It was pretty obvious that the Blizzard development team were not too satisfied with the Queen in StarCraft 1. The Queen was hardly used in games, and simply had unuseful spells for such a high cost. It was more of a support-unit, while the new Queen is something totally different. Now the Queen is the centerpoint of the Zerg base and is responsible for all the static defenses. Not only grabbing forth the Swarm Clutches, but also using its Swarm Infestation to make a Zerg building to launch attacks at nearby enemies. It is the player's right hand in handling the Zerg base.

Design wise, the Queen has been given a total buff makeover. Now it is no longer an "umbrella-looking insect" (Samwise Didier's own words) flying around. In StarCraft 2, in the current build, it looks like a real Queen of the hive, with massive fangs and simply a more badass and royal look to it. She is exactly what Kerrigan would have looked like if you would remove the Human parts of her and give her more insecty and monstrous look.

The Queen differs from all the other Zerg units as she does not hatch from an egg; she births directly from the Hatchery for a cost of 150 minerals. She follows the tech tree, as she may upgrade another level for each tier you go up. For the Lair, the Queen can go into a "Large Queen", and having the Hive you can upgrade the royal bitch insect to "Huge Queen". The higher level she is, the more hit points, mana, damage and spells she gets.

Putting all of these factors together: a unique unit since you can only have one at a time and that it can get upgraded, and all the spells really lure you into placing it in the 'hero' category. Many of you hardcore fans out there were totally freaked out by the Mothership and its dominance, and seeing the Zerg Cinematics video where the Queen hacked and slashed her way through the Marines must have surely sent chills down your spine. However, it is a different type of character, and putting the Queen under the magnifying glass more closely shows that it is nothing like the Tauren Chieftain nor the Blademaster from WarCraft 3.

First of all, when the Queen pops out of the Hatchery she only starts with 160 hit points and hands out 8 damage per hit. She is also slow-moving unit and is pretty tied up at her Creep to do some actual use. Let us have a look at her abilities.

Starting with as she pops out from the Hatchery are the Creep Tumor, Swarm Clutch and the Shriker. The Creep Tumor simply increases the Creep growth. With this first spell you can already see the importance of the Queen in the Zerg base, since Creep and sunken colonies doesn't exist anymore and give extra creep. Hatcheries give extra creep of course, but with the Creep Tumor you can expand the Creep more and hence advance throughout the map. The second skill of the Queen is the Swarm Clutch, a type of turret that hits both ground and air. Since there is no real anti-air before tier 2 now that the Hydralisk is available only after building a Lair, the Swarm Clutches are important to the base defense. The range can also gain more range as you build more Shriekers, also from the Queen.

Once the Queen hits tier 2, she can use Deep Tunnel, which gives her the ability to tunnel underground. Simply by targeting any Zerg building she pops up right next to it. This currently has a pretty long cooldown, so once you have tunneled your way, you will need to wait. This opens up the Zerg mirror matchups a lot, since you can even use your enemy's buildings.

Later on you will also discover the Regeneration which costs 50 mana and gives a building or unit a high amount of hit points. Then there is the Swarm Infestation, which makes a Zerg building launch attacks at nearby enemies. This can be used on more than one building, and surely increases the defense of the Zerg base. Last but not least, the Queen has the Toxic Creep, turning an area of Creep into a hostile ground that does damage on all who stand on it, even your own units. This would be great to use in chokes when defending yourself, and can be extremely deadly in Zerg mirrors, tunneling your way to the base and then placing a Toxic Creep area in your opponents' worker area.

So when playing Terran and Protoss, the Zerg Queen will only work best in defense tactics, more of a leader of the pack. But as mentioned earlier, in Zerg mirrors she will play a much bigger role offensively and you might actually place her in the hero category after all. In matches versus Terran and Protoss however, she is more of a construction manager on site, giving you the opportunities to turn your Zerg base into the hellhole it should be.

On the Queen whether it's a hero or not