Big changes coming to StarCraft 2 multiplayer

Blizzard has signalled big changes are coming to StarCraft 2 multiplayer.

The developers are working on a major design patch that targets underused units and abilities as well as sudden game-ending moments.

Changes to StarCraft 2's economy, unit redesigns across the three races and more. Units in-line to be re-jigged include the Terran's Mule unit and caster units. On the protoss side, Blizzard is taking another look at the early game defenses to see if it can make these defenses revolve more around the basic Protoss early game units. And on zerg, Blizzard wants to make sure zerg has enough aggressive options before late game so players don't feel heavily pressured into only defensive play.

The most dramatic change relates to the protoss Mothership Core. Blizzard said it's trying out removing the unit from the game, and moving its early game defense role to the Nexus itself. "This is not a minor change and we will be paying close attention to how this plays out during testing," Blizzard said. "In doing this change, we hope to somewhat simplify protoss early game defenses by concentrating defensive power in the Nexus itself rather than a specialised unit that moves between them."

Blizzard detailed its plans in an extensive post on Battle.net. The changes are already live on the testing section of StarCraft 2 multiplayer, and the plan is to release the final changes after this year's tournament season ends in November.