Warcraft III: Reforged Patch Notes Version 1.32.9 – October 20, 2020 After extensive testing and careful observation of multiple tournaments, we’re happy to release this Version 1.32.9 Balance Update. This Balance Update focuses on changes to improve the Human vs. Undead and Orc vs. Night Elf matchups, with some quality of life changes and some long outstanding community requests. Thank you very much to you, the community. You were instrumental in guiding these changes. The feedback we receiv…

Warcraft III: Reforged Patch Notes
Version 1.32.9 – October 21, 2020

After extensive testing and careful observation of multiple tournaments, we’re happy to release this Version 1.32.9 Balance Update. This Balance Update focuses on changes to improve the Human vs. Undead and Orc vs. Night Elf matchups, with some quality of life changes and some long outstanding community requests.

Thank you very much to you, the community. You were instrumental in guiding these changes. The feedback we received through posts, videos, and tournaments were greatly appreciated.

We’d also like to thank Back2Warcaft, Dreamhack, ESL, WCG, WGL, and all of the community contributors who produced amazing games and content during these times. Your feedback was invaluable.

Human

• Castle research gold cost reduced from 360 to 320.
  • Developers’ notes: The goal here is to increase the incentive of Human to go to Castle, as well as promote some one-base options.
• Peasants HP increased from 220 to 230.
  • Developers’ notes: Increasing their health slightly should help players manage the early game harassment.
• Mountain King damage reduced from 60/115/160 to 60/110/150.
• Rifleman attack delay reduced from 1.4 to 1.35.
  • Developers’ notes: With the additional changes to Human, we felt that this previous change needed to be reverted.
• Spell Breaker armor reduced from 3 to 2.
  • Developers’ notes: The goal here is to try to get away from mass Spell breakers in Human Mirror.
• Sorceress slow movement speed reduced from 60% to 55%.
  • Developers’ notes: A slight movement speed reduction to Slow. This is to improve the Orc vs. Human matchup and to slightly improve the Human vs. Night Elf match up to compensate for the lack of dispel.
• Siege Engine Tank experience bounty increased from 60 to 85.
  • Developers’ notes: Recent changes to Undead repair rate could potentially increase the viability of Siege Engines, so we are increasing the experience bounty, which we feel is too low.

Orc

• Great Hall supply granted increased from 10 to 11.
  • Developers’ notes: This should help provide an early scouting option in the Orc vs. Night Elf matchup.
• Blademaster Mirror Image mana cost decreased from 100 to 80.
  • Developers’ notes: We are starting to see emerging gameplay from Orc players using Mirror Image with Lighting Shield which is super exciting, entertaining, and fits their faction theme. However, we noticed the main deterrent of this strategy is Mirror Image’s high mana cost. In addition to the wisp detonate change, we believe this should further promote the use of this skill.
• Tauren Chieftain War Stomp stun duration against heroes reduced from 2/3/4 to 2/2.5/3 seconds, and Shockwave mana cost reduced from 100 to 90.
  • Developers’ notes: War Stomp is an extremely powerful skill that performs quite well against enemy forces, however its “hero stunlock potential” needs to be reined in slightly, while reducing Shockwave’s mana cost to 90 could make it a viable alternative.

