First of all, Bashiok quickly dispels this myth:

Our intent is not to have a game with broken balance in an attempt to sell an expansion. That should go without saying. It makes me sad it isn’t.

Next, he clarifies Blizzard’s approach to patching:

Our intent is also to not apply knee jerk fixes based on the first few weeks as understanding of the game and strategies are still in flux. The game is young, and we don’t feel that it would have been helpful to progressing peoples understanding by throwing in tons of fixes based on flavor-of-the-week (or day, or hour) strats.

We see a lot of variation between the regions. Making a change for how NA players play may be completely ridiculous for how KR players play, and actually mess up a balance there. For instance 10 of their top 20 players are zerg. So that’s one place where we have to be mindful and careful and attack balance issues with great prejudice.

Unlike during the beta, Blizzard can’t afford to patch the game every few days or radically alter components of the game for a test run. “Real” patches are indeed coming, but they will be heavily scrutinized first to make sure the introduced balance changes are worthy:

That said. There are balance changes coming. What everyone was seeing in beta with tons of quick balance changes are because it was in beta and we feel we can get away with throwing out a lot of ‘we think this may help’ type fixes. With a live environment we’re not going to throw stuff out there unless we’re pretty sure. We’ve played. We’ve looked at data. We’ve looked at each region. And then we act. Which isn’t to say we may not be wrong from time to time, but it’s a more measured approach than beta players may be used to or expecting.

There you have it! Balance changes are coming, and they’ll be thought out and tested before we’re exposed to them. Indeed, in mid-September, Blizzard is planning on releasing the first real patch, and they’ve already released a situation report detailing some of the planned changes:

Patch 1.1 will contain a number of improvements including additional mod features, Editor improvements and bug fixes, some custom game improvements, support for NVIDIA’s 3D Vision, and more. We’d also like to share some specific plans for this patch with you.

Balance Changes

We have several balance changes in store. One general change we’re making is that friendly units will no longer provide vision after being killed. Enemy units previously revealed will no longer be targetable. Now let’s break down the additional balance changes we’re implementing.

This changes the way vision works so that units that are killed immediately lose the vision they provided on the field. Previously, killed units would still supply intelligence for a few short seconds, allowing players to jump to the location of the “under attack!” ping and see exactly what had happened.

Maps

We’re going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.

Protoss

We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby “proxy” gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.

While this gives victims of proxy gateway rushes a little more breathing room, it also puts Protoss players in danger of getting Zerglings going past their choke point just slightly before the first bouncer Zealot comes out.

The late-game effect that slightly hinders the Protoss’ ability to mass up Zealots quickly is also no doubt a reaction to the following Siege Tank change:

Terran

There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.

Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we’re changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.

Siege Tanks will now perform more like their StarCraft 1 Predecessors, dealing less damage to light-armored units like the Zealot, Marine, Zergling, and Hydralisk. A huge change for this unit that the Terran race has come to rely on, Tanks in siege mode will now be significantly less deadly to these units. Hydralisks will need 3 shots instead of 2 to be killed; carapace-upgraded Zerlings will survive the first shot, non-stimmed Marines will as well. Zealots, already capable of taking some tank fire while charging in to the battle, will be able to take one extra hit as well and survive 5 direct shots. This is not the first nerf to the Siege Tank, which has already had its damage lowered from 60 to 50 during the beta.

Siege Tanks will now benefit greatly from the +1 damage upgrade, allowing them to one shot Zerglings regardless of upgrades. A +2 attack Siege Tank will two-shot Hydralisks again, even if the Hydralisk is +2 carapace upgraded itself.

Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We’re aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.

Zerg

Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.

The Ultralisk, which was highly underused during the beta, has finally been seeing use since the release of the game thanks to the final patches of the beta that have improved the unit’s damage, speed, and have given it a permanent “frenzy” effect along with the ability to break down Sentry Force-Fields. This is has made it quite devastating in some situation, so the current damage reduction definitely makes sense. On the other hand, Ultralisks will now be better than ever for breaking down tight chokes, as their AoE melee attack will be used against buildings as well.

Interesting changes all around, and these are only some of the promised ones to come in the next patch!

In a hilarious and predictable turn of events, that will perhaps prevent Blizzard from releasing these situation reports prematurely in the future, players who had read the report and have noted that Zealot proxy rushes and Siege Tanks are overpowered are abusing those to the max while they still can. Be warned!

The patch focuses mainly on Zerg upgrades and abilities, converting some optional upgrades into default unit features. As with all recent updates, Blizzard has released a Situation Report to clarify the reasoning behind these changes, and we will integrate the explanations into the patch notes along with further commentary to flesh them out.

PROTOSS

Archon
Build time decreased from 17 to 12.

As Blizzard mentioned in a recent situation report, the Archon’s main purpose is to serve as a way to recycle mana-depleted High Templars, a common situation that renders these expensive and fragile units helpless in the midst of battle. With this change, the Protoss have a significantly faster way to turn the fragile casters into massive AoE tanks.

Archons can now merge a little faster so “mid battle merges” will be a little bit more practical.

TERRAN

Viking
Ground damage decreased from 14 to 12.

Situation Report:

The Viking’s damage has been reduced to make them a little less effective on the ground. Massed Vikings were a little too powerful in a few late game scenarios. Vikings have also become very dominant in terran vs. terran matches and we are testing to see if a small damage reduction will make some other units more viable.

In Terran vs. Terran matches, Vikings are mainly used to control the skies – they’d likely remain almost as prevalent even if their ground mode was removed completely. In these matches, when the skies are clear, Tanks are free to dominate the ground.

ZERG

Corruptor
Corruption energy cost decreased from 100 to 75.

Infestor
Burrowed move speed increased from 1 to 2.
Peristalsis upgrade removed.
Roach
Organic Carapace upgrade removed.
Tunneling Claws now also increases burrowed regeneration rate from 5 to 10.

Situation Report:

There are many different upgrades on the zerg, the Roach and the Infestor both had three upgrades. We are reducing and combining these upgrades so the units get a little bit more powerful or so that you have to buy fewer upgrades to complete your units. We have also reduced the cost of several energy abilities on the Zerg that didn’t see a lot of use. We will continue to monitor these abilities moving forward.

Having been vigorously hit with the nerfhammer over the course of the recent patches, the Roach finally receives some mid-game love. Bringing the regeneration rate upgrade down from Hive level (tier 3) to Lair (tier 2) and bundling it with the Tunneling upgrade is bound to provide a solid edge for players willing to upgrade and micro their Roach swarms.

Ultralisk
Anabolic Synthesis upgrade removed.
Health increased from 450 to 500.
Speed increased from 2.25 to 2.9531.

Situation Report
Ultralisks have been buffed to include their speed upgrade as by default and to give them a little more endurance in big fights. This may or may not be enough to get the Ultralisk ultimately where we want him to be. We will continue testing going forward.

Unlike the Roach, the Ultralisk has been getting buff after buff. The current one will make it move 31% faster out of the box, meaning it is now as fast as a non-upgraded Zergling. Will this be enough to make the Ultralisk a solid option in late game matches?

The patch also included a few fixes and UI adjustments:

Map Publishing: the default Battle.net host now points to the correct server.
Time Expiration notices that were added for testing of the Guest Pass functionality have been removed.
Fixed a crash when trying to open an old replay by double-clicking it in Explorer.

That’s all for this patch. With 5 more days left for this phase of the beta, these changes will not be rigorously tested. This is the time to fulfill your duty as a beta tester and play till your eyes melt to provide some fine feedback to Blizzard while still possible! Get out there and fight, soldier!

