Many people got excited about the patch update, but we should not fall into the trap of thinking that balance council started listening to us. They try to make community to shut up by reverting some minor BS and giving some good changes, but the most controversial BS remains untouched. People mostly complained about protoss nerfs, and what they did? They seem completely adamant in their effort to nerf CORE aspects of protoss be it battery overcharge or immortals or disruptors. Pushing controversial ideas under cover of some positive changes doesn't make a good patch. Council may give in a little to the community, but they never give in on key points, ultimately they still get what THEY want. If the council was conscientious, they would have discarded this abomination of a patch and started designing it with a more diligent approach.

The ghost nerf affects the TvZ way more significantly (20 ghosts is now 13 ghosts). The mothership being unabductable makes PvZ tip into Protoss favor really heavily.

This might pose a significant problem on ladder where your average Zergs with 200 or less APM are going to struggle even harder vs your average metal league skytoss turtle enjoyer. This already hurts the already small Zerg population on ladder especially in high masters and low/mid gm where Zergs are basically extinct. Which is why I don't get it. A lot of Protoss pros say PvZ is fine and some even say it favors Protoss.

IMO what really impacted the TvP was the cyclone revert + stalker build time change. Now proxy rax or any other mindgame early builds Terrans do (eBay block, fake proxy, proxy rax into 2 gas, 2 gas openers) are less safe due to cyclone being gated behind tech lab and limiting followup options. For example, you can't just make widow mine then cyclone and go for 6 marine 1 widow mine cyclone push. You have to pick one.

The revert also indirectly buffs the Stargate vs 2 gas interactions so Protoss won't have to open blink no matter what. The stalker build time brings back the Maxpax and other Proxy gate builds. But here's the thing, it was like this before and Protoss didn't win shit so what's the difference aside from dealing with slightly less obnoxious things like bunker behind natural mineral line?

Immortals are already slow and clunky. With concussive shells in the game the can engage or not engage but not disengage.

Giving them the ability to be immune to slow would playing marauders in pvt less punishing especially if marauder ghost will be a problem with the disruptor nerfs

Honest opinion. I think it's very good we even have such a thing. I know of tons of "dead" (as in abandoned by the company, not dead as in nobody plays this anymore) games that don't have any patches anymore.

While yeah, the original changes were pretty bad, these ones already look a lot better. There are some things that i still think shouldn't happen, but the council listened (a LOT) to the community's feedback. Almost every major point of criticism has been at least looked at and tweaked.

To have someone in charge of balance actually actively look at pros AND community opinion, simple as it sounds, is something we should be happy about.

Anyways, please don't make that immortal change happen xD

Ghost supply nerf, hooray! Cyclone revert, hooray! Mothership no abuct, hooray! Big W's there. The update definitely improved the patch from a D- to like a solid B. There's still a bit more I'd like to see before the patch hits live, though:

• Nerf EMP flight speed

So Protoss has a chance to dodge it (huge buff for storm prism play. Protoss needs more viable high-skill strats).

• Revert supply drop buff (or tone it down significantly).

This has almost no impact in early TvT or TvP. The only thing it does is kill ZvT early agression and any viability of bane busting, which was already terrible to begin with.

• Revert Immortal changes.

I still don't know why they decided to just drop Immortal dps by near 10%. Of all things Protoss, this is not one that needed a nerf.

• Keep Disruptor nerf, but give Colossus an actual buff: damage upgrade scaling from 1+1(light) to 2.

I'm okay with nerfing the Disruptor to the ground because it's a terribly designed unit and nobody likes it, including Protoss. But they still need something to contest mid-to-late Terran bio. Colossus buff might help them actually do more than just tickle marauders.

• Double down on Microbial Shroud buff

Love this change, it goes in the right direction... But it's not enough. Double the duration, straight up, so it can actually last a full engagement.

• Keep Broodlord bugfix

I get that everyone hates the Broodlord, but this at least makes them less clunky to micro around, without buffing their actual damage output during a fight.

