v0.98, v0.98b, and v0.98c Changelogs

Changelog for v0.98

Gameplay:
- each player (even those not playing) now have a Circle of Power at the start of the game
- made secret shops much more visible, moved their starting locations a bits
- renovated much of the terrain; most paths are now significantly narrower
- removed spawn creeps' Heal and Slow abilities
- made Crush and Stratoblast unable to knock units over cliffs or through major obstacles
- changed the way the Mind Control Orb operates; the controlled unit now follows the Orb by a short distance, the Orb is confined by collision, and the leash range is removed
- Conjurer's Orbs now grant vision of a small area when the hero dies
- allowed Blind Rage to work with Amulet of Spell Shield; if the Amulet triggers, the attack speed bonus will be kept but the miss chance will be blocked
- the affected unit is now selected automatically after Chomp finishes
- added buffs for Blazing Agility, Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Moonfire
- changed Spirit abilities to be unable to affect structures; shortened their cooldowns significantly; increased Rain of Fire damage slightly (30 to 35 per wave)
- increased hero base attack damage by 10 globally
- reimplemented a 5 second team cooldown for base-to-lane teleporters
- added a gold price to using teleporters: lane-to-base teleports now passively cost 2x % missing hp (e.g. teleport with full hp costs zero; half hp, 100 gold; 10% hp, 180 gold)
- reduced amount of gold given by Faceless and Magnataur creep camps by about 33%
- reduced Blue Dragon's slow duration to 2 seconds
- reduced Super Creeps mode creep hp bonus to 500 and armor bonus to 5
- reduced Observatory sight range to 4000
- increased Outpost tower hitpoints to 1250 and regeneration to 3 hitpoints per second, decreased armor to 10
- decreased non-Outpost tower hp, armor, and regeneration rates significantly
- lowered non-Outpost tower damage to 70/90/110/130/150
- decreased barrack structure hp to 2000, armor to 20, and regeneration to 1 hp/sec
- cut Demonic Portal and Well of Eternity hp in half
- reworked item combination triggers to run much more smoothly and to allow for buying recipes with full inventory
- added "-clear" command to clear screen of text messages
- changed Nuclear Launch ping to allies only

Fixes:
- fixed Allrandom mode glitch for player 12
- fixed Crown of Kings disappearance glitch
- fixed mode combining bug
- fixed a glitch from teleporting that occurred in replays
- fixed Nerve Poison movespeed glitch
- fixed Mending Wave crash glitch
- fixed Undeath to work correctly
- fixed Corruption and Curse of Agony to deal the correct damage
- fixed Lich King's Pact healing glitches
- fixed respawning heroes to have correct altitude after being killed by Vortex
- fixed Tree Goddess bounty amount
- fixed Demon Hunter game end score screen icon if he was morphed
- fixed Nuclear Launch glitch
- fixed Drench to have the correct slow factor
- fixed Fire Aura damage range
- fixed Coagulation, Forgotten Prophecy, and Pummel to level correctly
- fixed Cannibalize cast range glitch
- fixed Skinkapult to be unable to throw corpses
- fixed Silk Trail graphic bug
- fixed Storm Crow buff
- fixed Lethal Injection to display the correct damage
- fixed Illusionist typos
- fixed Hyperdimensional Warp, Nuclear Launch, Scare, and Vindication tooltip typos
- fixed a typo on Wind Boots

