Bientôt la suppression des Mules Terran et du Chronoboost Protoss ?

Potential Balance Test Map for HotS

Before we get to the Void topics, we’d like to discuss a potential balance test map for Heart of the Swarm. We’re currently wondering if a minor change is needed to help Zerg against Terran mech and Protoss. We don’t quite know for certain that a balance update is needed, however we are wondering if we should start up a balance test map to explore the idea.

For this, we’re considering testing the Swarm Host balance changes that have been ongoing in the Void beta. The automatic Flying Locusts, cheaper cost, and decreased supply of Void Swarm Hosts have shown decent potential versus Protoss and mech, and for ZvT, we are looking for a change that will only really help versus mech, since Zerg vs Bio appears to be in a good state. Buffing Swarm Host harass could target this well, considering the relatively low mobility of Terran mech. Please let us know your thoughts in this area so that we can make the best possible decision. Thank you.


Design/balance Schedule in the Beta

As some of you may already know, our team is hard at work trying to release Legacy of the Void sometime this year. With this in mind, we wanted to discuss what this means for the Legacy of the Void beta. So far, we’ve been in the beta for about 4 months – approximately the length of the entire HotS beta.

With the ways things currently are, we don’t quite feel that we’re ready to move into the balance “fine-tuning” stages yet, since major changes (such as macro mechanics or Disruptor redesign) are still on the table. Our current plan is to continue exploring various large-scale changes for roughly one additional month, and then (assuming things are sufficiently finalized) we can shift our focus towards balance changes for the remainder of the beta. Design changes will still be considered after this period, but we will be trying to reduce them to things that are absolutely needed so that we can focus on balance tuning before the release of the game.


Protoss Warp-in changes

We found that the defensive case is too big of a nerf in expansion locations. After reading many of your suggestions, we’ve decided to test this mechanic with both Warpgates and Nexus providing faster warp-ins. Below is a list of all the warpgate changes going into the next update:

• Warping-in at a Pylon takes 16 seconds.
• If a Pylon’s power radius is touching a Warp Gate or a Nexus, the color of the power radius changes, and warp-ins take 2 seconds.
• Multiple Pylons can be affected by the same Nexus or Warp Gate.
• The Warp Prism’s power radius will be the stronger version, and units will only take 2 seconds to warp-in.

With these changes, we’re clearly seeing the heavy nerfs to the offensive warp-ins. The huge buff to defensive warp-ins is also feeling good internally, because one of the main reasons why Protoss is struggling in the beta right now is due to their difficulty in securing late-game expansions.


Macro mechanics

We’ve recently seen significant amounts of passionate and well-articulated discussions on the topic of macro mechanics. There are numerous people on both sides of our proposed changes, and we’ve read through and listened to many of the arguments as to why people feel the way they do. Having considered our testing internally along with your opinions in the community, we are currently planning to begin testing these changes in the next balance update. This does not mean the changes are permanent, but that we would like to explore their effects on a larger scale. To help prepare for this, we also wanted to briefly discuss some additional gameplay observations that we’ve discovered while testing.


Terran Mules being Removed

• Scanner Sweep use is much more common, but because there are so many possible scans available, Calldown: Extra Supplies now has tactical justification. The decision to cast one ability or the other has become rather dynamic, and the constant decisions between these two abilities seem interesting.
• The balance on these abilities might not be there yet, and if Mules do in fact get removed, we may need to tune these abilities’ details.

Protoss Chronoboost being Removed

• The removal itself seems good, but we’re definitely realizing that there may need to be some timing changes to help Protoss.
• We will be decreasing Warp Gate research time, and also speeding up the Disruptor build time, but we believe there’s more to come if this change goes through. Our current thought is that if Chronoboost is removed, we will need to strategically locate the specific units, buildings, upgrade times that would need to be reduced .

Zerg Inject Larva Being Auto-Cast and Reduced to 2 per Inject

• We were initially worried that this particular change would take away too much from Zerg macro, but surprisingly, it is feeling like there’s still so much macro to tackle.
• With this change, we’re also seeing better creep spread. This is something that we may need to tune eventually. Nevertheless, having a more visible result from players’ macro looks to be a much cooler direction rather than just having the forced/needed clicks found in things like Inject Larva.

Overall, we expect there will need to be a lot of balance tuning required if the macro mechanics changes stick. We are definitely looking forward to hearing your feedback and observing how the changes play out in the beta. Also, please remember to keep an open mind when testing out these changes - it will take time to iron out the balance as we continue testing this area.

Thanks for all of the passionate feedback and discussions these last few weeks. We hope that you will continue to have such rich discussions while we test these rather unique changes as we are certainly eager to hear your thoughts after playing with them.

Thanks so much!