The long-awaited Zerg changes that the community has been clamoring for are on their way, according to today’s Developer’s Corner on the official StarCraft 2 blog. Dustin Browder first outlined the win/loss ratios between the various races across all of the ladder leagues in North America, and then outlined the upcoming changes to the Zerg. We’re going to do the exact opposite, because it’s just more exciting that way.
The upcoming changes, as outlined by Dustin Browder, are:
- We’re increasing roach range. This will allow roaches to be more effective in large groups, giving the zerg more options in the mid to end game.
- Fungal Growth will now prevent Blink, which will give zerg a way to stop endlessly Blinking stalkers which can be very challenging to deal with in large numbers.
- The Barracks are going to require a Supply Depot, which will impact a lot of early terran reaper pushes.
- The reaper speed upgrade will require the Factory, which is meant to weaken a lot of the early terran reaper attacks that dominate so many matches, especially in team games.
- We’re making a number of increases to the health of zerg buildings, which will make the very vulnerable zerg technology structures more resistant to raids. We don’t expect these hit point changes to have a super significant impact on the game, but the current numbers felt way too low.
These certainly are good changes for the Zerg, but it makes one wonder if Reapers will continue to have a viable place in the game. As it is there is a very small window where Reapers can be used without an extreme amount of difficulty, and slowing down their upgrades and production isn’t going to make that easier. Terran can certainly handle a few nerfs and likely deserve them, but I suspect Reapers are going to need a little love down the road to allow them to continue to be a viable unit in the game. We might even see it transformed into a unit that can handle the mid-game better to make up for their constant early game nerfs.
As for the Battle.net numbers data, there is some interesting information there. While Zerg is clearly underplayed (which you will see in a moment), it sets Protoss as the real balance outlier. While Battle.net aims for a 50% win/loss ratio across all players and racial matchups, Protoss have a higher win percentage than that against Zerg in most brackets are closer to 60%/40% against Terran overall.
- Protoss are played 38.5% of the time.
- Terran are played 38.0% of the time.
- Zerg are played 23.5% of the time.
Win % in Diamond (accounting for player skill)
49.6% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
52.8% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
49.6% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.
Win % in Platinum (accounting for player skill)
56.3% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
47.3% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
44.5% win for Terran when fighting Zerg.
Win % in Gold (accounting for player skill)
61.0% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
61.1% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
49.5% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.
Win % in Silver (accounting for player skill)
63.6% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
50.7% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
51.6% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.
Win % in Bronze (accounting for player skill)
59.0% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
55.1% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
45.4% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.
Essentially what this data suggests is that while Zerg is underplayed, the ones that have stuck with the race are good enough to have achieved the expected 50% win/loss ratio all the way up through Diamond. It also makes it clear that the Protoss need some adjustments, especially in the PvT match-up. Expect a round of balance changes aimed at that match-up in the near future.
Related posts:
