Starcraft 2 HOTS Unit Information & More

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Heart_of_the_Swarm

Think this has been up about a month or so, if you spot any errors and can't edit the wiki yourself post in comments.

I know people that can edit on Liquidpedia, and will try to pass info on to them.

Blizzard: Balance Testing TvZ Creep & Raven Changes

Full details at http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/6873704/Call_to_Action_Balance_Testing-8_8_2012


You can give Blizzard feedback at http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6294289730?page=1#0 or see what other Gamers think of it.

Big Teamliquid Thread about this at http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=359152

Basically they are slightly reducing radius each Creep Tumor generates Creep and also reducing the Vision of Creep Tumors.

While increases Raven Speed to 2.5 and Raven acceleration is increased as well.

I think the Raven buff is a good idea, don't like the Nerf to Creep Tumors, but I admit it is a mild Nerf.

Blizzard Diablo 3 Account Security (also WoW & Starcraft 2)

[Special Thanks to KavikTV & Ravager for their help on this post, all errors though are solely mine.]

Update:  If you have been hacked here is Blizz link to use to get problem resolved http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/compromised-diablo-iii-account

According to Blizzard, any time they release a new game, like Diablo 3, or when they release an expansion, there is an increase in the number of accounts reported being Hacked.

There are lots of reasons for this, but here some basic things you can do to help prevent this, these are things you should be doing to reduce your risk from these types of problem in general (ie internet banking, internet buying, etc).

First make sure your Operating System (OS) is up to date (as security problems are found, they are fixed, you need these to help keep hackers out, it is like getting a broken lock on your house door fixed), if your not sure see these links:

• For older Windows computers
• For Windows 7
• For Mac

Second if your not using an AntiVirus/AntiMalware program already get one and use it!



Cliff recommends these two free AntiMalware products:

• Microsoft's Security Essentials for Windows computers (XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, etc)
• Sophos Free AntiMalware for Mac if you have a Mac

I can't recommend any other free ones at this time, I have been using Security Essentials for some time now since having serious problems with a different free product.

I haven't yet used the Sophos product, because I don't have a Mac yet, but I will be getting a Mac in a few weeks, and Sophos' AntiMalware is what my research leads me to use, I will report directly about that product in a future post.

Those two steps will do a lot to prevent a keylogger or something else bad from getting on your computer.

Third update your Browser, Blizzard has good guide to this

Next you should pick a strong password, and if you really want to do something extra get an Authenticator or a Mobile Authenticator from Blizzard, you can use these for Starcraft 2 & WoW as well.

What that does it lets Blizzard send you a 2nd temporary password to use in addition to the password you picked, it is like needing two keys to open a vault or launch a nuke.

I have at least one friend that has using this for some time, and it saved his account from getting hacked when all his local gaming buddies accounts got hacked.

VOD below from Blizzard describes these products and how to use them.

Cliff recommends the Authenticator over the Moble Authenticator, because most of us  will connect our phones to our computers at least some of the time, and if there is MalWare on the computer, it could infect the phone as well.

Friend of mine recently had that happen to his phone, his infected computer also infected his phone.

Or if you have MalWare on your phone, from App or something else, the Hackers might be able to access that 2nd password.

I REALLY recommend the Authenticator if you use a shared or public computer!!!!!!!

Hope that helps.

Stay Safe,

Cliff

See Also:
http://us.battle.net/en/security/checklist 

Learning Starcraft 2: StarCraft Art of War: Replay Analysis

Announcement here http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/4593790, and actual discussions at http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/4175417735#1

A new place to talk about Replay Analysis, brand new, so no content yet, but something I am going to follow.

GL HF,

Cliff

StarcraftMaster like a Girl

Watch Aonir own Starcraft 2 Master!  ^_^

Link http://de.twitch.tv/aonir/b/310581843

Follow Aonir  on Twitter or TwitchTV

If you don't know about it yet, Blizzard's Starcraft 2 blog http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/4544189 "You’ll find StarCraft Master in the Featured section of the Custom Game interface."


Aonir's audio isn't working in that TwitchTV VOD, (XSplit problem?) but she provides a nice overview of Starcraft Master.

SC2 Season 6 Map: Korhal Compound

From Apollo, <333 for these walk throughs Apollo!

See Apollo's introduction to Cloud Kingdom as well.

Patch 1.4.3 Situation Report from PsyStarcraft

I already posted a little about the up coming Patch 1.4.3 for Starcraft 2, here are PsyStarcraft's thoughts about it.

