SC2Mapster

v0.2.1

Notes

Several main balance issues are the focus of this release, along with some important bug fixes.

The most pressing issue was Sacrifice, which was too effective at decreasing damage, rendering high-damage, slow-attacking units essentially useless when used against them. Therefore, its functionality has been changed to decrease damage by a factor dependent on level instead of imposing a hard cap on the damage. Also, the amount of shields drained when damage is reduced has been changed to a constant value over all levels instead of decreasing with level.

Thors, and to a lesser extent, Hellions, were also overpowered, mainly due to their large area of effect damage. So accordingly, the areas of effect on both's attacks have been reduced. In addition, the armor of Thor Wreckages has been fixed at 0 and their maximum health has been reduced to make them easier to kill.

The last main balance change was to the Snipe ability. The ability, with its relatively short cooldown, low mana cost and no aftercast delay, could too easily be used to simply augment Nova's DPS instead of as a damage spike ability as it was intended to be used. So, an aftercast delay of 1 second has been added, during which Nova will not be able to move or attack. Players will now have to use the ability more tactically instead of simply casting it on recharge, since the aftercast delay will (1) make Nova vulnerable to a counterattack or surround and (2) make it harder for Nova to chase the target if it survives the shot. Additionally, a laser beam and a tracking dot has been added as special effects while the ability is casting to make it easier for players being targeted by Snipe to recognize they are in danger and to take any defensive actions they feel is necessary.

The final major change this release brings is not strictly a balance change, but more of general gameplay tweak. In the past, Archons did not fit in well with the rest of their tech branch. While the rest of the branch focused on high-damage attacks effective at taking out fewer numbers of high-armor targets, Archons were effective against larger numbers of weaker enemies as well due to their AoE attack. To address this, the Archon's attack has been changed to hit a maximum of three targets, but it will do full attack damage to all three targets. The cap on the number of targets it can hit with one attack keeps it in line with the idea that it is to be used against less numerous, more individually powerful targets. Still allowing the Archon to do some area of effect damage ensures that it isn't underpowered as a melee unit. The Extended Shockwave upgrade has also been changed to increase the maximum number of targets the Archon's attack can hit to five instead of increasing the Archon's range. Psionic Leech and its associated upgrade have also been tweaked to balance them with the changes to the Archon's attack.

Gameplay Changes

General

• Removed the vespene cost for Void Crystal and Psi Crystal. The mineral costs remain unchanged.

Heroes

• Void Assault, Unyielding Assault, and Treacherous Assault no longer continue to attack if the target dies or becomes invisible.
• Changes to Snipe, Hawkeye Snipe, and Penetrator Snipe:
  • Now have a cast finish time of 1 second, during which Nova cannot move or attack.
  • Now cause a targeting beam to appear as well as a red laser dot on the target's head while the ability is casting.
  • Now receive a +4 damage bonus from the Marksman attribute [was +3].
• Snipe and Hawkeye Snipe now have 0% armor penetration [was 50%].
• Changed the functionality of Sacrifice, Guardian's Sacrifice, and Champion's Sacrifice to:
  • Creates a protective shield around Tassadar. Reduces all damage done to friendly units within the shield. Cannot reduce damage below 15. Every time damage is reduced in this way, Tassadar loses 5 shield strength. The shield has no effect if Tassadar's shield strength drops below 5.

Mercs

• Armor upgrade now increases the armor of Predators.
• Restorative Nanoswarm now restores shields as well (it will prioritize restoring health over shields).

Terran

• Increased movement speed of Firebats to 2.5 [was 2.25].
• Decreased range of Hellions to 3 [was 5].
• Decreased movement speed of Hellions to 2.5 [was 2.8].
• Reapers and Marauders now do 75% damage vs. Heroes [was 100%].
• Marauders now do 75% damage vs. Structures [was 50%].
• Decreased AoE of the Thor's primary attack.
• Decreased base armor of Thor Wreckage to 0 [was 2], and maximum health to 250 [was 525]. Armor upgrades now no longer affect Thor Wreckages.
• Ghosts now do 60% damage vs. Heroes [was 100%] and 50% vs. Structures [was 30%].

Protoss

• High Templars now do 75% damage vs. Structures [was 50%].
• Immortals now do 100% damage vs. Armored [was 75%].
• Archons now do 75% damage vs. Structures [was 50%].
• Changed the Archon's attack to hit up to three targets simultaneously. The attack no longer does area of effect damage. Also changed Psionic Leech to leech 8% of attack damage (the leech takes effect on all three targets).
• Changed the Improved Leech upgrade to increase the Archon's shield leech to 12% and increased the cost to 2500 minerals/1250 vespene [was 1750/750].

Zerg

• Changed Spawn Burst to decrease spawn periods by 50/55/60/65/70/75% [was 25/30/35/40/45/50%].
• Increased Broodlings' maximum health to 380 [was 260].
• Increased Zerglings' base armor to 1 [was 0].

UI Changes

• Added special effects for Void Dance on Zeratul and Void Assault on the target.
• Added range indicators for the Baneling's Volatile Burst and the Observer's detection range.

Bug Fixes

• Void Crystal and Psi Crystal now correctly only restore health/shields from attack damage, and not from ability damage.
• Fixed bug where Flourished Dance could only be learned to level 1.
• Fixed bug where the special effects for Spiteful Block and Perpetual Block were not showing up on the target.
• Unbreaking Wave is now correctly no longer available once you have learned Swelling Wave.

v0.2.1

• When your hero dies, you may find that inventory items have shifted position after revival. In the past, this was due to the workaround for the bug that items always dropped on death. Blizzard has since fixed that bug, but in doing so, they have introduced yet another bug with reviving heroes with items, so I have chosen to leave in the workaround (which fortuitously fixes this new bug).
• When researching certain upgrades, the icon that appears in the research queue is the "Cancel" icon instead of the upgrade's actual icon. This is a purely UI bug and has no adverse effect on the upgrade itself.

Important Any saved changes to this uploaded file will render the map unplayable. This is not some map protection scheme. It is simply because the map uses a customized MapScript.galaxy file that WILL be overwritten if the map is saved in the editor.