Blizzard has finally started taking a hard look at the numerous balance issues with Frozen Throne and has started with a huge update to try and rectify some of the issues.  You be the judge.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  WARCRAFT III BETA VERSION HISTORY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
- BETA PATCH 304
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

2003-MAR-19

BALANCE CHANGES

We have made numerous changes to improve the strategic depth of WC3: The
Frozen Throne. Please try new strategies!

BUILDING & UPGRADE CHANGES

- Players now start with 500 gold and 150 lumber, down from 750 gold and
  200 lumber.
- Barracks-equivalents and Altars are much less expensive.
- Technology structures, in general, cost more lumber, while costing less
  gold. This was part of an effort to make various strategies have a wider
  window of opportunity, as well as to decrease the cost of switching
  strategies.
- Town Hall-equivalents and the Haunted Gold Mine cost more lumber.
- Town Hall-equivalent upgrades cost more gold and a lot more lumber.
- Most upgrades cost more lumber and less gold.
- Upgrades other than attack/defense upgrades tend to have lower research
  times now.
- Humans and Undead both have new towers, the Arcane Tower and the Nerubian
  Tower, respectively, which are designed to discourage Hero harassment.
- Shop hit points have been significantly reduced, as they should be a prime
  target when attacking a base.

Damage and Combat Hierarchy Changes:

- Normal damage now does 70% damage to buildings, up from 50%.
- Heroes now have the aptly-named 'Hero' damage type, which works much
  like Normal damage, except it only does 50% damage against buildings,
  and 100% damage against Light armor. This was done primarily so that
  Heroes no longer strongly counter tier-1 ranged units.
- Piercing damage now does 200% damage to Heavy armor, up from 150%. This
  change was made to ensure that Archers and other ranged units can
  effectively counter air units.
- Magic damage now deals 75% damage against Light armor units, as Light
  armor units typically are supposed to counter units that deal Magic
  damage.
- Tier-3 melee units now have Medium armor in order to encourage their use,
  and make them more dangerous.
- Siege units have been significantly improved by increasing their range
  and speed.
- Heavy air units such as Gryphon Riders and Frost Wyrms now deal Magic
  damage, which makes them very effective against Medium armor units, and not
  so effective against Light armor units, which are supposed to counter them.
- Air units OTHER than heavy air units have for the most part been
  rebalanced. You may notice different damage values and other
  differences.
- All air units now have Heavy armor.

Experience-Related Changes:

- Kills made when no Hero is nearby still result in your Heroes' receiving
  experience. If one Hero is nearby, but another is not, only the nearby
  Hero gains experience. This change was made to encourage the use of air
  mobility in harassing an opponent.
- High-level creeps and units give significantly less experience.
- High-level creeps have Medium armor now.
- Low-level Heroes take 30% longer to revive. Heroes of level 4 and higher
  still take the maximum of nearly 2 minutes to revive.
- Units killed by buildings no longer give experience.

Maps:

- (4)BridgeTooNear: Goblin Laboratories are now gold mines. Starting gold
  mines and expansions have reduced gold. Tree circle in middle has thin
  wall of trees instead of thick wall of trees.
- (4)HailStone: Moved the Tavern out of player's base and replaced with a
  large creep camp. Removed 4 expansion gold mines and replaced them with
  Taverns and creep camps. Beefed up a gold mine.
- (4)IceFlow: All gold mines have been reduced.
- (4)Islands: Changed creep camps at Goblin Shipyards.
- (4)Tanaris: Middle is now a gold mine. Made creep camps stronger at
  Laboratory and gold mines. Ripped out the medium-sized creep camps. All
  gold mines reduced slightly.
- (4)Turtle Rock: Starting gold mines reduced slightly. Tertiary gold mines
  reduced significantly.
- (4)WhirlWind: Removed Mercenary Camps and some creep camps. Replaced with
  high ground, a Tavern, and a strong creep camp.
- (6)WheelofChaos: One Goblin Laboratory replaced by a Marketplace. All
  Marketplaces around the outside became Goblin Laboratories. Gold mine and
  Laboratory islands are now connected. Island gold mine creep camps are now
  stronger.
- (6)StranglethornVale: Starting gold mines are reduced. Mercenary Camps
  are now gold mines with strong creep camps. Neutral buildings altered in
  the middle of the map.

Item Changes:

- Clarity Potions, Healing Salves, and Scrolls of Regeneration all have
  their effects dispelled when units under their influence attack, are
  attacked, cast a spell, or are hit by a spell which does damage.
- Circlet of Nobility price increased to 175 from 125.
- Potion of Lesser Invulnerability now costs 150, up from 100.
- Crystal Ball now has unlimited charges, but a 60-second cooldown. It is
  also now a level-5 permanent item instead of a level-2 charged item.
- Staff of Teleportation now costs 100 gold, down from 200, and no longer
  randomly drops.
- Orbs no longer cause melee Heroes to deal double damage.
- Adjusted the level of several items.

