WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne Preview March 19, 2003 Patrick Paik

Introduction

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Developer: Blizzard
Warcraft III: TFT official page: http://www.blizzard.com/war3x/
Estimated Release: Summer 2003

Very hush-hush

Beta testing for The Frozen Throne, the long-awaited expansion pack for Blizzard’s critically acclaimed Warcraft III, has finally begun in earnest. One of the greatest aspects of the original Warcraft III was the richly textured, multi-dimensional campaign, which allowed players to experience the story from the distinct perspectives of each of the four races. Although Blizzard remains hush-hush about the specifics of the new campaign, its been rumored that we’ll finally be able to delve into the depths of Illidan Stormrage’s character along with bringing Arthas’ tragic story to a close. With all that out of the way, I’m sure most of you are most interested in reading about the new units, skills, spells, and gameplay revisions that Blizzard is bringing to the table. As the Beta stands at this particular moment, Blizzard has radically redefined the fundamental gameplay elements of Warcraft III, a drastic deviation from Blizzard’s typical expansion pack philosophy of augmentation, not revision.

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Unearthing New Layers

Unsurprisingly enough, Blizzard has finally added a ‘magic’ type damage to the former trio of normal, piercing, and siege. This change has two considerable ramifications. Firstly, units with spell immunity are immune to magic-type attacks. Secondly, magic deals double damage versus medium armor. Building construction times, for the most part, have been notably decreased. Additionally, the gold costs of all buildings and units have been decreased by approximately 15%. Certain units now have an ability to turn themselves or another unit ethereal by casting a spell, rendering them immune to all but magic attacks. When a unit is in ethereal form, they are unable to attack, but they are still able to cast spells. And finally, creeps now give considerably lower gold rewards. Kill a group of level 1 gnolls and you can expect to only receive 7 gold or so per head, while top-level creeps may drop around 60 gold. Though there are dozens of other minor revisions, these are the most structurally significant. Blizzard will be including various neutral heroes, but the only one available for testing at this time was the Dark Ranger, who was as thoroughly unremarkable as your typical spell-casting mercenary.

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Hoomans

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Stalwart Humans

The new units the Humans receive have the potential to completely redefine the typical formula for ladder play. Most noteworthy is the new Blood Mage hero. He has the ability to cast a ‘Flame Strike’ which deals staggering amounts of damage for the first two seconds, then tapers off and deals minimal damage for the remainder of the spell. The area the spell is cast upon briefly glows blue before erupting in a fantastic explosion, allowing for micro-adept players a short interval to move their troops. The Blood Mage can also cast ‘Mana Shield’, which allows for him to absorb a set amount of physical damage or magic spells. His ‘Banish’ ability turns any unit temporarily invisible, and his ultimate, ‘Mark of Fire’, sacrifices one of your units into a massively powerful phoenix which takes a constant amount of damage per second upon inception. The new Spell Breaker unit is almost identical to the Footman in terms of statistics and upgrades, and begins with spell immunity. They may be upgraded to ‘Spell Steal’ positive buffs from enemy units, placing the enchantment onto a nearby friendly unit, and perform the reverse with respect to negative buffs. Finally, the versatile Dragon Hawk can attack both land and air units. They also possess the ‘Cloud’ ability which casts a small fog, preventing any afflicted building from attacking with ranged attacks.

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Night Elfses

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Enigmatic Night Elves

The new Night Elf Hero, the Warden, has so many useful skills it can be difficult to choose what to specialize in. ‘Blink’ allows for her to teleport instantly to any point on the visible screen. ‘Fan of Knives’ automatically hurls a flurry to knives against all enemy units (to a cap, similar to Carrion Swarm) in the immediate vicinity of the Warden, dealing substantial amounts of damage. ‘Shadow Strike’ is the Warden’s tool of assassination; she hurls a poisoned dagger at a single-target, dealing massive amounts of initial damage, followed by significant poison damage. Last, but certainly not least, her ultimate ability, ‘Spirit of Vengeance’, creates a fighting spirit from the bodies of fallen allies. I’ve seen Spirits with thousands of hit points summoned from a mass graveyard of archers and huntresses. It’s worth noting, however, that bodies of fallen air units and mountain giants do not count to the corpse total.

