Starcraft 2 is a great game, but there is still room for some improvement, but actually not that much. Since we’re coming up on when we could possibly, get a new big balance post, I figured I’d write a few posts about some possible changes to consider. Let’s get a couple of things out of the way
- Don’t get hung up on numbers. Numbers and values are there to give an idea of how strong something is. People get too caught up in numbers and instantly go to, “That ability can’t do that much damage it’s op.” No numbers are to help compare things. It helps to visualize. “Oh, so this ability is supposed to be comparable to storm.”
- There’s aren’t changes for the sake of. It’s not, “Hydralisks get +1 range vs air just because.” That doesn’t have any meaningful or interesting impact. That’s something for smaller patches to work out. After thinking about it for a while, there are only about 3 big changes per race that I think would make a positive impact on the game and help smooth out some units and give them some more love.
Let’s get to protoss
New Unit: Void Hunter
-Speed: Between Hellion and Cyclone
Building: Robotics Facility
Attack: Low damage but fast ask speed. Like 3-5 damage with bonus of 2-5 to biological. Atk speed between .1-.7. Can attack ground and air.
Range 5
Passive Ability: Multi-Lock Array: Allows the Void Hunter to Target 2 units at a time with its weapons.
Ability: Shroud: The Void Hunter cannot attack or be attacked for 10 seconds, but it can move through enemy units, and its speed is increased by 25%. Has a 40-second cooldown. Note: This isn’t a cloaking ability. It can still be fully seen by the enemy.
Upgrade: Improved Array: Increases the number or targets the Void Hunter can attack from 2 to 4. Also increases range from 5 to 6.
The Void Hunter is a Robo unit that is extremely fast and good at dealing with low HP units and particularly biological unit. It’s not very tough, but its speed and ability to attack multiple enemies at once makes it dangerous. It aims to give protoss a different raiding option from the robo. It also aims to give robo openers a natural transition against mutalisks. Instead of having to completely switch gears to Phoenix, protoss players will have the option to go for the upgrade to allow The Void hunter to better combat mutalisk. It also aims to give protoss a different form of splash to compensate for the colossus change below. It doesn’t do splash in the traditional sense, but it can attack multiple enemies at once.
Its shroud ability is designed to encourage protoss to be out on the map. While shroud could be used to slip past enemy base defenses, it is not advised. The void hunter is weak and expensive to diving mineral lines would be too harsh on the econ. Instead, it allows the Void Hunter to engage armies or poke at the enemy and then quickly escape without dying. Its ability to attack multiple units at once is also aimed to help protoss break up their army in the late game. Send a couple of these with a group of gateway units, and they add value to any attack. Because they deal bonus to bio, they are ideal for dealing with terran bio, zerg, and early gateway units. It aims to decrease the need for protoss armies to get storm or disruptors to survive mass armies. Hopefully, this unit will break up the death ball nature of protoss and encourage small skirmishes around the map instead of 1 big push with a warp prism sliding in the back.
Changes
Colossus
New Weapon: Charged Pulse Blaster: Deals Massive single target damage. Has a range of 9.
Passive: Fire on the move.
New Upgrade: Aerial Tracking. Allows the Colossus to target air units.
Attack Speed: 3
Based on the Wrathwalker
The new Colossus is designed to pick at high priority units from afar such as lurkers, tanks, and thors. With the upgrade, it gives protoss ground an option for combating late-game threats like tempest, brood lords, and liberators without stargate tech. This change is to help diversity protoss tech. Right now you pick 1 tech to start off with but then eventually it all funnels down into the same type of army. Did they go air? You need to go stargate; they go mass ground you need robo and templar. This change is to let protoss make their own choices in how to combat threats. If the terran goes liberator, the protoss isn’t forced to either mass blink stalker or get tempest out. They now have the option of continuing on with robo tech to counter them. Is the zerg going brood lords? Well, now Robo has a way to counter them. It helps the tech path breath a little more. Diverse tech is more interesting. Terran and zerg have flexibility in how they define their comps, but protoss is constricted in how they respond. The Void Hunter would fill the consistent “splash” type unit while the disruptor would be the burst. Hopefully, this would give the Colossus a more defined role and an alternative to what you want to accomplish instead of just boiling the protoss army down into how many forms of splash can you get.
The interesting thing about the colossus is that it is vulnerable to air units. It may be able to attack them, but it is also highly susceptible to them. It’s not a unit that should be massed against air. It should be used as a support unit for stalkers and Void Hunters.
Void Ray
Prismatic Alignment changed: It is no longer active but passive Just like in WOL the Void Ray will continue to get stronger the more it attacks. The key issue with this was that it was hard to identify when it was powered up. In addition to the beam becoming bigger, it will now change color to clearly indicate when the attack has changed. It takes about 2-3 seconds for the void ray to “Level up” then it can hold its current charge level for 4 seconds before it resets to base.
