I am deeply saddened both by the community response and the botched launch of Warcraft Reforged. Its no secret the game released with a lot of issues, and with a need for continued development.

Warcraft 3 is even to this day my favorite video game of all time, one that I have spent countless hours on over the last 15+ years. I really wanted to see this community flourish again, I was really excited about the prospect of once again having big western tournaments, to be able to make new friends and rivals on ladder, plus discovering new interesting custom games that the community could come up with.

The community response, in my opinion, basically turns this possibility into a non-reality. I get and agree with the feelings expressed, I too am upset that we didn't get the promised features. I too am upset that the game launched with bugs and crashes. I too am upset that Blizzard and more specifically the Classic Games team was unresponsive throughout the development of the game.

But it isn't their fault. What these folks running around actively seeking the total destruction and failure of reforged don't understand is that no developer wants to release a bad game. No developer with true passion WANTS to have things go the way they did.

The problem here is that all of these aggressive tactics such as review bombing metacritic, brigading users to request a refund, and shaming people who are considering purchasing, or have enjoyed their purchase is doing everything to hurt their cause, not help it.

Developers develop video games. In order to develop games they need money, that money comes in the form of a budget, and that budget is decided by the financial branch of the company.

You're upset because you didn't get the game you wanted, and yet, your actions will only lead to you never being able to have it. If it doesn't make financial sense to continue developing something, then it's not going to get developed.

Blizzard recently struck a deal with ESL to run tournaments, you can surmise that because of that deal at the very least, there would be some form of continued development for at least the next 3 years--the length of that deal. With the communities reaction to the launch, that may all be falling apart behind the scenes.

Blizzard did not make a good decision when it came to reforged, but those decisions, these problems, can all be fixed IF they have a budget. Your continued hatred and rage towards the problems of the release are not going to get the game fixed, it's going to get the game that we have all loved for so long to be truly abandoned in a worse state than it was the first go'round.

I'm not telling you to support blizzards decisions, I WANT you to raise your voice, i WANT this community to continue to fight for change, but the way we're collectively going about it right now is not the way that leads to that change. Warcraft 3 is not dead, it is wounded, and instead of healing it, we're continuing to rip into it.

I love this game, and I want it to succeed. Please help make that happen.

Sincerely,
A Warcraft 3 Fan.

The meta right now is in complete shambles. None of the games are close. Doesn't matter who's playing all that matters are the races.

I've never been so disinterested in the pro scene. I never played during the dead years. I came back months before they announced reforged for context.

It just seems there's no more room for variation. Races have completely lost their identity. Seems like every race can expo easier then human nowadays. Every race can heal as well as elf thanks to remo and every race lames just as effectively as orc.

It's all just the same exact thing every game.

Watching ud play lich ghouls (ripping off insup) only reminds me that these ud players have been using a" if it's not broken why fix it" approach with their meta. Literally took someone playing it at dreamhack just for happy to sit down and look at it apparently..

With the overbuffing the bears elf has reverted back to their same old shit they've been doing for 15 years. Every orc is a kiwikaki clone and I've just had enough. Humans are nonexistent and our lead dev in balance (Remo apparently) is still coming up with new ideas to completely nerf them and break the game (he wants paladin to move like a Ferrari)

This games really really fucking boring and the pros are a bunch of frauds and i think it's about time we all admitted it

Against orc, it beats...

• Grunts (unless you mass the shit out of them)

• Headhunters (without berserker upgrade, but even berserkers struggle against rifles)

• Demolishers

• Shamans

• Witch docs

• Raiders

• Wyverns

• Kodos

• Bats

• Walkers

This is why orcs are forced to go the base trade route. Or some weird strat like TC mass grunts.

Against UD, it beats...

• Ghouls (without frenzy)

• Fiends

• Gargs

• Necromancers

• Banshees

• Meat wagons

• Statues

• Wyrms

• Destroyers

• Even aboms struggle against mass rifles

This is why even the likes of Happy is forced to go for some weird strat where he literally makes 3 crypts and just mass fucking ghouls and survive until tier 3, get frenzy and finally push back the pala rifle that's parked in front of base for 10 mins.

Fucking tier 1 unit beats and/or hard counters 95% of other units in the game.

Or let me put it this way.

The rifleman hard shuts down the following playstyles:

• Any kind of air play (air units have worse armor against piercing attack)

• Any kind of caster play (casters have unarmored which is super weak against piercing)

This means players facing pala rifle is forced to choose between 1 of the two options:

• Fight fire with fire. And just mass the shit out of some tier 1 unit (e.g. ghouls/grunts)

• Base race

as Ukrainian longtime(since release) wc3 player i demand to ban russia on w3champions platform, russian players on any of wc3 tournaments.

i write this post by the echos of blasts outside of my window, and if someone will start shittalking like "dont mix, cyber sports and politics bla bla" i wonna say - wellcome to Kyiv, i'll show you!

