OneGoal: A better SC2 [Project Hub]

Stalker
The Stalker has been put in an awkward place between Warp In, Blink and Force Field. As a core ranged support unit, it must be 1.5, and be balanced with the fact that it can be made anywhere at any time once Warp Gate is researched, can teleport a significant distance with sight, and shares production with a powerful zoning unit, the Sentry. To compensate, Blizzard has given the Stalker poor scaling with upgrades and less health than its predecessor. While this is in perfectly in line with the Stalker being a Dark Templar unit, it is part of the reason gateway is so weak. Gateway must be weak to account for warp-in and force field, but we have addressed that, and saw an opportunity for a stronger thematic successor to the Dragoon, and free the stalker up to be a more potent assassin type unit.

--Stat Changes
-Increased damage to 14 from 10+4 to Armored.
- New Upgrade: Shakuran Accelerator at Cyber Core 100/100/80. Increases Stalker range to 7 from 6.
-Health/Shields changed to 60/80 from 80/80.
-The Stalker now has the Medium armor type instead of Armored.

--Affected Dynamics
Testing thus far show that 7 range Stalkers offer protoss a powerful early and mid game raiding and map control option when combined with Mothership Cores or Hallucination. The Stalker is less effective at death ball play due to its decreased net HP and its high shield value (making blink play more important as well as creating an incentive for Shield upgrades as an alternative to Armor.) Stalkers now benefit from roving in small groups to control ground and force unit movement via traditional blink micro. In battle Stalkers squads can now more easily snipe priority targets like Infestors (now medium units), Ghosts (now Light targets), and Ravens.

The amount of health have been reduced to give create more demanding micro as it is a support unit, rather than a core unit.

--Concerns
Having 7 range may make them too slippery. Fungal still prevents blink, however.

In their current form they may make Mutalisks an unviable midgame in PvZ. The new Tissue Regeneration Passive helps though.

Immortal
The Immortal is the spiritual successor of the Dragoon of a powerful, durable, armored walker. Thematically, we felt the Immortal should occupy the same banner its ancestors did in times of old: the armored backbone of the Protoss army. Once again, the venerated elders stride into battle from the gateway, with walkers upgraded to better endure and punish the assaults of their enemies. One last time, the veterans who witnessed the Fall of Auir shall march to victory or doom. Though they are dwindling in number, they have returned, for vengeance! Nak-A-Khala! With the potency of warp in reduced, we could actually give Protoss the power that is their birthright.

Taking the immortal from the specialized hard counter role of a teir 2 unit down to a backbone 1.5 requires a lot of adjustments.

--Stat Changes
-Cost reduced to 150/100 from 250/100.
-Reduced Supply to 3 from 4.
-Hardened Shields now has a 2 second Cooldown after being activated.
-Added Anion Fortification Research at Twilight Council (150/150 120 seconds) which reduces the cooldown to a .5 seconds.
-Reduced HP/Shields to 120/100 from 200/100.
-Reduced damage to 20+10 vs Armored from 20+30 vs Armored.
-Reduced attack damage upgrades to 1+1 to Armored from 2+3 to Armored.
-Reduced range range to 5 from 6.
-The Immortal requires a Cybernetics Core to build.
-The Immortal is now built at the Gateway or Warp Gate.
-New Research: Anion Fortification 100/100/100 grants the Immortal constant Shield regeneration (even in battle.)

--Affected Dynamics
Brood War Dragoons were heavy support units whose presence demanded attention from enemies in battle. They were costly and relatively expensive by BW standards to field. The Immortal furthers this theme by costing by more minerals/gas and supply than their predecessors in exchange for more damage, shield, and the ability to shrug off powerful attacks in the later stages of the game. These changes were made to allow Protoss to have a stronger, self sufficient army in the early game while opening up the use of high damage and armored units like Siege Tanks to be used against Protoss. This change is made possible by the introduction of Widow Mines (which ignore hardened shields), EMP (which are now more effective at killing Immortals). Zerg can use Fungal Growth, Zerglings, Locusts, and the new Corrupt ability to ignore hardened shields. Protoss is now rewarded for using High Templar to Storm Immortal lines so that their forces can engage with full effectiveness.

Now, the Protoss have a tier 1.5 unit that can stand against units like the Marauder and new Hydralisk without breaking the mid and late game battles (with balance testing, of course).

Some Cool dynamics:
Immortals vs Tanks is no longer one sided. Tanks are effective at deterring Immortal aggression until Anion Fortifications comes online (about the eight minute mark). Then the Immortal becomes a deadly siege breaker unit that demands support (or solid focus fire micro) to defeat.

With the advent of tempests, the new immortal and tempests fill the old siege-breaker role with more counterplay, so the old immortal’s role is not needed anymore.
The Widow Mine is not great at killing immortals due to the long rearm time and the presence of early detection via Mothership Core. However, they break hardened shields and damage the hull, allowing pure mech to exist against the Immortal.

The Immortal is a reliable answer to mass roach in PvZ, forcing the Roach to be used in more subversive ways, or in conjunction with other units like Zerglings, Swarm Hosts, or Hydralisks, making the PvZ mid game more diverse. Roaches have been tweaked to still remain viable in the matchup.

In PvP, the high number of faster Immortals encourage players to build fewer colossus, more High Templar, and Stalkers (due to their significant range advantage), as well as the new Void Ray (Its tick system ignores most of Hardened Shield's protection) Overall, there has been a significant increase in unit diversity between OneGoal and WoL, and a new core dynamic added in for dealing with protoss forces. With the right balancing, the Immortal’s hardened shields could provide and reward a whole host of interesting choices and control options. It just takes a different method of thinking.

