At last! A micro-related question! And as expected, that question came from the community that we (SC fans) all love, Team Liquid.

The Starcraft 2 Q&A Batch 47 as posted by Karune

StarCraft II Q&A Batch 47

1. In the original StarCraft, most air units can move and fire, vultures have fast rotating times and can shoot backwards and run forward instantaneously with enough micro. In StarCraft II, there have been some concerns from players who have played the game, that the unit movement animations are getting in the way of micro. Will such animation cancelling techniques still be possible in StarCraft II? - Team Liquid

Both macro and micro-control are very important in StarCraft II as well, and when it comes to micro-control like Vulture’s moving and shooting in the original StarCraft, it is still possible to focus on micro control with the units.

For example, Mutalisks can fire while moving, with micro. And certain ground units, like the Marauders with the slow attack or Roaches with fast regeneration, benefit greatly from moving and shooting, but they still need to stop to shoot. The Hellion is also interesting, because the Hellion is a unit that has high burst, long delay between attacks, splash damage type, as well as a fast movement speed, so it can be used for kiting purposes as well as closing in the distance after every shot to do max possible damage. Eg, shoot once, close the gap, shoot again, close the gap even more, so that you don’t waste a single shot, but with each movement, you are doing a lot more damage.
StarCraft II also has a firing on the move unit — the Void Ray. The Void Ray can move closer to an enemy unit while continuing to fire at it, and because the damage type builds up over time, it would be more ideal to finish off that one unit that’s trying to run away or back up before engaging a brand new target.

2. Do you plan to introduce consume (cannibalism) as one of the zerg features? For example, in Starcraft I, defilers ate zerglings to gain 50 energy (it is possible to introduce consume for ultralisks which will gain 50 life after eating a zergling or another unit) - Unbreakab1e (USEast)

We don’t have the consume ability in the game now, but if consume is considered as necessary to the game, you will see this ability in StarCraft II. Currently Zerg has caster units like the Infestor, Queen, Overlord, and Overseer. Infestors can move while burrowed, which means it can regenerate energy again away from the battle. The Queen has already powerful skills and combat ability. Overlords can fly and mutate the creep without any energy. Overseers also can fly so that they can earn some time to regenerate their energy as well. If the current Zerg casters having the consume ability, it could make them too powerful and strong.

3. Will there be custom water units? For custom maps and Scumedit will players be able to make units that swim/float. Also will there be special units designed for water, but only available on the Scumedit, like a shark-like zerg or protoss water vessel. Obv. I know these won’t be in multiplayer ladder, I only mean for custom maps. - Imperial_wizard (Lordaeron)

We haven’t finalized the decision about the exact extent of support for custom maps and Scumedit yet.

4. Maps have always been important to keep SC balanced, fun and competitive. We have already seen you have some interesting new tools to help multiplayer map designers balance their maps such as tall grass that blocks vision of ground units. What other new terrain elements are we gonna see in SC2 to make interesting competitive maps? – VIB (Team Liquid)

Currently there are Xel’Naga Watch Tower, Grass, and Destructible Rocks in the map. We will be pleased to add more if we can design other features which will make the game more exciting and balanced as well.

5. The Thor was built by an SCV at first, but since quite time now it is built like a normal unit in the factory. Was this changed due to design or balance reasons? - InStarCraft.de

We changed this due to the balance reason. Before the change, you could build as many Thors as you want at the same time with your SCVs, as long as you have resources, with one Barrack and an Armory. We decided that this can be too much benefit to Terran, and we changed that Thor could be built from a Factory.

6. Zerg has cliff-scaling units? – Scumlord (USEast)

We want to keep three races different and they do not necessarily have the same ability units. Currently Zerg do not have a cliff-scaling unit, like the Reaper in Terran or Colossus in Protoss. However, Zerg still can expand very quickly and have other movement advantages like 30% additional speed on creep. They also have the combination of Overlord’s creep generating ability and Nydus Network as a very powerful tool to attack opponent’s main base or expansion. Also, Overlords are currently able to transport Zerg units like the original StarCraft.

7. I noticed that in the Protoss demo the Protoss buildings when warped in, had there surfaces visibly warped in, like in the original StarCraft. However, in recent builds and footage, Protoss buildings just appear after the building animation. Is this just a temporary thing, or is it really gone? - Ultimasx (Battle.net)

Warp-in of Protoss buildings should be one effect for all with the final frames unique showing the specific buildings structure phasing in.

