Protoss The Button: Starcraft II Legacy Of The Void Beta
Good news if you've been waiting to see how Big Stubbly Man and Chitin Stilettos Woman managed to defeat timeless evil once and for all until the next sequel: the third and final chunk of StarCraft II is very much on its way. In fact, beta invites for the Protoss-focused Legacy of the Void are due to go out before the end of the month. "Much has changed" since the last time Blizzard let us have a peek at their void.
The beta is, naturally, purely multiplayer-focused. I'm sure I'm not alone in only really playing SCII for the singleplayer - the story stuff invariably makes me want to burn all of popular culture to the ground, but the variety and invention of the missions is basically unparalleled in this genre - but clearly the game's heart is its hyper-competitive online battles. So, let's take a look at what's NEW and DIFFERENT and PROBABLY QUITE COMPLICATED in the upcoming beta:
The new units are probably the biggest deal there. The Protoss get ranged unit The Adept and AOE robot the Disruptor, while the Terran Cyclone doles out damage over time and the Zerg get the Lurker and the Ravager, both renowned for their extensive charity work. Blizzard are still working on a second new Terran unit, and reckon "we’re looking at adding a Barracks unit, Starport unit, or possibly even a new building altogether."
The beta also brings updates to existing units, as well as inevitable balance tweaks. For instance, staring Worker count is up to 12, which may be a big deal with lightning-speed players, and some bases will have less resources on hand in order to encourage "additional expansions more aggressively." These are things which sound small on paper but potentially mean dramatic change in practice.
More detail on all of this stuff here. Invitations for the closed beta start going out on March 31st - expect an internet-wide frenzy of begging when that happens.