Balance Patch 5.0.11 PTR Patch Notes

here’s my prospective as a m1/gm terran player I think a lot of these changes are reasonable, but im not a fan of some:

what I like:

Archon change:

this is just a qol change that should have been in the game from the start, its was super stupid in pvz especially, I don’t think anyone can complain about this change. Nice!

Observer change:

even though it will be a bit annoying I’m good with this it was a weird thing to nerf way back then. The one interaction i don’t like about this is its now just that little bit harder to scan and kill and obs spotting for 4 gate blink stalker as terran, still I’m good with it.

Raven change:

This change Mainly has implications for tvt. having the raven be a cheaper but weaker unit is honestly very nice in my opinion, this helps balance the strength of raven openings against other builds and will shake up the meta a bit. This is also a direct buff in other matchups where the raven was often a bit to cost prohibitive to be a good option in comparison to other starport units, I could see terrans experimenting with raven hellion openings vs zerg as a more creep denying focused macro opening. Vs toss I could also see this being a nice soft nerf to dt allins, which although not imba are an annoying coinflip build. Overall this is a very nice change. thumbs up. ( i dont like the buff to bad toss players though that makes it so disabled collosi wont walk into your army that comes from the bug fix)

Carrier:

as a terran player honestly carriers were never that big of a deal to begin with, probably see them 1 in 60 games, but I know that in zvp, pvp, team games, and lower levels of play they are a menace. I think nerfing them is good for the game. the priority change definitely will help lower level players deal with them. I think that since good players almost always target the carriers instead of the interceptors this change is more a qol change for metal league players. The interceptor change is also a slight buff to marines and hydras vs them which could matter when the carriers don’t have splash under them and are low in number. Nice.

Banshee Hyperflight Rotors: Since this saw basically 0 competitive play and was only used in meme builds I think that buffing it is good. I could see people experimenting with it in tvz, maybe their is a build where you make 3-4 banshees with 3 cc and get this before/instead of cloak. I think their might be some niche uses for this now, but overall I dont think it changes that much, we still wont see it that often (unless I’m very wrong about how good this upgrade is)

disruptor:

this unit was to powerful when it hit a good shot. Im biased as a terran player about it admittedly but I’m not going to complain about nerfing it, I approve. ( it does kill my pvz style though, but i can live with that)

Ht move speed:

this is not that big of a change but Im ok with it, I think that it will help them stay with your army better and also let you split them up when facing banes/aoe. Im ok with it.

sentry build time:

nice small buff to defending certain allins, I’m good with that. I think it most heavily affects pvp, and pvz though.

viper abduct nerf:

this is really not that big of a nerf, but it does give you a window to fight back against having your units abducted. Nice.

Shield battery nerf & bug fix:

Shield batteries impact in not just early but midgame fights was to powerful in my opinion. in general it just was to impactful of a defensive mechanic and allowed toss to be very very greedy. Its important that toss have something like this in the game or certain allins would be busted. But it was to good. I think adjusting its power level is a good change.

Changes I’m meh about:

Creep nerf: This small enough it will only affect the very best zerg pros, most zergs are not good enough at macro to maximize the cooldown, also alot of the excessive amount of creep on the map is not due to repeat spawns of creep but mass creep spam from 13+ queens, this really does not do enough in my opinion to nerf this extremely opressive mechanic.

Ultralisk buff:

Ultras are kind of bad, but buffing them while nerfing ghosts worries me, Guess we will see how this plays out, I’m not a huge fan of buffing them given that back when they were good (8 armor patch) it was very oppressiv to play against them for terrans.

Hatchery vision range/creep spread: a buff against cannon rushes and bunker rushes. I know people don’t like playing against cheese but nerfing it like this. I’m not sure its a good idea, it reduces variety instead of increasing it because we will see even less cannon/bunker rushes at a high level.

Cyclone change:

I’m not sure how to evaluate this one, on one hand this makes the cyclone more versatile, and is a nice buff against queens, on the other hand cyclones with magfield usually was used to fight armored units like stalkers and roaches, or in mech vs tempests. It also a nerf vs buildings. This might actually be a nerf, and if so an unwarranted one, I have seen 0 people claim cyclones are an imbalanced (or even a good unit). I’m not much of a mech enjoyer so my knowledge on this one is limited but I’m skeptical about this change. ehh???

ravager change:

Its a small nerf to ravager allins. and a nerf to ravager morph micro zvt. this change reduces the skill cap for zergs, instead of increasing it. and nerfs an allin that was pretty much fine. Not a fan of this change, but its not that big of a deal.

sensor tower:

I don’t think this needed to be nerfed (maybe as a terran im biased) the vison range was massive and this does significantly reduce the total area revealed. On the other hand it still basically does the same thing it did before well enough that I don’t think it will change anything. This is kind of like when they nerfed observer speed, its not a huge deal but also why?

Forge buff:

This is a pretty big buff to toss (especially factoring in chrono boost). I think this is very powerful, I don’t really think toss needed this kind of buff. It will make gateway man in pvz even stronger, and will basically buff every type of mid to late game build toss has. I don’t think toss is hurting for power level right now. Still they also got some nerfs so I guess we will see how it shakes out.

Changes I don’t like:

As a terran player I hate the ghost changes (of course I do) The ghost was very strong, but its also the cornerstone of terran late game, while the other races mainly got small/medium nerfs terran is getting a huge nerf, with really no compensation to even it out. This is just a big loss of power level for terran in late game. Expect to see more people play like bunny with lots of 2 base allins ect. because terran is now weaker then it was before, and it is just straight up worse then it was pre patch. Other races got a buff/nerf set of changes that make me think ok they lost x but gained y so lets see how that goes. for terran I just feel like my late game is worse then before. Guess i will focus even harder on not playing late game.

now snipe is even more awkward to use (it was powerful but finicky since it can be canceled) now this ability requires you to be at the exact right range to get good value…

(I’m also not sure how the snipe is now self cancellable change will work, It might just make ghosts harder to use depending on how it is implemented.)

Also the removal of enhanced shockwaves is a really big nerf tvp. I expect terran to go from 40% of the time winning vs toss in late game situations to 35% of time with this patch… great! Yes ruptors also were nerfed but they will still be very powerful, terran straight up lost one of its strongest tools. Toss lost some defensive power but will still wreck late game, and now they have fast upgrades. IDK I dont think this is good for terran.

Hydras:

hydras are not great but they are good enough to get used a lot, I think power creeping them is bad, this just makes ling bane hydra stronger, I’m not seeing anything on terrans side that helps to even that out. I know i am biased but I dont think terran mid/late game is to strong vs zerg. I think that buffing zerg at these stages of the game and nerfing terran is a pretty bad move for game balance.

broodlords: I think overall they are better now, yeah you cant build up as many broodlings as before but the speed gain is a much bigger buff then the nerf they received. BL late games are some of the most boring so I’m really not happy that we are going to see that more then before.

My verdict:

Terran is now worse

Protoss is kind of neutral in power level change, but is weeker then before

Zerg Is now stronger then it was before the patch. Wow a patch where we buffed the race with the most championships and titles!

Look now patch was going to be perfect but this does feel pretty biased against terran, basically our useless crap got made slightly less useless (but still bad), Our raven is now usable and also not broken in tvt ( I do really like this change). But our cornerstone late game unit got hit with the nerf bat, with nothing to spread that power out to other units (big ooof).

Zerg patch

Still it is cool to see sc2 get some attention for once. So its not all bad. Maybe we will get more patches in the future, or maybe this is the last. Time will tell. I do appreciate the fact we actualy got a patch!