UD FFA Strategy :)

[io[DressA]]

INTRODUCTION

So... u wanna play ffa? Then get ready for great battles, weird situations and a lot of excitement. Also get ready for teaming, bullshit games (mass tanks giros and towers, mass towers and bats, mass chims, etc.), and people suiciding you. But once u add up all those you get urself an addictive gamestyle that is likely to hook you up for life. I write this guide in hope to help begginer ud players and maibe give some new strategies to old school players. Be aware that some of these tips take some time to get used to and specially, to do it right. Im goin to start introducing undead units and their common usage for ffa.
Units
Ghouls - Unless you are soulzaar, i dont advise you to use them for anything but gathering lumber or some fast early creeping (replace them for shredders and use them for creeping). They are not good cause most races use some kind of good magic aoe, or simple strong magic units (chims, frosties or griphons), so they tend to die very fast. If you are goin to keep with ghouls to get lumber get the frenzy upgrade as it adds effects to lumber aswell.
Fiends - Ground anti air, great for creeping, webbing runaway air units, but VERY likely to die against heavy air or heavy melee, so be sure to keep them out of harms way.
Gargs - One of the best air unit in the game and great for overall uses, massing them aint always a good idea unless you know what you are doing. Be careful walking with them following you, cause they will walk in a big cluster, so if get surprised by a panda with haze all you can do is cry or tp out. Probable the best unit in ud vs ud games, mass them and buy a lot of scrolls, usually well.
Statues- Good to always have 2 with you, but one will do as you can use both mana and health effects as long as one if auto and you keep firing the other one manually.
Wagons- Only good if you want to necrowagon or if you have to siege someone.
Aboms- The only good melee ud has, dies pretty fast to magic but then again, what heavy armor unit doesnt? Great to use when your heroes arent taking the heat of the battle very well, as they will serve as tank.
Banshees-If your goin up against mass chims of any kind or mass magic (including nuking) is good to have at least 2 of them with you so you can use ams on all your heroes and important units (WILL NOT SAVE YOUR HEROES FROM THE CHIMS, but will give them some more time to run). Use for possession too, curse is good but most people will just dispell it =).
Necros- You should have NumberofFrosties/2 of necroes in ur usual army, as frenzy on Frosties RULE. Of course there the usual Necrowagon usage of them =). Cripple everything Big, and heroes if you wanna nuke them (will buy you some time).
Frosties- Heavy Air, Great for big clusters of troops, aka: ground armies. But they can be targeted very easily, so be careful and coil them as fast as you can. Mass gargos take them out VERY fast T_T.
Destroyer- Always good to have one, dispelling buffs or summons is always a good thing, be aware tho and scout to see if theres a necrowagon, or orc nearby so you need to get more of these.
Shades- If you can, always keep one on each enemy army, and one with urself, if thats not possible try having them around so you always know whats goin on.

Heroes

Altar heroes
Death Knight
This guy will usually be one of the most important heroes in your army, but interesting enough he wount be doing much more than healing your heroes, sniping others and giving you a speed boost. Hes usually a safe choice, regardless of map and races.
Death Coil – Probably the spell you will use more as ud, as healing is always good, be aware for low health intelligence heroes you can snipe, or anything worth killing with low health. When your opponent is running snipe as much things as you can. Be aware when your heroes are being focused upon, as chims, frosties and wyverns usually focus on the lich, pull them back and coil as soon as you notice this is happening.
Unholy Aura – I cant tell you how many times this skill has indirectly won me the game. Speed is very important for the undead army, because sometimes you have to snipe and run, or just use your aoe several times before engaging in order to weaken your enemy before you battle, but I will get further into this in the hero combos.
Death Pact – Well… this usually isn’t a good ffa choice, of course healing the dk is a very good thing, but having to sacrifice speed for it, really sucks (nobody gets the dk if not for death coil right?), but know this hot key in case your dk goes lvl 8, as you never know when you will need some fast healing. Get this if your dk is getting focused on too much, as even an lvl 1 will make some difference. You can also get half speed and half pact, but then again its up to you, it works well tho.
Raise Dead – Great skill, but probably not for the reason you are thinking. A few patches ago, units raised were invulnerable, and that’s exactly were the great skill part takes place. If your opponent has towered himself, or if you are in an kill building situation, this is a safe choice to hit buildings (or even units), from far way. For unlimited corpses just stick next to your graveyard, if hes too far away, scout ur units with ur dk so you can give them a boost for speed, as they have a very bad cooldown. Remember that the units cannot be dispelled nor destroyed so be sure to use it to end stand offs.

