Warcraft III/Patch 1.32.9

Warcraft III patch 1.32.9 is the ninth minor patch since 1.32.0. It was released on October 21, 2020.

The patch was deployed on the Public Test Realm on September 8, 2020.

Build 16551, December 14, 2020
This update addresses a server issue and contains no player-facing changes.

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.

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.