What is the melee-attack damage of a roach and how does it upgrade? Is it splash?
When a roach comes directly next to a unit or structure, he smashes it with his claws (or whatever), instead of spraying acid on it.
Does this attack have different damage amount than the acid attack? If so, how much, and how much does it benefit from each level of upgrades? Also, does it benefit from Zerg Melee Upgrades or Zerg Ranged Upgrades? Do both attacks have the same qualities in regards to light/armored units?
Also, does this melee attach deal splash damage? It sure looks like it, because roaches swing around with their claws, kind of like the ultralisk does.
And finally, is this of any interest while microing? Does it ever pay off to run up to the enemies first to make the roaches use the melee attack, or maybe the other way around?
Solution 1:
Short answer: There is no difference except for range and animation.
Long answer: They both do the same damage, have the same cooldown, and benefit from the Zerg range upgrades in the same way.
Roach Claw Attack
- Damage: 16
- Target: Ground
- Cooldown: 2
- Range: .1 (melee)
- Upgrade: Zerg Missile, +2 per level
Roach Spit Attack
- Damage: 16
- Target: Ground
- Cooldown: 2
- Range: 4
- Upgrade: Zerg Missile, +2 per level
(source)
As for which is better to employ, the spit attack is better simply because it keeps your roaches at range and allows more of them to hit a target while leaving melee range for units that only have a melee option. Your roaches will naturally use their spit attack anyway, so there's really no difference in your micro. They just fall back on the melee attack when they are next to whatever they are attacking.
Solution 2:
Actually, there is a difference: the melee-animation-driven damage, while benefiting from purchased ranged upgrades, is not affected by PDD (where applicable) and Guardian Shield, so you should definitely keep that in mind when facing a protoss or an annoying terran with early ravens :)