To start off, we’ll focus on the common rush-type openings, before moving on to the more general gameplay strategies.

Reaper Rush

The Reaper, The Terran’s jetpack-equipped infantry unit, has been hotly discussed from day one. This super fast, ranged, cliff-jumping, light-damage dealing, tier 1.1 unit takes down workers in three rapid shots and can infiltrate an enemy mineral line before he’s able to produce a single unit. The fastest variation calls for building a Barracks and Refinery before the first supply depot, attaching a tech-lab to it and getting a Reaper out as soon as possible.

Since this is an economy-crippling build, the goal in this rush is to inflict more economy damage to the opponent than the Terran player has sacrificed for it. In low-mid levels of play, groups of 2-3 Reapers will be gathered first before an attack. However, in higher level play, players can smell a Reaper rush a mile away, and so, the Terran player will send his first Reaper to attack as soon as it emerges from the Barracks.

Reapers are basically invulnerable to tier 1 melee units and can kite those forever while taking shots at them if proper micromanagement is applied. The only exceptions are Zerglings on creep and Speedlings, which can catch up with the Reapers and quickly surround them. Still, with the Reapers’ ability to jump up and down cliffs, their survivability and harassment potential are greatly increased.

Some are calling it the “Terran 6pool” because of the somewhat obnoxious feeling one gets from being attacked before any defensive capabilities are available. However, just like early Zergling rushes, Reaper rushes can be defended against as well if one scouts ahead and prepares accordingly.

Counters:

• A single Stalker or Marauder in the mineral line, Roaches
• ~2 Marines per Reaper
• A Spine Colony or Photon Cannon + whatever units are at hand to chase the Reapers

Fast Banshees

Banshees, the Terran’s rotor-spaceships, are somewhat slow and can’t take a lot of hits, but dish out damage at an incredible rate. Despite being relatively high on the tech tree, the Terran’s walling-off abilities make this strategy both relatively safe and hard to scout. Getting these out to the field quickly gives the Terran player a good chance to find his opponent lacking any meaningful anti-air capabilities. With more than a couple at hand, the Banshees are very capable at hit and run attacks against anti-air defenses and units, wearing down the opponent until the mineral line is exposed and the workers are good for the picking. However, even single Banshees can take out their immediate counters in one on one battles – Both Queens and Stalkers lose to a Banshee in a head-on fight, and groups of Marines are not guaranteed to repel it as well. When the defenses go down, two Banshee volleys are enough to kill one worker! If that wasn’t enough, delaying the Banshee attack a little longer can allow the Terran player to research Cloak for it, making its harassment (and game ending-potential) even more effective.

Counters:

• Missile Turrets with Marines, quick Vikings with Ravens
• Spore Colonies, quick Hydralisks with Overseers
• Photon Cannons, Stalkers with Observers added later on

Marine Rush

As simple as it gets. Get a bunch of trusty Marines and send them to the enemy base, mowing down everything on the way. This build was very uncommon in the early days of the beta – the simplest things are sometimes hardest to see – but it’s been gaining traction as of late, despite the nerf to the Marine build time in patch #6. After getting a first Barracks and an Orbital Command, three more Barracks are quickly added (before the second Supply Depot, for brave players) and Marines start being produced in masses. The gang heads out to the enemy base, trying to take advantage of their long weapon range and concentrated DPS to quickly and painlessly take down any target of opportunity. With some micro inserted into the mix, the Marines will run back a bit after each firing cycle: this makes them take less hits from melee units and prevent them from getting surrounded as well as makes it harder for shorter ranged units to engage with their full attack potential. When the Terran player finally pushes his Marine force into the enemy base – usually supplemented by more and more waves of rallied reinforcements – the opportunity to deal a knock-out blow to the enemy economy is great, and the game is often decided right at that point.

Counters:

• Bunkers, especially with Reapers OR very quick Siege Tanks
• Banelings, Roaches and/or Spine Crawlers in sufficient numbers
• Quick Colossus, dancing Stalkers, Cannons + Force Field in chokes, Charging Zealots

Hellion Opening

Hellions, the StarCraft 2 Firebat/Vulture hybrid, have been seeing more and more use throughout all stages of the game. Still, one of their most effective uses is early in the game, where few offensive units are available. Their linear splash damage effect makes them particularly suitable for killing workers – especially if these try to run away – and makes the Hellion one of the units most benefiting from good micromanagement. The Terran player will get a fast Factory right after the first Barracks, on which a Reactor addon is pre-built, and then move the Factory over it to quickly start pumping out Hellions for a devastating drive-by on the enemy economy. With their bonus damage against light targets, the Hellions remain very handy later on, if Zerglings, Banelings, Hydralisks, Zealots, and Dark Templars come into play. While the Hellions can’t survive many hits, their relatively long range allows them to stay safely behind the rest of the Terran army, scorching enemy units without inflicting friendly fire damage in the process.

Counters

• Blocked ramps and choke points (units on Hold Position work well!)
• Static defense in the mineral line

Standard M3 Ball

Ahh, the dreaded M&M&M army. Much has been said about this unit composition – comprising Marines, Marauders and Medivacs – and not surprisingly so, as it can be seen in the vast majority of Terran games, in all match-ups. The reason, of course, is the incredible robustness and all-roundedness of this build – and some would say: ease of use. The M3 ball, composed of easy to mass units, capable in both defense and offense, mobile to the extreme yet beefy enough for a stand-up fight, is clearly the “correct” go-to strategy in many situations. With Marauders dishing out heavy anti-armor damage, Marines – the highest DPS/cost ranged unit in the game, who have a great anti-air weapon – and Medivacs, the mobility and healing granting fliers, the M3 ball can be where it needs quickly, counter almost any unit composition, and stay alive long enough to get the job done. With the three upgrades added – Combat Shields, Concussive Shells and Stim Packs – the ball can serve many Terran players for the entire match.

When building up for an M3 ball, one would best be served by quickly setting up two extra Barracks after upgrading to an Orbital Command. One Barracks should have the Reactor addon while the other two get a Tech-Lab. From then on, pumping out units is an easy affair, and the ball is quickly formed by continually building two Marauders and two Marines at a time. This build allows the production of a relatively heavy army while still teching up and/or getting unit upgrades – a must for a dedicated M3 ball. When a small complement of M&Ms is gathered, a Starport is built to supplement them with Medivacs.

The M3 ball is made! This well-rounded army can then push out, look for weaknesses in enemy positions, drop on unsuspecting mineral lines, or serve as cannon fodder for Siege Tanks.

Counters

• Siege Tanks, Cloaked Banshees
• Fungal Growth, Banelings + Swarm, Brood Lords in the late game
• Colossi or Psi-Storm with Charging Zealots

Mid-game transitions: Siege Tanks, Thors

Once the Terran player has opened with one of the above and successfully transitioned into the mid-game, the time comes to choose a unit composition that will best serve the next transition – into a victory, or at least into the late-game. The Terran race has a variety of options and answers for all situations, but some counters are very hard and serve almost no purpose against anything but their intended targets.

Siege Tanks

The Siege Tank, one of the Terran’s most symbolic units, returns to serve the same role in StarCraft 2 – ground-control and crowd-control. With the huge damage and splash effect, Siege Tanks are effective in all numbers, whether by softening up enemy units for an M&M blob or by completely denying an area of the battlefield from ground units when large enough numbers are used. Often, the Terran player will quickly get a couple of Siege Tanks after settling into the game and march straight towards the enemy base, slowly wearing him down with the help of the incredible long range of the sieged-up tank artillery cannon. From then, the Terran player is a Siege-Tank push away from victory – slowly leap-frogging the Siege Tanks closer and closer to where it hurts while keeping the enemy contained inside his base.

