im.ho

Starcraft 2 Beta - Patch 1 Opinions

http://www.starcraft2.com/launcher/patch-notes.htm

Beta Patch 1 came out last night and the full notes are linked above. Comments are below in italics.

• TERRAN
  • Viking
    • The armor value for this unit in Fighter Mode has decreased from 1 to 0.
    • The damage done by this unit in Fighter Mode has changed from 6 (+8 armored) to 10 (+4 armored).
    • Seems reasonable. They were losing 1v1 fights against mutalisks - this bumps their damage up over muta (10 base v 9 base).
  • Reaper
    • The damage done from D-8 Charges has decreased from 40 to 30.
    • The delay between attacks for D-8 Charges has decreased from 2.5 to 1.8.
    • Looks like they’re trying to weaken the reaper’s kiting power. I haven’t ever had much of a problem dealing with reapers with some good scouting, but this has been a big complaint in the forums.
  • Orbital Command
    • The build time for this upgrade has decreased from 50 to 35.
    • Flat out buff. Shrews likes this xP.
• PROTOSS
  • Observer
    • Gravitic Boosters: The cost of this research has decreased from 150 minerals and 150 vespene gas to 100 minerals and 100 vespene gas.
  • High Templar
    • Phase Shift: This ability has been removed from the game.
    • New ability: Feedback - Drains all energy from the target unit and causes damage equal to the amount of energy drained.
    • This is really interesting, taking out an ability that noone ever uses to make high templars a hard counter to units like the raven, who require energy to do anything useful, as well as some top-tier units with energy like BCs and Mothership.
  • Colossus
    • The building pathing radius for this unit has decreased from .75 to .5625.
  • Mothership
    • Vortex: The energy cost of this ability has increased from 75 to 100.
    • Vortex: The target radius of this ability has decreased from 3.0 to 2.5.
    • Temporal Rift: This ability has been removed from the game.
    • Wormhole Transit: This ability has been removed from the game.
    • New ability: Mass Recall - Teleports all of the player’s units in the target area to the Mothership.
    • Well, Motherships are killable now, yay. I like Mass Recall too - seems more like the old arbiter.
  • Nexus
    • Chrono Boost can no longer target allies.
  • Gateway
    • The build time of this building has increased from 50 to 65.
    • Guess this is supposed to make double-gate proxy a little harder.
• ZERG
  • Infestor
    • Fungal Growth: The damage done by this ability has decreased from 48 to 36.
    • Fungal Growth: This ability now prevents affected units from burrowing.
    • Neural Parasite: Functionality changed - The Infestor now channels this spell, which lasts 10 seconds or until the Infestor is destroyed. You can now target all units with this ability.
    • Woo - I can finally reasonably dominate SCVs.
    • Terran Infestation: The ability’s energy cost has reduced from 50 to 25 and Infested Terrans now spawn 1 at a time.
    • I still haven’t used Infested Terrans, but this might at least make me consider them.

In other news, I’m branching out in races TANKING MAH RATING, since I’m feeling pretty decent with Zerg basic BO and units. I’m going to at least get settled in with all the races before making a decision on which to play.