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- May 24, 2016
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Greetings, I'm Sapprine and together with @raypack we're creating an ambitious Reversed Edition of the Human campaign! We intend to use only custom-made terrain entirely from scratch, while stifing to preserve as much of the iconic layouts and areas/landmarks as possible, while extending, making it fit our mission design and also decorating it.
We have rough ideas how we want to approach every mission, so I wanted to share them and to receive feedback
So the main challenge is to avoid making every mission a hold-out mission, as we don't really want to change the story, events or outcome of most missions. So often we'll be brainstorming for ways for the player to still do something worthwhile while achieving victory through different means as just killing Arthas or his base, or defending your base until a timer runs out. Admittedly, some missions will be just that, but we try to avoid making every mission that way.
We really emphasize the Reversed aspect of this, going as far as inverting optional quests and making sure you are in the shoes of the main threat (or most interesting) perspective from that particular mission.
I will now go over mission by mission
Note that some mssion names will also be changed to fit the reversed aspect.
We have rough ideas how we want to approach every mission, so I wanted to share them and to receive feedback
So the main challenge is to avoid making every mission a hold-out mission, as we don't really want to change the story, events or outcome of most missions. So often we'll be brainstorming for ways for the player to still do something worthwhile while achieving victory through different means as just killing Arthas or his base, or defending your base until a timer runs out. Admittedly, some missions will be just that, but we try to avoid making every mission that way.
We really emphasize the Reversed aspect of this, going as far as inverting optional quests and making sure you are in the shoes of the main threat (or most interesting) perspective from that particular mission.
I will now go over mission by mission
Note that some mssion names will also be changed to fit the reversed aspect.
Chapter 1 - The Invasion of Strahnbrad
You play as the Slavemaster Mathog, acompanied by blackrock invaders and even a small encampment nested just north of the town, even along a handful of peons. Peons will begin chopping lumber, rapidly clearing the last couple trees preventing you from entering the town (this thin line of trees is set to 10% hp remaining, it barely takes 10 sec after the intro cinematic).
Anyhow, this all serves a purpose as you can use Lumber you passively gain over the mission to research basic upgrades and train additional troops to reinforce your ranks.
You also start with a Level 3 Mathog, 3 Grunts, 1 Raider and a Warlock with Master Training.
The Main Quest is extremely simple;
Capture 30 Strahnbrad Villagers. Mathog as well as any Raider have an Ensnare Ability without cooldown that can only target the villagers. Ensnaring one teleports it to the starting area and makes in invulnerable. Capture 30 and your main quest is complete. There are four defeat conditions (two are extremely hard to get unless you do it on purpose), Arthas must not reach Strahnbrad before 30 villagers are captured, Mathog must survive, you mus'nt run out of structures and you can't kill more than 10 villager because there'll be too few to capture.
At certain milestones of villagers captured, some blackrock AI allies will enter the map from the top, which cant be controlled, but theyll assault various parts of the town or stand guard positions in set spots.
As far as resistance from the town goes, its mainly militia, some footmen and literally a single knight, but there's 3 Barracks spawning additional militia and footmen that become active after capturing a certain number of villagers. Youll get an optional quest to destroy them, which is easily achieved with Raiders' Siege damage. They also have a hidden Hardened Skin ability set to -10.00 dmg reduction (they take 10 extra dmg from any attack).
Anyhow, you'll also get a warning about Arthas when he moves out, along with Shared Vision. He'll go around the map, clear creep camps and obtain various items just like a player would, before approaching the town, but there's ways to delay him, allowing you to build a bigger force for the second part of the mission.
When Arthas engages combat with a Gnoll camp, you get an optional quest to rile up the local gnolls, causing them to kidnap Little Timmy. (lol)
And when Arthas engages with some Bandits, you get an optional quest to parlay with Menag, causing an Alterac uprising in the area. This will create an extra wave of Bandits for arthas to clear on the main road, as well as the theft of Gerard's Ledger.
Both of these optional quests are relatively easy to complete, merely requiring you to rushing past/through the town's defenses, crash through the main gate and approaching two relatively close locations with Mathog.