Undead

• Spirit Tower / Nerubian Tower repair rate increased from 35 to 45.
  • Developers’ notes: The repair rate measures how long it takes for a building to be repaired, so the higher the number is, the longer it takes. Recent changes have allowed Undead to expand more easily, so we feel that the repair rate of their towers should be brought in line with the other races. 45 is 5 less than an Orc burrow, and taking in consideration that there will usually only be a maximum of 5 acolytes repairing it, we feel this makes the most sense.
• Death Knight Unholy Aura movement speed changed from 10/20/30 to 10/17.5/25.
  • Developers’ notes: We have noticed that once the Death Knight reaches Unholy Aura level 2, they are able to take fights they wouldn’t normally be able to due to their increase mobility and kiting potential.
• Crypt Lord Level 2 and Level 3 Carrion Beetles:
• Hit points increased from 275/410 to 300/440.
• Movement speed reduced from 290 to 280 (all levels).
• Burrow ability requires the Burrow upgrade.
• Carrion Beetle Level 2 Collision Size increased from 16 to 32.
  • Developers’ notes: We like seeing more Crypt Lord usage. However, there were a few issues to address. The high mobility and free burrow were the main factors driving an undesirable experience when fighting against Carrion Beetles. We decided to decrease their mobility and gate their burrow ability by an upgrade, but we are also compensating the Carrion Beetles health, so that the Crypt Lord will still be a viable pick.
• Destroyer cast point time decreased from 0.83 to 0.66.
  • Developers’ notes: This change is to improve the usability of the Destroyer when casting Devour Magic.
• Gargoyle now has a new toggle ability “Prioritize” which will allow the Gargoyle to prioritize flying units over ground units.
  • Developers’ notes: This was requested by the community to improve the useability of this unit. When the ability is turned on, the Gargoyle will prioritize air units over ground units, but will still attack ground units if the player force attacks them.
• Necromancer Unholy Frenzy HP drain reduced from 3 to 2HP/s.
  • Developers’ notes: A minor change to try and promote Undead’s usage of support casters.
• Rod of Necromancy cooldown increased from 22 seconds to 26 seconds.
  • Developers’ notes: This is a targeted change to help Human deal against skeleton harass early game. With the increased cooldown, Rod of Necromancy gives the Human player a little bit more time to react and breathe before the next set of skeletons. This will also have a small effect on a few solo creeping routes as a Death Knight, but we find that acceptable.

Night Elf

• Wisp Mana drained on detonate reduced from 50 to 40.
  • Developers’ notes: Detonate has become too powerful, especially against Orc, due to their lack of mana regeneration options for their casters.
• Archer HP Reduced from 260 to 255.
  • Developers’ notes: This is a slight calibration on a previous change to archers, since they are a little too durable, especially when considering the Elune’s Grace passive ability.
• Druid of the Claw (Bear Form) base damage increased from 24 to 25.
  • Developers’ notes: Night Elf has recently been heavily reliant on tier 1 units, so we are hoping the Wisp Detonate change, along with slightly buffing the damage of Druid of the Claw (Bear Form) could promote more strategic variety.
• Chimaera Friendly Fire removed.
  • Developers’ notes: Between the Frost Wyrm, Gryphon Rider, and the Chimaera, only the Chimaera does friendly fire. We feel this was a frustrating component of the unit.

Neutral

• Pitlord Level 1 Rain of fire range reduced from 800 to 700
  • Developers’ notes: This change is specifically targeting the Undead Pitlord push against Human.

Items

• Helm of Valor, Medallion of Courage, and Hood of Cunning stat increase changed from +4 to +5 for each stat provide.
  • Developers’ notes: These items were underpowered compared to the other items available in the same tier.
• Claws of Attack +6 replaced with Claws of Attack +5.
  • Developers’ notes: We are reducing the attack number because at +6, the power swing for range heroes specifically in the early game was too great.
• Tome of Retraining cost reduced from 300 to 200.
  • Developers’ notes: Highly requested by the community. We are hoping to encourage some new builds and potentially create more ability variety throughout the different phases of the game.
• Wand of the Wind charges reduced from 3 to 2.
  • Developers’ notes: At 3 charges, Wand of the Wind provided too much crowd control for a single Hero.

Bug Fixes

Art

• Added a glow effect to Engineer Gazlowe’s cigar in Reforged mode.
• Filled in missing textures on the Pile of Junk doodad in Reforged mode.
• Fixed an ordering issue with the Polar Furbolg Ursa Warrior’s armor in Reforged mode so it no longer sinks into his face.
• Removed team color from the Blue Dragonspawn Warrior’s eyes in Reforged mode.
• Filled in missing textures on the shoulderpads of the Blue Dragonspawn Warrior in Reforged mode.
• Corrected animations for the facial hair for the Satyr and Lord Garithos during their talking animations in Reforged mode.
• Adjusted the colors on mounted and unmounted Thrall so that they match in Reforged mode.
• Added a glow effect to the eyes for the Faceless One Trickster and Wraith portraits in Reforged mode.
• Added a glow effect to the eyes of the model and portrait for Salamander Hatchling in Reforged mode.
• Adjusted facial animations for the Sea Giant in Reforged mode so they better match their vocalizations.
• Resized footprints for Chicken critter so they better fit the model in Reforged mode.

