[TheGentleman]

Heart of the Swarm Balance Changes 14/09/2012:

War Hound REMOVED... Carrier has arrived (again).
Source: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6571627434

As you may know, we have entered the second week of the Heart of the Swarm beta test. Thank you all for the time and effort you have put in to playing and testing the game these last few weeks. Our plan to deliver balance patches for the beta will be very different from how we do patches on the live game. We will be making frequent iterations on balance throughout the beta test in order to reach our goals as quickly as possible. Accordingly, we expect that some of the changes we make will naturally have a larger impact on overall balance and that additional tuning may be necessary; however, we feel that the beta test is the perfect time to take these risks and learn from the results.

Here are the changes we’re planning on making this week:

Remove oracle ability: Preordain

Because Preordain overlaps with Revelation in that both spells grant vision, we’ve decided to remove Preordain. All in all, we feel that Revelation is a cooler spell because it also acts as a soft detection mechanism.

New oracle ability: Phase Shield -- Target friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds

Phase Shield is a new oracle ability that can be used to prevent harmful effects like the marauder’s Concussive Shells, the infestor’s Fungal Growth, or the viper’s Abduct. We feel that with the addition of swarm hosts and vipers, protoss is in need of a spell that can help against some of the new unit compositions.

Oracle Entomb changes
Duration reduced from 45 to 25
Mineral Shield health increased from 75 to 100


We were facing two issues with this ability: First – lower skilled players who didn’t react quickly would take too large an economic hit. Second – higher level players who reacted almost instantly would take too little damage from the ability. This is just a first pass at attempting to solve these two issues.

Oracle cost down from 150/200 to 150/150

The cost change is to make it easier to allow protoss players to actually build these units and justify using them. As with most tuning changes in the beta, this is probably not the final cost number. As we evaluate this unit throughout the course of the beta, we will have a much better idea of what the cost of the unit should be.

Warhound has been removed from the game

We received a lot of feedback from both the general community along with many pro gamers that this unit was not working in its current state. We definitely agree. The current plan is to remove it from the beta so that we can focus testing other units.

If we locate a better design for the warhound, it will return to the beta; until then, please play the game and give your feedback without the warhound in mind.

Carrier is back!

We continue to receive a lot of feedback from both our community and professional players suggesting that the tempest is difficult to use. We agree that it’s not an easy-to-use capital ship like the carrier, and feel it could be cool to have two big air units in the protoss fleet. The carrier will be the easy-to-use, multifunctional capital ship, whereas the tempest will be a more strategic and positional unit that can’t just be blindly massed. We know how much the carrier means to everyone and think that this is a great opportunity to give the carrier another chance before making a final decision on the unit’s future.

Mothership Core rebalance

The planned changes are:

Mothership core build cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50
Mothership core’s Recall energy reduced from 150 to 100
Mothership core Purify attack range increased from 7 to 10


These are simple number changes in an attempt to reach our goals for this unit: early game defense against all-in attacks, the ability to use Recall to be more offensive without having to commit completely, and giving protoss players more choices to work with in the early game.

Tempest attack range changed to 15, Tempest damage changed from 30 to 30 +20 massive

Now that the carrier is back as the general capital ship option, we are adjusting the role of the tempest to be more specific.

The tempest is now a specific counter-unit against massive units. The plan for the tempest is to be a viable option in the PvZ late-game against broodlords as well as in the PvP late-game against mass colossi.

Mothership starts with 50 energy when upgraded from the mothership core

Having a mothership start with max energy was an unintended side-effect that accompanied the change in how the unit was being built. Vortex is an especially deadly ability, and we feel it’s important to give players fighting against the mothership some time to react. Having a mothership capable of casting two Vortexes right when they finish building is simply too much.

Reaper has a new passive ability: Battlefield Awareness – Allows Reapers to see up cliffs

We like where the Reaper is right now with the over-all changes being made to the game. The new Combat Drugs ability allows for more reaper usage early on and this early action feels both fun to play with and fun to watch.