Both will delay Arthas by about 2 minutes, along with a high chance to thin out his forces, however, the Little Timmy quest also award him a Ring of Protection +5 and the Menag quest will give him a Tome of Strength +10.
Arthas is Level 6 during this mission, accompanied by 8 Footmen and 4 Knights. During part 1 of this mission where you're not supposed to engage with him he has Level 3 Divine Shield and a 10 dmg reduction Hardened Skin, Level 2 Holy Light and level 1 Devotion, but during part 2, he has Level 2 Holy Light, Level 1 Divine Shield, Level 2 Devotion and Ressurection.
Part 2 begins when 30 villagers are captured; it starts with a cutscene and all Blackrock AI allies are teleported to the final area which Arthas will relentlessly assault for the remainder of the mission, continuously spawning Footmen and Knights at the town entrance as well as himself attacking along his entourage of remaining troops. Your goal is to hold out until all 30 villagers are deported off the map toward the blackrock encampment. Theyll move out in pairs every 10 seconds and its about a 20 second walk, meaninig you must hold Arthas at bay for about 3.5 minutes. Mathog is allowed to die during this, but you still lose if you run out of structures.
If you manage to kill Arthas, you get a special ending and (if we figure out how caches work) a special bonus in the next mission.
On Hard Difficulty, the Optional Quests will have an additional requirement before theyre completed, and Arthas, along his footmen gain +30 movement speed and 1/1 Attack/Armor upgrades.
You play as the Slavemaster Mathog, acompanied by blackrock invaders and even a small encampment nested just north of the town, even along a handful of peons. Peons will begin chopping lumber, rapidly clearing the last couple trees preventing you from entering the town (this thin line of trees is set to 10% hp remaining, it barely takes 10 sec after the intro cinematic).
Anyhow, this all serves a purpose as you can use Lumber you passively gain over the mission to research basic upgrades and train additional troops to reinforce your ranks.
Grunt for 150 Lumber, Raider for 120 Lumber, Tier 1 attack/armor upgrade for 100 each and two custom upgrades. "Primal Savagery" for Grunts for 125 Lumber, it increased their attack-rate by 15% and doubles their passive HP regen. Raiders get the "Cleaving Strikes" upgrade for 80 Lumber, which allows their attacks to deal 25% cleaving damage.
You can be expected to gain around 1100-1500 lumber total over the course of this mission, the food limit is 30 and peons cannot build structures of any kind.
You can be expected to gain around 1100-1500 lumber total over the course of this mission, the food limit is 30 and peons cannot build structures of any kind.
You also start with a Level 3 Mathog, 3 Grunts, 1 Raider and a Warlock with Master Training.
The Main Quest is extremely simple;
Capture 30 Strahnbrad Villagers. Mathog as well as any Raider have an Ensnare Ability without cooldown that can only target the villagers. Ensnaring one teleports it to the starting area and makes in invulnerable. Capture 30 and your main quest is complete. There are four defeat conditions (two are extremely hard to get unless you do it on purpose), Arthas must not reach Strahnbrad before 30 villagers are captured, Mathog must survive, you mus'nt run out of structures and you can't kill more than 10 villager because there'll be too few to capture.
At certain milestones of villagers captured, some blackrock AI allies will enter the map from the top, which cant be controlled, but theyll assault various parts of the town or stand guard positions in set spots.
As far as resistance from the town goes, its mainly militia, some footmen and literally a single knight, but there's 3 Barracks spawning additional militia and footmen that become active after capturing a certain number of villagers. Youll get an optional quest to destroy them, which is easily achieved with Raiders' Siege damage. They also have a hidden Hardened Skin ability set to -10.00 dmg reduction (they take 10 extra dmg from any attack).
Anyhow, you'll also get a warning about Arthas when he moves out, along with Shared Vision. He'll go around the map, clear creep camps and obtain various items just like a player would, before approaching the town, but there's ways to delay him, allowing you to build a bigger force for the second part of the mission.
When Arthas engages combat with a Gnoll camp, you get an optional quest to rile up the local gnolls, causing them to kidnap Little Timmy. (lol)
And when Arthas engages with some Bandits, you get an optional quest to parlay with Menag, causing an Alterac uprising in the area. This will create an extra wave of Bandits for arthas to clear on the main road, as well as the theft of Gerard's Ledger.
Both of these optional quests are relatively easy to complete, merely requiring you to rushing past/through the town's defenses, crash through the main gate and approaching two relatively close locations with Mathog.
Both will delay Arthas by about 2 minutes, along with a high chance to thin out his forces, however, the Little Timmy quest also award him a Ring of Protection +5 and the Menag quest will give him a Tome of Strength +10.
Arthas is Level 6 during this mission, accompanied by 8 Footmen and 4 Knights. During part 1 of this mission where you're not supposed to engage with him he has Level 3 Divine Shield and a 10 dmg reduction Hardened Skin, Level 2 Holy Light and level 1 Devotion, but during part 2, he has Level 2 Holy Light, Level 1 Divine Shield, Level 2 Devotion and Ressurection.
Part 2 begins when 30 villagers are captured; it starts with a cutscene and all Blackrock AI allies are teleported to the final area which Arthas will relentlessly assault for the remainder of the mission, continuously spawning Footmen and Knights at the town entrance as well as himself attacking along his entourage of remaining troops. Your goal is to hold out until all 30 villagers are deported off the map toward the blackrock encampment. Theyll move out in pairs every 10 seconds and its about a 20 second walk, meaninig you must hold Arthas at bay for about 3.5 minutes. Mathog is allowed to die during this, but you still lose if you run out of structures.
If you manage to kill Arthas, you get a special ending and (if we figure out how caches work) a special bonus in the next mission.
On Hard Difficulty, the Optional Quests will have an additional requirement before theyre completed, and Arthas, along his footmen gain +30 movement speed and 1/1 Attack/Armor upgrades.
Chapter 2 - Lambs to the Slaughter
Objective of this mission is simple; protect Jubei'thos (Blademaster of the Blackrockclan), until all the Sacrifices are done. The Blademaster's area is guarded by AI allies and got 3 layers of defenses that the AI will automatically replenish until the line falls completely. You control the blackrock base to the left of it and your hero for this mission is a Forest Troll Champion Hero. Your own base won't be attacked and there is an inner passageway connecting your base to the blademaster area. (might differ on Hard Mode)
The Blademaster will commit a sacrifice every 55 seconds, Uther's "Two best Knights" will be the first sacrifices comitted within the intro cinematic, making the counter start out on 2/30. The sacrifice speed will be sped up by 5 seconds for each warlock the AI ally controls in a dedicated channeling spot in the vicinity around the pit (up to 3). If a Warlock leaves its spot to engage into combat or because its currently dead, this speed bonus will be lost, causing the player to have to defend for longer. This should give the player insentive to not let the second line of defenders fall.
If all 3 Warlocks channel for the entire mission, the defense segment should only last 18:30 minutes, +5 seconds penalty for each warlock that left its spot during a sacrifice, potentially making this segment last up to 7 minutes longer if from start to finish all warlocks arent in their spots (realistically, depending on how you approach the map, we anticipate even bad players to not get more than around 4 minute penalty. Any longer than that probably means the blademaster dies in combat lol.)
We added a lot of character and variety to Arthas' attack waves, its not just him blindly throwing footmen at you and occasionally showing up himself.
Sometimes Arthas will attempt to "Tower Rush" the player, especially after one of the AI defense lines fail. We've added Bowmen, Pikemen, Crossbowmen, Ballistae, Scholar and Arcanist unit for enemy variety, each with an unique combat role and composed into very characterfull attack waves.
On easy or normal difficulty Arthas will be relatively sane, only attacking himself twice and only having several comedic outbursts against Uther. Other waves may be led by his Captain or accompanied by several peasants which will attempt to construct guard towers on the battlefield while a large swat of footmen/militia attempt to distract the player.
However, on Hard difficulty, Arthas will completely lose it, attempting to drop troops behind defensive lines via Zeppelins or putting a wave of Arcanist units that wont actually attack, but just spam summon water elementals or golems to attack until out of mana. He himself will also attack as soon as he's revived each time and diverge some of his troops to attack your adjacent base.
As for your techtree, we've got some pretty cool design concepts lol.
