Starcraft 2 Armory

Globally, all matchups below pro-level are pretty balanced.
-We aren’t currently seeing any problems with non-pro-level matchups, but as always, we’re watching them very carefully on a weekly basis.
-We want changes we're making to balance at this time to be small, strategic adjustments that will only affect pro-level play.

Zerg at the pro-level are struggling a bit to scout effectively in the early game.
-This is tricky to balance, because we do not want to hinder sneaky strategies or tactical early play vs. zerg.
-Our goal here is to improve zerg scouting, but not to the point where other races feel like they can’t or shouldn’t make any strategic early moves vs. zerg.

Zerg at the pro-level are slightly too susceptible to all-in rushes.
-We want to make creep spread a little bit easier to counter hellions in ZvT.
-We want to make the general zerg defense slightly stronger in the early game.

Protoss at the pro-level are doing well, but not at the very top of the pro-level.
-At this time, we’re keeping a very close eye on this, and preparing to make any necessary adjustments.

We are closely watching TvP to see if the offensive capabilities of terran in the early/mid game becomes too much, or if late game strength of protoss becomes too much.
-We aren’t making a change to affect this now, but it’s very near the top of our list of things we’re watching.

Hi all,

UPDATE:

After initial testing and feedback, we have removed the Queen starting energy increase and we have decided to modify:

Queen anti-ground weapon attack range increased from 3 to 5.

Please note: The look of the queen’s ground attack animation is affected by this adjustment, and will be changed when we expand the balance changes beyond this map and to the rest of the game.

After reading the responses to the recently posted balance update, we’ve seen that a lot of players wanted us to elaborate on the current state of the terran versus protoss late game. Before we begin the longer explanation, it’s worth pointing out that we didn’t originally comment on TvP because, overall, this match up remains balanced according to the games we are seeing, tournament results and ladder data.

We do agree that if both sides take few to no losses going into the late game, protoss can have an advantage. That said, we also know that terran players have a lot of offensive capability and harassment options at their fingertips in the mid-game. If terran players press that mid-game advantage, then protoss can’t necessarily get into the late game at their full potential, which can nullify any advantage they might have had. So, pressing that mid-game advantage is important (just as it would be important for protoss players to mitigate mid-game damage so they can to move into the late game in the strongest possible position). Ultimately, each game plays out differently, and depending on how the two races enter the late game, each side has a fair chance to win.

StarCraft II is designed with asymmetric design principles. We like having these differences between the races, as long as no one race or tactic offers a significant advantage. To put it another way, mirror matches already show us what StarCraft II looks like when both opposing forces have identical strengths at each stage of the game. In non-mirror matches we intentionally work to provide diverse strategies that make use of asymmetric design to produce varied, fun and interesting games, while maintaining excellent overall balance. That does mean that at different stages of the game, one race might have tools which represent an advantage against the others--though it’s important that those advantages can always be mitigated by good play.

All of this comes with an important caveat. We are already keeping a close eye on things and observing all stages of the game. If we start seeing our global ladder results shift dramatically or TvP win/loss ratios start to heavily favor one side or the other in major tournaments, we will deal with the situation accordingly.