Prerelease:Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was conceived as a "Role-Playing Strategy" or "RPS" for short rather than an RTS game. First announced in September 1999 as Heroes of Warcraft, the game would go through huge shifts in development before morphing into a more traditional strategy game, thus many features were dropped from the game but the idea of large, powerful hero units was kept.
The game would've taken place in one, large continuous world of towns, monsters and quests. At the expense of not having Fog of War, you couldn't move the camera freely being only able to jump back and fourth between your heroes, who would have unit parties of their own. How many units you control at a time is limited by the "Leadership" stat of your hero.
Compared to the final product, the game employed a more realistic art style in which units appeared small and buildings quite larger. This idea received negative feedback among the development team as they didn't want "to be Lord of the Rings or standard D&D fantasy' according to Samwise Didier, art director at the time. The game was developed in C++.
Most of the 'Role-Playing Strategy" ideas were scrapped later on in development and were instead incorporated into World of Warcraft (itself a fork of Warcraft III) Both games were being developed around the same time.
For the purpose of this article:

• "Early Alpha" refers to that period of development where Warcraft III was a Role-Playing Strategy game. It's the first iteration of the game shown to the public in September 1999.
• "Late Alpha" is when Warcraft III was turned into an RTS game. At this point buildings were still proportional to unit size and trees were in groups.
• "Beta" is the last stage in development and resembled the final game the most. Noticeable differences include trees becoming individual entities that can be cleared by workers but are yet to be a resource until very late in development.

Development Timeline

1998

• April 1998 - development on Warcraft III begins. According to Rob Pardo, Mike O'Brien, the game's lead programmer, originally planned a strategy game titled Warcraft Legends—with few units to command, over-the-shoulder camera and no base building. However the concept was scrapped and the game's framework was used to create Warcraft III instead.

1999

• September 5th - Warcraft III is shown to the public for the first time at the European Computer Trade Show as a "Role-Playing Strategy" game or "RPS" for short. The build shown had little to nothing in common with the gameplay of the final product and had no notable user interface, save for heroes portraits.

2000

• January 24th - A video from Korea surfaced on the Internet. The video showed some aspects of gameplay along with commentary by Pardo. This version already had an interface concept, however most of the interface were placeholders. It had a map, icons for abilities and unit commands and an eye-shaped display for gold. The game employed a more realistic art style in which units appeared far more detailed compared to their models in the final game and buildings were of realistic size, most of the doodads shown never made it to the final game. Originally, the game was planned to be released at the end of 2000. The release date was later postponed to 2001.
• February/March - Mike O'Brien, former project lead on the game, left Blizzard on good terms after finalizing the game engine. The original gameplay concept he envisioned for Warcraft III was used to create Guild Wars, a game for which he led the design and content creation teams.
• April - Blizzard officially announced the Undead Scourge, they had appeared in some screenshots from 1999. The Scourge would go through numerous design changes. Notably, their faction color was bright purple.
• May 11th-13th - At E3 2000 Blizzard showed a gameplay trailer that included an interface with some elements of the final design. At this point, the game was re-designed to be more in-line with the final product and is no longer an RPS, rather an RTS game.
• November - The game was set to feature five playable races (with the addition of the Burning Legion) and gold as the only resource to be mined.

2001

• Unknown Date - Gameplay footage reveals a polished version of the interface seen in the E3 2000 trailer.
• January - Blizzard announced the Night Elves as the last race as well as scrapping the Burning Legion as a race and turning them into creep units.
• February -The game's subtitle, Reign of Chaos, was revealed.
• February - The original Death Knight and the Crusader heroes were scrapped and their models given to the Anti-Paladin hero (Renamed to Death Knight) and the human Knight respectively while the Crypt Fiend was redesigned as a unit.
• April - Blizzard still experimented with different resources and had versions of the game with gold, lumber, mana stones and upkeep or a race-depending resource that represented the population like the required food in newer versions.

2002

• January - Blizzard shipped out 5000 beta versions of Warcraft III to randomly selected testers in order to help improve it before being released in stores. The beta release had all of the game's units and races, however, there are some considerable differences such as spells not seen in the final game and a different user interface and was only playable over Battle.net; single player games and LAN play were not playable on the beta version of the game.
• July 3rd - Warcraft III is released in the United States to critical acclaim. The European release followed in after two days.

2003

• July 1st - The expansion pack - The Frozen Throne - was released worldwide.

Factions

According to the old Blizzard website and a now-archived interview by IGN from 1999, there were 6 planned playable factions. However this number seems to be inconsistent as the developers themselves gave contradicting figures in interviews, ranging from 6 to 18, 12 and 8 factions. This number was later reduced to 5, and then 4, mainly because Blizzard thought that balancing such a large number of factions would prove too difficult.

• The Human Alliance and the Orcish Horde are a staple of the series and were expected to come back in Warcraft III. These factions appeared in the very first screenshots. The Human Alliance was already planned to be composed of Humans, Dwarves and Elves.
  The Dwarves and the Elves were also considered as separate factions.

• The Scourge was announced later on when the game was turned into an RTS. The Scourge behaved much more differently from their final game counterpart, relying on a single hero Necromancer for summoning buildings and having to use corpses as a resource instead of gold. They had a vastly different architectural design in both the Alpha and the Beta, the final game icon of the Necropolis still shows the original Beta model. Many of the released official screenshots show their faction color as bright purple.

• The Burning Legion was also planned to be a playable faction before their role was reduced to Creeps and campaign-only units at some point in 2001. Blizzard thought that having the Burning Legion go through the hassle of mining gold and constructing farms would insult their image. Rob Pardo, the chief creative officer at the time compares the loss of the Legion as a playable faction to that of losing a child, and that it "made more sense to make them a powerful NPC race, rather then a full-blown multiplayer race."
  No screenshots of the Legion's buildings ever exist, save for the Demon Portal and only two units were ever revealed, The Infernal and a Demon Warlock. The Demon Warlock can be seen in one screenshot and was later cut. He was later repurposed as a Creep unit for the expansion pack. Perhaps the lack of information surrounding the Burning Legion could hint that not much work was put into making them a playable race.