Human Changes:

- Gyrocopters can now benefit from the new Flak Cannons upgrade, which gives
  their air-to-air attack splash damage.
- Gyrocopters have been rebalanced as 1 food units.
- Mortar Teams can now benefit from the Fragmentation Shards upgrade, which
  allows them to do increased damage against units.
- Knights adjusted to have a higher damage output, while being the same
  overall strength.
- Spell Breakers now have the Feedback ability, which causes their attacks
  to remove up to 10 mana from their target. Each point so removed causes
  1 point of damage to the target.
- Spell Steal no longer requires an upgrade to use.
- Spell Breakers now have the Control Magic ability, which allows them to
  charm enemy summoned units. The spell's cost is relative to the hit points
  of the target. Control Magic requires the Control Magic upgrade.
- Blood Mages no longer have the Mana Shield ability, but have gained the
  Siphon Mana ability, which is similar to the Dark Ranger's Life Drain,
  except it drains mana instead of life from the target.
- Banish can now be cast on oneself, and slows its target by 66%.
- Banished units, by virtue of being ethereal, now take double damage from
  Magic and spell attacks. The Sorceress' attack, Storm Bolt, and Flame Strike
  are all examples of spells that are doubled in damage by Banish.
- Mark of Fire no longer requires a unit to create--just the spell.
- Dragonhawk Riders now benefit from the Animal War Training upgrade.
- Flame Strike now costs 150 mana to cast, up from 125.
- Flame Strike initial damage/sec reduced to 35/65/90 by level from 45/75/105.
- A bug with Flame Strike was fixed. Now it effectively deals 33%
  more damage against units. This means that its values have
  effectively been changed to 45/85/120 damage/sec by level.
- War Engine rockets now deal 25 damage down from 75, and have had a range
  increase to 500 from 400. Additionally, up to 10 rockets can be fired at
  once, up from 3.
- Human Shop no longer sells Scroll of Speed.
- Scout Towers now cost 30/20, down from 70/20. 
- Guard Towers now have Light armor, take less time to build, and cost 80/60,
  down from 120/60.

Undead Changes:

- Black Sphinx now has the Absorb Mana ability.
- Abominations now have the Cannibalize ability, which works much like the
  Ghoul Cannibalize ability, except 1 corpse will not always fully heal an
  Abomination.
- When units Cannibalize, the most injured units do so first.
- Obsidian Statues have been significantly changed. They now have only two
  abilities: Spirit Touch and Replenish Life. They are auto-cast area-of-
  effect mana and health restores which do not stack with other spells of
  the same type. Two Sphinxes replenishing mana do not do so faster than 1. 
  Note that Statues no longer have Aura of Blight, Absorb Mana, or Replenish
  Mana.
- Obsidian Statues are once again 3 food in addition to now having 800 hit
  points, being able to attack, and having medium armor. 
- Black Sphinxes now lose 3 mana per second.
- Devour Magic radius reduced to 250 from 400, but cooldown reduced to 6
  from 12.
- The Meat Wagon's corpse-carrying capability has been improved. Cannibalize
  and Raise Dead will automatically use corpses in a Meat Wagon as if the
  corpses were on the ground.
- Shade speed increased to 350 from 270, but hit points reduced to 125 from
  250.
- Scroll of Speed now sold on Tomb of Wonders if a Black Citadel is built.
- A Graveyard is once again required to make Spirit Towers.
- Halls of the Dead hit points reduced to 1750 from 2000.
- Black Citadel hit points reduced to 2000 from 2300.

Orc Changes:

- Catapults now have the Naphtha upgrade, which allows Catapults to cause
  an incendiary effect after hitting a target, causing damage to nearby
  buildings and units over time
- Level-1 Serpent Ward now has 75 hit points, down from 135.
- Ethereal Spirit Walker hit points increased to 500 from 350.
- Spirit Walkers in ethereal form take double damage from Magic and spell
  attacks. The Sorceress' attack, Storm Bolt and Flame Strike are all
  examples of spells that do double damage against ethereal Spirit Walkers.
- Disenchant radius reduced to 200 from 400, but mana cost reduced to 50
  from 125, and cooldown reduced to 0 from 3.
- Wand of Neutralization now affects 8 targets per use, up from 5.
- Watch Towers now have Light armor, build more quickly, and cost 110/80
  down from 155/80.
- Reinforced Burrows upgrade is now called "Reinforced Defenses". It also
  costs 50/200, as opposed to 125/75, and now takes 60 seconds to research,
  up from 45 seconds. It gives Fortified armor to both Watch Towers and
  Burrows.
- Liquid Fire damage/sec reduced to 5/sec from 10/sec temporarily.
- Batrider attack now deals 1d4 + 18 damage, down from 1d5 + 22. This is
  a temporary change.