Versus

• Removed Ring of Protection +2 and added Ring of Protection +3 to the loot table for the Ogre camps on Furbolg Mountain.
• Adjusted terrain so units can no longer reach unintended places on Concealed Hill.

Custom Games

• Added tooltips for the Advanced Options in Custom Games.
• Fixed a bug with custom units in Classic Mode that was causing shadows to not display.

Campaign

• Added a tooltip for the Soul Preservation buff used by Mal’Ganis.

Editor

• Fixed an issue with the SetMapMusic function that was preventing playlists from playing music.
• Fixed an issue with the function for setting player names that was preventing those name changes from applying properly in game.
• Disabling Use Fixed Random Seed now properly randomizes the seed.

Lok’Tar!

Once again, thank you all of the amazing feedback you’ve given to us through this PTR. The online posts, streams, and videos have been extremely helpful.

In today’s new PTR build, we’re making a few adjustments to specifically help the Human vs. Undead matchup. We’re also reverting all previous changes to promote late game air.

Although we want to increase the viability of all units, we feel with the current scope, it would be too risky to release these changes into the live environment. We hope to revisit this after the current meta has settled down with the existing changes planned.

Please remember these changes are a work in progress and subject to change. And again, thank you for your continued feedback!

-The Warcraft 3 Team

New PTR Update - October 6

Human

Arcane Tower

• Increase Summon damage reverted from 25 to 20.
  Developers’ notes: After careful observation and playtesting, we feel this change didn’t accomplish what we originally intended. We are reverting this change in favor of buffing peasant HP and increasing repair speed on towers slightly. See below for more info.

Peasants

• HP increased from 220 to 230.
  Developers’ notes: Increased HP should give peasants more survivability before an arcane tower can be built. We thank the community for this suggestion.

Scout Tower / Guard Tower / Cannon Tower / Arcane Tower

• Reduce repair time by 5 seconds.
  Developers’ notes: A slight survivability increase to help humans mitigate certain mid game pushes

Spell Breaker

• Armor reduced from 3 to 2.
  Developers’ notes: The goal here is to try to get away from the mass Spell breakers in Human Mirror.

Rifleman

• Attack delay reduced from 1.4 to 1.35.
  Developers’ notes: With the additional changes to Human, we felt that this change needed to be reverted.

Mountain King

• Thunder Clap now has a max damage cap of 8.
  *Developers’ notes: If there are more than 8 units within the aoe range, it’ll still damage all units but with a decreased damage on each unit. Custom Maps shouldn’t be affected by this change, but map makers can modify the new field in editor to change the maximum damage if they want. This feature has been requested for a while, and we’re thankful for your patience. We look forward to your feedback on the exact number here.

Sorcererss

• Slow Movement Speed reduced from 60% to 55%.
  Developers’ notes: A slight movement speed reduction of Slow. This is to improve the Orc vs. Human matchup and to slightly improve the Human vs. Night Elf match up to compensate for the lack of dispel.

Siege Engine

• Tank experience bounty increased from 60 to 85.
  Developers’ notes: Recent changes to Undead repair rate could potentially increase the viability of Siege Engines, so we are increasing the experience bounty, which we feel is too low. We may also reduce the health in the future.

Gryphon Riders

• Build time reduced from 45 to 40 seconds.
• Gold cost reduced from 280 to 260.
  Developers’ notes: To promote usage of late game air, this applies to all races.

Orc
Great hall

• Supply granted increased from 10 to 11.
  Developers’ notes: This should help provide an early scouting option for the Orc vs Night Elf matchup.

