Besides being simultaneously broad, deep, challenging and accessible, StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void brought significant changes to the game’s multiplayer mode when it launched last year. The latest patch looks to push that envelope further still and, speaking at this weekend’s Dreamhack Montreal, balance designer David Kim detailed the extensive list of changes heading to the fifth entry in Blizzard’s sci-fi RTS series.
No new units have been added, nor have any been taken away, however many are to receive impressive buffs—the full list of which is outlined alongside handy before and after animations via this pretty comprehensive blog post.
“We believe we can make StarCraft 2 an even more enjoyable and competitive game experience and would like to explore a series of major changes to bring about these improvements,” reads the post.
It continues, suggesting Blizzard intends for these changes to receive “significantly more” testing than that levied at Test Maps in the past—both as a result of the significance of said planned changes and also to allow more time for a “comprehensive period” of testing, feedback and revision. All going well, these changes will go live following the conclusion of this year’s tournament season in November.
“Remember, this is an early preview and things may look considerably different once the changes go live following the November tournament season,” the post adds. “That being said, we’re very excited about the potential these changes have for improving the StarCraft 2 Multiplayer experience. Look forward to the first balance test map being released this week.”
According to this Reddit thread, the first balance test map will be released tomorrow. Again, the full list of proposed changes is pretty impressive—find it in its entirety here.