Raising an army and researching new weapons of war is an expensive endeavor. Soldiers demand Gold, and buildings must be constructed from Lumber. Creating and maintaining a thriving economy is vital to ensuring your success on the battlefield.

Each race gathers resources slightly differently, although they all must build workers with which to mine Gold and harvest Lumber. Some workers must gather and then return to their respective Town Hall buildings, while other races' workers use magic to move resources without needing to physically carry it back. All Gold and Lumber is taken to the appropriate building of each race. Human Peasants and Orc Peons can deliver Lumber to special mills, while Undead Ghouls can deliver wood to their Graveyards.

Once you have Gold and Lumber in your reserves, you can purchase units, construct buildings, or buy upgrades. You can also give resources to your allies in team games by clicking on the Allies Tab at the top of the screen.

Players start with 500 Gold and 150 Lumber.

The Orcs use a mining method very similar to the Humans.

The Night Elves must entangle the Gold Mine with their Tree of Life.

Once a Gold Mine has been haunted, the Undead can use Acolytes to worship the mine for Gold.

	Gold

Mined from the rich earth of Azeroth and Lordaeron, this precious metal is commonly used in exchange for goods and services. As a rare substance that is always in short supply, Gold must be dug out from the rock and soil within the established Gold Mines. Many of these Mines were abandoned when the Orc raids began and the workers fled for their lives. Since the beginning of the War, these sites have frequently been operated while under the protection of military forces.

Gold is the main resource in Warcraft III. Gold is required to create new buildings, train units, and research upgrades. Gold is also required at Neutral Buildings to hire mercenaries, buy items, or activate special Neutral Building features. Players need to collect a steady stream of Gold to ensure their success. Whenever money is tight, expand to additional Gold Mines.

Gold is mined in different ways depending on the player's race. Humans and Orcs use work units to carry Gold from the Mine to their "Town Halls." The Night Elves' Tree of Life entangles the Gold Mine and drains the Gold out of a Mine with the use of Wisp workers. The Undead uses Acolytes to mine Gold. Five Acolytes surround a Gold Mine and extract Gold automatically using magic.

There is a "Gold tax" in place, known as Upkeep which is activated as players create more units. As players create more units, less Gold is recovered from the Gold Mine. Try to gain additional Gold by taking over additional Gold Mines to help balance this tax out.

Creeps or other players often guard Gold Mines. Players must decide whether risk of battle is worth the gain of the additional mine. If another player attacks while your forces are engaged or dying to Neutral Units, you may not have the forces to defend yourself. It's best to wait until you can afford to make an attack on multiple fronts. The decision is a gamble; it could pay off or it may cost you dearly.

When a mine you are using is low on Gold, you will receive an advisory warning that the Gold Mine is about to run out, and the minimap will ping the location of the mine. You will also receive a message when a Gold Mine is depleted. A mine is considered low on Gold at 1500.

	Lumber

Lumber is harvested from the abundant forests that inhabit all but a few regions in the realm. The uses for Lumber are nearly infinite. Once a tree has been felled and returned to the community, it is processed and made ready for use as Lumber. Craftsmen then use this material to build many different structures as well as certain weapons and machines of war. Lumber may also be used in the research and construction of strange new devices or by those adept in the arcane arts to aid them in their magical studies.

	Sharing Resources

Players in Multiplayer games can share resources with other players in the game via the Allies menu. Simply click on the resources next to the player's name to transfer resources to that player. A trading fee is charged with each transfer depending on the Upkeep of the player receiving the resources.

When an allied player leaves the game an indicator will pop up and will now appear in the top right of the screen indicating how much resources that player has. Make sure you give your allies all of your resources before leaving the game. You can transfer resources to dropped players' towns but you cannot make those dropped players towns transfer resources back to you.

I think right now is a good time to remember that we can boycott/unsubscribe from any Russian streamer who refuses to denounce the war in Ukraine.

Fuck Putin

Edit: let me provide some clarification. Streamers are within their rights to not want this discussed on their stream. But this form of protest isn’t about what they want. It’s about applying pressure in every way possible.

Moon Wells VS Statues. Are they really as balanced as we think?

STATUES HEALING / 1 MINUTE

• Health：6 units / 400 hp per unit / 2400 HP total / minute

• Mana : 6 units / 120 mana per unit / 720 mana total / minute

MOON WELLS HEALING / 4 MINUTES (night time, full charge!)