Counters

• Siege Tanks, Banshees
• Swarming the tanks when they unsiege, Brood Lords
• Immortals, Phoenix Gravity Beam, Dark Templars, carefully managed Charging Zealots

Thors

The Terran Thor, still a menacing unit despite the recent size cut, has slowly managed to find a niche on the battlefield, thanks to some patched-in changes to its attributes and a greater understanding of its role in the game a couple of months into the beta. Despite its cost, the Thor has many advantages and is very useful in many army compositions – and sometimes, even just by itself.

Since the Thor is able to take down many units – including workers – in one volley of its cannons, Thor drops can actually be very effective if done right. A Terran producing a Thor quickly and dropping it on an enemy mineral line will rack up a few worker kills easily and will also be able to deal with many offensive units unless they swarm him all together – in which case, it’s back to the Medivac.

Thors are also a great addition to an M&M ball when deciding to push out with one. Its great anti-air attack, which deals area-of-effect damage in a small radius, is a perfect complement to Marines against flying threats such as the Mutalisk and Banshee. The Thor’s special Strike Cannon ability is great when dealing with other Massive targets, since, despite not dealing much more DPS than its normal attack, the bombardment stuns the unit in place until it dies. Also, since abilities ignore the Immortal’s hardened shield, the Strike Cannons destroy a fully-shielded Immortal in one use.

What is the Standard

When Terran players wish to play it safe and solid, they’ll often wall-up inside their base while gathering the standard M&M force. Constantly scouting the enemy, additional units will supplement this basic army to counter upcoming threats to the Terran infantry: Hellions for masses of light units, mainly Zerglings, Banelings and Zealots; Vikings for heavy air units, such as Brood Lords, Void Rays, Carriers and Battlecruisers, as well for decapitating Colossi; Siege Tanks to deal with masses of tier 1-2 units; Thors to deal with light-air swarms; and eventually, Battlecrusiers to put the hurt on everything or break down turtles. Some pressure can be applied using Reapers, Banshees or Hellions, as described above, until the Terran player is ready to seal the deal with a well-timed push.

Addendum: Terran as the Real Infestation

While fighting the Zerg often feels like dealing with bugs that keep harassing you all over and are impossible to get rid of, the Terran race can actually play the infestation game just as well, “infesting” the battlefield and never releasing their hold on it. The Terrans have always been the turtle-friendly choice, but in StarCraft 2, thanks to some new tools and additional mobility, the turtle can now more easily spread around and hold more and more of the battlefield. Almost every Terran unit can be treated like a mobile turret with various properties designed to keep enemies away from the Terran mining operations. Their units have the longest range, their buildings are bulky and durable, and their static defenses – Bunkers, Missile Turrets and Planetary Fortresses, provide the most robust defense.

The Thor often makes more sense when seen as a walking turret, patrolling the base and guarding it from Mutalisk invasions; Vikings, one of the slower flying units, have an incredible range of 9, and are more than suitable for taking down Void Rays trying to penetrate the Terran base before they even think of charging up. With Siege Tanks, the building armor upgrade, the Raven’s Point Defense Drone and Auto-Turret, and the amazing staying power of infantry backed by healing Medivacs, a well-built Terran fortress is indeed the hardest to break.

A Terran player playing the infestation game will periodically take over an expansion, sending many SCVs to quickly put down defenses and buildings as well as Siege Tanks and the other necessary walking/flying turrets to secure the area. The purpose, of course, is to create a stronghold that the enemy will have to spend many more resources to remove than it took to secure. Slowly taking over the map while occasionally harassing the enemy, this strategy is often hard to deal with even if it’s seen coming.

General

• Map Publishing is now enabled: Using the map editor, you can upload your custom maps to share with the Battle.net community.
• Facebook feature is integrated: Here’s a quick way to expand your social network by seeing who among your existing Facebook friends also has a Battle.net account.
• 3v3 and 4v4 formats are now enabled.

Numerous updates have been made to the Leagues & Ladders system:

• Removed Copper League and added Diamond League above Platinum League.
• Player ratings start at 0, rather than 1000.
• No longer displays loading screen odds in placement or practice league matches.
• Matchmaking system logic updated.
• UDP is enabled to help improve game performance.
• Numerous performance and stability improvements.

A week before the end of this phase of the beta, Blizzard is delivering the long-awaited 3v3 and 4v4 game modes – with new maps for these to be played on, quite likely. It will remain to be seen how the other improvements affect matchmaking and the game.

When asked about the league naming change, the official response by Zarhym was:

Honestly, we feel copper and bronze are a bit too similar and this should clear up some of the confusion.

Moving on, this patch brings about some interesting balance changes:

PROTOSS

Sentry

Force Fields can now be destroyed by Massive ground units walking over them.

Situation Report

We are seeing a lot of great games that rely on Force Field as a key part of protoss strategy. The ability is fun, but we do want to create some more options for enemy players to deal with Force Fields to create some additional gameplay choices in a fight against the protoss. Now Massive units (Thor, Colossus, Ultralisk) will smash a Force Field if they are told to move through them. Ultralisks can use this ability to lead a Zerg charge onto a protoss position while protoss players can use their Colossus in an emergency to allow their army to attack or retreat.

Blizzard has said before that the Force Field ability will be looked at and reevaluated. With the previous patch lowering the Sentry’s damage by 25% to discourage bringing too many of them to a fight, this next change wasn’t anticipated. With this move, Force Field becomes counterable in the mid-late game rather than functioning as completely immovable forces that the Protoss can spawn at will.

Void Ray

Range decreased from 7 to 6.

Situation Report

Void Rays are being used aggressively against terrans now, using their range and speed to trap a terran player in their base. This is pretty fun for the protoss player but at a variety of skill levels it is too difficult for the terran player to stop, even if the player sees it coming with good scouting. We think a slight range reduction will help with this match-up without doing too much damage to other matchups.

Warp Gate

Subgroup selection priority changed from 2 to 3 so that it takes priority over Gateways when selected.

TERRAN

Marine

Stimpack research cost decreased from 150/150 to 100/100.

Combat Shield research cost decreased from 150/150 to 100/100.

Situation Report

We still believe that the terrans are spending too much on infrastructure and are struggling to compete at certain times in the game against the protoss. Reducing the cost of essential infantry upgrades should make the terrans a little bit more dangerous when going with an infantry heavy force.

ZERG

Infestor

Infested Terran spell removed.

Frenzy spell added:

Costs 25 energy.

Targets a single biological unit which deals 25% more damage and is immune to snare, stuns, and mind control for 30 seconds.

Situation Report

We are cutting Infested Terrans since the ability rarely saw use. We have buffed this ability in internal testing and were unable to find a place in which we were happy with it on the Infestor. We are introducing a new ability called “Frenzy” that is especially useful for the short range zerg to get close up to the enemy to do some real damage. Frenzy should be especially helpful on Ultralisks who are trying to get past Thor Strike Cannons, Fungal Growth, or Neural Parasite.

As promised, the Infested Terran ability has been removed in favor of a more interesting choice for the Infestor. With the Frenzy ability, the Ultralisk will be able to take down a Marauder, one of its hardest counters, in three hits rather than four. Of course, this is already an improvement over the previous patch, thanks to the accompanying Ultralisk damage buff against armored units:

Ultralisk

Life decreased from 600 to 450.

