Announced at BlizzCon 2016, StarCraft II will be delivering a ton of new content to players! The third and final mission pack to Nova Covert Ops will be released soon, bringing a thrilling conclusion to the downloadable campaign that kicked off earlier this year. Alongside that, StarCraft II will be introducing new seasonal content called War Chest. Players who take part in the War Chest will be presented with an unlockable star map. As they gain experience points through playing StarCraft II ladder matches or cooperative missions online, players can use those points to open up different pathways through the map, which will unlock fun additional pieces of story and lore, as well as exclusive digital content including unit skins, portraits, decals, and emojis. Players gain access to each season of the War Chest via a fee, with some of the proceeds from each season being used to fund prize pools for the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS).
StarCraft II will also see Co-op updates over the coming months, including the addition of new commander, Alexei Stukov; a popular infested Terran character from both the original StarCraft and StarCraft II campaigns. Stukov’s base will consist of Infested Terran structures that constantly spawn infested units, and a pair of new cooperative missions. Miner Evacuation will task players with escorting civilians off of a dangerous planet. Dark of Night is based on a popular Arcade mission called Left2Die, where countless waves of infested are sent to overwhelm the players.
Lastly, StarCraft II is preparing to release a comprehensive multiplayer update, which includes design changes that have been in public testing for the past few months. Terran will see more viable mech play with a full overhaul of the Cyclone and Siege Tank, with the latter being given a big damage buff in exchange for the removal of its ability to be picked up and dropped off by Medivacs while in siege mode. Zerg changes include a range and speed buff for the Hydralisk, as well as a Baneling health buff. Protoss adjustments include a new ability for the Tempest, which serves as a tool for zoning and area denial, a speed increase for Zealots, and blink for Dark Templar.
The changes are intended not just to shake up the metagame for competitive StarCraft II—the hope is to increase overall strategic diversity and bring the game to a state where the meta can evolve in a healthy way on its own.
For a full list of changes, check the StarCraft II website: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20241474/legacy-of-the-void-multiplayer-design-changes-8-14-2016.
Although he has been gaming since the Sega Mega Drive launched in 1990, he still sucks at most games. When not being trash he watches French horror films, drinks herbal tea and secretly loves the music of Taylor Swift.
