[Dox]

PROTOSS

Archons

• Now a massive unit.
• Range increased from 2 to 3.

After receiving and reviewing a lot of solid feedback about the archon from the StarCraft II community, we came to the agreement that having archons break Force Fields would increase strategic variety in protoss-vs.-protoss matchups. We were slightly worried that strategies such as mass Charge zealots plus archons would be too difficult to stop with only ground units, but in testing this on the PTR, we found that the relationship between the zealot- and archon-based strategies vs. the more standard robo-tech builds were proving to be fun.

Archons have generally been a slightly weak unit for their cost. This was a conscious design decision that we made since we wanted Morph to Archon to be a "recycle" ability. However, due to the size of the archon, we felt an increase in attack range was necessary so that the unit can get attacks in more easily, especially on the defensive.

Cybernetics Core

• Research Warp Gate time increased from 140 to 160.

Gateway

• Sentry train time decreased from 42 to 37.
• Warp Gate unit train times remain unchanged.

Pylon

• Pylon power radius has been decreased from 7.5 to 6.5.

These three changes were made specifically to address the 4-gateway issue. The slight increase in Warp Gate research time should only really affect early-game strategies such as the 4-gate all-in. It was a challenge to find a research time high enough to achieve this goal without affecting other, non-early game strategies, but we eventually settled on 160. Regarding the sentry, it's the only tier-1 unit that's rarely used on the offensive in PvP 4-gate all-ins. However, they're almost always used on the defensive, so buffing this unit was the way to go in order to make defending easier.

The pylon power radius reduction will help the defending player take them out easier from above ramps, as well as make it so there are limited spots below cliffs where the opponent can build them in order to offensively warp in above. On the flip side, because protoss bases generally have plenty of pylon power, we’re not too worried about this affecting the defensive side too much -- though players might need to pay more attention to their base layouts.

On top of these changes, we're also looking into slightly changing how vision works on ramps so that if you use Force Field on your ramp just right, the opposing protoss player will not be able to spawn above your ramp or Blink stalkers up past a perfectly positioned Force Field. We will continue to monitor how the changes we made in 1.3.3 are working out before making the final call.

We hope these changes will resolve the 4-gate issue in PvP.

Continue reading Blizzard's explanation for the Terran and Zerg changes here:
http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/140933

[nirvAnA]

whoa the archon range now looks so scary in the game. if only they were like sc1 archons. mass muta would actually be beatable

[Tom]

Tbh, if they wanted to fix PvP 4wg (as stated) they could have just changed ramp vision and left everything else alone. Interesting that they are now considering this.

[Dox]

As much as I agree with you, I'm inclined to think these changes add quite a bit more long-term versatility to the match-up. Very excited to see some stellar PvP Archon micro, crushing forcefields and splitting Zealots!

I can really see this (finally) opening the door to a wider variety of Protoss strategies. *fingers crossed*

[noobinater]

It didn't even occur to me that archons nullify FF's now (ouch). PvP is so much cooler now, or at least until people figure out what's properly viable

[cruxis]

They might even get the shield upgrade now.

[Fierypower]

Archons cant be kited by concussive shells either. Would probably encourage more HT play in pvt.

[psygoh]

Zealots + Archons is now a very powerful combination

[ROOT`iaguz]

Archons are still really mediocre against Terran imo. But that's ok, they're not supposed to be. The archon in SC2 was not designed to be a stand alone unit like it's BW predecessor, it's supposed to be it's "not costing energy effect" they like to put on casters in this game, like how the infestor burrows and moves, the ghost shoots, the queen is your AA defense and the MOTHERFUCKING THOR IS MOTHERFUCKING HERE.

But yeah, way happier about the huge decrease of little fuckers doing warpgate allins and pressures early on. That's pretty cool. I'm not sure how PvP will turn out and I don't really care too much cuz I'm all about the Terran.

* Salvage to 75%

Yeah, w/e. Non issue. Like having half a marine less ever did shit in a game that took more then 5 minutes. Just Zerg appeasment from the beta. Move on...

* ghost change from 150/150 to 200/100

Their reasoning seems... silly. I don't really understand what they mean by this. Like, I read these paragraphs and I struggle to extract the point they are making the reasoning behind making this change.

I guess as a Terran it's really ******* awesome that I can add on ghosts in late game tvz to snipe and emp infestor/brood/corrupter because that cannot be beaten without ghosts. Late game TvZ has the terran struggling to have enough gas for all the stuff he needs so this is a massive bonus to my lategame.

There might be applications for TvT and that's TLO's business.

As for tvp, well...

There's a 2 base timing with ~4 rax and ghosts and it's essentially an all-in strategy. It pretty much died once ghosts only took 100 from sentry energy and not the 200 needed to ensure absolutely no forcefields, the ruiner of 2 base timing pushes. And because the Protoss is getting colossus out at this time, generally, it's also a huge all-in because ghosts don't help you very much against colossus.

