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Source: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/20760956093
We hope you all had a nice holiday season and have been enjoying the exciting matches happening at WCS, GSL, WESG and IEM. Though we issued a patch just recently, we’d like to take quick action on a few things based on what we’ve been observing in the live game and hearing in the forums.
Our currently goal is to push the next balance update live on January 29—but that is subject to change. Since this update is scheduled right before a number of key esports events for StarCraft II, we’re also planning to release a balance update mod prior to the patch going live so pro players have more time to practice.
Terran
Ghost
We wanted to test out switching the upgrade built into the Ghost to see if we could create new tactical possibilities. This hasn’t really worked out the way we’d hoped it would; the extra energy for EMP hasn’t proven to be all that impactful, especially at high levels of play, compared to Cloak timings. Ultimately, the changes have resulted in an unintended nerf to the Ghost, so we’re going to revert the change entirely. Ghosts will have to research Cloak at the Ghost Academy, and will start with 75 energy instead of 50.
Raven
The Raven currently functions purely in a support role, which is a difficult one for an expensive detector/caster combination to fulfil in the early game. We think the issue is that since Terran players only have a small window of time in the early game to attach a Tech Lab to their first Starport, they often just choose to attach a Reactor instead—so they can easily mass produce Vikings, Medivacs and/or Liberators for midgame fights. Starport Tech Lab units have to provide more immediate value to justify both their cost and the trade-off of attaching a Tech Lab instead of a Reactor. Right now, the Raven is simply too much of an investment for the benefit it provides in the early game. We propose bringing back the Auto-Turret. Prior to our November update, we saw that players can use an early game Raven to harass and then transition it into more of a support/detection role. This adaptability helps offset its high cost and gives Terran players more ways to make their opening moves in a game. Auto-Turret would replace the current Repair Drone.
We’re also looking at improving Interference Matrix and Anti-Armor Missile. For the Interference Matrix, we’re testing out an increase in duration to 10 seconds. We think the current 6 seconds might be too low for a single-target disable. The Anti-Armor Missile, meanwhile, is difficult to land effectively, which often makes it too risky a purchase given how expensive it is. We’re testing a number of changes, which include: reducing its energy cost to 75; increasing its blast radius; and eliminating its startup phase, allowing the missile to start moving towards its target as soon as it’s executed.
Zerg
Hydralisk
Hydralisks currently act as a powerful midgame unit against Terran and Protoss. When fully upgraded, they can help secure a late-game transition for Zerg players, or a quick victory if the opponent is unprepared. We feel that this is a good role for them, but their upgrades can come online too quickly. We’re trying to make it a little more “costly” to upgrade Hydralisks by once again splitting Muscular Augments into two separate upgrades. The cost of each upgrade will remain the same at 100 Minerals, 100 Vespene Gas, and 100 seconds of research time, but this doubles the time it takes to fully upgrade Hydralisks.
Viper
There is currently a bug in the game that causes Parasitic Bomb to deal damage instantly upon impact, rather than after a 1 second cooldown as we intended. We’re fixing this, which means the ability is getting a slight nerf.
Protoss
Stalker
Similar to the change to Hydralisks, we wanted to focus on Protoss’s midgame power. Stalkers are quite powerful at sniping units right now, which makes them a bit too capable of eliminating all early-game threats. This can give Protoss players an unfair lead, resulting in powerful advantages in the mid and late-game. The buff also resulted in Stalkers overlapping more with Adepts for the early game anti-light unit role. We want to go with our previously mentioned change of bringing Stalker damage to 13 (+5 Armored) and decreasing their attack period to 1.87. The change in damage would make Stalkers (with zero upgrades) able to kill a Marine with four shots, while the increase in attack speed would allow Stalkers to dispatch Zerglings more quickly. The damage change also means that upgrades will have +1 to base damage and +1 to armored, instead of +2 to base damage. As a result, Stalkers will scale less favorably against light targets but still scale better versus armored than they did prior to the November design patch.
Recall
We wanted to add an additional 1 second of delay for the Mothership and the Nexus when these units warp in before players can command them. This will bring the overall time that units spend unable to take actions closer to pre-4.0 Recall timing, giving opponents a bit more time to react to incoming Protoss reinforcements.
Disruptor
In the last patch, we tried to address the fact that Disruptor drops were hard to deal with both because it killed workers too efficiently, and because ground units couldn’t pursue a Warp Prism when facing the threat of an instant Purification Nova. The delay we added seems to be weakening Disruptors too much, however, so we’re looking into various ways to address this issue.
Lastly, we saw a post on Team Liquid which proposed some adjustments to the Adept and Disruptor units to make them easier to manage and control. We think changes like this could be positive, so we want to try them out. Currently, Disruptors do not display range indicators unless you have a single one selected and are actively targeting with the Purification Nova ability. This can make it difficult to calculate the Purification Nova’s range. We want to try displaying the range indicator for all Disruptors while they’re selected to make it easier for players to calculate maximum distance for Purification Nova. As for Adepts, the fact that they stop moving after using the Psionic Transfer ability means their controls are a bit unclear. We want to try and change the Adept so that it will continue with its last issued command instead of simply stopping.
