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The Dawn of Battle AoS v2.42

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*Please note that the purpose of this map is for team play. If you are playing it by yourself, it will never live up to its potential, as it is designed and balanced around having multiple heroes controlled by players, composing each team. If you don't want to play a competitive map against other players, this is not the map for you!


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If you enjoy AoS style maps with an emphasis on armies and support, then you might enjoy The Dawn of Battle AoS. The Dawn of Battle focuses not only on hero versus hero combat, but also has a sort of Hero Defense feel about it, because of the many options available to players, allowing them to enhance and control their own armies.

In a lot of AoS maps, the spawns exist as fodder for heroes to level up on, gain gold from, and usually, these spawned units never really pose much of a threat. In The Dawn of Battle however, Heroes function as part of an army rather than an army of one, and players will find that the leadership and support of their troops is just as crucial to victory as a well-played hero or a powerful item build.

By allowing players several choices on how they wish to play the game, the 55 available heroes and the various upgrades, summons and hired units can stretch a long way toward allowing players to create diverse strategies. The heroes are well balanced and there are plenty of different options to accommodate a wide range of play styles. If you enjoy AoS or Hero Defense maps, but wish to play one that is about more than just the strength of your hero, I would urge you to try The Dawn of Battle AoS, and to tell me what you think of it! :)

This map was originally created during the summer and fall of 2009, and now two years later, it is receiving what I am considering its final series of major overhauls, so that I may feel confident in it as a finished product that is well worth playing, and of course for those who might be interested in such an update.

Thanks for reading (and hopefully for playing!).

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# -Maximum hero level of 25.
# -55 Fully Customized heroes, each possessing 4 skills, 1 static ability and 1 ultimate ability.
# -Large number of custom abilities and extensive use of special effects make combat "pop".
# -Fully functional and scaling abilities, ensuring that your abilities are always useful.
# -A wide variety of custom items and recipes available for purchase from shops found within your base.
# -In addition to items, Unit and Structure upgrades can also be purchased from your War Academy located at your spawn location, for the cost of gold.
# -You may recruit your own armies from Training Grounds found throughout the map, and lead them into battle against your enemies!
# -All hero skills bound to the Q-W-E-R-T-Y keys, making them consistent across all heroes and easy to learn.
# - Descriptive Hero spells and abilities, offering important descriptive information with enough RPG flair to give the heroes character.
# -Extensive and easy to read hero descriptions, complete with a rating system to help you more easily decide what class to choose, even if you've never played.
# -Functioning Multiboard keeps track of combat information.
# -Four Obelisks exist within the map, waiting to be captured by players. At 5 minutes into the game, these Obelisks will become capturable, and each one provides a different bonus to the allies of the capturing player - Some will even inflict a handicap upon your enemies!
# -"Repick" system triggered by typing -repick into the text field.

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-August 15, 2011-


- The Fury's Warmonger ability will no longer incorrectly apply to non-organic units.
- The War Construct's Arcane Emissions ability will no longer incorrectly cost mana when used against an enemy without an active Crystal Charge.
- The Lycanthrope's Hunger ability will now properly only heal him when striking organic units, and will no longer effect Structures or Mechanical units.
- Slightly lowered the damage range and maximum damage of Spirit Owls summoned by the Wild Guardian's Eye in the Sky ability.
- Fixed minor errors in various tooltips.
- Reduced the base damage and attack speeds of the higher-level Daemonologist summons created by the Open Wide The Gates ability.
- Added TimPlaysTennis to the Special Thanks in the Codex of Battle in-game, and on the patch notes here on The Hive.
- The Fighter Pilot's Ground Zero ability has had its damage slightly increased.
- The Fighter Pilot's Bombardment ability has received a slight damage increase and mana cost reduction.
- The Jotunn's Frozen Wrath ability will now properly check for level requirements to purchase additional ranks.
- The Golem hired unit is now immune to the secondary fire from guard towers.
- Slightly increased the ability power of the Fleshbeasts summoned by the Death Magus' Sins of the Flesh ultimate, and updated its tooltip to note that Fleshbeasts gain the benefit of summoned creature upgrades but count as Undead, rather than summoned.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing the Grand Crusader's Cleansing Light ability from firing correctly.



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-August 8, 2011-


- Fixed the map preview image - whoops!
- The Golem's armor type has been changed to Fortified from Large
- Adjusted the gold cost for several high-level hired units to be more in-line with their power
- Reduced the chance of the Ogre Brute's Smash! ability, and reduced the unit's damage and attack speed slightly
- Reduced the Chimaera's base attack speed
- Increased the cooldown of the Troll Shaman's Spirit Healing spell to 35 seconds
- Increase Sea Giant's Rising Tide bonus damage chance versus units, but reduced its base attack speed
- Corrected the Black Mage's animation for Death Nova to work properly
- Reduced the cooldown of the Sea Giant's Giant Strength ability
- Optimized and fixed several tooltips
- The Geomancer's new ultimate didn't have a mana cost... How embarrassing.


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DoB AoS v2.4: Major Version Changes: - August 7, 2011 -
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- Removed Global XP, reduced to a range of 1500.
- Increased base health for buildings by 25%. Much of the reason for this change is due to the changes made to many hero abilities with this update.
- Fixed several buff tooltips which were improperly fragmented by commas and other punctuation.
- Heroes are now unique, and duplicates can no longer be selected neither specifically nor via random selection by other players.
- Fixed a bug that was causing the Iron Legion's Cathedral to be irreparable.
- All Hero abilities which qualify have now been flagged in their *LEARN* tooltips to denote their effective range. Range tags are, from shortest to longest: Melee, Short, Medium, Long and Extreme.
- All activated Unit abilities for hired units have had their tooltips enhanced to provide cast time, cooldown and hotkey information.



- Face of a Thousand Deaths was applying a poison that was intended to slow attack speed by a much lower amount, and it has been adjusted accordingly.
- Face of a Thousand Deaths was applying poison to hero targets for a duration much shorter than intended, and will now function as intended.




