• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 12:52
CEST 18:52
KST 01:52
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach0[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple2BSL Season 2313Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon101Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10
StarCraft 2
General
How do you feel about the StarCraft shooter announcement at BlizzCon 2026? Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Grand Finals ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 544 Double Trouble The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses Mutation # 542 The Ascended
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder an AI researcher's take on the ladder bot [ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach StarCraft Human 'N' AI League BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 2 [ASL22] Ro8 Day 1 [IPSL] IPSL is Back With Winter 26-27!
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Total Annihilation Zero Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread All you football fans (soccer)!
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Violent-Cooperative Play and…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 13403 users

HotS Balance Thoughts - April 17 - Page 3

Forum Index > SC2 General
176 CommentsPost a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Next All
CakeSauc3
Profile Joined February 2011
United States1437 Posts
April 17 2015 19:43 GMT
#41
ZvP just got fun to watch again. I'd rather enjoy the game for a while before it gets broken again, please.
DomeGetta
Profile Joined February 2012
480 Posts
April 17 2015 19:47 GMT
#42
Why does Blizzard hate unit caps so much?

I didn't play broodwar but heard that they had limits on total number for certain units.

Seems to me this would fix a lot of the issues they are trying to target (Raven / SH)..

Pick a cap and BAM no more "mass SH" or "mass raven" comps that make the game ridiculously boring to play /watch.

Tuczniak
Profile Joined September 2010
1561 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-04-17 20:07:07
April 17 2015 19:53 GMT
#43
On April 18 2015 04:47 DomeGetta wrote:
Why does Blizzard hate unit caps so much?

I didn't play broodwar but heard that they had limits on total number for certain units.

Seems to me this would fix a lot of the issues they are trying to target (Raven / SH)..

Pick a cap and BAM no more "mass SH" or "mass raven" comps that make the game ridiculously boring to play /watch.

There was a limit for how many units you can select. Specific unit cap was introduced for the first time in WoL with Mothership

edit: thanks Elentos for correction
Dingodile
Profile Joined December 2011
4139 Posts
April 17 2015 19:54 GMT
#44
On April 18 2015 04:43 CakeSauc3 wrote:
ZvP just got fun to watch again. I'd rather enjoy the game for a while before it gets broken again, please.

Yes is fun to watch ZvP without Swarm Hosts. But not how Zerg is useless against Protoss and Terran Mech Lategame.
Grubby | ToD | Moon | Lyn | Sky
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
April 17 2015 19:54 GMT
#45
On April 18 2015 04:47 DomeGetta wrote:
Why does Blizzard hate unit caps so much?

I didn't play broodwar but heard that they had limits on total number for certain units.

Seems to me this would fix a lot of the issues they are trying to target (Raven / SH)..

Pick a cap and BAM no more "mass SH" or "mass raven" comps that make the game ridiculously boring to play /watch.


No they didn't. You may be confusing this with the general selection limit of broodwar, which was 12. You could only select 12 units at a time, which made it so that certain units were rarely played in a greater number than 12, probably most famously mutalisks.
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
April 17 2015 19:59 GMT
#46
On April 18 2015 04:54 Dingodile wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2015 04:43 CakeSauc3 wrote:
ZvP just got fun to watch again. I'd rather enjoy the game for a while before it gets broken again, please.

Yes is fun to watch ZvP without Swarm Hosts. But not how Zerg is useless against Protoss and Terran Mech Lategame.


I'm really not so sure about ZvP lategame. The Tempest nerf was really very big.
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55594 Posts
April 17 2015 20:00 GMT
#47
On April 18 2015 04:53 Tuczniak wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2015 04:47 DomeGetta wrote:
Why does Blizzard hate unit caps so much?

I didn't play broodwar but heard that they had limits on total number for certain units.

Seems to me this would fix a lot of the issues they are trying to target (Raven / SH)..

Pick a cap and BAM no more "mass SH" or "mass raven" comps that make the game ridiculously boring to play /watch.

There was a limit for how many units you can select. Specific unit cap was introduced for the first time in HotS with mothership core.

You could only have one mothership in WoL, no?
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
Tuczniak
Profile Joined September 2010
1561 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-04-17 20:06:29
April 17 2015 20:05 GMT
#48
On April 18 2015 05:00 Elentos wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2015 04:53 Tuczniak wrote:
On April 18 2015 04:47 DomeGetta wrote:
Why does Blizzard hate unit caps so much?

I didn't play broodwar but heard that they had limits on total number for certain units.

Seems to me this would fix a lot of the issues they are trying to target (Raven / SH)..

Pick a cap and BAM no more "mass SH" or "mass raven" comps that make the game ridiculously boring to play /watch.