We understand this is a significant list of changes, so we’ll get out a balance test extension mod prior to the patch going live for pro players to practice on. Thanks for your continued feedback, and please let us know your thoughts on the proposed changes!
On January 13 2018 09:00 Psychobabas wrote:List of proposed changes: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/20760956093?page=1Poll: Ghost cloak reverted back to academy. Starts with 75 energy.Good change (199) 71% Undecided (46) 16% Bad change (35) 13% 280 total votes Your vote: Ghost cloak reverted back to academy. Starts with 75 energy. (Vote): Good change
(Vote): Bad change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Ravens gets back AutoturretBad change (160) 46% Good change (137) 39% Undecided (53) 15% 350 total votes Your vote: Ravens gets back Autoturret (Vote): Good change
(Vote): Bad change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Remove Raven Repair DroneGood change (139) 51% Bad change (76) 28% Undecided (57) 21% 272 total votes Your vote: Remove Raven Repair Drone (Vote): Good change
(Vote): Bad change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Increase Interference Matrix duration to 10 seconds.Good change (185) 76% Undecided (33) 14% Bad change (26) 11% 244 total votes Your vote: Increase Interference Matrix duration to 10 seconds. (Vote): Good change
(Vote): Bad change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Split Hydralisk upgrade into 2 separate upgradesGood change (226) 74% Bad change (65) 21% Undecided (13) 4% 304 total votes Your vote: Split Hydralisk upgrade into 2 separate upgrades (Vote): Good change
(Vote): Bad change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Stalker change part 1: Faster but weaker hits. (dps same)Good Change (187) 72% Bad Change (51) 20% Undecided (22) 8% 260 total votes Your vote: Stalker change part 1: Faster but weaker hits. (dps same) (Vote): Good Change
(Vote): Bad Change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Stalker change part 2: upgrades scale worse vs light units.Good Change (167) 71% Bad Change (46) 20% Undecided (21) 9% 234 total votes Your vote: Stalker change part 2: upgrades scale worse vs light units. (Vote): Good Change
(Vote): Bad Change
(Vote): Undecided
Poll: Recall takes an extra second to teleport units to the nexus.Good change (192) 77% Bad change (40) 16% Undecided (18) 7% 250 total votes Your vote: Recall takes an extra second to teleport units to the nexus. (Vote): Good change
(Vote): Bad change
(Vote): Undecided
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Happy they addressed the hydralisk upgrades and the ghost.
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These are amazing changes blizzard I think this is an awesome direction to go towards, however, regarding the Terran changes I personally think ghosts cloak should be buffed maybe in price or research time to make the ghost a bit stronger. I also think that the Raven changes should be looked into a bit more. While I am very happy to see the Auto turret being brought back (Brings back a lot of Terran openers) I think it would be more worthwhile to swap out the interference matrix. The reason I propose this is because I think that while repair drone is not the best ability I think it too should be swapped out and replaced back for the PDD. The reason I say the PDD is because since its removal Terran (Mech specifically) has fewer options for dealing with tempests. That and the PDD played such a fun role in changing how the dynamic of an early skirmish in TvP or TvT Viking trades would play out. I also feel like the PDD added a new dynamic when doom dropping into a base full of static defense. Those are just my suggestions though and I think a lot of other players like myself will be very happy with these changes! Keep up the great work blizzard 
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Ghosts will be more useful again which is good. Shame the insta cloak is removed before pros started doing more rushes with it.
Hydras needed to be addressed, although I was hoping they would nerf their health and buff mutas instead
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ZigguratOfUr
Iraq16955 Posts
Seems reasonable. Disruptors still aren't worth building even with this change though.
Patching right after Leipzig and before Pyeongchang makes the timing of the patch really tight, but I guess there isn't any better window.
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Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense
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greaT! Now buff bio in any small way so WE arent forced to play mech. Please. I hate mech.
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All the proposed changes make sense.
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ZigguratOfUr
Iraq16955 Posts
On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense
Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes).
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On January 13 2018 05:06 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Seems reasonable. Disruptors still aren't worth building even with this change though.
Patching right after Leipzig and before Pyeongchang makes the timing of the patch really tight, but I guess there isn't any better window.
They didn't mention any specific change for the Disruptor, just that "we’re looking into various ways to address this issue."
And I agree that there really isn't a good window of time to push this patch live, but imo many of these changes should've been done in the offseason anyhow.
On January 13 2018 05:12 ZigguratOfUr wrote:Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes).
I think some people don't understand how hard it is to completely refector something as deeply embedded as the time presumably is in the source code.
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On January 13 2018 05:12 ZigguratOfUr wrote:Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes).
and why would it make sense not to convert in the feedback??? They're not not adressing the balance team but the players, who are used to the timings written ingame and on liquipedia, and those are real time.
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welcome back shitty stalker. At least theu could kept the +2 upgrades. Oh well...less variety again.
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ZigguratOfUr
Iraq16955 Posts
On January 13 2018 05:15 pvsnp wrote:Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:06 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Seems reasonable. Disruptors still aren't worth building even with this change though.
