StarCraft 2’s World Championship Series is in full pelt at the moment, and Blizzard have noticed that Protoss players aren’t faring quite so well as their Zerg and Terran competitors – especially in Korea and Europe. After pro feedback proved inconclusive, the developers have decided to go ahead and test a buff to Warp Prisms, just in case.
The buff, which will go live on the balance test map this week at the earliest, will see Warp Prism movement speed switched to its upgraded level as standard. The developers hope the move will encourage Protoss players to be more aggressive in the early game – though anticipate it might also overpower all-in rushes. If so, Blizzard plan to increase the Prism’s base movement speed by a smaller degree.
“As we’ve been saying many times before, our goal is still to make the game more dynamic and allow for more diverse action throughout the game,” said Blizzard’s David Kim. “We feel the advantage of this is [that] watching the same matchup over and over is a lot more exciting because you never know what you’re going to get.
“If there’s constant action throughout the game there are varying degrees of successes and failures each time which really shape up every game differently. Compare that to what we were seeing last year PvT for example where both sides just macro up then meet in the center of the map for 1 or 2 main battles.
He added: “This is why we’d much rather buff something on the Protoss that allows them to be more aggressive throughout the game rather than nerfing strong harass units like Medivacs.”
The buff, small though it is, is a fairly bold move for a team known to ponder nondescript tweaks for weeks. Do you think it’s the right one?