D3scene - Warcraft 3 Strategies

Warcraft 3 (Terminology and Phrases) (Build Help)Part 2 the Great Massive Guide

soygamer — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:14:36 GMT

Terminology and Phrases

bm = Bad Mannar (or Bad Manners, meaning rude)

gm = Contrary to BM, it is Good Mannar (or Good Manners, meaning polite)

gosu = Elite, or very good.

pwnage = Derived from many FPS games back in the day, it means "ownage", which is derived from "own", which means "beaten badly".

ff = Focus Fire, meaning to focus all attacks on a single target.

gg = Good Game, which is usually a term used at the end of the game, signifying defeat, or "the white flag" and stating it was a good game. Can be also used by the winning person(s) to signify is was a good game, and to be polite about it.

nj = Nice job, signifying that either you or your opponent has won the game, a battle of some sort has been one, or simply that he's patting you on the back.

gg no re = A very advanced term, it means "Good game, no rematch," meaning that you aren't even worth the time for a rematch. Mostly used for comical purposes and not meant for MUCH harm.

gl = Good luck, which is usually used at the beginning of a game, signifying that you wish your opponent good luck through the game.

hf = Have fun, which is also usually used at the beginning of a game, signifying you them to have fun. Usually used in conjunction with "gl", becoming "glhf" or "gl and hf"

imba = imbalanced

tier #(1,2,3) = The levels of one's Town Hall.

bs = Bullsh*t

cheesy = Something that is much harder to counter than it is to
pull off, or as msot people refer to it as, overpowered, or unbalanced.

w00t or woot = Term used by "1337" [refer to next line] players,
meaning an expression of accomplishment or happiness, sort of like "whooo"

1337 = Elite.

AoE = Area of Effect, which means large area-effecting spells, such
as Blizzard, Flamestrike, or Rain of Fire.

BM's

PBM = Pandaren Brewmaster.
Bmage = Blood Mage.
BldM = Blademaster.
BstM or BstMstr = Beast Master.

Thanks to PantherDen:

|337 alphabet:

A: @, 4, /-\
B: l3, I3, 13
C: (
D: l), I), |)
E: 3
F: |=
G: ?
H: |-|
I: l, |, 1
J: ?
K: |<
L: |_
M: /\/\
N: |\|
O: 0
P: ?
Q: ?
R:12
S: 5
T: 7
U: |_|
V: \/
W: \/\/
X: >< ?
Y: ?
Z: ?

there are probably more, but these are some of the most common forms.

Thanks to Pitboss_2000

Smilies:

T_T, t.t, TT or tt : Crying. (The 'T's are the eyes with a tear dripping from them. t.t or tt is just a lazy form of T_T )

^_^ or ^^: happy face. Also ^______^ if you're very happy

>_< or ><: unhappy face (A guy in channel called it the 'constipated face'). As with the happy face, it can also be >______<. I use it when I would say 'Doh*'

O_O: Surprised

O_o: puzzled

-_- or -.- Annoyed, a bit like this: This one -_-;; is sweating, I believe.

Custom Game Terms:

TD - tower defense
ETS, FTS - Enfo's/Fuza's Team Survival
Obs - Observers
im saving - saving up money to get some uber item/tower
rm/rh - remake/rehost
DOTA: Defense Of The Ancients
ToB - Tides of Blood
DD - Dark Deeds
DDS - Dark Deeds Score; a new feature in version 5, where you get benefits if you play the game a lot.

ORC:

Heroes:
BlM = Blade Master
FS = Farseer
SH = Shadow Hunter
TC = Tauren Chieftain

Units:
Grunt = Grunt
HH = Head Hunter
Zerk/Zerkers = Berserkers
Cats/Demols = Catapults/Demolishers (interchangeable)
Shams = Shamans
Docs = Witch Doctors
Walkers = Spirit Walkers
Wyvs = Wyverns/Wind Riders
Kodo = Kodo
Raider = Raider
Bats = Bat Riders
Tauren = Tauren

Buildings:
Hall = Great Hall/Strong Hold/Fortress
Rax = Barracks
Mill = War mill
Burrrow = Burrows
Lodge = Spirit Lodge
Beast = Beastiary
Totem = Tauren Totem
Tower = Watch Tower

Spells:
WW = Wind Walk
MI = Mirror Image
CS = Critical strike
BS = Blade Storm
Wolves = Feral Spirit
Sight = Far Sight
CL = Chain lightning
EQ = Earth Quake
Hex = Hew
Ward = Serpent Ward
Wave = Heal Wave
Voodoo/BBV = Big Bad Voodoo
Stomp = War stomp
Wave = Shock Wave
EA = Endurance Aura
Res = Resurrection

Sentry = Sentry Ward
Stasis/Trap = Stasis Trap
Heal ward/h ward = Healing ward
Purge = Purge
LS = Lightning Shield
BL = Blood Lust
SL = Spirit link
Disenchant = --
Ancestral = Ancestral Spirit

Snare = Ensnare
Dev = Devoure
Det/detonate = Unstable concoction

Upgrades of note
Pulv = Pulverize
Oil = Demolisher thingy
Zerk = Troll Berserker upgrade
Pois = Envenomed weapons

New folks will generally ask a question to the effect of "You dont have any towers in your base, why not?"

My answer to that question is simple. Towers cost money, generally more than they are worth. If i need more than one or two towers in my base at key points, i'm doing something seriously wrong.

Another point of interest as my screenshot is slightly misleading. I generally dont keep my Voodoo Lounge out in the open like that, however the game in which i took the screenshot didnt last until i got to tier 2, i usually put a beastiary in front of it so that my Barracks and Beastiary sort of form a shape loosely resembling an arrow pointing away from my Mine.

Quick Summary of Buildings: (T1= Tier 1, T2= Tier 2, T3= Tier 3)

Burrows(T1): These are low armor, low hitpoint buildings and must be protected, keep them behind larger, sturdier buildings like your Barracks.

Towers(T1): These are also low armor, low hitpoint buildings. IF i make these, they are placed so that they protect my wood harvesting peons, and so that they can shoot out over my other buildings.

Barracks(T1): Main unit producing buildings. Grunts, Headhunters and Destroyers are made here, as well as upgrades for each.

Beastiary(T2): The staple of Tier 2 and 3 Orcs. This one building provides BOTH flying units of the Orcs, as well as the Kodo and Raiders. Upgrades for these units are done here as well.

Voodoo Lounge(T1): Our personalized store. Healing Salves, Healing Potions and mana potions are found here. And if you make it to tier 3, the Lightning Orb which allows our Melee hero's to attack air units.

Spirit Lodge(T2): Here we find our casters. Witch Doctors, Shaman and Spirit Walkers. Upgrades for the casters are done here

Tauren Totem(T3): Here we make our tier 3 melee. Tauren are heavy melee that hit hard and can take abuse. They can gain the pulverize ability from this building as well.

War Mill(T1): Here you find the armor and weapon upgrades for our army. Armor upgrades apply universally to all units that can get them. We also get spiked barricades here as well as fortified armor for burrows and towers at tier 3.

Altar of Storms(T1): Here we can pick one of our four hero's and resurrect them should they die. Heroes are: Shadow Hunter, Far Seer, Tauren Chieftan, Blademaster.

Town Hall(general term)(T1): This is our starting building and is required to mine gold. Here you find the Backpack and Pillage Upgrades.

Stronghold(T2): This is what you get when you upgrade your starting town hall. It allows for teir 2 buildings and upgrades.

Fortress(T3): This is our tier 3 town hall upgrade and allows for the making of tier 3 buildings and upgrades.

Again, this is a thread for the new players, if you wish to contribute POSITIVE comments and information, feel free to do so. If you're just here to troll or flame, please go somewhere else.

Orcs have Three main methods of Static Defense. Burrows, Watch Towers and Spiked Barricades.

