-Added difficulty settings (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Hardcore) which are chosen in-game prior to starting the first encounter. The higher the difficulty chosen the less effective Bottomless Healing Potions and Mana Nukes become. You will also begin with fewer lives on higher difficulty settings. The specifics are further explained in-game.
-Alongside the new difficulty settings are 2 new game modes: Boss Rush (a speedrun mode in which only Bosses are faced) and PvP (a short player vs player mode that sets Heroes at level 16 and pits them against one another in FFA arena-style combat).
-Added a new encounter, The Sanctuary, which is 1 of 3 possible second stages (selected at random).
-Added 2 new spells to Spell Shop #2: Illuminate and Natural Order.
-Removed Wish from Spell Shop #1.
-Added new level 6 abilities for the Wraith and Infected Pandaren: Torch Shot and Blitz.
-Decreased the stun duration and amount healed by the Harbinger's level 6: Darklight.
-Decreased the stun duration and damage dealt by the Devil Tamer's level 6: Dark Impact. However, the summoned unit's attacks now Cleave.
-Bone Gambler Fire Mages are no longer capable of damaging allies. Additionally, the fire left behind by their attacks, has a smaller radius and causes significantly higher damage.
-Bone Gambler Archers no longer have the Fever Pitch ability, but they attack much faster.
-Fever Pitch now causes the Hero to take 50% extra damage while active.
-Thunder Sweep, Wrath, Incinerate, and Ride the Lightning now receive bonus damage based on maximum mana.
-Limited the number of possible bounces that Incinerate and Ride the Lightning can achieve when striking Heroes.
-Burn the Dead, in addition to detonating nearby corpses, now summons an allied unit that slows enemies and explodes on death.
-Increased the chance for Coercion to activate when attacking enemy units and added a chance for it to deal extra damage when attacking enemy Heroes.
-Heart Thief awards 40% health and mana, instead of the regular values, when an enemy Hero is killed.
-Intensive Training now instantly awards attributes when an enemy Hero is killed.
-Increased the overall damage output of Firewall, Shards of Winter, War Cry, Whirlwind, Wrath, Pestilence, Quickfire, Spark Pulse, and Wind Armor.
-Decreased the overall damage output of Twitch Bolts, Surge, and Arcanist.
-Adjusted a number of spell cooldowns for the sake of balance across all game modes.
-Removed the walls surrounding the Summoning Beacons on the Battlefield and replaced the raised terrain formerly behind them with trees. Altogether this creates a wider combat space and allows for freer movement.
-Replaced the flying Iron Warbird units on the Battlefield with ground-based Iron Golems.
-Fixed an issue with overlapping Hero choices that could have potentially resulted in a player ending up without a Hero.
-Corrected Gate collision (so that attacking a Gate while appearing "inside" of it is no longer possible).
-Fire Wagons no longer explode on death.
-Increased the overall difficulty of the Final Boss encounters.