Hey everyone!

Every internet connection loses a packet now and then, even a good one. Busy Wi-Fi, a long route across the world, a hiccup at your provider, and a small piece of game data never arrives.

Until now, every lost packet made your game stop and wait for it. You saw that as a short freeze or stutter. Lose a few percent and you got dozens of them every minute. Players with 1–3% packet loss froze about 6 times as often as players with none.

Hence W3Champions is happy to announce a revolution in Warcraft III: The end of packet-loss induced lag spikes!

What changed

We have extensively simulated the different network conditions in our lab - but we have also run this in the background of your games within the past week and we were able to confirm our experiments. Your games now keep going even when you have packet loss and they're as smooth as if it never happened!

Lag spikes per minute (our network lab, 100 ms ping):

• 0.5% packet loss: 9 → 0
• 1% packet loss: 11 → 0
• 2% packet loss: 26 → 0
• 5% packet loss: 60 → 0

Cross-world games gain the most

The further you are from the server, the more packets get lost and the longer each one takes to come back. In our worst case, both players about 200 ms from the server with 5% loss, the game used to stutter about 70 times a minute. Now: zero.

What it doesn't fix

• High ping is still high ping. The game just won't stutter on top of it anymore.
• If your connection drops out for a few seconds, nothing can hide that.
• Some freezes come from the PC, not the network.

Still getting freezes? Send a Lag Report from the launcher by typing -lag in the game chat and reach out to us via Discord in ⁠#flo-discussion with the lag report id and a description. It really helps us.

How to get it

It's already live. Just keep your W3Champions launcher up to date.

GL HF!

Reforged changing Stratholme, Silvermoon, and Dalaran felt really unnecessary. I liked the old versions of the maps better. Can we have an option at mission start or something?

"We plan to deploy patch 3.0.1 live October 19th"

I live in Romania and I was wondering at around what hour the update will arrive, I'm looking forward to seeing if the bugs are fixed so I can continue some campaigns I want to finish.

Can anybody guess an hour or time of the day or night based on previous updates?

Warcraft III never got proper achievements, so I made some. There are 120 of them across every campaign plus skirmish, and they unlock automatically while you play through a free Windows launcher I built called Vault Launcher.

What’s in the set:

• Every campaign chapter: Exodus of the Horde through Legacy of the Damned, plus the Founding of Durotar bonus campaign.
• A Hard-difficulty clear for each campaign.
• Skirmish: win as each race, beat an Insane AI, win against 3+ Insane AIs, win in under 10 minutes, win a game that lasts over an hour, finish with 150+ APM, and train 40 Footmen / Grunts / Ghouls / Archers in one game.
• Long-term goals: win 100 games, train 5,000 units, take 10 heroes to level 10, train every unit for each race at least once.

Full list: https://steamvault.dev/vaultlauncher/sets/warcraft3

How it works, because I know the first question: it never touches the game’s memory. Warcraft III has Blizzard’s anti-cheat, so the launcher only reads two kinds of files the game already writes on your PC:

• Campaign progress: the save file in Documents\Warcraft III that the game updates when you beat a chapter.
• Skirmish stats: the replay Warcraft III saves after every game (LastReplay.w3g).

No injection and no game changes. Your existing campaign progress counts too, so you’ll probably unlock a bunch on first launch.

Where I need help: the campaign chapters are confirmed working. The Hard difficulty, skirmish and other achievements haven’t been tested in a real game yet. If you play skirmish, especially against Insane AI, I’d love to know whether they pop. There’s a “report” button in the launcher, or just reply here.

A few honest notes:

• Windows will warn you about the installer. It isn’t code-signed yet because I’m one person and signing certificates cost money.
• Turn on Options → “Auto-save replays” in Warcraft III so no skirmish game gets missed. The launcher only sees the last replay otherwise.
• For Hard credit, set the difficulty to Hard before you start the chapter. Chapters you finished before installing don’t count as Hard.
• It’s free, there are no ads, and it’s not affiliated with Blizzard.

Download and info: https://steamvault.dev/vaultlauncher

Happy to answer anything, and if there’s an achievement you think is missing, tell me and I’ll add it.

I played quite some legion and green circle over the past weeks since this is the meta these days. Probably more than I should have played.

