Campaign Creations

Greetings, citizens of the Koprulu sector! StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is celebrating its one-month anniversary and we’re extremely excited to witness the amazing community that’s come together around the game. To that end, we want you to know we are hard at work on the first feature and balance patch, and expect to have it completed and available by the middle of September. 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.

To begin, we've heard a lot of feedback from our global community about standardized hotkey options. We're happy to announce that in patch 1.1 we are going to make the Standard (US) and Standard for Lefties (US) hotkey options available in all regions.

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.

• 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.

And Beyond...

We are reading your posts on the forums and creating lists of features and bugs to address in future patches. We have mid- to long-term plans to further evolve the Custom Game experience, and soon, enhance our social features with the addition of chat channels. We will be sharing more specific information in the coming weeks. As with all of our previous games, we will support StarCraft II for many years to come. Your feedback and participation is critical in making this not only the best game it can be, but also the most engaged gaming community in the world. We look forward to the implementation of patch 1.1, as well as sharing our plans for our future gameplay and Battle.net features.

We'll see you online!

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/692221

This is what I read:

loltoss
i maek u get rushed

TERRAMAN, MASTER OF THE KOPRULU SECTOR
Keep using that bioball! GJ +1

zurg
fuck you

EDIT:
The only problem that'll actually been "fixed" is that Siege Tanks aren't as powerful. Besides that, Reaper rushes will be a bit more difficult to execute, though I've never had trouble holding them off either.

As for Z: I have no fucking clue what this change has been instigated by. Never saw Ultras except when I personally teched to them in for-fun games.
WANT A COUNTER TO ULTRALISKS? FORCEFIELD/BLINK/MARAUDER/MICRO.

very wtf ultralisk damage change how can they think ultras need a NERF?

That should in theory make ultras better for wall-busting. In theory.

why not just buff ram then?

EDIT:
Especially since the Ultralisk was a joke unless it had creep support. Even then, it's easy to deal with between Force Fields, Concussive Grenades, and micro.

IskatuMesk wrote:very wtf ultralisk damage change how can they think ultras need a NERF?

When you barely see a specific unit in games, odds are something IS wrong.

Due to the various issues of Ultralisks, I guess they would need more AoE (either in range or splash damage) or something to give them any half-solid reason to get them beyond for laughs.

With Marauders and Immortals around, Blizzard will never make Ultralisks viable with the mentality they have otherwise.

Okay, the Siege Tank nerf is helpful, but why did they nerf Zealots and Ultralisks? Zealots already take longer to build than Marines and Zerglings. Any good player avoids rushing Terran players with zealots and techs straight to stalker anyway. This makes it harder to rush a Zerg player, and I guess neutral with another Protoss player.

I couldn't believe they kicked the Ultralisk when it was already laying half-dead on the ground. I never see Zerg players tech to Ultralisks, or survive enough to start ramming enemy buildings. Ultralisks are tier 3 units and now they do significantly less damage in comparison to tier 2 Immortals. How does this make sense?

On the bright side, we do get a win! Chat Channels are coming! Yay!

New-/Hydrolisk wrote:why not just buff ram then?

Why would they? I think I'd prefer the AOE splash damage to buildings.

RazorclawX wrote:

New-/Hydrolisk wrote:why not just buff ram then?

Why would they? I think I'd prefer the AOE splash damage to buildings.

Buff Ram to do AoE damage...
'cause it's a giant fucking elephant with 4 tusks RAMMING INTO A BUILDING.
-I THINK IT COULD LOGICALLY DEAL SOME AOE DAMAGE.

Also, maybe give Ultralisks their speed upgrade back, or lower their cost.

AA7Dragoon wrote:Okay, the Siege Tank nerf is helpful, but why did they nerf Zealots and Ultralisks? Zealots already take longer to build than Marines and Zerglings. Any good player avoids rushing Terran players with zealots and techs straight to stalker anyway. This makes it harder to rush a Zerg player, and I guess neutral with another Protoss player.

I couldn't believe they kicked the Ultralisk when it was already laying half-dead on the ground. I never see Zerg players tech to Ultralisks, or survive enough to start ramming enemy buildings. Ultralisks are tier 3 units and now they do significantly less damage in comparison to tier 2 Immortals. How does this make sense?

On the bright side, we do get a win! Chat Channels are coming! Yay!

I see Ultras all the time, my 2s partner techs to them with great success.

Stoker wrote:I see Ultras all the time, my 2s partner techs to them with great success.

You see them all the time because your friend uses them. That's awesome information, fanboy.

IskatuMesk wrote:very wtf ultralisk damage change how can they think ultras need a NERF?

Since they were nerfing Terrans and Protoss, they didn't want the Zerg to feel left out.

As much as I would like to complain, I am interested in seeing hows the situation on other regions (notably Korea) tha led them to said decision. Espceially because they want to keep marauders as is

As I recall, massive ground units (such as the Ultralisk) crush Forcefields and are immune to Concussive Grenade debuffs.

Yeah but it still doesn't stop them from being annihilated by everything.