Important takeaways
- StarCraft 2 gets a community-driven update after 9 months, maintaining an ongoing competitive situation for 14 years.
- New update focuses on multiplayer balancing, addressing changes in all three races to improve gameplay.
Hit real-time strategy game Starcraft 2 has received a new update, almost 9 months after its last set of balance changes. Starcraft 2 has received continuous support from its community and developer Blizzard for nearly 14 years, since the game's initial release in 2010.
With an active scene stretching all the way back to the original 1998 title, StarCraft is arguably one of the longest-running large competitive gaming communities ever. StarCrafts community has endured through several re-releases of the game over the years, and in the process has become one of the originators of the competitive eSports scene. Meanwhile support for Starcraft 2 is in its 14th year since StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty launched in July 2010. Despite developer Blizzard officially ending content development Starcraft 2 In 2020, the game has received regular balance tweaks and bug fixes, led in part by a community-driven council dedicated to maintaining the health of the game's ongoing competitive scene.

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The Community Balance Council has just released a new patch for the game. Completed after several weeks of testing via public test servers, the latest patch notes for Starcraft 2 detailed changes for the game when it is upgraded to version 5.0.14. Completely focused on multiplayer and does not affect anything related to the story-driven campaign or Starcraft 2 custom campaigns, the patch notes cover tweaks that affect all three of the game's playable factions.
New StarCraft 2 update makes changes to all 3 races
The new one Starcraft 2 update 5.0.14 patch notes discuss a number of balance-related changes. The changes address devices in all three StarCraft playable races, which can change the quality of different matches. Of particular interest is the competitiveness of popular Starcraft 2 Zerg units against Protoss, which received a total buff. However, the council noted that the “extensive testing” required to fully evaluate the impact of the changes to the Protoss would significantly delay the patch's release. As a result, the council chose not to proceed with “experimental” changes to the Zerg and would instead monitor matchups between Zerg and Protoss going forward.
Other changes are more fragmented, notably an increase in the supply costs of Terran Ghosts, the iconic StarCraft special forces unit. According to the patch notes, the members of the Council of Balance were not in “full coordination” regarding the change, but since the change was “desired by the community” it would go ahead despite complaints from professional Terran players. Terran matches against Zerg and Protoss will then be closely monitored in the post-5.0.14 competitive environment.
It's encouraging to see long-term and community-driven support for a game this old Starcraft 2. In an age where games with a live service component can be shut down months or even weeks after launch, it's refreshing to know that developers and community members can dedicate themselves to keeping a title thriving for over a decade. The support also bodes well for Starcraft 2s potential prospects, especially in light of rumors of a new StarCraft shooter in development.
StarCraft 2 Update 5.0.14 Patch Notes
Early game in Protoss versus Terran
Community Council Comment: We believe the energy charge ability has found its place in Protoss builds and has been very helpful for scouting and defending in various scenarios. With a couple of small tweaks below, we feel that the current set of Protoss and Terran changes is an overall improvement to Protoss early game game stability compared to the previous patch.
Nexus
- Range of Shield Battery starting at full energy increased from 10 to 12 (maximum distance to nearest Nexus).
- The range of the energy charge ability is increased from 10 to 12 (maximum distance to the nearest Nexus).
Community Council Comment: The expanded range will allow Protoss players to be more flexible when placing Shield Batteries while defending their bases and expanding into new locations, without increasing the offensive capability of Shield Batteries.
Other changes
Mother ship
- Model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.11 values.
Ultralic
- Model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.10 values.
Community Council Comment: We would like to continue to follow community feedback on the identity of these powerful entities. The mothership is back to its original power level and increasing its size back to 5.0.11 fits this change perfectly. This tweak can also help focus on firing the unit in the Zerg vs. Protoss matchup, where Abduct is no longer a counter. For the Ultralisk, the original idea of reducing its size was to minimize instances where it got stuck behind other allied units, a problem that is now fixed with the push priority change included in this patch.
Removed changes
- Thor Explosive Payload weapon changes have been removed.
Community Council Comment: We received feedback from both Terran players and players of other races who indicated that they did not feel positive about this change, as it did not unlock any new playstyles while negatively affecting existing ones. While we still see potential in tweaking Thor, this unit will remain unchanged from 5.0.13 in the upcoming patch.
