The balance changes that were proposed a month and a half ago will finally go live with the next patch. Mech - and tanks in particular - get a buff while widow mines have their splash damage adjusted. Oracle and Tunneling Claws also improved.
Protoss
- Oracle
- Movement speed increased from 3.375 to 4.
- Acceleration increased from 2 to 3.
- Units that burrow or cloak while under the effects of Revelation will once again be revealed after unburrowing or uncloaking.
Terran
- Armory
- Vehicle and Ship Weapon upgrades have been combined.
- Siege Tank
- Siege Mode attack period decreased from 3.0 to 2.8.
- Widow Mine
- Sentinel Missiles now deal reduced damage to units caught within its splash radius based on their distance from the target:
40 damage within 1.25 radius.
20 damage from 1.25 to 1.5.
10 damage from 1.5 to 1.75.
Zerg
- Roach Warren
- The Tunneling Claws upgrade now increases burrowed Roach movement speed from 1.41 to 2.
According to David Kim's post from September 25th, the justification speed increase for the oracle instead of a simple production cost decrease is to encourage its use in competitive games. Blizzard's balance designer explained that " someone who’s amazing with Oracle micro to be able to keep them alive the whole game to get the most out of them" as opposed to lesser skilled player who will not benefit from the change that much.
The biggest change in the patch, however, is the combining of the vehicle and ship weapon upgrades and the increased fire rate of the siege tank in siege mode. This is done in order to make mech play more viable and an equally attractive option to the bio compositions.
Speaking of the bio compositions, the widow mine - a core unit for the marine/marauder/medivac/mine armies - will have its splash damage adjusted. The mine will now deal less damage to units farther hit landing point and more to units that are closer to the center.
Finally, the improvement to roaches' tunneling claws is an approach towards bringing the upgrade into rotation. Like with the oracle change, speed increase instead of a cost decrease should help players with good micro to utilize the unit to its full potential.
Source: Battle.net
