Nov 3, 2013

Microtransactions: the good, the bad and the ugly

Team Fortress 2

"Free-to-play" and "microtransactions" are dirty terms to some. That's understandable. Famous Facebook Skinner boxes like Farmville have clouded attitudes toward today's free-to-play games, and there's an assumption all microtransaction-driven game design is handicapped by the need to create ways to charge players. For some games, this is certainly true, but there are excellent free-to-play games out there that represent good value for money. Below we've assessed some of the most common methods used by free-to-play games to make money from players, and highlighted some of the fairest examples of free-to-play that are worth your time.

Convoluted shops and fake currencies

A lot of the distrust toward microtransaction-driven games comes down to the way they habitually obfuscate both what exactly you'll be paying for, and how much you'll be paying for it. This starts with the standard practice of exchanging of standard currency for fake fun-bucks equivalents. In Rift, it's "Credits", in The Old Republic, it's "Cartel Coins", in War Thunder, it's "Golden Eagles", to name just a few. The deliberately awkward exchange rates are of course designed to hide the actual value of the items you're buying, but hiding the value of every transaction at this fundamental level appears dishonest.

There's a widespread lack of clarity around the payment systems attached to free-to-play games. The price and payment method of engaging with a game should be quickly apparent, and expressed in a way that lets players know exactly what they're getting for their money. It should not, like Star Wars: The Old Republic, require the careful study of three different screens to unravel the various interlocking currencies, subscription deals, expansion packs and "preferred status" upgrades available.

If you're inviting players to make a purchase that you believe is worthwhile, why hide the price? Quake Live has two tiers of membership, which grants players various levels of access to premium arenas, and the ability to host matches, but look here, at the top of the page, a clear list of features and a price tag.

In short: We see this practice everywhere, even in otherwise decent free-to-play implementations like Card Hunter. The cost of playing a game should be clear, and that starts with straightforward price labelling.

Crates/card packs and random chance drops

If you hand someone a closed box full of promised goodies, many will happily pay you for the crowbar to crack it open. The tremendous power of small random packs of goodies has long been known the creators of physical collectible card games and companies that made football stickers a decade ago. For some, including our former reviews editor Rich McCormick, the allure of a closed box full of goodies is too powerful to resist. Whatever the worth of the randomised prizes inside, the offer of a free chest and the option to buy a key will make a small fortune out of these personalities. For those that like to gamble, these crates often offer a small chance of an ultra-rare item.

In Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, a chest will drop into your inventory every so often. Keys can be bought with real money, or traded for, and are very popular - five of the seven TF2 store bestsellers are keys right now. As with card packs, the process of discovery and anticipation that goes into opening a box is as exciting as the item inside. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether that's a valuable reward, and whether £1.50 / $2.50 is a worthwhile price for that rush. The important thing is that players know exactly what they're gambling for when opening a box, and have at least a sense of the odds involved. The Team Fortress 2 wiki exposes estimated percentage odds for each crate, but as any Vegas slot machine designer will tell you, revealing all of the maths maths can ruin the glamour of the gamble, and make no mistake, this is gambling.

Boxes are easily deleted and ignored, but receiving one isn't a good experience. At worst, it's a taunt that pops up in the same space ordinarily to message gifts. Receiving a crate for the first time, and then learning that it requires a purchase to unlock, is a betrayal of the expectations that the rest of the drop system instils. The positive side, in the case of TF2 and Dota 2, is that revenue from crate sales goes back to community item creators, and the items you can earn don't unbalance the core game. Team Fortress 2's random drops also shower you constantly with gifts, which balances everything out somewhat.

In CCGs like Hearthstone, Fifa's Ultimate Team and Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode, you can unlock random cards/players/guns from packs earned through in-game money as well as real currency. This accepts payment in the form of a chunk of your spare time, which is a good deal if the game is good. It operates more like a randomised unlock system that you can speed up with money if you wish.

In short: card packs and crate drops are a form of gambling. If you're okay with that, then there's no reason not to enjoy games like Hearthstone. It's worth checking to see if packs can be earned with a sensible amount of in-game progress before investing lots of time.

In-game item stores

There are two main questions to keep in mind when a game is asking you to spend real money for specific items.

1. Can they only be earned by paying up?
2. Are they better than what you have already?

The answer to both, if a game is being as fair as possible, is no. Games like Team Fortress 2 have a selection of alternative weapons and gadgets you can unlock for your class. That's alternatives, not straight upgrades. Many combine certain situational benefits at the expense of a well rounded, overall build. The Sniper being given a rifle that shoots piss is not at an obvious advantage, especially when against one that shoots bullets. And, in League of Legends, it's hard to know if the angry polar bear is inherently better than a girl with the shark cannon, but both have their uses when played effectively, and the rotating roster gives you options regardless.

Not that pure upgrades are inherently wrong. In games like World of Tanks, where a natural tier system denotes each country's best metallic beasts, it comes down to matchmaking to keep things fair. Put the paid-up kings against the outgunned newbs and you start edging towards a pay-to-win scenario. Keep everyone grouped around their unlock level, and the only advantage for those that pay is a quicker trip to the top tiers.

Even good in-game item stores can go bad over time. The community's faith in a game's integrity can be destroyed by a single update, and in competitive games weapons sometimes have to be rebalanced. That means the items you're buying might not retain its characteristics.

In short: Item stores that sell objects that affect your in-game performance are risky. If a game sells guns/cars that can't be earned any other way then treat that as a big alarm bell. Even if those items can be earned through progress, it helps to favour games with good matchmaking services and large playerbases, which can smooth out balance issues.

Cosmetic item stores

Offering players ways to stand out is a lucrative business. In the Dota 2 Steam Workshop, item creators compete for audience upvotes and Valve’s approval, and the successful ones have made a small fortune in the process. If you spend a lot of time in a game world with friends, cosmetic items like hats in Team Fortress 2, or new player skins in League of Legends, can set you apart without tipping the game’s systems. At worst, new outfits can corrupt character silhouettes or dilute a game's aesthetic, making battlefields harder to parse at a glance, but this is a minor trade-off for a system that lets developers support themselves and keep games running.

Buying cosmetic items is also a very transparent, obvious transaction. Buy the item for the clearly labelled cost, get the item, it’s yours until the game loses popularity and expires, or the heat death of the universe occurs. There’s no trickery, the integrity of the game is maintained, and everyone gets a nice hat. Cosmetic items make money out of happy players who want to express their fandom, which makes every purchase positive.

In short: A straightforward, easily understood transaction that doesn't unbalance the game. Ideal.

Energy bar restrictions

Energy mechanics take various forms, whether action points that expire with every interaction or a continuously dwindling energy meter that stops you from playing when it expires. The crudest variations attempt to encourage the player to buy more energy at the point of expiration, oodling out a few bucks of the sheer frustration of having a game cut short. Subtler time limiting devices are designed to encourage "sessioning," in which players devote five or ten minutes of their time every day to tending to a garden/city. The intent here is to turn the game into a regular life fixture that increases the player’s contact with other the monetisation mechanisms built into the game’s economy.

