Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Starcraft 2: Beta – PATCH 14

I was about to record this day’s replay when the Starcraft Launcher suddenly downloaded Patch 14! Yey..? Anyways, this is the last patch for the Starcraft 2 Beta, and this week is the last week for playing starcraft 2 online on the battle.net. A week before launch, the Beta will be up again but in the meantime, the only way to play starcraft 2 will be against A.I :(

Ok, enough about that and let’s discuss Patch 14. The Protoss Archon received a nice buff, it seems that blizzard is trying to push Archons.. understandable since the unit rarely see tournament play- now with a build time of 12, i think its possible to merge two templars in the field just before they die and get a fresh archon out.

The Terran race was nerfed, but not by much: the Viking, one of Terran’s primary anti-air unit, got a reduced ground damage. But since no one in their right minds actually use the Vikings in their “Assault Mode” unless when cleaning up, I don’t think this will affect the terran build very much.

Zerg-Queen

Now, we get to the Zerg. A lot of changes, most of them buffs. First up: Corruptors’ Corruption ability becomes less expensive to use. I still don’t think its worth it, but if your opponent likes Heavy Armor units, this is one way to soften them up.

Infestors & Ultralisks gets a huge buff: Their speed upgrades are removed, but they start with increased move/burrow speeds instead! I always thought that the speed upgrades are essential, and very rarely send out Ultras w/o them- now they’re researched by default! :D The Overlord/Overseer’s speed upgrade on the other hand, becomes doubly expensive, while the Infested Terran ability gets a 20% discount. The speed upgrade might be huge especially for the “doom drop” tactics, but still doable.

Another buff for teh zurg: Looks like blizz is trying to make Roaches viable again with a two-for-one upgrade. Basically, if you get the Tunneling Claws upgrade, you automatically get the Organic Carapace absolutely free! But Wait! There’s more!

The Ultralisk also get a small hp buff, rounding up his total to a whopping 500 hp. Ok, I guess that all of the balance changes, the bug fixes really matters little since after this week, Battle.net will be down for a couple of weeks. Ok, I guess that’s it for this patch update, stay tuned for my next post~!

Next Up: Terran Reapers, and How to Use Them Effectively

0 comments: