• Listen to a special audio message from Bill Roper to the Hive Workshop community (Bill is a former Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment, Producer, Designer, Musician, Voice Actor) 🔗Click here to hear his message!
  • Read Evilhog's interview with Gregory Alper, the original composer of the music for WarCraft: Orcs & Humans 🔗Click here to read the full interview.
  • Create a faction for Warcraft 3 and enter Hive's 19th Techtree Contest: Co-Op Commanders! Click here to enter!
  • Create a void inspired texture for Warcraft 3 and enter Hive's 34th Texturing Contest: Void! Click here to enter!
  • The Hive's 21st Texturing Contest: Upgrade is now concluded, time to vote for your favourite set of icons! Click here to vote!
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
9,813
Warcraft III: Reforged Developer Update – Ranked Play

Blizzard said: blizzarrow.gif

July 22, 2020

Developer Update Header.jpg

Greetings Warcraft III: Reforged players!

Since our last update, we’ve released a variety of changes to Warcraft III: Reforged with our 1.32.6 PTR and patch. From a major balance update, to more bug and desync fixes as well as additional matchmaking improvements, our quest to make Reforged ever better continues.

As we mentioned in our last Developer Update, we’d like to continue sharing details and insights on our ongoing development plans for Warcraft III: Reforged alongside each patch. For this installment, we wanted to give you a look at the changes we have in store for our highest-priority feature addition currently under development: Ranked Play.


SETTING GOALS

When revisiting our designs for Ranked Play, we established a set of primary goals to guide our decision-making. Fundamentally, Ranked Play should provide a clear and trustworthy way for players to gauge their level of skill, as well as the skill of other players. In support of this, we’ve opted to make players’ ranks linked directly to their MMRs, rather than using a more detached, progression-based system. Additionally, while Ranked Play is the most competitive way to play Warcraft III: Reforged, it’s also important for us to ensure that this experience will be friendly for new players and veteran alike.

As we continue building this next generation of Ranked Play, we want to deliver an experience where the features and functionality build upon the original Warcraft III Ranked mode, while also considering the community-driven variants that have emerged in both legacy Warcraft III and Reforged.


A LOOK AT RANKED PLAY

As with the legacy version of Warcraft III, all five of the game modes in Reforged (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA) will have their own ranked ladders. In keeping with legacy Warcraft III’s spirit, we also wanted to ensure that there are no requirements for moving up or down in rank beyond your raw point value. This means we will not institute systems like promotion or demotion matches.

Image (1).jpg

Work in Progress: 1v1 Leaderboard

However, we have made some changes from the legacy version that we believe will lead to a better Ranked Play experience for players. We will be moving from the previous levels system to a more distinct medal system. Those familiar with StarCraft II ranked ladders will recognize the Bronze through Grandmaster ranking system, which we are bringing to Reforged.

The Grandmaster division will now be the highest rank and will only comprise the top 300 players with the highest MMR globally. When players jump into Ranked matches, they will be able to see their rank badge next to each player’s name on the loading screen. Those in Master and Grandmaster will additionally have their MMR displayed to all players as well. In another change from the legacy Ranked system, we will now be displaying a player’s own MMR directly to them in the main menu and in their in-game profiles as well.


Image (2).png

Additionally, we wanted to address the aggressive experience decay that was in place in the legacy Ranked Ladder for Warcraft III. The original intent behind such an aggressive decay was to retain active players so that they could maintain their ranks. We believe that this was too punishing and have now decided to remove experience decay from Reforged for all ranks. We may decide to implement experience decay for Grandmaster in the future, but we’ll continue to monitor the data and see what would make the most sense for our top competitive players.


Image (3).png

To determine their Rank in the new system, players will now need to complete a series of five placement matches. These placement matches will only be required for any game mode or race combination where a player has not yet received a rank. For those who do have a rank, only one placement match will be needed after each season roll for any mode or race combination where a player has been placed.


SEASONS OVERVIEW

Alongside the improvements coming to the Ranked Ladder, we are also going to be bringing Ranked Seasons to Warcraft III for the first time. Seasons will offer an opportunity to roll in balance updates, fresh map rotations, and other adjustments, as well as give players rewards for participating (and seeing how high up the ladder they can climb) in each new Season.

Image (4).png

Work in Progress: Season 1 Unranked Status


Image (5).png

Work in Progress: Season 1 Ranked Play Placement in Progress

We will adjust player MMR and divisions between Seasons to maintain rank division sizes and prevent MMR drift to keep matchmaking times down. We think Seasons will provide structure for Ranked updates and give players the time to mentally reset and get excited for the new Season and new seasonal rewards.

Image (6).png

Work in Progress: Season 1 Ranked Play in Versus - Placed Status


Speaking of seasonal rewards—we plan to award a portrait for each division and players will earn new portraits as they rank up. Portraits will unlock for all divisions earned at and below a player’s rank. With each new Season, players can expect fresh new portraits to showcase their achievements for that season.

Image (3).jpg
Image (2).jpg

Work in progress Ranked Silver and Gold badges.

While Seasons are brand new to the Warcraft III community, we’re excited about the benefits this framework will bring to the game.


