5.0.14 ptr patch

General Discussion
1 
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/starcraft2/24150098/starcraft-ii-5-0-14-ptr-patch-notes

https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/632192-sc2-5014-ptr-patch-notes-balance-oct-21-2024

check link for !Developer Comment! and General.

Toss:

Nexus

  • Shield Battery Overcharge ability removed.
  • New ability added: Energy Overcharge. Energy Overcharge costs 50 Energy and recharges 100 Energy of the targeted allied unit or structure with a maximum range of 8.

Shield Battery

  • Shield and HP increased from 150/150 to 200/200.

Colossus

  • Shield and HP changed from 150/200 to 100/250.

Tempest

  • Supply Cost decreased from 5 to 4.
  • Damage Point decreased from 0.119 to 0.0857 (28% reduction).
  • Attack Range vs Air decreased from 14 to 13.

Immortal

  • Mineral Cost decreased from 275 to 250.
  • Weapon Cooldown increased from 1.04 to 1.14 (9.6% increase).

Disruptor

  • Purification Nova Radius increased from 1.375 to 1.5.
  • Purification Nova Damage decreased from 145 (+55 vs Shields) to 100 (+100 vs Shields).

Mothership

  • Mineral, Gas and Supply cost increased from 300/300/6 to 400/400/8.
  • Shield and HP increased from 250/250 to 350/350.
  • Maximum damage increased from 6 (damage) x 6 (beams) to 6 (damage) x 4 (beams) x 4 (maximum number of targets), i.e. Mothership now targets up to 4 units at the same time.

Terran:

Bunker, Missile Turret, Sensor Tower

  • Salvage ability added for Missile Turret and Sensor Tower (also returning 75% of their cost).
  • Salvage process is now being canceled upon taking damage.

Planetary Fortress

  • Armor decreased from 3 to 2.

Sensor Tower

  • Mineral & Gas Cost decreased from 125/100 to 100/50.
    Radar Range decreased from 27 to 22 (34% area size reduction).

Orbital Command

  • Extra Supplies Calldown now also increases the HP of Supply Depot to 500, immediately repairing it.

Hellion

  • Blue Flame upgrade bonus damage versus Light increased from +5 to +9.

Liberator

  • Advanced Ballistics effect changed from providing +2 range in Defender mode to increasing the radius in Defender mode from 5 to 6.25 (56% area increase).
  • Smart Servos upgrade is now also affecting Liberators. With Smart Servos, Liberator siege time is decreased from 2.89 to 2.12 (26.6% reduction) and unsiege time is decreased from 1.46 to 1.13 (23% reduction).

Thor

  • Explosive Payload (“splash mode”) Damage is increased from 6 (+6 vs light) to 8 (+4 vs light).
  • Explosive Payload Splash Radius is increased from 0.5 with 100% splash damage to 0.5 with 100% damage, 0.75 with 75% damage and 1.25 with 50% damage.
  • Explosive Payload Attack Range is decreased from 10 to 7.

Zerg:

Queen

  • Mineral Cost increased from 150 to 175.

Hatchery

  • Mineral Cost decreased from 300 to 275.

Spine Crawler

  • Build Time decreased from 36 to 32.
  • Damage increased from 25 (+5 vs Armored) to 30.

Spore Crawler

  • Damage increased from 15 to 20.
  • HP decreased from 400 to 300.

Hydralisk

  • Move Speed on Creep with Muscular Augments upgrade decreased from 5.11 to 4.83 (5.5% reduction).
  • New ability added: Dash. Dash is researched in Hydralisk Den, requires Hive; the upgrade costs 100 minerals and 100 gas, takes 64 seconds.
  • Dash is an active non targeted ability with 10 seconds cooldown. Upon its use, Hydralisk receives 60% move speed bonus for 0.71 seconds.

Infestor

  • Microbial Shroud is now sticking to units, providing them with its effect for 3.6 seconds while off the Shroud.

Ultralisk

  • While moving, Ultralisk is now able to push allied units.

Brood Lord

  • Broodling HP is increased from 20 to 30.
  • Broodling Weapon Cooldown decreased from 0.57 to 0.46.
  • Fixed the bug which prevented Brood Lord from dealing full damage while shooting from the maximum distance.
2

This is pointless. It will only be useful in a base-trade scenario where bunch of turrets can be sold to give few extra minerals back. Other than that i don’t see any purpose with this.

Please give us ability to disable PF with interference matrix so that TvT will get some extra dynamics rather than 1 hour camping. At least bio terrans finally will be able to kick s of all those mech noobs camping behing PFs.

Less range + decreased cost means terran will spam them even more to compensate for smaller range.

Cool but this does not solve everlasting issue with terran design: We don’t want to invest in techlab to research an ability for units produced off of reactor (with stimpack/combat shield being an exception).

Remove liberator from the game. Compensation - disruptor and lurkers are removed as well. Game will get extra dynamics rather than avoiding fighting for 20 minutes.

Other changes - i don’t care.

3

That would be outright broken.

