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This week we’d like to discuss the Zerg balance concerns that were mentioned that week, and also discuss the results of the TLMC and which maps seemed like a good fit for the ladder!
Zerg Feedback
First, we would like to thank everyone who was constructive in this discussion. We know that it’s easier to just make extreme conclusions while putting little thought into some of the proposals, so it’s always cool to see players focused on figuring out what’s best for the game.
Something rather odd that we wanted to point out is that we are seeing our Korean community (non-pros) agreeing quite heavily with the current pro-stance, whereas the non-Korean community disagrees with such a big move. Since we wanted to be absolutely sure we’re going down the right path, we took the time to further analyze the current situation and discuss the state of Zerg with both sides.
After having many more discussions not just with Kespa, but also with some of the non-Korean pro players as well, we realized the main feedback is that Zerg is having a lot of trouble against Liberator harassment.
For this issue, we want to make sure that Liberators aren’t nerfed in other matchups, so we should focus on a Zerg buff that doesn’t impact them. Some potential solutions can be decreasing the root time of Spore Crawlers and/or increasing the Queen’s AA range. Also, after drilling deeper into the actual concerns of the pros, we realized that a larvae buff isn’t the right direction. It’s too big of a change across the board (as many of you have also pointed out), and if we need to help Zerg deal with Liberators, we can just target that specific problem instead.
Let’s continue getting productive discussions going on these proposals to see if we have a direction we can start testing.
Season 3 Maps
It was cool to see that the highest voted and best map from the contest was New Gettysburg, which was also our top pick. Other than this map, we wanted to let you know that we’re in the process of working on the last few map picks from the TL.net map contest.
The first choice of the three was quite simple. We just took the highest placed macro map: Apotheosis, since that’s what the majority of the players view as the strongest macro map out of this list.
Going down the list after that, we realized that even though the next two are both macro maps, Galactic Process felt strong due to the use of backdoor paths, how the 3rd and 4th bases are laid out, and the potential use of gold bases which could add an interesting depth to the map as well.
These selections would leave us with one map slot, and without any rush maps being represented. Out of the maps that favor rush, we felt Dasan Station is very interesting because it’s a new map as well as a rush map.
We believe that these four maps would represent the new map additions that are coming really well—not just because we would have a very strong mix of maps from different categories, but also because all of these maps scored highly in your voting.
Please let us know your thoughts/considerations in the comments below!
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United States97276 Posts
wow Dasan Station made it
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surprised about dasan tbh. It can either become an awesome ladder addiction or the most terrible disaster ever in the sc2 ladder. gotta see, not a fan to be honest 
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We know that it’s easier to just make extreme conclusions while putting little thought into some of the proposals
hehe well said
Seriously tho, remove the liberator
Seriously tho, take caution with anymore buffing
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Queen range buff... let's hope history doesn't repeat itself if that goes through
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Queen range buff what could go wrong.
only vs air though I think it would be ok
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Wow so Blizzard not only doesn't care about what maps they make, they also don't care about what maps other people make. Dasan Station on ladder, really?
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queen AA range buff would also be a huge buff in PvZ (both for killing prisms and phoenix). It's potentially a good change because as we all know Z is not in the best place currently in both mus but it could actually be far better than it sounds.
Also Dasan Station lol, here goes my first veto. Doesn't matter since the rest of the map pool looks really fantastic.
Finally, I would like to emphasize how much I'm liking those short, clear and overall sensible updates.
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Bisutopia19316 Posts
How about the inject larva ability is renamed to inject and can be used on a spore/spine crawler which temporarily buffs movement speed and burrow/unburrow speed?
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okay 1 automatic veto with dasan station.
But well, with KSS, Frost, gettysburg, Apotheosis and Galactic Process I think it's still the best mappool in a long time so can't really complain. Just wish shiva made it.
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On June 18 2016 03:30 Charoisaur wrote:
But well, with KSS, Frost, gettysburg, Apotheosis and Galactic Process I think it's still the best mappool in a long time.
agree, it's the best set of maps we got for ages. I'm just sad that maybe some huge bo7 series will end on Dasan.
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On June 18 2016 03:22 IeZaeL wrote:surprised about dasan tbh. It can either become an awesome ladder addiction or the most terrible disaster ever in the sc2 ladder. gotta see, not a fan to be honest
the competition is really strong in this category.
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On June 18 2016 03:32 Charoisaur wrote:Show nested quote +On June 18 2016 03:22 IeZaeL wrote:surprised about dasan tbh. It can either become an awesome ladder addiction or the most terrible disaster ever in the sc2 ladder. gotta see, not a fan to be honest the competition is really strong in this category.
dasan is a really strong contender though, at least Daedalus 1.0 strenght.
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Holy shit queen AA range is already at 7, I don't think buffing it would be reasonable.
Buffing spores root time makes a lot of sense though.
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Realistically they will hold any patch back, until the new maps is arrived. I don't think Queen range buff is any good though, but I think they picked this to softly nerf Phoenix as well.
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I'm not sure Liberators are the only problem. I would buff spore root time AND probably try to make baneling nest/bane speed happen earlier or cheaper, because early game bio pushes can also be brutal afaik.
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Surprised that it's Liberator harass giving pro Zergs the most trouble, I don't find Terran OP at a mid masters level but obviously that's where the hesitation on rolling out a balance patch is, Zerg sucks in Korea where the level of play is essentially tip top but is OP against foreign Protoss/Terran players, I feel for the balance team on this one.
Zerg anti-air sucks balls anyways, maybe the Queen buff could help fight against Skytoss/Templar compositions which are becoming a nightmare to deal with lately. The damage is so low anyways and most air units have high HP so making Queens a bit less pathetic against air sounds reasonable.
The spore buff sounds pretty good as well to be honest, smaller and cautious but sometimes that's okay.
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Oh god Dasan station. I hate that map. And I'm not sure placing 8th out of 15 counts at scoring highly.
Galactic Process felt strong due to the use of backdoor paths
??? You mean the backdoor paths that were never used in the entire tournament, and were constantly the butt of jokes? The backdoors were easily the weakest feature of Galactic Process, and even with the changes to make them more usable I doubt we'll see them much.
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On June 18 2016 03:33 [PkF] Wire wrote:
Holy shit queen AA range is already at 7, I don't think buffing it would be reasonable.
Buffing spores root time makes a lot of sense though.
I actually like the change. only early game harass (liberators, medivacs, phoenixes) is really affected which is the part zerg struggle currently. In mid-lategame it probably won't make a big difference.
edit: banshee affected too which is a nerf to hellion banshee openings, not sure I like the change anymore, just reduce spore uproot time.
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On June 18 2016 03:29 BisuDagger wrote:
How about the inject larva ability is renamed to inject and can be used on a spore/spine crawler which temporarily buffs movement speed and burrow/unburrow speed?
It would never get used. When given the choice between injecting a hatch and not injecting a hatch the Zerg will 100% of the time pick the hatchery. There's just no way they could make the burrow/unburrow speed short enough to make it worth it, short of teleportation, and even then I doubt it
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EPT![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CM809rKWoAAiV0C.jpg)