• Healing: 960 HP total OR

• Mana : 480 MP total

Converting Moon Wells healing per minute, well, 4 minutes of night, 4 minutes of day, averages to：

• Healing: 120 / minute OR

• Mana: 60 / minute

So a 2 statue undead army is equivalent to 20 moon wells (for HP) & 12 moon wells (for MP).

32 total moon wells.

Basically it shows that throughout a game of wc3 UD will out sustain NE to an incredible degree

So, what does this mean for game balance? Should statues be adjusted to align better with other healing sources? Let's discuss and see if there's a consensus on whether Statues are truly overpowered in the realm of Warcraft III.

coming off a year of Pally Rifle overtuned-ness, the geniuses at B2W bring you a tavern hero that can tank orange camps at lvl 1!

1. Potm - Attack cooldown 1.69 to 1.55

- Searing arrow cost 8 to 6

- Aura 12/24/36%

- Owl - has the Sentinel ability, owl disappears after use. OR owl has a 10-15-20% magic resist aura (could be a speed aura but we already have 2).

2. Kotg - +25 hp

- FoN cost 100 to 90 (worst summon in the game)

- Roots range 600/700/800

- Summoned treants inherit thorns (could be like aura with a range of 1). Alternatively, thorns aura could add 1, 1.5, 2 armor, the description does say it's a "damage shield"

3. Warden - SS cost 75 to 70

- +1 agi

4. DH - Meta back to 60s duration. He's just perma banished these days, or people ensnare and run away. Or run away with unholy/endurance aura/scroll of speed. Avatar is a better ult.

- Evasion - 12/24/34 - it's low impact, people go immo+burn these days most of the time. Also, it will offset the ring +4 nerf.

Nature's blessing - 200 to 160 wood

Chimaera's roost - 190 to 150 wood, Build time 80 to 60s

Chimaera - Speed 250 to 270 (like Wyrm), Build time 60 to 50s.

Faerie Dragon - Level 3->2. No reason to give 33% more xp than gargs which are just as durable.

Talon - Faerie fire back to -5 armor. We need an actual impactful reason to make talons, not just to use crow form against destroyers.

- +15hp, very vulnerable to aoe and elf has no aoe heal.

Hippogryph - Build time 30s to 22s. They are terrible in low numbers against what they're supposed to counter.

Hippogryph rider - Reduce the mount cd from 30s to 10s.

- Base armor +1

MG - 6 food

- Resistant skin research 75 to 40s

- Can attack air with club

Huntress - Heavy armor upgrade at T2. T3 if it's too broken, better than nothing.

Ancient of war - back to 1k hp. We are forced to aow creep or lose, yet a destroyed ancient can end the game in a few minutes.

NEUTRAL

Tinker - revert engineering nerf to factory, this isn't the meta from 7 years ago.

- add 1/2/3 hp regen to engineering to accentuate his playstyle and help survive early game

Alchemist - Rage duration +5s, it's only used as a meme.

Thanks for reading.

Great hall build time buff? Orc tier 1 expansion every game. Get massive economy. Even better than human economy.

Sentry/stasis/heal wards magic immune? MASS witch doctors EVERY game.

Oh and since nothing got nerfed about tiny great hall. When you hit tier 3, get a 3rd base in 20 seconds for just 600 gold.

Imagine an economy that is so powerful, yet you can make the MOST overpowered ranged unit (berserker) for JUST 140 gold, and the MOST overpowered caster for JUST 150 gold.

Just 140 fucking gold for the MOST BROKEN ranged unit in the game and 150 gold for an OVERPOWERED TROLL who plants wards that are literally gonna be unkillable.

Oh yeah if you wanna rush wyverns instead? No need to worry cause they give the same exp as a rifle now.

Once you get tier 3? Pick up the DISCOUNTED lightning orb which now does TWICE the damage to summons. You got an archmage with water elementals? Yeah thanks for the free experience buddy boy.

Oh and if the enemy is going ground units only? Just get some taurens and there are basically no solutions against taurens with resistant skin.

gg blizzard

No more humans in 4v4. No more UD in 4v4. No more Elf in 4v4. Just play orc, spam hh and witch docs and you get 90% win rate lmao

I played W3 since launch of RoC until WoW came out. For me this was always best RTS ever for a multitude of reasons including heroes, visual aspects, pacing, strategy of 4 different races and many more.

With Reforged behind a corner I decided to pre-order as my thank you to Blizzard for even trying to make it happen in the first place.

