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Tanaris - Gul'dan THW TC19
- Author(s)
- GhostThruster
- Size
- 24.49 MB
- Rating
- Downloads
- 579
- Created
- Aug 1, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 31, 2025
- Resources
- 1
- State
Approved
This bundle is marked as recommended. It works and satisfies the submission rules.
To play as Gul'dan, select the Orc race and 90% handicap.
Overview
Background
Racial Identity
Strengths & Weaknesses
Techtree
Heroes and Units
Items
Gul'dan was the first orcish warlock and one of the most powerful and terrible forces to befall the world of Azeroth. Born a feeble cripple who was often the victim of other orcs' scorn, he found his true calling once the demon lord Kil'jaeden offered him immense power at the cost of his soul... and eventually, his people.
Imbued with demonic magic, Gul'dan sought to do his dark master's bidding - to rally the orcs of Draenor into invading Azeroth. He was ultimately successful, yet relied on sycophants and puppets to enact his schemes. For no amount of power could garner him true admiration from his fellow Orcs; only through deceit and intimidation could he will others to his cause.
Imbued with demonic magic, Gul'dan sought to do his dark master's bidding - to rally the orcs of Draenor into invading Azeroth. He was ultimately successful, yet relied on sycophants and puppets to enact his schemes. For no amount of power could garner him true admiration from his fellow Orcs; only through deceit and intimidation could he will others to his cause.
Gul'dan the Commander
In this entry for the Hive's Techtree Contest #19, you play as Gul'dan and a cadre of fanatics, servants and demons that he leads. Obviously in the official lore, he is dead during the events of RoC and TFT. Hence, this faction is non-canon by necessity.
While Gul'dan is the ultimate commander of his forces, he lacks the charisma and the strength to lead at the frontlines. Hence, he employs champions to do his bidding. These champions (the factions' heroes) embody well-known characters from the WC2 rogues gallery, yet are not specific characters themselves.
Comprising his standing army are orcs and ogres from primarily the Stormreaver, Twilight's Hammer and Shadowmoon clans - these are roughly the faction's tier 1 and tier 2 roster. However, his forces revel in cruelty and domination, and often enslave enemies from other factions and rival clans.
Tier 3 is intended to be if Gul'dan accrued further power, for example if he was successful in obtaining the Eye of Sargeras. With this, he is able to summon forth demons from the Twisting Nether itself to aid in his forces' unholy onslaught.
Gul'dan's forces embody his worst qualities:
- Cruelty: units love to inflict damage and aggress upon foes.
- Ruthless ambition: units can often empower themselves or each other, but at the cost of other units' health.
- Treachery: certain units excel at infiltrating and confusing the enemy.
Key mechanics:
| Mechanic | Description | Thumbnails |
|
Gul'dan the Commander | Gul'dan is a special Commander unit - something in between a regular unit and a hero. He is one of your starting units, and the only unit who can summon structures, similar to Acolytes. He must first summon a Fel Obelisk to attack. Gul'dan has his own special on-screen icon on the bottom-left, which functions similarly to the [F1] - [F3] hero icons. Its hotkey is [F4]. When slain, Gul'dan can be revived at a Shadow Council (the faction's Town Hall building) for a fee. Abilities:
|
Gul'dan Fel Pact: |
|
Slavery | Gul'dan's forces revel in enslaving their foes. To represent this, the faction has an extra quasi-resource called Barbarity Points, which is accrued when either your heroes or Proving Ground units (from the T1 barracks) attack enemy organic ground units. Once enough Barbarity Points are accrued (represented by the orange bar next to Gul'dan's on-screen icon), your Slave Stock goes up by 1 - up to your Stock Maximum (equal to number of Slave Pens you have - the faction's Food structure). See pic 1. You can employ Slaves from Slave Pens. Slaves cost 1 Food, have no attack, and can harvest resources and repair. You can use Slaves to supplement your standard workforce, or as sacrificial fodder for Fel Pact (see Gul'dan above). See pic 2. Additional notes:
|
Barbarity and Slave Stock Current Slaves |
|
Espionage | Your standard worker - the Servant - can temporarily turn into a Spy after Espionage is researched. Spies are invisible and have True Sight. Servants must be nearby Gul'dan or a Shadow Council to use Espionage. While obviously a great tool for scouting, Espionage can also double as a base defence mechanic if your workers are being harassed. Note however: only Servants can turn into Spies, not Slaves! |
|
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|
|
Each tab below corresponds to a unit production building. Click on one to see information on the units it produces.