Burrows: These are also the primary food source for the orcs, so you'll have these aplenty. As you progress in building your base, you'll have burrows in several points that can and will be key Static Defense points. Place these burrows in a control group that you normally wouldnt use just in case you do need to use them. This way you'll have control over where your burrows are attacking. (Note: You have to target by right clicking instead of A+Left Click, the same with the Shadow Hunters Serpent Wards).

Towers: 2-3 of these will be all you'll need if you keep them protected by buildings. They have a good range, a fast speed and alright damage. Placing these in the control group with your carefully selected burrows will also greatly improve the effectiveness of your Static Defense.

Spiked Barricades: This is an upgrade from the War Mill that causes all of your buildings to "grow" spikes. These spikes deal damage to melee attackers making them very useful against opponents using melee strategies (like UD and Orcs). The first upgrade deals 3 damage for every hit, the second upgrade deals 6 damage and the third deals 6 damage for every hit. This may not seem like much, but i've watched MANY melee units beat themselves to death on fully upgraded spiked buildings. The returns are good, but it's hard to see just from the stats.

Control Groups

/MassiveGuide.doc Generally my control groups look something like this: ctrl group 1: hero+grunts, ctrl group 2: Head Hunters+Kodo, ctrl group 3: batriders, ctrl group 4: demolishers, ctrl group 5 generally goes unused. ctrl group 0: Barracks+Beastiary, ctrl group 9: town hall+altar, ctrl group 8: warmill, ctrl group 7: burrows in key locations, maybe a couple of towers if i'm feeling pressed, control group 6 tends to go unused.

Base-Building Guide (NELF)
I've played a lot of games and i always come up against NE's that dont have effective bases. I mean i've played amazing NE players who look like they just put buildings where ever they feel like at the time, with no real reason behind it. anyways i use a base build that i believe is second to none, at least i havent ran into a NE base that is as easy to defend as mine is.

with almost all of these builds i can hold off a harass from 1 person without ltaking serious damage to a unit 99.9% of the time, and typically i can hold off a harass from 2 or more people without losing a unit. with proper experiance with these designs i'm sure you can do the same.

first build: The basic build (the 1 entrance build)

when its good: this base is ideal when your town area has only 1 entrance or when you know where your opponent is. this is because you pretty much focus all your defense facing one direction. most lasrge team games have bases with only one entrance, so this is ideal for that. this is the base build i use pretty much every game, just to let you know. this build loses effectiveness later on, but is the best of the early building bases.

when its not good: when you have multiple entrances to a base, or a base with 2 completely open sides. in either of these situations you leave one side of your base open, and often people can just run in and get a free shot at your ToL if they want, but typically nothing else.

how to build it: first things first you want to build your alter and your moonwell. build your alter on the side of the gold mine in which your opponent is facing, or in which your only entrance is. place your first well 1 square away from your tree of life, in the direction of your opponent.
http://img24.imageshack.us/i/wc3scrnshot101104120817.jpg/
your ancients of war will go in the same direction of as the moonwells, 1 square away from them. put the ancient of war touching the trees if you can, this isnt always possible but when it is it should be done. continue building wells in a line
Imageshack - wc3scrnshot101104121933
continue building AoWs in a line, as well as the wells. build the huntress hall on the other side of the gold mine, 1 square away from your ToL

reason for placement of AoW and wells: the idea here is to make sure every building is within range of a AoW. that means nothing you have can be hit by a melee unit without also taking damage from the AoWs. During a harass your hero should be placed behind the AoWs and in front of the wells. If an opponent wants to get your hero he will have to take damage from both the AoWs while getting to you. If your hero is taking too much damage, run him around the wells, to where the ToL is. you are still within range of the wells and getting healing, and your opponent is now taking fire from 3 different trees. the reason you want your first AoW touching the trees is so that theres not 2 entrances to your base there. if you didnt have it touching a tree and you were hiding behind the AoWs and in front of the wells, it would take 3 units to trap you inside your own base design.

reason for hunt hall and alter placement: people love to run into a NE base and suicide to take out a ToL or a mine. using these 2 other wise defenseless buildings to block off part of both of those structures is often very helpful.

wisp placement: if you notice in my screenshots i clump all my wisps together in one spot right by the wells and AoWs. A lot of people dont do this and prefer to scatter wisps around the base. however with wisps in this spot, its almost impossible to lose any. in order to be hit by melee, people have to run past 2 or 3 ancients to get them, making them take way more damage they they will be giving. they are close to the wells, meaning if one gets entangled (usually gg wisp) just hit it with a well and you again dont lose a wisp. in the event of a AoE harasser, simply grab all the wisps (easy because they are clumped together) and move them away towards the ToL. when the AoE hero attempts to follow he will take massive damage from your ancients. the best, and most fun reason, for the wisps being there is that they are really close to where the action will be if our harassed. i know what your thinking though, dont you want wisps away from the action? well not always. this base build is very tight, and easy to trap large amounts of units with only 2-3 units of your own. in the event a lot of units chase you into this base, simply move the wisps to the only exits and trap them in to die a slow death to the damaging AoWs. The wisps wont die as long as you have wells on autocast.

late game: you have a option in what you want to do late game. if your base has only one entrance and your using this you can continue to put your ancients in a line until the touch the trees on the other end, or you can adapt and use the corner build. i typically do the line build because its easier to pull off and typically just as effective.

the 2 corner build (2 entrance build)

when to build it: this build is best when your base has 2 entrances, or when you dont know where your opponent is located.

when not to build it: when you only have one entrance. this build leaves you slightly more open to harass than the basic build, so if your not good at stopping a harass or your expecting a rough one, dont use this build.

how to build it: instead of building a line of AoWs and wells like the basic build, you build a L shape. this build is a little more difficult then the last one and usually takes a couple trys. the first 2 wells should be placed one square in front of and to the side of your tree of life. the two wells should touch diagonally. you should have enough room in the mood to build a third well that will then touch the other two, forming a L shape. AoWs should be built so that their outside line is the same as where the third wells outside line should be. they should have the same 1 spot gap from the wells as with the basic build. this is hard to explain, so i have a screenshot of what your base should look like after 5 wells and 3 AoWs. with the 4th and 5th wells, just follow building the L shape.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._120817_05.jpg
hunt hall and alter should be placed the same as in the basic build.

reason for placement: you leave all the same gaps as you did with the basic build, for the same reasons. you have a lot more entrances this time and you wont be able to touch trees on either side to take any of them away until much later (typically late tier 2). the L shape provides you with defense on both sides, since you dont know which way a opponent will be coming. you defend a harass just like discribed in the basic part, only the wisp surround and such is much harder (often not really possible)

late game: continue building in lines. a late game L base should look something like this, its obvious to see how effective this is late game, although early game it is lacking compared to the basic build.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._121933_06.jpg

the bottleneck build

when its good: this is a very situational base and can only be used on a couple maps. its good when you expect to be in a base to defend it.

when its bad: this build is really bad if you let people get inside the base before you can defend it. if this happens your pretty much SOL. This base is a gamble, dont let it fool you, but its a fun one to take.

how to build it: this is probably the easiest of all the builds described here. when your base has only 1 entrance and its a bottle neck (smaller than the area in front and behind it) this build can be used. What you do is place 2 AoWs at the bottle neck, leaving a 1 space gap between them for units to come through. you then build a line of moonwells behind them, 1 space.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._123710_07.jpg
hunt hall and alter can either be built like in the last 2 builds, or can be used to block one of the sides of the ancients. personally like to build them where i usually do.

reason for placement: essentially this build allows only 1 unit to enter (or exit a base) at a time. if your guarding your base when attacked you can pretty much own whatever is coming through, or AoE the massive amount of trapped units on the other side of the AoW's for maximum damage. when your attacked you should stand behind the wells on this build, and be at both entrances (top and bottom of the wells in the screenshot) to catch incoming units.

late game: late game just simply build your ancients inside your base, you cant really place anymore at the bottle neck so building them in your base gives them more protection, gives your ToL more protection, and keeps your more important buildings alive. moonwells should continue to built in the general area of the bottle neck, you shouldnt continue building in a line however because it causes your units to have to spread out farther and allows them to get more units into your base.

