Major balance changes coming to SC2 - being tested now, to eventually go live after Blizzcon
Proposed changes:
general:
- make it harder to starve someone out on 2 bases (wtf, WHY?): increase minerals and gas at bases by 12.5%
Terran:
- MULEs can harvest vespene gas, 10 per trip (WHY GOD WHY WTF)
- raven being totally redesigned - all abilities scrapped, new ones are a.) disable mechanical unit weapons & abilities for short period b.) drop a repair drone that repairs units in a radius for a short time c.) seeker missile that does only 30 splash damage but also decreases armor of units by 3 temporarily
- widow mines can be seen without detection while weapon is reloading
- cloak is no longer an upgrade for ghosts, they start with it automatically and start with 50 energy instead of 75 (upgrade to give them +25 starting energy will be added back)
- liberator gets small vision change (can see target circle but doesn't get increased version when using target mode)
- cyclone's anti-air lock on does faster damage at first, cyclones get an upgrade to make lock-on do +armor damage
- adding mech upgrade to let thor, hellion/hellbat, viking transform modes more rapidly
Protoss:
- mothership core is DELETED
- chrono boost goes back to Nexus, mass recall is now cast by Nexuses (so I guess P armies can move between several Nexuses at will once you have lots of bases and energy saved up??? although armies will no longer be able to move or fire for 4 seconds when being recalled), new shield battery mechanic that can charge nearby buildings for energy
- stalker weapon redesigned to keep overall damage the same but shoot less often and do more damage, making it better vs. units with armor; also will increase +2 in damage per weapon upgrade rather than +1
- disruptor being changed so that the ball explodes as soon as it hits something
- colossus changed to do less damage vs normal units but more damage vs light units; starts with 7 range instead of 6 (still has 9 after thermal lance)
- interceptor cost for carriers increased from 10 -> 15 minerals
- MAKE HIGH TEMPLARS EASY AGAIN (that's literally their explanation): "To do this we are adding a very low damage auto attack to the High Templar, like in the campaign.
This will keep the High Templar further back during fights and avoid its charging heedlessly into danger." - give it a ****ty attack that does 4 damage every 1.25 seconds at a range of 6, because microing them is too hard otherwise apparently
- add "surveillance mode" to observers; causes it to stay fixed in place but gain 25% more vision (rationale is also easier micro; that way moving your army with F2 won't move observers also, lol Blizzard)
Zerg:
- fungal no longer hits air; units hit by fungal will be slowed,
not rooted, if they're hit off-creep (on-creep behavior will be the same)
- Infested Terrans given a better anti-air weapon that takes priority over their (now-weakened) ground weapon, and they benefit from upgrades again
- Lurker Den now a separate building that requires Hydralisk Den; added an upgrade for lurkers that makes them burrow and move faster
- Parasitic Bomb damage is tripled (60 to 180) but no longer stacks
- Overseers get the same "surveillance mode" as observers which is weird because nobody uses overseers like that
- swarm hosts move slower off creep