–End of Transmission–

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The GTA IV patch (for PC) consists of of 2 files, updatetitle.exe and setup.exe

GTA IV (PC) PATCH
Release Date : December 13, 2008
Download Size : 32.7mb (2 files)


GTA IV Patch Download Mirror 1 (filefront)
UpdateTitle.exe (93.3kb)
Setup.exe (32.6 mb)

GTA IV Patch Download Mirror 2 (coming soon)

GTA IV Patch (PC) patch changes / change log :

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World of Warcraft 3.0.8 PTR patch notes / changelog


General

• • Players may now create death knights on any realm once they reach level 55.
  • Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor). Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.
  • Racial restrictions on mounts have now been lifted. Night elves on mechanostriders? Tauren on raptors? You’re not seeing things.
  • Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.
  • A new mailbox is now available at the Crows Tavern in the Dalaran Sewers.
  • We have added over 60 new graveyards to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.
  • The run speed in spirit form has been increased by 50%. Night Elves in Wisp form will now move at 75% speed.

Achievements

• • The Loremaster of Kalimdor Achievement has had its quest amount reduced.
  • The Winds of the North has had its requirements changed. This achievement is now earned by getting Exalted with the Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition.

PvP

• Arenas
  • All rage and runic power are set to 0 when an Arena begins and the preparation period is over.
• Battlegrounds
  • Lake Wintergrasp
    • Wintergrasp Commendations can now also be purchased for the low low price of 9 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor. Players can visit their respective Wintergrasp vendors and put those Marks of Honor to use!
    • Elementals should now always despawn when the battle begins.
    • Wintergrasp now extends further south so that more revenants can be reached.
    • There are now three ranks in Wintergrasp: Recruit, Corporal, and First Lieutenant.
    • Players will be eligible for participation rewards after two honorable kills.
    • Players will receive increased honor with increased rank.
    • Players will receive additional Marks of Honor at Corporal or higher rank.
    • Players will receive corporal rank at 5 honorable kills instead of two.
  • Strand of the Ancients
    • Antipersonnel Turrets will now gain vehicle immunities, use falloff damage, and damage increased to 4000 + 200 per level to compensate for falloff.
    • Seaforium charges have been moved closer to the graveyards on the 2nd tier.

Death Knights

• All multi-rune abilities generate 15 runic power.
• Anti-Magic Shell: The cooldown has been lowered to 45 sec from 60 sec.
• Blood Aura now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
• Blood Presence now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing.
• Bloody Strikes will receive extra bonus damage from Pestilence.
• Bone Shield: The mitigation has been reduced from 40% to 20%.
• Corpse Explosion: Damage increased substantially, added 5 sec. cooldown, and changed cost to 40 runic power.
• Dark Command: Range increased to 30 yards.
• Death Knights have access to unique death-knight only facial textures and skin tones. These can be selected at the character creation screen.
• Death Pact now grants 40% instead of 20% healing.
• Frost Presence: The bonus armor has been increased from 60 to 80% and magic damage reduction increased from 5 to 15%.
• Heart Strike no longer has a haste debuff but will now be able to strike two targets.
• Horn of Winter now has no cost and grants 10 runic power in addition to its stat buff, but has a 30 sec cooldown.
• Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage by 20% instead of 50%. The amount of damage reduced increases with bonus Defense (to about 35% for 540 Defense, but can go higher).
• Night of the Dead now grants 40/70% passive area spell avoidance to your pet in addition to its current effects.
• Outbreak will no longer receive bonus damage from Pestilence. The bonus from Plague Strike and Blood Boil has been increased slightly.
• Pestilence no longer has a 10 seconds cooldown.
• Raise Dead has now been split into two spells:
  • Raise Dead now raises a ghoul or pet ghoul (if talented). Requires corpse dust if no humanoid corpse is nearby.
  • Raise Ally now raises a fallen party member as a ghoul and has no reagent. Available at level 72. This should now last for 4 minutes.
• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (two-handed only) now grants 25 Defense and 2% Stamina.
• Rune Strike: Damage decreased from 200% to 150% but threat increased to 150% from 100%.
• Shadow of Death: The duration has been changed from 45 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Unholy Blight has had its cost reduced from 60 to 40 runic power.
• Wandering Plague will now properly reset after being cast.
• Vampiric Blood: In addition to its current effects, also adds 20% health temporarily.
• Will of the Necropolis will now reduce the damage of any attack that takes the DK below 35% health by 5 /10/15% instead of boosting armor when wounded,

Druids

• Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60). Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid. Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them. All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
• Remove Curse and Abolish Poison can now be used in Moonkin form.
• Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
• Growl: Range increased to 30 yards.
• King of the Jungle - The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
• Nature’s Grace - Now also effects Revive.
• Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
• Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
• Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
• Starfall will now be cancelled by any shapeshifting.
• Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
• Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
• Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.

