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While the state of the game might be relatively balanced, one can't deny how successful Zerg still is compared to the other 2 races. And I think it's undeniable that Terran is the hardest race to succeed with by a pretty large margin. In general, i think the state of the game is still too allin based, especially from the Protoss site of things. Defensive and strong macro play (Stats, Showtime) does not be as successful as crazy, mixed up, tricky tactics, which is not how the game should be played out imo (Zest, sOs). Terrans still suffer the most from quick losses and often seem to have to play greedy in order to stay even, while Zerg has the easiest time defending with almost only queens and droning relatively freely. That being said, Terran at the very highest level still can succeed (Maru), so you can't overbuff them either.
I came up with some ideas, of which many are probably completly overblown. But why not throw things out there, maybe some ideas are worth thinking about. And i am of the opinion that BUFFS are the way to go, instead of NERFS for things that seem strong. Make players happy. Here is my list of changes:
Zerg:
Nerfs:
- Queens don't profit from upgrades anymore
Buffs:
- -1 collusion size of Ultralisks
- Ultralisk base armor increased by 1
- Anabolic Synthesis removed (Ultra speed upgarde) - Ultralisks now naturally move quicker off creep.
- New upgrade for ultralisks: Anti-Psyonic Blades
(+20 damage vs shields)
- +5HP to Roaches/Ravagers (from 145 to 150 | 120 to 125)
- +10HP to Hydralisks (from 90 to 100)
- Muscular Augments and Grooved Spines resreach time reduced from 71s to 57s respectively
- Infestor: Microbial Shroud replaced by Vampiric Dust.
Radius increased from 3.5 to 4. Now heals attacking ground units by 5 per attack.
Terran:
Buffs:
- -1 collusion size for Thors
- Thor base armor increased by 1
- Tank damage vs light in siege mode increased from 40 (+4) to 50 (+4)
- Smart Servos also allow Tanks and Liberators to siege and unsiege faster
- Combat Shields renamed to Combat Armory and also gives Marauders and Hellbats +10 HP, increasing it from 125 to 135 and 135 to 145 respectively.
- Ship Weapons upgrade removed. Air units now profit from Vehicle Weapon upgrades.
Costs changed from 100/100 | 175/175 | 250/250 to 150/150 | 225/225 | 300/300
- Planetary Fortress Hitpoints increased from 1500 to 2000.
- Scan energy cost reduced from 50 to 40.
Protoss:
Nerfs:
- Warpprism pickup range reduced by 1 (from 5 to 4)
- Warpins under the power of a warpprism is reduced from fast (near gateway/nexus pylon speed) to slow (normal warpin speed), unless a gateway or nexus in in range
Buffs:
- -1 collusion size for Archons
- Colossus damage increased from 10 (+5 vs light) x2 to 14 (+4 vs light) x2
- Tempest movement speed increased from 3.15 to 3.85
- Prismatic Alignment doesn't slow down Void Rays anymore.
- Cannons and Shield batteries within 10 radius of a nexus now gain a 100 shield bonus
- Stalker damage changed from 13 (+5 to armored) to 15 (+5 to armored)
- Graviton Catapult reimplemented into the game. Interceptors now all launch at the speed of .18 with this upgrade, instead of the first 4 being released by .089. (The standard value from carriers is 0.27)
- Observer Movement speed increased from 2.63 (+1.31 with Gravitic Boosters) to 3.15 (+1.31)
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This is just a long list of changes that could be made with no reasoning behind what you hope to achieve with each individual change.
Also what is vampiric dust?
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Northern Ireland27464 Posts
Vampiric dust sounds fucking cool as a name for an ability though
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Some explanation on what i tried to achieve with the changes
General:
Again, all of these changes would need testing. This is theorycrafting and i tried to give all races comparable buffs that lead to new, exciting starcraft that is more exciting.
archons/ultras/thors feel very clucky, reducing model size helps that.
I want less cheesy shit builds, more long exciting macro games with space controlling units that are acutally strong.
I want the better player to win and races to have options.
I want races to have an easier time scouting.
Terran:
I want mech to be an option and terran and protoss to be more stable in general.
Terran is very vulnerable early and tanks simply feel weak. you have to have all ur mech in 1 place which is unrealistic as defensive mech is very slow. Other races should have to gain an economic advantage vs mech to compete and try to get in dmg with drops and dynamic play.
Marauders and Hellbats feel weak as well - as a "wall". Bio players are forced to implement tanks cuz there simply is no other option, espeically vs zerg ling bling armys. Both units shoudl simply feel more tanky to fill their roll.
A lot of simply quality of life changes as well.
