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https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24291949/starcraft-ii-5-0-16b-hotfix-patch-notes
We are making changes based on player data and feedback. We are calibrating both Protoss and Terran to help deal with Zerg. We will continue to monitor and make changes if necessary.
Protoss
Colossus damaged increased from 10(+5 vs Light) to 12(+3 vs Light).
Adept damage modifier per attack upgrade increased from 1(+1 vs Light) to 2(+2 vs Light).
Gateway unit train time reduction bonus from researching Warp Gate increased from 40% to 50%.
Gateway/Warpgate transformation duration is now always 4s (reduced from 7s and 5s).
Disruptor phantom weapon range decreased from 11.35 to 7.
Terran
Command Center cost reduced from 400 to 300 minerals.
Planetary Fortress cost increased from 150/150 to 250/150.
Ghost Supply reduced from 3 to 2.
Bug Fixes & Quality of Life Updates
Load Nearby Transport ability reverted (we will look at re-introducing this at a later date).
Gateway train visuals will no longer trigger if 'Effects' graphics options are set to low.
Fixed an issue where workers interacted incorrectly with allied structures.
Warpgates now have selection subgroup priority over Gateways.
Warpgates and Gateways are now considered distinct units when issuing 'select all' commands.
Gateways and Warpgates can now be issued orders to transform regardless of which is the primary subgroup selection.
Reverted spawned Hallucinations inheriting their caster's order queue.
Selection radius color is now distinct for primary subgroup selection when Colorblind mode is enabled.
Fixed an issue in Team games where Cyclones could fail to deal damage to units detected by an ally.
Any thoughts on the current gameplay after this latest hotfix? What are some new metas coming out?
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On July 15 2026 19:23 SeaMonster1 wrote:
Any thoughts on the current gameplay after this latest hotfix? What are some new metas coming out?
Do you have a list what changed?
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Protoss
Colossus damaged increased from 10(+5 vs Light) to 12(+3 vs Light).
Adept damage modifier per attack upgrade increased from 1(+1 vs Light) to 2(+2 vs Light).
Gateway unit train time reduction bonus from researching Warp Gate increased from 40% to 50%.
Gateway/Warpgate transformation duration is now always 4s (reduced from 7s and 5s).
Disruptor phantom weapon range decreased from 11.35 to 7.
Terran
Command Center cost reduced from 400 to 300 minerals.
Planetary Fortress cost increased from 150/150 to 250/150.
Ghost Supply reduced from 3 to 2.
Bug Fixes & Quality of Life Updates
Load Nearby Transport ability reverted (we will look at re-introducing this at a later date).
Gateway train visuals will no longer trigger if 'Effects' graphics options are set to low.
Fixed an issue where workers interacted incorrectly with allied structures.
Warpgates now have selection subgroup priority over Gateways.
Warpgates and Gateways are now considered distinct units when issuing 'select all' commands.
Gateways and Warpgates can now be issued orders to transform regardless of which is the primary subgroup selection.
Reverted spawned Hallucinations inheriting their caster's order queue.
Selection radius color is now distinct for primary subgroup selection when Colorblind mode is enabled.
Fixed an issue in Team games where Cyclones could fail to deal damage to units detected by an ally.
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I wish they'd just leave ghost supply at 3 and balance something else. Mass ghost late game is awful for the game.
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On July 17 2026 08:32 Herringbone wrote:
I wish they'd just leave ghost supply at 3 and balance something else. Mass ghost late game is awful for the game.
well it was ghost lib when lotv came out and everyone was like lib OP so they gutted that. Then it was ghost raven and ppl was like raven OP and they gutted that too. Then ppl went only ghost and ppl were like its really hard to have a control group for ghost to fight queens and to fight ultras and to fight lings and to fight.....
Like what do u ppl want.
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Something similar to the other two races where it's not a viable strategy to mass a single unit that counters pretty much every opposing unit (referring to zerg) and doesn't have a strong counter. Doesn't seem too big an ask.
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CC 300 minerals... dude, what the fuck are they doing LOL. At least they stated their patch goal. But why is Zerg so strong - is it not just the larvae change? If it's not the larvae change, then is it some of the unit changes that happened in LotV to keep the game balanced with the new 12 worker start? If so why not just look at reverting some of those changes?
Why not make Hatchery 300 minerals instead of 275?
On July 17 2026 08:41 THERIDDLER wrote:Show nested quote +On July 17 2026 08:32 Herringbone wrote:
I wish they'd just leave ghost supply at 3 and balance something else. Mass ghost late game is awful for the game. well it was ghost lib when lotv came out and everyone was like lib OP so they gutted that. Then it was ghost raven and ppl was like raven OP and they gutted that too. Then ppl went only ghost and ppl were like its really hard to have a control group for ghost to fight queens and to fight ultras and to fight lings and to fight..... Like what do u ppl want.
