Well, blizzard are in fact giving away keys at the moment, no? We're giving away 500 this entire week actually

I don't actually want to play the beta. I'd rather play it when Blizzard releases the retail version and many of the balancing issues are fixed etc.

I've waited this long, I might aswell play the best version and not spoil it with the beta.

If you get the chance, go for it. It's fantastic. look at the original SC - I remember small balancing tweaks being done years and years after release. Granted, they are being done a lot more often right now, but it's SC - and you wouldn't regret it. Actually, it's made me appreciate more the work that goes into balancing a game like this... Having to take into account micro skills in the balancing process.

For instance, I've only been in the beta a week, with just under 25 games under my belt. I love toss void rays(protoss air unit, especially good at killing big units and buildings), and build them pretty much every game. However, I didn't realize just how deadly they could be with good micro... I was in a game yesterday, and I had mostly zealots, and a couple stalkers (new equivalent of dragoons), a couple void rays of my own, and a couple cannons near my nexus. 4 void rays completely ruined my day. 4 void rays can kill a cannon or stalker almost instantly, my 2 void rays were insufficient to respond, and I was suddenly helpless, they could kill anything I produced before it could retreat to the safety of my last 2 cannons.

This puts a lot of pressure on Blizzard, IMO. The one thing you could be fairly sure of, was that an early game arial attack would be fairly 1) vulnerable or 2) slow at killing key structures. 2-4 scouts or wraiths would take forever to kill any building, and a small number of them would never try to engage a few dragoons - mutas could come in bigger numbers much earlier, but they were also really fragile. Blizzard is now balancing a game where <everything has changed> from the original. plenty of similarities, but there are fundamental shifts in strategy and race tactics.

But one thing I'd like to stress - the multiplayer, from a coding/visual viewpoint, is 100% done. a few balancing changes don't ruin the experience int he slightest. if you can get a key - you get that key!

Yeah the balance is pretty well done anyways. The only issues I see so far is a few units are too far in. I am still not certain what role Thors have other than looking really cool. Then again I suck at the game so what do I know.

If anyone wants a match against someone retardedly bad to experiment feel free to hit me up. I could use the experience playing against people other than the rabid horde of b.net kiddies and AI bots.

Ok, I've reached my breaking point. Who do I kill for one? I won't tell if you tell me.

So they nerfed the Marauder today. I kind of agree with the decision as the unit is still pretty powerful. The only problem is they seemed to have goofed the patch. I can't find the way to get the concussive blasts back.

Looking cool is the main job of the thor. Thors were created to replace the role of goliaths... the problem beingthat goliaths were cheap and amazing anti-air, that were also decent vs ground and spammable. Meanwhile, thors are basically land-based battlecruisers. Big and expensive, without the protection of an air unit, and with the pathing/space issues that place an oversized ground unit. Unless their ability is given some kind of upgrade, they are just a waste of money. (but uh... they build faster in the last patch, so that's good I guess? I actually don't dislike having 1 or 2 in your army, they're just completely vulnerable on their own.)

Edit: Oh, and experimenting on someone retardedly bad sounds awesome! Add me to friends, NIN.vein  (assuming you're in the US)

Cool I'll add you soon then.

Thors seem like they are trying to rplace Goliaths on paper, but they don't seem to fit that role too well. As you say Thors are freaking huge, and aren't that great on the defense. Maybe part of the problem is that Marines are a lot better this time around. They cover anti air fairly well, and do amazing shit if they are upgraded and have medivac back up.

YES!!!!! OH GOD YES!!!!! FINALLY!!!!

I've played SC2 to death and the Marauder has almost ruined the game for me. Protoss should have the beefy expensive low tier units, not Terran. And the way that the slow removed micro from the game. I'm so happy it's an upgrade. It will make for lots of more early game micro.

I just got back from a vacation and this is the first I see when logging onto the internet. Awesome!

So, my impressions about the game as of now is that it's still too light on micro.
I have no problems with multi building selection and the new macro mechanics, but what sort of disturbs me is how battles essentially microes themselves.
In SC you had to manually spread your marines against units like the lurker to avoid their splash, and there were some really cool stuff you could do. In SC2, the pathing makes it so that most battles consists of attack moving a ball of units and seeing if you win or lose and decide to retreat or not. The formations are too dense to really be able to micro large armies.
Or maybe I'm not used to the game yet. Some cool ways to micro have already been invented, like Prism/Collossus micro and force field micro.
I just want more.