Your units are; Grunt, Axe-Thrower, Raider, Skullpriest and Warlock, along with some unique variants of these units dotted around the base area which arent renewable and can be rescued by simply exploring the area and going near them.
Some of these one-time unique "captain" units include; Worgmaster, Hermit, Dark Shaman and Highpriest.
The Blademaster AI will also have some of these scattered among his ranks, but won't replace them if killed.
Worgmaster is an elite Raider who summons Blackrock Worgs.
Hermit is a medium spellcaster with a raise dead ability which summons a single skeletal orc.
Dark Shaman is a light spellcaster who can forcefully bind elements to its will by corrupting them (can take control of enemy golems and water elementals)
Highpriest is just a more powerful skullpriest with a healing wave ability.
Oh, right. Unique quirks of the units you can train.
Grunts get their "Primal Savagery" upgrade from mission 1 and Raiders their "Cleaving Strikes" upgrade. In addition, the "Demonic Frenzy" ability, affecting both Grunts and Raiders, along with any summoned demons.
Demonic Frenzy grants Grunt and Raiders +15% attack damage boost and 10% Life-steal to their attacks while in close vicinity to summoned demons. Demons receive the same buff when close to grunt or raiders.
Axe-Throwers get the "Axe Flurry" upgrade, giving each of their attacks a 45% chance to hit an additional random enemy in range. (their attacks do low damage, but they attack fast).
Skullpriest get Lesser Heal, which only costs 3 mana to restore 15 hp/sec. Their Adept spell is an anti-magic wave, which bounces 6 times, removing any negative buffs from allies, positive buffs from enemies, destroying mana from enemies and dealing damage to enemy summoned units. Their master spell is Greater Heal, which takes 45 mana to restore 175 hp, but it has a short cast-range, 1.5 sec cast-time and an 8 second cooldown.
Warlocks are completely changed, they are now 3-food units with more health and their attacks do splash chaos damage. Their initial ability is Soulbolt, which deals 100 damage for 90 mana and restores 50 hp to both the Warlock and its active summon and restores 3x as much if Soulbolt kills its target. Their Adept spell is Demonology, allowing them to choose between summoning a permanent Voidwalker (tank), Succubus (damage), or a Felhound (anti-caster), but only 1 active summon per warlock and their summons perish if the caster dies. Their master ability is Hellfire, which is like a single Wave of Fire with a long cast-time that deals medium impact damage and high damage over time which doesnt stack (to make spamming it inefficient). It deals friendly fire.
This map has two optional quests;
Alliance Bulwark
The Alliance has established a small forward base in front of the blademaster area. Break it or the barracks and workshop will constantly train additional units that accompany attackwaves that pass through it.
Dragon Hunters
Local dragon hunters are endangering a great black dragon named Searinox. Kill the dwarf known as Feranor Steeltoe and Searinox joins your army. Quest fails if Searinox is killed and Arthas gains a buffed +12 dmg Orb of Fire with bigger splash area after that.
Anyhow, this is where our version slightly deviates from the original. When all 30 sacrifices have been performed, a tear of brimstone and hellfire starts to form in the pit, as the great Doomguard known as Lord Kazzak appears, appeased by the orc's abundant sacrifes. The player won't have direct control of Kazzak, but does get control of the Blademaster, along his remaining units. Kazzak is very powerful, but not invincible. He'll attack-move toward Arthas and Uther's base without pause and you're to support him in the fight.
Also, at 20:00 minutes elapsed, Uther himself, along 6 Knights attack (but his units have a -50% dmg modifier), theyre mainly just a scare and fodder for the doomguard.
Second main quest is to counter attack Arthas lol. Kazzak mostly carries it tho, he's pretty tough. This section is pretty much impossible to lose.
