[Dingobloo]

Heart of the Swarm Balance Changes #7 27/10/2012:

Blizzard will be bringing the beta down later this afternoon to apply the latest batch of Heart of the Swarm changes that include the previously announced modifications to the Oracle and changes to the Mothership Core, Tempest, Hellbat, Ultralisk, Viper and... Spine Crawler? The update will NOT include the interface changes which are expected to be in a larger Beta content patch at an unspecified date.

Originally Posted by Aldrexus

Protoss

Oracle

• The Phase Shield and Entomb abilities have been removed.
• This unit has a new ability called Pulsar Beam.
  • The Oracle channels a beam at an enemy structure that deals 25 damage every second.
  • 2 mana is drained per second from the Oracle while this ability is channeled.
  • This ability has a range of 5.
• This unit has a new ability called Time Warp.
  • The Oracle creates a temporal field that slows all ground units’ movement speed within a 3.5 radius by 50%.
  • This ability costs 75 energy to cast
  • This ability can be cast from 9 range.
• Oracle build time has decreased from 60 to 35 seconds.

Tempest

• Damage has been increased from 25 to 30.
• The +massive damage bonus no longer requires an upgrade at the Fleet Beacon.
• +Massive damage has been decreased from 35 to 30.

Mothership Core

• This unit has a new ability called Envision.
  • This ability grants the Mothership Core detection for 30 seconds.
  • This ability costs 50 energy to cast.
  • This ability grants detection within the Mothership Core’s sight range (14).
• The Purify ability no longer grants detection to the Nexus.
• The Purify ability has been renamed to “Photon Overcharge”.

Zerg

Ultralisk

• The speed of Burrow Charge has been increased from 2.25 to 3.75.

Viper

• The duration of Blinding Cloud has been increased from 10 to 14 seconds.

Spine Crawler

• This unit now completely blocks pathing when placed next to other structures, including other Spine Crawlers.
• Zerglings and other small units can no longer squeeze in between Spine Crawlers.
• The scale of this unit has been increased from 0.85 to 0.95.

Terran

Hellion

• Transformation to Hellbat no longer requires an upgrade and is enabled once an Armory is built.

Source: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/7004440896

Learn More:

Thoughts on Balance Update 7
The Beta: What to expect
Heart of the Swarm Preview

[Dingobloo]

Some interesting stuff, using time warp to zone out your enemy so you can Pulsar Beam stuff seems annoying as hell, I'm excited to see what people do with it, assuming the energy costs are tuned correctly.

[SFTAElessar]

found out last night i had beta for 2-3 weeks :P

[AssyrianKing]

One thing I like about this patch is that most abilities can be tweaked to work well(balanced), some guy suggested using new oracle spell time warp as a way for Protoss to be able to expand on those far away/open thirds. Now I'm just waiting for tank buff

[TADivinity]

The spine crawler is an interesting change. It was always a pain when hellions made it though those gaps - but useful to get lings through them as well.

It wll definitely change the dynamic surrounding 'walls of spines' in ZvP - because now it is literally a wall that you can't kite infestors etc through so easily!

[Zanderax]

How do I know if I have a beta key?

Quick Comments

fur:

Blizz will email you

[Cordance]

Check your battle.net account (they will email you but spamers do that too).

[nirvAnA]

Tempest + pulsar beam might be too strong. so protoss have something like fungal growth now lol

[Bluejay]

Nice to see some positive changes.. Entomb was stupid

[SLCN.Petrify]

Spine Crawler

• This unit now completely blocks pathing when placed next to other structures, including other Spine Crawlers.
• Zerglings and other small units can no longer squeeze in between Spine Crawlers.
• The scale of this unit has been increased from 0.85 to 0.95.

Oh god yes. I've wanted this for so long. Will make it a lot easier to get into the mid game zvz now on certain maps!

[mGGPrometheus]

Mass oracle for late game base races sounds pretty darn interesting.

[Meatex]

hmmm is the spine crawler change really needed? I think its nice but most zergs use evos and queens to great effect already :S
I like the changes to mothership core as it gives a possible down side to having it away from your base
Tempest has always seemed like a dumb idea imo
And now not sure about the oracle - having a slow spell seems cool but redundant at the very least with FF in the game. It seems blizzard are trying to experiment to find a useful niche for this unit - lets hope it doesn't end up like reapers from WoL

[SmirkToT]

lol time warp
not 125 energy to cast?

[ToRLuneth]

There's a typo there, time warp actually cost 88 energy to cast

Quick Comments

Zanderax:

You are my hero!

[SLCN.Kez]

Looks like they want options other than robo openings, kinda cool tbh

[mGGDrGooSe]

lol 25 dps from a cheap unit that moves fast and costs next to no money or time. HoTs is so fun right now.

Quick Comments

	SLCN.Kez:	only to buildings and they are pretty squishy tbh
	FsDronesInJail:	Have you seen how fast 5 of these little things destroy Hatcheries? OMFG

[Zanderax]

Originally Posted by mGGDrGooSe

lol 25 dps from a cheap unit that moves fast and costs next to no money or time. HoTs is so fun right now.

I wouldn't say 150/150 is no money at all. If you add on Stargate tech it's not too cheap...

[SiF]

tbh i think the new Protoss Stargate units are very disappointing.

The only way I've found them useful is going tempest vs. zerg straight away and doing a 1 base all in... which I'm sure blizzard will nerf.

Oracle's dps vs zerg is good but their spells are stupid...
> If I want vision I'll use an observer or hallucination (which now needs no research)...
> If i want to stop something running away I'll use force fields
> If I want to slow down muta ...well I don't cos' pheonix are faster...


Just pointless pointless pointless abilities.

The tempest is a boring unit imho. So far the only fun I've had with it is by harassing with 3 of them and then using the mothership core (which is a great unit) to recall when they're in trouble.


I've been playing random and have had a lot of fun with the new terran and zerg units but protoss meta remains unchanged with exception of mothership core play... Looks like I'll be changing races