As mentioned at the beginning, the changes have already been applied to the test server. There the test phase should last for several months until the final result will be transferred to the live servers in November, after the tournament – Season . You can check out the complete changes on the official Starcraft 2 website, or get a comprehensive overview here.

Starcraft 2: Boost the economy and say goodbye to the mothership core

Let’s start with what is probably the heaviest change: the Protoss mothership core will be removed from the game. Instead, the mothership will be able to be built directly in the endgame. The abilities of the core will be transferred directly to the Nexus main building.

In the case of the Terrans, the Raven in particular is in the spotlight. If they were still harmless in small numbers, they were an insurmountable superpower in large numbers. The new capabilities of jamming missile, repair drone and anti-tank missile now make the unit a respectable supporter even in small numbers. Mass production is no longer worth it. After the update, the M.U.L.E. robot will not only be able to mine minerals, but also collect vespin gas.

In the future, if you have played the Zerg, you will no longer be able to simply overrun the enemy, but you will be able to cover significantly more ground with creep slime using infestations. Fungal infestation will also slow down enemy units only when they are on Creeper, Infested Terrans will now have an anti-air weapon and can be created faster on Creeper.

The new resource system also applies to all races: minerals and vespin are available in slightly larger quantities in bases. To encourage players to build more bases and take the pressure off beginners, it will take longer to exhaust resources .

Starcraft 2: The patch notes at a glance

We’re already warning you about a wall of text, so we’ve refrained from providing detailed explanations. However, if you want all the details on the individual points, we recommend visiting the Starcraft 2 website:

Economy

• Large mineral fields in bases have been increased from 1,500 to 1,800 minerals per field.
• Small mineral fields continue to contain 900 minerals per field.
• Vespingeysirs now contain 2,250 gas instead of 2,000 gas to maintain mineral to gas ratio.

Terran

M.U.L.E.:

• M.U.L.E.s can now mine vespine gas in refineries.
• M.U.L.E.s harvest 10 vespingas per harvesting operation.
• M.U.L.E.s harvest 20 minerals per harvest instead of 25.

Raven:

New ability jamming missile:

• Cost: 50 energy.
• Range: 8.
• Effect: The targeted mechanical unit’s weapons and abilities are briefly disabled.

New ability Repair Drone:

• Cost: 75 energy.
• Effect: Places a repair drone with limited life on the battlefield. The drone can target and repair mechanical units in its vicinity.

New Ability Anti-Tank Missile:

• Cost: 125 energy.
• Effect: Fires an anti-tank missile that activates after a short delay and tracks the targeted unit. On impact, it deals 30 damage and briefly reduces armor by 3.
• The Improved Explosive Charge upgrade has been removed.
• New Improved Ammo upgrade: Increases the blast radius of anti-tank missile by 20% and the range of its target tracking by 50%.

Arachnomines:

• Arachnomines are now revealed while the Guardian Missile cooldown is active.

Ghosts:

• Ghosts can now cloak themselves by default.
• Ghosts now start with 50 energy instead of 75.
• Moebius Reactor has been added back to Ghost Academy. It grants Ghosts +25 energy after they are produced.

Falcon:

• No longer receives a sight bonus in defense mode.
• Now gains visibility over his target area in defense mode.

Cyclone:

• The first four shots of capture are fired faster. Total damage over time remains at 160.
• New Armor Piercing Missile Upgrade: This upgrade grants +2 damage against armored units to each Cyclone missile fired during captures, for a total of +46 damage.

New upgrade Intelligent Servos:

• The transformation time of Hellions, Battle Hellions, Thors and Vikings is greatly reduced.
• Found in the Tech Lab of Factories.

Protoss

Mothership Core:

• Mothership core has been removed.

Revised ability of the Nexus: Time Loop.

• Cost: 50 energy.
• Duration: 10 sec.
• Effect: Buildings work 100% faster.

New ability of the Nexus: Mass Recall.

• Cost: 100 energy.
• Effect: After 4 sec, all units are teleported from the target area to the nexus. During this period, the units cannot attack or move.

New ability of the Nexus: Shield Restoration.

• Cost: 1 energy per 3 shield points restored.
• Range: 8.
• Can be used automatically.
• Can be used on units and buildings.

Agitator:

• The damage of the agitator’s particle disruptor has been increased from 10 (14 against armored units) to 15 (21 against armored units).
• The time between attacks of the particle disruptor has been increased from 1.03 to 1.54.
• The Particle Disruptor now receives +2 damage per weapon upgrade (previously +1).

Disruptor:

Psi Nova

• Psi-Nova now explodes when it comes into contact with enemy units (not buildings).
• Psi-Nova still lasts for 2 sec before exploding.
• Damage reduced from 145 (+55 shields) to 135 (+25 shields).
• Cooldown reduced from 21 to 18.
• When the disruptor is dropped from a warp prism, the psi-nova gets a short cooldown. Otherwise, it would be a bit too powerful against workers.

Colossus:

• Damage reduced from 12 to 10 (15 against light units).
• Changed the damage per upgrade from 1 to 1 (+1 against light units).
• Attack range increased from 6 to 7.

Upgrade: Improved thermal lance.

• Range upgrade reduced from +3 to +2.
• The cost has been reduced from 200 / 200 to 150 / 150.

Carrier:

• The cost of interceptors has been increased from 10 to 15 minerals.

High Templar:

• The attack Psi Explosion was added.
• Range: 6.
• Damage: 4.
• Attack speed: 1.25.

Mothership:

• Now being built directly in the Nexus.
• Can no longer use photon overload.
• Mass recall now works like the version of nexus described above. All targeted units are recalled to the mothership.

Observer:

• New ability Surveillance Mode: The observer cannot move and his visibility is increased by 25%.

Zerg

Vereucher:

Fungal infestation

• The radius was increased from 2.0 to 2.5.
• Can no longer hit air units.
• The movement speed of hit units that are not on Creeper is reduced by 50%.
• Units hit on creepers are rooted.

Contaminated Terran:

• Now benefits from the Rocket Attack (Zerg) and Ground Armor upgrades.
• The damage of the Gauss Rifle has been reduced from 8 to 6.
• The Gauss Rifle can no longer hit air units.
• Infested Terrans are created much faster on Creeper.

New Attack: Acid Spore.

• Projectile
• Range: 6.
• Damage: 14.
• Attack speed: 0.95.
• Gets priority over ground weapons.

Lurker:

• Mutate to lurker build was removed from hydralisk build.
• New building: Schleicherbau.
• Cost: 100 minerals / 150 vespingas / 86 sec.
• New Upgrade: Vole Claws.
• Can be found in the lurker build.
• Requires swarm stick.
• Cost: 150 minerals / 150 vespingas / 56 sec.
• Reduces the time required for digging in. Increases the movement speed of sneaks from 4.13 to 4.55.

Viper:

Parasite Bomb

• Damage can no longer be stacked with the effects of other parasite bombs.
• Damage increased from 90 to 180.

Overseer:

• New Spy ability: The Overseer cannot move and its visibility is increased by 25%.

Swarm Host:

• Movement speed away from creeper has been reduced from 4.13 to 3.15.
• Movement speed on creeper remains at 5.36.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on with Starcraft 2. Whether Blizzard’s basic idea of making units and abilities more attractive will come to fruition remains to be seen. What about you guys? Will you take a look at the test server, or will you be surprised by the new features in November?