Energy bar systems straightjacket players with arbitrary systems. You’re not failing to progress because of a lack of skill, but because of the expiration of an invented abstract resource. Besides all that, the amount of time you choose to engage with a game should be your choice alone, and a pop-up message that says you’re done unless you buy X or wait 12 hours just feels insulting. Sure, game demos will stop you when you’re having fun and ask you to buy the full game, but players know the rules when they start the download. Energy mechanics, can be hard to spot until you've spent a certain amount of time playing. Very unpleasant.

In short: No no no no no no no no no.

Expiration

Expiration systems cause components of the game that you use regularly to wear out and break unless a certain amount of money is spent on repairs. In Fifa’s Ultimate Team mode, players are benched if their contract expires, and you need to apply new contract cards to get them back on the pitch. These are dropped randomly in card packs that can be bought with in-game money or real money. If you pay for contract cards to support a player you bought through a card pack or on the transfer market then you’re essentially paying ongoing rental costs for a virtual product you’ve already bought. Sometimes expiration is designed to drain your reserves of in-game currency. A game might ask you to spend in-game bucks on restoring expired items so that you run short, and might feel the need to top up with a real money purchase. In the worst cases, there are shooters that charge players for ammo to fill their guns, and even offer premium varieties of ammo to give them a battlefield edge.

Being charged money to maintain the status quo earned through play is terrible, and can undermine any sense of achievement you may have enjoyed earning your gear. It creates a persistent, unpleasant pressure to pay and is an unsatisfactory purchase if you do cave. You know that you’ll have to pay again to recharge that item/player/gun soon enough. Expiration creates that poisonous sense of being slowly nickel-and-dimed.

In short: A great way to annoy players fast. Watching items expire isn't fun, paying to stop them expiring isn't fun. Putting money into a game should feel rewarding; paying to stave off the entropic decay of your virtual possessions isn't.

Item rental

You could frame the renting of in-game items as a more transparent take on the expiration mechanic. In most cases you’ll understand exactly how long you’re getting an item, which can be tricky to ascertain in energy systems when you’re buying an abstract resource that’ll deplete as you play. The difficulty with rental items is that, in order for them to be desirable enough to purchase for a limited period, they need to be powerful. Need For Speed World let players rent blindingly fast supercars to take into races with ordinary cars, ruining the experience of the majority for the benefit of the paying few.

Even if a rented item isn’t overpowered, the perception among players that it must be is almost as damaging. The same effect applies to any in-game item purchases. If there’s a price tag attached, it’s natural to assume that it’s more powerful in some way, and if a competitive game doesn’t feel balanced it quickly becomes more frustrating than fun. Also, the notion of paying for a virtual item is enough of a barrier for many, the idea of paying for one that’ll disappear in a few days is even more absurd.

In short: If you're only intending to play for a short burst, a temporary item might be a cheaper option, but the cost of renting cars in games like Need For Speed World is surprisingly high. Rented items normally just aren't a good deal.

One-off account upgrades

The one-off upgrade offers a limited feature-set to new players that expands when you pay a one-off sum. In Team Fortress 2, buying an item, any item, at any cost, will upgrade a free account to a “premium” one. Free players have a backpack limit of 50 slots, doesn’t have access to rare and cosmetic items, and have access to limited selection of crafting blueprints. Buying anything from the Mann-Co store expands the backpack to 300 items and removes trading and crafting limits. Star Wars: The Old Republic’s free-to-play transition added more severe limits, constraining free players to handful of space missions and dungeons per week, forbidding new players from sprinting until level 10. Those limits could be lifted with any purchase of more than $5 on the in-game store.

The cost of transitioning to a less limited set-up is often minor, the intention being to familiarise players with the game’s shop and, in some cases, get players to enter card details. Team Fortress 2 is entirely playable with its free-to-play limits in place, but The Old Republic’s draconian restrictions leverage player frustration to incite a purchase. Not good. If you're looking to familiarise players with a store, then Guild Wars 2's tactic of gifting XP boosts and items provides a much better experience.

There is something to be said for one-off payments that unlock everything. Players put off by the complications juggling ongoing micropayments can instead just buy the game in an ordinary way. In Card Hunter, you can play a flat $20 fee and unlock all of the missions. This lets players treat the free-to-play element as a demo, and still gives players that don't want to spend a big lump sum a way to play for less money.

In short: Contrived limits like the The Old Republic's give new players a handicapped experience, which makes it unlikely they'll stick around, especially when the competition includes MMOs like Rift and Lord of the Rings Online. These offer a huge amount of playable content without charging for basic features.

Account Buffs

Buffs give a temporary percentage increase in the amount of gold, XP, or other desirables that the player can earn through regular play. It's another example of microtransactions allowing players to pay to reduce the time spent between rewards. Unlike energy, though, buffs are a bonus applied to someone who pays, not a penalty against someone who doesn't. That's a key difference in their philosophy that, for the most part, stops them being exploitative.

For them to work, it requires a careful balancing of item prices and levelling progress. There's a strange psychology here. If a game is enjoyable, then a lengthy spell between rewards shouldn't be a problem. But if progression and upgrades are built into the DNA of a game, having to wait too long for them can feel frustrating. In games like World of Tanks, progression is swift to begin with, but slows greatly as you advance. This deliberately plays on impatience to incite a purchase, and is a classic example of game design serving a monetisation system rather than the player. If a game is perceived as a grind, then a buff becomes a requirement rather than a bonus.

It's not just currency that can be boosted. In the case of Card Hunter, your account subscription provides you with an extra piece of loot for every quest you complete. It's an upgrade that neatly sidesteps the balance problem. It doesn't feel like a significant loss compared to the 2-4 rewards you get in regular play, but a guaranteed rarity makes for a nice bonus for those who do subscribe.

In short: In free-to-play games, XP boost items can be symptomatic of an overly sluggish levelling curve, but for patient players there may never need to go near account buffs. If a game is entertaining enough, putting a lot of time into it shouldn't feel like a chore.

Mini-DLC

Blurring the line between microtransaction and full-fat DLC are these purchasable packs of extras and bonuses. Rather than a free-to-play focus, you'll generally find these attached to AAA releases. We're talking the added profile portraits of Crusader Kings II, the silenced sniper of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the Air Propulsion Gun of Just Cause 2, and the squirting blood of Shogun 2 (to name just a fraction of a percent).

As a practice, these mini-DLC packs are the most variable in quality of all the microtransaction methods. There's nothing inherently wrong with providing fans with a fun extra to flesh out a world they're enjoying, but too often they're created with little attention to balance or value. The worst, inevitably, were once pre-order bonuses leveraged as an incentive to tempt early buyers. As well as the aforementioned sniper rifle, DX:HR's Tactical Enhancement Pack added 10,000 credits at the start of the game, effectively destroying many of the game's early purchasing choices.