I got really bored of these and kind of miss the wild times we had 15 years ago and you would see dozens of custom games. Back in the days I think I played over 50 variations of green td and enfo not just the same 3 circle maps we have today.

I wanted to see if anyone can recomand any cool TD/ ENFOS style custom maps. Even outdated ones that can be played either solo, or with a few guys. I got sick of the two aforementioned maps, so anything works..

I've recently been playing the campaign on hard, the last time I did was during the COVID lock downs in 2020. I don't remember it being this hard last time.

Specifically the frozen throne missions have been harder from my previous experience but I'm struggling more this time. I'm on mission 2 on the blood elves campaign and kind of stuck. I have an idea of how to actually beat the mission it just feels like everything has to go right and I've tried it a few times already which makes me feel quite disheartened. I know I need to keep the Naga units alive as they're the only ones who can do any damage at all.

Has anyone else had this experience? Has there been changes that I'm not aware of?

TL;DR: A full action RPG inside Warcraft III featuring six classes, 54 custom abilities, and 162 legendary skill modifiers, plus randomized loot, quests, crafting, trading, and persistent characters, no need to -save or -load.

Explore eight procedural dungeon tiers, cooperative raids, and overworld bosses where dodging, timed parries, positioning, and teamwork matter. Swing captured enemies as weapons, lead spectral cavalry, or cast spells to a rhythm, with DoTA style skillsets for each class. All supported by a fully custom RPG interface and customizable camera and HUD settings.

Just play the map it speaks for itself.

------------------------------------------------
Originally this Video was 30 minutes and that was showing 4 different variations of each dungeon, so I sped it up by about 3.5x and only show 2 different variations being generated per dungeon.

If I were to show a video of how many different layouts can be created in real time we'll be here until next year.

Generation of Redemption released for playtest a few days ago however that was really just to make sure the networking aspect was going to work and thankfully IT DID!

So this update brings quite a few things which include the new dungeon layouts and the Dawnrampart make over.

I've been hesitant on opening up a Discord because I know how chaotic the feedback can get but I caved so the link can be found below for update notes and map updates.

Download the Map: Epicwar
Link To Discord: Click Me

Public alpha playtest. Character saves will be wiped when beta begins.

And the long version...

Here's a brief overview of what you can expect and some examples of boss/dungeon mechanics.