A friend of mine reckoned that this was technically a nerf because Terran play is all about mineral intensive economy and not very gas intensive economy and having to pay a whole 50 extra minerals for each ghost is basically a nerf of sorts. I disagreed somewhat, and it's been a ton easier to mix in 4 ghosts after getting everything else up, generally about the time I take a 3rd.

I dunno though. Ghosts are pretty fuckign awesome in tvp I guess.

Thor change.

Yeah, w/e, I've never researched 250mm strike cannons.

Liquid`Tyler said that whilst the thor spam strategy was perhaps defeatable it was extremly powerful and not entirely figured out. He wasn't sad to see this nerf happen but it felt perhaps not entirely justified. I think Incontroll agreed too.

I'm kind of eh about this one but what I don't like about the report was the line "We don't like seeing thors en masse". Well **** off, this is a dumb reason to make a change like that! Next they'll patch Broodwar and be all "we don't like seeing mutas en masse so basically everything splashes air now. Plus the Scout is now the void ray. Enjoy!".

And due to the nature of their design they cannot be anythign but core units that you would strive to have a large part of your army comprise of thors. They only do one important thing that cannont be replicated by the rest of your army and that's having 9 range splash to piss of Zergs that like to build mutalisks. Other then that they don't really perform any particular role that justifies adding them into almost any Terran situation.

Like, if they could be reliably used to snipe colossus with their 250mm strike cannons then that would be ******* awesome! But that's not the case and their inclusion into terran army compositions, especially in tvt and tvp is fundamentally stupid.

* infestor speed change, yeah w/e. Another nice little change that's hard to give a shit about but is nice to see. Their reasoning sounds kinda weird since I think the only unit taht cannot really catch up to them are like slow zealots or something pointless like that. It's kinda a non issue since every composition they'd face will have like blink stalkers, colossus, stimmed marines, speed roaches, etc. Ah well, just one of those things I guess

* Spore Crawler change. I don't use as much void rays or banshees against Zerg as many other people. I guess it's a fairly decent change for them. Feeling pretty good about that one not being the spine crawler buff, heh.


In general it keeps in line with Blizzard making really good patch changes, even if they are small ones. And this is somethign I don't think blizzard gets sufficient credit for, every one of their patches and patch changes are actually amazing, especially their controversial changes like "nerf tank damage from 50 to 35 (50 armoured)!" and "Khaydarin amulet's retarded, remove from game!" and "Rape-gal growth!" have made the game so much better (especially that tank nerf. Yeah, I'm a terran and I actually love the tank nerf because it made the tvt matchup so much better as a result. And I can live without tanks in TvP anyway)

Kudos to them! Even if their given reasoning is stupid.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	entertaing read with my supper!
	TAEdgE:	Nice lil' read here.
	Dox:	Agreed RE: Blizzard making good patch changes

[Interdiction]

Rofl at iaguz.

Quick Comments

Dox:

What an AMAZING first post. Welcome to the site.

[Next_rim]

They only do one important thing that cannont be replicated by the rest of your army and that's having 9 range splash to piss of Zergs that like to build mutalisks.

They are better damage sponges than marauders, although cost efficiency is questionable due to stim.

I think the problem with thors is the design of cannons itself. For snipe, battlecruiser yamato is much better at what the cannons are supposed to do - massive damage to single target with single channeling spell. Give thors stim ffs, so T has an alternative counter to HT other than ghost roulette EMP.

[Dox]

The Strike Cannon serves a very specific purpose in countering Immortals, Ultralisks (to a degree) and other Thors. I don't think there's really any reason to improve on that.

Surely asking for Stimmed Thors is trolling...

[cruxis]

Just give every Terran unit Stim. Stim those SCVs to have an even more OP mineral collection rate.

[ROOT`iaguz]

It doesn't even stun ultras though, thought they were immune to that shit?

Against immortals it's a non issue really. I mean, this is why ghosts exist

[NDG.Stitch]

Yea, the new build with Zealots and HT is becoming quite popular and its doing really well with some archons in the mix. Definitely the new patch hasn't done too bad to Protoss, besides the fact a Terran can do a SCV Marine All in quite early to kill you off. But I'm also seeing a lot of Toss using up their chrono and not using it for warp gate as early as they did before. I'm not sure its just me or is it actually happening?

[Eddie]

What's the quickest 4 gate warp in people have got with this new patch?

Hasn't really killed the build imo. Still extremely effective, especially if people don't expect it now.

[Aean(:]

Originally Posted by Eddie

What's the quickest 4 gate warp in people have got with this new patch?

Hasn't really killed the build imo. Still extremely effective, especially if people don't expect it now.

5;45 for me i just save one more chrono boost (same 4gate as old one)

[Next_rim]

But I'm also seeing a lot of Toss using up their chrono and not using it for warp gate as early as they did before. I'm not sure its just me or is it actually happening?

Depends on map and style. If i'm confident my opp is not going for early push, there is no reason to rush that warpgate. Better off boosting probes and upgrades, then just get more gateways, and end up with same army size, but stronger economy and production power.