• Blizzard announced, as an April joke, that a Pandaren Empire was going to be the fourth race. Wardancer, Pikeman and Geomancer units were part of the joke.

• The Night Elf Sentinels were announced a month after the April joke. They were planned to be associated with insects. The development team couldn't agree on whether or not Elves should be their own faction, until one team member suggested "dark elves" instead. To avoid similarities with the Drow race from Dungeons & Dragons, the team took the best of Wood Elves and Dark Elves and morphed them into a single race, The Night Elves. The Night Elves at some point had buildings called "Dens", these enabled the production of certain upgrades and units.

• The Goblins were considered as a potential sixth race. Early plans for a fleshed-out race of goblins played up the kamikaze mentality of the goblin with designs such as a catapult that flung units across the map. The Goblins as a faction never made it out the planning stage and were instead turned into neutral mercenary units.

• A single-unit Dragon faction is mentioned in some early designs. This sole dragon would grow over time, from a tiny baby to a giant, ass-kicking adult. (I'll remove this joke once I finish the entirety of this article)It was scrapped as the team couldn't fit it within the standard resources gameplay of the other races.

Resources

• When the game was a RPS, Gold was the only resource available. You'd gain gold by killing creeps, and controlling gold mines scattered throughout the map which deliver a steady flow of Gold.

• Mana Stones were the second resource to be introduced to the game, at some point in 2001. You'd only get them from killing creeps. These were used for things such as training heroes and possibly some upgrades. Mana Stones were cut from the game, shortly after the introduction of trees as resource. Some builds had Mana Stones in addition to Lumber, raising the total number of resources to three. Mana Stones had two icons for the UI, the first version is a green burning stone that became an item icon in the final game. The second version is of a blue gem of sorts. The second version can still be found in the final game.

• Lumber was made a resource at a very late stage, possibly in late 2001 or early 2002. Trees were originally eye candy doodads clumped together, because of that, they weren't removeable. Prior to the game's showcase at E3 2001, trees were turned into individual doodads that could be cut down but were still not a resource.

Characters and Storyline

blah blah placeholder Garona was gonna make an appearance in this game

Units

Abomination

The Abomination was one of the planned Heroes for the Undead before he was demoted to being a unit. His design largely remained the same. Death and Decay was one of his possible spells. It was planned for the Abomination to be created by merging several Ghouls together.

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  Alpha model.

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  Fighting the Orcs. Just behind him is the cut Cold Wraith unit.

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  Strolling through a Human checkpoint. Notice the walls.

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  A rotting party of Ghouls led by an Abomination with the most hideous portrait ever seen.

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  In the Beta. There's much to see here, the non-skeletal Frost Wyrm, early water texture and early skeleton archers to name a few.

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  The previous screenshot, but zoomed out.

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  Concept Art

Acolyte

Formerly called the Dredge. Was created when The Undead were made to use Gold as a resource in addition to corpses, he also took the Necromancer's role as the builder of the Undead.

Anti-Paladin

The Death Knight we got in the final game was called the Anti-Paladin and was deigned to be, well, a counterpart to the Human Paladin. Instead of a skeletal horse, the Anti-Paladin rode clouds of dark/purple mist the shape of a horse. After the original Death Knight was scrapped in February 2001, the Anti-Paladin was renamed to be the new Death Knight. Other than his mount, most of his design went unchanged and already had Unholy Aura as one of his spells.
It seems that the Death Knight was given the Finger of Death spell at some point during development, as evidenced in leftovers in his Battle.net entry. Its icon, which shows an actual finger, can be found unused in the Closed Beta of 2002. In the final game, the spell's icon was exchanged with that of an unrelated spell - Corpse Explosion.

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  The Anti-Paladin, near a gold mine in the Alpha.

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  The Anti-Paladin, now renamed to Death Knight, in the Beta with his Finger of Death spell. Notice how different his horse is compared to its final game model.

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  Concept Art.

Arch-Druid

Planned as another Druid hero for the Night Elves, alongside the Keeper of the Grove. While the hero was cut, his model was given to the Druid of the Talon in the Closed Beta, however it was later edited for the final game to remove the horns. His Battle.net entry, to this very day, still shows him with the horns. A version of the Arch-Druid model was retextured and given to Malfurion Stormrage in the final game. Both Jaina and the Prophet in the final game use slightly modified animations originally used by the Arch-Druid. His known abilities include:

• Sleep: Worked just like it did in the final game. When the Arch-Druid was cut, this spell was given to the Dreadlord.

• Spore Cloud: An area-of-effect poisonous gas cloud that damages all units within the sphere of its effect.

• Force of Nature: His ultimate ability would've turned him into a "gigantic beast that is a hybrid of several woodland creatures". The spell's icon is a silhouette of an owlbear which means that the model of the Owlbear was his transformation model before it was reutilized as a Creep after the hero was scrapped. This is further supported by the Owlbear's texture name, which is HeroForceOfNature

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  Selection Icon.

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  Concept Art.

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  The Arch-Druid in the Alpha.

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  The Arch-Druid in the Beta, using his Spore Cloud spell.

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  Force of Nature icon. For a while, the Keeper of the Grove's Force of Nature also used the same icon before being replaced in the final game.

Archer

The Night Elf Archer lacked a cape and had a longer, different looking bow. Gameplay-wise however, she remained largely the same as her final game form.

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  A number of Archers in the Alpha, just behind the Arch-Druid.

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  Archers in the Beta, behind the Ancient Protectors.

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  Close up.

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  Concept Art.