The new Faerie Dragon is a flying unit that is immune to magic and can attack both air and land. It has two very useful abilities. ‘Phase Shift’ allows for the Faerie Dragon to immediately turn ethereal when attacked by an enemy unit, preventing damage. ‘Mana Flare’ turns the Faerie Dragon into a pulsating ball of energy. This ability is ridiculously overpowered. In essence, if any spell is cast by an enemy within the immediate vicinity of a transformed Faerie Dragon, it will be countered, and the Faerie Dragon will deal 4 times the spell cost in damage to the offending caster. Currently, this is capped at 150 damage versus normal units and 50 damage versus heroes, but the ramifications of this ability are about as subtle as a dentist suggesting you ‘brace yourself’. Finally, the new Mountain Giant can hold its own in the midst of the Faerie Dragon insanity. The Mountain Giant initially starts very weak, but can obtain a ‘Hardened Skin’ upgrade, which currently reduces all physical damage taken by 20 points, down to a minimum of 3. His ‘Resistant Skin’ reduces all magical damage by a certain percentage. The Mountain Giant can also double as a building demolisher, as his ‘War Club’ ability lets him grab a tree and use it as a ranged weapon for a set amount of attacks, transforming his damage into siege damage. His most famous ability, however, is ‘Taunt’, which causes nearby enemies to switch their attacks over to him.

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This is England, we play by the rules. If the stones are kosher, then I’ll buy them, won’t I? Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s my lunchtime.

Orcthanc

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Savage Orcs

The new Orc Hero, the ‘Shadow Hunter’, is full of personality but doesn’t seem to have much use beyond rushing with Grunts early in the game. His ‘Healing Wave’ ability mimics the Far Seer’s Chain Lightning, except that it heals friendly units for twice the amount Chain Lightning would ordinarily damage for. ‘Hex’ turns a target enemy unit into a random critter and ‘Serpent Ward’ creates a low hit point immobile serpent which deals a small amount of damage against air and land targets. The Shadow Hunter’s ultimate, ‘Big Bad Voodoo’, renders all friendly units around the Shadow Hunter invulnerable except for the Shadow Hunter himself. The Troll Batrider is a cheap flying unit, able to deal respectable damage against air and land units. They are able to kamikaze themselves into enemy fliers with their ‘Unstable Concoction’ ability for massive amounts of damage (750 at this time) and they have a ‘Liquid Fire’ upgrade which deals burning damage to a building (in addition to the batriders’ normal attack) and prevents the building from being repaired for the burning duration. Conversely, Spirit Walkers, Tauren spellcasters, have ‘Corporeal/Ethereal Form’ which allows for them to morph between ethereal and corporeal states, ‘Ancestral Spirit’ allows them to resurrect non-Hero Tauren units, ‘Disenchant’, a spell which damages all summoned creatures in an area, and ‘Spirit Link’, a spell that distributes damage received relatively evenly among spirit linked creatures.

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Night of the Living Dead

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Malicious Undead

The Crypt Lord, while not a particularly inspiring new hero, is nevertheless quite effective and is a growing favorite among Undead players. ‘Impale’ allows for the Crypt Lord to impale a single target (dealing respectable damage), hurling them into the air, and landing them a few squares away from where they originally were. The unit, upon landing, is also momentarily stunned. ‘Spiked Carapace’ returns damage to enemy melee attackers and increases the Crypt Lord’s armor. ‘Carrion Beetles’ progenerates (in Blizzard’s words) a pair of attacking beetles from a corpse. The Crypt Lord’s ultimate, ‘Locust Swarm’, brings forth a screen-covering horde of locusts which deal damage to nearby enemies, simultaneously healing the Crypt Lord in a vampiric fashion. The new Undead units, similarly, are quite useful.

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Conclusion

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We hates spellcasterses!

Perhaps the most interesting characteristic of The Frozen Throne is its vehemently anti-spellcaster bent. In the original Warcraft III, many one-on-one and team player games would devolve down to massing Priests, Sorceresses, Shaman, Witch Doctors, Necromancers, and various Druids. With units such as the Faerie Dragon and Spell Breakers, Blizzard seems to have executed a U-turn and is now endorsing a gameplay sentiment quite the opposite of what players are accustomed to. It’s especially interesting to see the heightened importance of heroes, especially the Blood Mage and Warden, boasting massive, independently offensive capabilities. Similarly, the insertion of so many powerful aerial units seems to be a not-so-transparent nudge from Blizzard to coax players away from massing land-based units (with the exceptions of mass Gryphon Riders, Chimera, and Frost Wyrms... which are analogous to massing Battlecruisers and Carriers). I would like to applaud Blizzard for being gutsy enough to completely redefine its gameplay paradigm, at the risk of alienating thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dedicated battle.net players in order to inject some fresh air into a stagnating game. Despite the numerous units and Heroes that were part of the original Warcraft III, I always felt as though it were incomplete, that it was a bit too one-dimensional. It finally feels as though Blizzard is putting the finishing touches on a painting that was never quite finished, and gamers will finally be able to experience Blizzard’s fully realized ambition.



SIDEBAR: Oi! Youz mateys get thy land-lubber arses outta yer mommas homes and Sound Off! on deck, or I’ll ‘ave ya answering to the bosun.