Patch 11 Released

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If you played StarCraft 2 already today you probably already saw a patch, but didn't know it was a new one. The patch notes for Battle.net were not made available to players during the update. And it was a large update as far as changes go.

A lot of different units and upgrades saw changes, including the removal of the Fusion Core requirement for the Raven's Hunter Seeker ability (as well as a range and splash radius reduction on the ability), the addition of a required upgrade for the Thor's 250mm Cannon ability (as well as an increase in its required energy and a reduction in the Thor's overall damage, the new numbers being 30 and 6+6 on the ground and air respectively, but an increase in its attack speed means it deals the same DPS), and the addition of splash damage for the Protoss Archon.

Blizzard has also announced a new series of posts called the Situation Report which describes changes made in patches in more detail.

Phoenix - Can now attack while moving.
This is a huge change that allows a Phoenix to dance around Mutalisks and other air units and attack them while moving. Phoenix always did hard-counter Mutalisks, but now even a very small number of Phoenix can challenge a very large number of Mutalisks so long as they are willing to attack and move away. Use your Phoenix to keep out of the Mutalisk attack range while firing yourself and you can do a lot of damage to a pack of Mutalisks.

The Thor Strike Cannons have become an upgrade to try to help out the Ultralisk, who is countered so hard by this attack that we see very few Ultralisks in Terran vs. Zerg. This is (of course) not enough to really change that relationship, but we have some more plans for the Ultralisk in the next patch.

Read the full Patch Notes and the Situation Report for Patch 11


Source: Battle.net

 

StarCraft II Beta – Patch 11 (version 0.13.0.15250)

Balance Changes

• TERRAN
  • Battlecruiser
    • The build time has been decreased from 110 to 90.
  • Fusion Core
    • The build time has been decreased from 80 to 65.
  • Hellion
    • The range has been increased from 5 to 6.
  • Planetary Fortress
    • The splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.
  • Raven
    • Seeker Missile range has been decreased from 9 to 6.
    • Seeker Missile splash radius has been decreased from 2.4 to 2.
    • Seeker Missile upgrade no longer requires Fusion Core.
  • Siege Tank
    • Life increased from 150 to 160.
    • Siege Mode splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.
  • Thor
    • Ground damage decreased from 45 to 30.
    • Ground rate of fire improved from 1.93 to 1.28.
    • Air damage changed from 8 (+4 Light) to 6 (+6 Light).
    • 250mm Strike Cannons are now an upgrade at the Factory Tech Lab.
    • 250mm Strike Cannons research now costs 150/150 and 110 seconds.
    • 250mm Strike Cannons energy cost increased from 100 to 150.
    • Anti-Air splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.
• PROTOSS
  • Archon
    • The splash radius has been increased from 0.8 to 1.
    • Splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.
  • Colossus
    • The damage has been decreased from 20 to 15.
    • The rate of fire has been improved from 2.2 to 1.65.
  • Phoenix
    • Can now attack while moving.
  • Sentry
    • The damage has been decreased from 8 to 6.
• ZERG
  • Brood Lord
    • Life has been decreased from 275 to 225.
    • Armor has been decreased from 2 to 1.
  • Corruptor
    • Corruptor damage changed from 12 (+10 Massive) to 14 (+6 Massive).
    • Corruptor speed increased from 2.75 to 2.9531
    • Corruption ability redesigned:
      • Single target.
      • Increases damage taken by 20%.
      • Lasts 30 seconds.
      • Costs 100 energy.
      • Range 6.
      • Cannot target structures.
  • Infestor
    • Neural Parasite is now an upgrade at the Infestation Pit.
    • Neural Parasite research costs 150/150 and 110 seconds.
    • Neural Parasite can now target Air units.
    • Neural Parasite energy cost increased from 50 to 100.
  • Spine Crawler
    • The root time has been increased from 6 to 12.
  • Spore Crawler
    • The root time has been increased from 6 to 12.
  • Ultralisk
    • Damage has been increased from 18 to 25.