Heroes - Altar of Damnation
Shadow Council
Slave Pen
T1 - Proving Ground
T2 - Warlock Coven
T2 - Siegeworks
T3 - Dark Portal
| Hero | Description | Abilities | ||||||||
|
Black Chieftain | Warrior Hero, effective at leading ruthless attacks against enemy forces. Fight initiator. Has abilities orientated at either dealing damage or increasing damage output of allies. Lore: I imagine this guy to be a clan chieftain that Gul'dan has groomed to be a frontline puppet, akin to Blackhand. |
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Ogre Sorceror | Mystical Hero, exceptional at unleashing destructive magic. Whether you play him as a nuker or more of a support role, he excels at inflicting damage. Lore: clearly inspired by Cho'gall, this guy is a fellow disciple of Gul'dan with a particular lust for void magic. |
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Assassin | Cunning Hero, adept at eliminating enemy units with stealth and trickery. Like a Blademaster, but hotter. This Winter Soldier quote inspired me: "Infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night, and you'd never see them coming." Lore: she's Garona, but I'm pretending Gul'dan has his own Black Widow-esque organisation for which she is one of many graduates. |
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|
Deathstrider | Mystical Hero, proficient at disrupting enemy armies. Has abilities that encumber, distract, and disempower enemies. Lore: look, I'm not innovator of the year. He's Teron Gorefiend, but there's already a "Death Knight" in Wc3... so Deathstriders are elite lieutenants who excel in death magic, or something. |
|
|
| Primary structure, used to train Servants and receive gathered resources. Can research the Darkness Incarnate (T2) and Demonic Ascendancy (T3) upgrades to enable the production of additional types of structures and units. Gul'dan can be revived at this structure. Used as headquarters by their namesake organisation, Shadow Councils project power and dominion - not just to incoming foes, but also to Gul'dan's own servants. |
Units trained:
| Unit | Icon | Description | Upgrades |
| Servant (1 food) | Basic worker unit. Can harvest gold and lumber, and Repair. | Can learn |
Unique base defense upgrade:
| Upgrade | Icon | Description |
| Protective Runes (T2) -> Imbued Protective Runes (T3) | Researched from a Furnace. Grants Shadow Councils bonus armor and a ranged attack when Gul'dan is nearby. Because the Shadow Council does not upgrade into a higher hit point structure, this research can be key to fending off enemy siege in the late game. |
|
| Provides food, which increases the maximum number of units that can be trained. Employs Slaves from your Slave Stock. Each Slave Pen increases the maximum stock of Slaves that can be employed. Gul'dan and his forces engage in slave raiding, partly for their own twisted pleasure, and partly to acquire sacrificial fodder to fuel their Fel magic. The unfortunate victims of these raids are held in Slave Pens. |
Units trained:
| Unit | Icon | Description | Upgrades |
| Slave (1 food) | Secondary worker unit. Can harvest gold and lumber, and Repair. | None |
|
| Primary troop production building available at tier 1. Also houses the Slave Raiding research, which allows your T1 units to generate extra Barbarity when attacking enemy workers and structures. Proving Grounds serve as a place of training for Gul'dan's frontline warriors, which consist of fanatical orcs and brutish ogres from a range of clans. |
Units trained:
| Unit | Icon | Description | Upgrades |
| Zealot (3 food) | Fanatical Orc axe-thrower. Deals Normal damage from afar. | Can learn Reckless Zeal (toggle; adds extra range and damage to attacks, but causes attacks to self-harm). Benefits from Slave Raiding. | |
| Ogre Knave (2 food, T1.5) | Brutish Ogre warrior with a siege attack. Super-high hit points for a 2-food unit, but Unarmored. | Benefits from Battle Armor (adds armor and changes armor type to Heavy). Benefits from Slave Raiding. | |
| Ogron (6 food, T3) | Vicious Ogre-like giant. Tier 3 heavy melee. | Benefits from Colossal Reach (allows the Ogron to whack air units too) |
Unique Slavery upgrade:
| Upgrade | Icon | Description |