Worry about late game
Ghost Nerf
Community Council Comment: We've heard major concerns from several professional Terran players about the Ghost nerf, and there wasn't full consensus among Balance Council members regarding this change. However, we also believe that continuing with this change was desired by the community, so we would like to move forward with the Ghost Supply nerf for 5.0.14 while continuing to closely monitor its effects in both Terran vs. Zerg and Terran vs. Protoss matchups.
Zerg vs Protoss
Community Council Comment: Since the mothership can no longer be hijacked and the overall late game Protoss army is stronger after the Tempest change, we are concerned about the potential state of Zerg vs. Protoss late game at different levels of game. We received suggestions for some experimental changes to address this matchup, but they would require extensive testing, which would significantly delay the release of the patch. Therefore, we will not be proceeding with any experimental changes at this time and will closely monitor the state of this matchup going forward.
Full updated changelog
Protoss
Nexus
- Maximum range of Shield Battery starting at full energy increased from 10 to 12.
- Battery overcharge has been removed.
- New Ability: Energy Charge (50 energy / 60 second cooldown)
- Charges 100 energy to any unit or structure within 12 range of a Nexus.
Shield Battery
- Shields/HP increased from 150/150 to 200/200.
Stalker
- Train time from Gateway reduced from 30 to 27 seconds.
Hulk
- Shields/HP changed from 150/200 to 100/250.
Storm
- Delivery cost reduced from 5 to 4.
- vs Air attack range reduced from 14 to 13.
Immortal
- Cost reduced from 275/100 to 250/100.
- Weapon cooldown increased from 1.04 to 1.14.
Disruptor
- Purification Nova radius increased from 1.375 to 1.5.
- Purification Nova damage reduced from 145 (200 vs shields) to 100 (200 vs shields).
Mother ship
- Cost increased from 300/300 to 400/400.
- Delivery cost increased from 6 to 8.
- Motherships can now no longer be subject to Abduct.
- Damage increased from 6×6 to 6x4x4 (36 damage against 1 target to 24 damage against 4 targets each).
- Model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.11 values.
Terran
Cyclone
- Restored to patch 5.0.11 Cyclone.
Save
- Damage now interrupts the salvage process.
- Salvage timer is now visible to enemies.
Planetary Fortress
- Armor reduced from 3 to 2.
Sensor tower
- Cost reduced from 125/100 to 100/50.
- Radar range reduced from 27 to 22.
- Can now be saved.
Orbital command
- Calldown: Extra Supplies increases target supply depot's current/max health to 500.
Ghost
- Delivery cost increased from 2 to 3.
Zerg
Queen
- Cost increased from 150/0 to 175/0.
Hatchery
- Cost reduced from 300/0 to 275/0.
Spore Crawler
- Damage increased from 15 to 20.
- Health reduced from 400 to 300.
Hydraulic
- Muscle boost creep speed bonus reduced from 1.03 to 0.74.
- New Research: Nanomuscular Swell (researches new Lunge ability)
- Cost: 100/100, 64 seconds. Requires Hive.
- Lung ability (formerly known as Dash) increases movement speed by 100% for 0.71 seconds.
Infestor
- Microbial shroud now lasts 3.6 seconds on units leaving the shroud.
Ultralic
- Increased ally push priority from 0 to 1 (now pushes allied units out of the way when moving).
- Anabolic Synthesis movement speed bonus reduced from 0.82 to 0.57.
- Model size reverted (increased) to Patch 5.0.10 values.
Bug fixes and quality of life changes
- Orbital Command Scanner Sweep visual now uses team color.
- Command Center, Nexus and Hatchery now automatically rally to mineral fields.
- Workers waiting for Refinery, Extractor or Assimilator to complete are not considered inactive.
- SCV random delay between moving while building adjusted from 3.57-7.14 to 4.64-6.07 (same average).
- Added icon on command card for Infestor, Hellion, Hellbat showing un-upgraded passive upgrades.
- Siege Tank and Immortal tracking changes from previous patch have been reset due to causing accidental retargeting.
- Fixed an issue where blinding clouds caused some melee units to be interrupted more easily.
- Fixed an issue where a blinding cloud could cause the planetarians to not be attack units in melee range at certain angles.
- Fixed an issue with issuing orders on certain types of rocks in fog.
- Fixed an issue with Changeling Zealot move animation speed.
- Tweaked Hydralic movement animation speed to match actual movement speed.
- Fixed an issue where Gravaton Beam could cancel within 0.04 seconds of casting teleport/transport abilities.
- Fixed an issue where the Lurker's attack could cancel when the target leaves range/dies and no other unit is in attack range.
- Fixed an issue with maximum cyclone lock range.