It has been a long time since Warcraft III had a new patch but it seems that its imminent release was no joke.

It seems Blizzard is pushing communication between developers and gamers as Blizzard Representative Karune posted on the Blizzard forums earlier today the exact status of the patch as well as some other details.

This is what Karune has to say:

"A new year has begun and with that a promise was made to get the next Warcraft III patch out to our fans. During this process, I also hope I can shed some light on how the patching process works. On this thread, I will leave updates and announcements which will hopefully give you more insight into the status of this Warcraft III patch.

Warcraft III Patch Status

Gathering Community Feedback: Done
Gathering E-Sports Players Feedback: Done
Internal QA Testing: Done
Development Feedback: Done
Patch Development: In Progress
Final Internal QA: N/A

January 7th, 2008 - Met with the producer and was assured that the Warcraft III patch completion is to be brought up this week during their priority tasking meeting. The outcome of the meeting will be brought to my attention and then added on this thread. All estimated release times will also be added on this thread."

Only time will tell how drastic any patch changes might be.

Blizzard WC3 Forums