I am a top GM LotV Protoss player and I have appeared on shows talking about the development of LotV. Most recently I have been on "ThePatch" and on "Remax", both shows can be found on their host´ twitch pages. I have been playing the beta for a long time and discussed the game with top foreigners currently playing the game from all races.
Legacy of the Void is well underway, but at the same time we are approaching an imminent release. This means that Blizzard with good reason may start to be more conservative about changes.
The purpose of this thread is to line up some of the changes I would like to see done which all are simple, some new some old suggestions, but I think their simplicity and importance will improve the gameplay in very good ways and also have minimum to no bad impact on balance.
These changes represent the most popular suggestions based on strong agreement between pro players from all races. It is based on discussions I have had in private, on talkshows and otherwise in and out of game with many players including qxc, catz, morrow, beastyqt, naniwa, myself, TLO, Sortof, Nightend, TT1 and more. The first suggestions you will see will be ones with strong agreement and should thus be done and tested right away, and then after that I will have a category with slight disagreement in exact changes or more uncertainty on the outcome of possible implementation of the suggestions.
This may be my last chance to see some changes get done and I hope you will appreciate some of them.
Here goes:
Photon Overcharge
- Reduce the damage from 30 per shot to 15 per shot.
- Increase the duration from 11 seconds to 22 seconds.
Between me and a variety of Terran and Zerg players I have spoken to, Photon Overcharge currently deals too much damage and snowballs small fights too much while in later stages they seem to have a lesser impact.
An Overlord, Reaper or small counter-attack force in PvX matchups are quickly stopped by a small number of Pylons and units fall quickly. However, if we change the damage but increase the duration in a mathemathically sensible way, we still keep a strong overcharge in the lategame that should be able to get the damage done over the duration. Keep in mind, while this change is mathemathically even, the less damage means less snowballing effect due to lower damage, so it might be reasonable to set the damage to 20 and duration to 22 seconds. But anything along these lines are strongly advised for a good Photon Overcharge change to further test and see how it goes.
This would greatly increase the potential to do Medivac drops and generally attack Protoss in the early/midgame, and depending on changes make Pylons remain equally strong or slightly stronger in the lategame.
Alternatively, increasing the energy cost and the duration is a solution too.
Lurkers
- Decrease the time of which a Lurker unburrows.
- Perhaps compensate this buff with a slight increase in time it takes to burrow.
Currently there is a problematic interaction in PvZ where Lurkers has a hard time playing against Disruptors. An interesting micro-able solution would simply be to buff the unburrow speed a lot so that reactive players can deal with the shots more easily but still risk getting hit if a lot of stuff is happening in the game. Even now I believe it is possible, but with the lag for EU and KR players it is problematic. I believe a buff around 10-20% would be reasonable. This would be even more synergetic if Roaches would be able to approach disruptors as well as they fire shots off by only taking 140 damage per shot.
If this turns out to be in any way overpowered besides the fact Lurkers will be able to escape long-range fire more easily, we can always compensate this with a slight nerf to the burrow time (not unburrow).
Overlord Movement Speed
- Increase Overlord movement speed by anything that makes them more similar to HotS scouting in beginning and then some.
Currently Overlords die quite easily when scouting Protoss to Photon Overcharge and it can be difficult to scout on some maps and especially 4player maps. With new builds, allins etc. I think it is reasonable to test the Overlord moving slightly faster. I previously proposed about 33%.
Marines are also able to catch overlords now due to the hastened progression in games.
Further, with creep receding faster, Overlords can maybe help spread creep.
Warp Prism
- Move the fast Warp In on Warp Prisms to an upgrade on Robotics Bay for 100/100 and X (maybe 40) research timer.
I/we still think the Warp Prism should be addressed even when Adepts might not be used with them as much anymore versus Terran. The Warp In threat simply keeps especially Zerg at bay by far too much, and I really think the best that can be done with the Warp Prism Warp In is to move the Warp In to an upgrade.
I find the Warp Prism to be extremely useful even outside its´ Warp In strength so I think the warpin change would be very reasonable and fix a lot of issues.
