StarCraft 2 Gets New Update for November 2024

Key Takeaways

• StarCraft 2 receives community-driven update after 9 months, maintaining ongoing competitive scene for 14 years.
• New update focuses on multiplayer balancing, addresses changes in all three races to enhance gameplay.

Hit real-time strategy game StarCraft 2 has received a new update, almost 9 months after its last set of balance changes. StarCraft 2 has received continual support from its community and developer Blizzard for almost 14 years, since the game’s first release in 2010.

With an active scene that stretches all the way back to the original 1998 title, StarCraft is arguably one of the longest-lasting major competitive gaming communities ever. StarCraft‘s community has lasted through multiple rereleases of the game over the years, and in the process has become one of the originators of the competitive gaming eSports scene. Meanwhile, support for StarCraft 2 is in its 14th year since StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty launched in July 2010. Despite developer Blizzard officially ending content development on StarCraft 2 in 2020, the game has received regular balance adjustments and bug fixes, led in part by a community-run council dedicated to maintaining the health of the game’s ongoing competitive scene.

That Community Balance Council has just released a new patch for the game. Finalized after multiple weeks of testing via public test servers, the latest patch notes for StarCraft 2 detail changes for the game as it upgrades to version 5.0.14. Targeted entirely at multiplayer and not affecting anything to do with the story-driven campaign or StarCraft 2 custom campaigns, the patch notes cover adjustments that affect all three of the game’s playable factions.

New StarCraft 2 Update Makes Changes to All 3 Races

The new StarCraft 2 update 5.0.14 patch notes discuss a series of balance-related changes. The changes address units in all three StarCraft playable races, potentially altering the quality of different matchups. Of particular concern is the competitiveness of popular StarCraft 2 Zerg units against Protoss, which received an overall buff. However, the Council noted that the “extensive testing” required to fully evaluate the impact of the changes to Protoss would significantly delay the patch’s release. As a result, the Council opted not to proceed with “experimental” changes to Zerg and would instead monitor Zerg vs. Protoss matchups going forward.

Other changes are more divisive, particularly an increase to the supply cost of Terran Ghosts, the iconic StarCraft special forces unit. According to the patch notes, members of the Balance Council were not in “full alignment” regarding the change, but as the change was “desired by the community,” it would move forward despite complaints from professional Terran players. Terran matchups against Zerg and Protoss will then be carefully monitored in the post-5.0.14 competitive environment.

It’s encouraging to see longstanding and community-driven support for a game as old as StarCraft 2. In an age where games with a live service component can get shut down months or even weeks after they launch, to know that developers and community members can be dedicated to keeping a title thriving for over a decade is refreshing. The support also bodes well for StarCraft 2‘s potential future prospects, especially in light of rumors about a new StarCraft shooter being in development.

StarCraft 2 Update 5.0.14 Patch Notes

Early Game in Protoss versus Terran

Community Council Comment: We believe that the Energy Recharge ability has found its place in Protoss builds and has been very helpful in scouting and defending in various scenarios. With a couple of small adjustments below, we feel that the current set of Protoss and Terran changes is an overall improvement for Protoss gameplay stability in the early game compared to the previous patch.

Nexus

• Range for Shield Battery starting with full energy increased from 10 to 12 (maximum distance to the closest Nexus).
• Range for Energy Recharge ability is increased from 10 to 12 (maximum distance to the closest Nexus).

Community Council Comment: The increased range will allow Protoss players to be more flexible when placing Shield Batteries while defending their bases and expanding to new locations, without boosting the offensive capabilities of Shield Batteries.

Other Changes

Mothership

• The model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.11 values.

Ultralisk

• The model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.10 values.

Community Council Comment: We would like to continue following community feedback on the identity of these powerful units. The Mothership is back to its original power level, and increasing its size back to 5.0.11 fits this change perfectly. This adjustment may also slightly help in focus firing the unit in the Zerg versus Protoss matchup, where Abduct is no longer a counter. For the Ultralisk, the original idea of reducing its size was to minimize cases where it got stuck behind other allied units, an issue now resolved with the push priority change included in this patch.

Removed changes

• Thor Explosive Payload weapon changes removed.

Community Council Comment: We received feedback from both Terran players and players from other races indicating that they did not feel positively about this change, as it did not unlock any new playstyles while negatively impacting existing ones. While we still see potential in adjusting the Thor, this unit will remain unchanged from 5.0.13 in the upcoming patch.

