Upcoming Balance Patch

Thank you everyone for playtesting and giving us feedback on the balance test map.

We wanted to let you know our thoughts after extensive testing on the balance test map, hearing your feedback, gathering pro level feedback, looking at the ladder stats, and watching the various tournament games around the world throughout HotS.

1. Pro level balance is looking great in all 3 regions.

2. Ladder data is showing no sign of imbalance at any skill level.

3. We think it's too early to be making changes to promote different types of play. Even at the pro level, ZvP for example has changed a lot within the last couple weeks which makes us think players still need time to explore the game.

4. Oracle/Burrow changes could be problematic as you guys bring up, and we really don't want to risk messing with a game that's already really solid. Especially since the game is still changing frequently without balance patches, we just don't think it's a good time to be exploring new options yet.

5. A change for ZvZ is still looking like it's necessary.

More specifically for ZvZ, we're starting to think:
- Defending against early Mutalisk harasses are so much easier now with the Spore change.

- Best case scenario, it'll be possible to not only tech to Mutalisks but other options as well.

- Worst case scenario, even if Muta/Ling/Bane is still the best way to play the matchup, it'll be easier to mix Infestors in due to Mutalisk offense being weaker and defense being stronger. Which means games that go to Mutalisk + Infestors will be more common compared to only mutalisks, and from this point onwards, there's potential that strategies can branch out to other units.

- We'd much rather go in smaller steps to address this issue rather than tweaking something big that does something so drastic that could cause problems in other matchups.

Therefore, we're currently looking at just doing the Spore Crawler change next week at the earliest.

We'd just like to point out once again that one of the major reasons that SC2 is looking better than ever right now is because we were able to incorporate our community in the development process. However, the game is definitely not perfect and there's always room for improvement so we will continue to do our best to loop everyone in our thoughts as well as future changes to the game, and thank you again for your help.