Warning: Writer is a Protoss user. J

Mules, mules, and more mules! That’s how Terrans can afford 1-1-1s or any other “take the whole scv village to the battlefield” strategies out there. The coming patch hits them first by making them harvest THE SAME AMOUNT OF MINERALS in high yield (yellow) mineral fields. That’s right, Terrans can no longer mass mule and exponentially push a Terran’s advantage in high yield minerals. Of course, this is only considered a nerf on maps that have them attractive yellow mineral fields. So if you’re a pro-gamer participating in the Global Starcraft League (GSL), you can disregard this part.

I for one think them mules should be changed altogether and that this nerf, although acceptable, can be easily disregarded especially in tournaments where the usual setting is a mandatory first map then loser picks the next. A Terran can simply avoid maps with high yield mineral fields. Or wait, Terrans don’t even need to do that. Seriously a rather useless nerf if you ask me.

Why you ask? Well, if you have played and studied Starcraft 2 at least on the Masters level and you play Protoss, you will easily realize that if you’re your 10 more probes just ain’t good enough to overtake a Terran’s income thanks to them mules. Blizzard should seriously think more on how much minerals them mules can give in a given time frame.

Ghosts Snipe Ability Nerf

Long story short, instead of dealing 45 damage per snipe, they now deal 25 HP damage + 25 psionic damage.

To the applause of Zerg users, Brood Lords will now take 10 snipes instead of 6 while Ultralists will have to take around 21 snipes to finally meet the overmind rather than 11 snipes. This after Blizzard’s balance team has noticed that at the pro level, the Zerg’s most powerful units seemed to be quite too easy to “snipe”.

Phoenix Range Upgrade

Protoss users now have the option to upgrade the range of Phoenixes at the Fleet Beacon. After the upgrade, the Phonenix will now enjoy a range of 6 from 4. This will give these ships 2x the range of Mutalisks, the reason why Blizzard came up with the upgrade since it has been too obvious that Blink Stalkers just aren’t as mobile or as powerful as mass mutas in any given map. Don’t even think Archons can do a better job against mass mutas. Unless of course if your still stuck in Brood War where they can own a dozen mutas.

The range upgrade should be interesting however, I personally think the cost and time need to build a Fleet Beacon and to upgrade the range is going to be the best option against them mutas. I bet the time you get the upgrade, it’ll be too little too late and if not, then a Protoss user will be left with too many Phoenixes against dozens of speedlings.

APM and EPM Change

APM will now work like the classic Actions Per Minute (APM) where all clicks (including spam) will be recorded. Effective Actions Per Minute (EPM) will also be an option and it works just like the APM we all know prior to Patch 1.4.3

Conclusion

I think this is still a good direction but for sure I wish there was more but I guess that’ll have to wait for the Heart of the Swarm (HOTS). Do you think the changes will be for the betterment of the game?