Nononymous and KlazartSC

Hello fellow RTS enthusiasts!

KlazartSC

I would like to enlighten you to audio commentators to both Starcraft and Warcraft 3 that will change your entire perspective on the game(s).

KlazartSC is a Starcraft commentator on YouTube. He has a very large amount of videos. If you like fast-paced, in-the-moment commentary, this is the guy for you. Klazart can speak faster than anyone I've ever heard when the heat gets heavy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/KlazartSC

Nononymous

Nononymous is a Warcraft 3 audio commentator also on YouTube. I must say that he is the best commentator I have yet heard. He is funny, informative, and RTS-enthusiast nerdy. There is so much to learn from Nononymous that can be applied to W3 as well as other RTS. I strongly reccomend you check him out. For a small example of his stuff, see my article on the Human Hero: Archmage. There is a clip of a Nononymous commentary on that article.

http://www.youtube.com/user/nonnonymous

Enjoy!
-Kibble

Workers and YOU.

The Workers
OF WARCRAFT

"Ready to work!" Allow me to introduce to you our workers, from left to right: The Undead Acolyte, The Night Elf Wisp, The Orc Peon, The Human Militia and Peasant.

Without these units, you are nothing. Without you, these units are nothing. If an enemy player manages to kill all of your workers, you will lose the game. They are extremely important. You might think that all workers do is harvest gold/lumber and build buildings. This is only partially true. Those are workers' main jobs, but they also serve as tools for other things.

For example:



- The human peasant can turn into a Militia via Call to Arms! The Militia is a melee unit that hits equally as hard as a Footman. This is great, as Peasants cost 75 gold compared to a Footman that costs 135 gold. The problem is that Militia are on a timer, and so you can not bring them very far with your army before they turn back into Peasants. Nevertheless, Militia make for great early game fast creeping! You can pump out tons of little faux-Footmen to raid an orange-difficulty camp near your base. This is a quick and easy level 2 for your hero!

A common Human mistake is to use Call to Arms! via the Town Hall when an enemy attacks your base. This is generally a very bad idea. It clumps up all of your Peasants in a nice AOE-able spot, takes all of your Peasants off of mining gold and harvesting lumber, and it gives enemy heroes tons of xp as they pick your Peasants off one by one. To properly defend, select a handful of your lumber Peasants and use their own Call to Arms! ability. Always tell your Militia to return to work after their job is done!



- The Night Elf Wisp is a famous scout and is a powerful dispeller. They harvest lumber by spinning around a tree and absorbing its energy instead of cutting it down. This way, you can spread your Wisps all over the map, giving you a huge scouting radius while harvesting lumber at the same time. The Wisp ability Detonate causes the Wisp to explode, dispelling all buffs / debuffs around it and doing 225 damage to all summoned units around it! This is a fantastic tool for emergency dispel situations, or for saving a doomed scout Wisp from giving the enemy hero any experience.

Also, the Entangled Gold Mine is the structure that Night Elves use to harvest gold. It completely protects 5 Wisps from harm. If an enemy Blademaster, Footman, or other unit enters your base to attack your lumber Wisps, switch the ones that are about to die with a full health one hidden in the Entangled Gold Mine. This saves the low hp Wisp and gives you more time to return to base. You can do this 5 times before you run out of spots in the mine, so make sure you don't unload your low hp Wisps!




- The Orc Peon has the ability to hide in the Orc Burrows. From here, the Peons throw spears at nearby enemies. The spears do considerable damage against low armor units! This is a great tool for protecting your peons when they are under attack by an enemy worker harass. Similar to the Terran Bunkers in Starcraft, the Orc Burrow holds four Peons. Try not to take all of your workers off of harvesting, though! Much like the Militia swarm, you can quickly run out of resources if your Peons remain idle for too long. Always remember to bring your workers back out when the attack ends!

Undead players, pay attention. You need to know this.

- The Undead Acolyte is in the unfortunate situation of being the most vulnerable worker in Warcraft 3, along with having no real offensive ability of their own. At the Haunted Gold Mine, Acolytes stand in a ring around the outside of it, where they can be targeted and killed at any time. Acolytes cannot harvest lumber (that is the Ghoul's job). To protect your Acolytes, you must and I repeat must have good Ziggurat placement! Ziggurats are used as food, towers, and pathing blockers for the Undead army. Newer players are usually oblivious to the last of the three.