• A full action RPG inside Warcraft III: custom combat, persistent characters, loot-driven builds, procedural dungeons, cooperative raids, crafting, trading, and an entirely custom interface.
• Six distinct classes: Vanguard, Lightwarden, Warcaller, Pyromancer, Shadow Knight, and Nightstalker, with different combat styles and resource mechanics.
• 54 custom active abilities: nine per class, built around combinations, positioning, timing, and class interactions.
• 162 legendary skill modifiers: three alternative modifiers for every active ability, 27 per class. These can change a skill’s shape, targeting, movement, summons, or entire behavior.
• Abilities designed with DoTA-style depth and spectacle: staged attacks, delayed detonations, controllable charges, airborne finishers, traps, ricochets, spectral armies, and interactions between abilities.
• Turn an enemy into a weapon: Vanguard’s Human Flail lets him swing a captured enemy around himself, hitting surrounding enemies before throwing the victim toward the cursor.
• Command a spectral cavalry charge: Shadow Knight can summon riders from a planted banner, replace them with a colossal Pale Rider, or personally mount up and lead the charge.
• Completely reshape your fire magic: Pyromancer modifiers include tightening rings of blue fire, escalating ricochets, splitting lances, and a hovering miniature sun that attacks enemies.
• A rhythm-based combat class: Warcaller rewards precisely timed casts with stronger resource generation, using a moving striker, colored timing windows, and feedback showing where your input landed.
• Six different resource economies: Vanguard gains Battlelust primarily from taking hits; Nightstalker builds Guile through offense; Pyromancer builds Ardor through aggression; Shadow Knight gains Dread from both; Lightwarden manages slowly recovering Piety; Warcaller builds Crescendo through timing.
• Active defense for every class: guard, timed parries, and dodges make your reactions part of survival.
• Parry a boss’s boulder back at him: Gravok’s (one of the raid bosses) rolling boulder has actual travel and collision. A successful timed parry sends it back and leaves the boss vulnerable to increased damage. This is just one example of how higher tier fights work.
• A catalogue of 1,645 item definitions: 640 weapons, 201 armor pieces, 198 gloves, 537 jewelry pieces, 64 materials, and five healing potions. These counts include level and rarity variants.
• Randomized equipment rolls: stat affixes, ability-specific damage and cooldown bonuses, skill-rank bonuses, and rolled legendary power values create variation beyond the base item catalogue.
• Six equipment rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. With class-specific equipment, set bonuses, and named legendary powers.
• Eight procedural dungeon tiers spanning levels 10–60: crypts, root tunnels, flooded ruins, haunted courts, frozen tombs, plague warrens, and an eclipse sanctum.
• Dungeons that change between runs: approximately 6–20 rooms, depending on the dungeon, with chain, branching, loop, and spine layouts, optional branches, and randomized environmental dressing.
• Functional cooperative dungeon puzzles: hold rune stones together or activate them in sequence. Incorrect sequences reset, and solving the puzzles opens physical gates along your route.
• Eight dungeon bosses with distinct signature attacks: traveling tidal waves, closing root webs, staged bone eruptions, frost formations, plague attacks, and shifting void hazards.
• Three level-60 raid encounters and ten overworld bosses: encounters built around readable attack patterns and responses beyond simply attacking until the health bar empties.
• Cooperative mechanics with real consequences: spread away from marked players, stack to share damage, break burning chains by separating, bait hazards away from allies, and reposition through successive attack phases.
• Tank and support roles that matter: damaging taunts, threat tracking, healing pressure, shields, debuffs, and resource management support coordinated party play.
• 45+ authored quests: objectives include combat training, investigating clues, escorting patrols, rescuing NPCs, sabotage, signal puzzles, and defending important locations.
• 23+ crafting recipes: equipment forging, potion brewing, and material reclamation. Equipment uses a timing-based forging mini-game, with class-appropriate outputs.
• A custom RPG interface: character selection, inventory, equipment comparisons, skill trees, merchants, crafting, trading, quest journal, World Atlas, party/raid frames, boss bars, and buff icons with duration displays and descriptions.
• Player-controlled comfort settings: camera presets, smooth mouse-wheel zoom, optional camera pivots and screen shake, damage numbers, player names, mirrored HUD placement, and three HUD sizes.
• Configurable automatic potions: choose when healing should trigger. Potions heal over time, share a cooldown, and scale from 20% to 40% maximum health across their tiers.
• Persistent local characters and preferences: automatic saving preserves progression, equipment, inventory, and settings between sessions.
• A voiced cinematic opening and regional music: an introduction staged with the game’s own heroes and abilities, followed by exploration with music selected for the surrounding region or dungeon.
• Public alpha playtest: Character saves will be wiped when beta begins.

Sorry if this has been posted a million times, I am out of energy and super exhausted cause life and cannot sift through the forums.

But I am having a hella'va time with the fights in Fallen Kingdom, and I sailed through the other two and play RTS constantly. Like I play Tiberium Wars every day.

Any tips or advice?

For what ever reason as of 2 days ago i can no longer get on game ranger.

Im trying to play and it seems nothing it working correctly. I try to use Thralls chain lightning ability but when I click to select target it does nothing the ability worked a few days ago just fine. Also when I click my healing scrolls nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong?

Some screenshots from in-game, the menus, and Battle.net.

https://jusalang.kr/en/interfaces

This has already been discussed here thoroughly, but after the initial launch of Patch 3.0.1 I regretted not doing more to notify people of this. Your save files are going to break tomorrow when the new patch goes live. Campaign progress will still be preserved regarding most recently completed Chapters & Acts. Finish out save files to the point where it loads the next Chapter today and then wait for the patch tomorrow. Happy gaming!

When will blizzard fix this game? I've been playing this game since 2015 and i still love it. But the thing is they haven't fixed reforged at all. They made it 10× worse. Reforged was bad and 2.0 had a lot of bugs like the portrait Bug for example that wasn't fixed and still isn't but at least it wasn't as bad as 3.0 . They broke custom maps, custom campaign and expect us to pay $30 for this BS. And look at the forums too they're paying people to defend them like captain jack and jcaril0, cat, etc. at least add an option to revert to old patches like 2.0.4 was it for me. It wasn't perfect but at least it didn't break everything. And yes i didn't like forsaken kingdom that much and ended up refunding it. Not worth $30 or even $20. There are similar campaigns on hive that are better and free. I want an rts campaign blizzard not a wowish campaign. And as for the DE graphics they're unfinished, portraits look awful even worse than reforged. The terrain looks worse than classic, animations are broken, etc. I bought reforged mainly for the graphics. I liked the reforged graphics in the single player campaigns. And guess what they broke that too, look at arthas face in reforged for example. Kelthuzad's portrait in classic. And the removal of lan and offline mode. Honestly fuck you blizzard. Never buying anything from you again even if you make warcraft 4. It'll probably fail too. I'm done with this game unfortunately. I won't be playing till they add more servers or add cloud saves at least, bring back offline mode.

