[TC19] Arthas's Scourge - Undead faction

ddd deathknight · Jul 28, 2025

It's great, but it would be perfect if it work in1.27.

Riki · Jul 28, 2025

ddd deathknight said:
It's great, but it would be perfect if it work in1.27.

Sorry mate but it's impossible now, I stayed on 1.27 as long as I could but every day it's more and more difficult to work on two versions at the same time so, for me, the time has come to move to Reforged as well

FlameofChange · Jul 28, 2025

Here we go, me and my walls of text !
Take it as a unofficial review rather than a contest judgement.

From best to worse

VS] When Vinz and Spellbound makes something together on Warcraft 3

S] Great, elegant, extra thicc, easily hooks the mind

A] Good. Nothing much to say except nitpick

B] Genuinely OK, but can be better in many ways

C] Average. Not bad, not good. C- would be "meh"

D] Flawed, or insignificant

E] Unstable, badly made, or just broken

F] Fatal error, ruins the rest

Aesthetics S- (How well the graphics blends with Warcraft 3 while being elegant)

While not outrageously fancy, the coherence is there in a pleasant way. The custom visual quirks gives value and fits Warcraft 3. Of course you were limited to what an Arthas faction would look like.

Fluff S- (The epicness, spice, philosophy and background of the faction)

Nothing here is original at first glance, but the way it is used bring its lot of coherence. I am not a fan of the overextended fanfiction called WoW, but even without knowing the lore it gives a badass feeling. A bit the same remark as for Aesthetics about the limitations.

Feel & juice D (How fun is it to play the faction, how well the faction gives you positive feedback)

This is where it starts to hurt on the outcome side of things. There were effort to show eyecandy about the FX and abilities, but the balance destroyed a lot my notation there. Fixing the power of your faction will indirectly make it more rewarding and fun !

Strategy and tactic D (How the mechanics blends together, giving the faction its unique approach)

A lot of things looks good on paper, giving a vibe about the combo potential. But in practice I failed to find any usage. The synergy revolves around generating blight, soul essence and stacking power for Arthas. It has several problems :
☼ Making Arthas gaining soul essence only on its attacks pushes the player to farm those by engaging enemies only with him ; because other units don't generate it trivialy.
☼ Why the supply building can generate corpses YOU CAN'T EVEN USE IN ANY ABILITY ?! Or make the enemy crash by overstacking unit memory leak. More seriously. Nothing to consume corpses in the early game ? Its only use is for the Bone Garden, and I think you can't bring your Ossuaries with you on Invincible's back to enemy bases.
☼ Being limited to and only Arthas the whole game limits a lot the potential of two other heroes. You can't cover the clear weaknesses with support abilities. I understand your point however it makes the game design unbalanced. Late game high level heroes would be too much even for a full upgraded Arthas.
☼ Too reliant on blight, making Arthas too defensive while needing to smash stuff to gain soul essence
☼ Can't blight shallow water or unbuildable, shifting the fight engagement on buildable terrain which is not guaranteed in any map ; furthermore some faction might have access to trivial blight dispel, other don't
☼ No reliable source of healing
☼ Walled by mechanical factions, or maps with a lot of mechanical creeps.

Balance E+ (How its strengths leave space to the rest, does it blends gameplay-wise together with the other 4 races)

It is more a problem of too weak rather than too strong. Apostate lumber gather is quite strong with 1 lumber per second without needing walking time, which is 50% faster than wisps (0.66/s). Lower amounts of lumber gatherers leave more food for something else. That's for the "too stong side". For the rest... most of the units doesn't worth much of their price.
☼ Husks are much too frail to be fully usable. Ghouls at least have cannibalize very early on so you can creep more comfortably. Their upgrades pushes them towards later T2 and T3 use but other units fill this role better. Even with that the effects of its abilities are too low for its price. You may get a couple of them to help creeping but you don't even have any source of healing to fully use them. They are just free XP for enemy heroes.
☼ Weavers DPS is not worth mentioning. It needs (!!!) techs to have something to say against air, but as a T1.5 combat unit it is completely outmatched by all the other ones. You can't even do a mass weaver in early game. 18+1D4 every 1.7 seconds is 12 DPS, 15 at tier 3. 14 for crypt fiends which have better HP and range, 18.5 at Tier 3. And can benefit to better buffs. Do you see the problem ?
☼ Wretched doesn't benefit from attack upgrades, is this intentional ? Even if not it is a very terrible combat unit, too expensive to use at Tier 2, outclassed at tier 3. Its stacking effect could be ok on paper, but massing them brings some risks as you can't reliably keep them alive.
☼ Unraveler healing is much too low, while being the least worse combat healing of your faction ! Desecrate is severly underpowered too. 120 mana for 40% movement speed reduction ? Yes it may spawn blight but the bonuses you get from it are terrible and dependant on the terrain.
☼ Corpse titan is much too expensive and has a completely hilarious attack speed. Its abilities and upgrades are both unpractical and underpowered. it may have some use to tank ranged compositions, but its 1 base armor makes it melting away too easily.
☼ Cinderwing OP. Too high DPS for its price and food cost.
☼ Ossuary too expensive for the provided food while its corpse generation is much too situational.
☼ Wailing spires also OP. Cheap, builds fast (!!!) and summons like undead ; even if its DPS is not awesome you can proxy towers like a jackal.
☼ Custom items are also very underpowered, while having synergy potential with your other interesting mechanics.