Yes, Acolytes must make a wall around the Haunted Gold Mine with Ziggurats and other buildings to keep units from killing them all. A paladin can use Divine Shield, run to the back of your base, and kill all of your Acolytes, and then use a Staff or a Scroll of Town Portal to escape. If he does this while your Necropolis is upgrading to tier 2 or tier 3, you will be unable to make more Acolytes to replace their fallen comrades, and your gold supply will drain to empty.

All is not doom and gloom for these robed cultists, however! Acolytes have ways around these thorny situations. You might have noticed that an Acolyte will instantly teleport to the empty spot in a Haunted Gold Mine when he is near it when you tell him to mine. You can use this to your advantage. If something begins to attack the Acolyte, you can run the Acolyte around the Gold Mine. The unit will follow. Next, you tell the Acolyte to mine again. He will teleport to the other side of the mine and begin mining again. This causes the attacking unit to run all the way around again, usually under fire from your Halls of the Dead, Black Temple, or Spirit Towers.

As a side note, you can use the Acolyte spell Unsummom Building to destroy a building you are no longer using and get some of the money back. If your expansion is going to be destroyed because you scouted that huge army coming toward it with a Shade, you can Unsummon all the buildings before the army gets there, saving you lots of money! If your hero gets stuck behind your Ziggurat wall, you can Unsummon one of them to get him out!

Happy reading!
-Kibble

Undead Hero: Dreadlord

Undead Hero
DREADLORD

Primary Stat: Strength
"The night beckons." O.k., not the most popular hero. Max Carrion Swarm damage is tough to pull off, Sleep can be interrupted, he has low DPS, and Vampiric Aura only affects melee units. Thus, the Dreadlord does not make it into the pro games very often albeit ever. However! Do not discredit him just yet. He can be a fantastic hero as any in the hands of the right player. He is a situational hero.

The primary advantage of the Dreadlord is (a) his tremendous healing aura on melee units, (b) his powerful CC ability that disrupts a players' flow of movements, and/or (c) a nuke that scales with how many units are in his frontal cone radius, great for large scale battles!

The main thing to know is that the Dreadlord is a Strength hero and a spellcaster, much like the Death Knight. He is not at all like the Tauren Chieftain or the Panda who can sustain quite a few blows before going down. The Dreadlord is rather squishy for a Strength hero. You must micro manage him well. The Hold Position hotkey H is good for the Dreadlord in big fights. The last place you want him is in the middle of a crowd, getting nuked with no where to run. Keep the Dreadlord on the outer areas of your army, where he can be safe while he carefully selects his abilities.

The Dreadlord's abilities are capable of quite a massive amount of damage. The trick is that he requires a bit of timing and positioning to pull it off. Compared to the Lich, the Dreadlord's nuke can inflict much more damage to an army than the Lich's Frost Nova can.

Abilities (Hotkey):

Carrion Swarm (C)
Sends a horde of bats to damage enemies, dealing more damage per unit hit.
Rank 1: 75 damage per unit, maximum of 300 damage
Rank 2: 125 damage per unit, maximum of 600 damage
Rank 3: 200 damage per unit, maximum of 1,000 damage

As you can see by the numbers, a rank 2 Carrion Swarm will kill all casters in it's radius if it hits at least four units. That is better than the Tauren Chieftain's Shockwave ability, which has gotten a reputation as the best caster killing hero ability.

If you are fighting an enemy massing spellcasters (Necromancers, Spirit Walkers, Sorceress / Priests, Druid of the Talon's), consider getting the Dreadlord as a 2nd hero instead of the Lich. Or if you know that the player you are up against likes to use spellcasters, then get the Dreadlord as your first hero! It's always fun to try a new strategy.



Sleep (E)
Puts a target enemy unit to sleep.
Rank 1: 20 seconds (5 seconds to heroes), 100 mana cost
Rank 2: 40 seconds (10 seconds to heroes), 100 mana cost
Rank 3: 60 seconds (15 seconds to heroes), 100 mana cost

Sleep is the illeged 'reason for getting a Dreadlord'. It seems like these trends just catch on, and no one goes for Carrion Swarm anymore. That's not to say that Sleep isn't grossly powerful in the right situation. If a hero is on his own, perhaps to show up at your base to harass you or is running around after creeping, you can cast Sleep on him and get a full hero surround. This will either force him to use his Scroll of Town Portal or it will kill him. Extremely powerful if you catch your enemy off his or her guard.

