StarCraft 1.2 patch is now live

A gigantic StarCraft 2 patch has arrived, adding chat channels to Battlenet and applying a ton of bug fixes and balance changes to the game. The StarCraft 2 editor has also received a lot of attention with new tips and hints and a suite of new tools. The patch also adds a Master League for the very best StarCraft 2 players in the world.

The patch notes are huge, but you can see the whole list on the Battlenet blog . The major additions made by 1.2 are the chat channel function that lets players communicate via public and private channels. Customisable hotkeys are now supported and there is a new 'Extreme' graphics option that lets the beefiest PC's squeeze a bit of extra polish out of the StarCraft 2 engine. As well as all this, the following balance changes have been made:

Players can no longer block off ramps with two 2×2 buildings.

Protoss

Hallucination research time decreased from 110 to 80.
Observer – Cost decreased from 50/100 to 25/75.
Phoenix – Build time decreased from 45 to 35.
Void Ray – Now deals 20% more damage to massive targets.
Flux Vanes speed upgrade removed.

Terran

Repairing SCVs now assume the same threat priority as the unit they're repairing.
SCV construction movement has been made more consistent.

One of the biggest sections in the patch notes belongs to the StarCraft 2 editor, which has received additions like "a behavior flag to suppress fidgeting" along with a bazillion other improvements that should make the powerful editing tools even more flexible.

For more on StarCraft 2 check out our review , and find out why it was chosen as our strategy game of the year .

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.