After a decidedly lukewarm reception at launch, Blizzard’s high-profile Warcraft 3 Reforged released its 1.32.10 patch in April 2021 and promptly went quiet. Today, it has abruptly sprung to life once more, as the game’s first new patch in over a year heads to the Public Test Realm.
The v1.33.0 update will first appear on the PTR for public testing before it makes its way to the live servers. Here’s what’s in it:
Ranked Play
- Players may now choose between Ranked and Unranked Play.
- Seasons are now available.
- When a Season ends, the ladder will reset, and players will be able to see their history via their Profile and the Leaderboards.
- Your matchmaking rating (MMR) is unique for race, including Random.
- To be placed, players must play 5 placement matches per race.
- After playing a Ranked Match, you’ll be taken to a post-game screen which will display your MMR change and rankings.
- The available Ranks are:
- Unranked
- Combatant
- Challenger
- Rival
- Duelist
- Elite
- Gladiator
- Champion
Leaderboards
- Players can now view their rank in the Leaderboard section, which can be accessed from the Versus screen.
- In the Leaderboard, you can filter by user-names, and sort between race and mode.
Player Profiles
- You can now access your profile by right-clicking on the player icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Access other players’ profiles by right-clicking on their name and selecting “View Profile”.
Reforged Campaign
- Numerous tuning and balance adjustments have been made to multiple campaign maps.
I feel like many players are going to view the v1.33.0 update as too little, too late. As written, it feels like a suite of medium-priority features that should have been present at launch, not two years after the fact. When compared to a remaster like Diablo II Resurrected, embraced by its community and widely endorsed by those who love the original most, poor Warcraft 3 Reforged appears utterly unloved.
But, I suppose, it has to start somewhere.
The 1.32.10 patch arrived in April 2021, four months after reports suggested that Blizzard had dismantled Team 1, the group of developers that specialised in restoring and remastering its classic games. As efforts to rebuild ramped up, a storm erupted, and Blizzard faced an extended internal reckoning. Whatever resources Blizzard had for updating its classic games were focused on D2R. And there sat Warcraft 3 Reforged, seemingly abandoned, a regrettable misfire, consigned to the dustbin of history.
Until now, it seems. Maybe there’s hope for Warcraft 3 Reforged yet.
Would you go back to War3R or is the dream over for you? Would you take a Warcraft 4 if you could get it? Tell me your Warcraft fears, gripes and secret longings in the comments below.
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