[Dingobloo]

HOTS Balance Update #13 & Beta Coming to an end on March 1st

With the beta closing date finally announced for March 1st in preparation for Heart of the Swarm's March 12th Release, Blizzard have detailed another Heart of the Swarm Beta Balance Update. Improved one base scouting options for Zerg, improved ZvZ Mutalisk defence and Widow Mine buffs are all on the menu for the latest update. While questions still remain over the effectiveness of several units including Oracles, Battle Hellions and Protoss air compositions in general, Blizzard seems to be honing in on final balance.

Protoss

• Oracle
  • The duration for Envision has been increased from 30 to 60 seconds.

Terran

• Widow Mine
  • The primary target damage for Sentinel Missiles has been increased from 125 to 125 +35 vs. Shields.

Zerg

• Hatchery
  • The Pneumatized Carapace upgrade now only requires a Hatchery.

• Infestor
  • The projectile speed for Fungal Growth has been reduced from 15 to 12.

• Spore Crawler
  • The weapon damage for Acid Spew has been increased from 15 to 15 + 15 vs. Biological.

Learn More:

Proposed Balance Changes
BETA BALANCE UPDATE #13
The Beta Test is coming to an End

[ToRFutureBoy]

Widow mines got a buff....wow....really? Aren't they OP enough already? heh

Quick Comments

QEDbourkes:

thats what i thought, buffing seams retarded

[SLCN.Kez]

In other news, on march 1st dota2/lol servers have been randomly overloaded with new users

[ROCCAT_Savior]

At this point I don't think blizzard actually have a clue what their doing. All these changes are irrelevant and currently in hots there is some op shit that they haven't even mentioned.

[Dox]

Originally Posted by sheepshagger

At this point I don't think blizzard actually have a clue what their doing.

I love how someone says this about every patch when their balance methodology hasn't changed in nearly 15 years.

[ROCCAT_Savior]

Originally Posted by Dox

I love how someone says this about every patch when their balance methodology hasn't changed in nearly 15 years.

Past patches have been decent, this 1 is retarded. Anyone who says it isnt retarded playsTerran and uses firebats every game

[ToRLuneth]

That's quite a change to the widow mine so close to release

[chlippry]

i had a game this arvo where i did a widowmine drop via medvac into the opponents main & natural mineral line, worked really well, managed to get a shot off from each mine before he scanned and killed them, i love using them for that. will be nice to see how this affects vs shields now!

[Cute]

Not too huge on balancing vs one race in particular. Beauty in assemtry and stuff. We'll see how it goes

[AxS.Sorathez]

Weird seeing a unit with +dmg to shields O.o Interesting patch I must say

[Dox]

Originally Posted by sheepshagger

Past patches have been decent, this 1 is retarded. Anyone who says it isnt retarded playsTerran and uses firebats every game

Didn't play WoL or TFT beta, did you?

Quick Comments

ROCCAT_Savior:

NOPE

[VB_Rhuubarb]

I think the WM change was done mainly to change the feel of early game TvP, where Terrans felt restricted in the ways they could open and Protoss had a lot of freedom.

[mGGDaedalus]

Fungal projectile looks so slow now. Wouldn't mind seeing a tiny hp buff or something to hydras down the line to help deal with T and P sky armies but we'll see how it goes.

[chlippry]

not too sure about the firebats by the deployed hellions clear out a mineral line worth of SCV's so quickly!! I got dropped today and 18 of my SCV's were cleaned out in about 10seconds..