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4 Posts
Blizzard has released the 5.0.15 balance patch for StarCraft II: official post + patch notes
We are happy to bring 5.0.15 Live, which contains various balance changes, bug fixes, and quality of life improvements. We want to thank all the community contributors who provided valuable feedback during our PTR period.
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 Recharge grant has been reduced from 100 to 50 energy.
- Energy Recharge cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
- Mothership movement speed reduced from 2.83 to 2.25.
- Psionic Storm changed from 80 damage over 3 seconds to 140 damage over 6 seconds (26.7 DPS > 23.3 DPS).
- Psionic Storm radius increased from 1.5 to 2.
- Psionic Storm range reduced from 9 to 8.
- 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 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.
- Hyperflight Rotors research time decreased to from 100 to 79 seconds.
- Liberator Sight reduced from 10 to 9.
- Ghost supply reduced from 3 to 2.
- Ghost now has light attribute.
Bug Fixes
- 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 Cyclone attack upgrade giving +1 instead of +2.
- Fixed an issue with Mothership attacking at max range.
- Fixed an issue with Cyclone Lock-On Cooldown.
- Fixed an issue with Orbital Commands not auto-rallying.
- Fixed an issue where Mothership had a 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.
- Fixed an issue where units unloaded out of transports would not reset their acquired attack target to the closest unit.
- Fixed an issue where Commands with add-on build would be issued to the same Barracks repeatedly rather than spread out.
- Fixed an issue where hitting the key to construct an add-on 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 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 corrosive bile.
- Fixed an issue where no target impact animation was present for Corrosive Bile.
- Fixed an issue where Broodlings could greatly delay launching or fail to launch toward their target, depending on their position relative to the broodlord.
- Improved Microbial Shroud particle effects for units within the shroud, particularly as certain map lighting could cause bright flashing lights.
- Fixed an issue where players could accidentally drain excess health while attempting to cast Stimpack (It now has a very short cooldown to prevent rapid re-cast).
- Fixed an issue where Cyclones hit by a Lurker spine would instantly go into Lock-On cooldown.
- Fixed an issue where Cyclone Lock-On projectiles would damage targets even if the target had escaped detection before impact.
- Fixed an issue where Contaminate could be cast on targets that could not research or train units (like Creep Tumors).
- Fixed an issue where 'damaged' graphics would not trigger on Rich Refineries/Extractors.
- Fixed an impactful balance issue where Motherships were not playing their coolest available visual animation while constructing. This is intended to buff Protoss visually.
- Updated turning/position visuals for Reapers, Hellions, and Cyclones.
- Fixed an issue where Dark Templar attack sounds would complete regardless of whether a unit had been dealt damage.
- Adjusted smartcast behavior for Caustic Spray and Consume abilities. This is intended to reduce the reliance on 'Rapidfire' settings for optimal use.
- Fixed an issue where Locusts spawned simultaneously would have perfectly synchronized animations rather than behaving like a swarm.
- Fixed an issue where researching Hi-Sec Auto Tracking would not update its level on the icon of units it affected.
- Increased allied push priority for Thors and Siege Tanks. Intended to assist bulky units in pathfinding when surrounded by many small friendly units.
- Fixed an issue where Reaper's rapid regeneration model would persist above its transport.
- Fixed an issue where Siege Tank impact fire model would persist above its target's transport.
- Fixed an issue where Siege Tank impact craters would disappear and reappear if the target was picked up/dropped out of a transport.
- Fixed an issue where Thor's High-Impact weapon made no launch sound.
- Fixed an issue where KD-8 Charge could cause ground units to resemble air units by moving them to a different height plane.
- Fixed an issue where KD-8 Charge knockback animation would persist on units that were no longer being knocked back.
- Added polish to the casting of Microbial Shroud via a short cast finish time.
- Fixed an issue where the rich Assimilators' shield armor icon would not update with shield upgrades.
- Fixed an issue where it was difficult to tell the progression of Lurker spikes underneath clumps of units.
- Fixed an issue where Lurker spine damage was desynced substantially with its visual effects due to the visual spine taking too long to appear.
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man it'd be nice had they at least stated the purpose of the changes (e.g. they find PvZ midgame was too weak for P in pro game so we buff storm, etc.) instead of just churning out patches with no remarks
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Storm is actually better than it was before
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At least it looks playable, unlike the initial proposals.
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Protoss is even more safe now:/ terrans stil have to do all ins
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loved what i saw in patch so far.
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Will be fun seeing how this will play out in the coming weeks
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not having a changelog in the game-client itself is a silly one
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United Kingdom20318 Posts
How long til we have a community mod reverting this?
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First online cup with the new patch and we have 7 1/2 Protoss in top 8, look promising.
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Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise
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On October 01 2025 21:21 tigera6 wrote:
First online cup with the new patch and we have 7 1/2 Protoss in top 8, look promising.
