StarCraft II Situation Report : Patch 12

[UntamedLoli]

Our first Situation Report took a look at the changes with Patch 11 and while not a large patch, we wanted to continue sharing our insight on balance changes with Patch 12. Please keep in mind that we are continuing to keep a close eye on many of these changes to better gauge their effects and may not apply all of our planned changes into any one patch. This allows us to track the effects a bit better and layer in our planned changes to better set the pace of how they affect balance overall.

We have a few minor changes implemented as a part of the balance for this patch and are also planning some more ability changes for the zerg in the next.

Thor - Radius decreased from 1.375 to 0.8125. Model size reduced to match new radius.

We have reduced the physical and pathing size of the Thor just to make him more useable. This will end up being a minor buff to the Thor (which he didn’t really need). We made the change just to make him less frustrating to use. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how this change plays out and if Thors become too dominant we will deal with them in other ways in future patches.

Forge - Build time increased from 35 to 45. Life and shield values decreased from 550/550 to 400/400.

We are seeing a Photon Cannon rush against protoss and zerg. Against protoss, players usually use a cliff edge or the enemy minerals in combination with their forge to protect their pylon. Against zerg, you can use the Forge and Pylon to block the zerg player’s ramp. We have a few numbers we can tweak to fix this, build time on the Forge being the most obvious. However if we make the build time too high it will be difficult to panic build a Forge and Cannons to block a badly played cloak attack. So we are going to try a mixture of health nerfs to the Forge and a small timing change.

Mothership - Vortex now removes Force Fields within its area of effect.

Vortex continues to be an exciting ability with some known issues. Limiting how Force Fields are used around Vortexes will help fix a few exploitable situations. Our thanks go to the community for continuing to find and report issues with it. =)

Roach - Supply count increased from 1 to 2.

Roaches are just too mighty to be a 1 supply unit. In 200 supply battles Roaches can be very difficult to deal with even with the correct counters in play by protoss or terran players.

As always, we appreciate the ongoing constructive feedback and will continue to closely monitor the effects of these changes within the game.

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24702406287



StarCraft II Beta -- Patch 12 (version 0.14.0.15343)

The latest patch notes can always be found on our StarCraft II Beta General Discussion forum.

Balance Changes


    * PROTOSS

          o Forge

                + Build time increased from 35 to 45.
                + Life and shield values decreased from 550/550 to 400/400.


          o Mothership

                + Vortex now removes Force Fields within its area of effect.




    * TERRAN

          o Thor

                + Radius decreased from 1.375 to 0.8125.
                + Model size reduced to match new radius.




    * ZERG

          o Roach

                + Supply count increased from 1 to 2.



User Interface



    * Several Hotkey changes have been made (German client only).


Bug Fixes



    * Fixed a crash which sometimes occurred when quitting the program.

[IskatuMesk]

Vortex continues to be an exciting ability

LOL

I like how the Zerg are basically Protoss now.

[Theia_Loki]

They finally fixed the crash-when-exiting problem (thank god). Now I don't have to spam ctrl+alt+del to manually close beta anymore.

Yipee for the Roach nerf. And they still haven't adjusted it's gas and minerals cost (at least not yet). At least it wasn't attacking at the same speed as the Hydralisk pre-patch 5 else things would die a lot faster.

[Lavarinth]

Roach nerf was the improper way to go about things, personally. Not only are going to have soaring extra gas now, we'll also be having to double production value on Overlords as they give pathetic food supply to begin with.

[Theia_Loki]

Then there's the ridiculous 16 damage Roaches do even without upgrades, as well as having almost as much health as a tank.

[wibod]

Supply cost increase on the roach really makes a difference in two's, it's a lot harder to cheese someone with roaches unless you pool money.

[IskatuMesk]

The Roach needs a REDESIGN. Totally and thoroughly.

What Zerg unit costs 1 supply now? Lings and drones?

[Lavarinth]

The Roach needs a REDESIGN. Totally and thoroughly.

What Zerg unit costs 1 supply now? Lings and drones?

Was that how SC1 was? I can't recall. Weren't Hydras 1 as well?

[Theia_Loki]

The Roach needs a REDESIGN. Totally and thoroughly.

What Zerg unit costs 1 supply now? Lings and drones?

Was that how SC1 was? I can't recall. Weren't Hydras 1 as well?

They sure were. And costed the same amount of resources that Roaches do now. Thinking back, Scourge also costed 1 supply for every 2 you got.

But I'm curious about the guy who thought it was a great idea to make them Tier 2 and cost 25/25/1 more minerals/gas/supply.

[Falchion]

The Roach needs a REDESIGN. Totally and thoroughly.

What Zerg unit costs 1 supply now? Lings and drones?

Was that how SC1 was? I can't recall. Weren't Hydras 1 as well?

They sure were. And costed the same amount of resources that Roaches do now. Thinking back, Scourge also costed 1 supply for every 2 you got.

But I'm curious about the guy who thought it was a great idea to make them Tier 2 and cost 25/25/1 more minerals/gas/supply.

That would be Dustin Browder.  Searched for crimes against society and exceptionally dangerous.  Prize, 10.000 Mudkips for anyone who brings him in dead or alive. (dead preferentially.)

On other hand, let's see, Roaches were good kill, but not enough, I'd ask for three.  Protoss isn't interesting at all.  Thors, I'm about to see.

[IskatuMesk]

The Roach needs a REDESIGN. Totally and thoroughly.

What Zerg unit costs 1 supply now? Lings and drones?

Was that how SC1 was? I can't recall. Weren't Hydras 1 as well?

I'll kill you

[Theia_Loki]

That would be Dustin Browder.  Searched for crimes against society and exceptionally dangerous.  Prize, 10.000 Mudkips for anyone who brings him in dead or alive. (dead preferentially.)

On other hand, let's see, Roaches were good kill, but not enough, I'd ask for three.  Protoss isn't interesting at all.  Thors, I'm about to see.

You sure Browder is the only guy who does SC2 balance? I was just curious if there were other guys, asides from him, that were balancing it (unless he's head of such a team, if any).

[Falchion]

You sure Browder is the only guy who does SC2 balance? I was just curious if there were other guys, asides from him, that were balancing it (unless he's head of such a team, if any).

Yeah...  We should really ask Blizz if there are more C&C designers in there, don't ya agree, Mesk?

[Whiplash!]

I hate how the zerg aren't as "swarmey" as they were in sc1. Why couldn't blizz just give them a shit ton of cheep units that die easy but you can mass the shit out of?