Damage changed from 25 to 15 (+25 Armored).

Damage versus structures increased from 60 to 75.

Situation Report

We have put in a large number of buffs to the Ultralisk to allow him to close the gap on his enemies. The Ultralisk can now ignore Force Fields and with the Infestor’s Frenzy ability he can ignore all of the ways that the enemy could disable him. With all of these buffs the Ultralisk needed to be rebalanced. We are focusing him more as an anti-armored unit since zerg players already have a few ways to deal with mass light units (Banelings and Fungal Growth). This Ultralisk should be able to deal with both mass Marauders and mass Roaches which are a common threat to zerg players in some end game scenarios.

Overseer

Contaminate spell added:

Costs 75 energy.

Targets a single enemy structure which cannot train units or research upgrades for 30 seconds.

Infested Terran spell added:

Costs 125 energy.

Infested Terrans have the same stats as those previously created by the Infestor and are placed directly under the Overseer when spawned.

Situation Report

The Overseer is designed as a harassment caster. We don’t want to see hundreds of Overseers flying around, but we do like the ability for the zerg to annoy and harass the enemy with spells like Changeling. We added two abilities on the Overseer that were recently removed from other more “combat oriented” units. We expect that player’s will still build 1-2 Overseers to watch the enemy base and provide detection support for your force, but now you can also use the Overseer’s energy to disrupt enemy production and research, or to make small drops that force the enemy to spread their forces.

Up until today, the Overseer has mostly been used as a mobile detector for the Zerg. With these new abilities, more options open up; as promised, the Zerg race just got more interesting. Will the Overseer be crowned “most annoying unit in the game”?

Battle.net Interface

Revamped summary pages for player Profiles and Leagues & Ladders.

Added a Help system with tech trees and other tips and tricks.

Removed identifier from the character naming process and added the ability to refer friends for invitation into your party or lobby.

Updated the Battle.net user interface to consistently use a nested menu system.

Added in-game blocking and player muting.

A few more updates that we will soon get to experience. A noteworthy change is to the identifier system, which has apparently been removed from Battle.net. With the system gone, unique names will once again be sought after, since no two characters will be able to share a similar alias.

We’ll combine the patch notes with relevant info from the situation report in order to present the full picture.

Balance Changes

TERRAN

Battlecruiser

The build time has been decreased from 110 to 90.

Situation Report:

We are trying to make this ship a little more useful. In reality this unit is easily countered by Corruptor, Void Ray, or Viking which may already be in play by the time it arrives, but we think it might see a little more play if it’s just easier to build.

Fusion Core

The build time has been decreased from 80 to 65.

Hellion

The range has been increased from 5 to 6.

Situation Report:

This is not an actual change to the area effect of the weapon. The weapon was always range 6, but it would only acquire targets at range 5 so it would get a little bit of splash that would hit enemies behind its initial target. By making the weapon range 6 it is easier to shoot and run from enemy units. It does make the splash a little less useful if you are just using the “attack move” command.

The Hellion’s range adjustment is in line with Blizzard’s recent statements about its plans to increase the responsiveness and micro-oriented benefits for certain StarCraft 2 units, Hellions being mentioned specifically.

Planetary Fortress

The splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.

Situation Report:

Splash

We have changed how splash works for several units across the game to make it always hit the dead center of the target unit. Previously splash was centered on the front of the target unit. This makes splash generally more effective, though against certain large targets (buildings, Thors, Ultralisks) you will now not get any splash damage since the splash radius will be contained entirely within the radius of the large target.

Raven

Seeker Missile range has been decreased from 9 to 6.

Seeker Missile splash radius has been decreased from 2.4 to 2.

Seeker Missile upgrade no longer requires Fusion Core.

Situation Report:

We are hoping to see some more Seeker missiles without unbalancing the unit. At the same time we want to reduce the effectiveness of Seeker missile in 2v2 games where mass Ravens have (on occasion) been a problem.

Siege Tank

Life increased from 150 to 160.

Siege Mode splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.

Situation Report:

Siege Tanks are seeing good use in several match-ups but we still think they could be a little tougher so they can maybe get in one more shot during big fights.

The Tank’s hit point increase comes to address the simple and obvious truth – for a tank, the Terran Siege Tank is a mighty fragile unit. Ironically, tanks can’t tank at all, and more often than not, a Terran Bio-ball is used for tanking damage while the tanks deliver their AoE blows.

Thor

Ground damage decreased from 45 to 30.

Ground rate of fire improved from 1.93 to 1.28.

Air damage changed from 8 (+4 Light) to 6 (+6 Light).

250mm Strike Cannons are now an upgrade at the Factory Tech Lab.

250mm Strike Cannons research now costs 150/150 and 110 seconds.

250mm Strike Cannons energy cost increased from 100 to 150.

Anti-Air splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.

Situation Report:

The damage change reduces the Thor’s opening burst, which will mean that some units will be able to shoot a little longer before being destroyed. The increase in rate of fire means the damage-per-second remains the same, but it does change a few relationships. Thors are no longer as effective against Roaches (for example) without fire support from Marauders.

The Thor Strike Cannons have become an upgrade to try to help out the Ultralisk, who is countered so hard by this attack that we see very few Ultralisks in Terran vs. Zerg. This is (of course) not enough to really change that relationship, but we have some more plans for the Ultralisk in the next patch.
The anti-air changes make Thors a little more clear in their role as an anti-light AA weapon which gives more value to Vikings and Marines.

All three Massive ground units – the Terran Thor, Protoss Colossus and Zerg Ultralisk have received significant adjustments to their damage output. The Thor, being a mega-hard counter to the Ultralisk due to the stun and focused heavy damage effect of its Strike Cannons ability, has gone the way of the Marauder, and now requires a research to match its pre-patch state. It’s worthwhile to note that with this change, the Thor will no longer one-shot Hydralisks.

PROTOSS

Archon

The splash radius has been increased from 0.8 to 1.

Splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.

Situation Report:

This minor buff to the Archon makes it a little bit more useful but doesn’t really change a lot of its core relationships. We still view the Archon as a recycle for a High Templar who is out of mana and not a core unit that you will build unless you are facing very specific opposition (like mass Mutalisks for example).

Colossus

The damage has been decreased from 20 to 15.

The rate of fire has been improved from 2.2 to 1.65.

Situation Report:

The changes to the Colossus damage and rate of fire are similar to the changes to the Thor. They reduce the burst damage from the Colossus so fewer units will die in the initial blast and get to shoot a little bit longer before they are hit by more blasts. The damage is lower, but the damage per second is DPS is the same.

Phoenix

Can now attack while moving.

Situation Report:

This is a huge change that allows a Phoenix to dance around Mutalisks and other air units and attack them while moving. Phoenix always did hard-counter Mutalisks, but now even a very small number of Phoenix can challenge a very large number of Mutalisks so long as they are willing to attack and move away. Use your Phoenix to keep out of the Mutalisk attack range while firing yourself and you can do a lot of damage to a pack of Mutalisks.

Sentry

The damage has been decreased from 8 to 6.

Situation Report:

We are seeing a lot of Force Fields which we really, really like. We don’t want to see fewer Force Fields, but we do want to see a higher cost for those Force Fields. By reducing Sentry damage we believe that Protoss players will have to be more careful about the number of Sentry they make.

