Warcraft 3 Patch 1.29

[FML|HighTac]

https://www.reddit.com/r/WC3/comments/7za1ly/ptr_129_online_new_169_24_players_new_balance_new/

I thought it's useful to have a disucssion thread for this. Also, I tried to weight the impact for FFA (green = mediocre impact, blue = huge impact)

SPECIFIC CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

Native Widescreen
Non-stretched UI
24 Player Support
Game screens revised
Team Colors revised
(Color palette is an ongoing effort)
Display mana bar


HERO BALANCE CHANGES HUMANS:

Mountain King

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
Stormbolt: Reduce damage
Level 2: Reduce damage from 225 to 210
Level 3: Reduce damage from 350 to 325
ThunderClap: Increase Damage
Level 1: Increase damage from 60 to 65; Range 25 to 30
Level 2: Increase damage from 100 to 125; Range 30 to 35
Level 3: Increase damage from 140 to 175; Range 35 to 40

Paladin

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
Attack Speed: Change default from 2.2 to 2.0
Divine Shield: Decrease duration
Level 2: Decrease duration from 30 to 25
Level 3: Decrease duration from 45 to 35

HERO BALANCE CHANGES ORCS:

Blademaster

Critical Strike: Removed +damage item interaction from multiplier calculation
Current: (Base Damage + Itembonus) * Crit Multiplier = Damage
Change: (Base Damage * Crit Multiplier) + Itembonus = Damage
Mirror Image: Mana Cost (all levels) 125 to 115

Far Seer

Feral Spirit: Lowered XP rewarded
Increase Level 1 & Level 2 HP (200 to 250; 300 to 350)
Lvl 2: Stats Level 4 to Stats Level 3
Lvl 3: Stats Level 5 to Stats Level 4
Chain Lightning: Reduced damage reduction from .15 to .10
Far Sight: Remove mana cost increase cooldowns.
Level 1: No mana cost; Cooldown 60 seconds
Level 2: No mana cost; Cooldown 45 seconds
Level 3: No mana cost; Cooldown 30 seconds

Tauren Chieftain

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
War Stomp: Increased damage
Level 1: Increase damage from 25 to 30
Level 2: Increase damage from 50 to 60
Level 3: Increase damage from 75 to 90

Reincarnation:
Reduce duration for reincarnation to occur - 7 seconds to 5 seconds

HERO BALANCE CHANGES UNDEADS:

Dread Lord

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
Carrion Swarm:
Mana Cost (all levels) 110 to 100
Can now target mechanical units.
Sleep:
Cool down (all levels): 6 sec to 4 sec
Duration Lvl 1: 20(5) to 15(4)
Duration Lvl 2: 40(10) to 35(8)
Duration Lvl 3: 60(15) to 55(12)
Mana Reduction:
Level 1: 100 to 80
Level 2: 75 to 65
(Level 3 stays at 50)
Vampiric Aura: Increased bonus for DL
Level 1: DL 15% to 20%
Level 2: DL 30% to 35%
Level 3: DL 45% to 50%

Crypt Lord

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
Carrion Beetles:
Increase movement speed from 270 to 290
Level 1: Increase HP from 140 to 170
Level 2: Increase HP from 275 to 330
Level 3: Increase HP from 410 to 490
Impale: Increase damage
Level 1: Increase damage from 50 to 75
Level 2: Increase damage from 80 to 120
Level 3: Increase damage from 110 to 165

Lich

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290

HERO BALANCE CHANGES NIGHT ELVES:

Priestess of the Moon

Attack Speed: change default from 2.46 to 2.33

Keeper of the Grove

Hero Starting Attributes: (Buff) Intelligence 18 to 19
Tranquility:
Add a 3-sec invulnerability to the start of the cast
30-sec to 15-sec duration
20 to 40 heal/per sec
Entangling Roots: Reduce Unit root; Increase Hero Root; Increase DA
Unit Root Lvl 2: 24-sec to 18-sec
Unit Root Lvl 3: 36-sec to 30-sec
Hero Root Lvl 2: 3-sec to 5-sec
Hero Root Lvl 3: 5-sec to 7-sec
DPS Lvl 2: 15 Dps to 20 Dps
DPS Lvl 3: 25 Dps to 30 Dps
Force of Nature:
Treants: 14 Dmg to 16 Dmg

Warden

Blink: Reduce and increase cooldown for level 2 and 3
Level 2: Reduce cooldown from 10 sec to 7 sec
Level 3: Reduce cooldown from 1 sec to 4 sec

HERO BALANCE CHANGES NEUTRAL HEROES:

Naga Sea Witch

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290

Pandaren Brewmaster

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290

Goblin Tinker

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
Cluster Rockets: Increase damage, Allow targeting air units
Level 1: Increase base damage per rocket from 8.75 to 11.25
Level 2: Increase base damage per rocket from 16.25 to 18.75
Level 3: Increase base damage per rocket from 25 to 27.5 to 10

Goblin Alchemist

Base Speed: Base speed increase 270 to 290
Healing Spray: No longer heals enemy units
Acid Bomb: Increase damage
Level 1: Increase Dps from 5 to 8
Level 2: Increase Dps from 10 to 13
Level 3: Increase Dps from 15 to 18

Firelord

Incinerate: Increase stats
Level 1: Increase Bonus damage multiplier from 1 to 2
Death Damage Full Area from 90 to 120
Death Damage Half Area from 180 to 240
Duration from 2 to 4
Level 2: Increase Bonus damage multiplier from 2 to 3
Death Damage Full Area from 90 to 120
Death Damage Half, Area from 180 to 240
Duration from 2 to 4
Level 3:
Increase Bonus damage multiplier from 3 to 4
Death Damage Full Area from 100 to 120
Death Damage Half Area from 180 to 240
Duration from 2 to 4
Soul Burn: Increase stats
Level 1: Duration increased from 14(6) to 16(7)
Increase Dmg from 100 to 125
Level 2: Duration increased from 16(7) to 18(8)
Increase Dmg from 225 to 270
Level 3: Duration increased from 18(8) to 20(9)
Increase Dmg from 375 to 450

Dark Ranger

Life Drain: Increase damage done per second and lower mana cost
Reduce Mana cost from 75 to 50 (all levels)
Level 1: Increase damage per sec from 25 to 30
Level 2: Increase damage per sec from 40 to 45
Level 3: Increase damage per sec from 55 to 60

[ObserveAndLearn]

dreadlord fucking carrion swarm can now target mechanical units ?