Content B- (Does the faction feels complete compared to its intent and the other races)

There's very good points and very bad ones. The good point is the unit designs are varied and there's no overlap. Custom items, much of the roles filled, and you can find what you need quickly. The main bad point is the lack of combat healing and at least two other heroes. A compromise would be to start with Arthas First and then summon its lieutenants as heroes in T2 and T3. Some additional units and/or mechanics won't be too much, but it's good as it is.

Handling & ergonomics D (Does this faction have the proper data shown, how easy is it to understand)

Don't get mistaken. The handling and desc are good & thoughtful. The faction is not very hard to handle. Some micro needed but nothing mad.
However there's three main annoying things to workaround (or at least which I found) :
☼ Apostate idle icon is often displayed and selects other working ones.
☼ Depending on UI scale, the soul essence rectangle overlaps tooltip, so I had to sometimes guess a third of the missing text
☼ Even when disabled, Preservation keeps being auto-casted somewhat
Without those three it would easily go to at least A+

Triggers, code, overall polishing A+ (Is the map correctly coded, no leaks, have efficient algorithm, are details taken care of)

More polishing should be done on the balance, but that's some good ol' clean VJASS you got there.
You can push it even further by setting correctly some remaining projectile launch/impact XY, and making haunted mine sound stone.
For the imports, you don't need the war3mapimported nor the ReplacableTextures/CommandButton/.

Contest rules C+ (Only relevant in a Tech tree contest)

The core principle is there, but lacking at least two other heroes makes it uncomfortable gameplaywise. I could be harsh over there. The balance sadly takes away a lot of the enjoyement.

Overall tier C

I can't feel the potential of the faction since it is so underpowered in many ways. But overall it is the only main problem. Once figured out it would catch up easily the rest.

Personal taste D (No impact on the rest of the notation, just by curiosity)

Right now the faction is beating me. I can't even push against normal AI, so imagine another experienced player.
Even with the balance fixes, the overall trigger quality and the Arthas pivot I can't grasp something that I really like in this faction. I can help you with balance, unless it was very hasted in the last minute. It is clear you put a lot of effort to custom make everything, which I can only genuinely praise you for it. It is the only custom faction of yours I played, so I don't know your experience level on balancing them.

Riki · Jul 28, 2025

FlameofChange said:
Here we go, me and my walls of text !
Take it as a unofficial review rather than a contest judgement.

From best to worse

VS] When Vinz and Spellbound makes something together on Warcraft 3
S] Great, elegant, extra thicc, easily hooks the mind
A] Good. Nothing much to say except nitpick
B] Genuinely OK, but can be better in many ways
C] Average. Not bad, not good. C- would be "meh"
D] Flawed, or insignificant
E] Unstable, badly made, or just broken
F] Fatal error, ruins the rest

Aesthetics S- (How well the graphics blends with Warcraft 3 while being elegant)

While not outrageously fancy, the coherence is there in a pleasant way. The custom visual quirks gives value and fits Warcraft 3. Of course you were limited to what an Arthas faction would look like.
Fluff S- (The epicness, spice, philosophy and background of the faction)

Nothing here is original at first glance, but the way it is used bring its lot of coherence. I am not a fan of the overextended fanfiction called WoW, but even without knowing the lore it gives a badass feeling. A bit the same remark as for Aesthetics about the limitations.
Feel & juice D (How fun is it to play the faction, how well the faction gives you positive feedback)

This is where it starts to hurt on the outcome side of things. There were effort to show eyecandy about the FX and abilities, but the balance destroyed a lot my notation there. Fixing the power of your faction will indirectly make it more rewarding and fun !
Strategy and tactic D (How the mechanics blends together, giving the faction its unique approach)

