LotV Balance Update Preview - April 27

SetGuitarsToKill

Canada28396 Posts

April 27 2015 18:05 GMT

New Terran Unit
Before we get into the changes for existing units, we’d like to first discuss the status of the new Terran unit. We’ve been experimenting with various ideas, from a new base defense structure, to an add-on that allows production facilities to change their type. At this time however, it seems we may move forward with a unit from the Starport. There are various ways we’ve been experimenting with this unit:

High damage, low rate of fire
Low damage, high rate of fire
Variable attack “modes” – High damage w/ low range & Low damage w/ high range.
Small radius area attack w/ high damage
And more…

In general, we believe that armies made from the Factory or Starport will be more capable as independent compositions in Legacy of the Void. Players will be able to commit to a tech-path specifically, and so we are also interested in splitting out the mech and air upgrades again. We believe that bringing back this choice is a potential improvement for the game.

We would also like to take a closer look at Terran bio play in Legacy of the Void. With the changes to bio and the many buffs to mech, it is possible that the advantage might be tilting too heavily towards mech armies right now. Ideally, we’d like to have a good mix of options by the time we ship the game.

Now let’s move on to the changes we’re planning for the next balance patch.

Gameplay Changes

Reaper

New grenade ability

This activated-ability will allow Reapers to launch a grenade that deals damage and knocks units in that area back. What we’re hoping for on this front is not necessarily to make Reapers a must have in every combat situation, but something that would allow micro with and against the Reaper to be more interesting early on, as well as something that could be a combat bonus in some situations.

Minerals

Amounts changed from 100%/50% to 100%/60%

We discussed this a bit earlier this week and we feel that the pressure to expand might be too great in its current state. Our goal for Legacy of the Void is still to encourage more aggressive expansions, but we’d like to tune this a little bit in hopes of finding to the correct place.

Protoss

Warp-in duration reverted to Heart of the Swarm.

Our goals on this front were to weaken Protoss Warpgate all-ins and increase strategic decision making for where to use each warp in. The resource changes look to already be getting us into a good spot for the all-in case. Focusing on strategic use however, it currently feels too punishing for the Protoss. We’re finding that you’ll always want to pick the safer warp-in spot for your units. In changing this, we’ll create more interesting decisions for the other player on whether or not to go for the vulnerable units that are warping in, or to continue battling the units already on the field. Therefore, we’d like to see how this works out with just the increased damage and the warp-in time reverted back to its original value.

Adept

Adept’s weapon’s damage point changed from .4 to default (0.167)

We heard your feedback in that the Adept feels clunky to use, so we made some tweaks in this area.

Cyclone

Can no longer target air.
New upgrade: allows Cyclones to target air (fusion core requirement, researched from factory tech lab). 100/100 cost.

The Cyclone is currently too good at stopping early game harassment. This is the opposite of what we want in Legacy of the Void, as we want to see more harassment play happening on both sides. The idea here is to still have Cyclones as an option early on, but not so all-around to the point that most harassment openings can be prevented just by opening Cyclones. In the late game, when the upgrade is researched, we believe players’ bases would be spread out so much that even though the Cyclones themselves become well-rounded options, opponents fighting against them will have numerous harassment options and can more readily find vulnerable positions.

Ravager

Weapon period changed from 0.8 to 1.6
Weapon range reduced from 6 to 4

There looks to be some Ravager early game all-ins that are very difficult to stop. While we don’t know with 100% certainty that this is actually a problem, we decided to tone down the Ravager anyway so that we can see more units being used on the Zerg side. We have many more strategies and units that need to be tested and hope this change brings these into play. We chose these specific changes to create a clear distinction between Ravagers and Roaches. In short, Roaches will be better units for cost efficiency, whereas Ravagers are meant to be built in strategic numbers when their ability can prove useful.

Swarm Host

Cost changed to 200/100/3
No longer requires to upgrade for flying locusts (flying locusts are enabled from the start)
Locust health down from 65 to 50
Swarm hosts can burrow move at 2 speed

We also talked about Swarm Host changes earlier this week. With the Swarm Host, we’d like to explore getting to a good place sooner than with most unit changes in Void. The main reason is that HotS could potentially use a different design of the Swarm Host. We’d like to use the beta as a rough testing ground to see how the unit can turn out in both games potentially. Our goal here was to do the cost/supply cost changes to make Swarm Hosts more accessible. Locust health has also been reduced so that the mass Swarm Host case isn’t so good, and the Swarm Host burrow move change should help them be more effective at harassment.