- The following heroes have had a large number of changes made that will greatly impact their level of complexity, strategy, style, flavor and enjoyability:
Vampire Lord, Ebon Sphinx, Heretic, Barbarian Chieftain, Pandaren Mercenary, Ogre Magus, Dragonlord, Battle-Mage, Jotunn, Soul Harvester, Storm Witch, Asgardian, Dragon Clan Assassin, Wendigo, Headhunter, Fey Drake, War Construct, Rogue, Geomancer, God of Fire, Antimancer, Tuskarr Spear Hunter, Arachnid Broodmother, Battle Tank, Druidess, Ravager, Fighter Pilot.
- Many changes have been made to hero selection tooltips, to better reflect their strengths and weaknesses after the changes, as well as to correct any misinformation in any of the old tooltips.
- Plenty of abilities have received improved details in terms of spell graphics/effects.
- Soul Harvester's 'The Reaper's Toll' ability changed to active and now causes his minions to deal increased damage to the target in addition to silencing them.
-Soul Harvester's Impale changed from a passive chance-on-hit damage and stun to a toggled ability which causes extra damage at the cost of his own health.
- The Ebon Sphinx's Weight of Impurity now grants a chance on attack to purify targets, dealing damage based on his strength and intelligence to the target and repeatedly damaging nearby units.
- The Ebon Sphinx's Effigy static has been reduced in defense strength, but a magical damage return and mana regain component has been added to the ability.
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Rampage ability will no longer trigger from neutral-passive units (i.e. critters).
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Rampage ability will now scale with his strength, causing it to be less effective at earlier levels but ensuring that it remains useful even in the late-game.
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Savagery ability has been changed to grant him a chance to throw an axe at a random enemy in front of him, dealing damage and causing them to bleed.
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Mighty Blow has been replaced with Bestial Strength, a damaging attack which causes increased damage to wounded targets and worsens the bleed effect of his Savagery ability.
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Leader of the Pack ability has had its cooldown increased at all ranks, and the wolves it summons will now deal less base damage, but cause increased damage to targets who are under your bleed effects.
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Thunderous Roar ability now also silences enemies within its radius, but its damage bonus has been slightly reduced at all ranks.
- The Barbarian Chieftain's Bloodrage ultimate will no longer increase movement speed, but instead causes his attacks to strike additional nearby enemies.
- The Warlord's Bloodthirst ability has had its health restoration increased at all ranks.
- The Warlord's Dance of Death ability will now deal less damage at higher ranks, and has had its tooltip corrected.
- The Battle-Mage's Firestorm ability has had its number of shards, damage, damage-over-time and mana costs reduced at all ranks, and it will no longer require the Battle-Mage to sustain a channel.
- The Battle-Mage's Enfeeble ability has had its mana costs reduced at all ranks (especially the first), has had its cooldown slightly increased and will no longer effect non-hero units for a doubled duration, but will now also cause its victims to have a chance on attack to restore health to their target.
- The Battle-Mage's War Frenzy ability will now contribute a flat damage bonus to ranged and melee attackers, instead of a percentage-based one.
- The Battle-Mage's Meteor Strike static now causes damage based on his Strength+Int, and the damage-over-time component has been removed.
- The Battle-Mage's Skybreaker ability has had its damage and mana costs reduced at all ranks, but will now electrify enemy casters who are above 50% of their maximum mana, causing them to lose mana whenever they attack or receive damage.
- The Battle-Mage's Molten Fury ultimate will no longer deal flat damage, but will instead instantly kill enemies within range who are under a percentage of their maximum health, and its area has been slightly increased at all ranks.
- The Jotunn's Monolith static has been replaced with Blood of Ymir, a passive ability which grants the Jotunn's abilities special Frostbite and Crush properties which increase in power with each ability level.
- The Jotunn's Rage of the Winter has been changed completely, and is now a channeled root and damage-over-time to a single-target, dealing bonus damage to Crushed targets and applying Frostbite to them.
- The Jotunn's Avalanche ability has been changed to an active area of effect damage ability, causing increased damage to Crushed units and applies the Crushed effect to enemy units.
- The Jotunn's Rage of the Winter ability has been changed to a single target, channeled incapacitate and damage-over-time ability which causes increased damage to Crushed units and applies Frostbite to the target.
- The Jotunn's Frozen Wrath ability has been changed to an area of effect damage and stun, causing additional damage to Frostbitten targets and applying Frostbite to enemies.
- The Jotunn's Titan's Maul ultimate will now have a time limit instead of being limited by a number of attacks, and its Cooldown has been adjusted to be shorter at earlier levels and longer at later ones. It now also grants the added effect of increasing damage dealt to Crushed or Frostbitten units while active.
- Fixed the tooltip on the Scarab Lord's "Bore" ability, it should now indicate that the ability has auto-casting.
- Fixed the learning tooltip for the Warrior-Monk's "Breaking the Mountain" ability, it should no longer incorrectly display the description of the Raven Cult Assassin's "Ravenblood Elixir" ability.
- The Warrior-Monk's Resolve ability will now restore additional mana to the target instantly.
- The Warrior-Monk's Pacifism ultimate has had its cooldown increased at all ranks.
- The Cleric's Divinity has received slight reductions to the amount of damage absorbed and its duration, but enemies will now also suffer spell damage when attacking a target who is protected by the spell, causing doubled damage to Undead units. Also corrected the cooldown and duration tooltips for this ability to accurately reflect the proper times.
- The Warp Spawn's Ancient Evil ultimate has had its tooltip fixed to better reflect the full effect of the ability.
- The Storm Witch's Tempest Touch has been changed to a temporary disable which damages the target, and a dizziness component that causes them to miss for a short time.
- The Storm Witch's Typhoon ability has been replaced with Trade Wind, allowing the Storm Witch to trade places with the target enemy or allied unit, creating a trade wind at both locations which slows enemy move speed and increases allied move speed.
- The Storm Witch's Whirlwind has been changed to a non-ultimate ability, has replaced Stormshroud and will no longer be controllable. The damage, slowing component and incapacitation effects have been greatly reduced, but the ability will now unleash multiple smaller whirlwinds which move much more quickly.
- The Storm Witch's Skyfury ability is now a static ability, and will cause spellcasts to unleash a gust of wind on the next cast, dealing damage and knocking enemies away from her.
- The Storm Witch's Eye of the Storm ability has been changed to a normal activated ability, and will now provide an aura which will periodically damage and silence nearby enemies.
- The Storm Witch's ultimate has been replaced with Storm Blast, which will cause single-target damage and additional lightning area damage if she is charged with the Skyfury effect.
- The Asgardian's Tyr's Strength ability has had its movement speed bonus removed, and will now instead grant bonus attack speed to units who are low on health.
- The Asgardian's Gugnir's Oath ability will no longer deal bonus damage to heroes nor count as an orb ability, but will instead cause the Asgardian to deal bonus damage based on his Strength to enemies with a higher percentage of health.
- The Asgardian's Hammer of Thor ability has had its base damage and stun duration reduced at all ranks, but will now deal an additional lightning strike to nearby enemies if the target of the spell has a lower percentage of health.
- The Asgardian's Might of the Aesir ability has been changed to a single target attack which deals greater damage the higher your percentage of health.
- The Asgardian's Berserker Rage ability has been changed to grant a percentage damage modifier and attacks restore mana to him while active, but its duration has been significantly reduced, its magic immunity component has been removed, and it will now reduce his armor for the duration.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's base attack speed has been slightly reduced.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's Gift of the Fireborn static has been changed to an active ability which when used, allows him to change between the Fire and Scale forms of the Red Dragon, changing the properties of his attacks and abilities.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's Blood of Draconic Fire ability has had its mana costs and damage greatly reduced at all ranks, but it will now provide additional benefits depending upon the Dragon Clan Assassin's current form.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's Scales of the Dragon ability has been replaced with Burning Blade, a melee attack that causes damage based on his Agility and a second bonus attack based on the Dragon Clan Assassin's current form.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's Claw of the Dragon ability has been changed to Fury of the Dragon, and it now grants a chance when using Burning Blade or Dragonflame to increase the power of his next attack, depending on the Dragon Clan Assassin's current form.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's Dragonflame ability has had a large reduction to its base damage and a slight reduction to its cooldown time at all ranks, but it will now cause additional damage or blind enemies, depending on the Dragon Clan Assassin's current form.
- The Dragon Clan Assassin's Mark of the Dragon Clan ultimate has had its damage, movement speed and attack speed reduction effects completely removed, but the ability will now cause enemies to be damaged when near their allies or when far from the Assassin, depending on the Dragon Clan Assassin's current form.
- The Scarab Lord's Chitinous Flesh ability will now have a higher chance to wound melee attackers, increasing with each rank.
- The Scarab Lord's Bore ability will now deal Hero damage instead of Spell damage, and its damage has been slightly increased.
- The Wendigo's Aftershock static has been replaced with Gargantuan Strength, which provides a slightly lower chance to deal significantly less bonus damage at early levels, but the damage will now scale with hero level to ensure that it remains useful.