• Don't nerf Ultra speed

Come on... Just let Ultras be good for once, darn it. Nerf its speed only off-creep, if anything. But I don't think a simple QoL buff warrants this much caution.

Go through with these and the top level might, actually, feel balanced for once.

It looks like the balance council DOES listen! Newest ptr isn't perfect in my opinion but it's a good start.

It isn't "just" reddit people or "some" casters and players that are discussing this. It all adds up. Keep talking about the patch and keep giving feedback because it does actually matter.

Also petition for 'Dash' (name is not finalized) to be something like Haste or Hustle for the alliteration enjoyers out there.

Is the UED Captain's gender known?

I'm working on a little project where I'm making three MtG Commander decks based on Starcraft. I recently came across an art piece depicting a generic woman in uniform standing in front of some Marines with some Battlecruisers in the sky. If the Captain's gender is vague enough, I was going to use this art for a card. I know that there are women enlisted in the UED because of Medics and Valkyries.

Not that anyone cares, but if you do feel free to test this and tell me what you think of it from a gameplay perspective. I would love to get some feedback, especially since I don't really have time to do any playtesting as I don't know anyone who plays anymore, so I am stuck vs bots (which are easy to beat)

The Mod is called ProtossAdjustment by Titans in SC2.

The changes and reasoning is as follows.

also, if anyone has any help for adding energy overcharge and locking out the warpgate transform while on cooldown, I would appreciate it. I couldn't figure out how to do those things.

Protoss is very fragile in the early game, so I am buffing base units. To make up for that buff, I am nerfing the offensive ability of warpgate.
This is aimed at making the gateway the primary recruitment building for gateway units without sacrificing production and leaving warp gate as a situational late game tool

Buffing zealots late game survivability without hurting its interactions with basic units
Zealot
HP - 100 > 110
- Shields 50 > 40
- New ability - Hardened Shields
- Any Damage to shields over ten will be reduced to 10 (Does not effect spells)

Buffing the adepts harrassment and HP while nerfing its armor. This should be a slightly tankier unit but weaker against low damage units.
- Adept
- Shields 70 > 90
- Damage 10 (+ 12 vs Light) > 13 (+ 10 vs Light)
- Range 4 > 5
- Armor 1 > 0

Buffing the stalkers shield armor and nerfing its survivability once the shield is broken, this should allow the stalker to be much
stronger vs basic units without buffing it against late game units too much. This also allows blink to be a much more powerful spell
- Stalker
- Armor 1 > 0
- Shield Armor 0 > 2

Lowered the gateway build time on gateway with warp gate, and increased the research time to prevent early all ins from being too strong
- Warp Gate Research
- Research time increased to 143 second and now reduces gateway cooldowns
- Zealot build time on Gateway 28 > 20
- Adept build time on gateway 30 > 23
- Stalker build time on Gateway 30 > 23
- High Templar build time on Gateway 39 > 32
- Dark Templar build time on Gateway 39 > 32

- Since the gateway will be the main recruitment building, it should no longer auto transform to warp gate
- - Gateway
- No longer auto transforms to warp gate'
- Morph time decreased from 6 > 1.8 seconds

- Warp Gate
- Warp In Zealot 20 > 60
- Warp in Adept 30 > 90
- Warp in Stalker 30 > 90
- Warp in Sentry 23 > 60
- Warp in High Templar 39 > 96
- Warp in Dark Templar 39 > 96
-
- Morph time decreased from 6 > 1.8 seconds
-
- -- Plan to add lockout time that prevents warp gate from transforming back to a gateway while it is on cooldown

Nexus
Shield battery overcharge removed

-- Plan to add energy overcharge --

Sorry for 2nd post, just wanna make sure as many people have the opportunity to play!

