The past days, Blizzard has released tidbits of information about certain Starcraft 2 changes done through the development of its pre-alpha phase.  For example:

  • Mothership attacks air units. At Blizzcon it only attacked ground units
  • Irradiate thus far is staying in the game, but which unit will have the ability hasn’t been specified.
  • Defense Matrix is not in the current build. No plans whether it will return.
  • Ghosts have the EMP (Electro-magnetic Pulse) ability used in the classic Starcraft by the Science Vessel.
  • The Nomad replaces the Science Vessel.  It may build various mechanisms such as two auto-turrets with rapid fire rate, ideal for mineral workers raid and defense or offense support. Other mechanisms may be built by the Nomad, but those are still in development and haven’t been announced.
  • Phoenix Overload ability has been buffed up.

Dustin Browder added further details about the Thor unit, which differ from the info given at BlizzCon.  Since Starcraft 2 is still in pre-Alpha stage, nothing revealed at BlizzCon is final. Many changes will come and go.

Dustin Browder: The Cobra is out, the Thor is in, but it’s not a “replacement” in the ways you guys are thinking of it since the Cobra and the Thor do such very different things.

We are just testing this idea for the Thor. In general I prefer to shield you guys from whacky ideas like this because I know that some of our ideas will be bad, and then you guys will get very grumpy with us for pitching you bad ideas. =(

But here’s what I can tell you about the Thor in the current build:

  • He is big, but the art is smaller than what we showed in the last demo, so he takes up less space and he can path a little better.
  • He turns fairly quickly. Turn speed is not a balance factor.
  • He has a lot of health (400 right now).
  • He’s not super expensive (250/200 right now).
  • He has a good bonus vs. armored units on the ground and he tends to waste a lot of damage on small units.
  • His Anti-Air missiles are effective but not crushing. You can over-whelm him with enough air. His pathing size does limit his mobility when trying to chase fast moving air units.
  • His shoulder guns are not currently in opperation. If we keep the current design the art will change.
  • He does great against Stalkers, and several secret Terran and Zerg units. He also does well against most (but not all) air units.
  • He is balanced so that if you kill him and then leave him disabled while he burns down you will do pretty well. If you fight both the Thor and the Disabled Thor then things tend to go pretty well for the Thor (for cost).
  • The current Thor is countered by range, mobility or certain powerful anti-armor units.

Right now he’s kind of fun. I don’t know if he’s fun enough for StarCraft 2 or not. That will take a few more weeks at least.