--Concerns
Having Hardened shield on a massable unit initially proved problematic in PvP and PvT. So we applied attack range reduction, damage upgrade reduction, and are considering a projectile attack to make sure there are many avenues of counterplay vs mass Immortal. Time will tell if these changes work, but initial testing shows that Immortal based deathballs are powerful, but vulnerable to well fortified positions, run-bys, and clever storm usage. Immortals are the most expensive tier 1.5 unit, costing as much as a Siege Tank. Losses are painfully felt.


Sentry
We felt the gameplay of the Sentry was not only consistent with the Protoss’s identity, but enhances it. Whether it is creating barriers to stem the Swarm’s onslaught, readying a Guardian Shield to ward off Terran guns, or producing a barrage of hallucinations, the Sentry’s core purpose is to protect its creators and ensure dominance of the ground along with the Colossus. The following changes have been made to the Sentry to enhance its ability to protect its allies while ensuring that that there are more ways to answer Force Field. We want the Sentry to be a playstyle choice, not a requirement to playing the race.

-Stat Changes
-The Sentry now built at the Robotics Facility.
-Increased cost to 100/100 from 50/100.
-Damage increased to 8 from 6.
-HP increased to 80/80 from 40/40
-Build time decreased to 30 from 37
-Force Field removed.
-New Spell Ion Aegis: Which creates a shield regenerating area for a brief time. 50 Energy 9 range. 5 duration.
-Guardian Shield energy cost increased to 100 from 75.
-Guardian Shield duration reduced to 10 seconds from 15.
-Guardian Shield now protects against crowd control effects like Fungal Growth, Abduct, Neural Parasite, and Isolation Pulse to units within its area in addition to its damage reduction.
-Hallucination removed (given to Oracle)
-New Spell Time Warp
Energy: 125
Range: 6
Duration: 15 Seconds
Effect: All ground units in target Area (3 Units) Move and attack 50% slower. Projectiles travel 50% slower in area.

--Affected Dynamics
The gateway, with the retooled immortal, can hold its own without leaning on force field. With the Sentry relegated to Robotics facility, it is more difficult to accrue a critical mass of force fields early in the game. Additionally, removing force fields removes the Sentry’s ability to cut off ramps, allowing opponents to defend their naturals or mains against sentry drops. Additionally, fights that involved force fields now have choices and gradients of success on both sides with spells like Time Warp and Ion Aegis. If the opponent finds her army cut in half, she can either use the trapped units to trade, or attempt to break free and save some units. Depending on how fast she is, she can potentially save her forces and retreat. Time Warp fills in the gap that the invulnerable Force Field left behind, allowing your strong gateway units to hold a line against numerous foes without destroying microability or counterplay.

Guardian Shield is now a means of countering mass infestor without invalidating the spell’s damage. To compensate, they now require you to choose when to use them rather than simply using the ability and attacking. There is now a very real choice in how to use sentry energy in an advanced battle.

Overall there will be much less sentry energy available to the Protoss player, and with the moderate counter-caster abilities of the Guardian Shield and hallucination, there’s a lot more tension on where the energy is used. Force fields are still an option, but they are a choice instead of a necessity, and can be included or excluded in a larger strategy involving the sentry.

--Concerns
Numbers are a real pain to figure out with this unit. Too much healing on Aegis and they present a false choice. Too few and it is a bad ability. While we like the design, getting the balance just right will take time.

Dark Templar
--Stat Changes
-The Dark Shrine now costs 100/200
-New Research at Dark Shrine: -Uraj Talisman added 150/150/80: Increases Speed by 20% and grants immunity to all Slows and Stuns.

Colossus
The Colossus is a pretty grim unit. It’s a xenocidal war engine that was locked away by its makers because they were terrified by the moral ramifications of its use. The fact that the Colossus has been integrated into Protoss armies reflects the more vengeful face of Starcraft 2’s Protoss. In game, the Colossus has dominated all matchups and doesn’t reflect player skill as much as other siege units. We have made the following changes to make the Colossus take more skill to use optimally as well as provide opportunities for counterplay while preserving the sense of power of bringing them to the battlefield.

--Stat Changes
-Colossus now has a different aoe that fires two vertical parallel lines away from it allowing it to hit units as far away as 10 units.
-Colossus now have a standard attack again that does 10x2.
-Increased range to 7 from 6.
-Extended Thermal Lance removed.
-New Upgrade: Thermal Surge 200/200/100
Effect: Colossi superheat the ground along its aoe causing it to explode after 1.5 seconds, dealing 15x2 (+10x2 to light) in the area.
-Attack speed reduced to 3 from 1.6 (This includes the charge animation)
-Attack Damage increased to 15+5 vs light x2.

--Affected Dynamics
Colossus now require positioning to take full advantage of their devastating attacks. Colossus can 1 shot un-upgraded marines, Zerglings, and worker units with ease, however, now units they once hard countered can theoretically outmaneuver its beams. This makes the Colossus less of a hard counter unit as well as slowing down gameplay without sacrificing power or identity. Seeing marines split and dodge the explosion or Zerglings dart in after the Colossus slags the ground to get a few hits is something that feels fantastic to play and watch. Unlike its current implementation, there is a very real sense of anticipation and dread when the Colossus slices through a group of units. A nice bonus is that Colossus heavy armies don’t do well unless they are spread out to herd units from one thermal lance set to another, increasing the surface area of the army and opening up new attack paths.

--Concerns
The balance we are trying to strike is tricky. Too long a window and the Colossus is useless against the units it was intended to counter, to short and we are back to square one. Testing will show whether it is possible or not to find that sweet spot.

