Patch 1.4 PTR Notes (updated 9/8) - Page 65

On August 25 2011 13:39 HinagikUx wrote:


yeah, and toss has the worst units to drop. no BFH, 8 lings, marine marauder, hell even 4 roaches with burrow is probably more cost effective than anything toss can drop..

On August 25 2011 13:09 _Search_ wrote:
Now that I've had a good think here's my reaction to 1.4:

(Rank 1 Master Terran perspective)


General
Unit vision up ramps has been reduced by 1.

Defender's advantage!! Very necessary. This will stop Toss from saccing a unit up a ramp to warp stuff in past static defense.


PROTOSS
Immortal
Attack range increased from 5 to 6.

I first suggested this exact change a year ago. I knew back then that immortals were simply not effective enough for their cost, even if I was in gold league.


Mothership
Acceleration increased from 0.3 to 1.375.
The Mothership’s Cloaking Field no longer cloaks all units instantaneously, but rather adds units to the cloak field over time (maximum of 25 per second). This should alleviate “Mothership Lag” issue when a Mothership comes online.

I hope this promotes more Mothership play. It's such an interesting unit. At the same time though, Protoss late game definitely did NOT need any help. Colossus nerf please.


Stalker
Blink research time increased from 110 to 140.

This is great because blink really should be a late game ability and not conducive to a timing attack. Terran is far too vulnerable to blink Stalkers on maps like Tal'Darim, though this change will likely have greater effect in the other matchups.


Warp Prism
Shields increased from 40 to 100.

Not a particular fan of this one, mainly because Warp Prisms are such a powerful unit already, especially for such a cheap cost (no gas?!?!). The only reason tosses don't use them is because they're afraid of losing them, which speaks more to the lack of maturity in toss play than imbalance because, considering what the unit does, it's DEFINITELY worth the money.


TERRAN
Barracks
Build time increased from 60 to 65.

lolwut? Is this to help with 2 rax? I don't know how much effect it will have on that, but Terran has the hardest time producing units in the early game, especially against toss, and this will make Terran far too vulnerable to early pressure.

I once suggested this very change, but coupled it with a marine time decrease and Orbital Command time decrease (5 secs). Terran is simply far too vulnerable in the early game to anything that can get around a bunker. Basically what this is doing is making any Terran non-bio build auto-lose to early pressure.

Can this nerf not be accompanied by a reactor core build time buff? The Terran macro game already suffers as it is, without double-punishing Terrans for trying to tech.

Hellion
Infernal Pre-Igniter damage upgrade decreased from 10 to 5.

Defense against hellions was already getting figured out. This nerf is totally unnecessary. Zergs have long learned to defend against them, Protosses have no fear of them and Terrans were learning to cope. 19 damage is still enough to 2-shot lings, just not workers until +2 mech weapons. Even worse, now zealots and marines are even MORE effective against hellions, when hellions should totally own both. This is the type of nerf that will remove the unit from the game, just like reapers, and Blizzard needs to be making Terran units less specialized and more cohesive, not the opposite.

Either remove Pre-igniter altogether and give hellions a +3 damage buff (11 +6 v light) or raise the hellion rate of fire and add a pre-attack pause, like in the alpha, like Thors currently have. This will force hellions to stay stationary before they fire, which will make hellion raids less effective, but allow them to gel more easily into a greater army mix.

Really Blizzard should be changing the Hellion to make it more effective in a general army and less effective in a raid. A straight-up nerf like this one will only remove it from the game, which is tragic, since the Hellion had essentially just entered the game.


Raven
Seeker missile movement speed increased from 2.5 to 2.953.

FINALLY!!!! No more vikings escaping Seeker Missile scot-free! Options in the imba Brood Lord/Corruptor/Infestor v. Viking/Marine wars! And, most importantly, AOE FOR TERRANS!! (besides tanks, which were hardly the equivalent of psi storm, colossi, carriers and fungal growth, if not also banelings (no one's ever perfected a "tank bust"))

ZERG
Infestor
Fungal Growth damage changed from 36 (+30% armored) to 30 (40 vs Armored).

This won't effect PvZ too greatly, unless units recharge shields while under FG (if they do then it's a big nerf as Zealots and Stalkers will each require an extra FG), but this is a welcome nerf in the Brood Lord/Corruptor/Infestor v. Viking marine match. Marines with combat shields and adequate medivacs will mostly survive 2 fungals and Vikings will require 4 FGs instead of 3 to die.

We all knew FG was too powerful. This nerf is well-deserved.

Overseer
Morph cost decreased from 50/100 to 50/50.
Contaminate energy cost increased from 75 to 125.

Still trying to help Zergs against cloaked units. This buff is unnecessary. Spore Crawler buff was enough.

Ultralisk
Build time decreased from 70 to 55.

Interesting, but I think Ultras were fine. It's not like Zerg was ever hampered by unit build times anyways. They can mass anything they have the money and larva for. I feel this is Blizzard's desire to bring an underused unit into the game, but build time is not the way to do it. They just need to let Ultra pathing be uninhibited by lings.

If a unit provides power, that power is temporarily transferred to a player using Neural Parasite.

On August 25 2011 13:38 Pirat6662001 wrote:
Why did they increased racks build time? Watching GSL i have not seen any issue at high levels with early 2 racks or mass racks. and 1/1/1 is solved by other buffs