The third and final installment in a series of overviews covering the last few patches out for the SC2 Beta. Addresses the noteworthy and not so noteworthy changes, and provides insight into the likely causes and ramifications.

Easily the most significant change to Zerg in this set of patches, this has a huge impact on how effective Zerglings, Marines, Zealots, Sentries, and other low damage units are against Roaches. Combined with the other nerfs to Roaches, this change seems to stem from Blizzard acknowledging the high rate of use and effectiveness of Roaches compared to other unit choices.

Though not nearly as noteworthy as the change to their base armor, these changes may greatly effect the prevalence of various Roach ‘cheese’ strategies, such as the rush to Burrow in order to gain a striking advantage over Zerg opponents who use Roaches but do not get Burrow as quickly, and the use of Roaches to quickly circumvent defensive positions and gain access to vulnerable mineral lines quickly by ‘tunneling’ beneath and out of sight. I do find myself questioning the total removal of the regen bonus for un-burrowed Roaches with the Hive level upgrade; I tend to think that the upgrade may be overlooked now in favor of other, better Hive level tech options, or that Hive may be ignored completely in favor of a stronger presence earlier in the game for players using a lot of Roaches.

This change seems to be motivated by the prevalence of Zerg players using Hydralisks as both the main ‘meat shield’ and the main damage dealer in their armies, which is not intended by design. Zerglings and Roaches are meant to fill the meat shield role, while Hydralisks are meant to fire from the back lines and handle aerial threats. That said, this change should not be overestimated, Hydralisks are still strong units in almost every situation.

Finally, Zerg gets its turn in the progressive buffs to Base Defenses. This duo of changes is perhaps the most noteworthy of those so far implemented to base defenses. Not only do Spine Crawlers now kill unupgraded Marines in two shots instead of three, they also attack more rapidly. I have not seen a prevalence of any kind of obnoxious spam or cheese involving Spine Crawlers, but I have seen them used more often for their intended purpose. I applaud this change unreservedly.

This change doesn’t make Banelings a universal counter to all or most ground armies, but it does help them make an impact against armies composed heavily of Marauders, Stalkers, Roaches, and/or some other Armored Units. It has yet to be seen if this will have a major impact on the prevalence of Banelings, as I feel players are often hesitant about using a unit whose whole purpose is to die (even explosively), but I think this is definitely a move in the right direction.

This is a well considered change. Brood lords are extremely useful, dealing huge amounts of damage at Siege range and being difficult to counter effectively. However, considering the huge impact of the spawned Broodlings compared to the raw impact damage, it is questionable how significant this change in damage may be in altering their overall effectiveness. I continue to see them perform exceedingly well, and expect that in most capacities Brood Lords will weather this change mostly unscathed.

A fairly minor change, this does make a case for using more Spore Crawlers for detection and defending Bases against air attacks, as opposed to Hydralisks and Overseers. I question if this will really alter their usage, however, as their real drawback seems to be more their range than their cost.