SHARPENING SKILLS IN UNRANKED MODE

In addition to improving the Ranked experience for Reforged, we also want to expand upon it by adding an Unranked mode to the game. Unranked will be coming soon after Ranked mode is added to the game, for those players that would like to practice new races, tactics, and more in a competitive setting without the same stakes as formal Ranked matches.

Here’s a look at how this new game mode will work:

Unranked will have its own MMR attributed per race and per game mode, and is separate from the Ranked MMR system. Unranked MMR will never be displayed or reset, and the only way it will change is through the player’s progression as they play. We expect that there will likely be some MMR drift between Ranked and Unranked, but we feel this is acceptable as the Ranked and Unranked players are approaching each game mode with different mindsets.

Image (1).png

Work in Progress: Profile Match History

As is the case in StarCraft II, Unranked players will be matched against Ranked players in 1v1 games. Wins and Losses will count as normal for Ranked players to ensure that players still try their best and continue to play to win. Ranked players will also be able to rank up by defeating an Unranked player as well.

When playing in Team games, we will only matchmake teams of all Ranked or all Unranked players onto the same team to ensure the fairest matches. That means Unranked players will only be paired with other Unranked players, and vice versa. For those players playing Unranked in Arranged Teams, the matchmaker will average player MMR and treat you like any other Arranged Team. However, at the conclusion of each match, team history is not tracked like ordinary Arranged teams.

Seasons will also have no bearing on Unranked mode. This means that there will be no Ladder resets for Unranked mode; however, wins in Unranked will count toward unlocking existing win-based portraits.


IN CLOSING

We know that this is just part of the complete Ranked play experience you’re expecting—we will be detailing our approach to Profiles and more in our next developer update. While we’re aiming to release Ranked Play in the coming months, it’s important that we take the time needed to deliver a combination of features that best serves our players and the Warcraft III community. We’re looking forward to seeing the community discussion around our current plans for Ranked, Seasons, and Unranked modes, and we’ll provide updates on our progress as development continues.

- The Warcraft III Team
 

Site Director
Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
3,153
STARCRAFT II 4.13.0 PTR PATCH NOTES

Untitled-2.jpg



Blizzard said: blizzarrow.gif

EDITOR UPDATE
We’re excited to announce a major update to the StarCraft II Map Editor!

Since Wings of Liberty, your feedback has been consistent: The Editor should be easier to use. This patch aims to address this feedback without losing depth of customization. As such, we’ve absorbed elements from the Warcraft III editor designed for ease of use without sacrificing existing capability of the StarCraft II Editor. We have also expanded the SCII Editor’s capability even further.

We encourage map makers and mod makers to jump in, explore, and send us your feedback as we’re always interested in adding more exciting changes in the future. This is the largest Editor update we've ever made, and we're excited to hear what you think! Below is an overview of some of the exciting new features. It is critical for us to get feedback about how your maps are behaving with these changes. So please try publishing your custom maps to the PTR and let us know if you run into any issues or strange behavior on our PTR forum.

Before you start: Please do not to forget to backup your maps before you try them on PTR as PTR is meant to be experimental.

Also: Please keep in mind that while War Chest XP can be earned on the PTR, progress will not carry over onto the other regions, and most rewards from the War Chest will not carry over from the PTR.

[...]


:fp: Read the full article: StarCraft II Official Game Site
 
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
9,813
1.32.7 PATCH NOTES

Blizzard said: blizzarrow.gif

June 29, 2020 - PTR
July 7, 2020 - LIVE


CAMPAIGN

  • The score screen for campaign missions now accurately displays time elapsed during that mission.

CUSTOM GAMES

  • Fixed an issue that was causing default loading screen text to display on custom loading screens.
  • Fixed an issue in the user interface during Custom Games creation that caused the IME indicator to not display.

GAMEPLAY

  • Fixed a desync that occurred when a player in Classic mode and a player in Reforged mode were in a game with a unit that is both bloodlusted and hexed or polymorphed.
  • Fixed an issue where Anasterian Sunstrider would sometimes use Death Knight Arthas’s model in Reforged mode.

VERSUS

  • Frost Wyrm illusion auto attacks no longer apply the frost breath passive.
    • Developers’ notes: Having illusions apply a slowing effect on auto attack was unintentionally added recently. This fix shouldn’t have much effect on balance overall.

USER INTERFACE

  • Music on the score screen now only plays once.

 
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
9,813
hosted-project-04-png.357889

bow-logo-png.357657
  With a concept that's been in development for 11 years, the fourth rendition of Bosses of Warcraft is here! Constant development ensures rapid updates -- including new dungeons, graphics, user interfaces, and other exciting features you won't find anywhere else.





AUTHOR'S NOTE

  "Whether or not you have already played our Warcraft III map, Bosses of Warcraft is an expansive project created to combine the elements of Professions, Dungeons and raid-style Bosses with the highly adaptable Warcraft III engine to create a unique user experience."
-- @Sverkerman   











FEATURES

  Bosses of Warcraft features epic 24-Player bossfights inspired by the map Impossible Bosses, made by Psyris. It uses a save/load system to enable players to store their progress as they advance through the map.

