EPT
War Chest
War Chest is the name of a new series of seasonal content for StarCraft II. Players who take part in the War Chest will be presented with an unlockable star map. As they gain experience points through playing StarCraft II ladder matches or cooperative missions online, players can use those points to open up different pathways through the map, which will unlock fun bits of story and lore, as well as exclusive digital content including unit skins, portraits, decals, and emojis.
Players gain access to each season of the War Chest by paying a nominal fee. Proceeds from each season will go into funding the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS).
Co-op updates
Since the feature debuted with the launch of Legacy of the Void, cooperative missions have become a very popular game mode in StarCraft II. More exciting content is coming for cooperative in the coming months.
A new commander, Stukov, is based on a popular infested Terran character from both the original StarCraft and StarCraft II campaigns. Stukov’s base will consist of Infested Terran structures that constantly spawn infested units. This will make his gameplay style markedly different from other commanders.
A pair of new cooperative missions will also release soon. Miner Evacuation will task players with escorting civilians off of a dangerous planet. Dark of Night is based off a popular Arcade mission called Left2Die, where countless waves of infested are sent to overwhelm the players.
Another new feature coming soon to cooperative missions will be leaderboards. All cooperative games will be scored, and the best scores will be posted online for other players to try and beat.
Nova Covert Ops
The final three missions to Nova Covert Ops will release soon, bringing a thrilling conclusion to the downloadable campaign that kicked off earlier this year.
Multiplayer update
A comprehensive set of multiplayer design changes is coming to StarCraft II shortly after BlizzCon. The changes have been in public testing for the last couple of months. Terran changes will allow for more viable mech play with a full overhaul of the Cyclone and Siege Tank, with the latter being given a big damage buff in exchange for the removal of its ability to be picked up and dropped off by Medivacs while in siege mode. Zerg changes include a range and speed buff for the Hydralisk as well as a Baneling health buff. Protoss adjustments include a new ability for the Tempest, which serves as a tool for zoning and area denial, a speed increase for Zealots, and blink for Dark Templar.
The changes are intended not just to shake up the metagame for competitive StarCraft II—the hope is to increase overall strategic diversity and bring the game to a state where the meta can evolve in a healthy way on its own. For a full list of changes, check the StarCraft II website: http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20241474/legacy-of-the-void-multiplayer-design-changes-8-14-2016
