SC2Mapster

Melee Balance Changes by Blizzard

For those of you who are interested in starcraft 2 melee play, Blizzard has announced a few small balance changes. You can read the full article here if you're interested. For those who don't feel like reading, here's the summary:

• Overall, all race matchups are well balanced. Therefore, future balance changes will be small tweaks.
• At the pro level, zerg struggle with early scouting
  • Overlord movement speed increased to 0.586, up from 0.4687.
  • Upgraded overlord movement speed unchanged.
  • Blizzard feels that this is the right way to encourage zerg players to scout early, without giving them something that allows them to see everything most of the time.
  • Blizzard will keep a close eye on this change just in case
• At the pro level, zerg are too susceptible to all-in rushes
  • Queen starting energy increased to 50, up from 25
  • Update: Blizzard has restored Queen starting energy to 25, but increased their anti-air range weapon range to 5 (up from 3)
  • Now, each queen will have either one more chain of creep tumors, or slightly faster transfusions.
  • Blizzard will see whether zerg end up with too many creep tumors early on, or the general upgrade in defensive capabilities makes it too difficult for other races to attempt any early pressure.
• Protoss at the pro-level are doing well, but not at the very top of the pro-level.
  • Observer build time decreased to 30, down from 40
  • This allows protoss players to get out an immortal faster (if they need an observer first)
  • This keeps the Robotics Facility from being tied up in the later game
• Blizzard is closely watching TvP to see if the offensive capabilities of terran in the early/mid game becomes too much, or if late game strength of protoss becomes too much.
  • Blizzard is not making a change to affect this now, but it’s very near the top of their list of things to keep an eye on.

All of these changes have been implement into a custom map called "Antiga Shipyard (1.4.3 Balance v2.0)". If you're interested in the changes, make sure to check it out!