The next major patch!

[RamiZ]

Was just reading through forums this morning and realized we didn't communicate our general direction for the major balance patch before the holidays.

Terran

1. Redesign Thor ability/Raven seeker missile

2. Push early game Reaper a bit more

3. Hellbats better against melee units, not necessarily better vs. Ranged.

4. We'd really like to see more Medivac usage like we saw in Wings for a time in the past. Currently thinking on a cooldown based speed booster ability.

5. Buff Bio in the late game - with the addition of new units in HotS, we feel Bio in the late game is a bit weak.

6. Buff mech in general - we'd like to maybe test combining the vehicle and air upgrades at the armory.

Zerg

1. Hydralisk movement speed upgrade to Lair

2. Mutalisk buff to speed and/or acceleration

3. Ultralisk changed to be good vs. all ground

4. Nerf Infestor quite heavily

5. Make it easier to unburrow and reposition Swarm Hosts

Protoss


1. Redesign Voidray - we're currently thinking of having the player choose when to activate the charge up ability.

2. Oracle - pulsar beam would now overlap too much with the new Voidray, so we'd like to change the Oracle to be more of a worker harasser.

3. Buff DTs not necessarily for the DT rush case, but to have DTs more often in the late game.

4. Nerf Vortex - we don't like how all or nothing this ability is in Wings, and with new unit adds, we feel we can remove or phase out this ability.

5. Fix Tempests to not counter all late tech Zerg. We currently don't like how Zerg can't go Tier 3 units if Tempests are in play.

6. Make Voidray + Phoenix + Oracle combo a viable strat overall.

These are our current thoughts for each of the races. And please remember none of these changes are final. Our hope is to move into the more fine tuning stages if this major patch turns out well.

Didn't see anyone posting this or commenting about it. So, what do you guys think? I like majority of these things, even though some are questionable.

Discuss!

Edit: Source - http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/5966979955

[Peanutbutter]

4. Nerf infestor quite heavily

Yes please.

[DemolitionSquid]

Sign Of The Apocalypse: I have no issues with them trying out anything David listed.

The only thing I'm unsure of is the Void Ray change, because I don't understand what David is trying to convey. The player already decides when the Void Ray charges by letting it target the same unit over an extended period of time.

[sandwich_bird]

Sign Of The Apocalypse: I have no issues with them trying out anything David listed.

I have to agree there. They finally got their head straight.

Of course, it's probably just because his thoughts are still too general. Wait until he goes into the specifics...

[flak4321]

Mutalisks don't really need a speed upgrade. And how can you buff an acceleration that is already almost instant? perhaps aslight hp buff instead. However, if speed is the answer, there must be an appropriate counter buff for toss to be able to engage just as quickly, as a speed buff would make them more able to kite cannons and turrets. Otherwise I'm cool.

[topsecret221]

You can kite turrets? O_o

[TheEconomist]

Sign Of The Apocalypse: I have no issues with them trying out anything David listed.

More proof than thousands of years of human civilization guess work.

[DemolitionSquid]

Thought on the Void Ray change.
1) could be suggesting that the charge be an activated ability, separate from its regular attack
2) could be suggesting that the charge is part of a trade-off mechanism. If the void ray is moving, low beam. If the void ray is static, high beam. No charging phase.

[TheEconomist]

could be suggesting that the charge is part of a trade-off mechanism. If the void ray is moving, low beam. If the void ray is static, high beam. No charging phase.

I probably like this idea. Would give it a bit of a different role than others since it can be an attack as units retreat unit or an in and out base harass (although Phoenix CAN do this).

[RamiZ]

Mutalisks don't really need a speed upgrade. And how can you buff an acceleration that is already almost instant? perhaps aslight hp buff instead. However, if speed is the answer, there must be an appropriate counter buff for toss to be able to engage just as quickly, as a speed buff would make them more able to kite cannons and turrets. Otherwise I'm cool.

Acceleration buff is necessary, and it is far from instant. I would like to see them buff acceleration and/or moving shots for Mutalisks. Would increase the skill-cap and would be a lot better unit overall without actually breaking the game. Speed buff is not needed, I agree.

The only thing I disagree is Hellbat buff. The unit is already amazing for fucking 100 minerals. It is harassing-tanky-unit all in one, can also be healed from Medivac in one form, and is fast as hell in another, deal decent AoE damage, but have low dps. And they melt all melee units already, Zealots last for few seconds, and Zerglings are useless as long as you have 5-10 Hellbats in your army. Really don't see the need for this buff.

The thing I am not sure of, is combining vehicles and air upgrades. It sounds great on paper, but it may be too good. We will see, there is still no metagame in HotS, all other things sound promising.