Warcraft III 1.25 patch now live!

Oh yes, the much-awaited WC3 1.25 patch has come out! And it comes with balance changes.

Warcraft 3 1.25 is a major patch that includes not just fixes but also balance changes. The last patches were disappointing because they included only fixes to existing exploits, glitches and hacks at the time (we are still grateful anyway because they got rid of annoying hacks on BNet, even for just a few days). Balance changes in the game alter some gameplay mechanics making players rethink and revise their strategies. Let's all hope that this patch will win some players back into this old, dying game.

Download the Warcraft 3 1.25b patch

Warcraft 3 1.25b Changelog:

Balance Changes:

• Humans
  
  • Improved Masonry Upgrade health boost decreased from 20% to 10% for all 3 levels
  • Siege Engine Level increased from 2 to 3
  • Rifleman HP increased from 505 to 535
• Night Elves
  
  • Warden Shadow Strike mana cost increased from 65 to 75
  • Druid of the Talon Faerie Fire duration decreased from 120 to 90
• Orcs
  
  • Blade master Wind Walk duration reduced from 20/40/60 to 20/35/50
  • Raider Ensnare Cooldown increased from 12 to 16
  • Spirit Wolf Rank 1 Wolf Level decreased from 3 to 2
• Items
  
  • Ivory Tower gold cost increased from 30 to 40
  • Tome of Experience now gives Heroes 100 experience points, down from 150
  • Orb of Venom poison duration decreased from 8 to 6

Fixes:

• Warcraft III will now write its registry keys on launch.
• Widescreen (stretched) resolutions should now be available in the Video options.
• You can now purchase items from shops while Hexed.
• Scroll of Town Portal will no longer be consumed when casting fails when used at the same time that your Hero is Hexed.
• Hex will no longer extend the duration of Metamorphosis.
• Hex will no longer disable mana or health regeneration of Heroes.
• Wisps Detonate ability will no longer drain mana from Heroes while under the effects of Potion of Invulnerability.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to ally with opponents when alliances were locked ("share hack").
• A gold exploit with buildings has been fixed.

Blizzard employee Bashiok posted these patch notes as "Warcraft PTR Patch 1.25b" or a Public Test Realm release so this may not be the final 1.25 patch. Also, there's NO LADDER RESET as of this writing and old replays are incompatible with this new patch.

Some remarks from a veteran player (that's me) :

• Human Castle with lvl-3 Improved Masonry Upgrade HP nerfed from 4000 to 3250
• Siege Engines now give more experience points mainly to penalize humans "creeping" off NE bases
• Rifleman HP started out at 520, nerfed to 505 in 1.16 and buffed to 535 now.
• More nerfs to NE and never a buff.
• Heavy nerfs on Orc, mainly to weaken the one-man army BM
• No changes to Undead
• Hacks fixed (for a few days)
• I'd like to note that in the original Warcraft III 1.25 beta patch that came out in Westfall (beta server), this line is present on the balance fixes for Human: "Guard Tower Armor type changed to Fortified."