EPTNormally I'd post this on Reddit, but I'm PERMA BANNED from reddit (for something stupid which I won't get into).
That being said, this is a post I'm putting on here just for fun. I think it's fun to talk about this sort of stuff.
Also just in general for this post, I only play Protoss, so I don't have a super high understanding of TvT, ZvZ, TvZ, so if you think any of my suggestions would break the matchup, please feel free to flame me.
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To start, I want to use Harstem's Video as a jumping off point. I agree with pretty much everything he had suggested in his video. Except for Energy recharge/Infestors which I have different solutions.
Here's a recap to summarize.
Protoss
* Dark Templar can now attack immediately after blinking
Terran
* Widow mine becomes invisible after the armory finishes
Zerg
* Evo chamber now enables Ventral Sac Mutation (Drop)
* Centrifugal hooks will now grant +5 hp on banelings
* Microbial shroud now negates 50% of spell damage
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I am also going to take in some suggestions from Pig's changes, however, only some of them so I'll try to list them individually below.
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Zerg:
* Spire Build time change (-6s)
* Bane HP Change (+5hp, same as harstem)
* Overlord change (ms nerf)
* Ravager change (6 seconds faster to morph, revert of nerf)
* Queen/Hatch/Spore Reversal (Back to previous patch cost)
* Lurker HP Change (Back to 200hp)
Terran:
* Mines change (Same as harstem, cloak after armory)
* Raven Surveillance / Lower subgroup priority
* Lib change (Give back lib range)
Protoss:
* Tempest Change (1 more supply, 1 more range. honestly not sure if this would be better of nerfing mothership)
* Disruptor change ( 4 to 3 supply, damage reversal. although i hate this unit)
T blink fix (same as harstem)* OBs surveilance virus nerf 10% (a bit too strong i agree)
Also all of his bug fixes
Otherwise I don't really want any of the other suggestions he made like ghosts being light, or giving infested terrans to zerg, or the oracle changes, etc.
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My goals for a patch:
1) Adjusting Energy Overcharge to be less powerful early game
2) Increase build diversity in all 3 matchups by forcing every race to play safer, aka, making scouting more difficult
3) Increase build diversity in all 3 matchups by making less viable units stronger and fun to use. This should be the most important thing in my opnion, is keeping the game fun!
4) Protoss Aggressive options/cheeses
5) Increasing visibility for invisible units
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SECTION ONE: Energy Overcharge
It is without a doubt energy overcharge is too powerful in its current iterations.
I think there are three major problems with it.
Comes online too early against Terran to see what Terran is doing
Comes online too early against Zerg to defend against aggression
Warping in double storm
Now Harstem’s suggestion would cut #3, so we don’t need to worry about that.
In Pig’s video, Pig suggested making oracles shoot without energy, and nerfing hallucination. While these would solve 1 & 2, I think there is a simpler solution. Especially if you consider that oracles/hallucinations weren’t a problem until this most recent patch.
My solution:
Make it so Energy overcharge becomes available after warpgate is researched. Also it gives 75 Energy not 100 (to nerf 2x storm). This means its coming online around 3:50 to 4:05 depending on the matchup and opener.
PVT:
If Energy overcharge isn’t available until 4 minutes game time, Protoss can not use it to scout Terran’s base right away. The only way you could get an early scout in would be if you open sentry first / sentry 2nd, and it would not be an immediate scout either. (Which was not broken in previous patches)
It would also leave your sentry without energy, leaving you susceptible to reaper/hellion all in. (as you normally FF your wall after sending scouts out. My friend Haffy literally waits till i sent out both hallucinations to reaper grenade in)
I think it probably would make more sense to tie it to game time, rather than warpgate - But warpgate typically finishes around 3:50 in PvT or slightly later (or 10s earlier if you chrono i guess), which is coincidentally, around the time terran is leaving with their medivac.
What’s cool about this is I think you could potentially try to predict where they’re moving with the flying unit and intercept it, or track the drop after the initial hit.
PVZ:
If Energy overcharge isn’t available until 4 minutes game time, Zerg would have the ability to flood lings into Protoss’s third. If it's tied to warpgate, i believe it would come on around 4 minutes? (As wg is generally delayed since you go SG into gate unit) Right now, straight up, I often will go 3rd nexus before my oracle starts in this matchup. This is insane. I can get a nexus down at like 3 minutes game time because it’s difficult for zerg to punish. My oracle pops out, gets energy, and i can defend ling attacks generally speaking.
This would also be a slight buff to early game ling floods in the natural, but I think it would come online late enough we could still defend if we handle the initial wave quick enough.
