Champions of Warcraft - Changelog

v.1.2.0:

General Changes

• Map has been renamed to Champions of Warcraft as a request from another member of the Modding community.

• A new class, Shaman has been added to the Tavern.
• 2 additional Arenas have been added, with a new theme, Lordaeron Fall.
• Terrain changes to the base have been made.
  
• Treasure Chest mode has been added. This mode can be turned on and off before the match. When enabled, a Treasure Chest will spawn at a random time and a random place in the Arena. The player who deals the killing blow to it gets a Legendary item reward.
  
• 2v2 match dynamic has been changed, it now ends when both players of the same team are defeated.
  
• Minor quality of life changes.
  
• Item Store has been (temporarily) removed.
  
• Pressing [Spacebar] now pans the camera to your Hero.

General Balance Changes

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Starting Gold

• Players now start with 1200 Gold up from 1000.

The game currently offers 15 different Stats to choose from in the Shop, and usually players would find themselves in a situation where they simply cannot afford to buy multiple Items. Although this is a minor power-creep to the game, which is something that I as a designer am not a fan of, this change should help the players be more efficient in their building, and it will allow them to customize with different Items in the same build.[/box]


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Sudden Death

• Sudden Death mode has been added. This mode is permanent and cannot be disabled. It reduces the Healing Done of all players, and deals True damage per second to all Heroes. The Sudden Death starts 45 seconds after a match starts as Tier 1, upgrades to Tier 2 at 90 seconds, and fully upgrades to Tier 3 at 150 seconds.

This change has been long overdue and I'm happy to finally see it coming live. There are 2 parts that make this mode great. The first one is to prevent scenarios where 2 players with low DPS and high sustain would never be able to end the match. The second part is to prevent Healers and Tanks from winning every attrition match, without even building anything offensively. All builds should have some form of a "win condition", where you as a player rely on a specific mechanic/spell/trait that will help you kill the opponent. Prior to this change, Healers and Tanks did not need a win condition, as they could easily outsustain anyone and eventually win the game, making it very frustrating for the opposing team.[/box]


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Axe (Wrath) Item

• The base value and value per level of Axe (Wrath) item has been increased from 2% to 3%.

Pure auto attacker builds, who rely on physical damage from Auto attacks and nothing more, are very underwhelming compared to their counterpart, on-hit builds. The primary reason for that is the lack of mechanical support, as most talents and traits help the on-hit build instead. The base and incremental value of 2% was there back when there were multiple Wrath sources from traits, which made the build much stronger when paired with those specific traits. This was addressed some time ago, and even though this change on its own won't bring glory to the build, it will certainly bring it closer in balance to the on-hit builds. Heroes like Warden, Blademaster, Vampire, and Shaman may consider going for this playstyle again.[/box]


Traits


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Crypt Lord

• Maximum Health scaling reduced from 0.35% to 0.18%. Base value is unchanged.
• Now deals only 60% of the damage back to non-Hero units.

This Trait was way too high on the power level, able to decide mirror 1v1 matches in a short time. The base value is fine, but the potential Tank build players could come up with by stacking Health was overwhelming, to say the least. The second change, where it deals less damage to non-Hero units, was made to prevent it from completely destroying Ward build Blademaster, and summoner Paladin. This is arguably a band-aid solution, which will be monitored in the future.[/box]

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Lich

• Now properly adds a stack of Cold Heart when used by a Lich.

Just a minor change, arguably a bugfix, to make the game more consistent.[/box]

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Spellbreaker -> Crusader

- >

• Trait renamed to Crusader, which has the same effect.
• The cooldown of the effect has been increased from 20 seconds to 24 seconds.
• The Trait now provides following stats: +15% increased Healing Taken, +24 Maximum Mana.
• The Trait not longer grants +30% Spell Damage Reduction.

Lots of new traits are added in this version, including a different version of Spellbreaker, so don't worry about countering spellcasters. This effect is highly valuable for multiple classes, and against just about any build, so it should have proper stats to reflect that. However, now that it has really good stats against any match-up, the cooldown of the effect was slightly too low, and the Divine Shield effect triggered too frequently.[/box]

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Mountain Giant

• The Mastery scaling of this trait has been reduced to 60% against non-Hero auto attacks.