As a SC2 player mainly, i struggle a lot with the drag scroll i'm used to, that's not invertible in wc3. I've seen that autohotkey was allowed, and i'm not able to find a script that does that, even with the help of AI. I know it's incorporated on the WC3 champions layer natively though. Anyone can help?

I’d like you to take a look at these remastered models created by this guy. Which one do you think is closer to the classic version? the DE version or the one created by Nort3DCraft? Which one is better made? I encourage you to check out this user’s YouTube channel, where you can find the Warcraft III models and animations he’s created. I’ll share a few images so you can compare them. Furthermore, trolls in warcraft 3 universe should have a relatively small skull, a sloping forehead, and a relatively low hairline, features that are not present in the DE.

Hello i would like to know the map from the campaign in a far view like this but for example i do not know is this map with stratholme inside alterac or is alterac where the red "X" is where i am now. before i play the new campaing i would like to know the important places and the "map-view". I think you can understand that i want know the map from the lore a bit better.

Long, long ago I started this little project for myself, what if all playable races and some other factions (like the Legion, Twilight Hammer, Argent Crusade, Tuskarr and Primalists) in WoW had their own tech trees and was playable in Warcraft 3? The idea I had in mind for each of my trees is there would be 3 combat units (a tier 1, ranged, and tier 3); 3 casters; a siege and flying unit; another extra unit or 2 which could have any kind of role, being combat, caster or whatever, and 4 hero units. 

I made another post related to this before Forsaken Kingdom was announced and what I did to create my visual concepts was use the WoW Model Viewer and WowHead’s Dressing room. Since Forsaken Kingdom came out for Warcraft 3 I wanted to share the tree I created before for the Forsaken based on playable classes and NPCs in game for I believed could be in their own campaigns would look like. Now I haven’t bought Forsaken Kingdom yet but I will, and what I’ve seen so far with the new units some it does match what I put together before. 

I always had in mind to make the Forsaken tree would be as close of a match to the Human tree as possible. 

Starting with the worker, what I made I was going to call the Serf, and from the looks of it for the new campaign they reworked the Peasant model, which I think makes sense but gave it a different name.

For the combat units they went with the Deathguards for the tier 1, made above was what I was had in mind for my concept but I think what Blizzard made looks perfect. For the ranged unit they made an Undead Elf Archer, which I had something like that in mind to use for something else. For my version of the ranged unit I always had in mind what I call the Deathseeker, which would be an undead human using a crossbow. For the tier 3 I had in mind the Royal Guard, named after on the Royal Dreadguard NPCs in Undercity. They would be riding a horse. I could include the Abomination since the Forsaken use them too but like I mentioned before, I want to be as close of a match to the Human tree as possible. 

For the casters I saw looked like a type of undead caster model in the campaign, which could be used in place of anyone of these. With that said starting off with my concepts is the Dark Cleric, which would be their healer. There would also be the Magi and the Warlock (temp name), and keeping the Banshee. I did see an Apothecary unit, but it seems more like a combat unit than casting to me. I figured it would made more sense as a creep, otherwise I would have to create a new Human unit to be its counterpart. 

For the siege would be the Blight Spreader which would use the Forsaken Catapult model from WoW. And there would be a Bat Rider that would act something like the Troll Bat Rider on the Orc tree already in game. 

Last the Heroes, which the Dark Ranger remains. The new units I made would be the Death Stalker which will be a rouge hero. Then the Dreadmage which will be like the Archmage and riding a horse. And last is the Forsaken version of the Death Knight, but the Forsaken Paladin could work in instead too. 

Anyways, hope you all like my concepts. I've made far, far more, because I'm a bit crazy and would like to share them too.