Korean News: South Korea will be doing Quiz Shows in 20 Countries on Kpop and other pop culture

From Yonhap News, South Korea will be doing Quiz shows in various countries to promote "K-pop bands such as Super Junior and Girls' Generation," and other South Korean pop culture.

What an opportunity for Starcraft 2 Nerds! 

Who outside of Korea would have a better chance at these quiz shows?

This will probably make more Korean Pop culture accessible outside of Korea.

I will post updates on this as I find more information.

Starcraft 2 "UI still sub-par 2 years later"

A post by Shockk that I think all the Nerds should see, about some of the shortcomings in the SC2 User Interface:


Counting the beta, SC2 will be two years old in March - and the game's interface has barely developed over that span. While the lack of LAN support is the major issue for most people (as frequently demonstrated in tournaments with connection issues), I feel that the general feel and usability of the new battle.net UI are just as frustrating for the average user.

Sure. We've seen some improvement with chat being added. But it's telling that we had to ask for that in the first place. And we have vague promises for the map marketplace / arcade to fix the completely broken custom game scene with HotS. But there's so much more.

Personally, the game's UI discourages me from playing on a daily basis. When the new battle.net was developed, we were promised that we'd "never want to be offline again". But every single time I log on, I feel utterly alone, maybe play a game or two, and then leave again. Both in SC/BW and WC3, I'd idle around forever, hang out in channels or waste time in custom games.

So what`s different?

Communicating and socializing is too hard.

Chat. It still sucks. Simple commands like /w outside of games would make life tremendously easier. Real channels would be great. Or sending messages to my whole friends list. At the moment, any act of communication is a hassle; I either have to navigate through my friends list (which could be a lot more accessible too, by the way) to message people; I have to clumsily navigate through menus to send messages to other folks (or add them to my list); I even have to click through menus to ignore or report people.

Everything could be so much easier with a decent chat interface, yet we seem to be stuck with the farce of a system we currently have.

Clan support (+clan channels). This rocked in WC3. You had a place to meet with friends and clan mates, and you could even moderate your channels. You actually had a sense of community while online.

Automated tournaments. Where are they? Why was such a great feature removed? Despite losing quickly in most of them, I often played them in WC3. You got to meet new people, had a competition that wasn't ladder, and had an incentive to play for the portraits.

Simply playing the game can be hard at times.

A working custom game system. Despite the chaotic first impression, WC3's system worked. All the SC2 popularity system does is kill any incentive to play maps that aren't on the first two pages. Also, Blizzard's attitude of blocking development instead of encouraging it have led to a custom scene that's pretty much dead. The vocal criticism of the ridiculous limits on map developer freedom have died down because most developers have stopped developing and caring.

I had hoped to see countless maps by now, exploring the boundaries of the map editor and creativity, but all we have are some DotA clones, some TD maps and nothing too exciting else.

AT vs. RT issues in team games. While team games are looked down upon by many, they nontheless enjoy a large following. The strict separation of AT and RT from WC3 was scrapped for SC2 in favor of short queue times, but despite having a matchmaking system implemented, it's still prone to abuse and frustration. Things like 2/3man ATs signing up for 3/4man RTs is just one example of many. Currently, the team ladders are a sick joke and the results / ratings and the general activity reflect the utter neglect with which this issue has been treated.

Analyzing is overly hard as well.

Shared replay watching. It was such a great feature in SC/BW. Requested since beta, and we'll probably never see it.

Statistics. Where are they? Why can't I see my race-specific %, or my odds on certain maps? And why are lower league players belittled by having their losses hidden, even when everyone knows that those people still here after two years must have realized that it's a competetive game and losing is part of the deal?

The whole league system. Sure, we all know how and why the MMR works right now. But why scrap the system that worked so great in WC3? Right now, we can't compare anyone (regardless of whether you think ladder matters or not). Grandmaster league helped, but only if you're looking at pros. I can't even judge whether I'm better than my buddy or not, because we're both in meaningless divisions of pointless leagues, and our MMR is invisible.

------------------------------

Things went wrong when Blizzard decided to develop the new B.Net from scratch, and to employ a casual game / console developer for the job. I have nothing personal against Greg Canessa, but I feel it shows that he developed for PopCap and Xbox Live before. That by itself needn't have been a bad thing, but why for the love of all that is holy did everything that worked well in previous games have to be removed? Hell, the better part of Blizzard's fame came from releasing games with fantastic interfaces and great functions, yet SC2 is a step back (or several) compared to 2003's WC3 or even 1998's SC.