Archmage

Up until the Beta, the horse the Archmage rides originally had a horn making it a Unicorn. However it was removed at one point, the manual description for the Human Archmage still refers to the steed as a Unicorn while the Battle.net entry doesn't. Some of his planned spells were:

• Blizzard: The same spell from the final game.
• Fireball: Shoot a single fireball at the target. Similar to the Fire Bolt spell of the final game. Fireball has an unused icon in the Closed Beta of 2002.
• Mass Teleport: The same ultimate spell from the final game.
• Time Stop: The Archmage was planned to have a time stopping sell which might have been his original ultimate spell.
• Brilliance: The Brilliance Aura spell of the final game was simply named Brilliance. It was planned for spells to have different names per level. In case of Brilliance, these were insight, comprehension and enlightenment.
• Wizard Mark: Puts a mark on an enemy unit, letting you see through its line of sight. The spell was cut after E3 2000.

In a fansite chat from 2000, the developers mentioned three spells for the Archmage - Meteor Storm, Ice Shock, and Recall. These do not appear in any screenshots or gameplay videos and were replaced by the time of 2000.

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  The Archmage in the early Alpha.

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  Near the Knight, notice the two unidentified human units.

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  A level 7 Archmage near the priest, late Alpha.

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  An Archmage with a band of Knights.

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  Cowardly hiding in the left treeline.

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  In the first released screenshot of the Undead.

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  The Archmage in the Beta.

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  At this point, The Archmage was given the Summon Water Elemental spell of the Sorceress.

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  The Archmage, late Beta.

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  Antonidas the Archmage meeting Jaina.

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  Concept Art.

Assassin

This is another planned hero for the Night Elves that was demoted to a normal unit due to the developers wanting more basic female units. She later became campaign exclusive under a new name, Warden. Her abilities included:

• Slow Poison: A poisonous strike that leaves the target very slowly taking damage until either dead or cured.
• Blink: A short-range teleportation spell, its casting animation is still in the Warden model. The spell returns in the expansion pack.

Despite being semi-cut, the Assassin inspired the Warden hero that appears in the Frozen Throne expansion pack, even using similar if not identical animations.

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  The Assassin in the Alpha.

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  Close up of her Alpha model.

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  The Assassin's beta model, same as in the final game.

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  Concept Art

Banshee

Described as a wailing spirit with the ability to fly, the Banshee would be unlocked after the Necromancer casts the Winds of Woe spell, which summons a Tree of Woe (very creative). One screenshot does indeed show her levitating. One of her abilities was the Banshee Wail, an attack that damages all enemies in the area of effect. Drains mana constantly as it is being used. Her old Battle.Net entry refers to Banshees as Dark Elves. This is because, early in development, Night Elves were initially based off the Drow from Dungeons & Dragons and were named such in concept art.

Alas, I lost the screenshot. I'll have to find it again

Blademaster

One of the first ever revealed heroes, the Blademaster was spared the fate of design changes. Notably in the Alpha, the Blademaster's portrait is more detailed than that of the other units. It can be assumed that he simply reused his old portrait from when the game was a Role Playing Strategy, while the rest of units portraits are same as their in-game models, however, this is pure speculation.

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  The Blademaster in the Alpha, leading a party of Grunts.

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  Being affected by a spell.

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  In the Beta, overlooking a Human base.

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  Mortar Teams trying to bombard this Blademaster.

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  Attacking the Night Elves.

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  Corpse cleaning time, notice the blight texture. This was the second variant to be made.

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  Concept Art.

Carrion Bird

Carrion Bird is a cut unit for the Undead. Its only appearance is in screenshots from 2001. Its model was repurposed for the Vulture critter.

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  From the beta.

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  Concept Art

Catapult

A single Peon originally pushed the Catapult around in the Beta, it was also slightly larger and blockier than the final game model.

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  Two Peons are operating Catapults.

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  To the left, two Catapults can be seen.

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  A Catapult in the Beta, this time the Peon has been removed. Also, the model now resembles its final game form.

Cold Wraith

This is an interesting one, he was cut from the game early on and never made it to the Beta. The Cold Wraith is dark, hooded spirit dressed in a dark cloak, wielding a scythe. Clearly your average Grim Reaper. He'd be unlocked when the Necromancer casts the Haunting spell. His known abilities included:

• Chill Touch: Slows down a targeted unit for a limited period of time.
• Lifetap: Ranged spell that drains life from targeted unit.

Their old concept art description from the old Blizzard website reads:

Cold Wraith
The few surviving Warlocks who were captured along with Ner'zhul by the Legion were transformed into spectral apparitions of living cold. Renamed Cold Wraiths, the damned spirits became twisted and evil. Filled with the desire to inflict pain and suffering, these former magic users now serve their Lich King without question and use their newfound necromantic powers in his name. Cold Wraiths can fly across any battlefield and rain down their terrible bolts of cold-fire.

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  The Cold Wraith in the Alpha, top left corner.

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  The Cold Wraith is between the Trolls.

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  Concept Art.

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  Render.

Crusader

The Crusader is a cut hero for the Human race. He was scrapped in February 2001 and his model was given to the Knight unit since "it was the cooler looking of the two models". His abilities included:

• Seal of Nobility: Give a targeted unit all of their upgrades, including unknown spells for a limited time. The spell can be upgraded to Seal of Lords and finally to Seal of Kings. Each upgrade would've increased the duration of the spell.
• Seal of Courage: Give targeted unit a large defense bonus. Same with the spell above, it could've been upgraded to Seal of Valor, and then to Seal of Fortitude.
• Swiftness Aura: An aura spell that increases units' speed. Its fully textured aura model can be found in the Closed Beta.

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  The Crusader, one of his abilities can be seen.

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  Many units here, among them The Crusader near the fireplace. Just behind him the original knight model.

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  The Crusader alongside some footmen going up against Frost Wyrms.

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  Concept Art.

Crypt Fiend

The Crypt Fiend was, according to Rob Pardo, a female Undead hero! Not only did she underwent gender reassignment, but also demoted to unit status later on, perhaps in February 2001. Described as a melee-orientated hero with a focus on summoning insects and spiders. The unit was also named Pit Fiend at some point. Its death sound in the final game still refers to it as Pit Fiend

May have inspired the Crypt Lord hero from the Expansion pack.

