An overview of the last few patches put out for the SC2 Beta. Addresses the noteworthy and not so noteworthy changes, and provides insight into the likely causes and ramifications.

Obviously, a huge change. SCVs are no longer the linebackers which they once were. I expect the reason for this departure from the health value present in SC1 is the slower resourcing rate per harvester compared to the predecessor, which encourages larger numbers of harvesters early in the game. This had resulted in Terrans having an inordinate advantage in defending against rushes by using their workers. Later in the game, the change becomes less noticeable, as any situation where workers come under fire will tend to be catastrophic, and 15 less hp per worker means little compared to the huge health reserves of later game armies.

Arguably the most important change made in this recent set of patches, this alters the entire landscape of the early game of Terran matchups. Early aggression is less rewarding for Terrans, who could previously count on Marauder kiting to make any clash with Roaches or Zealots a rewarding one. This may open doors to new early game gambits for Terrans, such as Hellions or Ghosts (drops? nukes? who can say?)

This makes Missile Turrets much better counters to Mutalisks and Banshees. While they lose two damage against armored targets, this should generally be considered a buff.

Ghosts have become more accessible overall, as players are less limited in building the ever important Medivac Dropships and other gas sinks such as upgrades, Tanks, and Banshees alongside of Ghosts.

This is obviously a move to make EMP’ing an entire Protoss army with a handful of Ghosts less likely, and more demanding in terms of placement. Expect EMPs to be centered around high value targets such as High Templar and Immortals instead of simply blanketing the Protoss army.

Similar to the change in the price of Ghosts, this frees up Terrans to use Vikings as their Anti Air without sacrificing as much production of other gas intensive options.

This is a difficult change to interpret. Thors are now better against swarms of low hp units such as Mutalisks, however, they are slightly less effective against larger targets. This seems to come to a wash in terms of whether it is a buff or a nerf: it simply alters their role.

An interesting change, perhaps implemented to encourage use of factory units, which tend to be slow to produce. Cheaper factories mean more attractive options as far as mechanical builds. A side effect is that this reduces the cost of advancing past the Factory on the tech tree to the Starport.

Another interesting change. This allows for slower Refinery placement by players intending to Reaper harass early. It may also play a role in the timing of Hellion upgrade rushes. Later in the game, the effects are less striking, but I don’t see this being a great point of contention among non-Terran players. Somehow, the new price tag just feels right.

Also worth mentioning, but perhaps not significant enough to be analyzed in much depth, are the following: 25% reduction in Bunker build time – facilitating better chances at bunker rushing one’s opponent and constructing defenses in time to survive aggression, ~5% increase in Banshee’s Health – improving their survivability slightly, 100% increase in Reactor build time – slowing certain reactor centric rushes as the Hellion rush and the Viking rush, 25% increase in Marine build time – affecting the speed at which a Terran can bring mobile anti air to bear, 10% reduction in Siege Tank build time – another change meant to facilitate the use of Factory units throughout the game by reducing the expenditure required to get production up and running, and a 20% reduction in Thor build time – Thors are now more accessible for countering early air harassment and occupy Factories for less time.