Night Elf Changes:

- Mana Burn cooldown is now 7/6/5 seconds by level, down from 7/7/7 seconds
  by level.
- Mana Flare damage cooldown reduced to .75 from 1.5.
- Shadow Strike now affects air units.
- Wisps now move speed 270, up from 220.
- Tranquility cooldown reduced to 60 from 120.
- Tranquility mana cost reduced to 125 from 200.
- Ancients now have Medium armor instead of Heavy armor when uprooted.
- Mountain Giant Hardened Skin now subtracts 15 damage from every attack,
  down from 20.
- Spirit of Vengeance has been reworked. You can summon the Spirit of
  Vengeance regardless of whether there are corpses nearby. The SoV will
  raise invulnerable Spirits from nearby friendly corpses to fight for you.
  These Spirits will dissipate if the SoV dies, or if their summon time
  elapses.
- Treants (summoned by Force of Nature) now benefit from Nature's Blessing.
- Anti-magic Potion now requires Ancient of Eternity to purchase.
- Clarity Potion no longer sold on Ancient of Wonders.

Neutral Heroes and Units:

- You can now buy the Pandaren Brewmaster and Naga Sea Witch from the
  Tavern. Check the bottom of this readme for full details on their
  abilities.
- Silence range increased to 900 from 700 to allow for easier use.
- Level-2 and level-3 Black Arrow now create the same Dark Minions as
  level-1 Black Arrow.
- Black Arrow damage bonus changed from 5/10/15 to 2/10/20.
- Black Arrow now works on high-level creeps.
- Charm now works on creeps of level 5 or lower, down from 6 or lower.
- Charm mana cost increased to 150 from 125.
- Neutral Heroes are not as quickly available for hire as before.
- Marketplaces have been greatly changed. In no particular order: each
  Marketplace has its own stock of items; every 30 seconds, a new item is
  added; Marketplaces remove items once they are purchased; Marketplaces
  don't stock items until 2 minutes into the game.
- Mercenary camps have a number of new creeps seeking to be soldiers of
  fortune!  Be sure to check them out!
- Creeps sold at Mercenary Camps and Goblin Laboratories are often
  available much earlier than before.  Some are available as early as
  60 seconds into the game (down from 440 seconds previously)!

Other:

- Second and third Heroes no longer start with Scrolls of Town Portal.
- The allied minimap color filter now has a third state: minimap only. In
  this state, units on the main screen will have their own particular
  player's color, while units in the minimap will be color coded according
  to their team.
- Group-selected buildings now distribute orders properly. For instance,
  if you tell two Barracks to research several upgrades and build several
  units at the same time, the orders are distributed between them equally.
- Ethereal units take double damage from spell damage and Magic damage.
- All Backpack upgrades now cost 50/25, down from 75/25.

Neutral Hero Abilities:

Pandaren Brewmaster
* Drunken Haze – Causes the target to become extremely drunk, causing it
to move slowly and miss attacks.
* Breath of Fire – The Brewmaster breathes fire in a short-ranged cone shape,
causing damage to both air units and ground units in the area of effect. 
Units which were under the effects of Drunken Haze are set aflame and take
significant damage over time.
* Drunken Brawler – Exactly like Evasion.
* Storm, Earth, and Fire – The Brewmaster splits into three mini-pandas:
Storm, Earth, and Fire. Each is a formidable fighter in its own right,
and possesses at least one ability. All have the Resistant Skin ability.
After the spell duration ends, if any one of the pandas is still alive,
the Brewmaster reforms.
- Storm: Can cast Cyclone, level-1 Wind Walk and Dispel Magic. Has a ranged
attack.
- Earth: Magic immune, has extremely high hit points, and possesses the
Pulverize and Taunt abilities.
- Fire: Has Permanent Immolation and a strong attack.

Naga Sea Witch
* Forked Lightning – Similar to Carrion Swarm. A cone-shaped direct damage
spell which does fixed damage to a certain number of targets.
Amount of damage and number of targets go up with level. This spell is
slightly more powerful than Carrion Swarm, but is also a bit more costly,
and has a slightly longer cooldown.
* Mana Shield – This ability is completely reworked version of the Blood
Mage's old Mana Shield ability. It is now an ability that can be activated
or deactivated, much like Immolation. When it is activated, damage done to
the Sea Witch is instead dealt to her mana pool instead of her health.
* Cold Arrows – Similar to Searing Arrows. Deals bonus damage when turned
on, and also slows the victim's attack rate and movement rate. 
* Tornado (ultimate) – Creates a randomly moving Tornado in the area of
effect which causes significant damage to buildings and slows the attack rate
and move speed of units.