I feel these balance changes are well intentioned but miss the mark in a few ways.
Looking at pro / high level ladder player there seems to be 3 areas to address:
- HU vs UD - DK fiends is actually close to being balanced, it’s Crypt Lord really giving HU problems. HU is pretty good in the late game but has a hard time getting there.
- NE vs HU: NE does okay through mid game but struggles late game.
- After orc struggled for a long time, the pendulum has swung orcs way perhaps too far in Orc v NE matchup. Orc seems to have a tad bit too much cost efficiency early mid game, and then hits tough timing for NE late mid game. This matchup with the Keeper meta has been in NE favor, so we need to careful as small changes can really swing this matchup.
Honestly NE seems a bit weak right now overall, and I say this as an orc fan, who has long loathe the NE oppression against orc.
With this in mind …
The lumber harvesting change will not help HU early game / early mid game struggles against Crypt Lord UD BUT will help against NE. HU army generally better than NE late game, only thing NE going for it is better upgrades, which is now being engaged.
The tower buff may help HU defend expo against UD but there is high risk of tower rushing and tower pushing too strong in other match ups. I think most of community would agree the product is better since we have gone away from tower rush meta. I think tower rush / push may be particularly oppressive against NE now, who was already unflavored in the matchup.
Tank buff is just wrong. Tanks are a later game unit. HU doesn’t have late game struggles in any matchup, the struggles against UD are much more in the early game. That being said Tank change won’t be that significant in pro play but it’s sucks for the community for 4v4 in particular.
NE Bear buff is okay I suppose. I kind of worry this will force NE down a set tech path, and take away from creativity race is known for.
I think they need to revert wisp detonate nerf do what some have already suggested . Reduce the or AoE of wisp detonate. Detonate was already infective against HU mass caster due to brilliance. The problem for orc pre nerf was yes while Shadow Hunter running out of manna stinks, the worse issue was Shamans running out of manna.
I suggest the following:
- Revert wisp detonate back to pre 1.32.9
- Either, reduce the AoE of the detonate OR buff manna pool of orc Shammans by a little pit. To prevent too big of swing back in Orc v NE match up.
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It is great to see humans getting a bit of power in certain places, that said in order to balance things out the following changes should be applied as well to move their power a bit away from certain human heroes and units:
Mountain King stormbolt stun duration changed from 5/5/5 on heroes to 2/3/4 on heroes. Stormbolt stun duration changed from 5/5/5 on units to 3/4/5 on units.
Mount King stormbolt range reduced by 100 units.
Note: The Mountain King is too powerful at locking down units and heroes the moment he comes in to play. Just like other heroes human players will now have to level up the Mountain King to make him extremely powerful.
Mountain King thunderclap slow duration on units reduced by 1 second on all levels.
Mount King thunderclap slow duration on heroes reduced by 2 seconds on all levels.
Note: The Mountain King is the only hero that has both a long CC duration and high damage on his abilities. This change adresses this.
Spellbreaker Control Magic research moved back to Tier 3
Spellbreaker unit and collision size increased to match that of 3 food units from other races.
Note: This makes Spellbreakers on even footing versus other units and no longer allows them to sneak through small holes between buildings.
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idk why you people expect big patch when only minor version number goes up? 
anything major will be in version 1.33
impale is a aoe range stun, the cryptlord doesn’t even have to expose himself like MK for clap or TC for stomp.
Also, there is no need for impale to do more damage than stomp.
Also, the damage from impale and stun can’t be countered if crypt is supported by DK and lich. Impale coil nova if undead heroes are lev 3 or more will kill more or less any hero. So reduce imaple damage, the aoe range stun is more than enough
Rod of necromancer: just make skeleton summoned by this item different of necromancer’s. Now skeleton’s xp reward (both - item and necromancer’s skill) - 13 xp. Make necromancer’s skeletons xp reward - 13 -> 8xp
Rod of necromancy’s skeleton’s xp reward - 13 -> 15xp (or 16)
rod’s cooldown can be 22 sec. so
Knights don’t need buffed. It’s already very strong compared to abominations, and there has been no complaint. Why do you need to strengthen it? The modification on CL is understandable, but I’m disappointed to see no enhancement on DL. DL is a very interesting hero with lots of potential. A little enhancement on him would make the game more dramatical.
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I got to say, I think you’re pretty spot on tod, however, I would argue that elf is doing just as good at the highest lev as orc and undead, it was just in the dreamhack final tournament they did not performed as good as usual. Then the reason hum is struggling to perform is mainly because of undead vs hum.
Then I’m super surprised that Mgs weren’t touch, either like make them a t3 unit or remove double taunt or just do something about them.
undead nuke to strong,
anti magic shield should be dispelable
hum would need a way to protect there workers better(without making towers stronger), (however then maybe melitia should be a bit nerfed as having them early on for fast creeping is a strong point for hum workers)
Literally came straight here from Grubby’s video to comment this. What kind of staff do you have writing this up that don’t even know the names of the units? Guess we know why Reforged came out how it did - zero care in the world.
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I like the item re-selling increase change, and the aura item changes.
You’re way off the shot here mate, W3Champions has 16 dedicated servers whilst Blizzard has 3.
Its a bloody mess my firend, W3C with the help of Back2Warcraft can fund more servers then a AAA company. I am NOT lowering my standards for custom game servers.
Blizzard either does ALTEAST 10 servers for custom games or bloody well buggers off.
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Good to see Blizzard do some changes in the game. Thank you! I second that!
