HotS balance update #8 - Page 18

On December 06 2012 09:40 Veldril wrote:


Good thing is that you can switch between two modes. If the opponent use a lot of light flying unit (i.e. Muta or Phoenix) then Thor still can kill them with anti-light AA missiles. In later stage of the game, they can switch to single target AA cannon with flat damage. This should increase Thor viability in the long game and make mech more complete.

On December 06 2012 09:34 Plansix wrote:


My favorite part is how everyone with really low post counts hates the patch.

On December 06 2012 09:41 Moka wrote:
I like how they almost buff everything, it's definitively a different approach from the constant nerfs to everything in WoL. It's still beta, why not?

They should replace Vortex with:

-Call from Aiur, 175 energy
Instantly summon 5 Hydralisks, 3 Mutalisks and 5 Zerglings for 40 seconds.

+ Show Spoiler +

On December 06 2012 09:33 dw.Justify wrote:
This patch is shit. There is so much imba in it blizz will realize it soon enough ... or not mb when its too late and game is lunched hope they are not that stupid

On December 06 2012 08:23:

Void Ray
Prismatic Beam:
No longer charges up.
Weapon period decreased from 0.6 to 0.5.
No longer does passive +massive damage.

Prismatic Alignment (new ability) increases damage to armored units by 6 for 20 seconds, with a 1 minute cooldown. This does not scale with upgrades.

Wow, 20% flat damage buff (from the attack speed change), and a flat +6 damage to armored boost for 20 seconds...ok so this still doesn't make the void ray require much in the way of micro. Void rays are weaker vs armored units now, and the damage to armored boost is not as big as it would be in a charged up void ray from WoL, but suddenly it could be good vs a whole host of light units. Considering that phoenixes and oracles are both good vs light but not vs armored units, the void ray/pheonix/oracle army that Blizz wants to be viable would still be quite weak to armored anti-air units (or just marines ), so it might be easy to counter. Time will tell. The zerg counter would be the obvious infestor-corruptor combo; hydralisk-viper will likely get owned.

On December 06 2012 09:39 Demonhunter04 wrote:


Ok, so they increased heal rate and efficiency by 67%, but increased the cost by 50% (so the net heal speed and effective energy is unchanged). The effective health of medivacs, though, is now 2/3rds of what it used to be. After taking the new costs into account, build time is 9% faster. This is all with the upgrade, though. Without the upgrade, medivacs kinda suck now due to their low health/cost and healing/cost ratios. Also, dropping is going to be a heavier investment regardless of the upgrade, because medivacs cost more resources and build time. I'm glad they didn't raise the supply, though. Since 8 new medivacs will be like 12 without caduceus reactor, it will be even more important to micro your medivacs and avoid getting them fungaled. Medivacs will be less effective at healing the front line of an army since the healing will be more concentrated.

They didn't make it clear whether or not the cost of medivacs changes because of the upgrade or is just changed overall, but I suspect it's the latter.

On December 06 2012 09:42 dw.Justify wrote:


why do i need a high post count for hating this patch ? my balance sense is high enough since i am a grandmaster player

On December 06 2012 09:39 a176 wrote:


they still have pretty low hp so not quite

On December 06 2012 08:33 blade55555 wrote:
Also no more vortex makes me so damn happy I now imagine I will no longer see mothership in zvp :D



That's the point they don't want it to be used in competitive play since it's such a shit thing to watch.