Hotkey Changes

• General
  • In order to resolve a conflict with building multiple Forges with the Shift Key we have made the following changes:
    • Changed Center Camera from Shift+F to Ctrl+F.
• Standard
  • To prevent the accidental research of Ventral Sacs when trying to train an Overlord with no Larva available, the hotkey has been changed from V to E.
  • View Own Health Bars functionality added to the Backslash key
• Standard for Lefties
  • Due to a conflict with research Banshee Cloak, research Seeker Missile has been changed from L to K.
  • To correct a conflict with the Attack command on Planetary Fortress, train SCV has been changed from K to J.
  • In order to prevent the accidental training of Zerglings when using the Select Larva hotkey,train Zergling has been changed from L to J.
  • To prevent the accidental training of a Queen, train Ultralisk has been changed from U to T.
  • To prevent the accidental research of Pneumatized Carapace when trying to train a corruptor with no Larva available, research Pneumatized Carapace has been changed from P to C.
  • View All Status Bars has been changed from Q to the Alt key.
  • View own Status Bars functionality has been added to the Q key.
• Grid for Lefties
  • Attack Move and all other buttons in the 0,4 position should now function correctly.
  • View Own Status Bars functionality added to Q.
  • View Enemy Status Bars moved to W.
  • View Ally Status Bars moved to E.
• Classic
  • Changed build Nydus Canal from P to N.
  • Changed Place Nydus Canal ability from P to N.
  • Terran Infantry Weapon researches have been changed from E to W.
  • Terran Vehicle Weapon researches have been changed from E to W.
  • Train Thor hotkey has been changed from O to G.
  • Train Viking hotkey has been changed from Y to W.
  • View Own Status Bars functionality has been added to the Backslash key.

Icon Position Changes

• To put all race gas extractors in the same icon position, the positions of the Supply Depot/Refinery and Pylon/Assimilator have been swapped.
• In order to make transforming multiple Gateways easier for players using Grid key sets, Transform to Gateway has been moved to a separate icon position (2,1).

Bug Fixes

• Corrected an issue that was causing the Polish language client to crash when receiving the "player is no longer being revealed” message.
• Corrected incorrect battle.net links on multiple language clients pages.
• Corrected an issue where the Zealot was using an US English voice over in the Korean language client.
• Corrected an issue where a player is unable to build any structures that require pylon power when their protoss ally leaves.
• Units can no longer be healed or repaired while in transports.
• Corrected an issue where the Creep Tumor targeting circle was visible to opponents through Fog of War.
• Corrected an issue in which selecting a Starport under construction and a completed Starport would display the select builder command in the Viking slot.
• Corrected the Broodling weapon icon.

 

Patch 11 Situation Report

In an effort to better explain changes being made within the StarCraft II beta, we wanted to establish the Situation Report in which we take the time to share a little more insight into the balance choices we make and how we believe these changes will play out. We are incredibly dedicated to bringing you the quality and high standards that you expect of a Blizzard game and StarCraft II, and hope that by sharing more of our thoughts with you, that we can continue to both receive great feedback, but continue to see great matches within the game.

We have been working hard over the last many weeks to try to make the races as fun as possible to play. We are seeing win/loss ratios (when you factor in skill) of as little as 6% between each of the races. This is a great place for us to be during a beta, when players are still learning the races and we are still making a lot of changes. In general we believe that Terrans are still a little weak against Protoss. The other match ups are too close to call and (according to our current numbers) are within 1% win/loss. We are also getting more and more excited about what we are seeing in our mirror matches. Terran vs. Terran is a very diverse match for example and we are starting to see some really nice diversity in Zerg vs. Zerg which is a huge win for us and the community considering how stale that match was when we started the Beta.

We’ve made a significant amount of changes within the latest beta patch 11 and wanted to give a brief overview on these changes.

Splash - Splash damage now originates from the center of the target, rather than the impact location near the unit in order to maintain more reliable splash damage.

We have changed how splash works for several units across the game to make it always hit the dead center of the target unit. Previously splash was centered on the front of the target unit. This makes splash generally more effective, though against certain large targets (buildings, Thors, Ultralisks) you will now not get any splash damage since the splash radius will be contained entirely within the radius of the large target.

Battlecruiser -The build time has been decreased from 110 to 90.

We are trying to make this ship a little more useful. In reality this unit is easily countered by Corruptor, Void Ray, or Viking which may already be in play by the time it arrives, but we think it might see a little more play if it’s just easier to build.

Hellion - The range has been increased from 5 to 6.

This is not an actual change to the area effect of the weapon. The weapon was always range 6, but it would only acquire targets at range 5 so it would get a little bit of splash that would hit enemies behind its initial target. By making the weapon range 6 it is easier to shoot and run from enemy units. It does make the splash a little less useful if you are just using the “attack move” command.

Raven - Seeker Missile range has been decreased from 9 to 6.- Splash radius has been decreased from 2.4 to 2.- upgrade no longer requires Fusion Core.

We are hoping to see some more Seeker missiles without unbalancing the unit. At the same time we want to reduce the effectiveness of Seeker missile in 2v2 games where mass Ravens have (on occasion) been a problem.

Siege Tank - Life increased from 150 to 160.