• Mounts
• Inventory System
• Achievements
• Minigames
• Quests & Dialog System
• Fullscreen Looting
• Custom HDR Settings
• Weather System
• Multiboard showing statistics
• Over 600 items
• Over 100 Custom Abilities​








CLASSES

Magician

Healer

Tank

Duelist

Ranger

magician-01-png.357659
  A spell caster without peer, the Magician is able to both aid his allies and unleash magical havoc upon his foes. Magicians are not to be underestimated; their balance of offense and defense makes them an ally like no other. While their single target damage is not the greatest, when it comes to vanquishing multiple enemies, no class does the job as efficiently as the Magician.

- Highest area burst damage
- Can buff allies and disorient enemies, as well as recover mana
- Magical barriers for teammates
healer-01-png.357660
  A master of divine arts, protecting his allies as they defeat the forces of evil. On his own he isn't able to do much, but together with his group, he can make them unstoppable. The Healer can keep your allies up, healthy and full of fighting spirit, and is thus essential to any group.

- Recovery magic
- Buffs and areas that significantly reduce damage taken
- Specializes in single-target or area healing, and self-defense
tank-01-png.357661
  The cornerstone of any good party. The Tank absorbs damage from enemies, standing as a guardian between friend and foe. While not able to do as much direct damage to enemies as the other classes, they are able to harm stronger opponents by weakening them and breaking their battle rhythm.

- Great disruption
- High sustain, and can protect others
- Causes more threat than other classes

duelist-01-png.357662
  A hero that strives in danger, the Duelist is able to deal the highest amount of single target damage and destruction upon enemies. Though the Duelist needs to be covered by a tank whom is able to keep threat, when that need is met -- there is no class as swift and lethal.

- Can be built both ability based and basic attack based
- Highest single target damage
- Can increase attack speed and attack damage for allies

ranger-01-png.357663
  A master of the bow and the gun, the Ranger utilizes physical damage from long distances consistently -- especially when focusing down a lone prey. The Ranger is able to outmaneuver his opponents, dealing damage and dodging enemy attacks before making his retreat. When you need damage you can depend on, the Ranger is ready to hunt down your foes.

- Mixed mastery of area and single target damage
- Consistent long-range damage
- Can dodge attacks while attacking








  • Dedicated guilds, staff members, and players ensure a welcoming experience.
 
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
9,813
1.32.6 PTR PATCH NOTES

Blizzard said: blizzarrow.gif

Warcraft III: Reforged PTR Patch Notes
Version 1.32.6
21 May, 2020

Please note: These PTR Patch Notes are a work in progress and will be updated with further changes before the release of Patch 1.32.6.

This balance patch has a few different goals in mind. For heroes in general, we’re looking at the costs and sometimes the functionality of hero ultimate abilities, to make them a bit more competitive with a hero’s base line abilities and mana pool.

Items are another big area of this patch. Charged levels 5 and 6 are getting a shake-up to see if we can encourage more usage of these categories going forward.

Additionally, we want to support map makers’ future endeavors by doing a balance pass on the units provided by Mercenary Camps. Finally, in 1v1 matchups, we want to address rifle pushes in Human vs. Night Elf and slightly alter the early game in Human vs. Undead.

There will also be a map pool rotation in this patch. One map per game mode will be rotated out and a new one rotated in. This time around, all of the maps are made by our wonderful community map makers.

ART
  • Raccoons no longer fade away unnaturally during their death animation in Reforged mode.
  • Fixed an issue with the Northrend Tree Wall Doodad where they appeared white on the minimap.

CAMPAIGN

  • Resolved an issue with walking animation speed in certain campaign maps.

EDITOR

  • Fixed a legacy issue where the Summoned Damage data field for Feedback abilities was capped at 10. This did not affect competitive multiplayer, but was inconvenient for custom map makers.

Unit Balance


HUMAN
MOUNTAIN KING

  • Thunderclap cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 7 seconds across all levels.
  • Developers’ notes: Over the past year, the Mountain King’s Thunderclap has been slightly overperforming. While meta changes in 1v1 have seen its usage reduced, it remains a very strong ability in team games. We want to reduce its uptime, which should also allow players to better micro against the Mountain King by giving them more time to reposition between casts.

RIFLEMAN

  • Attack delay increased from 1.35 to 1.4.
  • Developers’ notes: This change is focused around the Human vs. Night Elf rifleman push. We don’t inherently want the rifle push to completely disappear nor for riflemen to fall too far in power, but rather for the push to be slightly more equal between the attacker and defender. We’re adjusting the power on both sides, with this being the Human side of the change.

PALADIN

  • Resurrection mana cost reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Developers’ notes: Resurrection already has the restriction of waiting for a player’s army to be dead before being cast. At the same time, Paladins often spend much of their mana casting Holy Light to keep units alive in the first place. Reducing the mana cost should help boost the desirability of this ultimate by reducing mana tension.

ORC
SHADOW HUNTER


  • Big Bad Voodoo mana cost reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Developers’ notes: We’re reducing the mana cost to help with mana tension. The ultimate itself was not altered at this time, as we want to keep the unique identity of how it works, and instead see if we can push it to be a bit higher of a pick through increasing availability of the spell.

