current version of the siege tank known as the Crucio. The Crucio is a complete upgrade over the Arclite, reinforcing the older model’s weaknesses while improving on its already-impressive firepower. The Crucio features an expanded and reinforced hull, making it not only more difficult for attacks to punch through but also requiring them to get deeper before they actually harm the Crucio. Additionally, the newer model sports twin 90mm plasma cannons, making it more formidable in it’s mobile form. Of course, you don’t want a siege tank unless you plan on sieging something, and the Crucio makes it that much easier to do so with its improved 180mm Shock Cannon that not only hits harder but also covers a wider range than the Arclite was capable of. The Crucio is still not an all-purpose vehicle; while it is certainly tougher than the Arclite, the minimum range of its Shock Cannon means that they must be defended from large swarms of enemies as well as stealth adversaries when deployed. Additionally, siege tanks have no anti-air defense capabilities, requiring at least some form of ground-to-air or air-to-air support during prolonged engagements.

Siege Tanks are complicated machines, often requiring a crew of at least three to effectively operate. However, there are some rare pilots that can adeptly handle the machines on their own. Heroes of the Storm introduces one such driver known only as Sargeant Hammer. Little is known about Sgt Hammer; is he a member of the Dominion or one of Raynor’s Raiders? Does he drive a siege tank out of a sense of duty or because he enjoys blowing stuff to kingdom-come? We may never know the answers to these questions, but we do know that fortifications have a very real threat in the form of Sgt Hammer and his Crucio Siege Tank.

Backstory provided by JGGiant (Twitter)

 

 

 

Abilities

 

  56px-SC2SiegeMode  (Q) Tank Mode & Siege

Increases weapon damage by 5, attack range by 4, and Basic Attacks splash for ??? damage. Cannot move in Siege Mode.

This ability will be the bread and butter of the siege tank. Imagine what you would do in Starcraft II where you are able to siege and hit enemies that are over the wall and have crucial things such as map control and presence. Keep in mind though, once you are sieged up and a Hero mode Zeratul pops out of the shadows, you won’t have much to do other than to Tank Mode and pray. This will be a very fun ability when the game is even or you’re ahead. Whether or not this pulls you back from the brink of losing will depend on your team and having them work well with fighting n your prime damage area versus the enemy. Also relies on what his Heroic Trait is as well.

 

56px-MaelstromRounds_SC2_Icon1   (W) 100 Caliber Blast

Deals 50 damage. Knocks back enemies.

Knockbacks are always good for control and escape. You will be using this for extra damage of course, but if you save it for the right moment then you can potentially knock an enemy back from retreating as you come down to meat him/her after going into Tank Mode after a team fight went your way and they are on the retreat.

 

 

56px-Cerberusmines_SC2_Icon1 (E) Spider Mines

Creates 3 mines that deal 50 damage and slow enemies by 25% for 1.5 seconds.

If you are perched behind a wall or gap and want to do some damage in siege mode, then you will want to drop some of these at the choke points. The damage is nice yes, but the slow will allow you to Tank Mode up and escape from death.

 

Heroic Abilities

 

 InterSpiMine_Terran_SC1 (R) Napalm Strike

Deals 40 damage on impact. Additionally deals 30 damage per second.

 

DD+Dots are always good, people underestimate how much damage you did to them and will spend that extra 1 second making a bad call. That one bad call where your Valla comes out of the bushes and finishes them off.

 

56px-ShapedBlast_SC2_Icon1 (R) Blunt Force Gun

Deals 150 damage to enemies in path. Reveals as it travels.

Looks like really good damage and also has the added ability for map awareness as it spots enemies in bushes, which can win games. This would get my pick most of the time as I like even the slightest of vision in stuff like skill shots/abilites for map checks, and SGT Hammer is all about have the eagle eye.

Conclusion

SGT. Hammer is a unexpeted yet awesome addition to Heroes of the Storm, I love that they are looking at literally every part of the universe and adding in the elements that game the games so great. I would love to see a Hydralisk or the Reaper added in at some point (hell the whole lot of sc2 units). He will be really good at keeping people in range, spotting and simply laying down extra damage when the enemy team thinks they are winning. I see him being a ton to fun to play and will be the perfect Hero to be when I have a beer in my hand smoking a cigar.

Come back next week to learn more about World of Warcraft’s Tinker Gazloe


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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