Official TBA StarCraft II Thread

[Crabarms]

Zerg

Swarm Host
The locust's attack range has decreased from 3 to 2.

Protoss

Oracle
We have removed the oracle's Preordain ability. We have added a new area of effect ability for the oracle called Phase Shield.
Targeted friendly units are shielded from harmful effects for 5 seconds. Fungal Growth, Corruption, Contaminate, Graviton Beam, Concussive Shells, Abduct, Revelation, Vortex, and 250mm Strike Cannons – Phase Shield removes the effect and prevents units from being affected. EMP – Phase Shield removes the anti-cloaking effect but not the damage dealt. Neural Parasite – Phase Shield will not remove this effect but it will prevent units from being affected.
The energy upgrade has been removed.
Entomb's duration has been reduced to 25 sec, but the health per Entomb has increased to 100.The cost per unit has changed from 150/200 to 150/150.

Tempest
The attack range has been reduced from 22 to 15.The basic damage has changed from 30 to 30 + massive.The ranged upgrade has been removed.

Immortal
Immortal Hardened Shield will now reduce the warhound's Haywire Missile damage.

Mothership Core / Mothership
Recall will now cost 100 energy.
The mothership core will now start with 50 energy and when upgraded, energy will be set back to 50.\
The range of Purifier Beam has been increased from 7 to 10.

Carrier
This unit has returned to the game.


Terran

Warhound
This unit has been removed from the game.

Reaper
We have added a new passive ability called Combat Awareness. This allows reapers to see up cliffs.

Hellion
Battle hellions can now be built from the Factory. It has an Armory requirement.There is a new upgrade at the Armory that will allow transformation between Battle Mode and Normal Mode.

Widow Mine
We have removed the Armory requirement.

[rtil]

i like how the warhound was so powerful that it buffed units even after it was removed from the game

here's what i think will happen though

the warhound will be heavily re-purposed or a brand new unit will be introduced to terran, probably a type of unit that can't be easily massed or has no reason to be massed. i also think that they will make a slight thor change

i wish protoss would be given  a new mid-game combat unit but i don't think they will. i do think the oracle will change a lot over the beta, and if they're smart they'll try to do something with the carrier besides just re-introducing a unit nobody really uses.

i don't think much is going to happen with zerg. the locust will probably be nerfed... yep.

[cipher]

yeah overall I think zerg is the most polished so far. I still suspect some tweaks on the viper and swarm host, but I doubt we'll see anything too big with them

[rtil]

the only thing i dont like about new zerg is that it encourages turtle play. stephano demonstrated that you can easily sit on 3 base with spines and swarm hosts, never move out until you're maxed and feel completely safe.

[rtil]

oh ya.. i also think it's funny how people are using the hydra again just because of its speed upgrade again and then wondering why they lost. just because they are faster doesn't mean they still won't melt in direct combat. and once you have the speed upgrade protoss is going to have blink so it's not like you will get away

[sev]

i like the re-addition of the carrier to be used side by side with the tempest, i felt that making a specialist sniping unit the highest air tech in the stargate was sort of a dead end, and that it'd be good to keep a genuine powerhouse like the brood lord and the battlecruiser. i wish they'd screw more with the carrier though. it might be powerful in combination with the tempest but it's still a mystery how it'll all come together.

i haven't checked a lot of zergs out, how good is the swarm host? i always felt like it was just a grounded and cloaked brood lord, do players have an easier time using the swarm hosts or bl's? is there any actual use for broods anymore if you don't already have corruptors?

[rtil]

people were winning just by spamming swarm hosts and inching closer to people's front doors. that's why locust range was nerfed from 3 to 2, so that swarm hosts actually need to be backed up by an army. locust damage was also nerfed in the first patch. they are still really good though, but they can't win a fight by themselves (and they shouldn't)

[Sinitron]

people were winning just by making marines at some point... and sometimes, they still do LOL

[Sinitron]

also sc2 is uhhh like 50% off or some shit on battle.net this week idk (butthole.net)

[Sinitron]

THAT'S RIGHT WHINE AT YOUR GAY FRIENDS TO PICK IT UP i want to play teamgames again with cool people like poogs (rip)

[BluPhoenix]

i miss the weekly sc2-thons

[cipher]

i miss the weekly sc2-thons

I tried to do one like a year ago but nobody seemed interested

[psi43]

i miss the weekly sc2-thons

I tried to do one like a year ago but nobody seemed interested

I would be interested

[cipher]

Well someone needs to get to organizing then.

Maybe we'll be able to rally up more people when HoTs comes out, but that's a ways off

[rtil]

i play starcraft 2 all the time but nobody's ever online. i dont mind playing team games either.

[cipher]

Carrier and Tempest are staying for sure.

Warhound is gone. There is no top-secret unit waiting in the wings to jump in. It's out.

I cannot promise that something won't happen later (I am not yet able to see into the future) but currently there are no plans for another Terran unit.

-dustin b

[rtil]

i'm assuming he will explain why later? such a quick judgement on the carrier which is still a broken unit, and i do think terran deserves a warhound replacement. at this point i don't think mech is viable against protoss.

[cipher]

Yeah hopefully there will be more news to come, that was just a post he made (in its entirety) on the Bnet forums

[Sinitron]

balancing something is too much effort, REMOVE IT OUTRIGHT HARR HARR

[rtil]

they removed it because it overlapped roles with the marauder. also the haywire missile was just a-move autocast , kind of boring really. the only thing exciting about the warhound was mineral line drops on scv's and probes. it could kill 10 in an instant