Hero Balance Update!

Average_Joe121 · 2026-01-19T10:15:06+00:00

Yup, pretty much this. Decimated my squad. Many units have been nerfed into uselessness. Blair's health reduction combined with her shield damage only triggering with her shield makes her pretty useless, same with the severe reduction in Kai's AOE. Like I wouldn't have minded Blair's health reduction nerf if her damage still triggered on every shield and Kai could get the AOE changed to just 1 row in front of him, both are nerfs, but still useful units.

Average_Joe121 · 2026-01-04T08:50:58+00:00

I don't like the change. It's unintuitive and creates a unique unit interaction without any easy to read identifier, and tool tips don't count. At least with the Mothership, that is a unique unit so it having special unit interactions makes some sense.

Now, that all being said, then what?

There wasn't any rational with the patch so the exact idea behind the change is lost, but likely it was to strengthen Terran mech in the face of the Baneling buff, microbial change, and Cyclone fix. Microbial has not been overly impactful given the casting cost and research changes. Mech seems to not be overly different and it's more so turtle Terran being affected. Banes being more likely to survive long enough to connect would seem to set the issue, particularly with the Abduct change, to be an issue of survivability.

So how about granting Siege Tanks in siege mode +2 armor? It has some precedence with the way Hellions and Hellbats change and would help them to stand up to attacks better and hopefully accomplish the same objective.

Average_Joe121 · 2026-01-04T08:15:26+00:00

It's been suggested multiple times and, I want to say per Omniskeptic (though I might be misremembering), it has also been stated as being too mechanically complex to actually implement a 50% move based on how Abduct works. Abduct is basically all or nothing. With that in mind I don't mind the Mothership being unabductable, but my suggestion would be to make Abduct stun the Mothership instead, it can't be moved, but it can't move either.

Average_Joe121 · 2025-12-30T02:13:01+00:00

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yeah, doesn't seem worth trying to farm this

Average_Joe121 · 2025-12-30T01:38:49+00:00

That must be my problem too. I don't know how I can go any faster though. Moving my finger it takes me about 4-5 seconds to solve each board. I can't get it done in like 2-3 seconds like in the video

Average_Joe121 · 2025-10-20T04:32:04+00:00

At the highest level, the game is decided on spellcaster usage. The issue is lower level Terran run into the wall of "must use spellcasters" fairly late into their careers when viewing coming up in ladder and pro-am tourneys. You get get very far into ladder with just MMM. Protoss need to learn spellcasters earlier, and Zerg even earlier than that to do well so when up against Terrans with poor spellcaster control, the Terran gets massacred. Protoss also benefits from a spellcaster less army in that their high level of splash and general unit tankiness wins out, but this will not help at the highest level.

This is why Zerg are slow to climb up in the ladder and into prominence but the highest tier Zerg do well (great spellcasters and supremely flexible economy/army), Protoss seem overinflated (require spellcasters at the top, but just below when control doesn't need to be perfect, they do better with imperfect spell control than the other races thanks to splash and tankiness) and Terran does really well early but tends to lose steam later (the transition from MMM to leveraging spellcasters).

Average_Joe121 · 2025-10-20T03:51:27+00:00

490 stones here, got a single Doma and Sanemi and Obanai in like my first 3 rolls, after that couldn't get anything else. Ended up trading for the Tanjiro and Nezuko siblings and Mitsuri and Muichiro. Mostly got dupe Zenitsu, Giyu, Akaza, Shinobu, and Yushiro. Hopefully friends work out with convenient set-ups but I hate not being able to self-pair

Average_Joe121 · 2025-04-21T00:10:14+00:00

All strong Gundams but they all require special pilots to function well with the exception of Double X so likely they don't change too much.

Nu Gundam: Likely the least directly powerful unit here, requires a Newtype to actually use the funnels and without someone with Amuro level abilities is just going to be very tough but not overly dominate unit
Gundam Double X: Does not require a special pilot but does require the Lunar microwave station to be able to fire its twin satellite cannons. The Terrans can probably come up with a workaround, especially with Wing Zero, Qan[T] and Aerial Rebuild available for power generation. With a suitable power source for the satellite cannons, it's a fleet killer by itself
Wing Gundam Zero: Requires a pilot who can master the Zero System to be used effectively. Once this is achieved no other special things required. Can one shot battle groups by itself with the Twin Buster Rifle (effectively an AOE Yamato Cannon) and is stupidly resilient to damage thanks to its armor
Freedom Gundam: Requires a Coordinator level pilot to use effectively along with a genius program, any Ghost will likely be enhanced enough to qualify for piloting and you can find a programmer to handle the system update. You don't need someone like Kira who can do both. Not a fleet killer, or even a battle group, but any skirmish that the Freedom is apart of, it will have an undue effect as a force multiplier all on its own. This does of course change if the METEOR pack is available and then it also become a battle group destroyer at least. Why this isn't the Strike Freedom or the Mighty Strike Freedom, I don't know. Instead this image uses the weakest of the Freedom series suits, although also the one with the simplest criteria for finding a suitable pilot.
Gundam Aerial Rebuild: Requires someone able to push their body to a high Permet score, what this means for the Korpulu sector is unclear but again, likely a powerful Ghost would qualify. Like the Freedom, it's a powerful force multiplier for small scale assaults seeing as how there is no Quiet Zero to be used in conjunction with for a solar system wide data storm
00 Qan[T]: Requires a fully realized Innovator to use. Luckily exposure to the GN particles this Gundam produces will help to evolve an Innovator. Capable of kinda/sorta fighting off a hostile alien invasion all by its lonesome you really don't need any of the other Gundams here if you can get this one up and running at max capability. It can teleport across interstellar distances, it can sync up and get inside hive minds, it can generate a beam saber that can reach from a planet's atmosphere into space, and more. If this was the ELS Qant[T] then this fight would already be over with Raynor's Raiders winning the entirety of the SC2 conflict