The Sentry damage reduction is reminiscent of the Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos caster nerf several years ago. Before the nerf, it was common to mass casters because of the relatively high damage output coupled with bonus ability spam such builds enabled. With a 25% damage nerf, the Sentry’s damage per cost is significantly reduced, forcing Protoss players to not rely on them as much as they did before. While the Sentry was previously an important anti-Mutalisk unit for the Protoss, the Phoenix buff will certainly help balance this change.

ZERG

Brood Lord

Life has been decreased from 275 to 225.

Armor has been decreased from 2 to 1.

Situation Report:

Broodlords are awesome. They needed to be a little weaker. They should still be pretty scary.

Corruptor

Corruptor damage changed from 12 (+10 Massive) to 14 (+6 Massive).

Corruptor speed increased from 2.75 to 2.9531

Corruption ability redesigned:

Single target.

Increases damage taken by 20%.

Lasts 30 seconds.

Costs 100 energy.

Range 6.

Cannot target structures.

Situation Report:

All of these changes are a buff to the Corruptor. You will pay less gas for a similar level of Corruptor fire power. The Corruptor is faster and more able to keep up with your Mutalisks. In addition its special ability has changed. You no longer use Corruptors just to stun important enemy buildings but you can weaken important enemy units on the battlefield to make them more vulnerable to attack by both your air and ground units.

Infestor

Neural Parasite is now an upgrade at the Infestation Pit.

Neural Parasite research costs 150/150 and 110 seconds.

Neural Parasite can now target Air units.

Neural Parasite energy cost increased from 50 to 100.

Situation Report:

The changes to Neural Parasite are there to try to protect the Ultralisk from being mind controlled too easily. It is also consistent with what we think the power level of the ability is against Thor and other units. We have also buffed the ability to allow it to target air units so you can use it as a defense against Void Rays.

Spine Crawler

The root time has been increased from 6 to 12.

Situation Report:

At some levels of play we are seeing spine crawlers used to protect a Zerg player until he can advance to some dangerous technology (like Mutalisks). In these cases players are using Spine Crawlers almost exclusively to defend themselves and the ability to move the Crawler as a way to protect not only their base but their expansion as well. We want there to be a higher cost to this strategy and more risk associated with choosing to go “Only Spine Crawler.”

Spore Crawler

The root time has been increased from 6 to 12.

Ultralisk

Damage has been increased from 18 to 25.

Situation Report:

We are buffing the Ultralisk, but we don’t think this buff is sufficient. Expect more changes to the Ultralisk in the next patch.

As a concept, the Ultralisk is awesome. It warms our heart to see Ultralisks used in high-level gameplay. Few effects can match a giant, 600 HP-strong, über-armored biological monster dishing melee splash damage. However, the Ultralisk’s cost and its front-line battle position (unlike the Terran Thor and Protoss Colossus) make it a prime target for strong single-target effects like Neural Parasite and the stunning/damaging Strike Cannons – both being nerfed in the recent patch.

The patch also brings numerous minor bug fixes, hotkey swaps and leftie key layout changes – all found here.

All in all, this patch feels like an attempt to refine the game, pushing players from all races to diversify their builds and incorporate different units into their army. It will be interesting to see whether Blizzard succeeds in doing this and what other changes are in store, especially for the Ultralisk!

TERRAN

Marauder

Concussive Shells now require an upgrade.

Barracks Tech Lab

Concussive Shells upgrade added.
Concussive Shells upgrade costs 100/100 and takes 80 seconds to complete.

Early Marauder rushes will no longer require Protoss players to jump through hoops just to stay alive, making Zealots useful even without the Charge upgrade now that the Marauder’s slow effect isn’t inherent in the unit. Still, Concussive Shell wielding Marauders have only been delayed rather than altered in any way, meaning mid-late game Marauder use will not be greatly affected. We’re yet to see if the Terran Mech buff coupled with this nerf alters the common Terran builds, which rely heavily on these tier 1.5 beasts.

For an interesting and insightful discussion about the Marauder’s and roach’s tactical impact across the board (the introduction of uber-hard counters such as the Immortal, for instance), check out this TeamLiquid thread on the subject.

Thor

Build time decreased from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.

Siege Tank

Build time decreased from 50 seconds to 45 seconds.

With the skill of Terran players continuing to improve in StarCraft 2, both the Siege Tank and the Thor have found their roles and niches on the battlefield (especially after getting an AA buff). Continuing with the recent trend of the last two patches, Blizzard is providing players with more incentives to go for Terran Mech builds without actually altering the units’ abilities or attributes.

Could quick Thors really become a viable Terran opening strategy?

PROTOSS
Void Ray

Changed to only have 2 damage levels instead of 3. Still takes the same amount of time to fully charge.
Base damage changed from 2 (+4 armored) to 5.
Powered-up damage changed from 8 (+16 armored) to 10 (+15 armored).
Armor value decreased from 1 to 0.
Cost increased from 200/150 to 250/150.

A peculiar adjustment – neither outright nerfing or improving this unit. Base damage has been normalized, bonus damage to armor removed (in line with Blizzard’s recent damage normalization spree), while the crushing bonus damage against armor, when the Void Ray is fully charged, remains.

Void Ray charging up

• Significantly worse against armored. The now-eliminated Second stage gave a large DPS boost against armored units, which is now gone.
• 150% more damage against unarmored targets during the first stage, which is also more powerful than the previous second stage.

Void Ray charged

• Moderately better against unarmored targets: 25% increase in DPS.
• Slightly better against armored.

Without the second charge stage, Protoss Void Rays will be spending more time in their low damage mode. Keeping these costly units charged up will become a greater concern for Protoss players, who will have to to be smart about how they charge up their Void Rays – and how they keep them so.

ZERG

Roach

Burrowed move speed decreased from 2 to 1.4.
Armor value decreased from 2 to 1.

Hydralisk

Life decreased from 90 to 80.

Zerg ranged ground has received a major nerf. Roaches will now be dealt significantly more damage by Zerglings, Zealots and Marines. Generally, soft counters will be used more successfully; Roaches will no longer absolutely require the hard counter to be in play. Hydralisks, the other mainstay Zerg units, are back to being two-shot by the Protoss Colossus, as well as one-shot by Psionic Storms!

All in all, some interesting changes in this patch, which, overall, neither hurts nor strengthens the Terran and Protoss races, but hits the Zerg quite hard.

This is the 7th consecutive patch in which Protoss receive a nerf. Turtlers should be glad to hear that all three races’ defense structures have been strengthened.

Balance Changes

TERRAN

Banshee

The health has been increased from 130 to 140.

Missile Turret

The damage has been changed from 7+7 armored to 12.

Missile Turrets will now perform much better against the light-armored Mutalisks and Banshees – StarCraft 2′s only air-to-ground, worker line raiders. Turrets are built specifically to deter such harassment attempts, but until this point, even a small raiding party could destroy single Turrets without losing any unit of the attacking force and without any micromanagement involved.

The improved Turrets will do better against these types of attacks or act as better deterrence against them. Since Terran Turrets fire two missiles per volley, the actual damage against light units has increased from 14 to 24!

For most players, though, Turrets are merely the first line of defense, buying time for Marines to rush to secure the location, as well as some Thors, which will likely see more play time against Mutalisks from now on:

Thor

Anti-Air damage has been decreased from 10+6 light to 8+4 light.
Anti-Air attack now deals splash damage in a 0.5 radius.

This type of attack for the Thor has been tried during the alpha-testing period at Blizzard, but did not make it to the beta. Though his attack damage has been reduced by 25%, the small splash radius makes the Thor a much more competent answer to groups of light fliers, like the Mutalisk, Banshee, and Phoenix.