Similarly to the Crypt Lord Trait, this one was too powerful against multiple small units. This effect in particular, made it so that in certain situations, the user actually gains Health after all calculations are made from specific non-Hero units. The main effect of the Trait already functions differently for non-Hero attacks, so it does not need a change here.[/box]

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Kodo Rider

• On-hit Hero damage reduced from 12 to 8.
• Mastery scaling reduced from 0.8 to 0.5.

This Trait has a wide variety of usage; you can use it as a Support, Summoner, or On-hit. While the Summoner build with this trait is fine, other builds were carried too hard solely by Kodo Rider Trait. Now that there are even more Trait options, it's time to nerf some of the predominant ones.[/box]

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Fel Stalker

• Mana destroyed reduced from 1.8 to 1.5.
• Mastery scaling reduced from 0.20 to 0.18.

Fel Stalker has been slightly too difficult to deal with when used by a high attack speed class with a lot of Flurry in the build, especially Warden and the new Shaman.[/box]

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Chaos Grunt

• The passive Attack Damage stat provided by this Trait has been increased from 13 to 15.
• Damage taken has been reduced from 1.5% Maximum Health to 1% Maximum Health.
• The cooldown of the effect has been increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• The effect is now disabled until you attack an enemy Hero for the first time in the match.

Following the change to the Axe (Wrath) item, this Trait is staple in any pure auto attacking physical build. While it provides a lot of stats, the stats were not high enough to make it worthwhile, and the cost was really difficult to deal with. With all of these changes, the players should have a much easier time using this Trait, and they no longer have to rush at the opponent as soon as the match starts. They can now take their time, rethink their strategies, and then initiate.[/box]

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Blood Elf Lieutenant

• Health threshold of the effect has been increased from 20% to 30%.
• Mastery scaling has been increased accordingly.

At first I was very careful when designing these low-on-Health effects, as if you pair them they can become very resilient and nearly unmatched when the condition is met. This, however, has not been the case, and I'm more than happy to do some changes about it. This trait in particular was too difficult to activate. While the healing is decent when it's enabled, prior to this change the players were susceptible to burst damage, making it too difficult to use.[/box]

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Shade

• Stealth duration increased from 2.5s to 3s.
• Cooldown increased from 12s to 16s.
• Description properly updated.

To clarify, the duration was always set to 2.5 seconds, the description was wrong and it said 2 seconds. This Trait has a couple of purposes, mainly disengaging, and initiating combat. It has been too good at disengaging combat due to its short cooldown, while its short duration also made it difficult to engage. After testing with the increased duration, engaging felt a lot easier to manage, and in future, if necessary, I will further improve this Trait's engage potency and reduce its disengage potency.[/box]

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Peasant

• Cooldown reduced from 28s to 22s.

Peasant Trait has not been performing as well as it should, and its high cooldown certainly did not make the effect itself justified. It has a somewhat clunky mechanic, you need to auto attack an enemy Hero, which means you have to go to melee range as someone like Blademaster and Paladin, who both like to use this Trait, but going melee goes against those specific Summoner builds. On the other hand, the current mechanic can have interesting usage outside of Summoner builds, so for now there are no changes to its mechanic. Future versions will likely include balance changes to the Trait, as of right now the reduced cooldown might not be enough to make it a powerful pick.[/box]

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Warden

• Maximum Range increased from 500 to 600. Minimum Range unchanged.
• Now properly states that it only triggers on issued attacks and not spellcasts.

As one of the main mobility Traits, Warden was certainly underwhelming. While its cooldown is alright, the range was not very pleasing to use.[/box]

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New Traits

• The following Traits have been added to the game: Spell Breaker, Banshee, Death Knight, Battlemage, Far Seer, Sorceress, Warlock, Avatar, Tauren, Justicar, Infernal, Doomsayer, Ragnaros.

Some of these are build defining, for example Far Seer and Warlock for Spellcasters, Battlemage for Q builds, while others are just here for more situational options.[/box]

Classes


Lich



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Freezing Impale & Shatter

• Icons have been updated for Freezing Impale and Shatter.