Objective of this mission is simple; protect Jubei'thos (Blademaster of the Blackrockclan), until all the Sacrifices are done. The Blademaster's area is guarded by AI allies and got 3 layers of defenses that the AI will automatically replenish until the line falls completely. You control the blackrock base to the left of it and your hero for this mission is a Forest Troll Champion Hero. Your own base won't be attacked and there is an inner passageway connecting your base to the blademaster area. (might differ on Hard Mode)
The Blademaster will commit a sacrifice every 55 seconds, Uther's "Two best Knights" will be the first sacrifices comitted within the intro cinematic, making the counter start out on 2/30. The sacrifice speed will be sped up by 5 seconds for each warlock the AI ally controls in a dedicated channeling spot in the vicinity around the pit (up to 3). If a Warlock leaves its spot to engage into combat or because its currently dead, this speed bonus will be lost, causing the player to have to defend for longer. This should give the player insentive to not let the second line of defenders fall.
If all 3 Warlocks channel for the entire mission, the defense segment should only last 18:30 minutes, +5 seconds penalty for each warlock that left its spot during a sacrifice, potentially making this segment last up to 7 minutes longer if from start to finish all warlocks arent in their spots (realistically, depending on how you approach the map, we anticipate even bad players to not get more than around 4 minute penalty. Any longer than that probably means the blademaster dies in combat lol.)
We added a lot of character and variety to Arthas' attack waves, its not just him blindly throwing footmen at you and occasionally showing up himself.
Sometimes Arthas will attempt to "Tower Rush" the player, especially after one of the AI defense lines fail. We've added Bowmen, Pikemen, Crossbowmen, Ballistae, Scholar and Arcanist unit for enemy variety, each with an unique combat role and composed into very characterfull attack waves.
Bowmen are short-ranged attackers with average piercing damage, but they use flaming arrows which deal siege damage versus structures.
Crossbowmen are long-ranged attackers with high piercing damage, but slow attack speed, theyre also slightly more fragile.
Pikemen are semi-melee attackers with low piercing damage, but very fast attack speed and a critical strike chance.
Ballista just deal very high piercing damage to a single target from long range.
Scholars are light spellcasters, who can shield friendly units in mage armor, fire arcane missiles and serve as mobile mana batteries, able to transfer their mana to nearby spellcasters or heroes.
Arcanists are medium spellcasters who can create illusions of themselves or friendly unit and call either a Water Elemental or Golem to their side.
Crossbowmen are long-ranged attackers with high piercing damage, but slow attack speed, theyre also slightly more fragile.
Pikemen are semi-melee attackers with low piercing damage, but very fast attack speed and a critical strike chance.
Ballista just deal very high piercing damage to a single target from long range.
Scholars are light spellcasters, who can shield friendly units in mage armor, fire arcane missiles and serve as mobile mana batteries, able to transfer their mana to nearby spellcasters or heroes.
Arcanists are medium spellcasters who can create illusions of themselves or friendly unit and call either a Water Elemental or Golem to their side.
On easy or normal difficulty Arthas will be relatively sane, only attacking himself twice and only having several comedic outbursts against Uther. Other waves may be led by his Captain or accompanied by several peasants which will attempt to construct guard towers on the battlefield while a large swat of footmen/militia attempt to distract the player.
However, on Hard difficulty, Arthas will completely lose it, attempting to drop troops behind defensive lines via Zeppelins or putting a wave of Arcanist units that wont actually attack, but just spam summon water elementals or golems to attack until out of mana. He himself will also attack as soon as he's revived each time and diverge some of his troops to attack your adjacent base.
As for your techtree, we've got some pretty cool design concepts lol.
Your units are; Grunt, Axe-Thrower, Raider, Skullpriest and Warlock, along with some unique variants of these units dotted around the base area which arent renewable and can be rescued by simply exploring the area and going near them.
Some of these one-time unique "captain" units include; Worgmaster, Hermit, Dark Shaman and Highpriest.
The Blademaster AI will also have some of these scattered among his ranks, but won't replace them if killed.
Worgmaster is an elite Raider who summons Blackrock Worgs.
Hermit is a medium spellcaster with a raise dead ability which summons a single skeletal orc.
Dark Shaman is a light spellcaster who can forcefully bind elements to its will by corrupting them (can take control of enemy golems and water elementals)
Highpriest is just a more powerful skullpriest with a healing wave ability.
Oh, right. Unique quirks of the units you can train.
Grunts get their "Primal Savagery" upgrade from mission 1 and Raiders their "Cleaving Strikes" upgrade. In addition, the "Demonic Frenzy" ability, affecting both Grunts and Raiders, along with any summoned demons.