FAR SEER

  • Earthquake duration reduced from 25 to 20 seconds. Building damage per second increased from 50 to 60. Mana cost reduced from 150 to 125. Earthquake no longer affects friendly units/structures.
  • Developers’ notes: With Earthquake no longer affecting friendly units, Far Seer players should now have a new slowing option available to them for combat usage. Reducing the duration while keeping the overall damage roughly the same makes responding to a Far Seer casting Earthquake more important and gives a bit more consistency to how much damage it can inflict.

TAUREN CHIEFTAIN

  • War Stomp cooldown increased per level from 6/6/6 to 7/7/7.
  • Developers’ notes: War Stomp has shown to be quite powerful in recent months. We believe this is more due to Tauren Chieftain’s ability to more consistently deliver stuns, rather than the damage increase to War Stomp. Simply reducing its damage would be less likely to lower the power of War Stomp. This change doubles the downtime of the ability at level 3, giving opponents more time to counter micro. Additionally, this weakens the Tauren Chieftain’s early game allowing opponents to better push for map control.

WITCH DOCTOR

  • Stasis Trap activation delay decreased from 10 to 9 seconds. Detection radius reduced from 250 to 175. Activation time reduced from 1.0 to 0.5.
  • New data variable in map editor: Detonation Delay.
  • Developers’ notes: Witch Doctors are still fairly rare in high-level play. We want to tune up its Stasis Trap ability, and to do that we looked into how it could trap more units. A smaller detonation ring combined with a shorter delay means that units will have less time to move through the area of effect before getting trapped and will have less time to attack the totem when it reveals itself.

NIGHT ELF
KEEPER OF THE GROVE

  • Entangling Roots cast range on level 3 increased from 600 to 800.
  • Developers’ notes: While we like where the Keeper of the Grove’s early game power is, we want to give this ability a little boost in the late game. Since armies grow in size, especially in team games, reinstating its old range should give the Keeper a little more ease of use in late game scenarios.
  • Tranquility Invulnerability time removed. Duration reduced from 15 to 12. Healing increased from 40 to 48.
  • Developers’ notes: In the past we tried an experiment with Tranquility where we would give invulnerability to heroes when casting channeled spells. After testing it, we’re moving away from this, as we feel it dampens the personality of channeled abilities. Ideally, a channeled ability is very powerful with the drawback of being interruptible. This weakness is also what gives the abilities their character, as finding the right time and place to maximize its power is the main gameplay of using them. Adding invulnerability clouds this, as it now acts more like a normal “cast and forget” spell, but with a little extra bonus on the end. It also acted as anti-debuff mechanic, which was undesirable. While it could be made to not remove debuffs, that would act as a new special case that’s different from regular invulnerability and it would add new complexity for players to memorize. Instead, we want to further reduce the duration of the spell but increase its power of the effect, giving greater benefit even when shut down by opponents, but also encouraging opponents to react quickly to the channeled ability.

DRUID OF THE CLAW

  • Base damage in bear from increased from 23 to 24.
  • Developers’ notes: We think bears could use a bit more power in the mid-to-late game in general, especially against Undead. Additionally, with Human vs. Night Elf rifle pushes often occurring right when only a few bears are out, we felt that a slight bear buff would help defenders just that little bit more to keep them in the game.

DRUID OF THE TALON

  • Gold cost reduced from 145 to 135.
  • Developers’ notes: Previously Druids of the Talon had their gold cost increased due to balance concerns with them in the Orc vs. Night Elf matchup. The meta has changed quite a bit since then, and so we would like to reduce their cost back to its old value to better encourage their usage.

UNDEAD
CRYPT LORD

  • Impale can no longer be interrupted. Units knocked airborne can now take damage and be attacked.
  • Two new data variables in map editor: Airborne Units Vulnerable, Uninterruptible.
  • Carrion Beetles mana cost increased from 30 to 45. Now spawns 2 beetles at a time, up from 1. Maximum beetles increased from 5 to 6.
  • Developers’ notes: The being whose might cannot be matched is getting a tune-up in this patch. Previously the Impale ability was hardcoded to be interruptible and make units hit by it invulnerable while airborne. Unlike other channeled abilities, giving a move order to a command group containing a Crypt Lord casting Impale would cause it to move and cancel the ability. This change removes this annoyance. Additionally, making airborne units vulnerable no longer causes units to lose auto attack focus on Impaled units. Airborne units are still untargetable by spells though. This was left in place out of an abundance of caution for introducing unintended bugs.
  • More developers’ notes: Speaking of bugs, our buff to Carrion Beetles should greatly encourage some new experimentation with this rather rarely picked ability. Now the Crypt Lord can bring about a swarm of summons much earlier and with less mana invested to either scout opponents or make early game pushes. We will be monitoring if this proves to be too much of an issue in the early game, but we feel these changes overall give the ability a much stronger personality.

DEATH KNIGHT

  • Animate Dead mana cost reduced from 175 to 125.
  • Developers’ notes: We hear rather frequent feedback that this ability is one of the lower tier ones. Directly buffing it too much at this time seemed unwise, as the Death Knight itself is quite core to Undead’s best strategies, and buffing it further would reinforce this. However, we do think its mana cost could be reduced to at least be more appropriate with its perceived power level.