This also I think would give Zerg enough time to get their queen count high enough to deal with Oracles with more juice.
PVP:
I think this could potentially make proxy immortal harder to hold, or 4 gate builds. It certainly would be a big nerf to 1gate in PvP (which i think is actually a good thing).
Right now in 1g meta your first oracle pops out and you send it across the map immediately with 3 stasis wards for your opponents minerals. Now I don’t think you’d be able to do that.
SECTION TWO - Nerfing Scouting
In order to increase build diversity, I think scouting should be more difficult on all sides - making it more difficult to hard counter your opponent.
With this, I can’t really comment on ZvT as I am not super knowledgeable on the matchup. However I think the dynamic would play out pretty similarly with the changes I’m suggesting.
Also keep in mind, we just covered the energy recharge nerf I suggested, so that would be making a huge impact here.
PvT Early Game
PvT early game, there’s really 3 units that scout.
Sentries, Adepts, and Reapers. With the change previously suggested, sentries would go back to where they were initially last patch - a huge investment with a delayed scout.
I think that early game scouting was buffed for protoss due to it being an actual problem - it was very difficult to sniff out what Terran was doing in this matchup before.
Therefore, if you’re going to massively nerf energy recharge - I think the adept should get a slight buff to compensate to even it out. You have to understand before sentry scout it was SO difficult to figure out what the terran was up to.
Buff Adept Vision Shade from 4 to 7 (Reversal of nerf from Patch 3.8 when they were 9)
Right now, when you shade as an adept, there’s really not that much you can see. You can shove it up Terran’s ramps, but you’re not going to see what Terran is doing behind their wall at all - especially if Terran keeps their buildings far from the barracks. You wouldn’t be able to see addons on structures, and adept could still be denied by a Cyclone, but maybe you see the edge of a 2nd rax or a Factory or something, which will give Protoss a little more comfort early game.
It got nerfed previously when it had 9 vision radius, which maybe is too much, but maybe a slight buff here to compensate for hallucination nerf.
This technically would be a buff to glaives in PvZ as well - But let’s be real, glaives sucks ass in PvZ as of current meta due to a lack of a strong followup. I also think you typically see everything you need to anyway just due to the large amount of adepts you’re shading at a time.
The other unit that plays a scouting role in this matchup is the reaper - However, you can’t really nerf the reaper imo. Literally the only thing you can adjust for that unit, is reaper walls and how many buildings can be used. I don’t think there is anyway to regulate that for perpetuity or some sort of gentleman's agreement to let protoss not have to put pylons in wall - So I would leave this unit alone.
PvZ Early game
PvZ Early game, there’s 4 units that scout - Adepts, Oracles, Overlords, Zerglings
I think I agree with Pig’s suggestions here of nerfing overlord speed slightly. Right now it kind of feels like Zerg’s can send an overlord into my base and escape stalkers. This can be a bit frustrating at times. Especially when I open with a voidray, rally it to where I saw the overlord, and the bitch is gone.
I don’t think you can do anything to stop mapmakers from putting pervert pillars all over the place, so I think this is the most reasonable suggestion.
I also don’t think you can do much to change the dynamic with the other units either - And the vision radius buff I suggested for adepts I think would be inconsequential to the early game in this matchup.
PvP Early Game
With energy overcharge nerf it would just be going to how it played last patch, just without super battery, so I don’t think this would matter much or needs to be talked about.
SECTION THREE - Making less viable units stronger in all matchups
This section I might get a little crazy - but frankly, this is the fun part! I think right now there are a lot of matchups in the game where we just don’t see certain units being built - which is a problem. The more complexity there is, the more players have their own agency and unique styles - which is fun for the player and fun for the viewer.
So my goals here with these suggestions is to make units that don’t exist in certain matchups more prominent. Here are my three goals. Keep in mind these coincide with the suggestions harstem made, which included buffs to mines, dts, infestors, banes, etc.
Buffing Mech in PvT
Buffing Mutas in ZvT
Making Queens stronger off creep
Buffing Adepts/Archons/Phoenix in PvT
Protoss Cheese
Buffing Mech in PvT
Hellbat
Right now in PvT we are seeing heavy zealot comps with low gas protoss just throwing units at the Terran. Why not make Hellbats a little more powerful? (The man writing this spams only zealots btw).
I think it’s fun when I play against someone and I see them using these units. Here’s what I would do.
Hellbat new ability, stim pack, only available in Hellbat form. Functions pretty much like stim like Marauders/Marines, EXCEPT NO DAMAGE, just movement speed. Maybe a slight adjustment to fire AOE radius if you really want instead of attack speed like stim.
