Co-op Mission Update - Stukov Revamp

[Cydra-1732]

Stukov, ex-vice admiral of the UED, is the first Commander we’re looking at in the next round of reworks. As we’ve previously hinted, our primary focus will be to rein-in the power of Bunkers slightly while promoting interesting and powerful ways to use some of Stukov’s mechanical options.

Infested Bunker

• Infested Bunker cost increased from 300 minerals to 350 minerals.
• Infested Bunker supply increased from 4 to 6.

While there are many powerful units in Co-op, very few check as many key boxes as Infested Bunkers. Infested Bunkers are not only very powerful, but also cost-efficient, supply-efficient, durable, and versatile. While we generally try not to nerf existing strategies, we feel that Infested Bunkers are an outlier that would require extravagant Mech buffs in order to get them in the same ballpark. For that reason, we’ve decided to slightly decrease the unit’s cost efficiency and supply efficiency.

Infested Diamondback

• Infested Diamondback cost decreased from 225/100 to 225/75.
• Infested Diamondback range increased from 7 to 8.
• Fungal Snare can now be cast on Heroic units. Duration on Heroic units is 2.5, compared to 10 for non-Heroic units.

We reduced the gas cost on Infested Diamondbacks to allow them to have them be less of a gas strain and allow them to be more of a backbone unit for mech-only play. We’ve increased the range so they can be more effective in their ability to kite enemy units. Finally, we’re allowing Heroic units to be snared, albeit for a much shorter duration such that you won’t need a specialized counter for small numbers of Heroic air units, such as the bonus on Rifts to Korhal. For more dedicated solutions to air threats, however, we recommend a slightly different air unit. . . .

Infested Liberator

• Infested Liberator cost decreased from 150/150 to 150/125.
• The Cloud Dispersal upgrade has been reworked. After they’re upgraded, an Infested Liberators will launch itself at an enemy target, turn itself into a swarm cloud, and stay in swarm cloud form until no enemy units in the area are taking damage. Infested Liberators will be controllable in cloud form and no longer return to their original location after they’re done attacking.
• Damage reduction in swarm cloud form reduced from 90% to 85%.
• After the Cloud Dispersal upgrade, weapon period decreased from 6 to 1.
• After the Cloud Dispersal upgrade, damage period increased from 0.6 to 1.

First, we reduced gas cost to reduce gas strain on Stukov’s mech play. In addition, a common complaint about the Infested Liberator was that it felt clunky to use and often overkilled enemy targets. This was partially due to the Liberator’s very long cooldown and tendency to attack the same targets. We’ve reworked the Infested Liberator’s upgraded attack completely so that the player has more control and is much less likely to overkill targets. And because the Infested Liberator will be in swarm cloud form much more consistently, we’ve tweaked some numbers to temper its power level.

Infested Banshee

• Infested Banshee now gains +2 range while cloaked.

This is the same benefit previously granted to Raynor’s Banshees, but we hope Infested Banshees can use them in a different way. Because Infested Banshees are much more durable and can regenerate their energy quickly, this will allow them to more consistently keep their additional range.

Brood Queen

• Brood Queen movement speed increased from 2.5 to 3.75.
• Brood Queen acceleration increased from 1.375 to 3.
• Brood Queen life regeneration increased from 0.273 to 1.092.
• Ocular Symbiote duration increased from 60 seconds to 180 seconds.
• Ocular Symbiote now increases unit vision by 5 in addition to its current functionality.
• Spawn Broodlings ability reworked. Instead of instantly killing a target unit, it will deal 300 damage to a target unit and spawn 2 Broodlings when that unit dies. This ability can now be cast on Massive and Heroic units.

Players have described Brood Queens as clunky, so we’ve made some improvements to the unit’s overall usability, Ocular Symbiote’s duration and versatility, and Spawn Broodling’s versatility.

Overseer

• Morph to Overseer requirement changed from Infested Starport to Infested Factory.

We’ve changed this requirement to give players more flexibility in early-game builds.

Calldowns

• Fixed a bug where Apocalisk Cooldown Mastery was also decreasing its initial cooldown at the start of the mission.
• Fixed a bug where Aleksander Cooldown Mastery was also decreasing its initial cooldown at the start of the mission.
• Apocalisk initial cooldown decreased from 300 seconds to 240 seconds.
• Aleksander Cooldown Mastery increased from -2 seconds per point to -3 seconds per point. Maximum benefit increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.

We fixed a bug that was making Stukov’s calldown cooldown masteries more powerful than intended. It’s now in line with other Commanders’ calldowns. In order to make up for the lost potential 3:30 Apocalisk, we’ve reduced the base initial cooldown of Apocalisk from 5 minutes to 4 minutes.