Unfortuantely, a player can wake up his own unit by ordering one of his units to attack the sleeping unit. It only has to be inflicted a minimum of 1 damage to wake. Not only that, Sleep has a highly diminished effect on enemy heroes.



Vampiric Aura (Passive)
Nearby friendly melee units heal hit points when they damage an enemy unit.
Rank 1: Heals for 15% of attack damage
Rank 2: Heals for 30% of attack damage
Rank 3: Heals for 45% of attack damage

The 'other' Dreadlord spell that you get. Vampiric Aura is great if you are using Ghouls, Skeletons, and/or Abominations. It does not work on any ranged unit! Like most heroes, you either choose the first spell or the second and get the passive ability as your 'other' ability. In this case, you get to choose whether you want a CC spell or an AOE damage spell. You have to get it, whether you benefit from it or not, because you will definitely not have enough mana to use Sleep and Carrion Swarm unless you have an inventory full of mana potions.



Inferno (F) (Ultimate)

The Dreadlord's Ultimate summons a powerful unit to join your army. The infernal is a beast. It can take a huge hunk of damage, and it is immune to magic. It has a passive immolation, so any units near it will slowly die. He hits like a truck, too! Like all Ultimates, it can decide the game in the event you get to level 6 before the enemy player does.

Counters against the Dreadlord: Demon Hunter

Happy reading!
-Kibbles

Unit Spotlight: Faerie Dragon

Night Elf Anti-Spellcaster
FAERIE DRAGON

Trained from: Ancient of Wind
Requires: Ancient of Wonders
Cost: 155 gold, 25 lumber
Population: 2 food

These little winged creatures are practically unknown to newer players of Warcraft 3. They are a more complicated unit to manage; much more complicated than an archer. The faerie dragon is a flying unit produced from the Ancient of Wind at tier 2. It is certainly not a one-strategy-fits-all unit. You will be wasting your money training one if the enemy has few spellcasters.

The faerie dragon's role in Warcraft 3 is to kill spellcasters. Its two main abilities and passive trait make it invincible against non-hero caster units.

Abilities (Hotkey):

Phase Shift (E)
Causes this unit to shift out of existence whenever it takes damage. While out of existence, this creature cannot: attack, move, cast spells, be attacked, or have spells cast upon it.

This ability is on autocast by default. It simply protects the Faerie Dragon from all the non-spellcasters that try to kill it. This ability makes it very frustrating for the enemy to kill the Faerie Dragon. It literally disappears from the game for a second, causing all enemy units to attack other things. There is one unit, the suicidal Troll Bat-rider that can one-shot a Faerie Dragon. If you see Bat-riders coming at your Faerie Dragon, hit your E key command to save it. The auto-cast will not preemptively go off.




Mana Flare (F)
Causes the Faerie Dragon to channel negative magical energies that damage nearby enemies when they cast spells. Also increases the Faerie Dragon's armor by 12.

Splash Damage Radius: 20
Unit Damage Per Point of Mana Used: 3
Hero Damage Per Point of Mana Used: 1
Max Damage Per Unit: 90
Max Damage Per Hero: 50

The main reason for getting a Faerie Dragon. It is not well understood by newer players, so please read on. This spell turns your little Dragon into a hardened electric ball. It gains a massive armor bonus, making it very difficult to kill. Troll Bat-riders can't one-shot the Faerie Dragon in this form. The Dragon cannot move while he is casting Mana Flare.

To use Mana Flare, you must position the Faerie Dragon over the enemy army and hit the hotkey F to activate it. The Dragon will turn into a little ball and every time a spellcaster uses an ability, they get zapped based on how much mana they used. If a sorceress uses Polymorph under a Faerie Dragon, she will be hit for 66o damage (Polymorph costs 220 mana, x3). Sorceresses can have a max of 405 hp, so this will kill her in one shot. The zap also does splash damage to all units around the sorceress for a lesser amount. Only one zap can fire off at a time.




Spell Immunity (Passive)

As an added bonus, the Faerie Dragon is immune to all magic spells and attacks!


