v0.97b changelog

Changelog for v0.97b

Gameplay:
- changed Chomp to treat level 7+ creeps as heroes

Fixes:
- fixed Afflictor soundset
- fixed Conductive Sphere, Falling Stars, Lunge, and Meditation Aura tooltip typos
- fixed Death and Decay buff
- fixed Quilbeast damage
- fixed Toughness hotkey

Balancing:
- lowered Dryad agility growth slightly
- nerfed Blood Transfusion to 200/300/400/500 life transfered
- improved Chain Reaction damage to 14/20/26/32 per explosion
- reduced Conductive Sphere damage to 35/50/65/80 and duration to 15 seconds

Other:
- reduced Spirit size slightly
- improved the terrain a bit

This version fixed a few game and balance issues that have cropped up with some of the new content introduced last version.

See v0.97 changelog here.

v0.97 Changelog

Changelog for v0.97

Gameplay:
- added new hero: Illidan the Demon Hunter
- added new hero: Kartosh the Afflictor
- merged Dark Ranger's Skeletal Synergy ability with Black Arrow; reintroduced Shadow Wave
- replaced Dryad's Critical Strike with Harmony
- replaced Hydra Hatchling's ultimate Mutating Growth with Hydra Split
- merged Kodo Rider's Endurance with War Drums (now non-ult), added the Chomp ability
- reworked Ogre Warlord: now Ogre Fighter; 3 new abilities and the other significantly changed
- merged Raider's Blazing Speed with Blood Pact; added Dagger Throw
- changed Storm Panda's Flicker to non-ultimate; replaced Seeker Lightning with Conductive Sphere
- reduced gold lost on death to n^2 + 5n, n being the dying hero's level

Fixes:
- fixed Last Reprisal buff
- fixed Infernal Flame and Mana Disruption tooltip typos
- fixed Keg of Ale cost typo

Balancing:
- improved Dragonhawk Rider agility growth by .4/level
- nerfed Hydra Hatchling's other abilities
- reduced Illusionist's illusion damage to 7%, also reduced damage taken to 300%
- nerfed Jungle Stalker's abilities overall
- buffed Knight and his abilities substantially
- reduced Lightning Panda's spell cooldowns for Energized Release and Mega Bolt considerably
- increased Mistress of Pain movespeed to 295
- reduced Apocalypse cooldown to 150
- changed Blazing Agility to a fixed 10/18/26/34/42 agility bonus
- removed Death and Decay's upgrade inheritance and reduced number of raised units to 2
- reduced Fire Aura aoe to 300
- lowered Global Stomp stun duration to 1.5 second
- added Lacerate bonus damage based on strength
- nerfed Lich King's Pact healing slightly
- increased Lightning Fury actual striking areas a bit
- lowered Pain Spike cooldown to 150 seconds
- nerfed Quilbeast damage to 20/25/30/35/40 on average
- reduced Soul Barrage cooldown to 60 seconds
- nerfed Zerginate considerably
- increased Zergling Rush heal to 5% per Zergling; slowed Zergling attacks moderately

Items:
- reduced Charm of Wealth and Charm of Prosperity income bonuses in half
- reduced Curve Bow stun durations to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75
- lowered Wind Boots' Blink cast range to 700

Others:
- added new Curse of Ner'zhul, Shadowfury, and Void Blast icons
- added a model attachment to Blood Pact, removed the special effect
- added floating text showing Mega Bolt's damage
- made Bank Account floating text more obvious
- nudged Circle of Power locations a bit
- renamed many abilties to avoid confusion with similar-sounding ones or to shorten them
- rearranged Flame Contraption's Fire Wave and Soul Burn abilities
- clarified Glaive Frenzy's normal tooltip with its duration
- switched Medicine Blast and Medicine Field icons

This version features two new heroes, one hero remake, and quite a few new spells on other heroes. The first hero added was the Demon Hunter, Illidan, who is an agility-based miscellaneous damage dealer. Demon Morph and Blind Rage allow him to drastically increase his attack damage and attack speed respectively, and the morph allows him to fire at a range with chaos damage, highly destructive to fortifications, while raging may cause him to miss attacks. His Tracking ability saps armor from nearby enemies, making them more vulnerable to Illidan's attacks. Finally, he can use Expulsion, a high-powered ultimate with area of effect damage at a relatively low cost.

The second new hero is Kartosh the Afflictor, an intelligence hero that can cause massive damage over time, and is modeled off the WoW Warlock. Corruption and Curse of Agony are both able to gently hurt enemy targets; Curse of Agony deals slightly more damage but damages more slowly. Kartosh can use Life Tap to convert a portion of his health into a decent amount of mana, based on maximum hp and mana. The ultimate Extend Suffering causes any Corruption or Curse of Agony spell cast in a short duration to last longer, dealing more damage.

The Ogre Warlord was remade, and is now the Ogre Fighter. He can deal extensive area of effect damage with Force Slam, hitting enemies very closeby for even more. The Final Strength ability allows his strength to surge temporarily. Toughness is similar to the original ultimate, adding strength and lowering agility and intelligence, but is now non-ultimate. The new ultimate, Power Smash, deals a significant amount of damage equal to a multiple of the Ogre's strength, stunning the target as well.

Quite a few heroes also received new abilities. Dark Ranger gained Shadow Wave (replacing Skeletal Synergy), a line damage spell that the hero originally had when it was designed. Dryad now has Harmony (replacing Critical Strike), which allows it to remove harmful effects and restore hp and mana over time based on her intelligence. Hydra Hatchling's new Hydra Split (replacing Mutating Growth) allows it to split temporarily into three hydras, each having chaos damage. Kodo Rider now has Chomp (replacing Endurance), a new ultimate ability that allows the Kodo to swallow a target alive, though only temporarily on heroes; its War Drums ability is now non-ultimate. The Raider gained Dagger Throw (replacing Blazing Speed), allowing it to actively slow an opponent, dealing damage to it as well. Finally, Storm Panda gained Conductive Sphere (replacing Seeker Lightning), a powerful ultimate that generates orbs that electrocute nearby enemies; its Flicker ability is now non-ultimate.

