StarCraft 2

Zaphid

Zaphid

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We've been considering putting together an off-season patch that could follow the WCS Finals at BlizzCon, in hopes of increasing diversity in StarCraft II. Before we make any big decisions, we'd like to play some balance test maps with you, to see how some stark changes play out. As always, this isn't final. This is testing.

So here are the changes we're currently considering testing:

Mech ground and air attack upgrades combined

We've been looking at this for a long time now, and it feels like a solid step in the right direction.

Widow mine splash radius decreased from 1.75 to 1.1

We'd like to push out the Widow Mine a little bit and bump up the Siege Tank so that bio play becomes more interesting. Ultimately, we believe a mix of Widow Mines and Siege Tanks with your bio army will be a lot more fun to watch than just Widow Mines with bio alone.

Siege tank attack period decreased from 3 to 2.7

Bio play may be more interesting with the Widow Mine change and this buff. Not only that, we believe Terran mech armies can be a lot more viable because faster attack speed naturally means Siege Tanks will be better against their hard counters.

Oracle cost decreased from 150/150 to 150/100

Protoss feels like it has been playing too defensively (outside of Warp Prism harasses). We're seeing Oracles only being used in the early game, and not much during any other stage of the game. We hope by reducing the gas cost of the Oracle, they'll be used more throughout the game.

Dark Templar movement speed increased from 2.813 to 3.375

We believe that Dark Templars could be more interesting to watch if it's not just a matter of the opponent being prepared or not. Even when their opponents are prepared, we believe by increasing Dark Templar's movement speed, there could be more interesting interactions, such as dodging out of detection range more often

Roach speed upgrade also increases the burrowed roach movement speed from 1.41 to 2.25

We just don't see Tunneling Claws coming into play much. There's some really cool micro potential with burrow-moving Roaches, and we'd like to see how this goes in a test map.

Again -- none of these are final adjustments, and we're considering others. We're probably going to publish a balance test map soon, so please give us your feedback as soon as possible.

As always, thank you very much!
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http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/10038734466#1

If the DT change makes it in, I'll have to start playing again
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Tenks

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Personally I never liked widow mines. It always felt like a gamble of "Did this kill a ton of shit or did it decide to attack that one ling and kill a none of shit?" I'd far prefer tank play to become the normal. Although then I fear greatly for mutas fucking my entire life with their warp speed insta-regen abilities. And if that DT change goes in (it goes the same speed as a stim marine -_-) I simply won't play anymore. That is retarded.

Oh yeah and possibly reduce the AOE of the widow mine even further but reduce the supply cost to 1. I feel that would help out greatly with both TvP mech and with mutalisk defense.

I may just start now and play unranked for a while (I haven't played this game for weeks) and work on meching in each MU. Honestly the reason I don't play is because I sweat bullets I hit a TvP which is absolutely and completely zero fun to play. Terran has like a 4 minute window between when medivacs are out and when Storm is upgraded to try and win the game. If you fail that window you lose the game. It isn't fun. At all.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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I'm still surprised why are they so chicken with siege tanks, at worst put siege mode back in. That thing should make stuff go splat, make it shoot widow mines or something.

DT change is just ... no, oracle cost decrease is surprisingly sane change, protosses should get one lategame to keep track of an army, but right now it's just easier to have 2 robos making observers.

Merging upgrades is really desperate change, it's obvious they have no idea what else to do and I think it's wrong approach.
 