Zerg:
Zerg was undeniably the best race for the past 2 years, and i think the main reason is cuz Zerg was just way more stable in early and midgame by just building queens
Queens are too strong as a defensive unit and stay that throughout the game. Them not gaining upgrades makes them less useful for stupid queen allins in midgame. On the other hand, they are needed in earlygame cuz zerg has no other effective unit to deal with pushes - espeiclly as many things from other races are buffed here. So in exchange, i wanted to make Hydralisks more of a core unit in the zerg aresenal, and slightly buff roaches to compete with the P/T buffs. + A new changed infestor hopefully make for a great, dynamic unit composition that leads to more exciting games from zerg.
Ultralisks are 100% useless vs Protoss and are a nieche unit vs Terran - and without buffs, would be even more so vs a buffed protoss and terran. So I thought of ultralisks as absolute counters to bio and making them more effective against Protoss, espeically archons. The old ansers from zerg to mech and their lategame feel strong enough as is (swarmhosts, nydus, vipers, broodlord) with a slightly improved infestor.
Protoss:
I feel like warpprisms are busted and are often times used for the most ridiculous proxy robo builds that are just not fun to watch. In general, the harass potential felt a bit over the top at times, but in the current state of protoss, its necessary to build them and abuse them, cuz otherwise, protoss falls behind, espeically vs Zerg.
So with a prism nerf come buffs to cope with Protoss, and make defensive protoss playstyles stronger than allin and timing based builds that are really just "all or nothing" and make the race shit to watch and play.
The colossus right now is in a really bad state. it's easy to counter, does very little damage. It's really not comparable to storm. Tempests are really just used as a hardcounter against massive or for their range vs liberator at times. a really boring unit that has no place. I want them to kite and harass easier. In general, Protoss air doesn't seem to be an option for lategame, which would be even worse with 0 buffs as potential counters got nerfed.
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I generally agree with the state of balance, but I don't see it very dramatic, or that Zerg is imbalanced or anything. It's kind off as Special said, often the tournament format favors Zergs, because the race favors mechanics over preparation and strategy. Overall starcraft 2 is currently a very mechanics focussed game and has lost a lot of its strategic nuances it had in WoL, so it feels less fun to watch for me at the moment.
From your changes/thoughts, I feel like you sometimes only considered one matchup. For example giving Ultralisks more Armor makes them better in TvP, but totally breaks TvZ balance, because they are very hard to shoot down for bio already. It seems that you prefer mech over bio, because most T changes or for non-biological units. I think mech is already viable and would only need small buffs. I actually think that different map making approaches would have a more healthy impact on the viability of mech.
Improving the mobility of big units seems counter-intuitive to me. They are big and supposed to be less controllable than bio units. I think ultralisks having less collision has a bigger impact on Zerg attacks against Terran structures than you think. I see liberator/siege tank timings in a similar category as this. It takes out some of the decision making, it improves the flow, but decreases the punishment for bad decision making based on positioning and army movement. So it would actually decrease the strategic variance and skill curve IMO, which would have a negative impact on watching the game as well.
As to cheese vs non-cheese succeeding, I am not sure, whether you actually have an argument there. How often do pro gamers these day actually cheese? Is an all-in a cheese for you? Most people would not consider this to be the case. But this is just guess work, you'd need actual data to prove your point. I feel like we have pretty large maps and cheesing is not really a great option at the moment, except for mirror matchups.
I would actually love to see a change for the Hellbat. I was very excited for that unit, when it came out, but it suffers similar problems as the Firebat in SC1, it is just not a good match in a Terran composition, because it is melee. I would like to see it as a buffer against zerglings and zealots, but they are way less mobile than a typical MMM army. Just giving them a buff is an option, especially if you make queens less powerful, because Terran has a very strong push with Hellbats against Zerg, which would become overpowered. So giving it more tankiness, while reducing damage a bit seems intuitive to me, but probably there is no hope for this unit to be both balanced against Z and P.
I kinda like changing the colossus damage, but not the actual values. The coloss would shred through marines. Maybe 10 (+5 vs light) x2 to 12(+4 vs light) x2 or something like that? The idea is, make it better against marauders, but a little bit less lethal against marines. But it feels that the unit is generally still viable against Terran, it is probably in a worse state against zerg.
Your general idea to make static D stronger is the opposite of what Blizzard wanted to achieve with Lotv: make the game more dynamic, make turtling less of an option. So I am rather against it, all races have defensive options and they are generally strong enough to hold off early attacks, when used correctly.
As a conclusion, I think most of your ideas go into the wrong direction. You state, that the race specific mechanics make it easier/harder for zerg/terran to win tournaments. But before you suggest Balance changes, I think you should make same ground work, where you elaborate, WHY certain mechanics races in which ways and then think more systematically how you can change that. Your introductory paragraph does this in lightning speed and without any data supporting it, so it has very little ground. If you would actually analyze a large amount of games from different tournaments, I think you would get unexpected results.
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