A lot of things looks good on paper, giving a vibe about the combo potential. But in practice I failed to find any usage. The synergy revolves around generating blight, soul essence and stacking power for Arthas. It has several problems :
☼ Making Arthas gaining soul essence only on its attacks pushes the player to farm those by engaging enemies only with him ; because other units don't generate it trivialy.
☼ Why the supply building can generate corpses YOU CAN'T EVEN USE IN ANY ABILITY ?! Or make the enemy crash by overstacking unit memory leak. More seriously. Nothing to consume corpses in the early game ? Its only use is for the Bone Garden, and I think you can't bring your Ossuaries with you on Invincible's back to enemy bases.
☼ Being limited to and only Arthas the whole game limits a lot the potential of two other heroes. You can't cover the clear weaknesses with support abilities. I understand your point however it makes the game design unbalanced. Late game high level heroes would be too much even for a full upgraded Arthas.
☼ Too reliant on blight, making Arthas too defensive while needing to smash stuff to gain soul essence
☼ Can't blight shallow water or unbuildable, shifting the fight engagement on buildable terrain which is not guaranteed in any map ; furthermore some faction might have access to trivial blight dispel, other don't
☼ No reliable source of healing
☼ Walled by mechanical factions, or maps with a lot of mechanical creeps.
Balance E+ (How its strengths leave space to the rest, does it blends gameplay-wise together with the other 4 races)

It is more a problem of too weak rather than too strong. Apostate lumber gather is quite strong with 1 lumber per second without needing walking time, which is 50% faster than wisps (0.66/s). Lower amounts of lumber gatherers leave more food for something else. That's for the "too stong side". For the rest... most of the units doesn't worth much of their price.
☼ Husks are much too frail to be fully usable. Ghouls at least have cannibalize very early on so you can creep more comfortably. Their upgrades pushes them towards later T2 and T3 use but other units fill this role better. Even with that the effects of its abilities are too low for its price. You may get a couple of them to help creeping but you don't even have any source of healing to fully use them. They are just free XP for enemy heroes.
☼ Weavers DPS is not worth mentioning. It needs (!!!) techs to have something to say against air, but as a T1.5 combat unit it is completely outmatched by all the other ones. You can't even do a mass weaver in early game. 18+1D4 every 1.7 seconds is 12 DPS, 15 at tier 3. 14 for crypt fiends which have better HP and range, 18.5 at Tier 3. And can benefit to better buffs. Do you see the problem ?
☼ Wretched doesn't benefit from attack upgrades, is this intentional ? Even if not it is a very terrible combat unit, too expensive to use at Tier 2, outclassed at tier 3. Its stacking effect could be ok on paper, but massing them brings some risks as you can't reliably keep them alive.
☼ Unraveler healing is much too low, while being the least worse combat healing of your faction ! Desecrate is severly underpowered too. 120 mana for 40% movement speed reduction ? Yes it may spawn blight but the bonuses you get from it are terrible and dependant on the terrain.
☼ Corpse titan is much too expensive and has a completely hilarious attack speed. Its abilities and upgrades are both unpractical and underpowered. it may have some use to tank ranged compositions, but its 1 base armor makes it melting away too easily.
☼ Cinderwing OP. Too high DPS for its price and food cost.
☼ Ossuary too expensive for the provided food while its corpse generation is much too situational.
☼ Wailing spires also OP. Cheap, builds fast (!!!) and summons like undead ; even if its DPS is not awesome you can proxy towers like a jackal.
☼ Custom items are also very underpowered, while having synergy potential with your other interesting mechanics.
Content B- (Does the faction feels complete compared to its intent and the other races)

There's very good points and very bad ones. The good point is the unit designs are varied and there's no overlap. Custom items, much of the roles filled, and you can find what you need quickly. The main bad point is the lack of combat healing and at least two other heroes. A compromise would be to start with Arthas First and then summon its lieutenants as heroes in T2 and T3. Some additional units and/or mechanics won't be too much, but it's good as it is.
Handling & ergonomics D (Does this faction have the proper data shown, how easy is it to understand)

Don't get mistaken. The handling and desc are good & thoughtful. The faction is not very hard to handle. Some micro needed but nothing mad.
However there's three main annoying things to workaround (or at least which I found) :
☼ Apostate idle icon is often displayed and selects other working ones.
☼ Depending on UI scale, the soul essence rectangle overlaps tooltip, so I had to sometimes guess a third of the missing text
☼ Even when disabled, Preservation keeps being auto-casted somewhat
Without those three it would easily go to at least A+
Triggers, code, overall polishing A+ (Is the map correctly coded, no leaks, have efficient algorithm, are details taken care of)

More polishing should be done on the balance, but that's some good ol' clean VJASS you got there.
You can push it even further by setting correctly some remaining projectile launch/impact XY, and making haunted mine sound stone.
For the imports, you don't need the war3mapimported nor the ReplacableTextures/CommandButton/.
Contest rules C+ (Only relevant in a Tech tree contest)

The core principle is there, but lacking at least two other heroes makes it uncomfortable gameplaywise. I could be harsh over there. The balance sadly takes away a lot of the enjoyement.
Overall tier C

I can't feel the potential of the faction since it is so underpowered in many ways. But overall it is the only main problem. Once figured out it would catch up easily the rest.
Personal taste D (No impact on the rest of the notation, just by curiosity)

Right now the faction is beating me. I can't even push against normal AI, so imagine another experienced player.
Even with the balance fixes, the overall trigger quality and the Arthas pivot I can't grasp something that I really like in this faction. I can help you with balance, unless it was very hasted in the last minute. It is clear you put a lot of effort to custom make everything, which I can only genuinely praise you for it. It is the only custom faction of yours I played, so I don't know your experience level on balancing them.

