Time control
The fixed turn timer has been replaced with chess-style time control. The time control in all Ranked games is now set to G/5+30 – i.e. each player in a Ranked game has 5 minutes of main time per game, with a 30-second increment each turn. Under this system, your time limit will increase if you make your turn in less than 30 seconds, and decrease otherwise. The player who runs out of time loses the game immediately.
More time control options are now available in Custom game mode.
| Ban Phase | Main time | Overtime | |
| No time control | - | - | - |
| Blitz | 20 sec | 3 min | 20 sec |
| Rapid | 30 sec | 5 min | 30 sec |
| Classic | 1 min | 10 min | 1 min |
Castle Durability
The Castles’ Durability is now shown as a number (was a health bar).
The second player handicap has been increased to 2 Durability (was 1) to properly compensate for the first-player tower control advantage in an average Ranked game.
More durability options are now available in Custom Mode. Ranked Mode uses medium durability.
| South Castle | North Castle | |
| Small | 9 | 11 |
| Medium | 14 | 16 |
| Large | 19 | 21 |
Banishing heroes deals x2 damage to Castles
If this option is active in Custom Mode, banishing a hero will deal twice as much damage to the Castle.
Post-Game Screen
New features on the post-game screen: chat with your opponent, and add them to your friends list with one click of a button!
AI
Improved Ballistarius Algorithms.
Hero changes
- Carnifex. Scroll of Judgment. Ability changed to Convict the Guilty. To the executioner, there are no innocent souls. Target: any enemy hero anywhere on the field. Replaces a positive effect on a buffed enemy hero with an opposite negative effect of the same type. Cooldown: 3 turns.
- Malleus. Ditch area reduced. Target: Malleus or any nearby ally standing in a Tower hex.
- Aqus. Might of Water. Add move. Moving to the adjacent Water hex and casts Attack Increase on himself. Cooldown increased from 2 to 3.
- Ballistarius. Winch. Cooldown increased from 2 to 4.
- Cerberus. Vehemence. Cooldown increased from 2(3-4) to 3(4-5).
- Iratus. Bloodstone. Area and number of targets increased, now affects all heroes by analogy with Ancestral Protection of Armus. Cooldown increased from 2 to 4.
- Iratus. Frenzy. Canceled the wound as a condition of use. Cooldown: 3 base, -1 for each missing point of Health on Iratus.
- Toxicum. Vial of Venom area changed. Target: enemy hero on any hex on a straight line from this hero’s location. Cooldown increased from 2 to 3.
- Redux. Dash. Add Resistance.
- Goetium. Summoning Ritual. Ability use condition added. Target: any ally wounded hero anywhere on the field. Cooldown reduced from 5 to 4.
- Illesebra. Temptation. Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2.
- Lignum. HP increased from 2 to 3.
- Manus. HP increased from 3 to 4.
- Manus. Mechanical Arm. Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2.
- Messum. Frailty. Cooldown increased from 2(3) to 2(4).
- Messum. Faces of Death. Cooldown increased from 2(3) to 2(4).