There was a limit for how many units you can select. Specific unit cap was introduced for the first time in HotS with mothership core.

You could only have one mothership in WoL, no?
Yeah, my bad. Corrected. I'm too used to MSC being before mothership.
sitromit
Profile Joined June 2011
7051 Posts
April 17 2015 20:13 GMT
#49
They don't want mass SH to be viable, so they nerf it. OK, but why then, do they want mass Raven to be viable? Why aren't they nerfing Ravens so people don't mass them anymore? What's the difference? Is mass Raven a better playstyle than mass SH? Is it more enjoyable to watch?

I dare say it's worse.
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-04-17 20:31:16
April 17 2015 20:25 GMT
#50
On April 18 2015 05:13 sitromit wrote:
They don't want mass SH to be viable, so they nerf it. OK, but why then, do they want mass Raven to be viable? Why aren't they nerfing Ravens so people don't mass them anymore? What's the difference? Is mass Raven a better playstyle than mass SH? Is it more enjoyable to watch?

I dare say it's worse.

having one race autolose to certain compositions has never been a problem to them. Since the days of BL/Infestor against Protoss they have shown incredibly ignorance to the problem that is near unbeatable compositions, for as long as "they don't observe it". And they don't observe it, because noone is so stupid to repeatedly try to macro it out. Just watch TvP. The matchup is imbalanced as fuck in the lategame, but they don't give a fuck for as long as Terrans has brokenly strong SCV-pulls they will get around that problem and then we never "observe" Tempest/Colossus/Templar deathballs. I guess they are aiming for the same "balance" in TvZ now. The new swarm host is a prime example of this. The idea is to give zerg a unit that will absolutely wreck you if you let it go unpunished for longer, but using it will trigger an allinish counterattack. The alternative is that zerg tries to break the raven player. Thus the game should end fast either way and they are happy.
sitromit
Profile Joined June 2011
7051 Posts
April 17 2015 20:34 GMT
#51
On April 18 2015 05:25 Big J wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2015 05:13 sitromit wrote:
They don't want mass SH to be viable, so they nerf it. OK, but why then, do they want mass Raven to be viable? Why aren't they nerfing Ravens so people don't mass them anymore? What's the difference? Is mass Raven a better playstyle than mass SH? Is it more enjoyable to watch?

I dare say it's worse.

having one race autolose to certain compositions has never been a problem to them. Since the days of BL/Infestor against Protoss they have shown incredibly ignorance to the problem that is near unbeatable compositions, for as long as "they don't observe it". And they don't observe it, because noone is so stupid to repeatedly try to macro it out. Just watch TvP. The matchup is imbalanced as fuck in the lategame, but they don't give a fuck for as long as Terrans has brokenly strong SCV-pulls they will get around that problem and then we never "observe" Tempest/Colossus/Templar deathballs. I guess they are aiming for the same "balance" in TvZ now. The new swarm host is a prime example of this. The idea is to give zerg a unit that will absolutely wreck you if you let it go unpunished for longer, but using it will trigger an allinish counterattack. Thus the game should end fast either way and they are happy.

That's a different topic. What I'm talking about is that this SH nerf/change was by their own admission not done for balance reasons. Even in these notes they say they may feel obliged to step in because the balance was good at the time of the patch and that may no longer be the case.

So they nerfed SHs because of gameplay reasons because they found mass SH to be a bad/problematic playstyle. Does this mean they like mass Ravens? Because I don't see the difference. In fact, when they nerfed Infestors back in the day, they said something similar, that they want it to be a support caster only and they don't want people massing them. Do Ravens have some kind of untouchable status, why aren't they being nerfed?
CuttyVu
Profile Joined January 2013
Czech Republic28 Posts
April 17 2015 20:42 GMT
#52
On April 18 2015 05:34 sitromit wrote:
Do Ravens have some kind of untouchable status, why aren't they being nerfed?


IMO they aren't getting nerfed because they are needed early game TvT
TheDwf
Profile Joined November 2011
France19747 Posts
April 17 2015 20:44 GMT
#53
On April 18 2015 05:34 sitromit wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2015 05:25 Big J wrote:
On April 18 2015 05:13 sitromit wrote:
They don't want mass SH to be viable, so they nerf it. OK, but why then, do they want mass Raven to be viable? Why aren't they nerfing Ravens so people don't mass them anymore? What's the difference? Is mass Raven a better playstyle than mass SH? Is it more enjoyable to watch?