Balancing:
- Abomination: lowered strength growth from 3.1 per level to 2.8 per level
- Abomination: nerfed Putrid Odor to slow movespeed only
- Afflictor: allowed Corruption to scale 1% bonus total damage for every 2 int
- Afflictor: allowed Curse of Agony to scale 1% bonus total damage for every 2 int
- Afflictor: Life Tap now grants 2/4/6/8/10 additional base intelligence for 60 seconds in addition to its original effect
- Afflictor: made Extend Suffering increase total damage of Corruption and Curse of Agony by 1/2/3/4x int; you may type "-spells" or "-damage" to check your current spell damage on Afflictor
- Alchemist: reduced gold given by Chain Reaction to 2/3/4/5 per particle
- Arcane Wizard: lowered Arcane Wave damage to 75/125/175/225/275; reduced mana cost to 100/115/130/145/160
- Bandit: reduced strength growth from 3.0 to 2.5 per level
- Bandit: improved Grappling Hook initial damage to 65/130/195/260/325, improved moving damage to 25% of distance moved, changed mana cost to 100/115/130/145/160
- Bandit: nerfed Avoid chance to 10/13/16/19/22%
- Bandit: changed Thief Rage acceleration to a constant 5% ms and 20% ias every 2 seconds; accelerates for 6/8/10/12 seconds, lasts 20/22/24/26 seconds; changed cooldown to 100/90/80/70
- Blood Fiend: improved Bloodthirst duration to 14/18/22/26
- Burning Archer: increased Burning Arrows bonus damage to 6/12/18/24/30 and damage per second to 4/8/12/16/20
- Burning Archer: reduced Exploding Arrow cooldown to 40
- Chaos Peon: reduced all tower armor by 5
- Conjurer: improved Detonation damage to 3x int + 0/50/100/150/200
- Conjurer: reduced Life Orb cooldown to 25, added a 25% of creep hp heal to the Conjurer when it is casted, changed the mana restoration to 25% as well
- Dark Ranger: buffed Last Reprisal attack speed bonus to 13/26/39/52%, reduced its target death range to 600
- Demolitionist: reduced agility growth from 1.9 to 1.4 per level
- Demolitionist: lowered Armor Rip armor effect to 3/6/9/12/15 armor lost/gained
- Demon Hunter: lowered Demon Form duration to 6 seconds, changed cooldown to 70/60/50/40/30
- Destroyer: nerfed Orb of Annihilation damage bonus to 15/30/45/60/75, reduced mana cost to 30/40/50/60/70
- Doom Guard: nerfed Infernal Flame damage per second to 5/10/15/20/25, reduced duration to 3 seconds
- Dragonhawk Rider: improved Lightning Fury cooldown to 90
- Dreadlord: reduced Vampiric Haste ias to 7/14/21/28/35%
- Druid of the Claw: allowed Battle Roar to affect the damage of Lacerate
- Druid of the Claw: improved Feral Form stats slightly overall: faster morph; more armor, damage, and regeneration; bonus armor
- Druid of the Claw: improved Natural Haste movespeed bonus to 3/6/9/12/15%
- Druid of the Claw: reduced Rejuvenation mana cost to 50/60/70/80/90 and reduced healing time to 6/7/8/9/10
- Druid of the Talon: reduced Faerie Fire duration to 25
- Druid of the Talon: nerfed Words of Wisdom damage to 50/100/150/200/250 + 1x int
- Dryad: nerfed Harmony mana regeneration to 33% of its hipoint regeneration
- Elven Ranger: improved Poison Arrows slow to 6/12/18/24/30%
- Elven Ranger: improved Speed Drain speed change to 8/16/24/32/40%
- Faceless Terror: increased Doom cooldown from 120 to 150 seconds
- Faerie Dragon: increased Energy Beam max range to 2000 but kept the scaling of 100/200/300/400/500 max damage
- Far Seer: improved Omniscience level 4 duration to 40 seconds
- Footman: reduced Rage mana cost to 15 per attack
- Giant: lowered Ring of Fire effect duration to 7.5 seconds, increased damage to 85/130/175/220
- Gnoll Assassin: reduced agility increment from 2.9 to 2.6 per level
- Gnoll Assassin: rebalanced Camoflauge slow to 30/24/18/12/6%, backstab damage to 60/90/120/150/180, duration to 20, and cooldown to 40/37/34/31/28
- Gnoll Assassin: decreased Stun Trap delay time to 1.5 seconds (from 2.25 seconds)
- Hematologist: reduced Coagulation armor bonus to 3/5/7/9/11, regen to 3/5/7/9/11 hp per second, mana cost to 50
- Hematologist: nerfed Hemorrhage initial damage to 4/8/12/16/20
- Hematologist: lowered Hyperventilate armor reduction to 10, increased cooldown to 10, mana cost to 100
- Holy Knight: changed Holy Blessing cooldown to 8/7/6/5/4; improved life regen bonus to 1/2/3/4/5 hp per second
- Holy Priest: changed Meditation Aura to provide both hp and mana boosts for 3/5/7/9/11 every 8 seconds; improved aura regen rate to .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 mana per second
- Holy Priest: nerfed Touch of God damage/heal base to 50/100/150/200/250
- Hydra Hatchling: improved Hydra Split's Hydra base attack time to 1.05
- Hypnotist: lowered Mesmerize max duration to 2/2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds
- Jungle Stalker: lowered strength growth from 3 per level to 2.7 per level
- Jungle Stalker: nerfed Leap damage to 55/110/165/220/275 and increased cooldown to 18
- Knight: decreased Charge cooldown to 13
- Knight: improved Rush damage increase to 8/16/24/32/40 per second
- Knight: improved Vindication hp check rate, resulting in more continous hp change
- Kodo Rider: nerfed strength growth to 18 + 1.9/level
- Kodo Rider: increased Chomp cooldown to 120, made it scale through damage rather than duration: constant 3 sec duration, 70/110/150/190 damage per second
- Kodo Rider: nerfed War Drum strength bonus to 2/4/6/8/10
- Master of the Hunt: reduced Bite slow amount to 8/16/24/32/40%
- Master of the Hunt: reduced Mangle damage per second to 3/6/9/12/15
- Meat Wagon: increased Overrun cooldown to 12 seconds
- Meat Wagon: nerfed Toss disease effect to 15 damage per second
- Medicine Man: nerfed Medicinal Aura to be a fixed hp regeneration of 1.2/2.4/3.6/4.8/6 hp per second
- Medicine Man: reduced Medicine Field damage and heal to 90/130/170/210
- Mistress of Pain: replaced Mana Leech with Mana Surge, an active spell that grants mana for a duration, releasing it as aoe damage after a short time
- Mountain King: allowed Avatar to increase the chance of Counter Slam by 4/8/12/16% for the duration; its bash bonus is reduced to 4/8/12/16%
- Mountain King: reduced Counter Slam aoe to 225
- Naga Sea Witch: improved Freezing Arrow movement slow to 8/16/24/32/40%; attack speed slow to 4/8/12/16/20%
- Ogre Fighter: nerfed Final Strength bonus strength to 9/18/27/36/45
- Ogre Fighter: lowered Force Slam initial aoe so it cannot deal that much damage up close; reduced slow to 30%
- Priestess of the Moon: changed agility and intelligence growth to 2.3 per level (instead of 2.6 and 2.0 respectively)
- Priestess of the Moon: increased Shooting Star damage to 190/250/310/370; lowered mana cost to 100/125/150/175
- Rifleman: decreased base agility to 22, improved int growth to 19 + 1.7/level
- Satyr Thundercaller: quickened Lightning Ball movespeed to 300
- Scarab Lord: improved Beetle armor to 5, damage to 15/22/29/36/43, attack cooldown to 1 second, decreased bounty to 25, increased movespeed to 370
- Scarab Lord: buffed Crypt Curse duration to 15 sec
- Shadow Lich: added Dark Impact base damage of 30/60/90/120/150; lowered stun slightly to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds
- Shadow Lich: increased Wisdom of the Dead duration to 120 seconds
- Shadow Lich: improved Winter's Bane damage to 7x int and slow to 50%
- Shadow Priest: improved intelligence to 25 + 2.7/level
- Shaman: improved Nature's Curse cast range to 900
- Skinkapulter: allowed Skinkapult's damage to scale with a 1% increase for every 50 hp the thrown unit had; made it have 350/550/750/950/1150 hp
- Sludge King: improved Gush cooldown to 45 and cast range to 800/1100/1400/1700
- Sludge King: improved Sludge Grip cooldown to 13
- Sludge King: increased Sludge Monstrosities mana cost to 100/125/150/175/200
- Spell Breaker: reimplemented Mana Freeze's freeze mechanic: gives the Spell Breaker a 25% chance to stun the target for 1 second if the target's mana is below 10%
- Spell Breaker: made Spirit Drain mana drain more continuous
- Spider: lowered Lay Egg cooldown to 20
- Spider: improved Inject Venom damage per second to 3/6/9/12/15
- Spider: allowed Silk Trail to grant a small area of sight in its path
- Sorceress: made Elemental Mastery increase the mana costs of the Sorceress's spells
- Sorceress: improved Nova base aoe to 400, becomes 500/600/700/800 with Elemental Mastery; its cooldown is improved by 1 second per Elemental Mastery level as well
- Spirit of Vengeance: nerfed Shard of Vengeance damage to 100/165/230/295/360
- Spirit of Vengeance: made Spirit Ferry life drain more continuous
- Spirit Watcher: reduced attack range to 100 (melee)
- Spirit Watcher: increased Reincarnation cooldown to 390/360/330/300/270
- Tree Goddess: reduced Treant Guard xp given to a normal creep, lowered bounty to 65
- Vampire: made Cannibalize scale better: it now heals in less time and has a better cooldown when leveled; reduced mana cost to 50
- War Golem: improved base stats to 20/16/16 (str/agi/int)
- Witch Doctor: nerfed Voodoo Ward max duration to 10 seconds

