StarCraft II

StarCraft II 4.0 Patch Notes

Blizzard Entertainment

StarCraft II 4.0 Patch Notes

GENERAL

  • StarCraft II is now free to play!
    • The Wings of Liberty campaign is now free to all users.
    • The Unranked ladder is now free for all users.
    • The Ranked ladder can now be unlocked after achieving 10 “first wins of the day” or purchasing any campaign or War Chest (when available).
    • All Co-op commanders are now available to play up to level 5.
      • Raynor, Kerrigan, and Artanis are still free and can be played to max level.
    • Players who owned Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, or Nova Covert Ops before October 31 2017 will receive an exclusive Ghost skin as well as three new portraits.
    • Learn more in our blog.
  • New Co-op Commander and Announcer: Han and Horner
    • The first duo commander, Mira Han and Matt Horner, combine the might of the Dominion military with the reckless and explosive power of Mira’s mercenaries.
    • Learn more in our blog.
  • New Co-op Mission: Part and Parcel
    • We’re proud to incorporate the winning map of the Rock the Cabinet 2017 contest into our official Co-op Mission rotation.
    • Collect parts to assist General Davis in rebuilding her war machine to destroy hybrid monstrosities.
    • Learn more in our blog.
  • The Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void ladders have now been consolidated into a single ladder using units, balance, and data from Legacy of the Void.
    • The Expansion Level selection for Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm balance games has been moved to Custom > Melee.
  • New players logging into StarCraft II for the first time will now be brought to a new Welcome experience.
    • Players can choose their RTS experience level.
    • Beginner level players will be guided through the in-game tutorial.
    • Players can choose to watch introduction videos or jump straight into Campaign, Co-op, or Versus mode.
  • The Profile has been refreshed and now includes information about Co-op Missions.
  • The Co-op section has been refreshed for improved UI clarity.
    • A new Random Commander option has been added.
    • Weekly Mutations can now be played at Commander Level 1.
  • The Multiplayer section has been renamed to “Versus.”
    • The new Versus screen has been updated and reorganized with new visuals and improved UI clarity.
  • 2017 Ladder Season 4 has begun!
    • A new Siege Tank trophy top can now be earned from winning an Automated Tournament.
  • A new “Auto Join” button has been added to the Arcade subsection of Custom, as well as the Arcade map info panels.  
    • Auto Join will search for an open lobby for the selected map, and if it cannot find one, it will open a new public lobby for that map with you as the host.
    • Use the pulldown next to the button to set the mode to search for.
  • The “Play Again” button has been brought back to the score screen for custom Melee and Arcade games. This button will search for an open lobby for the Map/Mode you just played. If it can’t find one, it will create a lobby for you.
  • The second set of portraits featuring remaining eight players who finished at the top of the WCS 2017 are now available to players who purchased War Chest: BlizzCon 2017.

BALANCE

General

  • Large mineral node values increased from 1500 to 1800.  Smaller mineral node values remain the same at 900.
  • Vespene Geyser values increased from 2000 to 2250.

Terran

  • Raven
    • Removed Auto-Turret, Point Defense Drone, and Seeker Missile abilities.
    • Added Interference Matrix, Repair Drone, and Anti-Armor Missile abilities.
    • Interference Matrix
      • Disables a Mechanical or Psionic unit rendering it unable to attack or use abilities for 6 seconds.
    • Repair Drone
      • Deploys a drone that automatically repairs nearby friendly mechanical units for 90 seconds.
      • Repairs life at 12.6 life per second, drains 1 energy for every 3 life repaired.
    • Anti-Armor Missile
      • Deploys a Missile which activates after 2 seconds and pursues the target units, dealing 30 splash damage upon contact and reducing armor of affected units by 3 for 21 seconds.
    • New upgrade "Enhanced Munitions"
      • Research from Starport Tech Lab
      • Cost: 150 Minerals/150 Vespene Gas/79 seconds.
      • Increases the Anti-Armor Missile's explosion radius by 20% and its tracking range by 50%.
  • Liberator
    • No longer receives a sight range bonus after transforming into Defender mode but will receive vision of the targeted location.
  • Cyclone
    • First four shots will fire quickly for the Cyclone's Lock On ability.
    • New upgrade "Rapid Fire Launchers"
      • Research from Factory Tech Lab
      • Cost: 150 Minerals / 150 Vespene Gas / 79 seconds.
      • Increases the attack speed of the first 12 shots of the Cyclone's Lock On ability.
  • Ghost
    • Starts with the Cloak ability.
    • Starting energy decreased from 75 to 50.
    • New upgrade "Moebius Reactor"
      • Research from Ghost Academy.
      • Cost: 100 Minerals/100 Vespene Gas/57 seconds.
      • Increases starting energy of Ghosts by 25.
  • Factory Tech Lab
    • New upgrade "Smart Servos"
      • Cost: 150 Minerals/150 Vespene Gas/79 seconds.
      • Allows Hellions, Hellbats, Vikings, and Thors to transform quickly between combat modes.
  • Marauder
    • Marauder projectiles now have a blue trail after Concussive Shells upgrade is applied.
  • Widow Mine
    • Widow Mines are now revealed while Sentinel Missile is on cooldown.