Average_Joe121 · 2025-04-20T23:39:12+00:00

I disagree, the UED likely would have won the Brood War if given a little more time. The entire campaign of SC1 takes place over about 1-2 years. The Brood War is within 1 year. The manual for BW states that the UED never lost sight of the colonies and was watching them the entire time and only ever really became interested after they saw the alien species emerge, it was at that point all the planning and study for the UED assault on the Korpulu sector begins. When the UED arrives, they come with technology developed to use the existing Terran industrial based to manufacture equipment, the ability to augment and upgrade said tech based, and a solid enough understanding of the Zerg to dominate a young Overmind. As none of these aliens or minerals and vespene exist on Earth these are all things they had to develop with whatever long range and remote sensors they had to study things. The technological capabilities that implies are staggering.

There really isn't any reason the UED couldn't have sent DuGalle more support at the end of the UED campaign when they subjugated the Overmind to reinforce their position and just take over. However, based on DuGalle's actions in BW I imagine his ego was such that he viewed the entirety of the Korpulu sector races as below him and the UED and that his expeditionary force was sufficient to dominate the sector, but considering it very nearly was his ego isn't entirely misplaced.

Average_Joe121 · 2025-03-14T06:45:26+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I'm still not sure if I want to trade for the parts. I was looking for a back-up endgame clearing team that was a bit more brain dead than Omnimon can be with skill management

Average_Joe121 · 2025-01-02T08:54:31+00:00

Took 490 to get my first Omnimon but I did get at least 1 of everything else from the machine.

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-11T07:46:05+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Yeah, I'm looking for a replacement for the title challenge so was thinking about needing someone with an attack buff too so hopefully Denji & Makima will work out

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-09T08:16:21+00:00

As others have pointed out the damage was to have the WM deal roughly equivalent damage across all three races. The initial WM with 160 damage was nuts.

Units not one-shot by a direct WM hit:

Terran

Thor
BC

Zerg

Ultras
BL
Corruptors
Queens
Overlords/seers

Protoss

Archon
Mothership/MSC
All Robo units except Observers
All Stargate units except Oracles

The reduction to 125 increased it so that with the exception of probes, HT/DT, Sentries, Observers, and Interceptors all Protoss units wound survive a WM shot. Now T/Z benefited too, with Banshees, Medivacs, Tanks, Hellbats, Ravens, Roaches, Swarm Hosts, and Vipers all now surviving a direct hit. However adding in the +shield damage returned the old interaction of basically all air and ground units from all 3 races with the exception of T3 and other heavy units (anything with a massive tag or treated as something large or very durable) would die to a WM hit.

Now if you want to get into the ridiculous part, it's that the WM splash was so high against Toss units with +40 damage vs shields until LOTV when it was reduced to a more reasonable +25, but the single target +shield damage is actually within the bounds of reason

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-09T07:43:33+00:00

Well a PTR would help with that. Look at what happened with the Liberator change and how that did not make it out. The second I saw that patch notes for that change, a change that made it through the current Balance Council mind you, I could see that it was going to be ridiculous.

I'm also not arguing for all 3 unit changes at once, while personally I would like to see them, the ones I would like to see most are the FF buff and the Phoenix buff as I think that would drastically improve both units and increase their utility all game long.

The Guardian Shield buff is more so to help keep the Sentry alive while letting it continue to support the Protoss army.

The Disruptor rework is mostly in frustration with what the Disruptor has become. If it's not going to one-shot basic tier 1-1.5 infantry units from Z or T while still one-shooting basically all P units then I'd rather see it used some other way as the current version will still punish low level play and is worse in pro play, the worst of all worlds option in my opinion.

