EPTso yeah, i havent reviewed all the text. f it we ball
Hello,my name is HackErIsTop, a mid GM EU random player(I'd say my zerg is around lowest GM pre 5.0.16) and I got fed up with nonsense that's going on in SC2, so I want to speak out about what was required from the patch, what IMO should've been the direction for SC2 , and what we got from the 5.0.16.
First, VARIETY.
As my friend lorimbo said in his huge post, this patch does NOT add variety. It actually decreases it because the 11 years of developing new buildorders were thrown in a trash can. Theoretically, 8 worker start could give more possibilities, but it will give more mediocre or bad possibilities and less good ones. The issue is that it makes the game more gambling, and indeed on pro scene we will have more buildorders AT START, but then progamers will find a new 'standard' that everyone's gonna play. That's just how it works in times when there are few people who are considered progamers but they are insanely good. One more issue is that on lower levels most of gamers are blindly copying what pros are doing. It's unfixable and it's normal. The issue is that we were nerfing the variety for the sake of balance instead of making it a bit more shaky. StarCraft is one of the best games balance wise, and although something is OP, it's very rarely more than 60/40, and even that's is a lot. What we should do for variety is just letting players cook when they are doing something new and not nerfing it into oblivion immediately. If it's not actually op players will adapt in a couple months, and if it is what about not making it a non viable option but rather making it on the same level as other possibilities?
Second. What WERE the main issues?
Of course, bugs. A lot of bugs. It's good that we're slowly but steadly dealing with them, but we don't even think about the huge bugs such as master 3 for every 2ndplayer. What also is just stupid is is saying that recertification a change is a bugfix. QoL updates are nor bugfixes either. They should be divided, especially some of them that just roo impactful on the game.
Then, cheaters. The game has a lot of map and drophackers, blizzard are just not giving a shit about them. This kind of irresponsibility is just stupid. Mass report abusing is also a thing and no moderation is another problem.
Now we can finally go to the gameplay issues. I'll talk as both a cheeser and a person who isn't the best macro player, but still decent and surely understand the game more than people who are not even playing the game (most of those who like the patch).
So..
Balance issues - obviously, protoss was op. But just killing gatewaystyle isn't the way. We'll talk about that later. Terran and zerg were balanced alrighty, but still PERSONALLY I felt like terran was the favored race due to gamedesign of the race.
And lastly, VARIETY(oh god this word is just a meme now) of the old patch, gameplay issues and just basically what exactly needs adjustments.
I believe we can all agree that the game actually lacked variety of strategies because usually one or 2 were just significantly better than anything else. Defender's advantage too strong making most of aggressive options much worse.
For matchups.
TvT - it was alright, most consider it really boring, but it's just the way the race is. Theoretically nerfing siege tank could work but that would require much more research than I'm willing to do.
TvZ - zerg didn't have too many possibilities of good different plays, but that's due to the race being REACTIVE in the matchup. Terran has aleays been dictating how the game works and controlling the mal in first few minutes. After - zerg usually takes control of the map but T already got to a position where they can camp infinitely. Zerg being a punching bag until they allin/get spire/get comfortable on 4+ baded and 30% of the map in creep has always been a thing and if we try to do something about it idk if it would work out not making the race even more op than it's on 5.0.16 plus i believe this part is right because it doesn't last too long.
The issue appears closer to late game where terran can't move out or they will most likely lose the fight while zerg attacking would most likely loose the fight. Terran mid-late game aggression is too weak while it's defense is too strong. Turtling behind buildings should be nerfed while siedging your opponent's bases or just aggressive gamestyle should be buffed. It would make the matchup not as boring as it was and as it is.
TvP - midgame toss was just op due to to taking all the map presence from the terran. Gatewayman style is too strong compared to other styles. I love that this matchup probably the most good opening among all 6. The idea of matchup being terran has to survive until lategame and then protoss needs terran to fuck up to win is lame, although I do like the idea of one race being better than the other in early mid or lategame, but TvP was taking it to the extreme. Also one important thing to mention about protoss overall is mass sky. It's not as good as it should be on pro level and it's better than it should be on other levels. It should require more skill while being more rewarding for the skill used. Back to the matchup, I think terran should be changed the same way it should be changed in tvz, make expanding easier for them, nerf gatewayman style without making protoss much worse in earlygame and buff other playstyles. Honestly, again, not sure how, I'm not putting too much thoughts into all that to come up with a solution.