Infest Structure

• Fixed a bug where the second and third charges of Infest Structure were not reaching their cooldown as intended.
• Infest Structure Cooldown Mastery increased from 1 second per point to 1.5 seconds per point. Maximum benefit increased from 30 seconds to 45 seconds.

We fixed a bug that would very often set the coolup for the second and third charges of Infest Structure from the intended 90 seconds to 180 seconds. Not only will this offset some of the early-game power lost by a slightly later potential Apocalisk, but it will also make the newly improved Infest Structure Cooldown Mastery more attractive.

Upgrades

• Volatile Infested damage bonus per weapon upgrade increased from +4 (+5 vs structures) to +4 (+8 vs structures). This includes Infested Siege Tank Volatile Burst damage.
• Infested Diamondback damage bonus per weapon upgrade increased from +2 to +2 (+3 vs armored).
• Infested Banshee damage bonus per weapon upgrade decreased from +2 to +1.
• Apocalisk damage bonus per weapon upgrade increased from +5 to +8.

Upgrade bonuses were tweaked so that they’re more consistent with how they behave on other Commanders.

Going Forward
And that’s it for Stukov! Stay tuned next week when we’ll be tackling Dehaka and his legion of Primal Zerg.

Kevin Dong
Lead Co-op Designer

[Daegoth-1913]

Thank you dev team. All changes appreciated seriously. However I want to insist on some ideas before this thread fall into oblivion. Healing is still a problem and some units could use some final fixes.

Regarding Healing (Some ideas)
Inf Broodqueens
Make fungal growth skill to heal friendly units, otherwise give bqueens a passive healing aura
Repairing with scvs is very expensive, and not practical and also they can’t heal bqueens, despite their life reg buff
Give all mech and brood queens units the ability to consume infested infantry, like inf tanks do in order to recover hp.
Mastery POWER SET 1
Volatile Infested Spawn Chance (+0.5% to +15%)
remove this mastery, make it permanent and make it up to just 10% if necessary.
Replace it with: either mech cost reduction, research cost reduction or mech healing out of combat. Raynor has several mech masteries along with his unique boost speed skill, Sukov just has one mech mastery.

Regarding Overlords
Why having overlords if crippled?? Why no the other Zerg commanders’s overlords skills??
Give them “ventral sacks” tech, like other Zergs so they can transport units
Give them “excrete creep” tech, like other Zergs so they can spread creep like the others too, PLEASE Stukov’s creep spread is slow!
qol for all Zerg commanders
Give overlords a different rally point than workers
Overseers
Once u click to morph overlords into overseers u can’t cancell it!! But other Zerg commanders overlords can. Can u fix this?
Infest Structure Top Pannel Ability
Make broodlings from Inf Structure follow Psi Emitter It’s annoying having to rectangle click all of them to redirect them somewhere if there are no enemies close.
Sometimes this skill heals Amon’s structures, like bunkers, dunno if it was fixed.

Cost Reduction on Infested Tech Lab from Inf Factory Research
Why do these uprades cost +50g and +50m than the rest?
Caustic Mucus: Currently: 150m150g Desired change: 100m100g
Acidic Enzymes: Currently: 150m150g Desired change:to: 100m100g

POTRAITS PLEASE!!!
Give scvs a smoking infested portrait
Give portraits to all other mech units, and different infested advisor (Izsha) it’s been years and it was never fixed!!!

Thank you again, please consider those ideas!

[SkyHiRider-2577]

I like your suggestion with the exploding infested mastery.

It would make more sense if this was a passive bonus and the mastery would be replaced with healing for mech.

[Porphyra-1768]

I would just like to see bunker supply cost lowered, it’s simply too high now.
I still think the revamp overall left leaves Stukov in a bad state, at least for any style I’m interested in playing him with.
The bunker-tank comp feels pretty lacklustre at this point, it’s painful how much weaker it is in mutation now. And just as bad the initial build-up is slower which has a big part in making it feel less satisfying.
And if you want some bunkers for defence, it really cuts into the amount of mech that can be fielded overall, no matter what mech comp.

I would rather have the bunkers cost more minerals than more supply, doing both is just too much.
If wanting to nerf bunkers, it would have been better if they had increased them to 400 min and kept the supply at 4, or with the current cost they could at least try with 5 supply as a compromise, and perhaps make them a tad tougher to emphasize their role more as mobile defensive structures instead of free unit spawners.

If wanting to rein their cost efficiency in a bit, they could also have gone with a subtler nerf, and removing the part of the lvl14 upgrade that decreased spawn time by 20%, which would have been a less frustrating nerf.
And then perhaps shifted it to 20% faster cooldown on Barrack and Factory to encourage their usage.

[Knowbody-6116]

I don’t even want to use Stukov now with the bunker nerf.

[Moraeth-1337]

@Knowbody-6116

I don’t even want to use Stukov now with the bunker nerf.

