StarCraft 2 Legacy of the Void beta patch 1.0 preview

Now that the closed beta of StarCraft 2‘s Legacy of the Void is underway, the first major patch is also incoming. Blizzard has posted an overview of what to expect and most of it has to do with buffing up the Protoss faction.

The new Protoss harass unit, The Adept, is getting more health and its upgrade is getting changed to a straight up health upgrade. Both changes are designed to help with its overall survivability. The Adept’s signature mechanic to send out a Shade then teleport to its location still cannot be triggered early. Though this change has popular support, the devs feel it would make the talent too much like one already available to the Protoss faction, Blink.

In addition, Immortal Barrier has its damage absorb doubled, Cyclone is getting a bit of range nerf to encourage early game micro sniping (its upgrade will get it back to full range), and the Zerg’s Lurkers will be quicker to access in the game. Finally, the late-game Protoss unit Tempest isn’t getting a lot of attention with its Disintegration damage-over-time ability — especially against Terran units which can heal through it. Now any unit afflicted with Disintegration will not be able to heal, repair or regenerate making this ability more of game-changer.

Also noted in the patch preview is that maps are being looked at to balance to the strengths and weaknesses of all factions (i.e. not all should be won by a zerg rush) and unit strength will be balanced by buffing weaker units rather than nerfing overpowered ones.

For a quick reminder of what the newer expansion units can do (pre-patch) including The Adept, Lurker and Tempest, check out the Closed Beta video from Blizzard.