Dread Lord
He is a very versatile hero and a very strong one too, his skills in aoe, aura and ultimates are great, and can pretty much change the tide of a battle very fast. A good choice versus all races, he’s a good tank hero, so be sure to try and keep some health items on him. I honestly am not a fan of goin sleep/carrion, but sometimes (i.e when u go necrowagon, when having vamp aura wount prove to be as effective) having both these great spells can prove to be awesome, if you use them well. Goin dread lord first can be incredibly powerful, as having infernal is far better than getting raise dead, so master goin dl first as it is a better choice imo.
Carrion Swarm – A good AoE spell, and a good nuking spell aswell, you should use it against low life units such as hippo, gargs, rifles, archers, etc, even tho it still works well versus big units. Be careful tho, because if you accidentally carrion swarm and TARGET one of your units, the unit WILL take damage (I don’t know if this is a bug, but it happens '1.17 it seems it will be fixed'), so be careful it your dread lord has more exp and is on the same group with the dk (as for the regular hot key users, c is the hotkey for both carrion and coil spells).
Sleep – Sleeping a unit or hero in an 100 supply battle, usually means the unit is out of the battle, as few players in such a large battle can think in dispel or cancel such a spell. You can sleep runaway units, sleep large units in battle (such as frosties, chims, taurens, or such, in level 3 you can sleep (in theory) up to 9 units (which never happens, but still worth mentioning). Use This to take heroes out of the battle (such as a huge lvl 6 tc in an ground fight, or sleep healing heroes while u focus in to kill other hero.
Obviously one of the uses is stopping channeling spells (excluding the priestess with an am potion, but for that you can run I guess… or dispell and sleep, but sometimes its just too hard to dispell and sleep when the priestess is hidden behind a purple cloud 'aka chims'), use it to stop mass teleport abuse, or to stop great aoe heroes (such as the lich). Its usually good to use sleep when you have a necrowagon army, as sleeping an tc with stomp (or any big threat to ur army) will greatly improve the life or ur army =). Remember that dryads dont auto dispell any hero skill, so use this on warden or any other hero the elf has with him that is annoying you.
Vampiric Aura – The only use for this spell, for me at least, is to help gargs survive in air fights, specially in garg vs hippo fight (that hippos win if upgrades are the same an each race has its aura at max lvl), but I think its really useful for that matter, so its usually my choice for second skill for the dread lord.
Infernal – This baby is sweeeeeet, in my opinion the best undead ultimate. Use to stun heroes and ground armies, and for stopping channeling spells (you can stop multiple channeling spells if you can get them inside the same area, so make sure u target it right).
After infernal is down, target him in the intelligence hero available and watch him run or keep being healed while u take your time microing other things (chaos damage hurts). Of course in large clusters of ground armies, he rules also, with the stun and immolation, this can really hurt ground armies.
Remember that infernal is invulnerable to magic, so feel free to hit and run him whenever you need (and that includes marn’s infernal drop which takes forever, but inevitably ends stand offs), and remember that he may be magic immune, but he can still be coiled, so keep him alive when you see him dying.
When your goin for some fast nuking drop him in mid of enemy heroes and nuke the target hero while they are stunned, can really scare your opponent.
Lich
He is probably one of the weakest, slowest heroes in this game, but he can really make a difference in a battle, make sure you perfect him by increasing his health and adding the dk to your party (for speed and healing). His Frost Nova has no max unit caps, so if you can hit cluster of units it’s a killer. Get the undead orb in him as the -5 armor will surely be an impact when you are trying ot nuke a hero or unit.
The big doubt here is whether to get frost armor or dark ritual, and this I leave it up to you, as it is really personal really, I personally prefer dark ritual as the last thing I want to happen is my lich running out of mana in the middle of a big battle, but frost armor can help your heroes and units tank a lot better (nothing like watching a f armor frostie being hit by all those hippos) and of course help the gargs vs air wars.
Frost Nova – As I said before try to hit clusters, as it will deal as much damage as it can, and of course this is a great spell for nuking heroes, abuse it in low health intelligence heroes.