| Slave Raiding | Causes Zealots and Ogre Knaves to generate Barbarity when attacking enemy structures. Also increases Barbarity from their attacks against workers. Can be researched early in tier 1 to encourage / synergize with a base harassment playstyle, but note that it is about as expensive as Defend. With enough training, Gul'dan's warriors become proficient at conducting systematic raids against enemy bases. Of which, the main spoils tend to be newly captured Slaves. |
|
| Spellcaster production building available at tier 2. Twisted disciples of Gul'dan gather at Warlock Covens to refine their demonological powers. |
Units trained:
| Unit | Icon | Description | Abilities |
| Necrolyte (2 food) | Primary spellcaster; warlocks-in-training of mostly Stormreaver stock. Adept at using necromantic and storm magic to encumber enemies. | Spite: autocast, target ally reflects back a % of damage received, and will spawn a Skeletal Reaver when killed. (Adept) Rune of Eradication: summons a floating Rune that detonates after X seconds and dispels in its vicinity. (Master) Conjure Storm: causes enemies in the target area to have a high miss chance. Enemy air units also take damage over time from lightning. | |
| Ogre Warlock (3 food) | Offensive spellcaster; ogres with cult-like devotion to Gul'dan. Its spells instil ferocity and ruthlessness within your ranks. At T3, this unit becomes the de-facto Magic damage-dealer (a la Chimaera, Gryphon, Frost Wyrm) that the race otherwise lacks. | Bloodthirst: autocast, target ally gains extra attack rate and lifesteal. (Adept) Firebrand: target ally gains speed and Immolation effect, but also loses some HP temporarily. (Master) Mark of Chaos: marks this unit for death after X seconds, but gives it a devastating magical attack. | |
| Familiar (2 food) | Flying warlock companion. Has an anti-air melee attack, but only truly dominates the skies with support from spellcasters. | Soul Bond: increases mana regen of a target spellcaster. Can be used actively, but will also automatically bond with valid unbonded allies nearby. (T3) Magic Ferocity: gains extra attack when Soul Bonded. |
|
| Ballistics and artillery production building available at tier 2. Requires a Furnace. The orcish engineers who comprise a Siegeworks are not necessarily the most devout of Gul'dan's acolytes, but share in his love of cruelty and domination. |
Units trained:
| Unit | Icon | Description | Upgrades |
| Arbalist (3 food) | Cruel crossbow wielder with a slow, but high-damage attack. The only ground unit with Piercing damage. | Hook Bolt: fires a hook-attached chain into the target unit, slowing it down and even completely immobilizing it if the target is weak. | |
| Fel Onager (4 food, mechanical) | Long-range siege weaponry that can also employ Slaves from your slave stock. Its upgrades unlock anti-magic capabilities. | Cursed Artillery: attacks deal area-of-effect Feedback-esque damage. (T3) Runic Woodwork: grants extra HP and spell immunity. |
|
| Tier 3 demon production building. As Gul'dan reaches the pinnacle of Fel mastery, he is able to open rifts into the Twisting Nether and summon forth lesser demons to do his bidding. |
Units trained:
| Unit | Icon | Description | Abilities |
| Terrorfiend (5 food) | Formidable demon, effective at terrorizing spellcasters. Has Resistant Skin and Medium armor, trading defense against other melee attackers for better resistance to magic. | Inhale Magic: instant-cast Devour Magic, sucking up nearby buffs and giving the Terrorfiend HP per unit. Mana Frenzy (upgrade): passive, temporarily grants bonus damage and Chaos attack type when hit by a spell. | |
| Fel Serpent (4 food) | Flying demonic serpent. Native Wind Serpents of Draenor twisted by Fel energies. Has Piercing damage rather than a Magic attack. | Fel Breath (upgrade): passive, attacks reduce armor and apply burn damage over time |
|
| Creates a shop with purchasable items. The items available depend upon what level of upgrade Gul'dan has (base level, Darkness Incarnate, or Demonic Ascendancy) and which buildings you have. Unlike other races' Backpack research, this faction's research only affects Gul'dan, who is equal parts greedy and untrusting of his lesser minions. The research grants Gul'dan a 6-slot inventory. For balance reasons, he is unable to use items and must instead rely on his champions to do so. Gul'dan stashes his most treasured wares within Vile Hoards, away from the prying eyes of all but his most trusted champions. |
Items sold:
|
Rod of Oblation |
Eye of Kilrogg |
Demonic Skull |
|
Causes a target unit to slowly lose HP, but heals allied units around it.
