EPT
Final balance changes.
Congrats to our new WCS Global Finals champion, Serral! It’s certainly been an eventful year for StarCraft, and now that the season has ended, it’s time to continue forward with our post-BlizzCon design and balance changes. Thanks to everyone for testing; your feedback has helped us iterate and make many improvements. Before the changes go live, we have a few more updates we’d like to add in:
Terran
Cyclone
- Cyclone supply cost reduced from 4 to 3.
When the Cyclone had its Vespene Gas cost reduced in a patch prior to 3.8, and we also increased its supply out of caution against mass Cyclones becoming too prevalent at the time. More recently, we have gotten some high-level feedback that this Cyclone could perhaps be too weak due to how the meta has developed. In addition, when we first announced our pre-3.8 Cyclone revert, we emphasized our intention to have them scale better into the late-game. Thus, to improve the Cyclone’s mid- and late-game potential, we are reducing the supply cost, so they can hopefully be more easily utilized as support units in a larger army.
Thor
- Thor 250mm Punisher Cannon damage increased from 40 (+10 Massive) to 40 (+15 Massive).
- Thor 250mm Punisher Cannon attack period decreased from 1.78 to 1.71.
When we initially announced our balance revamp this year, we stated that we wanted to push the Thor into a “giant that slays other giants” role, but we haven’t heard much discussion regarding this new focus. In addition, with the recent Carrier damage revert and the Thor’s now lower armor, Thors are not able to fulfill this role as well as we’d like. Thus, we’ve carefully tweaked the numbers on the Thor’s anti-Massive weapon so that it will consistently defeat Carriers in one-on-one combat and be more powerful against the new fast-moving Tempests. At the same time, we were cautious to not critically affect its relationship against Brood Lords. As with many of our other changes in this patch, we want new options to feel powerful out of the gate, but we are also ready to readjust as necessary.
Sensor Tower
- Sensor Tower pre-placement selection display will now show a range indicator on the minimap.
This quality of life change, which was suggested by the community, will allow players to more strategically and deliberately place their Sensor Towers.
Zerg
Creep
- Creep spread delay from Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives decreased from 0.45 to 0.3.
We received feedback that the previously proposed creep spread rate change for Hatcheries would overly adversely affect Zerg early-game, especially in ZvZ. We agree with this feedback and, as a result, will be changing the Hatchery, Lair, and Hive to retain their old creep spread rate values. Meanwhile the other creep generators (Nydus Worm, Overlords, and Creep Tumors) will remain at 0.45.
Ultralisk
- Ultralisk Anabolic Synthesis upgrade research time reduced from 79 seconds to 43 seconds.
As a Hive-level unit, Ultralisks are already locked to the late-game and having both of its upgrades require a 79 second research time could excessively delay the Ultralisk’s full power. A reduction in research time could also create more of a choice for Zerg players depending on the game state as currently, Chitinous Plating is heavily preferred as the first pick.
Protoss
Structures
- Robotics Facility cost reverted from 150/100 to 200/100.
- Robotics Bay cost reduced from 200/200 to 150/150.
We initially proposed reducing the mineral cost of the Robotics Facility for a variety of reasons. Two of these reasons include improving defense against Zerg in the mid-game and improving defense against Terran proxies. Since our initial proposal, however, we’ve made additional adjustments to the balance test mod such that we no longer believe Protoss needs additional help in these regards.
Another goal of the Robotics Facility cost change was to promote more Robotics-based openers, but we now believe a different change could be more targeted to achieve this goal. By reducing the cost of the Robotics Bay instead, we would promote deeper tech options that aren’t as common right now,such as Colossus, Disruptor, or speed-upgraded Warp Prism openers. This contrasts with the originally proposed Robotics Facility change, which we believe would have undesirably further reinforced the strength of Immortals in PvZ.
We are planning to push the balance changes to live ladder at the start of the next season on Tuesday, November 20th. However, the SCV single-click priority change will require a patch, so we will be pushing out this change a little earlier with the SC2.4.7 release.
Thank you for all the support and feedback, and as always, let us know what you think! See you on ladder!
Read the Blizzard post for the full list of changes
4.7.0 patch notes.
Co-op
- New Co-op Commander and Announcer: Zeratul
- Collect Xel’Naga artifacts to power up your army.
- Customize your abilities to deal with any foe.
- Learn more in our blog.
- Collect Xel’Naga artifacts to power up your army.
- New weekly Mutations have been added.
Versus
- It is now easier to select an SCV that is currently constructing a building using mouse click selection
- Added a button to the “Language and Region” panel of the Options menu that manually refreshes ping time to all game servers.
- This function is most useful immediately after a connection change such as a switching to a new ISP or moving your computer to a new location.
- Although StarCraft II automatically adjusts networks settings to provide the most responsive gameplay, this function will make these adjustments immediately, ensuring the lowest latency available to you.
- This function is most useful immediately after a connection change such as a switching to a new ISP or moving your computer to a new location.
Editor
- New sub field added: Parent Behavior Link
- Located under Unit -> Addon On Units.
- Applies the specified behavior to its parent unit from the addon unit.
- Allows control over the parent unit based on the Addon’s state.
- Located under Unit -> Addon On Units.
- Added Height Range field to CActorQuad.
- Allows the quad to change its height based on the position of the player cursor.
Bug Fixes
Co-op
- Raynor: Fixed an issue that allowed the Hyperion to still attack even when under the effect of the Moment of Silence Mutator.
- Kerrigan: Fixed a bug a bug that caused the Pneumatized Carapace icon on Overlords and Overseers to appear inactive when it had already been researched.
- Swann: The Vespene Harvester can no longer be cast on enemy or neutral harvesters.
- Vorazun: Shadow Fury upgrade icon no longer displays the Protoss Ground Level 3 icon.
- Karax: Mind controlled Colossi will now properly attack after researching the Fire Beam ability.
- Alarak: Custom hotkeys are now retained for Protoss Weapon and Armor upgrades.
- Fenix: Fixed a typo in his level 11 upgrade on the Co-op Commander selection screen.
- Tychus
- Fixed an issue with the sound of Nux’s normal attack.
- The Odin can no longer damage Invulnerable Units and Structures with its splash damage.
- Fixed an issue with the sound of Nux’s normal attack.
- Units affected by the Polarity Mutator will no longer display an icon, even when they are inside a Bunker.
- Temple of the Past: Fixed several areas near ramps that units could become stuck in if they were unloaded by a transport.
Maps
- Automaton LE, Port Aleksander LE, Emerald City LE: Fixed an issue that caused several ramps and doodads to not display Creep spread.
- Port Aleksander LE: Fixed a bug that allowed players to build structures on a particular ramp.
- Emerald City LE: Unit outlines will now be displayed when units are positioned behind ramps.
Campaign
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to build units in the second part of ‘Enemy Intelligence.’
- Tal’darim Probes and Stalkers are now using the correct Tal’darim portraits in Legacy of the Void campaign.
- Instigators from the mission ‘Purification’ are no longer missing their 2D portrait.
Versus
- Heart of the Swarm: The Mothership Core model is no longer a placeholder model if the Golden Age Protoss Mothership skin is equipped.
- Fixed an issue that caused Broodlings with the Simulant skin to produce overly large corpses.
- Roaches using the Simulant skin now have the Tunneling Claws upgrade indicator on Low settings.
- The Dark Shrine now has a research animation.