Happy reading!
-Kibble

About Me

Warcraft 3 Player

GRASS_ROOTS

Screen name: Grass_Roots
Race: Night Elf

For your race...
Fav Hero: Keeper of the Grove
Fav Unit: Faerie Dragon
Fav Building: Moonwell or Ancient of Wonders

For your enemy...
Fav. Hero to Kill: Orc Blademaster
Fav. Unit to Kill: Human Peasant or Orc Spirit Walker
Fav. Race to 1v1: Orcs
Least favorite to 1v1: Humans

Hired to kill...
Fav. Tavern Hero: the Tinker
Fav. Mercenary: Mud Golem or Troll Shadow Priest
Fav. item from the shop: Invulnerability Potion
Fav. Machine from the Lab: Goblin Sappers


:D
Happy reading!
-Kibble

Unit Spotlight: Sorceress

Human Spellcaster

SORCERESS

Trained from: Arcane Sanctuary
Requires: Research to Tier 2 (Keep)
Cost: 155 gold, 20 lumber
Population: 2 food

"The flows of magic are whimsical today." I thought I would do a unit spotlight on the Sorceress first because she is one of my favorite units in the game. There is certainly a bias towards spellcasters when it comes to my unit favorites. The Sorceress is the Human equivalent of the Undead Banshee, Orc Shaman, and Night Elf Druid of the Talon. She starts out with one spell available, like all spellcasters in Warcraft 3, and gains two more after research. Her starting spell is Slow, followed by Invisibility in Sorceress Adept Training (Rank 1). She gets Polymorph at Sorceress Master Training (Rank 2). Each rank gives her a larger mana pool as well.

Now, why is the Sorceress so special? She is good because of a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is that she fights alongside the Archmage. If you read my hero article on the Archmage, you would know that his Brilliance Aura dumps mana into all units around him. This includes the Sorceress, who spams her abilities like crazy during a battle. Without the Archmage, she is an O.K. unit. Her mana can run dry, especially when Polymorph comes into play. However, Brilliance Aura keeps her topped off throughout a match, giving the Humans an untold advantage. She does not work very well against an enemy Human mirror match. Spell Breakers will rip the poor Sorceress army to shreds. Against Orcs, Night Elves, and Undead however, she is quite potent.

Abilities (Hotkey):

Slow (W)
Slows a target enemy unit's attack rate by 25% and movement speed by 60%.

Slow is on autocast by default, so whenever the sorceress goes into combat, she casts it on any enemy unit that does not allready have it on them. Autocast can be disabled by right-clicking on the spell icon. If the enemy does not have a unit that can dispell this magic debuff, their army will be in serious trouble. This spell lowers an army's DPS by 25% and makes them unable to escape a battle by running away. Slow is autocast as I said before. Dispell is not autocast on any unit except the Night Elf Dryad, and the Ai (Artificial Intellegence) autocasts dispell rather poorly. So this means that the player will have to manually dispell their army, going to a lot of work only to have the sorceresses put Slow on the enemy units again. It's a fantastic spell.



Invisibility (I) Requires Sorceress Adept Training
Makes a target unit invisible. If the unit attacks, uses an ability or casts a spell, it will become visible.

This spell is under used and under rated. It's very unfortunate that not too many players see the power of the Adept trained Sorceress. Units can scout without worry of being picked off by the enemy or creeps for one. Secondly and most importantly, sorceresses can use invisibilty on units that are about to die in a battle. The unit will take loads of damage and then poof. The unit dissappears right under the enemy player's nose. It is free to run back to base or wait a safe distance away for the fight to end. Lastly, if the Archmage gets to level 6, an invisible unit can run into an enemy base or expansion and crash land the entire Human army at the enemy player's most vulnerable spot. 20 seconds later, the army can escape with another Mass Teleport to safety if needed.



Polymorph (O) Requires Research to Tier 3 (Castle) and Sorceress Master Training
Turns a target enemy unit into a sheep or flying sheep. The targeted unit retains its hit points, but cannot attack. Cannot be cast on Heroes or Summoned units.

Contrasting the adept-trained invisibility, the master-trained Polymorph is slightly overrated but no less powerful sorceress spell. By the time you have gotten to master training on your sorceresses, your enemy has probably scouted your small batallion of spellcasters. A good player would have gotten a unit capable of dispelling magic by now. However, it still causes people to have to manually dispell things while you get to focus on the killing spree. And hey! If you are able to sheep all the dispell units, then you are at a huge advantage! The downside is that Polymorph costs 220 mana, which is a lot. Without the Archmage's aura, you get about 2 polymorph per Sorceress (who have a max of 400 mana with master training). If you want to use this as a strategy, you better have a Brilliance Aura Archmage to back it up!


