Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm Widow Mine

Hey guys! Today I will tell you all about the widow mine, one of the new and extremely powerful units in Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm. This nasty bugger can burrow underground and launch lethal sentinel missiles at enemy units that walk within 5 range of it! The widow mine deals 125 damage to it's primary target, not to mention splash damage of 40 to nearby units, with an additional +35 damage against protoss shields.

The widow mine is cheap at 75 minerals and 25 gas, and because it is a basic unit, it can be produced from a factory with a reactor. Another dangerous aspect of the mine is that it can make a nasty siege unit that unlike the siege tank, can fire at air or ground units. Take the following advantages and disadvantages to widow mines into consideration:

Pros:
-Widow mines are cheap to build, costing only 75 minerals and 25 gas.

-Widow mines do splash damage to air or ground units.

-They may force your opponent to invest heavily in seperate detector production to successfully defuse your mines.

-They can be used in front of bunkers to block the approach of short ranged units like zealots, zerglings, mutalisks, marines, and hydralisks, all of which are vulnerable to area of effect damage.

-With the protoss Immortal's hardened shield it can reduce any attack's damage to 10 if it is above 10. However, the widow mine's attack is unique in that it ignores the immortal's hardened shield, enabling the immortal to be dismantled with heavy weaponry.

Cons:
-The widow mine, with it's extreme power and splash damage, also deals devestating friendly fire to your units. stay aware that units like broodlings could potentially direct friendly fire on your own army.

-Widow mines take VERY long to arm again after firing, so if your opponent was smart they could bait your widow mines out with units like marines, zealots, or zerglings and then use detectors with their army to destroy the mines before they re-arm.

-When detectors are present, the widow mine can be safely destroyed by longer ranged units, notably the siege tank or tempest, both of which have an attack range about three times as long as the mine.

-Getting more in depth with friendly fire, if you are using widow mines to fend off raids with mutalisks, void rays, or banshees, you should know that you can splash your own SCV's with the missiles.

I hope you guys liked this blog and if you find any more cool things to use this unit for, be sure to tell me about it!