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*Note I use broken as a very loose term.

Reactors and Warpgates. Not their existence within the game, but their availability from the start of the match. No one can deny that Zerg's units are weak when compared to the other races but ask anyone and most will tell you that this is made up for by Zerg's units being quickly and easily massed, hence the nickname the Swarm. Zerg requires this trait in order to stand a chance against the Terran and Protoss opponents. The problem, as I see it, is the fact that Terran Reactors and Protoss Warpgates are able to keep up with Zerg production and, in some cases, even surpass it. Mid to late game this isn't much of an issue because the Zerg's economy is most likely fully established and at that point Terran and Protoss would need that little extra umph to stand toe to toe with Zerg's swarming capability. The issue, as I see it, lies in that the Reactors and the Warpgates are available for use at the very beginning of the game. This availability completely nullifies the Zerg's strength in their ability to swarm because not only are the Zerg units weaker than all the other units they also do not have the strength of numbers that they need in order to survive the early game from the very start of the game. If you compare the Zerg units to their counterparts you will find that they are slightly cheaper and definitely weaker. This weakness is made up for by the ability to swarm. With the introduction of Reactors and Warpgates into the beginning of the game that single greatest strength of the Zerg race is taken away from the word go.

Now, this is my honest opinion. This is not me QQ'ing or raging after a series of losses. I think the game is very close to balance. There are a bunch of small issues that add up and need to be addressed but I do not think there are any big, obvious balance problems that require massive nerfs to Terran and Protoss, just a small amount of tweaking to all races.

And bring the ******** Reapers back. D<

I never understood why they did this. The zerg has to be one step ahead in order to be on even footing. I don't see where that at all comes to be close to balanced.

Terran had the great defense and flexbility. Protoss had most of the casters and expensive strong units with two defenses. Zerg had the swarm. Once they gave the ability for the other two races to swarm, I just don't understand.

Seven minutes is still pretty fast. I propose that Reactors and Warpgates require Tier 2.5 (hell, maybe even Tier 3) before they can be built. I believe this would in effect fix the game almost completely. We would see fewer biofags from Terran as they would actually be forced to play the game (I'm convinced they're not playing the game because the only units I ever see from a Terran player are the Marine, Marauder and the Medivac. I about s**t myself when I saw a Raven earlier today) and expand on their unit compositions. Same goes for Protoss. Their Gateway units are the most powerful in the game (compared to their counterparts) and the ability to warp them in nearly instantly is more than a bit overpowered, especially when you add Chronoboost and multiple Warpgates into the mix. Denying them Warpgate technology in the early game would force them to use a very rarely seen ability to augment their numbers: Hallucination. You would also see better players coming into the fore as the lack of being able to instantly replenish their army would weed out the weaker players. Unit micro would improve and there'd be more hit and run tactics incorporated by both races instead of this bullshit turtle and steamroll play.

You see, I'm not trying to cripple my opponents. I'm trying to make the game more dynamic, less predictable and less frustrating.

And my idea to delay Reactors would crush the ability to mass MMM early. 3nodding

It feels like murder against toss until I can pop out a collosus or get storm on ht. Getting out immortals can destroy the marauders, but you have to micro really good with them, because marines eat their shields, and then rauders will destroy them once their shield is gone. The only real thing I can think of, is wait for them to stim, then forcefield them to stay away from you and run until the stim runs out. Then forcefield them again so they can't run away from you. This is all assuming you have the gas for all the sentries and then all the energy stored up >_<

I don't really have a problem with the terran reactors, because aside from mass marines, they don't really work towards a core army.

Only thing mass marine needs to be dealt with is slightly faster speed banelings.

The warpgate however is too strong, not because of it's ability to mass up units in a whim, but more so the problem is in it's timing, the warpgate timing push happens at JUST the right time to one sided face roll every opponent, I think if it got delayed a little bit and cost a little bit more, things would work out a lot better.

It's not so much the tech that is the problem, but the timing push as a result of the tech.

I remember reading on that number crunching. I remember specifically that marines received a large attack speed increase from sc1->2, which in turn lets them have a much higher dps. The zergling AI and pathing doesn't help either.