Amen. Raven got way gutted so now Ghost has to do everything. (Besides TvT where mass disabling shit, including carefully positioned tanks and fortified positions on the map is toxic)
I hate hate hate the direction of the patches. When a patch makes a bad change, instead of reverting that change (partially or fully or looking at a slightly different alternative), they change something else so design of units just keep straying further and further from what they were supposed to be. Like, we're so lost in the sauce we don't even know how we got here, definitely not the balance teams since they've changed every few years in LotV. Like, the new balance team thought that the stupid +2 Building armor upgrade not applying to Auto Turrets was a bug rather than a (stupid) nerf the balance council did.
Like godamn I want to have the units and abilities I bought the game for!
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United States33660 Posts
Build diversity of 13, 14, and 15 CC, just like Brood War 
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On July 17 2026 09:30 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
When a patch makes a bad change, instead of reverting that change (partially or fully or looking at a slightly different alternative), they change something else so design of units just keep straying further and further from what they were supposed to be.
THIS! Reverts should almost always be a favored fix instead of piling on additional changes.
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So let me get this straight. A Zerg Hatchery costs 300 minerals, and a Terran Command Center also costs 300 minerals. As Zerg, you sacrifice a Drone (+50 minerals) and then have to build a new one (+50 minerals). As Terran, an SCV just stops mining while it's constructing the CC. Excuse me, what? Calling this patch nonsense would be an understatement.
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300 minerals CC just feels wrong. I don't care how uou justify it.
Rest looked sensible too it s weird they d do something si drastic amidst the rest
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On July 17 2026 10:48 Die4Ever wrote:Show nested quote +On July 17 2026 09:30 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
When a patch makes a bad change, instead of reverting that change (partially or fully or looking at a slightly different alternative), they change something else so design of units just keep straying further and further from what they were supposed to be. THIS! Reverts should almost always be a favored fix instead of piling on additional changes.
If you change nothing, nothing will change. I applaud Blizzard for trying to make the game better with changes like this.
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300 minerais for CC is a hudge change. Now half the cost is worth for supply. So you only lose 150 mineral. Then you spend a 150 more mineral for OC and you then have a mule giving you 200+ minerals per cast.
Maybe they estimated a CC cost 550 since you always upgrade it ?
But the investment for having mule plus expand is now a lot reduced.
They said it will help TvZ. but it will also help TvP. I don't know about the state of TvP right now. Well they also upgradd protoss, so both up might leave the winrate the same.
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Czech Republic12132 Posts
Isnt it right now better to almost ignore supply depots and just build CCs and have MULEs and scans for days? Basically the Maru style 
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So... didn't I just see a post on here that "Protoss Strikes back" and won most of the online tournies this past week? I guess because Serral wasn't playing those results don't count? Are we just going to ignore all that and pretend it didn't happen? Gotcha.
Zerg didn't do terrible but is it SO OP that we can justify all these targeted buffs to the other races? I don't think so. I haven't seen that. https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/645717-weekly-cups-july-6-12-protoss-strike-back When the patch first dropped, sure maybe, but on the updated iteration "hotfix" y-yeah... idk... im skeptical. So we expect zerg to do even worse now yeah? It was nice for the race to be competitive outside Serral while it lasted.
2 supply ghost with un-cancellable snipes 
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Every once in a while there's a news item about a 6-year old taking their mom's Toyota and crashing into a lot of stuff on main street?
This balance patch is that.
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300 mineral CC for early, mid and late game as well as 2 supply ghosts for late?
I guess Z̶e̶r̶g Serral winning 2 consecutive tournaments (though one was on the old patch) / anything at all since EWC 2025 was too much. We'll just have to wait and see if Z̶e̶r̶g Serral is able to win anything with these changes.
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CC first on 6 worker start: 14 supply
CC first on 12 worker start: 17 supply
CC first on 8 worker start with 400 minerals: 16 supply
CC first on 8 worker start with 300 minerals: 15 supply
David Kim you've done it again.
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So we have to buff terran and protoss so they can keep up with the new zerg, that was buffed because it seemed to trail behind. Was it not just chrono boost at minute 0 that was the issue then?, like how nexus had 0 energy on 6 workers.
Isn't it easy to see now why we have a pacing issue, not because of 6, 8 or 12 workers, but because of knee-jerk patching to fix things that probably wasn't an issue to begin with.
If we want a slower game, then 50% gate production, 7% larvae increase, or what it is, and cc at 300 minerals isn't the way.
It's funny because I talked about all these things before, we could've had:
12/17 supply start, with cc and nexus being their bw equivalent + 10, and zerg hatch could be 1 supply, and they could spawn with 2x overlords (aids 4-player maps).