The Thor has had many tweaks to its abilities and mechanics in the past: it used to be built by SCVs and dig into the ground when bombarding targets, along with having an anti-air AoE flak-cannon attack. It’ll be interesting to see if Blizzard reaches into the StarCraft 2 Alpha bag again for Thor ideas and adjustments.

The Thor change, along with the Turret buff against light fliers, means that Terran bases will become even more secure than before – especially considering the recent cost reduction for the Viking, which functions as an excellent defender against armored air units. All in all, the last two patches have toughened the Terran’s anti-air capabilities significantly.

PROTOSS

High Templar

The Psi Storm radius has been decreased from 2 to 1.5.

The Psi Storm, a hallmark ability for the Protoss race, has been hit hard with a nerf to its area of effect, reducing it from 12.56 to 7.06; a 45% reduction!

Psi Storm was as devastating as ever far in the beta, even with its reduced radius and damage from StarCraft 1, owing a lot to smart casting. Coupled with the Khaydarin Amulet upgrade, which makes Psi Storm immediately available to newly warped High Templars, and the ease of covering large areas with storms, this ability was perhaps too strong.

Photon Cannon

Life and Shield values have been increased from 125/125 to 150/150.

ZERG

Broodlord

Damage has been decreased from 25 to 20.

Broodlings, hurled down to the ground by Broodlords, cause a lot of AI and pathing trouble to the enemy forces – often a much more important attribute of this unit than its actual damage.

Roach

Organic Carapace no longer grants bonus regeneration to unburrowed roaches.

Spine Crawler

Damage has been increased from 20+10 armored to 25+5 armored.
Attack period decreased from 2.2 to 1.6.

Spore Crawler

The cost has been decreased from 100 to 75.

Just like the Terran Turret, Both the Protoss’ and Zerg’s static defense buildings have been buffed. The Spine Crawler change virtually mirrors the tweaks made to the StarCraft 1 Zerg Sunken Colony, and the Photon Cannon adjustment “cancels out” the buff received by the Terran Banshee while improving it all-around in general.

This patch continues Blizzard’s recent trend of removing hard counters and normalizing damage bonuses. Perhaps we are yet to see a major damage/armor system revamp?

While the reset was expected, the broad balance patch was quite surprising (as balance patches often are!). Patch #6 has some meaningful gameplay changes as well as general improvements to StarCraft 2′s interface and Battle.net’s social interaction.

General

• You can now report misconduct or block communication with a player after completion of a game by right-clicking on the offending player’s name in the score screen and choosing Report Abuse or Block Communication.
• You can now view any player’s profile after completion of a game by right-clicking on their name in the score screen and choosing View Profile.

The aforementioned feature is not just welcome, but almost “crucial”. Until this point, checking out your rivals’ profiles included adding them to your friends list first, clicking around to bring up their stats, and then removing them – a cumbersome process that does not fit in with the sleek usability that Blizzard aspires to with B.net. Unfortunately, the new “View Profile” option still requires you to add the player to your friend’s list first, but this will quite likely be changed in a future patch.

Improved 2v2 arranged team matchmaking so games are found more quickly.

Improved replay functionality so missing maps will be downloaded from Battle.net when you view a replay.

Korea: Improved the logic for the age gate functionality.

Updated unit and ability tooltips to be accurate in all regions.

Improved the visibility of units on zerg creep.

Improved the visibility of team colors for protoss units using warp-in to help distinguish between multiple protoss players.

Improved the system that handles promotion and relegation between Leagues.

Improved the Favored functionality to more accurately portray Even matches and display properly in the score screen.

Curiously enough, on my very first placement match, with zero games under my virtual belt, I was listed as “favored” on my launch screen and as an even opponent on my rival’s screen.

The patch introduced significant balance adjustments across the board, covering all three races; 11 units and 5 buildings in total.

GENERAL

Pathing has been improved so units can now properly block ramps and choke points.
Made a change to how zerg creep affects doodads, such as trees, to prevent players from seeing the starting location of zerg players through the fog of war.

Some units (namely, Zerglings) were able to slip through ramps that were completely blocked by units if the player clicked persistently enough.

TERRAN

Viking

Cost changed from 125 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 75 Vespene Gas.

Ghost

Cost changed from 100 Minerals and 200 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 150 Vespene Gas.
EMP Round radius decreased from 3 to 2.

Factory

Cost decreased from 200 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.

Tech Lab

Cost decreased from 50 Minerals and 50 Vespene Gas to 50 Minerals and 25 Vespene Gas.

Terran were the most gas-starved race, hindering their ability to use the higher-tier options and limiting many games to the now-infamous M&M&M/Bioball play, involving stimmed Marines and Marauders and Medivacs healing/mobilizing them as they lay terror all across the battlefield. The Terran changes brought in this patch will encourage players to use mech builds more often, leading to more variety in viable strategies.

Ghosts and their EMP ability – an instant 100 damage AoE attack against shields – are a staple in Terran versus Protoss games. Previously, one Ghost was too often all that was needed to nullify the shields of the Protoss army throughout an entire game, and so it was not surprising to see it nerfed to 4/9 of its total AoE. Obviously, Blizzard is trying to encourage players to get more Ghosts out to the field, and we will not be surprised to see the Ghost’s cost bumped down a bit more and beyond just having its resources shifted around to make the unit less gas-dependent.

SCV

Life decreased from 60 to 45.

This change was brought by as a response to a recent flood of Marine/SCV all-in rushes, especially popular in Korea. After getting 6+ Marines, the Terran player would quickly send them and most of his SCVs straight to the enemy base. Since the unit AI prioritizes attacking workers over other units, the SCVs functioned as a tough 60 hp meat-shield for the attacking Marines, allowing them to take down enemy units from a safe distance.

Unfortunately, this change makes Terran vulnerable to early game harassment and hurts their role on the battlefield, where they are used to repair and construct turrets and bunkers. The SCV is the only worker that remains vulnerable during the construction of buildings, and so harassment with the first scouting worker has become a real pain for Terran players, delaying the first crucial Supply Depot or Barracks for many seconds. It will be interesting to see if Blizzard sticks to this change or finds a more creative solution that does not change one of the fundamental differences between the races’ workers – the SCV’s 50% higher health.

Bunker

Build time decreased from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.

Marine

Build time increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds.

Reactor

Build time increased from 25 seconds to 50 seconds.

These changes, along with the previous ones, are clearly an attempt to make the early Terran bioball less dominant. Is Blizzard trying to encourage players to make do with less Marines, but keep them surviving longer in Bunkers?

The Protoss had several damage output modifications and a few surprising nerfs, especially to the somewhat underused Dark Templar.

PROTOSS

Colossus

Thermal Lances damage decreased from 23 to 20.

Such a subtle change, such complex consequences. Here are just a few aspects of the Colossus’ recent adjustment:

• No longer one-shots Terran Marines
• Still instagibs Zerglings
• Stimmed Marines die with a single pass
• Stimmed Marines with a Combat Shields upgrade survive
• A full Colossus attack was changed from a total of 46 to 40 damage – meaning that SCVs are still the only workers that can survive a Colossus attack
  
• Hydralisks can now withstand 3 full Colossus double beam passes

Observer

Cost increased from 25 Minerals and 75 Vespene Gas to 50 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.
Build time increased from 33 seconds to 40 seconds.

Observers are arguably the best scouts/detectors in the game. Since they no longer require a pre-req building like in StarCraft 1 and since Protoss now rely heavily on the Robotics Facility, there’s no reason for this unit to be as cheap.

