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!