other base related information

on moonwells: dont build more moonwells than you need. in other words, dont have 5 moonwells when you have 30 food of units. i know people think wells provide "free healing", but thats not really the case. the only time you need mass moonwells for healing is when you've spent all your money on moonwells instead of a decent army.

on shops: the NE shop is the less necessary of all the racial shops. there is a time and place you should get one, but its not every game. first off, if your going MGs or FDs of course you need a shop. If you are in a map where the map doesnt have a shop and your teammates dont have one you will need one in case you need a TP. if you get to tier 3 and you have chims and you like to cheese, get a shop just for the rod. NEVER build a shop in tier 1. i dont care what you think the reason for it is, dont do it. its a waste of money, a wisp, and it takes time off your tech.

on detonation: ah detonation, the skill everyone thinks is so amazing... but me. the thing you have to remember is detonating the wisp is the same thing as getting it killed, except the opponents dont get experiance. every wisp you detonate early costs you gold and potentially time on your tech. with these base builds there should be almost no reason to have to detonate a wisp. there are times you should detonate though. like when you know the wisp is dead and you cant heal it. examples of this are a wisp entanged away from possible healing, or when a scout wisp gets discovered by a army. also when your being harassed by mass summons (i'm talking like either 3-4 FS or AM) then detonation is a option. also when your losing a fight in your base and dont have much else to lose, feel free to detonate the **** out of your opponent. some people say taking wisps with you to counter necros is good, but personally i dont think its viable. any decent opponent will see them coming and they will be coiled/novaed/swarmed before you even get a chance to try to detonate.

on chim roosts: chims are possibly the best unit in the game... when your opponent doesnt know you have them. so with that said, its best to build chim roosts where your opponent wont see them. this means either way in the back of your base, or if your feeling frisky, not in your base at all. often if i'm getting attacked in a game and i need to build chim roosts, i'll send a couple wisps out a back entrance and build the roosts there, away from the base. if you can get a few out before your opponent knows you have them, you've pretty much won the game.

THE massive guide to end all guides! - The Unofficial Warcraft III Forums

The Great Massive Guide

soygamer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:27:22 GMT

1. General Notes and Discussion

Discussion:

The main purpose of this guide is to serve as a basis for theorycrafting. It is by no means a guide that answers every question, and there are thousands of other factors that should be considered when examining Warcraft strategy. For most of you, the vast majority of these statistics are already intuitively felt in your game play (e.g. hunts make for better meatshields than archers), but there are some statistics here which are more subtle that may be of use (note how “nukable” Wind Riders are).
The second purpose of this guide is to be used for unit comparisons, and may be useful when discussing team games. Suppose, in an oversimplified case, that you are playing a game of 2v2. You are playing as human, and your teammate is playing as undead. You are in need of an effective meatshield – should you make knights, or should your teammate make abominations? This guide will point out that abominations, for the purposes of soaking damage, are more effective than knights.
Lastly, as will be discussed in the following four sections, this guide can point out some specific weaknesses and strengths of the individual races.

2. Undead Discussion

Undead was a very hard race for me to analyze. Their units seemed to be all over the place in terms of the statistics, which would mean to me, that the race requires a more moderate balance of macro and micro. I did find a few interesting statistics though. First of all, the abomination surprised me. Relative to other units its size, it is the best unit for soaking up physical and spell damage, making it one of the best meatshields. Consider adding obsidian statues and the unholy aura (and possibly the vampiric aura) and you have one buff unit. Note, however, that their damage output is not so great compared to some other meatshields (i.e. knights and bears). The second interesting unit is the ghoul. Relative to other units, it has incredibly high damage output, falling right after archers. These statistics help explain why having vampiric aura with ghouls is so effective. It also helps explain Cho_gal’s strategy in which he used a combination of ghouls and banshees to reduce the opponents attack, and to make the ghouls effectively immune to spell damage. Finally, I would like to say a brief note on gargoyles. They have the second best anti-air attack (excepting the possibility of the rocket attack of the tanks and the unstable concoction), a decent ground attack, and a very high effective hit point/food ratio. Use them. Abuse them.

3. Night Elf Discussion

There are a few interesting things to point out about night elves. First and foremost, consider their melee units (include the huntress), and look at them carefully. At tier 2, they have very little in the way of good meatshields, as they are lacking bears, and thus have to rely on huntresses and mountain giants which are not yet fully upgraded. Night elves are often accused of being imbalanced (especially on tavern maps), but this is a huge weakness that should be exploited when facing them. Second of all, consider late game mountain giants. Granted, in most 1v1 games they are not used because they take so long to upgrade and build, but they are one of the best meatshields in the game. They have a disadvantage in that they take extra damage from normal attacks (most melee units), but they still soak up a ton of damage, especially from ranged units.

4. Orc Discussion

Two points of interest. Orc units seem to have high hit point/food ratios, meaning that they take a lower percentage of damage than other most other races. They also do not tend to have very high damage outputs meaning that micromanagement is all the more important for orc players, since they need to find alternative sources for damage, or ways to other ways to make their damage more effective (i.e. wardrums, endurance aura, bloodlust, etc.).

XII. Human Discussion

NOTE: I did not include calculations of the steam tank’s rocket ability. Needless to say, it is very effective against groups of five or more air units.

The most interesting part about humans is their reliance on armor to keep them alive. Notice how high their ratings are for effective hit points/food, compared to their low ratings for hit points/food. Many of you have already exploited this weakness by casting area of effect spells on footmen, but it is a weakness that is found in many of their units. Until they get their hit point upgrade, knights, gryphon riders and dragonhawk riders are much weaker as well. Consider this when facing humans.

Hopefully things that can help people who are looking to get to a higher level of play... These arent gunna be the absolute basics, but finer points that can help you win.

1. First and foremost, learn every other race before you pick one to "master" or focus on. Atleast watch lots of replays to understand the basics of the current mainstream strategies, since 90% of the time you will be up against that. Remember key points in timing, where races will creep and when, when popular time for expanding is (teir 2 hu expo as mk pops, orc teir 2 expo as tc pops, elf prebuilt expo). If you play random for 50 or so games steadilly on solo, you will get a pretty generic grasp of the field.

Along with this, learn the maps. You should be able to creep fast, know where the bases are, shops and all that stuff, know where the good item drops are. You should be able to tell by looking at an enemy hero's items roughly where they have crept, and this is very useful in figuring out if they have expanded or not. For example, early on in lost temple, if you see that the enemy demon hunter has a lightning shield wand, it means he got it from his natural expansion or one close to his base, so scout it out for an expansion. This along with learning how to judge enemy army sizes and stuff is very useful in figuring out what they are doing.

2. Creep effectively. As soon as you hit the mid-higher levels of play, every second you spend creeping counts. Keep in mind which creep holds the items, kill those first to prevent jacking/item stealing. On most maps, you can use your hero to draw the creeps into the open, which will agian prevent you from being jacked and cornered between creeps and the enemy. Understand how creep AI works - the way priority shifts between summons, ensnared units, low hp units against turtles, etc. Another important understanding is defensive creeping against undead and elf in particular, DK and warden harass often try to steal creep kills with 100 coils and 75 shadow strikes. The best way to deal with this is to focus creeps until they are approximately 120~ish health then either hold position or focus on the enemy hero. Most likely they will panic and use their skill trying to get the kill, but you can easilly finish off the creep + they have wasted mana.

3. Dont be stupid. This should be obvious, but it comes with knowing the maps and the matchups. Don't creep what you cannot take without losses and heavy damage. Even if you get a level advantage, if all of your units are stuck in red for a few minutes, chances are a smart opponent will take advantage of that. On the other side of this, is BE SMART. You need to understand when you hold the advantage in a game, and make use of that. For example, as hu in teir 2 you have an advantage over orc players as soon as the first sorceress comes out, so you should either push the orc player or expand. Another example is destro vs hu, Tc/raider vs ud, bears vs hu, teir 2 hu vs ud... Bassically, whenever you have a distinct advantage over your opponent, make use of it.