Frost Armor – This spell is great for use in air battles (involving hippos or gargs) and for helping your heroes tank better (you can use it on the lich too). Leaving it auto-cast is your choice, as it really drains a lot of mana in big battles.
Dark Ritual – Best way to regain mana in the game I think, if u want quick mana regen and your lich has this in mid to high level, don’t buy mana pots, buy a wand of necromancy, make a skellies and use ritual in it. Remember that before Raise Dead units fade away, u can use dark ritual on them.
Death and Decay – The great savior against mass towers, this can destroy mass towers in seconds, and entire bases as well. DON’T use it in battles, as it will keep your lich from using frost nova, and its not a good trade, unless u managed to trap a bunch of tanks and u want to finish them fast.
Now this spell has a great strategical usage not many players take advantadge. If you know a player is big, and you want to gain an advantadge from him, you can hit him in an expansion and as he tps, you move in with you lich in his main and start D&D, if u manage to stall him for a few seconds before you tp (you don’t want to fight without your lich), chances are he won’t have a second tp, so he lost his main base and you lost nothing but a tp or 2 (if he gets to lich in time ^_^).
Crypt Lord
I’m gonna say it, I DON’T like this guy, he's good for other game styles, but he’s just not ffa material, he's an excellent hero versus ground armies, but versus air the only thing that can offer any help is his ultimate (If you get against him and he has the ultimate, I STRONGLY suggest you make him use it and back away, or just ignore him for the rest of the battle, cause this ultimate can make everything confusing and can damage you very much). Good versus ground armies tho.
Impale – Best spell I think to remove chanelling spells (considering you manage to get them in the same line), and great for stunning clusters of ground units, low damage unfortunately.
Carrion Bettles - Not very good except for fast creeping, some free melee army, and scout (remember you can burrow them).
Spiked Carapace - Great to make the crypt lord the best tank for an ud army, a good armor and return damage make it a great skill versus ground armies, be sure to add an orb so that most units will focus on him.
Locust Swarm - A great skill, can confuse players, while dealing a good amount of damage, if the crypt lord is taking hits while he's doing this ultimate its best, as he recovers life from this.
Tavern Heroes
3 heroes here are pretty useless in ffa specially with ud, the naga sea witch, the goblin tinker and the beastmaster. They don’t have much use in ffa overall, and specially no use in ud ffa, if anyone there know of any use for them please let me know.
Pandaren Brewmaster
This is one of your single greatest weapons against mass air, due to the drunken haze skill, which has no maximum targets and has a great chance of missing. This together with the fact that air units tend to gather, makes this the greatest weapon against mass light air, and useful against heavy air. Remember that haze can be dispelled, its just hard as hell to do dispel flying units. He is weak, and can be targeted from death coil, so its up to you if u want to use him in an ud vs ud ffa game, if you do make sure he has a lot of periapths. Its also up to you if u want to use the haze together with flame or the drunken brawler skill, one is great as an aoe (it was much better before 1.15 when it had no maximum damage), the other is good for making your panda live. (I like the flame better, good for nuking too)
Usually get him as an second hero, as a third he wount have high lvl, and haze lvl 3 is so nice.
Drunken Haze – Your greatest ally when fighting masses of light air, target it in air clusters, and watch the mass misses ^_^. If your opponent has haze, you better have dispel or sleep. (One thing you can do is sleep the panda and either make your opponent run or make him run after you, some opponent will leave the panda behind unaware he is slept, leaving him out of battle =D)
Flame Breath – This is a good AoE skill, specially with drunken haze, as it does some damage over time to the units hit. Has a similar to shockwave area of target, so think before you aim. This skill can hit building and mechanical units so use it in tanks or to take down towers.
Drunken Brawler – A good skill for making sure your panda lives longer, if you don’t think tou have enough mana to use both of the above skills, pick this, otherwise the other 2 are usually a better trade.
Storm, Earth and Fire – Useful only for saving the panda, when he is focus fired, use this, windwalk storm and send him away. So even if it you lose the battle and heroes, your panda will survive. Remember that cyclone (storm skills too) can remove chanelling spells.
Pit Lord
