StarCraft 2 1.1 patch imminent

If you're logging on for some early morning Starcraft 2 tomorrow morning, and find that you can't get on to Battlenet, don't panic! Starcraft 2 will be receiving its first big balance update. Read on for what we know so far about the expected changes.

The full explanation of the planned update can be found here , but these are the highlights, or, for siege tank lovers such as myself, the lowlights.

Protoss Zealots will have their build time increased by five seconds to try and soften the ferocity of the early Zealot rush. It's a measure of how finely balanced Starcraft 2 is that an additional five seconds is all it takes to handicap a strategy, but as someone who has been minced by the Zealots' glowing wristblades one too many times, this comes as welcome news. The question is: how best to use those five precious extra seconds?

Many of the Terran changes seem to be aimed at protecting the poor, defenceless Zerg, who it seems have have been struggling to stand up against early Terran rushes. Thanks to this Reapers will also take a further five seconds to build. My beloved siege tanks are also taking a hit. Blizzard's reason? "Siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units." That's exactly why I liked them! Anyway, the new siege tanks are sensibly designed to be more effective against armoured enemies, and their splash damage has been reduced to give smaller units a chance to charge through their long distance artillery barrages. Battlecruisers have been made less effective, too, though in my experience I hardly ever see them appear in multiplayer skirmishes.

The Zerg, meanwhile, are to remain relatively untouched. Ultralisks won't do quite as much damage and their building bashing Ram attack will disappear, to be replaced by the Ultralisk's equally powerful standard attack.

There will also be some more general updates to the editor that will add additional features for modders. It'll be clearer when the patch is released tomorrow. The maintenance period is scheduled to last from 5:00am to 11:00am tomorrow morning.

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.