Patch 1.4.0 entered Public Testing last week and includes balance changes. This is the first patch to include actual gameplay balance since Patch 1.3.3 which released officially on May 13th after entering PTR on May 4th. Why so long on a balance patch? We’re not sure, but either Blizzard thinks the game is nearing balance or their testing is slowing down in anticipation of Heart of the Swarm release. Time will tell. Some of the changes include a reduction in vision up ramps for all units by 1 (a long needed change) and various buffs (and one nerf on Blink research time) to Protoss units. There is also a significant change in the Hellion’s Blue Flame upgrade which has halved its damage increase against Light units from 10 to 5. Really? Now it’s really not worth the upgrade. Lastly, the Ultralisk got a reduction in build time and the Infestor got a buff against armored units. Awesome. Read the full changelog here. Source: StarCraft2.com
Ooooooooo YOU!!! Jon, you crack me up someones. also, u just lost the game AS WELL AS: not really an infestor buff vs. armor; it was 36 dmg + 30%dmg vs armor wasnt it? (fungal growth i mean) now its just 30 + 10 vs armor. which is like 33% but still less than 130% of 36.
Something I talked about with friends is that Blizzard seems to be too willing to change research time instead of cost (referring to blink here and warp gate). This is bad because the game loses diversity. If the research time is upped the timing window of pushes is permanently changed, when a cost increase would allow the player to do everything as usual and perform the timing attack later because it takes more time to save up for the key research or shave off expenditure (e.g. a probe or a military unit) in order to perform the timing attack sooner (closer to the original timing), albeit with less potency It becomes clear that changing the research time does not allow for reasonable flexibility in builds (you could, of course, go 10 gate or something to hit the same timing window but that's a bit drastic), while increasing cost allows the player to make the decision above from 2 choices. I like the patch though and can't wait to play it. Unfortunately, even though Blizzard says US and EU accounts are eligible for the PTR, it's not available in the EU.
The game is not balanced at all, they gotta fix Terrans as their 1-1-1 build is too effective. They seriously need to bring back the kardarian amulet. @kuvasz changing the build time rather than changing the cost, really insures that the timing push is nerfed... like you mentioned cutting workers to reach that same timing push, is not the result that blizzard wants. Blizzard balance team doesn't want you to cut workers to win a game, they want to reduce the amount of all-ins. they nerfed stim they nerfed barracks by requiring a supply depot they added a neutral supply depot on some maps at the bottom of the ramp they changed some of the building blocks near the ramp so its harder to wall off they nerfed warpgate i think they increased zealot timing etc... if blizzard had not nerfed warpgate, I would still be 4 gating all the time, as I would just hit the same timing attack with only 1 less stalker or sentry. These changes are applied based on high level play, they noticed how well master players can use blink extremely effectively, can you imagine 4 blink stalkers vs your 6 marines and 2 marauders at 6-7min? yes the stalkers would win! Then when the protoss has his warpgate setup he can capitalize and finish the game, as he warps in 4 more stalkers while the terran is trying to queue another army.