And why all this? Well, of course because it works for Blizzard. Enough people were happy with what they got, not enough people cared. The folks who just bought the game for the campaign obviously didn't bother with the menu much, and the competetive 1vs1 crowd basically just needs a working matchmaking system (which is great, btw, and the only redeeming feature). But there's a huge number of players interested in socializing, custom maps and analyzing their play. Those that haven't left have grown complacent or jaded with Blizzard's ignorance.

The adding of chat and the scrapped forum real-ID feature have shown what players can achieve when the voice concerns; the complete lack of development in the meantimes is a great sign of how little will suffice for the majority to accept their fate.

This game could be so much better.

*edit: Feel free to repost this wherever you like. A mirror of this thread already exists on the english EU forums; if someone could repost it to the US forums and keep the thread alive it'd be great.

This thread on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/p9c9h/ui_still_subpar_2_years_later_why_dont_we_care/
This thread on the official EU forums (english): http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/3313032837
This thread on the official EU forums (german): http://eu.battle.net/sc2/de/forum/topic/3269838492#1
This thread on the official US forums (english): http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/3988232669

SC2 New Maps

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=295145

Good pictures of the new maps and discussion.

Starcraft 2 Patch 1.4 thoughts & comments

Official Blizzard post http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/3565234

Teamliquid thread

Up front, so you know my perspective, I play Protoss, Zerg is my off race, but that may well change in the future.

Really thinking about switching to Zerg, I think they are actually the strongest of the three races for skilled players.  When I say skilled, I don't mean micro monsters, Zerg can tech switch harder and faster than the other races.  Plus they have the most mobility, totally ignoring Speedlings and Mutas which happen to be among the two fastest units in the game, with every Overlord being a transport with upgrade, and Nydus providing instant movement across the map, I suspect Zerg will eventually face some hard nerfs to balance them once people actually realize the true strength of Zerg.  You just can't 1A with them, that is were the skill and knowledge of the game comes into play.

Proplayers that I follow are Catz (Z), Kiwkiaki (P), WhiteRa (P), Grubby (P), GoOdy (T), & to a lesser extent Destiny (Z) & Minigun (P mainly but he dabbles with Z).  [Check right side of my blog for links to these players streams, and repays.  I add more content there every month.]

Protoss

I really like the buff to Warp Prism, I don't think it was needed, but I will certainly use it, I don't think 2 base Colossus will be a long term viable build in SC2.  Colossus NEED support units, and ideally +2 or +3 attack upgrades.  That takes time and gas.

Warp Prism lets you use all mineral units for backstabbing and pinning attacks/harassment to safely transition into Colossus off  of 3 or 4 base.  Zealot drops on mineral lines, even with slow lots, are very effective at pinning and backstabbing.  Three or four non microed zealots seem to maul any number of non microed workers, 1 or 2 lots seem to die to 1A by enough workers.

WhiteRa has been know for using Warp Prism harassment that way, he also as a SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) will send one Zealot into closest enemy base right at the beginning of a fight.  One zealot usually won't matter for the fight past early stages of the game.  But one Zealot can kill a lot of workers during the time of the battle.

I believe the Warp was already the fasted Transport unit in the game with the speed upgrade, now in some ways it is the toughest.

Since the patch I have seen WhiteRa use Stalker + Warp Prism micro to snipe Overlords all over the map and totally deny map control to Zerg opponent for much of the middle game.

Terran

I don't have much to say about Terran, I don't play them at all, I think Thors might be most useful massive unit in the game.  But I am not sure about that, but I know that neither Thors and Battlecruisers seem to need support units when they first appear in the game.  Unlike Broodlords or Colossus.

Zerg
I don't agree with the Infestor nerf.  Though a range reduction is better than what they were originally planning with making Massive units immune.

I do like Blizzard's comments and Buff to Overseer, should help a lot with scouting, specially if players use Changlings more like Blizzard wants.

Also has anyone ever seen David Kim's pet Baneling?

Something Important in SC2's growth: Starcraft 2 Science: Skillcraft's Study

An Academic thread, by Mark Blair (CRUSHDOG5), on Teamliquid, about a study that SC2 players of all levels can participate in, link for the study is here.


Related link from Mark Blair.