1 Like
4

No, it would be AMAZING. It would greatly change the way TvT is played. I’m sick of turtling behind PFs, turrets and sensors because opponent does not have enough APM/multitasking to play bio in this match up.

Actually PFs are the reason why it is so hard to beat mech in TvT with bio. Bio terran cannot snipe them. 1500 hp + 3 armor + mass repair makes it nearly unkillable unless you stim your whole army and even that is accomplished with huge losses.

5

Ghosts should be able to enter an enemies ghost academy and sabotage the nuke.

8 Likes
6

You are completely disabling a 550/150 unit with a single spell. That is a ridiculously powerful effect. This change would also allow you to shut down the production of any structure, which is even more problematic.

Mech should be very difficult to beat with Bio. Bio is an army comprised of squishy glass cannons; whereas mech is comprised mostly of splash damage units, their direct counter. The Planetary Fortress itself is also a direct counter to Marines for the same reason.

Bio’s advantage is its higher mobility, which makes it easier to secure more expansions, build up, and harass the opponent. If you aren’t exploiting those advantages, then you have nothing to complain about.

You shouldn’t be trying to take down a Planetary Fortress with Marines while it is being repaired. That is a bad decision on your part. You can use Siege Tanks to take down the Planetary and SCVs, Liberators to deny repairing SCVs, or you can attack something else (the mineral line, production, etc).

3 Likes
7

No, i only want matrix for PF, not any other structure.

Ok, in order to beat mech army, bio player should be active on the map, harassing, multitasking, dropping etc. But PF denies that and if you cannot do significant damage in the first 10 minutes, you can pretty much leave the game, because then you have to transition into mech yourself which at this point it is too late because you’re lacking in production facilities/armory upgrades etc while mech player has assembled powerful unkillable siege tank/hellbat/viking/liberator army.

In theory yes, but in practice it never happens - camping terrans have mastered their ability to turtle so hard it is impossible to do any dmg, at least not in diamond. I’ve seen GM bio terrans bashing against the wall and eventually losing to turtling mech player.

I don’t mind my opponent to play mech in TvT, but at least i want to do some damage.

8

Even then, the effect of Interference Matrix on a Planetary Fortress would be ridiculous.

Out-expanding the mech player, and punishing that player for trying to take expansions and move out.

Technically speaking, you are the one who can take more expansions and build up faster.

1 Like
9

i hope you are watching lots of bio vs mech TvT. Do you see repeating pattern ? Bio player always bashes against the wall doing little to do damage. After 10 minutes mech player moves out with giant 2-2 army and all bio player can do is to transition to mech himself while being aggressive and pray he will make that transition in time before being squished.

Your arguments are valid but only in theory. Don’t forget that bio requires 3x apm/multitasking to beat mech player. And in the end result is exactly the same as with skytoss turtle -if you don’t do enough damage in time you lose. If you disagree with IM disabling PF, then at least it should prevent SCVs from repairing it

Answer honestly: how often do you see bio player beating mech player in the late game or even in the first 10 minutes ? The answer is VERY infrequently correct ?

10

Then the player should start transitioning into units that can actually break defenses.

Why? I see no reason why Interference Matrix should affect structures.

2 Likes
11

Look
i think one of the most obnoxious things in SC2 is mass static defenses. All defensive structures are rather weak but very cheap and with exception of PF cost only minerals. I wish all static defenses were stronger but costed gas to prevent them from being spammed. In TvT almost every game ends up with turtle fest lasting anywhere between 30-60 minutes with mass PFs, turrets, tanks, sensor towers which almost completely prevents any engagements. Are you a fan of this ? Don’t you want TvT to be faster, action packed game rather than sitting behind all this and wait until one side runs out of resources. I assume you are mech player yourself - i get it but TvT is so cancerous many terrans would love to change just for the sake of game duration.

12

Frankly, I don’t think that RTS games should always be rushed. These aren’t MOBAs.

That is one of the reasons to use siege units like Tanks, which will break those defenses when used properly.

1 Like
13

And this creates vicious circle - oppenent brings libs/banshees → you bring more vikings → oppenent brings thors → you bring more siege tanks and the circle continues…and the game is prolonged to 30-60 minutes of turtling.

14

Back on topic:

A base damage buff may be better. This one could be a nerf, since Colossus can take less damage before it becomes permanent.

I think these changes are excellent.

Good, it always confused me why Salvage wasn’t an option for anything except the Bunker, and the salvage cancel increases the commitment for bunker rushes.

So Terran has to build more Sensor Towers to cover the same area. This will be lighter on gas, but heavier on build time and Minerals. Sensor Towers may also become easier to snipe.

Neat.

If this change is actually balanced, then it probably needed to happen a long time ago.

Personally, I thought buffing the health in both modes after an Armory-Tech upgrade was the best way to go, but that was under the assumption that the Hellion’s damage couldn’t be buffed.

This is a fairly major buff to Liberators. The larger radius means that they don’t need to move as often, even if they lose 0.75 effective range. The Smart-Servos buff is also quite significant.