- The fledgling Wendigos summoned by the Wendigo's Warcry ability have had the damage resistance of their Ironpelt ability substantially weakened at all ranks, but have also gained the Wild Swings ability, allowing them to strike additional enemies for partial damage.

- The Wendigo's Intimidation ability has been changed from a passive aura effect to an activated ability, and it will now remove a target unit's ability to attack or cast spells, and causing any of its allies who come near it to become panicked as well, spreading the effects to them.
- The Wendigo's Ironpelt ability has been replaced with Survival of the Fittest, providing vastly lowered damage reduction but also causing his health regeneration to increase for a short time after taking damage, providing more regeneration the lower his current percentage of health.
- The Wendigo's Overpower abililty is no longer ranged, and has had its base damage value reduced by a moderate amount at all ranks, but it will now deal bonus damage based on his Strength to targets who have a greater number of positive buffs than him.
- The Wendigo's Abominable abiilty has had its duration significantly reduced, its bonus damage component removed and its mana cost increased slightly across all ranks, but will now grant immunity to all damage (not just magical) for the duration, and will be able to scale obstacles, slowing and causing damage over time to nearby enemies as he goes.
- The Headhunter's Amok static has had its cooldown significantly increased.
- The Headhunter's Savage Wound ability has had its damage over time moderately reduced at all ranks, but will now cause his attacks to deal carry-through damage to units in a line beyond the first.
- The Headhunter's Ensnare ability will now cause damage, and its damage and effect will be increased when used against a wounded target.
- The Headhunter's Troll Regeneration ability has been changed to Troll's Blood, and its percentage-based health regeneration increase has been replaced with a burst of regeneration every 10 seconds, which has a chance to heal for double the normal amount.
- The Headhunter's Flurry ultimate will no longer provide attack speed and will now only effect the Headhunter himself, granting his attacks a chance to throw a second spear at the target for damage based on his agility, and a third spear for increased damage if he is under the effects of Wild Rage.
- The Death Magus' Cold Embrace ability has been replaced with Death's Embrace, allowing him to fill corpses with death energy and destroy them to deal damage to enemies in the area.
- The Death Magus' Perdition summon will now have reduced health and damage at lower levels.
- The Death Magus' Eternal Servitude spell has had the number of returned units reduced slightly at all ranks.
- The Fey Drake has undergone gender reassignment surgery, and is now a "she", I decided.
- The Fey Drake's Faerie Dust ability will now also teleport her to a random nearby location after its initial effect.
- The Fey Drake's Scintillation has been changed to a passive ability andwill no longer grant a flat magical/spell damage resistance, but will now absorb a portion of incoming damage for mana cost, and will also cause conical damage to enemies whenever the Fey Drake attacks, while active.

