We felt that the Snipe ability was countering broodlords and ultralisks slightly too well, but we wanted the Snipe ability to remain viable in the matchup. It’s important to keep in mind that zerg’s late game strength is not derived exclusively from their tier 3 units; much of their late game strength comes as a result of their ability to combine these higher tech units with other units, especially infestors. Accordingly, we elected to lower the ability’s base damage to increase the number of Snipes required to kill ultralisks and broodlords and supplement it by having it deal additional damage to Psionic units to reduce the number of snipes required to kill infestors.
We wanted to improve Snipe’s effectiveness against infestors since EMPs can be difficult to land due to the unit’s size, so we decided to increase the amount of total damage it deals to against Psionic units only. Making the ability deal 30 + 15 Light would reduce its effectiveness versus broodlords and ultralisks, but it would not provide the desired effect versus infestors. In fact, changing the bonus damage to + Light would make it more difficult to kill infestors, and we believe this would further weaken terran late game versus zerg. We understand that this change will require terran players to use more Snipes versus a variety of other units; however, we do not feel as if this will have a noticeable effect on balance since the ability isn’t used frequently versus units other than broodlords, ultralisks, infestors, and high templar. Our desire is not to redesign the ability or redefine the ghost’s role in the TvZ matchup, but to reduce its effectiveness versus broodlords and ultralisks while increasing its effectiveness versus infestors.
We appreciate all the constructive feedback we’ve received thus far.
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