The ultralisk's attack is hardly impressive for its cost and high tier. Its main advantage is durability, staying power and fear. The ultralisk may lead an attack and draw the first volleys of defensive fire allowing more of the lesser zerg units to survive and close to attack. The ultralisk's relatively slow speed requires some planning to get it to the front rank before the attack. Its large footprint may hinder it and its allies at choke points in addition to making it difficult to re-position once caught in a melee.
Ultralisks, while having strong armor, are not very effective against groups of units that deal explosive damage or large amounts of it; this includes siege tanks in siege mode, mass dragoons, reavers, dark templars and occasionally, groups of zealots. Spider mines are also effective against ultralisks. Other counters also include archons with support and the battlecruiser'sYamato cannon which can take down more than half an ultralisk's hit points. Psionic storms and irradiate are also capable of damaging an ultralisk severely though not directly killing it.
Zerg counters to ultralisks is with the queens spawn broodlings and guardians.
During development, the ultralisk had a "roar" ability. This apparently functioned similarly to the bloodlust ability from Warcraft.[1]
The ultralisk, along with every other unit, was visually upgraded in StarCraft: Remastered. Carrying over its kaiser blades was difficult, as it was difficult to gauge how sharp they were meant to be based on the original sprite.[2]
Notes[]
A StarCraft II "Classic" skin modeled after the StarCraft ultralisk is available for purchasing a BlizzCon 2019 physical or virtual ticket, and will be available for purchase at a later date.