SKELETON WARRIOR

  • Base hit points decreased from 190 to 180.
  • Developers’ notes: This is aimed primarily at the Human vs. Undead extreme early game. In this case, at the highest levels, every peasant killed during a fast expansion is extremely valuable, and battles around this are often won by inches rather than miles. Returning Skeleton Warriors to their previous health state should help Humans (and other races to a degree) to stabilize better in the early game.

RITUAL DAGGER

  • Total hit points regenerated per charge increased from 125 to 175.
  • Developers’ notes: The Ritual Dagger has yet to really find a place in high level Undead build orders. Increasing its health regenerated should help it better compete with items like Scroll of Regeneration, especially since at 175 hit points and two charges per item, it would restore 350 hit points total. From a higher-level view, this change in addition to the buff to Carrion Beetles could make this item an interesting pick for Crypt Lord first players.

NEUTRAL
BEASTMASTER

  • Summon Bear mana cost reduced from 125 to 100.
  • Developers’ notes: At the highest level of play, the Beastmaster has fallen off in usage over time. While we believe this is primarily due to changes in the meta, we want to give a boost to an ability that was underutilized even when Beastmasters roamed freely. In particular, a level 2 Beastmaster starting at full mana that constantly uses their summon abilities when off cooldown would now be able to summon an additional Quilbeast when paired with Summon Quilbeast or an additional bear when paired with Summon Hawk.

PIT LORD

  • A unit afflicted by Doom now has its movement speed slowed by 50%.
  • Added two new data variables in map editor: Movement Speed Factor, Maximum Creep Level.
  • Developers’ notes: The Pitlord has come quite far in recent times, becoming something more than just a super niche pick for styling on opponents. With looking over ultimate abilities we want to give this one a little more of a boost to reduce the ability of an opponent to run away an afflicted unit to somewhere more secluded or even favorable. We also surfaced a long-hidden variable that controls the maximum creep level that can be afflicted with Doom. While this doesn’t impact competitive multiplayer, it should be helpful for custom game creators.

FIRELORD

  • Volcano eruption waves decreased from 8 to 5. Wave interval reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased building damage factor from 2 to 3. No longer affects friendly units/structures.
  • Developers’ notes: We believe the main issue with Volcano is that it is too unreliable and too balanced around its maximum damage output, which is unrealistic for a channeled ultimate. These changes reduce the overall damage potential of the Volcano in exchange for being much more reliable and hitting much faster. Removing the ability for it to affect friendly units should also make Volcano more viable in combat. No more praying to Ragnaros for the flaming boulders to miss one’s own units!

NAGA SEA WITCH

  • Tornado Random wander behavior removed. Mana cost reduced from 200 to 125. Duration reduced from 40 seconds to 20 seconds. Close building damage per second increased from 50 to 100. Far building damage per second increased from 7 to 14.
  • Developers’ notes: Much like the other channeled ultimates in this update, we believe a main issue with this ability was that getting value from the spell took too long compared to its opportunity cost. So, the damage has been increased and duration decreased overall. The mana cost was also reduced as the Sea Witch can be one of the more intensive mana users, which could greatly crowd out the opportunity to cast this ultimate spell. In general, players should always feel in charge of their units and that their units will follow orders to the letter. The random wander, while visually rather cool, goes against this principle and generally made the spell require too much micromanagement when compared to the payoff it provided.

BLUE DRAGON WHELP, BLUE DRAKE, & BLUE DRAGON

  • Added a passive icon indicating that the unit has an attack that slows targets.
  • Unit tooltip updated to mention that these units have a frost attack.
  • Developers’ notes: This is a quality of life change. We want to clarify that these units indeed have a frost attack.