Main point not touching balance could be the merging of the W3Champions ladder and further improvement of it as an integral part of the game and incentives to the developers, ofc.
- crypt lord nerf is reasonable, but other things are slightly not necessary
- Maybe NE archers need good old hp number of 260 or a bit more - 270. Dryads need to be buffed a bit, because they’re now easy to kill. Maybe 450 hp at least.
- Another thing could add versatility to human is a thing that was in previous patches: defend of footmen protects agains magic attack. Maybe it could be good against coil and nova.
- Sundering blades are not good when defaulted. Big and fast powerspike in the mirror and vs UD. Maybe this upgrade should not be changed except should be applicable for footmen on tier 3 (like frenzy for ghouls w UD) to make footmen more playable.
- Tower changes are not good to NE, because even now towers are quite dangerous and hard for NE (not necessarily at pro lvl).
- Lumber changes w HU are not necessary. Only peasants need an hp buff +50 points. it could be enough, but needs to test the water.
7.Frost armor changes are too radical. +3+5+7 sec of frost (logically correspondent with bonus armor) are enough
- Sacrificial pit imho needs to require 75 gold and 100 lumber
9.Siege engines are good now w 60 bounty points.
- Rutial dagger was ok before the patch.
- Banshee antimagic shield mana might cost 100 mana as a strong spell
My Video take on the patch
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After thinking about changes in items I don’t like it.
Direction is ok, but changes are too big. 75% item sell value = 263g for tp. In combination with nerfs for aura items this almost in every case means that players should sell most of items and invest in units/upgreades/scrolls/potions. I don’t think that we want it.
We shouuld nerf only auras which are too good. In my opinion there are 4 op aura items and all other are great or at least decent but but they don’t give you an exaggerated advantage.
- Scourge Bone Chimes - always great for orc and in bear mirror or in orc mirror it’s almost always win for player who have it. So nerf to 15% is ok.
- Legion Doom-Horn and Ancient Janggo of Endurance both are great but I think that only one aspect should be nerfed - bonus speed.
- Khadgar’s Pipe of Insight - I’m ok with nerf but I feel that -33% are too impactful for item value. Make it 0,55-0,65.
Other auras are decent but can’t be only winning condition and better leave it in place where they are.
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First, lets get out some facts:
Prize money distribution from top players by race since 2003
ht tp s: //imgur. com/ a/MgccAe3
This gives a good indicator of balance and success of the races. We all know that Human is the most successful race in all of Warcraft 3 while Undead is the least successful race in all of Warcraft 3.
Meanwhile, the patchnotes make you think its the opposite. I cannot fathom how the developers constantly come up with more Human buffs. Undead is underrepresented in the asian scene - the most competitive scene. Asian Undead performance is singlehandedly being carried by 120. Happy doesn’t play Asian tournaments.
And from other race perspective: Why does Human need more buffs? It was already favoured against Nightelf. The Human vs Orc matchup requires extremely delicate balance. This is just wrong, stop trying to buff Human with every patch!
Here is what should have happened and should be considered:
- Changes to Ghouls to make them a viable unit. Increase of Hitpoints and/or armor via upgrades.
- Changes to Necromancers to make them a viable unit. A rework is needed, but please keep frenzy as it is. Rework Raise Skeleton and Cripple to be more useful and less about snowballing with cheap summons.
- Change the Frost Wyrm Frost Breath upgrade to something useful.
- Give DK and Lich actually useful ultimate abilities that are worth picking.
May I request that the Backpack upgrade not require a shop, and tomes can be picked up and sold by units?
I’ve found I would sent out my hero to harass and creep with units, and when I got unlucky and a tome would drop, I’d have to destroy it or risk the opponent getting it.
Thanks!
It is not only the repair rate of towers that can potentially make tower rushes very strong but it is also the improved lumber harvesting at T1 since you can leave only half of the workers at home on wood and use more for towering the opponent. HU vs NE seemed fairly balanced but now I am worried about NE players a bit since all these buffs also apply to this matchup.
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)
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I cant tell if you are trolling but in case you are not you can try using Mountain Giants 
and what about reconnect? That should be the top priority than clans and profiles and even custom campaigns imo
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Are you serious ToD?
Since knights and rifleman have been buffed, HU has been dominating elf even more during late game. Of course HU is imba (more deeply) over elf since last patch, just see how humans started to abuse with T2 rifleman push and then winning without doing too much effort.
You have always claimed against warden, but you do not say anything against the broken MK who beats that hero and also can be played as second hero easily.
Peasants pain? Since when the goal consists about covering all HU weaknesses? I do always watch (and enjoy a lot) Foggy’s stream when he beats you 97% of the time. But if you study carefully, you should note he cant beat not incredible HU players like SOK or DemusliM (he has never beaten Infi in bo3/bo5/bo7) even without having any chance. Also he needs a lot of work to beat Blade, who has improved a lot and does not lose to Foggy every time now. It seems there is another guy who didnt make his homework here.
Even more, i dont remember you talking about night elves after beating Saide a couple of months ago during tournament. He lost so easily against typical HU late game strategy.
The really god night elf against HU is Lawliet, which is the only one who beats all humans (except Infi). But that is not representative at all, he is just an amazing and creative player. Every other single pro elf has struggled against HU in big tournaments since years (Colorful, Foggy, Moon).
Honestly and with all respect, it is very annoying to hear (read) guys like you crying every single year about human. It only encourages for keep working in how to make human stronger, while the reality says (MU statistics, tournaments results, etc) that HU BEATS ELF since long time ago.
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