After the last two premier grand finals turned out a PvP affair, Blizzard will be taking a look into adjusting the power of the race. At the same time, Terrans' widow mines get a buff in order to better fight off Protosses while Zergs enjoy a Hydra attack speed buff.
One of the most direct ways in which the Protoss will be affected is the increased cooldown to Stalkers' Blink ability. Pushed to 15 seconds up from 10, this nerf will tune down the power of early Blink rushes, something that has been becoming increasingly problematic recently.
The Terran race has been especially struggling against Protoss and they might finally get the solution they need. Widow Mines's splash now deal +40 damage against shields and will greatly help Terrans fight the early gateway attacks of Protoss while at the same time not breaking the other Terran match-ups.
Zergs will have Hydralisks' attack speed increased which is aimed to make the unit more often used in Zerg mirrors and in ZvT. Of course, this will also help the race battle Protoss - which is, according to Blizzard, the stronger race of the two - and give it a good weapon to counteract the mass Void Ray strategies.
One good thing going for Protoss is the buff to Tempests, making them better for destroying buildings as units attack now deals +30 damage to structures. Attacks against units remains unchanged.
Mothership Core vision radius decreased from 14 to 9
We currently feel this would be a helpful change, but we’re worried that a vision radius decrease doesn’t really nerf the highest end Protoss players who are positioning the Mothership Core perfectly already. We’ll talk to professional Protoss players about this one once the test map goes live.
Blink cooldown increased from 10 to 15
This is a more direct nerf that affects all Protoss players. If Blink play continues to be problematic, this is the sort of thing we’d want to have tested and prepared to put in the game.
Widow Mine splash damage component deals 40 + 40 shield damage
We’ve seen some games against Protoss where Widow Mines are used, and they are very exciting to watch, whether they’re just Widow Mine drops or Widow Mines in combination with the Terran army (while sniping Observers). We feel like both of these strategies could use a bit of help. The Widow Mine potential against Protoss basic units will be unchanged for direct hits, but we’d reduce the number of indirect hits required against units like Stalkers, Zealots, or Sentries. Also, when using Widow Mine drops against Protoss, the chance of splash damage one-shotting Probes will increase slightly.
Tempest ground weapon damage increased from 30 to 30+30-to-structures
We still think this is a good change, and we want to see more testing with it. If Tempests gain more ability to wear down Zerg defenses, Zerg players will be less incentivized to play a completely defensive style. Surprisingly, we’ve gotten a lot of feedback that proxy Tempest rushes are too strong right now, and this change would make that strategy even stronger, but we’ve been watching all of the major tournament games, and we still don’t think it’s being used enough (or being used at all). If you can identify some games where the best of the best pro players have successfully used this strategy against a formidable opponent, please let us know. We’d like to check out such games and analyze them.
Hydralisk delay between attacks decreased from .83 to .75
This would increase Hydralisk damage output against all targets by about 10%. Our stance on Hydralisks needing a buff in TvZ and ZvZ hasn’t changed. Additionally, the trend toward Protoss being stronger than Zerg has continued. We need more time and results to draw conclusions on the most-recent balance patch, but we’d like to be prepared to help Zerg here if it’s necessary.
Source: Battle.net