Stalker

Particle Disruptors damage increased from 8 (+6 Armored) to 10 (+4 Armored).
Weapon upgrade damage decreased from +1 (+1 Armored) to +1 (+0 Armored).

Another interesting change. Stalkers are not a particlarly good standalone unit. While they are versatile, inexpensive and often form the backbone of the Protoss army, they are not outstanding on their own against anything, don’t have too much of a damage output and can’t endure a lot of damage either. Un-microed Stalkers are dead money – just about every other ranged units defeats them in a head-on clash.

Everything kills stalkers, and their true kickass shines through only when they are combined with other units, when they dance around and kite, or when they blink successfully to carry out hit and run attacks or chase down inferior enemy forces. However, Blizzard have decided that the Stalkers are just a tad too underwhelming, and so their damage is now more uniform, their use increased against non-armored units. They will take less shots to kill many important units, like Marines, Hydralisks, Zealots, Zerglings, Reapers, and Mutalisks.

Dark Templar

Armor type changed from Biological-Psionic to Biological-Psionic-Light.

High Templar

Armor type changed from Biological-Psionic to Biological-Psionic-Light.

Dark Shrine

Build time increased from 80 seconds to 100 seconds.
Cost increased from 100 Minerals and 200 Vespene Gas to 100 Minerals and 250 Vespene Gas.

The Zerg have received relatively minor changes in this patch:

ZERG

Baneling

Volatile Burst damage increased from 15 (+20 Light) to 20 (+15 Light).

Roach

Burrowed regeneration rate decreased from 10 to 5.
Upgraded burrowed regeneration bonus decreased from +20 to +10.

Roaches present a serious balance problem only on the novice and pro levels, but remain a fairly balanced unit for most of Battle.net’s population. A well executed Roach rush spells certain doom for Protoss newbies, while on the pro level, uber-APMs allow some insane roach 0burrow dancing. This makes the units extremely hard to kill even with Psi Storms placed directly on top and repeatedly. For most, the unit will continue to function as intended.

Banelings, the only unit to inflict bonus damage to light units for the Zerg, has been given an upgrade in the form on a shift in damage to a more standardized attack. This makes them somewhat more useful against armored targets rather than only against masses of low-tier light units such as Zealots, Marines, Zerlings and Hydralisks.

Overall, it seems that Blizzard are taking the feedback from beta players to heart. Many have complained that the game has shifted the focus to hard-counters and that soft-counters and micromanagement are less important than they were in StarCraft 1. With the previous change to the Viking – shifting more of its damage from anti-armor to normal – and to the Banelings and Stalkers now, StarCraft 2 is slowly finding a balance between the rock-paper-scissors formula and other, more advanced aspects of the game that allow its gameplay to transcend such simple mechanics.

Factory
Cost decreased from 200 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.

Tech Lab
Cost decreased from 50 Minerals and 50 Vespene Gas to 50 Minerals and 25 Vespene Gas.

Reactor
Build time increased from 25 seconds to 50 seconds.

Chronozeal

This strategy dominated the early days of the beta and can still be seen quite often. It is simple to execute, fast to achieve and quite devastating – especially before the Chrono Boost nerf, the 10 point reduction in Zealot shields, and the 30% increase in Gateway build time made it a little less quick and easy. This strategy involves quickly getting 3 gates up while building one assimilator for gas. While constantly pumping out Zealots and Chrono Boosting the gates, a large group of them could be amassed rather quickly. The attack is best timed with the completion of Charge research, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of Zealots. Not only does it become impossible to dance around them, they also surround enemies very quickly since the added distance already attacking Zealots add is negated by the superspeed. The toughness and relatively high attack damage of Zealots make this one of the first winning strategies for the Protoss in the StarCraft 2 beta. Evolutions of this strategy involve adding a Sentry or two, helping the Zealots take less damage from ranged attacks or trapping enemies with the Force Field ability.

Counters:

• Well-defended choke points
• Mass Roach
• Marine and Marauder balls with a couple of Hellions for flavor

Quick Colossus

After players began exploring the game some more, many have found the awesome power of the Colossus to be too good to pass up in just about every match. Soon enough, Protoss players understood that the Colossus literally wipes the floor with just about any ground unit, and so, many now rush to get one out as soon as possible. The most common strategy involves getting a Zealot wall to be used as fodder along with a handful of Stalkers and Sentries, with the Colossus laying back and lasering everything in sight with its huge, sweeping beams of scorching death. The upgrade found in the Robotic Bay is a critical one, increasing the Colossus’ range of attack from 6 to 9. Most players seem to understand that despite its cost (200/200), this upgrade is more important than getting a second Colossus out. Indeed, upgraded Colossi are a mainstay unit for the Protoss: not only are they easy to use effectively, but with a little micro, positioning the Colossus so that the the beams inflict maximum damage or dancing with it up and down cliffs is extremely rewarding.

Counters:

• Immortals, Void Rays
• Banshees, Vikings, carefully handled Marauders with EMP support in the early game
• All Zerg air units

Void rush

The Void Ray is a very unique unit with a distinct Protoss feel. Few tier 2 units in the game can inflict so much damage in such little time, and so it did not take long for Protoss players to abuse the potential of this unit. Requiring only the Cybernetic Core as a prerequisite and the Stargate to manufacture, the first 200/150 Void Ray can be brought to the field very quickly – especially with some help from Chrono Boost. Protoss players would quickly block off the entrance to their base, hopefully prohibiting the enemy from knowing what they’re up to, and then send 2-4 Void Rays to attack their unsuspecting enemy right inside their home.

The usual harassment at this point of the game focuses on the mineral line, but Void Ray rushers do not compromise for such petty means and go straight for the Town Hall. Players who lack any sort of anti-air will lose immediately, while others who can defend will spend the next few minutes losing various units and buildings to hit and run attacks while the Protoss player solidifies his economy and expands. Players who wish to use this strategy must make sure they possess the ability to micromanage these attention-requiring units, which are quite slow and not heavily armored, while also taking the time to take care of their economy and production.

Counters:

• Stalkers with Sentry (Sentries are light and, with Guardian Shield, take little damage from Void Rays)
• Mid-sized Marine groups
• Hydralisks

Dark Templar harassment

Still alive for the most part, and as effective as ever, or more so – now that Overlords are not detectors anymore. StarCraft 2′s Warp-in mechanic allows Dark Templars to be summoned directly to expansions, proxy pylons and to the occasional Warp Prism, hitting where detection is lacking and where the dark ones are least expected. Players lacking detection or an observant eye on the battlefield will take heavy damage before stopping the sneaky, hard-hitting Templar.

Mothership

Before Yo Mommaship got so fat, it was quite the unit to aspire to and get out to the field as soon as possible. Not only did its devastating Vortex ability cost 75 energy units, allowing it to be cast in every battle easily – it was also a fighting beast itself. With 400/400 hp/shields, a powerful, rapid attack that could take down workers (sans SCVs) and Marines in a single shot, a base armor of two, and an insta Town Portal button, the Mothership was often seen patrolling the skies all by itself, looking for prey. What was the risk?

Later in the game, the Mothership carried the entire Protoss army (or just cruised around with an air force) under its cloaking veil, vortexing everything in its path and destroying the remnants. Fortunately for the enemies of the Protoss, the wide range of nerfs to the Mothership have reduced it to something resembling more of a powerful Arbiter than anything else.

Counters:

• Sucked into a Vortex

What is the standard?

If one could point out a “solid” strategy, which does not either over-commit the player to a certain route nor expose him to a hard counter, it would be the standard Gateway/Robotics build.