Demonic Frenzy grants Grunt and Raiders +15% attack damage boost and 10% Life-steal to their attacks while in close vicinity to summoned demons. Demons receive the same buff when close to grunt or raiders.
Axe-Throwers get the "Axe Flurry" upgrade, giving each of their attacks a 45% chance to hit an additional random enemy in range. (their attacks do low damage, but they attack fast).
Skullpriest get Lesser Heal, which only costs 3 mana to restore 15 hp/sec. Their Adept spell is an anti-magic wave, which bounces 6 times, removing any negative buffs from allies, positive buffs from enemies, destroying mana from enemies and dealing damage to enemy summoned units. Their master spell is Greater Heal, which takes 45 mana to restore 175 hp, but it has a short cast-range, 1.5 sec cast-time and an 8 second cooldown.
Warlocks are completely changed, they are now 3-food units with more health and their attacks do splash chaos damage. Their initial ability is Soulbolt, which deals 100 damage for 90 mana and restores 50 hp to both the Warlock and its active summon and restores 3x as much if Soulbolt kills its target. Their Adept spell is Demonology, allowing them to choose between summoning a permanent Voidwalker (tank), Succubus (damage), or a Felhound (anti-caster), but only 1 active summon per warlock and their summons perish if the caster dies. Their master ability is Hellfire, which is like a single Wave of Fire with a long cast-time that deals medium impact damage and high damage over time which doesnt stack (to make spamming it inefficient). It deals friendly fire.
This map has two optional quests;
Alliance Bulwark
The Alliance has established a small forward base in front of the blademaster area. Break it or the barracks and workshop will constantly train additional units that accompany attackwaves that pass through it.
Dragon Hunters
Local dragon hunters are endangering a great black dragon named Searinox. Kill the dwarf known as Feranor Steeltoe and Searinox joins your army. Quest fails if Searinox is killed and Arthas gains a buffed +12 dmg Orb of Fire with bigger splash area after that.
Anyhow, this is where our version slightly deviates from the original. When all 30 sacrifices have been performed, a tear of brimstone and hellfire starts to form in the pit, as the great Doomguard known as Lord Kazzak appears, appeased by the orc's abundant sacrifes. The player won't have direct control of Kazzak, but does get control of the Blademaster, along his remaining units. Kazzak is very powerful, but not invincible. He'll attack-move toward Arthas and Uther's base without pause and you're to support him in the fight.
Also, at 20:00 minutes elapsed, Uther himself, along 6 Knights attack (but his units have a -50% dmg modifier), theyre mainly just a scare and fodder for the doomguard.
Second main quest is to counter attack Arthas lol. Kazzak mostly carries it tho, he's pretty tough. This section is pretty much impossible to lose.
Chapter 3 - Plagueing of the King's Road
Mission opens with a cinematic, showing Malganis in Northrend being approached by Kelthuzard and given a sample of the plague. He's instructed to lead the Cult of the Damned and infect grainfields along the Kings Road.
Then it cuts to the present and Kelthuzad begins to plague the field of grain thats normally the end of the original mission. You gain control of 2 ghouls, a necromancer, new cultist unit, along with several skeletons. People from the nearby town of Brill, alarmed by the weird green energy, begin to gather squads of soldiers, first to attempt to arrest them (elder scroll reference style) and then engage in combat.
We've completely reworked how Raise Dead works;
Kelthuzad himself is a Hero, maximum level 5 this mission, so we dont have an ultimate for him.
The mission is pretty much just like Illidan closing portals mission, except infecting a grainfield creates large swats of blight and creates AI allies and reinforcements in these areas.
Youll have to break through the roads defenses, clear areas to secure a total of 4 grain fields and while kelthuzad is infecting them, defend him as additional militia, footmen, mortar teams and priests spawn from the surrounding houses or move out from the surrounding area if you didnt clear them.
There is no time limit during first mainquest, as Jaina arrives hours late.
First optional quest is to Find Mal'ganis, who is hidden on the map and will destroy that one bridge by crashing an infernal into it, greatly hindering Arthas and his army during part 2 of the mission.