|
Creates a floating eye that follows the target unit around. Grants True Sight and restores mana. The eye can be killed easily.
|
Temporarily grants the hero's attacks an effect that destroys mana and deals bonus damage to summons, akin to Feedback.
|
|
Potion of Healing |
Potion of Mana |
Scroll of Town Portal |
|
Restores hit points. Standard item
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Restores mana. Standard item.
|
Teleports your army to a friendly Town Hall or equivalent. Standard item.
|
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Orb of Subjugation |
Stave of Treachery | |
|
Adds 5 bonus attack. Reduces the attack damage of its victims, and also allows you to generate Barbarity when attacking a victim.
|
Turns the target allied unit invisible. Its next attack will break invisibility and cause the victim to attack a nearby ally in confusion.
|
Gallery
Media & Thumbnails
1
2
3
4
5
6
Gameplay video courtesy of @The Nightmare Book / Hushbook (v1.00):
Gameplay of myself vs Computer (v1.01):
Thumbnails
Use Empower to heal your strongest troops, while boosting their attack damage.
Gul'dan summons structures like an acolyte.
Fel Onagers can employ Slaves on the battlefield.
Protective Runes in action - once researched, grants your Shadow Council a strong ranged attack and bonus armor.
Other information
Credits
Changelog
Compatibility
Balance
- Buffed Necrolytes:
- Rune of Eradication dispel count down timer reduced from 5 seconds to 3; no longer dispels if the rune is killed
- Conjure Storm now affects structures too
- Buffed Ogre Sorceror's Bloodbath:
- Reduced cooldown from 12 seconds to 8
- Allowed it to damage structures
- Tweaked % of sacrifice's HP dealt from 25/38/50% to 30/45/60%
- Allowed Rod of Oblation's healing effect to stack up to 3 times for a single unit
- Increased the item's gold cost from 60 to 75
- Fixed a bug where Empower would cause Gul'dan to lose all mana if the target moved out of range
- Fixed a bug where Shadow Beam did not correctly heal a proximate ally
- Added logic to prioritize the closest unit, ceteris paribus
- Fixed a bug where double-pressing F4 would snap you to Gul'dan even when he was dead
- Fixed a bug where coded channeling abilities would continue even if the target was loaded in a transport
- Fixed a bug where Stave of Treachery would be immediately broken by a unit currently under an attacking order (based it off on Invisibility rather than a custom-coded permanent invis)
Balance
- Rework of Slavery mechanics:
- At base, Heroes and Proving Ground units generate Barbarity based on 25% of damage dealt to ground units (incl creeps) and structures
- Slave Raiding (formerly Prisoners of War) unlocks generating Barbarity as 100% of damage dealt to buildings, and grants extra Barbarity from attacking workers
- Slave Raiding research time: 40 -> 30
- The intention here is to provide a smoother transition to late-game Slave economy. It also allows you to gain some sacrificial fodder after clearing the first couple green creep camps.