Tauren Chieftain

• War Stomp stun duration against Heroes increased from 1.5/2/2.5 to 2/2.5/3 (2/3/4 originally)
• Shockwave mana cost reduced from 100 to 90
  Developers’ notes: We have scaled back our changes to the War Stomp change and reduce Shockwave’s mana cost to 90 to make it a viable alternative.

Wind Rider

• Gold cost reduced from 265 to 245.

Developer Notes: A slight cost reduction as wind riders are fragile and we could perhaps see most usage out of them at this cost.

Undead

Destroyer

• Cast point time increased from 0.5 to 0.66 (0.83 originally).
  Developers’ notes: We liked the direction this was heading, as it improved response time for the destroyer when Devouring Magic. However, at 0.5 the ability was an almost an instant dispel. At 0.66 we have improved responsiveness without losing counter play.

Crypt Lord

• Level 2 and Level 3 Carrion Beetles hit points increase from 275/410 to 330/490.
• Movement speed reduced from 290 to 280 (all levels).
  Developers’ notes: After evaluating the recent changes, we felt the movement speed of the Carrion Beetles needed to be brought down slightly, but we’ve decided to compensate this with a HP increase. This should make it slightly harder for Carrion Beetles to get surrounds but should increase their viability in the later parts of the game in direct battles.

Death Knight

• Unholy Aura movement speed changed from 10/15/30 to 10/17.5/25 (10/20/30 originally).
  Developers’ notes: Adjusting scaling to feel more appropriate. Level 1 remains unchanged.

Ghouls & Abominations

• Cannibalize researched by default.
  Developers’ notes: This is an experimental change to see if this promotes more ghoul play and creates more variety of UD openers.

Gargoyle

• Now has a new toggle ability “Prioritize” which will allow the Gargoyle to Prioritize flying units over ground units.
  *Developers’ notes: Something that was requested by the community to improve the useability of this unit. When turned on the Gargoyle will prioritize air units over ground units but will still attack ground units if the player force attacks a unit.

Necromancer

• Unholy Frenzy HP drain reduced from 3 to 2 HP/s.
  Developers’ notes: A minor change to try and promote Undead usage of support casters.

Spirit Tower / Nerubian Tower

• Repair rate reduced from 60 to 45 (35 originally).
  Developers’ notes: There was a bit of confusion around this change. The repair rate is how long it takes for a building to be repaired, so the higher the number, the longer it takes. We original dialed it up to an extreme number to see how it would feel, but after numerous playtests, we’ve decided to settle it at 45. This is 5 less than an Orc burrow, and taking into consideration that there will usually be a maximum of 5 acolytes repairing it, we feel this makes the most sense.

Frost Wyrm

• Buildtime reduced from 65 to 60 seconds.
• Gold cost reduced from 385 to 355.
  Developers’ notes: To promote usage of late game air, this applies to all races.

Night Elf

Wisp

• Detonate mana drain increased from 25 to 35 (50 originally).
  Developers’ notes: We knew that reducing the mana drain on wisps to 25 may have been too extreme, but we wanted to see how it would feel. We have decided to increase the drain amount to 35 (from 50).

Archer

• HP reduced from 260 to 250.
  Developers’ notes: This is a slight calibration on a past change to archers, since right now they are a little too durable, especially considering the Elune’s Grace passive ability.

Chimaera

• Build time reduced from 60 to 55 seconds
  Developers’ notes: To promote usage of late game air, this applies to all races.

Items

Tome of retraining

• Cost reduced from 300 to 200.
  Developers’ notes: This is an experimental change, but we hope to encourage some new builds and potentially create more ability variety throughout the different phases of the game.

Wand of the Wind

• Cooldown increased from 0 second to 5 seconds.
  Developers’ notes: The power to instantly Cyclone 3 units with 1 item was too much. The Cyclone ability now has a 5 second cooldown, so this change brings this item more in line with the ability itself.

Custom Games

• Fixed a bug with custom units in Classic Mode that was causing shadows to not display.

