| (Yes, the logo sucks. Boohoo)
No, this is not a ripoff of the famed Warcraft III Ability Guide. One could think of it as an extension.
This, rather, is a list of the "weird" side of Warcraft III abilities. As many of us know, Blizzard did some pretty weird things with their spells. This guide sets out to find and bring to light all the weird things they've done, be they helpful, hurtful, or just stupid/useless.
First, I want to thank everyone who contributed to the "Weird things with Blizzard Abilities" thread I started many months ago, and got this list started: - Midiway
- Moyack
- Tide-Arc Ephemera
- Jazradel
- Burning Rose
- IgnitedStar (huge thanks!)
- MCV
- Hydrolisk
- Burningice255
Special thanks to: - Anopob for insane amounts of testing regarding many abilities, including War Club, Dark Portal, and Rain of Chaos (Archimonde).
- Kyrbi0 for lots of testing as well
- PitzerMike for approving this tutorial and add his super-awesome smiley to the logo.
And now, onto the Carnival!
Requested Abilities
To-Do:- Add the rawcode ID's for all the spells (joy.)
Note: This list is for weird things with SPELLS/ABILITIES, and only oddities that can cause issues or are confusing (such as incorrect/weird fields). The Warcraft III Ability Guide is much like this, except it explains how to use the oddities of certain spells to your advantage. This list is so people know what spells can be troublesome. It also has some of the lesser-known fields/effects some spells have, be they good or bad.
General Oddities
This is for things that apply to most/all spells. - Many times, Targets Allowed is hardcoded into Wc3, so modifying them may do nothing.
- Making a custom spell then setting its buff field(s) to nothing will make it default to the Blizzard buff.
Individual Spells
This little (not anymore!) section is for individual spells that have a lot of oddities.
Channel
Probably one of the weirdest spells Blizzard provides us.
Table: |
Data - Options | Abilities based on Channel will not show up unless this field has the "Visible" box checked off.
| | Channel - Follow Through Time | The maximum amount of time the spell can be channeled for. Setting it to 0 makes it a normal spell; anything above it makes it a channeling spell.
| | Art - Missile | Does not work for Channel (big bummer!)
| | Data - Targeting Options | Channel has multiple types of targeting options, as well as a "Targeting Image", which brings up a circle (like Flame Strike or Blizzard). Can be useful! (Thanks Themerion)
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A simple ability but it has a few weird fields.
Table: |
Decaying Damage | How much damage the target takes per interval after the initial damage.
| | Casting Time | Not actually the casting time. It's the interval for Decaying Damage.
| | Decaying Power | I don't know what it does yet does yet.
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Three spells that all deform terrain.
Table: |
Data - Terrain Deforming | War Stomp (Neutral Hostile 1/2/3) has this field, which could come in handy. (Thanks Burning Rose
| | Other | These spells will always cause the ground to warp when cast, even if you change the missile art, etc.
| | Other | These spells can cause Desyncs (due to the deformed terrain) if you're checking for Z height in triggers.
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A spell that is known to have quite the array of weird fields and abnormalties.
Table: |
Damage Amount | Amount of damage that is dealt per Damage Interval.
| | Damage Interval | Amount of time per when Damage Amount is applied.
| | Effect Duration | The amount of time Damage Interval is accounted for before it stops checking every X seconds, X coming from Damage Interval. Or... This might also be the amount of damage any one Damage Interval can deal to all units within the Area of Effect.
| | Max Damage | The maximum amount of damage any one unit can take from a single casting of the spell. Or... This might also be the amount of damage any one Damage Invertal can deal.
| | Missle Count | Eyecandy only. Determines how many missiles are shown, so if there are more missiles than the duration lasts, missiles will be shown w/o damage, and vice versa. The only way to determine the right timing is by guess + check.
| | Area of Effect | This goes hand in hand with Missle Count. Even if I extended the Range, I wasn't able to change where the missles landed or how they landed. A test with a large area showed that the missle art is truly just for effect: Even if you use an area of a thousand, the missles will only cover a small area of that thousand, but all units within the Area of Effect will still get hit.