We’d like to try to push the usage of the reaper a bit further to see if there are even cooler options for the unit. The Battlefield Awareness ability will potentially allow reapers to be used not only for early game harassment, but throughout the game as a great scouting unit.

This is one of the experimental abilities we’d like to try as we’re still in the early stages of the beta. Any feedback on the new Reaper as a whole will be greatly appreciated.

New hellion upgrade: Transformation Servos -- allows hellions to change to Battle mode

In TvZ, battle hellions with good split micro are performing a bit too well against zergling/baneling openers. Therefore, we are adding an upgrade requirement to change modes, giving zerg players more time to make the necessary adjustments to their unit composition.

Battle mode hellions can be built from the Factory

After testing this unit in the beta, we are starting to see scenarios where building only hellions, only battle hellions, or having a choice of both are all reasonable decisions. Therefore, we would like to try allowing players to build these units separately while keeping the ability to transform between modes a viable option.

Widow mine no longer has an Amory requirement

We’re barely seeing any play using widow mines in the beta right now. While we are slightly afraid of bringing in a cloaked unit so early in the tech, we decided it would be cool to see how this works out at with no Armory requirement.

Swarm host’s locust attack range decreased from 3 to 2

We are decreasing the range of the swarm host’s locusts from 3 to 2 in order to slightly reduce the unit’s effectiveness while still maintaining its usefulness in a number of different situations. After this change, locusts should be pretty deadly when able to freely attack enemy units and structures. Additionally, small to medium-sized armies will have to do some kiting in order to reduce locust counts as head-on battles will not be cost-effective. On the other hand, larger armies (especially those with lots of splash damage) will be able to take down a large amount of locusts fairly efficiently if their swarm hosts are not backed up by other units. Swarm hosts in the earlier stages of a game can be used by themselves, but in the later parts of the game they will need to be used in combination with units like the corruptor or infestor.

[TheGentleman]

Woooh! Carrier ^^

[nirvAnA]

omg warhound REMOVED LOL.

its great to see how much blizzard has listened to the pros in the private forum thats going on. this is one of the best patches yet. really excited for the future patches.

I love all the Protoss changes they are huge! Recall at 100 energy whoa.

[ToRPandarine]

CARRIER HAS ARR-RETURNED!

so glad its back...itll be interesting to see how removing the Warhound will affect TvP and TvT especially since it was suppose to be the 'both players now have a Siege Line and now will be waiting to see who blinks first' scenario breaker...very interesting to see how this will pan out...

and wow... got one helluva buff! :3

[mGGDaedalus]

Some interesting changes. Glad to see Blizz is willing to experiment, very curious how phase shield will play out in games, and how tempest/carrier combo will go in sky toss.

[TCPLemminks]

Now would be a good time for me to get a beta key Nirv

Quick Comments

	TACeeSerps:	*Cough* yeah Nirv *Cough*
	TCPKerO:	thats something we all want.....

[AssyrianKing]

Give hellions in its "vulture mode" shoot fireballs, and put widow mines on hellions and cost 1 supply, and a small fee, finally, buff siege tanks!!!

Terran Mech = Fixed
/end my amazing ideas

[ToRSpartaz]

For Aiur Looking forward to seeing how this mixes things up fiiighting!

Wooooh Carrier is back baby

[TAEdarus]

Originally Posted by TheGentleman

Oracle cost down from 150/200 to 150/150

Sounds promising.

Originally Posted by TheGentleman

Warhound has been removed from the game

There IS a god!!!

Originally Posted by TheGentleman

Carrier is back!

Thank the above god

Originally Posted by TheGentleman

The tempest is now a specific counter-unit against massive units.

Bout time this unit got a specific role... Should make it much more interesting now.

Given that the Carrier is back, and the tempest is a "massive" counter with 15 range... I see Protoss actually going more Stargate plays...
*Pictures a tempest carrier composition* *Drools*


http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6571627434
David Kim's thoughts on the changes.

