This balance patch has a few different goals in mind. For heroes in general, we're looking at the costs and sometimes the functionality of hero ultimate abilities, to make them a bit more competitive with a hero’s base line abilities and mana pool.

Items are another big area of this patch. Charged levels 5 and 6 are getting a shake-up to see if we can encourage more usage of these categories going forward.

Additionally, we want to support map makers' future endeavors by doing a balance pass on the units provided by Mercenary Camps. Finally, in 1v1 matchups, we want to address rifle pushes in Human vs. Night Elf and slightly alter the early game in Human vs. Undead.

There will also be a map pool rotation in this patch. One map per game mode will be rotated out and a new one rotated in. This time around, all of the maps are made by our wonderful community map makers.

Art

• Raccoons no longer fade away unnaturally during their death animation in Reforged mode.
• Fixed an issue with the Northrend Tree Wall Doodad where they appeared white on the minimap.

Campaign

• Resolved an issue with walking animation speed in certain campaign maps.

Custom Games

• Fixed a desync caused by script timer whose period is less than the game FPS.

Editor

• Fixed a legacy issue where the Summoned Damage data field for Feedback abilities was capped at 10. This did not affect competitive multiplayer, but was inconvenient for custom map makers.

User Interface

• Team-colored healthbars are no longer "On" by default for new users.

Unit Balance

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Human

Mountain King

• Thunderclap cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 7 seconds across all levels.
  • Developers' notes: Over the past year, the Mountain King's Thunderclap has been slightly overperforming. While meta changes in 1v1 have seen its usage reduced, it remains a very strong ability in team games. We want to reduce its uptime, which should also allow players to better micro against the Mountain King by giving them more time to reposition between casts.

Rifleman

• Attack delay increased from 1.35 to 1.4.
  • Developers' notes: This change is focused around the Human vs. Night Elf rifleman push. We don't inherently want the rifle push to completely disappear nor for riflemen to fall too far in power, but rather for the push to be slightly more equal between the attacker and defender. We're adjusting the power on both sides, with this being the Human side of the change.

Paladin

• Resurrection mana cost reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Developers' notes: Resurrection already has the restriction of waiting for a player's army to be dead before being cast. At the same time, Paladins often spend much of their mana casting Holy Light to keep units alive in the first place. Reducing the mana cost should help boost the desirability of this ultimate by reducing mana tension.

Orc

Shadow Hunter

• Big Bad Voodoo mana cost reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Developers' notes: We're reducing the mana cost to help with mana tension. The ultimate itself was not altered at this time, as we want to keep the unique identity of how it works, and instead see if we can push it to be a bit higher of a pick through increasing availability of the spell.

Far Seer

• Earthquake duration reduced from 25 to 20 seconds. Building damage per second increased from 50 to 60. Mana cost reduced from 150 to 125. Earthquake no longer affects friendly units/structures.
  • Developers' notes: With Earthquake no longer affecting friendly units, Far Seer players should now have a new slowing option available to them for combat usage. Reducing the duration while keeping the overall damage roughly the same makes responding to a Far Seer casting Earthquake more important and gives a bit more consistency to how much damage it can inflict.

Tauren Chieftain

• War Stomp cooldown increased per level from 6/6/6 to 7/7/7.
  • Developers' notes: War Stomp has shown to be quite powerful in recent months. We believe this is more due to Tauren Chieftain's ability to more consistently deliver stuns, rather than the damage increase to War Stomp. Simply reducing its damage would be less likely to lower the power of War Stomp. This change doubles the downtime of the ability at level 3, giving opponents more time to counter micro. Additionally, this weakens the Tauren Chieftain’s early game allowing opponents to better push for map control.

Witch Doctor

• Stasis Trap activation delay decreased from 10 to 9 seconds. Detection radius reduced from 250 to 175. Activation time reduced from 1.0 to 0.5.
• New data variable in map editor: Detonation Delay.
  • Developers' notes: Witch Doctors are still fairly rare in high-level play. We want to tune up its Stasis Trap ability, and to do that we looked into how it could trap more units. A smaller detonation ring combined with a shorter delay means that units will have less time to move through the area of effect before getting trapped and will have less time to attack the totem when it reveals itself.

