There’s no rush: Blizzard test tentative Zerg balance tweaks for StarCraft II

The StarCraft II Hydralisk: just a little more dangerous this morning.

Oversized insects were heard joyously clattering their mandibles together last night, as Hydralisks had their anti-air capabilities upgraded. As the other bugs partied, however, the organic turrets remained inconsolable at their stations. The Spore Crawlers had no legs to dance with, for one thing, and had lost a portion of their own power to boot.

Blizzard yesterday published a new version of the balance test map to StarCraft II’s custom games list: ‘MerryGoRoundLE (2.1.1 Balance v1.1)’. In it, they’ve decreased the damage spore crawlers do to biological enemies – but increased the damage Hydralisks do against airborne biological enemies as recompense.

“During this testing phase, please keep in mind that none of the changes listed below are final,” wrote the dev team. “Our plan is to first explore how each change impacts the game and potentially test additional changes after reviewing your feedback.”

The Zerg changes join a couple of shifts in Terran balance Blizzard have been testing since the previous version of the test map. Nothing is ever implemented too quickly in this, the most competitive RTS ever made.

Terran

  • Removed Transformation Servos upgrade
  • Changed Hellion/Hellbat transform requirement to Armory

Zerg

  • Spore Crawler damage decreased from 15 + 30 vs biological to 15 + 10 vs biological
  • Hydralisk damage against air increased from 12 to 12 + 4 vs biological

Any of this stuff set to turn your ladder upside down?