SC2: Kommende Balanceänderungen für die Koop-Missionen

 Co-op Mission Update: Kerrigan Revamp

Hi all. Last week, we revealed our planned changes for Nova and heard a lot of solid feedback. We value your carefully thought-out feedback and thus will be making the following adjustments to Nova’s kit.

Hellbat Ranger

• Jump Jet Assault now provides Hellbat Rangers +4 armor for 5 seconds in addition to its current functionality.
• Jump Jet Assault is now an autocast ability with a cooldown of 5 seconds, up from 0 seconds.
• Jump Jet Assault maximum range decreased from 6 to 3.

We heard some feedback that Hellbat Rangers would still be likely to die after they use their Jump Jet Assault ability and we’d like to address this in a variety of ways. First, we’ll be adding armor to Hellbat Rangers when they use their Jump Jet Assault ability so that they’ll be more durable and even more able to utilize their newly increased HP.

We’ll also be adding a cooldown to the ability and reducing the ability’s range. With these changes, we hope that they’ll stay closer together with your army and won’t jump outside the range of Defensive Drones. Hopefully both these changes will allow Jump Jet Assault to feel more like an ability you’ll always want to research.

Covert Banshee

• Covert Banshee cost decreased from 750/500 to 700/375.
• The Covert Banshee’s Rocket Barrage is reworked to be an autocast ability.
• Rocket Barrage damage decreased from 150 to 75.
• Rocket Barrage cooldown decreased from 60 to 15.
• Rocket Barrage range increased from 6 to 7.
• Covert Banshee selection priority decreased.

We’ll be looking to take a completely different direction with Covert Banshees than what we initially proposed. First, gas cost was cited as a primary reason for why players chose alternatives such as Heavy Tanks or Raid Liberators. Thus, we’d like to slightly tweak the gas cost such that they won’t be so much of a drain on gas anymore.

Next, players indicated that they’d like a more a-move friendly alternative to the micro-heavy Heavy Tanks or Raid Liberators. As such, we’ve reworked Rocket Barrage to be an autocast ability and will be attempting to balance its numbers around this new functionality.

Masteries

• Nova’s Attack Speed Mastery replaced with Nova Primary Ability Improvement Mastery. This new Mastery has the following functionality: Increases the ability damage of Nova’s primary abilities by 1.67% per point, up to a maximum of 50%. This new Mastery will affect the following abilities:
  • Snipe damage from to 200 to 300.
  • Sabotage Drone damage from 200(400 vs Structures) to 300(600 vs Structures).
  • Penetrating Blast damage from 50(100 vs Light) to 75(150 vs Light).
  • Blink shield damage absorption from 200 to 300.

This was a cool suggestion we found for an alternative to a Nova attack speed or attack damage Mastery. Nova is more of an ability-focused heroic unit rather than an auto-attacking heroic unit, so we’d like to try to lean into this a bit more. For players who prefer to focus more attention on Nova herself rather than her army, this Mastery is perfect for you.

We’d also like to point out that this Mastery also happens to synergize well with other aspects of Nova’s kit, such as Operational Efficiency, and Nova’s Energy Regeneration Mastery.

Kerrigan

This week, we’ll also delve into changes we’d like to make for another Psionic specialist, Kerrigan. Kerrigan is fairly well-rounded and powerful commander, but as some have noted, her Spire units may leave a bit to be desired. Our changes will focus on these Spires units, but first…

Omega Worm

• Omega Worms are now detectors.

This was a commonly requested feature that will allow the Omega Worm to be an alternative for Overseers as a form of detection. Ground-based armies will now be able to rely on Omega Worms for detection while air-based armies can continue relying on Overseers.

Assimilation Aura

• Resource Drops from Assimilation Aura can now be picked up by air units.

This is a small quality of life changes to help out mass-air armies. Like Abathur’s Biomass and Part & Parcel’s Parts, Kerrigan will now be able to pick up resource drops with any of her units.

