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The original was posted on /r/starcraft by /u/SC2Soon on 2024-11-07 22:18:04+00:00.

First of all I want to start this off by saying I am very thankful for everyone who tries to balance the game but I think one point that never really comes up is the design of the game. I dont want this to come across as hate this is simply a suggestion to keep an eye out for the game design a bit since the game got more and more stale with every balance changes the council made so far unfortunately.

I really think the balance council is focusing way too much on making the game consistent instead of interesting.

If we look back into the time of pre balance council we saw a lot of variety in build choices and playstyles in each matchup and in tournaments and especially player identity and personality in playstyles was more common.

I am going to name some examples for each race… even if you dislike or like some changes I also dislike and like some balance changes they did BUT this is simply to show how we/the council slowly makes the game more gray and the game loses variety overall slowly:

1. Widow mine changes pre changes we saw Maru and other terrans rarely play 1 base mass wmine dropping or 2 base this playstyle or even the 1 base wmine drop into thor allin from bunny in TVP this got simply removed by all of those balance changes the council made to the wmine. Removing identity from bunny and other terrans who used it or not used it this has impact in TvP and TvZ opening and playstyles.
2. Voidray rushes and openings in general I do agree the voidray meta was bit boring but double nerfing the voidray was a harsh move instead of just increasing cost OR build time not both at once simply an opening that got removed same for proxy voidray removed due to these changes. Cant name examples of who used it well unfortunatly. However this removed skytoss as opening completly vZ and proxy voidray vT.
3. Raven changes while the old raven was used a lot vs Protoss as +1 Timing it also got very rarely used against Z with hellion . Yes it was rare but still it was variety in pro games that was very welcome different opening as a viewer is fun and enjoyable to see the occassionaly Raven opening vZ which was viable due to the stronger turret and anti armor. Also I will never forget how showtime dodged 2 matrix with a prism and crushed the terran pushing such a nice skill expression . ( sidenote I think there is also a player on the ladder who enjoyed massing ravens which is just an unusuable style now due to the nerfs to the turret)
4. +2 banelings and hp while I do agree with these changes like every balance change overall it removed ling bling playstyles yes they were uncommon vs P but they existed this playstyle however got removed due to these changes. Players that directly i connect to this is reynor being an incredible fast players I remember him occassionally just playing ling bling ultra vP and this is just unusable now.
5. Disruptor an upcoming nerf actually decreasing the disruptor damage removes disruptor drop basically from the game vZ and vT while it is super rare also due to the previous nerf the disruptor received from the council it was an opening we occassionally saw being used. Removing identity from players like creator used it or hero vZ a lot. Again removing openings and playstyles.
6. The most outrageous change which I litterally cant understand how this every got the OK from anyone increasing the hatchery sight range by 1 to simply remove spine crawler cheese from the game. This only got patched to remove a cheese to remove identity and build variety from the game. Dark liked to use this one for example.
7. Defense nerfs also upcoming slowly making turtle games less and less common to see maybe we never see them again potentially again removing a playstyle from the game. Just making every game looking the same slowly.

I hope these example show while they maybe are good changes in an isolated case such as helping protoss deal with wmine or help protoss deal with baneling help terran with disruptor etc. they also hurt game variety A LOT and also hurt player identity and viewer enjoyment a lot. It is more fun to see crazy builds come out then clem playing vs serral or maru vs dark for the 19th time playing 3cc 16stim into the same midgame into the same lategame over and over and over and over. It is more fun for the viewers to see a crazy build in a finals then just mechanics clashing against mechanics which SC2 is slowly becoming.

While the changes overall might seem nice for the consistency for pro level and maybe some exeperience on the ladder improves to some degree it also hurts variety as I said many times. I think that the damage these changes also cause indirectly is incredible overlooked by the council and should be taken rather serious.

We are slowly moving away from Players having an identity such as maru being the guy who is the lategame terran gumiho the crazy build guy clem the micro heavy monster hero the aggresive crazy guy… creator / stats who enjoy lategame reynor the multitasking guy with ling bling while serral is known for macro and solid lategame dark with incredible unorthodox builds and styles.

If you watch a tournament nowadays every game slowly feels the same and plays the same you can hide the names of the players and often you couldnt even tell who is playing because identity is getting removed and I think this is a big problem which will slowly cause less and less players to play this game and quit… I mean we already see the player base drop slowly more and more people quit because less and less playstyle are viable and less and less identity is in pro matches obviously there is no actual evidence for the playstyle being removed from the game being related to the the player and viewers dropping but I personally also can barely watch a tournament nowadays every game feels too similar and when we look back at a finals of maru or clem or hero or reynor serral whomever from years ago we saw more variety in the opening being chosen and more crazy builds such as mass widow mines disruptor drop mass ling bling vs P etc.

I hope my point came across I do think every race needs some cheeky things and some things that are too strong yes maybe the old disruptor was a bit too strong being 3 supply having a bigger radius etc but you know what it also provided way more variety same for the widow mines were they annoying to deal with sure but it was also used in openings that were completlty removed by those changes. And the most outrageous change is and will always be increasing the hatch sight range by 1 to simply remove a cheese in ZvZ …

I hope that the balance council takes the game design more into consideration and not just balance, because I do think the game maybe nowadays comes more down to skill vs skill but it also has way less “color” and less identity in each player slowly. Because I personally think the game pre balance council changes was more fun to watch and play then nowadays which is kind of sad to think about.

Sorry that this is such a long post and I hope that we all can enjoy SC2 for more years to come whatever happens with the balance.

I often heard caster and people reviewing the changes very isolated and never really bring up how we remove playstyles and openings slowly.

Also I would like to know other people opionions as well ^^.