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Freezing Impale

• Base damage reduced from 160 to 130.
• Maximum Mana scaling reduced from 40% to 32%.

Lich, along with a couple of other classes, have been doing too much damage lately. Some of these changes are a follow up to the last version, where I overall reduced the damage dealt of most classes. This spell has been dealing too much damage, and due to its clunky mechanic, it was single handedly deciding fights. Missing the skill shot was a huge downside, hitting it gave you too much advantage.[/box]

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Frost Nova

• Area of Effect reduced from 300 to 240.

While Frost Nova doesn't deal too much damage, it's the easiest tool to Chill the target, as well as gain Movement Speed to disengage the fight. Frost Nova has been too easy to hit, and players were completely careless, which made Lich too easy to play. Reducing its AoE will provide enemies more chance to come back, and potentially to even dodge the spell.[/box]

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Chilling Blast

• Maximum Mana scaling reduced from 20% to 15%.
• Reverted the changes from last version: No longer grants bonus Attack Speed.

Chilling Blast was dealing too much damage for a Q spell in a full spellcaster build. Reducing its Maximum Mana scaling will help resolve the issue. Last time I've gone too far with the buffs to the auto attacker build, and since I'm nerfing the power level of all classes in general, it's time to revert some of the changes.[/box]

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Conjure Ice Shard

• Attack Damage bonus reduced from 15 to 12.
• Reverted the changes from last version: No longer grants bonus Attack Speed, maximum Stacks reduced to 7.

Read above.[/box]

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Advanced Magics (Talent)

• Bonus multiplicative scaling reduced from 40%/60%/80%/100%/120% to 20%/30%/40%/50%/60%.

This talent has been by far the most powerful one in Spellcaster Lich's arsenal. Many Spellcaster Talents in other classes will get the same treatment.[/box]

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Refilling Cold (Talent)

• Mana restored increased from 9/12/15/18/21 to 10/15/20/25/30.
• Now restores 40% of the total value against non-Hero units.

Much like other effects of this kind, this talent was extremely good against Summoners and anyone who can spawn vulnerable units. However, it was very underwhelming when used against Heroes, especially when used by a class that tends to build a lot of Mana. This talent should be a lot more attractive to players who wish to have more Mana during fight, without resorting to building Mana Regeneration.[/box]

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Infused Strikes (Talent)

• Maximum Mana scaling reduced to 2%/3%/4%/5%/6%.
• Now has a base value of 6.

As a talent primarily meant to fit on-hit auto attacker build, having it only scale with Maximum Mana felt very un-intuitive. The on-hit build should not be building a lot of Maximum Mana in order to deal damage. Giving this talent some base value while reducing its scaling allows auto attacker Lich to make use of this talent without investing a lot in utility resources.[/box]



Warden



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Dark Veil

• Increased trigger interval from 0.75s to 1s.

Dark Veil was slightly too difficult to use for newer players, and even experienced players would occasionally mess the timing up. While generally I want classes to be difficult to play, these kinds of changes are welcome in times of need.[/box]

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Shadowstep

• Bonus damage gained after casting the spell reduced from 35% to 30%.
• Cooldown reduced from 15s to 12s.

Warden's potential burst damage was slightly too high, and getting trades with Shadowstep was too difficult to deal with for the opponent. At the same time though, the spell had quite high cooldown, so these trades would happen rarely, and Warden's catching power is not very good at the moment. Warden's mobility is still not set in stone, so further changes might come in future.[/box]

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Sunburst

• Mana cost reduced from 75 to 70.
• Cooldown reduced from 10s to 9s.
• Base damage reduced from 50 to 40.
• Maximum Mana scaling reduced from 35% to 30%.
• Missing Health scaling on the target reduced from 2% to 1%.
  
• Now additionally refunds 30 Mana if used while Warden's on less percentile Health than the target in addition to Healing.

While Sunburst has an interesting dueling mechanic, the current design is somewhat problematic. The damage dealt was too high when the target was really low on Health, but it was barely noticeable if the target was high on Health. This is the main reason to nerfing Missing Health scaling that the spell has. The Mana restoration is experimental, and as is the case with the rest of the Warden's kit, changes in future are likely to happen.[/box]

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Mana Burn

• Mana cost increased from 50 to 60.
• Cast Range increased from 500 to 650.