Protoss

  • Mothership Core unit removed.
  • Nexus
    • Chrono Boost costs 50 energy and causes the target structure to operate 100% faster for 10 seconds.
    • Nexus now has energy, 200 maximum.
    • Nexus starting energy is 50.
    • "Mass Recall" ability recalls units owned by the player in the target area to the Nexus.
      • 50 energy cost.
      • Warp out pause duration is 3.6 seconds.
      • Warp in duration is 0.4 seconds.
      • 130 second global cooldown for all Mass Recalls across all Nexus structures.
  • New defensive structure: Shield Battery.
    • Recharges the shields of nearby friendly units.
    • Warped in by Probes.
    • Requires Cybernetics Core.
    • 75 mineral cost.
    • 28.6 second warp in duration.
    • 200 Shields/200 Health/100 Maximum and starting Energy
    • Restores shields of a single friendly unit within 6 range.
    • Shields restore at 50.4 shields per second, drains 1 energy for every 3 shields restored.
    • Auto-cast affects units and Photon Cannons only.
  • Mothership
    • "Photon Overcharge" removed.
    • "Mass Recall" changed to "Strategic Recall."
      • Strategic Recall will recall all player units in the target area to the Mothership.
      • Strategic Recall does not have a cooldown and does not share a global cooldown with Nexus Mass Recall.
  • Disruptor
    • Purification Nova will detonate when in contact with an enemy unit.
    • Damage remains at 145 (+55 shields).
    • Damage radius remains at 1.5
    • Detonation radius is 0.25.
    • Will not trigger on enemy structures or changelings.
    • Purification Nova cooldown reduced from 21.4 to 14.3 seconds.
  • Observer
    • New ability "Surveillance Mode."
      • Increases vision by 25% and immobilizes the observer.
  • High Templar
    • New weapon "Psi Blast."
      • Damage: 4.
      • Weapon speed: 1.25.
      • Range: 6.
      • Targets ground units.
  • Colossus
    • Thermal Lance base range increased from 6 to 7.
    • Thermal Lance damage changed from 12 to 10 (+5 light).
    • Protoss ground weapon upgrades will add +1 to base and +1 to light.
    • Extended Thermal Lance cost reduced from 200/200 to 150/150.
    • Range upgrade increased Thermal Lance range by +2 instead of +3.
  • Carrier
    • Interceptor cost increased from 10 to 15.
  • Stalker
    • Particle Disruptors weapon damage changed from 10 (+4 Armored) to 15 (+6 Armored).
    • Weapon speed changed from 1 to 1.54.
    • Receives +2 base damage per level of Protoss Ground Weapon upgrades.
  • Oracle
    • Revelation
      • Duration reduced from 43 to 30 seconds.
    • Stasis Ward
      • Will no longer affect Zerg larva or eggs.
      • Stasis Ward has a 170 second timed life duration.
    • Pulsar Beam weapon changed from Spell to Normal damage. Armor will now reduce the Pulsar Beam damage.
  • Adept
    • Shade sight increased from 2 to 4.
  • Warp Prism
    • Visual effect added for units picked up by the Warp Prism.