ZvZ - I have no idea what's going on there honestly. No understanding of the matchup, please ask others about zvz issues.
ZvP - same earlygame as zvt, except for protoss is taking it to the extreme. While terran playing hellion banshee fast 3rd cc is just stronger than anything else, protoss oracle openers were busted. Additionally, protoss lategame was broken, and that resulted in zerg best option being constant allining despite how big defenders advantage is in StarCraft 2. Hugely nerf oracle openers while hugely buffing other ones, make zerg lategame playable and the matchup suddenly becomes alright. Btw tempest has to be 5 or even 6 supply.
PvP - unfixable.
Well actually it already has aggressive options, already has variety. It's a good matchup, there's just too much pvp. Maybe nerf 3gaterobo and proxyrobo, but it's fine anyways.
Now, what did PTR do?
8 worker start - made ELEVEL YEARS of research on buildorders invalid. The same level and speed of research as in early lotv will not happen because we don't have that much interested in that people although some of them are better than anyone back then.
It does NOT add variety to the game on high level. It makes it TEMPORARILY. In a couple months people will find new standard and everything gonna play it. What it does is makes most cheesed worse and some cheesed better due to easier technology. What it also does is makes the game more coinflippy. It's harder to make up for buildorder loss and easier to win against a much better player. And the worst part - it adds 30-60 seconds of nothing to the game, making the game more boring.
Although larva change does make up for indirect nerf of zerg cheese via 8 worker start, the sheer impact it has on the game makes the race op which actually shows how well balanced starcraft is. Just 5-10% productions change already makes one race disgustingly op and I love how its showing this fact, but yeah we've shown this now let's not make the game worse.
Investor having auto attack is funnyz but that's it, i honestly don't think it's impactful at all. What IS impactful is 12 range microbial shroud. Thanks to that infestors are impossible to focus and it makes the spell a bit too good. On last couple months of 5.0.15 We've seen more shrouds, so did it really need a buff?
Ghost change although is interesting, makes terran lategame too good against zerg. Uncancellable snipeshot makes ghost a free huge damage dealer, even better than tempest.7 range is also unreasonable. And we nerfed ghost rushes, it's not huge for the game but they are fun so why nerf them.
I don't think nerfing damage to storm is a good way to nerf storm. If we really wanna do that, make the area smaller. Like ot was before 5.0.15, we'll have to return the 9 range tho.
Also small note about disruptor phantom attack - also unnecessary, BUT its not even a buff because they won't deal huge hits with it.
And finally warp...
Well, we tried nerfing immediate warpins and making gatewayman not the only good tvp style
What we did? We just nerfed the race as a whole.
We did not compensate dor for robo le stargate, we did nothing for variety. We just made the whole race worse while trying to make them play another way. The only acceptable nerd of warpgate is longer cooldown and nerf of the prism.
P.S. I do like the idea of gateway being faster than warpgate, but it needs to be a whole lot faster and I'm unsure if it's possible to balance out honestly. Right now making units from gateways has no point except for not having money to transform them.
TLDR - the patch did NOT fix any of the actual issues in the game, it just made the game feel slow and new. To implement changes that affect such important things like larva spawnrate, warpin mechanic or number of workers on the start of the game we need communication and a lot of devotion and time from blizzard. In current situation it's impossible so making changes like that is nothing good.
Quality of the post is definitely low, but idc. Hope for a feedback if someone actually reads all that. Thank you, I would love if someone reposts it on reddit because I'm not going there cuz my mom told me to not get along with bad companies Kappa (actually just dont want to register on reddit or twitter) (ed: only after i upgrade quality of writing). I will play new 5.0.15 ladder by HyperONE(huge shoutout to him) if they don't remove worker change. Others I'm alright with honestly, don't care too much, it's only the worker change that's just irritating because it does nothing except for making the game more like casino and making it more boring. I don't understand why i have to have that additional boring af minute of every game (playing a couple thousands per year on average, so thats actually a lot).
