With Starcraft 2 patch 1.3.3 live, the Protoss tech tree has taken another leap away from de facto Colossus tech and into exciting new realms where Zealot/Archon play pays off and Dark Templar can transition into something other than losing your whole fucking base.* 4 Gate also faces setbacks that make non 4 Gate openings more viable, which is even more refreshing to see in PvP at all levels of play.

As various data are showing a steady convergence of Starcraft 2 tournament results towards an almost completely balanced game,** it seems like everything east of Aiur is finally finding a place both in casual play and in top tier battles. From Forge first expands to Templar tech to robotic death and Phoenix harass, is there anything that isn’t winning games for our favorite psionic aliens?

Oh, right. Capital ships.

It’s that time again: Starcraft 2 balance changes! And as a wave of terror washes over you in anxious preparation of learning your favorite race has been nerfed, you can relax.

Well, as long as you don’t play Protoss.

Before delving into the actual changes, your impending cardiovascular failure can be forestalled with one caveat: these changes have been applied to the Public Test Region (PTR), so they’re not quite official, yet. That said, the vast majority of PTR changes have been enacted in the past, so unless the world’s testers (or Tester, for that matter) determine these updates are game-breaking or don’t directly help fucking Terrans (they do), odds are you’ll be seeing this stuff hit the real game soon.

But, as you can probably guess, the biggest changes will directly affect the oh-so-popular 4-Gate build. Hint: they didn’t make it better.

By now, everyone should know what the term metagame means, but for the uninformed, it generally applies to the current state of stategic focus in a specific game’s community. For example, “4 Gate” Protoss pushes are a dominating factor in Starcraft 2 currently, so much so that most Protoss players will employ 4 Gate themselves to counteract it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the two point conversion is such an infrequently used tactic in football that no defending team ever considers defending against it, even though actual point-after kicks are rarely blocked.