Thank you, yeah I know the faction suffers of being underpowered so detailed feedback like this is always welcome. Well, time to re-balance and check again. I might release a patch later today or tomorrow.

The Nightmare Book · Jul 29, 2025

FlameofChange said:
Personal taste D (No impact on the rest of the notation, just by curiosity)

Right now the faction is beating me. I can't even push against normal AI, so imagine another experienced player.

...Beating you, huh?

I played this race in 1 vs 1, and I liked how aggressive it should be. Husks are a perfect cannon fodder for Arthas, and with an upgrade, you can get enough soul essences to level the essential talent that allows Arthas to heal from enemies via his AOE.
Healing casters are always a likeable asset for any faction.
Blight spreading is another issue, but if you quickly secure the 2 more gold mines, you will get your passive income and be able to swarm the enemy out.
Arthas is a strong hero, yet mana regeneration is an issue for him.

I liked this race and can't say that it's weak. I would still agree that it requires some tweaks, but only minor ones.
I played against Normal AI Orc.

FlameofChange · Jul 29, 2025

The Nightmare Book said:
...Beating you, huh?

I played this race in 1 vs 1, and I liked how aggressive it should be. Husks are a perfect cannon fodder for Arthas, and with an upgrade, you can get enough soul essences to level the essential talent that allows Arthas to heal from enemies via his AOE.
Healing casters are always a likeable asset for any faction.
Blight spreading is another issue, but if you quickly secure the 2 more gold mines, you will get your passive income and be able to swarm the enemy out.
Arthas is a strong hero, yet mana regeneration is an issue for him.

I liked this race and can't say that it's weak. I would still agree that it requires some tweaks, but only minor ones.
I played against Normal AI Orc.

Cannon fodder is NEVER a good idea in Warcraft 3, since you are feeding the enemy with free XP ; unless you deny every single one of them.
One single mistake and you can't recover enough, as their heroes get stronger. It is also a waste of money as every penny counts in this game.
The healing from Arthas is too late to be of use.
You also were 1v1, so more space to creep, less chance to encounter the AI. I test it with full house to avoid taking advantages of more efficient creeping.
We however agree on the the blight effects being too tertiary, since raw power and Arthas abilities do the heavy lifting.

Riki · Jul 29, 2025

Working on patch guys, just wait a little longer.

Edit: Ok guys here is the (first) update. I'm still testing so there will most likely be new patches soon. Please, if any of you find bugs or have any suggestions you can let me know.

Map updated:

Bugfixes:
-Fixed a serious desync error caused by the talents mechanic on multiplayer matches.
-Fixed a bug that was causing Unravelers to cast Preservation automatically when the autocast was disabled.
-Fixed an issue that was allowing to select Apostates working on lumber with the idle worker icon even despite they weren't inactive. (a workaround actually, blame Blizzard for this one)

Balance:
-Increased the base hit point regeneration over blight for all units from 1 to 2.
-Corpses generated by Ossuaries are no longer stored inside the building.
-Ossuaries now have a new ability: Embalming. Embalming consumes one of the nearby corpse to heal nearby allied units for 60 hit points.
-Increased the Apostates lumber gathering sequence from every 2 seconds to every 3 seconds.
-Reap cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds. Now it is a tier 1 upgrade (reduced from tier 2).
-Voracity attack speed bonus increased from 20% to 35% and duration increased from 14 to 18 seconds. Now it is an autocast ability.
-Unyielding Hunger basic lifesteal bonus increased from 25% to 35%. Now it is a tier 2 upgrade (reduced from tier 3).
-Pact of the Damned now also allows Husks to have a 40% chance to generate 1 Soul Essence per attack.
-Pact of the Damned upgrade lumber cost increased from 50 to 75.
-Pact of the Damned and Voracity upgrades has exchanged icon positions.
-Weaver base attack cooldown time reduced from 1.7 to 1.55, base damage increased from 18 to 19, attack range increased from 470 to 520 and gold cost reduced from 220 to 210.
-Wretched build time reduced from 40 to 37 seconds, gold cost reduced from 230 to 215 and lumber cost reduced from 55 to 45.
-Grim Aegis damage reduction increased from 9% to 10%, damage reduction limit increased from 36% to 40%. Now also takes into account nearby Heroes, melee or ranged, for the bonus.
-Preservation healing per second increased from 4 to 5 and bonus armor reduced from 3 to 2.
-Desecrate movement speed reduction increased from 40% to 50%, mana cost reduced from 120 to 75 and cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.
-Corpse Titan base attack cooldown time reduced from 2.65 to 2.15 and base armor increased from 1 to 4.
-Pestilent Barrage hit point cost reduced from 200 to 160 and now can also target mechanical units.
-Mortuary Shield now also grants damage resistance against the attacks of mechanical units.
-Cinderwing base damage against air reduced from 31 to 28, base attack cooldown time increased from 1.6 to 1.7 and gold cost increased from 180 to 190.
-Wailing Spires hit points reduced from 550 to 520 and build time increased from 55 to 60.
-Deadly Burst healing increased from 35 to 60 and blight area increased from 350 to 400.

