5.0.12 Balance Update Test Mod

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Latest Update (08/31)

Patch Goals

  • Make Protoss more stable on a professional level in the early game vs Raven pushes and more able to fight Terran mid-late game armies without solely relying on Disruptors
  • Increase the variety in the mid game and late game army compositions by reducing the strength of massed Ghosts, Banelings, and Disruptors
  • Make over specialized units (Cyclones, Mothership, and Infestors) viable throughout more stages of the game
  • Bring more visual clarity to important units on the minimap
  • Promote more interaction in late game scenarios, by making units such as Tempest, Mothership, and Brood Lord more maneuverable

Table of Contents


Versus

TERRAN

Cyclone

  • Tech Lab requirement removed
  • Cost reduced from 150/100 to 125/50
  • Supply cost reduced from 3 to 2
  • Health reduced from 120 to 110
  • Armor reduced from 1 to 0
  • Lock On now uses the Cyclone's auto attack damage, and no longer ignores armor
  • Replaced previous weapon with new weapon:
    • 11 (+3 vs mechanical) damage, +1 damage per upgrade
    • 0.481 cooldown
    • 6 attack range
  • Lock On cooldown removed
  • Lock On no longer has a delay before first shot, and maintains weapon cooldown between lock ons
  • Lock On cast range reduced from 7 to 6
  • Lock On max range reduced from 15 to 9
  • Multiple Cyclones will now auto-cast Lock On onto the same target
  • Mag-Field Accelerator upgrade removed
  • Move speed reduced from 4.73 to 3.94
  • New upgrade, increasing move speed to 4.73 (Cost: 100/100, 100 seconds, Researched at the Factory's Tech Lab)

Rework of the Cyclone to make it into a more all around unit in all matchups. Aims to increase the viability of mech based gameplay against Protoss, while promoting more active engagements with mech based armies

Cyclone still will not auto-cast Lock On on buildings, using it's basic attack if no other enemies are nearby

Ghost

  • Snipe damage reduced from 170 to 130 (+40 vs Psionic)
  • EMP radius reduced from 1.75 to 1.5

Reducing the radius of EMP will encourage Protoss to use Psi-Storm in the PvT matchup and help Protoss in straight up engagements vs Terran armies. Snipe will no longer 1 shot units such as Zealots and Roaches, as well as requiring an extra shot to kill Ultralisks in the late game vs Zerg, generally reducing their cost-efficiency over time, while still being able to kill important spell casters such as Vipers

Widow Mine

  • Drilling Claws now also makes the Widow Mine unburrow twice as fast

Returns some of the strength to active Widow Mine micro in the mid game vs Zerg that was lost after the Drilling Claws burrow speed nerf, while not significantly increasing the power of Widow Mine drops

Medivac

  • Speed upgrade replaced with Caduceus Reactor - Increases Medivac's energy regeneration rate by 100% (Cost: 100/100/53.57 seconds, Upgraded from the Fusion Core)
  • Minimap radius increased from 0.75 to 1

Replaces the current unused Medivac upgrade with an upgrade which could be used in active games with a large Medivac count that run out of energy

Standardizes minimap size of Warp Prism/Medivac/Overlord. Previously Medivacs could appear smaller on the minimap on large maps

Raven

  • Interference Matrix now requires a research (Cost: 50/50, 57.14 seconds research time, Researched at the Starport's Tech Lab)

A single Raven opening can currently disable multiple key defensive units in early pushes against Protoss. The cheap cost of the upgrade still allows for multiple Raven play in TvT and specialized builds in TvP

Hellbat

  • Damage bonus per upgrade reduced from +2 (+1 vs light) to +2

Will no longer 1 shot Zerglings with +3 attack and Infernal Pre-Ignitor


ZERG

Lurker

  • Adaptive Talons move speed bonus removed
  • Adaptive Talons cost reduced from 150/150 to 100/100

As some of the main counters to the Lurkers are getting nerfed, reduce the speed of repositioning Lurkers in the lategame

Infestor

  • Pathogen Glands upgrade removed
  • Infestor starting energy increased from 50 to 75
  • Fungal Growth cast range reduced from 10 to 9
  • Fungal Growth damage reduced from 30 to 25

