Protoss nerf again?

General Discussion
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Hi, it feels like protoss is being nerfed for it’s 4th consecutive year, I think some of the changes proposed are very questionable and I would like response from the community to some of the questions that I have:

Shield Battery

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

this feels like a very meaningless compensation to a massive core defensive pilar of protoss, I understand overcharge needs to go, but the current proposal while providing a good ability, does not compensate in the defensive aspect that protoss is lacking, why not instead of a 100hp+sh a buff to +100 energy? it would at least compensate the defensive aspect a bit more and if you feel that could have an unintended effect in cheesy all-ins you could make it have this energy buff if built in powered Pylons or close to Nexuses idk.

Immortal

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

This is a massive nerf to a core unit that is balanced at the same time you are nerfing the defensiviness of protoss, the developer text says it’s to help zerg survive mid to late game, does it really need it tho? Isn’t that just encouraging all ins? Also, this is followed by massive buffs to zergs mid/late game units and static defenses too btw.

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).

This unit and the immortals are the only damage that hits hard in protoss arsenal, changin that you’re taking A LOT of the protoss power that could have very consequential problems against mech for example, a composition that you need to hit hard before you disapear to tanks/thors high hitting dps, also on the micro aspect, if you want to garantee that protoss will never win a tournament ever again that is the nerf you need, if you are aiming in lower level protoss with this change I believe you are making a mistake here, I’m a lower level protoss player, I can speak to myself that it’s very hard to control disruptors in a fight against terran even if it’s harder for the terran to dodge them, it feels inconsistent and volatile so I rather opt for storm or colossus leaving them for last case scenario when they already have vikings and ghosts. So for a pro player that have a much easier time using it that’s just gonna be a massive nerf.

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Yeah, I hope the balance council listens to the community and rethinks some of the changes

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Been awhile since i played so it took a few days to go through it all and process ALL the info. i agree with you, i understand some of the changes but i think there could have been a better way at implementing/changing to achieve the desired outcome.

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Currently a terran can right click a battery and it turns into a crater decal on the terrain in about 0.1 seconds.

Immortals trade better than any other unit in the game. They typically trade at 2.6:1 efficiency so by reducing that by 10% it makes it ~2.34:1 which is still insanely good. There really isn’t a justification for being that good. Even after that nerf it’s going to trade better than every other unit in the game.

A marauder surviving with 1 HP really isn’t a big deal. Come on, man. This is a buff because it increases the penetration range of the nova and makes it harder to dodge. High level terrans simply won’t take disruptor hits vs the current version. It’s just too easy to dodge. The increased probability of landing is definitely worth more than marauders surviving with 1 hp. It’s a net buff.

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We’ll have to see how the disruptor change ends up altering high level PvX, I reckon it’ll overall be significantly stronger. For any level below high Masters disruptors are a rare sight.

The immortal nerf is very much unwarranted however. I don’t see why a unit specifically designed to mow down armored units should be less good at doing just that. Yeah, Immortals are OP versus roaches, but they should be, it’s how hard counters should be like. The main body of the protoss army really doesn’t need nerfs.

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It’s going to hit more units and it will hit more reliably, but it will deal lower peak damage. I think it’s designed to make the disruptor more consistent but less punishing.

Right, BUT, the immortal currently has the highest trading efficiency in the game and will probably still do so even after the nerf. It trades at 2.6:1 so -10% is about 2.3:1. That’s still the #1 most efficient unit in the game.

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Thanks for the answers,

Currently a terran can right click a battery and it turns into a crater decal on the terrain in about 0.1 seconds.

well so this change would mean terran will do it in a 0.13 seconds now lol, jokes apart my point is if the protoss lets the terran get in position to target fire the shield battery it’s a major mistake of the protoss, not really a balance issue, maybe one could make a case for ravager biles but my main point is that a more meaningful change is possible.

Immortals trade better than any other unit in the game. They typically trade at 2.6:1 efficiency so by reducing that by 10% it makes it ~2.34:1 which is still insanely good. There really isn’t a justification for being that good. Even after that nerf it’s going to trade better than every other unit in the game.

that’s just one characteristic of this unit, it does have tons of weaknesses, it’s not as good as you say it is, it’s slow, expensive, vulnerable to light cheap units like lings, marines, zealots, can’t attack air. I still don’t understand why another core protoss unit is being nerfed right on it’s damage output, we had that with zealot, stalkers and now immortal and disruptor at the same time, that’s a very good news to turtly mech players, which contradicts what the balance overall text proposes, I’m not even gonna talk about buffs to zerg static defense and terran’s salvaging missile turrets lol and how that contradicts the anti turtle proposal.

A marauder surviving with 1 HP really isn’t a big deal. Come on, man. This is a buff because it increases the penetration range of the nova and makes it harder to dodge. High level terrans simply won’t take disruptor hits vs the current version. It’s just too easy to dodge. The increased probability of landing is definitely worth more than marauders surviving with 1 hp. It’s a net buff.

I guess that’s a speculation and can’t say it’s right or wrong yet against bio, but against mech this is an outright heavy nerf. Also if take the last changes the disruptor used to deal 145+55 with the 15 size, they changed to 13 size and now they are reverting to 15 but with less damage, so if you gonna take the timelapse it’s an altright nerf with no compensation, that’s my point, protoss is just losing power over time.

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Where do you get this trading efficiency number from btw

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https://www.maguro.one/2020/02/tournament-analysis.html

It is outdated so consider the relevant balance chances when interpreting it.

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Thanks, will have a look when i wake up

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