Balance changes are also included, but are few in number. Marauders have been buffed, but not back to their pre-patch 8 level. Immortals now take longer to build. The Zerg Queen got a movement speed nerf off of creep and Spine Crawlers were nerfed to prevent a nasty Zerg vs. Zerg Queen rush. Infestors got a nice buff with boosts to all spells.

A new 1 versus 1 map, Incineration Zone, has been added and the 2v2 and novice map pools have been adjusted. A change was made to Scrap Station to make it easier to defend the player's first expansion.

Players can update the beta simply by launching the client. The full patch notes are as follows.

StarCraft II Beta - Patch 9 (0.11.0.15097) General

• The StarCraft II Editor is now available!
  • Players will now be able to begin creating trigger maps in preparation for map publishing which will be made available in an upcoming beta patch.
• Achievements & Decals are now live!
  • Players will now be able to earn achievements, browse the list of available achievements, and view achievements earned by friends.
  • Players will be able to highlight favorite achievements in their Showcase.
  • Earning certain achievements will unlock portrait and decal rewards.
• The updated Homepage now includes a Recent Broadcasts panel and a News & Community panel.
• A new Match History page is now available which will allow players to browse and filter their last 1,000 games played.
• A new Community page is now available which features an in-game version of RSS news feeds.
• A new Friends-of-Friends feature has been added, which allows players to easily find and connect with more real life friends on Battle.net through existing friends.
• Additional friends' presence details are now available from the Friends' list.
• Improvements have been made on the Voice Chat system in game.
  • Please use the new voice chat and provide feedback via the StarCraft II beta forums.
• The score screen now features a new graph tab.
• The art for many parts of the user interface has been updated.
• Hotkey templates have been added.
  • In the gameplay options menu select from standard name based hotkeys for right and left-handed players, grid based hotkeys for right, and left-handed players, and classic StarCraft keys.
• Several hotkeys have been changed to avoid conflicts with the "Select All Warpgates" UI button:
  • The Set Worker Rally Point has been changed from W to R.
  • Build Sensor Tower has been changed from W to N.
  • Terran Infantry Weapons have been changed from W to E.
  • Terran Vehicle Weapons have been changed from W to E.
  • Weapon Refit has been changed from W to R.
  • Burrow has been changed from W to R.
  • Spawn Larva has been changed from R to V.
  • Neural Parasite has been changed from R to E.

Balance Changes

• TERRAN
  • Marauder
    • Concussive Shells research cost decreased from 100/100 80 seconds to 50/50 60 seconds.
• PROTOSS
  • Immortal
    • Build time increased from 40 to 55.
• ZERG
  • Infested Terran
    • Damage increased from 5 to 8.
    • Speed decreased from 1.5 to 0.9375.
  • Queen
    • Speed off creep decreased from 1.5 to 0.938. (Speed on creep unchanged.)
  • Spine Crawler
    • Attack period decreased from 1.6 to 1.85.
  • Infestor
    • Neural Parasite range increased from 7 to 9.
    • Fungal Growth projectile removed; Units in the target area are now instantly hit.

Maps

• We've made a change to the (2)ScrapStation map to make the natural expansion easier to defend.
• New maps have been added to the ladder rotation while others have been removed as follows:
• 1v1
  • Added (2)IncinerationZone
• 2v2
  • Removed (4)LostTemple
  • Removed (4)Metalopolis
  • Added (4)AridWastes
  • Added (4)Coalition
  • Added (4)Decena
  • Added (4)ScorchedHaven
• 1v1(Novice)
  • Removed (4)NoviceKulasRavine
• 2v2(Novice)
  • Removed (4)NoviceKulasRavine
  • Removed (4)NoviceShakurasPlateau
  • Added (4)NoviceDecena
  • Added (4)NoviceScorchedHaven
  • Added (4)NoviceTwilightFortress