Patch 3

[Hercanic]

StarCraft II Beta - Patch 3 (version 0.5.0.14219B)

Balance Changes

• TERRAN
  • [li]Engineering Bay
    • [li]Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Infantry Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    
    [/li]
  • Armory
    • [li]Vehicle Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Vehicle Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Ship Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Ship Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    [/li]
  
  [/li]
• PROTOSS
  • [li]Zealot
    • [li]The maximum shield capacity of this unit has been decreased from 60 to 50.
    [/li]
  [/li]

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Infestor's Neural Parasite ability could cause Reapers to lose the ability to move.
• Fixed an issue that could use an incorrect HDR format on some ATI cards.
• Fixed a crash that could happen on some ATI cards.

[IskatuMesk]

I often went to check up on my upgrades in those FFA's as terran and thought to myself wtf it isn't done yet

So yeah, that's good.

Zealot nerf comes as a bit of a surprise to me though. Not sure about the logic behind that. Upping gateway build time and nerfing Chrono Trigger wasn't enough to kill proxy gating? PvP is pretty broken right now though.

# Fixed an issue that could use an incorrect HDR format on some ATI cards.
# Fixed a crash that could happen on some ATI cards.

Didn't encounter either of these (I don't think? Maybe the latter is why Scrap Station was asploding on the old windows?), but I was getting weird artifacts (red flashes, probably saw em in the videos) that I think is fixed now.

[RazorclawX]

The Zealot nerf is surely to attempt to curb the strength of Zealot rushes.

[IskatuMesk]

How can people still be having difficulty with those at this point?

[Xenon]

They somehow managed to find a map that doesn't have a single, thin ramp to the base? 

[Lavarinth]

I swear to God it's all about the Roach rush vs Toss now.

[IskatuMesk]

I swear to God it's all about the Roach rush

Fixed.

It's pretty rare to see anything other than Roaches all the way up to high-level Platinum. Usually if someone FE's in the low levels they just get rushed and die, but higher-level plays are pulling fast lair and FE's considerably more successfully. 1hatch roach is still the dominant Zerg play right now, though.

[Xelxiuz]

It's a ground attack unit with high hp, good damage, and potential to super regen while burrowed, and MOVE while burrowed. And it's T1/1.5/whatever.

You tell me if you would trade the lurker for it. I know I would, even if it means it's more boring.

[tipereth]

I have more success with FE vs Terran than roach rush, but then it just turns into "Can my zerglings keep me alive till my mutalisks show up?" Banelings give better early map control but delay mutas immensely.

[Lavarinth]

It's a ground attack unit with high hp, good damage, and potential to super regen while burrowed, and MOVE while burrowed. And it's T1/1.5/whatever.

You tell me if you would trade the lurker for it. I know I would, even if it means it's more boring.

Both movement and regen are a research, though. However their range abilities as a T1 easily dominate.

[IskatuMesk]

Tip >

V Terran I see one of two three things, each with a fairly stable outcome;

Reapers -

I tend to FE vs Terran because typically you can't ling break their wall. If they go reapers, which are gas expensive, you can get speedlings and Roaches and roll them over after their harass fails miserably (see my ZvT game I uploaded a little while ago). You can go mutas, but usually unnecessary unless they have a stack of Marauders waiting for you.

M&M&M - You're fucked. You need ultras. If you can get Infestors and spam Aids, you might be in business. But usually the ball of death shows up before then. An ample number of Hydras with Banelings can do the trick but that's a lot of gas you're not going to have if the Terran has been smart about it. Mutalisks won't cut it vs stimmed marines with 55 hp unless you have a fair number of them. And you won't.

Early air - Hydras are instant-win against their aggression, take map control as you please. Watch out for transitions to tanks - they WILL fuck you up if you aren't careful. I've used early vikings to great success vs Zerg - but that's in FFA's. Vikings are a bad choice vs Zerg in a 1v1, banshee's will inflict more damage and vikings get chewn up by anything on the ground. Mutalisks won't touch these guys if they know they're coming because they can transition into Thors and Ravens. If you go Mutas here it's to keep them contained, not deal a killing blow.

The strongest Zerg units vs Terran are Infestors and Mustache Lords. Ultras NEED upgrades if they are going mass infantry because of how much damage these fucking things do, but if they get close they are fucked. Mustache Lords obliterate Thors easily, and Infestor Aids will kill a marine without upgrade if he's stimmed and doesn't get healed. So those big balls of M&M&M, if they show up after you have infestors you pretty much have an "I win" button. It's actually pretty OP.

I'll probably go into detail in the next podcast since Terran is probably going to be the main subject.

[Xelxiuz]

It's a ground attack unit with high hp, good damage, and potential to super regen while burrowed, and MOVE while burrowed. And it's T1/1.5/whatever.

You tell me if you would trade the lurker for it. I know I would, even if it means it's more boring.

Both movement and regen are a research, though. However their range abilities as a T1 easily dominate.

Hydralisks move slow as sin and have terribad range if they don't research either. Their lurker form costs more than a roach or hydra itself.

It's definitely a better trade off, even just comparing abilities for research. Hydras have earlier access to their abilities, but in exchange they don't really make a big difference compared to self-fountain and underground movement.

[IskatuMesk]

lurkers wut

[Xelxiuz]

I mean comparing Hydra in SC1's 1.5 tier spot as opposed to Roaches' 1.5 tier spot and Hydra's being some...benchwarmer.

Kinda like saying, even if Hydras in SC2 had lurker form, the Roach still has more "going" for it though the gap would be closer than before.

[Thalraxal]

I still can't believe they called a Zerg unit "roach".  It just oozes with creativity.