Clearly you haven’t experienced the sheer joy of Infested Diamondbacks now.

[Afterstar-1658]

@Cydra-1732

Infested Bunker

• Infested Bunker cost increased from 300 minerals to 350 minerals.
• Infested Bunker supply increased from 4 to 6.

I can understand increasing the bunker cost, but increasing the supply by a wooping 50%, is insane. It will make the bunker/infested swarm play style really weak.

There are already so many expensive upgrades to research before you can reach a strong point compared to some of the other commanders, that I really think this is a very unnecessary nerf.
It forces you to spend a very large amount of resources at the early and mid game just for the supply (Overlords) and on top of that you have to pay the extra cost of the bunker, so you are actually doubling the economic burden.

High supply is usually reserved for powerful late game units, because late game economy can afford it. Having this on a defensive structure that is required at all stages of the game is really bad in my opinion.

Please rethink this through and potentially remove the supply increase.
This change destroys a natural playstyle of Stukov completely.

If you really want to limit the bunker number, then I would suggest you look at the Striker Fighter for Han and Horner Commander.
Reduce the cost of the bunker to 250-300minerals, supply cost to 3-4 BUT have a limit of 10 bunkers total alive at any time.

Also can you look at lowering the cost of some of the upgrades.
It’s really difficult to mix the swarm and mech style together due to high gas costs.

[KrikkitOne-1424]

The Supply increase in bunkers is because Bunker play is not supposed to be a thing.

Because they give free units. AND act as an incredibly strong repositionable defense.

Zombie Stukov is Barracks, where your stream of units actually costs something to maintain.

[Afterstar-1658]

@KrikkitOne-1424

The Supply increase in bunkers is because Bunker play is not supposed to be a thing.

Because they give free units. AND act as an incredibly strong repositionable defense.

Zombie Stukov is Barracks, where your stream of units actually costs something to maintain.

You could make the same argument about Stetman infestors free units, Zeratul free cannon projections and some other commander compositions that act similarly.

It’s not like the bunkers were free or there were no weaknesses to them.
They are slow moving and don’t have a burrow/teleport ability, so you have to be careful if you want to defend multiple locations at once.
They,as well as your swarm can be burst down by terran mech or swarm zerg compositions and so on.

Stukov is meant to be the cheap swarmy units commander and a lot of people liked the swarm feel with the bunkers plus the supplementary marines from the barracks.

I just feel like If they want to limit the bunkers, then they should do this by putting a limit similar to Han and Horner Jet Fighters instead of making it obscenely expensive for using the bunkers, allowing you to use them early and mid game without getting starved for resources due to high cost and supply.

Also it would be great if they would reduce the gas requirements for some of the upgrades, because Stukov is gas starved if you try to mix mech with your swarm.

[JinAirMaru-1595]

Remember how you promised that all your revamps would not affect the original gameplay.

[Kevurcio-1637]

The Bunker nerf was silly and hurt a lot more than you guys probably anticipated. It hurt the less experienced players who already struggled with more intense commanders.

The real reason why no one really plays Mech is that they have piss-poor sustain. Back when we had the health regen mastery it was common to see Stukov players try all sorts of weird comps incorporating mech into bunkers or barrack setups.

Even now, if we try to use a few Bunkers to reposition them on the frontlines and supplement them with mech we are now punished for doing this because of the bunker nerf. It feels nasty and unfun having Bunkers take up that much supply.

[rasmasyean-1817]

@Kevurcio-1637

The real reason why no one really plays Mech is that they have piss-poor sustain. Back when we had the health regen mastery it was common to see Stukov players try all sorts of weird comps incorporating mech into bunkers or barrack setups.

Well, they kinda solved that in other ways. They gave the Tank that weird HP gain buff upon eating an infantry for ammo.

They gave the Diamondback longer range so you SHOULD be able to get hit less.

The Queen was never meant to be a tough unit (more like a weak Templar). It’s now way more agile and powerful. You should try this unit. IMO it’s the most significant update to Stukov.

The Liberator now stays reinforced for much more of the battle…as long as you use it correctly and have a means to kill ground units that can shred them in non-reinforced state.

The Banshee outranges Static detectors an as long as you can deal with flying ones…it’s pretty invulnerable…AND can heal really fast with some unit micro.

So the “sustain” is there. It’s just not in the form of A-move into any group and heal like Abathur or something. It’s a different type of sustain and they want you to learn how to micro the units to reap the gameplay rewards as opposed to pump a single unit and watch a movie.

[Scotty-1969]

Wow these new forums are weird…

Anyways I see a lot of people complaining about the bunker nerfs, and while I do agree its going to feel very bad specifically in early game, maybe its possible that bio play now use barracks to get through early game until economy can support more bunkers. Before you all jump on me, all I am trying to say is that we need to try the changes out and see if we can adapt as players before concluding that the change is too harsh. I played Stuckov a decent enough about on all sorts of missions and those bunkers get bland because they are too easy to win with. I can absolutely see where the thought process came from. I have always preferred diamond backs in the fun department.