4. Innovation can work if you have skill. This isn't really an important point, but the only way you are going to beat the mainstream strats with something original is if you play very well, or your opponent plays poorly. So if you are playing to win, you should keep in mind that you either abuse, or be at the top of your game.

5. Work with upkeep. PLan your key timing around the 50/80 food marks. When you have a 50 food army, you should be playing offensively, or expanding. It is also a pretty good idea to stay at the 50 food mark to get extra gold for upgrades and scrolls, boots and invuln pots. Generally you should not go into high upkeep until you have alot of gold, or you are positive of the win. Losing 6 gold/miner is an extremely high price.

Keep in mind how long it actually takes an expansion to pay itself off: consider a typical elf expo which costs (around) 280 gold, 180 wood, + the 60 gold wisp, + 5 times 60 = 300 gold for wisps in the mine. So lets say its 600 gold for the elf expansion. The 5 food for an expansion bassically forces the elf into low upkeep in the middle of the game, meaning the elf is mining rougly 14 gold per unit of time, compared to an undead player with ONE mine getting 10 gold per unit of time, WITHOUT having to invest the same resources in an expansion and who has a slight food advantage at the time. So an expansion really is only worth it if you have it running for several minutes. An extra 4 gold per second isnt really worth it, if you think about staying at low upkeep for longer and make use of selling items and such.

Of course this is really obvious for undead, as undead expos cost the 255/200 + 255 for a necrop, or a couple more hundred on zigs/spirits, and then a couple hundred more on acolytes. Thats why so many undead players stick with low upkeep/garg harass vs night elf instead of trying to expand.

TIMING!

just another thing i was thinking about adding was how timing is probably the most important part of matchups like HU v UD and ud vs elf, and i guess bassically any matchup in the game. I talked about this a bit before, but it really deserves more discussion, because if you become good at timing your attacks/expansions and all that, you cna give yourself a huge advantage over your average opponent.

For example lets think about UD vs HU on turtle rock. Most ud players you face will opt for the altar/zig/crypt build and focus on a coil harass then build up some ghouls and tech around 24-28 food. If you scout early with a militia and see this build order, you immediately know you should militia creep the orange camp next to your base (this way you get the good item, potentially a wand of lightning shield, fast enough that you can kill the creeps before his dk is in range), then kill the green turtles while fending off the death knight.

Now, if everything goes smoothly, which it will unless you scouted wrong or didn't creep properly, you will have lvl 2, 4-5 foots, begin teching with around 7ish lumberers who can militia whenever needed. At this point the undead player will be around mid tech to teir 2, have 6 or 7 ghouls probably creeping the greens around his base while his lvl 1 death knight tries to harass you. You have a level advantage, and you know that a teching ud has a disadvantage: acolytes, so the smart move is to push his base. You should run by his orange camp to see if hes creeping it, potentially grabbing a creepjack and maybe a few ghouls/creep kills, then push his main. With an elemental, your arch mage, and 5 foots, you can easilly kill off a few acolytes before he either TPs in or forces you to tp out.

So now you are sitting pretty with a lvl 2.5 arch mage, you are just about at teir 2, you should pop a heal/mana scroll, buy another, take your militia and creep an aexpansion while you have the advantage you just earned by using your head. THen the game will progress to mid-late levels and you have a signiffigantly higher chance of winning because of the smart choices. SO when his destros pop out, you should have enough of an advantage to counteract that, and so on...

Now that is an ideal look at how the matchup would work out.. A smart undead player recognizes these signs and understands weaknesses in the hu player's game. A smart undead will keep his army around his main when he is mid teching and vulnerable, a smart undead will micro and surround that arch mage, a smart undead player will be all over the expo attempt..

Depending on how well this goes, this can bassically secure you the win, or lose you the game. If you kill 3 or 4 acos and a few weak ghouls he sent back from creeping, it is devastating early game and slows his tech massively. If you get surrounded and die, or are forced to tp, you just played into his hand and are fighting uphill.

Human

-vs Elf on two rivers or side-by side on turtle rock I send my altar peasant to scout to see about the side by side thing, as for the strat I'm sure you all can guess it. Tower rush :D, as soon as your hero pops out just run in and start tearing down ancients and building towers... not much more complex than that

-vs Elf normally pretty basic archmage/mountain king, 4-8 footies to start then start pumping rifles, get a priest or two with some mortar(hunts,dryads,mg)/breaker(bears) support get high lvl bolt and 0wn them :D

-vs 0rc A hard matchup to suvive the first 10 minutes of, start with quite a few footmen(at least 6-8) then start pumping rifles, sorcs and breakers(If he gets bloodlust). Bolt tauren if he gets them(they're like lvl 1 heroes but harder to replace, more durable and more $$$) Standard Archmage, mountain king for heroes

-vs Undead, ghoul start Start with archmage and 10-12 footies and tech quite quickly to tier 3, in between tier 2-3 get 2 aviaries and a workshop and start getting gryhons and tanks, mountain king 2nd and paladin 3rd if you feel like it

-vs Undead, Fiend start not too sure about this one, but a dual rax defend footmen rush(attack when AM hits lvl 2) would most likely overrun them(remember to dance weak ones out and abuse scrolls of regen)

-Mirror Match Not much to say about this matchup, AM/MK/Pally, footies/breakers/priests/knights, you should try not to stay in tier 2 too long, and playing offensively and forcing militia helps.

Undead

-vs Night Elf Right now in this matchup I've been fiddling with two different strats. Strat A) Fiend start, go standard death knight/lich/crypt lord and creep as much as possible until you get third hero and some statues, stay in no upkeep and continuosly hit and run while banking up a good some of gold. Use this to start working up some frosties. then just roll over the elves :D Strat B) Ghoul start with death knight-->dreadlord-->crypt lord, get a few ghouls to creep then early slaughter houses, build a meat wagon to hold off rush and 2 statues to help creep. Then start cranking aboms, pretty simple

-vs Human I prefer a fiend start in this matchup, creeping death knight to level 2 grabbing a 2nd rod of necromancy then hit + run attacking, saving coil for fiends(not footie kills) I would suggest attacking units in this order: Militia>Footmen>Rifleman>Water Elementals>Archmage>Defend Footmen>Peasants, or something like that, late game add lich, burrow and statues, then see elf strat A) for what to do after that ^^

-vs Orc Crypt lord, fiends, add lich+statues at tier 2, once you hit lvl 3, grab a rod of necromancy and move on the attack, kill raiders ASAP(ensnare>burrow), if this attack fails(which it usually does not if you micro well) then add a second crypt and keep up the pressure.

-Mirror Match Possibly one of the most luck-oriented mathcups in the game, I like to go for deathknight fiends(see elf strat A) or lich>dk and mass gargoyles, both work quite well, just choose between the two :P

Night Elf

-vs Human On non-merc camp map Solo warden or warden/naga is key here, Start with a hunt oppening then switch to dryads and bears, keep up a large amount of pressure early(until he starts countering your hunts/dryds) then break off to creep until warden hits level 5, then its just pwnage. If he towers you, build AoWs next to the towers(remember to cancel) and focus on kill peasants with shadow strike.

-vs Human on Merc camp mana Harass with warden while teching hard to bears and dryads, use priest merc to dispel water elementals and keep hiring if he tries to tower you(also building aows, see above). Not much else to say :\

-vs Undead This matchup basically relies on 2 things: fastish expo(tier 1 or tier 2) and warden/panda being at least level 3 each. Units-wise I would suggest going hunts, archers, dryads, dott and MGs later. Creep as much as possible and attack if/when you get both heroes to level 5. Otherwise wait until he plays offensively. Also beware of fast expo if you see dreadlord ghouls with early graveyard on your harass.

- vs Orc This matchup also relies on warden and fast expo(no panda) except you'll be massing primarily tier 1 and dott, and going shadow strike/blink instead of a more aoe based hero choice. Remember to abuse wisps and build aows around the towers if he tries to tower you.