Zealots, Stalkers and Sentries are all availiable practically from the very beginning, and Immortals coupled with Observers provide the early-mid game Protoss player with enough tools to deal with most normal threats. Healthy scouting and pressure that can be applied via the early attainable army would often counter most cheese tactics and allow the Protoss player to force an end to the game right away or comfortably segue into late-game play.

The first patch – of many to come, according to Chris Sigaty – has been released yesterday. Blizzard have been quick to assess the data and feedback gathered from the beta; the patch already introduces some balance changes among various bug fixes. Not only that, but some abilities have been completely removed from the game!

Here are the changes, followed by some clarification on their reasons.

TERRAN

Viking

The armor value for this unit in Fighter Mode has decreased from 1 to 0.
The damage done by this unit in Fighter Mode has changed from 6 (+8 armored) to 10 (+4 armored).

Reaper

The damage done from D-8 Charges has decreased from 40 to 30.
The delay between attacks for D-8 Charges has decreased from 2.5 to 1.8.

Orbital Command

The build time for this upgrade has decreased from 50 to 35.

PROTOSS

Observer

Gravitic Boosters: The cost of this research has decreased from 150 minerals and 150 vespene gas to 100 minerals and 100 vespene gas.

High Templar

Phase Shift: This ability has been removed from the game.
New ability: Feedback – Drains all energy from the target unit and causes damage equal to the amount of energy drained.

Colossus

The building pathing radius for this unit has decreased from .75 to .5625.

Mothership

Vortex: The energy cost of this ability has increased from 75 to 100.
Vortex: The target radius of this ability has decreased from 3.0 to 2.5.
Temporal Rift: This ability has been removed from the game.
Wormhole Transit: This ability has been removed from the game.
New ability: Mass Recall – Teleports all of the player’s units in the target area to the Mothership.

Nexus

Chrono Boost can no longer target allies.

Gateway

The build time of this building has increased from 50 to 65.

ZERG

Infestor

Fungal Growth: The damage done by this ability has decreased from 48 to 36.
Fungal Growth: This ability now prevents affected units from burrowing.
Neural Parasite: Functionality changed – The Infestor now channels this spell, which lasts 10 seconds or until the Infestor is destroyed. You can now target all units with this ability.

Terran Infestation: The ability’s energy cost has reduced from 50 to 25 and Infested Terrans now spawn 1 at a time.

BUG FIXES

Addressed an issue causing people to receive an “Internal Battle.net Error” message with their game client.

Muting your microphone will no longer cause your microphone to be turned off in the operating system once the program has exited.

Please note that the voice chat functionality has only partially been implemented. There are many known issues with voice chat that we expect to address in a future patch.

The “Medium” graphical settings were reconfigured to work better on appropriate machines. The video settings “auto-detect” functionality has been reset as a result.

Added a frame rate limiter to the game menus to prevent some graphics cards from running at higher frame rates than necessary.

The main change to the Terran has been the tweaking of the Reaper‘s attack, making it less effective in hit and run attacks against buildings. A common tactic with the Reapers is to quickly move around an enemy base, switching between harassing (and sometimes completely decimating) worker lines and taking down the occasional Pylon or Supply Depot. With the decrease in damage per attack, and despite the overall increase in damage per time, the Reapers will now have to stop and dedicate their attack to a building in order to efficiently destroy it.

The Viking‘s damage has been changed to allow the Terran to have a flying answer to the constant threat of the Zerg Mutalisk . Since they are light units, Mutalisks will now take 66% more damage from Vikings.

The only change to the Zerg was to the Infestor, the Zerg’s most advanced spell caster, and, unfortunately, quite an underwhelming unit according to feedback from all over the community. The new Fungal Growth ability might prove useful in Zerg mirror matches with its effect on burrowing, but the improved Neural Parasite spell will definitely come into use. Previously, this ability was limited to biological units, leaving out many of the potential threats to the Zerg unaffected. Now, and as seen in the third battle report, Neural Parasite will once more be able to take control of the super-dangerous, anti-swarm Colossus.

The most disappointing and “safest” item on the patch notes list is the Protoss Mothership. This end-game unit, which turned out to be both fun and highly effective to use in competitive gameplay, has been hit with the nerf-hammer, and might as well be renamed “Motherbiter“. Having its “Town Portal” ability removed means the Mothership is quite vulnerable considering its extremely slow speed (think Overlord), and its most deadly spell, the black-hole generating “Vortex”, has had its effect dialed down and its cost increased. Granted, the old Mothership was quite the powerhouse, perhaps indeed an overpowered one – but it’s a shame to see it stripped down of its distinctive abilities and tuned to the exact same characteristics of the Arbiter: Cloaking field, Recall, and Vortex, which is essentially Stasis Field with a cooler effect.

We, among many others, have been testing the voice system integrated into Battle.net 2.0 and the game, but without great success. Communications have been choppy and unclear compared to modern stand-alone solutions, and it was clear that this is an unfinished feature. While it’s obvious that Blizzard will eventually get it right, this is perhaps the most immature aspect of the recently launched gaming platform.

One of the most important patch-related questions has finally been answered conclusively. Will replays from previous game versions remain viewable? Answer:

As has been mentioned before, different display aspect ratios provide slightly different gaming experiences, giving (and denying) a certain edge depending on one’s system setup. Check out this animated gif to get a clear idea about how StarCraft’s field of view adjusts to the gamers’ monitors.

While Blizzard has claimed that the difference will be minor, the above illustration makes it clear that it is not. If you have a 4:3 or 5:4 aspect ratio monitor and you intend to play StarCraft competitively, it’s probably time to move on.

Moving on, the thirteenth Blizzcast has been released, and it’s beta all the way. Very interesting comments from the senior people in charge of StarCraft 2, Dustin Browder and Chris Sigaty, which we will highlight here.

• Blizzard hopes to release a patch at least once a week, promising to react as much as on a daily basis.
• How radical can changes get? Dustin Browder: “As much as necessary”.
• Is it possible that units will be introduced or removed from the game? Dustin Browder: “Absolutely”.
• The planned period for the beta was 3-5 months, but Blizzard is currently targeting 3 months.
• The Galaxy editor will be release late in the beta with a “major content patch”. No information on what else this may include.
• The developers believe that the beta and feedback they get from the community is critical to the game’s success.

Some select quotes:

So community, you guys, will be doing a lot of interfacing directly and sort of bubbling up the big points to us.

… if we discover something that is a fundamental mistake, absolutely we will add or cut as necessary to make this game as good as we possibly can by the time it ships.

There’s definitely areas where we’ll be watching, areas where we’re nervous, we’re pretty convinced that we may have made a terrible mistake but we’re going to keep watching and see what happens. So far, things that I am convinced must be broken have not yet proven to be so. This is largely I think because other units are overshadowing them and preventing them from being that powerful, right. As the community plays, we’ll see what they find to be truly powerful and then we’ll see what really shakes out of it.

What we’re really trying to do is get players to have some additional strategy and choices when it comes to their base building and their economy, right. We really want to push that part of the game. We want players to be able to choose which type of player do they want to be. Do I want to be a player who can maximize my economy but maybe is not quite as good at commanding my forces on the battlefield or am I a player who is really good at commanding my troops out on the front line but maybe I don’t focus as much on my economy or do I want to try to balance both together.

… for sure the main central focus of the beta is balance for us.

As we continue to cover the beta, up to date news items, interesting tidbits, replays and videos will be posted on our Official Facebook page. Do come visit us there or check out the feed at the upper right corner of this page.