First of all, I’m glad to see that StarCraft II has not been forgotten, and that changes of this magnitude (such as adjusting the starting worker count from 12 back to 8) are still being made. I also understand that the balance team wants to improve the current state of the game. I appreciate the efforts to reduce mechanical complexity for players—changes like the Infestor/Ravager extra weapon, the Medivac rapid loading, as well as all the bug fixes. However, I believe some numerical adjustments still leave room for refinement, and some of the changes in this balance patch—especially those introduced in PTR2—seem a bit rushed to go live directly. Perhaps they could benefit from further fine-tuning. Below are my suggestions for this balance patch.
First, I believe the previous balance patch was too aggressive in its changes to the larvae mechanic. If the goal is to help newer players who forget to inject larvae or frequently get supply-blocked, a more moderate approach could be taken—for example, increasing the maximum larvae storage of all hatcheries from 3 to 4, and granting the starting hatchery one extra larva at the start of the game (since it begins with 3). New hatcheries are built with only 1 larva, so they are unaffected by this addition. This would still speed up early-game Zerg macro without making mid-to-late game Zerg overpowered.
Second, the nerf to the Ghost feels excessive. In my view, what makes the Ghost strong is its base stats being too high for a spellcaster unit (compared to other casters). I think 100 HP + Light Armor already makes it fragile enough, and keeping it at 2 supply is fine. Another problem is that EMP and Snipe frustrate Protoss and Zerg players because they are too versatile. I believe EMP should primarily serve to disrupt enemy spellcasters, while Snipe should be used against high-value units rather than being a one-click solution to wipe out all Zerg.
I believe Snipe should be designed to target the opponent’s core units. For Zerg, core units include Brood Lords, Ultralisks, and Lurkers. So perhaps Snipe’s damage could be adjusted to 80 (+80 vs. Massive), while retaining its uninterruptible property. And since the base damage is being reduced, its energy cost could be rolled back to 50. This would allow Hydralisks and Ravagers to survive a Snipe while still threatening Ultralisks and Brood Lords. Furthermore, I think it’s acceptable even if Snipe can no longer one-shot Vipers or Infestors, since Terran already has multiple ways to deal with them—EMP, Thor, Viking, Liberator, and Siege Tank. However, I realize this change might break the interaction between Ghosts and Lurkers. To address this, perhaps Lurkers could be given the Massive tag, since currently the only way to interact with ground Massive units is Force Fields, and by the time Lurkers burrow, Protoss usually no longer relies on Force Fields.
As for EMP, it could be changed to instantly drain 100 energy from the target and expose it for 4 seconds. During exposure, the target takes 25 shield damage per second (similar to Fungal Growth). This effect would not stack. On one hand, this maintains pressure on spellcasters; on the other, it prevents high-tier units like Colossi, Carriers, and Archons from losing combat effectiveness too quickly. As compensation, when facing compositions of Shield Batteries + Stalkers/Zealots, EMP could consume more energy from Shield Batteries—similar to how Defilers’ Plague drained Medic energy in Brood War.
Finally, regarding the Protoss Warp Gate, I believe its strength lies in the ability to warp in a batch of units immediately after morphing, giving Protoss a sudden spike in early-game army power. I think increasing the production speed of Gateways is a good change, but forcing players to choose between Warp Gates and Gateways by increasing resource cost is a crude idea. Instead, I propose that after morphing into a Warp Gate, there should be an initial cooldown (e.g., 10 or 20 seconds) before it can be used, with no additional resource cost. This would encourage Protoss players to morph their Gateways into Warp Gates when they don’t urgently need to expand their army size, rather than punishing them with extra expenses that feel frustrating.
The above is just my feedback on this particular balance patch. I have many more ideas regarding past patches and future balance prospects. My main race is Protoss, and my peak MMR was 5000 on the Chinese server and 4800 on the Korean server. I think this MMR is not a high level compared to top players, but I believe I have at least some ability to read the game.
Note: I am a Chinese player. This translation was assisted by AI, so some wording may not be perfectly accurate. Please understand.