Second optional quest is to cast Dark Conversion (you get level 1 of it by default) on 20 different villagers, awarding you with an Abomination at the end of the mission.
Last optional quest is to defile the Fountain of Health, this will spawn you additional reinforcements and unlock cultist adept training for this mission.
Once all 4 fields are infected, Jaina finally arrives and they mobilize, however, Kelthuzad and all caster units you owned will be forced to leave the map, but you now gain control of the AI allies stationed at the grainfields. The granaries are being emptied by ghouls into Caravan Wagons, youre to defend them and tell a wagon to leave with its shipment when it gets too dicy, but granting control of the next AI ally camp up the road.
A certain amount of grain must be shipped to Andorhal to achieve victory.
Mission opens with a cinematic, showing Malganis in Northrend being approached by Kelthuzard and given a sample of the plague. He's instructed to lead the Cult of the Damned and infect grainfields along the Kings Road.
Then it cuts to the present and Kelthuzad begins to plague the field of grain thats normally the end of the original mission. You gain control of 2 ghouls, a necromancer, new cultist unit, along with several skeletons. People from the nearby town of Brill, alarmed by the weird green energy, begin to gather squads of soldiers, first to attempt to arrest them (elder scroll reference style) and then engage in combat.
We've completely reworked how Raise Dead works;
It's now a Spellbook, allowing choice between 3 skeleton types; Warrior, Archer or Mage.
Only a single skeleton is raised from a corpse, but they are slightly stronger as default skeletons and permanent without any type of duration/timed life.
However, each Necromancer can only control a limited number of skeletons at a time (trying to summon past the limit will destroy the oldest skeleton).
Putting any of the 3 types on Auto-cast does work automatically with the summon limit and affects all currently selected necromancers.
When skeletons move a certain amount of range away from its summoner, its health starts to degrade rapidly.
The default summon limit for Necromancers is 2 skeletons, but researching Skeletal Mastery raises the limit by 1.
Lastly, if a summoner dies, all its summons perish along with it.
Skeleton Warrior now have 235hp, 14-15 dmg at 2.40 sec atk spd (yes, slower than usual), but they take 35% reduced piercing damage.
Skeleton Archer has 145hp, 10-12 dmg at 1.25 sec atk spd, medium armor and they have the "Dead-eye" passive, allowing their attacks 5% chance to deal 6x damage.
Skeleton Mage has 175hp, 7-10 magic dmg at 1.45 sec atk spd, light armor type and they have the "Dark Mend" auto-cast ability, which takes 8 Mana to restore 10 hp to a friendly undead unit and detonates after 2 seconds, dealing 10 damage to living enemies around the healed target in a small (basically melee-range) area. They only have 50 maximum mana, 12 initial mana and +0.50 mana regen/sec.
No skeleton type is objectively better than the rest; but each does serve a purpose.
Also, sorry for nerfing Skeleton warrior attack speed, but during testing we found spamming them was too good due to their increased durability and not-bad (7.25) dps they made the mission pretty much trivial. After the 20% dps nerf we've found they can't form as much of a functional army anymore without support from either archers or mages.
Only a single skeleton is raised from a corpse, but they are slightly stronger as default skeletons and permanent without any type of duration/timed life.
However, each Necromancer can only control a limited number of skeletons at a time (trying to summon past the limit will destroy the oldest skeleton).
Putting any of the 3 types on Auto-cast does work automatically with the summon limit and affects all currently selected necromancers.
When skeletons move a certain amount of range away from its summoner, its health starts to degrade rapidly.
The default summon limit for Necromancers is 2 skeletons, but researching Skeletal Mastery raises the limit by 1.
Lastly, if a summoner dies, all its summons perish along with it.
Skeleton Warrior now have 235hp, 14-15 dmg at 2.40 sec atk spd (yes, slower than usual), but they take 35% reduced piercing damage.
Skeleton Archer has 145hp, 10-12 dmg at 1.25 sec atk spd, medium armor and they have the "Dead-eye" passive, allowing their attacks 5% chance to deal 6x damage.