Thanks you all for your feedback so far in the Legacy of the Void beta. As always, none of this is final and we will continue to make changes in the beta regularly. So please keep on play testing and keep the feedback rolling in!

Thank you, and see you on the beta!

Source

Poll: Reaper ability?

Looks Good (313)

55%

Don't like it (138)

24%

Meh (65)

12%

Interesting, Needs adjusting (49)

9%

565 total votes

Your vote: Reaper ability?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it
(Vote): Interesting, Needs adjusting

Poll: Mineral Change?

Dual Harvest when? (385)

64%

Looks Good (114)

19%

Needs to be adjusted further (62)

10%

Meh (27)

4%

Don't like it. change it back (16)

3%

604 total votes

Your vote: Mineral Change?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it. change it back
(Vote): Needs to be adjusted further
(Vote): Dual Harvest when?

Poll: Warp-In Duration?

Looks Good (262)

51%

Still too strong (153)

30%

Meh (45)

9%

Still too weak (27)

5%

Don't like it, it was better as it was (26)

5%

513 total votes

Your vote: Warp-In Duration?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it, it was better as it was
(Vote): Still too strong
(Vote): Still too weak

Poll: Adept Damage Point?

Why aren't we lowering more unit's DP? (226)

57%

Looks Good (92)

23%

Meh (41)

10%

Still too weak (21)

5%

Still too strong (14)

4%

Don't like it, it was better as it was (2)

1%

396 total votes

Your vote: Adept Damage Point?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it, it was better as it was
(Vote): Still too strong
(Vote): Still too weak
(Vote): Why aren't we lowering more unit's DP?

Poll: Cyclone Changes?

Still too strong (244)

47%

Looks Good (104)

20%

Needs to be adjusted further (72)

14%

Upgrade too hard to get (59)

11%

Don't like it, it was better as it was (26)

5%

Meh (16)

3%

521 total votes

Your vote: Cyclone Changes?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it, it was better as it was
(Vote): Still too strong
(Vote): Upgrade too hard to get
(Vote): Needs to be adjusted further

Poll: Ravager Nerf?

Needs a different adjustment (229)

50%

Looks Good (120)

26%

Is now too weak (53)

12%

Meh (25)

5%

Still too strong (20)

4%

Don't like it, it was better as it was (9)

2%

456 total votes

Your vote: Ravager Nerf?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it, it was better as it was
(Vote): Still too strong
(Vote): Is now too weak
(Vote): Needs a different adjustment

Poll: Swarm Host Changes?

Needs a different adjustment (169)

38%

Looks Good (126)

29%

Remove Burrow Move (47)

11%

Meh (31)

7%

Un-nerf locust (17)

4%

Too strong (16)

4%

Too weak (16)

4%

Bring back upgrade (10)

2%

Don't like it, it was better as it was (7)

2%

439 total votes

Your vote: Swarm Host Changes?

(Vote): Looks Good
(Vote): Meh
(Vote): Don't like it, it was better as it was
(Vote): Too strong
(Vote): Too weak
(Vote): Needs a different adjustment
(Vote): Remove Burrow Move
(Vote): Un-nerf locust
(Vote): Bring back upgrade

Poll: Are you pleased at the overall direction of these changes?

I like some changes, but others not so much (265)

51%

Yes, good on ya Blizz (160)

31%

No, we need to focus on other aspects (97)

19%

522 total votes

Your vote: Are you pleased at the overall direction of these changes?

(Vote): Yes, good on ya Blizz
(Vote): No, we need to focus on other aspects
(Vote): I like some changes, but others not so much

KalWarkov

Germany4126 Posts

April 27 2015 18:10 GMT

thanks that you listen to some of the feedback, sounds way better now

Yonnua

United Kingdom2331 Posts

April 27 2015 18:11 GMT

The grenade sounds interesting. If the damage isn't too high and the pushback effects friendly units, could it be used to help with quick marine splits?