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  The Crypt Fiend in the Alpha, top left corner. Dated 10 May 2000.

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  Concept Art.

Death Knight

The Revenant creep from the final game was the original Death Knight Hero. He was scrapped in February 2001 and his name was given to the "Anti-Paladin" Hero. What spells were available at his disposal, are a mystery. He'd be unlocked for training after the Necromancer casts the Ashes to Ashes spell. It's implied these are the same Death Knights of the Shadow Council members of the Second War but have forwent the use of Magic as well as the use of horses.
Their concept art description from the old Blizzard website reads:

Death Knight
The nefarious Death Knights were created by Gul'dan during the Second War using the corpses of slaughtered Human Knights and the malicious spirits of the dead Orc Warlocks. Death Knights replaced the Warlocks as the Horde's magic-users, but their insubordination and apathy for the Orcish cause led them to be widely mistrusted. The Death Knights, along with their master, Ner'zhul, were captured by the Legion after the war on Draenor concluded. When the Legion remade Ner'zhul into the Lich King, the Death Knights refused to give him homage. As punishment for their insubordination, they were stripped of most of their power and bound to Ner'zhul's iron will. Now the mystical Death Knights serve as some of the mightiest warriors of the Scourge.

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  The original Death Knight is the right-most unit.

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  Concept Art.

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  Render.

Demon Hunter

The Demon Hunter's design virtually went unchanged from when the Night elves were first revealed, save for his warglaives as they originally featured a spinning wheel-like symbol. When his model was shrunk to in-game size the symbol ended up clearly looking like a swastika. Also, his tattoos were team-colored.
His abilities included:

• Soul Siphon: A psionic attack that drain mana from a targeted unit and converts it into health for the Hero, may have evolved into Mana Burn.
• Spectral Sight: Unknown how it worked
• Mind Lock: Prevents the affected unit from casting any spells while under its influence.
• Metamorphosis: Same as his ultimate from the final game.
• Flame Blades: Fireball-like spell that does direct damage to a unit. May have evolved into Immolation in the final game.
  

The first four abilities have unused casting voicelines in the Multiplayer Beta of 2002.

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  The Demon Hunter in the Alpha, among many other Night elves units

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  The Demon Hunter selected in the Alpha, above him a flying Priestess of the moon.

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  A rather poor choice of a symbol

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  Concept Art.

Dragonhawk Rider

TBD

Dreadlord

In an early draft for the story, the Dreadlords originally betrayed Kil'jaeden, serving The Lich King instead after the latter used his influence to control them. They were also subordinates of the Necromancers and had limited necromantic magic.

The Dreadlord's appearance as well as his abilities changed drastically throughout development. Both iterations of his model in the Alpha and Beta matched his concept art. The final game selection icon for The Dreadlord is unchanged from the Beta. His texture sheet in the final game still contains remnants of his Beta look.

His original ultimate ability was Dark Summoning which let him summon units from anywhere on the map, similar to the Arch-Mage's ultimate. The spell wasn't removed in the final game as Tichondrius uses it once in the Undead Campaign and frequently teleports in cutscenes using the spell's SFX effects. Dark Summoning is present in the released closed Beta of January 2002, this means it was changed to Inferno pretty late in development.
The Dreadlord also had a number of unidentified spells in early Beta builds, one of which survived into the final game but only as an Icon, named Charm. It was later reused for an ability in World of Warcraft. When the Arch-Druid hero was cut, The Dreadlord took his Sleep spell.

It seems the Dreadlord had, or at least, was planned to have the ability to morph into a flock of bats according to sound files found in the closed Beta of January 2002. These quotes of bat sounds all have "morphed" in their file names which matches how the morphed sound files of Night Elves Druids are named.

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  Concept art of The Dreadlord.

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  The Dreadlord in the Alpha.

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  The Dreadlord in the Beta. Notice his roster of spells, none of which made it into the final game.

Druid of the Claw

The Druid used a different model with more clothing when the Night Elves were first revealed and had a different idle animation, his texture sheet in the final game still contains remnants of his older look.

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  In the alpha, behind the flying Priestess.

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  Four Druids of the Claw in the Alpha.

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  While he still has his clothes, his idle animation is closer to the final game's

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  Concept Art.

Druid of the Talon

The Druid of the Talon, both his Elven and Raven forms had vastly different models, his default look matched his concept art. When the Arch-Druid hero was cut, The Druid took his model, albeit slightly edited.

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  Druid of the Talon in the Beta.

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  Four Druids at the far left, three of them have transformed.

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  The Druid of the Talon's portrait. Also shown here, the second architectural style of the undead, the second blight texture, a wholly different Spirit Tower model and an earlier icon for Faerie Fire.

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  Concept Art.

Farseer

The Farseer was originally a flying hero and rode a Wyvern. Flying heroes were planned for all races. Some of his spells were:

• Regeneration Aura: An aura spell that would heal units.
• Call Storm: Calls down a massive lightning storm upon the enemy. It's interesting to say that the icon for this spell was slightly edited and used for the Forked Lightning spell in the expansion pack. Also in the expansion pack, there's a sparingly-used spell that behaves in similar manner to the spell depicted below in the screenshots.
• Omniscience: Might have been an early name for Far Sight.

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  The Farseer in the Alpha. Two lighting spells were probably overkill.

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  The Farseer in the Beta, using his Call Storm spell.

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  It seems the game was originally less restrictive on where you could build. Few things to note here, the different models for the Centaur, the lack of splat textures beneath the buildings and the Mana Stone resource.

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  Concept Art.

Footman

Apart from a different model, there is not much to say. The old model can still be seen in the final game in the Human Campaign menu, standing on a wall.

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  Footmen, Early Alpha.

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  Footmen with a Crusader hero, Late Alpha.

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  Concept Art.

