We’ve just published a new Balance Test Map to the StarCraft II Custom Games list titled "Frost LE (2.1 Balance v1.0)" in order to test a few balance tweaks across all three races in Heart of the Swarm multiplayer. During this testing phase, please keep in mind that none of the changes listed below are final. Our plan is to first explore how each change impacts the game and potentially test additional changes after reviewing your feedback.

Let's have a look at what you'll be testing:

Protoss

Mothership Core

• Photon Overcharge duration decreased from 60 to 50 seconds.
• Time Warp energy cost increased from 75 to 100.

Tempest

• Resonance Coil ground weapon damage increased from 30 to 30 + 30 vs. Structures.

Terran

Ghost

• Starting energy increased from 50 to 75.
• The Moebius Reactor upgrade has been removed from the Ghost Academy.

Zerg

Hydralisk

• Cost decreased from 100/50 to 100/25.

New Balance Testing Extension Mod

We’ve also created a new Extension Mod for balance testing so that you can try your hand with these changes on maps other than Frost LE. Those of you who are interested in trying out the Extension Mod can use the following steps to get a game started:

You can start a game with the balance testing Extension Mod using the following steps:

1. Navigate to Browse Maps on the Custom Games menu,
2. Select a map and click the Create with Mod button in the lower right corner,
3. Choose to sort by Blizzard Mods from the dropdown list at the top of the screen.
4. Select the “Official Balance Testing” Extension Mod from the list and then hit Create Game.

If you're interested in the StarCraft II Balance Team's reasoning behind each change, you can check out David Kim's recent forum post.

We’d like to acknowledge that in the days following David Kim’s forum post, we’ve received lots of feedback on the proposed changes, some positive, some negative. However, we’d like to avoid dropping or altering any of them before we’ve had the chance to see how they play out during testing. With this in mind, we’d like to remind you that feedback based on playtesting is the most helpful information you can share with us at this time. We kindly ask that you spend some time playing games on the test map before offering your thoughts on the changes listed above.

As always, thank you for your continued feedback and support. We’d like to restate that none of the changes listed above are final. Once you feel you’ve had enough time to test thoroughly, we welcome you to join us in this discussion thread.