Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1.1 is live! Horrors abound!

I’m delaying my Tactical Thursday article in order to bring you the breaking news that LOL Terrans.

In more serious detail, Starcraft 2 patch 1.1.2 is out now and includes a large number of game-changing balance tweaks. Medivacs and Void Rays got hit hard, Roaches got a gigantic boost, and Reapers are now completely unusable. Let’s go through the complete patch notes. My comments will be included in italics.

Starcraft 2 Patch Notes: Version 1.1.2

General

• Players will no longer receive achievement toasts while their status is set to “Busy.”
• The messaging when attempting to load a saved game or replay from a previous version has been clarified
• Adjusted the amount of points earned and lost by random team participants to properly reflect the strength of a player’s teammates.

–Nothing important here, some minor UI updates. We’ll have to see what the exact changes are to team rankings as more data is collected.

Please continue reading for complete patch changes and commentary.

Balance

• PROTOSS
  • Buildings
    • Nexus life and shields increased from 750/750 to 1000/1000.
  • Void Ray
    • Damage level 1 increased from 5 to 6 (+4 armored).
    • Damage level 2 decreased from 10 (+15 armored) to 8 (+8 armored).
    • Flux Vanes speed upgrade bonus decreased from 1.125 to 0.703.

–Nexus life has increased by 33%, from a total of 1500 to 2000. This should make Marauder drops substantially less powerful, and put Protoss expansions slightly closer to those of Terrans in terms of survivability. Void Rays have taken a hit, but gotten early damage in exchange. They’re 20% stronger during their initial attack (100% vs armored), but their devastating stage 2 attack has been reduced by 20% (35% vs armored). Additionally, the Flux Vanes upgrade lost a lot of luster. How much of an impact this will have on Void Ray use will depend on how useful the initial attack buff is.

• TERRAN
  • Buildings
    • Barracks requirement changed from Command Center to Supply Depot.
    • Supply Depot life increased from 350 to 400.
  • Medivac
    • Acceleration reduced from 2.315 to 2.25.
    • Speed reduced from 2.75 to 2.5.
  • Reaper
    • Nitro Packs speed upgrade now has a Factory Requirement.
  • Thor
    • Energy bar removed.
    • 250mm Strike Cannons is now cooldown-based on a 50-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown available (useable immediately after upgrade is researched).

–Terran building changes are clearly intended to prevent proxy ‘Rax cheese, while making Supply Depoys slightly less vulnerable to harassment (they still die quickly to Banelings and full frontal attacks). Medivacs are (surprisingly) losing a lot of mobility, probably to stifle the ease of Terran drops. Reapers are basically unusable with this patch and the previous patch. Thors are no longer susceptible to Feedback, increasing their viability in late game TvP.

• ZERG
  • Buildings
    • Hatchery life increased from 1250 to 1500.
    • Lair life increased from 1800 to 2000.
    • Spawning Pool life increased from 750 to 1000.
    • Spire life increased from 600 to 850.
    • Ultralisk Cavern life increased from 600 to 850.
  • Corruptor
    • Energy bar removed.
    • Corruption is now cooldown-based on a 45-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown expired (must wait for full 45-second cycle before usable).
  • Infestor
    • Fungal Growth now prevents Blink.
  • Roach
    • Range increased from 3 to 4.

–Zerg buildings are seeing a nearly universal buff, significantly improving both early and mid game resistance to drops and other harassment. This could be a game-changer in the ZvT matchup, given how easy it was to snipe these structures. Corrupter changes are another indirect High Templar nerf… did Blizzard fear HTs this much? Infestor’s new Fungal Growth makes them indispensable versus Stalkers, who previously laughed off all but the best-timed Growths. Finally, Roaches see a gigantic buff, going from a close-mid range unit to a fully mid range unit. Their ability to fight Reapers and other early game units has been greatly enhanced.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players could not cast the Feedback spell on Point Defense Drones.
• Fixed an issue where the Phoenix would continue to channel Graviton Beam after the target died.
• Fixed an issue that would cause Larvae to spawn and be hidden behind Zerg eggs.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to navigate to the Single Player page or watch replays after canceling map downloads from the queue.
• Fixed a desync that could occur on user-created maps with custom mod dependencies.

–Bug fixes are always welcome, especially the damned Phoenix Graviton bug. I’ve heard gripes about each of these points in the past month or so, so it’s good to see Blizzard is taking bug-fixing as seriously as it takes banning single-player cheaters.

Summary

Many of these changes will adversely affect Terran harassment, by nerfing proxy Barracks, Reapers and Medivacs. Protoss has also taken a few small hits in exchange for stronger expansions, but will Void Rays be pushed into complete obscurity? Has ZvP been pushed solidly into Zerg’s favor, or are things just even now? Obviously there’s no way to know for sure, but initial impressions indicate Terrans will have to rely on new strategies to catch better players off guard.