Frost Wyrm

The Frost Wyrm was a base unit, turned into a summoned unit, then back again into being a base unit. Went through several design changes. Despite being called a Wyrm, it looked more like a non-skeletal winged, flightless dragon than an actual Wyrm (i.e limbless and wingless)
In the Beta, the Frost "Wyrm" became a wyvern (two wings, two legs) but still non-skeletal. The final game retains this design but instead turns it skeletal.
Perhaps for Blizzard, it's all the same.

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  In the Alpha, dead.

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  In the Alpha, behind the dreadlord.

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  In the Beta, now a wyvern.

Ghoul

According to fan sites and some previews, the Ghoul was said to have four distinct models, varying in their looks such as having more hair or limbs than others. However this is more than likely speculation on their part since the Ghoul, in all of his revealed screenshots, uses only one model.

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  Concept Art.

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  A rotten party of Ghouls led by the equally-rotten Abomination in the Alpha.

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  An undead party that includes two "unalive" Ghouls.

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  Render, in the Alpha. Cropped from PC Accelerator.

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  The Ghoul model in the beta. Closer to his final game look.

Grunt

The Berserker upgrade for the Grunt was a spell in the Alpha, not an upgrade as in the final game. The spell originally increased the damage and attack rate of the Grunt at the expense of lowered armor. The animation for using the Berserker ability is still in the final game model but unused, giving the Grunt a spell with the Editor will let him use it as a casting animation. The Grunt also had different attack animations in both the Alpha and the the Beta.

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  The Grunt in the Alpha, clearly using his Berserker ability.

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  The Grunt in the Beta with different attack animations. Also his Berserker ability animation.

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  Concept Art.

Headhunter

The Headhunter was first designed as an Orc spearman. In the first released screenshots, Troll Headhunters had greenskin because they were originally Forest trolls. This may have been a carryover from Warcraft II which had Forest trolls units for the Orcs. Jungle trolls were introduced prior to the game's transition to an RTS and the Headhunter was changed accordingly. Their Battle.Net entry still refers to them as Forest trolls. Troll Headhunters were planned to have a "Heat Signature Detection" ability/upgrade of sorts which would've allowed them to track enemy units. They were trained from the Troll Lodge/Spirit Lodge instead of the Barracks.

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  Headhunter, early alpha. To the left of the Cut Warlord here.

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  Next to the weapons rack near the Barracks-like building.

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  Standing upright.

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  Headhunters are now of the Jungle trolls subgroup.

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  Near the Troll Lodge

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  In an Orc checkpoint.

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  In a party led by the cut Shadow Hunter hero.

Keeper of the Grove

Not many differences exist for this stag-elf hybrid. He originally had the following spells:

• Nature's Touch: A spell that either regrows or denudes trees. Its icon was later given to an item in the final game but the border style wasn't changed to match the other updated icons.
• Strangle Vines: May have been an early name for Entangling Roots.
• Barkskin: A spell that increases defense for a targeted unit. The icon for the spell is still in the final game alongside On and Off versions of it, which hint it meant to be an auto-casting spell.

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  The Keeper of the Grove in a Night Elf base in the Beta.

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  Using Nature's Touch on some trees in the Beta.

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  Spell icon for Barkskin from the final game.

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  Concept Art.

Knight

The Knights used a different model reminiscent of their counterparts from the first game. When the Crusader Hero was cut, the Knight took his model since "it was the cooler looking of the two models" Unlike the final game, The Knight had a special ability. A charging attack, whose animation and casting voiceline are still in the final game and the Close beta, respectively.

Kodo Beast

The Kodo Beast had two abilities prior to game's release. The first, Healing Drums, restores units' hitpoints (who would've thought?) while the second, Speed Drums, increases the speed of units (wow). Presumably, only one could be activated at a time. Both abilities have have icons in the Closed Beta, one of which became the War Drums ability of the final game.

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  In the Beta.

Lich

No Major differences. The Lich's original ultimate ability in the Beta was summoning a Frost Wyrm, this was the only way of getting one. When the Abomination hero was demoted to unit status, the Lich took his Death and Decay spell. Some of his abilities were:

• Disenchant: An area of effect dispel magic spell.
• Frost Armor: Same as his final game ability.
• Glacier: May have been an old name for his Nova spell.
• Frost Wyrm: Summons a Frost Wyrm. Replaced by Death and Decay in the final game and the Frost Wyrm was changed back into being a base unit.
  

All of these have unused casting voicelines in the Multiplayer Beta.

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  Alpha model of the Lich.

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  The Lich in the Alpha, with some Ghouls, the cut Cold Wraith unit and presumably Ice Trolls.

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  The Lich in the Beta, having already unlocked his ultimate. Notice the old Undead architectural style.

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  Concept Art.

Meat Wagon

According to its old Battle.net entry, Meat Wagons were initially trained with no attack mode. There was to be an upgrade that allowed the Meat Wagon to attack, called Meatapult. Researching the upgrade gives it an attack mode in the form of an ability named Fling Corpse.

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  The cut upgrade icon in the final game.

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  Concept Art

Mortar Team

TBD

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  Concept Art.

Mountain King

The Mountain King was originally named "Dwarven Giant Slayer".

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  Concept Art.

Necromancer

In the Alpha, a single hero Necromancer was the original builder unit of the Undead, he would construct buildings by casting spells such as the Creeping Plague, Winds of Woe, Haunting and Ashes to Ashes. Some of them were not buildings at all but rather special effects that enabled more unit options.

When the Necromancer was turned into a more traditional unit, he was given the following spells:

• Raise Skeleton Warrior: Raise Dead spell from the final game.
• Raise Skeleton Archer: Skeleton Archers weren't always creep units, rather summoned faction units for the undead.
• Corpse Explosion: Causes a corpse of your choosing to explode resulting in area effect damage. For some reason, The Finger of Death spell from the final game uses the icon of Corpse Explosion, while its own unique icon was removed.

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  The Necromancer in the Alpha.

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  The Necromancer in the Beta.

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  The Necromancer uses the aforementioned spell on a hapless corpse.

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  Corpse Explosion spell icon.