I dare say it's worse.

having one race autolose to certain compositions has never been a problem to them. Since the days of BL/Infestor against Protoss they have shown incredibly ignorance to the problem that is near unbeatable compositions, for as long as "they don't observe it". And they don't observe it, because noone is so stupid to repeatedly try to macro it out. Just watch TvP. The matchup is imbalanced as fuck in the lategame, but they don't give a fuck for as long as Terrans has brokenly strong SCV-pulls they will get around that problem and then we never "observe" Tempest/Colossus/Templar deathballs. I guess they are aiming for the same "balance" in TvZ now. The new swarm host is a prime example of this. The idea is to give zerg a unit that will absolutely wreck you if you let it go unpunished for longer, but using it will trigger an allinish counterattack. Thus the game should end fast either way and they are happy.

That's a different topic. What I'm talking about is that this SH nerf/change was by their own admission not done for balance reasons. Even in these notes they say they may feel obliged to step in because the balance was good at the time of the patch and that may no longer be the case.

So they nerfed SHs because of gameplay reasons because they found mass SH to be a bad/problematic playstyle. Does this mean they like mass Ravens? Because I don't see the difference. In fact, when they nerfed Infestors back in the day, they said something similar, that they want it to be a support caster only and they don't want people massing them. Do Ravens have some kind of untouchable status, why aren't they being nerfed?

Surely you're not realizing only now that they have completely arbitrary judgements about what needs to be maintained or not in the game?
Big J
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria16289 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-04-17 20:50:38
April 17 2015 20:47 GMT
#54
On April 18 2015 05:34 sitromit wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2015 05:25 Big J wrote:
On April 18 2015 05:13 sitromit wrote:
They don't want mass SH to be viable, so they nerf it. OK, but why then, do they want mass Raven to be viable? Why aren't they nerfing Ravens so people don't mass them anymore? What's the difference? Is mass Raven a better playstyle than mass SH? Is it more enjoyable to watch?

I dare say it's worse.

having one race autolose to certain compositions has never been a problem to them. Since the days of BL/Infestor against Protoss they have shown incredibly ignorance to the problem that is near unbeatable compositions, for as long as "they don't observe it". And they don't observe it, because noone is so stupid to repeatedly try to macro it out. Just watch TvP. The matchup is imbalanced as fuck in the lategame, but they don't give a fuck for as long as Terrans has brokenly strong SCV-pulls they will get around that problem and then we never "observe" Tempest/Colossus/Templar deathballs. I guess they are aiming for the same "balance" in TvZ now. The new swarm host is a prime example of this. The idea is to give zerg a unit that will absolutely wreck you if you let it go unpunished for longer, but using it will trigger an allinish counterattack. Thus the game should end fast either way and they are happy.

That's a different topic. What I'm talking about is that this SH nerf/change was by their own admission not done for balance reasons. Even in these notes they say they may feel obliged to step in because the balance was good at the time of the patch and that may no longer be the case.

So they nerfed SHs because of gameplay reasons because they found mass SH to be a bad/problematic playstyle. Does this mean they like mass Ravens? Because I don't see the difference. In fact, when they nerfed Infestors back in the day, they said something similar, that they want it to be a support caster only and they don't want people massing them. Do Ravens have some kind of untouchable status, why aren't they being nerfed?


No it is this exact topic. They have no problem with mass Ravens or any other unit being a pseudo-wincondition that gets achieved by just sitting back and massing the unit. They have a problem with both players having that option because they might use it and then the game becomes boring from their perspective.
Given that the swarm host has led to ultimate stalemate balance in all three matchups - they already patched it in ZvZ - it was the easy choice. If they did that to Ravens, not only would ZvP still sometimes stalemate, but Mech might have been not playable anymore against Zerg.

They are only interested in balancing what they observe. And by balancing I mean statistically. They are not interested in the underlying strategical implications that lead to that metagame and winrate/tournament-winrate.
andrewlt
Profile Joined August 2009
United States7702 Posts
April 17 2015 21:05 GMT
#55
On April 18 2015 05:13 sitromit wrote:
They don't want mass SH to be viable, so they nerf it. OK, but why then, do they want mass Raven to be viable? Why aren't they nerfing Ravens so people don't mass them anymore? What's the difference? Is mass Raven a better playstyle than mass SH? Is it more enjoyable to watch?

I dare say it's worse.


Is the Raven the problem or just PDD, which is a dumb spell design?

