Coming into the latest StarCraft II expansion - Legacy of the Void - we expected the Protoss to gain a lot of love. After all, with the base game focusing on the story from the Terran perspective with the first expansion - Heart of the Swarm - turning the camera to the Zerg, it was only natural for the third and final leg of Blizzard's RTS masterpiece to focus on the psionic beings.
That being said, maybe they were given a little too much love. It may have been well over a year since its release at this point, but with the intricate systems of a RTS title constantly at war with itself, it's time for one of the Protoss' newer units to see a bit of a knock-down.
Without being well-versed in the StarCraft II meta it's difficult to understand the subtle game of numbers going on within its detailed battles. The Protoss typically had two main attack units for the longest time - the melee-heavy Zealots and the ranged-focused Stalkers - with the Sentry thrown in as an effective defense method. Both these attacking units were typically a fine choice when thrown against the ligh-armored units of the other two races - but armoured infantry would pose a problem.
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void 3.12 Patch Notes
To combat this, the Protoss race gained a new line of offense with their dedicated expansion - the Adept. Designed as a mid/late-game transition unit typically used in place of their light infantry counterparts, the Adept are slow on ground speed but swift in their attacks. Eventually proving a little too tanky for most players to deal with in droves, they've been knocked down a peg or two. Essentially by shaving off a percentage of their health. Going down from 80HP to 70HP, it doesn't sound like a big deal; but it's one that will likely scale to make a huge difference in a tense firefight.
With the director of the series David Kim having just left the team for Blizzard's new project, this marks one of the first changes to the arrive prior to his departure. Decisions like these don't arrive overnight, however, so he likely just gave it the go-ahead before moving on.