Night Elf

Keeper of the Grove

• Entangling Roots cast range on level 3 increased from 600 to 800.
  • Developers' notes: While we like where the Keeper of the Grove's early game power is, we want to give this ability a little boost in the late game. Since armies grow in size, especially in team games, reinstating its old range should give the Keeper a little more ease of use in late game scenarios.
• Tranquility Invulnerability time removed. Duration reduced from 15 to 12. Healing increased from 40 to 48.
  • Developers' notes: In the past we tried an experiment with Tranquility where we would give invulnerability to heroes when casting channeled spells. After testing it, we're moving away from this, as we feel it dampens the personality of channeled abilities. Ideally, a channeled ability is very powerful with the drawback of being interruptible. This weakness is also what gives the abilities their character, as finding the right time and place to maximize its power is the main gameplay of using them. Adding invulnerability clouds this, as it now acts more like a normal "cast and forget" spell, but with a little extra bonus on the end. It also acted as anti-debuff mechanic, which was undesirable. While it could be made to not remove debuffs, that would act as a new special case that's different from regular invulnerability and it would add new complexity for players to memorize. Instead, we want to further reduce the duration of the spell but increase its power of the effect, giving greater benefit even when shut down by opponents, but also encouraging opponents to react quickly to the channeled ability.

Druid of the Claw

• Base damage in bear form increased from 23 to 24.
  • Developers' notes: We think bears could use a bit more power in the mid-to-late game in general, especially against Undead. Additionally, with Human vs. Night Elf rifle pushes often occurring right when only a few bears are out, we felt that a slight bear buff would help defenders just that little bit more to keep them in the game.

Druid of the Talon

• Gold cost reduced from 145 to 135.
  • Developers' notes: Previously Druids of the Talon had their gold cost increased due to balance concerns with them in the Orc vs. Night Elf matchup. The meta has changed quite a bit since then, and so we would like to reduce their cost back to its old value to better encourage their usage.

Undead

Crypt Lord

• Impale can no longer be interrupted. Units knocked airborne can now take damage and be attacked.
• Two new data variables in map editor: Airborne Units Vulnerable, Uninterruptible.
• Crypt Lord cast point increased from 0.4 to 0.5
• Carrion Beetles mana cost increased from 30 to 45. Now spawns 2 beetles at a time, up from 1. Maximum beetles increased from 5 to 6. Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 9 seconds.
  • Developers' notes: The being whose might cannot be matched is getting a tune-up in this patch. Previously the Impale ability was hardcoded to be interruptible and make units hit by it invulnerable while airborne. Unlike other channeled abilities, giving a move order to a command group containing a Crypt Lord casting Impale would cause it to move and cancel the ability. This change removes this annoyance. Additionally, making airborne units vulnerable no longer causes units to lose auto attack focus on Impaled units. Airborne units are still untargetable by spells though. This was left in place out of an abundance of caution for introducing unintended bugs.
  • More developers' notes: Speaking of bugs, our buff to Carrion Beetles should greatly encourage some new experimentation with this rather rarely picked ability. Now the Crypt Lord can bring about a swarm of summons much earlier and with less mana invested to either scout opponents or make early game pushes. We will be monitoring if this proves to be too much of an issue in the early game, but we feel these changes overall give the ability a much stronger personality.

Death Knight

• Animate Dead mana cost reduced from 175 to 125.
  • Developers' notes: We hear rather frequent feedback that this ability is one of the lower tier ones. Directly buffing it too much at this time seemed unwise, as the Death Knight itself is quite core to Undead's best strategies, and buffing it further would reinforce this. However, we do think its mana cost could be reduced to at least be more appropriate with its perceived power level.

Skeleton Warrior

• Base hit points decreased from 190 to 180.
  • Developers' notes: This is aimed primarily at the Human vs. Undead extreme early game. In this case, at the highest levels, every peasant killed during a fast expansion is extremely valuable, and battles around this are often won by inches rather than miles. Returning Skeleton Warriors to their previous health state should help Humans (and other races to a degree) to stabilize better in the early game.

Ritual Dagger

• Total hit points regenerated per charge increased from 125 to 175.
  • Developers' notes: The Ritual Dagger has yet to really find a place in high level Undead build orders. Increasing its health regenerated should help it better compete with items like Scroll of Regeneration, especially since at 175 hit points and two charges per item, it would restore 350 hit points total. From a higher-level view, this change in addition to the buff to Carrion Beetles could make this item an interesting pick for Crypt Lord first players.