Lategame Concerns

Ghost Nerf

Community Council Comment: We have heard major concerns from multiple professional Terran players about the Ghost nerf, and there wasn’t full alignment among Balance Council members regarding this change. However, we also believe that proceeding with this change was desired by the community, so we would like to move forward with the Ghost supply nerf for 5.0.14 while continuing to carefully monitor its effects in both the Terran versus Zerg and Terran versus Protoss matchups.

Zerg versus Protoss

Community Council Comment: With the Mothership no longer being abductable and the overall late-game Protoss army being stronger after the Tempest change, we are concerned about the potential state of the Zerg versus Protoss late game across different levels of play. We received suggestions for some experimental changes to address this matchup, but they would require extensive testing, which would significantly delay the release of the patch. Therefore, we will not proceed with any experimental changes for now and will carefully monitor the state of this matchup going forward.

Full Updated Changelog

Protoss

Nexus

• Maximum range for Shield Battery starting with full energy increased from 10 to 12.
• Battery Overcharge removed.
• New ability: Energy Recharge (50 Energy / 60 second cooldown)
• Recharges 100 Energy to any unit or structure within 12 range of a Nexus.

Shield Battery

• Shields/HP increased from 150/150 to 200/200.

Stalker

• Train time from Gateway reduced from 30 to 27 seconds.

Colossus

• Shields/HP changed from 150/200 to 100/250.

Tempest

• Supply Cost reduced from 5 to 4.
• vs Air attack range reduced from 14 to 13.

Immortal

• Cost reduced from 275/100 to 250/100.
• Weapon cooldown increased from 1.04 to 1.14.

Disruptor

• Purification Nova radius increased from 1.375 to 1.5.
• Purification Nova damage reduced from 145 (200 vs shields) to 100 (200 vs shields).

Mothership

• Cost increased from 300/300 to 400/400.
• Supply cost increased from 6 to 8.
• Mothership now can no longer be targeted by Abduct.
• Damage increased from 6×6 to 6x4x4 (36 damage vs 1 target to 24 damage vs 4 targets each).
• The model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.11 values.

Terran

Cyclone

• Reverted to patch 5.0.11 Cyclone.

Salvage

• Damage now cancels the Salvage process.
• Salvage timer is now visible to enemies.

Planetary Fortress

• Armor reduced from 3 to 2.

Sensor Tower

• Cost reduced from 125/100 to 100/50.
• Radar range reduced from 27 to 22.
• Can now be salvaged.

Orbital Command

• Calldown: Extra Supplies increases the target Supply Depot’s current/max health to 500.

Ghost

• Supply cost increased from 2 to 3.

Zerg

Queen

• Cost increased from 150/0 to 175/0.

Hatchery

• Cost reduced from 300/0 to 275/0.

Spore Crawler

• Damage increased from 15 to 20.
• Health reduced from 400 to 300.

Hydralisk

• Muscular augments creep speed bonus reduced from 1.03 to 0.74.
• New research: Nanomuscular Swell (researches new Lunge ability)
• Cost: 100/100, 64 seconds. Requires Hive.
• Lunge ability (previously called Dash) increases move speed by 100% for 0.71 seconds.

Infestor

• Microbial Shroud now lasts for 3.6 seconds on units leaving the Shroud.

Ultralisk

• Increased allied push priority from 0 to 1 (now pushes allied units out of the way when moving).
• Anabolic Synthesis move speed bonus reduced from 0.82 to 0.57.
• The model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.10 values.

Bug Fixes & Quality of Life Changes

• Orbital Command Scanner Sweep visual now uses team color.
• Command Center, Nexus and Hatchery now auto rally to mineral fields.
• Workers waiting for Refinery, Extractor or Assimilator to finish do not count as idle.
• SCV random delay between moving while building adjusted from 3.57- 7.14 to 4.64-6.07 (same average).
• Added icon to command card for Infestor, Hellion, Hellbat showing unupgraded passive upgrades.
• Siege Tank and Immortal tracking change from previous patch reverted due to causing unintentional retargeting.
• Fixed an issue where blinding cloud caused certain melee units attacks to be more easily canceled.
• Fixed an issue where blinding cloud could cause Planetaries to not be attack units at melee range in certain angles.
• Fixed an issue with issuing orders on certain types of rocks in fog.
• Fixed an issue with Changeling zealot move animation speed.
• Tweaked Hydralisk move animation speed to match it’s actual movement speed.
• Fixed an issue where Gravaton Beam could be cancelled within 0.04 seconds of casting by teleport/transport abilities.
• Fixed an issue where Lurker’s attack could be cancelled when the target leaves range/dies and no other unit is in attack range.
• Fixed an issue with maximum Cyclone lockon range.