| | Spell Duration Hero/Unit | This specifies the amount of stun dealt as units get hit according to Damage Interval. This only happens once, as if the unit is hit at any Damage Interval. So, even if a unit gets hit by Cluster Rockets late, it will still be stunned for this amount of time. The same holds true for units that are hit within the area. Blizzard made it so that the stun ended just as the Effect Duration ended.
| | Cooldown | I feel a need to put Cooldown in here. Cluster Rockets is a channeling spell; if the Effect Duration surpasses the Cooldown, then Cluster Rockets can literally run forever with sufficient mana.
| (Thanks Burning Rose:)
| | Buffs | I've found that if you give the Buff field for Cluster Rockets (Which normally has 'Cluster Rockets', not 'Stunned') the 'Stunned' buff, it doesn't work; the stun doesn't go off. If you, instead, give it a buff based off Cluster Rockets, the stun works, but the damage doesn't. However, the Cluster Rockets buff looks just like the stunned buff, so it doesn't matter as long as you leave it that way.
| (Thanks TKF:)
| | Art - Projectile Speed | Does not affect Cluster Rockets.
| | Other | Rockets take approx. .75-.79 seconds to reach their target, regardless of speed or distance. (So if the range is really long, the rockets will go insanely fast, and vice versa)
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Flame Strike's fields are very simple. However, because of the way Blizzard made Flame Strike's default fields, it can be very confusing (For example; the spell's default tooltip says "45 damage per second", but the Full Damage field for level 1 is 15.)
Thanks IgnitedStar for Flame Strike's fields!
Table: |
Full Damage Dealt | This is the amount of damage dealt per Full Damage Interval.
| | Full Damage Interval | This is the amount of time Full Damage Dealt deals its damage. (It's .33 by default.)
| | Half Damage Dealt | This is the amount of damage the leftover fires deal.
| | Half Damage Interval | This one is the amount of time Half Damage Dealt deals is damage. (It's 1 by default)
| | Maximum Damage | I'm 75% sure that this is the maximum amount of damage any unit can sustain from Full Damage. This might also count for Half Damage, but I doubt it.
| | Casting Time | For Flame Strike, this is the amount of time it takes for the whole spell to fire off.
| (Thanks TKF:)
| | Duration Hero/Unit | Hero determines how long the main blaze burns, Unit determines the length of the afterburn.
| | Other | Flame Strikes do not stack damage; the first will always do the damaging, even if the second does more damage.
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Apparently there's some stuff with Gold mines...
Note: At times, and seemingly randomly, units who enter/leave gold mines (eg: Peasants + Orcs) will suddenly move extremely slowly. This is because if your town hall is very close to the gold mine, it attempts to "balance" this by slowing the peasants. Re-ordering them will fix this temporarily. ( Thanks Anopob for that)
Thanks MCV for testing Undead (Blighted) Gold Mines.
Table: |
Building Mines | The unit that builds a Blighted Gold Mine must be Undead
| | Targets | Only works on Undead structures and anything else will make it contain 0 gold.
| | Gather Gold (Acolyte) | The unit that has the this ability must be Undead
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Table: |
Gold Mine (Ability) | By adding the Gold Mine ability to a unit...:- It will appear as a big yellow dot on the map
- Damage and Gold amount will clash on the UI, so only Gold amount will be shown. Using a second attack will show the second attack.
- The unit can be harvested from, and will die indefinitely when it runs out of gold.
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(may need some clarification)
Table: |
Gold | Spawns an empty gold mine. Gold cannot be gathered unless added first (by triggers) and then harvested from. Removing gold via triggers will display "-(amount)". It will collapse after one gathering afterwards.
| | Transformation | ]The skill can be used to transform a gold mine into another unit after X time (Casting Time). Build Time of the unit to transform into determines how long it takes for the mine to transform.
| | Enatangle Gold Mine (Ability) | The Entangle Gold Mine Ability is used by the Entangled Gold Mine itself, and whenever a unit is inside it takes 10 gold at the interval of 10.
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Further testing is required, however this is really just a summoning spell. It's the abilities the Tornado unit has that makes this seem weird. (Thanks to Anopob for testing this)
Note: (Thanks to Kyrbi0) Anything summoned by Tornado will be invulnerable.