Since the Infested Terran ability was removed, the Infestor has no utility until reaching 75 energy. Fungal damage and cast range is reduced to prevent Infestors from killing Marines with 2 consecutive Fungals, and as a tradeoff to the EMP radius nerf in the TvZ lategame

Viper

  • Consume damage reduced from 200 to 150

Reduces the attention required for gathering Viper energy

Brood Lord

  • Move speed increased from 2.24 to 2.62

Broodling

  • Broodling move speed reduced from 5.37 to 4.13
  • Broodling health reduced from 30 to 20
  • Broodling attack speed reduced from 0.46 to 0.57

Continuing in the direction of the last balance update, further increasing Brood Lord mobility, while further reducing the strength of Broodlings to compensate. Should allow for more active play in the late game

Overlord

  • Deceleration speed increased from 1.49 to 2.28
  • Generate Creep delay reduced from 1.43 to 1.07

Reduce the amount of time it takes for Overlords to stop and begin dropping creep, to allow for more active usage of Queen drops

(Transport Upgraded)
  • Move speed increased from 0.9023 to 1.099
  • Move speed with Pneumatized Carapace increased from 2.62 to 2.83

Non transport-upgraded Overlord's move speed are unchanged

Allow for more active drop usage. In combination with the Baneling damage nerf, should not increase the overall strength of Baneling harass against Protoss

Ultralisk

  • Cost reduced from 300/200 to 275/200
  • Burrow/Unburrow time reduced from 1.43 to 0.89

Lurkers and Broodlord are generally favored over Ultralisks in the lategame, as Ultralisks have poor cost efficiency over time. Should make them more used throughout long games while not greatly reducing the initial investment

Hydralisk

  • Speed upgrade research time reduced from 71 to 64 seconds
  • Range upgrade research time / cost reduced from 100/100/71 seconds to 75/75/50 seconds

Increase the speed at which Hydras come online in the midgame, for more quickly responding to enemy air switches such as Mutalisks and to supplement weaker Banelings against ground based armies

Baneling

  • Damage bonus per upgrade reduced from +2 (+2 vs light) to +2
  • Centrifugal Hooks cost reduced from 150/150 to 100/100
  • Centrifugal Hooks research time reduced from 79 to 71
  • Centrifugal Hooks health bonus removed

Will no longer 1 shot Probes or Drones with +2 attack

Reduce some of the strength of mass Baneling armies in the mid game, and reduce the volatility in defending Baneling runbies by requiring multiple Banelings to kill workers. The speed upgrade will require less of an investment, to maintain a similar balance for 2 base Terran Marine Tank based all-ins

Spire

  • Air Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 100/100, 175/175, 250/250 (Same as Air Weapons)

Air Armor is generally considered less useful than the Air Weapons upgrade despite being more expensive

Evolution Chamber

  • Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 150/150, 200/200, 250/250

PROTOSS

Forge

  • Shield upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 150/150, 200/200, 250/250

Cybernetics Core

  • Air Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 100/100, 175/175, 250/250 (Same as Air Weapons)

Air Armor is generally considered less useful than the Air Weapons upgrade despite being more expensive

Warp Prism

  • Minimap radius increased from 0.875 to 1

Standardize minimap size of Warp Prism/Medivac/Overlord. Previously Warp Prisms could appear smaller on the minimap on large maps

Disruptor

  • Supply cost increased from 3 to 4
  • Model scale reduced by 9%
  • Radius increased from 0.5 to 0.625 (does not affect collision with buildings)

Reduce the power of mass Disruptor in the mid-late game vs Terran without significantly affecting the ability to build Disruptors early for pressure builds or to defend enemy aggression

Tempest

  • Acceleration increased from 2.1 to 4.2
  • Radius/Model scale reduced by 10%

Improve the feeling of actively microing Tempests, as the slow acceleration makes them feel slow to respond when not already moving

Mothership

  • Cost reduced from 400/400 to 300/300
  • Supply cost reduced from 8 to 6
  • Build time reduced from 114 to 89
  • Speed increased from 2.62 to 2.83
  • Lateral Acceleration increased from 1.93 to 3.09

Lateral Acceleration is the how fast the unit changes direction while moving. Increasing this will make the Mothership no longer lag behind other army units of similar speed