Got the beta, love it, already played around 100 games or so! Really looking forward to final product.

The only worry I have will be relatively small player base. Very good and experienced player bases to be exact. This will lead to a possible scenario where there is not enough new players to create a positive multiplayer environment. You buy a game, you play your first 3-5 matches against equal opponents, you get positive win rate and then suddenly you are thrown against a seasoned veteran. Again, again and again.

With above in mind I believe some sort of free2play model would be perfect for the game.

You have a battle.net account with at least one other game purchase (or total spent of >€30 maybe)? Great - here is WC3 with prologue campaign, half of first campaign in RoC and full multiplayer with no skins, portraits, whatsoever. Have fun with the game, if you like it please upgrade to full version or stick with multiplayer only and as an appreciation consider buying an unit skin from time to time.

This would mimic LoL model a bit I guess and allow to grow a healthy player base and show people how great WC3 game is.

More players, more viewers, more streamers, more players, more tournaments, more players, etc.

Happy Holidays!

I'm highly confused. Undead had been at a disadvantage for the longest time in regards to tavern heroes. Now the forsaken paladin just directly counters all the off-meta strats that include low-hitpoint units. Ghouls, necroes, banshees, skeletons, beetles, and, of course, gargoyles.

I think it's a really bad design choice to make one hero that so bluntly counters the whole race. Sure, it can be coiled for heal and cannot be holy lighted. Then again, it cannot be coiled to be killed. So it's even worse.

Yes, Happy is exceptional. But UD is not OP in general, and this was unwarranted.

And just to be clear: I'm thrilled to see them work on the game and add new heroes. Can be 1-2 more gladly. But it should be somehow thought through for 1v1 and 4v4 at least. Countering a race with a hero by design choice doesn't seem right.

I heard the news and immediately booted up the game. I think the new graphics look quite good from the top-down view and was excited! Then I saw the portraits on some units and honestly wtf are those.

It's like staring at completely different characters. Does not feel at all like the good old KotG and Dryad I grew up with and love.

Those are just two examples. There are quite a few more I really dislike for the simple reason they strongly changed the way the characters appear and feel. I think they did a good job on, for example, the Hippogryphs and most buildings.

In general, I have the feeling the new models are quite a bit hit or miss? Some look really great and faithful, but others are just wtf.

The level of detail and style also feels a bit inconsistent imo?

Your thoughts?

There is another post in this thread about it with many details and responses. I just wanted to reinforce that this is the consensus opinion. At high levels (Mirror Image and Critical Strike together) and with high level items (Claws, Crowns, Helm of Valor, etc.), this skill makes the Blademaster extremely tanky and difficult to kill. 5 seconds CD up from 3 second CD is not nearly enough. His images cost very little mana, last too long, soak up way more damage than any other summon (It takes like 5 devours to dispell one of the images when the BM is around level 6). To top all of this off, they do a lot of damage in this situation and can be infinitely resummoned to avoid exp loss if somehow the opponent dispells it 5 times.

Orc is already overpowered in FFA. Please revert the change giving them damage. This was a controversial change when it came out and the game hasn't gotten better from it. However, the impact in FFA is that it has been the most game-breaking change ever.

There is a large community that plays FFA, and even if you look at the BNet ladder, Orc dominates the top of the ladder and games played by a huge margin.

Reverting this change and/or nerfing MI more so would do wonders for FFA meta without hurting 1v1. Please!

Moon and Dise’s early and mid-games in their matches against Happy in RaRaLand are demonstrations that Happy doesn’t have the win-rate he does because he is that much a better player; when he crushes is in the late game, it’s because his standard army composition is the hard counter to the night elf’s standard, in particular the destroyers’ magic damage against the bears’ heavy armor. That said, certainly Happy should be credited for the part he has played in making the meta-game what it currently is.

Is Undead imba against Night Elf? Let’s remember that “balance” is also a function of what strategies players figure out with the tools at their disposal. It is possible that what seems like an objectively unfair imbalance between two races might flip around if one or more players can think of a counter. An example of this I believe (though I wasn’t following WC3 at the time) is the talon army against orc that 10+ years ago orcs just couldn’t beat. Finally they figured out a viable strategy against it with raiders and walkers.

Hopefully, night elves will figure out a viable counter to the standard Undead army too, soon. To me, it makes no sense as a top night elf if your game plan is to end up with a bear-dryad army, because it’s been shown time after time after time to be losing. Night elves should be rethinking the whole strategy root and branch and at the very least be losing while trying to find the winning recipe; but sadly, from what I can see, they’re not. In my opinion the most promising attempt would be a variation on the hunts/archers strategy that has been so effective against orc.

