Ultralisk bug/issue with patch 1.1.1 - Page 31

On October 01 2010 04:18 Brutus wrote:
http://www.mediafire.com/?u5w3g5pg5z8kvuk

Just watch that replay. 2/2 ultra/ling vs 1/1(not sure about the armor) helion/thor. 180 vs 130. Guess what wins?

He did a semi all in in the beginning and I countered it, macrod up, took the gold and harassed a bit. he came for the final push and I was just waiting for the ultras so I paniced and lost some units, but I got him to turn around with my mutas(his fault). He then comes back and my ultras are up but he just chews threw them.

This is actually the biggest nerf I have seen(i have only been playing this game since patch 13 or something). Please tell me what to do....

On October 01 2010 04:28 Psychlone wrote:


If you have mutas and Hive tech, you can have Brood Lords instead of Ultras, no?

On October 01 2010 02:09 kcdc wrote:
People understand that this was Blizzard's intention, right? Originally, splash extended at a range of 2 from the center of the target hit. In 1.1, splash was buffed to extend at a range of 2 from the outer surface of the target hit. In 1.1.1, splash was nerfed to extend (as intended) at a range of 2 from the front of the ultralisk, where the attack originates. This does nerf splash from the original version because the distance from the front of the ultralisk to the center of the target hit extended the splash radius beyond the intended radius of 2. Since the additional splash range was equal to the radius of the target hit, it was most visible with large targets like thors and siege tanks, but it was also present with smaller units like marines. It seems clear to me that this patch reverts the splash radius to the original design intents, but people seem upset because it is an effectively smaller splash radius than they were used to.

I won't comment on what the optimal splash radius is, but I think it makes much more sense for the splash to originate from the front of the ultralisk than from the center of the target hit. The latter created an odd situation where splash radius depended on the size of the target. Now, the splash radius will be constant. The issue shouldn't be whether splash should be reverted to its previous state, but rather what the optimal radius is. If ultras are found to be too weak now, splash radius could be buffed slightly beyond 2.

On October 01 2010 02:09 kcdc wrote:
People understand that this was Blizzard's intention, right? Originally, splash extended at a range of 2 from the center of the target hit. In 1.1, splash was buffed to extend at a range of 2 from the outer surface of the target hit. In 1.1.1, splash was nerfed to extend (as intended) at a range of 2 from the front of the ultralisk, where the attack originates. This does nerf splash from the original version because the distance from the front of the ultralisk to the center of the target hit extended the splash radius beyond the intended radius of 2. Since the additional splash range was equal to the radius of the target hit, it was most visible with large targets like thors and siege tanks, but it was also present with smaller units like marines. It seems clear to me that this patch reverts the splash radius to the original design intents, but people seem upset because it is an effectively smaller splash radius than they were used to.

I won't comment on what the optimal splash radius is, but I think it makes much more sense for the splash to originate from the front of the ultralisk than from the center of the target hit. The latter created an odd situation where splash radius depended on the size of the target. Now, the splash radius will be constant. The issue shouldn't be whether splash should be reverted to its previous state, but rather what the optimal radius is. If ultras are found to be too weak now, splash radius could be buffed slightly beyond 2.

On October 01 2010 01:27 AssuredVacancy wrote:


Wait, one of our core units for lategame has its damage output decreased by pretty much 50% and you say it's been blown out of proportion?

There's barely any micro involved at all, there's nothing really strategically interesting about it except that you need "bigger stuff" if the game gets to T3.

On October 01 2010 06:59 Sairon wrote:


1.1 didn't change it at all, it simply introduced the ordinary attack on buildings, at which point it became obvious.

Ultras in beta did more splash, 50 dmg to everything ( iirc ), 100% splash dmg and about the same radius as now. The only difference compared to the beta ultra, which everyone thought was useless, is that the current incarnation can't be affected by slow effects.

Personally I think the ultra is a boring T3 unit, especially as it is now. There's barely any micro involved at all, there's nothing really strategically interesting about it except that you need "bigger stuff" if the game gets to T3.

On October 01 2010 07:08 fdsdfg wrote:


The original ultra was only 20 damage, splash was smaller (splash was what it is now), it didn't have speed, it had 50 more hp, and it was affected by slow/stun.

Then they had the splash change.. they changed the damage to the 15+35 armored, nerfed the hp to 400, then gave them back 50 hp, immunity to slow/stun, and the speed upgrade for free. Then they took off 5 damage to armored and changed the splash back to original.

It's much better than it was at the beginning of beta.

On October 01 2010 07:05 ch4ppi wrote:

I found Ultralisks quiet micro intensive due to their size, you have to micro them around a lot to give them correct targets.

Btw. I had a ZvZ today, which was pretty nice. It ended with a MassHydra vs Ultra/Infestor(my part)
My experience showed me that UltraInfestor is far superior over Hydra, well today I lost some fights, where u felt like u should have had enough to kill him.
So I really felt the difference. Ultra in late ZvZ isnt that great anymore =/ even with the right support. Poor fattys.

They NEED to change that back. i hope some1 can squeeze a statement out of Blizzard on Blizzcon

On October 01 2010 07:24 AzureD wrote:


I am not so sure about that. They used to do 100% splash damage which was really good. But later it was changed to something like 33%. That was probably the single biggest nerf the Ultra ever got.

On October 01 2010 07:08 fdsdfg wrote:


The original ultra was only 20 damage, splash was smaller (splash was what it is now), it didn't have speed, it had 50 more hp, and it was affected by slow/stun.

Then they had the splash change.. they changed the damage to the 15+35 armored, nerfed the hp to 400, then gave them back 50 hp, immunity to slow/stun, and the speed upgrade for free. Then they took off 5 damage to armored and changed the splash back to original.

It's much better than it was at the beginning of beta.

We did a little extra tracking on our end, and indeed, the Ultralisk bug existed at one point during the beta, so unfortunately, it's been around awhile and thus why many people thought it had been working as intended.

As it stands now, this unit is working as intended. As always though, we are continuing to keep a close eye on how this affects gameplay on multiple levels and will continue to watch for constructive feedback from the community.