- The Fey Drake's Augury ability has had its radius vastly reduced and its duration reduced moderately across all ranks, but it will now also cause damage based on her Intelligence to enemy summoned and illusionary units.
- The Fey Drake's Panoply Static has been changed and will no longer deal damage to nearby enemies, but will instead retaliate against enemies who cast hostile spells at her, dealing spell damage which scales with her level.
- The Fey Drake's Spellbind ultimate has been changed and will no longer grant a chance to take control of enemy units, but will allow the Fey Drake to take control of an enemy hero for a short time, when used.
- The Scourge's Necrosis ability will no longer affect mechanical units or reduce enemy attack speed, but will now double the chance to unleash his Wave of Horror ability against a target if it is afflicted by Necrosis.
- The Scourge's Altars of Bane will no longer be selectable.
- The Lernaean Hydra's Strike of the Hydra ability has had its radius and damage slightly reduced at all ranks.
- The Lernaean Hydra's Chthonic Scales ability will now cause enemies to suffer minor poison damage when struck in melee combat.
- The War Construct's Salvage static has been replaced with Crystal Charge, which will allow some of his other abilities to create surges of surplus energy which he can use either to increase his durability or to deal additional damage.
- The War Construct's Arcane Emission ability is no longer passive, and will now expend the Crystal Charge effect, causing damage to a target enemy at range.
- The War Construct's Pummel ability has had its damage and mana costs moderately reduced, its cooldown slightly increased, and its stun component will now scale with rank in a more streamlined manner.
- The War Construct's Overload ability has had its duration reduced, its cooldown increased slightly and its attack speed reduction component removed, but it will now destroy enemy mana and generally deals much heavier damage over a shorter period of time.
- The War Construct's Ironskin ability has had its damage reduction component lowered slightly at all ranks, but it now grants a chance when struck to generate the crystal charge resource.
- The War Construct's ultimate now specifies that its stun component is halved against hero targets.
- The Rogue's Silhouette static has been replaced with Debilitate, which will allow the Rogue to incapacitate a target for a short time, causing damage to wake the target early and deal bonus damage.
- The Rogue's Shadow Warrior ability has been replaced with Dark Edge, which will cause Hero damage to a single target, but ignoring all of their armor if used from behind.
- The Rogue's Envenom ability has been replaced with Fade, allowing the Rogue to gain full evasion against physical attacks for a short time.
- The Rogue's Blind ability has been replaced with Veil of Shadow, causing the Rogue's enemies to miss and dealing poison damage over time to organic units.
- The Rogue's Ferocity ability has been replaced with Stalk, increasing his movement speed and granting him stealth for a short duration, and causing his first attack from stealth to deal additional damage.
- The Rogue's Deathblow ability has been replaced with Shadow Assault, allowing the Rogue to step through the shadows to the target enemy's location and dealing damage increased by his movement speed and Agility.
- The Rogue's base armor has been reduced slightly.
- The Rogue has been shrunk to a more ... covert size.
- The Geomancer's Earthfury ability no longer counts as an orb ability, and now grants a chance when attacking against all targets to launch a fireball, dealing additional siege damage based on his Intelligence.
- The Geomancer's Stoneskin static has been changed from a passive aura (which was imbalanced in the first place - +5 armor aura at level 1 was definitely a mistake! whoops!) to an activated ability that protects allied heroes from damage for a short time.
- The Geomancer's Crush ability has had its base damage and travel distance decreased at all ranks, its mana cost will now correctly scale with rank, and it will now stun and cause additional damage to enemies who are near the Geomancer.
- The Geomancer's Earthbind ability has been changed to an area of effect damage over time and slow.
- The Geomancer's Tremor ability has been changed to send out seismic waves which travel in random directions, damaging and slowing enemy ground units and causing equal damage to structures.
- The Geomancer's Call of the Earth ability has had several adjustments to reduce the effectiveness of the summons' abilities at all ranks, including reduced Slow duration versus heroes, reduced slow effectiveness, lower health for their "living stone" (rebirth) alternate forms, and corrected the tooltip on their Bash ability to note that its stun effects heroes for a reduced duration.
- The Blade Coven Assassin's Bladewind ability will now show the proper damage values in the tooltip for all ranks.
- The Fate's Enigma static has had its duration reduced by half.
- The Fate's Shared Fate ability has been changed to cause the target to suffer damage whenever nearby allies are attacked in combat.
- The Fate's Fate's Warning ability is no longer autocast, and its cooldown and mana costs have been increased, but it will now also curse the enemy, causing them to lose a portion of their remaining health whenever they cast an ability.
- The Fate's Destiny Revealed ability has had its summoned unit damage and mana loss components significantly reduced at all ranks, its tooltip has been corrected to note that it also dispels buffs from enemies, and it now also grants a chance to take control of enemy summoned creatures within the target area.
- The Fate's Vengeful Fate ability is no longer passive, and will now cause small damage to the target, plus additional damage for each point of mana they are missing below their maximum.
- The Fate's Foretelling ultimate has been changed and will now freeze all enemies in time briefly, rendering them immune but unable to act for the duration.
- The Fate has stopped going to the beach this summer season, and as a result she now appears much paler than before.
- The God of Fire's Scorched Earth static has had its stun length reduced and its cooldown drastically increased, but it will now also deal scaling damage to enemies in the target area.
- The God of Fire's Taste of Flame ability has had its damage and stun components removed, but its cooldown has been drastically reduced and it will now consume the God of Fire's lingering fire effects on the target, causing damage for each effect.
- The God of Fire's Conflagrate ability has had the damage and area of effect of its explosion component reduced in effectiveness at all ranks, and its tooltip has been updated to note that enemies killed by its effect will have their corpses incinerated and removed from the battlefield.
- The God of Fire's Hellpyre ability has had its damage and area of effect reduced at higher ranks, and it will now incinerate the corpses of enemy units within the target area, removing them from the battlefield.
- The God of Fire's Flames of Wrath ability has had its initial damage, periodic damage and area of effect reduced at all ranks.
- The God of Fire's Death By Fire ultimate will now deal damage over time based on his Intelligence, and the explosion component of this ability will now occur at the end of the effect rather than at its beginning.
- The Antimancer's Waygate static has been replaced with Transference, causing the Antimancer to deal bonus damage based on his maximum mana, and to steal a small amount of mana when attacking targets with mana.
- The Antimancer's Dissipation ability has been changed to no longer reduce his movement speed or reflect damage from spells or magical damage, but will now reduce magical and spell damage by a flat amount while active, will periodically dispel negative effects on the Antimancer and will drain his mana while active.
- The Antimancer's Master of the Arcane ability has been replaced with Attunement, granting his attacks a chance to cast a random negative spell upon his victims.
- The Antimancer's Soul Drinker ability has been replaced with Dislocation, allowing him to teleport the target enemy to his location and dealing damage based on the distance traveled.
- The Antimancer's Combustion ability has been replaced with Arcane Instability, afflicting the enemy with a mana bomb that detonates after a period of time, igniting a portion of the target's remaining mana and dealing damage to nearby enemies based on the mana destroyed.
- The Antimancer's Tempest of Destruction ability has been replaced with Spellstorm, causing enemies near the Antimancer to become silenced and healing the Antimancer for a percentage of his maximum health whenever they cast spells within his presence.
- The Tuskarr Spearhunter's Spearhunter's Trappings static has been changed to Pack Hunting, and will now heal his pet for an amount based on his Strength and Agility.
- The Tuskarr Spearhunter's Arctic Blast ability has been replaced with Savage Command, which increases his pet's movement speed and attack damage against the target on its next attack.
- The Tuskarr Spearhunter's Glacial Spear ability will now deal slightly less cold damage at all ranks, and its tooltip has been updated to note that its slow effect will last half as long against heroes.
- The Tuskarr Spearhunter's Boreal Convoy ability has had several adjustments to the properties of the summon and its abilities at all ranks, including a removal of summoned duration, reduced critical damage but increased critical chance, increased base health, upgraded armor type from Large to Hero, a maximum of 1 summon at a time, and the Polar Bear companion will no longer count as a summoned creature, causing it to lose benefits from upgrades which effect summons but also rendering it immune to abilities which affect summoned creatures.
- The Tuskarr Spearhunter's Piercing Cold ability has been replaced with Trapping, allowing him to place magical frost traps which damage and stun enemies when remotely activated by the Tuskarr.
- The Tuskarr Spearhunter's Might of the Tuskarr ultimate has been replaced with Reel, causing him to pull an enemy along with him wherever he goes for the ability's duration.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Web will no longer be selectable by players.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Widowfang Toxin has had its damage-over-time reduced at higher ranks, but each time it deals periodic damage there is a chance that the victim will be paralyzed momentarily, and the poison damage from this ability can now kill units.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Spawn ability has had its mana cost reduced slightly at higher ranks and its tooltip has been corrected to note that its summons count as physical creatures, causing them to lose benefits from upgrades which effect summons but also rendering them immune to abilities which affect summoned creatures.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Feed ability has had its cooldown increased at all ranks.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Debilitating Bite ability has been changed to an active ability, and will now remove buffs, reduce enemy movement speed and deal damage based on her Strength and Agility.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Cocoon ultimate has had its cooldown increased at all ranks.
- The Broodmother's Spiderlings have had their Spider's Bite poison ability tooltip corrected to note what the ability does.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's starting health has been lowered slightly.
- The Arachnid Broodmother's Strength gain has been slightly reduced with level, but her Agility gain has been slightly increased.
- The Battle Tank's E.M.P static has been replaced with Payload, allowing him to carry allied units onto and off of the battlefield.
- The Battle Tank's Deploy ability has had its cooldown increased, has had its tooltip updated to note that its summons count as physical creatures, causing them to lose benefits from upgrades which effect summons but also rendering them immune to abilities which affect summoned creatures, and the summons have received an increase to the cooldown of their RPG ability as well as a slight reduction to their health at all ranks.
- The Battle Tank's Mine Field ability has had its damage reduced at all ranks.
- The Battle Tank's Howitzer ability has had its cooldown increased at all ranks.
- The Battle Tank's Autocannon ultimate has had its rate of fire increased, but its damage lowered at all ranks.
- The Battle Tank's starting Strength and Strength per level have been slightly reduced, but his starting Intelligence and Intelligence per level have been increased by the same amount.
- The Battle Tank's starting health has been slightly reduced.
- The Druidess' Natural Balance static has been replaced with Flourish, granting her attacks a chance to restore health to nearby allies, divided evenly between each ally within range.
- The Druidess' The Living Wood ability has had its summons changed to properly count as summoned creatures.
- The Druidess' Wrath of Nature ability has been changed to a passive ability which returns damage to enemies who attack protected allies, surrounding them with briars which deal damage based on the strength of beneficial magic (number of buffs) on the allied unit.
- The Druidess' Regeneration ability has been changed to Restoration, which now restores vastly reduced amounts of health and mana over time, but which heals for a large amount at the end of its duration.
- The Druidess' Kindred Spirit ability will absorb less mana at all ranks, has had its cooldown increased, and can now target allied heroes, but will no longer be able to target mechanical units and will heal the target in exchange for a portion of their mana.
- The Druidess' Flourish ultimate has been replaced with Nature's Balance, allowing the Druidess to switch her life energy with that of the target friendly or enemy unit.
- The Ravager's Fetish of Primal Strength static has had its duration reduced, but it will now also grant allied units a chance to stun their target.
- The Ravager's Enrage ability has been changed to a passive effect, granting the Ravager a chance to deal bonus damage for a short time after being the victim of a hostile spell or ability.
- The Ravager's Dismemberment ability now has the same effect as the old Enrage ability, and its attack speed bonus has been increased at lower ranks.
- The Ravager's Furor ability will now cause slightly greater damage at lower ranks, and slightly less at higher ranks.
- The Ravager's Maul ability will no longer stun the target or drain its mana, but will now cause increased damage when the Ravager is surrounded by multiple enemies.
- The Ravager's Sever ultimate is no longer auto-cast, and its armor debuff has been reduced in effectiveness, but its cooldown has been reduced, it now causes damage based on his Strength plus Agility and its effect is now stacking.
- The Ravager is now the new mascot of Fruitstripe Bubble-gum, and has changed his appearance to match.
- The Ravager's Agility per level has been slightly reduced, and his Intelligence per level has been slightly increased by the same amount.
- The Fighter Pilot's Fox Three static is no longer an orb ability, and will now grants him a chance to deal damage to enemy air units based on his Agility.
- The Fighter Pilot's Kamikaze! ability is no longer an ultimate, is no longer autocast, will also destroy trees in the target area and will now dead damage based on his maximum health rather than a flat amount.
- The Fighter Pilot's Ground Zero ability has had its intial damage, damage over time and mana costs decreased significantly at all ranks.
- The Fighter Pilot's Bombardment ability has had its damage decreased at all ranks.
- The Fighter Pilot's Aerodynamics ability has been replaced with Evasive Maneuvers and is no longer passive, allowing the Fighter Pilot to gain a burst of speed for a short time.
- The Fighter Pilot's new ultimate is Fox Four, unleashing a devastating ground assault by continuously unloading various different munitions at the cost of mana.
- The Tidewarrior's Tidecaller ability will now drain less mana across all ranks.
- The Tidewarrior's Maelstrom ultimate has had its cooldown, duration and mana cost decreased at all ranks.
- The Heretic's Dark Offering ability has had its total healing and cooldown reduced across all ranks.
- The Daemonologist's Daemonic Shackles ability has had its range reduced.
- The Warlord's Onslaught ability has had its damage return component severely reduced at all ranks. It was total B.S!
- The Heretic's Ritual of Blood has had its range reduced at all ranks.
- The Lycanthrope's Renewal ability has had its cast time removed.




