Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1

Question

Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 Details came out, in a nut shell Blizzard is trying to balance out damage against armor units and to provide players with better rush defense/counters.

How should I start preparing for these changes?

Answer

Please note: this is largely localized in time, as these changes may or may not go into effect.

There are a number of things in this report so I'll try to break them down as best as I can.

Siege Tanks

The switch from 50 to 35+15 means that Siege tanks will remain effective vs Roaches and Stalkers (banelings also remain the same), however, a number of units change:

• Zerglings no longer 1 shot
• Hydralisks no longer 2 shot
• Zealots no longer 4 shot (175 vs 200)
• Marines no longer 1 shot

The key points here being that fast melee units (Zerglings and Zealots) will be more effective vs tanks than they were previously. I imagine this means Blizzard wants these units to be more effective late game, and I know that you'll start seeing more Zergling/Zealot drops on tanks (as the splash will still do the full 50). The boost to Hydralisks is also very nice, but largely incidental (as without creep the difference will be negligible). Top players (ie. Idra) have been complaining about the effectiveness of Mech and BioMech for a while, and this largely seems to be a reaction to that.

Battle Cruisers

As Cattle Bruisers are strong against ground but less strong vs air, this is just a straight nerf. In the long run we will likely see this change cause more diverse late game Terran play (Viking + BC + Banshee), but overall little effect. I would not be surprised if this change was nerfed or BC were changed again in a later patch.

Ultralisks

The primary change is a reflection of the decrease in Siege Tank effectiveness. While Ultra will still remain strong against Protoss forces, it looks like this is a shift from using Ultra to counter Mech to using Zerglings. Compared to Protoss, Ultralisks will still be about as strong vs T1 forces, and still weak vs Immortals.

On the subject of Ultralisk head attack, it looks like Blizzard finally realized that the difference in dps was tiny (15%), and are hoping that the AoE offsets the change in damage.

Reapers

There has been a lot of discussion about the role of Reapers in the Terran force since day 1. Though Reapers have found a couple niche roles which they work well in, they have failed to become an interesting unit outside of these roles. While this change feels like a knee jerk reaction to changes in Zealots and the IEM finals, I would not be surprised to see Reapers taken in a different direction in 1.2.

Zealots and Bunkers

Both of these changes are very much targeted at early rushes and reducing their effectiveness. 2 Gate Protoss has long been ignored by the larger Protoss community, but is EXTREMELY effective (especially against fast expanding Zerg). Both of these changes are targeted at extending races past early play and reducing strategies which are harmful to the larger user base. The change in Zealot build time in particular has oscillated a number of times during Beta and will likely continue to do so.

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