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  Concept Art.

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  Ditto, sharper.

Paladin

Too fucking lazy to write stuff here, WIP. Gamespot preview

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  Concept Art.

Priest

The Priest's design went unchanged ever since he was shown in the first screenshots, even his assortment of spells was mostly the same as in the final game (Although with slightly different icons). He was known as the Elven Mage-Priest when the game transitioned into an RTS. For some reason, his portrait doesn't match his in-game model, rather it depicts him wearing a hooded robe and having some impressive facial hair. His Dispel spell may've been named Restoration. The Priest had the Exorcism before it was given to the Paladin.

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  Earliest appearance of the priest, Early Alpha.

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  Late Alpha, his spell icons had a blue tint which was changed to gold/yellow in the final game.

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  Close to the building, Late Alpha.

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  Near the Arch-Mage, Late Alpha.

Priestess of the Moon

It was originally planned for all races to have one flying hero unit. The Priestess filled this role for the Night Elves, she rode a large, black/grey flying owl in the Alpha. The concept of flying heroes was scrapped as it was too unbalanced. Her abilities included:

• Moon Glow: Described as a "soft light" that reveals all cloaked and invisible units.
• True Shot: More than likely same as Trueshot Aura from the final game.
• Searing Light: The Priestess shoots a beam of moonlight that damages the target; if Undead, the target will sustain double damage. May have evolved into Searing Arrows.
• Twilight: Her ultimate would have The Priestess, using the power of ass-pulls, changes the time of the battle from day to sunset. Would've been useful when combined with the Shadow Meld ability of hers and the other female Night Elves.
  

The inappropriate joke will be removed once I finish this article.

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  Priestess of the Moon in the Alpha.

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  Ditto

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  Ditto, again, with placeholder art for unit icons.

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  Priestess of the Moon in the Beta.

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  Unused icon in the game depicting the flying heroine with her bird companion.

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  Sexy Concept Art.

Raiders

The Raiders since their first appearance didn't undergo major design changes.

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  Concept Art.

Ranger

The cut forth Human hero was described as being half human and half elf. She was scrapped late into development and some of her spells were given to the Priestess of the Moon, the latter had her own unique selection of spells. Her abilities relied on using enchanted arrows, which were:

• Flaming Arrows: Adds fire damage to arrows. The spell's icon and soundfiles remain in the final game, albeit unused.
• Cold Arrows: Adds cold damage to arrows. Still in the final game and used by Sylvanas.
• Black Arrow: Her ultimate ability came in the form of an arrow that stuns that targets, eventually killing them. Its unused text string in the Closed Beta of 2002 reads: "Damages and drains the life of a unit. If the unit reaches 0 hit points, the afflicted unit will go into a state of suspended animation, unable to move, attack and cast spells until the Black Arrow is dispelled. If the unit has 0 hit points when you dispel Black Arrow, it will die." Black Arrow was later added to the Expansion Pack with a completely different effect.

Despite being cut, elements of her are still in the game, Sylvanas in the campaign uses an edited version of the cut model and the Cold Arrows ability. Her texture remains in the game files and because Sylvanas uses the same model, modders have since managed to recreate the Ranger in fan-made maps and mods by simple retexturing. Her death sound file, named HeroRangerDeath, survived into the final game and is used by Sylvanas. The file was last modified on the 28th of August, 2000. One of her possible random names was "Somand Wayfinder" which is also one of the random names for the Dark Ranger hero introduced in the Expansion pack, perhaps hinting that all of the Dark Ranger random hero names were recycled from the Ranger.
Although not as an actual spell, Sylvanas once used a special arrow that she'd crafted on Arthas. The arrow stunned him, similar to how Black Arrow was supposed to work.

Her old Blizzard site entry reads:

These fearless Half-Elven women are masters of survival and wilderness exploration. Trained to hunt down renegade Orcs and Trolls in the wildlands of both Azeroth and Lordaeron, the Rangers are a force to be reckoned with. Being Half-Elven, the Rangers are often avoided by members of the High Elven stock. However, these crafty females make their home in the wilds and seldom feel the need for the distractions of camaraderie. Rangers are expert marksmen with the longbow and carry specially weighted bows and magically enhanced arrows.

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  The Ranger hero in the Alpha, can be clearly seen next to the left-most group of trees.

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  A group of Human units in the Alpha, among them the Ranger.

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  The Ranger hero in the Beta, using her Cold Arrows ability on a Tauren Chieftain.

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  The Ranger model.

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  Her texture can be found in the final game files, sadly unused.

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  Unused icon of Flaming Arrows from the final game.

Rifleman

No major differences. Riflemen originally had the Flare ability before it was given to the Mortar Team in the final game.

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  Riflemen in the Alpha

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  Ditto

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  Rifleman in the Beta. The Lordaeron crest was team-colored at some point, we see it as purple here.

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  Concept Art.

Sentinel

The Huntress was originally called The Sentinel and moved around on foot and had an Owl on her shoulder. She was given a mount in the final game, probably to fall in line with the races that have mounted units. The texture sheet of the Huntress still has Sentinel in its name. Interestingly, the Watchers in the final game use the same model of the Sentinel but without the Owl.

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  a Sentinel at the left of the campfire and...

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  ...near the statue's mouth.

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  Concept Art.

Shadow Hunter

This troll was the fourth Orc Hero before the developers decided he's better off scrapped from the game. He was planned to use wards and totems as a way of casting his spells, which were:

• Grim Ward: A ward that resurrects dead troops to fight again for you, including dead enemy units.
• Null Ward: A ward that dispels all magic effects of friend and foes within its radius.
• Shadow Ward: A ward that grants total invisibility to units.

Keen-eyed individuals will quickly find out that the icons for his first and third abilities in the first screenshot below became item icons in the final game. The second ability icon was later edited and given to the Healing Ward ability of the Witch Doctor.