I have the best solution for all these problematic units and spells. Shift + Del. In the meantime, HotS could use some bandaids if things get completely out of whack.
zerge
Profile Joined December 2012
Germany162 Posts
April 17 2015 21:13 GMT
#56
I voted for act fast as in dont let this sit for months. I have used the new swarmhost in zvp quite a bit as a harassment tool and i have to say they are quite horrible. Their price is far too high for the damage you can do with them. Also voidrays chase them down (same speed but they catch up beeing air units).
Broodlords should get a movement speed increase to compensate for the large maps and to make them more microable in battle.
Roaches dont really need a buff rather they should look at nydus and overlord drops both of which can be usefull against mech and have been neglected forever.
[PkF] Wire
Profile Joined March 2013
France24239 Posts
April 17 2015 21:34 GMT
#57
WAIT LONGER.
Detri
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United Kingdom683 Posts
April 17 2015 21:55 GMT
#58
On April 18 2015 03:13 Zealously wrote:
In the beta, I am in favor of acting fast and acting crazy. It has very little impact and has a chance of accidentally creating something really good and entertaining. The exact opposite of the tournament-version game (HotS), where I advocate consideration and meticulous testing above all things. But as for the current state of SHs...

Go crazy, please.



100% agree, blizzard should be going nuts in the beta with changes so that players don't have to deal with massive changes when their futures depend on it.
The poor are thieves, beggars and whores, the rich are politicians, solicitors and courtesans...
VArsovski_SC
Profile Joined April 2015
14 Posts
April 17 2015 21:55 GMT
#59
Fix the issue that flying locusts become a punching bag for air units, make them able to be landed before they're in a reach of a ground opponent unit, or make them able to fly and land on a certain CD - say 8 sec CD or sth, OR - at least make the swarmhosts themselves able to choose whether they launch flying or ground locusts

OR increaes the movement speed of locusts slightly while in air mode

Game is good, fresh, more dynamic, but there are some issues that I think are rather dealable with as long as that is fixed

Fix that issue, and when that's done - wait longer to see the effects (I think they'll be fine at the end eventually), but right now as it is - Flying locusts are a liability rather than improvement I think
nick00bot
Profile Joined November 2010
326 Posts
April 17 2015 21:56 GMT
#60
On April 18 2015 04:39 fastr wrote:
a unit which actually offers decent micro opportunity for Zergs (which I think they lack compared to T and P) and used to be useful in both late game ZvP and ZvT in WoL? I would absolutely LOVE to see an increase in neural parasite's range (maybe 11?), I think it would allow the Zerg to engage a more cost-effectively and allow more even trades, hence resolving the issue where zergs can't attack a turtling mech/Protoss player and get stomped when they've mined out their side of the map.
Don't you miss those kind of moves?
IdrA's roach immortals vs MC, MLG Colombus 2011
Vintage Destiny b8ing the Good ol' CombatEX


Agreed, I think a small infestor buff could be the way to go, as it would help zergs dreadful late game while making a well-designed unit more prominent.

As for the swarm host, I do think that the way they are now, they really have no niche. The supply cost makes it so that you can't really get them as you approach 200 supply, because then your army will be too small and you will just get killed. This leaves acquiring swarm hosts as a 3 base, 100-130 supply kind of move. at this point, It is a huge investment that hurts your economy, and I hardly see any situation where zergs wouldn't just rather go muta.

Either the supply needs to be reverted, or flying locusts need to be more useful. I would go with making swarm host 3 supply again, same cost, and increasing flying locust movement speed about 5 to 10 percent %, allowing them to be used as big unit snipers and long range harass
SoO~Speed~Serral~$o$~Dark~Myungsik~TY~Byun~Classic
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Yamato Cup
15:00
#8
killerbeecast7
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
mouzStarbuck 174
BRAT_OK 68
Codebar 7
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 55092
Shuttle 1536
Rush 164
firebathero 150
Dewaltoss 134
Mong 72
Hyun 59
Trap 28
Bale 28
Sexy 24
[ Show more ]
HiyA 20
ajuk12(nOOB) 6
Dota 2
qojqva3029
Counter-Strike
fl0m1556
Fnx 1249
edward45
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox195
Mew2King32
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor531
Liquid`Hasu258
MindelVK24
Other Games
Liquid`RaSZi2107
B2W.Neo1130
Beastyqt755
KnowMe146
ArmadaUGS124
QueenE92
Organizations
StarCraft 2
WardiTV1620
Other Games
BasetradeTV255
gamesdonequick109
StarCraft 2
angryscii 27
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 6
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 50
• Reevou 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Michael_bg 3
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV721
Other Games
• Shiphtur297
Upcoming Events
BSL Open Qualifier
2h 8m
BSL Open Qualifier
2h 8m
OSC
6h 8m
Replay Cast
7h 8m
Afreeca Starleague
17h 8m
Soma vs Jaedong
WardiTV Weekly
18h 8m
Monday Night Weeklies
23h 8m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 17h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 17h
Leta vs Soulkey
PiGosaur Cup
2 days
[ Show More ]
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
Online Event
5 days
FEL
5 days
BSL: Ladder Tournament
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #5 - GSA
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Calamity Invitational

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Custodian Cup
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.