 

are you fucking kidding me ? end of an era of tank terror. 

tranquility makes kotg invulnerable ? :P :P
alchemist and tinker more beast than ever in ffa?

[Pinballmap]

SO much changes at once.wow. I didnt they 'd do this.

some highlights: Tinker can target air with cluster rockets ,no mana for Farsight, reduced crit dmg on bm (:sadface:)

[aarnikratti]

Elf and UD are huge now.

[FML|HighTac]

In my eyes, this patch has a way bigger impact on FFA than it has on all other game modes. I guess it's more easy to regard this patch subjectively from a night elf perspective, but it definitely has the potential to change the meta drastically.

Top 4 by Impact (unsorted)

Alchemist is a true beast now with hyper acid bomb. The only struggle will be to decide whether to go chemical rage second or heal spray, which also got buffed. I guess some Orcs may consider to swap in Alchi for their Blademasters.

Keeper of the Grove has got his tranquility buffed, which was great already and is absolutely amazing now. It now heals twice as much (40 hp per second), which equals basically a heal scroll every 3.5 seconds.

Dreadlord can now spam carrion swarms on tanks and copters, and his vampiric aura is 5% more powerful, which may have quite an impact.

Blademaster will have a bit less scary critical damage in the future, when stacked with claws. On a second look, I'm not sure it will have such a huge effect, since agility items (e.g. crowns) will still have the same impact.

[aarnikratti]

Keeper is the most inbalanced thing now. Tranquility and entangle got hugely buffed.

[ObserveAndLearn]

I hope they make the most important change in wc3 history :

Fixed a bug where while watching a replay buildings would still appear on the minimap after being destroyed.

[Wrecktify]

Blademaster nerf makes already terrible Orc race even less playable (in FFA)

Dreadlord buffs + HU nerfs make UD top race (when played by a good player like Jaod).  Dreadlord second shoudl be much more common now.  Vamp buff is also good for vs. Elf.

Tinker buff is very interesting - pocket factory was OK vs. tanks but pretty crap in most other situations.   Rockets now do decent damage, huge AOE and provide something very unique (air stun)

Kotg just broken now.  7 second root at level 3? Lulz.

[ZsSuperCumulo]

My precious tinker, it finally gets acknowledged.

[IWANTWC4]

Kind of surprised they didn't touch tanks at all. 

But buffed heroes that don't get played against human in solo.  Like elfs go tinker against orc, not human.   That might change.  Undead go DR not DL third but maybe that'll change. 

Fs is good against human a bit better now, but mass tanks don't get used against orc in 1v1.  It's the elfs and ud that struggle with tanks.   So kind odd that no changes really were made there.


Now in FFA.    The alchy and tinker changes are huge.   Dreadlord helps a bit.   The BM nerf is whatever, I don't personally play BM.   Dr or panda are better but it can hurt on maps that you can stack with claws.

These hero changes that don't affect solo so much verse tank abuse help FFA a lot though as tinker and DL are extremely viable for us.

[FML|Mog]

My precious tinker, it finally gets acknowledged.

YOUR tinker?! gtfo.

:)

[Dovekie]

My biggest takeaways of the patch and for FFA:

-Movespeed change is good from a gameplay persepctive, however it will hurt Orc the most because they don't gain a benefit from it. It will allow Elf and Human a little more power when using off-meta heroes.
-TC and FS buff and Blade nerf are all irrelevant. Crown and Elven Skin will still boost crit damage, and stomp damage doesn't mean anything.
-MK + Pally got a bit stronger. More dps from and movespeed for the pally, and thunder clap now hits harder than frost nova.  This will help the match up against Orc the most.
-DL carrion hitting mechanical units is probably the biggest change for FFA. Buffs Undead from a tier 3 late game race to a tier 2 late game race.  Crypt Lord still sucks but whatever, he's a little less sucky now.
-Keeper is stupidly strong. Will get nerfed, so don't worry too hard.  Oh man imagine playing against an Elf with a level 6 Alchy that transmutes your destroyers and a keeper that constantly entangles your heroes forcing you to fight roared hippogryphs under (a buffed) acid bomb + thorns + haze fire. The Undead v Elf MU just got so bad for Undead.


So IMO:
-Orc got hurt the most, because they didn't get anything
-MK + Pally buffs are a big deal against Orc especially
-DL buff allows Undead a much better late game against Human.
-Elf gets buffed as much or more-so than Undead. Tinker and Alch could become as meta as DH first. Tinker will be so fast now. Kotg is a top tier hero. Elf can safely pick Keeper first, and get an early 290 movespeed panda.  If tanks were nerfed Elf could even skip panda, and go alch/dr/kotg. That would be the dream.

[ZsSuperCumulo]

My precious tinker, it finally gets acknowledged.

YOUR tinker?! gtfo.

:)

The difference between my tinker and yours is that you run around dropping factories for hours like a little fagg3t; while I use him in combat, manly way with rockets  .

[Dovekie]

Yeah is tinker now top tier? I mean he's pretty insane right now.

[xjaody]

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