In turn, it should be weak when swarmed by smaller units. Our goal with the Thor is to push its role away from being strong all-around and into being a giant that slays other giants.
This should make them less effective to mass early on, but they’ll still have value if mixed with other units. Removing 1 armor makes Reapers and Marines much stronger against Cyclones while not affecting Cyclone strength against units like Marauders and Siege Tanks. CycloneĬurrently in TvT, Cyclones can trade very efficiently against most other early-game options. This should allow Terrans to utilize Widow Mines late-game more effectively in TvZ against Zergling/Baneling packs and achieve better passive scouting and zone control through well-placed mines. This aligns with our previous goal of making early game Widow Mines feel fairer to both attacker and defender, while also improving the value of the Widow Mine upgrade.
This change restores the Widow Mine, post-upgrade, to its state prior to patch 4.0. A new visual effect will be applied to the Widow Mine to indicate this.
Drilling Claws upgrade now also permanently cloaks the Widow Mine while burrowed.Thus, this change mitigates the medium range weakness of the Battlecruiser without changing its relation to static defenses and long-range units. While Battlecruisers are slow, being able to pursue targets that have to stop to fire back makes the Battlecruiser much more maneuverable in combat and dangerous to kite unless you use units that greatly outrange it, such as Tempests or Vikings. Moving while shooting is an experimental and often requested change. This mainly affects Void Rays, as it will now heavily damage them rather than outright destroy them in a single shot, while still keeping it at a similar power level versus Corruptors and Carriers. Lowering Yamato Cannon damage to 240 is actually a throwback to its Brood War damage value. However, while we want the Battlecruiser to be stronger against ground targets, we don’t want to make it the best all-around unit, so we’re reducing its anti-air attack by 1, which maintains its current vulnerability to airborne threats. By removing it, we’re increasing Battlecruiser damage per second by roughly 20% and making its damage consistent. While virtually all units in StarCraft II have a random delay, the Battlecruiser’s high random delay ratio to the auto-attack cooldown could cause moments where the Battlecruiser would do less damage than expected. Removing the random delay on Battlecruiser auto attacks is perhaps the most unusual change we’ve implemented here. Air units like Void Rays and Corruptors can also counter Battlecruisers, but they’re in turn vulnerable to being one-shot by the Yamato Cannon. At maximum upgrades, few units can stand up to a Battlecruiser, but when first produced without upgrades, basic ground units like Marines and Hydralisks can effectively counter it. With very high damage per second, but slow speed and a medium attack range, it can deal a ton of damage-but only if its target allows it to.
The mighty Battlecruiser has always occupied a strange place in StarCraft II. Yamato Cannon damage reduced from 300 to 240.ATA Laser Battery damage reduced from 6 to 5.Removed random delay between shots for both ATS Laser Batter and ATA Laser Battery.