  • Health/Shields reduced from 350/350 to 250/250
  • Radius/Model scale reduced by 10%
  • No longer has energy (Spells are now cooldown based and require no energy to cast)
  • Recall now has a 89 second cooldown
  • Recall radius reduced from 6.5 to 5
  • Time Warp now has a 60 second cooldown
  • Time Warp slow reduced from 50% to 40%
  • Time Warp radius reduced from 4 to 3.75
  • Time Warp cast delay reduced from 1.79 to 0.71
  • Cloak Field is no longer passive. It is now an activated ability which lasts for 20 seconds, with a 50 second cooldown

Reduce the investment and increase the maneuverability of the Mothership, and prevent it from being hard countered by EMP. Should allow for earlier Mothership builds in all matchups as well as more active usage of the Mothership

Sentry

  • Guardian Shield duration increased from 10.71 to 12.86

Allows Guardian Shield to be pre-cast before engaging Terran armies involving Ghosts, lasting longer into the fight

Oracle

  • Stasis Ward sight range increased from 4 to 7

Allows Stasis Wards to be used for more central map vision with Stargate based openings

Immortal

  • Barrier will now also block the first instance of damage which triggers the Barrier

Counts towards the 100 damage blocked by the Barrier

Currently EMP hitting an Immortal will drain all of the Immortal's shields as well as activating the Barrier, which will generally expire before the Immortal ends up receiving other damage, making the ability lose value in the mid game against Terran.

Void Ray

  • Fixed an issue where the move speed of Void Rays with Flux Vanes while Prismatic Alignment was active was 2.62 instead of 2.89

This was introduced in Patch 5.0.2 when Void Ray move speed was increased from 3.5 to 3.85, increasing the move speed while Prismatic Alignment was active from 2.62 to 2.89, but the move speed after Flux Vanes was upgraded was unchanged


Changelog


10/03

Widow Mine

  • Removed reference to targeting line visual change

08/31

Hellbat

  • Damage bonus per upgrade reduced from +2 (+1 vs light) to +2

Will no longer 1 shot Zerglings with +3 attack and Infernal Pre-Ignitor

Cyclone

  • Damage changed:
    • Old: 10 + 5 vs armored, +1 (+1 vs armored) per upgrade
    • New: 11 + 3 vs mechanical, +1 per upgrade
  • Speed 4.96 after upgrade -> 4.73
  • Health 100 + 20 after upgrade -> 110

Reduce the strength of mass Cyclone against Protoss and Zerg from previous iterations

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where Hydralisks had an additional armor on the test mod

08/29

Cyclone

  • Damage from 11 + 2 vs armored -> 10 + 5 vs armored, +1 (+1 vs armored) per upgrade
  • Speed 3.6 to 3.94, 5.1 to 4.96 after upgrade
  • Upgrade now additionally increases health by 20, Cost 100/100 -> 150/150

Void Ray

  • Speed with Flux Vanes during Prismatic Alignment 3.49 -> 2.89

Hydralisk

  • Upgrades no longer combined
  • Speed upgrade time 71 to 64 seconds
  • Range upgrade cost 100/100 to 75/75, time 71 to 50 seconds

Infestor

  • Fungal Growth damage 20 -> 25

Evolution Chamber

  • Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 150/150, 200/200, 250/250

08/24

  • Fixed Drilling Claws tooltip
  • Fixed Lock On tooltip
  • Fixed Advanced Balistics tooltip
  • Fixed Guardian Shield cooldown being shorter than it's new duration
  • Reduced volume of Cyclone's lock on

Test mod bug fixes

Mothership

  • Cost 250/250 -> 300/300
  • Build time 79 -> 89
  • Scale -20% -> -10%
  • Recall cooldown 110 -> 89
  • Cloak Field duration 10s -> 20s
  • Cloak Field now does not interrupt Mothership's current order
  • Time Warp slow 33% -> 40%
  • Time Warp radius 3.5 -> 3.75
  • Lateral Acceleration 32.29 -> 3.09

Scale back on the extent of the Mothership changes as there have been concerns over the Mothership losing some of it's identity as the 'ultimate Protoss unit'


08/22

  • Added details on Medivac/Cyclone upgrades
  • Added missing Mothership Hp / Shields change
  • Updated wording of several points in change comments
Edit
Pub: 22 Aug 2023 08:28 UTC
Edit: 02 Oct 2023 20:28 UTC
Views: 46372