Lok’tar!

We would like to thank everyone for providing very valuable and passionate feedback. Going into the first iteration of the PTR, the Warcraft 3 team knew some of the balance changes may have been too extreme. However, we wanted to test the impact of the changes and gauge community feedback.

In today’s iteration of PTR, we’re scaling back on some of the changes, as well as including some additional changes that were highly requested. Please remember these changes are a work in progress and subject to change.

We plan to do one more balance pass before this patch goes live.

Thanks!

The team has been keeping an eye on recent tournaments and after careful
consideration and internal discussion, today we’ve patched the PTR to include the following additional changes and updates. Our focus has been on:

• Human vulnerability to summon harass.
• Undead’s overperformance.
• Night Elf Tier 1 dominance.

Thank you to Back2Warcaft, Dreamhack, ESL, WGL, and all the community contributors who produced such amazing games and content during these times. Your feedback has not fallen on deaf ears.

Human

• Arcane Tower – Increase Feedback +Summon damage from 20 to 25. Reduces shots to kill on:
  • Skeleton Warriors/Carrion Beetles lvl 1 from 7 to 6.
  • Carrion Beetles lvl 2 from 11 to 10.
  • Spirit Wolves lvl 1 from 9 to 8.
  • Spirit Wolves lvl 2 from 13 to 11.
  • Treant from 11 to 9.
  • Treant (with Nature’s Blessing) from 14 to 12.
  • Lava Spawn lvl 1 from 15 to 13.
    • Developers’ notes: This change should help Human deal with constant summon harass, which should in turn mitigate peasant losses.

Orc

• Blademaster – Mirror Image mana cost decreased from 100 to 80.
  • Developers’ notes: We’re starting to see emerging gameplay from Orc players using Mirror Image with Lighting Shield, which is exciting, entertaining, and fits their faction theme. However, we noticed the main deterrent of this strategy is Mirror Image’s high mana cost. In addition to our wisp detonate change, we believe this should further promote the use of this skill.
• Tauren Chieftain – War Stomp stun duration against heroes reduced from 2/3/4 to 1.5/2/2.5 seconds.
  • Developers’ notes: War Stomp is an extremely powerful skill that performs quite well against enemy forces, however, its hero stunlock potential needs to be reined in slightly.

Undead

• Spirit Tower / Nerubian Tower – Repair rate increased from 35 to 60.
  • Developers’ notes: Recent changes have allowed Undead to expand more easily, so we feel that the repair rate of their towers should be brought inline with the other races.
• Destroyer – Destroyer cast point time reduced from 0.83 to 0.5.
  • Developers’ notes: At 0.83 cast point, the Destroyer has a noticeable delay between casting its spells and when they go off, so we are reducing its cast point time to the same value as other spell casters.
• Crypt Lord – Burrow ability for Carrion Beetle levels 2 and 3 require the Burrow upgrade.
  • Developers’ notes: We believe that the Burrow ability for Level 2 Carrion Beetles provides too much flexibility early in the game, so we are going to require Burrow to be researched before Carrion Beetles can use the ability. However, we will continue to closely monitor the Crypt Lord usage and evaluate if further changes are needed.
• Death Knight – Unholy Aura level 2 movement speed reduced from 20% movement to 15%.
  • Developers’ notes: The Death Knight has been the staple premier hero for Undead for a very long time. After numerous buffs to other parts of the Undead arsenal, the Death Knight remains supreme. We’ve noticed that once the Death Knight reaches Unholy Aura level 2, they are able to take fights they wouldn’t
    normally be able to, due to their increase mobility and kiting potential.

Night Elf

• Wisp – Mana drained on detonate reduced from 50 to 25.
  • Developers’ notes: Detonate has become too powerful, especially against Orc due to their lack of mana regeneration options for their casters.
• Druid of the Claw (Bear Form) – base damage increased from 24 to 25.
  • Developers’ notes: Night Elf has recently been heavily reliant on tier 1 units, so we are hoping the Wisp Detonate change along with slightly buffing the damage of Druid of the Claw (Bear Form) should promote more strategic variety.
• Chimaera – Friendly Fire removed.
  • Developers’ notes: Between the Frost Wyrm, Gryphon Rider and the Chimaera, only the Chimaera does friendly fire. We feel this is an unnecessary component of the unit.