Despite being cut from the base game, the Shadow Hunter was brought back for the expansion pack, this time however with different spells. The Shadow Hunter was supposed to use a newer model that was created for him in the Frozen Throne but for some reason Blizzard decided on using the older Reign of Chaos model. In Reforged, the Shadow Hunter's new model is based off the unused Frozen Throne model.
All of his voice lines in the Frozen Throne date back to the 27th of November, 2002. With the exception of his death sound, which dates back to 2nd of May, 2000. This hints that from his old voice lines heard at E3 2000, only the death sound was reused, the others were updated for the expansion pack.

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  The Shadow Hunter in the Alpha.

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  The Shadow Hunter in the Beta. This model was brought back for the expansion pack.

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  A large group of Orcs that includes the Shadow Hunter have corned this Abomination.

Shaman

The model of the campaign-exclusive Warlock was originally used by the Shaman. After the Spirit Walker was cut (see below), the Shaman took his model. Some of his spells were:

• System Shock : Might've been an early name for Purge.
• Earthquake : The same spell from the final game. It's easy to see why this was removed from a unit that could be massed by the player.
• Earth Bind : Binds an air unit to the ground. Its icon, sound and SFX effects can be found in the Closed Beta of 2002.

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  The Shaman in the Alpha, casting System Shock\Purge on a Murloc, or Trox as they were originally unknown.

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  Casting Earthquake in a Creep camp.

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  Casting the same spell, this time on a Gate.

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  The Shaman in the Beta, he took the Spirit Walker's model and Bloodlust from the Troll Witch Doctor.

Skeleton

TBD

Sorceress

The early description from the old Blizzard site suggests that the sorceress was originally a Human, not a High Elf. She had black hair in her old model from the first released screenshots, something very uncommon if not non-existent to elves. Some of her Spells were:

• Slow: The same spell from the final game.
• Invisibility: Ditto.
• Mind Bomb: Effected units explode when attempting to cast a spell, dealing damage to their surroundings.
• Summon Water Elemental: The same spell from the final game, it's easy to see why such a spell available to an easily-massed unit was removed.

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  Concept Art.

Spirit Walker

One of the planned heroes for the Orcs. The Spirit Walker goes into battle wearing a wolf mask and wolf skin covering his back and shoulders. After his removal, his model was given to the Shaman, the latter originally used a vastly different model that was repurposed for the Orc Warlock in the final game.
According to Rob Pardo, the Spirit Walker was cut because he overlapped the Shaman too much in gameplay. He would've had Banish and Regeneration Aura as his abilities. The former behaved like the human spell Exorcism but against demons, the latter allowed units with a certain radius to regenerate health. This might've been the only way for the Horde to regenerate hitpoints.
The Spirit Walker would later resurface in the expansion pack as a Tauren unit.

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  The Spirit Walker in the alpha. Unknown purple auras surrounds both him and the gnolls.

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  An intense bloody massacre between the Orcs and the Humans. The Spirit Walker is standing right next to The Blademaster.

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  Concept Art.

Steam Tank

TBD

Tauren

The Tauren was formerly named Minotaur and carried a ball on a chain as his weapon (Imagine a flail on steroids). The Tauren wasn't redesigned to his final game iteration until very late in development. He was also planned to have the Bull Rush ability, a rushing charge that stuns enemies..

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  In an Orc base, early Alpha.

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  Behind the Warlord.

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  Wrecking a tower, late Alpha. Notice his portrait.

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  About to wreck another tower.

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  In a party led by Cairn.

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  The same party against a Human base.

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  In the Beta, still carrying his old weapon.

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  In the Beta, the Tauren Chieftain had a spell that resurrects dead Tauren giving them this burning appearance.

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  Concept Art.

Tauren Chieftain

TBD

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  Concept Art.

Warlord

The Orc Warlord, alongside the Blademaster, was one of the first Orc Heroes to be revealed to the public in 1999. However, at some point he was cut from the game and his model (retextured to look like a Fel Orc) was reused for the totally unrelated Slave Master in the Human Campaign. He was cut, presumably, due to Blizzard reducing the number of heroes per faction from six to four to three of the final game. Some of his publicly known spells were:

• Bloodrage: Unknown effects. The icon of this spell (see screenshots below) is available in one of the Closed Beta builds of January 2002.
• Command Aura: Worked just like it did in the final game. The spell was later given to various Creep units when the warlord was cut.
• Death Scream: An area of effect spell. Effected friendly units emit a shriek that damages enemies.
• Howl of Fury: Unknown effects.
• Raging Scream: Increases the movement speed of nearby units.

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  The Warlord, early Alpha.

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  In an Orc base.

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  Up against pansy Humans.

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  Ditto.

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  Fighting the Mountain King, late Alpha.

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  The Warlord and the Crusader clashing. Both were cut from the game, sadly.

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  The Warlord and the Shadow Hunter. Again, both were cut.

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  Using one of his spells.

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  Using Raging Scream.

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  Behind the Catapults.

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  Using Blood Rage.

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  Leading a party of Wolf Riders.

Witch Doctor

Witch Doctors originally had no attack, making their supporting role more prominent. Witch Doctors were trained from the Spirit Lodge (Known back then as the Troll Lodge) but to unlock them, you'd have to build the Voodoo Lounge. They also had a different set of spells:

• Shadow Pact : Targeted friendly units receives invulnerability at the expensive of dropping their hitpoints to one. There's an item in the final game whose icon file is named Shadow Pact, it may've been its original icon.
• Bloodlust : The same spell from the final game was initially a Witch Doctor spell.
• Evil Eye : Places an invisible and immobile eye on the map. The eye stuns enemies in its vicinity. The spell was divided into Sentry Ward and Stasis Trap Ward in the final game.
• Ancestral Guardian : At one point this was a Tauren Chieftain spell which was later given to the Witch Doctor. It remained so until its removal in one of the patches for the Closed Beta. The spell is reintroduced in the expansion pack with the same effects but under a different name - Serpent Ward.

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  In front of the Troll Lodge, late Alpha.

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  In an Orc checkpoint.