Costs 30 HP
Increases microability against disruptors, storms, aoe making hellbat bio medivac comps stronger.
Would force terran players using mech to still get it from a barracks with tech lab which would increase build diversity while not just outright buffing mech in ZvT.
This would probably be very impactful in ZvT too - But let’s be real, when have we ever seen Hellbat bio comps work vs Zerg? If it’s too crazy, don’t go huge on buffing the flamethrower. I really doubt we’d see stim + blueflame builds, but who knows. I don’t think this would outright buff in ZVT too as it would require stim to be researched on rax.
Maybe this gives Terran a little more agency in ZVT so there’s less camping, especially with other mech suggestions.
If this is too strong, maybe nerf armory cost since mines/hellbats are getting buffed at the same time.
Vikings
In my opinion, when it comes to late game, one of the things that I find frustrating about the viking is how susceptible it is to storm. Other flying units that fill similar roles, such as voidrays, corrupters, and phoenix, have regenerable hp/shields which makes AOE less punishing.
Air units in general are very susceptible to AOE damage due to the flying/stacking nature of the unit.
To me, when I’m fighting against vikings, it feels like I just try to delay until I get a couple storms in, and then actually engage. I think Terran should have an easier time recovering from a bad storm.
Therefore, I’d suggest:
Passive Effect: Vikings now repair 3x as fast by SCVS/Cost half to repair.
I am almost certain that uThermal would find some way to turn this into cheese/content.
Maybe this opens up some weird cheeses, Idk, but I think it would be quite funny.
I’m not sure how this would impact TvT as the unit is quite prominent in the matchup, and I don’t think this would affect TvZ as who builds vikings vs zerg?
Cyclones
Cyclones spell now scales with armory upgrades
The cyclone in its current bugged iteration is a bit frustrating especially in ZvT.
I think this unit just needs to scale better with armory upgrades to give battlemech more agency as the game goes on, but less power in the early game.
I don’t really want to make number suggestions here as I don’t play the matchup. Frankly it’s not super strong mid to late vs Toss so this could be a cool change.
Also off topic but i think they should’ve given terran the previous salvage suggestions for turrets/sensor towers.
Ghosts
Changes:
2 Supply cost, Nerf auto attack from 10+10 light 10+5 light, potential snipe nerf ? (costs 25 energy if ghost snipes but target runs out of snipe before it goes off, maybe add a cooldown on snipe of a few seconds too)
I( really want to avoid talking about this, as I don’t play the matchup - But personally I am not a fan of 3 supply ghosts. It makes it quite difficult to split your army late game as your army is much smaller when you have high supply units. If you want Terran to move out more, I think their army needs to be bigger when splitting.
I also think EMP is fine as is in PVT and would make no changes there.
I think it’s a bit silly that the ghost’s auto attack is so strong - I would nerf the damage vs light.
I think I’d make ghosts do 10+5 vs light, so they don’t 2 shot lings, and take 4 shots instead of 3 to kill locusts.
I think in theory Swarmhost + harstem’s infestor change would be stronger vs the ghost PF meta. (infestor spell would prevent aoe damage on locusts, snipes)
Potentially they could slightly nerf snipe by making it so ghosts still spend energy when a unit runs out of range of the snipe.
I do think Terran is quite reliant on ghosts, so I’m hoping the supply change + Lib range change + hellbat stim would be enough to justify these adjustments. I am not a TVZ player though so would prefer if people in the matchup commented.
2) Buffing Mutas in ZvT
You can’t pull up a thread on /r/StarCraft these days without advocating for muta ling bane. It also I think would be the perfect composition for dealing with an aggressive dropping terran like Clem.
Buff: Mutas now have +1 base armor.
This would make the unit much more difficult to clean up with marines while still allowing things like Mines and thors to be strong against the unit. You still wouldn’t want to fight marines with the muta, but it would allow you to retain them much easier in those cleanup situations.
(This could be problematic in ZvZ as it would make queens/Hydras slightly worse against them, could maybe tweak spore damage, im not sure how big of a problem this would be. Queens would require 15 shots instead of 14, and hydras would require 11 shots instead of 10.)
B) Making Queens stronger off creep
I think it’s a bit silly in the current iteration for Queens to not be able to use transfuse natively. This would potentially cause queen walk to be too strong - My suggestion would be to let queens have transfuse natively all the time - But make them progressively slower the LONGER they are off creep. So when it gets to the middle of the map, maybe they move more slow than they do currently. Takes longer to get across for creepless queen walks but makes them stronger defensively earlier.