This guy is a good third hero, as he has great skill for handling masses. Usually low hitpoints and a big collision size, but the hitpoints can be fixed with periapths plus he can be healed by deathcoil.
Howl – This is a great skill, but remember, as haze, it can be dispelled, do that is an opponent uses it against you, cause having your overall attack cut in half is not nice.
Rain Of Fire – Great skill for hitting masses of ground or even air units if you can aim at them properly, be careful with your units though >_<.
Cleaving Attack – Not very useful I think, maybe with a bunch of claws, but still the other skills seem better.
Doom – Now here is a great skill, doomguard can cause a huge damage if you manage to use him properly when he appears. Make sure you use stomp, and rain of fire as soon as he is out, repeat stomp whenever you can, use a double rain of fire. But be careful this ultimate can be dispelled and coiled, so dispel it when he's against you, or focus fire him as he dies pretty quick.
Dark Ranger
This girl can really be a pain in the ass if shes against you, and can turn some tides if you have her. The lack of AoE hurts tho, but she can be good as a first, second or third hero, as any lvl she has will be useful.
Silence – Sweeeet, but can be dispelled, use it to silence human, orcs or undead casters, this can be a quick way out of a necrowagon rush. Silence healing heroes as you snipe other ones, use it to silence the paladin and kill it too, as he cant use divine shield. This also stops chanelling spells such as mass teleport, death and decay, earthquake, etc.
Black Arrow – A great skill to creep fast, use the skeletons to tank when you creep, its also good due to the damage bonus.
Life Drain – This can be used for creeping too, if you use the ranger as tank. Use it to lower an heroe's life before you coil/nova/ or carrion him.
Charm - This can get an advantadge for you in battle (charmin a frostie or chim in a 100 pop battle means u will have an 100+ army when your opponent will have an 100- army so its a good trade as charm has a very low cooldown) or in some late game stand offs (picking enemy units with the dark ranger and using the teleport staff to get away).
FireLord
I REALLY dont think this guy is good ffa material if compared to the ud heroes, but IF he is used properly maibe he can aid. There is a chance that someday this guy can become an ud hero, maibe then he will be more useful as no coil healing will truly get you at times, be sure to stack this guy with health items then.
Lava Spawns - This boys are useful for creeping purposes ONLY, after that i would suggest you trade ur skill for something better such as incinerate or soul burn.
Incinerate - Now this can be very useful in light uni battles (mass gargs or mass hippo this would be a beauty =) ). Be sure to target a light unit so it can die fast and spread the damage, if you can choose multiple targets you can make many explosions in one battle (a VERY nice addition vs garg fights). You can also aim the firelord at a hero as the damage from incinerate will stack, so target a low health intel hero and watch him run =D.
Soul Burn- This spell is mainly useful for getting heroes out of battle. I would suggest you target it on highly important heroes (orc- tc, sh. Hu - MK, Paladin. UD - DK, Lich. Night elf - Warden) that use magic to aid in battle. I wouldnt suggest using it on units as it is MUCH moreuseful if used against heroes, but its your call.
Volcano- Not much to say about this, aim it at enemy buildings or in the middle of the battle.
Goblin Alchemist
I dont think this hero can add much into UD ffa as he is kinda slow and his healing skills are very weak if compared to dk or statue.
Healing Spray- Please be careful with this, this can also heal enemy units t_t... so be very very careful when using it in battles. Its a slow healing and in my opinion is much better for after battles.
Chemical Rage- This will turn ur alchemist into a pretty wild melee attacker, use this before battles (duh...) and be sure ur alchemist has a lot of health to take the damage. Useful to run too ^_^.
Acid Bomb- Not sure if this has any cap in maximum units but its a great spell to use (again) in mass light fights as it will reduce the armor and deal some damage to an enemy cluster (neutral fairie fire! no vision tho =(( ).
Transmute- I like this skill, by far one of the best additions to this guy, and to late game ffas (or stand offs). You can buy an potion of invuln, a staff of teleportation and keep hitting your opponent (if he chases you you hit potion of invul and tp out), repeat as much as youd like as most units will cost more than 150 gold, and big units can give you a LOT of gold. Use this before engagin too, against big units such as frosties, taurens, chims, mountain giants, knights, griphons and such.