 LiuLi Cup/Weekly/8
Which Ro16 match-ups do you think are upsets caused by balance?
Clem is only 1/3 a Protoss btw...
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On October 01 2025 21:21 tigera6 wrote:
First online cup with the new patch and we have 7 1/2 Protoss in top 8, look promising.
lots more top protoss play than zerg or terran, you can look at noteable signups list on liquipedia... everyone knows protoss dominate weekly cups along with clem and well... this looks about what you would expect any patch. get serral and reynor and everyone else in there and then maybe we can have a discussion about balance. Also, i will note it is still early, so even then idk if i would even buy that. meta def gotta settle on this one.
For me, i think after RSL season 3 i will have a much better picture on the state of this patch.
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The idea that Serral and Reynor are the only Zergs relevant for balance (and that the near absence of the race from smaller cups is not relevant) is an... interesting one.
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Zerg will be crazy this patch. 40 hp Banes that smash Ghosts, buffed Mutas, Mini dark swarm, and bugfixed Broodlords and Cyclones.
At least the buffed units are fun (minus the broodlord)
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Didnt realize this had gone live until I played a game last night and someone sieged an observer and I killed it.
Ultimately terran feels like it comes out the loser by a decent margin in this patch.
TvP maybe got a little better since toss won't be able to maintain vision as easily especially at f2 levels. But gonna have to see how that works out.
TvZ yeah I think zerg clearly gets some help in exchange for yoinking tanks.
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On October 01 2025 22:58 Ciaus237 wrote:
The idea that Serral and Reynor are the only Zergs relevant for balance (and that the near absence of the race from smaller cups is not relevant) is an... interesting one.
I think the performance of players like Solar/Shin against players like Showtime/Zoun and Cure/Byun (the A- tier players of their race, for lack of a better term. Maybe that's unfair to Cure because he has great results but I still put him below Maru/Clem) is absolutely relevant. I do question the relevance of smaller cups though. The best Terran (Clem) and the three best Protoss all like playing small cups, while only some good Zerg do, and those that do aren't nearly as prolific.
Could that be because playing Protoss is so unfun for Zerg that they choose not to play cups? It could be. But also with the dearth of top players in general, it's totally feasible that by chance the top Zerg we have just aren't too inclined towards cup play. A tournament like RSL with decent prize pool will be far more instructive.
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not gonna lie, the first tourney on the patch didn't look good. Overcharge got reasonably nerfed but I didn't realize how much stronger the new storm was ; those being the main changes aimed at TvP which was very imbalanced, I don't see how this is going to solve it. Even a slight storm buff would have been questionable (the overcharge nerf was needed and, if we agree TvP was massively problematic, didn't need to have any counterpart), but here ? I genuinely already hope this iteration doesn't last the year.
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Fixed an impactful balance issue where Motherships were not playing their coolest available visual animation while constructing. This is intended to buff Protoss visually.
The intern was surely having fun
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everyone knows protoss dominate weekly cups along with clem and well... this looks about what you would expect any patch
Is it unreasonable to say that this is exactly what a balance patch is supposed to address?
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On October 02 2025 01:15 Admiral Yang wrote:Show nested quote +everyone knows protoss dominate weekly cups along with clem and well... this looks about what you would expect any patch Is it unreasonable to say that this is exactly what a balance patch is supposed to address?
Yes, it is unreasonable to say that the game should be balanced around a weekly cup where a majority of the top players from each race do not participate.
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On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise
Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50.
We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare
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Yes, it is unreasonable to say that the game should be balanced around a weekly cup where a majority of the top players from each race do not participate.
It's hardly a weekly cup at this point, though. It's pretty much all of them as far as I can tell. It doesn't really speak to their quality that only one race effectively participates.
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On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare
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Honestly, I'm really excited about the patch, this is the best patch I can remember. Balance issues will be sorted out but it really seems to promote fun gameplay from all races
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On October 02 2025 03:10 Charoisaur wrote:
Honestly, I'm really excited about the patch, this is the best patch I can remember. Balance issues will be sorted out but it really seems to promote fun gameplay from all races
have you watched any TvPs ? It doesn't look any better than the previous iteration
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Hearing all the Terrans complain today, I'm officially ready to buff Terran. Idk, make Mules mine more minerals or something.
(I think Zerg is fine).
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On October 02 2025 03:10 Charoisaur wrote:
Honestly, I'm really excited about the patch, this is the best patch I can remember. Balance issues will be sorted out but it really seems to promote fun gameplay from all races
A more ambitious (and possibly imba) patch early in the off-season is a good idea in theory, but I'm worried the intern could leave Blizzard for good at any moment.
TvP wise, I think the significance of the ghost change for late game is underappreciated, Terran will have more supply to work with when maxed. The bigger question is if the energy recharge nerfs are enough for Terran to reach late game with a half-healthy base count...