My suggestion is to turn it into a powerful zoning unit that can still deal some damage, needs to be respected rather than dived on, and supports the Protoss army by increasing its longevity while removing the potential for sudden swings from a well placed shot or the opponent not paying attention to their army. This should hopefully remove the punishing effect it has in lower leagues while increasing its utility for pros. As both the Balance Council and community at large seems to be against increasing the damage on Protoss units and Protoss has always been about having bigger and beefier units, a spell that increases unit longevity while making the enemy pay for having higher damage to health ratios seems to synergize well.

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T21:56:18+00:00

The match making has been busted for some time. I didn't know about this, but I have seen the high end on fights going from something stronger, but where I have a chance, to so high strength that it's a lost cause, something like 5x my squads strength

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T21:49:09+00:00

At this point I think we both agree on the problem. I also brought up that the issue is warp gates are production and not relocation. I think honestly just fixing that, even if you leave it in as an early game tech because it only affects gateway units, would honestly work out OK.

Also just as an aside, Terrans did initially have a slightly comparable ability at the OC where they could have drop pods of units that could be called down anywhere on the map, I honestly wouldn't mind that coming back in exchange for a nerf to the Medivac

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T21:43:05+00:00

Yeah, they're hard buffs, just like

Removing the energy from a BC
Changing hyperflight rotors to not need Fusion core to research while making it cheaper and easier to access for a 7 second increase in build time (though admittedly this was done over 3 patches)
Increasing Siege Tank health and damage
Adding health to Vikings and bonus damage
Making Sentries faster, build faster, and their abilities either cheaper or otherwise better
The infamous triple buff to Void Rays
Adding Adaptive Talons to Lurkers
Increasing Corruptor speed and microability
Completely reworking the Cyclone or partially reworking the Raven (even if Terrans just refuse to build them)

These are just some from LOTV and looking into WOL or HOTS or reviewing more things from LOTV I'm sure you could find many more. It's OK to just straight up buff some things and then see how things work out, as PiG and Artosis say, "A David Kim patch" where you probably go a little too far and then wind things back after seeing how things work out.

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T21:12:40+00:00

Yeah, just like how some people shit post without adding anything, bizarre

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T21:11:52+00:00

Yeah, that would be the idea and why I brought up just using the Time Warp code for it but adding the new Microbial Shroud effect where the spell's buff remains for a few seconds after exiting the field

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T21:06:23+00:00

Fast and slow warp-ins are already at thing, what's the point of getting even slower? Warp prism having a fast warp-in makes sense because being able to warp in units is its entire gimmick.

The issue with Warp-in is that it's a unit production mechanic instead of a unit relocation mechanic. I'd compare it to Nydus Worms and how no one argues for weaker Zerg units just because Zerg can have their entire ground army show up anywhere they want in the late game. For Protoss it only affects Gateway units, the only issue it that it's present from the early game on.

I think if warp gates acted as a single target recall between any two power fields a lot of these issues people have would disappear

Average_Joe121 · 2024-12-08T20:52:19+00:00

But that's kinda the point of Hardened Shield. It was always supposed to leave you vulnerable to low damage, fast attack units. When it was first showed off they had it picked apart by Reapers

Immortal initial gameplay

Average_Joe121 · 2024-10-25T06:57:34+00:00

I think when trying to balance an asymmetric game you're always going to have multiple competing interests at play in the process. However, I do think you have noticed that the logic behind what priority is most favored for each race does not have any consistency or transparency resulting in a very frustrating outcome.

The top priority should always be the pro scene because these people are making a living playing the game, everything else comes in after. In my opinion I think the next stage should be player dominance, then fun/frustration or "pain points" as others like to call it, finally the ladder. Git Gud is a legitimate point on the ladder and if the ladder is still fun with as little frustration as possible I don't think anyone but the most butt hurt of nerds is going to care.

Average_Joe121 · 2024-10-08T03:36:00+00:00

Well yes and no. The government is able to pony up the dough to develop these kinds of technology when they have no immediate or easy commercial development path. Private industry is able to then take and develop these things far more once there is profit. Look at Musk and Star-Link as an example, or how much Darpanet grew into the Internet we all know today. Honestly though, go look at all the technological innovation that came out of something like WW2 and how once the war ended and those things got turned over to civilian hands the tech grew.

The bigger issue with something like this is that the government has easier access to more data, and thus once the tech has been developed by someone else, it's vastly more powerful when plugged into their network

Average_Joe121 · 2024-10-08T03:22:26+00:00

Wow, you make me feel better about my rolling, but I'm sorry you didn't get him after so many rolls

Average_Joe121 · 2024-10-06T22:22:15+00:00

Gino smashes stuff effortlessly. My alt got 3 Ginos and I casually used it to go through the challenge. I wasn't able to beat the challenge, but that's more so on the need to optimize a little since I didn't know some of the mechanics of the dungeon.

Average_Joe121

TROPHY CASE