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Tenks

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Oracles will still be flimsy and still die to any number of vikings regardless of the gas cost. The issue with the Oracle isn't the 50 gas difference between the proposed change and now the issue is that it is a gimmick unit that has no reason to be part of a core army. It is either going to do damage to an unprepared mineral line or it isn't going to do damage. It is just like the banshee but with far less use. It has like a 1 minute window early in the game where it is actually worth while.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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Tenks_sl said:
Oracles will still be flimsy and still die to any number of vikings regardless of the gas cost. The issue with the Oracle isn't the 50 gas difference between the proposed change and now the issue is that it is a gimmick unit that has no reason to be part of a core army. It is either going to do damage to an unprepared mineral line or it isn't going to do damage. It is just like the banshee but with far less use. It has like a 1 minute window early in the game where it is actually worth while.
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I'm thinking more about the spell that gives vision of enemy units, having the perfect engagement with it becomes much easier and is the key to winning lategame
 
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Tenks

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Yeah but in the late game you are dealing with vikings that will one-shot the Oracle. So if it tries to get in position to actually cast envision it will just get immediately popped. It is becoming obvious that the new expansion units are having some issues.
 
Julian The Apostate

Julian The Apostate

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I havent watched a starcraft 2 game in about a month and ive watched it religiously since Beta. Everything just seems so stale. Not even any matchups i really want to see. I started watching/playing(just enough to know what the fuck is going on) Dota and havent looked back since.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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I still watched last Dreamhack, but otherwise Starcraft is for moments when I'm bored and there's no decent dota stream.

This is really well written:http://www.teamliquidpro.com/news/20...trol-and-egtlo

Over the past few years, Geoff has dedicated his time to helping a North American Counterstrike team expand into the Starcraft scene. We've watched with pride as a member from our community stepped out of his comfort zone and helped this small, little known team become a team large enough to pick up a struggling LoL squad. While Geoff has made his way in the world, Team Liquid has done quite well as well. Now, our parallel tracks of success converge. Geoff will join Liquid, where he will finally be with an organization that wins foreign Sc2 teamleagues and sent a Dota 2 team to The International 3.
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The burns!
 
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2002User

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Julian the Apostate_sl said:
I havent watched a starcraft 2 game in about a month and ive watched it religiously since Beta. Everything just seems so stale. Not even any matchups i really want to see. I started watching/playing(just enough to know what the fuck is going on) Dota and havent looked back since.
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Same here, I've gone back to Brood War. A lot of the top KeSPA players are switching back, and this is the first time ever they've been able to stream their FPVOD on Afreeca. Really interesting and entertaining! Definitely recommend checking out the snipealot streams on TeamLiquid for anyone who is interested.
 
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Tenks

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MKP switching from SC2 to LoL. Clearly he hasn't been the same player in HOTS but still sucks. Rumor I've heard is that in season 2 of WCS that Blizzard will introduce geographical region locking. Thus preventing WCS AM/EU being flooded with KR players residing in KR.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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KR has higher level of players, because they can compete all over the world, if suddenly the biggest players on foreign teams are forced to only play in Korean WCS, it limits their exposure and team investment. Less exposure and less investment will lead to drop in skill level due to less people being interested in SC2.

Blizzard would channel money into local scenes at the expense of korea and since they are pretty much dead ATM, it would probably weaken SC2's position even more.
 
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Tenks

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Hm I disagree. I feel that no one cares about WCS at the moment because if you go to the portal (Standings - 2013 StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS)) there is exactly one non-Korean playing. The fact of the matter is that SC2 is on the decline and I feel it is because people are growing tiered of seeing a KR dominated scene. If WCS region locks NA and EU that means a steady paycheck for foreigners who, at the moment, can't compete with the Korean refugees that are playing in their league. Sure it makes WCS KR a killing field but hopefully Blizzard increases the prizes or something to compensate for that.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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I don't care about SC2 because I have seen thousands of games and most of the recent ones really blend together. I can't stomach current TvZ, because one bad engagement from the zerg feels like it's game over, you just see him suffer for the next 10 minutes... PvZ, weirdly enough is okay and PvT is still the same matchup it was in WoL. Storm + colossus is the iWin button. T and P mirrors are alright, ZvZ is still a crapshoot.
 
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Tenks

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Hopefully the balance implementation proposed to the widow mine will make TvZ a bit less awkward. I'd prefer to see tank/marine instead of wm/marine. I also think if they do in fact combine mech+air upgrades that will open up a world of possibilities not only in TvZ but in TvP.
 
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