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The people who argue, "All the good players just choose Terran and Zerg. That's why the winrates look the way they do" have been conspicuously absent in the discussion for a while now.
Did it ever occur to anyone that Protoss just dominates online cups because the better players choose Protoss?
People are terrible.
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holy storm really goes live with huge buffs....wow. not sure why they did it but lets see how it plays out...
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Denmark3426 Posts
Learning zerg is an absolute chore, but just see cham, it's not like old familiar faces can't make it work. It's a blessing that we have all these protoss grinders, it's just a shame zergs won't find any satisfaction in watching these cups. But then for YEARS we've had to put up with not even having hope of a protoss champ in leagues that actually matter.
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On October 02 2025 03:26 Captain Peabody wrote:
Hearing all the Terrans complain today, I'm officially ready to buff Terran. Idk, make Mules mine more minerals or something.
(I think Zerg is fine).
There has literally never been a point in SC2 history that Terran players were not whining about something.
There are some legitimate complaints if you think that balance matters at every level and that some really basic things shouldn't take very little skill to execute but extreme levels of skill to counter (e.g. banelings vs. countering them), but most people don't agree with that while still whining about balance that isn't actually broken at the top level.
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I didn't expect microbial shroud to go online like that, neither did I expect the Viking change to make it through, even if the gas reduction was cut. Interesting times. Zerg is likely the major winner of this patch.
Storm went from major nerfed to buffed? Interesting choice to be sure. Obviously everything else still sucks for toss, so probably a wash overall or slight nerf.
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On October 02 2025 05:46 Archeon wrote:
I didn't expect microbial shroud to go online like that, neither did I expect the Viking change to make it through, even if the gas reduction was cut. Interesting times. Zerg is likely the major winner of this patch.
Storm went from major nerfed to buffed? Interesting choice to be sure. Obviously everything else still sucks for toss, so probably a wash overall or slight nerf.
yeah the distruptor buff is clearly sucking..
Im not sure what terran should do now. Storm is more viable than ever before, and we cant do anything about it. Should at least revert the EMP radius, so protoss have to split templars, or will the f2 armada of players whine about that?
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France12904 Posts
On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare
ByuN lost to Nightmare :x
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On October 02 2025 05:46 Archeon wrote:
I didn't expect microbial shroud to go online like that, neither did I expect the Viking change to make it through, even if the gas reduction was cut. Interesting times. Zerg is likely the major winner of this patch.
Storm went from major nerfed to buffed? Interesting choice to be sure. Obviously everything else still sucks for toss, so probably a wash overall or slight nerf.
I mean Zerg should be the winner of this patch. They've been in the worst position representation-wise in tournaments, and statistically the most imba matchup this last patch by far (at both GM and pro level) has been TvZ. PvZ hasn't been as imba, but has still favored Protoss.
Kinda funny how the story of the last patch has been Terrans complaining, huh?
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On October 02 2025 05:18 RogueTheGOAT wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 03:26 Captain Peabody wrote:
Hearing all the Terrans complain today, I'm officially ready to buff Terran. Idk, make Mules mine more minerals or something.
(I think Zerg is fine). There has literally never been a point in SC2 history that Terran players were not whining about something. There are some legitimate complaints if you think that balance matters at every level and that some really basic things shouldn't take very little skill to execute but extreme levels of skill to counter (e.g. banelings vs. countering them), but most people don't agree with that while still whining about balance that isn't actually broken at the top level.
From watching the tournos played today, it does seem that there was a Protoss bump post-patch, but also that it mostly just came from Ts and Zs not understanding or being familiar with the new Storm: i.e. I've seen numerous players just standing in Storms bc of the radius and also run into Storms right when the storms would have stopped pre-patch (and also numerous Protoss running into their own storms).
Over the course of the day, though, the Terran players I've been watching seem to have learned that speed banshees and tank pushes are really strong post-patch TvP with the energy nerf. So it really is "too early to tell," I think.
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On October 02 2025 07:15 Poopi wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare ByuN lost to Nightmare :x
yeah but ByuN is trash according to TeamMamba. there will be no sympathy towards terran until Clem is losing 0-4 to Harstem and Jumy
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yo dear Blizz Intern,
Can you plz add a mule QoL change as follows:
* Whenever the mule timer expires with the mule holding minerals,
the mule would get to live for as long as it is holding the minerals, but no longer than 2 seconds.
This would allow the mules to complete the last trip to the command center, and break down right after dropping the minerals.
Thank you
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On October 02 2025 07:34 SHODAN wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 07:15 Poopi wrote:On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare ByuN lost to Nightmare :x yeah but ByuN is trash according to TeamMamba. there will be no sympathy towards terran until Clem is losing 0-4 to Harstem and Jumy
Ya Byun is not top tier. Thanks for pointing that out.
