HotS Balance Update #4 [9/28/12]

Protoss

Mothership Core
Purify has been changed to the following:
Purify can now only be cast on your Nexus at max 10 range.
Once cast, the mothership core will attach itself to the Nexus, transforming into a weapon with range 10.
While attached to the Nexus, the mothership core will be unable to cast abilities and regenerate energy.
The damage of Purify has been lowered to 20 and can attack both air and ground units.
Purify will last until cancelled.
Recall has been changed to the following:
Recall is now a simple cast-and-click ability on a player’s Nexus.
Once cast, the mothership core and every friendly unit within a 7-range radius to the core will be recalled to the Nexus.
A new ranged weapon called Repulsor Cannon has been added to the mothership core while in its mobile state.
Repulsor Cannon deals 8 damage to ground units with an attack speed of 0.85.
The cost of the mothership core has increased from 50/50 to 100/100.
Movement speed has increased from 0.47 to 1.875.

Oracle
Health has increased from 20/80 to 60/100.
Speed has decreased from 3.75 to 3.375.
The duration of Entomb has increased from 30 to 45.

Terran

Widow Mine
The duration of Activate Mine has been decreased to 2 sec.
Auto-cast can now be turned off in both activated and deactivated modes.

Zerg

Swarm Host
Locust attack range has increased from 2 to 3.
Locust damage has been reduced from 14 to 12.

Bug Fixes

Battle hellions can no longer load into Bunkers.
The splash damage from widow mines will no longer hit friendly activated widow mines.
The Stargate Command Card now properly includes a Set Rally Point button.
Swarm hosts now have proper collision while burrowed.

As you’ve likely noticed, we’re still actively tuning the numbers on many of the new units we’re introducing in Heart of the Swarm. We’re making these changes after frequently referring to the stats from the beta, our play experiences, discussions taking place on the community forums and fan sites, and pro feedback. We think there’s still a ways to go in terms of number tweaks and are working hard to bring you the best experience possible.

The main design changes for this week are surrounding the mothership core. Due to the variety in maps, we found that no matter how slow we made the mothership core’s movement speed, deadly all-in strategies exist on many different maps and/or positions. To ensure that this unit does not limit us as well as the many tournament map makers around the world, we decided to go in a new direction.

The mothership core’s Purify ability is now cast on a Nexus attaching the unit to the Nexus and enabling a weapon that deals 20 damage. The mothership core will remain attached to the Nexus until cancelled; however, energy will not be regenerated and no abilities can be used while attached. Additionally, the Recall ability has been modified to teleport the mothership core and units nearby to a targeted Nexus. Both of these changes were made to discourage the unit from being used in all-ins. Now that its two spells are strictly defensive, we believe we can make a cooler mothership core. It will now move at a reasonably fast speed and feature an anti-ground attack. We hope these changes will make the unit a lot more fun to use.

We’ve also been carefully monitoring your feedback regarding the map pool and agree that Fractured Glacier isn’t a very competitive 1v1 map. In the future, we will be removing this from the ladder pool and will be replacing it with a new map. Additionally, three Wings of Liberty maps will be added into the beta map pool at a later date. Our current plan is to implement these map pool changes as soon as possible and stick with these eight maps for the remainder of the beta. We anticipate that Heart of the Swarm Season 1 will feature the same map pool; however, this is definitely not set in stone, so feedback on the updated map pool is greatly appreciated.

Next on the design docket:

We’re currently looking at ways to alter the design of the widow mine so that it feels like core terran unit. We’re also reevaluating the oracle's third spell: Phase Shift. While Phase Shift is a cool option against Fungal Growth, is not very appealing in other situations. These are the main things we’re looking at right now, so we encourage you to share your feedback regarding these two topics.

Thank you so much for playing the beta and giving us your feedback. Please remember that nothing is final; we’re doing our best on each of the three races and hope to continue working with our players in order to make Heart of the Swarm awesome.