1.22 arrives, excitement pending

The latest Warcraft III: Frozen Throne patch from Blizzard was integrated into Battle.net last night. Little changed in way of nerf/buff, but there were some additional features added to increase functionality.

The patch was also accompanied by a few bugs. The game persistently asking for the disc to be inserted, despite having done so, for example. Installing this should take care of the problem.

Several new maps have been added to the pool which should go a long way toward spicing up game play. Battle.net Season 6 was also initiated, a ladder reset accompanied the announcement.

Many members of the community still feel the patch should have included more changes, having been in production for over a year. Whether or not the changes will have any significant impact on competitive play remains to be seen.

The patch features are as follows:

New/updated features

- There is now a replay auto-save feature in the options menu. Replays
are automatically saved to the “replay” folder.
- The game gets automatically saved in case of a disconnect. The game will be saved and stored in a “save-folder”
- The player colors can be limited via the advanced game options.
- Added an option to always show unit and building health bars.
- You can now enable and disable the display of minimap signals
from players and other observers using chat commands:
/showminimapsignals and /hideminimapsignals.
- The maximum amount of frames can be limited via the new command (maxfps) e.g. “maxfps 30”

Balance fixes

Human
- Scout Tower repair rate changed from 12 to 20.
- Knight damage increased: Attack cooldown changed from 1.50 to
1.40 and base damage increased from 25 to 28 (Average damage is 34).

Undead
- Increased Ziggurat base armor from 1 to 5.
- Reduced the build time of the Necropolis from 120 to 100.

Nightelf
- Reduce the Orb of venom poison duration from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- Increase the experience gain from Dryads from Level 2 (40xp) to
Level 3 (60 xp).

Fixed bugs or exploits

- The cooldown on unlimited usable items (example: the staff of
preservation) now persists after the item is dropped or traded.
- A cooldown exploit with potions has been fixed.
- When you unburrow a Crypt Fiend, its auto-cast will no longer be toggled
off.
- An exploit bug in which items could lose their cooldowns when transferred
between heroes has been fixed.
- A DotA-specific problem with the soundeffects on Intel based Macs has been fixed.
- A problem with the sound-falloff on Intel based Macs has been fixed. Sound effects from a distance should now be able to be heard.

New maps

- New Maps from the contest:
- (2)MeltingValley
- (2)RoadToStratholme
- (4)CentaurGrove
- (4)TidewaterGlades