StarCraft 2 Receives Its Biggest Update in Years. Blizzard Prepares Game for Game Pass Release
Two weeks before StarCraft 2's Game Pass subscription release, Blizzard began testing a new update. The patch focuses mainly on balance improvements.
During the September Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft officially announced the addition of the StarCraft series to Game Pass. This will happen exactly in 2 weeks, i.e. on November 5. Blizzard is clearly gearing up for this launch, as it just released the biggest update for StarCraft 2 in years.
StarCraft 2 - update 5.0.14
Version 5.0.14 is currently only available on the test server. It was released about 7 months after the last patch and mainly focuses on improving balance. 14 units and 10 buildings have undergone changes, but 2 new skills have also been introduced. The goals that guided the creators during the development of the patch were:
- weakening of defensive and so-called "camping" playstyles for all races at every stage of gameplay;
- reconstruction of Protoss tools for high-level players;
- ensuring strong, alternative gameplay styles for various clashes;
- general gameplay improvement and addition of quality of life changes.
The introduced modifications are largely purely mathematical and many of them boil down to reducing or increasing health, shield, armor or other statistics. For this reason, I will not list them all here, and interested parties can familiarize themselves with the full list on Blizzard's website.
Among the bigger news, however, it is worth mentioning two new skills. The first one named "Energy Overcharge" replaced "Shield Battery Overcharge" in the Protoss Nexus. It costs 50 energy and restores 100 of it to the targeted allied unit or structure within a specified range. The second skill pertains to the Zerg race, more specifically the Hydralisk. It is named "Dash" and after use, it provides a 60% bonus to movement speed for 0.71 seconds.
Let's remind that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty debuted on the market on July 27, 2010. The game has received two expansions: Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. Unfortunately, there is no indication that we can expect the third part any time soon, although a year ago the head of Blizzard did not rule out the possibility of the brand's return. Recently, however, rumors have appeared about a shooter set in this universe.