-Mirror Match on non-merc camp map harass with potm, once you have about 3-5 hunts break off fighting and move to creep until second day. Attack with 50/50 ish hunts/listas while staying in tier 1. Pretty basic

-Mirror Match on merc camp map Harass with demon hunter while fast teching, get at least 3 troll mercenaries for anti-rush purposes, add naga and 2 ancient of lores at tier 2. Mass dryads with those superpowered staff things. Also pretty basic(ooh building one unit... so hard*)

Orc

-vs human Harassing is key here, hit them hard with fs/grunts, teching after 2nd grunt. Keep pumping out grunts(you'll want a shop early too) while using salves for almost continuos harassment. At tier 2 add a tauren chieftain, panda or naga(depending or your preference) and shamans Keep harassing until mountain king comes out(usually you have a 20-30 second hole where you have tc and they don't have mk where you can 0wn them pretty hard.) Creep and get 60/60 grunts/shamans/pults and attack, you'll want to get a second rax when you can afford it. Focus pults on rifles/buildings and spend most of shaman mana on purging water elementals and lsing your melee hero(if you have one)

-vs undead, ghouls Go for a raxless tech, farseer harass, while adding a rax in between tier 1-2, get a few grunts (1-3) then switch to hh, at tier 2 add a shadow hunter(or naga) and bestiary. Once you get 1-2 wyverns, attack and tower rush

-vs Undead, dk/Fiends do the no-rax tech thing(you'll need to do it vs all UDs unless your 100% sure they'll go CL/fiends) Don't harass too much as it won't really get you anywhere. Add shadow hunter or Tauren chieftain second while getting grunts/raiders. Around 50/50 move into either his base or try to creepjack, force a fight in any case killing as many fiends as possible. Then tech to tier 3 and switch to mass wyverns(you may want an expo) while creeping as fast as possible for 2 lvl 5 heroes

-vs Undead, Cl/fiends farseer harass, try to kill as many fiends on creepjacks as possible, then add tauren chieftain and stick with grunt raiders for basically the whole game. Creepjacks are essential, as well as staying away from his base until your VERY sure you have won

-vs Elf, not-kotg first rax-after-tech thing while basically running farseer around(creeping green camps i guess, harassing with beastmaster). Once you hit tier 2 get a shadow hunter(or TC if no demon hunter) and go for grunts and raiders, and maybe 1-2 pults. If he goes for bears or MGs, add kodos, if he goes for any type of air start massing bats with some HH for support.

-vs Elf, kotg first Farseer harass(mostly just attack the little goat to keep him away from your peons). Then you have 2 strats available: Wyverns or Gruntapult. Wyverns: Grab a shadow hunter second using heal wave and hex to make hit + run just that much more deadly for those archers. Once he really gets the AA going, switch to dual rax grunts and maybe some raiders. Usually he wont get that far seeing as how kotg is 100% useless vs air... gruntapult is pretty basic, attack with towers at 50-60ish food and farseer/tc

-Mirror Match Heroes: either blademaster/shadow hunter or farseer/naga is your best bet. If you opt for the blademaster path then you'll want grunt/raider, blademaster takes ALOT of micro... so beware~~~. If you go fs/naga(the cheesier of the two) then you'll want 4-6 grunts to start you out then switch nearly completely to kodopult and tower rushing.

Ok first off, being able to tell what your ally is doing REALLY helps in rt, so either be very forceful about telling them what to do, or just look at their base and try to guess.

The latter is generrally a better choice because half RT players say they are going hunt/dott/fd and mass archers. Which is especially confusing if they actually say "hunt/dott/fd" beacuse that implies they might know what it stands for.

And diplomatizing with an rt player about rushing or not is useless, if they want to rush they will... so even if your teching you might as well go along with it

and to sum this up i'll quote eskimo of iel:
"It helps if you have raised a housepet for playing rt, it is good to have experience in communicating with those of lesser intelligence than you"

As for strats it kind of boils down to 2 things:

A) Alot of AoE
B) Killing heroes

"A)" is because rt players tend not to realize their army is dying if their hero life isnt doing to bad, but their armies could be dead before they TP out

"B)" Also uses this point because you nuke one players heroes and he TPs away even if he has a full army, leaving his ally to die.

Strats:
Orc:
AoE: I would suggest grunts--->taurens/zerkers, if you can trust your ally to get aa(lol?) you can go for pults instead. FS/TC as heroes
Nuke: Mass wyvs/lust with fs/sh, just ****+click their heroes, not much micro involved

HU:
AoE: foots--->breaker/sorc, am/bm, pretty self explanatory, once you get past first 5 mins of game its easy riding
Nuke: mk/am with mass rifles/sorcs/breakers.... once again quite self explanatory once your MK hits lvl 3

UD:
Ud are odd because their aoe strat and hero nuke come as one, so basically just go fiends/dk/lich/statues then either aboms or destros later(aboms if your ally refuses to get melee)

Elf:
AoE: warden+panda, or dh if no tavern(take burn not immo plz -.-)
NuKe: warden/kotg or warden/naga...
with both of these basically just build whatever units, i would suggest having faeries and dryads and maybe even MGs late game though

Some useful tips:
Always have some form off anti air and casters(except if your orc, who lack both) because you cant rely on allies to get those.

Always carry a TP, losing your army cause your ally runs off and your pinned makes you angry

Either order your ally around alot or let him do his own thing without really talking, a mix of those two does not work because he wont listen to you and fear doing something wrong.

One thing I have learned from Warcraft is that a vast majority of the players don't have the slightest inkling on what good teamwork is. I'll see players throw away games without realizing it or allowing their egos to cost them a game all the time. Teamplay is an entirely beast than solo and takes a lot to master.

Basics
The first thing to understand when playing a team game is that you must work as a group. If one member of your team gets caught alone or you abandon him to fight the enemy who is grouped he will take massive casualties and kill maybe 1-2 units. Now you may think this is a good idea to save your own units, but the enemy knowing your teammate's army is gone will follow up and either destoy your allies base removing him from the game entirely or attack your base destroying you. For example in a 3v3 game your ally's base is attacked, but you and your other ally do not teleport and decide to creep a bit before helping. Chances are your ally will lose all their units and most of their workers so when you TP to help it is now a 2v3 situation where you are outnumbered and will likely be defeated (doing much less than all 3 of you would have done together.) So avoid these situations all together. In RT make it clear at the start of every game that you want to rush. If not told explicitly to rush many RT players will refuse to leave their base. Quickly creep nearby green groups and then gather. Once gathered stay together. If you are slow to follow you are potentially creating a situation where the group's leader is going to be killed. When moving ping the map to get the attention of your allies. Stay alert and together at all costs. If you need to place your attention elsewhere tell all your units to follow an allied hero while you do it.

The next thing to consider is army size. Many players tend to suffer from "One more unit" syndrome. They just want to make "a few more units" before they attack. If you tend to be like this what you must remember is that chances are your enemy is making units at the same speed or faster than you. So while you get that one more unit the enemy is very likely getting two. Set your production buildings to rally to your heroes and let the units catch up later. Additionally in team games the team who gets attacked first often must use town portals. These things cost 350 gold each so if you can attack first you force them to use a 350 gold icon and severly limit their mobility (they no longer can TP for their second attack unless they buy another.)

Teching is another massive problem in team games. Everyone has heard horror stories of people getting allies who tech straight to chims and get no items before this. In most cases of this if your enemy rushes you don't have the strength to defend yourselves and will lose. Delaying teching to support your allies is usually a good move. Usually you only want to invest in teching when you have room to breath. If you tech at the cost of units you give your enemy a number advatage that can potentially be used to destroy you. In solo games defenses can allow for a tech, but in team games the numbers become more overwhelming and the more people that play the less your defenses are going to make up for a lacking army.

Mindset
Team games are centered around cooperation. Keeping this in mind the some of the most important things to do in a team game are keeping your egos in check and communicating. Refusing to listen to your allies because you are better than them will lose you the game quite easily. Also if you are in trouble or see something try and communicate it. Your allies can't help you if they don't realize what is going on.

