Warcraft 3: Reforged is getting another massive update to help patch some of the issues that rendered the game unplayable at launch. With a long way still to go, this latest patch brings a good bit of improvement to make the game into the form that fans were promised.
In addition, Blizzard has also activated the PTR for the first time in the game’s life. By allowing players to test the new content, the developers are hoping to get back a bit of feedback that isn’t the lambasting of negativity the title has received over the last few months.
These changes are extensive, targetting nearly every aspect of the title for improvement. Balance, bugs, items, mercenaries, and maps are all getting huge changes as Blizzard works to improve the title.
Two fixes are coming to the art, a long-time project of improving the botched graphical quality. Raccoons will no longer fade away during their death animation when the game is set in Reforged mode, and Northrend Tree Walls will no longer appear white on the minimap.
With the campaign, Blizzard has fixed issues with animations of characters during cutscenes, which was an issue affecting multiple maps. The Summoned Damage field within the map editor has been tweaked as well to help custom map makers a bit.
The Warcraft III: Reforged PTR realms are coming up for the first time and there's a huge amount of balance changes detailed in their Patch Notes! https://t.co/ErL2FyHkwg pic.twitter.com/tI7gN5Ce0B
— Wowhead💙 (@Wowhead) May 20, 2020
In terms of the balance changes, there are literally hundreds. All four factions are getting a sizeable number of improvements and balance tweaks, making some of the units that were giving issues be playable again.
A full list of these balance changes can be found in the official patch notes linked above. While extremely extensive, many of them are fixing issues of behavior rather than the actual stats and abilities of a unit.
Items are getting a huge amount of changes as well as Blizzard works to give them a more solid place in the game. Potions of Mana, for example, will now restore considerably less mana, while having their in-shop gold cost reduced as well.
Multiple level 5 charged items have been tweaked, with Blizzard stating that they “want to keep the coolness of having items that call forth creatures but change what was brought in.” Making alterations to the Drake Eggs and Talisman of the Wild, Blizzard hopes to bring items into a more resolute spot in the game.
Mercenary camps have been updated with the intention of making them more balanced, especially for custom map makers. The Transportation Ship has also been radically changed, having all of its stats reduced by some degree.
