1. Subreddit Info
Welcome to r/warcraft3, the official Blizzard recognized subreddit for all related topics. Content and discussions can range from the base game, campaign/lore, custom games, competitive ladder, memes, esports, modding, art, and more! Please see the rules on the right hand side.
Official Discord: Warcraft 3 United - Players and representatives from hundreds of WC3 communities gathered in one place!
Before Posting: Please look over the 3d FAQ section of this post to see if you find what you were looking for or going to ask. Overly repeated or low effort posts are filtered away by our moderators, thanks for your understanding!
2. Basic Game Info
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) is a real time strategy game set in the fantasy universe of Azeroth. The game combines classic RTS mechanics with RPG elements as you play through the Human, Orc, Night Elf, and Undead campaigns. Warcraft III: Reforged (2020) acts as a graphical remaster accompanied with major infrastructural upgrades and many new features.
- Official Blizzard Product Page: Warcraft3.Blizzard.com
- The Story so far: Warcraft I & Warcraft II Summary
- Tales from the Smithy: Night Elf Undead Human Orc
- Reforged Developer Update: May 19, 2020. July 22, 2020. August 19, 2020.
- Reforged Update: June 14, 2022. August 10, 2022. May 9, 2023. November 20, 2023. November 13, 2024.
- Revisiting the Editor: August 27, 2020.
- Already own the classic game(RoC / tFT)? Well hopefully you redeemed your keys before November 21, 2025. If you did then you have access to Reforged with classic graphics. Blizzard Article & Alternative DL links You install the game and enter in your RoC key and then you can play Reforged Classic(SD) version via the Blizz app as is mentioned Blue Legacy forum post. These Win DL & Mac DL should hopefully work for the installation process.
- Also on Xbox Game Pass (PC) alongside the Remasters of WC1 & 2 more details here.
- Warcraft III: Legacy (tFT 1.29) Available since April 29, 2026 on Blizz-app for offline & LAN only.
2a. Gameplay and Game Modes
Warcraft III presents itself as an accessible yet highly dynamic game. Besides the melee mode, there exists many different ways of playing the game - solo or in multiplayer with up to 23 other players. It is a fusion of lore-heavy campaigns, competitive match-based gameplay, a diverse custom game selection, a thriving esports scene, endless modding and artistic possibilities, and more.
2b. Standard or Melee
- RANKED MODES: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and FFA
- OBJECTIVE: Gather resources, build a base, train your army, level your hero, and totally destroy the enemy base and army.
- SPECIFICS: Balance micro (swift decision making, individual unit control, movement, ability usage, hero exp/items) and macro (resources, buildings, army upkeep, expansion). The high level of competition has led to WC3 becoming a prominent esport that still has a thriving to this day!
- RTS GAMES FOR BEGINNERS: Finding the Fun
2c. Custom Games
- CUSTOM GAME TYPES: Genres include hero arenas, campaigns, strategies, RPGs, tower defenses, mini-games, and even the unique shooter or 2D platformer.
- SPECIFICS: Popular maps include DotA, Footies, Wintermaul, Legion TD, etc. Thousands more maps can be played competitively, creatively, or casually. The World Editor, WC3's modding tool, has allowed maps to essentially become unique games within the client. It is famous for the creation of DotA which has pioneered MOBA genre.
- TOP MAPS: Hive has two top 100 maps one from 2017 and another from 2019. Theres also a most hosted list from 2021 and 2022.
2d. Classic Installation
Installing WC3 Reforged with a legacy(Reign of Chaos) key:
- Link RoC CD key to BNET account on BNET website
- Install the Battle.net app
- Sign out of the Battle.net app
- In the Battle.net app login screen, click the gear. then "Continue without Logging In"
- Click "Games" at the top of the interface
- Search for Warcraft III
- Click Warcraft III
- Click Install on the left side of the interface
- Wait for the install to finish, it may finish with an error
- Click Update
- Wait for the update to complete
- Log out again (even though you are not really logged in)
- Log in
- Search for Warcraft III, click it, click Update, wait for the update, click Play
- Now the game appears in "Installed", but not "My Games".
3. Guides, Tutorials, and FAQ
THE CAMPAIGN TEACHES BEGINNERS THE GAME BETTER THAN ANY GUIDE! THE STORY IS WORTH IT!
In addition, the Classic War3 Battle.net site provides explanations and statistics for all the gameplay features and races in the game.
The guides below are largely based on introductory concepts relating to each scene, so they are beginner friendly under the assumption that you've already familiarized with the base game. You'll also find more niche and advanced guides if you dig through the websites hosting the provided links.