One thing I rarely see (but should really see more of) is using abilities on allied units. For example I rarely see a paly or DotC attempt to heal an allied hero. Try to use your abilities to help support your ally. If you have bloodlust and your ally has chimeras put bloodlust on those chimeras. Alternatively unholy frenzy on your allies taurens destroys everything on the ground. Use alt to monitor your allies health and units and help them. Saving their hero can really help the game effort.

When something needs counters do not simply say "Get AA." It is better to just get the counter yourself or clearly assign a unit to a player. For example if the orc player has a beastiary while a human player is has not upgraded bats it would be beneficial for the orc to get batriders if the enemy was getting gargoyles. However "Get AA" is often misinterperated and ignored. It is best to directly address one player and assign the goal to him. "Hey teal, they are getting gargoyles. Can you get batriders?" This also helps draw a response from them to confirm that your ally will do what you asked. If they say they cannot or will not you better start building the counter yourself.

If you are a good player in most situations you will end up in the leader positions in RT. In RT games you almost always need a leader. Should you not build a leader each player will likely go off and do their own thing completely oblivous to what the enemy is doing. Do not declare yourself the leader or state that you are better than them (therefore they should listen to you.) This will put a majority of players in a defensive state where they usually respond with something along the lines of "newb" and ignore everything you say. Simply issue clear commands to your allies. "We rush" or "Red is weak, attack now" are good examples. Accompanied by pings (in RT don't be afraid to drop 2-3 when something important happens, they can often be oblivous to pings) this should help most players work as a team. If they have input listen to it.

If you are an alright player or there is a more experience player on your team you may end up in a follower position. This is perfectly alright. You don't have to be the leader and supporting the leader's strategy is just as important as leading. If you end up in a follower position listen to what the leader does and give him any information you may have. For example if your shade just scouted the human base to find steam tanks you ping the location and say "Watch out, steam tanks from pink." This allows the leader to assess the situation. Often times they will not tell you which units to get. Simply focus on counter a specific part of the enemy's army and let the leader know this. "I'll take care of AA" or "I'll get some anti-casters" help the group leader keep tabs on what units are still needed.

When it comes to sharing resources be loose about it. If you are a few gold shy of another hero just exclaim "100 gold for hero?" and if you have time give a quick "thx" if they do donate. If you have an excess of any resource allocate to those who can use it. For example if you built too many wood peasants while your ally who is building lots of air is having trouble keeping his wood production up throw some wood his way. If you weren't using it there is only room for benefit.

The most important thing to keep in mind during team games is flexibility. Getting AM/BM with rifles every game may be your thing, but sometimes something else is needed. When your team really needs a few dragonhawks, knights, or mortars step up and break from your usual habits. Be willing to bend a bit for your allies it allows a much more cooperative game.

Unit Positioning
A great deal of a teamgame can be decided by where your units stand. For example if the rifles are in front of the grunts they receive extra damage from melee and often block the grunts from attacking. This effective turns and army of two into two seperate armies of one having their vulnerabilities exploited. Thus placing your units in the right spot is vital to success.

Melee units can be divided into two categories, strong melee and overrun melee. Each of these serve a different role and thus need a different position. Strong melee are units such as grunts, taurens, abominations, mountain giants, and bears (huntresses and footmen are a hybrid of overrun/strength and can be used for both.) Their goal is to overpower the other teams melee shield and absorb damage for the rest of the armor. As such these units should be on the front line and be buffed heavily and supported by healing. You want them to last as long as possible as when your meat shield dies your softer units start dropping like flies. Overrun melee are units designed to quickly run into the enemy's soft spots, swarm the weaker units, and destroy them. These units tend to be more manueverable than their tanking counterparts making them great for hero surrounds and forcing support units to retreat. Examples of overrun melee units are huntresses, footmen, knights, ghouls, and raiders (amazing unit trappers.) These units should be positioned near the front line but towards one side of the conflict. This way when an opportunity presents itself they can quickly run around the enemy's strong melee units and attack softer units. When this is done the enemy's melee shield can fall back to help the support units (in which case your melee shield follows and thus gains better access to soft units and does heavy damage to their melee shield.) The idea is for overrun melee units to get past the enemy's melee shield and attack their caster heroes or support disrupting their army. Overrun units are very likely to take massive casualties, but if used well earn their keep many times over. Strong melee units can take an overrun role and overrun melee can take a tanking role, however they tend to be better at their natural role.

Ranged units (riflemen, fiends, and archers) should take a position slightly behind the melee shield. This protects them from enemy melee, but allows them the best access to shoot at targets of opportunity slightly behind the enemy melee shield. They should aim for accessible casters, air units, or enemy heroes. If one of these ideal targets is not available they should then support the melee line. Shoot at enemy ranged last if possible as you do the least damage to them. The one exception is defended footmen, do your best to not shoot at them unless you absolutely have to. Remember ranged units form semi-circles at focused fired units that no other unit can get through. So if your melee line needs to get to the enemy melee or something needs to move it is the job of the ranged units to move and let them through. Should you simply attack you are very likely to cut of a decent portion of your units from combat.

Siege units are heavy damage units with phenominal range that should be slightly behind where you would place ranged units. These units need to be protected well or they die easily. Thus try to place some ranged units around them if you can. When they fire you should aim at enemy casters as if you fire at melee units the splash damage will hurt your own. However it is worth damaging your own to fire at huntresses or enemy heroes (4 catapults can drop 400 health off an enemy hero with 1 volley of fire quite easily.) Aim for clusters of vulnerable units or clusters of low HP units to maximize their effectiveness.

Casters can be divided into two categories also, support casters and offensive casters. This is based on what units their spells are cast on. Offensive casters cast most of their spells on or near enemy units while suport casters cast most of their spells on your units. Thus offensive casters should be fairly close to the front line so they can cast spells on the maximum amount of enemy units while support casters are better off in the back casting spells primarily on your units. Being in the back support casters are much less likely to be killed. Many casters can fill both roles so place the caster according to how they will be used.

Air units can have a number or roles, but should generally be held back at first. Once the situation is assessed they can then be used. If there is decent AA your air units should hold back and attack the melee line thus minimizing their exposure to AA. However if the enemy has a vulnerablity in their formation it should be exploited to allow air units to kill enemy heroes and important support units. Air units are highly manueverable and this should be used to your advantage. Both air units and air anti-air are used pretty much the same way.

Battlefield Tactics
Sometimes it isn't about what units you have, but how you approach the enemy. There are a massive number of ways to approach the enemy and choosing the right one can greatly influence a battle.

The most common attack method is the frontal assualt. Both armies meet head on and direct the bulk of their strength directly at the enemy. When using this manuever both armies tend to be on even ground and victory relies heavily on micro and unit choice. This is a straight forward method and easy to perform. It is best used when you have an edge on the enemy, do not have maneueverable units, or have dim-witted allies who are unlikely to be capable of complex manuevers. The basic concept is to have a wall of melee lead the assualt while damage dealing units are behind them (as described in unit positioning.)

Partial flanking is an alternative the the frontal assualt that works well if you have some fast melee troops capable of dealing good damage. You approach for the frontal assualt usual however before the wall of melee units forms your quick units go around and attack from one of the sides of the enemy army attempting to destroy their softer caster units or ranged units. The flanking units are at heavy risk should the enemy focus upon them. However if the enemy does focus on them they weaken their melee line hopefully giving your melee and damage dealing units the opportunity to break through.

The full flanking manuever is similar to the partial flanking manuever. However in this case a majority of units run to the edges and attempt to attack the enemy's sides. The idea is to quickly run around their melee units negating the effectiveness of their formations. The weakness of this is that you will have little or no melee wall to protect your softer units and must destroy their softer units or distract their melee. Should the manuever seem unsuccessfuly run back, rally your troups, and begin a frontal assualt.