As you may know, we have entered the second week of the Heart of the Swarm beta test. Thank you all for the time and effort you have put in to playing and testing the game these last few weeks. Our plan to deliver balance patches for the beta will be very different from how we do patches on the live game. We will be making frequent iterations on balance throughout the beta test in order to reach our goals as quickly as possible. Accordingly, we expect that some of the changes we make will naturally have a larger impact on overall balance and that additional tuning may be necessary; however, we feel that the beta test is the perfect time to take these risks and learn from the results.

Here are the changes we’re planning on making this week:

Remove oracle ability: Preordain

Because Preordain overlaps with Revelation in that both spells grant vision, we’ve decided to remove Preordain. All in all, we feel that Revelation is a cooler spell because it also acts as a soft detection mechanism.

New oracle ability: Phase Shield -- Target friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds

Phase Shield is a new oracle ability that can be used to prevent harmful effects like the marauder’s Concussive Shells, the infestor’s Fungal Growth, or the viper’s Abduct. We feel that with the addition of swarm hosts and vipers, protoss is in need of a spell that can help against some of the new unit compositions.

Oracle Entomb changes
Duration reduced from 45 to 25Mineral Shield health increased from 75 to 100

We were facing two issues with this ability: First – lower skilled players who didn’t react quickly would take too large an economic hit. Second – higher level players who reacted almost instantly would take too little damage from the ability. This is just a first pass at attempting to solve these two issues.

Oracle cost down from 150/200 to 150/150

The cost change is to make it easier to allow protoss players to actually build these units and justify using them. As with most tuning changes in the beta, this is probably not the final cost number. As we evaluate this unit throughout the course of the beta, we will have a much better idea of what the cost of the unit should be.

Warhound has been removed from the game

We received a lot of feedback from both the general community along with many pro gamers that this unit was not working in its current state. We definitely agree. The current plan is to remove it from the beta so that we can focus testing other units.

If we locate a better design for the warhound, it will return to the beta; until then, please play the game and give your feedback without the warhound in mind.

Carrier is back!

We continue to receive a lot of feedback from both our community and professional players suggesting that the tempest is difficult to use. We agree that it’s not an easy-to-use capital ship like the carrier, and feel it could be cool to have two big air units in the protoss fleet. The carrier will be the easy-to-use, multifunctional capital ship, whereas the tempest will be a more strategic and positional unit that can’t just be blindly massed. We know how much the carrier means to everyone and think that this is a great opportunity to give the carrier another chance before making a final decision on the unit’s future.

Mothership Core rebalance

The planned changes are:

Mothership core build cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50Mothership core’s Recall energy reduced from 150 to 100Mothership core Purify attack range increased from 7 to 10

These are simple number changes in an attempt to reach our goals for this unit: early game defense against all-in attacks, the ability to use Recall to be more offensive without having to commit completely, and giving protoss players more choices to work with in the early game.

Tempest attack range changed to 15, Tempest damage changed from 30 to 30 +20 massive

Now that the carrier is back as the general capital ship option, we are adjusting the role of the tempest to be more specific.

The tempest is now a specific counter-unit against massive units. The plan for the tempest is to be a viable option in the PvZ late-game against broodlords as well as in the PvP late-game against mass colossi.

Mothership starts with 50 energy when upgraded from the mothership core

Having a mothership start with max energy was an unintended side-effect that accompanied the change in how the unit was being built. Vortex is an especially deadly ability, and we feel it’s important to give players fighting against the mothership some time to react. Having a mothership capable of casting two Vortexes right when they finish building is simply too much.

Reaper has a new passive ability: Battlefield Awareness – Allows Reapers to see up cliffs

We like where the Reaper is right now with the over-all changes being made to the game. The new Combat Drugs ability allows for more reaper usage early on and this early action feels both fun to play with and fun to watch.

We’d like to try to push the usage of the reaper a bit further to see if there are even cooler options for the unit. The Battlefield Awareness ability will potentially allow reapers to be used not only for early game harassment, but throughout the game as a great scouting unit.

This is one of the experimental abilities we’d like to try as we’re still in the early stages of the beta. Any feedback on the new Reaper as a whole will be greatly appreciated.

