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September 22 update
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24227052/starcraft-ii-5-0-15-ptr-update
(Changes in bold)
Zerg
- Spire cost reduced from 200/200 to 150/150.
- Spire build time reduced from 71 seconds to 66 seconds.
- Centrifugal Hooks now give +5 HP bonus to Banelings again.
- Microbial Shroud reduces range attacks by 50% damage.
- Microbial Shroud effect no longer persists for a few seconds after the unit has left the shroud.
- Microbial Shroud cost increased from 75 to 100.
- Microbial Shroud now requires an upgrade again (150/150).
Protoss
- Energy Overcharge grant has been reduced from 100 to 50 energy.
- Energy Overcharge cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
- Mothership HP reduced from 350/350 to 300/300.
- Mothership movement speed reduced from 2.83 to 2.25.
- Psionic Storm damage reduced from 10 to 5 damage per tick.
- Psionic Storm duration increased from 0.39956 to 0.53312.
- Psionic Storm radius increased from 1.5 to 2.25.
- Psionic Storm period reduced from 0.7994 to 0.39956.
- Psionic Storm period count increased from 6 to 12.
- Dark Templar Blink attack delay reduced from 0.75 to 0.25.
- Surveillance mode now reveals the Observers.
- Surveillance mode increases vision from 13.75 to 15.
- Purification radius increased from 1.5 to 1.75.
- Purification cooldown reduced from 21.4 seconds to 17 seconds.
- Stasis Ward duration reduced from 170 seconds to 90 seconds.
Terran
- Siege Tank can no longer be abducted when in siege mode.
- Viking cost reduced from 150/75 to 125/75.
- Drilling Claws effectiveness increased from 1.07 to 0.71 seconds.
- Hyperspeed Rotors research time decreased to from 100 to 79 seconds.
- Liberator Sight reduced from 10 to 9.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue with Cyclone attack upgrade giving +1 instead of +2.
- Fixed an issue with Cyclone Lock-On cooldown.
- Fixed an issue with Orbital Commands not auto rallying.
- Fixed an issue with Mothership attack at max range.
- Fixed an issue where Mothership had a leftover redundant Psionic tag.
- Fixed an issue where Mothership weapon behaved erratically when targeting Changelings.
- Fixed an issue where Mothership was unable to designate and maintain the correct number of targets (4) for target-firing (including during movement).
- Fixed an issue where Mothership's target-acquiring process would cause it to overly-prioritize low-priority targets (such as Larvae).
- Fixed an issue where Mothership's range was less than intended.
- Updated Protoss AoE UI indicator.
- Fixed an issue where units with beam attacks would conflate each other's cooldowns.
- Fixed an issue where Probes would become unresponsive near Assimilators.
- Fixed an issue with Psionic Storm ticks were applying incorrectly, causing unintended reduced damage.
- Fixed an issue where units unloaded out of transports would not reset their acquired attack target to the closest unit.
- Fixed an issue where addon-build commands would be issued to the same barracks repeatedly rather than spread out.
- Fixed an issue where hitting the key to construct an addon twice could result in the production structure lifting when certain settings were used.
- Fixed an issue where "Set Rally" could not be issued if both flying and ground structures were simultaneously selected.
- Fixed an issue where visual effects from abilities could be seen through the fog of war (Parasitic Bomb, Stimpack).
- Fixed an issue where visual effects from abilities could not be seen even when large portions of the model were well within vision range (Guardian Shield, Microbial Shroud).
- Fixed an issue where Disruptors lacked an AoE indicator.
- Fixed an issue where units were using an outdated AoE indicator.
- Fixed an issue where Stasis Wards had no pre-placement visual indicator or sound.
- Fixed an issue where Liberators could designate an attack target while morphing from AG to AA but not while morphing from AA to AG.
- Fixed an issue where Liberators commanded to siege in areas inside their range could result in slower execution than being commanded to siege outside their range.
- Fixed an issue where the model for Zerg 6x6 rocks was set to be too large for its footprint and projectiles would not produce flesh squibs.
- Fixed an issue where Ravagers would glide along the ground if told to move command after issuing a corrosive bile.
- Fixed an issue where no target impact animation was present for corrosive bile.
- Updated SFX for Micobial Shroud.
Original September 18 posting
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24225582/starcraft-ii-5-0-15-ptr-patch-notes
Zerg
- Spire cost reduced from 200/200 to 150/150.
- Centrifugal Hooks now give +5 HP bonus to Banelings again.
- Microbial Shroud reduces range attacks by 50% damage.
- Microbial Shroud effect no longer persists for a few seconds after the unit has left the shroud.
Protoss
- Energy Overcharge grant has been reduced from 100 to 50 energy.
- Energy Overcharge cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
- Mothership HP reduced from 350/350 to 300/300.
- Psionic Storm duration increased from 2.86 to 8.58.
- Psionic Storm damage reduced from 10 to 5 damage per tick.
- Dark Templar Blink attack delay reduced from 0.75 to 0.25.
- Surveillance mode now reveals the Observers.
- Surveillance mode increases vision from 13.75 to 15.
Terran
- Siege Tank can no longer be abducted when in siege mode.
- Viking cost reduced from 150/75 to 125/50.
- Drilling Claws effectiveness increased from 1.07 to 0.71 seconds.
- Hyperspeed Rotors research time decreased to 79 seconds.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue with Cyclone attack upgrade giving +1 instead of +2.
- Fixed an issue with Mothership attack at max range.
- Fixed an issue with Cyclone Lock-On cooldown.