Neutral

Beastmaster

• Summon Bear mana cost reduced from 125 to 100.
  • Developers' notes: At the highest level of play, the Beastmaster has fallen off in usage over time. While we believe this is primarily due to changes in the meta, we want to give a boost to an ability that was underutilized even when Beastmasters roamed freely. In particular, a level 2 Beastmaster starting at full mana that constantly uses their summon abilities when off cooldown would now be able to summon an additional Quilbeast when paired with Summon Quilbeast or an additional bear when paired with Summon Hawk.

Pit Lord

• A unit afflicted by Doom now has its movement speed slowed by 50%.
• Added two new data variables in map editor: Movement Speed Factor, Maximum Creep Level.
  • Developers' notes: The Pitlord has come quite far in recent times, becoming something more than just a super niche pick for styling on opponents. With looking over ultimate abilities we want to give this one a little more of a boost to reduce the ability of an opponent to run away an afflicted unit to somewhere more secluded or even favorable. We also surfaced a long-hidden variable that controls the maximum creep level that can be afflicted with Doom. While this doesn't impact competitive multiplayer, it should be helpful for custom game creators.

Firelord

• Volcano eruption waves decreased from 8 to 5. Wave interval reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased building damage factor from 2 to 3. No longer affects friendly units/structures.
  • Developers' notes: We believe the main issue with Volcano is that it is too unreliable and too balanced around its maximum damage output, which is unrealistic for a channeled ultimate. These changes reduce the overall damage potential of the Volcano in exchange for being much more reliable and hitting much faster. Removing the ability for it to affect friendly units should also make Volcano more viable in combat. No more praying to Ragnaros for the flaming boulders to miss one’s own units!

Naga Sea Witch

• Tornado Random wander behavior removed. Mana cost reduced from 200 to 125. Duration reduced from 40 seconds to 20 seconds. Close building damage per second increased from 50 to 100. Far building damage per second increased from 7 to 14.
  • Developers' notes: Much like the other channeled ultimates in this update, we believe a main issue with this ability was that getting value from the spell took too long compared to its opportunity cost. So, the damage has been increased and duration decreased overall. The mana cost was also reduced as the Sea Witch can be one of the more intensive mana users, which could greatly crowd out the opportunity to cast this ultimate spell. In general, players should always feel in charge of their units and that their units will follow orders to the letter. The random wander, while visually rather cool, goes against this principle and generally made the spell require too much micromanagement when compared to the payoff it provided.

Blue Dragon Whelp, Blue Drake, and Blue Dragon

• Added a passive icon indicating that the unit has an attack that slows targets.
• Unit tooltip updated to mention that these units have a frost attack.
  • Developers' notes: This is a quality of life change. We want to clarify that these units indeed have a frost attack.

Breath of Frost

• Size and shape of the ability altered to match Breath of Fire.
  • Developers' notes: This ability is solely used by the Blue Dragonspawn Overseer. In the past this ability's visual looked like a cone, just like Breath of Fire, but was actually using the size and shape of Shockwave. This has now been adjusted to use the same size and shape as Breath of Fire.

