This week we felt like there are some important balance issues and gameplay related issues that SC2 should test and iterate upon, that the community has highlighted as problems. I would like to share with you the SC2 communities thoughts and feedback
Nydus Worms
It's clear from watching streams, some small tourneys/showmatches, and overall feedback that it is not intended for there to be a low counter play strategy such as the current nydus worm. We did not foresee players loading 6+ queens into them making this strategy incredibly frustrating to play against and near impossible to deal with on ladder and in competitive play.
The other issue with the current version of the Nydus Worm is it is simply too easy to execute and requires a very low amount of practice/skill input from the user.
We are looking to revert this back to Heart of the Swarm style Nydus worm, with possible other buffs/nerfs. We currently are looking at a possible cost reduction for nydus worm exits to 75/75 to promote more usage of this, while not having it remain in it's current almost uncounterable form.
We look to test these changes in an upcoming patch, as we feel it's important that strategies in SC2 are fun and reward creativity but at the same time have counter play and are not frustrating to play against.
Ravagers
The Ravager is seeing a lot of play, and has ever since it was first announced and released. We fondly remember the Ravager at the start of LOTV Beta where the unit was strong to the point every game was "make ravagers."
Currently, the Ravager is not in a good place. Most games are simply "make ravagers" against everything and anything.
There are many ways we can tone down the strength of this unit without making it too weak. Currently we are looking at:
-give the Ravager the armored tag back so there are more counters to it
-increase the cooldown on corrosive bile so it is not so spammable
-reduce the strength of the ravager's auto-attack so that it is not so all-around and is more of a dedicated specialist unit with the skill shot
-adding an extra prereq building such as a "Ravager nest" to delay Ravager early game all-ins, or simply adding lair tech as a pre-requisite
8 Armor Ultralisks
This upgrade is not working out. The ultralisk was already quite an "a-move" style unit, and the 8 armor has put it over the top.
We will be removing this upgrade from the game in an upcoming patch.
Parasitic Bomb + Mass Air of all 3 Races
The parasitic bomb ability has been controversial since beta began.
Recently, we added more visibility to see which unit is affected by parasitic bomb to allow players micro opportunities against it.
The initial thoughts behind this ability was to dissuade mass air armies and force action in late game. The mass raven case, and mass void ray cases in particular were what parasitic bomb was aimed at.
After seeing the ability in action all throughout the beta, and post launch, it seems the ability is still too powerful.
The viper already has 3 powerful abilities on it, and the void ray/mass raven cases have already been nerfed in previous patches, along with the economy changes affecting those as well.
There still is an issue late game with all 3 races wanting to amass their strongest air unit, those air units being vipers, liberators, and tempest/carriers. This is not an issue that can be fixed over one patch, but we are looking for ways to tone down these units and bring up ground anti-air counter parts such as the hydralisk and the cyclone.
For now, changing parasitic bomb to not be stackable and lowering it's damage, and giving a better indicator to which unit is being parasitic bomb seems to be the best course of action. We may look to remove this ability in a future patch as other changes are made in regards to liberators, carriers, and tempests.
Pylon Cannon
It is clear that the pylon cannon is offering up too much strength to early game Protoss in the form of free photon cannons for 25 mothership core energy.
We do like the pylon cannon design better than the previous "click your nexus" design.
Increasing the energy required for a pylon cannon to 50 should allow opponent's more opportunities to attack Protoss early game or bait out Pylon cannons from their opponent's.
Protoss Balance
Protoss right now is in a difficult place balance wise. Units like the adept, warp prism, and carrier can make Protoss feel "OP" but Protoss strength is too centered on these units.
Also, due to the pylon cannon disrupting balance early game in every match-up, it is currently very difficult to judge the strengths and weaknesses of Protoss until pylon cannon is addressed.
We are keeping an eye on Protoss balance in general and will look to make tweaks to units such as collosus and adepts in upcoming patches to make sure Protoss is in a good spot.
Cyclones, and Mech Viability
Currently cyclones are not at a good place in the game.
Previously, they were overpowered and then toned down. But now they are too expensive to really produce and trade with opponent's units.
Cyclones we are looking to reduce in price perhaps to 125/100 to see if this brings the unit up to par and encourages producing them and trading them with enemy units.
Along the same lines, mech viability is something we are not happy with. In the past, we have seen mech games lead to stalemates and turtle games with little to no action.
Upon examining this, we have recognized a huge reason as to why turtle mech is one of the only viable ways to play mech is because siege tanks currently do not trade well with most units in the game.
A previous patch that nerfed siege tank damage in siege mode has produced a catch-22 effect.
If a player wants to go mech, the tank is a very focal unit. But because the siege tank cannot trade well, it encourages the meching Terran to turtle into a critical mass of siege tanks to make them useful.
While we are very wary of turtle mech games, we do want to test bringing back the tank damage to near previous values to see if this produces more action packed mech games which encourage a meching Terran to move out on the map earlier and trade units with their opponents.
The game has changed a lot since blistering sands and Steppes of War which are what originally produced the siege tank damage nerf, and we would love to see if reverting the siege tank damage changes would produce entertaining mech games at professional level, where currently most games are dominated by only bio play.
This will require further testing, but we feel having both mech and bio as viable options at professional level of play will result in more exciting and unpredictable games to spectate, and overall increase the health of SC2.
Reaper Grenades
The reaper grenade ability is not turning out as expected. Reapers still see no play past the first few minutes of an SC2 game, and even worse, the only cases reapers are used in are for all-ins versus both Terran and Zerg.
We would like to remove this ability from the game and in a future patch test a different reaper ability that would encourage players to make reapers past the first few minutes of the game.
We are currently looking at previous iterations of the reaper, where reapers did +bonus damage to structures and have been playing around with an ability similar to one from Wings of Liberty Beta.
Here is what we are currently designing and iterating upon:
Reaper Anti-Building Charge (3 charges)
-Researched at barracks tech lab
-pre requisite factory
-3 mines per reaper
-massive damage to buildings (100-300), mine detonates 3 seconds after being planted, but can be killed and attacked by defending units
This version of the reaper would incentivize reapers being produced and then kept alive till mid-game where they could then serve a purpose via researching the reaper anti-building charge ability.
We would like your feedback on this ability and look to test a version of this in an upcoming patch (or on PBE).
Bunker Changes
Just kidding, there are many more important and pressing issues gameplay and balance-wise to address as SC2 LOTV begins to head into tournament gameplay quite soon.
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We have much more on our radar in terms of game design and balance for the future of LOTV. Things such as nuke viability, future mech viability changes, infestor changes, swarmhost changes, and many more.
Thank you for your time and patience and we look forward to your continued community feedback and support to continue making SC2 the greatest game alive.
Thank you.
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Edited in this video elaborating my thoughts for people that were too lazy to actually read my OP. Maybe for the people criticizing or flaming without reading...can listen instead: