TeamLiquid.net Article: Zerg & Larva Injection

[FrozenArbiter]

It's a good point that you can now have much bigger clumps of units, however I will respectfully disagree about the difficulty in hitting mutas in the original game.

A good zerg will only ever take serious damage with his mutalisks if he screws up badly, or you have something like 5-6 templars.

As I said, I'll reserve judgement until I've actually played. People don't seem to get HTs very often from the gameplay reports I've read, but that is probably because of the scarcity of gas more than anything else.

[Aldrius]

As I said, I'll reserve judgement until I've actually played. People don't seem to get HTs very often from the gameplay reports I've read, but that is probably because of the scarcity of gas more than anything else.

Okay, can someone actually explain this to me...?

Isn't the amount of gas the exact same? 5000 (over two geysers instead of one)? Or does the new pathing not help gas gathering as much as it did mineral gathering?

[Norfindel]

Maybe because Psi-Storm is stronger now? Blizzard seems to have made Psi Storm do even more damage per interval than the old Psi Storms. In SC1, storm dodging is to minimize damage. Now it seems storm dodging is about not getting fried instantly. Can anyone confirm how long the new Psi Storm lasts on the field?

EDIT: So I checked and the new Psi Storm does deal more damage than the old one. It also deals it faster so dodging the storm altogether is more important than before.

As i said, lower the damage, but don't take timing away from the player!!!. God, rising the damage and adding delay is the stupidest thing they could do...

[DemolitionSquid]

Okay, can someone actually explain this to me...?

Isn't the amount of gas the exact same? 5000 (over two geysers instead of one)? Or does the new pathing not help gas gathering as much as it did mineral gathering?

All reports state there is never enough gas. The only logical explanation is the pathing.

[spychi]

Yup gas is the big problem, you are forced to expand more quickly than it was in SC1.

[ArcherofAiur]

Yup gas is the big problem, you are forced to expand more quickly than it was in SC1.

Thats the point. They are trying to make gas more limited.

[DemolitionSquid]

Thats the point. They are trying to make gas more limited.

As I have said before, you're quoting them wrong.

Blizzard wants to make gas more important. Limiting it is the best solution they've found so far, but it is not their preferred solution.

[ArcherofAiur]

As I have said before, you're quoting them wrong.

Blizzard wants to make gas more important. Limiting it is the best solution they've found so far, but it is not their preferred solution.

Exactly. They are trying to make gas more important by limiting it. Did I say something contrary to that?

[SpiderBrigade]

As i said, lower the damage, but don't take timing away from the player!!!. God, rising the damage and adding delay is the stupidest thing they could do...

It's not like the delay is random, so the timing is still under player control.

Now, you may certainly be right and the spell would be better without the delay, but I think I know what they were going for - they were trying to make it into much more of a skill-break ability. In other words if you are a master Storm user, your enemy will have to expend just as much skill and micro to evade, or else his units will just all die, since the storm does more damage and does it faster.

However, it's definitely true that storm-dodging is already a skill most pros have, so this change might make it far too easy. But I guess we'll find out in the beta.

[Pandonetho]

Exactly. They are trying to make gas more important by limiting it. Did I say something contrary to that?

They're not trying to make gas more limited, they've already done that.

They're trying to make it more important. There is indeed a difference.

However, it's definitely true that storm-dodging is already a skill most pros have, so this change might make it far too easy. But I guess we'll find out in the beta.

I agree about the skill-break part, that's definitely what I think they're doing.
Secondly, it's all a balancing act. In SC1 yes other pros could storm dodge but they'd still take damage. In SC2 if storm is as strong as it is now without the delay, (and don't anyone forget about smart cast) it will devastate units whether you're good at storm dodging or not.