Patch 11 - Official Notes + Discussion - Page 39

Phoenix always did hard-counter Mutalisks, but now even a very small number of Phoenix can challenge a very large number of Mutalisks

Corruption ability redesigned:
-Single target.
-Increases damage taken by 20%.
-Lasts 30 seconds.
-Costs 100 energy.
-Range 6.
-Cannot target structures.

The changes to Neural Parasite are there to try to protect the Ultralisk from being mind controlled too easily. It is also consistent with what we think the power level of the ability is against Thor and other units. We have also buffed the ability to allow it to target air units so you can use it as a defense against Void Rays.

At some levels of play we are seeing spine crawlers used to protect a Zerg player until can advance to some dangerous technology (like Mutalisks). In these cases players are using Spine Crawlers almost exclusively to defend themselves and the ability to move the Crawler as a way to protect not only their base but their expansion as well. We want there to be a higher cost to this strategy and more risk associated with choosing to go “Only Spine Crawler.”

On May 08 2010 01:39 Lollersauce wrote:
Pretty much what therapist said. ZvP is just stupidly pigeonholed now.
Best part is 12 seconds to reposition spores/spines. One less reason to build them now against early harass and particularly air.

On May 08 2010 01:46 Ghostcom wrote:


Everyone elses defence is actually static, that you can move it at all is just a big bonus. If it had been 12 seconds always you would be thinking "sweet, sunkes that can actually move?! - Sure I have to make sure I'll have to distract my enemy whilst they root, but now I don't have to morph in sunkens everywhere but can simply move these around".

On May 08 2010 01:46 Ghostcom wrote:


Everyone elses defence is actually static, that you can move it at all is just a big bonus. If it had been 12 seconds always you would be thinking "sweet, sunkes that can actually move?! - Sure I have to make sure I'll have to distract my enemy whilst they root, but now I don't have to morph in sunkens everywhere but can simply move these around".

On May 08 2010 01:52 Powda wrote:
As a Random player, this patch just feels really anti zerg.

Almost every change had a negative effect on Zerg.

On May 08 2010 01:39 Lollersauce wrote:
Pretty much what therapist said. ZvP is just stupidly pigeonholed now.
Best part is 12 seconds to reposition spores/spines. One less reason to build them now against early harass and particularly air.

On May 08 2010 01:46 Ghostcom wrote:


Everyone elses defence is actually static, that you can move it at all is just a big bonus. If it had been 12 seconds always you would be thinking "sweet, sunkes that can actually move?! - Sure I have to make sure I'll have to distract my enemy whilst they root, but now I don't have to morph in sunkens everywhere but can simply move these around".

On May 07 2010 21:06 LuDwig- wrote:




it was in this way also before the patch -.-

On May 08 2010 01:54 Slayer91 wrote:


AS a random/zerg player I feel this is a huge buff to zerg. Sentries nerfed, thors nerfed, colossus huge nerf vs lings. The only things you got nerfed were things that were abused like broodlords, and neutral paraisite. I used neutral parasite some but i believe in having more units instead of relying on cute spells to win.

On May 08 2010 01:27 Therapist wrote:
First off I play zerg in plat around 1700-1800, I know this post is going to sound biased but honestly I have agreed with all the nerfs to zerg so far. I was downloading this patch and I was shocked at how ridiculous some of the changes looked. I was frustrated so I tested it with a friend.
Phoenix - Can now attack while moving.
Blizzard -

I destroyed his muta with a few clicks ... this patch has to be some kind of joke. I remember in sc1 a vulture could attack while moving like this, but you would have to manually stop attack and keep going ,,, this requires no micro. So yes corrupters can handle the phoenixes with the new changes, but. the old corruption on the corrupter was replaced with

I don't see why the old corruption was taken out, I found it very useful for cannons and stopping building production, this new corruption is not effective at all to increase damage taken on invidivdual units especially at 100 energy. I also find it weird how it lasts so long on a unit, like a unit is going to survive that for 30 sec? This just sounds like an ability a group of people who play world of warcraft would use to kill a dragon or something. Compared to corruption, The phoenix's beam ability completely disables a unit, costs 50 energy and allows it to do some damage.
Before this patch many toss players were developing a very strong phoenix strategy against zerg, Nony had really effective phoenix play from what I've seen. This patch just ruined ZvP completly. Playing against my friend's zerg, I was able to fly in and out of his base killing his queen and ovies on the way out. He was holding me off very well with hydra later as any good player would, but it didn't matter because even as I retreated I was doing so much damage to his economy by sniping ovies/queens/drones with ease with ridicules mobility. I was even able to snipe 3-4 lifted hydra as I retreated at times. I don't know what blizzard's thinking, an air unit can harass from so many different angles.. It felt so imbalanced and I am not even a toss player.
Blizzard -

So they wanted to protect the Ultralisk? A tier 3 unit that will come out way after the infester? Even in ZvT if the terran goes for a thor drop, the infestor still comes a little bit after the thor, after this change it will be very hard to defend with NP.
Blizzard -
he
This change really makes static defense useless against any type of early harassment. I always have to reposition my spine crawlers to adjust to harassment and even then ... some good players react and kill it before I can root it. 6 seconds was very fair. After this patch you are just giving your opponent free spine crawlers if you decide to reposition. Also, they never explained why they nerfed spores... they are now useless to defend against void rays/banshees.

On May 08 2010 01:51 HeyheyLBJ wrote:


Everyone else's defense has longer range and costs less.

On May 08 2010 02:02 NightOfTheDead wrote:
Give the ultralisk ability

Rampage: Ultralisk enrages grating him 25% speed increase and 15-20% dmg reduction for 8-10 sec on a 30 sec cooldown.

That would effectively bring Ultralisk back in the game as line breaker unit that would be harder to focus fire early in the fight. That what it needs.Last edit: 2010-05-08 01:50:05

On May 08 2010 02:02 NightOfTheDead wrote:
Give the ultralisk ability

Rampage: Ultralisk enrages grating him 25% speed increase and 15-20% dmg reduction for 8-10 sec on a 30 sec cooldown.

That would effectively bring Ultralisk back in the game as line breaker unit that would be harder to focus fire early in the fight. That what it needs.Last edit: 2010-05-08 01:50:05

On May 08 2010 01:58 Powda wrote:


You have to be kidding.

Thors got buffed against mutas, hellions got buffed in both speed and range. Thor/hellion was the number 1 strat, platinum level, vs zerg.

Phoenix was already difficult to deal with when mixed with VR and a player who abuses the fact the VR doesn't reset on target change. Now I can easily cite 10 times the amount of mutas vs Phoenix around the map.

Parasite takes longer to get than a it takes a toss to have a VR in your base, which makes no sense as blizzard claims this was to help against VR rushes...

Corruptors got a nice speed boost, but corruption was an extremely nice spell.

As for your "cute spells to win" spin.....Spells are and always have been a HUGE part of starcraft, I just have no other comment for that.