For non-narrative led, systems-driven games, mini-DLC seems to fare better. Crusader Kings 2's profiles and music packs focus on aesthetic improvements in a game about strategic depth, while Civ 5's extra civilisations expand user specialisation, without changing the core of the game. But that doesn't mean that other types of games can't utilise mini-DLC in a way that adds something enjoyable for the user, that doesn't make the original game feel lacking without.

In short: Mini DLC like the Total War blood pack and the inventive Just Cause items are a bit like professionally built mods. There's a perception that mini-DLC is stuff that's been held back from the final game to screw a few extra bucks out of players, but more often they're ideas on the developer's big brainstorming board that they can't justify putting resources into during the development of the main game. Mini-DLC is easily ignored, at least, but beware of pre-order DLC that gives you guns and gadgets at the very beginning of a game like Deus Ex - they could ruin the balance of those opening hours.

Games that get microtransactions right

At their worst, free-to-play monetisation systems create a negative experience that the player has to pay to resolve, but you'll miss out on a few great games if you steer clear of anything with a microtransaction in it. Here are a few quality examples that offer great value for money. In no particular order...

Dota 2 - You can buy cosmetic items like character armour and alternative announcer packs, none of which alter the balance of the game. Dota 2 can be played to a highly competitive level without any need to pay. Valve's in-game stores are clearly labelled with real-money pricing and profits are shared among item-creators, rewarding an involved and productive community.

Team Fortress 2 - Team Fortress 2 isn't terribly coherent these days, but it's still huge fun. Given the number of items that Valve have added over the years, it's a miracle that TF2 remains competitive, but the hard counters that defined its nine classes at launch remain intact, and it's still frequently the funniest game on the internet.

Card Hunter - Card Hunter's premium items feel like a sugary bonus on top of a heap of good loot you'd earn through play anyway, and you always have the welcome choice of being able to pay a flat $20 fee to unlock all of the quests and content, making it a traditional pay-to-play game. It's a friendly and satisfying CCG/turn-based strategy hybrid that's certainly worth your time.

Guild Wars 2 - You'll have to buy the game to play Guild Wars 2, but there's no subscription fee, and many of the XP boosts, dyes and other store goodies are regularly awarded as levelling gifts as you play. Your character's level is less important in Guild Wars 2 than it is in other MMOs, which makes its XP bonuses less essential, and most of the shop is full of inventive cosmetic items.

League of Legends - LoL's rotating selection of playable characters gives players a broad slice of the game, and works well on a try-before-you-buy basis. Aside from buying heroes, you can put money into new skins for your favourite heroes.

Planetside 2 - If you catch a good battle, there's nothing quite like Planetside 2. The huge sci-fi wargame gives new players a lot of war for no money. Players endured a catatonic levelling curve early in its life and its currency system was hugely confusing, but that doesn't dent the spectacle or the experience when you're actually on the battlefield.

Those are just a few. MMO fans might enjoy Rift and Lord of the Rings Online. Tribes: Ascend developers Hi-Rez have moved onto Smite. Action RPG fans should look in on Path of Exile. World of Tanks commits a number of the sins in our list, but has a huge playerbase and a tiered matchmaking system that'll support competitive matches at any level.

Do you steer clear of microtransactions on principle? If so, why? Have you had any particularly bad or unsatisfying experiences buying items in games? Have you been playing a free to play game that you'd like to recommend? Share away in the comments.

Nov 1, 2013

Microtransactions

Team Fortress 2

"Free-to-play" and "microtransactions" are dirty terms to some. That's understandable. Famous Facebook Skinner boxes like Farmville have clouded attitudes toward today's free to play games, and there's an assumption all microtransaction-driven game design is handicapped by the need to create opportunities to charge players. For some games, this is certainly true, but there are excellent free to play games out there that represent good value for money. Below we've assessed some of the most common methods used by free-to-play games to make money from players, and highlighted some of the fairest examples of free-to-play that are worth your time.

A lot of the distrust toward microtransaction-driven games comes down to the way they habitually obfuscate both what exactly you'll be paying for, and how much you'll be paying for it. This starts with the standard practice of exchanging of standard currency for fake fun-bucks equivalents. In Rift, it's "Credits", in The Old Republic, it's "Cartel Coins", in War Thunder, it's "Golden Eagles", to name just a few. The deliberately awkward exchange rates are of course designed to hide the actual value of the items you're buying, but hiding the value of every transaction at this fundamental level appears highly untrustworthy. Nobody wants to feel like they're being duped, and being as straightforward as possible with customers is the way to solve that.

There's a widespread lack of clarity around the payment systems attached to free to play games. The price and payment method of engaging with a game should be quickly apparent, and expressed in a way that lets players know exactly what they're getting for their money. It should not, like Star Wars: The Old Republic, require the careful study of three different screens to unravel the various interlocking currencies, subscription deals, expansion packs and "preferred status" upgrades available.

Crates/card packs and random chance drops
Team Fortress 2
Mass Effect 3 multiplayer
Hearthstone

If you hand someone a closed box full of promised goodies, many will happily pay you for the crowbar to crack it open. The tremendous power of small random packs of goodies has long been known the creators of physical collectible card games and companies that made football stickers a decade ago. For some, including our former reviews editor Rich McCormick, the allure of a closed box full of goodies is too powerful to resist. Whatever the worth of the randomised prizes inside, the offer of a free chest and the option to buy a key will make a small fortune out of these personalities. For those that like to gamble, these crates often offer a small chance of an ultra-rare item.

In Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, a chest will drop into your inventory every so often. Keys can be bought with real money, or traded for, and are very popular - five of the seven TF2 store bestsellers are keys right now. As with card packs, the process of discovery and anticipation that goes into opening a box is as exciting as the item inside. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether that's a valuable reward, and whether £1.50 / $2.50 is a worthwhile price for that rush. The important thing is that players know exactly what they're gambling for when opening a box, and have at least a sense of the odds involved. The Team Fortress 2 wiki exposes estimated percentage odds for each crate, but as any Vegas slot machine designer will tell you, revealing all of the maths maths can ruin the glamour of the gamble, and make no mistake, this is gambling.

Boxes are easily deleted and ignored, but receiving one isn't a good experience. At worst, it's a taunting delivery that pops up in the same space used to message gifts. Receiving a crate for the first time, and then learning that it requires a purchase to unlock, is a betrayal of the expectations that the rest of the drop system encourages. The positive side, in the case of TF2 and Dota 2, is that revenue from crate sales goes back to community item creators.

In CCGs like Hearthstone, Fifa's Ultimate Team and Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode, you can unlock random cards/players/guns from packs earned through in-game money as well as real currency. This accepts payment in the form of a chunk of your spare time, which is a good deal if the game is good. It operated more like a randomised unlock system that you can speed up with money if you wish.

Verdict:

In-game item stores
Buying items
World of Tanks
Tribes: Ascend
League of Legends

There are two main questions to keep in mind when a game is asking you to spend real money for specific items.