Items

• Potion of Greater Mana mana restored reduced from 300 to 250.
• Potion of Mana mana restored reduced from 150 to 125. Gold cost reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Developers' notes: We want to reign in the power of the Potion of Greater Mana and, at the same time, experiment a bit with the regular Potion of Mana. Currently seen as an emergency item, this change makes it slightly more gold-efficient and aligns its gold price with that of Potion of Healing, making them more of a direct comparison.
• Pendant of Energy, Mana provided decreased from 150 to 100
  • Developers' notes: Alongside the Greater Mana Potion, the Pendant of Energy often gets feedback that it provides too much mana for where the item shows up on the item drop table. Reducing the mana provided should bring it more in line with other items in its drop table.
• Red Drake Egg Removed from default level 5 charged item drop list.
• Blue Drake Egg is a new level 5 charged Item that summons a Blue Drake for 180 seconds, with 1 Charge.
• Talisman of the Wild removed from default level 5 charged item drop list.
• Idol of the Wild is a new level 5 charged Item that summons a Furbolg Tracker for 180 seconds, with 1 Charge.
  • Developers' note: Among the level 5 charged items, there are clearly two less desired items among them, the Talisman and the Red Drake Egg. In both cases, the summoned units provide only a bit of damage and some tanking ability while still providing the opponent experience for their destruction. We want to keep the coolness of having items that call forth creatures but change what was brought in. With the Blue Drake providing a frost breath attack and the Furbolg Tracker bringing Faerie Fire, these two units now align with the Rock Golem and Fel Stalker by providing utility in addition to damage and tanking.
• Scroll of Restoration hit points restored reduced from 300 to 150.
  • Developers' note: While the Talisman and Red Drake Egg may have been seen as the weakest of level 5 charged items, the Scroll of Restoration is undoubtedly the strongest. This is especially true for team games. Reducing the healing it provides down to be equal to a Scroll of Healing should help bring it down more to the level of other items in this tier.
• Scroll of Animate Dead removed from default level 6 charged drop list.
• Scepter of Mastery is a charged level 6 item that takes permanent control of an enemy unit, with a Range of 600 and 1 Charge. Cannot be used on Heroes or creeps above level 5.
• Scroll of Resurrection removed from default level 6 charged drop list.
• Scepter of Avarice is a new Charged level 6 item that instantly kill an enemy unit, with a Range of 600 and 1 Charge. Gain gold equal to 75% of its cost. Cannot be used on Heroes or creeps above level 5.
  • Developers' notes: As with level 5 charged items, there were two that seemed to be weaker than the others for level 6 charged items. These scrolls only really worked when a battle was well underway with losses mounting. That means that their worth was hard to gauge while the summon items have far more flexibility. Keeping with the theme of charged items on this tier being ultimate abilities, we decided to bring in an analog for Transmute and Charm, which should be more directly comparable to bringing in a summoned unit by instantly denying one of your opponent’s units.
• Inferno Stone drop level increased from Level 6 Charged to Level 7 Artifact.
• Engraved Scale is a new Charged level 6 item, that summons a Blue Dragonspawn Overseer for 180 seconds, with 1 Charge.
  • Developers' notes: Often cited as one of the most powerful items in the game and often the focal reason of level 6 charged items being too imbalanced for 1v1 is the Inferno Stone. We want to try moving it up a tier while replacing it with a new summon item to see if we can encourage higher usage of this category of items in map making while balancing out current team and free for all maps that utilize it. The Blue Dragonspawn Overseer acts a kind of defensive parallel to the Furbolg Ursa Warrior by providing a Devotion Aura and having the passive Evasion ability built in. Breath of Frost also gives it a good area of effect option similar to other summons in this tier.

Non-Ladder

Transportation Ship

• No longer unloads instantly. Now has a 0.5 second delay, same as Zeppelins.
• Level reduced from 2 to 1.
• Hit points reduced from 1500 to 900.
• Armor type changed from Heavy to Light.
• Maximum charges at a shipyard reduced from 3 to 2.
• Initial stock delay increased from 0 to 120.
• Stock replenish interval decreased from 110 to 30, same as Zeppelins.
• Repair time increased to 30 from 25, same as Zeppelins.
  • Developers' notes: While it is not used in any current ladder maps, we want to update this unit for nautically inclined map makers. In a number of community tournaments there have been some promising usage of Ships as a map feature, but they could use some tuning. The current stats for the transportation ship are geared towards usage in single player modes, which makes it a bit too overturned as an option for competitive multiplayer. The primary change here, however, is that units will unload one at a time rather than all at once, which gave the ship users too much advantage in pulling off aggressive maneuvers, especially for landing near an opponent’s base with siege damage units.

Mercenary Camp Updates

Another area we want to address in this balance patch is opening up a bit more map design options for the map making community. Mercenary Camps provide a way to both adjust how matchups play out, as well as provide extra map variety. However, only the Lordaeron Summer camp has seen widespread use in the competitive scene. We’ve looked at all of the Mercenary Camps and adjusted their unit offerings to bring them more in line with the Lordaeron Summer mercenary camp, while also offering differing options of units/abilities provided. Additionally, many units had their costs and availability time adjusted. We're trying out having two availability times to unify the Mercenary Camps a bit, by reducing the amount of numbers players have to memorize: short (120 seconds), medium (220 seconds), and long (440 seconds). It's likely that further adjustments to unit offerings or the unit costs/availability will be needed, so we are interested in player and map maker thoughts on these changes.