Zerg

  • Infestor
    • Undetected burrowed Infestors will be more visible on low graphics quality settings.
    • Infested Terrans
      • Infested Gauss Rifle damage reduced from 8 to 6.
      • Infested Gauss Rifle no longer targets air units.
      • New weapon "Infested Rockets."
        • Targets air units only.
        • Damage: 14
        • Period: 0.95
        • Range: 6
        • Prioritized over the Infested Gauss Rifle ground weapon.
      • Zerg missile attack and ground carapace upgrades will affect Infested Terrans.
    • Fungal Growth
      • Slows the target's movement speed by 75%.
      • Radius increased from 2.0 to 2.5.
  • Overseer
    • New ability "Oversight"
      • Increases vision by 25% and immobilizes the Overseer.
  • Viper
    • Parasitic Bomb
      • Damage increased from 60 to 120 over 7 seconds.
      • Damage no longer stacks.
      • 0.7 second delay before Parasitic Bomb effects begin.
  • Swarm Host
    • Movement speed reduced from 4.13 to 3.15.  
  • Lurker Den
    • Lurker Den is morphed from the Drone instead of the Hydralisk Den.
    • Cost: 100 Minerals/150 Vespene Gas/86 Seconds.
    • New upgrade "Adaptive Talons"
      • Reduces Lurker burrow time from 2 to 0.7 seconds and increase movement speed by 10%.
      • Cost: 150 Minerals/150 Vespene Gas/54 Seconds.
      • Hive requirement.
  • Overlord
    • Movement speed increased from 0.82 to .902.  Afterwards, Evolved Pneumatized Carapace will increase the Overlord’s movement to the same value of 2.63.

CO-OP MISSIONS

Abathur

  • Brutalisks can now use Nydus Wurms.

Alarak

  • Army shield color is now red.
  • Dev Comment: Alarak and Fenix's shield color is now themed red for Tal'Darim and yellow for Purifier.
  • Vanguard
    • Now uses turret tracking.

Dev Comment: Many units that can turn to face their enemies now do. These units should now feel more responsive.

Artanis

  • High Templar and Archons
    • Plasma Surge research now increases Psionic Storm’s radius by 50%, range by 2, and restores 50 shields to friendly units.

Dev Comment: This research now matches the bonuses to that of the Legacy of the Void campaign's improved High Templar.

  • Immortal
    • Now uses turret tracking.
  • Mastery: Speed Increases for Warped-In Units
    • Bug Fix: No longer causes buffs and debuffs to time out early.
  • Tempest
    • Bug Fix: Weapon upgrades now grant +5 damage (up from +3).

Dehaka

  • Tyrannozors
    • Unit collision size has been reduced to match a standard ultralisk.

Dev Comment: They should now be much more effective in combat (and in going up small ramps!).

  • Greater Primal Wurm and Primal Wurm
    • Bug Fix: Knockback effect on unburrow no longer affects air units.
  • Glevig:
    • Incendiary Acid ability is no longer on autocast by default. Changing the state will carry over to subsequent summons. 

Fenix

  • Army shield color is now yellow
  • Fenix Armor Suits
    • Base offline energy regeneration for all suits increased by +25%.
    • All suits gained an addition +1 Armor and +1 Shield Armor.
    • All suits gained an additional 5 damage.
    • Purifier Armaments research now increases all Fenix Armor Suits weapon damage by +15.
    • Arbiter:
      • Made the stasis ability instant cast and castable while moving.
    • Praetor:
      • Whirlwind damage increased to 70 per second.
      • Now ignores enemy armor.

Dev Comment: Increased offline energy regeneration allows Fenix to use more of his abilities while keeping his suits-swapping mechanic intact: swapping frequently to be the most effective. We wanted to increase a few stats to hit a few critical break points in basic combat. His basic attacks will now one shot Zerglings and Whirlwind will one shot them with each damage tick (0.5 seconds). Fenix fears no Zerg! These two changes also effectively buff the masteries in the first category.

  • Research Costs
    • 50% reduction to most research costs. Does not affect common shared standard protoss research (Colossus Range, Observer speed, warpgate, etc). 
    • Remove gas cost on Kaldalis AI research. Total is now 100 minerals.

Dev Comment: As mentioned in a previous update, this is a major change to Fenix's economy and ramp up time. It should have a dramatic effect on his ability to ramp up as well as his overall power.