New hellion upgrade: Transformation Servos -- allows hellions to change to Battle mode

In TvZ, battle hellions with good split micro are performing a bit too well against zergling/baneling openers. Therefore, we are adding an upgrade requirement to change modes, giving zerg players more time to make the necessary adjustments to their unit composition.

Battle mode hellions can be built from the Factory

After testing this unit in the beta, we are starting to see scenarios where building only hellions, only battle hellions, or having a choice of both are all reasonable decisions. Therefore, we would like to try allowing players to build these units separately while keeping the ability to transform between modes a viable option.

Widow mine no longer has an Amory requirement

We’re barely seeing any play using widow mines in the beta right now. While we are slightly afraid of bringing in a cloaked unit so early in the tech, we decided it would be cool to see how this works out at with no Armory requirement.

Swarm host’s locust attack range decreased from 3 to 2

We are decreasing the range of the swarm host’s locusts from 3 to 2 in order to slightly reduce the unit’s effectiveness while still maintaining its usefulness in a number of different situations. After this change, locusts should be pretty deadly when able to freely attack enemy units and structures. Additionally, small to medium-sized armies will have to do some kiting in order to reduce locust counts as head-on battles will not be cost-effective. On the other hand, larger armies (especially those with lots of splash damage) will be able to take down a large amount of locusts fairly efficiently if their swarm hosts are not backed up by other units. Swarm hosts in the earlier stages of a game can be used by themselves, but in the later parts of the game they will need to be used in combination with units like the corruptor or infestor.

[AuXCoolpuff]

wow lol massive change

[TABjornbrandr]

Those are some huge changes, especially the removal of the warhound.
I never got to play with it, so I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but at the very least you can say that blizzard really are taking balancing this game extremely seriously.
betaplsthx

[ShinyA]

Eventually I'll get in the beta and care

[ToRLuneth]

Mothership core and reaper buffs are both very cool!
Not sure about completely removing the warhound though, hopefully it returns in a more balanced state.

[FSNiseH]

There were many moments where i wanted to smack blizzard, but the moments like this are what makes them awesome. CARRIER HAS ARRIVED!

Quick Comments

PiG:

I hope they make it able to micro!

[PiG]

I still think a key problem with Protoss is warp-in. Add recall to that and you're basically making a gimmick race because to balance potential warpin + recall attacks they need to be seriously bad in straight-up play. This isn't warcraft and I really hate to see recall so early in the game + warpin it makes me feel like protoss will just be able to do stupid attacks like 8 dt warpins to snipe a base and recall home or a billion pressures where you're actually teching/expanding behind it with 0 risk of losing your army for moving out.

I think Protoss will struggle to gain regular map control and instead will rely on timings more and more. I think map control is vital in this game and Protoss never have really had any as a major problem. High level vP is all about sniping observers as once they're gone the Protoss struggles to see anything on the map. As protoss units are weak until they reach a deathball status the Protoss can't move onto the map easily either. In HoTs i think this will grow worse as Z and T standard compositions grow stronger and Protoss instead rely on trickery and abilities like recall to allow them to fake endlessly.

I dunno it just feels like Protoss just became even more ambigious somehow. Scouting them is going to be even harder to ascertain what's actually going on.

Time will tell though!

Quick Comments

	TAEdarus:	As a Protoss player, I fully agree.
	mGGDaedalus:	Can't see them removing warpin, would require total overhaul of the matchups

[Stallion]

Originally Posted by PiG

I still think a key problem with Protoss is warp-in. Add recall to that and you're basically making a gimmick race because to balance potential warpin + recall attacks they need to be seriously bad in straight-up play. This isn't warcraft and I really hate to see recall so early in the game + warpin it makes me feel like protoss will just be able to do stupid attacks like 8 dt warpins to snipe a base and recall home or a billion pressures where you're actually teching/expanding behind it with 0 risk of losing your army for moving out.

I think Protoss will struggle to gain regular map control and instead will rely on timings more and more. I think map control is vital in this game and Protoss never have really had any as a major problem. High level vP is all about sniping observers as once they're gone the Protoss struggles to see anything on the map. As protoss units are weak until they reach a deathball status the Protoss can't move onto the map easily either. In HoTs i think this will grow worse as Z and T standard compositions grow stronger and Protoss instead rely on trickery and abilities like recall to allow them to fake endlessly.