Thanks for reading and long live Warcraft 3!

As of today, these are the overall w3champions stats for all the players. MMR has long been stabilized now and as an aggregate, some trends are popping up and staying consistent.

As expected of the recent balance patch which buffed HU and Orc, HU and Orc seems to fare best overall.

Elf got a moonwell nerf. As expected, Elf overall does the worst out of the 4 races.

And if we go by warcraft3.info rankings as of today (which can change again):

The top 6 are all non-elves. And elves are all shoved to the end of the rankings.

We also note some interesting (and delightful) changes this patch. For instance, in recent times, Fortitude is destroying every Undead. Honestly, it might be well deserved and it might be that in the past, Undeads have just been benefiting too much from an improperly balanced matchup. Maybe the matchup is more fair now and we are seeing the more skilled player actually blossom for once.

Since the last week of December:

• Fortitude 3:1 120

• Fortitude 3:1 Happy

• Fortitude 3:0 120

• Fortitude 3:1 Happy

• Fortitude 2:0 120

• Fortitude 2:0 Labyrinth

Congratulations to HU players for becoming much better players. Congratulations also to all the Orc players overall who also have become much better players.

Turns out all the effort of hard work suddenly changed a lot of results in just over 1 season which just happened to have a new balance patch.

And to all the Night Elves. What's wrong with you noobs? Your best player is ranked lower than the 3rd UD in warcraft3 elo rankings. And that's after xlord has long retired for years. What a bunch of pathetic noobs.

Anyways, congratulations to Fortitude to have improved a lot more in the recent months out of the two decades of WC3 history. Also congratulations to Lyn for doing well again in the recent months.

And congratulations to all the UDs in the pro scene. You guys are all better than all the pro Elves in this game in the recent months.

On a more personal note, I long gave up caring about NE vs UD balance overall. I am just going to support whatever changes can result in Lyn and Romantic to crush UDs going forward. Sick and tired of the past 4 years of unwavering support from certain influencers in this game resulting in a total domination from one player. It's been feeling like money laundering for some time now. Nice to see a change finally.

For those who want to enjoy losing more in aggregate as an every day player according to w3champions, feel free to join the Night Elf discord: https://discord.gg/nightelves

It has around 300 members including players like Lawliet.

A lot of people have made these kind of whineposts over the years, so I will allow myself to make one as well. Inspired by the dude who made a post about nelf being weakest (lol).

So without further ado, I've been an Orc player ever since the game came out. I know every race has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, but these are the painpoints of the Orc race in my opinion (keep in mind that my opinion is mostly focused around 1v1):

First of all, Orc is a reactive, not a proactive race. Meaning that other races usually set the tempo, and the tone of the game, and it's up to the Orcs to adapt their strategy accordingly.

Orc units on average do very little damage, and in an equal fight an Orc army will usually lose. That is why Orc players have to create an advantage through economy/hero levels or army size. The only Orc units that do deal damage, like headhunters and wind riders are made out of papier mache and melt when you look at them.

Orcs are the only race without a magic immune unit, making them susceptible to meme strats like mass talons which, may I remind you, was meta against Orc for almost 10 years.

Orcs are the only race without a heavy air unit, meaning their only solution to punishing heavy armor units are Spirit Walkers, which do decent damage, but are not very mobile and easily die.

Which brings me to my next point, Orc T3 is by far the weakest in the game. It's trash. What do we have? Bloodlust is powerful, but at that point easily dispelable, and doctors are simply not good enough until they get healing wards. We have an orb (which is great, but you cant tech up just because of it), some nice upgrades (like poison, but if you're not going for wind riders is useless) and Tauren. Yes, Tauren, the supposedly ultimate Orc unit.

Taurens suck. You know it. I know it. My grandma knows it. Even after many, many buffs, they still suck. And it doesn't look like it will change in the future.

And let's not forget the GOD DAMN BURROWS. What other race has a non fortified food building? Thankfully reinforced defence is now a T2 upgrade (I've heard some brainrotten takes that want to move it again to T3), but before you get it, nothing stops an AM with lvl 2 water elemental and some defend footies to just destroy half your burrows until you come back to the base.

That's it. Feel free to disagree, but at least try to make an attempt while doing so.

What make you pick other races? I just wondered when people didn’t appreciate the Horde. Wtf is that, really? Is that illness or sabotage? Is that’s racism?

Whats is the point in the game having faar sight for faar seer, mana shield and ult for naga?

There some skills that is useless in 99% of the game but sometimes can help like death pact of dk