Auto-heal is definitely not a must have nope...
If lust is too powerfull then the problem is Lust, and you can make it fair by increasing it's mana cost to avoid it being always up while also decreasing it's value added per mana spent.
In the same way Heal would be a perfectly fine spell if it actually healed. and did not cost 6 mana points per hit point healed.
Start by making the value in damage dealt/healed per mana spent of heal and exorcism actually align with all the other spells in the game and then we can talk about changing/adapting/butchering the mechanics of the game or the way it plays.
Stop wanting to make warcraft 2 another game please...
You do not need different races in a strategy game for it to be interesting I would actually argue the opposite, Chess and Go has been played for ages and feature exactly the same pawns on both sides war2 is not very far from that actually.
Warcraft 2's unique beauty relies on its simplicity: every unit in in war2 is useful, serves a purpose and is used in multiplayer at every level of play. In almost every single game that reaches late game you see them all. Just because you have a core unit type (ogres/grunts or simple pawns in chess) does not mean you dont need everything you have around them to win.
If you were to add 2 units you have to find them a role to play and give them a strategical value that other units do not already cover, you have to make sure that their existence does not impair or render useless another preexisting unit. Or do you just want to add stuff for the sake of it? ( like in AOE where units litterally replace other units to a point that you see more than half the roaster being just ignored in multiplayer competitive games )
On the same note Starcraft and Wc3 have about the same number of units per race than war2, except that in one game you will probably never see all of them needed and used at once like you do in war2... There is beauty in that simplicity in design every piece at your disposal is truly valuable and allow you to manage the board in its own way.
War2 is not one of these new pseudo-strategical games that keep coming (Iron harvest etc...) that were designed with the looks and the cool story in mind almost uniquely...
War2 is a strategy game first and foremost. You could remove the races entirely from war2 and put simple chess pawns in place of the units and the game would still be interesting to play and watch... And yes, even with a spell like bloodlust being OP because ogres still die to drakes and dks or canon towers and they cant go over water alone either.
If you cannot see that, I feel sorry for you for what you have been missing on all these years, but maybe it is time to open your eyes...
Point is, I totally support Mistral and IL for the way they are dealing with this:
It is a very good and cool thing that players will be able to make their own scenarios and maps with all these things, but we do not have to butcher the game for everyone else based on one person's opinion or tastes...