Items:
- added four new recipe items: Blast Jar, Blade of the Monkey, Spirit Bottle, and Ice Crown
- added two new Orbs: Blood Sphere, Feral Soul
- changed Orb system: Blank Orb is now an info-only item; normal orbs are bought directly and cost 1400; over-limit orb refund to full price
- nerfed Paralysis Prism base bonus damage to 30 and base chance to 7%
- lowered Blazing Dynamo duration to 4 seconds
- added new icon for Sphere of Ignorance
- allowed Crown of Kings to combine normally if the buyer has all the required items, even if the player has sufficient gold to buy the item in one piece
- reduced Circlet of Nobility stat bonus to +4 to all stats, cost to 475 gold
- changed Gloves of Magic recipe to require Mindstaff, Pendant of Mana, and Cheese (since Blank Orb is now unbuyable)
- increased cost of Maul of Strength, Bloodfeather's Heart, and Ring of the Mind recipe combination costs to 300 (total costs to 900)
- changed Horn of Strength, Key of Agility, and Scepter of Intelligence, to require just one previous item and the recipe, increased price of recipe to 1500 (total to 2400)
- changed Crown of Kings II to require 1000 gold to combine (total cost of 8200)
- renamed Ironwood Branch to Emperor's Crown with new icon (total cost is now 11200 from changes above)
- changed Cloak of Evasion to be a non-secret item, changed combination cost to 500
- removed stock refresh time for Orbs as well as charged items (Healing Salve, Lesser Clarity Potion, Scroll of Town Portal, and Sentry Wards)