Javelin Missiles goes from pathetic (outside of vs. Mutalisks) to useful. The range reduction should be sufficient to balance it out.

So, Zerg has a slightly easier time expanding, rebuilding expansions, and building macro hatcheries, but their defensive Queens will be more expensive.

So, straight buff to Spine Crawlers, but it is probably within reason.

This should make Spore Crawlers better, since there are few cases where an air unit is wasting time directly targeting them. It should be a nerf when Zerg starts their Spore Crawlers late or needs to move them.

Some people have been asking for this for years.

Looks like a number of Brood Lord nerfs are being reverted.

1 Like
15

Terran Kabal lul

Protoss get nerfed to valhalla

2 Likes
16

Im gonna fill my pool with Protoss tears

17

Balance council: we want to dissuade turtling and defensive playstyle for all races!
Also balance council: we want to give Terran the ability to reposition defensive structures so turtling and static defence becomes less expensive!

Seriously, this is one of the dumbest patches I have ever seen in my life. And my account is WoL old. Protoss is already bottom tier at tournaments yet you continue to nerf them to the ground, while Terran is doing pretty damn well so you continue to buff? Make it make sense. Mothership was already pretty trash tier and you bring back the -400/-400 meme?

But the cherry on top was removing the only Protoss tool available to defend against early game rushes and all ins and replacing it with this garbage tier poor man’s transfuse. Like… seriously? How many sentries do you think the average Protoss has by the time a 1-base all-in hits? I’ll quote Muggy on this one… Not fing many!

4 Likes
18

Not sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, this is a drastic defensive nerf. Too much, if I’m honest, that I don’t think will go the way they intend.

On the other hand, warp-in storms, and far more dangerous oracle openers. This will 100% be used for cheese.

sure, I guess. I’m kinda surprised that in tandem with the above, we don’t also have an energy increase for them to 200 energy. Kinda underwhelming, but it survives one, maybe 2 more biles, I guess?

I’m not sold on this, mostly feels like a general nerf given that you lose out on your ability to regenerate some of your HP. Might be better in TvP though, but not really sure. Mixed bag - buff for PvT, nerf for PvZ I guess.

I’m okay with this. More skill expression for protoss with more micro capability is always good.

Not sure how much the cost decrease offsets the weapon cool-down change. Not sold on it tbh.

This kinda feels like a nerf targeted at Mech specifically, since it greatly reduces the amount of damage Mech takes from disruptor shots; thors especially.

It also makes marauders survive 1 hit as well, which, ngl, not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing… makes it less punishing to not look at your army for half a second though, so…

I don’t think the cost increase was needed. I like the other changes though.

Literally no reason to use this at all, but I’m not opposed to it; also makes 2 and 3 rax cheeses more punishing by preventing salvage on bunkers.

Sure, I guess. This will make it much easier for high DPS units to kill them like lings, marines, and Zealots; I’m pretty okay with this.

This is an interesting idea, not 100% sure it’s necessary though, but I like the concept.

This has the potential to be very dangerous and will likely be a huge buff to Battle-mech playstyles.

No.

No no.

No.

Just no.

Genuinely these are terrible changes; the wider radius I can kinda get behind (it sounds like this keeps the current max range of libs without advanced balistics?) but instead increases the radius to the sides and back once the upgrade is researched. This could cause some problems in TvT dealing with Thors specifically, but meh.

TvZ might actually be better vs ultras.

TvP I can’t see this being a good thing there; protoss already struggle to deal with them utilizing blink to get through the lib zones, now this makes it much harder.

Also, what the HELL were they thinking tying this to Smart Servos??? No way that goes through. That’s such a huge change.

This is… interesting. I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not sure I like it either.

This feels like it screws with the standard metabolic boost/queen completion timing? Not really certain about this, but hey, interesting idea.

Hmm. Not sure how I feel about this, but no real strong feelings one way or another.

Interesting concept, I don’t think this is going to be long enough to utilize very well.

Excellent change. This was much needed.

I’ve been asking for this for ages.

Sure, that’s fine I guess.

2 Likes
19

Nerf the corruptor and let zerg spawn scourge from the spawning pool.

20

Repositioning defensive structures definitely allows terran but mech in particular to be more dynamic in their placement and that will result in less turtling.

There are loads of big toss buffs in this patch. They are adding an ability to recharge forcefield and storm energy off the nexus – do you think that’s a nerf? If so then LOL. That’s a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge buff.

This is basically khaldarian amulets 2.0. Back in the day, there was an upgrade you could get for your templar that allowed them to have enough energy to storm right after warping in. It was insanely busted. This allows them to warp in next to a nexus and then storm immediately. Templar can now be reactively warped in whereas previously the had to be warped in in advance & then wait 25 seconds for their first storm. Now they warp in as needed and have enough energy for 2 storms immediately and a third storm 25 seconds later.

A note-able distinction from khaldarian amulet is that this will only work near a nexus instead of just any pylon. So it’s stronger than khaldarian amulet while defending and weaker while being offensive. Overall, an E - N - O - R - M - O - U - S buff.