As you may know, we have entered the second week of the Heart of the Swarm beta test. Thank you all for the time and effort you have put in to playing and testing the game these last few weeks. Our plan to deliver balance patches for the beta will be very different from how we do patches on the live game. We will be making frequent iterations on balance throughout the beta test in order to reach our goals as quickly as possible. Accordingly, we expect that some of the changes we make will naturally have a larger impact on overall balance and that additional tuning may be necessary; however, we feel that the beta test is the perfect time to take these risks and learn from the results.
Here are the changes we’re planning on making this week:
Remove oracle ability: Preordain
Because Preordain overlaps with Revelation in that both spells grant vision, we’ve decided to remove Preordain. All in all, we feel that Revelation is a cooler spell because it also acts as a soft detection mechanism.
New oracle ability: Phase Shield -- Target friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds
Phase Shield is a new oracle ability that can be used to prevent harmful effects like the marauder’s Concussive Shells, the infestor’s Fungal Growth, or the viper’s Abduct. We feel that with the addition of swarm hosts and vipers, protoss is in need of a spell that can help against some of the new unit compositions.
Oracle Entomb changes
Duration reduced from 45 to 25
Mineral Shield health increased from 75 to 100
We were facing two issues with this ability: First – lower skilled players who didn’t react quickly would take too large an economic hit. Second – higher level players who reacted almost instantly would take too little damage from the ability. This is just a first pass at attempting to solve these two issues.
Oracle cost down from 150/200 to 150/150
The cost change is to make it easier to allow protoss players to actually build these units and justify using them. As with most tuning changes in the beta, this is probably not the final cost number. As we evaluate this unit throughout the course of the beta, we will have a much better idea of what the cost of the unit should be.
Warhound has been removed from the game
We received a lot of feedback from both the general community along with many pro gamers that this unit was not working in its current state. We definitely agree. The current plan is to remove it from the beta so that we can focus testing other units.
If we locate a better design for the warhound, it will return to the beta; until then, please play the game and give your feedback without the warhound in mind.
Carrier is back!
We continue to receive a lot of feedback from both our community and professional players suggesting that the tempest is difficult to use. We agree that it’s not an easy-to-use capital ship like the carrier, and feel it could be cool to have two big air units in the protoss fleet. The carrier will be the easy-to-use, multifunctional capital ship, whereas the tempest will be a more strategic and positional unit that can’t just be blindly massed. We know how much the carrier means to everyone and think that this is a great opportunity to give the carrier another chance before making a final decision on the unit’s future.
Mothership Core rebalance
The planned changes are:
Mothership core build cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50
Mothership core’s Recall energy reduced from 150 to 100
Mothership core Purify attack range increased from 7 to 10
These are simple number changes in an attempt to reach our goals for this unit: early game defense against all-in attacks, the ability to use Recall to be more offensive without having to commit completely, and giving protoss players more choices to work with in the early game.
Tempest attack range changed to 15, Tempest damage changed from 30 to 30 +20 massive
Now that the carrier is back as the general capital ship option, we are adjusting the role of the tempest to be more specific.
The tempest is now a specific counter-unit against massive units. The plan for the tempest is to be a viable option in the PvZ late-game against broodlords as well as in the PvP late-game against mass colossi.
Mothership starts with 50 energy when upgraded from the mothership core
Having a mothership start with max energy was an unintended side-effect that accompanied the change in how the unit was being built. Vortex is an especially deadly ability, and we feel it’s important to give players fighting against the mothership some time to react. Having a mothership capable of casting two Vortexes right when they finish building is simply too much.
Reaper has a new passive ability: Battlefield Awareness – Allows Reapers to see up cliffs
We like where the Reaper is right now with the over-all changes being made to the game. The new Combat Drugs ability allows for more reaper usage early on and this early action feels both fun to play with and fun to watch.
We’d like to try to push the usage of the reaper a bit further to see if there are even cooler options for the unit. The Battlefield Awareness ability will potentially allow reapers to be used not only for early game harassment, but throughout the game as a great scouting unit.
This is one of the experimental abilities we’d like to try as we’re still in the early stages of the beta. Any feedback on the new Reaper as a whole will be greatly appreciated.
New hellion upgrade: Transformation Servos -- allows hellions to change to Battle mode
In TvZ, battle hellions with good split micro are performing a bit too well against zergling/baneling openers. Therefore, we are adding an upgrade requirement to change modes, giving zerg players more time to make the necessary adjustments to their unit composition.