- Fixed an issue with Orbital Commands not auto rallying.
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On July 01 2025 17:03 MJG wrote:
Protoss isn't allowed to win things, but Protoss has recently won THREE things, and such wrongthink will surely be punished by the righteous nerfhammer of the most holy Balance Council.
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interesting changes, only thing I really dislike is the storm change, as I think storm is the one Protoss mechanic that creates really dynamic and interesting interactions with high displayablity of skill on both sides.
Other than that I dislike the abduct change mostly for design/lore reasons. Why wouldn't a Viper be able to abduct a tank, when it can even pull a Lurker from under the ground?
Excited for spire, baneling, microbial shroud and Viking changes.
Zerg seems to have gotten by far the best changes imo
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Those Storm and Microbial Shroud changes are huge.
Anyone knows why they are buffing the Viking and why they are making it cheaper instead of adjusting its combat stats in some way?
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Yeah.. no thanks, go away please.
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I like the Spire changes vT, I'd love for muta ling bling to be more viable, vP I'm not sure it will change much. Hopefully it doesn't make Mutas too good in ZvZ. I feel like the abduct change makes no sense, but between blinding clouds and +5 health on banelings I think Zerg will be fine.
Don't like the storm changes, storm was fine in almost all metas, toss just has too many of them rn and the nerf to energy overcharge fixes that. I would also like something to nerf tempests and make Protoss ground better against lurkers, but maybe that's too much to expect of the balance council.
Terran changes seem fine. I'd be open to a change that makes ghosts 2 supply again but a little bit less tanky, but this would also be possibly tricky to balance.
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excellent changes.
(a small typo: spire is 200/200 currently)
the new infestor will be amazing in every matchup.
maybe the fungal radius should be nerfed, its huge at r=2.25.
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On September 19 2025 02:11 SHODAN wrote:- Psionic Storm duration increased from 2.86 to 8.58.
- Psionic Storm damage reduced from 10 to 5 damage per tick.
Let's turn the most iconic ability of Protoss into another ability used solely for zoning. The strong, expensive, slow race apparently also can't have anything that is actually good in a fight. The entire racial identity is now in NOT fighting.
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This is completely ridiculous. Scratch all of this and try again.
And whoever suggested changing psi storm in this way needs to be dismissed from the balance council.
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On September 19 2025 03:00 Sent. wrote:
Those Storm and Microbial Shroud changes are huge.
Anyone knows why they are buffing the Viking and why they are making it cheaper instead of adjusting its combat stats in some way?
Well, terran needs some help in lategame after the Ghost nerf last patch and now Baneling and Shroud buffs.
Probably cheaper instead of stronger so maxed terran won't be OP again
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Austria24422 Posts
I may have to draw upon my old balance whining ways. At least increase storm radius if you're going to make it a zoning tool? Make it so the buffed mass banelings don't just roll through the little tickling cloud?
I'm no oracle but I don't see how this storm change doesn't either lead to massive changes elsewhere or get significantly reworked soon - after a period where no Protoss wins a game that currently requires storm to win, of course.
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I still insist that the best thing to do is revert to a Blizzard patch that we know is balanced based on available data.
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The storm change is absolutely stupid. The Microbial Shroud change is basically reintroducing Dark Swarm into SC2 only 15 years after the game first came out which is also hilarious.
At what point are they just going to recognize that Abduct was a terrible idea for a spell and replace it entirely. They now have 2 restrictions on what kinds of units it can be used on. How many other units are they gonna add to that list? Tanks in Siege Mode are literally the unit in the tutorial for the spell in the campaign, if you cant abduct those then what the hell is even the point of the spell anymore?
All of this is just more evidence that the balance team is throwing darts at a board with a blindfold on. No actual vision in any of these changes, they're just trying things out to see what sticks, which wouldn't be such a bad idea except we KNOW from years and years of experience that once shit is put on the PTR it RARELY gets removed or majorly adjusted before it hits live realms. No matter how bad the idea is, it must plague the ladder for 6 months before they walk it back and start the entire process over again.
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They now have 2 restrictions on what kinds of units it can be used on. How many other units are they gonna add to that list?
Three: tank, mothership and ultralisk.
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On September 19 2025 03:09 bela.mervado wrote:
excellent changes.
(a small typo: spire is 200/200 currently)
the new infestor will be amazing in every matchup.
maybe the fungal radius should be nerfed, its huge at r=2.25.
it was the underpaid intern's typo, not mine! I will update op
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Shroud reducing range damage by 50% make Lurker-Hydra effing un-killable now, like what unit not doing range damage from Terran? At least Protoss get Zealot- Archon. That is just like Dark Swarm in BW now.
And Tank can still be Blinding Cloud, but with Cheaper Viking then Terran can just zone out those Vipers easier. Also, cheaper Vikings meaning no more Colossi build from PvT, nor BLord from ZvT.
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an energy overcharge nerf is fair and expected; but if that storm change goes through to live so help me
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Also reintroducing Dark Swarm is such a bizarre change with massive balance issues in nearly all matchups??????
and can we please come up with another idea for Zerg lategame other than "let the Infestor counter everything with no weaknesses"???????
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Also new complaint, what is the point of even using Storm against Terran anymore? At 5 damage per tick, Medivacs can basically out heal that.
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The storm and observer changes are just unjustifiable and awful...I'm glad we're getting a patch but these two changes are nonsensical and damaging to the game state. Who approved these? Storm was just fine as an ability, it was energy overcharge that made it problematic. Now that that is nerfed there is no need to butcher storm.
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EPT
