Pro StarCraft Gamer

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Patch 1.3.3 Now Available on PTR 4/27

StarCraft II

Patch 1.3.3 Now Available on PTR

April 26, 2011 at 5:32 PM

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty patch 1.3.3 is currently in development and now available for testing on the PTR. This minor patch contains several balance changes and bug fixes. By participating in the PTR, you'll be among the first to test out the latest changes and help us ensure that when the patch is released it's of the highest quality possible.

To participate in the public test you must have a full North America product license. Further details on how to access the PTR can be found in the FAQ. Once you've had the chance to try things out, be sure to visit the Public Test forum to discuss the patch.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - PTR Patch 1.3.3 Notes

Table of Contents

Balance

PROTOSS
- Archons are now a massive unit.
- Pylon power radius has been decreased from 7.5 to 6.5.
- Cybernetics Core
  - Research Warp Gate time increased from 140 to 180.
- Gateway
  - Sentry train time decreased from 42 to 37.
  - Stalker train time decreased from 42 to 37.
  - Zealot train time decreased from 38 to 33.
  - Warp Gate unit train times remain unchanged.
TERRAN
- Ghost
  - Cost changed from 150/150 to 200/100.
- Salvage resource return reduced from 100% to 75%.
ZERG
- Spore Crawler
  - Root time decreased from 12 to 6.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where Ghosts could not quickly EMP the same location.
Fixed a bug where players were still able to stack flying units on top of each other.

As this is a test server, please anticipate uneven game performance, and note that restarts and downtime may occur without warning. We'll provide information regarding extended downtimes, should they occur, in the Public Test forum.

AchieveCraft #5: Solitaire

April 26, 2011 at 12:40 PM

In this series of StarCraft II blog articles, we will explore some of the more challenging and unusual StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty solo play achievements.

Cutthroat is an intriguing mission on Dead Man's Rock, where Raynor's Raiders compete with Colonel Orlan to be the first to gather and scavenge 6,000 minerals, buying the allegiance of Mira Han as a result. Winning Mira's Mercs is simply a matter of effort.

But the Solitaire achievement requires careful strategy. You are awarded 10 achievement points if you "Don't train additional SCVs before purchasing Han's contract on Hard difficulty."

Hard difficulty is already, well, hard enough. But taking away your ability to gather more than a handful of minerals brings the challenge way up. With Orlan's squads attacking your base, defending his positions, and gathering minerals of their own, how will you overcome this self-imposed disadvantage?

Has this achievement got you stumped? What strategy do you suggest? You can help others by telling us all about it in the comments below!