[breadfan]

It looks like prior to Christmas, there will be a major balance patch rolled out to HotS that looks as though it aims to address many of the much-deplored issues that have existed in Wings of Liberty. Blizzard dev Dayvie posted on the EU battle.net forums the dev thoughts. As always, these are pre-testing, but it gives a pretty good idea of what Blizzard goals are for these changes.

These goals include bringing some of the lesser used Terran casts into play, as well as improving the late game situation for Terran. The "late game buffs to bio" are intriguing, and the way Blizzard approaches this will certainly be interesting. For Zerg, the changes are largely movement focused, while for Protoss, most of the changes are air-focused. Overall, the changes to protoss air units may be the biggest shakeup to the game in all Pv* matchups.

+ [Planned Patch Changes] +

Terran

1. Redesign Thor ability/Raven seeker missile
   
2. Push early game Reaper a bit more
   
3. Hellbats better against melee units, not necessarily better vs. Ranged.
   
4. We'd really like to see more Medivac usage like we saw in Wings for a time in the past. Currently thinking on a cooldown based speed booster ability.
   
5. Buff Bio in the late game - with the addition of new units in HotS, we feel Bio in the late game is a bit weak.
   
6. Buff mech in general - we'd like to maybe test combining the vehicle and air upgrades at the armory.

Zerg

1. Hydralisk movement speed upgrade to Lair
   
2. Mutalisk buff to speed and/or acceleration
   
3. Ultralisk changed to be good vs. all ground
   
4. Nerf Infestor quite heavily
   
5. Make it easier to unburrow and reposition Swarm Hosts

Protoss

1. Redesign Voidray - we're currently thinking of having the player choose when to activate the charge up ability.
   
2. Oracle - pulsar beam would now overlap too much with the new Voidray, so we'd like to change the Oracle to be more of a worker harasser.
   
3. Buff DTs not necessarily for the DT rush case, but to have DTs more often in the late game.
   
4. Nerf Vortex - we don't like how all or nothing this ability is in Wings, and with new unit adds, we feel we can remove or phase out this ability.
   
5. Fix Tempests to not counter all late tech Zerg. We currently don't like how Zerg can't go Tier 3 units if Tempests are in play.
   
6. Make Voidray + Phoenix + Oracle combo a viable strat overall.

Source: http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/to...6979955?page=1

UPDATE:
Today, Kaivax unveiled the full HotS 2.0.2 patch notes. The list includes all changes since the last patch, not necessarily just those planned from the previous post (above). Looks like the patch will hit today, playable after the current maintenance.

Terran

Medivac
New ability: Emergency Thrusters
Speed boost that increases movement speed and acceleration to 4.25 for 8 seconds. 20 second cooldown.

The Medivac’s Caduceus Reactor upgrade at the Starport Tech Lab:

• Health restored per second from 9 to 15.
• Energy cost reduced from 3 health per 1 energy to 5 health per 1 energy.
• Cost increased from 100/100 and 80 seconds to 150/150 and 110 seconds.

Reaper
Base speed increased from 2.95 to 3.375
Upgraded speed increased from 3.84 to 4.25.

Widow Mine
No longer hits cloaked units.
New upgrade: Drilling Claws

• Decreases burrow time from 3 to 1 second.
• Requires Tech Lab and Armory. Costs 150/150, 110 second research time.

Thor
250mm Strike Cannons has been removed.
The Thor can now switch between two modes: High-Impact Payload and Explosive Payload. The mode shift takes 4 seconds.
When in High-Impact Payload mode, the Thor switches to a different anti-air gun (250mm Punisher Cannons) that has 10 range and deals 24 flat damage.
Thor radius, inner radius, and separation radius increased from 0.8215 to 1.

Raven
Seeker Missile has been redesigned:

• Can now fire from 10 range.
• Missile comes out and stays immobile in front of the Raven for 3 seconds while charging up, then rapidly moves (it’s not dodgeable at this point) and explodes at the target for 300 single target damage.
• Targeted unit lights up red when targeted. If the unit moves 13 range out of where the Seeker Missile is, the Missile fizzles.

Hellbat
Splash damage radius increased from 90 to 110.

Armory
The Armory now only has one weapon and one armor upgrade for both air and ground upgrades for both Factory and Starport units.


Protoss

Mothership
Recall now functions as it does with the Mothership Core.
Vortex now kills a single target.
Vortex does not affect massive units.

Mothership Core is no longer massive.

Oracle
Pulsar Beam
Now called “Activate Pulsar Beam” and “Deactivate Pulsar Beam”.
When activated, the Oracle’s Pulsar Beam is enabled.
Weapon deals 15+10 light.
Weapon period changed to 0.86, down from 1.
Weapon range reduced to 4.
Energy drain is now 4 per second.

Build time increased to 50, up from 35.

Phoenix
Range increased from 4 to 5. Upgrade still grants +2 range.

Dark Shrine
Dark Shrine cost is now 100/100, down from 100/250.

Tempest
Now requires Fleet Beacon.
Attacks with two weapons. The primary weapon, Kinetic Overload, hits air units and remains unchanged. The secondary weapon, Resonance Coil, hits ground units, and does not deal bonus damage to massive units.
Build time is now 60, down from 75.

Void Ray
Prismatic Beam:

• No longer charges up.
• Weapon period decreased from 0.6 to 0.5.
• No longer does passive +massive damage.

Prismatic Alignment (new ability)
Increases damage to armored units by 6 for 20 seconds, with a 1 minute cooldown. This does not scale with upgrades.


Zerg

Hydralisk
speed upgrade now requires Lair tech.

Mutalisk
Speed increased from 3.75 to 4. Acceleration stays at 3.5.

Swarm Host
Health increased from 120 to 160.

Infestor
Fungal Growth:

• Is now a projectile.
• Speed of the projectile is 10.
• Range down to 8.

Infested Terrans no longer gain weapon and armor upgrades.
Infested Terran egg health down to 70.

Ultralisk
Burrow Charge has been removed.
Damage changed from 15+20 armored to 35 flat damage.

Viper
Health increased from 120 to 150.

Patch #9
Since this patch is comparatively smaller, I decided to add it on to this thread. This is a subsequent patch (patching now, at time of this post) to tweak some of the changes from the larger Patch #8, described above. This was posted on battle.net here.

Terran

Medivac
The Medivac’s healing beam now changes color once the Caduceus Reactor upgrade is complete.

Widow Mine
Unburrowed Widow Mine attack priority decreased to 19, down from 20.
Burrowed Widow Mine attack priority remains unchanged.

Armory
Vehicle and Ship Weapon upgrades are once again separate.
Vehicle and Ship Plating upgrades are still combined.


Protoss

Oracle
Pulsar Beam activation now costs 25 energy.
While active, Pulsar Beam now drains 2 energy per second, down from 4.

Tempest
Kinetic Overload weapon damage vs. Massive increased from 30 to 50.

Dark Shrine
Dark shrine cost increased from 100/100 to 150/150.


Zerg

Mutalisk
New passive ability: Mutalisk Regeneration
Mutalisk health regeneration rate increased from .2734 to 1.