"Dominion military technology grows more sophisticated by the day, and a good example is our new cyclone. This innovative design combines speed and leathality in an efficient package. Originally designed as a robotic vehicle, the cyclone evolved over several iterations to become a human-piloted mech. The reason: even the most highly evolved AI cannot match the unpredictive creativity of a human driver."
To keep personnel out of harm's way, [2] the Terran Dominion[1] developed the cyclone, a mobile assault drone armed with twin Typhoon missile pods that engage air and ground threats. The cyclone also features a sophisticated lock-on system, which allows it to concentrate fire on an enemy while on the move.[2] Originally designed as a robotic vehicle, the cyclone evolved over several iterations to become a terran-piloted vehicle, due to the creativity of humans (or, as some would call it, insanity), that AIs cannot match.[1]
Game Unit
The cyclone is a fast mechanical unit, able to focus on single enemy units and use its ranged attack on them while moving. It moves at the same speed as the protossstalker.[3][6] It is intended as an early mechanical option for harassment.[7] Stalkers equipped with blink are a good counter to the unit.[8]
Using the cyclone to its full potential and reacting to it well are both heavily dependent on micro.[9] The unit works similarly to the diamondback from the Wings of Liberty campaign.
The cyclone can auto-attack both air and ground units.[10]
Abilities
Lock On
Locks the Cyclone's weapons on the target unit, increasing the Cyclone's range to 9 and allowing it to move while firing. Canceled if the target moves out of range (9) or vision.
The cyclone used to be able to attack air units from the outset.[7] This was changed so that the cyclone could only attack ground units, but could be upgraded to attack air ones.[7] This was then reverted back to its original state.[10]
During the beta, due to the cyclone's reasonable speed, range, and damage against all unit types, it was not uncommon to see armies almost exclusively consisting of cyclones. Blizzard made adjustments to the unit to ensure that they would not be the only unit needed in a terran army composition.[11] The initial upgrade was researched at the tech lab, and required a fusion core to access.[7]
Lock on originally dealt 300 damage over 30 seconds for ground targets,[12] and
240 damage[10] over 20 seconds against air targets.[12]