1. Can they only be earned by paying up?
2. Are they better than what you have already?

The answer to both, if a game is being as fair as possible, is no. Games like Team Fortress 2 have a selection of alternatives you can unlock for your class. That's alternatives, not straight upgrades. Many combine certain situational benefits at the expense of a well rounded, overall build. The Sniper being given a rifle that shoots piss is not at an obvious advantage, especially when against one that shoots bullets. And, in League of Legends, it's hard to know if the angry polar bear is inherently better than a girl with the shark cannon, but both have their uses when played effectively, and the rotating roster gives you options regardless.

Not that pure upgrades are inherently wrong. In games like World of Tanks, where a natural tier system denotes each country's best metallic beasts, it comes down to matchmaking to keep things fair. Put the paid-up kings against the outgunned newbs and you start edging towards a pay-to-win scenario. Keep everyone grouped around their unlock level, and the only advantage for those that pay is a quicker trip to the top tiers.

Verdict:

Energy bar restrictions
Spiral Knights
Teacher's Story
Farmville

Energy mechanics take various forms, whether action points that expire with every interaction or a continuously dwindling energy meter that stops you from playing when it expires. The crudest variations attempt to encourage the player to buy more energy at the point of expiration, oodling out a few bucks of the sheer frustration of having a game cut short. Subtler time limiting devices are designed to encourage "sessioning," in which players devote five or ten minutes of their time every day to tending to a garden/city. The intent here is to turn the game into a regular life fixture that increases the player’s contact with other the monetisation mechanisms built into the game’s economy.

Energy bar systems straightjacket players in ways that feel entirely arbitrary. You’re not failing to progress because of a lack of skill, but because of the expiration of a made-up, abstract resource. Besides all that, the amount of time you choose to engage with a game should be your choice alone, and a pop-up message that says you’re done unless you buy X or wait 12 hours just feels insulting. Sure, game demos will stop you when you’re having fun and ask you to buy the full game, but players know the rules when they start the download. Energy mechanics, like many microtransactions, are carefully hidden from view until you’ve spent a certain amount of time playing. Very unpleasant.

Verdict: KILL IT WITH FIRE

Cosmetic items
Dota 2
Battlefield Heroes
Guild Wars 2
League of Legends

Offering players ways to stand out is a lucrative business. In the Dota 2 Steam Workshop, item creators compete for audience upvotes and Valve’s approval, and the successful ones have made a small fortune in the process. If you spend a lot of time in a game world with friends, cosmetic items like hats in Team Fortress 2, or new player skins in League of Legends, can set you apart without tipping the game’s systems. At worst, new outfits can corrupt character silhouettes, making battlefields harder to parse at a glance, but this is a minor trade-off for a system that lets developers support themselves and keep games running.

Buying cosmetic items is also a very transparent, obvious transaction. Buy the item for the clearly labelled cost, get the item, it’s yours until the game loses popularity and expires, or the heat death of the universe occurs. There’s no trickery, the integrity of the game is maintained, and everyone gets a nice hat.

Verdict:

Expiration
things you’ve earned that need replenishing with consumables
Fifa Ultimate Card thing (player renewal contracts)
Bullet Run (Weapon degradation)

Expiration systems cause components of the game that you use regularly to wear out and break unless a certain amount of money is spent on repairs. In Fifa’s Ultimate Team mode, players are benched if their contract expires, and you need to apply new contract cards to get them back on the pitch. These are dropped randomly in card packs that can be bought with in-game money or real money. If you pay for contract cards to support a player you bought through a card pack or on the transfer market then you’re essentially paying ongoing rental costs for a virtual product you’ve already bought. Sometimes expiration targets in-game currency, asking you to spend in-game currency on restoring expired items so that you run short, and might feel the need to top up that currency with a purchase.

Being charged money to maintain the status quo earned through play is terrible, and can undermine any sense of achievement you may have enjoyed earning your gear. It’s also -creates a persistent, unpleasant pressure to pay and is an unsatisfactory purchase if you do cave in. You know that you’ll have to pay again to recharge that item/player/gun soon enough. Expiration creates that poisonous sense of being slowly nickel-and-dimed.

Item rental
Battlefield play4free, I think?
Need for Speed World (was/is awful for this)
Quake Live - wasn't the only thing you really had to pay for rented server access?

You could frame the renting of in-game items as a more transparent take on the expiration mechanic. In most cases you’ll understand exactly how long you’re getting an item, which can be tricky to ascertain in energy systems when you’re buying an abstract resource that’ll deplete as you play. The difficulty with rental items is that, in order for them to be desirable enough to purchase for a limited period, they need to be powerful. Need For Speed World let players rent blindingly fast supercars to take into races with ordinary cars, ruining the experience of the majority for the benefit of the paying few.

Even if a rented item isn’t overpowered, the perception among players that it must be is almost as damaging. The same effect applies to any in-game item purchases. If there’s a price tag attached, it’s natural to assume that it’s more powerful in some way, and if a competitive game doesn’t feel balanced it quickly becomes more frustrating than fun. Also, the notion of paying for a virtual item is enough of a barrier for many, the idea of paying for one that’ll disappear in a few days is even more absurd.

Verdict:

One-off account upgrades
Star Wars: The Old Republic - inventory slots, the ability to resurrect, basically everything
TF2 - free players have account/drop restrictions until they spend money - for any item - in game.

The one-off upgrade offers a limited feature-set to new players that expands when you pay a one-off sum. In Team Fortress 2, buying an item, any item, at any cost, will upgrade a free account to a “premium” one. Free players have a backpack limit of 50 slots, doesn’t have access to rare and cosmetic items, and have access to limited selection of crafting blueprints. Buying anything from the Mann-Co store expands the backpack to 300 items and removes trading and crafting limits. Star Wars: The Old Republic’s free to play transition added more severe limits, constraining free players to handful of space missions and dungeons per week, forbidding new players from sprinting until level 10. Those limits could be lifted with any purchase of more than $5 on the in-game store.

The cost of transitioning to a less limited set-up is often minor, the intention being to familiarise players with the game’s shop and, in some cases, get players to enter card details. Team Fortress 2 is entirely playable with its free-to-play limits in place, but The Old Republic’s draconian restrictions leverage player frustration to incite a purchase. Not good. The expanding number of payment options that surround free-to-play games make them a daunting prospect for some. Just try deciphering this table for The Old Republic - http://www.swtor.com/free/features - The most important questionXXX

Account Buffs
Tribes: Ascend
Guild Wars 2
World of Tanks

Buffs give a temporary percentage increase in the amount of gold, XP, or other desirables that the player can earn through regular play. It's another example of microtransactions allowing players to pay to reduce the time spent between rewards. Unlike energy, though, buffs are a bonus applied to someone who pays, not a penalty against someone who doesn't. That's a key difference in their philosophy that, for the most part, stops them being exploitative.

For them to work, it requires a careful balancing of item prices and levelling progress. There's a strange psychology here. If a game is enjoyable, then a lengthy spell between rewards shouldn't be a problem. But if progression and upgrades are built into the DNA of a game, having to wait too long for them can feel frustrating. It's a question of fairness. A community has an innate sense of whether they're being artificially held back. If a game is perceived as a grind, then it's sacrificing a player's potential enjoyment by making the buff a requirement, rather than a bonus.