Designwise I think it is a mistake to allow a variety of robotics openers, especially allin/timing-oriented ones, to initially benefit from the fast Warp Prism Warp In as that invokes some of the bad gameplay we saw in HotS where Protoss did not work for the rally in a defenders advantage situation.
Warp In
- Decrease the naked pylon warpin from 16 seconds to 10 seconds.
With Warp Prism nerf it would only make sense to change this as well, but even regardless. It has been a concept that naked pylons can Warp In since the beginning and, as we see in the cinematic, it is a beloved concept. I/we do not see a reason why this number is to be kept so high alongside the 200% damage taken debuff.
Disruptor
- Remove the +shield damage and decrease the flat damage from 145 to 140.
I/we think the Disruptor is a great unit and in most ways an improvement to the Colossus. The unit is capable of doing a lot of damage with its´ high projectile speed and +/- range 2 AoE.
The problem, however, is that it is capable of one-shotting most tier 1 units and some tier 2, including itself, which seems to cause "over-babysitting" where just one disruptor shot if hit correctly can determine fully the outcome of a game. This is especially true for PvP. This means that players has to watch out for the shots at the extreme level rather than focusing on overall gameplay.
Currently the Disruptor one-shots Adepts, Zealots, Stalkers, Disruptors, Dark Templars and Templars while doing 200 damage to all other shielded units. The incitimanet to amass this unit is therefore high, and while all Protoss units except for Blink Stalkers are immobile, being able to dodge and work around the projectile is difficult, and most mid/lategames turn out to be a battle of Disruptors or Carriers.
I think the Disruptor would still be very useful by not one-shotting every single unit. All it takes is random damage from other attacks or health being relatively low for them to do the damage. For instance, a Stalker would have 20 HP left after a hit from Disruptor.
With the reduced cost and huge potential in especially PvP and ZvP, I think it is reasonable to nerf the unit. For ZvP this means that roaches will no longer get one-shotted but instead be left with 5 hp untill further regeneration can heal them.
EDIT:
The community update solution may fix the PvP issues. Question is if a flat damage nerf is needed now to help PvZ.
---Up there but did not quite make it---
- These suggestions below are discussed a lot but it is more uncertain exactly what should be done to address the problems their represent. Still, I felt it was reasonable to post them anyway. Either the changes will not have a very great and simple effect on the game or the topic is still very open but deserves attention.
Oracle Revelation
- Decrease the duration from +/- 40 seconds to +/- 20 seconds.
- Decrease the energy cost from 50 to 25 seconds.
- Decrease the range from 12 to 9
Simple. If revelation hits, it seems to cause vision for way to long time. It also seems to be hard to counter.
With less energy cost, it becomes more useful versus detection. How important this is I am not sure, but it would be a reasonable compensation for the decreased duration. It is in and of it self harder to use the revelation if the duration is shorter.
Liberator
- Decrease the damage to below 80 so that it no longer 3-shots especially Templars, Stalkers and Hydralisks.
We are not sure if this change is really needed, but if it is, this would be a simple way to go and balance it out. Liberators are strong.
Marauder
- Revert the damage type back to HotS.
The Marauder has taken a huge hit versus Ultralisks and slightly versus light units. Whether reverting the Marauder or finding something else (maybe Cyclones?) to be a counter versus Ultralisks is unknown, but something should be done.
Carriers
I believe one of two options for starters should be looked at on the Carrier.
- Reduce the health by 50 or 100.
or
- Increase the build time by 15 or 20 seconds.
Many Protoss players finds it interesting that you can go Carrier relatively early in the game, but the fact remains that you can open pretty much anything and still transition to them because of the increased strength and flexibility plus of course the reduced build time. When the macro mechanics were completely removed, the Carrier had a change in atmosphere in terms of transitioning risk. While other races had the same numerical production as with or without any of the macro mechanics changes, Chrono Boost was/is key to the production of expensive Protoss units. I/we believe with the relatively re-implemented Chrono Boost that the Carrier could deserve a small increase in build timer. If not, a possible health nerf is do-able as well.
Thanks everybody. I will edit this thread if something I forgot comes to mind or if you guys are able to correct me on my misknowledge/misunderstanding or likewise.
I hope to see some of these changes go through soon.