Items

  • Potion of Greater Mana mana restored reduced from 300 to 250.
  • Potion of Mana mana restored reduced from 150 to 125. Gold cost reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Developers’ notes: We want to reign in the power of the Potion of Greater Mana and, at the same time, experiment a bit with the regular Potion of Mana. Currently seen as an emergency item, this change makes it slightly more gold-efficient and aligns its gold price with that of Potion of Healing, making them more of a direct comparison.
  • Red Drake Egg Removed from default level 5 charged item drop list.
  • Blue Drake Egg is a new level 5 charged Item that summons a Blue Drake for 180 seconds, with 1 Charge.
  • Talisman of the Wild removed from default level 5 charged item drop list.
  • Idol of the Wild is a new level 5 charged Item that summons a Furbolg Tracker for 180 seconds, with 1 Charge.
  • Developers’ note: Among the level 5 charged items, there are clearly two less desired items among them, the Talisman and the Red Drake Egg. In both cases, the summoned units provide only a bit of damage and some tanking ability while still providing the opponent experience for their destruction. We want to keep the coolness of having items that call forth creatures but change what was brought in. With the Blue Drake providing a frost breath attack and the Furbolg Tracker bringing Faerie Fire, these two units now align with the Rock Golem and Fel Stalker by providing utility in addition to damage and tanking.
  • Scroll of Restoration hit points restored reduced from 300 to 150.
  • Developers’ note: While the Talisman and Red Drake Egg may have been seen as the weakest of level 5 charged items, the Scroll of Restoration is undoubtedly the strongest. This is especially true for team games. Reducing the healing it provides down to be equal to a Scroll of Healing should help bring it down more to the level of other items in this tier.
  • Scroll of Animate Dead removed from default level 6 charged drop list.
  • Scepter of Mastery is a charged level 6 item that takes permanent control of an enemy unit, with a Range of 600 and 1 Charge. Cannot be used on Heroes or creeps above level 5.
  • Scroll of Resurrection removed from default level 6 charged drop list.
  • Scepter of Avarice is a new Charged level 6 item that instantly kill an enemy unit, with a Range of 600 and 1 Charge. Gain gold equal to 75% of its cost. Cannot be used on Heroes or creeps above level 5.
  • Developers’ notes: As with level 5 charged items, there were two that seemed to be weaker than the others for level 6 charged items. These scrolls only really worked when a battle was well underway with losses mounting. That means that their worth was hard to gauge while the summon items have far more flexibility. Keeping with the theme of charged items on this tier being ultimate abilities, we decided to bring in an analog for Transmute and Charm, which should be more directly comparable to bringing in a summoned unit by instantly denying one of your opponent’s units.
  • Inferno Stone drop level increased from Level 6 Charged to Level 7 Artifact.
  • Engraved Scale is a new Charged level 6 item, that summons a Blue Dragonspawn Overseer for 180 seconds, with 1 Charge.
  • Developers’ notes: Often cited as one of the most powerful items in the game and often the focal reason of level 6 charged items being too imbalanced for 1v1 is the Inferno Stone. We want to try moving it up a tier while replacing it with a new summon item to see if we can encourage higher usage of this category of items in map making while balancing out current team and free for all maps that utilize it. The Blue Dragonspawn Overseer acts a kind of defensive parallel to the Furbolg Ursa Warrior by providing a Devotion Aura and having the passive Evasion ability built in. Breath of Frost also gives it a good area of effect option similar to other summons in this tier.

Non-Ladder

Transportation Ship
  • No longer unloads instantly. Now has a 0.5 second delay, same as Zeppelins.
  • Level reduced from 2 to 1.
  • Hit points reduced from 1500 to 900.
  • Armor type changed from Heavy to Light.
  • Maximum charges at a shipyard reduced from 3 to 2.
  • Initial stock delay increased from 0 to 120.
  • Stock replenish interval decreased from 110 to 30, same as Zeppelins.
  • Repair time increased to 30 from 25, same as Zeppelins.
  • Developers’ note: While it is not used in any current ladder maps, we want to update this unit for nautically inclined map makers. In a number of community tournaments there have been some promising usage of Ships as a map feature, but they could use some tuning. The current stats for the transportation ship are geared towards usage in single player modes, which makes it a bit too overturned as an option for competitive multiplayer. The primary change here, however, is that units will unload one at a time rather than all at once, which gave the ship users too much advantage in pulling off aggressive maneuvers, especially for landing near an opponent’s base with siege damage units.

Mercenary Camp Updates

  Another area we want to address within this balance patch is opening up a bit more map design options for our map making community. Mercenary Camps provide a way to both adjust how matchups play out as well as provide extra map variety. However, only the Lordaeron Summer camp has seen widespread use in the competitive scene. We have looked at all of the Mercenary Camps and adjusted their unit offerings to bring them more in line with the Lordaeron Summer mercenary camp, while also offering differing options of units/abilities provided. Additionally, many units had their costs and availability time adjusted. We’re trying out having two availability times to unify the Mercenary Camps a bit, by reducing the amount of numbers players have to memorize: short (120 seconds), medium (220 seconds), and long (440 seconds). It’s likely that further adjustments to unit offerings or the unit costs/availability will be needed, so we are interested in player and map maker thoughts on these changes.

Mercenary Camp Composition

Lordaeron Summer

  • Unchanged

Cityscape / Dalaran

  • Unchanged

Underground / Dungeon

  • Old: Kobold Geomancer, Burning Archer, Wildkin
  • New: Kobold Geomancer, Burning Archer, Wildkin, Frost Revenant

Ashenvale

  • Old: Satyr Shadowdancer, Furbolg Shaman, Thunder Lizard
  • New: Satyr Shadowdancer, Dark Troll Berserker, Dark Troll Shadow Priest, Giant Wolf

Barrens

  • Old: Centaur Outrider, Harpy Rogue, Razormane Medicine Man, Harpy Windwitch
  • New: Centaur Outrider, Quillboar Hunter, Centaur Archer, Harpy Windwitch

Black Citadel / Outland

  • Old: Fel Beast, Draenei Disciple, Voidwalker, Draenei Darkslayer
  • New: Bloodfiend, Draenei Disciple, Voidwalker, Skeletal Orc Grunt

Felwood

  • Old: Murloc Flesheater, Sludge Flinger, Satyr Soulstealer
  • New: Murloc Flesheater, Sludge Monstrosity, Satyr Shadowdancer, Spitting Spider

Icecrown Glacier

  • Old: Barbed Arachnathid, Blue Dragonspawn Meddler, Magnataur Warrior, Polar Furbolg Shaman
  • New: Ice Troll Berserker, Blue Dragonspawn Warrior, Tuskarr Healer, Unbroken Darkweaver

Lordaeron Fall

  • Unchanged

Lordaeron Winter

  • Old: Gnoll Overseer, Ice Troll Berseker, Ice Troll Trapper, Mud Golem
  • New: Ogre Mauler, Ice Troll Berserker, Ice Troll Priest, Mud Golem