Happy reading!
- Kibble

Special Thanks

Special thanks to:

Mojo StormStout's Warcraft 3 Manual for Stats and Pictures.

Nononymous Warcraft 3 Audio Commentator on YouTube for strategies and tips!

Undead Hero: Death Knight

Undead Hero

DEATH KNIGHT

Primary Stat: Strength
"The pact is sealed!" The main power from the Undead race comes from their heroes. Of all the heroes in Warcraft 3, the Undead heroes are fit to work as a team to become extraordinarily powerful. The Death Knight (DK) is by most players standards, a very strong and well-balanced hero in the Undead army. He has powerful spells, but he is a Strength hero. His mana bar is not very big, and he can not use his spells as often as say, the Lich (Undead's Intelligence hero).

Specializing in keeping his fellow undead soldiers alive, the Death Knight typically sits to the side of battle or in the back lines by more cautious players. Undead are known for having very few healing options. The Death Knight and the Obsidian Statue are the only two units in the Undead army that can heal, and he cannot use Death Coil on himself. If he wants to regain health, the Death Knight must sacrifice one of his own fellow units.

Abilities (Hotkey):




Death Coil (C):
A coil of death that can damage an enemy living unit or heal a friendly undead unit.
Rank 1: Damages 100 or heals 200 hit points
Rank 2: Damages 200 or heals 400 hit points
Rank 3: Damages 300 or heals 600 hit points

Death Coil is the main reason why people choose a Death Knight as one of their three heroes, usually the first. A fun strategy is to get the Lich as the second Undead hero, stack him with items such as Invulnerability Potion so that he does not die, and use Frost Nova and Death Coil in unison on an enemy unit. The focus fire will obliterate the unit. This spell can also heal up an Undead unit for an obscene amount. Make sure you know who you are fighting when you are using Death Coil. You cannot use it on another Undead player to damage them. It will not heal your enemy Undead player if you try, but simply give you an error message. Managing the undead forces is much more difficult without the healing power from Death Coil to save units from focus fire.




Death Pact (E):
Kills a target friendly unit, giving a percentage of its hit points to the Death Knight.
Rank 1: 100% conversion
Rank 2: 200% conversion
Rank 3: 300% conversion

This has got to be the most tragically underrated ability in Warcraft 3. Thanks to the awesome power of Death Coil and Unholy Aura, Death Pact has gone by the wayside. As you might or might not know, the Death Knight can not use Death Coil on himself. The only way to heal him is by standing on blight to regen health, be healed by an Obsidian Statue, or to use Death Pact. This makes him a good target for focus fire. At rank 2 it is virtually impossible to kill a DK and at rank 3 it is impossible so long as he has a unit around and has mana.




Unholy Aura (Passive)
Increases the movement speed and life regeneration rate of nearby friendly units.
Rank 1: +10% Movement Speed and 0.5 health per second
Rank 2: +20% Movement Speed and 1.0 health per second
Rank 3: +30% Movement Speed and 1.5 health per second

Unholy Aura is the Death Knight's 'other' ability, much like Evasion for the Demon Hunter, Critical Strike for the Blademaster and Brilliance Aura for the Archmage. This aura is quite powerful though. Your army slowly gains health over time, and moves very fast. Enemy players have a hard time fleeing from an Undead army led by a Death Knight. Undead players usually get this ability instead of Death Pact because of these reasons and the fact that the Death Knight cannot sustain the mana cost of Death Coil and Death Pact in unison.




Animate Dead (D) (Ultimate):
Raises 6 dead units in an area to fight for the Death Knight. Animated units are invulnerable.

Ultimates are typically quite deadly, but this one falls short in most situations. The Death Knight must make sure that there are around six corpses around him, and that he can actually use the animated corpses after he raises them. They are completely invincible, and run on a timer. This spell is best used in the middle of a large scale battle after a few units have fallen on both sides (Yes, it raises the enemy's dead units as well). It can tip the scales by helping finish off an enemy army or killing all their defense towers and workers.

