Balance Update - August 6, 2020

Balance Update - August 6, 2020

We’d like to update you all on our thoughts on the state of the game since our last balance patch.

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6 Likes

Oof. Buffing the most cost effective unit in PvT. Playa should be over the moon!

4 Likes

OH BOY. Lets buff toss some more. 55% + PvT winrate is just not enough. lmao.

However PvZ must be so bad that they are willing to put addressing that on hold until they figure out how to fix that match up without affecting TvZ.
TvZ is close to balance and I am sure the develpment team doesn want to start over with having to balance that again.

Even though I disagree with them not makeing PvT better. I will allow them to ty to fix PvZ. Even though they did buff P against T a little. they did do that…

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So, the balance update came shortly after all :

For my part, I’ve got nothing against the VR cost being decreased, nor the Tempest getting an upgrade to be better at sieging structures/spore forests (spot on, Ollumbubu !). Buffing revelation duration will also make it more useful in lategame. :slight_smile:

However, I’m a bit puzzled about the Voidray speed increase and production time, since 3.85 is indeed the same speed than a viking. In other words, coupled to its beam’s leeway, that would mean that a viking hit once would then be unable to escape from a VR’s lock. That would affect those two units’ interactions since vikings were previously able to kite voidrays ; and might be particularly significant in the case of proxy SG with batteries (not to mention cyclones might also have a harder time at avoiding the beams). :confused:

Furthering the banes nerf vs armored/specialization against light armor will certainly help the protoss, but I’m not so sure PvZ is in a so bad spot anymore. I don’t think that we’ve had enough time to look back on the last baneling nerf, nor a stable appreciation of current balance since Aligulac’s July report looks quite different than May or even June.


Lastly, and though it’s not balance related, I’d like to once again try bringing your attention on the smurfs issue, since I believe their proportion has increased, and I think that’s not good for the game as a whole.
At the moment, I’ve only assessed their ratio though a player’s experience in plat-diam, but I should have a fully randomized evaluation for gold league out within three days.

Anyway, thanks for the community feedback, SC2 team ! :slight_smile:

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I cant wait to open oracle void ray in PvZ. Or Void Ray Phoenix. Finally after 10 years they are going to try and make the VR a viable unit! Love it

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None of these buffs have a really notable effect in PvT though. The problems in PvT mostly revolve around the efficiency of stalkers and adepts vs marines in the early game with micro when both players are going for a fast expand build; if the game goes later, protoss is mostly trying to avoid fights and harass the Terran to death (which is why there’s been so much blink DT use in the mid-late game at the pro level).

Voids are awful in PvT; the viking kiting interaction is a non-factor. It would only matter in the case of voidray + battery cheese, but the Viking has enough range that a Voidray intending to commit to that chase would have to commit outside of battery range.

Tempest use is pretty much nonexistent now at the pro level. The only real concern with the upgrade is the potential for some kind of proxy tempest + battery cheese that pokes down depots to supply block the opponent; if this ends up being an issue, increasing the cost and research time of the upgrade could be a good solution though; something like this is a pretty good solution to the late game PvZ spine forest problem, though I’m not sure how much impact it will really have with vipers being around to yoink the tempests.

The revelation change might have an impact, but it shouldn’t be too significant.

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LOL, who is the Void or the Tempest? I see you too have been bamboozled by Maguro.

They (Blizzard Corp.) will be much grateful because you…“allowed” to make a change in a …Game of THEIR Property.
:scream: :scream: :scream:

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so instead of fixing toss ground AA options they buff toss air, the strongest comp in the game LOL

Looking forward to the return of Skytoss and proxy voidray battery cheesing. This is going to be great fun.

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Hahaha imagine in TvP, it is gonna be chadray cheese every game, i am gonna abuse sh1t out of this…

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HUGE buffs to protoss, vr might be op now.

Like I said, lategame zvp is not zerg favoured, the problem is in protoss getting there on equal economic footing.

Another slap on the face to zerg players with the baneling nerf… eat a dic blizz. Seriously, 15 dmg is freaking nothing on a suicide unit, how bout you address the lack of protoss dps vs banelings (colossus) rather than nerfing baneling even more vs marauders?

Oh and the carrier change… as if zerg needed another nerf on the infestor because protoss players don’t have the iq to focus fire. They already have highest priority after casting neural, just another change that makes protoss lategame more braindead…

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Honestly, I think the concern for most Terran players comes surrounding the Shield battery proxy Stargate build which got several significant buffs this patch. The Voidray needs the help, don’t get me wrong, but it does mean that voids now match viking speed - effectively this prevents vikings from properly kiting void-rays, which were pretty much the only effective counter to that build int he first place.

In saying that, I can see the merit of all the stargate buffs - I’m certainly not opposed to the revelation buff - 15 seconds was to short.

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Make the bane a light unit; that would fix the problem straight up. It’s one of the few units in the game that don’t have an armour tag.

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Absolutely not, that would break hellions, adepts, colossi, and even banelings interaction with banelings.

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Then how do you propose the issue gets fixed outside of further nerfing the bane damage to armoured units? That’s the point - it’s a delicate situation with a lot of unit interactions that are being managed. I understand that you don’t want the bane to be more specialized in killing light units, but it’s an incredibly powerful, easy to mass unit - one that protoss doesn’t really have a clear cut counter for.

It’s not as simple as buffing colossus, which has the potential to break an already volatile TvP matchup.

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PvsT is already 55% in Aligulac for July. These changes will make PvsT even more tilted in favor of Protoss. Poor choice balance team.

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Bane does not need changes vs terran or zerg, only protoss lacks the dps to deal with baneling in the midgame, which is fixed with a colossus buff.

In hots and wol the baneling wasn’t even viable because of colossus and sentry. Zerg got an answer to sentry in lotv, and colossus got a hard nerf.

I do not think a partial revert of the colossus nerf will break tvp.

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The bane was seen fairly regularly in HotS as well.

TvP is currently just under 55% for Protoss. I don’t think the matchup is currently broken, but it’s definitely incredibly volatile.

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Overall like the direction but i don’t like the baneling changes. I think it makes roaches even stronger in ZvZ and effectively eliminates ling bane mutas in ZvZ. Rather what i would do is a baneling rebalance.

Remove the +5 hp of bane speed. Bring down the mineral cost of banelings from 25/25 to 20/25.

Storm now does 81 damage. 11 damage 1st tick 10 damage subsequent ticks. This ensures that banelings will not survive through a storm off creep unless microed.