Items

• Helm of Valor, Medallion of Courage, Hood of Cunning – stat increase changed from +4 to +5 for each stat provided.
  • Developers’ notes: These items were underpowered compared to the other items available in the same tier, so we’re increasing the stats they provide.
• Claws of Attack +6 – replaced with Claws of Attack +5.
  • Developers’ notes: Often seen as the best item in its tier among the community, we are replacing this item to reduce issues with obtaining the item early.

As always, these updates are subject to change, but we believe this provides a good starting point for testing, data gathering, and feedback from the community.

As for a date for this patch, we’re currently targeting the week of October 19, after Dreamhack Fall and WCG have concluded.

Warcraft III: Reforged PTR Patch Notes Version 1.32.9 Art Added a glow effect to Engineer Gazlowe’s cigar in Reforged mode. Filled in missing textures on the Pile of Junk doodad in Reforged mode. Fixed an ordering issue with the Polar Furbolg Ursa Warrior’s armor in Reforged mode, so that it no longer sinks into his face. Removed team color from the Blue Dragonspawn Warrior’s eyes in Reforged mode. Filled in missing textures on the shoulderpads of the Blue Dragonspawn Warrior in Reforged mo…

Art

• Added a glow effect to Engineer Gazlowe’s cigar in Reforged mode.
• Filled in missing textures on the Pile of Junk doodad in Reforged mode.
• Fixed an ordering issue with the Polar Furbolg Ursa Warrior’s armor in Reforged mode, so that it no longer sinks into his face.
• Removed team color from the Blue Dragonspawn Warrior’s eyes in Reforged mode.
• Filled in missing textures on the shoulderpads of the Blue Dragonspawn Warrior in Reforged mode.
• Corrected animations for the facial hair for the Satyr and Lord Garithos during their talking animations in Reforged mode.
• Adjusted the colors on mounted and unmounted Thrall so that they match in Reforged mode.
• Added a glow effect to the eyes for the Faceless One Trickster and Wraith portraits in Reforged mode.
• Added a glow effect to the eyes of the model and portrait for Salamander Hatchling in Reforged mode.
• Adjusted facial animations for the Sea Giant in Reforged mode so they better match their vocalizations.
• Resized footprints for Chicken critter so they better fit the model in Reforged mode.

Campaign

• Added a tooltip for the Soul Preservation buff used by Mal’Ganis.

Custom Games

• Added tooltips for the Advanced Options in Custom Games.

Versus

• Removed Ring of Protection +2 and added Ring of Protection +3 to the loot table for the Ogre camps on Furbolg Mountain.
• Adjusted terrain so units can no longer reach unintended places on Concealed Hill.

Editor

• Fixed an issue with the SetMapMusic function that was preventing playlists from playing music.
• Fixed an issue with the function for setting player names that was preventing those name changes from applying properly in game.
• Disabling Use Fixed Random Seed now properly randomizes the seed.

User Interface

• Added a toast when a replay has been successfully downloaded.

Please note: These PTR Patch Notes are a work in progress and may be updated with further changes before the release of Patch 1.32.9.

For this month’s update, we want to dive into our next high priority feature currently in development: Player Profiles.

View Full Article

We’ve just deployed hotfixes to address the following issues in version 1.32.8 of Warcraft III: Reforged –

• Fixed an issue with player slots not being displayed properly in loading screens and match results.
• Fixed an issue with the Reforged Scroll of Protection spell effect.

These fixes will be automatically patched by the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App.