- Reduced the hit point upgrade from Runic Woodwork from 80 to 40
- Increased Dark Portal build time from 70 to 75
- Bloodbath:
- Added a larger area-of-effect based on the Food of the sacrificed unit
- Added full / half / quarter-damage radii
- Raised damage cap from 500/850/1200 to 600/900/1200
- Reduced maximum single-target damage from 200/300/400 to 120/180/240
- Tweaked % of sacrifice's HP dealt from 20/35/50% to 25/38/50%
- Increased Ogron's build time from 39 to 55 seconds
- Increased its Transported Size to 2
- Increased Bloodthirst's duration from 45 to 60 seconds
- Reduced cost of Mana Frenzy from 100/220 to 100/150
- Allowed Fel Breath to also affect buildings
- Changed Espionage's cooldown from 5 to 15 seconds after invisibility is broken
- Made a serious of changes to reduce effectiveness of tower rushes:
- Fel Obelisk and Infernal Obelisk HP reduced from 500 to 400
- Infernal Obelisk build time increased from 35 to 45; repair time set to 50
- Infernal Obelisk cost increased from 75/30 to 75/50
- Infernal Obelisk damage increased from 18-21 to 19-23
- Added Large animation tag to Fel Onagers
- Gave Zealots and Arbalists a collision shape for easier selection
- Slightly increased volume of Arbalist's voicelines
- Swapped out the Slave's model from an orc to a neutral one based off of the Wc3 Zombie
- Added voicelines from WotR
- Improved Bloodbath visuals, and added Medium & Large version
- Tweaked height of Assassin's feet during some animations
- Shortened time for Shadowstep's effect to disperse after its duration runs out
- Added level 2 and 3 slightly larger cloud models
- Added a new effect model for Spite and also an effect to enemies affected by Spite damage reflection
- Added a lightning effect for Soul Bond
- Improved the Build animation of several buildings
- Added a tooltip to Gul'dan's button when he is dead
- Replaced Warlorsd of Draenor music with more ambient music by Paleowolf on Youtube
- Fixed a bug where Gul'dan's icon would revert to its T1 form when it took damage
- Fixed a bug where heroes could accrue Barbarity after Prisoners of War was researched
- Properly set up a Preload trigger to reduce presence of lag spikes in game
- Fixed a bug where Shadow Beam heals the full amount even if it kills a foe with minimal HP
- Fixed a bug where Enfeeble and Hook Bolt's buff would appear green (friendly)
- Shadowstep now instantly adds attack dmg bonus, and to illusions too
- Fixed a bug with Mana Frenzy that caused occasional lag spikes
- Fixed a bug with Domination Aura where Repair's level would not be improved if the Servant was already actively using Repair at time of upgrade. Also made it affect Slaves too.
- Made the Assassin's Deception illusion attack-move instead of simply move, when mimicing the Assassin's movement
- Fixed a minor bug where Espionage would not be able to be cast when Gul'dan was dead
- Fixed a bug where Empower would continue casting even when mana reached 0
Balance
- Changed Espionage to require either Gul'dan or Shadow Council to be nearby, instead of solely Gul'dan
- Nerfed lumber cost from 20 to 25 and time from 25 to 30
- Illusions created from Deception retain the Assassin's last order to help sell the illusion
- Nerfed mana cost from 50 to 60
- Nerfed cooldown after break from 2 to 6 seconds
- Increased Shadow Council's lumber cost from 170 to 215
- Added Protective Runes ability and upgrade. This is to prevent easy base snipes in the late game.