-

Void Ray
The Void Ray is in a really rough spot at the moment. The Tempest kills capital ships faster and more efficiently, The Oracle is a better base raider, the Phoenix is a cheaper, flexible Air to Air fighter and mineral line harasser. With Blizzard saying that they want to remake the unit, we felt pretty comfortable making some radical changes to how the Void Ray works in the Protoss Armada. The main issue that we identified with Stargate openings is that all too often the counter to prolonged Stargate play is to just a-move with a bunch of stuff and kill the player. Stargate also lacks an effective response to marines and the new Hydralisk. With Force Fields gone and the Tempest too expensive and time intensive to make a difference, the Void Ray became the perfect unit to bear the responsibility of addressing these. Thematically, the Void Ray has always been about burning away any trace of the enemy, so giving them a sort of scorched earth and sky mechanic felt both flavorful and useful.

--Stat Changes
-Prismatic Charge now creates a .75 AoE when active instead of doing +6 to Armored.
-Cooldown is decreased to 45 seconds from 60.
-Ground damage increased to 8+4 vs Armored from 8.

--Affected Dynamics
Protoss Stargate openings have always been dicey, even against Z, which traditionally has the poorest offensive AA in WoL. Spend too much on Stargate units, or don’t build Colossi quickly enough, and one risks just dying to a roach, bling, or even hydra bust. Because of the Marine and Stalker in WoL, Stargate dominant openings are risky if not suicidal without support from the Robo.

From an opponent’s perspective, Void Rays behave like storms in that they can control chokes. However, unlike Force Force, you are free to move, fight, and cast spells. You can chose to engage, though there is a steep cost in doing so. This area control is dependent on positioning to be effective, making the Void Ray a unit that scales well with skill and is open to being pressured or sniped.

--Concerns
Balancing the damage and AOE scale will take care, but we are currently not worried about its design. We feel it is an interesting positional unit that offers potential for fun for both sides.

-

Phoenix
The Phoenix is a fast raiding unit and air-superiority fighter, while it is strong in the early game, it quickly loses its potency once sufficient GTA units are fielded. We felt that increasing the utility of its signature Graviton Beam would allow the Phoenix have a greater impact in later engagements by lifting Tanks, Swarm Hosts, and Ghosts.

--Stat Changes
-Shields Increased to 80 from 60.
-Aeon Pulse Crystal upgrade now increases the range of Graviton Beam to 7 from 5, the same range extension it gives the auto attack.

--Affected Dynamics
Now that Zerg has more prolific anti-air, Phoenix experienced an indirect nerf. We hoped to keep them viable in PvZ, and extend their usefulness in PvT, by increasing the range of the Graviton Beam, and reduce how much they have to expose themselves late game to be effective.

--Concerns
Initially we were concerned that the Infestor would be destroyed by Phoenix with this upgrade. However the Zerg no longer rely on the infestor so heavily, and hydras won’t often be far away.

Oracle
The Oracle has come a long, long way. It now offers many degrees of success and offers powerful area control abilities to the field of battle and feels like a DT unit. We would like to make the deployment of her abilities require a bit more thought, and really push her utility as a mobile space controller and support unit.

--Stat Changes
-Pulsar Beam is now a standard attack.
-Reduced attackspeed to 1 from .86.
-New Passive:
-New spell: Twilight Shroud. 100 energy Target 2.5 radius area now offers cloaking to all friendly units for 40 seconds.

--Affected Dynamics
We wanted the Cloak dynamic of the-pre beta oracle due to the cool pushes and area control. However, we wanted something that was open to counterplay. Therefore, by committing that energy to an area, the Protoss clearly communicates that power offensively as well as giving a strong defender’s advantage in the absence of detection. Early in the game, we wanted this power to be precious and tactical. In the late game, we wanted to see Oracle playstyles that created dark zones that could be used as traps or fake outs, or means of escape or juking. Stalkers could literally fall back to the shadows.
Also, hiding High Templar beneath a Shroud is really fun.

--Concerns
We worry about the implementation of Twilight Shroud in the early game. Should it be too much, we can mess with energy costs, AoE size, and duration.


Carrier
“Carrier has arrived!” Words that filled Protoss hearts with pride, and Terran hearts with fear. Carriers were the harbingers of the full military might of the Sons of Auir. In WoL, units have tight pathing that allows for much more firepower per square meter than in BW, allowing Marines to shred interceptors and decimate Carriers. Given their niche place in the game and the community’s continuous outcry for a better, more responsive carrier, we have given it a shot. Lookin out for you NonY!

--Stat Changes
-Graviton Catapult no longer requires research
-Damaged interceptors returning to the carrier heal instantly.
-Carriers can move without recalling interceptors (broodwar style)
-Gravaton Catapult research removed from fleet beacon. New research added: Enhanced Manufacturing. This reduces interceptor build time by 50%.
-Carrier base armor increased to 3 from 2.
-Production time reduced to 90 from 120
-Health bars on interceptors now visible.

--Affected Dynamics
One of the core issues that the carrier faces in SC2 is how densely ground units can pack. If you are to measure DPS by square feet, it is much higher. In order to get aggressive, they must risk their ability to attack, unlike a typical siege unit.

So we taken many steps to address the crushing weaknesses this has created for the carrier.The base armor increase makes the more durable versus the easily spammed units like marines and the new Hydralisk, but does little to help them against dedicated anti-air such as Corruptors, vikings, and even the new immortal.

Now, because you can see the health of an interceptor, you can recall it at the right time to maintain your fleet’s strength. This takes micro-and observational skills to maximize the effectiveness of the carrier.

Another serious issue carriers faced is that often they would either kill everything without losing many interceptors, or they would lose their interceptors and the Protoss player, having invested so much into something that can no longer attack, die swiftly. The upgrade to reduce interceptor build time doesn’t remove their weakness, but we hope it will avoid that more binary mechanic, especially when combined with good recall micro (tip: use the stop command).

--Concerns
Despite the presence of more potent anti-air in every race, we are concerned that the carriers are too strong. Weaknesses are an important part of what makes the unit interesting, and we hope we struck a balance between maintaining that weakness and removing that more binary outcome. Testing will see.