Tornado Wander
Table: |
Area of Effect | If the Tornado goes out of this range, it automatically dies. If it's a small AOE (eg. 250) it WILL eventually go out unless you use your manual control to keep it in range.
| | Cast Range | Basically, if you summon it on X spot, it will get a random point that is Cast Range away from the summoning spot. Therefore, if this value is 1000, it will get a spot (let's say, Y) that is 1000 range away from X. After it goes there, it repeats itself (eg. Z, which is also 1000 range away from X). It will keep doing that until it dies or you control it manually.
| | Duration - Hero/Normal | At first I thought it was the interval it did random checks of the range, but 2.00 wasn't much different from 5.00.
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Table: |
Minimum Hit Interval (seconds) | The interval that the tornado can hit. So if you summon it in a middle of a bunch of enemy units with 0.01, it probably will go like ZOOM and fly them up high right away. If, however, it's something like 5 seconds, then it hits one or so units, 5 seconds later and then it does it again.
| | Area of Effect | If a unit is within the AOE, it's qualified to go flying.
| | Duration - Hero/Normal | The length of flying time for hit targets.
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What is Rain of Chaos? Think: Inferno, but with more infernals and in random spots. What makes RoC special?
You can define ANY summon ability to summon.
However!! They don't always work.
Thanks to Anopob for insane amounts of testing of this ability!!!
First, data fields.
Table: |
DataA# / Ability for Un... | The ability Rain of Chaos will use to summon your unit(s).
| | DataB# / Number of... | The number of unit types that is to be summoned.
| | Dur# / Duration - Normal | The amount of time the caster will stand there, channeling. It is also the amount of time between each unit (so 2 seconds in this value and 4 units mean you have to stand there for approx 8 seconds).
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And now for the what does/does not work with Rain of Chaos!
Table:
PERFECT LIST
The following works perfectly, are not effected in any way whatsoever. | - Infernal (Neutral Hostile) [default] - Whatever unit you put inside that value, this IS GOING TO WORK with the desired effect of units, AOE stun and damage.
- Pocket Factory - They look awkward because facing a different angle, and they don't summon Clockwerk Goblins, but they don't have any expiration timer. All levels work FYI.
- Phoenix - Perfect.
- Serpent Ward - Not timed. Same with Rokhan's.
- Spawn Tentacle - Not timed.
- Scout - Not timed.
- Force of Nature - Shows animation for cool-factor. Not timed.
| THE PS (Perma-Stun) LIST
The following works great, however the units are perma-stunned (until removed buffs via triggers). Please keep in mind that this is easily countered by adding spell immunity before-hand on the unit, then removing it if you do not wish to keep it on the unit. | - Summon Bear
- Summon Quillbeast - And Rexxar's.
- Summon Hawk
- Summon Prawns
- Tornado - These tornados are destructible.
- Summon Water Elemental
| THE TIMER LIST
The following works...sadly, they're near-fail because they have a timer. Do not fear, some timers are longer than others. Please note that the times are APPROXIMATE. If something is timered as well as perma-stunned, it will be here. | - Robo-Goblin - 3 seconds, PS
- Spirit Beast - 3 seconds, PS
- Raise Dead - 3 seconds. First time worked perfectly, second not so much. Have no idea.
- Feral Spirit - 3 seconds, PS
- Summon Misha (Rexxar) - 3 seconds, PS
- Metamorphosis - 3 seconds,PS, ALL forms of this are the same.
| THE FAIL LIST
The following DOES NOT work at all, though may seem like it. | - Summon Hydra
- Summon Hydra Hatchling
- Rain of Chaos - both of them don't work
- Spawn Skeleton (Probably Black Arrow)
- Spawn Spiderlings (Neutral Hostile)
- Spawn Spiders (Neutral Hostile)
- Animate Dead
- Storm, Earth, and Fire - same with Chen's
- Carrion Beetles - have NO idea why this doesn't work
- Doom
- Summon Lava Spawn
- Dark Portal
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Builders (and some abilities affecting Buildings) have some pretty weird things associated with them as well.