Hunters

• All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
• Aspect of the Wild - This aspect is now raid-wide.
• Call of the Wild: The benefit from this pet talent now applies to only the Hunter and their own pet.
• Deterrence: Design changed to grant 100% parry and 100% chance to “deflect” spells coming from the front, but prevents the Hunter from attacking. Lasts 5 sec. 60 sec. cooldown.
• Improved Tracking(Survival): This talent has been slightly re-designed. Now reads: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Kill Shot – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 35 sec.
• Kindred Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
• The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Poison (Scorpid) has been lowered.
• Readiness: No longer resets the cooldown on Bestial Wrath.
• Steady Shot: Now gains 10% of attack power as damage instead of 20%.
• Serpent’s Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet. The hunter attack speed bonus is unchanged.
• Unleashed Fury: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
• Viper Sting: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
• Volley: The damage has been reduced on all ranks by approximately 30% (including attack power scaling).

Mages

• Arcane Blast: This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.
• Arcane Flows: Now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1m/2m.
• Elemental Precision: Renamed to Precision and now works on all spells.
• Evocation: Cooldown reduced to 4 min.
• Improved Blizzard: The snaring effect has been reduced to 20/40/50%.
• Slow Fall is now castable on others.
• Torment the Weak: Now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage against targets afflicted with any type of slow (such as the combat slow from Thunder Clap).

Paladins

• Avenging Wrath: Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Hand of Protection, and Avenging Wrath cannot be used within 30 seconds of each other anymore. Forbearance removed from Avenging Wrath.
• Divine Protection: The penalty has been removed.
• Divine Shield: The penalty has been changed so that all damage done is reduced by 50% in place of an attack speed penalty.
• Hand of Reckoning(NEW): Available on trainers at level 16. It’s a 30 yard range taunt that causes Holy damage.
• Judgements of the Pure: This Holy talent now increases the damage done by Seals and Judgements.
• Judgement of Wisdom: Now returns a percentage of base mana instead of a percentage of max mana.
• Sacred Duty: Interaction with Divine Shield and Divine Protection removed, but stamina bonus increased.

Priests

• Abolish Disease and Cure Disease can now be cast while in Shadowform.
• Holy: Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown.
• Levitate is now castable on others.
• Mana Burn: Now burns a percentage of maximum mana.
• Shadow
  • Shadowform: You can now shift into Shadowform while mounted or sitting.
  • Vampiric Embrace- Mana cost of this spell has been removed.

Rogues

• Fan of Knives: The cooldown has been removed. In addition, now deals 150% of weapon damage when used while daggers are equipped.
• Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.

Shaman

• Fire Nova Totem: Now no longer generates threat.
• Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
• Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
• Magma Totem: The damage and scaling has been increased and no longer generates threat.
• Mental Quickness: Reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 23/46/70% of your agility.
• Searing Totem (Rank 4) now does the proper damage for its rank.
• Tremor Totem’s duration has been increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
• Elemental
  • Elemental Shields: This talent has been removed. It has now been merged with Elemental Warding.
  • Elemental Warding: Now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%. Changed from only reducing Nature, Fire and Frost by 4/7/10%.
  • New Talent: Shamanism-Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
  • Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and its talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.
  • Unrelenting Storm: point cost reduced to 3, down from 5. Now does 4/8/12%

Warlocks

• Drain Mana: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
• Emberstorm: Now works with Conflagrate.
• Ritual of Summoning: Will now create a summoning portal object which can be re-used for multiple summons for 5 minutes.

Warriors

• Bloodthirst: Charges have been decreased to 3, but the effect has been raised to 1% per charge.
• Fury: Bloodsurge: Now has a chance to trigger from any hit with Heroic Strike, Bloodthirst, or Whirlwind.
• Fury: Titan’s Grip: The hit chance penalty has been removed.
• Taunt: Range increased to 30 yards.

Professions

• Alchemy
  • All flasks no longer require an alchemy lab to create.
• Blacksmithing
  • Reduced the spell power on the Titansteel Guardian to bring it in line with its item level.
  • Increased the material requirements to make high level frost resistance gear created with blacksmithing.
• Engineering
  • Engineers may now be able to properly engineer Centrifuge Constructs.
• Inscription
  • Glyph of Death Strike has also been reduced by 50% to 1% healing per 5 Runic Power.
  • Glyph of Deterrence: Now -10 seconds instead of -20.
  • Glyph of Holy Light now affects friendly targets in a larger radius.
  • Glyph of Horn of Winter now increases the duration by 60 sec.
• Leatherworking
  • Iceborne Belt pattern skill up range has been increased to the correct range.
• Mining
  • Weakened Giants and Iron Rune Sentinels can now be correctly mined.
• Skinning
  • Increased the critical strike rating granted by ranks 5 and 6 of Master of Anatomy (Rank 5 / Rank 6).
  • Carrion Fleshstrippers are now skinnable.