Others:
- changed Arcane Wizard model and icon to those of the human Archmage (ladder version)
- added new models for Mega Bolt and Winter Bolt
- added new icons for Adaptation, Apparition, Blood Boil, Chaotic Power, Dagger Throw, Death and Decay, Death's Glance, Death Swarm, Divine Intervention, Elune's Grace, Energized Release, Ghost Form, Holy Blessing, Lightning Ball, Lower Resist, Medicine Blast, Meditation Aura, Metal Slam, Natural Affinity, Natural Concealment, Natural Haste, Phantom Scream, Raise Skeletons, Ranger's Blessing, Scare, Skeletal Mastery, Speed Drain, Steal, Strafe, Stratoblast, Tidal Maniuplation, Tracking, Voodoo Stab, Ultimate Swiftness, Undeath, Unholy Conversion, Vindication, War Cry, Water Bolt, and Wisdom of the Dead
- renamed Priestess of the Moon's Starlight Arrows to Moonlight Arrows, added a new icon
- renamed Mountain Giant (now Giant), Skeletal Mage (Reaper), Spirit Walker (Spirit Watcher), Elven Hunter (Elven Ranger), Crypt Lurker (Lurker), Rifleman (Marksman), Crypt Lord (Scarab Lord)
- renamed Scarab Lord's Infestation to Crypt Curse and added a new icon
- lowered scaling size of Giant a bit; changed proper name to Volcanus
- added new Goblin Sapper attack projectile
- renamed Frozen Armor to Chilling Armor, Hunter's Blessing to Ranger's Blessing, and Summon Sludge Monstrosities to Summon Monstrosities
- changed Paladin's proper name to Uther
- increased scaling size of Faceless Terror, Footman, Grunt, Holy Champion, Mutation, Void Walker, and Zergling slightly
- reduced summoned Zerglings' scaling size
- changed Hypnotist's attack animation to Spirit Watcher's old animation
- changed Counter Slam animation effects
- changed Faerie Fury faerie attack animation
- changed Corruption buff model on Afflictor
- added new effect for Infestation
- allowed Exploding Arrow to give vision of the area it explodes for a couple seconds
- changed Fire Wave missile
- changed Strafe missile to normal flaming arrow projectile
- replaced Flame Contraption's projectile with old Fire Wave missile
- changed Skink Companion and summoned Skinks' color so they different from the hero skink
- added wind immolation effect to Wind Cloak
- shortened lightning effect on Conductive Sphere slightly