Battle mode hellions can be built from the Factory
After testing this unit in the beta, we are starting to see scenarios where building only hellions, only battle hellions, or having a choice of both are all reasonable decisions. Therefore, we would like to try allowing players to build these units separately while keeping the ability to transform between modes a viable option.
Widow mine no longer has an Amory requirement
We’re barely seeing any play using widow mines in the beta right now. While we are slightly afraid of bringing in a cloaked unit so early in the tech, we decided it would be cool to see how this works out at with no Armory requirement.
Swarm host’s locust attack range decreased from 3 to 2
We are decreasing the range of the swarm host’s locusts from 3 to 2 in order to slightly reduce the unit’s effectiveness while still maintaining its usefulness in a number of different situations. After this change, locusts should be pretty deadly when able to freely attack enemy units and structures. Additionally, small to medium-sized armies will have to do some kiting in order to reduce locust counts as head-on battles will not be cost-effective. On the other hand, larger armies (especially those with lots of splash damage) will be able to take down a large amount of locusts fairly efficiently if their swarm hosts are not backed up by other units. Swarm hosts in the earlier stages of a game can be used by themselves, but in the later parts of the game they will need to be used in combination with units like the corruptor or infestor.
its great to see how much blizzard has listened to the pros in the private forum thats going on. this is one of the best patches yet. really excited for the future patches.
I love all the Protoss changes they are huge! Recall at 100 energy whoa.
so glad its back...itll be interesting to see how removing the Warhound will affect TvP and TvT especially since it was suppose to be the 'both players now have a Siege Line and now will be waiting to see who blinks first' scenario breaker...very interesting to see how this will pan out...
and wow... got one helluva buff! :3
___________________________________
NA - ThePandarine.180 :: SEA - ThePandarine.180
Proud to be Nunquam redono, nunquam deditionem
Some interesting changes. Glad to see Blizz is willing to experiment, very curious how phase shield will play out in games, and how tempest/carrier combo will go in sky toss.
The tempest is now a specific counter-unit against massive units.
Bout time this unit got a specific role... Should make it much more interesting now.
Given that the Carrier is back, and the tempest is a "massive" counter with 15 range... I see Protoss actually going more Stargate plays...
*Pictures a tempest carrier composition* *Drools*
As you may know, we have entered the second week of the Heart of the Swarm beta test. Thank you all for the time and effort you have put in to playing and testing the game these last few weeks. Our plan to deliver balance patches for the beta will be very different from how we do patches on the live game. We will be making frequent iterations on balance throughout the beta test in order to reach our goals as quickly as possible. Accordingly, we expect that some of the changes we make will naturally have a larger impact on overall balance and that additional tuning may be necessary; however, we feel that the beta test is the perfect time to take these risks and learn from the results.
Here are the changes we’re planning on making this week:
Remove oracle ability: Preordain
Because Preordain overlaps with Revelation in that both spells grant vision, we’ve decided to remove Preordain. All in all, we feel that Revelation is a cooler spell because it also acts as a soft detection mechanism.
New oracle ability: Phase Shield -- Target friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds
Phase Shield is a new oracle ability that can be used to prevent harmful effects like the marauder’s Concussive Shells, the infestor’s Fungal Growth, or the viper’s Abduct. We feel that with the addition of swarm hosts and vipers, protoss is in need of a spell that can help against some of the new unit compositions.
Oracle Entomb changes
Duration reduced from 45 to 25Mineral Shield health increased from 75 to 100
We were facing two issues with this ability: First – lower skilled players who didn’t react quickly would take too large an economic hit. Second – higher level players who reacted almost instantly would take too little damage from the ability. This is just a first pass at attempting to solve these two issues.
Oracle cost down from 150/200 to 150/150
The cost change is to make it easier to allow protoss players to actually build these units and justify using them. As with most tuning changes in the beta, this is probably not the final cost number. As we evaluate this unit throughout the course of the beta, we will have a much better idea of what the cost of the unit should be.
Warhound has been removed from the game
We received a lot of feedback from both the general community along with many pro gamers that this unit was not working in its current state. We definitely agree. The current plan is to remove it from the beta so that we can focus testing other units.
If we locate a better design for the warhound, it will return to the beta; until then, please play the game and give your feedback without the warhound in mind.
Carrier is back!
