Thoughts on Patch 4.9.2 Changes

Co-op Missions Discussion
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Just starting a thread on the new changes. I am glad we’re getting these patch changes so quickly. So first all, thank you to the development team for working so hard.

A few notable changes I will list below. Obviously, I haven’t had too much time to test them out but I’ll chime back in later. Please leave your feedback about them so far (with a brief context preferably).

  1. Composition Changes
  2. Mecha Battlecarrier Lord Cast Change
  3. Mecha Infestor Energy to Cast Change

I think all of these are big topics with lots of discussions had and to be had still. Looking forward to everyone’s perspectives.

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The compositions are harder now that they get unit upgrades.

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Infestor spam rate is reduced by half due to doubling the spell cost while energy regen stays the same, compensated by double energy pool. This change should help reducing the lag coming from Roaches Away! while making the other 2 ability worth using now, especially Deconstructive Roach-nites (basically a Roach Away! cast for 75 energy when casted on a building <500HP.) Potentially you can micro Infestor’s tentacle spell to recharge other Infestors for a net gain of energy to spam more Roaches Away! but it will takes some time to learn how to do it properly.

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I played few games with Infestors and it feels right. They are still a very strong option but not broken like before.

Shorter maps like Void Thrashing might be too short for them to snowball, but they get better on longer maps. Having a separate Infestor squad from the main army and managing it through minimap is fun. Also, now you have to manage Stetzones configs more, since you aren’t going pure Infestor. That’s interesting as well.

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5

O cool, I can gather my thoughts here then:

So his infesters got swapped to a higher cast cost with an increased Egonergy pool. That’s not much of a solution for the infesters in my opinion. Because there does exist Maximum Egonergy Pool mastery which with the max being so high now, will still allow them to shoot 2 if not 3 waves in full succession at the beginning of waves/fights.

I don’t like this personally (the patch) because now Stet’s will perma-camp their egonergy field instead of staying on speed or heals if they go infesters. - Not to mention that if people go for that mastery increase, they will in turn have to lower their stetellite bonuses. Which really falls to one question; would they sacrifice bonuses for more spam? I hate to think what the answer to that is in reality.

Don’t get me wrong, I do see this as working out IN THE LONG RUN. The problem is the amount of hell we’ll have to endure getting there. I’m certain that players will slowly but surely adjust to this and see that the better option is your stetellite bonuses. As people play Stetmann more and more they will genuinely get used to the idea that he can be high APM’ed or at least that they can go for other builds while impacting their base and their allies as well.

This feels more like a long-run patch as opposed to an instant change. Because right now I feel as tho people will spam those Egonergy fields and mecha infesters that much more in retaliation if anything. So we just have to wait it out I guess.

6

Now that I got several games in I can weigh in a little on the topic myself lol.

  1. Based on the compositions I came across so far 5 different ones (with maybe one of new ones, Templar/Colossi/Archon, I think…). The overall power of these on Brutal made little to no difference in difficulty. A couple things to note though.

  • A) I usually push for speed, so at around 15min seems to be where the upgrades kick in. So basically, players can save some trouble by avoiding this altogether.

  • B) I noticed a very slight aggro pattern/range to some units. I am not sure if this is my imagination or some small change that isn’t overly significant to be mentioned.

  1. & 3) Did not get random’d Stetmann yet but based on my understanding so far, both M and Kane’s analysis make perfect sense. Only potential difference would be the APM micro ability of the player that can still use Mecha Infestors brokenly (if I am understanding this right).
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Although the new comps might not be in and of themselves more difficult, having that additional variety is still nice.

The Stetmann changes seem pretty good: Infestor spam needed that nerf, and BCLs might actually be worth using now.

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Hope that everybody uses this as a chance to look at Infestors’ other abilities. Deconstructive Roach-nites (the anti-structure spell) can now be cast five times back-to-back. 1–2 support Infestors in the early game can do a ridiculous amount of work on maps with plenty of easily accessible enemy structures (like Chain of Ascension). Charging Protocol is a significant boost to Super Gary in the early game.