Lv1: White beam (+2 to armored)
Lv2: Blue beam (+3-4 to Armored)
Lv3: Ultraviolet Beam (+4-6 to armored)
In addition, it has a new style of attack. When the Void Ray kills an enemy unit, it will sweep its beam to the next target in range. So there won’t be a brief second where the attack resets. This is similar to how the colossus used to attack back in the announcement Demo. Its beam would sweep across the battlefield as it attacked.
New Upgrade
Hardened Shields: The Void Ray’s shields no longer Take bonus damage from units that deal Bonus to armored.
No, it’s not the old Immortal shields of reducing all damage to 10. It shared the name, but it functions differently. Units that deal Bonus to armored such as stalkers, Vikings, and cyclones will simply have their +X to armored units negated. This is to help Void Rays act as meat shields for protoss air and better absorb anti-armor attacks.
The Void ray is great in sustained combat. The longer it is in combat, the more deadly it becomes. Instead of being a beat stick that deals massive damage for a short time and then fizzles out, it now can be a constant threat that the enemy has to deal with. With good micro it’s charge can be sustained for long periods of time, and its sweeping style of attack help it deal with small threats like marines. Its new shield is inspired by the old tempest who was highly resistant to ground threats. This specialized shield will allow the void ray to soak up shots from units that would normally be a huge threat to both them and the air army.
The Void Ray can be described in 2 ways.
It is a surgical strike craft. Its charge up style attack means it must surgically pick out the right targets to prioritize.
It’s an escort ship: Its new style of shields means that it can escort Protoss air armies and protect them from threats that would normally kill them very quickly.
The goals of these changes were to open up protoss tech a bit more, especially the Robo. The Void Hunter is designed to give a quasi splash like unit but open new opportunities for protoss to be out on the map. Also, the void hunter and Colossus are now designed to give protoss more flexibility vs. air. Out of all the races, they have the least interesting. It’s either mass blink stalker or go stargate. Now they have other option. Opening up tech options creates new strategies.
Let me know what you guys think. I tried to give protoss more AA options because That is something that is laking in sc2, especially for the protoss. This is why the game often is just air army vs. air army. I also wanted to move protoss away from the splash race and give them better tools to combat threats. Sometimes it’s a race to splash for them so they can survive an assault. Will they have storm in time, will they get disruptors out. Now, with the Void Hunter, they have a way to deal with larger armies without needed to have splash put. Hopefully, that will help get them out on the map more and encourage smaller fights.
Starcraft 2 is a great game, but there is still room for some improvement, but actually not that much. Since we’re coming up on when we could possibly, get a new big balance post, I figured I’d write a few posts about some possible changes to consider. Let’s get a couple of things out of the way
- Don’t get hung up on numbers. Numbers and values are there to give an idea of how strong something is. People get too caught up in numbers and instantly go to, “That ability can’t do that much damage it’s op.” No numbers are to help compare things. It helps to visualize. “Oh, so this ability is supposed to be comparable to storm.”
- There’s aren’t changes for the sake of. It’s not, “Hydralisks get +1 range vs air just because.” That doesn’t have any meaningful or interesting impact. That’s something for smaller patches to work out. After thinking about it for a while, there are only about 3 big changes per race that I think would make a positive impact on the game and help smooth out some units and give them some more love.
Let’s get to protoss
New Unit: Void Hunter
-Speed: Between Hellion and Cyclone
Building: Robotics Facility
Attack: Low damage but fast ask speed. Like 3-5 damage with bonus of 2-5 to biological. Atk speed between .1-.7. Can attack ground and air.
Range 5
Passive Ability: Multi-Lock Array: Allows the Void Hunter to Target 2 units at a time with its weapons.
Ability: Shroud: The Void Hunter cannot attack or be attacked for 10 seconds, but it can move through enemy units, and its speed is increased by 25%. Has a 40-second cooldown. Note: This isn’t a cloaking ability. It can still be fully seen by the enemy.
Upgrade: Improved Array: Increases the number or targets the Void Hunter can attack from 2 to 4. Also increases range from 5 to 6.
The Void Hunter is a Robo unit that is extremely fast and good at dealing with low HP units and particularly biological unit. It’s not very tough, but its speed and ability to attack multiple enemies at once makes it dangerous. It aims to give protoss a different raiding option from the robo. It also aims to give robo openers a natural transition against mutalisks. Instead of having to completely switch gears to Phoenix, protoss players will have the option to go for the upgrade to allow The Void hunter to better combat mutalisk. It also aims to give protoss a different form of splash to compensate for the colossus change below. It doesn’t do splash in the traditional sense, but it can attack multiple enemies at once.