We continue to receive a lot of feedback from both our community and professional players suggesting that the tempest is difficult to use. We agree that it’s not an easy-to-use capital ship like the carrier, and feel it could be cool to have two big air units in the protoss fleet. The carrier will be the easy-to-use, multifunctional capital ship, whereas the tempest will be a more strategic and positional unit that can’t just be blindly massed. We know how much the carrier means to everyone and think that this is a great opportunity to give the carrier another chance before making a final decision on the unit’s future.
Mothership Core rebalance
The planned changes are:
Mothership core build cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50Mothership core’s Recall energy reduced from 150 to 100Mothership core Purify attack range increased from 7 to 10
These are simple number changes in an attempt to reach our goals for this unit: early game defense against all-in attacks, the ability to use Recall to be more offensive without having to commit completely, and giving protoss players more choices to work with in the early game.
Tempest attack range changed to 15, Tempest damage changed from 30 to 30 +20 massive
Now that the carrier is back as the general capital ship option, we are adjusting the role of the tempest to be more specific.
The tempest is now a specific counter-unit against massive units. The plan for the tempest is to be a viable option in the PvZ late-game against broodlords as well as in the PvP late-game against mass colossi.
Mothership starts with 50 energy when upgraded from the mothership core
Having a mothership start with max energy was an unintended side-effect that accompanied the change in how the unit was being built. Vortex is an especially deadly ability, and we feel it’s important to give players fighting against the mothership some time to react. Having a mothership capable of casting two Vortexes right when they finish building is simply too much.
Reaper has a new passive ability: Battlefield Awareness – Allows Reapers to see up cliffs
We like where the Reaper is right now with the over-all changes being made to the game. The new Combat Drugs ability allows for more reaper usage early on and this early action feels both fun to play with and fun to watch.
We’d like to try to push the usage of the reaper a bit further to see if there are even cooler options for the unit. The Battlefield Awareness ability will potentially allow reapers to be used not only for early game harassment, but throughout the game as a great scouting unit.
This is one of the experimental abilities we’d like to try as we’re still in the early stages of the beta. Any feedback on the new Reaper as a whole will be greatly appreciated.
New hellion upgrade: Transformation Servos -- allows hellions to change to Battle mode
In TvZ, battle hellions with good split micro are performing a bit too well against zergling/baneling openers. Therefore, we are adding an upgrade requirement to change modes, giving zerg players more time to make the necessary adjustments to their unit composition.
Battle mode hellions can be built from the Factory
After testing this unit in the beta, we are starting to see scenarios where building only hellions, only battle hellions, or having a choice of both are all reasonable decisions. Therefore, we would like to try allowing players to build these units separately while keeping the ability to transform between modes a viable option.
Widow mine no longer has an Amory requirement
We’re barely seeing any play using widow mines in the beta right now. While we are slightly afraid of bringing in a cloaked unit so early in the tech, we decided it would be cool to see how this works out at with no Armory requirement.
Swarm host’s locust attack range decreased from 3 to 2
We are decreasing the range of the swarm host’s locusts from 3 to 2 in order to slightly reduce the unit’s effectiveness while still maintaining its usefulness in a number of different situations. After this change, locusts should be pretty deadly when able to freely attack enemy units and structures. Additionally, small to medium-sized armies will have to do some kiting in order to reduce locust counts as head-on battles will not be cost-effective. On the other hand, larger armies (especially those with lots of splash damage) will be able to take down a large amount of locusts fairly efficiently if their swarm hosts are not backed up by other units. Swarm hosts in the earlier stages of a game can be used by themselves, but in the later parts of the game they will need to be used in combination with units like the corruptor or infestor.
___________________________________
-Terror Australis SEACL T5 Team Captain.
Last edited by TAEdarus; Sat, 15th-Sep-2012 at 8:34 AM.
Reason: Added in the ol' Davey Kim's spiel on the situation.
Those are some huge changes, especially the removal of the warhound.
I never got to play with it, so I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but at the very least you can say that blizzard really are taking balancing this game extremely seriously.
betaplsthx
Mothership core and reaper buffs are both very cool!
Not sure about completely removing the warhound though, hopefully it returns in a more balanced state.
I still think a key problem with Protoss is warp-in. Add recall to that and you're basically making a gimmick race because to balance potential warpin + recall attacks they need to be seriously bad in straight-up play. This isn't warcraft and I really hate to see recall so early in the game + warpin it makes me feel like protoss will just be able to do stupid attacks like 8 dt warpins to snipe a base and recall home or a billion pressures where you're actually teching/expanding behind it with 0 risk of losing your army for moving out.