Others:
-Moved the Soul Essence indicator to the top.
-Re-enabled the 3 hero limit (my bad, I limited it to 1 for testing purposes and forgot to remove it)

Riki · Aug 1, 2025

Map updated:

Balance:
-The faction will now start with 4 Apostates instead of 3.
-Ossuary gold cost increased from 140 to 155, lumber cost reduced from 60 to 50 and food produced increased from 8 to 10.
-Embalming healing reduced from 60 to 45 and area of effect increased from 400 to 550. Now it is an autocast ability.
-Unyielding Hunger upgrade gold cost reduced from 125 to 75 and lumber cost reduced from 175 to 125.
-Air enemies affected by Silk Anchor will now take extra damage from Weavers equal to 4% of their current hit points.
-Added the return lumber ability to Plagueworks.
-Wailing Spires level set to 1.
-Frostmourne's Hunger now will generate Soul Essence on every attack (it previously had a 40% chance on attacks). Soul essence generated was reduced from 2 to 1 (against Heroes was reduced from 5 to 4)
-Marwyn's Dagger gold cost increased from 90 to 125. Now also grant a 10% lifesteal effect to Heroes attacks (stacks with other lifesteal effects).

Others:
-Minor code improvements to a few triggers.
-Minor changes to some tooltips.
-Added an additional special effect to Wretches when they activate Grim Aegis.

I didn't intend to do a double post, but since no one has left a comment since my previous post, I felt it was necessary to give the patch some more visibility.

stein123 · Aug 1, 2025

Love it

Footman16 · Aug 1, 2025

Just want to say in response to Flame that blight does work on shallow and unbuildable terrain, it just doesn't show visually but if you use the blight check it'll show as blighted.

Riki · Aug 2, 2025

Map updated:

Bugfixes:
-Fixed a bug that caused Apostates to, sometimes, not harvest lumber.

Balance:
-Reduced the amount of charges required to trigger Deadly Burst from 25 to 20.

GhostThruster · Aug 2, 2025

Played a few games of this faction v1.21, and overall think it's well-designed, visually pleasing, but needs tuning up.

Good

Audiovisuals are fantastic across everything.
The custom UI frame is neat and easy to access. Soul Essence is implemented in a simple and intuitive manner.
Thematically, the growth of Arthas in power as a reflection of his path towards becoming the Lich King ticks many great boxes. This does feel like a faction where Arthas is the commander.
Units are thematically distinct and intuitive. Their stats are generally well-balanced, though sometimes their abilities left me wanting more.
- Except Harvesters. Those guys fuck.
Despite the novel Path system, I think this faction nails the right level of complexity for a "5th race". The Path system can take a bit of time to get across (the vast texts of lore are intimidating rather than helpful), but it's roughly as complex as having to learn 4 x 3 hero abilities in a normal faction.
Underrated for custom factions, but you virtually nail the assignment for custom items.
- Maybe the only miss is Marwyn's Dagger; because it's permanent and has such a great effect, it's basically a no-brainer to get. There is no situation where you don't want this item on any and every hero, and unlike other "no-brainers" like Orb of Corruption or Staff of Sanctuary, it's not locked behind tech and has little opportunity cost.

