[Dingobloo]

Heart of the Swarm Balance Changes #5 06/10/2012:

Blizzard have posted their next set of balance changes for the Heart of the Swarm Beta focusing primarily on the widow mine, the oracle and the mothership core. They do not anticipate any downtime and any matches played after 8:45 AM AEST will feature the new changes.

Originally Posted by Cloaken

Terran

Widow Mine

• This unit has a new missile ability called Unstable Payload.
• Unstable Payload is an auto-cast ability that initiates once the Widow Mine is burrowed. It cannot be turned off unless the unit is unburrowed.
• This ability launches a missile at a target within 5 range, then starts to rearm another missile.
• Unstable Payload does 160 damage to a single target and 40 splash damage.
• The missile auto-acquires cloaked units.
• The missile auto-acquires temporary units like Hallucinations, Infested Terrans, and Locusts.
• It takes 40 seconds to rearm the missile. The cost is free for now.
• The build time of this unit has increased to 40 seconds.

Protoss

Oracle

• The Phase Shield ability has been removed
• This unit has a new ability called Void Siphon.
• The Oracle channels a beam at an enemy structure that deals 3 damage and drains 3 minerals every second until canceled.
• The range is 7.
• The damage/drain effect ticks when you cast the ability and every sequential second following.
• Void Siphon costs 50 energy to cast.

Mothership Core

• This unit’s Purify ability has changed.
• When a player casts Purify on their Nexus, it grants the Nexus the ability to attack, no longer requiring the Core to attach itself.
• The Nexus weapon has a range of 13 and a damage of 20.
• Purify now lasts for 60 seconds and still costs 100 energy.
• The scale of this unit has been lowered to 0.8.
• This unit has had its shield/health lowered to 60/130.
• This unit now costs 2 supply.

Source: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6794980782

Learn More:

Thoughts on Balance Update #5
The Beta: What to expect
Heart of the Swarm Preview

[TheGentleman]

While all these ideas are interesting I don't think that I like any of these changes.

Void Siphon: The idea of stealing minerals is quaint but I'm not sure how it will balance. To me it naturally feels quirky although it would be interesting in PvP as a way to deny forward pylons.

The Mothership Core is gradually turning into a protoss Queen with more offensive capabilities. Wouldn't it just be better to have a second lot of abilities on a nexus which share cooldowns or use a secondary "shared energy" source.

As for the widow mine... I don't like this change. It's a landmine that gives away its position.

In saying this I havn't beta tested these changes yet, these are just my initial impressions.

[SmirkToT]

mines lift!

[TCPKerO]

I think that while the changes are a bit strange in the overall sense of the game, that trying different ideas is ideal for beta.

[ETL.ViTaL]

HoTs not our for another two years with these crazy changes-new features and units are too gimicky

Quick Comments

TidaL:

+1

[TidaL]

Why doesn't blizz give useful stuff instead of these random stuff that will have a hard time finding a place

Why not just make the mine a mine? and nothing else
And make the oracle be able to kill units (ie. workers) to make it a viable harrasment unit


Also if blizz want toss to go more stargate as they have said they should allow the obs to be built from both robo and stargate instead of trying to make this expensive harrassment/detector (Oracle) and make the oracle only harrassment

Quick Comments

SmirkToT:

dt/phoenix/high templar

[Free]

The landmine is stupid now Now people can just make proxy factories and build a widow mine and hide it in their mineral lines .

[nirvAnA]

Originally Posted by TheGentleman

While all these ideas are interesting I don't think that I like any of these changes.

+10000

My least favourite patch so far. They even removed the Grubby "Phase Shield" ability

[LennX]

The Oracle channels a beam at an enemy structure that deals 3 damage and drains 3 minerals every second until canceled.

So another ability gets "inspired" from the Command and Conquer series. (RA2 Yuri's flying saucer)
The way Dustin Browder implement new units/ability seem to be looking which C&C stuff he can get from.

[inFeZa]

What in the ****....

these changes are absolutely horrid. Starcraft should not be a gimmick game

[lolwut]

Originally Posted by inFeZa

What in the ****....

these changes are absolutely horrid. Starcraft should not be a gimmick game

Agreed, we don't need whole races of niche units

[x5.RunaMoK]

new oricle abilities are stupid.
new ms core is horrible over powered early game. but i need to play against and with it more.

the new mines are odd and still feel less useful with a rediculous cool down.
all i see them used for is a destroying mineral lines.

[VB_heathen]

I don't know, the more i watch of hots the more disappointed i become, new terran units.....lol. I'm glad they are trying to do something with the mine but i dunno, not digging alot of it.

[Zanderax]

"we’re trying a version of the Widow Mine that doesn’t self-destruct to attack."

It's a mine! I don't think you understand what that word means.

Quick Comments

	ToRMaverick:	Seems so obvious.... lol!
	inFeZa:	we put a unit inside the suiciding unit that shouldn't even be a unit

[x5.RunaMoK]

terran need a new complement type spell caster.
battle helions suck and take a year and a half to get to.

[lolwut]

dafaq?

You Tube

You Tube

[FS.Kezz]

Try and remember that we are in the early stages of beta. Things WILL change drastically between now and release, and after release things will continue to change. Enjoy the units that become broken for a week then fixed again, and keep an open mind.

[Demosthenes]

I think they are trying to hard to find a game shifting unit.
The units in BW changed the game a huge amount but didn't do it in incredibly ridiculous ways.
Like take the lurker. Zerg already burrows.... why don't we let a unit attack when burrowed? Bam!
Most of the HoTS units introduce completely new game mechanics or "spells".
Locking mineral patches? Where the hell did that one come from?
The problem with most of these new mechanics and spells is, I feel, they have very specific uses. They don't allow as much dynamism as BW did for SC1.

That being said, Kezz is right, it IS in beta and they might just be throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.