The low mana cost of Mana Burn made it a very "spammable" spell to any Warden player, which lead to much less decision making, especially when combined with her passive Empowered Moonblade. On the other hand, the cast range of the spell was too short for a character who is meant to counter Spellcasters.[/box]

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Lunar Strike

• Cooldown increased from 4s to 4.5s.

Empowered Moonblade consistency has been slightly too high lately, and as a class that does not support a Q build, along with her Day/Night mechanics, increasing Lunar Strike's cooldown is the ideal slight nerf to the consistency of the passive effect.[/box]

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Mana Destruction (Talent)

• Maximum Mana scaling reduced from 0.20%/0.40%/0.60%/0.80%/1% to 0.18%/0.36%/0.54%/0.72%/0.90%.

As mentioned previously in the Fel Stalker Trait part, Mana disruption has been too high lately, with the rise of more Attack Speed and Flurry sources in the game.[/box]



Paladin



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Lightbringer

• Cooldown increased from 10s to 11s.
• Bonus Movement Speed decreased from 100 to 70. Duration unchanged.

As a class with low mobility and crowd control, Lightbringer was slightly too good to ever justify Paladin's "weaknesses".[/box]

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Holy Light (Spell & Mastery)

• Mana Cost reduced from 60 to 50.
• Mastery Mana cost reduction reduced from 20 to 10.
• Mastery bonus Healing per percentage of target's Missing Health increased from 0.70% to 0.75%.

The Mana cost change overall does not affect when Mastered, as it still costs a total of 40 Mana. The *base* Mana cost has been reduced as the spell does not reward highly when cast without Mastery, therefore the Mana cost should not be high either.[/box]

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Divine Shield

• Mana Cost reduced from 80 to 50.

Divine Shield is meant to save the Paladin at no high cost, whenever he sees danger. That has not been the case for a while, and its 80 Mana cost was way too high to ever actually make a come back whenever the Paladin was facing death. This change should not only allow you to cast Divine Shield sooner, but also allow you to quickly heal yourself back up with Holy Light afterwards.[/box]

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Cleansing Mastery (Talent)

• Bonus damage dealt reduced from 100% to 50%.

Cleansing Mastery has been way too effective at making Paladin a strong damage dealer. At the same time, it also discouraged him to go for the alternative offensive build, Summoner build. With the addition of Battlemage Trait, this talent deserves a nerf.[/box]

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Divine Fury (Talent)

• Bonus damage to Divine Storm reduced from 20%/40%/60%/80%/100% to 20%/30%/40%/50%/60%.
• Divine Storm spell now has updated description when accompanied by this Talent.

Much like other Spellcaster Talents, Divine Fury was doing too much at a low cost, and with the addition of new tools via Traits, the Paladin should not worry about his potential damage output as a Spellcaster.[/box]

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Vital Force (Talent)

• Damage dealt increased by 0.15% of Paladin's Maximum Health across all levels.

This Talent is currently oddly placed, and does not fit many builds. Stacking Health on Paladin is primarily a Spellcaster thing, not an on-hit think like this Talent suggests. However, with the addition of Tauren and Death Knight Traits, stacking Health in an on-hit build for Paladin might be a thing now, and is currently a subject of testing.[/box]



Blademaster



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Storm Meditate

• Mana cost increased from 40 to 50.
• Cooldown increased from 6s to 7s.
• Missing Health scaling decreased from 1.1% to 1%.
• The first tick of Storm Meditate now restores three (3) times as much Health.
• Updated description.

Blademaster has been healing himself out of combat a bit too much recently, so minor changes across the whole spell have been made. On the other hand, Storm Meditate's power was not high enough if the Blademaster was to use it simply to block some damage and get quick healing. The damage reduction on its own is fine, and can be very powerful when used properly. The healing, however, does not go far if the Blademaster does not channel the spell for long. Storm Meditate now has three times as high healing on the first tick, allowing the Blademaster to use it quickly during combat, as a trading tool.[/box]

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Thundering Strike

• Base damage increased from 35 to 50.
• Buff duration increased from 3s to 4s.