Mercenary Camp Composition

Lordaeron Summer

• Unchanged

Cityscape / Dalaran

• Unchanged

Underground / Dungeon

• Old: Kobold Geomancer, Burning Archer, Wildkin
• New: Kobold Geomancer, Burning Archer, Wildkin, Frost Revenant

Ashenvale

• Old: Satyr Shadowdancer, Furbolg Shaman, Thunder Lizard
• New: Satyr Shadowdancer, Dark Troll Berserker, Dark Troll Shadow Priest, Giant Wolf

Barrens

• Old: Centaur Outrider, Harpy Rogue, Razormane Medicine Man, Harpy Windwitch
• New: Centaur Outrider, Quillboar Hunter, Centaur Archer, Harpy Windwitch

Black Citadel / Outland

• Old: Fel Beast, Draenei Disciple, Voidwalker, Draenei Darkslayer
• New: Bloodfiend, Draenei Disciple, Voidwalker, Skeletal Orc Grunt

Felwood

• Old: Murloc Flesheater, Sludge Flinger, Satyr Soulstealer
• New: Murloc Flesheater, Sludge Monstrosity, Satyr Shadowdancer, Spitting Spider

Icecrown Glacier

• Old: Barbed Arachnathid, Blue Dragonspawn Meddler, Magnataur Warrior, Polar Furbolg Shaman
• New: Ice Troll Berserker, Blue Dragonspawn Warrior, Tuskarr Healer, Unbroken Darkweaver

Lordaeron Fall

• Unchanged

Lordaeron Winter

• Old: Gnoll Overseer, Ice Troll Berseker, Ice Troll Trapper, Mud Golem
• New: Ogre Mauler, Ice Troll Berserker, Ice Troll Priest, Mud Golem

Northrend

• Old: Nerubian Warrior, Ice Troll Berserker, Frost Revenant, Nerubian Webspinner
• New: Nerubian Warrior, Ice Troll Berserker, Frost Revenant, Nerubian Seer

Sunken Ruins

• Old: Mur'gul Snarecaster, Makrura Snapper, Makrura Deepseer, Giant Sea Turtle
• New: Mur'gul Snarecaster, Mur'gul Blood-Gill, Stormreaver Hermit, Skeletal Orc Grunt

Village / Village Fall

• Old: Kobold, Murcloc Huntsman, Assassin, Kobold Geomancer
• New: Kobold Tunneler, Kobold Taskmaster, Assassin, Kobold Geomancer

Mercenary Camp Units

Assassin

• Initial stock delay increased from 110 seconds to 220 seconds
• Gold cost increased from 250 to 260

Bloodfiend

• Initial stock delay increased from 0 seconds to 220 seconds
• Max stock decreased from 3 to 1
• Gold cost increased from 170 to 240

Blue Dragonspawn Warrior

• Gold cost increased from 255 to 300
• Lumber cost decreased from 30 to 0

Burning Archer

• Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 220 seconds

Centaur Archer

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds

Centaur Outrunner

• Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 220 seconds

Dark Troll Berserker

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 255 to 245

Dark Troll Shadow Priest

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 195 to 175

Draenai Disciple

• Initial stock delay decreased from 135 seconds to 120 seconds
• Stock replenishment delay increased from 90 seconds to 110
• Gold cost increased from 155 to 195
• Lumber cost decreased from 15 to 10

Giant Wolf

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
• Gold cost reduced from 255 to 215
• Lumber cost reduced from 30 to 0

Gnoll Brute

• Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 215 to 140
• Lumber cost decreased from 20 to 0

Gnoll Warden

• Initial stock delay increased from 180 seconds to 220 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 215 to 180

Harpy Windwitch

• Initial stock delay decreased from 640 seconds to 440 seconds

Ice Troll Priest

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 195 to 175

Kobold Geomancer

• Gold cost decreased from 255 to 215

Kobold Tunneler

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 215 to 150
• Lumber cost decreased from 20 to 0

Mur'gul Blood-Gill

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
• Gold cost increased from 105 to 195
• Lumber cost increased from 0 to 10

Mur'gul Snarecaster

• Gold cost increased from 215 to 265
• Lumber cost increased from 20 to 30

Murloc Flesheater

• Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds

Nerubian Warrior

• Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 215 to 205

Quillboar Hunter

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds

Rogue

• Initial stock delay increased from 60 seconds to 120 seconds

Satyr Shadowdancer

• Initial stock delay increased from 330 seconds to 440 seconds
• Gold cost decreased from 255 to 200
• Lumber cost decreased from 30 to 20

