Merged mech air and ground upgrades, increased siege tank fire rate and decreased widow mine splash radius - these are some of the changes to be tested on the latest balance map. As per usual, none of the changes are final and will be given to the community for extensive testing before further steps are taken.
It was two days ago that Blizzard first mentioned they have the intention to launch a new balance map to address some of the balance issues in the game. High on the list was the tangible weakness of the Terran mech compared to its bio counterpart and, consequently, its sporadic appearances in pro games. The proposed change - one that has been brought up in the past by David Kim as well - included a merging of mech ground and air upgrades, something which would empower the viking flock supporting the ground army and would make the late-game switch to sky Terran more potent. Another buff to the mech included decreasing the cooldown between siege tank shots, indirectly increasing their DPS thus.
Where Terrans are taking a hit is the widow mine, whose blast range has been reduced to 1.25 from 1.75. Widow mines have been regarded as a problem by many a player, bringing up several issues in the ZvT match-up in particular. Speaking of Zergs, the Swarm is getting an increase to their movement speed while burrowed and with roach speed increased.
The Protoss are also not being left untackled as their getting a buff to their harassment potential through a decreased cost of the oracle and increased movement speed of the dark templar. The full changelog can be found below.
- Terran Mech ground and air attack upgrades combined
- Widow Mine splash radius decreased from 1.75 to 1.25
- Siege Tank attack period decreased from 3 to 2.7
- Roach speed upgrade also increases the burrowed roach movement speed from 1.41 to 2.25
We’d also like to try a different set of changes for the Oracle:
- Oracle
- Speed increased from 3.375 to 4
- Acceleration increased from 2 to 3
- Revelation range increased from 9 to 10
The speed changes are something we’ve tried in the past and we believe this is a better direction than a straight cost reduction for the unit. The main reason is that we’d like the difference between someone who’s amazing with Oracle micro to be able to keep them alive the whole game to get the most out of them, whereas lesser skilled players won’t get as much out of this change. Not only that, this direction is a smaller buff to the all in case and/or early game use cases compared to the previously proposed 50 gas cost reduction.
Revelation right now is the main late game ability for Oracles, meaning if it’s a bit easier to use, we’d see a lot more Oracle usage in the late game as well.
The balance test map will be up for everyone to try soon, so please make sure to play with the changes as much as you can when it goes up. Thank you.
Source: Battle.net