It's not just currency that can be boosted. In the case of Card Hunter, your account subscription provides you with an extra piece of loot for every quest you complete. It's an upgrade that neatly sidesteps the balance problem. It doesn't feel like a significant loss compared to the 2-4 rewards you get in regular play, but a guaranteed rarity makes for a nice bonus for those who do subscribe.

Verdict:

Mini-DLC
Shogun 2 blood pack
Saints Row 4 GATV pack
Paradox portraits etc.
There are loads of these

Blurring the line between microtransaction and full-fat DLC are these purchasable packs of extras and bonuses. Rather than a free-to-play focus, you'll generally find these attached to AAA releases. We're talking the added profile portraits of Crusader Kings II, the silenced sniper of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the Air Propulsion Gun of Just Cause 2, and the squirting blood of Shogun 2 (to name just a fraction of a percent).

As a practice, these mini-DLC packs are the most variable in quality of all the microtransaction methods. There's nothing inherently wrong with providing fans with a fun extra to flesh out a world they're enjoying, but too often they're created with little attention to balance or value. The worst, inevitably, were once pre-order bonuses leveraged as an incentive to tempt early buyers. As well as the aforementioned sniper rifle, DX:HR's Tactical Enhancement Pack added 10,000 credits at the start of the game - effectively destroying many of the game's early purchasing choices.

For non-narrative led, systems-driven games, mini-DLC seems to fare better. Crusader Kings 2's profiles and music packs focus on aesthetic improvements in a game about strategic depth, while Civ 5's extra civilisations expand user specialisation, without changing the core of the game. But that doesn't mean that other types of games can't utilise mini-DLC in a way that adds something enjoyable for the user, that doesn't make the original game feel lacking without.

Verdict:

Free-to-play games that get it right

Dota 2 - You can buy cosmetic items like character armour and alternative announcer packs, none of which alter the balance of the game. Dota 2 can be played to a highly competitive level without any need to pay. The items Dota players buy are expressions of fandom

Team Fortress 2

Card Hunter - Card Hunter's premium items feel like a sugary bonus on top of a heap of good loot you'd earn through play anyway, and you always have the welcome choice of being able to pay a flat $20 fee to unlock all of the quests and content, making it a traditional pay-to-play game.

Guild Wars 2 - You'll have to buy the game to play Guild Wars 2, but there's no subscription fee, and many of the XP boosts, dyes and other store goodies are given as levelling gifts as you play.

Tribes Ascend in its early days

League of Legends - LoL's rotating selection of playable characters gives free players a wide slice of the game

Rift: we linked to Star Wars: The Old Republic's payment option screens above. Here's Rift's.

Oct 21, 2013

Dota 2 Update - October 21st, 2013

Dota 2 - Valve

6.79 Gameplay Update

GENERAL

* Buyback prevents gaining unreliable gold (creeps, neutrals, etc) until your normal respawn time finishes
* When buying back, 25% of the remaining respawn time will be added to your next death

* Creeps now meet a bit closer to the tower in your offlane
* Ranged Heroes now get the same denied experience as melee heroes (instead of less)
* XP AoE increased from 1200 to 1300

* Non-Ancient Neutrals now split XP with all heroes in the AoE instead of just the team that killed them
* Swapped the medium pullable Neutral Camp with the small camp
* A neutral creeps camp will no longer spawn the same set of neutral creeps twice in a row
* Small reduction to the pull timing duration of the mid Radiant and mid-top Dire camp
* Satyr Mindstealer XP bounty reduced from 88 to 62
* Satyr Tormentor XP bounty reduced from 155 to 119
* Mud Golems XP bounty reduced from 119 to 88
* Mud Golems armor reduced from 4 to 2
* Dark Troll Summoner bounty XP reduced from 155 to 119
* Hellbear Smasher HP reduced from 1100 to 950
* Hellbear armor reduced from 5 to 3
* Satyr Trickster's Purge cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.2
* Fixed Neutral Envenomed Weapons debuff dispelling regen items

* Day/Night length decreased from 6 to 4 minutes
* The following heroes now have the standard 800 night vision: Drow Ranger, Mirana, Puck, Leshrac, Enchantress, Ancient Apparition, Meepo and Treant Protector

* Roshan will respawn at a random time between 8 and 11 minutes after death
* When Aegis expires unused, it heals the hero fully over 5 seconds (regen dispels on damage from players or buildings)

* Starting gold increased from 603 to 625
* Random Gold bonus reduced by 50
* Gold for ending a spree changed from 75->600 (3x->10x) to 125->1000
* Your gold income is now 1 per 0.6 seconds, up from 1 per 0.8 seconds

* Tower last hit bonus gold increased from 100-200 to 150-250
* Melee Barracks HP regen increased from 2.5 to 5
* Ranged Barracks HP regen decreased from 2.5 to 0
* Ranged Barracks HP reduced from 1500 to 1200 and armor increased from 5 to 10 (same EHP vs physical damage)

* Evasion now stacks diminishingly
* Can no longer orb-attack while attack restricted (such as Ethereal or Frostbite)
* The following abilities no longer automatically ignore backswing time by default: Rupture, Malefice, Venomous Gale, Stifling Dagger, Flamebreak, Wave of Terror, Shadow Word and Power Cogs

HEROES

Abaddon
- Base armor reduced by 1
- Myst Coil self damage increased from 50/75/100/125 to 75/100/125/150
- Aphotic Shield is now dispellable
- Borrowed Time no longer activates while Doomed

Alchemist
- Chemical Rage no longer provides 250/500/750 bonus HP
- Chemical Rage HP regen increased from 15/30/60 to 50/75/100

Ancient Apparition
- Ice Vortex cooldown reduced from 5 to 4
- Ice Blast cooldown reduced from 45 to 40
- The Chilling Touch buff is now always applied to Ancient Apparition even if he is not within the target area
- Chilling Touch cooldown reduced from 50/46/42/38 to 50/42/34/26

Axe
- Berserker's Call AoE increased from 275 to 300
- Battle Hunger duration reduced from 10/13/16/19 to 10/12/14/16
- Battle Hunger damage reduced from 15/21/27/33 to 15/20/25/30
- Battle Hunger movement speed slow/bonus increased from 8% to 10%
- Battle Hunger is now dispellable
- Counter Helix cooldown reduced from 0.55/0.5/0.45/0.4 to 0.45/0.4/0.35/0.3
- Counter Helix now hits siege units
- Culling Blade no longer goes on cooldown if it successfully kills a hero
- Culling Blade threshold reduced from 300/450/625 to 250/350/450 (Aghanim upgraded version is still 300/450/625)
- Culling Blade speed bonus increased from 25% to 40% and AoE from 600 to 900
- Culling Blade 40% speed bonus now applies to attack speed as well
- Culling Blade Aghanim allied buff duration increased from 6 to 10
- Culling Blade manacost reduced from 150/200/250 to 60/120/180