- Added a starting timer to unit purchases from all camps, instead of starting with a maximum stock at each camp from the battle's start. High-level units are available at 120 seconds and have a maximum stock limit of 2, Mid-level units are available at 90 seconds with a maximum stock limit of 3, and Low-level units are available at 60 seconds game-time with a maximum stock limit of 4. All units will have a restock timer equal to their intial stock time.
- Reduced the effectiveness of the Ice Mage's Frozen Blast against heroes by 1 second.
- Reduced the effectiveness of the Spellsword's Combustion ability by 3 mana.
- Fixed a bug preventing the Marsh Hydra's attacks from doing damage.
- Darkened the color of the Marsh Hydra unit, to better differentiate it from the Lernaean Hydra hero.
- Slightly reduced the base damage of Pyromancers.
- Slightly increased the base damage of Knights.
- Slightly increased the damage of the Knight's Lance ability.
- Fixed a bug causing the Magus' Nova ability to stun heroes perpetually.
- The Ice Mage's Ice Shield spell will now last half as long on hero units, and its tooltip has been updated to indicate such.
- The Magus' Nova spell will now stun heroes for half as long, and its tooltip has been updated to reflect this change.
- The Pyromancer's Destruction ability will now stun heroes for half as long as non-hero units, and its tooltip has been properly adjusted.
- Fixed a bug causing the High Priest to have a build time; He is now DiGiorno, rather than delivery.
- The Sprite's Trickery ability has been replaced with Vileblade, which causes his attacks to have a chance to kill enemy non-hero units.
- Catapults were granting less Gold and XP when killed than was intended, and this issue has been fixed.
- The Hellhound's Bloodhound ability has had its lifesteal percentage increased.
- Reduced the cooldown of the Arch-Daemon's Corruption spell, but reduced its duration by half against heroes.
- Increased the cooldown of the Fen Dweller's Mire ability, and reduced its duration by half against heroes.
- Added a cooldown to the Fen Dweller's Scavenge ability.
- Reduced the base health of the Fen Dweller.
- Slightly increased the hire cost for the Magus.
- Slightly reduced the hire cost for the Sprite.
- The Hellhound has had its base mana, armor and hiring costs slightly reduced.
- The Ice Mage's hire tooltip now specifies that his attacks have a slowing frost effect.
- The Warlock is now available for hire at the Wizard's Tower.
- The Arch-Druid is now available for hire at the Wizard's Tower.
- The Nethermancer is now available for hire at the Wizard's Tower.
- The Prophet is now available for hire at the Wizard's Tower.
- The Arcanist is now available for hire at the Wizard's Tower.
- The Temptress is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Spectre is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Gargoyle is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Black Mage is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Plaguebringer is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Golem is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Death Dragon is now available for hire at The Pit.
- The Kobold Stonebreaker is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Worg Rider is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Magnataur Reaver is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Troll Hexxer is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Centaur Warmaster is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Gnoll Assassin is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Minotaur King is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Chimaera is now available for hire at the Render's Camp.
- The Atlantean Skirmisher is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Water Dragon is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Marsh Walker is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Atlantean Crusher is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Snapjaw is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Siren is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Quetzalcoatl is now available for hire at the Grotto.
- The Sea Giant is now available for hire at the Grotto.


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# - Located directly adjacent to your spawn point, you will find your War Academy. Each Player has one, and they can be selected from anywhere on the map and used to purchase upgrades. They also serve as an item stash for heroes to store extra items such as components for recipes when their inventory is full. The War Academy also serves as a fountain of restoration for allied players.
# - If you would like to find out your current movement speed, you may type "-ms" into the text field during gameplay to display this information to you.
# - The Maximum hero level is 25.
# - Teamkilling is not permitted in The Dawn of Battle, and traitors will find their efforts to betray are thwarted by a power beyond.
# - "Static" abilities refer to the ability that a hero starts with before spending any skill points. Each class has a unique "Static" ability, which can range from a wide variety of different ability types, each with different functions. These are the only abilities in the game which do not gain levels, but which will prove useful to some extent throughout the entirety of the game.
# - When one of your Barracks or Footholds within your team's base is destroyed, it will cease unit production from its corresponding spawn location! While heroes are very effective as a singular power, if you allow your enemy to destroy your keeps without retaliation, you will likely be overrun!
# - When reading the hero descriptions, the ratings for "Hero", "Units" and "Structures" detail how good that particular hero is at killing those types of enemies. The "Harassment" rating details that hero's ability to disrupt enemy players and their strategies, and the "Support" rating details that hero's ability to heal, buff or otherwise synergize with his/her allies.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This map includes many high quality custom icons from various skilled artists of the Hive Workshop modding community. Special thanks and credits are given in-game to the following Hive Workshop members:
CRAZYRUSSIAN, bigapple90, Darkfang, Anachron, Deathclaw24, Mr. Goblin, Kimberly, Kelthuzad, SkriK, INSEKT, X.e.r.e.X, Mc !, The_Silent, Muoteck, Infinitynexus, ike_ike, DeathKnight, mortal, FrIkY, BlackDoom, FlaReoN, GooS.

