Blizzcon: Talk about current balance situation and possible future changes (PvT)

[guru]

Make ghost emp to target only 1 unit and decrease energy cost. add a cooldown and i'm happy. or keep the AOE but don't take away all them shields. ghosts can be produced easily, they are low on tech, kinda cheap and they don't need to research EMP. Imba ghost!!! >:P

[Zabimaru]

Make ghost emp to target only 1 unit and decrease energy cost. add a cooldown and i'm happy. or keep the AOE but don't take away all them shields. ghosts can be produced easily, they are low on tech, kinda cheap and they don't need to research EMP. Imba ghost!!! >:P

Never!!! :P

[evillesh]

Make ghost emp to target only 1 unit and decrease energy cost. add a cooldown and i'm happy. or keep the AOE but don't take away all them shields. ghosts can be produced easily, they are low on tech, kinda cheap and they don't need to research EMP. Imba ghost!!! >:P

since when 150/150 is kinda cheap?
I think everything is more or less balanced right now.

[dustinbrowder]

The math equation for matchmaking is pretty easy honestly. If you ever done university's level calculus, you could probably understand what it means if you knew what the variables actually means. "OMG INTEGRALS!! :'( "... please. easy!

On another note: Who else wants to punch the guy at the end who talks about mutalisks?

That's always a fear some random noob will come up and bring forward a non existing balance problem.

If mutas are imba that probably the whole multiplayer game is imba...

About the PvT stuff, I actually think its balance fairly well. Again, I'd like Blizzard to revert all changes they made from the previous patch and nerf the marauder a little, which is the cause of all balance problems.
There is no problem with storm or colossus or thors, the problem is marauders.
Blizzard nerfed everything into oblivion, except the real problem which is the marauder, so they will have even more balance problems now.

[13thLegion]

Everyone keeps saying "Nerf Marauders, nerf Marauders!" but to what? 16 damage vs armored 15? Remove the concussive effect?

Run the numbers and see what happens in testing. I'm pretty sure Terran will get steamrolled into oblivion in every early game test there is. I would believe that this is why they haven't just gone the damage debuff or removed the concussive shell. I think tweaking the stim bonus is the best way to go. I'm pretty sure it's a delicate balance on it though otherwise Blizzard would have fixed the thing already.

[GnaReffotsirk]

The real problem, imho, is the exponential progression of the game. I mean, how the game swings too fast, too hard. It has something to do with money and production stuff. Though not sure what exactly.

[dustinbrowder]

Everyone keeps saying "Nerf Marauders, nerf Marauders!" but to what? 16 damage vs armored 15? Remove the concussive effect?

Run the numbers and see what happens in testing. I'm pretty sure Terran will get steamrolled into oblivion in every early game test there is. I would believe that this is why they haven't just gone the damage debuff or removed the concussive shell. I think tweaking the stim bonus is the best way to go. I'm pretty sure it's a delicate balance on it though otherwise Blizzard would have fixed the thing already.

I say cut the previous changes that nerfed terran into oblivion and just nerf the marauder a little bit, like stil taking 30hp instead of 20hp and reducing armor damage just a very little bit.

I'd actually like to see sieged tank get some of it damage back, not all of it since it will then just make it imba again, but get it increased a bit.

[Wankey]

Siege tank needs abit of its damage back against everything. I feel siege tanks just aren't viable if I don't have a large bio ball to toughen against anything.

I dunno about the balance, but IMO, the marauder feels too much of a DPS guy AND a damage soaker while the siege tank feels way too weak and falls far to quickly.

Either increase siege tank dmg or increase its hp some more. Marauders just need their armor decreased or make their concussion shells require engineering bay.

The ideal patch IMO for me would be:

Remove supply depot requirement for rax
Marauder concussion shells require engineering bay

That's it. I feel concussion shells shut down gameplay too much, and with stim makes marauders far easier to micro against early units.

[Nicol Bolas]

what fantasy world are they living in? Roaches are the worst unit to counter marauders with. Even without stim and even without concussion grenades.

Probably the fantasy world where they have the ability to test these changes quickly and easily, and thus would know more about how adjusting Marauder damage would affect Marauder vs. Roach more than you do.

AKA: reality.

Again, I'd like Blizzard to revert all changes they made from the previous patch and nerf the marauder a little, which is the cause of all balance problems.

I think Marauders could use a nerf, but they are not the cause of all balance problems. Making Marauders weaker wouldn't change the Protoss late-game advantage vs. Terrans.

[MulletBen]

I really wonder if a 2 damage nerf to the marauders attack would make roaches suddenly start winning in battles against them. Man, I wish I had that program.

Also, from what I've heard a lot of top players say, as they have been saying for a while, that it's hard for zerg to do anything early game to pressure Terrans, other than baneling busts. Granted, the recent reaper nerfs haven't totally shook out, but I still feel that Terran are quite powerful then, and by lessening the effectiveness of bio pushes, you lessen one of the Terrans most powerful option. Personally, I would move reaper speed to requiring an engineering bay, which seems far more reasonable than a factory, nerf marauders slightly, then buff tanks slightly vs. armored to make up for it.

Nevertheless, I trust Blizzard's balance. No matter how many changes it takes, they're going to get it right someday. What I am more concerned about, at this point, is so many of the underused units and abilities.
Nydus Worms? It's 200/200 for the building, 100/100 for the worm (which you can't cancel, Sahara), takes 20 seconds to spawn, and has only 200 health, meaning it can be killed by workers before it's done morphing. Perhaps a cost decrease to 150/150 would help worms be used once again competitively.
Hallucination? Guardian shield is far better for damage soaking, and 100/100 for the ability to feign tech seems like a waste when those resources could be devoted to actual teching. Perhaps reducing the cost of the upgrade, the energy it takes to 75, or perhaps increasing the number of hallucinated units made (for most units, only 1 hallucination is produced. If you could get out 3 instead of 2 stalkers or zealots, and perhaps 2 immortals, archons or warp prisms, it might be worth using the spell for those units).
Mothership?
Archons?

As an aside, I think archons are fairly potent, but a slight buff might give them a little more use, to combat their lack of practicality.

Anyone think after watching Fruitdealer we might see a baneling nerf?