Happy reading!
-Kibble

Orc Hero: Blademaster

Orc Hero
BLADEMASTER

Primary stat: Agility
"My-a Blade Seeks Vengeance!" Behold, the Blademaster (BM). This Warcraft 3 Hero has been making people cry on forums since the game's release. He is arguably the most overpowered hero in the game. Why? It is because the Blademaster can move extremely fast, while invisible, and can kill units in about two hits. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it) the Blademaster is a gear dependant hero. His power amplifies by what kind of drops he gets from creeps.

Choosing the Blademaster as a first hero is good when you know you are on a map that drops a lot of good Blademaster items (Echo Isles is the best). Claws of Attack and Gloves of Haste are what you are looking for. Also, don't be afraid to shadow the enemy's creeping party. Know which creep drops the loot, and wait until your enemy brings the creep down to very low health and pop out of invisibility on the unit, killing it. Then take the loot before the player can react and return to invisibility. Be wary though, the enemy could have Dust of Appearance on them, which reveals stealthy units in a nearby radius to the hero using it.

Abilities (Hotkey):

Wind Walk (W):
Allows the Blademaster to become invisible, and move faster for a set amount of time. When the Blademaster attacks a unit to break invisibility, he will deal bonus damage.
Rank 1: +10% movement speed, invisibility, and 40 extra damage on opening attack
Rank 2: +40% movement speed, invisibility, and 70 extra damage on opening attack
Rank 3: +40% movement speed (same as rank 2), invisibility, and 100 extra damage on opening attack

*Let it be noted that rank 3 Wind Walk does not make you go any faster while invisible. Rank 2 hits the speed cap on Heroes, so you will be haulin' at rank 2. Only get rank 3 if you want the extra 30 damage opening attack. Rank 3 Critical Strike is a better choice for level 5 though.

Wind Walk is your core ability as a BM. It gives you supreme map awareness, allows you to steal creep kills & items, and the extra damage boost can almost one-shot weaker units. Be wary of where you go when you are invisible, you're not always safe! Undead have shades that are invisible themselves but can reveal you to them. Night Elves have Huntress Sentinels and Dust of Appearance. Humans have stealth detection towers and Flying Machines. Use your Wind Walk to kill workers, weaklings, and certain creeps that drop fatty lootz.




Mirror Image (R)
Rank 1: Creates 1 illusion.
Rank 2: Creates 2 illusions.
Rank 3: Creates 3 illusions.

Less proficient Blademaster users typically go for Mirror Image at level 1 to tank creeps because Orcs have limited healing options. The only good source of healing comes from Healing Salves purchased at the Voodoo Lounge (which you made, right?) at tier 1. It can be used to dupe your enemy into returning to their base to ward off a false Blademaster attack. More experienced players can always tell when it is an illusion or not unfortunately, which degrades the usefulness of the ability. Using the spell also clears the Blademaster of snares. Illusions are useful for scouting the map, confusing the enemy, and taking the damage away from your main units when creeping.



Critical Strike (Passive)
Gives a 15% chance that the Blademaster will do more damage on his attacks.
Rank 1: 2 times normal damage
Rank 2: 3 times normal damage
Rank 3: 4 times normal damage

Critical Strike is the Blademaster's 'other' ability, much like Brilliance Aura for the Archmage. This causes his auto-attack to have a chance to hit much much harder. If the Blademaster gets a string of critical strikes in a row, he can take out the strongest of units on his own. Unfortunately, the BM simply does not have the mana capacity to be using both Mirror Image and Wind Walk in combat. With the limited effectiveness of Mirror Image, the typical ability choices for the Blademaster are:
Level 1 - Wind Walk
Level 2 - Critical Strike
Level 3 - Wind Walk (Rank 2)
Level 4 - Critical Strike (Rank 2)
Level 5 - Critical Strike (Rank 3)
Level 6 - Bladestorm
Level 7 - Whatever you want from here




Bladestorm (B) (Ultimate):
Causes a bladestorm of destructive force around the Blademaster, rendering him immune to magic and dealing 110 damage per second to nearby enemy land units.

Again, Ultimates can decide games. The BM's Ultimate, Bladestorm, is a powerful whirlwind that can devastate an entire army or base should the BM choose to use it. You cannot stop a Blademaster when he is using Bladestorm other than by killing him. He will probably be killing you though. Armies must move away from a Bladestorm or they will get decimated. Too many times have I seen this ability win a game by wiping the enemy clean with a well positioned storm.