Orbital and planetary at +100 minerals, nexus at +100 minerals, and terran barrack not requiring depot.
Queens start at 50e, but inject and creep costs 50e as well. And hatchery spawns larva every 9s.
This slows down the pacing and exponential growth into the late game, putting a bigger decision barrier behind every expo, keeps the sped up early game, and keeps early rushing more mineral focus which I actually like. Makes greed more powerful because of not needing a pylon for fast expanding, this encourages cheese and adds back the mind game element lost in HotS.
Zerg larvae being concentrated on hatch (cost percentage wise, hatchery is now as powerful as hatch + queen with perfect injecting), this makes zerg easier as it's less macro strict, needing to inject every 25e as opposed to T/Z at every 50e.
It keeps in check the balance of supply gained from depots vs. town halls, which encourages attacking, as opposed to having cc at 300 minerals and 13 supply, making it way worse to invest into depots = army. Here it would be good to see how TvT is changing, my guess is it becomes an actual turtle fest.
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Damn these changes keep getting worse... What player data and feedback are they referring to?! I call BS, they just fling shit at the wall and see what sticks. I still (want to) like the 8 worker start, but the stuff they keep iterating on is getting stupid. I'm Terran and 300 minerals CC are completely ridiculous.
Also stop this QoL shit or find a better line, but at this point we're dumbing shit down too much. SC2 already has so many improvements over BW, you won't magically attract a new audience for the game/genre by slowly turning it into an auto-battler. Harstem phrased this rather nicely, the game needs friction so you can feel accomplished when you are improving and overcoming this friction. It's an expression of skill and this is what makes StarCraft such a wonderful and timeless game.
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On July 17 2026 17:10 deacon.frost wrote:Isnt it right now better to almost ignore supply depots and just build CCs and have MULEs and scans for days? Basically the Maru style
To an extent yeah, it's actually one of the many fundamental problems that stormgate had where It was supply efficient just to build town halls over supply to have maximum saturation asap. Luckily Sc2 doesn't have as polarizing of an economy, but it still bleeds over. Especially when maps now are featuring a gas/mineral wall on the edge of terrain for 3rds/4ths. You're going to see a lot of orbital/bunker walls in those spots which is silly.
At the end of the day I'm kind of optimistic everything is playing out the way it is. We might finally see mules removed from the game, 16 years overdue.
On July 17 2026 22:59 Creager wrote:
Also stop this QoL shit or find a better line, but at this point we're dumbing shit down too much. SC2 already has so many improvements over BW, you won't magically attract a new audience for the game/genre by slowly turning it into an auto-battler. Harstem phrased this rather nicely, the game needs friction so you can feel accomplished when you are improving and overcoming this friction. It's an expression of skill and this is what makes StarCraft such a wonderful and timeless game.
Don't really agree with that, they could double/triple down on everything QoL and SC2's ceiling would still be high enough for it to not matter. I don't feel any sort of sense of skill or accomplishment resetting my roach arc for the 25th time in a ZvZ, especially now after seeing the potential for other games implementing things like drag formation.
Doubt we'll ever see it (for sc2 at least) but I'd really like to see the command card increase and have customization options. Primarily for easier access for spells without having the repetitive nature of hitting the next unit in my subgroup to cast what I want. (Things like being able to bile/fungal, stim/emp, storm/guardian shield, etc with those units selected.) I say this as someone that generally has that 'skill' as one of my advantages over opponents, and I still wouldn't mind it going that way.
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SoCal8933 Posts
If only there was a test realm to test out all of these changes..
300 mineral cc is crazy
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I dont see how we're supposed to have a pro scene at all when they keep making ridiculous changes every other week. How often are they gonna tweak the Ghost before they just put it back to where it was before they started tinkering with it?
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Ghost cant be 3 supply, simply as that, not sure why its that hard to understand. And its stupid to not even try to reduce the CC to 350 mineral first to see the impact, it has to be all the way to 300 to make it too OP and they will revert it again. Then turn around, see we try to buff Terran but it doesnt work. Well, no shit.
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300 MINERAL CC
calling into work to practice cc first for 10 hours DAMN
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I'm so sick of Ghosts. I seriously can't stand watching this pew pew anymore, and they just keep buffing them over and over again.
Just a quick reminder: 15 Ghosts take up 30 supply. Each Ghost can fire two Snipes for 170 damage each, that's 340 damage per Ghost. 340 × 15 = 5,100 damage from just 30 army supply.
That's enough to kill 26 Lurkers (80 supply) or 22 Brood Lords (90 supply).
And on top of that, Ghosts hard-counter every spellcaster. Even when they're out of energy, they're still nothing like an Infestor that's completely useless without energy. They're Ghosts - they'll just keep shooting you from 7 range for 15 damage a hit.
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EPT