Although the Blademaster has somewhat decent DPS, his Q build was not performing well when the enemy built just a tiny bit of general damage reduction, or specifically Spell damage reduction. The buff duration is a bonus that will be applied to most Q based spells that were used on classes who relied on it too much.[/box]

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Serpent Wards

• Now have 75% Spell damage reduction.

Just a small thing to make them more resistant to certain hard-counters.[/box]

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Samurai's Fury

• Thundering Strike bonus damage reduced from 40% to 35%.

The additive increment of Samurai's Fury with Lightning Mastery was not intuitive, and it was difficult to keep track of, and "judge" when building and playing. A slight nerf is also favorable on both ends to make them less oppressive now that Thundering Strike's base damage has been significantly increased.[/box]

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Lightning Mastery (Talent)

• Thundering Strike bonus damage reduced from 40% to 35%.
• Now stacks multiplicatively with Samurai's Fury, instead of additively.

Read above.[/box]

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Blink Mastery (Talent)

• Now additionally increases the damage dealt of the next auto attack after casting Blink from by 75 (Total bonus damage is 150).

Blink Mastery, and a Blademaster build focused around bursting targets down and disengaging afterwards, have not been very welcoming to their users, and were overshadowed by Lightning Mastery and classic Q based builds. This is also slightly an issue due to unfavorable Traits to choose from for the said build, and in future there will be more options for burst builds found in Traits.[/box]



Druid



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Forest's Embrace (Spell & its respective Talent)

• Mana cost increased from 60 to 70.
• Base damage reduced from 10 to 7.
• Its talent, Planted Seeds, had its bonus damage reduced from 20%/40%/60%/80%/100% to 10%/15%/20%/25%/30%.

As is the case with other high damaging spells, in this version Forest's Embrace gets it highly anticipated nerf.[/box]

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Imbue Weapons (Spell & its respective Talent)

• Attack Damage bonus reduced from 10 to 6.
• Attack Speed bonus reduced from 24% to 15%.
• Renewed Weapons, its respective talent, had its bonus Attack Damage increased to +1 base +1 per Level up from +1 per Level.
• Renewed Weapons' Attack Speed bonus reduced from 6% per Level to 4% per Level.
• Renewed Weapons' tooltip has been updated.

Druid's offensive supporting power has been way too high, considering his Healing power is not low either. His auto attacking build has also been performing too well, making it significantly easier to play one of the most difficult classes in the game. Druids should win their matches wiht proper Wisp position, and clever usage of spells, and not by "right-clicking" enemies.[/box]

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Thorns Armor (Talent)

• Base value reduced from 2/3/4/5/6 to 2/2.5/3/3.5/4.
• Health scaling halved across all levels.
• Now deals 60% of the total damage to non-Hero units.

Alongside the heavy Crypt Lord Trait nerf, this talent was also causing just as much trouble.[/box]

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Empowerment Mastery (Talent)

• Bonus on-hit damage reduced from 12 to 9.

The whole Support and auto attacker build requires a sizeable nerf to both its spells and its Mastery.[/box]

Blood Mage



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Heart Strike

• Base damage increased from 20 to 35.
• Buff duration increased from 3s to 4s.

Blood Mage is not in a good situation at the moment. He heals for way too much Health, but cannot deal nearly enough damage compared to other classes. This is just a small change to keep him somewhat competitive in his Q based build, as it wasn't performing as well as it should. Future versions will include heavy reworks to the Blood Mage's Talents, and a large balance change across all of his spells.[/box]

Bugfixes

• Druid Trait now has a proper list of spells that can activate it.
• Peasant Trait's description is now properly updated.
• The game now properly checks your build requirements before entering each match. This, however, does not include Treasure Chest mode, which will by default add Frostmourne if left unchecked.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could buy Traits during the match.
  
• Fixed a bug where certain Traits would replace your ability icons.
• Fixed a bug where multiple Vampires in the same match would reset each other's Consume stacks.
  
• Fixed a bug where Dark Ranger Trait did not work for Warden's spells.
  
• Fixed a bug where Warden's Final Hour requirement would only be fulfilled for Player 1 (Red).
  
• Fixed a bug where Warden's Mana Destruction was scaling with the level of the previous Talent.