- Increased Stave of Treachery's duration from 30 to 60 seconds
- Based Spite off of Frost Armor; now it will only be autocast on units that are attacked
- Nerfed mana cost 35 -> 40
- Refined Shadow Council effects
- Add training particle emitters at gate
- GuldanResearch - added 2nd tier
- Improved T2 / T3 upgrade icons
- Improved Terrorfiend's portrait and spell animation
- Made Blood Haze's effect more epic, and added Portrait Alternate anims
- Gave Demonic Skull's effect a Medium anim so that it is visible on Cho'gall's model
- Fixed up a small oversight in Vile Hoard's tooltip
- Updated custom UI tooltip with separator, based off TasSpellView
- Fixed a bug where Empower's effects would go away if the hero transforms with abilities like Chemical Rage and Blood Haze
- Fixed a bug where Empower couldn't target friendly units
- Fixed a bug where sometimes Skeletal Reavers would not spawn from Spite
- Released
This faction was made using new natives introduced in patch 1.31+. As such, it will only work for newer versions of Wc3. In general, I recommend using the latest retail version to play it. This faction was made with SD and Classic HD in mind.
Previews
Reviews
- Joined
- May 14, 2020
- Messages
- 46
Genuenly great, would love to see death knights as an another unit there. I believe there is another slot for a building, so why not? I also think giving Gul'dan chaos damage on tier 3 wouldn't hurt either, but still, a great competetion to other ones in the contest.
- Joined
- May 28, 2020
- Messages
- 1,125
Excellent performance.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2017
- Messages
- 1,258
That's what I call "mix of old and new"! I played against random Normal AI, and he couldn't stand a chance against the might of the Old Horde.
Having a pseudo-hero unit for starters is always nice. Gathering slaves, in fact, is quite hard - I had properly built my 2 bases, and only then did I manage to use my slave pens to train free labor power. It would be nice to tweak the T1 upgrade to increase slave capturing from neutral enemies or just by attacking.
Units are strong, I didn't reach my T3 units and I destroyed my enemy already.
Overall, I couldn't remind myself of any issues I had when playing this race; it felt like a knife through butter - straightforward progression, smooth, powerful, enjoyable.
Like!
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2009
- Messages
- 5,682
Thank you very much for the playthrough!
I actually deliberately lowered the slave capturing (aka Barbarity) rate from neutral units, thinking it'd be OP if you could get a lot of slaves from early-game creeping! Definitely open to adjusting that as a balance lever throughout more playtests
.I think part of what made your game go so smoothly is the ease in which you expanded. I might look to tweak that aspect; either making an expo take longer or cost more, or a bit of both.
Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed the computer A.I. for Night Elf is quite bad. In fact, in my experience only Undead is decent at Normal and a challenge at Insane; I've found the other races fall over pretty easily.
Btw, Gul'dan's icon works very similarly to hero icons; you can double-click him (or double-press F4) and it'll snap the camera to him. You can even shift-click the button to add/remove him from your selection. The only thing I couldn't get to work was setting a rally-point by right-clicking his icon.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2009
- Messages
- 5,682
Released v1.01 Key updates:
Balance
Key updates:- Fleshed out information in the main post, including Heroes and Units
- Added the Protective Runes upgrade to add more late-game defensive capabilities. When researched, Shadow Councils gain bonus armor and a ranged attack so long as Gul'dan is nearby.
- Rebalanced numbers and tech requirements
Balance
- Changed Espionage to require either Gul'dan or Shadow Council to be nearby, instead of solely Gul'dan
- Nerfed lumber cost from 20 to 25 and time from 25 to 30
- Illusions created from Deception retain the Assassin's last order to help sell the illusion
- Nerfed mana cost from 50 to 60
- Nerfed cooldown after break from 2 to 6 seconds
- Increased Shadow Council's lumber cost from 170 to 215
- Added Protective Runes ability and upgrade. This is to prevent easy base snipes in the late game.