[alex-218783]

@Scotty-1969

Anyways I see a lot of people complaining about the bunker nerfs, and while I do agree its going to feel very bad specifically in early game, maybe its possible that bio play now use barracks to get through early game until economy can support more bunkers.

I don’t think main problem is in early game here, it’s opposite actually. Right now bunkers are basically a trap - it’s not that much harder to make them than before, but they fill your supply much faster so you will find yourself maxed much earlier but without having enough power for late game.

[Borsalino-1514]

Wait so… you gave Stet Infesters to spam, but increased Stukov’s bunker supply… no way of continuing this sentence well enough for it not to sound like sarcasm afterwards.

I’d be careful with directly impacting players units in co ops since having a top % of your player base in co ops should sort of tell you how slowly you should thread through these waters.

[Fourier-2978]

It feels funny how people are defending the bunker nerf (…etc) by pointing out some excessive APM-heavy tactics to defend from early waves.

Meanwhile, play almost anything else (except Vora) and early waves will never be a problem. Not a good outlook for Stukov overall.

I’ll maybe try the diamondbacks but otherwise Stukov goes to same trashcan as Artanis with these brilliant changes

[Borsalino-1514]

@Fourier-2978

I’ll maybe try the diamondbacks but otherwise Stukov goes to same trashcan as Artanis with these brilliant changes

Idk, I love Artanis, his HTs stackable storms with Rapid Fire triggers are just op as heck. Insta wave clears against any brutal wave, with the added fact that your zealots in said target spam areas cannot die because of the invulnerability those shield restores makes them into.

As for Stukov, If Stet gets to summon such massive armies for basically no cost or supply, then I seriously think Stukovs obvious nerf should be lifted. The math just doesn’t add up.

I get that Blizzards recent main developer swap is responsible for the last 3 commanders being very low APM friendly, but this patch threw a lot of people for a loop and with good reasoning.

You would think that developers would try to keep commanders fun and op in an unranked PvE setting instead of looking to test out how their Stukov Player mains will respond to sudden focus flips like these.

[Cryswar-1731]

Great post Borsalino. I agree, Artanis is a lot of fun now that his Archons are better on paper and with their regen mastery, they hard counter a LOT of things that Artanis is otherwise terrible against (BCs/green hybrid yamatos, ravens, infestors, ghosts). I still don’t find him to be among the upper echelons of commanders (power wise) overall IMO, but I do think he’s one of the more fun commanders nowadays.

---

As a more general post, having played Stukov’s various builds a number of times since launch; the mech changes were mostly decent (still not really sold on Banshees tho, they just don’t have the AOE or DPS much less versatility to really work well) but the Bunker changes feel even worse than I had feared. It’s just painful, bunkers were good yes (nothing as ridiculous as a Swann/Karax defense for example tho, and Swann can move his turrets for free too) but honestly, many of the buffed older commanders were better for 99% of stuff anyways and much more mobile/easy to get going/less weak against certain enemy comps.

Just feels gimped now honestly. His other builds are OK but I still don’t think bunkers needed to be ravaged nearly that hard. Or at all, honestly, but if they HAD to be nerfed it could have been done with JUST a cost increase to 400.

[HoroAI-2764]

Personally, I enjoy playing Stukov ALOT more now.

With the Diamondback buffs and Bunker nerfs it doesn’t feel like artificially handycapping myself when I go for a mech build. Meanwhile, his bio is still fully viable I just use Barracks instead of bunkers for offense now as makes way more sense anyway.
Bunkers are still as powerful as they were before so they are still good to use. They just don’t trump everything else in cost / supply efficiency by a long shot anymore which they never should have to begin with.

---

The only issue left is the typical Banshee dilemma.
Banshees just don’t have a place in coop it seems because their dps is so limited with a projectile based single target attack. Their way of dishing out damage doesn’t scale well into co-op balance where attack waves blow up instantly in a huge explosion of banelings and psi-orbs. Meanwhile they pew slow missiles at a single marine on the side - all 20 of them focusing the same marine because they have no overkill protection like immortals for example…

Plus, pretty much EVERYTHING they can do the queens do better now.
Against many comps I start out with a flock of 10+ queens and plan to add Banshees further down the line - going for a sort of infested sky terran comp. However, when that time comes I always wonder why bother? More fungal chaining gives me better AoE and more broodlings give me way better single target burst against hybrids etc., even flying units. Additionally, because of fungal root & run tactics I don’t need the cloak either so even if I were to mix in banshees they wouldn’t benefit from being invisible at all. It’s a effectively a dead ability to them with no use other than triggering their range buff. Can’t we just skip that step?