We considered giving the Protoss carrier an active ability, but with the rich spells now offered by the Mothership, Oracle, and Mothership Core, we thought it better to go for a more passive inherent ability, albeit one that doesn’t directly increase its combat damage.
If these buffs to the Carrier prove to make it two strong in combat, we can alter the ability to only apply when the Carrier is not under fire.

-

Mothership Core
The Mothership is a powerful defensive option that allows for early protoss aggression in the early game. The issue is that it turns into the unique Mothership, which creates issues as a one of unit due to binary gameplay (Either you land x important spell and you win, or you lose.) To allow the Mothership to be a non-unique unit, The Mothership core has had to have a softer limit on the number fielded at a time. As a result, energy costs have been adjusted accordingly.

--Stat Changes
-Mothership Core armor type changed to Medium from Armored.
-Mass Recall energy cost increased to 125 from 100.
-Mothership Core is no longer unique.
-You may have as many Mothership Cores as you have Nexuses.
-Envision removed.
-New Spell Fortify:
Cost: 50
Range: 9
Duration: 30 seconds
AoE: 5
Effect: All friendly buildings in AoE have Hardened Shields and Detection.

--Affected Dynamics
The Mothership Core is now weaker for one-base play, but stronger on multiple base-play, encouraging two and three base timing pushes, while still contributing to applying, and defending against early pressure. The Mothership Core doesn’t stack particularly well in a death ball due to redundant effects and poor fighting stat’s for cost. This means that as more bases are taken by protoss, using multiple Mothership Cores is only beneficial if you have multiple attack groups attacking. This increases multi-tasking potential while increasing the opportunities for counterplay (more Mothership Cores to snipe with less attention devoted to each of them.)
This also means that this style yields much smaller death balls, increasing the defenders advantage, and providing a fuller game experience. Fortify allows for Protoss to survive Baneling busts without Force Fields and gives Toss time to marshal forces versus tank based pushes. We are adding detection to fortified buildings to allow for strong conditional detection to help protoss deal with cloaked threats. This spell allows the MSC to provide the protection that the Sentry once did without forcing frustrating dynamics.

--Concerns
The main risk of this change is giving Protoss too many “get out of get out of jail free cards” While this is true in part, this only comes into play with macro heavy playstyles, and each Recall is more precious. This creates timing windows where Photon Overcharge is not available. Additionally, having three Motherships means you have threefewer Immortals in your army, or you have 300 less gas to spend on units or upgrades.


Mothership
The Mothership has been plagued by conflicting identities. It is supposed to be a powerful capital ship that can turn the tide of battle, and they are precious and rare ships, hence their unique status. They also are supposed to have a balanced place in multiplayer and not outshine dedicated combat ships like the Carrier. As a result, the Mothership has gone from being ignored to dominant. This is primarily due to spells like Vortex. Instead of effectively removing the Mothership from competitive play, we feel that changes can be made to make the Mothership feel like a core late game power-caster that scales with skill and produces interesting games, rather than ending them.

-Stat Changes
-Scale reduced to .8 of the original model.
-Speed increased to 2.25 from 1.4
-Acceleration increased to be the standard of all air units.
-Vortex removed
-Cloaking Field removed
-New spell added: Isolation pulse. 100 Energy. 3 second delay at target 2.5 area location. All units in location are Isolated. They can’t attack, be attacked, target, or be targeted, or use abilities that cost energy. They can still move and use movement based abilities. 15 second duration.
-New Spell Added: Envision: (as HotS Oracle.)
-Mass Recall’s energy cost increased to 150 from 100.
-Total cost reduced to 200/200 from 400/400.
-Health reduced to 200 from 350
- Shields reduced to 200 from 350
-Supply cost reduce to 4 from 8
-This unit is no longer unique
-Still upgrades from MSC, meaning there is a soft limit of one per nexus.

--Affected Dynamics
PvZ is no longer a coin flip. Landing a sick Isolation Pulse effectively wins a battle, but allows the enemy to retreat. Brood Lords can be removed from the fight, but they can be saved, at the cost of the Protoss army getting to do whatever it wants for 15 seconds. Isolation Pulse can be used to save units, or grant units safe passage to a location. Watching a team of Zealots waltz through a spine forest and position themselves around a hatchery is fantastic, because it forces the enemy to make a decision. Do they split off some units to deal with the attack? Do they attack the diminished protoss army? With Storms and Colossi and archons, that might not be the best idea. Long story short, Isolation Pulse produces a ton of gameplay and counterplay. With good reflexes, opponents can mitigate or even dodge the spell, or if they have the right units, use the spell to their own advantage like enabling invincible ling run-by’s. Our testing thus far shows this to be a ton of fun.

Mass Recall has been made more precious due to the combination of the non-unique status of the Mothership as well as its increased speed. Offensive and Defensive Recalls alike are more common now, allowing for action to consistently occur across the map.

Envision advances the general utility of the Mothership as a support unit.


All in all, the Mothership now has a real place in every matchup’s end game without breaking the game, or reducing a game to a coin toss.

--Concerns
We are more worried about the abundance of mass recalls flying around than the other spells. We fear that this change may make late game protoss low risk, high reward. The increased energy cost, however, makes the Mothership commit to that push, and the use of two or even three Motherships costs 8-12 supply and upwards of 900 total gas. Without energy for Isolation Pulse, and boasting less HP, and mediocre damage, counter attacks will be pretty powerful if your opponent has been on top of his or her macro.