- Increased Stave of Treachery's duration from 30 to 60 seconds
- Based Spite off of Frost Armor; now it will only be autocast on units that are attacked
- Nerfed mana cost 35 -> 40
- Refined Shadow Council effects
- Add training particle emitters at gate
- GuldanResearch - added 2nd tier
- Improved T2 / T3 upgrade icons
- Improved Terrorfiend's portrait and spell animation
- Made Blood Haze's effect more epic, and added Portrait Alternate anims
- Gave Demonic Skull's effect a Medium anim so that it is visible on Cho'gall's model
- Fixed up a small oversight in Vile Hoard's tooltip
- Updated custom UI tooltip with separator, based off TasSpellView
- Fixed a bug where Empower's effects would go away if the hero transforms with abilities like Chemical Rage and Blood Haze
- Fixed a bug where Empower couldn't target friendly units
- Fixed a bug where sometimes Skeletal Reavers would not spawn from Spite
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2009
- Messages
- 5,682
Released v1.02, which is likely to be the last update before the techtree contest ends. Key updates:
(note that it was played on v1.01 of the map)
Balance
EDIT: 2025-08-16 - added a hotfix that made Touch of Darkness be overwritten by equipped orbs, by default
- Rework of Slavery mechanics:
- At base, Heroes and Proving Ground units generate Barbarity based on 25% of damage dealt to ground units (incl creeps) and structures
- Slave Raiding (formerly Prisoners of War) unlocks generating Barbarity as 100% of damage dealt to buildings, and grants extra Barbarity from attacking workers
- Slave Raiding research time: 40 -> 30
- The intention here is to provide a smoother transition to late-game Slave economy. It also allows you to gain some sacrificial fodder after clearing the first couple green creep camps. Rather than Prisoners of War being almost crucial to early-game slaves, Slave Raiding is a more optional tech that you would only research if specifically going for a base-raid style of gameplay.
- Replaced music with more ambient tracks
- Litany of bugfixes
(note that it was played on v1.01 of the map)Balance
- Rework of Slavery mechanics:
- At base, Heroes and Proving Ground units generate Barbarity based on 25% of damage dealt to ground units (incl creeps) and structures
- Slave Raiding (formerly Prisoners of War) unlocks generating Barbarity as 100% of damage dealt to buildings, and grants extra Barbarity from attacking workers
- Slave Raiding research time: 40 -> 30
- The intention here is to provide a smoother transition to late-game Slave economy. It also allows you to gain some sacrificial fodder after clearing the first couple green creep camps.
- Reduced the hit point upgrade from Runic Woodwork from 80 to 40
- Increased Dark Portal build time from 70 to 75
- Bloodbath:
- Added a larger area-of-effect based on the Food of the sacrificed unit
- Added full / half / quarter-damage radii
- Raised damage cap from 500/850/1200 to 600/900/1200
- Reduced maximum single-target damage from 200/300/400 to 120/180/240
- Tweaked % of sacrifice's HP dealt from 20/35/50% to 25/38/50%
- Increased Ogron's build time from 39 to 55 seconds
- Increased its Transported Size to 2
- Increased Bloodthirst's duration from 45 to 60 seconds
- Reduced cost of Mana Frenzy from 100/220 to 100/150
- Allowed Fel Breath to also affect buildings
- Changed Espionage's cooldown from 5 to 15 seconds after invisibility is broken
- Made a serious of changes to reduce effectiveness of tower rushes:
- Fel Obelisk and Infernal Obelisk HP reduced from 500 to 400
- Infernal Obelisk build time increased from 35 to 45; repair time set to 50
- Infernal Obelisk cost increased from 75/30 to 75/50
- Infernal Obelisk damage increased from 18-21 to 19-23
- Added Large animation tag to Fel Onagers
- Gave Zealots and Arbalists a collision shape for easier selection
- Slightly increased volume of Arbalist's voicelines
- Swapped out the Slave's model from an orc to a neutral one based off of the Wc3 Zombie
- Added voicelines from WotR
- Improved Bloodbath visuals, and added Medium & Large version
- Tweaked height of Assassin's feet during some animations
- Shortened time for Shadowstep's effect to disperse after its duration runs out
- Added level 2 and 3 slightly larger cloud models
- Added a new effect model for Spite and also an effect to enemies affected by Spite damage reflection
- Added a lightning effect for Soul Bond
- Improved the Build animation of several buildings
- Added a tooltip to Gul'dan's button when he is dead
- Replaced Warlorsd of Draenor music with more ambient music by Paleowolf on Youtube
- Fixed a bug where Gul'dan's icon would revert to its T1 form when it took damage
- Fixed a bug where heroes could accrue Barbarity after Prisoners of War was researched
- Properly set up a Preload trigger to reduce presence of lag spikes in game
- Fixed a bug where Shadow Beam heals the full amount even if it kills a foe with minimal HP
- Fixed a bug where Enfeeble and Hook Bolt's buff would appear green (friendly)
- Shadowstep now instantly adds attack dmg bonus, and to illusions too
- Fixed a bug with Mana Frenzy that caused occasional lag spikes
- Fixed a bug with Domination Aura where Repair's level would not be improved if the Servant was already actively using Repair at time of upgrade. Also made it affect Slaves too.
