Anyone know the origins of these beta icons?

[Abelhawk]

Hi friends, I'm making another Warcraft III Easter Eggs video and this time I wanted to just double check with you experts (especially you, @Hallfiry) before I go making assumptions and publishing them.

Does anyone know what the following icons/abilities present in the beta did? Or is the only vestigial evidence their icons and we'll never know? Any information is appreciated.

• 
  Retribution
• 
  Exorcism
• 
  Restoration
• 
  Scattershot
• 
  Time Stop
• 
  Entrapment Ward
• 
  Fireball
• 
  Lightning
• 
  Requiem
• 
  Earthbind
• 
  Gather Shadows
• 
  Banish
• 
  Call Storm - Actually I think I know this one already... it's that lightning storm on old beta screenshots, right?
• 
  Charm
  
• 
  Charge - Was it just a temporary speed boost, or...?
  
• 
  Lament

Also, any information about the following would be appreciated as well:

• 
  Ancient of the Wild
  
• 
  Orb
  
• 
  Obsidian Avenger
• 
  Lamp

I also am curious about the following icons or beta abilities, but I'm too lazy to sift through Scrolls of Lore to link the images:

• Raging Scream
• Spy
• Grim Ward
• Aura of Darkness
• Regeneration Aura
• Shadow Pact
• Lament
• Chime
• Quill Spray

 

[MadnessTheKey]

Fun fact lad:
These was made by a member in blizzard called Jeff and it got Recolored/Remodeled

 

[Hallfiry]

I'll write it on my todo list. Expect results before the weekend.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Beautiful, beautiful unused icons. Hope you can figure them out (I think I know some, but mostly supposition).

 

[Saelendious]

Im so glad you asked, I can tell you about some of them, the rest - no actual idea. Here we go.
Some icons were used for heroic spells that I listed in my wc3 beta hero info, so i suggest looking in there.

Retribution and Exorcism
Earlier, Paladin could learn this spell (he didnt have ressurection, divine shield was his ultimate and this was his 2nd spell), it was the spell that was exclusively anti-race (against undead, and i guess holy bolt only healed, later they combined those??? idk). Sound files ive found showcased that priests had this spell at one point too and it was upgradeble (thus two versions of similar icon).

Entrapment Ward and Grim Ward
Beta Shadow Hunter used totems, these were two of them.

Lightning and Regeneration Aura
Maybe Farseer had these icons for two of his spells?

Earthbind
Tornado of DotTalon that earlier was used by Shamans.

Banish
Used by Spirit Walker hero that had orc shaman model (you should know this from one of your own videos).

Gather Shadows and Charm
Used in Beta by dreadlord. If i can tell correctly Gather Shadows was somehow tied up with morphing into bat.

Call Storm
My beta hero thread. Look there.

Charge
Knights had them, bruh. You listened to hidden beta soundfiles, right?
Heres an alpha screenshot that may indicate that it granted him 3x critical strike, idk.

Spoiler: Screenshot

Ancient of the Wild
I would absolutely love if this model was somehow remade for use. The word 'wild' may suggest that this was used for beasts of some kind, maybe this was later replaced with ancient of lore?

Orb
All the orbs (Lightning, Fire, Frost) in wc3 beta (including the one that i played) had this icon. Orbs used elemental damage (i guess leftovers from RPG elements) and did 6-12 damage. Only orb of frost was actually useful since it also applied slow.

Spy
Ability that was used by thieves guild (still listed in world editor but cannot be used :c ).
Had a cost of recouces and mana stones (that dropped from creep packs as 3rd recouce that was later removed, though icon is still in game).
Both this ability and building probably were removed when they implemented goblin laboratory that had Reveal.
Just my thoughts: maybe this ability hightlighted a random enemy building on the map for a cost of recouces.

Quill Spray
This ability is still in WE among the neutral spells, same to Destroyer's autocast orb.

cant say much about the rest, only thoughts and suggestions (probably wrong ones)

 

[Hallfiry]

I quickly went through the beta files and checked what I can find. It's not much, bzt it should at least help a little bit. Maybe I should simply make a full list of stuff in the beta (copy paste and order things properly, nothing too complicated) and then we can always look it up there...

1. Retribution - ?
2. Exorcism - sound: Abilities\Spells\Human\Exorcism\
3. Restoration - ?
4. Scattershot Regular mortar team ability, but different icon?
5. Time Stop - ?
6. Entrapment Ward [AOen]; Orc hero ability, see Saelendious
7. Fireball - not in beta
8. Lightning bolt [AOlb]; Orc hero ability, see Saelendious
9. Requiem [Areq]; requiem/unrequiem; Requiem.cpp, Requiem.h are compiled into the beta, thus code analysis might reveal more
10. Earthbind [Aebd]; earthbind/earthbindon/earthbindoff; Earthbind.cpp, Earthbind.h; Orc ability, see Saelendious
11. Gather Shadows; gathershadows; GatherShadows.h, listed among undead hero abilities in the ORDER_* section
12. Banish - not in beta
13. Call Storm; Orc hero ability; see Saelendious
14. Charm [/]; charm; Charm.h, no cpp file; listed among undead hero abilities in the ORDER_* section; By the icon a Death Knight ability
15. Charge; Knight ability to charge at a target like warriors in WoW; nothing left in beta except icon?
16. Lament [Alam]; lament/unlament; Beta uses Alam ID for sacrifice on Acolyte side. Thare are no source files associated with it
17. Ancient of the Wild
18. Orb -?
19. Obsidian Avenger - probably just an early version of the obsidian destroyer/statue.
20. Lamp - ?
21. Raging Scream - Alpha ability of Orc Warlord?
22. Spy - Thieves guild ability. Exe refers to it as "spies"
23. Grim Ward Orc hero ability, see Saelendious
24. Aura of Darkness [/] auraofdarkness, AuraOfDarkness.h, listed among undead hero abilities.
25. Regeneration Aura [AOar], Orc hero ability, see Saelendious
26. Shadow Pact, ShadowPact.cpp, ShadowPact.h, sound: Abilities\Spells\Orc\ShadowPact\
27. Chime - ?
28. Quill Spray - ?

 

[Abelhawk]

Thanks everyone! This is probably enough content and informed speculation for me to make a video about.

 

[Hallfiry]

I noticed that some abilities are associated with different heroes in Saelendious' list, than in my list. This is becuse we used different approaches. For example my attributing of Charm to the (late dev, not the frost ghost with a club) Deathknight is based on the icon graphic, while Saelendious bases it on this screenshot:

 

[Eat_Bacon_Daily]

Have you ever asked Designer Dave if he is willing to shed light some of these things. He seemed to really enjoy your videos, though I have no idea what kind of relationship you have with him or if he is barred from discussing it due to legal mumbo-jumbo.

Anyway, I'm super excited for your next video!!