Blizzard has thrown its hands in the air and admitted defeat – for now. Starcraft 2 update 5.0.17 is here on the public test realm, and it’s basically a complete reversal of the transformative multiplayer redesign that rolled out four months ago. With fundamental changes to the very heart of the economy, the overhaul was the boldest and most dramatic balance patch the RTS game had received since the Legacy of the Void launch back in 2015. Now, the developer is rolling it all back, with a new approach already in the works.
Starcraft 2 has had a tumultuous few months. Back in late May, Blizzard suddenly dropped an update that rocked the very foundations of the multiplayer community. At its core was a shift in the starting worker count from 12 to eight, a change that might sound small if you’re not an ardent fan of build orders, but one that fundamentally transformed the entire structure, pacing, and economy of competitive SC2 matches. That was followed up by several additional patch notes that continued to make drastic adjustments, such as changing the cost of expanding to a new base.
It was exciting to see Blizzard take some fresh swings at what had become a fairly static meta, but ultimately there were too many big changes rolled out in quick succession without enough careful feedback, and players quickly grew frustrated. In response, Blizzard has now finally acknowledged the problems, and its new Starcraft 2 patch notes roll back “most balance changes to the live release of Starcraft 2 from patch 5.0.16 [the big May update] to 5.0.15.”
“Following the release of the last major patch, we have been collecting and closely reviewing your feedback,” the developer writes. Explaining why it waited for so long before hitting the undo key, it says, “Our intention was to try something new, particularly with workers, and needed time to let the meta develop in order to ensure the most accurate feedback was being considered.” It adds that the new-old patch will be pushed to the live game after a “few days” of PTR bug testing.
Heading off concerns that this meant the end to any experimentation, a Blizzard employee going by ‘Blizz_Elliott’ confirms via Reddit that work is ongoing. “We can’t share timing yet for when the next PTR will go live but it is already being worked on. Reverting as we did today was our best option for being able to address so much of the critical feedback we’ve gotten on the patch, while focusing on new changes as part of the next patch after 5.0.17.”
I remain hopeful that means not everything from 5.0.16 will be lost. While the meta shakeup was undoubtedly enough of a mess to warrant ripping the band-aid off, there were also quite a few welcome tweaks and quality-of-life improvements that should absolutely stick around. For example, the ‘phantom weapons’ to help with unit movement were a smart inclusion, the overhauled mineral patch counts felt like a smart rebalance, and Vipers being granted the ability to abduct planted Siege Tanks was a good change.
Starcraft 2 patch 5.0.17 is live now on the PTR, and should release for the live game within the next few days. I’m wishing the remaining SC2 balance team the best in taking the right lessons from this to make fresh changes in the coming months, because there was a real sense of excitement for some of the concepts introduced. With the promise of a new Starcraft shooter in 2030, it benefits everyone to have the most recent game in a good place.