The patch notes are here:

Warcraft III: Reforged Version 1.32.8 Patch Notes August 11, 2020 Art Breath of Frost spell effect now displays at full quality in Reforged mode. Tuskarr Trapper projectile is no longer invisible in Classic mode. Adjusted Priestess of the Moon’s positioning within her selection circle in Reforged mode. Fixed an issue that was causing the Classic mode version of the Blood Wizard to not display. The spell effect for Dragonhawk Rider’s Aerial Shackles is more visible in Reforged mode. The spel…

Warcraft III: Reforged
Version 1.32.8 Patch Notes
August 11, 2020

Art

• Breath of Frost spell effect now displays at full quality in Reforged mode.
• Tuskarr Trapper projectile is no longer invisible in Classic mode.
• Adjusted Priestess of the Moon’s positioning within her selection circle in Reforged mode.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the Classic mode version of the Blood Wizard to not display.
• The spell effect for Dragonhawk Rider’s Aerial Shackles is more visible in Reforged mode.
• The spell effect for Faerie Dragon’s Mana Flare is more visible in Reforged mode.
• The spell effect for Destroyer’s Orb of Annihilation in Reforged mode is larger, to better fit the area it affects.
• The spell effect from Protection Scroll is more visible in Reforged mode.
• Many units that were added in Reforged now have shadows in Classic mode.
• Adjusted Rokhan’s positioning within his selection circle in Reforged mode.
• Alchemist’s icons now show him as having blue skin.
• Deep water no longer shows tiles below it, consistent with Classic mode.
• Portraits for Classic units now have consistent lighting.

Versus

• Added obfuscation to player names in FFA games.
• Crypt Lord - Level 2 and Level 3 Carrion Beetles hit points reduced from 330/490 to 275/410, and mana cost for Carrion Beetles ability increased from 45 to 50 across all levels.
  • Developers’ notes: While we are not doing a full balance pass in this patch, we do want to add a balance tweak. Although we like that the Crypt Lord has provided a new macro-oriented opener for Undead, we have concerns about how effectively it transitions into the mid-game, specifically with how effectively Level 2 beetles are able to harass enemy workers. At the same time, we’d like to preserve the uniqueness of the beetles; that is, that they are permanent summons and have access to Burrow. Therefore, we’re targeting their ability to tank damage. Reducing beetle hit points will require players to pay more attention to their beetles and reduce their ability to damage before being forced to burrow. Increasing the mana cost of the ability by roughly 11% hits a notable breakpoint at Levels 2 and 3 where a full mana Crypt Lord who casts Impale and then begins to summon Carrion Beetles will now have one less cast of Carrion Beetles before going out of mana. This means it can field 4 beetles at Level 2 during combat and 6 beetles at Level 3 instead of 6 and 8 respectively. This should increase mana tension on the hero and reduce the Crypt Lord’s combat viability in the early game where available mana is at a premium.

Custom Games

• Adjusted the bottom of the Custom games lobby list to keep games at the bottom of the UI from being blocked by the buttons.
• Added tooltips for Custom Game creation options.

Gameplay

• Burrowed Crypt Fiends no longer retain their Web ability after being reanimated via Animate Dead.
  • Developers’ notes: This was a legacy bug. While a corner case scenario, it only happened to Crypt Fiends who were literally burrowed, killed then had Animate Dead cast on them, we still wanted to address this since it went against the rules of how Animate Dead is supposed to work.
• Added a tooltip to the Disease Cloud ability on Plague Ward.

User Interface

• Added a toast when a replay has been successfully downloaded.

Art Breath of Frost spell effect now displays at full quality in Reforged mode. Tuskarr Trapper projectile is no longer invisible in Classic mode. Adjusted Priestess of the Moon’s positioning within her selection circle in Reforged mode. Fixed an issue that was causing the Classic mode version of the Blood Wizard to not display. The spell effect for Dragonhawk Rider’s Aerial Shackles is more visible in Reforged mode. The spell effect for Faerie Dragon’s Mana Flare is more visible in Reforged m…

