Diamondback

The Diamondback is a terran hover-tank.

History
The first diamondback prototypes were produced by the Terran Confederacy during the Great War, but never developed beyond that stage.

Four years later, Raynor's Raiders found abandoned diamondbacks in the hills of Tarsonis. Chief Engineer Rory Swann uploaded their schematics to their factory network. The Raiders commandeered some of them and subsequently used them to hit Terran Dominion trains there. The Diamondback's ability to fire on the move, and its high speed, made it well suited to catching the trains.

Diamondbacks were also used by Mira's Marauders. The Dominion also acquired diamondbacks, using them to help defend Augustgrad and storing a large number at a cell block in New Folsom Prison.

Game Unit
Diamondbacks are a campaign-only unit in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. They are first available in Matt Horner's mission, "The Great Train Robbery". Their fire on the move ability makes them great for rearguard actions when pulling back to safer ground and they're strong enough to do good damage to just about any ground unit or structure. A few goliaths for support wouldn't be amiss as they have no anti-air capability.

Diamondbacks are strong against roaches, s, s, goliaths, firebats, and stalkers. However, they are weak against s, marauders, immortals, and any air units.

Quotations

 * ''See: StarCraft II Diamondback Quotations

Diamondback is voiced by Quinton Flynn.

Development


Early in the development of StarCraft II, the diamondback was known as the cobra. It was in the game engine as early as 2006. and was armed with twin Eviscerator cannons which dealt very heavy damage against armored targets. It had the ability to target air units as well.

At one point it possessed an electrical attack which slowed enemy units.

The diamondback has three unused upgrades available in the StarCraft II Map Editor; Burst Capacitators, Hyperfluxor and Tungsten Spikes. The Tungsten Spikes upgrade increases the attack range by 1, probably the old name for tri lithium power cells. Hyperfluxor is a complete upgrade that increased the diamondback's attack speed by 20%.

The Burst Capacitator upgrade remains as a half-finished ability in the editor. It allows the diamondback to fire a charged up shot every five seconds (the charging process is nullified if the diamondback fires before it charges up).