Patch 1.4.0 has been released and will be used in the online game PTR servers. This will be a major patch where there are lots of changes implemented to each race. First let's take a look at the patch notes. I will only be focusing in the Balance change and some other important changes.
Balance
General
Unit vision up ramps has been reduced by 1.
PROTOSS
Immortal
Attack range increased from 5 to 6.
Mothership
Acceleration increased from 0.3 to 1.375.
The Mothership’s Cloaking Field no longer cloaks all units instantaneously, but rather adds units to the cloak field over time (maximum of 25 per second). This should alleviate “Mothership Lag” issue when a Mothership comes online.
Stalker
Blink research time increased from 110 to 140.
Warp Prism
Shields increased from 40 to 100.
TERRAN
Barracks
Build time increased from 60 to 65.
Hellion
Infernal Pre-Igniter damage upgrade decreased from 10 to 5.
Raven
Seeker missile movement speed increased from 2.5 to 2.953.
ZERG
Infestor
Fungal Growth damage changed from 36 (+30% armored) to 30 (40 vs Armored).
Overseer
Morph cost decreased from 50/100 to 50/50.
Contaminate energy cost increased from 75 to 125.
Ultralisk
Build time decreased from 70 to 55.
The first change is where unit vision up the ramp is reduced by 1. This greatly increase
the advantage for the defender. I am not too sure will this affect the 4 Gate in PvP where you Warp over the Force Field. Another advantage here is 2 Queens will be able to hold the ramp against Hellions. Previously, Hellions will be able to damage the Queen while staying out of range. With this change, Queens will be able to deal damage to the Hellions.
Protoss
Immortal
Very interesting changes to the Protoss arsenal. Immortal's range has been finally be increased from 5 to 6. This is such a huge buff. Immortal will no longer be the clunky unit stuck behind Stalkers in your army while watching the helplessly trying to move to the front line. This change will definitely buff PvZ. Some Protosses are having problem with mass Roaches. With this change, the Stalker, Immortal, Sentry push from 2 bases will be deadlier. You can just Force Field the front of the Roaches and watch your Immortals slay them.
I feel that this change is mainly here to address the PvT 1-1-1 all in. As we all know, the 1-1-1 is seriously overpowered as we see countless pro Terran Gamers cheese their way through Protoss. This buff here can help Immortal to target the Siege Tanks easier. You always want to use the Immortals to soak up the damage from Siege tanks and target them with Immortals. However, you have to becareful in walking your Immortal into Marines. With this range buff, things get a little easier for the Protoss.
Stalkers
Blink time from 110 to 140. This change nerfed the mass Blink Stalkers in PvZ currently. However this is just a slight changes here. I feel that this will affect the current PvP. Blink is probably the most common skill used in PvP. With the time increase, Robo builds will be stronger and thus promoting a longer macro game.
Warp Prism
Finally the Warp Prism gets what it deserved. This unit will no longer be the Paper Plane! We will be seeing more Warp Prism plays.
Terran
Barracks
The 5 second increase is mainly to slow down the initial Bunker cheese in TvZ. Bunker requires Barracks to build. This gives additional timing to the Zerg player.
Hellion
The blue flame changes here is really huge. Before this patch, Blue flame Hellions can 2 shot worker line. Blue flame used to deal 24 damage a shot, now it deals 19 to light armor units. Drones and Probes have 40 total hp. SCVs have 45. TvT has seen a lot of Hellion plays lately. Zerg should rejoiced of this change.
Zerg
Infestors
The overpowered Fungal growth has been nerfed slightly. This allows Terran and Protoss army to last longer.
Overseer
We have not see much contamination play. Why the nerf?
Ultralisk
This is a huge buff. Zergs are very vulnerable before their tier 3 units pops up. Too often the Zerg lost before the Ultralisks manage to finish.
Overall, this should be a very interesting patch and I am looking forward to this patch. However, there is no straight forward answer in address the 1-1-1 problem in Protoss vs Terran. Will the range change for Immortals solve the cheese? Who knows.
Full patch notes http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1213111662
Because the Overseer is now cheaper, maybe they want to prevent some funky tactic like rush to lair and contaminate forever the warpgate research with a few Overseer.
ReplyDeleteYeah most likely. Nestea showed his awesome Mass Overseer to delay Losira's Lair. @@ It could have been devastating to Protoss too.
ReplyDelete