Community Feedback Update - September 4 - Page 6

Game is too easy or too difficult due to macro changes discussions
We’ve heard the discussions on both sides of this topic. Our perspective so far is that we think there’s still plenty of both micro and macro mastery needed in StarCraft II, and freeing up some clicks per race does look to be a good direction to go. While we hear some pro gamers who say things like “macro is so easy that everyone’s macro will be equal now”, we highly doubt they will all be playing at the highest possible skill level due to these changes. Further, we’re definitely not seeing perfect macro from any of the three races right now. Last weekend, we looked at pro-level players competitively playing archon mode and we were able to point out plenty of player mistakes in terms of macro, micro, delayed reaction times, etc. This is with two pros playing as one, so we just imagine how big the skill-gap among professional players would still be especially in 1v1 games.

We’d also like to remind everyone that the direction we’ve taken here has come out of the community summit where top-tier Korean pro players nearly unanimously said that even HotS is way too difficult to master in all aspects. As we discussed the topic with them, reducing the clicks and work needed on macro mechanics was the best solution we came up with in that discussion group. We just wanted to point this out, because there does seem to be some disconnect between the Korean pro players’ opinions vs. some crowds of people making conclusions on what they believe Korean pros would think on these changes.

Adept
We’ve tried various upgrades for the Adept this week, and realized that we do really want a more straightforward upgrade for this unit. As a core unit, the Adept is already pushing it in terms of ability complexity, and the unit itself (even without any upgrades) is already in a cool, distinct spot. However, we do still agree that a health upgrade on an already tanky unit is probably not the best way to go. We’ll most likely try out a different, simple stat upgrade for this unit’s upgrade slot soon.

Separate from the Adept upgrade, we wanted to discuss one additional topic for the Adept. Currently there’s an issue where Adepts are very difficult to counter with tier 1 or tier 2 units on Protoss. There’s also another potential issue of early game Terran bio not having a solid counter to Adepts since Adepts counter Marines in the early game, and Marauders are only soft counters to the Adept. Here, we’re testing a version of the Adept that is armored instead of light.

Cyclone damage
We agree with the general feedback here that the AA damage can use some help in the late-game. We’d like to improve this perhaps by pointing the ability damage to be more +armored focused so that not all air units are countered easily by the Cyclone in the late game. Still, we would like to also point out that having the initially lower damage (before the +damage research) has been a good thing because it allows the opponents to harass against players teching to early Cyclones; it also gives opponents enough time to react before the upgraded Cyclone comes into play.

Liberator strength
This we believe is mostly a timing thing. Sometimes, Liberators come into play before the counters are ready, and especially with the use of Zero-ground on some maps, they can become very difficult to deal with. We don’t think it’s a good idea to have to build maps around this unit going forward, so we believe a good solution here would be to bring the upgrade back into the game. This would allow us to have a tool to control the timing of when Liberators can start attacking ground units a bit better. We probably don’t need the armory requirement in this case, because the upgrade requirement as well as the tech lab needed for the first Starport might already be enough of a nerf.

PartinG beautifully harassed a terran mineral line with blink stalkers, forcing the terran player to use all his OC energy on mules, and then PartinG ended the game with DT's because his opponent had no scans. That's great tactics and high level play right there

On September 10 2015 18:54 Hider wrote:


Really? Sound like a basic strategy from 2011! High level strategies are decisions that are much more difficult to figure out.

On September 10 2015 16:29 Rowrin wrote:
Yeah I'm done till Adepts get nerfed. TvP is essentially unplayable. They are too tanky and deal too much damage early on to Terran. Terran is either flat out dead, or 90% crippled after any halfway decent warp prism + adept drop.

I dont really understand why they have to be so tanky in the first place either, wasn't that the zealot's job? What are zealots good for nowadays when for 25 gas you essentially get a ranged zealot that is much more tanky?