Blizzard's Potential Balance Test Map Changes

Hello everyone~

We're currently thinking of trying out a couple changes just on a balance test map in a couple weeks or so. We're not looking to do any major changes because the game is in a fairly solid state but just wanted to give a heads up on our current thinking in order to get your feedback.

Main thing we're hoping to address soon is the ling/muta strategy in ZvZ. We heard your feedback on changes such as Hydralisk AA damage increase, but we'd like to go smaller in changes if possible. For example, if we increase the +bio damage on Spore Crawlers, it would only affect the ZvZ matchup which is a very small change even if we go big on the +bio damage value.

The hope here is to have more Infestors come into play in the mass Muta on Muta battles and/or bring the fight more so to the ground because it'll be more easily possible to stay on the ground due to less resources on defense needed to fend off Mutalisk attacks.

Of course ZvZ or any other matchup can change completely in the next weeks, but as of now we think this is the biggest issue in HotS.

A few other things we're thinking on but are really not even close to final on are:
1. Oracle movement speed increase
To really reward high skilled usage of Oracles. Even when air units are in play, it could be possible for the highest end players to perfectly use Oracles without losing them.

2. Burrow cost and/or research time down
Towards the beginning of HotS, early burrow attacks showed some decent potential but we never see it anymore. We thought this variety in opening especially on the Zerg that usually play a defensive early game was cool. So we're wondering how early game Zerg can evolve if we made early game attacks using burrow more effective.

As always, nothing is final at this point, but just wanted to give an update on our current thoughts. Please let us know what you think and as always in a live game, we will definitely take our time to evaluate everything before making any moves.

-David Kim