Additionally, a full circle of Charging Protocol is now worth it when using mass Infestors. Without it (and not including Overcharge) you’ll wait 30 sec between Roaches Away! castings. With it I can get it down to about 20 sec. Just rapid-fire the spell over all your Infestors, and then cancel after a few sec.

I tried 4 Infestors into mass Battlecarrier Lord. It worked okay, though I didn’t make enough use of being able to switch to FAST field now the Battlecarriers are less energy-hungry. Battlecarriers still don’t work well with Zerglings, so I’m probably only going to use them on maps that can really benefit from a crawler forest.

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9

Perfect change for broodligns, but i still think that locuscettors should be able to target air targets, it’s a mix between bc/bl and carriers, why in the hell it’s not able to target air it’s beyond me.

Nerf to infestors is super welcome, hope it will kill this strat for good.

The comp change, super happy about, better late then never i guess

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i still think that locuscettors should be able to target air targets, it’s a mix between bc/bl and carriers, why in the hell it’s not able to target air it’s beyond me.

Seriously. I get that they might want us to keep some Corrupters around to protect them, but a) they already have enough of a drawback in that 2 of their 3 methods of attack require energy, and b) they havn’t exactly stopped other commanders with the original BCs/Carriers from spamming out just those units.

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11

My thought about Energy Pool Mastery is it is not worth using if you plan on constantly using Infestor. Stetzone Purple Field regens 5 per second baseline, up to 8 per second with max Stetzone Mastery, Purple overcharge adds a flat +1.33 energy regen for 45s (60 energy for 45s.) The follow two scenario assumed using purple Overcharge:

Max Energy Pool Mastery: Infestors has 520 energy, it could cast Roaches Away! twice then wait 36s for the next cast, after that Infestor could cast one Roaches Away! every 39.5s.

Max Stetzone Mastery: Infestors has 400 energy, it could cast Roaches Away! once then wait 16s for the next cast, after that Infestor could cast one Roaches Away! every 26s.

The more you use Infestor the more value you get out of Stetzone Mastery. After today’s patch Infestor remains a very strong unit but not as broken as before, a squad of 12 Infestors can be considered a full army, leaving room to build a 2nd army consist of Stetmann other units.

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12

Wow there’s some BROKEN new unit compositions out now. Had Terran ground vultures as first wave on rifts. Destroyed Fenixs kaldharis effortlessly trying to hold the wave, then almost 1 shotted my tychus when he popped out the bar.
Wtf using mines against early units…

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13

I just played Mist Opportunities (cause it’s long, wanted to see new stuff), but I’m not sure what was different, it definitely wasn’t more difficult. Waves were Protoss Adepts (standard range atk units?) later on came invis melee templars, I remember seeing a disruptor and the shieldguards. Are any of these new? I’m confused

Edit: I certainly don’t remember any of these “info” dialogues as these new waves spawn

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It doesn’t announce it over your screen if that’s what you mean. An icon pops up that’s pretty small on the middle-right side of your screen just over your HUD. When you scroll over it it will show the additional unit compositions, however that is only for Hard+ modes. If you are in casual and normal, you will not see anything.

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Since enemies are stonger, Zerglings/Hydralisk/Zealots/Marines will have the most to suffer ^ ^

We’re effectively being pushed to making higher tier units =)

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Where’s my stetlag™ fix?
I don’t see any ling/hydra/stetellite lag fix in the patch notes :sob:
Blizzzzz plizzz…

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I just tried looking for it, but didn’t see. I think it was again that same Protoss comp. Standard Brutal missions also feel relaxed just now, I can’t put my finger on it, just like I am chilling much more than before (maybe that particular race wave is easy?)

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Oblivion Express was ridiculous with Classic Airtoss. Trains had 6-8 Carriers each, with enough Corsairs to make Vora jealous. 2-3 Arbiters cloaking the whole deathball but thankfully I didn’t see them Stasis.

Oh, did I mention that the Corsairs aren’t energy based so you can’t feedback them like in SCI? That Disruption Web blanket managed to disable a maxed army of Archons/Immortals/Dragoons.

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So… some harder compositions are present. Isn’t this what people wanted?

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Eh, I’m up for harder challenges but I also recently got back into the game after 4-5 years and still learning kind of so it’s an interesting time to have these thrown at me lol

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