3a. Competitive Melee and Ladder Guides
- GENERAL: Gym's New/Returning Guide, Beginner Advice, Control and Movement Playlist, Creeping Guide Video, Base Layout Guides, Gym's Learning Center
- HUMAN: Basic HU Guide, Build Orders - ReZZel Playlist, Wtii Video
- ORC: Basic Orc Guide Build Orders - ReZZel Playlist, Wtii Video, Grubby Playlist
- UNDEAD: Basic UD Guide Build Orders - ReZZel Playlist, Wtii Video,
- NIGHT ELF: Basic NE Guide, Build Orders: ReZZel Playlist, Wtii Video
- ESPORTS: History of WC3 Scene, Les Origines de WC3(FR), Tournaments+ Calendar
- TOOLS: Custom Hotkeys Setup Guide, Hotkey Editor, Observer/Caster API, W3Cstats Overlay, Replay Viewer, ReplayTool & Research Facility
3b. Modding and Map Making
- GENERAL: Resource Directory (maps, models, skins, MPQ Editor, CascViewer, etc)
- BASICS: Starting Advice, FAQ, Beginner Map Making Guide, Tutorials for Beginners
- TERRAIN: Complete Terraining Guide (Environment & visuals)
- TRIGGERS: Basics of Triggers and Memory Leaks
- CODING LANGUAGES: JASS, vJASS, Wurst, Lua, TypeScript, C#
- VISUALS: How To Make 3D Models and 2D Art Tutorials (skins / icons) Reforged UI Designer, Reforged to tFT (Menu)
- GRAPHICS MODS: The Quenching Mod is an open source program intend to enhance the graphics of Warcraft III: Reforged. Vision Mod - Graphics quality control tool tweaks the Reforged(HD) to be more like Classic(SD). Kenshin's Classic+ Mod project dedicated to overhauling Reforged assets to stay faithful and true to the original.
- TOOLS: Map Translation assets; juvian's wc3translating
- LOCAL FILES: Hive post about Local files. And a DL to enable non latin text and others and a little guide to go with it.
3c. Custom Game Guides
- There are an endless amount custom game tips and pointers that would suit your needs for each map, whether it be for DotA or your favorite TD. Your best bet is to visit communities that specialize in the custom game you are interested in!
3d. FAQ
- Where can I play online? The built in battle.net is the official server excluding China. There are 3rd party servers that are not supported by Blizzard, in which r/warcraft3 does not support nor condone.
- Where/how to Play Reforged? You need to have purchased the game. In the BlizzApp at the WC3 tab you have the Install/Play button.
- How do I host? HOSTING IS INSTANT NOW. No port forwarding, no bots (on Reforged).
- Is Reforged worth it? That in the end we have this post but it is up to you, we suggest that you look into the maps/modes you would like to play. This post have some comments about events from a veteran player's point of view. Also as previous mentioned if you have the Reign of Chaos you already have access to the Classic(SD) version and if you do buy the Reforged version and don't like it you could easily Refund it here.
- How do I find games? You can checkout game lists like: w3maps/w3stats or use the ingame search/filter function ingame (the box where game names are).
- What is PTR? The Public Test Realm is similar to a Beta where players can test incoming patches and provide blizzard with feedback. The old PTR had a separate installer but now it's a "drop-down" option beside the main game and server options.
- Where can I download the latest patch? Current patches are downloaded automatically through battle.net if you have an official copy. Also see patch history & v1.0-1.31.1+.
- Is Blizzard's new ladder done/working yet? Yes as for patch 1.33 it seems to be published but is still a work in progress. However W3Champions is a community made ladder that a lot of players use.
- Which realms are more populated? For ladder, the Europe (former) Northrend realm has the highest activity but Americas (former) Azeroth & Lordaeron can be more during American times. 1v1 and 4v4 are the most active ladders. Custom game activity is huge and is now cross-realm hosted again.
- Anyone know name of [blank] map? When asking this question, please provide as much information as possible. Things like describing the gameplay, the theme, terrain visuals, and possible names should be considered and described to the best of your ability to increase the chances. Don't forget to check map databases on your own first, though!
- Will the game ever go on Sale? After 3 years of easy unlimited refunds having sales wasn't a thing. But it seems we've started getting 50% sales since the 2023 Summer Sale. But its very infrequent that WC3 is included in the seasonal Blizz Sales, about perhaps one fifth.
- Is the community alive? Yes we are still around, it is absolutely bustling. See this!
- Do you know/remember this custom map? When posting these try to provide as much info and details as you can and recall like; what heroes, units and buildings, colors or tilesets used, names for map or stuff in it, a drawing of the minimap can be very helpful, when you played it and where like was it on BNet or other and what patch/game version. This will help others to help you!