Reaper
The Reaper is one of WoL’s problem children. It suffers from the same issues as the Dark Templar, but competes with Terran production too much to see the same sort of play, and lacks the tools to commit the crimes DT’s can simply walk away from. Unlike every other unit in Terran’s harassment roster, the Reaper is the only one that can’t transition or scale with a real army. The following changes are to encourage early Reaper play, while allowing it to have a greater presence in the mid to late game, when combat units are out on the map.
--Stat Changes

-New Ability: Deploy Sentry Turret, requires Factory
Effect: Deploys a Sentry Turret with 50 HP at target location. 30 second cooldown, Range 5.
-Nitro Packs no longer requires a Factory to research.
-All other HotS Patch #8 changes are implemented.

--Affected Dynamics
Auto-Turrets is a strange ability to give to the Reaper, but it really let's the unit perform its job as a means of providing lasting map control and mobile harassment. The havoc that several Reapers can now cause in a mineral is significantly increased, and is harder to root out than Hellions or Banshees due to the durability of the turret, and the speed of the Reaper. The ability to “safely” damage infrastructure can force supply away from the front lines to curtail attacks, or simply the movement of workers away from the to more units spread across a wider area and smaller death balls.

--Concerns Countdown timer being too short eliminates intended counterplay, too long a countdown makes the ability useless. Range may be too long. Range 5 Queens and a Tier 1.5 Hydra however allow Zerg players protection in the mid and late game. Protoss Stalkers and Warp In.

Ghost
The Ghost has changed a great deal since BW, and mostly for the better. We feel that Snipe was marginalized just as it was developing as an all around tool, and in doing so, restricted the Ghost to a strictly anti-caster role. With a simple tweak, Ghost openings/harassment are possible dynamics again. We hope that players experiment with this cool, and well designed ability.

--Stat Changes
-Ghosts are now Light.
-Snipe damage changed to 45 -20 to Massive.
-There is a slight delay on emp showing where it will land.
-Increased EMP radius slightly.

--Affected Dynamics
Many exciting games were had with early ghost rushes to snipe marines and SCVs for a ramp bust, trim down the number of roaches swarming forward, or to pick off overseers. The original snipe had so much more diversity and utility than its current iteration, but its glory has been restored if this mod, with its necessary balance changes for massive intact.
The Ghost’s new light armor tag offers advantages to Phoenix and Hellion compositions, allowing these units to get in, snag the kill, and get out. Phoenix are currently under utilized in PvT and Ghosts are more prevalent due to the increase in Immortal numbers

--Concerns
This is one of the few changes we are totally comfortable with. Ghosts are strong units, but are sufficiently expensive that they delay tech and diminish the size of your early army. No one has accused of Ghosts being OP in the early game. Late game usage is limited to things like Hydralisks, Roaches, Banelings, Overseers, and Infestors. While this lets large numbers of cloaked ghosts wreak havoc, one solid fungal can reveal and destroy them.


Widow Mine
We are really excited to see the Widow Mine find its place in the HotS metagame, the following changes were implemented to make the unit have a bit more counterplay, and increase its overall ability to dissuade deathball usage.

--Stat Changes

-Removed Drilling Claws upgrade.
-New Upgrade: Arenae Manufacturing: Reduces Rearm time to 25 from 40.
-Unstable Payload’s autocast may now be disabled while burrowed.
-Unstable Payload may now target individual units.
-All other post Hots Patch #8 changes are current in One Goal.

--Affected Dynamics
With a more focused ground support role, Widow Mines can dissuade masses of units from attacking, while allowing stealth units and air units to harass. Additionally, this deployment limitation allows the Widow Mine to be deployed in larger numbers without hamstringing the game. The manufacturing upgrade can transition from a strong harassment or defensive unit into a broader area control and support unit in the late game. Mine Fields not dead supply after the first twenty seconds.
Widow Mines are an excellent way for mitigating Immortal’s Hardened Shields without having to resort to Ghost’s EMP allowing pure mech to function in the mid to late game. Additionally, the increased splash damage is a huge boon vs Zerg, who now have Hydralisks instead of Roaches for their primary 1.5 unit.
Again, these changes are intended to pursue a stronger defenders advantage from meaningful choices and units, rather than poor pathing and random numbers. Protoss' advances are limited by how fast they can kill outlying Widow Mines.

--Concerns
Increasing splash is always huge concern, we want units like the Zealot, Immortal and Stalker to feel strong and durable, and giving Terran a ton of late game supply in AoE control is a bit scary. However, at that stage, Protoss has powerful tools like Tempests, Void Rays, Carriers, Colossus, and Motherships to mitigate and erode positions. Zerg has supply free detectors, Infestors that can cast their spells while burrowed, speed roaches, and the Vipers Abduct and Blinding Cloud abilities. With so many answers to positional play, we are hopeful that Terrans can have the classic map presence that spider mines once gave them with a Widow Mine that is consistently armed.


Siege Tank
Classic mech, demands a classic, efficient Siege Tank that promotes counterplay and area control. See below.

--Stat Changes
-Cost reduced to 150/100 from 150/125.
-Supply reduced to 2 from 3.
-Siege Tanks can now overkill.

--Affected Dynamics
Making mech interesting and viable across all matchups has been a key part of this PTR. Mech traditionally suffered from being an all or nothing deal in the final battles. Army replenishment was too slow compared to the races in or a bio composition, making a lost battle very often a critical failure.

With the reduced costs and lower supply, along with the introduction of the Widow Mine, the Terran lines can go deep, spreading a battle across a longer period of time. This allows for reinforcement to not lag so far behind the action, meaning reinforcements now play a meaningful role in swinging a battle of mech.

It also offers more degrees of success, since there’s more tanks that can be used and countered well or poorly. Visually, it enhances the territory line effect, making it an easily understood dynamic for the casual spectator, enhancing StarCraft 2’s reach.

This also helps keep siege take a potent option in Heart of the Swarm, where the tank finds many new counters arising on the battlefield. Drop the Hammer and dispense some indiscriminate justice.