I think Protoss will struggle to gain regular map control and instead will rely on timings more and more. I think map control is vital in this game and Protoss never have really had any as a major problem. High level vP is all about sniping observers as once they're gone the Protoss struggles to see anything on the map. As protoss units are weak until they reach a deathball status the Protoss can't move onto the map easily either. In HoTs i think this will grow worse as Z and T standard compositions grow stronger and Protoss instead rely on trickery and abilities like recall to allow them to fake endlessly.
I dunno it just feels like Protoss just became even more ambigious somehow. Scouting them is going to be even harder to ascertain what's actually going on.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA
Not only do i get carrier back they take away the warhound that was giving me all the issues and biffed the mama ship core and even giving me another 100 gas free for when im going air for oracles HAPPY DAYS!!!!
I still think a key problem with Protoss is warp-in. Add recall to that and you're basically making a gimmick race because to balance potential warpin + recall attacks they need to be seriously bad in straight-up play. This isn't warcraft and I really hate to see recall so early in the game + warpin it makes me feel like protoss will just be able to do stupid attacks like 8 dt warpins to snipe a base and recall home or a billion pressures where you're actually teching/expanding behind it with 0 risk of losing your army for moving out.
I think Protoss will struggle to gain regular map control and instead will rely on timings more and more. I think map control is vital in this game and Protoss never have really had any as a major problem. High level vP is all about sniping observers as once they're gone the Protoss struggles to see anything on the map. As protoss units are weak until they reach a deathball status the Protoss can't move onto the map easily either. In HoTs i think this will grow worse as Z and T standard compositions grow stronger and Protoss instead rely on trickery and abilities like recall to allow them to fake endlessly.
I dunno it just feels like Protoss just became even more ambigious somehow. Scouting them is going to be even harder to ascertain what's actually going on.
Time will tell though!
This is true although with two recalls being an option now i think you will see blink stalkers on the map more with a recall reserved for them and when you get that extra recall use it for say a zealot wrap in drop and recall. The no wrap in on the high ground is kinda annoying as a side note
Swarm Host
The locust’s attack range has decreased from 3 to 2.
Good change, still would like to see them weaker but more of them spawn per wave.
Quote:
Oracle
We have removed the oracle’s Preordain ability.
We have added a new area of effect ability for the oracle called Phase Shield.
Targeted friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds.
This is fantastic. could not ask for a better spell ESPECIALLY to deal with fungal growth + brood lords.
Quote:
The energy upgrade has been removed.
Good, was useless.
Quote:
Entomb’s duration has been reduced to 25 sec, but the health per Entomb has increased to 100.
Meh
Quote:
The cost per unit has changed from 150/200 to 150/150.
Good - can afford maybe a sentry earlier game now, to stay safer.
Quote:
Tempest
The attack range has been reduced from 22 to 15.
The damage has changed from 30 to 30 + 20 to massive.
The ranged upgrade has been removed.
Interesting change, will work well with the carrier, and help deal with broodlords. Still has decent range.
what i want to stress - The PvP Matchup will alter so much! Carrier tempest compositions will actually be quite viable because tempests do extra damage to colossi, archon, mothership, carriers. This is amazing.
Quote:
Mothership Core / Mothership
Recall will now cost 100 energy.
The mothership core will now start with 50 energy and when upgraded, energy will be set back to 50.
The range of Purifier Beam has been increased from 7 to 10.
Great! More of a reason to get this earlier on, a lot of people were holding out for it until 2 bases were established. As for the upgrade to the mothership resetting back to 50, i don't like that, but it did feel like a bug.
Quote:
Carrier
This unit has returned to the game.
PROTOSS **** YEAH. COME TO MAKE CARRIERS AND KILL THE FUCKIN ZERG YEH
Quote:
Warhound
This unit has been removed from the game.
Thank god, this unit was so stupid, hope to see a nice replacement soon.
Quote:
Reaper
We have added a new passive ability called Combat Awareness.
This allows reapers to see up cliffs.
Cool, would rather see this up-gradable tho.
Quote:
Hellion
Battle hellions can now be built from the Factory. It has an Armory requirement.
There is a new upgrade at the Armory that will allow transformation between Battle Mode and Normal Mode.
Wow major nerf. maybe this is okay, don't think it should be from armoury, maybe just techlab.
Quote:
Widow Mine
We have removed the Armory requirement.
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