Its shroud ability is designed to encourage protoss to be out on the map. While shroud could be used to slip past enemy base defenses, it is not advised. The void hunter is weak and expensive to diving mineral lines would be too harsh on the econ. Instead, it allows the Void Hunter to engage armies or poke at the enemy and then quickly escape without dying. Its ability to attack multiple units at once is also aimed to help protoss break up their army in the late game. Send a couple of these with a group of gateway units, and they add value to any attack. Because they deal bonus to bio, they are ideal for dealing with terran bio, zerg, and early gateway units. It aims to decrease the need for protoss armies to get storm or disruptors to survive mass armies. Hopefully, this unit will break up the death ball nature of protoss and encourage small skirmishes around the map instead of 1 big push with a warp prism sliding in the back.
Changes
Colossus
New Weapon: Charged Pulse Blaster: Deals Massive single target damage. Has a range of 9.
Passive: Fire on the move.
New Upgrade: Aerial Tracking. Allows the Colossus to target air units.
Attack Speed: 3
Based on the Wrathwalker
The new Colossus is designed to pick at high priority units from afar such as lurkers, tanks, and thors. With the upgrade, it gives protoss ground an option for combating late-game threats like tempest, brood lords, and liberators without stargate tech. This change is to help diversity protoss tech. Right now you pick 1 tech to start off with but then eventually it all funnels down into the same type of army. Did they go air? You need to go stargate; they go mass ground you need robo and templar. This change is to let protoss make their own choices in how to combat threats. If the terran goes liberator, the protoss isn’t forced to either mass blink stalker or get tempest out. They now have the option of continuing on with robo tech to counter them. Is the zerg going brood lords? Well, now Robo has a way to counter them. It helps the tech path breath a little more. Diverse tech is more interesting. Terran and zerg have flexibility in how they define their comps, but protoss is constricted in how they respond. The Void Hunter would fill the consistent “splash” type unit while the disruptor would be the burst. Hopefully, this would give the Colossus a more defined role and an alternative to what you want to accomplish instead of just boiling the protoss army down into how many forms of splash can you get.
The interesting thing about the colossus is that it is vulnerable to air units. It may be able to attack them, but it is also highly susceptible to them. It’s not a unit that should be massed against air. It should be used as a support unit for stalkers and Void Hunters.
Void Ray
Prismatic Alignment changed: It is no longer active but passive Just like in WOL the Void Ray will continue to get stronger the more it attacks. The key issue with this was that it was hard to identify when it was powered up. In addition to the beam becoming bigger, it will now change color to clearly indicate when the attack has changed. It takes about 2-3 seconds for the void ray to “Level up” then it can hold its current charge level for 4 seconds before it resets to base.
Lv1: White beam (+2 to armored)
Lv2: Blue beam (+3-4 to Armored)
Lv3: Ultraviolet Beam (+4-6 to armored)
In addition, it has a new style of attack. When the Void Ray kills an enemy unit, it will sweep its beam to the next target in range. So there won’t be a brief second where the attack resets. This is similar to how the colossus used to attack back in the announcement Demo. Its beam would sweep across the battlefield as it attacked.
New Upgrade
Hardened Shields: The Void Ray’s shields no longer Take bonus damage from units that deal Bonus to armored.
No, it’s not the old Immortal shields of reducing all damage to 10. It shared the name, but it functions differently. Units that deal Bonus to armored such as stalkers, Vikings, and cyclones will simply have their +X to armored units negated. This is to help Void Rays act as meat shields for protoss air and better absorb anti-armor attacks.
The Void ray is great in sustained combat. The longer it is in combat, the more deadly it becomes. Instead of being a beat stick that deals massive damage for a short time and then fizzles out, it now can be a constant threat that the enemy has to deal with. With good micro it’s charge can be sustained for long periods of time, and its sweeping style of attack help it deal with small threats like marines. Its new shield is inspired by the old tempest who was highly resistant to ground threats. This specialized shield will allow the void ray to soak up shots from units that would normally be a huge threat to both them and the air army.
The Void Ray can be described in 2 ways.
It is a surgical strike craft. Its charge up style attack means it must surgically pick out the right targets to prioritize.
It’s an escort ship: Its new style of shields means that it can escort Protoss air armies and protect them from threats that would normally kill them very quickly.
The goals of these changes were to open up protoss tech a bit more, especially the Robo. The Void Hunter is designed to give a quasi splash like unit but open new opportunities for protoss to be out on the map. Also, the void hunter and Colossus are now designed to give protoss more flexibility vs. air. Out of all the races, they have the least interesting. It’s either mass blink stalker or go stargate. Now they have other option. Opening up tech options creates new strategies.
Let me know what you guys think. I tried to give protoss more AA options because That is something that is laking in sc2, especially for the protoss. This is why the game often is just air army vs. air army. I also wanted to move protoss away from the splash race and give them better tools to combat threats. Sometimes it’s a race to splash for them so they can survive an assault. Will they have storm in time, will they get disruptors out. Now, with the Void Hunter, they have a way to deal with larger armies without needed to have splash put. Hopefully, that will help get them out on the map more and encourage smaller fights.