Northrend

  • Old: Nerubian Warrior, Ice Troll Berserker, Frost Revenant, Nerubian Webspinner
  • New: Nerubian Warrior, Ice Troll Berserker, Frost Revenant, Nerubian Seer

Sunken Ruins

  • Old: Mur’gul Snarecaster, Makrura Snapper, Makrura Deepseer, Giant Sea Turtle
  • New: Mur’gul Snarecaster, Mur’gul Blood-Gill, Stormreaver Hermit, Skeletal Orc Grunt

Village / Village Fall

  • Old: Kobold, Murcloc Huntsman, Assassin, Kobold Geomancer
  • New: Kobold Tunneler, Kobold Taskmaster, Assassin, Kobold Geomancer
Mercenary Camp Units
Assassin

  • Initial stock delay increased from 110 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Gold cost increased from 250 to 260

Bloodfiend

  • Initial stock delay increased from 0 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Max stock decreased from 3 to 1
  • Gold cost increased from 170 to 240

Blue Dragonspawn Warrior

  • Gold cost increased from 255 to 300
  • Lumber cost decreased from 30 to 0

Burning Archer

  • Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 220 seconds

Centaur Archer

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds

Centaur Outrunner

  • Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 220 seconds

Dark Troll Berserker

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 255 to 245

Dark Troll Shadow Priest

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 195 to 175

Draenei Disciple

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 135 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Stock replenishment delay increased from 90 seconds to 110
  • Gold cost increased from 155 to 195
  • Lumber cost decreased from 15 to 10

Giant Wolf

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Gold cost reduced from 255 to 215
  • Lumber cost reduced from 30 to 0

Gnoll Brute

  • Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 215 to 140
  • Lumber cost decreased from 20 to 0

Gnoll Warden

  • Initial stock delay increased from 180 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 215 to 180

Harpy Windwitch

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 640 seconds to 440 seconds

Ice Troll Priest

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 195 to 175

Kobold Geomancer

  • Gold cost decreased from 255 to 215

Kobold Tunneler

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 215 to 150
  • Lumber cost decreased from 20 to 0

Mur’gul Blood-Gill

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Gold cost increased from 105 to 195
  • Lumber cost increased from 0 to 10

Mur’gul Snarecaster

  • Gold cost increased from 215 to 265
  • Lumber cost increased from 20 to 30

Murloc Flesheater

  • Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds

Nerubian Warrior

  • Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 215 to 205

Quillboar Hunter

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds

Rogue

  • Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds

Satyr Shadowdancer

  • Initial stock delay increased from 330 seconds to 440 seconds
  • Gold cost decreased from 255 to 200
  • Lumber cost decreased from 30 to 20

Spitting Spider

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Gold cost increased from 215 to 235
  • Lumber cost increased from 20 to 30

Stormreaver Hermit

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
  • Gold cost increased from 180 to 190

Tuskarr Healer

  • Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
  • Lumber cost decreased from 20 to 10

Unbroken Darkweaver

  • Gold cost increased from 255 to 320
  • Lumber cost increased from 30 to 50

Voidwalker

  • Gold cost increased from 155 to 245
  • Lumber cost increased from 15 to 30

Balance Related Bugfixes

  • Makrura Deepseer creeps will no longer sometimes cease to react to enemy units when being attacked by a single unit or hero.
  • Developers’ note: As an interesting aside, this bug originates from the Summon Prawns ability. Like many abilities, Summon Prawns adjusts the behavior of the unit it is assigned to. Typically, this is for deciding when to cast an ability or who to target with it. While this bug only affects the Murkura Deepseer in multiplayer, this fix should also clear up some AI strangeness for units using it in custom games.
  • Items can no longer be destroyed by projectiles while in a hero’s inventory.
  • Developers’ note: While we do want to keep the counterplay option of killing items as a means of denial, we want to address this specific strange behavior. Currently if a projectile is in mid-flight it will always do damage to an item, regardless of whether or not it was picked up. This felt especially strange when a high-speed hero would pick up an item, move away, and then suddenly lose the item because of slow moving projectiles landing at the item’s previous location. Additionally, this behavior now matches how units picked up by a Zeppelin functions.

Maps
Map Pool Rotation

1v1

  • Removed: Dalaran
  • Added: Brightwater Oasis
  • Developers’ note: Brightwater Oasis contains a new interesting map feature. Each side of this map will have 1 Goblin Merchant and 1 Goblin Laboratory, but each will spawn in one of two locations. This adds an interesting wrinkle to adjusting one’s creeping and attack routes based on map conditions. These locations are linked and symmetric so there shouldn’t be balance concerns around one player having a shorter distance to a shop than the opposing player.

2v2

  • Removed: Phantom Grove LV
  • Added: Circle of Fallen Heroes

3v3

  • Removed: Rolling Hills
  • Added: Guardians

4v4

  • Removed: Banewood Bog LV
  • Added: Northern Felwood
Free For All
  • Removed: Mur’gul Oasis LV
  • Added: Greenville Woods

Map Updates
Terenas Stand LV

  • Critters added to the map

Twisted Meadows

  • Green Gnoll camps near player start locations now has an additional level 1 Gnoll and the Gnoll Brute drops a level 1 power-up item.
  • Developers’ note: We want to make taking the Gnoll camp feel a little more rewarding. It also hits a breakpoint where a single hero can reach level 3 by creeping the Gnoll camp and two yellow camps outside the ‘front’ of each starting location. Previously, two start locations could do this, but the other two would result in a hero just slightly short of level 3.