--Concerns
We have few balance concerns. Balance may need tweaking.

Warhound

Warhound
Added Warhound
Cost: 150/75/2 40 second build times Requires Armory, Built at Factory with Techlab.
HP: 160 HP Base 1 Armor. Move Speed: 2.75
Attack Ground: 20 Attack Speed: 2
Ground Range: 5
Attack Air: 30 (+10 to Armored)
Air Range: 9
Air Attack Speed: 2.5

The Thor is a poor unit to fufill an AA role due to their huge supply and resource costs. We tested AA capable Widow Mines and they simply weren't enough to fill the hole the Thor left, we would like to see a supply efficient GtA unit take its place so we returned the Warhound to the field of battle as a punishing AA unit.
Warhounds are a tough and powerful GtG unit that follow the same theme and overall feel of Factory units that are tethered to powerful deployed units. Warhounds offer higher AA burst than Viking and Thors, but must rely on good terrain and positioning to be effective.

--Stat Changes

Mech has a new anti-air unit drawing inspiration from the Goliath, but quite different in execution. with the floor now in a role more suited to it, the Warhound provides a more flexible to air threats than the Thor did. It’s slow attack speed versus air permits the enemy reaction time, but also rewards focus fire micro and even introduces a new form a micro to get the most out of the unit in the mid game. Fast animations and movespeed allows you to move and shoot.
We feel this implementation of an AA Tank allows for more expression of skill from both players, and serves the role better than the Thor.

--Concerns

Doing initial balance work on a two supply aoe AA unit has been...interesting. We decided to lower damage scaling and attack speed to allow for more micro in between shots, as well as giving wider windows for air units to split. We want Terran mech to be able to turn back Air units, however, we want those air units to have some room to maneuver. We are keeping a close eye on the Warhound and a AA capable Widow Mine.


Thor
-Removed

--Affected Dynamics
The Thor grew to be a cumbersome anti-air babysitter. Its massive supply costs meant less choice and fewer degrees of success. The Thor also occupied a role that didn't really seem to suit its art. The role of anti-air mech has been handed off to the much lower supply Warhound. Additionally, Hellbats provided a more gradient and frankly, interesting method of soaking damage and spearheading assaults. The Thor is outdone in every thematic role by more interesting units. While it is a spectacle, it has failed in every attempt to make it have gameplay to match.

--Concerns
We are actually pretty confident about this change.

Raven
--Stat Changes
-Build time reduced from 50 from 60.

-Seeker Missle now functions as it does in HotS.
-Auto Turret has increased damage but shower fire rate.

--Affected Dynamics
More units and more frequent spells means more degrees of success. We want a Raven energy upgrade to be worth something, and we wanted ravens in general to be more than a detector. We reduced the cost of seeker missile because it offers both more degrees of success, and an interesting choice with how you use your energy: do you save up for two seeker missiles at once, or do you use recovery drone to save a midgame tank? We also ensured it would have two shots in a fight, making it a more reliable spell as a psi storm and fungal, while keeping its unique identity.

When trying to create spells of many degrees of success, positional spells are some the best you can offer. We wanted something that synergize with the positional nature of mech, and offered a turret that is better able to contribute in fights.

--Concerns
Again, Ravens are awesome. We should see more of them. Turrets may be a bit overpowered, but we will see.


Battlecruiser
--Stat Changes
New ability:
-Behemoth Reactor now which enables the Warp Drive ability.
-New Ability: Warp Drive
Cost: 75 Energy
Effect: Battlecruisers begin powering their Warp Drives; after 3 seconds it teleports 15 Range in whatever direction it is facing.

We were looking for a means of improving the mobility of the Battlecruiser without tampering too much with its identity as a big slow, and powerful unit. Warp Drive lets the Battlecruiser choose when to engage or disengage if the energy has been set aside for it.

--Affected Dynamics
Battlecruisers can lead assaults with Vikings, Banshees, and Thors. The unit is still slow, but it can briefly redirect power for that clutch maneuver. A nice side effect is that High Templar no longer shut down BC play so thoroughly with Feedback, due to consistently lower energy counts on your BCs; instead Feedback can deny the power of Warp Drive without crippling the BC’s other roles.

--Concerns
We are concerned by the ability for BCs to be able to chase down retreating armies. However, we think that it might work in the Battlecruiser's case because of its high cost to bring to the field, long build time, and the general immobility of mech units to support it, and the fragility relative to cost of Terran air units. If this proves to be too much, we are happy to go back to the drawing board.

Zergling
Zerglings in BW were nothing short of terrifying. Eight cracklings in a base was trouble, twelve cracklings meant buildings were going to be destroyed. Because of their absurdly high dps for minerals and cost. Zerglings have been staples for map control and pressure. In SC2, this legacy is largely sound, but fades in PvZ and TvZ once Colossi, Archons, Hellions and/or tanks are fielded. We want to encourage and empower the Zergling’s late game potential without affecting its considerable early and mid game presence. It felt appropriate to update a classic upgrade.

--Stat Changes
-Adrenal Glands attack speed bonus increased to 33% from 18.5%.

--Affected Dynamics
Given the power of the new Stalker, Zealot, and Marauder along with new additions like Hellbats and Widow Mines. We felt it was important to give the Zergling more teeth in the late game. Zergling run-bys, drops, and nydus-ins are now significantly more damaging. The hope is the threat of stronger crackings will encourage more supply being spread across the map, reducing the size of deathballs.

--Concerns
Ling harassment in the late game may be a bit too strong. However we feel that Widow Mines, 2 Supply Tanks, Warp In, Void Rays, Swarm Hosts, Infestors, and Banelings provide players plenty of options to deal with run-bys. Should that prove incorrect, we will happily scale back the upgrade.

