We have the end of the year StarCraft update today to go with StarCraft Heroes Guide! This is a smaller update that has some big changes to go with it.
*Major* Added a new range increment past remote: strategic. Strategic weapons can be used without penalty at up to 1,000 squares. They suffer a -5 penalty for shooting beyond 1,000 squares, plus an additional -5 penalty for every further 1,000 extra squares they are fired. At starship scale, strategic weapons can be used at up to 6 squares.
As part of this change, a huge number of vehicle and creature weapons now have updated range.
-Autocannons: Remote
Gatling Cannons: Distant
-All Terran Missile Batteries: Strategic
-Thor Punisher Cannon: Strategic
-Backlash Rocket Battery: Remote
-Tornado Rocket Battery: Remote
-Eviscerator Rail Gun: Remote
-Lexington Rocket Battery: Strategic
-Railgun: Remote
-Siege Tank Siege Mode: Strategic
-Antimatter Missile Battery: Strategic
-Ion Cannon: Remote
-Neutron Flare: Remote
-Photon Blaster: Distant
-Pulsar Beam: Distant
-Warpspace Cannon: Strategic
-Charged Pulse Blaster: Strategic
-Khaydarin Beam: Strategic
-Brood Lords Broodling Strike: Strategic
-Acid Bomb: Strategic
-Corrosive Acid Spores: Remote
-Glaive Wurm: Distant
-Parasite Spore: Remote
-Seeker Spore: Remote
*Major* Added four new characters to the Paragons resource: Valerian Mengsk, Rory Swann, Zeratul, and Fenix (dragoon). In addition, Artanis and Alarak have received overhauls for content out of Supplement 5: End War. Both have received artifact equipment and Artanis now has the Fleet Commander class.
-Wingman Mastery, the class ability of the Wingman class variant for protoss pilots, now specifies that it only functions with flying vehicles. This is the avoid exploitation with purifiers able to pilot purifier immortals, as it result in stacking shield armor too high.
-New Rules, top of page 156 CRB. If an area attack has a -10 accuracy penalty for range increments or concealment, it does not do half damage on a missed attack.
-The Coordinate leadership function has been changed. Instead of a granting a full move action when used, you can a free shift action when you spend a morale.
-The Far Shot talent gives +250 squares to Strategic range
-The Mental Mastery talent in Supplement 2 has been removed. There was too much room for exploitation with it.
-The Shortened weapon trait has been changed. Now, it gives -1 accuracy penalty, and gives the weapon the Close Quarters and Concealed Weapon traits. Giving it the pistol trait led to a lot of rules confusion and possible exploitation. Shortened was not intended to be a min-max option, but an alternate way to use a weapon.
-The Scaling Penetration (Heavy), used by many zerg, has been changed to 10/15/20/30 from 10/20/30/40. It had needlessly high penetration, especially at mid levels.
-The following Primal natural ranged weapons have gone down to average attack speed: Primal Acid Blast, Spew, and Spit. With the size bonus to attack accuracy, they were no longer needed at having unrealistically high attack speeds. This also gives Primal Acid Spores more of a point, as it stayed at Fast attack speed.
-Some primal natural weapons now require you to have a minimum size in order to use.
*You must be at least large-sized to use the Smashing Fist natural weapon
*You must be at least huge-sized to gain the Kaiser Blades natural weapon
-Flamethrowers have received large increase in effectiveness. They had been pretty underwhelming for a while. This effects the flamethrower, infernal flamethrower, and hellion infernal flamethrower.
-They are now fast attack rate, representing the constant spew of fire.
-They gained +6 base damage and increased to +4 power rating.
-Infernal Flamethrowers gained the same bonuses, but also have effect a Line 20 area
-Hellion Flamethrowers are now Cone 10 in Hellbat form
-The Fields of Red talent (DIB) now uses 3 fuel per strike
-The Aiur psychic warrior ability now simply gives hailfire 1 with melee attacks with a psionic weapon origin.