Patching right after Leipzig and before Pyeongchang makes the timing of the patch really tight, but I guess there isn't any better window. They didn't mention any specific change for the Disruptor, just that "we’re looking into various ways to address this issue." And I agree that there really isn't a good window of time to push this patch live, but imo many of these changes should've been done in the offseason anyhow. Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:12 ZigguratOfUr wrote:On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes). I think some people don't understand how hard it is to completely refector something as deeply embedded as the time presumably is in the source code.
One way I think would be to remove the delay but to scale the damage of the disruptor ball with time. Start with 30 damage if detonated during the first 0.5 seconds, scale linearly to 145 damage over 1 second, and deal max damage for the last 0.5 seconds or something like that (the numbers can be tweaked). Like that you can't kill workers (or small armies) by dropping onto them and shooting point blank before insta-leaving. It forces you to shoot from further away giving your opponent chance to react, and also leave the disruptor out vulnerable longer, while still allowing for zoning and picking off lurkers from far away.
On January 13 2018 05:18 ArtyK wrote:Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:12 ZigguratOfUr wrote:On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes). and why would it make sense not to convert in the feedback??? They're not not adressing the balance team but the players, who are used to the timings written ingame and on liquipedia, and those are real time.
Because that's the numbers they're working in from day to day. They could try to convert the feedback, but they'd probably forget half the time which would be way worse. Using engine numbers is unambiguous at least (or should be. But I think they actually sometimes use real time which confuses things. I think the mine changes were listed with real time for example...).
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On January 13 2018 05:24 ZigguratOfUr wrote:Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:15 pvsnp wrote:On January 13 2018 05:06 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Seems reasonable. Disruptors still aren't worth building even with this change though.
Patching right after Leipzig and before Pyeongchang makes the timing of the patch really tight, but I guess there isn't any better window. They didn't mention any specific change for the Disruptor, just that "we’re looking into various ways to address this issue." And I agree that there really isn't a good window of time to push this patch live, but imo many of these changes should've been done in the offseason anyhow. On January 13 2018 05:12 ZigguratOfUr wrote:On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes). I think some people don't understand how hard it is to completely refector something as deeply embedded as the time presumably is in the source code. One way I think would be to remove the delay but to scale the damage of the disruptor ball with time. Start with 30 damage if detonated during the first 0.5 seconds, scale linearly to 145 damage over 1 second, and deal max damage for the last 0.5 seconds or something like that (the numbers can be tweaked). Like that you can't kill workers (or small armies) by dropping onto them and shooting point blank before insta-leaving. It forces you to shoot from further away giving your opponent chance to react, and also leave the disruptor out vulnerable longer, while still allowing for zoning and picking off lurkers from far away. Show nested quote +On January 13 2018 05:18 ArtyK wrote:On January 13 2018 05:12 ZigguratOfUr wrote:On January 13 2018 05:07 ArtyK wrote:
Expected changes for the stalker, welcome revert on ghosts, not sure if that's enough of a nerf for hydras.
But please pleeaaaaaaaaaaase stop using the old blizzard times for balance update, it's been more than 2 years since the game use real time...this literally makes no sense Everything in the engine still uses the old Blizzard time. All they did was convert the in-game display (which is why you end up with odd quirks like the hour 0 appearing at the front of the timer after 43 minutes). and why would it make sense not to convert in the feedback??? They're not not adressing the balance team but the players, who are used to the timings written ingame and on liquipedia, and those are real time. Because that's the numbers they're working in from day to day. They could try to convert the feedback, but they'd probably forget half the time which would be way worse. Using engine numbers is unambiguous at least (or should be. But I think they actually sometimes use real time which confuses things. I think the mine changes were listed with real time for example...).
yeah i think they used old values and real time values in that same feedback
Just need PR DKim back to do this 1 minute job
i just think its especially confusing for people interested in the values without necessarily knowing of how it worked before lotv
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The team is doing a really good job with balancing.
It's starting to feel like David Kim leaving the team was a really good call.
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OMG keep the repair drone!!!!
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On January 13 2018 05:21 StarscreamG1 wrote:
welcome back shitty stalker. At least theu could kept the +2 upgrades. Oh well...less variety again.
+2 damage upgrade is changed to +1+1 (vs armoured)
It was great to have a unit on par with the Hydralisk and the Marine even if only lasted a little while 
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Kinda sad to see the repair drone go, but those are nice changes all around.
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OsaX Nymloth
Poland3244 Posts
rip stalker, was nice having an actual solid unit from gateways (that you still needed to micro, not amove like other "core" units).
At least revert distruptor - any previous version would be fine.
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On January 13 2018 06:02 OsaX Nymloth wrote:
rip stalker, was nice having an actual solid unit from gateways (that you still needed to micro, not amove like other "core" units).
At least revert distruptor - any previous version would be fine.
Because amoving marines into banes and storms works every time amirite?
Regarding the stalker, 15 damage was fine by itself but not in the context of double forge and storm. Strong gateway must be paired with weaker tech, or else you get an OP race.
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EPT