Art

• Breath of Frost spell effect now displays at full quality in Reforged mode.
• Tuskarr Trapper projectile is no longer invisible in Classic mode.
• Adjusted Priestess of the Moon’s positioning within her selection circle in Reforged mode.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the Classic mode version of the Blood Wizard to not display.
• The spell effect for Dragonhawk Rider’s Aerial Shackles is more visible in Reforged mode.
• The spell effect for Faerie Dragon’s Mana Flare is more visible in Reforged mode.
• The spell effect for Destroyer’s Orb of Annihilation in Reforged mode is larger, to better fit the area it affects.
• The spell effect from Protection Scroll is more visible in Reforged mode.
• Many units that were added in Reforged now have shadows in Classic mode.
• Rokhan’s selection splat is now centered.

Versus

• Added obfuscation to player names in FFA games.
• Crypt Lord - Level 2 and Level 3 Carrion Beetles hit points reduced from 330/490 to 275/410.
  • Developers’ notes: While we are not doing a full balance pass in this patch, we do want to add a balance tweak. Although we like that the Crypt Lord has provided a new macro-oriented opener for Undead, we have concerns about how effectively it transitions into the mid-game, specifically with how effectively Level 2 beetles are able to harass enemy workers. At the same time, we’d like to preserve the uniqueness of the beetles; that is, that they are permanent summons and have access to Burrow. Therefore, we’re targeting their ability to tank damage. Reducing beetle hit points will require players to pay more attention to their beetles and reduce their ability to damage before being forced to burrow.

Custom Games

• Adjusted the bottom of the Custom games lobby list to keep games at the bottom of the UI from being blocked by the buttons.
• Added tooltips for Custom Game creation options.

Gameplay

• Burrowed Crypt Fiends no longer retain their Web ability after being reanimated via Animate Dead.
  • Developers’ notes: This was a legacy bug. While a corner case scenario, it only happened to Crypt Fiends who were literally burrowed, killed then had Animate Dead cast on them, we still wanted to address this since it went against the rules of how Animate Dead is supposed to work.
• Added a tooltip to the Disease Cloud ability on Plague Ward.

User Interface

• Added a toast when a replay has been successfully downloaded.

Please note: These PTR Patch Notes are a work in progress and will be updated with further changes before the release of Patch 1.32.8.

In our latest Developer Update, we take a closer look at our highest-priority feature currently in development — Ranked Play.

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Campaign

• The score screen for campaign missions now accurately displays time elapsed during that mission.

Custom Games

• Fixed an issue that was causing default loading screen text to display on custom loading screens.
• Fixed an issue in the user interface during Custom Games creation that caused the IME indicator to not display.

Gameplay

• Fixed a desync that occurred when a player in Classic mode and a player in Reforged mode were in a game with a unit that is both bloodlusted and hexed or polymorphed.
• Fixed an issue where Anasterian Sunstrider would sometimes use Death Knight Arthas’s model in Reforged mode.

Versus

• Frost Wyrm illusion auto attacks no longer apply the frost breath passive.
  • Developers’ notes: Having illusions apply a slowing effect on auto attack was unintentionally added recently. This fix shouldn’t have much effect on balance overall.

User Interface

• Music on the score screen now only plays once.

Campaign

• The score screen for campaign missions now accurately displays time elapsed during that mission.

Custom Games

• Fixed an issue that was causing default loading screen text to display on custom loading screens.
• Fixed an issue in the user interface during Custom Games creation that caused the IME indicator to not display.

Gameplay

• Fixed a desync that occurred when a player in Classic mode and a player in Reforged mode were in a game with a unit that is both bloodlusted and hexed or polymorphed.
• Fixed an issue where Anasterian Sunstrider would sometimes use Death Knight Arthas’s model in Reforged mode.

Versus

• Frost Wyrm illusion auto attacks no longer apply the frost breath passive.
  • Developers’ notes: Having illusions apply a slowing effect on auto attack was unintentionally added recently. This fix shouldn’t have much effect on balance overall.

User Interface

• Music on the score screen now only plays once.

Please see our patch notes here.

Please find our Known Issues for this patch in the Bug Report forum, and report new bugs there.

Thank you.