Happy reading!
-Kibble

Human Hero: Archmage

Human Hero

ARCHMAGE

Primary stat: Intelligence
"This had better be worth it!" Antonidas and his Kirin Tor followers of Archmagi are certainly the backbone of almost every Human game. The AM (Archmage) is the best Intelligence hero for humans or even perhaps the entire game. No matter which ability you choose - Blizzard or Summon Water Elemental, you are sure to cause a healthy amount of devastation in your wake. The Archmage can restore mana to his entire army and fellow heroes. Upon reaching level 6, humans will suddenly have access to complete map control with Mass Teleport. If you are thinking of playing the Human race and don't want to play around with the Archmage's awesome power -- think again.

Abilities (Hotkey):



Blizzard (B):
Rank 1: 6 ice waves, 30 damage each.
Rank 2: 8 ice waves, 40 damage each.
Rank 3: 10 ice waves, 50 damage each.

Blizzard is one of the strongest AoE spell in Warcraft 3. Unfortunately, the ability will damage both enemy and allied units. Proper positioning of the spell will cause max damage. Some problems with Blizzard include that it can be interrupted with a stun / silence, the enemy can run out of it's radius, and it hurts your own units should they run under the falling ice. This spell is recommended for more advanced players to get at level 1. A common strategy is to get Summon Water Elemental at levels 1 and 3, but at level 5 the AM gets a Tome of Retraining from the item shop and gets rank 3 Blizzard instead of Rank 3 Summon Water Elemental. Rank 3 Blizzard can destroy an army on it's own. It's insane.




Summon Water Elemental (W):
Rank 1: 525 hit points
Rank 2: 675 hit points, hits harder than rank 1
Rank 3: 900 hit points, hits harder than rank 2

Water Elementals are great for early creeping and harassing enemy workers. They have a lot of hit points and have pretty decent DPS. This spell is the preferred choice to a level 1 Archmage. Something to note for the spell: you can have up to three elementals up at once! The spell does have a 20 second cooldown between each time you can summon an elemental, but after 40 seconds you can have three elementals ready for battle. The elementals last for 60 seconds, so by the time the third one is out, the first elemental has 20 seconds left (assuming you used the spell immediately after each cooldown). This spell is used by the pros, including champion Human player Sky.




Brilliance Aura:
Rank 1: 0.75 mana per sec. to all nearby units
Rank 2: 1.50 mana per sec. to all nearby units
Rank 3: 2.25 mana per sec. to all nearby units

Brilliance Aura is the standard 'other ability' that a player gets for his Archmage. You choose either Blizzard or Summon Water Elemental. Then in between rank-ups for the one you choose, you get Brilliance Aura at level 2, 4, and 7. Humans have extremely powerful spellcasters in their arsenal: the Sorceress, the Priest, and the Spell Breaker. All can run out of mana very quickly when using their abilities over and over. With Brilliance Aura, you can use their spells as much as you want without worry! Brilliance Aura is a must for any smart Human player with an Archmage.




Mass Teleport (T) (Ultimate):
Teleports 24 of the player's nearby units, including the Archmage, to a friendly ground unit or structure.

Ah, yes. The sheer ownage of Mass Teleport is one for any Warcraft fan to behold. As you might have learned from RTS strategy, map presence is a crucial part of winning games. You simply can't be everywhere at once. Well, with Mass Teleport, you can! Tip: the Sorceress spell Invisibility does not get canceled when Mass Teleport is used on an invisible unit. You can cast Invisibility on a footman, run him into the middle of the enemy base, and Mass Teleport your army of Steam Tanks right on top of that Tree of Eternity/Fortress/Black Citadel/Castle and win the game. It has a very short cooldown for an ultimate: 20 seconds! You can literally pop around the map as you please. This spell will definitely turn over the game to you if you manage your Archmage all the way to level 6 to get it.

Happy reading!