Yup the community has zero for sympathy towards terran since they have been crying and whining for 15 years strong now. Until they stop crying then we might “listen” to their idea of balance. Cause these were the same guys who thought the OG widow mine was balance lol and literally tell Zerg and toss pros to git gud
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On October 02 2025 10:58 TeamMamba wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 07:34 SHODAN wrote:On October 02 2025 07:15 Poopi wrote:On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare ByuN lost to Nightmare :x yeah but ByuN is trash according to TeamMamba. there will be no sympathy towards terran until Clem is losing 0-4 to Harstem and Jumy Ya Byun is not top tier. Thanks for pointing that out. Yup the community has zero for sympathy towards terran since they have been crying and whining for 15 years strong now. Until they stop crying then we might “listen” to their idea of balance. Cause these were the same guys who thought the OG widow mine was balance lol and literally tell Zerg and toss pros to git gud
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On October 02 2025 10:27 bela.mervado wrote:
yo dear Blizz Intern,
Can you plz add a mule QoL change as follows:
* Whenever the mule timer expires with the mule holding minerals,
the mule would get to live for as long as it is holding the minerals, but no longer than 2 seconds.
This would allow the mules to complete the last trip to the command center, and break down right after dropping the minerals.
Thank you
That's not a QoL-feature, that's just called a buff...
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Ghost Light tag finally
Now the rockpaper scissors dynamic is now complete:
Ghost > HT > Viking > Colossus > Ghost
Before Colossus didn't really soft-counter Bio+Ghost
Also, those PvT unit comps like Adept Colossus that Astrea went was a cool style and now will have more use
Phoenix comps like Phoenix Colossus could also be interesting!
Phoenix can pick up Ghost but Ghost can EMP. Should be fine.
And Supply back down to 2 so it will hurt Bio still but Mech less now since you won't be playing vs Colossus or mass banelings crashing into your ghosts
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On October 02 2025 02:43 SHODAN wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare
LiuLi Cup/Weekly/8
Which Ro16 match-ups do you think are upsets caused by balance?
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On October 02 2025 03:10 Charoisaur wrote:
Honestly, I'm really excited about the patch, this is the best patch I can remember. Balance issues will be sorted out but it really seems to promote fun gameplay from all races
Not sure if I consider getting my slow ass stormed into oblivion even harder while i'm not looking at my army a "promotion" of "fun gameplay", though.
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(Wiki)LiuLi Cup/Weekly/8
Which Ro16 match-ups do you think are upsets caused by balance?
Acknowledging that this whole exercise is reductive to the point of uselessness, Rogue losing to Skillous and Byun losing to Nightmare are obvious upsets, while Bunny losing to Creator and Lambo losing to Trigger are arguable upsets.
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First games played after a balance patch have almost zero indication on the actual state of balance. Let them cook for a week or two
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On October 02 2025 07:34 SHODAN wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 07:15 Poopi wrote:On October 02 2025 02:02 TeamMamba wrote:On October 01 2025 21:23 Kreuger wrote:
Looking at the matchups, maybe 1-2 of those tosses are a suprise but nothing special otherwise Typical bias picking. All the Protoss that advance were either better than the opponent or get worse 50-50. We can talk about toss being OP when we see for example Clem losing 0-3 to someone like skillious or nightmare ByuN lost to Nightmare :x yeah but ByuN is trash according to TeamMamba. there will be no sympathy towards terran until Clem is losing 0-4 to Harstem and Jumy
Why are you looking for sympathy? Clowns are supposed to make you laugh!
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On October 02 2025 20:31 Admiral Yang wrote:Show nested quote +(Wiki)LiuLi Cup/Weekly/8
Which Ro16 match-ups do you think are upsets caused by balance? Acknowledging that this whole exercise is reductive to the point of uselessness, Rogue losing to Skillous and Byun losing to Nightmare are obvious upsets, while Bunny losing to Creator and Lambo losing to Trigger are arguable upsets.
I know it's useless.
I'm just curious which games the people complaining consider to be upsets.
You mentioned ByuN and NightMare being an obvious upset, but Aligulac predicts a ~50/50 match-up between those two.
+ Show Spoiler + (3028) ByuN 0-0 NightMare (2999)
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26.30% 2-0 0-2 23.73%
25.63% 2-1 1-2 24.34%
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51.93% 48.07%
Median outcome: ByuN 2-1 NightMare
I'd personally lean more heavily towards ByuN than Aligulac does, but I don't think it's crazy that NightMare would win a series between the two.
EDIT:
Don't take this as me saying that the game is in a good state. I think it's a mess.
It will take more than one patch made by one intern to fix the mess that the balance clowncil left behind.
But 7/8 Protoss getting into the quarter finals of a LiuLi Cup isn't the indicator of imbalance that some people want it to be.
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EPT
