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Edit: Everything until this post on page 7 is about changes to the PTR that no longer are accurate. Ultralisks were buffed in live 1.2. Read this post for the current status of the Ultralisk.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7573716
+ Show Spoiler [outdated] +----------------------------------- [b][red]Mod edit:spoiled this as it's all outdated now/red] So I was excited as anyone else to hear that Ultralisks might get a buff in 1.2, unfortunately it was difficult to test since Blizz wasn't kind enough to include a unit tester. But eventually I found someone to try and help me figure it out (and added a new person to my friend list!) ![[image loading]](http://hammerand.com/goldenh/sc2/ultra.1.2.JPG) ![[image loading]](http://hammerand.com/goldenh/sc2/ultra.1.1.3.JPG) No change. Splash damage is the same (33%), Radius is the same. I did tests with Zealots, but they were harder to make out. The pylon radius is pretty clear. Not sure what Blizz bothered to make a patch note for what is just behind the scenes twiddling with the search pattern. I suppose it may actually do less damage now, to things burrowed underneath it or standing on top of it.
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It looked like in the before picture pylons behind the ultra were getting hit, how about the 1.2 version?
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They weren't getting hit, I just plowed deeper into the pylon wall in the first picture. If you think about it, you'll realize that if the pylons behind were getting hit, they would have less health than the ones directly to the side of the Ultra. Pylons behind the Ultra were not getting damaged in either case; the damage is a flat 33% and it doesn't matter where it is in the splash area.
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Pylons might be too large (ie. not enough granularity) to properly test this.
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Try with infantry because infantry bundles up closer then pylons or zealots and it's where ultra splash actually matters =.=
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While it might not be changed for hitting pylons, they're larger and spread out further than most units. If you tested it on marines or something I'm sure you'd see a slightly larger splash, but that's harder to test. You're not going to see a gigantice range increase when they move the damage point forward slightly.
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I did test with Zealots, there was still no change, but i'm not posting those pictures because it was harder to make out, the zealots were also pretty big.
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I thought the buff was to extend the range slightly? So if there was a zealot with a stalker directly behind it it would hit the stalker as well?
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I think the buff was just where the arc was centered. It used to be the middle of the ultra, but was move to a point on the front end of the ultra. So the radius is the same, but it extends slightly farther in front of the ultra and doesn't deal damage to something immediately next to it.
I could be wrong, but it seems like the change is just to better focus the damage onto your enemies if you have a bunch of ultras standing side-by-side . . .
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The real test shuold be with marines and tanks, because thats probably the most practical rason to use ultralisks in a game.
I think the pylons are too spaced out for the AoE to do its proper damage. That, or blizzard just fucked us over again 
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The center of the arc was just move up to the FRONT of the ultralisk instead of the middle of the ultralisk. I'd say in 90% of games it won't make any difference but in those 10% an extra marine or two will take some splash.
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These pictures don't help test the issue very well. For one, make sure both pics show the ultralisk at the same point in the pylon matrix (one pic the ultra has knocked down one pylon, the other one two).
Set up a matrix of marines around the ultra, then do one attack each in each test (make sure the marines are spread out equally to each side, and all around the ultralisk) I think you will see that the ultra will damage the same number of marines, but in a slightly different area.
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On December 07 2010 10:01 greycubed wrote:
Try with sensor towers.
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So taking the advice of the forumgoers I went ahead and used sensor towers instead of pylons. But in addition to pylons I burrowed Zerglings underneath the path the ultralisk would take, to see if the Ultralisk did indeed do damage to anything underneath it.
The results were quite surprising.
First, the image from 1.2. We did it twice so there would be no question of the results.
![[image loading]](http://hammerand.com/goldenh/sc2/ultra.1.2.b.JPG)
As expected, the sensor towers in front of the Ultra and to the sides took damage, but nothing underneath the ultralisk.
The surprise was when I tried it in the current version.
![[image loading]](http://hammerand.com/goldenh/sc2/ultra.1.1.3.b.JPG)
The first thing you notice is that I had to make the path wider. The ultra simply would not fit in the gap that it fit in in 1.2. This suggests a slight undocumented change in the size of the Ultra.
The second thing you notice is that the Ultralisk damage radius was far larger. Not just hitting things underneath it, but also to the side. While no increase in range was made.
If anything, the change in 1.2 represents a nerf; no further marines will be hit by the ultralisk's claws.
PS I won't be using marines to test anything; in fact I won't do any further tests on the issue, I consider it closed. If you wish to do further changes I suggest using a field of burrowed zerglings; it's much quicker to make and gives good results.
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The patch changes made it sound like it would be a nerf, I'm not sure why you even thought it was to be a potential buff in the first place.
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If the area of effect was kept the same it would have been a buff. Clearly the area of effect was reduced, not moved.
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On December 07 2010 12:05 GoldenH wrote:
If the area of effect was kept the same it would have been a buff. Clearly the area of effect was reduced, not moved.
The Ultralisk’s arc-shaped damage area is now centered at the front of the Ultralisk instead of at its center.
It does say "its" center, although I interpreted the "center" as the center of the unit. Because how it currently works is that the splash dmg dealt is dependent on the size of the unit attacking and splash is dealt in a circular radius around the ultra. Maybe they changed it when they fixed the PFort bug. Idk.
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Perhaps my expectation of an Ultralisk buff was due to misplaced optimism on Blizzard's ability to balance the game.
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EPT