- Made the Assassin's Deception illusion attack-move instead of simply move, when mimicing the Assassin's movement
- Fixed a minor bug where Espionage would not be able to be cast when Gul'dan was dead
- Fixed a bug where Empower would continue casting even when mana reached 0
EDIT: 2025-08-16 - added a hotfix that made Touch of Darkness be overwritten by equipped orbs, by default
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Released v1.03! I had these changes in my backpocket for several months, but waited until the official Techtree Contest results were out. These contained mostly bugfixes (which I'm thankful the judges never found 
), but I also buffed a couple of elements which I felt needed uptuning.
Balance
EDIT: 2025-12-31 - hotfixed a bug where an empty tooltip would appear for non-Guldan players
), but I also buffed a couple of elements which I felt needed uptuning.Balance
- Buffed Necrolytes:
- Rune of Eradication dispel count down timer reduced from 5 seconds to 3; no longer dispels if the rune is killed
- Conjure Storm now affects structures too
- Buffed Ogre Sorceror's Bloodbath:
- Reduced cooldown from 12 seconds to 8
- Allowed it to damage structures
- Tweaked % of sacrifice's HP dealt from 25/38/50% to 30/45/60%
- Allowed Rod of Oblation's healing effect to stack up to 3 times for a single unit
- Increased the item's gold cost from 60 to 75
- Fixed a bug where Empower would cause Gul'dan to lose all mana if the target moved out of range
- Fixed a bug where Shadow Beam did not correctly heal a proximate ally
- Added logic to prioritize the closest unit, ceteris paribus
- Fixed a bug where double-pressing F4 would snap you to Gul'dan even when he was dead
- Fixed a bug where coded channeling abilities would continue even if the target was loaded in a transport
- Fixed a bug where Stave of Treachery would be immediately broken by a unit currently under an attacking order (based it off on Invisibility rather than a custom-coded permanent invis)
EDIT: 2025-12-31 - hotfixed a bug where an empty tooltip would appear for non-Guldan players
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deepstrasz
Map Reviewer
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Approved based on Techtree Contest #19 - Results Perhaps a bit more balance between building when Gul'dan is alive and no more building when he's dead. Either some units could build only a specific type of stuff like towers/farms or something or some units could be trained easier for proper defense until the hero revives. Just some thoughts.
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This was a very enjoyable representation of Gul'dan and the Shadow Council. Well deserving of first place in the previous contest.
I wanted to ask, would it be okay if I made use of that model edit you did for the Demonic Kobold? It is absolutely perfect as a flying Imp
I wanted to ask, would it be okay if I made use of that model edit you did for the Demonic Kobold? It is absolutely perfect as a flying Imp
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You may, but please also credit the base authors in my credits spreadsheet for that unit.This was a very enjoyable representation of Gul'dan and the Shadow Council. Well deserving of first place in the previous contest.
I wanted to ask, would it be okay if I made use of that model edit you did for the Demonic Kobold? It is absolutely perfect as a flying Imp
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Will do, thank you
I believe the base was Villagerino's model? I'll double check to make sure there isn't anybody I'm missing
EDIT: Ah, I see Mecheon is to be credited as well, so three people for this one, nice
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