Main Starting Builds

Im not goin to get much into this as it is personal and you will eventually have confidence to go in and out of each build as you please. Its usually good to have at least 5 ghouls on lumber, if you can replace them for one or two shredders (two if you REALLY got some lumber problems or wanna tech fast).
The Fiend build.
1 aco
Build graveyeard
Build crypt
2nd Aco
Zig
Altar
2 Ghouls
2nd Zig
Shop (if you want to creep, or expand fast)
Hero
Fiends
Tech when you have the resources
(from here its up to you)
This build consists of starting with dread lord of death night, and adding fiends, before teching to tier 2. Its overall a strong and consistent build, allowing u to creep fast, and hold off some kinds of armies very well. Usually takes more micro to getting these babies to stay alive, including lots of upgrades aswell. Use this as opposed to the garg build in base theres an orc beside you, as those bats will hurt you more than u can realize.
Pros
-Can get u to start creeping very fast, big creeps aswell.
-Holds some kinds of armies very well.
Cons
- Can be raped by chippos very fast if you dont have necrowagon, imo.
- Less mobility. (This hurts very bad when you need to hit and run)
The gargoyle build.
1 Aco
Crypt
Altar
Zig
2nd aco
Zig
make 3 ghouls, hero and an aco if you want to expand fast.
Tech when hit 210 lumber (usually happens right after hero is out)
Graveyeard
Crypt
Zig
2nd Hero
Now you should be at 30 pop (10 acos, 5 ghouls 2 heroes) so you could either add up to 10 gargs, or 7 gargs and 2 statues.
After this you should creep and be looking for people next to you to scout and start preparing counters.
I find this build allows me to fend off chippos much easier than I could with the fiends build (fiends only, not necrowagon build), but as most good players tend to notice, it’s a very fragile early strat, as u can have heavy troubles if you get suicided or teamed. The thing you need most when handling these is scrolls, please buy at least one per hero.

