StarCraft II

StarCraft II 5.0.12 Patch Notes

Blizzard Entertainment

En Taro Adun

With the new Patch 5.0.12 released today, we've tried to the accomplish the following goals,

Make Protoss more stable on a professional level in the early game vs Raven pushes and more able to fight Terran mid-late game armies without solely relying on Disruptors.
Increase the variety in the mid game and late game army compositions by reducing the strength of massed Ghosts, Banelings, and Disruptors.
Make over specialized units (Cyclones, Mothership, and Infestors) viable throughout more stages of the game.
Bring more visual clarity to important units on the minimap, as well as relevant abilities like Widow Mine targeting, and Disruptor's cooldown indicator.
Promote more interaction in late game scenarios, by making units such as Tempest, Mothership, and Brood Lord more maneuverable.

-StarCraft II Community Balance Council

BALANCE UPDATE

Terran

Cyclone

Cost reduced from 150/100 to 125/50.
Tech Lab requirement removed.
Health reduced from 120 to 110.
Armor reduced from 1 to 0.
Supply cost reduced from 3 to 2.
Auto attack range increased from 5 to 6.
Lock On now uses the Cyclone's auto attack damage, and no longer ignores armor.
Auto attack damage/attack speed now 11 (+3 vs mechanical), 0.481 cooldown, +1 damage per upgrade.
Lock On cooldown removed.
Lock On no longer has a delay before first shot, and maintains weapon cooldown between lock ons.
Lock On cast range reduced from 7 to 6.
Lock On max range reduced from 15 to 9.
Multiple Cyclones will now auto-cast Lock On onto the same target.
Mag-Field Accelerator upgrade removed.
Move speed reduced from 4.73 to 3.94.
New upgrade, increasing move speed to 4.73 (Cost: 100/100, 100 seconds, Researched at the Factory's Tech Lab).

Community Council Comment: Rework of the Cyclone to make it into a more all around unit in all matchups. Aims to increase the viability of mech based gameplay against Protoss, while promoting more active engagements with mech based armies note Cyclone still will not auto-cast Lock On on buildings, using it's basic attack if no other enemies are nearby.

Ghost

Snipe damage reduced from 170 to 130 (+40 vs Psionic).
EMP radius reduced from 1.75 to 1.5.

Community Council Comment: Reducing the radius of EMP will encourage Protoss to use Psi-Storm in the PvT matchup and help Protoss in straight up engagements vs Terran armies. Snipe will no longer 1 shot units such as Zealots and Roaches, as well as requiring an extra shot to kill Ultralisks in the late game vs Zerg, generally reducing their cost-efficiency over time, while still being able to kill important spell casters such as Vipers.

Widow Mine

Drilling Claws now also makes the Widow Mine unburrow twice as fast.

Community Council Comment: Returns some of the strength to active Widow Mine micro in the mid game vs Zerg that was lost after the Drilling Claws burrow speed nerf, while not significantly increasing the power of Widow Mine drops.

Medivac

Speed upgrade replaced with Caduceus Reactor - Increases Medivac's energy regeneration rate by 100% (Cost: 100/100/53.57 seconds, Upgraded from the Fusion Core).
Minimap radius increased from 0.75 to 1.

Community Council Comment: Replaces the current unused Medivac upgrade with an upgrade which could be used in active games with a large Medivac count that run out of energy.
Standardizes minimap size of Warp Prism/Medivac/Overlord. Previously Medivacs could appear smaller on the minimap on large maps.

Raven

Interference Matrix now requires a research (Cost: 50/50, 57.14 seconds research time, Researched at the Starport's Tech Lab).

Community Council Comment: A single Raven opening can currently disable multiple key defensive units in early pushes against Protoss. The cheap cost of the upgrade still allows for multiple Raven play in TvT and specialized builds in TvP.

Hellbat

Damage bonus per upgrade reduced from +2 (+1 vs light) to +2.

Community Council Comment: Will no longer 1 shot Zerglings with +3 attack and Infernal Pre-Ignitor.