Hey Everyone! Running one of my first tournaments this Saturday! Open to all leagues, $100 prize pool, all to be streamed and will do a few giveaways for voice packs/skins etc throughout the tourney

Tournament Name: $100 SykoHeda Monthly #1

Date = November 2nd, 1pm MST (12pm PDT)

Server = NA

Leagues Eligible = ALL

Register = https://challonge.com/ybplgymj

Prize Pool;

1st Place = $70 USD
2nd Place = $30 USD

The ghost change is huge in TvZ, but versus Protoss not that many ghosts are needed to EMP an army, so it's not as consequential there.

The community had many great ideas how to help pro Protoss players:

• Slower ghost EMP projectile so pro-players can pick up high templar with prism

• Guardian shield protects against EMP

• Revert high templar feedback damage nerf to have more rewarding counter play against ghosts

• Shield upgrades mitigate EMP damage (e.g. -25%, -50%, 75% EMP damage)

• Protoss gateway units scale very poorly in the late game compared to zerglings and marines, so adding new late-game upgrades like Adrenal Glands would make sense (personally I would love to see something more interesting than just more attack speed/health/damage though, e.g. reusing an upgrade from co-op)

• I wouldn't mind to remove the liberator range upgrade to help TvP late game (that would also be in the spirit of discouraging turtling play style and give more map maker freedom)

Let's be real - the new updates to the patch are great but the old patch was a disastrous starting point. At best we are now in a territory where the patch is not a net nerf in PvT, but what we actually need is a real buff otherwise we are guaranteed a repeat of 2023 and 2024

You actually listened to the community, I can’t believe it. Usually you ignore the criticism and push the patch in full anyway. I’d go as far as to say this patch might buff Protoss.
Thank you to everyone on the balance council
Sincerely,
The sc2 community

Hey all, returning player wondering what the current 2v2 ladder is like on NA. Planning on just solo-queueing with randoms. Is it fairly toxic/solved? Like if I'm not fully aware of the current meta will I get flamed or is it generally pretty chill. From what I remember, MMR doesn't decay like it used to so I'd be queueing around upper diamond.

I'm a little confused here. The developer update essentially states that stalkers will now build 3 in-game seconds faster (which is 2 real-life seconds) in order to counter something like proxy 2-rax marauders.

Let me get this straight: The expectation is that protoss should be using the unit that gets HARD COUNTERED by marauders in order to hold off marauders?

Phil Spencer if you're reading this, please make Starcraft 3 by 2030.

As title says.....

So they make the immortal negligibly cheaper and nerf nearly 10% of its attack speed, directly nerfing it's damage output because "it seemed to high". Too high my ass, GTFO here. Fuckers keep nerfing every single CORE protoss unit. You nerfed zealots, collosi, disruptor and probably there's a stalker nerf in some prior patch, and now you want to nerf Immortals too. How about no? Oh I think Marauder's damage seems too high, can we slash it's damage a bit? Perhaps a 10% attack speed nerf? No? Yeah didn't think so. I've been playing and following this game for nearly a decade and if this patch goes thru like this I honestly think I'm going to be done with this game for good. It's hilarious to me they get away with messing with protoss core units over and over but won't touch MMM/zerglings with a 10 feet pole. Dismantle the balance council. STOP NERFING PROTOSS CORE UNITS THEY ALREADY SUCK.

/rant

Does anyone remember this song? This pops up in my head monthly, apparently the original creator 609 Productions deleted his channel but someone reuploaded a lot of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPwreeXlRXo

Make steady targeting cost 75 energy. The current 50 doesn’t justify the damage it deals.

We don't need 50 solo YouTube videos. We need pros and streamers to be discussing these balance changes together.

Make mules drop 8 radius from orbital. No drop on planetary fortress and standard cc. And 30 sec CD. So 2 orbitals in game. That's it. Nerf this macro abuse.

Most people agree that Protoss, at the the Professional level, needs buffs. But what buffs? In this topic I will try to convey some points on where to buff protoss, and goals of what to achieve and not achieve.

I think we can divide Goals in primary goals, and secondary goals. Primary goals are approached more directly and secondary goals will often be a consequence or side effect of primary goal, but also will include the how and when the primary goal will apply.