Batrider
- Base damage reduced from 48-52 to 38-42
- Vision reduced from 1400 to 1200
- Flaming Lasso cast range reduced from 175 to 100

Beastmaster
- Inner Beast AoE reduced from 1000 to 900 (standard aura AoE)
- Inner Beast attack speed rescaled from 18/26/32/40 to 15/25/35/45
- Call of the Wild now has two abilities for summoning each unit independently
- Call of the Wild manacost reduced from 25 to 15 and cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

Bloodseeker
- Base movement speed reduced from 305 to 300
- Thirst is now global instead of 6000 range
- Thirst bonus now stacks for each unit that is low HP
- Thirst HP threshold increased from 20/30/40/50% to 50%
- Thirst movement speed bonus reduced from 15/25/35/45% to 7/14/21/28%
- When Thirst is active, movement speed cap is removed on your hero
- Thirst no longer provides armor bonus
- Thirst provides bonus 7/14/21/28 damage
- Thirst no longer grants full hero vision around low HP targets, it only shows their model
- Thirst no longer lasts for an extra 3 seconds when the target is dead

Brewmaster
- Base agility increased from 16 to 22
- Drunken Haze affects a 200 AoE around the target
- Thunder Clap is now dispellable
- Primal Split selection order is now Earth/Storm/Fire
- Reworked Primal Split Aghanim upgrade.

No longer upgrades any stats, cd, duration, etc on Aghanim.
Instead, it now grants Thunderclap to Earth, Drunken Haze to Storm, and Drunken Brawler to Fire.
The skills granted are at the same level as Brewmaster's skills.
Cooldowns are independent of the original Brewmaster.

Bristleback
- Attack point improved from 0.4 to 0.3
- Viscous Nasal Goo is now dispellable
- Viscous Nasal Goo cast point improved from 0.4 to 0.3
- Warpath max stacks increased from 5 to 5/6/7
- Warpath stack duration increased from 10 to 14

Broodmother
- Spin Web AoE increased from 650 to 900
- Spin Web cast range increased from 600 to 1000
- Spin Web cast point nerfed from 0.2 to 0.4
- Spin Web no longer destroys trees
- Broodmother now has completely unobstructed movement when under the web (can walk over cliffs, trees, etc)
- Removed buffer time when leaving Spin Web (you now immediately lose your regen/movement/pathing/invis bonuses)

Centaur Warrunner
- Stampede slow duration increased from 1.25 seconds to 1.5

Chaos Knight
- Chaos Bolt damage and stun values are now inversely related

Chen
- Test of Faith teleport is now dispellable
- Hand of God cooldown increased from 140/130/120 to 160/140/120

Clinkz
- Searing Arrows damage increased from 20/30/40/50 to 30/40/50/60
- Searing Arrows manacost increased from 8 to 10
- Searing Arrows is no longer blocked by magic immunity

Clockwerk
- Units knocked back by Power Cogs destroy trees in 100 AoE around where they land

Crystal Maiden
- Freezing Field AS/MS AoE slow increased from -20/-30 to -30/-30
- Freezing Field Scepter AS/MS AoE slow increased from -50/-30 to -50/-50

Dark Seer
- Vacuum cooldown increased from 24 to 28

Dazzle
- Weave duration rescaled from 12/18/24 to 20
- Weave armor per second rescaled from 1 to 0.75/1/1.25 (scepter is 1/1.25/1.5)
- Poison Touch damage increased from 8/16/24/32 to 14/20/26/32 (7 seconds worth)
- Poison Touch is now dodgeable
- Poison Touch slow timings reworked

Previous Poison Touch:
=========================
Lvl 1
Slow target by 33% for 1 second

Lvl 2
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second

Lvl 3
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second

Lvl 4
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second

Ministuns for 0.01 seconds at the start.

New Poison Touch:
==================
Lvl 1
Slow target by 33% for 3 seconds

Lvl 2
Slow target by 33% for 2 seconds, then slow target by 66% for 1 second

Lvl 3
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then slow target by 100% for 1 second

Lvl 4
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second

Ministuns for 0.01 seconds at the start.

Death Prophet
- Exorcism Spirit damage increased from 43-48 to 53-58
- Fixed max Spirits being capped at 23 instead of 27

Disruptor
- Kinetic Field AoE increased from 300 to 325
- Glimpse cooldown reduced from 60/50/40/30 to 65/50/35/20
- Static Storm AoE increased from 375 to 450
- Static Storm max damage increased from 170/220/270 to 200/250/300
- Added Aghanim's upgrade: Static Storm silences items, and lasts an extra 2 seconds

Doom
- Doom cooldown reduced from 110 to 100
- Doom now removes positive buffs on the target before applying the debuff
- Doom Aghanim AoE requirement increased from 550 to 900

This is the AoE that is considered when freezing the duration of Aghanim upgraded Doom.

Drow Ranger
- Precision Aura damage ratio increased from 16/20/24/28% to 18/24/30/36%
- Precision Aura no longer affects creeps
- Precision Aura can now be manually casted to affect creeps globally for 30 seconds (120 cd)
- Marksmanship attribute negation AoE increased from 375 to 400

Earthshaker
- Enchant Totem damage increased from 75/150/225/300% to 100/200/300/400%
- Fissure range increased by 100

Elder Titan
- Ancestral Spirit damage reduced from 120/160/200/240 to 80/120/160/200

Enigma
- Midnight Pulse dps increased from 3/4/5/6% to 4/5/6/7%
- Added Aghanim's upgrade: Adds Midnight Pulse damage to your Black Hole. This damage stacks with Midnight Pulse.

Enchantress
- Untouchable attack speed slow increased from 20/50/80/110 to 30/60/90/120

Faceless Void
- Timewalk slow rescaled from 25/30/35/40% to 20/30/40/50%
- Chronosphere AoE increased from 400 to 450

Huskar
- Agility reduced from 20 + 2.4 to 15 + 1.4
- Berserker's Blood is now disabled by Doom

Invoker
- EMP restores Invoker for 50% of the mana it drains from heroes (excluding illusions)
- Invoke Max Spells rescaled from 1/2/2/2 to 2

Io
- Tether now does a -100% MS/AS slow instead of a stun

Jakiro
- Liquid Fire is now a castable Attack Orb (same cooldown, no mana cost)

Juggernaut
- Healing Ward movement speed increased from 300 to 450
- Omnislash Scepter cooldown reduced from 110/100/90 to 70
- Omnislash no longer stops if the target is Ethereal (it still doesn't do damage)
- Fixed not being able to use items during Omnislash

Keeper of the Light
- Blinding Light now destroys trees in a 150 AoE around where the target is pushed

Kunkka
- X Marks The Spot cooldown reduced from 16 to 13
- Ghost Ship damage increased from 350/450/550 to 400/500/600

Leshrac
- Diabolic Edict cast point improved from 0.7 to 0.5
- Pulse Nova scepter damage increased from 88/133/177 to 100/150/200