The rear attack is used when you catch your enemy off guard. This is most common when all of your team is creeping and the enemy attacks one of your bases. You approach this much like a frontal assualt, however you attack your enemy's rear allowing your melee units to swarm their softer units and forcing them to rapidly reform. When performing this manuever attack together and swiftly. Every second you wait your enemy has a chance to become aware of what is about to happen and react accordingly putting you in a frontal assualt situation and negating the advantage you would have had.

The pincer attack is a tricky manuever that most RT players are incapable of performing. This occurs most often when your enemy is attacking one player and the other players come to assist from the other side (usually the enemy's rear.) This also occurs when an enemy is retreating, but cut off by another allied army. This manuever is best done when all participating players have balanced armies and you outnumber the enemy. Both sides need to pressure the enemy as hard as they can. It is important not to retreat in this situation without all players retreating (usually by TP) together. Once one of your allies breaks and retreats it leaves a side weakened which will easily be finsihed off. Once one side is defeated the enemy can now focus all efforts on defeating the remaining units, which they likely outnumber.

While surrounded it is important to work as a team. All attacks should be focused as best they can on the weakest point in the surrounding teams. The goal is to defeat that side and escape or if numbers permit turn on the remaining player and overwhelm him. The concept here is that your enemy has spread out their strength. While this limits your moments it allows a focused application of your strength to overpower a section of their army giving you the advantage.

Bait and Surround usually only works with highly intelligent allies and units with some form of invisiblity. One ally shadowmelds, burrows, or otherwise conceals their units as the second ally presents himself as a target for the enemy. The second ally then lures the enemy past the first and proceeds to initiate the conflict. The first ally then comes out of hiding behind or in the center of the enemy's army limiting their mobility, surprising them, and defeating their formations. The battle then proceeds much like a pincer attack.

The Overrun tactic is used on a retreating enemy. Slow units immediately run to the side to allow the fastest units (hunts, dryads, ghouls, raiders, any unit a scroll of speed was used on) to get through. These units then proceed to run past as many enemy troops as the can, run in front of them, then attack blocking the retreat of as many units as possible. The slower units catch up as units are blocked and finish the job. Applying slowing effects to the enemy's units helps this situation.

Retreating should be done carefully. A healthy ally with fast units provides a temporary wall allowing for a weakened ally with slower units to escape. They then proceed to flee themselves outrunning the enemy with their faster units. Any slow units should step to the side to allow faster heroes/units to escape without being blocked.

Synergy
The concept of synergy is a simple one. Two or more forces acting together can have much greater effect than each force acting alone. Thus through cooperation and coordination three average players can become a great team. It can not be said enough that this is without a doubt the most important concept in team games. Create your armies to work together and achieve a level of power that could not be achieved otherwise.

How is synergy acheived then? An awareness of what your ally is getting, what your enemy is getting, and the most easily traversed branches of your tech tree. Certain units work extremely well together while others work against each other. Fiends are a superb example of this, if your ally is using fiends web works against air anti-air greatly reducing or nullifying their effectiveness. Thus a situation is created where your army is fighting itself and your capabilities are greatly diminished. When you select your units attempt to amplify the strengths of your ally while diminishing their weaknesses.

Fast units work extremely well with disabling spells and offensive slow spells. If your opponent has a large force of huntresses well placed use of purge, nets, slow, or other slowing or disabling spells can allow you to deny the enemy a retreat inflicting massive casualties if they attempt to do so. Large bulky units can often negate the effectiveness of fast units if not used carefully. Large slow units such as abominations or tauren need to give faster units room to manuever. They should be the last to retreat and should try to merely form a wall allowing the fast units maximum speed to manuever around the sides.

Your heavy damage units are extremely well supported with buffs. You could unholy frezy your fiends, or you could unholy frenzy the tauren on the frontline. The fiends damage capabilities would improve, but the tauren, chimeraes, and frost wyrms have their damage capabilities go through the roof when buffs are applied.

When placing multiple buffs on units try to get them on the same unit. For example if you place bloodlust on units benefiting from roar the effects of roar are enhanced by increased attack rate. This makes a bloodlusted and roared unit a better choice than bloodlust and roar on seperate units. Attack upgrades are a good choice when you know an ally will be using attack increasing buffs on your units.

Armor and healing work extremely well together. Armor makes each HP a unit has count more while healing replenishes a tank unit negating the enemy's damage rapidly. A good example of this is a paladin with devotion aura, priests casting inner fire, and healing wards. The units will take a tremendous amount of damage to kill and often can be healed faster than the enemy deals damage. If your ally has a lot of healing capabilities researching armor upgrades over attack upgrades will increase the effectiveness of their healing.

Debuffs should be spread out. While buffs gain effectiveness when placed together debuffs lose effectiveness. A unit which is already crippled does not need to be slowed or polymorphed. Cheap debuffs can be stacked (curse and slow), but the more expensive ones should target critical units and be spread out to minimize dispelling.

Damage magic should be focused as much as possible. Call targets if you can. For example if your team has a warden, a deathknight, and a mountain king as their heroes you have the potential to kill an enemy hero almost as soon as the battle starts if you focus your attack. Thus call that you should try to kill the enemy's archmage and if you see hero nuking spells being directed at a target try to aim your hero nukes there as well. Similar idea with AoE spells. Try to aim your AoE spells where your allies placed them. A frost nova followed by a shockwave or flamestrike can leave a large portion of your enemy forces dead before they have a chance to react.

Auras work extremely well together and you should consider your ally's unit choice before passing over an aura. For example trueshot aura and the kodo's wardrums can add a total of +50% damage to all ranged units. Endurance aura combines with unholy aura makes for a fast and viscous army. Brilliance aura turns the entire team into a magic using dynamo greatly enhancing heroes and casters alike. Even if you decide not to get any casters your ally may be getting shamans, necromancers, or druids of the talon in which case this aura will be extremely desireable.

Spreading out your unit choice creates a solid army. Should your orc ally get grunts and your NE ally get huntresses a ranged troop selection would greatly enhance the army and cover a possible weakness to air units. Should your ally get a strong group of air units you may want to consider getting either anti-air (to counter the enemy's air anti-air) or units that counter ranged units (rifles, headhunters, fiends, and archers.) Select the strongest point of your army and predict what your enemy will do to counter this. If you pre-emptively counter your enemy this way you should be able to gain an edge in most conflicts.

Remembering to amplify your ally's strength and cover for their weaknesses can go a long way.

Static Defense. Static Defense is a term used for buildings used primarily for defense.

I hope this guide has really helped you all!!!! I took a lot of time to research this guide. Plz let me know if u would like me to put up the rest of the guide attached. The real guide i made is much bigger than this! But the forum only allows a certain amount of words so i could only put up this much.

THE massive guide to end all guides! - The Unofficial Warcraft III Forums

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Reinn

Human main Strat

soygamer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:38:08 GMT

Basics

Build Order
Send 3 workers into the goldmine, build an Altar with the fourth, a Farm with the fifth. The 6th worker builds a barracks. The worker who built the first farm builds a second one right after the first is done. After that build as you like - Tech to tier 2 as early as possible. Overall you should have 5 workers in gold, 6 in lumber and 2 more which will build (or gather lumber when idle).

Alternately, you can keep the 3 on gold and 1 building two farms in a row, and devote one person to build a barracks, then afterwards an altar. This has the drawbacks of making you a bit more vulnerable to hero harass, and not letting your hero creep solo if there are very easy camps on the current map. The advantages are that an overall army of 5 footmen and a hero is finished faster (because 5 footmen take longer than a hero, and you're making the barracks first), and you'll have more resources because more peasants are going straight to gathering early on. If you're good at managing militia, this is one of the most solid starts in the game, and can easily branch off to rush, cc, or defense.
or you can make 3 out of the 5 peasants build a Farm, an Altar, and a Barracks and have them go to wood immediately afterwards before pumping out five Footmen and an Archmage fast while two more Peasants are directed into gold while the other two from the five you had go into gold then go creep.
Against Human

Archmage first, build as many Spellbreakers as possible and add a few Priests. Second hero MK. Since the enemy probably builds the same units your best chances to win are either better micro, higher hero levels, a lucky creepjack or a perfectly timed attack on the base, when you know that the enemy is not there. If an expansion is possible to build and hold long enough that you actually make profit from it, then build it.