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  Next to the Peons in the Beta.

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  Concept Art.

Wyvern Rider

Wyvern Riders had to dismount in order to attack, making such unit cumbersome to use and probably difficult to animate. Which is why there's no screenshot that shows them dismounting.

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  Concept Art.

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  Concept Art.

Buildings

Marketplace

The Marketplace has one button, a red question mark, selecting this buys your hero one randomly chosen item. This neutral building was cut but would appear again in the expansion pack, instead this time the player gets to know what item he's going to get.

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  Marketplace model in the Beta.

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  Our Tauren hero stops by the Marketplace to pick a new item for himself. Also shown the original Druid of the Talon model, both forms.

Spells

TBD

Items

Orb

A generically named Orb item from the Beta, its icon is also found in the final game. It doesn't seem to resemble any of the other orbs.

Ring of Intelligence

Obviously, this item would've increased the Intelligence stat of heroes but it's unknown by how much. No such ring exists in the final game. Its icon was mirrored, colored gold and given to another ring item that increases all stats, the Ring of Superiority.

Crown of Command

Doesn't seem to have survived into the final game, no idea how it worked.

Gallery

Early Alpha (Role-Playing-Strategy)

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  One of the very first screenshots, the player here has two Heroes under his command. The headhunter on the left had greenskin.

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  Perhaps this large dragon became the Frost Wyrm.

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  A detailed Orc settlement, notice the Cursor.

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  To the right of the campfire a Tauren can be seen, or a Minotaur as they were known originally.

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  Early models of almost everyone here, The Orc Warlord hero is shown here.

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  The Orcs barge into a Human base.

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  The Knights are carrying flails, just like in the first game.

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  Earliest appearance of the priest.

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  None of the doodads here made it into the final game.

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  A control bar was added at this point.

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  Notice the Sorceress with black hair.

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  Waterfalls of this magnitude never made it into the final game.

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  This large skull looks similar to what the Necromancer wears in the final game.

Late Alpha (Real-Time-Strategy)

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  Shown here the Ranger hero, early Dreadlord, early Abomination and the Cut Wraith unit.

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  A lighting spell is being cast either by the Spirit Walker.

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  Aftermath of the previous screenshot.

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  Buildings at this point are still not proportional to unit size. We see here not one but two cut Orc heroes!

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  Chronologically, this is the first screenshot of the Undead.

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  Trees weren't a resource back then, notice how they are clumped together.

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  Gnolls and Kobolds in a camp.

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  Dead pigs in an Orc base. Blood from dead units was less transparent.

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  Look here!

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  The game's art was being updated at this point. Which makes this screenshot...

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  ...and the next from early to mid 2001.

Beta

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  Early trees, skeleton warriors and archers, none skeletal Frost Wyrm and the cut carrion birds units.

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  Red Eredar Warlock. Cut from the game but resurfaced in the expansion pack. The Doomguard was originally called Balrog.

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  The game now closely resembles the final product with some subtle differences like the arrangement of the stat bar and trees models.

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  A human base.

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  An early Alter of Darkness behind the Dreadlord

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  A different Ziggurat model.

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  A newer Ziggurat model.

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  Early spirit tower model. Also shown here different map icons and the summon Skeleton Archers and Corpse Explosion spells for the Necromancer. Image dated 2001 December.

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  Humans mass teleporting into an undead base. Image dated May 2002.

Concept Art and Miscellaneous

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  Medivh and Garona.

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  3D render of Garona.

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  Succubus. Succubi later appear in the expansion pack.

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  Infernal concept art.

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  Warlock concept art.

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  Colored warlock concept art.

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  Concept art of an unknown human, thought to be Anduin Lothar.

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  Concept art and render of Thrall.

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  Night Elf Concept Art.

Placeholder

Until I finish their respective entries, these will stay here.

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  Forest Troll

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  Forge

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  Gargoyle

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  Gnolls

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  Great Hall

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  Meat Wagon

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  Ogrelord

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  Tauren Totem

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  Water Elemental

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  Necropolis

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  Altar of Kings

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  Human Factory

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  Human Gate

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  Human Houses

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  Tower of the Sky

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  Tower of the Sun

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  Town Hall

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  Orc Barracks

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  Orc Huts

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  Spirit Lodge

PC Accelerator - Warcraft III World Exclusive - April 2000

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E3 2000

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  Start Screen

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  The Beastiary was originally called Wyyern Roost.

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  The Hero Necromancer, then-builder of the Undead.

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  The Abomination Hero.

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  A human base with an early Keep, Ivory Tower and an unknown building.

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  The Observatory.

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  Early Wendigo and Ice Trolls models.

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  A human base with way too many Heroes. The Cage has an Orc inside.

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  Your main building originally produced most if not all units. Screenshot of The Odyssey map.

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  The Undead Dreadlord.

E3 2001

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  Start Screen

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  The Dragonhawk was originally called Wind Serpent and was part of the Human arsenal. They were brought back in the Expansion Pack after their role was reduced to campaign-exclusive. Notice the Altar model.

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  Many differences at this point, chief among them the lack of trees as a resource.

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  Ditto, zoomed-in.

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  Many of the content added in Expansion Pack was supposed to be in the base game. The Shadow Hunter hero is a testament to this. Notice the early Spirit Lodge model, which was given to the Voodoo Lounge in the Expansion Pack.

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  Select your map.

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  Perhaps the player is about to play in This Autumn version of the Dividing Line map.

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  Or maybe just the original Dividing Line.

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  Loading Screen.

The following are editor shots.

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Quotes

These were taken from the old Blizzard website.

Ranger

This one was last modified on the 21st of November, 2000.

Music

Alpha Tracks

Special thanks for Moritz Ernst Jacob for uploading those.

Was used for the end of the ECTS 1999 Trailer of Warcraft 3. It's the oldest known piece of Warcraft 3 soundtrack, since it predates September 5, 1999.

Videos

Special thanks to Hallfiry for collecting these videos on his unofficial Blizzard Archive.