Heroes Olden Era Patches #8 and #9: Skills Rework, Faction Balance and Exploit Fixes

Unfrozen has released two major updates for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era at once — Patch #8 (v0.80.18) and the follow-up hotfix Patch #9 (v0.80.19). Together they touch virtually every aspect of the game: skills, spells, creatures, artifacts, map templates, and the matchmaking system. Here is what you need to know — without walls of numbers, focusing on what actually changes the gameplay experience.

The "Summon Avatar" skill has been fully reworked

The Avatar is now a purely magical creature: it no longer receives a Defense bonus, and its damage scales only from the hero's Spell Power. Instead of a regular health pool, the Avatar now survives a fixed number of hits (2/3/4 depending on skill level) — and it cannot be healed. Base damage went up from 6 to 12, but the Avatar can no longer be copied with "Mirror Copy". Patch #9 slightly reduced its damage — the developers are continuing to monitor the skill's balance.

"Murmuring" — expert sub-skills buffed

All three expert-level sub-skills received significant buffs: "Just One More Time" now reduces the cooldown of all spells by 2 rounds (was 1), "Burst of Energy" grants +15% damage to the Heroic Strike (was 5%), and "Strong Connection" gives +2 to hero attributes (was +1). The latter two now last only until the end of the current round.

Offense and Defense nerfed

The bonus damage from "Offense" has been reduced from 15/20/25% to 10/15/20%. The damage reduction from "Defense" has been lowered the same way. This is a meaningful change for the meta — a pure might build no longer dominates as strongly.

Spell specialists buffed

Heroes specializing in a spell now gain +1 Spell Power for their spell for every 2 hero levels (was every 3). This affects more than 20 heroes across all factions — from Julius and Vesper (Temple) to Zakron the Great (Dungeon). Physical damage specialists, by contrast, have been nerfed: their bonus now grows half as fast.

Three major exploits closed

The developers have eliminated three serious multiplayer vulnerabilities:

• Alt+F4 — closing the game is now correctly counted as a loss for the quitting player and a win for their opponent;
• Setup peeking — you can no longer scout the opponent's army placement during the Tactics Phase using a fast creature;
• Free upgrades — fixed a bug that allowed swapping low-tier and high-tier creatures by switching their positions.

Players who abused these vulnerabilities have received disciplinary action.

Map templates: Jebus Cross, Sprint, Harmony and more

Jebus Cross received the most visible changes. The side areas now feature:

• 2 mandatory guarded "Town Gates" for getting back to your cities;
• a guaranteed city of the player's faction with fully constructed recruitment buildings;
• Pandora's Boxes no longer contain spells or creatures;
• external dwellings now hold 3× the standard creature growth.

In the central area, the pre-built Taverns and Mage Guilds have been removed from all cities. In the starting areas, guard strength for optional cities has been reduced by 35%.

Sprint: all heroes now start with a free "Primordial Chaos" spell, "Logistics" specialist heroes are banned, and the number of unguarded resources has been reduced.

Harmony: the template size has been reduced to 112×112 for more dynamic gameplay, and a mandatory "Redwood Observatory" has been added to the 2nd area.

Exodus: the statistical bias toward low-tier dwellings in starting areas has been removed, and stat-granting Pandora's Boxes in the final areas have been adjusted.

Matchmaking template rotation

Classic Mode: Last Fortress has been replaced with Sand Clover. Jebus Cross gets +60 seconds on the daily timer. At high Ranks, combat time has been brought up to the standard 120 seconds.

Single Hero Mode: Jebus Outcast has been replaced with Blitz. Combat time is now uniform: 60 seconds for Sprint/Vendetta, 80 seconds for all other templates.

Schism: sweeping starting-hero changes

All Schism heroes — hybrids between Might and Magic — now start with a spell. Starting armies have been averaged and no longer depend on the hero's class. A number of heroes had their starting spells swapped for more suitable ones. Patch #9 rolled part of this back: the Initiative of Ra'shoths and Cultists was reduced again and their Speed returned to previous values — this primarily affects Single Hero Mode.

Hive: buffs ahead of schedule

The Hive was performing well in Classic Mode and the Arena but lagged behind in Single Hero Mode. The developers accelerated their planned improvements: Parasite and Locust growth has been increased, damage buffed across the tiers, Scorpions gained +1 Attack and Defense, and the "Corpse Eater" passive now restores 120 health (was 65). The faction's laws were also reworked — the tiers of several key laws have been changed for faster power accumulation.

Arena: balance changes

The artifacts "Orb of Inhibition", "Ring of Neutrality", "Monster's Head" and several others have been removed from the Arena. Players are now offered a choice of 10 spells instead of 9, but level 4 spells no longer appear. The Dungeon received a buff in the form of increased army sizes in the Arena.

A few more notable changes

• "Sorcery": new sub-skill "Summoning Sorcery" — all summoned creatures gain +25% health and damage;
• "Armageddon": base damage increased to 150/250/350;
• "Impending Fate": damage per target level significantly increased;
• The "Ethereal Knowledge" set has been reworked: the 4-artifact bonus now extends effect durations by 8 rounds instead of making them last indefinitely;
• Sieges: traps now deal damage, and defensive tower damage scales with the number of buildings in the city;
• Tavi (Hive) is now a Magic hero, and Pauper (Hive) is now a Might hero;
• Numerous bug fixes: from Morale triggers to correct effect display.

The full changelogs are available in the forum thread.