Charoisaur

Germany16101 Posts

April 27 2015 18:11 GMT

They seem to have no clue what to do with the new terran unit...

-NegativeZero-

United States2142 Posts

April 27 2015 18:11 GMT

no change to worker pairing? blizz i am disappoint

Topin

Peru10128 Posts

April 27 2015 18:12 GMT

the cyclone upgrade is too far in the tech tree imo, it should be in the armory

NovemberstOrm

Canada16217 Posts

April 27 2015 18:12 GMT

On April 28 2015 03:11 Yonnua wrote:
The grenade sounds interesting. If the damage isn't too high and the pushback effects friendly units, could it be used to help with quick marine splits?

that would be interesting

tritonice

United States119 Posts

April 27 2015 18:13 GMT

On April 28 2015 03:12 Topin wrote:
the cyclone upgrade is too far in the tech tree imo, it should be in the armory

I agree, I think it should be an armory required upgrade, not fusion core.

vult

United States9400 Posts

April 27 2015 18:15 GMT

Yeah they gutted the cyclone. The upgrade is WAY too far in the tech tree, but it is understandable that it got that big of a nerf. That reaper change came out of nowhere, wow. Wonder if that is going to be an upgrade of a default spell, because early reaper rushes would be fucking strong if default.

Also it seems like they really have no grasp on the new unit. They have two polar opposite ideas, and one middle ground, which seems really.... basic. Just give us Wraiths and call it a day....

IceBerrY

Germany220 Posts

April 27 2015 18:16 GMT

#10

The reaper ability sounds interesting, can´t really imagine what it will look like.
Cyclone is still a stupid unit with its range, doesn´t matter how they tweak around it.

Ramiz1989

12124 Posts

April 27 2015 18:16 GMT

#11

I like the idea behind Terran having more independent units and tech paths, looking forward to see what will they do with Bio.

Reaper
Love the idea, we don't know what will the damage be but with little tweaks it might get Reaper into great spot and they might become useful mid-late game units with this. Now, if only they would make Ghosts more useful but we will see.

Adept
This should have been in the last update that didn't manage to get included. Probably a good change, pushing Adepts towards core units.

Cyclone
It makes sense, but I don't think that it will solve the problems with the unit.

Ravager
They should probably change them a little and make it feel like a different unit. In the last patch it felt like big Hydralisk, now it feels like big Roach.

Swarm Host
Wow, didn't expect this. This might even make them broken to be honest. I would love to see these Swarm Hosts in action.

mCon.Hephaistas

Netherlands891 Posts

April 27 2015 18:17 GMT

#12

Bit too hard of a nerf for ravager i think, the reaper and SH change look really interesting though

Ovid

United Kingdom948 Posts

April 27 2015 18:18 GMT

#13

They know what damage point is and adjusted it with something that's slightly contradicting
"Adept’s weapon’s damage point changed from .4 to default (0.167)
We heard your feedback in that the Adept feels clunky to use, so we made some tweaks in this area"

You know what would make everything feel less clunky a value of 0.

Topin

Peru10128 Posts

April 27 2015 18:20 GMT

#14

they should give up with the SH

ShowTheLights

Korea (South)1718 Posts

April 27 2015 18:20 GMT

#15

Can someone explain what "damage point" is?

mortales

174 Posts

April 27 2015 18:21 GMT

#16

Very nice, really.

FrostedMiniWheats

United States30730 Posts

April 27 2015 18:23 GMT

#17

Where dem polls SGK :p?

Ramiz1989

12124 Posts

April 27 2015 18:23 GMT

#18

On April 28 2015 03:20 ShowTheLights wrote:
Can someone explain what "damage point" is?

Damage point is a variable that affects every attacking unit in Starcraft 2. It represents the time between when an attacking unit attacks, and when it can receive new commands.

From JakatakSC2.

SetGuitarsToKill

Canada28396 Posts

April 27 2015 18:24 GMT

#19

BURROW

MOVE

SWARMHOSTS

HOLY FUCK

imJealous

United States1382 Posts

April 27 2015 18:24 GMT

#20

Interesting round of changes. Ravager nerfs seem a bit much, but happy to see them anyway because it will lead to more interesting unit comps and strategies.

Looking forward to seeing some games played on this patch!

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LotV Balance Update Preview - April 27

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