Warcraft III: Reforged launch wasn’t received well. In fact, the game received a lot of hate by many players and there were a lot of reasons for it. However, as stated previously, Blizzard is dedicated to fixing the game. The latest 1.32.5 update for Warcraft III: Reforged was released last week and it tackles some of the sins developers made previously.

The biggest portion of the patch is dedicated to the visual side of the game. According to the official patch notes, most units and buildings in Warcraft III: Reforged received “team color polish pass to increase vibrancy and gameplay readability”. Some models were changed entirely, to better reflect the spirit of the original Warcraft III game… Which is weird, since the whole point of Reforged was to renew the visual style.

In addition to these changes, there are also a few tweaks to gameplay, UI and sound, ton of bug fixes, and quality of life improvements. In fact, there are a lot of changes that had to be implemented from the get-go and that could’ve spared Blizzard the shitstorm they received. To be fair, Warcraft III: Reforged is starting to remind the game that fans were hoping for in the first place, though these updates might be a bit too late in order to save this iconic RTS…

You can check out the full patch notes below or in the official forums:

Art

  • All Melee units and buildings have received a team color polish pass to increase vibrancy and gameplay readability.
  • Female Demon Hunter scaled up to match closer with Male Demon Hunter’s silhouette.
  • Waterfall changed to use Replaceable Textures. Its tint automatically adjusts in game based on the map tileset.
  • Visual effect used for the first stage of buildings damage changed from smoke to fire for better readability.
  • Adjusted fire visual effects placements on the Townhall, Keep, and Castle for added readability during their damaged states.
  • Northrend Trees have been updated to match Classic visuals. There are now four visually distinctive tree wall sets:
    • Northrend Icy Tree Wall
    • Northrend Tree Wall
    • Snowy Tree Wall
    • Scorched Tree Wall
  • Footprints have been updated for the following groups:
  • Trolls have their own unique footprint.
  • Undead units with missing footprints are now fixed.
  • Vehicles now have continuous rolling footprint.
  • Fixed an issue with the Female Demon Hunter’s hero icon appearing incorrectly when disabled while in Demon form.
  • Tuskarr Trapper now throws his own spear when attacking.
  • Portrait animations have been updated for the following units: Peasant, Sorceress, High Elf, Lich, Dreadlord, Balnazzar, Mal’ganis, Keeper of the Grove, Night Elf Runner, Cenarius, Illidan (Demon Form), Tree of Life, Tree of Ages, Tree of Eternity, and their corrupted counterparts.
  • Reduced Violence Mode updates:
    • Female Death Knight updated with correct visual effects for spell casting.
    • Ogre Magi no longer disappears in the middle of its attack animations.

Custom Games

  • Single Player mode has been re-enabled. This can be accessed from its own Create Games section in the Main Menu.
  • Fixed multiple crashes on custom games such as Custom Hero Survival.
  • Several fixes have been applied to Instance API natives related to unit attacks.
  • Blizzard.j and common.j are no longer considered when computing save checksums.

Editor

  • The “Export All” option in the Asset Manager now functions correctly.

Gameplay

  • Destructibles flagged as “Walkable” no longer cause desyncs between Classic and Reforged.
  • Reforged Troll mercenary unit selection circles are now smaller and more aligned with Classic.
  • All Neutral unit selection circles now properly match the Reforged unit models.
  • Creep camps are easier to see on the minimap.
  • Permanent morphing units, such as the Obsidian Statue, will no longer briefly display their disabled morph ability icon while transforming.

Graphics

  • Game lighting adjusted to improve Reforged readability and colors.

Sound

  • Doom Guards now have the correct sound effects for their air and ground attacks.
  • Forest, Dark, and Ice Troll Trappers will no longer play the Berserk sound effect when casting Ensnare in Reforged mode.
  • Alchemist facial animations and acknowledgment sounds updated.
  • Flesh Golem facial animations and acknowledgment sounds updated.

User Interface

  • Sepia tone backgrounds in Classic mode have been reverted.
  • The “Use Command Button for Hotkeys” on Mac now functions as expected.
  • April 29, 2020

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused Multiplayer win totals for Collections to be set to zero.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players in some regions from joining custom games.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players in some regions from starting any game.
  • Single-player custom games can again be created in the Russian locale.
  • Reduced Violence Mode is again enabled where required.