There wasn't too much fixing to do, but plenty of balancing was done with heroes, abilities, and items. Additionally, many abilities were renamed for the sake of clarification or conciseness; e.g. both Firelord and Warlock had an ability named Incinerate. And also, happy holidays!

v0.96, v0.96b, and v0.96c Changelog

Changelog for v0.96

SMotA now stands for Sacred Masters of the Arctic

Gameplay:
- added a new hero: Beastmaster
- implemented a Spirit system; dying heroes at least level 2 will spawn a Spirit lasting until revival; Spirits are invisible, flying, but vulnerable; they travel very fast and can scout nearby areas; have a long-range Blink and low-damage Finger of Death and Rain of Fire abilities
- allowed summoner heroes to teleport their nearby summons with them when using base-to-lane teleporters
- reworked Naga Warrior: its Naga Training ability has been merged with the ult Poison Blade, which now increases attack speed but not movement; Soul Blade is now and active ability and is renamed to Draining Blade; a new ability, Leg Slice, deals moderate aoe damage
- allowed Ether Burst to bypass the 60% hp rule when target has less than 1000 current hp; changed damage type from Spell to Exact
- changed Dragonhawk Rider to an agility hero

Fixes:
- fixed a glitch that randomly activated Only Mid Mode
- fixed a tower bounty glitch with the Demonic side
- fixed Wisdom of the Dead to work properly
- fixed Counter to reflect damage with correct chance
- fixed Death Roar's actual knockback amount
- fixed Water Bolt projectile issue
- corrected a typo with Leap's mana cost
- updated Warding Boots tooltip
- fixed Prophet sound set

Balancing:
- improved Beetle hp by 75 at all levels
- reduced Black Arrow summon duration to 35 sec; Skeletons now cannot spawn more of themselves on kills
- reduced Chaotic Power damage bonus to 20/35/50/65/80%
- nerfed Charged Shot damage to 70/125/180/235/290
- improved Exploding Arrow damage by 100
- improved Felhounds' feedback amount to 30
- increased Gold Stash mana cost significantly
- changed Last Reprisal's agility bonus into an attack speed bonus
- reduced Life Orb's mana cost to 25
- improved Lightning Fury damage to 85/125/165/205 per bolt
- reduced Mass Purge damage to 4x int
- nerfed Nature's Curse duration damage to 9/13/17/21/25
- improved Omniscience duration to 5/10/20/30 seconds
- nerfed Phantom Scream effects across the board
- increased Play Dead cooldown by 5 sec
- reduced Quick Attack cast range to 500
- changed Rage hp cost to 2% of current hp rather than str/2
- reduced Rifle Upgrade damage bonus to 12/24/36/48
- nerfed Skeletal Form stats significantly
- reduced Skeletal Mastery bonuses; bonuses now apply to hero as well
- made Sludge Monstrosities not immune to magic
- changed Snap Dragon damage type from Piercing to Normal; increased its hp and damage output
- nerfed Spear Mastery damage bonus to 15/30/45/60
- reduced Storm Crow hp to 400/550/700/850/1000; removed Fierce Claw
- reduced Summon Zombies summon amount to 3
- reduced Unholy Conversion cooldown to 12
- improved Vindication max hp per second cap to 11/9/7/5%
- improved Voodoo Spirits damage significantly

Items:
- added stats regarding stacking on the Orbs' tooltips

Others:
- added visual indications for Counter and Spirit Hull
- changed Culling Strike animation
- reduced size of Incinerate (Firelord) and Fire Wall
- added new icons for Infestation and Void Blast
- added floating text for Mana Disruption
- clarified Dark Volley tooltip for buildings
- added new model for Mind Control Orb
- rearranged Helicopter skills slightly
- reworked Demon base building layout
- added some floating doodads to the Orc outpost

The primary addition was the new Spirit system. When a hero dies, it will turn into a Spirit until it respawns. Spirits are invisible and have extremely fast flying movement; however, with 100 hp, they are quite vulnerable against truesight as well as area-of-effect spells, and they also do not attack. They do have the Blink ability, which allows them to travel across the map instantly. Two damaging spells, Finger of Death and Rain of Fire, can be used by Spirits to hit single targets and areas respectively.

The new Beastmaster is a powerful tank, healer, and summoner. It can summon Quilbeasts that have many bonuses, including an explosive effect that can prevent the summoning of Spirits if an enemy hero dies. The Mending Wave spell can heal the Beastmaster and his allies, acting as a splashing chain heal. Natural Affinity, a passive ability, increases the hitpoints, damage, and speed of Rexxar and his summons. Finally, as an ultimate, he can summon a Spirit Bear with an incredible amount of hitpoints, also with a variety of bonuses.

The Naga Warrior received a partial makeover. The Snap Dragon was buffed significantly, and its Soul Blade life-draining passive was remade into an active and renamed Draining Blade. The old speed passive, Naga Training, was merged with the ultimate Poison Blade, which retains its name, but is now much weaker although it adds a slight attack speed bonus. A new ability, Leg Sweep, was added, allowing the Naga Warrior to deal area of effect damage.

Again, numerous fixes and balances were made, and quite a few visual enhancements were done.

v0.96b
- fixed a major glitch that occurred in multiplayer

v0.96c
- fixed a major glitch with Beastmaster's Mending Wave
- fixed Bandit Rage, Draining Blade, and Quick Attack typos