Skeleton Mage has 175hp, 7-10 magic dmg at 1.45 sec atk spd, light armor type and they have the "Dark Mend" auto-cast ability, which takes 8 Mana to restore 10 hp to a friendly undead unit and detonates after 2 seconds, dealing 10 damage to living enemies around the healed target in a small (basically melee-range) area. They only have 50 maximum mana, 12 initial mana and +0.50 mana regen/sec.
No skeleton type is objectively better than the rest; but each does serve a purpose.
Also, sorry for nerfing Skeleton warrior attack speed, but during testing we found spamming them was too good due to their increased durability and not-bad (7.25) dps they made the mission pretty much trivial. After the 20% dps nerf we've found they can't form as much of a functional army anymore without support from either archers or mages.
Kelthuzad himself is a Hero, maximum level 5 this mission, so we dont have an ultimate for him.
First ability is "Grimoire of the Damned", which is basically elite version of Raise Dead necromancers have.
Level 1 - 75 Mana-cost, 4 Maximium skeletons.
Level 2 - 65 Mana-cost, 6 Maximum skeletons.
Level 3 - 50 Mana-cost, 8 Maximum skeletons.
Second Ability "Dark Conversion", which turns a target Villager into a zombie minion. (permanent and leaves a corpse on death).
Level 1 - 180hp, 10-11 damage zombie with 0 medium armor.
Level 2 - 240hp, 13-14 damage zombie with 0 heavy armor, has enhanced hp regeneration. (1hp/sec, on top of blight/aura)
Level 3 - 300hp, 16-17 damage zombie with 1 heavy armor and greatly enhanced hp regeneration. (2hp/sec, on top of blight/aura)
Passive is "Aura of Blight".
Level 1 - Grants undead +1hp/sec regen while not standing on blight.
Level 2 - Grants +2hp/sec regen off-blight and +1 bonus regen while on blight.
Level 3 - Grants +3hp/sec off-blight and +2 bonus regen while on blight.
Level 1 - 75 Mana-cost, 4 Maximium skeletons.
Level 2 - 65 Mana-cost, 6 Maximum skeletons.
Level 3 - 50 Mana-cost, 8 Maximum skeletons.
Second Ability "Dark Conversion", which turns a target Villager into a zombie minion. (permanent and leaves a corpse on death).
Level 1 - 180hp, 10-11 damage zombie with 0 medium armor.
Level 2 - 240hp, 13-14 damage zombie with 0 heavy armor, has enhanced hp regeneration. (1hp/sec, on top of blight/aura)
Level 3 - 300hp, 16-17 damage zombie with 1 heavy armor and greatly enhanced hp regeneration. (2hp/sec, on top of blight/aura)
Passive is "Aura of Blight".
Level 1 - Grants undead +1hp/sec regen while not standing on blight.
Level 2 - Grants +2hp/sec regen off-blight and +1 bonus regen while on blight.
Level 3 - Grants +3hp/sec off-blight and +2 bonus regen while on blight.
The mission is pretty much just like Illidan closing portals mission, except infecting a grainfield creates large swats of blight and creates AI allies and reinforcements in these areas.
Youll have to break through the roads defenses, clear areas to secure a total of 4 grain fields and while kelthuzad is infecting them, defend him as additional militia, footmen, mortar teams and priests spawn from the surrounding houses or move out from the surrounding area if you didnt clear them.
There is no time limit during first mainquest, as Jaina arrives hours late.
First optional quest is to Find Mal'ganis, who is hidden on the map and will destroy that one bridge by crashing an infernal into it, greatly hindering Arthas and his army during part 2 of the mission.
Second optional quest is to cast Dark Conversion (you get level 1 of it by default) on 20 different villagers, awarding you with an Abomination at the end of the mission.
Last optional quest is to defile the Fountain of Health, this will spawn you additional reinforcements and unlock cultist adept training for this mission.
Once all 4 fields are infected, Jaina finally arrives and they mobilize, however, Kelthuzad and all caster units you owned will be forced to leave the map, but you now gain control of the AI allies stationed at the grainfields. The granaries are being emptied by ghouls into Caravan Wagons, youre to defend them and tell a wagon to leave with its shipment when it gets too dicy, but granting control of the next AI ally camp up the road.
A certain amount of grain must be shipped to Andorhal to achieve victory.
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