i know i know
not only a third patch for the year is completely unprecedented, there are a ridiculous amount of changes. or as riot would put it, "you're not ready for season 1.40"
quick disclaimer: i wont be listing all the changes made per race because there are too many (plus i was working very quickly with my changes and didnt record all of them), its also why im skipping a patch number
anyways
NEW Map - Springflower
Springflower is set in a snowy village. It is a small map which features a natural base with two entrances.
im moving away from the strict starcraft map design restrictions of naturals having only one entrance, for these restrictions were not meaningful in a pve environment. if you wanted to cheese the bot at their natural, there was no difference between one entrance or two because the ai didnt guard it anyway. similarly, the ai wouldn't exploit an unguarded natural from you because it isn't in their code to harass. thus there was no realistic benefit to adhering to these rules.
but more importantly, it had disadvantages. many times, the ai would accidentally block themselves in due to poor building placement and thus be completely unable to progress the game. this change coupled with decreased building collision size (for human ai buildings) decreases the number of non-games.
i am also going to move towards smaller maps partly due to the AI change from the previous patch leading to the human AI not mining themselves out at light speed. maps like mirrorglade and sandlock from previous patches never really used the further terrain features anyway
Human AI
So i recently discovered that Priests actually do not cast dispel magic. this resulted in mass debuff comps to utterly destroy the ai. thus they now have abolish magic, which they do autocast on allied units. i couldnt find a perfect solution which would allow dispelling enemy buffs, but it is what it is.
inner fire also is now a keep tech, with it being upgraded at castle.
The human AI also now prioritizes between priests/siege at tier 2 instead of always going siege into priests. they also now tech to gryphons faster.
Changes are sorted by race
Curator Force
NEW Unit - Bramble Bear
replaces the Quillbeast. Curator had serious issues dealing with mass flying machines. instead of buffing their ranged units, the Bramble Bear is a melee option which can root enemy air units to the ground.
Updated Units
Harpy Queen - aura now grants attack damage, aspd and mspd.
Chimaera - moved to Horn tier, swapped with Faerie. cuz Chimaera rush was way too strong even though i had intended it to be a build.
Dryad - now have spell immunity. (which means the wc3 classic duo of dryad bear is a legit comp baby)
Spellcasters
Gnoll Enchanter can cast Natural Energy, Banish, and Rejuvenation.
elderwood treant was fake spell: since the gnoll was so biomass intensive, if you ever needed a front line you would rather have furbolgs.
Faerie Dragon can cast Faerie Blessing, Healing Wave, and Serenity.
Faerie Blessing no longer gives HP regen as it was too effective at out of combat regen, which invalidated every other healing spell.
Healing Wave, well, to compensate. and Banish got moved to the Gnoll.
Wildkin Oracle can cast Cyclone, Wildkin Slam, and Overpower.
Boulder toss removed due to Cyclone being single target now as well.
Overpower is a teamwide damage boost.
Misc Changes
Obelisks can now abolish magic.
in general, Curator now have much more access to damage. I made sure to keep their damage boost conditional to grouping up so that it aligns with Curator's identity.
spell immune units can now be buffed (woohoo green dragons)
Defiled Swarm
Updated Units
flesheater - back to 3 food kekw
naga royal guard - is now a melee unit, but uses ranged attack vs air
couatl - range from 800 (+400) to 1000
azure serpent - size rescaled to 5
Spellcasters
Naga Siren can cast Parasite, Sleep, Frost Nova
Sleep replaces charmed sleep because unconditional cc is a bit too disgusting for a 2 food unit
and also frost nova felt like shit
Revenant can cast Magic Theft, Eternal Frost, and Deconstruction
eternal frost is a targeted cc spell, replacing icicle storm
deconstruction was moved from the core building because it was a spammable ability
key ideas for the revenant: takeover being removed means the revenant actually needs to do other things, which it already did with magic theft, it just never really mattered before. icicle storm is a good spell, but it interfered with the ai because they insist on kiting out of it even though it only deals minimal damage to units.
Notable Upgrades
Voracious appetite - replaces advanced metabolism, improves devour rate for both hydra and wyvern
Tetradotoxin glands - returning upgrade for couatls which gives them a poison attack.
Misc Changes
core building - gains takeover from revenant, renamed to manipulate. can take any unit.
core building - new ability dissolve, deals damage to a building to gain resources over time.