Lacking

I'm a pretty competent 1v1 melee player, and I have to agree with FlameOfChange that this faction feels very undertuned. I played 2 games vs Comp Insane - both of which I was up an expo the entire game. The first game I lost, and the second game I won only by massing Harvesters.
- Arthas scales very poorly compared to default heroes. Pretty much every ability beyond their base level 1 version, except Sindragosa, needs to be tuned up. The worst example is Dreadstrike - which at its peak deals less than 200 dmg with a pitiful self-heal. Not to mention it being melee cast range is a total vibe killer. The standard Death Knight's Coil puts this ability to shame.
- Across the board, a whole bunch of unit abilities feel numerically undertuned. Bone Garden is a more expensive, less spammable, T3-locked Raise Dead. Silk Anchor feels like a worse web. False Echo's illusions are virtually useless on account of taking 4x damage.
- Your faction also is lacking in healing, particularly burst heals. Embalming is way too weak compared to other races' capabilities. If it heals 45 seconds for every corpse, and a corpse is regenerated every 20 seconds - it's effectively healing 2.25 HP per second. That's basically only slightly better than blight, and it's way worse than Regen Scroll / Heal Salve / Moon Wells / Ritual Dagger + Death Coil.
- Only the Unraveler has any decent stun/disable (Desecrate). Unlike default Undead which compensates with the powerful Coil + Nova combo and better move speed (Unholy Aura), you don't really offer any capabilities for your army to force a fight or punish out-of-position foes. Glacial Tomb is too niche to do anything.
While the units are generally well designed thematically, the one gripe I have is I feel you could've been a bit more inspired with your T1 and your buildings. The T1 hit a bit too close to home to Undead. Each building, down to the models, were also very reminiscent of UD.
You haven't really designed around the Tavern-hero debacle. Theoretically, I could play your Arthas faction and get 3 non-Undead heroes without Arthas showing any presence
Soul Essence's design has room for more depth.
- In its current incarnation, it's not far removed from normal hero EXP. The major difference is some unit abilities also generate it. I felt there is more room to explore it as a tertiary resource.
- There is no functionality for surplus Soul Essence; when Arthas becomes the Lich King, the mechanic falls to the wayside.
- I wish there was an analogue to Tome of Retraining, where Arthas could retrain talents somehow. And rather than his progression being collectively exhaustive, perhaps choices need to be made between certain talents. This could also double as a way to spend surplus Soul Essence, and in effect could be a way for you to "tech switch".

Nitpicks

Birth anim for some buildings is way too big; to fix this, you just need to scale down the BirthLink at starting keyframe of its birth anim in Magos
Reap has the same hotkey as Repair
The custom UI is obviously not made by you, but a minor thing is I think the command card would be better if the icon grid was black. As it is now, passive / disabled icons kinda stand out in a bad way.
Corporeal Form causes lag spikes on Apparitions

Riki · Aug 2, 2025

@GhostThruster thank you, man this faction has been a pain to balance so far. Usually my races start out very strong and I have to nerf them, but starting out too weak and having to buff is actually harder tbh. Ok here comes another patch lol, although this time I would like to point out a few things first.

GhostThruster said:
Silk Anchor feels like a worse web

It was before 1.2, but take in consideration that now Weavers also deal a good punch of damage against trapped enemies by also dealing a percentage of their life. The enemy is forced to leave their flying units within range at the risk of being mowed down by the Weavers, or risk driving them away and activating the web.

GhostThruster said:
and a corpse is regenerated every 20 seconds

Every 15 seconds actually lol, but yeah I just buffed that ability a little more.

GhostThruster said:
You haven't really designed around the Tavern-hero debacle. Theoretically, I could play your Arthas faction and get 3 non-Undead heroes without Arthas showing any presence

For this race, tavern Heroes require Arthas to be trained first.

GhostThruster said:
There is no functionality for surplus Soul Essence

Every 1 stored Soul Essence also gives Arthas more critical chance and more critical damage for both basic attacks and spells damage.

GhostThruster said:
Birth anim for some buildings is way too big; to fix this, you just need to scale down the BirthLink at starting keyframe of its birth anim in Magos

Lol sorry but I don't touch anything related to models. That's beyond my abilities.

GhostThruster said:
Corporeal Form causes lag spikes on Apparitions

Ok this one is weird, I haven't detected lag spikes when using that ability so far.

Map updated:

Balance:
-Embalming healing increased from 45 to 75.
-Bone Garden mana cost reduced from 150 to 140 and cooldown to summon new Boneguards reduced from 5 to 4 seconds. Now generates a blight area on summon.
-False Echo mana cost reduced from 150 to 135 and damage taken by illusion reduced from 400% to 275%.
-Glacial Tomb movement speed reduction increased from 20% to 35%. Now also reduces enemies' attack speed by 15%.
-Spectral Assault (Dreadstrike level 2 upgrade) bonus damage increased from 160 to 180.
-Decimate (Dreadstrike level 3 upgrade) will now also increase Dreadstrike damage to 240 and healing to 130.
-Eternal Agony damage per second increased from 20 to 25.
-Death Siphon (Eternal Agony level 2 upgrade) bonus damage per second increased from 30 to 35.
-Army of the Dead (Eternal Agony level 3 upgrade) will now also increase Eternal Agony healing per enemy to 18.
-March of the Scourge chance to deal bonus damage on blight increased from 25% to 35%.
-Spirit Grinder (March of the Scourge level 2 upgrade) will now also increase March of the Scourge aura damage bonus to 20%.
-Apocalypse Now (March of the Scourge level 3 upgrade) aura bonus damage increased from 20% to 24%.
-Phantom Steed mana cost reduced from 150 to 135.
-Unholy Iceshock (Phantom Steed level 2 upgrade) will now also slow enemies affected by the enhanced attack.
-Marwyn's Dagger lifesteal effect changed to mana gained per hit instead. Bonus reduced from 10% to 7%.