I dunno it just feels like Protoss just became even more ambigious somehow. Scouting them is going to be even harder to ascertain what's actually going on.

Time will tell though!

This is true although with two recalls being an option now i think you will see blink stalkers on the map more with a recall reserved for them and when you get that extra recall use it for say a zealot wrap in drop and recall. The no wrap in on the high ground is kinda annoying as a side note

[Stallion]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA
Not only do i get carrier back they take away the warhound that was giving me all the issues and biffed the mama ship core and even giving me another 100 gas free for when im going air for oracles HAPPY DAYS!!!!

[FsDronesInJail]

Protoss will seem alot more sexy now with the carrier flying side by side with the tempest
AIR TOSS FTW?!?!?!

[inFeZa]

all i read was
Carrier
This unit has returned to the game.
YESYEYSYES&YEYSYESYEYSYES
and then

Warhound
This unit has been removed from the game.
THESHYEYSHYESYEYSYESYEYSY ESY
i am

so ******* happy right now,

Quick Comments

	TAEdarus:	+1
	FSDarkNemesis:	Yup! We all want to see the return of the carrier or Protoss have no Capital Ships compared to other races in HOTS!

[inFeZa]

Ok now time for my full thoughts on the patch

Swarm Host
The locust’s attack range has decreased from 3 to 2.

Good change, still would like to see them weaker but more of them spawn per wave.

Oracle
We have removed the oracle’s Preordain ability.
We have added a new area of effect ability for the oracle called Phase Shield.
Targeted friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds.

This is fantastic. could not ask for a better spell ESPECIALLY to deal with fungal growth + brood lords.

The energy upgrade has been removed.

Good, was useless.

Entomb’s duration has been reduced to 25 sec, but the health per Entomb has increased to 100.

Meh

The cost per unit has changed from 150/200 to 150/150.

Good - can afford maybe a sentry earlier game now, to stay safer.

Tempest
The attack range has been reduced from 22 to 15.
The damage has changed from 30 to 30 + 20 to massive.
The ranged upgrade has been removed.

Interesting change, will work well with the carrier, and help deal with broodlords. Still has decent range.

what i want to stress - The PvP Matchup will alter so much! Carrier tempest compositions will actually be quite viable because tempests do extra damage to colossi, archon, mothership, carriers. This is amazing.

Mothership Core / Mothership
Recall will now cost 100 energy.
The mothership core will now start with 50 energy and when upgraded, energy will be set back to 50.
The range of Purifier Beam has been increased from 7 to 10.

Great! More of a reason to get this earlier on, a lot of people were holding out for it until 2 bases were established. As for the upgrade to the mothership resetting back to 50, i don't like that, but it did feel like a bug.

Carrier
This unit has returned to the game.

PROTOSS **** YEAH. COME TO MAKE CARRIERS AND KILL THE FUCKIN ZERG YEH

Warhound
This unit has been removed from the game.

Thank god, this unit was so stupid, hope to see a nice replacement soon.

Reaper
We have added a new passive ability called Combat Awareness.
This allows reapers to see up cliffs.

Cool, would rather see this up-gradable tho.

Hellion
Battle hellions can now be built from the Factory. It has an Armory requirement.
There is a new upgrade at the Armory that will allow transformation between Battle Mode and Normal Mode.

Wow major nerf. maybe this is okay, don't think it should be from armoury, maybe just techlab.

Widow Mine
We have removed the Armory requirement.

good, would love to see this used more.

Quick Comments

	FSDarkNemesis:	+1
	ToRLuneth:	BROTOSS **** YEA!

[sRDante]

The reaper upgrade would be pretty cool

[yichongteo]

I saw pros maxed out on warhounds and protoss cant really do anything about it, really scary unit and only cost 2 supply, glad they removed it xD but I think with minor changes to the unit, it would be more balanced

[SmirkToT]

units work to win
dont see how warhound is bad

[SFTAElessar]

Holy !@#$!!!!! Yes blizzard!!!! I love the carrier and sucked in warhound!!!! Wooooooo!!!!!