Lich
- Frost Armor has half effect against ranged heroes
- Frost Armor slow now stacks with the slow from Frost Nova
- Sacrifice cooldown increased from 35/30/25/20 to 44/36/28/20
- Sacrifice mana gain increased from 15/30/45/60% to 25/40/55/70%
- Sacrifice no longer denies enemy XP
- Sacrifice now converts your own creep for XP (shared in AoE as normal creep xp bounty)

Lifestealer
- Rage cooldown increased from 17 to 19
- Open Wounds and Infest cast points increased from 0.01 to 0.2

Lina
- Attack range increased from 635 to 650

Lion
- Mana Drain duration increased from 4 to 5
- Hex cooldown increased from 15 to 30/25/20/15
- Hex duration increased from 1.75/2.5/3.25/4 to 2.5/3/3.5/4

Lone Druid
- Base movement speed increased from 315 to 325 (still 280 in True Form)
- Spirit Bear XP bounty increased from 196 to 300

Luna
- Moon Glaive can now bounce back on the same units if it already hit all other units nearby
- Moon Glaive bounce damage reduced from -30% to -35%
- Eclipse Scepter beam count limit per target removed

Lycanthrope
- Armor increased by 1 (Shapeshift total armor is still the same as before)
- Base damage increased by 5
- Howl bonus damage for non-hero units increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20
- Wolves magic resistance increased from 50% to 80%

Magnus
- Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.8

Medusa
- Mystic Snake now does Pure damage to units in Stone Form

Meepo
- Base armor reduced by 1
- Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.65
- Earthbind cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3
- Divided We Stand leveling rebalanced from 6/11/16 to 4/11/18
- Removed 30% stat sharing on non-aghanim Divided We Stand

Mirana
- Leap AoE AS/MS speed bonus is granted at the cast location rather than the destination
- Leap AoE AS bonus increased from 4/8/12/16 to 8/16/24/32

Morphling
- Morph level 4 shift rate improved from 0.25 to 0.2

Naga Siren
- Rip Tide AoE reduced from 450 to 350
- Ensnare manacost increased from 75/85/95/105 to 90/100/110/120

Nature's Prophet
- Treants' XP Bounty increased from 20 to 30
- Treants' Gold Bounty increased from 12-16 to 14-20

Necrolyte
- Base armor increased by 1

Night Stalker
- Darkness causes enemy vision to be reduced by 25% (affects heroes, creeps and wards)

Nyx Assassin
- Spiked Carapace no longer stuns your hero when your summoned units proc it (the summoned units get stunned instead)
- Impale no longer has unit targeting, it is now only a point targeted spell

Ogre Magi
- Ignite duration increased from 4/5/6/7 to 5/6/7/8
- Ignite is now dodgeable
- Ignite can now multicast to cast at a random enemy unit in 1400 AoE (prioritizes ones that do not already have the debuff)
- Unrefined Fireblast cooldown reduced from 10 to 6

Omniknight
- Degen Aura AoE increased from 315 to 350
- Degen Aura stickiness increased from 0.5 seconds to 1.0

Outworld Devourer
- Base damage reduced by 3
- Items no longer trigger Essence Aura

Phantom Assassin
- Stifling Dagger shares the same crit chance/factor as Coup de Grace
- Stifling Dagger is now dodgeable
- Stifling Dagger damage rescaled from 50/100/150/200 to 60/100/140/180

Phantom Lancer
- Spirit Lance is now dodgeable

Pudge
- Can now use Blink Dagger
- If you hook a unit onto an unpathable ledge, the unit gains free pathing for 5 seconds
- Flesh Heap magic resistance reduced from 4/8/12/16% to 6/8/10/12%
- Dismember Scepter strength multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.0

Pugna
- Decrepify damage amp on allies reduced from 40% to 25%
- Decrepify damage amp on enemies increased from 40% to 50%
- Nether Ward now requires 3 hits to kill instead of 75/150/225/300 HP (heroes hurt it for 1, others for 0.25)
- Life Drain restores mana if it tries to heal you while you are full hp when targeting heroes

Queen of Pain
- Shadow Strike manacost rescaled from 80/100/120/140 to 110

Riki
- Smoke Screen cast range increased from 425 to 550
- Riki is no longer revealed out of Permanent Invisibility when he casts spells or uses items

When he starts his attack from Blink Strike, he will be revealed

Rubick
- Telekinesis cooldown increased from 18 to 22
- Rubick can no longer steal the Aghanim upgrade of the enemy if they have Aghanim and he doesn't
- Added Aghanim's upgrade: reduces cooldown from 20/18/16 to 5, increases cast range from 1000 to 1400 and makes all stolen spells be considered to have their Aghanim's upgrade

Sand King
- Sand Storm dps increased from 20/40/60/80 to 25/50/75/100
- Epicenter attack speed slow is now same as movement speed slow (10%->30%)

Shadow Demon
- Shadow Poison AoE increased from 180 to 190

Shadow Shaman
- Mass Serpent Ward count increased from 8 to 10
- Changed Mass Serpent Ward placement structure

Silencer
- Intelligence Steal is an innate part of the hero rather than an element of Glaives of Wisdom

Skeleton King
- Base Intelligence increased by 5
- Removed Mortal Strike active
- Vampiric Aura now provides full effectiveness on ranged units
- Reincarnation slow increased from 30% to 50%
- Reincarnation slow AoE increased from 700 to 900

Skywrath Mage
- Int growth increased from 3.2 to 3.6
- Added Aghanim's upgrade: reduces Mystic Flare's cooldown from 60/40/20 to 20/10/0

Slardar
- Amplify Damage armor reduction increased from 8/14/20 to 10/15/20
- Sprint speed increased from 20/27/33/40% to 20/28/36/44%
- Sprint manacost removed (was 50)

Slark
- Shadow Dance duration reduced from 5.5 to 4
- Shadow Dance cooldown increased from 25 to 65
- Shadow Dance can no longer be revealed by Truesight

Sniper
- Take Aim attack range bonus increased from 75/150/225/300 to 80/160/240/320

Spectre
- You can now continuously use Reality on your illusions
- Reality cast point improved from 0.3 to 0

Spirit Breaker
- Base attack time nerfed from 1.7 to 1.9
- Greater Bash no longer works while doomed
- Nether Strike now uses 1.2 Cast Time instead of a 1 sec magic immune delay (can be interrupted as a result)

Sven
- Stormbolt cooldown reduced from 15 to 13
- Stormbolt is now dodgeable

Tidehunter
- Kraken Shell damage block increased from 7/14/21/28 to 9/18/27/36

Timbersaw
- Chakram manacost increased from 75/125/175 to 100/150/200

Tiny
- Craggy Exterior chance increased from 6/12/18/24% to 10/15/20/25%
- Craggy Exterior stun duration increased from 1.2 to 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5

Treant Protector
- Leech Seed damage per pulse reduced from 30/45/60/75 to 24/36/48/60
- Leech Seed number of pulses increased from 4 to 6 (duration from 3 to 4.5)
- Living Armor cooldown rebalanced from 15 to 32/26/20/14
- Living Armor manacost increased from 25 to 50
- Nature's Guise cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