Zerg

Lurker

Adaptive Talons move speed bonus removed.
Adaptive Talons cost reduced from 150/150 to 100/100.

Community Council Comment: As some of the main counters to the Lurkers are getting nerfed, reduce the speed of repositioning Lurkers in the late-game.

Infestor

Pathogen Glands upgrade removed.
Infestor starting energy increased from 50 to 75.
Fungal Growth cast range reduced from 10 to 9.
Fungal Growth damage reduced from 30 to 25.

Community Council Comment: Since the Infested Terran ability was removed, the Infestor has no utility until reaching 75 energy. Fungal damage and cast range is reduced to prevent Infestors from killing Marines with 2 consecutive Fungals, and as a tradeoff to the EMP radius nerf in the TvZ lategame.

Viper

Consume damage reduced from 200 to 150.

Community Council Comment: Reduces the attention required for gathering Viper energy.

Brood Lord

Move speed increased from 2.24 to 2.62.

Broodling

Broodling move speed reduced from 5.37 to 4.13.
Broodling health reduced from 30 to 20.
Broodling attack speed reduced from 0.46 to 0.57.

Community Council Comment: Continuing in the direction of the last balance update, further increasing Brood Lord mobility, while further reducing the strength of Broodlings to compensate. Should allow for more active play in the late game.

Overlord

Deceleration speed increased from 1.49 to 2.28.
Generate Creep delay reduced from 1.43 to 1.07.

Community Council Comment: Reduce the amount of time it takes for Overlords to stop and begin dropping creep, to allow for more active usage of Queen drops.

Overlord (Transport Upgraded)

Deceleration speed increased from 1.49 to 2.28.
Generate Creep delay reduced from 1.43 to 1.07.
Move speed increased from 0.9023 to 1.099.
Move speed with Pneumatized Carapace increased from 2.62 to 2.83.

Community Council Comment: Non transport-upgraded Overlord's move speed are unchanged.
Allow for more active drop usage. In combination with the Baneling damage nerf, should not increase the overall strength of Baneling harass against Protoss.

Ultralisk

Cost reduced from 300/200 to 275/200.
Burrow/Unburrow time reduced from 1.43 to 0.89.

Community Council Comment: Lurkers and Broodlord are generally favored over Ultralisks in the lategame, as Ultralisks have poor cost efficiency over time. Should make them more used throughout long games while not greatly reducing the initial investment.

Hydralisk

Speed upgrade research time reduced from 71 to 64 seconds.
Range upgrade research cost / time reduced from 100/100 / 71 seconds to 75/75 / 50 seconds.

Community Council Comment: Increase the speed at which Hydras come online in the midgame, for more quickly responding to enemy air switches such as Mutalisks and to supplement weaker Banelings against ground based armies.

Baneling

Damage bonus per upgrade reduced from +2 (+2 vs light) to +2.
Centrifugal Hooks cost reduced from 150/150 to 100/100.
Centrifugal Hooks research time reduced from 79 to 71.
Centrifugal Hooks health bonus removed.

Community Council Comment: Will no longer 1 shot Probes or Drones with +2 attack.
Reduce some of the strength of mass Baneling armies in the mid game, and reduce the volatility in defending Baneling runbies by requiring multiple Banelings to kill workers. The speed upgrade will require less of an investment, to maintain a similar balance for 2 base Terran Marine Tank based all-ins.

Spire

Air Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 100/100, 175/175, 250/250 (Same as Air Weapons).

Community Council Comment: Air Armor is generally considered less useful than the Air Weapons upgrade despite being more expensive.

Evolution Chamber

Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 150/150, 200/200, 250/250.

Protoss

Forge

Shield upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 150/150, 200/200, 250/250.

Cybernetics Core

Air Armor upgrade cost reduced from 150/150, 225/225, 300/300 to 100/100, 175/175, 250/250 (Same as Air Weapons).

Community Council Comment: Air Armor is generally considered less useful than the Air Weapons upgrade despite being more expensive.

