StarCraft II: Answers to the Main Questions

The developers of StarCraft II published answers to the most burning questions of the community regarding the latest changes, which made important adjustments to the balance of some combat units.

Official Blizzard quote:

Hello!

Thank you for your feedback and comments. After analyzing the latest test results and looking at the battles of top-class players, we decided to implement our plans and reduce the power of the armor-piercing missile in the last stages of terran matches with protoss, and also to strengthen the terrans in the middle phase.

The base damage of the Vorona armor-piercing missile was reduced from 30 to 15 units.

We had several options for processing the armor-piercing missile, but we stopped to reduce the damage. This will reduce its potential damage in the later stages of the game, but retain its effectiveness in the middle of the match, allowing the use of a missile to weaken the armor. Many players also proposed to reduce the acceleration of the rocket, which would stimulate counter-tactics with the division of combat units into groups. Although in the later stages of the game such a change would lead to similar results, in the middle of the battle, when the size of the army simplifies the process of grouping, the effectiveness of the rocket would decrease too much.

The health of the Vikings was increased from 125 to 135 units.

We understand that the processing of an armor-piercing missile reduced the effectiveness of terrain combat units in the late stages of the game, and decided that it was time to strengthen them a little. Increasing the health of the Vikings will improve their survivability, especially against the abilities of the region (for example, "Parasitic bomb" and "Psionic storm", which are often used in later stages). In addition, it will strengthen the faction in the battles with the colossi, which in recent months are very popular in the matches of terrans with protoss. This improvement does not fully compensate for the weakening of the armor-piercing missile in the late phase of matches, but as we have already reported, we want to focus first on how the strength of the terrans develops between the middle and final stages, and hope that this will allow them to better control this transition.

The number of marauder attacks has been reduced from 2 to 1.

Damage increased from 5. (10 units for armored forces) to 10 units. (20 units for armored forces).

Improved weapons now give +1 (+2 armored troops) for improving infantry instead of +1 (+1 for armored troops) per shot.

Closer to the end of the Heart of the Swarm, with the correct keeping of the distance, the looters became too effective against the ultralisks. At the beginning of the Legacy of the Void, we divided the marauders' attack into two shots to encourage the Terran players to use more highly specialized units against Roy. Throughout the Legacy of the Void, many players offered to reverse this change, as it significantly weakened the Terran army against protoss in the middle phase of the game. We believe that the time has come to realize this proposal, because now we are less concerned about the power of marauders in terrains fights with zerg. Now the Ultralisks initially on 1 unit. more armor, but because they are more enduring in the battles with both marines and marauders. In addition, the zerg are now less dependent on the ultralisks in the final phase, because for the transition it is often used hydralisks, dragonflies and the hosts of the pack. In battles with protoss, this change should allow the terrans to exert pressure on the enemy in the middle phase, which will be especially noticeable against the light troops of the Protoss (zealots, adepts), when the Terrans fall behind in improvements.