EPTAs many of you know, Blizzard usually releases their patch notes early and has the changes implemented in the PTR rather than the real game. This allows Blizzard time to gather data before actually releasing the patch on the RC version of Starcraft 2. Sometimes some of the original changes announced in the PTR don't even make it on to the RC. But as is inevitable, the community complains about patch notes. No matter what the changes are there will always be some debate as to whether they are balanced or not. Well, Starcraft 2 Community, Blizzard does listen to us, and now they are stating why they made the changes that they did. Listening to a lot of podcasts such as State of The Game, and lurking the Team Liquid Forums, I know that a lot of people have been asking for an explanation from Blizzard as to why they made these changes. Blizzard has complied and now we get to see their minds in action.
I agree with a lot of Blizzard's changes, but the only problem is that no one really plays the PTR. You can make changes to a game, but the full consquences of those changes won't be seen unless you have them tested. For instance, I thought that Blizzard's reasoning on the Khaydarin Amulet nerf was pretty good, (and it made me happy, being a Terran) but once I saw my Protoss friend playing against a zerg friend, did I realize how weak High Templar are without it. I seriously felt sorry for my Toss friend, and wondered if perhaps this is a change that Blizzard might have to continue tweaking. Without critical play testing, I believe the testing within the PTR is faulty, and judging from what most of the progamers say, they don't actually go into the PTR to test these changes before the patch officially comes out which could cause some balance problems.
Of course, as always people will just take these changes and evolve new strategies with them. Our community is intelligent and we will no doubt see different uses for these changes, at least until the next patch comes out.
My question is:Do you agree with Blizzard's reasoning? I’d like to see some debate in the comments.