Echo Isles

  • Added extra trees and doodads behind the south west expansion to address instances of player units getting stuck in unpathable locations after using a Scroll of Town Portal.
  • Filled in various pathing holes around the outer edges of the map.
  • Developers’ note: While it was uncommon for players to get their units stuck behind the southwest expansion location, and stuck units could be freed through destroying trees, we want to solve the issue more directly.

Sanctuary LV

  • Critters added to the map
  • Removed 2 Apprentice Wizards from the north and south red camps. Reduced the item drop from the Ogre Magi from level 6 Charged to level 5 Charged.
  • Developers’ note: There was feedback that the Ogre Magi at the map’s north and south middle red camps were a bit too easy to pull away and kill in the early game. This would result in a powerful level 6 Charged item being dropped early on which could make rush strategies overly strong. To address this, we reduced the level of the item while making the camp slightly easier overall to reflect the lower level of item dropped.

Twilight Ruins LV

  • Removed a Skeletal Grunt and replaced it with two Burning Archers at each of the middle red creep camps.
  • Developers’ note: Previously these creep camps lacked any anti-air elements other than Death Coil. This gave players who rushed to air units, Undead especially, a bit too much of an advantage when creeping. This change should make these camps require more time and investment to take down.

System


User Interface
  • Team-colored healthbars are no longer “On” by default for new users.
Please note: These PTR Patch Notes are a work in progress and will be updated with further changes before the release of Patch 1.32.6.

 

Affiliates

Streams

1,028 Viewers
Back2Warcraft
Back2Warcraft
⚔️ Chaemiko - Dise - Lucifer - Sonik - SoYma 🏆 B2W Weekly - June Finals // NEW ALERTS !W3CFinals
Warcraft III
21 Viewers
InsaneMonsterWC3RR
InsaneMonsterWC3RR
Revelation - Warcraft 3 Re-Reforged LETS DEV!
Software and Game Development

Popular resources

Submitted by Kwaliti
198 downloads
Submitted by Villagerino
193 downloads
Submitted by Jiok
232 downloads
Submitted by johnwar
184 downloads
Submitted by HiHigh
219 downloads
Submitted by Greedy Procrastinator
250 downloads
Submitted by DREADMAN
215 downloads
Submitted by Gluma
195 downloads
Submitted by bakr, Manastorm
185 downloads
Submitted by Sarsaparilla
192 downloads
Submitted by Gluma
416 downloads
Submitted by Commedia, Siesta
242 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, Jiok, 龙-正
248 downloads
189 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, shining comet
234 downloads
Submitted by Ilya Alaric
236 downloads
Submitted by Jab1z
283 downloads
Submitted by Ilya Alaric
184 downloads
Submitted by Ilya Alaric
226 downloads
Submitted by NightWolf/Pierziz
236 downloads
Submitted by Gluma
401 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, Jiok
322 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, shining comet
232 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, shining comet
246 downloads
Submitted by RexusMax52
187 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, paladinjst
290 downloads
Submitted by Stefan.K
384 downloads
Submitted by doom_sheep
185 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, shining comet
249 downloads
Submitted by BaiyuGalan, Jiok
199 downloads
Submitted by johnwar
222 downloads
Submitted by Explobomb
417 downloads
1/6

Popular maps

Submitted by Tommi Gustafsson
766 downloads
Submitted by OutsiderXE
974 downloads
Submitted by OutsiderXE
1,085 downloads
Submitted by Aeroblyctos
1,702 downloads
Submitted by Karawasa
758 downloads
Submitted by OutsiderXE
1,016 downloads
Submitted by Zwiebelchen, Jumbo, SHBlade
1,253 downloads
Submitted by Turnro
1,603 downloads
Submitted by Turnro
1,191 downloads
Submitted by Turnro
1,557 downloads
Submitted by SpasMaster, Vunjo
2,313 downloads
Submitted by Daemonic_Sword, Shea Easterbrook
1,075 downloads
Submitted by tomoraider
2,382 downloads
Submitted by Turnro
2,762 downloads
Submitted by tomoraider
1,893 downloads
Submitted by Warseeker
1,799 downloads
Submitted by TheSpoon
1,775 downloads
Submitted by LazZ
2,086 downloads
Submitted by Shar Dundred
1,018 downloads
Submitted by Warseeker
920 downloads
Submitted by Wa666r
950 downloads
Submitted by Macielos, Nyctaeus
1,624 downloads
Submitted by
916 downloads
Submitted by Nethalythic
907 downloads
Submitted by frostwhisper
883 downloads
Submitted by Wa666r
1,370 downloads
Submitted by Nral
960 downloads
Submitted by 克尔苏加克, tulee
954 downloads
Submitted by Resyak, Blasterixx
1,203 downloads
Submitted by Med. MapGuy
1,444 downloads
1/6

Heroes online

Top