Table: |
Human Build | Will only work on Buildings classified as the human race. (The same might apply to the other repairs)
| | Racial Builds | Each "Build" (Undead, Orc, Human, Naga, Night Elf, Neutral) will only work on a unit of that race. Each ability also has extra effects:- Undead build summons the buildings
- Orc build garrisons the worker (worker cannot be hurt unless building dies during construction)
- Human build allows power-building (multiple workers)
- Naga build is the same as Orc build
- Night Elf build kills the worker if the building is classified as "Ancient"
- Neutral build doesn't seem to be anything special.
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This is for any other spells that only have 1-2 weird things associated with them.
Table: |
Metamorphosis | The Duration - Normal field determines how long the user "holds" until the morph takes place.
| | Carrion Swarm/Crushing Wave | There will always be a black/blue plume effect on units hit by the wave, regardless of the effects or buffs you use. However, if you change the Art - Special field on the STANDARD Carrion Swarm (the one you used to make a custom spell, not the custom spell itself), then this can be changed. (Thanks Midiway for the clarification)
| | Devour | Does NOT work on "Demon" class units. (Thanks Moyack)
| | Locust Swarm | Only units with the 'Locust' ability will move around. (Thanks Jazradel)
| | Earthquake | Setting Data - Final Area to a really high number can crash the game.
| | Cannibalize | Setting the Cast Range to anything above/below the default will cause the ability to bug, making it only work on rare occasions when the caster is DIRECTLY over a corpse. (When normally they would seek out a corpse)
| | Chain Lightning | Art - Missile field doesn't work. This is a huge nuisance since with it, Chain Lightning would be the perfect 1-hit damage spell (No buff, no side effects, just damage).
| | Attack manipulation abilities | Pulverize, Critical Strike and Cleaving Strike can be used to show a unit's Slam animation whenever they attack (assuming they have one).
| | Sleep | If the caster uses it on itself (if you make it able to do so), it will cause it to loop; every time sleep ends, your unit will automatically recast it on itself.
| | Spiked Carapace | Has a Damage Taken field that allows you to make units take % of damage (for example, setting it to .90 would make units take 90% of attack damage).
| | Unholy Aura | If you set Percent Bonus to True, make sure you modify the Life Regen fields to something low, like .05, or else your units will heal at an insane rate. (% of their health per second, or so.)
| | Summon Spirit of Vengeance | One of the few (if not only) summoning spells with a missile art. However, it can only be used on corpses (Dummy corpses anyone?)
| | Kaboom | Will only work with smart orders (right clicking a unit) if the unit has the "Suicidal" tag.
| | War Club | Disables attack 1 and turns on attack 2 for the specified number of attacks, then automatically switches back. (Thanks Anopob for testing that)
| | Dark Portal | Summons a random array (customizable) of permanent summons; only summon that does this. (Thanks Kyrbi0)
| | Poison Arrows | Will not work on a unit based on a melee unit (eg: Given to a Paladin, or given to a Paladin made into a range unit) (Thanks Av3n)
| | Dark Conversion | This ability targets any unit from Data - Race to Convert (default: Commoner, i.e. Undead, Creep, Human, etc), and permanently transforms it into Data - Conversion Unit (default: Zombie, i.e. single unit-type). However, the newly-transformed unit will not have any abilities as a result of this transformation. (Thanks Kyrbi0 for testing)
| | Soul Preservation | Does nothing but remove the target unit (must be a specific unit-type, as specified by the field Unit to Preserve) from the game, permanently. It has cool sfx, and has a nice fading effect as it does so, but does nothing else. (Thanks Kyrbi0)
| | Sentinel | The Effects field determines what hovers above (or in, if you modify the Hover Height field) the tree. If the model is not permanent, it will only show for one animation cycle. The sentinel itself remains (you still have vision), you just won't see art. (Thanks Anopob)
| | Burrow/Perm. Invisibility | Combined, these two cause super-permanent invisibility; it never breaks, even if removed. (Confirmed by Rising_Dusk)
| | Dark Ritual | If the "Kill unit" option is unchecked (aka Dark Ritual will only damage, not kill the unit), then no mana will be transfered, even though everything else happens. (Found by holyadvocate)
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Enjoy! |