Others:
-Changed Reap hotkey from R to X.

Riki · Aug 10, 2025

Map updated:

Balance:
-Embalming healing reduced from 75 to 65.
-Weaver base attack cooldown increased from 1.55 to 1.62.
-Corpse Titan base attack cooldown increased from 2.15 to 2.25 and base hit point regeneration reduced from 6 to 4.

Others:
-The searching range for new trees of Apostates lumber harvest system has been increased.
-Some little improvements to the autocast sequence of Preservation.
-Reduced the delay on the morphing duration of Phantom Glide.

FlameofChange · Aug 21, 2025

Ah shit, here we go again.

From best to worse

VS] When Vinz and Spellbound makes something together on Warcraft 3

S] Great, elegant, extra thicc, easily hooks the mind

A] Good. Nothing much to say except nitpick

B] Genuinely OK, but can be better in many ways

C] Average. Not bad, not good. C- would be "meh"

D] Flawed, or insignificant

E] Unstable, badly made, or just broken

F] Fatal error, ruins the rest

Aesthetics S- ► S (How well the graphics blends with Warcraft 3 while being elegant)

The small icon upgrades here and there makes it better. It was already good. Now it's better.

Fluff S- ► S (The epicness, spice, philosophy and background of the faction)

Now we feel the Arthas comin'. Oh yeah. It could be expanded by adding secondary heroes from his lieutenant.

Feel & juice D ► A+ (How fun is it to play the faction, how well the faction gives you positive feedback)

The gameplay upgrades makes the faction much more pleasant to play, but some units are funnier than others.

Strategy and tactic D ► A (How the mechanics blends together, giving the faction its unique approach)

I won't say it's night and day, on the other hand it is much better than before. The synergy has taken shape but some details might need to be reworked no matter the balance.
☼ The Weaver place is still concerning. Its web abilities doesn't guarantee to land an enemy air unit on cast so its anti-air role is compromised
☼ An ensnare item with charges doesn't incite its use, since you pay for each usage
☼ They still get walled by mechanical factions or doomstacks, as most of the abilities targets organic

Balance E+ ► B (How its strengths leave space to the rest, does it blends gameplay-wise together with the other 4 races)

The balance choices gone from awful to awkward yet functioning. There's no feeling of being underpowered nor OP, which is a very good sign. However some elements needs further tuning
☼ Lumber harvesting might seem a bit too fast for my taste, could be an impression, but I would definitely test it with a slightly slower rate to be sure
☼ The weaver is still underpowered for its role and place in the early and late game
☼ The harvester might have a too high punch for its role and price. You don't need much transitioning to access them since from tier 2 to tier 3 you already have the caster barracks. It is maybe a matter of reducing its base damage by 5-10.
☼ The Anubarak consumable is too expensive to become interesting. You might make it AoE with a rapid fire burst, that should be within you capabilities
☼ The Wyrm Jr. looks underpowered in its damage dealing role, and the Harvester is more versatile in this regard. Expensive and outclassed by other heavy air with balanced resources. Its ability is interesting but behind a pay wall. I don't think it is a problem from his AoE attack, but you may reduce a bit its attack cooldown to 2.75-3.25. For its passive the idea is correct, however could be made weaker and unlocked by default, with the cheaper upgrade putting its power back to before. You may even make it AoE so it can ease a bit destroying small stacked buildings.
☼ The corpse titan may be changed into a beefier 6-7 food power level and make his abilities easier to use. Now its power is quite low for its price, I would definitely increase even more its attack speed, to maybe 1.9-2.1.

Content B- ► B (Does the faction feels complete compared to its intent and the other races)

Lacking the two other minimal heroes and impactful item is still a concern, but the rest of the faction found a better place compared to others. This is a consequence to the strategy and balance you cooked, so any upgrades would indirectly benefit there.