[DtorR]

Looks like I will be buying HOTS after all.

[SFTAElessar]

Good nerfs and buffs to the oracle

[Champi]

warhound gone is good, the unit was just a mega marauder that killed everything and was too strong, make it any weaker tho and u have... a marauder, so it doesnt need to exist.

carrier is back. awesome, i love life, even thinking about getting rid of it was a sin. keep it in...forever. no matter how useless.

tempest change is good BUT i would have preferred seeing it have splash vs air rather than having +massive, but thats just a personal opinion because i feel like mass mutalisk zergling styles are harder to deal with, and more obnoxious than infestor broodlords...

oracle change looked good at first, then i realised the phase shield is for a TARGET unit.. u can put it on a collosus to it cant get yanked by a defiler, but u can't blanket ur sentries in it to protect ur ball from being chain fungalled.. i still wont be making oracles.

( a zerg who scouts a stargate opening from a FFEing protoss just pumps drones, even energising an oracle to entomb two bases doesnt actually slow a zerg down when they have queens and static defense to help knock them down and get to 70 drones by the 7.40 mark.)

the mothership core is a GREAT unit for protoss. it may be the only change we've actually effectively got, but it fills a lot of holes in protoss defensive flaws in WOL, recall will hopefully be my saving grace vs zergs who go mass muta ling and base their entire strategy around waiting till ur half way accross the map before they ransack your base, mass spines at home and build hatcheries all over the map....assholes T_T

widow mines i imagine will be good vs zerg.... they seem pretty useless vs toss tho as i just take an obs with 3 stalkers to clear them off the map.

the battle hellion change is sick good, it gives the hellion a specific harassment role in the early game, and then a combat unit in the late game, the armory requirement ensures that it can stay a cheap unit but also be a unit that is impossible to exploit in the early game vs zerg, or even protoss i suppose... and its cool you can make either form from the factory, as if its two different units due to the two completely different roles. its actually my favourite change.

the reaper changes actually keep me on my toes vs a reaper expand. if you dont kill it, it'll come back with full hp, and it can see up cliffs so it knows whether or not an area is safe to harass. its actually not a useless unit anymore (seemingly), and i dont laugh at them and shrug them off like i used to.

swarm host change is good, with 3 range those locusts were picking off sentries and cannons for free behind a walloff at my natural (FOR FREE) and it was impossible to do anything about it until an observer and collosus were out to shoo them off, particularly if they use a nydus to bring them to ur nat and bring queens and an overseer to try and snipe the obs, and shoo off voidrays

still havnt played vs defilers and ultra charge yet, someone tried to make them vs me to yank collosus but feedback 1 shots them after they use that consume ability for energy so they havnt been an issue so far keke.


sorry for the wall off text. just spilling my thoughts onto the keyboard as they pop into my head, there was a lot of cool changes this patch. im enjoying the direction sc2 is going in....

although to be honest aside from the new defensive capabilities of the mothership core, protoss feels exactly the same as WOL vs T and Z, PvP is much cooler now as tempests counter collosus and motherships so its not just collosus vs collosus

ALSO, for those who didnt know, pylons no longer power high ground from low ground. so that combined with the mothership cores purify cannon. 4gate is FINALLY completely dead

Quick Comments

	FSDele:	Phase shield is a forcefield sized selection. it's not one unit.
	mGGDaedalus:	didnt realise that about phase shield. might be difficult to use then

[SFTAElessar]

Some of those changes suck

[Dingobloo]

Much love to the first Zerg in a tournament that sneaks an infestor into the protoss base and Neurals the mothership core, recalling their entire army into the opponents base.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	such a sick idea!
	FsDronesInJail:	looks like we need to bring in the 4-festor hit squad!

[SLCN.StoicWilly]

warhound made me feel happy why did they remove such a balanced unit :P

[Antel0pe]

You Tube

You Tube

This looks.. rather abusive :3