The following Battle.net players were extremely helpful in excessive playtesting of the map from many of its earlier versions, through today:
Cuddybuddy, l)eath_l)ealer, f3n1x, Tizoxic, Ss-4-Goku, Catdemon21, Zirun, theocrati, Hokuten84, Durandal, TimPlaysTennis.

The following third party programs were used in tandem to create the best possible loading and performance speeds:
Credit to PitzerMike for his Widgetizer
Credit to Vexorian for his Map Optimizer

The following people were instrumental in some of the triggered abilities found in the map:
Credit to Paladon for his Jump system
Credit to Dekku for his Return Blink and Water Core abilities

Additional thanks to f3n1x for basic map layout concept.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GL and have fun, guys. :D!

- NeverDeath.



Keywords:
DotA, AoS, The Dawn of Battle, DoB, DoB AoS, Offense
Contents

The Dawn of Battle AoS v2.42 (Map)

Reviews
10:06, 31st May 2009 by bounty hunter2: The Dawn of Battle AoS, is as the name suggests an AoS type of map, where players take control of one hero and must defeat the enemies. The terrain was quite decent, nice usage and mixture of the snow and...

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10:06, 31st May 2009 by bounty hunter2:
The Dawn of Battle AoS, is as the name suggests an AoS type of map, where players take control of one hero and must defeat the enemies.

The terrain was quite decent, nice usage and mixture of the snow and summer tilesets and terrains. The villages looked quite good aswell. I suggest a little less Blizzards cliffs.

The object editor work was fair. Yet, the upgrades didn't contain hotkeys, and the passive spells contained them. That should be fixed.

The map itself, wasn't quite original, there was a variety of heroes, yet when playing, it was more or less boring.

I don't know why each player has to have his own tavern. One tavern would be better, easier and would cause less lag.

The lag on the start of the map is immense, aswell as the loading time, which was very, very long.

Overall, not bad, yet has room for many improvements and polishing. Approved with a 3/5 (Useful) rating.
 
Level 1
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Jan 29, 2009
Messages
1
hey mind to tel me that actualy where u guy playing battle net?
gg garena?
hard to find gamer tat will play hiveworkshop map..
is it malaysian tat not like to play?
please tell me where ur country n chnl tat alot ppl will host n play hive workshop game k
thx
 
Level 5
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Jul 27, 2008
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Hey buddy. Sorry to inform you, I haven't really used battlenet in a couple of years, I mostly play these games with friends via LAN (Local Area Connection).

We just Network and have a good time. But if I did get started again, I'd definitely send you a message here :)

I agree that not enough of the fine maps on Hiveworkshop are played regularly on Battle.net, largely due to the popularity of DotA. It's a cryin' shame.

{EDIT}
I have made a small amendment to the map, fixing a spawn error in the green northwestern movement triggers. I opted not to change the version number, as it was such a small fix. The new map is now available for download above. Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
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Level 5
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Jul 27, 2008
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If the lag in my map is as bad as you say it is, I will try to correct it - it is hard for me to gauge the lag of a map, as my computer is so far beyond what is necessary to run Warcraft III. Perhaps I am using too many effects. I do agree that having singular taverns could perhaps reduce this, though I believe not much, as you have a similar lag on startup when players select their heroes in DotA.

I'll work to reduce some of this lag, but I'm not quite sure how at this moment. I'll look into it. Can't say I agree with the statement that it's "boring", perhaps if you play an AoS with no AI by yourself... XD
 
Level 3
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Mar 25, 2009
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ill check this out with some buddies later it sounds like fun and bieng a hardcore hero map player it cant be as bad as what i have played
*shudder*

-herro
 
Level 5
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Aug 19, 2007
Messages
133
The map is good the only problem I had is the spawns tend to become overwhelming. If one group gets a good push somewhere it will go all the way to the super towers with splash. If a hero tries to stop the push they get slaughtered by spawns.
 
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Hey Bumkt. I have a few questions for you about your comment.

Were you a support hero, did you have any summoned or purchased armies, and were you playing alone to test it out? If so, I tried to make this map different than most AoS maps where the spawns are worthless and the heroes are so powerful the spawns don't matter after level 10. I wanted it to be about purchasing armies and researching upgrades, as much as about powerful heroes. This also gives a chance for some of the heroes more focused on group support, to have more of a hand in the actual battle as opposed to just spamming their buffs and running away. If you play with teams of players, I assure you the spawns can be more easily overcome - and if you recruit units, it can help considerably.

If, however, you found this to be the case while playing with teams of players... I will have to look into this. Please respond if you get a chance :)


Edit: I believe I've fixed the majority of memory leaks within the game's triggers, and the map should now be much less laggy. Enjoy!
 
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Level 5
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Ah. Well, the skills of the Warrior-Monk are designed to make him more difficult to kill than other agility heroes, while also making him faster to attack than strength heroes. His abilities are largely focused on disabling opponents rather than on massive damage, and so he is a valuable addition to a team of players, but not so much just a damage machine like some of the other heroes. If you were able to use your Pacifism ability for example, you could quite possibly kill the Necromancer alone, as the Warrior-Monk.

There are also a lot of items which could grant you advantages against a hero with summons, such as the Crystal Wand of Focus, which has a dispel ability on a 20 second cooldown, and deals good damage against summoned units. Since your original post, I have added more detailed descriptions to the item recipes, so that players can better know what they are purchasing.

If I misunderstood what you said, and you meant to say that you and a Necro were on a team against 3 combat heroes, being outnumbered could help explain your problem, or possibly that they just had useful abilities against the classes you chose. If an enemy for example had picked a hero which had the ability to control enemy summons or dispel them, that could have been a problem. The Necromancer becomes a very powerful hero once a few of his abilities reach rank 2 or 3, but he is slow to start. Perhaps you were against an enemy with damage return, while being a fast melee attacking class like the Monk. Many factors could be responsible for what happened, I cannot say for certain as all of these factors are unknown to me in your case.

Thanks for your input though, Bumkt. I might re-evaluate the Warrior-Monk's strength in the future. His Breaking The Mountain ability for example, could possibly use an increased cast chance.
 
Level 6
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Mar 22, 2008
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175
I tried this map a while ago (I was playing the archer on the left-side team, don't remember name) with Hydro Mage or something, against Tidewarrior and Antimancer (don't remember very well, it was some time ago) but anyways, i'll refer to myself as "Archer" and Antimancer as "Anti".

I was attacking Anti with Flame Arrows, but it didn't seem to do any damage increase to him. What really was bugging me though is that when I tried to kill him instantly with my ultimate, (Kinda like Dwarf Sniper's ultimate, Assassination, in DotA) when i had cast it, Anti took no damage. What the *#%! is up with that? (I don't know Anti's abilities, so tell them if there is something relating to that. If he has an ability that makes him completely immune to spell damage, it's imba.)

Otherwise, the map was very good, better than many AoS's that i've played. I give this map a 3/5 though because some items are hard to locate. Maybe add the name of the shop where the items are found to recipes? Looking forward for updates. (Played version was something near to 1.2 i think.)
 
Level 5
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Hi Goku. While I appreciate your feedback, this game has undergone pages of changes which have improved it immensely since version 1.2, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would give it another look before rating it based on one of its much earlier versions ;)

Besides that, the Antimancer does have a mode which reduces spell damage taken but decreases his movement and attack speeds - but he is never immune. The only thing I can think of is that he perhaps had an Amulet of Spell Warding or a Sigil of Crimson Fury, which have a spell protection ability on cooldown - which can be deactivated by simply using an immolation or frost arrow to remove the protection. It's not your fault, you didn't know, but everyone has different abilities, and just like any game, learning your enemy's strengths and weaknesses is key.