-

Hydralisk
The Hydralisk is perhaps Zerg’s most iconic and memorable unit. It also was the backbone of Zerg armies back in the day, providing air support as a cheap, 1 supply unit that had the stats to really matter en masse. Its current role in WoL is basically a dps spread sheet; there is no incentive or ability to micro. While HotS is taking steps to fix it, the issue is that the Hydralisk simply eats up too much supply for what it does, and doesn’t encourage or enable particularly skilled play.

--Stat Changes
-Hydra Den now costs 150/25.
-Reduced cost to 75/25 from 100/50.
-Reduced supply to 1 from 2.
-Decreased damage to 10 +4 (+1) vs Armor from 12.
-Decreased attack speed to 1.25 from .83.
-Hydralisk Den requires a Spawning Pool to build instead of a Lair.
-Hydralisks require the Grooved Spine research to attack air units.
-Added Muscular Augment research which increases movement speed to 3 at lair.
-Hydralisk have a standardized creep speed bonus (30% down from 50%).
-Changed attack animation timings to allow stutter-step micro.

--Affected Dynamics
The Hydralisk now dominate the battlefield in the early- and mid-games as a cheap and supply efficient source of damage and offensive AA. However, unlike the Roach, the Hydralisk scales very well into the late game given its low supply cost, allowing it to either be the backbone of Hive tech offensives, or support melee compositions by shredding sky born threats. They are roughly as powerful as perma-stimmed marines, but given their greater cost and production time, they tend to trade poorly without a little support.

Lets look at the different match ups:
PvZ: Hydra pressure can wrest map control away from Protoss, allowing the Zerg to take a quick third, or even fourth if enough real damage is done. However, without Grooved Spines researched, Hydras are highly vulnerable to fast Phoenix openings. Defensive Stargates utilizing well-placed Void Rays can also provide the necessary area control to mitigate damage. Colossi still remain a strong answer to Hydras, reducing them to ash in a mere two swipes, provided they can land the shots. Stalkers with their long range, hypermobility, and partial damage bonus can wear down Hydra numbers without sustaining real damage, provided they have good positioning and micro. Whatever the choice, The Hydralisk forces Protoss players to commit compositions if they want any semblance of map control, allowing for agressive Zerg styles to flourish.

TvZ: Hydralisks are a soft counter to Hellions and Hellion openings. Well spread and microed Hydralisks can decimate Hellion numbers, however, if they clump, Hellions can win the exchange. This makes Speed Hydra vs Blue Flame Hellions an absolute joy to watch as each player vies for a positional advantage to secure and maintain map control. Hydras are also a viable answer to Medivacs and Banshees on or off of creep, meaning Zerg can go light on queens, freeing up Lair and hatch time for upgrades like Burrow, Overlord Speed, and Drop, which would be otherwise delayed. However, due to their fragility, well positioned and microed Terran units like Marauders, Hellions Tanks, and Widows Mines can trade efficiently.

ZvZ: Skilled use of Hydralisks can put an end to Ling-Baneling wars that dominate the ZvZ early game. With 6 range, Hydralisks can snipe Banelings before they close. However, Hydralisks trade poorly with Zerglings out in the open, and can be decimated by a few well placed banelings. This means that Hydra centric styles, while difficult, can be possible with good splits and stutter stepping. We are hopeful to see some MKP style ZvZ.
If the early game stabilizes, Hydras with upgrades can transition into Roach-Swarm Host compositions, or support tech-heavy transitions like Infestor or Viper supported armies.

--Concerns
As with the Immortal, making a Tier 2 unit a tier 1.5 unit has required a lot of tweaking to make the unit feel strong without outright breaking match ups. Delaying their AA capacity proved to be an important step in keeping air openings viable. We think the Hydra is in a testable state, and skilled players will show how abusable the current unit is.

-

Roach
At Lair, Roaches can now really explore their role as an assault/harassment unit. We went through several design iterations to emphasize the assault role, but none of the changes really affected how you played with Roaches. The biggest problem with the unit’s current design is that it’s exciting traits like burow micro are downplayed, effectively making it an a -move unit. A unit that is its strongest while burrowed was a fascinating point of gameplay and identity. Ideally, Roaches are deviant, resilient, and dangerous when below ground, but must surface to actually attack. Our following changes emphasize that identity and gameplay.

--Stat Changes
-Cost increased to 100/25
-Roach Warren now requires Lair.
-Increased base move speed to 3.
-Glial Reconstitution removed.
-Roaches now have burrow by default.
-Tunneling Claws now no longer grants increased health regeneration.
-Tunneling Claws now increases burrowed movement speed to 2.75.
-Tunneling Claws now grants a temporary speedboost when the unit first burrows.
-New Upgrade unlocked at Hive, Organic Carapace 150/150/ 80, grants +5 armor and doubles health regen per second while burrowed.

--Affected Dynamics
Now, Roaches provide a distinct and valuable role in the mid and late game. They are a relatively cheap means of probing enemy defenses, looking for holes. They can take a Widow Mine shot or a tank volley and survive. Should the enemy lack detection in an area, they can swiftly take advantage. Testing shows that unsupported Tanks have an unfortunate tendency to disappear when Tunneling Roaches are out in force. With high durability and move speed while burrowed, Roaches now excel at persistent harassment. When a player has a roach infestation in their base, they know it, because the damned things are hard to pin down, and harder to kill, unlike the fire-and-forget nature of ling run-bys, and the burst-like nature of Infestor harassment, Roaches truly scale with the skill of the player.

In combat, Roaches can be true veterans with proper burrow micro. The main issue with WoL Roaches was that once detection was fielded, burrowing meant death due to the low movement speed. With fast burrowed movement, along with high armor and health regen, wounded roaches can actually disengage from fights, meaning that good zergs can have absurd unit retention if their micro is up to the task.