For lvl 20 follow this instructions!
For higher lvl, play Am with some footies, t2 add mk and one arcaine sanctuary. On your way to t3 you add a workshop ( blacksmith needed ) and built some mortars against the enemy casters. Your army should consist of about 3 Priests on inner fire and about 5 or 6 for healing(use the inners to dispell if needed), some mortars to kill the enemy casters and knights! Of course you can add a Paladin when you are at t3. You can use the mortar teams to scout your enemy and check out if he is trying to get mass air, if he tries so, you can make an expansion or attack him because of your advantage. If this doesn't work make Dragonhawks as air conter.
Very important in hu vs hu is very good micro in the early game. When you fight with Am, we`s and footies vs your enemy with the same army,it all belongs in your micro. The winner of the first fights is probably able to tech faster and that's what's really important in this matchup!
Against Orc

Archmage first with footies. Build an early blacksmith(while teching on t2). Build rifleman and a few Sorceresses( 3-4) and add a few Priests. Buy a Beastmaster from the tavern as second hero and try to win through the summons, start an attack to the burrows. Try to level your heroes as much as possible and attack before the enemy TC reaches level 3 or the Farseer reaches level 4. Because if that happens his Shockwave/Chainlightning will kill your Sorceresses and Priests in no time(Healscrolls solve) . Only build an expansion if you are 100% certain that you can hold it (Lost Temple), else it delays you too much which gives the orc time to level his heroes.
Alternatively you can pick the Mountain King as second hero and skill bolt. if you have enough rifleman and maybe sorcs, you should be able to focuss single units.
Against Night Elf

You use Archmage as standard hero. At first you build footies, cause most night elves will produce archer. The footies make extra damage to the archer, so they are best but you have to micro them, the attack damage of the archer is not bad at all. If the NE goes huntz in the early game, you have to switch to rifles soon. A blacksmith, necessary for rifles, should be build anyways. The second hero can be the mk, with bolt and more important clap, he can slow enemy units, and then the archmage can use blizzard, which can be retrained. But clap is good anyway, because it slows the enemy attack. The T2 units at the human should be mass caster and then breaker or rifles...
Another tactic can be knights and mortar... You build same heroes and this special units, instead of rifles and only a few caster or even no caster... Early game is the same...
Against Undead

Archmage first, build a few footies for easier creeping and tech to tier 2 ASAP. Build mass riflemen, a few priests and maybe 1 or 2 sorcs with slow autocast set to off. The undead will most likely play mass destroyer, so sorcs will be useless any way, but there may be some situation where a manually casted slow will allow you a hero kill, or where invisible will save your hero. Try not to force the win through an attack on the base - undead bases are strong. Also don't fight if the destroyers have mana. Try to win through a fight in which destroyers have no mana, so your riflemen should rip them apart. If the enemy is attacking your base, let him waste all his mana on buildings which you should mass repair. In some situations an expansion is possible even before the enemy has destroyer. If you manage to do that, and if you manage to hold your expansion against the destroyer attack, you will soon have a huge army of riflemen, which will make things a sure win.
2on2 with Human

This strategy applies for 2v2 maps; both teammates must be humans: Start off by sending 2 of your peasants to mine gold while the others build an alter, one barracks and one farm. This enables you to train a peasant right away to send into the gold mine. Once the other peasant has finished the farm, have him build another (this saves money). When you finish building the alter get the paladin (both teammates) and then start training footmen as soon as you can. Have the peasant that was building the barracks search out your enemy (just one teammate; it's advised that you avoid orc at all costs (but if the blademaster attacks you too much, run to the orcs to distract them). If both enemies are orc, when attacking go for the burrows and the peons. The first attack should be focused on getting your hero to lvl 2-3.
You should have footmen on the way; never queue up more then one at a time or you'll end up putting your extra gold to waste (you want a pool available at all times). You need to have 5 peasants on the gold mine, 5-6 peasants on trees and maybe 1 or 2 for building (or hacking at wood while idling). When the paladin arrives both teammates should get Holy Light (to heal one another) as soon as you have three footmen, research the defend ability. Half way through its research time, go and attack the enemy (avoiding orc if possible). Attack one base together, as this enables you to heal each other. Enable the defend ability to prevent any range from harming your units too much (don't forget, this means all range including towers and ziggurats). As soon as your hero levels up, get the invulnerability spell. Always have footmen training and running to your hero while attacking the enemy. To do this effectively, set the rally point on your hero. It's also advised that you put a hotkey number on the barracks (press Ctrl+1, or a different number of your choice).
If the attack fails, run back to your base and upgrade your town hall to a castle (if it is possible while you're away, start upgrading to a keep) as fast as you can. Make sure you build a blacksmith for researching upgrades. One teammate needs to get a small amount of rifle men and knights, 5-7 mortar teams, some priests, and spell breakers if necessary. The other teammate should get about 6 rifle men, and 7-9 or so knights. It's recommended that your second hero should either be an archmage or a bloodmage (or the darkranger, but don't forget she is undead so you cant heal her with the paladin's holy light). Sorcerers, healers, and spell breakers must come in abundance (meaning the other player who is not getting mortars needs to get large amounts of them).
Your Paladin should be level 3-5 and your second hero should be level 2 or 3. Feel free to get a third hero of your choice but you needn't bother because 2 heroes is normally enough. You should be ready to either defend or launch an assault but make sure you have all the upgrades for your units and your blacksmith should have only the last upgrades to go. Don't worry about researching them. Focus the mortars on either units with range or magic powers, or you can focus them on buildings of use to the enemy (like towers) . You should have the enemy at their knees in no time. If they mass air, don't worry because they will fail (magic and ranged units will take them down easily). Try and prevent your magic units from dying to soon.

I hope this guide helped u guys. I have attached a replay of one of my favorite players, overthezero. He is a lvl 43 hu player on Kalimdor, Asia server. He is not a pro but this replay inspired me to make this guide and become a better hu player. I hope u enjoy it.

Attached Files

[Replayers136268]-RohJinWook(HMN)-vs-overthezero(HMN).w3g (142.3 KB)

Only use human's Tank to win

undead_warrior — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:40:08 GMT

in order to use this strat, u have to be in 3s AT, and all of your partners must at least a moderate player to do this.
im not gonna tell u how to build cuz it's gonna take me forever to type it in so this is just the main point

i know it's the gramma is bad cuz im currently in school and only have 1 hour in between so i try to type as fast as i can. :) sorry for the gramma and vocabs..:(
1st: go 3 mk and harash one base.. and each must have the first spell to stun (don't know what it's called cuz i only use hotkeys). At least 1 of their heroes will be nailed (stun) and killed.
2nd: 2 of you guys will need to straight tech to tanks, remember to upgrade the siege attack and def for it (Higher Attack will result in Faster game).. And another will go Straight to gryps. (i know u will ask what if they rush before we get to tier 3?....) A. Don't worried, your mk will certainly do the job at def your base, just keep harashing at their base and make sure u kill one or 2 heroes before u head back to town for heal. Most player don't know what to do once their heroes are gone, so it cans give u a couple more mins to stock up your tanks, and gryps.
3rd; once u think u have enough units (i prefer about 10 tanks for each player and 14 gryphs for the other player) then go and give them hell, then use gryphons to go to 1 of their base and go nuts, destroy their shop is a must. then mostly 3 of them will tp home and help, in some case only 2 will tp and it's ok. then the other 2 bases will be empty and vulnerble for your Tanks. I prefer the most farthest base, cuz it'll will take time for them to go buy a tp or just simply runs back to their base. Finally kill the Main hall or whatever hey had. Keep doing this for 2 more times and they will soon will leave.....

I know it's a dick move but it's fun for people who like to try out new strat like me :)

we can't use mortal becuase of its low hp and easy to die......Tanks has a strong def against air than mortar, so it'll be more sufficient to used when we want to just attack bases instead of fighting with unit....