Quests

• The quest, “Scare the Guano Out of Them!” now only requires 10 Darkclaw Guano, down from 15. Also, only the character that scared the bat, or their party, may now loot the guano.
• Shoveltusk Meat obtained during the quest, “Shoveltusk Soup Again?” is now correctly flagged as a quest item with no sell price.
• During the quest, “Scalps!”, you can no longer use Ahunae’s Knife to scalp kills that you aren’t tapped to.
• The path followed by the Har’koa’s Kitten during the quest, “I Sense a Disturbance” has been improved.
• Westguard Sergeants, Winterhoof Braves, and Ethereal Frostworgs should no longer attempt to attack their opposite faction counterparts unless the character controlling them is first attacked.
• Westguard Sergeant and Winterhoof Brave demoralizing shouts will now only affect the Winterskorn vrykul and worgs at Skorn.
• Various fixes to the Queen Angerboda event during the quest, “The Slumbering King”
• The daily quest, “Shoot ‘Em Up” now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from 10.

Dungeons and Raids

• The Obsidian Sanctum
  • Players will now be affected by Twilight Residue when they leave the Twilight Realm. Twilight Residue grants immunity to Fire and Shadow damage for a few seconds.

User Interface

• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Items

• Amberglow Signet now correctly grants Hit Rating.
• Deadly Gladiator’s Staff has had the Agility and Critical strike rating restored to ratios consistent with other instances of the Gladiator’s Staff.
• Gifts and Pledges of Adoration for the capital cities are now soulbound.
• The Flag of Ownership now has only a 60s cooldown to match the 60s duration of the flag.
• The following crafted weapons have had their stats adjusted to properly reflect their intended power:
  • Corroded Saronite Edge, Corroded Saronite Woundbringer, Cudgel of Saronite Justice, Furious Saronite Beaststick, Saronite Spellblade, Saronite Shiv, Savage Cobalt Slicer, Notched Cobalt War Axe, Sturdy Cobalt Quickblade, Cobalt Tenderizer
• Living Lashers can now properly be skinned with Herbalism.
• Players can now open clams while riding a vehicle, sitting, mounted, stealthed, and invisible.
• Reduced the stats on the Savage Cobalt Slicer to match the weapon’s level.
• Some low-level rogue pvp gloves were accidentally omitted from the patch 3.0.3 update. This has been rectified.
• Some neglected creatures in Icecrown have found the contents of their pockets.
• Totem of Hex now correctly grants 165 spell power to Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt, up from 85.
• The White Polar Bear Mount is now the proper (larger) size.

World Environment

• Incapacitating Shout now has an 8 second duration.
• Conquered Soul of the Blighcallers are no longer AE immune.
• Corrected a raid emote in Violet Hold to display the proper creature name.
• Corrected a redundant aura tooltip for Locust Swarm (10-person / 25-person) in Naxxramas.
• Several creatures in the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas did not have Heroic values for hit points and damage.
• Storm Peaks, Grom’arsh Crash Site - Peon Gakra is now an innkeeper and the zeppelin hull, an inn.

Bug Fixes

• Death Knight: Corpse Explosion: Fixed a bug where how much Runic Power the Death Knight had was affecting the damage done, and also increased the damage substantially.
• Druid: Savage Fury - Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.
• Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.
• Paladin: Repentance: Avenger’s Shield no longer breaks Repentance, but unfortunately, Seal of Vengeance and Corruption damage will break it again. This will be corrected in a future patch.
• Paladin: Shield of Righteousness now properly shares a cooldown for both ranks.
• Priest: Mind Flay - Fixed a bug with targeting where you would not deal damage if not facing the target while channeling.
• Shaman: Elemental Shields was reducing flat physical damage, not a percentage. Now properly reduced by a percentage.
• Shaman: Lava Lash - Fixed a bug which allowed you to use the ability even if you had a shield in offhand. Now requires a 1hand axe, fist or dagger to be able to be used.
• Shaman: Fixed a bug where Thunderstorm (Elemental) was knocking back 15 yards, instead of 20. It should now roughly knockback the correct length of 20 yards.
• The Wintergrasp Aura should now properly update in all instances, transferring the buff when the zone control changes.

end of WoW 3.0.8 patch notes / change log

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