--Concerns
The one concern is that Roaches may be a little too effective at surviving. Should that be the case, we can decrease their health regeneration or armor bonus from Organic Carapace.

-

Infestor
[incomplete]
The Infestor has been a cool unit conceptually, but has produced mechanics that both stagnated gameplay and discouraged skilled play. We wanted Fungal Growth to be powerful, but involve counterplay, and scale well into the late game. Additionally, we focused our efforts on making Infestors units that augment armies, rather than being the army. Finally, we worked to emphasize the differences between the Infestor and the Viper both in playstyle and identity. The Viper is a lean wasp-snake-creature that prowls above a hungry and restless army, anxious to charge. The Infestor is more an unseen menace that infiltrates your army or base and ruins EVERYTHING that you love and hold dear. It turns your units against you, it bogs down your army or works in caustic fungus, and it unloads the repurposed corpses of your fallen comrades to gun you down. The following changes were made in this spirit.

--Stat Changes
-Infested Terrans no longer scale with upgrades
-Fungal now slows affected targets by 70% of their base speed which decays over 4 seconds. (Damage remains the same.)
-New Upgrade: Resonance Chiton. Requires Hive 150/150/80. Allows the Infestor to use all spells while burrowed. (All spells have -2 range in this state.
-All other HotS Patch #8 changes are still in effect.

--Affected Dynamics
Infestors now possess a very different role than the Viper. They can be used in the mid game to aid Swarm Hosts and Hydras

--Concerns
Stealth spell casters are powerful (see Ghosts). Giving an invisible unit mind control and a slow-storm is questionable balance wise. We are hoping that between a desirable Raven, the Mothership Core’s Envision ability, and more available Spores, a hive tech stealth caster is more manageable.


Swarm Host
Out of all the new units, Swarm Hosts are easily my favorite. It promotes positional play, it produces units that live long enough to be microed... It fulfills the Zerg theme of being “swarmy,” and it has the potential for tremendous counterplay. Currently, Swarm Hosts offer a bit too much reward for too little risk offensively, while struggling to slow advances like their predecessor, the lurker. With a few tweaks, I think the Swarm Host can outshine the Lurker.

--Stat Changes
-New Building Morph: Deep Warren from Roach Warren. Costs 100/100/60.
-Swarm Hosts now are morphed from Roaches for 100/75 and require a Deep Warren to do so.
-Swarm Host supply reduced to 2 from 3.
-Locusts attack speed decreased to 1.4 from .86.
-Locusts attack now is a linear AoE.
-Locust hatch animation duration decreased.
-Enduring Locust upgrade removed.
-New Upgrade researched at Deep Warren: Potent Broods 150/150/100 seconds. Adds an additional Locust per spawn cycle.
-We will be implementing the other changes.

--Affected Dynamics
Swarm Hosts now can provide strong pressure when their locusts are microed properly, especially once Gestation Spores is complete. However, their range is limited to what currently non-upgraded Swarm Hosts are capable of, allowing units like Tempest, Stim Marauders, and Blink Stalkers snipe them before new Locust are born. This combined with Locusts reduced attack speed means that offensive Swarm Host micro scales with skill and attention, to make the most of his short lived broods. Additionally, given the vulnerable period, relocating harassing Swarm Hosts is another means of expressing player skill.

Defensively, the new Swarm Host is a fiend. While one can simply rally spawned Locust to hold an area. The lack of the Enduring Locust upgrade provides natural timing and counterplay to exploit the unit’s vulnerability. Additionally, with a faster spawn animation and aoe attacks, Locust traps can function like the stop Lurkers of old via, where unsuspecting units get suddenly snared and torn apart. Finally, having three upgraded Swarm Hosts costs 6 supply and can hold chokes with ease. We cordially invite any number stim marines to march up a ramp held by a handful of Hosts and a Viper.

--Concerns
Hosts currently come from Roaches, which are now hyper-mobile burrowed units. This makes Roach/Swarm Host compositions have a natural synergy where durable, low damage Roaches, cover for the Swarm Hosts, who then produce powerful aoe Locust, who in turn soak up damage that would be dealt to Roaches or Swarm Host, allowing well microed Roaches to regain all of their HP. In the hands of a skilled player, Roach, Swarm Host, and Hydras working in tandem could be ridiculous given that they share ranged attack upgrades.

Does the new Locust overlap with the Baneling? Testing will see. Banelings have more upfront damage to Light, and cost minerals and gas per individual. Locusts offer more overt and physical territorial control at the cost of burst damage, additionally, Locusts do not do aoe damage when killed. We are especially curious about using Swarm Hosts to cover Ling-Ultra transitions, and using Banelings to augment the kill capacity of Locusts.


Ultralisk
Ultralisks are intimidating, but all too often are ungainly and don’t provide the consistent damage expected from a tier 3 Zerg unit. Ultralisks have had many buffs to ensure that they remain effective in an era of smart pathing and unit clumping. They have been given a cleave aoe and have had their hit points increased by 100 points. The Ultralisk’s straightforward design makes active abilities like Burrow Charge unwieldy. We are trying the following changes for release.

--Stat Changes
-New Research: Hive Awareness 100/100/120.
-Effect: Allows Ultralisks to walk over Lings, Broodlings, and Locusts.
-Reduced scale and model by 10%
-All other HotS Patch #8 changes are still in effect.

--Affected Dynamics
Ultralisks have traditionally been difficult to make effective. We have high hopes for the viper’s abduct and blinding cloud abilities to either feed units to the Ultralisk, or allow Ultralisks to close with their enemies. However, a huge issue is simply how large and bulky they are. A slight tweak to model size, as well as allowing the unit to close with

--Concerns
Ultras might be too consistent in their damage with ling-walk. Time and testing will tell, and if necessary, we will revert them to 6 supply.