As for the items being difficult to locate, I believe that is just a case of not yet knowing the map very well, as for newbies in DotA, the acolyte shop in the woods might also be difficult to locate ;). Mine are all within the player's base, though, and I didn't want to just bunch a couple of shops together and say "there's your items", because I wanted it to look more organic, wanted the shops to be around the town in such a way that they looked believable. It might not seem that important to make the placement of shops look "believable", but once you learn where they are, it's really easy as pie, and the way things look effects most gamers, so I didn't want to skimp on that either :).

The balance is overall extremely good, especially in recent versions. I would urge you to play it again to see what I mean, and I think you'll see that it is much improved :). Thanks for the feedback, Goku!

Edit: It is as of today, version 1.7, in which I released an improved item shop system, which should make it much easier to create recipe items for new players. I strongly urge you to give it another shot, and tell me what you think :D
 
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Level 1
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Jun 6, 2009
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I've played this map several times now. All the heroes are fun and interesting to play. I like the environment of the map itself. I didn't experience any lag since it seems to have been fixed. I would give this map a 5/5 simply because I don't play warcraft very often but this map has kept my interest many times. Thumbs up. =)
 
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In the near future I would like to begin going over many abilities to increase the number of trigger-based abilities in the game, and also to reduce the map's loading time as much as possible. There are some other improvements I've been tossing around such as showing the effects for future levels of a trained ability attached to the learning tooltip, a spell alert system which displays in floating text above a casting hero's head what spell he/she casts as he/she casts it, five heroes obtainable only through random, and some other features currently still in mind.

Aside from these changes however, I feel the map is somewhat near to where I would like it in its current incarnation - It is not riddled with bugs nor particular irritants, class balance is good, and the mix of troop leading/upgrading/hero combat and obelisk capture are all about in the balance I would like them to be. A lot of people have had a lot of fun with it so far on Battlenet, that I have seen, and so it seems that as that was my goal, things are on a steady course :). While not particularly the most revolutionary game, I never wanted to reinvent the wheel so to speak - But rather to give players an AoS that was familiar enough for people to pick up and play, with a fair balance of STRATEGY as well as hero combat involved, and I feel that I have done that, at this point. Keep an eye out for the aforementioned changes - though I cannot promise exactly how soon they will arrive ;)
 
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Ogres and shamans may need some toning down. A friend has done it twice where he gets shamans at start to push on top tell he can get ogres. The shaman's can spam heal pretty easy with that aura. Otherwise the changes are looking good. Definitely try and clear out some unoriginal abilities like volcano.
 
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Hey Bumkt, thanks for the info.

In my experience, the shamans aren't all that powerful - because they are so fragile, if you focus fire them down then go for the ogres, it won't be nearly as difficult. The various hired units are supposed to add to the tactical wealth of the map, could you specify if it was their heals or their aura that you found too strong? That would help me narrow it down and better understand what you're saying :)

In the somewhat near future I will be replacing some abilities with custom triggered ones, and Wrath of the Fire Lord was definitely one of those which I was considering changing. If there's anything else you notice or would like to comment, definitely feel free to hit me back, I appreciate your feedback :)

-NeverDeath.
 
Level 2
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Jul 21, 2009
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Some Ideas.

NeverDeath,
I recently stumbled upon your map and have been hosting it on the EAST server for about a week now. Overall the map seems very good, but one thing I would point out is the revival time for heroes. It seems to be discouraging for a lvl 1 to die and then have to wait 50 seconds for revival. Could you consider coding in a revival time that is directly relateed to a hero's level? I.E. (level * 3 seconds)? Just a thought...

Thanks,
 
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Level 5
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Hey there. I absolutely could, I might do that. I don't want to change much about the map, but I think I will fix the balance of the Heretic's ultimate (currently a bit powerful for a support hero) and I'll make that change for scaling revive timers in the triggers. Shouldn't take much time, I'll do it when I get a spare chunk of time. I was pretty much done with it, but I think I'll do that.
 
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NeverDeath,
Thanks for taking time out to listen to our suggestions and making appropriate changes accordingly. There are a few other concerns that I have found players to "gripe" about.
1. Ruin Pillar: -5 ac is a bit much; especially for early game. How about making it -2 ac, instead?
2. Geomancer: his natural attributes are high for each of his levels and his summons are a bit OP.
3. Summoners: if they die, their summons should die, too.
4. Modes: a.) How about an "all random" mode or at least give some gold bonus for players who go random.
b.) "-repick" option at a cost of X(300?) gold within 2 mins of the game?
5.) Warlord's Command item: it's bugged (trust me)
 
Level 5
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87
Hey Doom.

I appreciate your raising your concerns, I also believe that the Geomancer's summons may be a bit too tough considering that they rebirth when killed if not destroyed in their stone state. I believe that their maximum health may need to be reduced. As far as his attributes are concerned, I designed him to have more hitpoints than most spellcasters, because of his being aligned with "earth" magic - thereby increasing his ability to absorb damage (along with the Stoneskin aura that is his static). He receives the same amount of total stats as any other hero. All heroes are equal in this, receiving a total of 7.0 stat points per level, with a starting total of 60.

When you say "summoners", do you mean all heroes who have summons?

The Ruin Pillar's -5 armor bonus is not really THAT severe, as the amount of armor it removes can be easily offset by armor items, auras, buffs, et cetera. I agree it is more helpful early-game - but it isn't something I feel really needs to be changed.

Players who choose random save an initial 150 gold, as all other heroes besides "random" cost gold to hire, while going random costs nothing. I could perhaps increase the starting gold and hero costs, to make the bonus greater without screwing players who pick their hero.

I have put thought into creating a repick system, and I might do this at some time, because there isn't a really big reason why not to, except that with my current selection system destroying the hero towers, I would have to make some changes to this dynamic, which I just never did.

Could you tell me how the Warlord's Command item is "bugged"? I could test it, but I'd like for you to give me your reasoning before I do so.

Thanks for the feedback - but if you like my map so much, you should give it a rating :p I never understood why people post here but don't rate the maps they like! They're helping to suppress the popularity of good maps this way, in my opinion.

Get back to me with a response and I will see what I can do about these concerns ;)


Edit: Updated the map with some changes, thanks for the input, D00m!
 
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Level 5
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Hey Ryva. There is no AI in the current version of the map. It was something that I was considering as a feature I would like to include, but is an aspect of mapmaking in which I have very limited experience. Perhaps in a future version, I will include a functional AI.

At the moment, I am focusing on reworking the heroes to make them more varied and interesting to play, as well as involving more strategy in team play situations.
 
Level 5
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Hey guys, thanks for the compliments. I know its been a few months since anyone posted and about a year since the last update, but I have been considering possibly finishing this map project (although I know it's been awhile since the last update). I'm looking into doing a few things to finish it off, so I can feel that the project is resolved and it can stop lingering in my mind, haha.

I will be turning off global experience, as one of you mentioned - limiting it to a more localized area, and will be finishing revamping the 2nd half of the heroes as currently, I only did the first half, leaving one half of the heroes much more interesting and fun to use than the other.

