So I decided to start a thread for the few of us with hots who actually play it.

Lets talk builds, strategies, balance discussion etc.

I'll start by saying a few observations:

Widow mines are only scary early game in TvT, yet they make going mutas in ZvT completely worthless.

Swarm Hosts are good support units but suck ass on their own.

The Tempest buffs are bullshit and unneccessary.

Mothership Core is badass, Oracles add a lot of interesting dynamics to protoss.

The MMR system on beta is completely fucked, at least I dont understand it at all. (playing GM's with my platinum Terran; Playing Dragon, then next game playing platinums with my GM zerg.)

For you Zergies I stumbled on an amazing ZvP build involving what I believe to be the future of the role of the swarm host in that matchup.

Oh and Battle Hellions are insanely badass, making going mech in TvP completely viable and fun as hell.

dont really like hots, played a few games. u cant trade anymore ur zerg army like u did in wol

once u lose it u lose the game. And yeh mmr is really fucked up, sometimes playing gms sometimes silver guys

Just wondering, whats unique roles does the swarm host play now, since they kind of fill the same niche as broodlords?

The lack of players.

I suppose

Well based on experience I dont believe they should be used as an aggressive unit unless you're doing some sort of funky all in. For instance You have a choice in the mid game, to make infestors or swarm hosts. Infestors are still as good as ever in hots so you dont want to skimp on them.

Swarm hosts are a support unit, I dont believe they are meant to be massed and it's very hard at this stage of the meta to be sure what number is a good one.

What I have found is that swarm hosts are insanely good in combination with spines, making it extremely hard for your opponent to attack into you. They are also good for drops/nydus and at the end game they make your bl infestor unit comp exponentially more powerful.

In summary I find them to be strongest as a defensive unit in combination with spine crawlers / spine walls more than anything.

I disagree, in terms of zerg, swarm hosts make counter attacking incredibly hard for your opponent thus allowing you to remax much safer than ever before. Also Vipers blinding cloud works incredibly in big engagements.

viper are freaking expensive and die rly fast, with more hp they would be fine yeh

I hate to bring bw but vipers are infinitely easier to use than defilers, even though defilers > vipers, the tradeoff is clear. Just have them on a designated hotkey and dont 1a them. Use them as per the situation requires and yes you might lose a few but a good pull or blinding cloud can be game winning. (PS Pulling a mothership then using Neural is insane!)