  • Champions
    • Champion AI transfer time reduced from 5 seconds to 1 second when killed.

Dev Comment: Along with some bug fixes in a previous update, this should dramatically improve the responsiveness and effectiveness of champion transfers.

  • Tactical Data Web
    • Change all bonuses to scale based on supply instead of unit count.
    • All buffs now stack up to 20 supply to reach max power.

Dev Comment: This mechanic as also been buffed. Higher tier units now require less additional shells (ex: 4 Colossi instead of 10) to maximize the bonus effect. 

  • Avenging Protocol
    • The upgrade has been reworked.
    • Champions gains attack and move speed (5% per supply) each time a host shell of their type is destroyed or a 25% speed increase when they transfer into new host shell. Speed increases can stack up to 100% and last for 10 seconds if not refreshed.

Dev Comment: Avenging Protocol now also grants bonuses to the champion when host shells of their type are destroyed. The duration of the bonuses also can be refreshed each time a shell is destroyed. As discussed in a previous post, this is intended to alleviate the pressure to have champions dying first and often to benefit from this upgrade.

  • Masteries
    • New Mastery: Staring Supply: Increases the starting supply by 1 per point.
    • Removed research cost reduction mastery.

Dev Comment: Now that Fenix's unique research upgrade costs have been dramatically reduced, he no longer needs a cost reduction mastery. Instead he gains a subtle but powerful new macro mastery which gives him a big boost in econ ramp up speed.

  • Carrier
    • Interceptors now cost 15 minerals.

Dev Comment: Long ago we defaulted interceptors to autocast for campaign and coop. We were worried that an ability on autocast that spent money would be detrimental and confusing to some players, so we made interceptors free. Multiplayer interceptors have been autocast for a while and it seems to be working out, so we're matching the multiplayer interceptor cost and leaving build interceptors on autocast.

  • Conservator
    • Increase radius of Protective Field By 1.
    • Increase duration of the field to 15 seconds (30 with upgrade).
    • Cooldown reduced to 20 seconds.
    • Phasing Mode
      • Channels a larger protective field centered on itself that lasts indefinitely.
      • Removed the ability to cast the field while in this mode.

Dev Comment: We added a new mechanic to phase mode which channels a field indefinitely. The conservator should be more interesting to use as well as gaining an overall buff in protective field up time.

  • Immortal
    • Now uses turret tracking.
  • Mojo
    • Tactical Data Web
      • Redesigned: Increase stun duration by up to 2 seconds (100%) at max.
  • Taldarin
    • Increase the radius of the graviton disruptor by 0.5 (to 2.5).
  • Talis
    • Shield Armor
      • Increased to 1.
    • Tactical Data Web:
      • Redesigned: Ricochet Glaive cooldown reduced by up to 5 seconds (100%) at max.
  • Warbringer
    • Basic Attack
      • Area of Effect length increased by 100%.
    • Tactical Data Web:
      • Redesigned: Purification Blast cooldown reduced by up to 5 seconds (100%) at max.

Karax

  • Immortal
    • Now uses turret tracking.
  • Carrier
    • Interceptors now cost 15 minerals.

Nova

  • Siege Tank
    • Now uses turret tracking.

Raynor

  • Battlecruiser 
    • Tactical Jump now requires vision.

Dev Comment: We are standardizing Tactical Jump across all commanders to require vision. Raynor can still use Orbital Scan to jump anywhere, but other commanders will have to gain vision in other ways before jumping. The Hyperion is special and can still jump without vision.

  • Siege Tank
    • Now uses turret tracking.
  • Mastery: Speed Increases for Drop Pod Units
    • Bug Fix: No longer causes buffs and debuffs to time out early.
  • Factory
    • Drop Pods are now more lenient on valid rallied drop locations similar to the barracks.

Stukov

  • Infested Diamondback
    • Caustic Mucus
      • Damage increased from 5 to 20 damage per second.
      • Tooltip now states the damage done.
    • Fungal Snare
      • Increase cast range to 8.
      • Now shows a range indicator.
  • Infested Siege Tank
    • Range while rooted increased from 13 to 18.

Dev Comment: We're buffing Stukov's mech a bit to strengthen their roles.