Development Notes:

The map size increased from 1754 kb to 1927 kb mainly from a vast number of new icons. (See this post for more icon details.) Several new model effects also contribute to the file size.

Six new items were added as well. Blood Sphere and Feral Soul are two new orbs that can cause exact life drain and silence enemies respectively. They can be stackable, just like the other orbs; in fact, Blood Sphere is the only orb to stack directly instead of having diminishing returns.

Of the other four new items, one is a secret shop item (speaking of which, the secret shop is now in a different location but is much easier to notice), while three others filled the Mystic Miscellany shop, with the Cloak of Evasion item moving to be a standard recipe. The Blade of the Monkey is an weapon that improves damage, agility, and attack speed. It also gives a chance to deal exact bonus damage on an attack based on agility, and can be potent in the late game as it cuts through armor.

The Blast Jar is an inexpensive utility item that grants bonus stats and a life regeneration aura. It also provides the Blast ability, dealing single target damage based on hero level. It is intended as an early game item, but some heroes, i.e. those who may lack direct damage spells, may find this useful throughout the game.

A Spirit Bottle upgrades the player's Spirit, making it invulnerable and improving the Finger of Death damage significantly. (As a side note, Spirits now cannot hit buildings with their spells.) It also allows the hero to restore actively a small portion of life and mana. Finally, the bottle also improves stats, max mana, and mana regeneration.

The new secret shop item, the Ice Crown, is the most powerful item in SMotA by far, as well as the most expensive. At a whopping total price of 21150 gold, it practically doubles the next most extravagant item. In fact, its ingredients are the Wind Boots and the Emperor's Crown (which used to be the Ironwood Branch), combined with of course the Cheese. It basically combines the powers of both items, which were powerful enough to start with.

Regarding items in general, it is now possible to combine recipes even when the hero has a full inventory. The Orb purchasing system is now easier to use; the Blank Orb has become obselete and only the Orb is required. Also, it is now possible to upgrade orbs with full inventory.

Some core gameplay mechanics were also renovated. Teleportation from outpost to base now has a dynamic gold cost that increases as the hero has less hp. Thus, teleporting back to buy items is free, but barely surviving a hero fight encounter will cost a small price (in fact, this price is simply 2 times % hp missing).

Along with teleportation, the game was made a little easier to finish. While Outpost towers are now stronger, almost everything else has been weakened. Observatories now have 4000 sight range, down from 5000 (the 1000 trusight range is unaffected). Lane towers are much weaker, barracks are easier to kill, as they now have 80% the hp, 50% the armor, and 20% the regeneration of the barracks in v0.97b, and the final structures' hitpoint counts were reduced by 50%.

Many fixes and balancing were made, and this version is intended as a stable version as no new heros or hero abilities were introduced. Note that it is still a beta. SMotA will become officially released as non-beta on version 1.00.

Changelog for v0.98b

- fixed a few typos and a particular spell damage glitch

Changelog for v0.98c

- Afflictor's Extend Suffering tooltip now states the spell damage check command
- fixed a major creep wave movement glitch
- fixed Demolitionist hero selection
- fixed Midas Touch and Forceful Strike abuses
- fixed Chilling Armor hotkey to be C
- fixed Chaotic Power typo
- fixed an abuse with Blade of the Monkey
- fixed a small Ice Crown typo

Just as a reminder, if you have any comments, suggestions, or criticism, please post it at our forum rather than on this blog. Thanks to all who helped or are currently helping with the beta test!

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