Idra shares thoughts on Starcraft 2 balance

Greg Fields, better known as EG Idra, has seen a number of exciting matches over the past few weeks. With grand triumphs and painful blunders alike, he continues to captivate both the admiration and ire of  Starcraft 2 players worldwide. While I personally look down on the Grack’s history of bad-mannered rage quits and sometimes petulant post-game attitude, there’s no doubt he’s a resourceful player with a lot of charisma, even if it does fall on the evil side of the fence.

Galen Andress recently had a chance to interview Fields and ask him what he’d change in SC2 if given the chance.

Idra’s proposed Starcraft 2 balance changes

• Allow Fungal Growth to be cast while burrowed
• Increase Hydralisk speed
• Decrease Ultralisk size
• Make Fungal Growth a slowing spell instead of freezing spell
• Decrease Marine rate of fire
• Lower Collosus damage
• Make Forcefield destructible with no target priority
• Increase Stalker damage and give them slower movement speed or higher Blink cooldown

While I’m certainly not a Grand Master Starcraft 2 player, I’d like to share my own thoughts on these proposals, many of which are (somewhat surprisingly) reasonable, given previous statements from Idra such as “Apologize for playing that race,” and “Protoss should be removed from the game.”

Fungal Growth: While changing this spell to slow units instead of freezing them is probably not a big deal (especially given its incredibly short duration), making Infestors the equivalent of invisible High Templar seems like it’s asking a lot. Many players already believe Infestor play is integral to the most powerful late-game Zerg unit compositions as-is. Do they really need such a powerful buff? If anything, Neural Parasite from a burrowed state would produce more interesting results and less stop-and-go harassment opportunities.

Hydralisks: Hydralisks are certainly the black sheep of the Swarm, seeing most play as an anti-air move against Protoss but never really making up the backbone of the Zerg army as their iconic status would indicate. I don’t think faster Hydra base speed would break the game, as long as their on-creep speed remained the same as it is now.

Ultralisks: At their current enormity, Ultralisks are nearly unusable. They’re basically damage sponges, but their girth also precludes Zerglings, Banelings, and Roaches from swarming the enemy as God intended in the Bible. If their actual size or their pathing hitbox could be reduced, we might see more late game Ultra play.

Marines: America’s favorite unit, the fucking colonial space marine has stayed a vital part of Terran play since day one. With anti-ground, anti-air, and kiting capabilities, are they simply too powerful? I don’t think so, but if any aspect of Marines were to be toned down, a ROF change would probably be the most reasonable.

Collosus: Collossi are powerful, to the point that Robo tech is widely favored over any other Protoss technology path available. That said, they also represent a substantial investment. I’d love to see Collossi get hit with the nerf bat, though only if it means Fleet Beacon units were somehow buffed to compensate.

Forcefield: I don’t know how Blizzard would implement destructible forcefields, but I don’t want to know, either. Forcefields have already been nerfed in PvP with the recent Archon size change to Massive; unless Queens were given Massive status, I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing another Sentry nerf for a while, especially given Protoss’ reliance on the spell for early game rush defense.

Stalkers: Despite their reputation for damage dealing, Stalkers’ DPS isn’t particularly high against non-armored units. To that effect, a damage buff in exchange for a slower-recharging Blink almost seems fair, essentially buffing early game Stalkers at the cost of not having a moving wall of death later in the game. Blink Stalkers are great, but I have wondered if they’re too great, especially given the Phalanx-like rotation they can set up against shorter-ranged units.

Summary

Idra’s changes are certainly reactionary, and it’s not hard to see how many of his losses over the past two months may have influenced his thinking. But for all his rage and BM, he’s still a pro player with thousands of games under his belt. On the other hand, I’m a complete scrub who can’t hold off a poorly-executed baneling bust, but since I run the site, you’re forced to deal with my ramblings. Either way, many of Field’s suggestions seem relatively harmless and… dare I say it… practical. Will Blizzard heed his advice?

LOL, no. But don’t worry, Grack. You keep dreamin’ the dream, and we’ll keep cheering or booing you on!

Andress’ article contains the full interview, so if you have the time, you can read it at MLG. Thanks to LightSora93 on GameFAQs for the heads up.