Primary Goal:
1 - Make Protoss early game defense against both Terran and Zerg more reliable;

Seconday Goal:
2 - Encourage better mechanics as to make primary goal more effective at professional level and not as effective at Masters and below;

3 - Make it so this buff cannot also be used to early attack or cheese;

4 - Make more openings possible and increase game variety and disencourage turtling;

5 - Easy to implement because of lack of manpower at Blizzard to code new changes

In my opinion we should aim to fulfill all stated goals above (and possibly another goal I didn't think of), and I will throw a few bad ideas and possibly good ideas and discuss them here so you can see how we can discuss this.

IDEA 1 - Buff Photon Canon (I know it is a bad idea, this is an example of a bad idea)
Analysis of Goals:

1 - Will help early game defense, so it is a pass for primary goal;

2 - It does NOT separete good and bad mechanics, it is a fail for goal 2;

3 - It can and will be used as cheese, fail at 3;

4 - It will make cannons almost mandatory, decrease game variety and encourage turtling.

5 - Very easy to implement, a pass.

So this is very clear why this is a bad idea, but what does a good idea looks like?

IDEA 2 - Probe Battery Charge. (Possibly good idea, but not perfect)

New ability of the probe: Can be activated on the probe when a probe is stanting still next to a shield battery, cancelled if probe moves. If battery is used while probe is using this ability will convert probe shields to battery energy 1 for 1.

Analysis of Goals:

1 - Will help early game defense, at the cost of vulnerable probes and lost mining time;

2 - It should be pretty mechanic intensive, as it does not recharge energy directly, probe needs to use ability during battery use;

3 - Almost impossible to use as an attack or cheese;

4 - Every Protoss already makes probes and batteries, will not change openings and promote build variety by making early game less reliant on specific units;

5 - Probably hard to implement.

This idea can also just be a bad idea in general, but I'm sure there are other good ideas around that can be tackled throug these goals.

Also, another goal would be:

Primary Goal:
1 - Buff Late game Protoss against Terran specifically, since against Zerg it is close enough and any early game buffs might already stabilize Protoss into late game anyway.

Secondary Goals:
2 - Keep Protoss mid-game power the same, as it is pretty good;

3 - Increase mechanic and strategic demands as to affect more professional level and less lower leagues;

4 - Not imbalance PvZ

5 - Easy to implement

Easiest way would be to nerf Terran, most notable Ghosts against shields and Vikings against Colossus, but I will not take this route here.

IDEA - Psy Barrier.

New Archon active ability. For 3s after activation any damage the Archon takes will be capped at 20. Any large damage instance of damage will be dampened making Archons good front-line tanking units against Terran (Thors, Siege tanks and EMPs). Cooldown 15s.

1 - Will barely affect zerg, as most zerg damage is a lot of small damage instances, but Terran heavy hitters will be less effective;

2 - Mid-game shoud be almost the same;

3 - Will make Protoss attack and defense more stategic, reward positioning and timing;

4 - Will barely affect Zerg, only Ultras will be affected, and Broodlords and Lurkers +attack will be denied.

5 - I don't think this should be too hard, but probably not as easy as tweaking some numbers.

TL:DR

Any Buff should be evaluted against some secondary goals as to not break the game in other aspects, and also reward good play and not F2 + A move.

EDIT TO ADD: My Ideas are probably trash, but the goals are probably good. Please discuss goals more than the ideas itself. Thanks.

Anyone know why? I've never paid any attention to patches before so just curious.

In current version () , Immortal searches target that is nearest to the last one target, instead of nearest to Immortal itself.

However, someone said Immortal targets another Roach after killing a Roach. This is a popular mistake in CN community.

Also, please clarify the bug of Brood Lord. The bug you fix is that Brood needs to go to the front of Brood Lord before launched towards the Target, if the Brood Lord is firing at max range. The move takes time, and lower DPS of Brood Lord. Now it launches directly without the move, even at max range.

I believe that clarifying the bugs is helpful to players and take your basic duty.

What if it had no cooldown and was global, like every ability on the Orbital Command?