Pros
-They are fast, good damage, and u can creep nearly anything with them if u can take care of them well (hydras in murgul oasis are a bitch tho).
-Great mobility, u can dance around hippos and other air units while you aoe their asses off.
-Great for holding most armies if u ask me (even tanks, if you are bold enough to pull it off with some wagon aid and scrolls, aim the wagons at the tanks while they target the gargs, or stone them to block ur entrance while the wagons do their job)
Con
-Weak early build.
-They can die pretty fast and pretty ugly, if your opponent had the proper counters or if you don’t have scrolls
-They bundle, so AoEs hurt…. BAAAAAAD, so watch out, if its hurting more than it should consider changing strat or maybe getting counters to aoe (sleep, or dispel for haze or howl)
The necro build.
This is one of the most versatile strats you have, its great if you get ur opponents off guard, and in a spot they cannot run
(main), the best way to pull this off is start with the fiend build and then adding necros (fully upgraded! plz), 2 or 3 wagons and 1 statue for mana and 2 if you want life regen. If you are goin to tp to somewhere using this strat, make sure u make the skeletons BEFORE town portaling and aiming the town portal away from the other guys army (necros and wagons are damn fragile, so take very good care of them). Upgrade skellies upgrades over fiends upgrades here, upgrade fiends later, as fiends here will be basically just to web chims and frosties and keep them from getting near ur necros/wagons. Cripple big units like taurens, chims, frosties, griphons, etc. Unholy fiends and anything else u think its important (remember to never cripple or unholy against human with breakers T_T). When facing heavy air make sue to web the air units, cripple them, and then leading the fiends and the necros a bit to the back, so the air units cant hit them properly.
Im not writing the full build here as i havent made a perfect build yet.
Pros
-An 80 pop army like this one, can face some 100 armies cause of skellies (i dont recommend tho).
-If you manage to get someone with this strat in his main fast! hes likely to have lost the game, but be aware, cause he will most likely call out to the world that u got necrowagon, giving people the chance to get counters.
-Heroes running? Cripple their asses off ^_^.
Cons
-If your army is caught by surprise you are likely to lose almost everything unless you can tp in time as they are not very mobile.
- Fragile to hit and runs aiming wagons and necros.
-Infernal, stomp, shockwave, clap, and all skills alike hurt them too bad, so be sure to sleep those heroes before they have the chance to hurt you.
- I recommend you NEVER use this army against an orc ground, as taurens are likely to get you (shees can work but most good orcs will focus on them so you cant possess the taurens.) or an hit and run with shockwave and breath of fire can would your army greatly, if you dont have a choice be sure to pack up scrolls. Using this strat versus an ud massing gargs aint always a good choice, cause all they have to do is add a few destros, nuke your wagons and necros, and tp out.

Hero Combos

I will only comment on the combos I use most, as for other I still need to practice to see what weak/strong points are.
DK, DL Lich - I think this is the best hero combo you can possibly get, as it is versatile, provides good nuking and you can use in any map. DL and Lich can be the nightmare of clusters of low health troops and given the fact dk can coil them it makes this combo a tough one to beat. Hit and run with carrion and nova are VERY effective against chippos or mass gargs.
DK, Panda, Lich - Great versus mass light air, not so great versus heavy units. Great combo overall but not being able to heal the panda and not having infernal can be very bad, there WILL be times where you will wish for some infernal action =(. Get some invul potions and periapths for the panda. Be sure to hit and run with area of effect (aoe) as much as you can before engaging your opponent, as panda will just rape most light units.
DL Panda, Lich - Can anyone say mass AoE? there are only 2 big weakness on this combo, and are weakness regarding the lack of the death knight. Speed and healing. Lich is basically a walking tome of exp, so keep him with periapths and invul potions (actually get invul potions on all heroes if you can), life potions and scrolls are needed aswell.