Mutalisk

• Mutalisk range increased from 3 to 5.
• The Mutalisk’s Vicious Glave will now increase each Glave’s search radius from 3 to 5. It previously increased it to 4.
• The Mutalisk’s Sundering Glave upgrade renamed to the Severing Glave upgrade. It now has the following additional functionality: Each subsequent bounce of the Mutalisk’s attack now increases the damage dealt by 10% instead of reducing it.

Mutalisks are challenging to balance for a co-op audience, because like Wraiths, there were initially designed as harassment units to be used in a Versus mode. In addition, both Swann and Kerrigan share the problem of owning another unit on the ground that fulfills a similar role, the Goliath and Hydralisk respectively.

Our solution is as follows: as with the changes we’ve made to Swann’s Wraiths, we’ll be looking to lean into the Mutalisk’s harassment fantasy as much as possible. The changes we’re thinking of for the Mutalisk are designed to allow players to hit-and-run enemies near the outskirts of their maximum range. Hopefully, when players use Mutalisks in this fashion, they’ll be able to deal massive amounts of damage without taking much in return. That being said, they’ll still be as fragile as ever, so a-moving into combat is not advised!

Brood Lord

• Brood Lords respawn 2 Broodlings with each attack, up from 1.

Brood Lords are one of the most powerful units in the Versus mode, but since they don’t have too many bonuses in Co-op, they haven’t translated so well to the mode. Currently, Brood Lords fire 2 Broodlings with their initial attack and then only 1 Broodling with each subsequent attack. After the proposed change, Brood Lords will consistently fire 2 Broodlings at a time, keeping up their Broodling output, instilling constant maximum chaos throughout the enemy ranks.

• The Porous Cartilage upgrade now increases the acceleration of Brood Lords from 1.0625 to 1.875 in addition to the current functionality.

Brood Lords also currently feel a bit unresponsive after their speed upgrade because their base acceleration stays the same. After this change, Brood Lords will reach their top speed faster and slow to a complete stop to fire more responsively.

Masteries

• Prolonged Mutating Carapace Mastery replaced with Primary Ability Damage and Attack Speed Mastery. The Primary Ability Damage Mastery increases the damage of Kerrigan’s Leaping Strike and Psionic Shift and Kerrigan’s attack speed by 1% per point, up to a maximum of 30%.

The Prolonged Mutating Carapace Mastery was designed to allow players who wanted to focus on Kerrigan’s heroic unit to have more power and fun. However, it ran into a few issues. First, it was difficult to communicate to players exactly what it did as Mutating Carapace is relatively complex to explain. In addition, it’s up against one of the most powerful masteries in the game, Expeditious Evolutions.

Thus, we gave ourselves a challenge to redesign the Mastery so that it improved Kerrigan’s heroic unit in a visible and powerful way, which could compete against Expeditious Evolutions given the right situations and playstyle. The Mastery we came up with increases Kerrigan’s damage output in a variety of ways and will synergize with both of Kerrigan’s Set 1 Masteries (Kerrigan Energy Regeneration and Kerrigan Attack Damage). It’s one of the most powerful Hero-based Masteries we’ve ever designed and hopefully will stand some chance against Expeditious Evolutions.

There is debate among Co-op communities regarding whether Kerrigan or Dehaka is the most powerful heroic unit in the game and from what we’ve seen, Dehaka seems to be winning out lately. Maybe this Mastery is exactly what Kerrigan needs to allow her to compete once again?

Going Forward

Though the changes for Kerrigan are few, we think they’ll be especially impactful, especially for Spire players. And though we’re very excited for Nova and Kerrigan changes, we’re even more excited for upcoming Zagara changes that we’ll be ready to share next week. The number of changes for Zagara will rival what we’ve done in the past for Han & Horner and Fenix and will encompass almost her entire kit. See you next week!

Kevin Dong
Co-op Commander Designer