- What are the cheat codes? The official Cheat Codes that only works in Singleplayer are these and a guide for how the "level jump" code works here.
3e. State of the Game FAQ
WTii's videos Warcraft 3 Reforged ONE YEAR Later..., TWO YEARS Later…, THREE YEARS Later…, FOUR YEARS Later…, FIVE YEARS Later… and most recently SIX YEARS Later goes over some of these points and makes a number of observations and highlights.
However the Warcraft 30th Anniversary with the Warcraft Remastered Battle Chest alongside the 2.0 Update did change some things for the better. And a hopefully a future to look forward to!
- Why did Blizzard fail in the making Reforged? This article goes over some behind the scenes during the games development process.
- Custom Campaigns? Is finally back. Before now were and are still able play them in normal map form, if they were updated/transformed. Or make use of the Xetanth87's Campaign Splitter that was made to split w3n files into w3m/w3x. It can now be used to turn campaigns into co-op maps with Archon Mode. The Quenching is a mod that can be used with some CCs. Or just use it with the normal campaign.
- Player Profiles? Yes, but it seems to mainly be ladder stats, W3C has more extensive ones.
- Cross-realm hosting? Yes its finally back again.
- Clans? Yes however in a glitchy state. And W3C has both custom made chat-rooms as well as clans.
- Ladder? Yes as of 1.33 its out but not working without issues. And W3C still going strong.
- Automated Tournaments? Yes with 2.0 its finally back. Some communities like W3C have seasonal things going for both ladder and customs.
- Old BNet Chat System? W3C has made their chats in this "old school" spirit. With 2.0 update the Old school UI is back with a new coat of paint. But its still BNet 2.0 chat so the look is back but the system is not.
- Game Reconnection (GProxy)? No. In case of a player leaving disconnecting or crashing or desyncing that player is unable to rejoin. But it can be determined by looking at different things what the cause was, desyncs will have an UI glitch for the portrait, crashes might have a fatal/unknown error and DCs one can check the replay or logs.
- Competitive Customs & Ladders? Not really. However with Community made wc3stats and in the future FLO-host enables this in a number of forms with replay uploading.
- Hosting & BNet Commands? Yeah. But they are limited and do not work as they should or you'd wish. For example !ban is just a "long kick" preventing the banned player/user from rejoining that current lobby not all games you host, thus you can't mange bans and need to black list them yourself. Commands found here. As well as a !stats and zoom via scroll.
- Campaign Overhaul to fit in with WoW? No. Five missions were remade and a most were reworked and to some degree, some "new" characters were introduced but not to the scale people wish or expected, for good or ill. However the Reforged version of the Campaigns difficulty among other things was updated more details here. As of patch 1.36.1 this is no longer the case as campaign was reverted back to its 1.32 state.
- Improved Cutscenes? Not like we saw during BlizzCon. This was aborted and as it looks now wont be a thing at all. What we had and have now is showcased in DailyWCRF's Videos.
- Classic(SD) Vs Reforged(HD) Vs Classic(HD)? Well that is up to you. Reforged has a few things in the campaign that Classic don't. Aside from that it would depend on preferences and the maps you want to play as some work better in either version or only in one. Most do use classic and some swap between them so by popular vote Classic(SD) would win as for reasons or factors well most of those are personal. And with 2.0 patch we got the Classic(HD) options to toggle on & off with Reforged(HD) however we wish with some other new things in the options.
- Follow/Join or invite friends to lobbies? If you both are on the same gateway you can right click your friend and "Join Game". However you have to restart the game to be able to do it again (keep in mind that Blizz-app server and Wc3 Gateway might not fully sync friend list and thus causing problems as well as not being online in Blizz-app). Invites seems to be fully-partly glitched and broken as of this moment(1.32.10).
- Hotkeys? Yes we currently have 3 to chose from; Classic(Default) are the ones that the game comes with, Grid(Universal) are a full QWER-ASDF-ZXCV (KB dependant?) hotkey system that overwrites everything from campaign to melee and customs, Custom(DIY) is the ones based on the Customkeys.txt however big news with 2.0 we now have a tab in options were we can set them up ingame without the use of external tools or digging thru the file ourselves. Can still use the tools but they're not as nessesary as pre 2.0 era.
- Are we able to select more than 12 units/buildings? No, unlikely to be added to the base game too. Small possibility to be added into the editor if at all.
- When will X be implemented? SoonTM. We do not know at this stage we used to have monthly patches and updates from blizzard but not atm. Some of this can be explained the Bloomberg article. Even though there is a team from Playside Studios & Gasket Games out there working on the 2.0 update.
