Heart of the Swarm Campaign- Kerrigan Abilities: Wild Mutation (Level 20)

Level 20 is a tier of energy-using, periodic abilities, and it starts off with the fantastic Wild Mutation.  This ability gives Kerrigan a button that massively improves all Zerg (including Kerrigan herself) within a range of roughly 4-5, doubling their attack rate and increasing their current and maximum Life by 200.  While it doesn’t last long enough to be constant, it hardly matters- the increased attack rate, particularly on offensive units like hydralisks, should be enough to throughly perforate and/or smear enemy units out of existence.  At a cost of 50 energy with a 25 second cooldown, Wild Mutation comes up often enough to be very useful without being an effectively permanent improvement.

This ability is best used by a ranged-attack Kerrigan, as ranged Zerg units tend to be frail with powerful attacks, where most Zerg melee units are tough and deal less damage than their ranged counterparts.  There are, of course, the obvious exceptions (roaches, zerglings, mutalisks) and the units that are so overall powerful that it hardly matters which direction they’re slanted (ultralisks, abominations), but for the most part this holds true.  It’s possible to save the ability for use during emergency situations, but that really isn’t very efficient, as it takes effect via a pulse Kerrigan emanates, which can take long enough to reach injured units that they wind up dying anyways.

As an energy-cost ability, Wild Mutation stands out well, combining its cost with a duration and recharge time that will prevent you from accidentally sinking all your resources into it when you need to save for Kerrigan’s other energy-funded abilities.  Its focus on other units also suits well-tuned attacking forces well.  Micromanagers will find the ability especially to their liking, as they can already respond fast enough to changes in the battlefield to redirect the now faster-attacking units each time their targets die.  Those who aren’t as accustomed to rapidly redirecting individual units will find this ability to be less powerful, but that hardly means the same thing as ‘weak’.  In that situation, it’s especially important to have the Wild Mutation affect ranged units rather than melee units, as ranged units will waste less of the ability’s duration getting into reach of their targets.

For an especially terrifying assault, use this ability on lurkers and impalers- the former will clear large fields of enemy units, and the latter will quickly remove all the hard targets from a battlefield.  An equally ludicrous (if in a different direction) option is to apply the buff to a large cluster of zerglings with the high attack-speed evolution.  While it’s not the most efficient use of the power, the incredible durability and hilarious attack speeds that result from using Wild Mutation on these fast, comparatively weak units is hugely entertaining, particularly when their attacks rattle out like machinegun bullets.