Exalted Order
Mana shields now shield 2 damage per mana, mana decreased for all units.
The reason for this change is to match the Skywagon's mana replenish. Now the average value of mana is the same for spellcasters and non-spellcasters, it feels better to produce Skywagons.
Updated Units
arcane zeppelin - interference is now an active, so no need to hard micro
barrage engine - is now a multishot unit
Spellcasters
Priests can cast Concord, Dispel Magic, Magic Reconstruction
magic reconstruction replaces holy light, being functionally the same except magic recon restores mana iif the target is already fully healed. also can heal mech units.
Notable Upgrades
Magic Glaives - makes lieutenant attacks bounce. relevant if lieutenants are primary damage source.
Battlemage Training - increases the attack damage of priests and sorceresses by 7, making them decent combat units if they run out of mana.
Golden Plating - increases Skywagon armour, relevant if the Skywagon has no mana for mana shield.
Ignition Shells - makes Hyperion cannons ignite the ground for dot damage.
enhanced swordsmanship and pinpoint accuracy moved to t3 town hall
Misc Changes
towers more expensive
Fallen Conspiracy
well...i blew up the tech tree and remade it. Unit comps like ghost and critical strike yada yada, forget about all those.
So, a bit of history, the ghost tech tree was initially designed to be difficult to access, so that when gaining leads with the aggressive bio tree, the player could then choose to either invest into transitioning into the ghost comp which had a superior late game, or keep digging down the bio tree at the cost of a worse late game.
however, the main problem is that the intermediate transitions to the ghost comp gave no value, (ie. cathedral + dark temple + ghost totems is around 1k worth of resources), not to mention needing to train units.
thus, in practice it was almost always the case that going further down the bio tech tree gave you a better chance of closing the game than transitioning and going late. in addition, the later the game, the resistance to tech switch increases.
A brief rundown of the new techtree is that the demon gate units are now the ultimate units, while the ghost strategy is now more of a niche, surprise strat. The race's techtree now revolves around sharp timings. The techtree is still somewhat divided, but nowhere near the extent it used to be. A key idea is that basic units produced from the ghost techtree could always contribute in utility: scavengers for vision, wraiths for possesion, necromancers for spells, so that transitions out of it arent as awkward.
Mercenary Camp - trains bandits, spear throwers, deceivers
Graveyard - trains scavengers, wraiths, necromancers, shadow drakes, harbingers, death wyrms.
Demon Gate - trains bloodfiends, maidens, doom guards
Dimensional Gate - trains Diabolics, Voidwalkers, Mindbreakers.
NEW Units - Scavenger, Maiden of Torment, Fel Mindbreaker
Scavenger is actually a returning unit which fills the air to air role, replacing the Shadow Drake). Im not sure what i want to do with this unit, but providing early scouting is a necessary feature of the unit.
Maiden of Torment, replacing the succubus, is a ranged unit which has a bleeding dot attack. It's purpose is to replace the Felbeast as the Demon Gate ranged unit. Its dot based damage also means it is strong as a support unit and weaker when massed.
Fel Mindbreaker, is a new unit which specializes in anti-magic. Since buff control is now a part of the game, the Fallen needs its own ways to stave off enemy priests from spamming inner fire everywhere. The fallen should technically suck at buff control, therefore this unit is only accessible at t3.
Updated Units
Spear thrower - can hit air now (yay)
deceiver - dark flattery now decreases hp regen instead of armour, now castable on ancients
Wraiths - now has the possession ability
Shadow Drake - uhh...think of it as fire drake but change name and skin colour, but it retains its invis bs. is now a ghost
Doom guard - is now melee
Voidwalker - now uses a bouncing attack instead of split shot, no longer a ghost
Infernal - instead of being summoned by the contraption, its now summoned by a building at global range pog
Death wyrm - ghost
Diabolic - not ghost
Notable Upgrades
Dawn of Awakening - an expensive upgrade which summons two Death Wyrms which last 240 seconds.
Misc Changes
hand of destruction now consumes a worker not a fire pit
Closing thoughts
you might be wondering how i suddenly have the motivation to make so many drastic changes. well, i finally baited my brother to play the game, and after a few games he sat down with me and went through each of the race's units. it was an eye-opening session because i had severely overlooked a lot of the race/units' design faults (and bugs). above all, i needed fresh perspective on the game, which he gave. ye
game's looking more fun than ever (self-proclaimed)
will be updating the wiki when i can
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