Troll Warlord
- Berserker's Rage movespeed bonus rebalanced from 20/20/20/30 to 10/20/30/40
- Whirling Axes (Melee) damage reduced from 125/175/225/275 to 75/125/175/225

Tusk
- Frozen Sigil now requires a constant number of hits (3/3/4/4) instead of 200/220/240/260 HP (heroes hurt it for 1, others for 0.25)

Undying
- Decay steal duration increased from 25/30/35/40 to 40

Vengeful Spirit
- Can now use Blink Dagger
- If you Netherswap a unit onto an unpathable ledge, the unit gains free pathing for 5 seconds

Venomancer
- Poison Nova no longer ignores invis/fogged units
- Venomous Gale no longer ignores invis units
- Venomous Gale damage over time rebalanced from 15/30/45/60 to 0/30/60/90
- Poison Sting duration increased from 6/8/10/12 to 6/9/12/15
- Poison Sting dps no longer dispels healing or disables dagger
- Plague Wards now have Poison Sting for 50% of the damage at the current skilled level (When both Venomancer and a Plague Ward affect a target, only the highest dps is applied)
- Plague Wards XP bounty increased from 12/12/25/25 to 20/25/30/35

Viper
- Poison Attack cooldown reduced from 4/3/0/0 to 0
- Corrosive Skin no longer works while doomed

Visage
- Base armor reduced by 1
- Base magic resistance reduced from 25% to 10%

Warlock
- Fatal Bonds now links the closest units to the initial target, instead of randomly choosing targets in its AoE
- Upheaval cast range increased from 700 to 1200
- Upheaval duration increased from 10 to 12
- Removed Chaotic Offering 100 impact damage
- Chaotic Offering Golem armor increased from 5/7/10 to 6/9/12
- Chaotic Offering manacost increased from 200/250/300 to 200/300/400

Weaver
- Base attack time nerfed from 1.7 to 1.8

Windrunner
- Focus Fire remains sticky on the target you cast it on

This means that you can change targets and when you return to the original target, your attack speed bonus will resume.

Witch Doctor
- Death Ward cast range increased from 400 to 600
- Voodoo Restoration AoE increased from 350 to 500
- Voodoo Restoration manacost over time reduced from 8/14/20/26 to 8/12/16/20 (50% of the heal amount)
- Paralyzing Casks now lasts 5 seconds on illusions (same as creep duration)

ITEMS

Animal Courier
- Movement speed increased from 300 to 350
- HP increased from 45 to 75

Arcane Boots
- Movement speed bonus reduced from 60 to 55

Armlet of Mordiggian
- Unholy Strength STR gain is provided over 0.7 seconds
- Unholy Strength has no toggle on or off cooldown

Black King Bar
- Recipe cost increased from 1300 to 1375

Blink Dagger
- Damage disable no longer ignores self damage

This means stuff like Rot will trigger it, but HP loss like Soul Ring will not

Bloodstone
- Now gives the +10 damage from its components

Boots of Travel
- Now prioritizes nearby structures first within 325 AoE from targeting position (when ground targeted)

Bottle
- Gold cost increased from 600 to 650

Clarity Potion
- Is no longer shareable (but can still be used on a target ally)

Dust of Appearance
- Slow increased from 10 to 15%

Eul's Scepter of Divinity
- Cyclone cooldown reduced from 30 to 25
- Movement speed bonus increased from 35 to 40

Eye of Skadi
- Eye of Skadi MS/AS slow increased from 30/20 to 35/35

Flying Courier
- Cannot be purchased until 3 minutes after creeps spawn

Gem of True Sight
- Gold cost increased from 850 to 900

Hand of Midas
- Transmute no longer works against Necronomicon units

Healing Salve
- Gold cost increased from 100 to 115
- Is no longer shareable (but can still be used on a target ally)

Helm of the Dominator
- Dominate can no longer control Necronomicon units

Hyperstone
- Gold cost reduced from 2100 to 2000

Linken's Sphere
- Linken's Sphere can now be cast on an allied hero to transfer the buff

When on cooldown it does not work on you. Goes into cooldown when cast and once the buff is used up.
If the cooldown ends and the buff has not been used up, the buff ends and does not trigger another cooldown.
700 cast range

Maelstrom
- Chain Lightning AoE increased from 500 to 900

Mjollnir
- Static Charge radius around attacker increased from 300 to 450
- Static Charge hit count increased from 3 to 5
- Chain Lightning AoE increased from 500 to 900

Necronomicon
- Summoned units duration increased from 35 to 40

Observer Ward
- Duration increased from 6 to 7 minutes
- Killing Observer Wards now grants a 50 gold bounty

Phase Boots
- Movement speed bonus reduced from 55 to 50

Pipe of Insight
- Barrier AoE increased from 500 to 900

Power Treads
- Movement speed bonus reduced from 55 to 50

Radiance
- Burn Damage AoE increased from 650 to 700

Refresher Orb
- Now gives the +10 attack speed from its components

Rod of Atos
- Cripple cooldown reduced from 16 to 12

Sange and Yasha
- Movement speed bonus increased from 12 to 16%

Sentry Ward
- Duration increased from 3 to 4 minutes
- No longer gives permanent vision around it
- Gives ground vision in a 150 area around it for 12 seconds when placed

Shadow Amulet
- Fade delay reduced from 2.4 to 1.8

Shadow Blade
- Shadow Walk cooldown increased from 18 to 28

Smoke Of Deceit
- Smoked units are now always hidden until the buff is removed (rather than being hidden only from minimap and partially from world)

Tango
- Charges increased from 3 to 4
- Gold cost increased from 90 to 125
- Is no longer shareable
- Tango can be targeted on an allied hero to create a 1 charge non-stacking tango item in their inventory. If the inventory is full, the item will be placed on the ground. This item has a 60s cooldown.

Tranquil Boots
- Reworked Tranquil Boots

Previous Tranquil Boots
=========================
Active Boots:
+ 75 Movement speed
+ 3 Armor
+ 3 HP Regeneration
Ability: Heal - Restores 250 HP over 20 seconds while out of combat. 60s cooldown. 25 mana cost.

Broken Boots:
+ 25 Movement speed
Restores when the last 10 seconds don't have 3 instances of damage.

Can be disassembled

New Tranquil Boots
=========================
Active Boots:
+ 85 Movement speed
+ 4 Armor
+ 10 HP Regeneration

Broken Boots:
+ 60 Movement speed
+ 4 Armor
Restores when you haven't attacked or been attacked in the last 13 seconds.

Cannot be disassembled

Urn of Shadows
- Soul Release cooldown reduced from 10 to 7

Vanguard
- Damage Block chance increased from 70 to 80%

Veil of Discord
- Now uses Null Talisman instead of Robe of the Magi (from +12 int to +6 int, +3 str, +3 agi, +3 dmg)
- Magic weakness duration increased from 20 to 25 seconds

* Broodmother and Slark are temporarily disabled from CM, they will be added back shortly.