Siege Tanks are seeing good use in several match-ups but we still think they could be a little tougher so they can maybe get in one more shot during big fights.

Thor - Ground damage decreased from 45 to 30- Ground rate of fire improved from 1.93 to 1.28.- Air damage changed from 8 (+4 Light) to 6 (+6 Light).- 250mm Strike Cannons are now an upgrade at the Factory Tech Lab; research now costs 150/150 and 110 seconds; energy cost increased from 100 to 150.

The damage change reduces the Thor’s opening burst, which will mean that some units will be able to shoot a little longer before being destroyed. The increase in rate of fire means the damage-per-second remains the same, but it does change a few relationships. Thors are no longer as effective against Roaches (for example) without fire support from Marauders.

The Thor Strike Cannons have become an upgrade to try to help out the Ultralisk, who is countered so hard by this attack that we see very few Ultralisks in Terran vs. Zerg. This is (of course) not enough to really change that relationship, but we have some more plans for the Ultralisk in the next patch.

The anti-air changes make Thors a little more clear in their role as an anti-light AA weapon which gives more value to Vikings and Marines.

 

Note:

Balance update did not include the Roaches new ability.

The Roach can now attack volley while burrowed. It instantly burrows between each volley, allowing for extra hp regen and trouble for a player without detection.

 

Sarcasm or real change?


Neural parasite change is very interesting. Can't wait to see it in action. Flying units beware

 

No its a real change. Not sure why it wasn't noted.

 

holy crap, that makes roaches downright scary.

 

Plans for the Ultralisk? It's a good patch, but I don't like the sound of the Ultra getting some sort of ability-ish stuff at all.

 

He appears to be mistaken or lying. Just jumped into a game to try it and nothing.

Too bad, I would have enjoyed playing a broken Zerg game until they patched it later in the night. Without mobile, permanent detection I'm fairly certain you'd pretty much be screwed since I believe the FF mechanics would reset every attack. The roaches could FF you, you could not FF the roaches. GG.

 

maybe he was just playing against someone with really good micro?

 

Maybe. Covered by "mistaken".

 

Roaches are the new lurker, minus the splash but with very high HP regen and opponent's firing confusion. Keep in mind this requires mid-late Tier 2, so Burrow and Tunneling Claws, thats 250/250 right there. Toss gets cloaked attackers with a building that costs 100/250...

No they were my units. I believe you have to attack click a unit WHILE they burrowed. Sorry if that wasn't made clear. The pop out and attack it and burrow between volley's until the target is dead. Probably ver useful for the now buffed siege tank. It requires micro, just not burrow/unburrow delay.

To be extra clear they were burrowed, had tunneling and would do the volley/burrow attack when microed to attack a unit or structure. Similar to the way trap lurkers could be stopped except different.

 

Dude, just make a video and post it here.

 

I don't know how to make a video! I'm sure it will pop up somewhere sometime soon.

 

I'll take another look in a couple of hours. I considerd it required a manual attack command while they were burrowed, so I did try that, but it didn't work.

I can't recall if I had tunneling claws at the time though. Maybe it requires that upgrade (I did note the tool tip on the upgrade though and it makes no mention if this).

Honestly it sounds more like a bug if it works. I can't imagine Blizzard adding this....it just seems like a no-brainer way to make the race broken.

 

yeah, roaches were already too powerful and they nerfed them multiple times in past patches. i have no idea why they would make them more powerful.

 

I would love to see a battle where i can parasite a mothership

Good to see the brood lord is now air to ground artillery as opposed to a capital ship >>

No more one shotting of hydras by thors or zerglings by collosi either

 

Ok, tested again, definitely no changes to the Roach. I can only guess that Prodigal was trolling because he be hatin' the Roach.

 

The change in AOE doesn't make much sense to me. AOE should be calculated starting from the point of impact, not the centre of the target. I mean you hit the side of the target as it's running away but you get full AOE on the units that are retreating alongside or in front of it. :wacko:

I like the neural parasite buff but I'm not sure if the colossus nerf was called for. It's already taken down within seconds despite costing a fortune and now it doesn't even slaughter as it should. It's a huge killing machine, it should have decent damage. That, or reduce its size.
Sometimes I think Blizzard doesn't even consider individual unit lore and treats attributes as mere aspects of balance. :arghh: in this case it would've made a lot more sense to keep the damage and increase build time or cost.

I'm still waiting for the immortal to get less damage and more shields. It's an immortal for crying out loud and I rarely see them with activated hardened shields which is the whole point of the unit. I often see retreating immortals though because without their shields they're crap but are too expensive to leave there and do as much damage as possible. Lame.

 

Looks like Thors are getting more and more usless agianst everything except light air.