Spitting Spider

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
• Gold cost increased from 215 to 235
• Lumber cost increased from 20 to 30

Stormreaver Hermit

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 220 seconds
• Gold cost increased from 180 to 190

Tuskarr Healer

• Initial stock delay decreased from 440 seconds to 120 seconds
• Lumber cost decreased from 20 to 10

Unbroken Darkweaver

• Gold cost increased from 255 to 320
• Lumber cost increased from 30 to 50

Voidwalker

• Gold cost increased from 155 to 245
• Lumber cost increased from 15 to 30

Balance Related Bugfixes

• Makrura Deepseer creeps will no longer sometimes cease to react to enemy units when being attacked by a single unit or hero.
  • Developers' note: As an interesting aside, this bug originates from the Summon Prawns ability. Like many abilities, Summon Prawns adjusts the behavior of the unit it is assigned to. Typically, this is for deciding when to cast an ability or who to target with it. While this bug only affects the Murkura Deepseer in multiplayer, this fix should also clear up some AI strangeness for units using it in custom games.
• Items can no longer be destroyed by projectiles while in a hero's inventory.
  • Developers' note: While we do want to keep the counterplay option of killing items as a means of denial, we want to address this specific strange behavior. Currently if a projectile is in mid-flight it will always do damage to an item, regardless of whether or not it was picked up. This felt especially strange when a high-speed hero would pick up an item, move away, and then suddenly lose the item because of slow moving projectiles landing at the item's previous location. Additionally, this behavior now matches how units picked up by a Zeppelin functions.
• Breath of Fire (Brewmaster)
• Starting projectile size increased from 120 to 125 at level 2, matches level 1 and 3 starting size.
  • Developers' note: This legacy bug has not caused any observable issues, however we wanted to clean up the discrepancy between levels. 

Maps

Map Pool Rotation

1v1

• Removed: Dalaran
• Added: Brightwater Oasis
  • Developers' note: Brightwater Oasis contains a new interesting map feature. Each side of this map will have 1 Goblin Merchant and 1 Goblin Laboratory, but each will spawn in one of two locations. This adds an interesting wrinkle to adjusting one’s creeping and attack routes based on map conditions. These locations are linked and symmetric so there shouldn't be balance concerns around one player having a shorter distance to a shop than the opposing player.

2v2

• Removed: Phantom Grove LV
• Added: Circle of Fallen Heroes

3v3

• Removed: Rolling Hills
• Added: Guardians

4v4

• Removed: Banewood Bog LV
• Added: Northern Felwood

Free For All

• Removed: Mur'gul Oasis LV
• Added: Greenville Woods

Map Updates

Terenas Stand LV

• Critters added to the map

Twisted Meadows

• Green Gnoll camps near player start locations now has an additional level 1 Gnoll and the Gnoll Brute drops a level 1 power-up item.
  • Developers' note: We want to make taking the Gnoll camp feel a little more rewarding. It also hits a breakpoint where a single hero can reach level 3 by creeping the Gnoll camp and two yellow camps outside the 'front' of each starting location. Previously, two start locations could do this, but the other two would result in a hero just slightly short of level 3.

Echo Isles

• Added extra trees and doodads behind the south west expansion to address instances of player units getting stuck in unpathable locations after using a Scroll of Town Portal.
• Filled in various pathing holes around the outer edges of the map.
  • Developers' note: While it was uncommon for players to get their units stuck behind the southwest expansion location, and stuck units could be freed through destroying trees, we want to solve the issue more directly.

Sanctuary LV

• Critters added to the map
• Removed 2 Apprentice Wizards from the north and south red camps. Reduced the item drop from the Ogre Magi from level 6 Charged to level 5 Charged.
  • Developers' note: There was feedback that the Ogre Magi at the map's north and south middle red camps were a bit too easy to pull away and kill in the early game. This would result in a powerful level 6 Charged item being dropped early on which could make rush strategies overly strong. To address this, we reduced the level of the item while making the camp slightly easier overall to reflect the lower level of item dropped.

Twilight Ruins LV

• Removed a Skeletal Grunt and replaced it with two Burning Archers at each of the middle red creep camps.
  • Developers' note: Previously these creep camps lacked any anti-air elements other than Death Coil. This gave players who rushed to air units, Undead especially, a bit too much of an advantage when creeping. This change should make these camps require more time and investment to take down.