I am also looking into either using hashtables in many of the spells to make them MUI, or to limit hero selection so that there can be no duplicates. I haven't decided which direction to take, but I am leaning toward hashtables, currently. It could be any number of months before I actually complete this map, because it is both a pretty large undertaking and also, because I am much more busy these days. Either way, thanks for your patience, and if anyone else has feedback, feel free to post it!
 
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Please turn off global experience!

It is done, the next version will officially have localized XP gain, rather than global. Heroes will now also be unique, removing them from the random array once they have been selected, and removing them from everyone else's towers when one is chosen by another player.

The remaining 29 heroes will also receive various levels of adjustment and ability tweaking/replacing, in what will likely be the final version of the map - but also the most refined, interesting, and (hopefully) the most fun!

I anticipate that the final version will be up within a month or two. Here's hoping that is not too optimistic and that I end up eating my words - but regardless, it is in the works - that much I can guarantee.

-NeverDeath.
 
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Just a status update for anyone who cares, I have been working hard on the map and have addressed many issues and have also revamped 12 of the 29 remaining heroes, having created many new abilities which will add a unique flavor to their playstyles. That leaves me with 17 heroes left to go, plus any other changes I decide are worthy of implementation.

I've received a lot of feedback and requests and have taken much of the information I've received into account. With that said, if there is anything else anyone here at the Hive would like to add or certain features they would like to submit for consideration, feel free to contact me.

The only undertaking I am not considering currently that has been requested, is AI, due to my lack of experience with it, I would rather not have one than announce it as a feature while it functioned at a low/unfinished level.

in short, I would consider this update to be at or near the 40% mark, which would put me well underway to being done by the end of this month. Of course you never know with these things, it depends upon not only my ability but how well my creative juices are flowing on any given day ;) but I have momentum! Let's see if I can keep it.

Regards - Never.
 
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Jul 21, 2009
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Keep it up the great work! Add a "duel" mode where there is a countdown down timer that places everyone in a small arena for either team battle in a confined area or a "royal rumble" for bonus gold.
heh.
 
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Another update. Of the 29 heroes I intended to revamp, 20 are complete. There are nine remaining, and I am working diligently to ensure that they are of unique flavor and strong quality, and are overall just as fun to play as the 25 heroes revamped in the previous version of the map.

While the brunt of the work has undeniably been invested in the heroes, a lot of other good changes are being made. Bugs, incorrect tooltips, malfunctioning abilities and other general balance issues are being addressed. Giving a full list in comments and before it is completed would obviously be ridiculous, so I will refrain from going into too much detail, but the changes I am making are all, I believe, absolutely for the better. Any heroes who previously felt uninteresting, uninspired, too straight-forward or lacking in personality are all being overhauled, and I guarantee that they will bring a great wealth to the strategy of the map.

As far as your request D00mBringer, I have given it consideration, but ultimately decided that because The Dawn of Battle AoS is so much about breaking that fundamental "Hero Arena" feel that other AoS maps foster in lieu of providing a more balanced focus between heroes, leading troops and coordinating armies with things like upgrades and pillars to capture - I felt that making a "duel" or arena style mode, even if temporary, would be counter-productive because it would provide an extreme advantage to players leading heroes that were all about damage/hero-killing and would really exclude players who had chosen a support/summoning/anti-structure or other type of hero. I do, however, value your input. If you have other ideas, I'm always open to them. Trust me, I did consider it - but it just didn't seem to fit into my vision of the map.

I'd say at this rate, the new version of the map will probably be done and ready for release by no later than the 10th of August. I cannot promise this will happen, but I will try to make it so ;)

Looking forward to showing off the new changes to anyone who still plays :)

-Never.
 
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Level 2
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Jul 21, 2009
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DoB feedback

NeverDeath,

Keep up the great work! After it is done, will you have a bot host the map? I would host the map every day, but my router configs need to be changed and I am not sure how to do that now. (sorry).

I am sure people would like to play some other AoS map rather than Dota every time.

=)
 
Level 5
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Jul 27, 2008
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Hey D00m. 2 heroes left to go and a handful of changes remaining beyond that, so it looks like it'll be done within the next few days now. Yeah, I would be able to have a bot host it, although I do admit to never having used one before, it would probably be a good way to spread the map around rather than when I used to host it myself, since I obviously can't be around playing WC3 all day long XD.

Good suggestion, and I think I will do that when it is ready ;)

DotA was a good game and everything, the triggering and custom spells were pretty brilliant, but I never liked the imbalance and the focus on items/the uselessness of the creeps after a few levels. It just felt like a hero deathmatch, which is okay, but I prefer a little more strategy in my strategy games, which is why I made DoB. I used to play EotA a lot in the old days, and I really liked Eternal Conflict, until it was discontinued in beta D: . Those two maps really inspired me to learn to make this one the way it is.
 
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Mar 22, 2008
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As you may somehow remember me, I'm here to give a positive point about the map.

Recently, I found a bunch of friends who own Warcraft III, and so I got them to play it with me. We played some 2v2's (occasionally 3v3's) of this map and what can I tell ya, all my friends were asking stuff on the lines "Did IceFrog make this? Because this's better than DotA". All in all, I think this will be a major timesink in my upcoming high school year, provided that my friends don't get bored of the slightly outdated wc3 graphics.
 
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Hey, man! Of course I remember you, I added you to Facebook awhile back, I don't really use MSN anymore. I really appreciate the positive feedback man. I have a new version coming out in a few days, with vastly improved heroes with more custom spells and things of that sort, a lot of bug fixes and other improvements, and more units for hire. I've hit a bit of a snag with the WEditor acting up as of just last night, but hopefully I can figure out what caused it to botch up (might have to remake a hero or two, I hear the editor bugs out sometimes on a unit or spell and you have to remake it or it misbehaves strangely, hopefully this will solve my problem).

Either way, the new version will be out soon, I only have one hero left to revamp then all 55 are done. Talk to me sometime on Facebook man, don't be a stranger ;) and tell your friends I said thanks for the kind words! :D
 
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Level 2
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Jul 21, 2009
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Hello,
Who here plays DoB on the East or West servers? If you do, please let me know and I will add you to my Friends List. Or you can add me (TimPlaysTennis or Killer1nstinct).
 
Level 1
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Aug 1, 2011
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This is a fun map. I like that you don't have to focus solely on your hero in this AoS and it's not completely item based. You get to upgrade all your forces which makes you feel like you're helping your entire team (even the computer AI) which in a lot of AoS's become completely useless late game. I enjoy hiring different mercs from the shops around the map.
Something that sets this map aside from the others is the 4 obelisks in the corners of the map that grant global team bonuses such as more money, more xp etc. Gives you an objective that is somewhat quest like in nature which is nice.

Good map.
 
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Sorry DeathKing, there is no hero AI or "Bots" for DoB AoS, mostly because I feel that no level of bots can truly replace human players. I know that some people like to play AoS maps alone or with one friend and bots, but at the end of the day I thought it best for the quality of the map that it remain without bots as it is best played with human opponents due to many of the spell mechanics which could either make AI-controlled heroes too easy to defeat or that the AI would have superhuman reaction speed and thus render certain conditional or timing-contingent spells useless against them.

Development on this map project is over for the foreseeable future, but if you have any comments, critiques, suggestions or you would like to rate the map, please feel free to do so.
 
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