Warp Prism

Minimap radius increased from 0.875 to 1.

Community Council Comment: Standardize minimap size of Warp Prism/Medivac/Overlord. Previously Warp Prisms could appear smaller on the minimap on large maps.

Disruptor

Supply cost increased from 3 to 4.
Model scale reduced by 9%.
Radius increased from 0.5 to 0.625 (does not affect collision with buildings).

Community Council Comment: Reduce the power of mass Disruptor in the mid-late game vs Terran without significantly affecting the ability to build Disruptors early for pressure builds or to defend enemy aggression.

Tempest

Acceleration increased from 2.1 to 4.2.
Radius/Model scale reduced by 10%.

Community Council Comment: Improve the feeling of actively microing Tempests, as the slow acceleration makes them feel slow to respond when not already moving.

Mothership

Cost reduced from 400/400 to 300/300.
Supply cost reduced from 8 to 6.
Build time reduced from 114 to 79.
Speed increased from 2.62 to 2.83.
Lateral Acceleration increased from 1.93 to 2.88.

Community Council Comment: Lateral Acceleration is the how fast the unit changes direction while moving. Increasing this will make the Mothership no longer lag behind other army units of similar speed.

Health/Shields reduced from 350/350 to 250/250.
Radius/Model scale reduced by 10%.
No longer has energy (Spells are now cooldown based and require no energy to cast).
Recall now has a 89 second cooldown.
Recall radius reduced from 6.5 to 5.
Time Warp now has a 60 second cooldown.
Time Warp slow reduced from 50% to 40%.
Time Warp radius reduced from 4 to 3.75.
Time Warp cast delay reduced from 1.79 to 0.71.
Cloak Field is no longer passive. It is now an activated ability which lasts for 20 seconds, with a 50 second cooldown.

Community Council Comment: Reduce the investment and increase the maneuverability of the Mothership, and prevent it from being hard countered by EMP. Should allow for earlier Mothership builds in all matchups as well as more active usage of the Mothership.

Sentry

Guardian Shield duration increased from 10.71 to 12.86.

Community Council Comment: Allows Guardian Shield to be pre-cast before engaging Terran armies involving Ghosts, lasting longer into the fight.

Oracle

Stasis Ward sight range increased from 4 to 7.

Community Council Comment: Allows Stasis Wards to be used for more central map vision with Stargate based openings.

Immortal

Barrier will now also block the first instance of damage which triggers the Barrier.

Community Council Comment: Counts towards the 100 damage blocked by the Barrier.
Currently EMP hitting an Immortal will drain all of the Immortal's shields as well as activating the Barrier, which will generally expire before the Immortal ends up receiving other damage, making the ability lose value in the mid game against Terran.

Void Ray

Fixed an issue where the move speed of Void Rays with Flux Vanes while Prismatic Alignment was active was 2.62 instead of 2.89.

Community Council Comment: This was introduced in Patch 5.0.2 when Void Ray move speed was increased from 3.5 to 3.85, increasing the move speed while Prismatic Alignment was active from 2.62 to 2.89, but the move speed after Flux Vanes was upgraded was unchanged.

BUG FIXES

Terran

Fixed an issue where Battlecruiser's Tactical Jump could place it outside map boundaries.
Fixed an issue where building previews were invisible or incorrect.

Protoss

Fixed an issue where Shield Battery's Stop command did not cancel Recharge.

MAP POOL

1v1

Goldenaura LE
Site Delta LE
Oceanborn LE
Hecate LE
Solaris LE
Hard Lead LE
Equilibrium LE
Alcyone LE
Radhuset Station LE

2v2

Divergence LE
Dusty Gorge
Efflorescence LE
Sludge City
Snowy Mesa
Polka LE
Magma Mines

3v3

Descent LE
Black Site 2E
Snowbound Colony
Augustine Fall LE
Rosebud LE
Jungle Depths LE
Nephor I

4v4

Sunset Valley LE
Primeval Wilds
Old Estate
Mementos LE
Last Remnant
Kimeran Refuge
Hidden Caves