Swann

  • Siege Tank
    • Now uses turret tracking.
  • Hercules
    • Tactical Jump now requires vision. 

Vorazun

  • Mastery: Speed Increases during Time Stop
    • Bug Fix: No longer causes buffs and debuffs to time out early.

Enemies

  • Bug Fix: Banelings should now properly trigger the following on death effects:
    • Drop Assimilation Aura resources (Kerrigan)
    • Drop Bio Mass (Abathur)
    • Spawn Locust (Abathur)
    • Drop Essence (Dehaka)

STARCRAFT II API

  • New features have been added to the StarCraft II API
    • A new rendered interface is now available on all platforms, including Linux.
    • A new option has been added to create and load save points in the game simulation.
    • A new function has been added to the Game Data API for downloading anonymized ladder replays.
    • For more information, see the release notes on our GitHub page.

STARCRAFT II EDITOR

  • 4.0 Galaxy Changes and Optimizations
    • The virtual machine has been heavily optimized and refactored.
    • Trigger specific loop optimization behavior has been modified in the following triggers:
      • ForEachInteger
      • ForEachInteger2
      • PickEachInteger
      • IntLoopCurrent
      • ForEachPlayerInGroup
      • PickEachPlayerInGroup
      • PlayerGroupLoopCurrent
      • ForEachUnitInGroup
      • PickEachUnitInGroup
      • UnitGroupLoopCurrent
      • switch/switchcase

Dev Comment: These changes now require that IntLoopCurrent, PlayerGroupLoopCurrent, and UnitGroupLoopCurrent be “lexically” rather than “dynamically” scoped within their loops. For example, before, you may have had a trigger that had an outer ForEachInteger, ForEachPlayerInGroup, or ForEachUnitInGroup, and an inner function that would call a trigger that would access IntLoopCurrent, PlayerGroupLoopCurrent, or UnitGroupLoopCurrent. Moving forward, you will need to either make sure to call these triggers consecutively with each other or pass in IntLoopCurrent, PlayerGroupLoopCurrent, or UnitGroupLoopCurrent as a parameter to your trigger that uses the loop iteration.

  • These modifications include a modified code generation upon sc2maps being saved or resaved within the editor.
  • Maps that were made using the older Galaxy system are backwards compatible with the new Galaxy if they aren't resaved, but they won’t have loop optimizations.
  • The TriggerDebugInterface has been revamped to adhere to the new modifications.
  • UI Editor Changes
    • Removed the FrameView from the UI Editor.
    • Changed to always save your layout xml in whatever form it is in.
    • Added xml error message output during saving layout files when an error occurs.
  • Mod Changes
    • Moved Buildings, Effects, Portraits, Doodads, Units, and TerrainObjects from Liberty campaign mod to Liberty mod.
  • Interface Changes
    • Added Enable Dark Editor Theme general preference option checkbox.
    • This will currently toggle on and off a dark mode when editing xml.

BUG FIXES

User Interface

  • Fixed a display issue where certain sprays could appear as decals in game.
  • 1v1 Teams with random race in the ladder summary now display the proper background image.
  • Fixed an issue where refreshing the open lobbies list in Custom would cause the list to stop applying map filters

Campaign

  • Wings of Liberty
    • Fixed an issue where in game cinematics could freeze.
  • Nova Covert Ops
    • Loading an auto save from Sudden Strike no longer causes the objective timer to gray out.

Co-op Mission

  • Commanders
    • Abathur
      • Devourer and Guardian now properly appear in the hotkeys menu.
    • Artanis
      • Artanis’ Tempests now properly receive 5 damage per upgrade.
    • Dehaka
      • Structures now play proper bleeding effect when reaching low health.
      • Dehaka’s portrait now properly appears when responding to attack waves and objective orders.
    • Swann
      • Updated a tooltip description for Swann’s Engineering Bay.
  • Map
    • Oblivion Express
      • Dehaka’s Tyrannozors can now path through narrow paths properly in Oblivion Express.
    • Rifts to Korhal
      • Fixed an issue where units could be spawned in unintended locations.

Gameplay

  • Fixed an issue where a queued Abduct command on a target unit would prevent other Vipers from being able to cast Abduct on the same target unit.