Starcraft 2 news » Heart of the Swarm Balance Update -- April 9, 2015

Heart of the Swarm Balance Update—April 9

In recent months, we’ve been testing the biggest balance changes yet for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. After gathering and reviewing your feedback from the three separate Balance Test Maps that explored these changes, we are ready to move forward with a new balance update. You can expect to see the following adjustments applied to Heart of the Swarm multiplayer today.

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Zerg

• Swarm Host
  • Cost modified from 200 Minerals and 100 Vespene to 100 Minerals and 200 Vespene
  • Supply cost increased from 3 to 4
  • Movement speed increased from 2.25 to 2.95
  • Swarm Hosts now require the Burrow research in order to burrow
  • Swarm Hosts no longer collide with Locusts
• Spawn Locusts – This ability has been reworked
  • Auto-cast removed, Spawn Locusts must now be manually cast.
  • Spawn Locusts cooldown increased from 25 seconds to 60 seconds
  • Casting Spawn Locusts no longer requires a Swarm Host to be burrowed
• Locust
  • Weapon speed increased from .8 to .6
  • Locust duration increased from 15 seconds (+10 seconds with Enduring Locusts) to 25 seconds
• Infestation Pit
  • Enduring Locusts – This upgrade has been removed
  • New upgrade: Flying Locusts - Allows Locusts spawned by Swarm Hosts to fly. Flying Locusts can use Swoop to land and attack
    • Requires Lair
    • Cost is 200 Minerals, 200 Vespene, 160 seconds
    • Allows Locusts spawned by Swarm Hosts to fly. Flying Locusts can use Swoop to land and attack
    • Swoop: Orders the Locust to land at the targeted location, allowing it to attack
• Viper
  • Blinding Cloud range increased from 10 to 11

Terran

• Raven
  • Point Defense Drone duration decreased from 180 seconds to 20 seconds

Protoss

• Tempest
  • Bonus damage versus massive air units decreased from +50 damage to +14 damage.

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If you're interested in the StarCraft II Balance Team's reasoning behind each change, you can check out David Kim's original forum post on the changes, as well as his follow-up regarding further changes.

We truly appreciate all the feedback we’ve received from the community. Your thoughts and playtesting helped shape this update, and we hope you’ll continue to participate in future balance testing. Until next time, we hope you enjoy these changes!