Handling & ergonomics D ► B+ (Does this faction have the proper data shown, how easy is it to understand)

Most of the issues have been addressed, but this is not enough to be flawless. The descriptions are plenty & precise, this is not the problem.
☼ You might need to add the following feedbacks signs
►► When generating soul essence, a small floating text would be welcomed
►► Have a sound warning when you reach the 100 max soul essence, and make the UI indicator in a different color & blink a bit
►► When the soul essence is capped, replace the floating text by something like "caped !"
►► Replace the hero spell upgrade icon when Arthas has an available upgrade to pick
►► Make the hero spell upgrade icon different when everything is bought
☼ Arthas ability bonuses not being in multiple of 5 might make data acknowledgement a bit tedious for first timers (I'm not talking about stats bonus, they are fine)

Triggers, code, overall polishing A+ (Is the map correctly coded, no leaks, have efficient algorithm, are details taken care of)

The polish is still solid, but the active spell management and soul generation UX could benefit from improvements like mentioned in Handling & ergonomics. There's also some minor concerns :
☼ Some auto abilities should be enabled by default, and code some workarounds to activate them when researched
☼ The Pestilent barrage would benefit from being automatic, cast on an attacked building not being affected and the corpse titan having enough HP. Also it cannot target ancients since they are not counted as mechanical, is this intentional ?
☼ Harvester might attack enemies you don't see with its multi shot, is this intentional ?
☼ The apostate charging the main building to enable a global effect is a good concept, but that implies spending additional gold and food to get it in the early game, or wait for goldmine expiration to benefit. You might make them auto use it when right clicking the main building if it has full HP.

Contest rules C+ ► A+ (Only relevant in a Tech tree contest)

I'm still concerned by the lack of more heroes, but for a contest you surely have a complete state. Some additional polishing in UX and balance should definitely scratch more points.

Overall tier C ► A

The balance made it much better, but has still ways to improve further. Most people should have fun playing around with your faction ; on the other undead hand it is not ready for competitive play yet.

Personal taste D ► S- (No impact on the rest of the notation, just by curiosity)

I praise more the faction design than my gameplay experience on it, still the later is solid by my standards. The effort really payed off ! I would definitely play it more often when the balance gets some deserved love. The rest is up to you.

deepstrasz · Jan 3, 2026

Approved based on Techtree Contest #19 - Results


Soul Essence The infamous blade Frostmourne, was the mourneblade of the Lich King. It possessed the power to shatter and imprison the souls of its victims and could remake the living into mindless undead. In Arthas's hands the blade spilled the blood of kings, destroyed nations, and inflicted several permanent scars on the world. To represent the blade's terrible powers, Soul Essence is an abstract representation of the souls consumed and trapped by Frostmourne. Soul Essence is obtained through various means, such as Arthas's attacks and spells, and certain abilities or upgrades for units. It plays an essential part in the development of Arthas as a Hero and can also enhance his attacks and abilities. "Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit"	Arthas's Path The best way to tell Arthas's story as the Lich King's champion is by reviewing his countless list of kills and atrocities, and the trail of destruction left in his wake. In game, Arthas has both a lower amount of starting attributes and a lower attribute gain per level. So instead, by using the Soul Essence he collects along the way, he can permanently boost himself and his abilities by spending on Arthas's Path talents. This talent menu takes the place of the usual hero skills menu and allows for a more interactive way of tracking the Death Knight's progress. Unlocking all the talents will be difficult due to the amount of souls you will have to harvest, but in return you will obtain unparalleled power waiting for you. "Your young prince will find only death in the cold north"	The Lich King The ultimate reward for completing the Arthas's Path comes in the form of obtaining the hero's ultimate form: his transformation into the Lich King itself. So, in this way, Arthas will obtain one last permanent bonus to his attributes and will replace his ultimate ability with a new one: Summon Sindragosa. The mighty wyrm will bring benefits when fighting alongside Arthas and adds additional support to your armies while active. "Return the blade. Complete the circle. Release me from this prison!"


Blight The blight is usually portrayed as a side effect, just a consequence of the Scourge's presence on conquered lands. For me, the blight isn't just a side effect or consequence; but the representation of the relentless advance of the undead troops and the trail of desolation they leave wherever they go. Following this line of thinking, many of Arthas's troops will gain advantages when fighting over blight, in addition to having various abilities that allow to spread it. "It's as if the land around the granary is... dying"	Cult of the Damned Members of the Cult of the Damned are promised eternal life and complete equality beneath the iron fist of the Lich King. In exchange, they serve the temple and proffer their magic and their souls to the power of the Cult. Apostates are loyal servants of Arthas's cause and perform numerous tasks for the benefit of the Scourge. These tasks include summoning structures, gathering resources, harvesting souls, and defending the base by channeling auras onto the Scourge's main structures. "Greetings, great lord. Our master, Kel'Thuzad, told us that you would come"	Merciless Siege Arthas's Scourge heavily focuses on bringing siege and devastation upon their enemies. Siege options are vast thanks to their numerous creatures and long-range weapons that can take out enemy bases and lay waste upon enemy formations, all while receiving support from their spellcasters and heavy melee defensive units that can mitigate the enemy damage for them. "Bring up the meat wagons! We'll make our own entrance"

[TC19] Arthas's Scourge - Undead faction

[TC19] Arthas's Scourge (Map)

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