3) Buffing Adepts/Archons/Phoenix in PvT
Phoenix
Phoenix does +1 damage per shot. (If this is op, can just increase attack speed maybe as phoenix fire 2x)
Phoenix is currently pretty underwhelming in PvT due to the strength of the cyclone. Part of that is the bug, but without super battery phoenix is also much weaker especially with Phoenix colossus being nerfed (due to lack of super battery). My goal with buffing Phoenix is just to make them slightly stronger during the early game when dealing with pushes. Frankly, I think if you made these changes, you could keep the cyclone in it’s current version.
Phoenix currently does 5x2 per shot. Which equates 10 damage per volley. Medivacs have 150 hp, meaning it takes 15 volleys. Vikings having 135 HP so it would take 11.25 volleys (12 volleys basically) instead of 14. If you buffed Phoenix damage to 6 per shot, it would take 13 volleys instead to clear a medivac.
I think this would change PvZ slightly better for the Phoenix as well, which, tbh, when are we seeing mass phoenix strategies in the matchup currently? The dynamic would not change vs mutas with the +1 base armor suggestion, but would make them stronger vs queens, hydras, anything they can lift.
Archons in PvT
Archons are pretty ass in PvT in the mid to late game, while also quite strong before ghosts come out - My suggestion is pretty simple. Give them the same treatment Colossus got.
Archons no longer have 350 shields and 10 hp - Instead have 80 hp (which for the lore nerds is the equivalent of the hp combined of TWO HIGH TEMPLARS 40+40, F YOU NERDS) and 270 shields.
This would make them easier to retain after being EMP’d, allowing players to pull them back to save or let them live a little longer in the fight. It would also mean that armor upgrades actually benefit archons - We don’t typically see Protoss get shield upgrades early on which means they take more damage than other units.
Stalker Late Game Buff
This is probably too much, but something to consider - Stalkers currently in SC2 are ASS late game. You really don’t want to spend a lot of cash on them as they cost a lot of gas. They get pooped on by all hive units and owned by bio. If you’re gonna buff Broods/Lib Range, you could potentially add a long research time upgrade on the dark shrine.
New Upgrade: Extended Particle Disruptors
Cost: 100/100, Build time 120 seconds, requires blink. Researches off of Dark Shrine.
Adds +2 Anti Air Range for stalkers
This makes dealing with extended range liberators easier in the ultra late game and easier to clear lib range spots. This also makes them a bit stronger vs tier three air units like carriers/broods/bcs.
Section Four - Protoss Aggressive Options
A few patches ago, Protoss early game was nerfed pretty hard when they were trying to address the proxy voidray problem in PvT. There were 3 changes that went through to nerf this build (and it was basically nerfed completely out of the game rather than make it weaker, which is a bit frustrating)
They nerfed voidray build time, they nerfed voidray cost, and they nerfed battery energy outside of nexus range.
The battery nerf in particular shutdown a lot of early all ins from protoss - I remember watching parting cannon rush with proxy battery immortal all the time.
As frustrating as they can be to play against, proxy battery builds are really one of the only options Protoss has for aggression and they are basically useless now starting with no energy when used offensively.
Therefor I would I would buff the starting energy slightly on batteries to give Protoss more options early game - Maybe not 100% like before, but instead of 50% it could be 75%?
Especially if you’re buffing build time on Ravager, this would keep cannon rush viable in pvz, and maybe open offensive battery pushes in the other matchups.This would also help vs 3rav builds, which i think are going to be quite strong without super battery if ravager build time is changed in situations where you can't take nexus
Section Five - Making things visually easier to see on the screen
In my opinion, one of the best things they did with Sc2 in the past few years was add the red line to the widow mine. Let’s be real, people playing this game are older. Things should be easier to see.
One of the things I hate is how you have to play on low graphics to see invisible units easier. Shit should not be based off of your graphic settings.
I think all invisible units should be visually easier to see.
Burrowed mines should be easier to spot out (sometimes on some maps you literally can not tell)
Stasis wards should be more obvious - This would feel less bullshit especially with the current energy meta, and reward people for paying attention
Dark Templar should be more obvious
Burrowed infestors/roach should be easier to see (visual suggestion like this, less extreme)
Observers should be easier to see, cloaked banshees too
I would also make it so you don’t have to hover over your supply to see worker count - it should just be there without having to move my mouse.
Other:
I also think they should make it so terran can pick what side of their buildings their addons go onto.
Change it so ghost cloak / banshee cloak upgrades look different