*Video* For a look on how to use a Tome of Retraining, Summon Water Elemental and Blizzard very effectively, check out this match between Sky and Infi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8ZaSPpWSw

-Kibble

Night Elf Hero: Demon Hunter

Night Elf Hero

DEMON HUNTER

Primary Stat: Agility
The Demon Hunter is the core hero and unit of the Night Elf army. He is definitely the most commonly used hero. He has the highest DPS of all Night Elf heroes, a very strong Mana Burn ability, and reaching level 6 to get his Ultimate can cause enemy players to immediately leave the game knowing they have lost. He is extremely powerful! If you want to learn to play Night Elves, make sure you practice with the Demon Hunter.

Abilities (Hotkey):

Mana Burn (B)
Sends a bolt of negative energy that burns a target enemy unit's mana. Burned mana combusts, dealing damage to the target equal to the amount of mana burned.
Rank 1: Burns 50 Mana
Rank 2: Burns 100 Mana
Rank 3: Burns 150 Mana

This ability is one of the two major reasons for rolling a DH (Demon Hunter) each game (The other being his rock star DPS). Mana burn can make enemy heroes and spellcasters useless during a major battle. Some heroes are extremely mana-dependent, and you should always use Mana Burn on those heroes first. A common mistake to make as a DH is to Mana Burn a unit that is allready out of mana. This wastes more of your mana then it does to them. If you are fighting a hero, check how much mana he has before you waste your burn.

This spell is especially good against: The Keeper of the Grove, Warden, Tauren Chieftain, Far Seer, Shadow Hunter, Death Knight, Lich, Dreadlord, Paladin, Archmage, Bloodmage, Mountain King.







Immolation (L)
Engulfs the Demon Hunter in flames, causing damage to nearby enemy land units. Drains mana until deactivated.
Rank 1: 10 damage per sec.
Rank 2: 15 damage per sec.
Rank 3: 20 damage per sec.

Immolation is a strong ability against clumped up units. This is a toggled ability, you turn it on and off depending on the situation. Unfortunately, Immolation ticks away your mana as long as it is active. The DH does not have a huge mana pool, and he can run out of mana if Immolation is used improperly. This will leave him unable to cast the almighty Mana Burn. I usually do not get Immolation until level 7 because I simply don't encounter enough situations where it is very useful. It's great to use on workers or clumps of creeps, and I certainly do not discourage someone from getting it at level 2, 4, and 7 if they should so desire. You just have to watch your mana bar a little more carefully.

This spell is especially effective against: Peasants, Militia, Peons, Clumps of Footmen, Grunts, Ghouls, Archers, and well, any clumped up unit in mass.




Evasion (Passive)
Rank 1: 10% the enemy will miss it's attack
Rank 2: 20% the enemy will miss it's attack
Rank 3: 30% the enemy will miss it's attack

Not much to say about Evasion. It's a good passive ability that makes the DH a little harder to kill. It has saved my DH from a killing blow in a game once, and I was able to get away and ended up winning that particular game.

Useful against: Units attacking the Demon Hunter.




Metamorphosis (T) (Ultimate)
Transforms the Demon Hunter into a powerful demon with a ranged attack (60 range) and 500 bonus hit points.

This ability is beastly. The DH becomes a ranged hero with a chaos attack type, which does full damage to all armor types! This ability is only able to be trained at level 6, so don't expect to get it in every match up. It turns the tide of battle more so than most Hero Ultimates.

Thanks for reading!
-Kibble

Introduction and Terminology

Hello fellow RTS enthusiast!

I am a Warcraft 3 and Starcraft fanatic. Both are excellent RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games! In this blog, I will go over various units, build orders, strategies, tips, and tactics for both Warcraft 3 and Starcraft! Any feedback is much appreciated in the comments section.

A few terms you need to know are:

Macro: The "big picture" control of your army, resources, technology, expansions, etc.

Micro: The focus control of individual units' movements, actions, and abilities.

Spam: Repeatedly using a spell or ability.

Buff: A spell put on a unit that makes them stronger, such as the Priest spell Inner Fire or the Science Vessel ability Defense Matrix.

Debuff: A spell put on an enemy that inhibits its actions in some way, such as the Banshee spell Curse or the Defiler ability Plague.

Hero: A special unit found in Warcraft 3. Much more powerful than other units, each player can have a max of 3 heroes per game, and only one of each type per game.

CC: Crowd control. This means that you take enemy units out of a fight by turning them into sheep or banishing them into the nether for a short time.

Dispel: An ability found in every race in Warcraft 3. Dispelling critical buffs & debuffs can win you the game.

Happy reading!
-Kibble