Usual Armies And Counters

This is just a pointer for the common strategies in ffa and how you can deal with them.
Humans
With necrowagon be very aware if your opponent uses mortars, as they WILL rape ur necros very fast. Move them to the back, or next to the mortars (that depends on the position u take on battle) so they cant hit you.
AM, Pally, MK - Casters Rifles and tanks.
This strat can give any undead player a very hard time, as most ud dont know how to handle tanks. The big thing here is, heavy air, heavy melee, and some meat wagons (a couple will do the trick). You can use gargs, but frosties can make tanks be still without taking much damage, and the melee would be against the rifles and casters. Add in some destroyers (1 or 2 at least) to dispell eventual polly, slow and inner fire, watch out for hero nukes, and it should be an easy ride, scrolls aint a must, but will help. Nuke the am when u see the chance. Necrowagon can rape most humans too, but remember to aim the wagons at the priests and nuke them too.
AM, Pally, MK - Griphons, Hawks and tanks.
In this case i suggest need gargs, as i dont suggest you get fiends unless you necrowagon, because if he has half a brain your fiends will die very very fast. The key here is speed (this is where the dk comes in), get in kill the griphons (keep your gargs alive by using scrolls), kill the hawks and then stone form and deal with the heroes by nuking. Add some melee if u want, but be aware that the griphons will hurt them bad. Necrowagon will work here too, but make sure you use the skellies as meat and keep ur fiends safe.
Blood Mage, Pally and MK with any of the combos above.
Be very careful with ur heroes, specially the lich as he has low life. Sleep the paladin and kill the mage, repeat with mk and you should be fine.
Mass Tanks
Use frosties in order to keep them still and get 3 or 4 wagons and aim them at the tanks, coil the frosties. You can use stone form gargs to block passages against the tanks, remember that always. Use hold position in choke points with fiends aswell. Infernal in the tanks is good as chaos damage will rape the tanks.
Tips versus Human
-Nuking the am is a good choice when u dont seem to be winning a battle, just dont nuke him after he is already aware that ur trying to take him down, as pally will only make you waste your time.
-Infernal drops in bundles of rifle casters (or any ground army) can give you time to nuke their units and possibly even his entire army before he has time to tp.
-Humans can get expos faster than anyone, so scout always.
Night Elf
DH, Kotg and Potm - Chimaeras and Hippogriphs.
Well, this one if it gets you off guard... youre pretty much dead, so stay aware of elves doing such strat and if possible kill them right away, as they can easily nuke your citadel making it impossible for a proper tp. The key to beating this strat is mass gargs or necrowagon (CRIPPLE THE CHIMS!!!!). Be aware that good players might try to put the chims ahead for "meat" while the hippos rip your gargs, be fast on noticing this and retarget as fast as you can (same goes for mountain giants). It would be better if instead of engagin the elf you hit him with aoe and ran several times in order to weaken him, when you see his forces are low strike at full force.
Necrowagon can work, but as i said earlier u got the problem that they can snipe the necroes too fast, so be careful and add some fiends and micro ur necroes and wagons, use the skellies as meat and you can kill most chippo elves with this.
DH Panda, Potm - Chippo
Whenever theres a panda it means it will be trouble for ur mass gargs , add a panda youself, some dispell, sleep, of all of it, but never fight a battle when ur hazed, NEVER! Hit and runs wount work so good here as its more likely you will lose more than him.
Warden, Panda and Potm - Chippo or Chippo riders with some MGS
I strongly suggest you dont get gargs here, as they will die very fast, necrowagon is better, but he careful as he WILL try and nuke the necros/wagons. If u do get gargs, sleep the panda, as he will be more troublesome than the warden but if u can, sleep both.
Ground Night elf
Hmm do these exist? you might be asking youself. Yes they do, and some of them are actually quite strong. I would suggest you stick with counter against ground ne. When you see Mgs get abominations, when you see dryads get gargs/wagons (i wouldnt suggest fiends unless he has a lot of hippos, as gargs have more mobility), and i think you should be fine.

Tips versus Elf
-Never try to nuke a dh in meta, never use mass gargs versus a dh in meta (if u want to, sleep him but never let him shoot at ur gargs cause meta damage is splash).
-Thorns aura is what evens the fight of hippos versus gargs, if u see an opening and u can snipe the keeper, do it and try to engage before he can get it back.
-Try to fight in their base only when moonwells are empty.
-When u see an potm with an ams potion doing starfall, u have three choices: either u hit her with an infernal, run as fast as you can outside of the starfall range, or dispell and sleep her. Never fight in starfall, as even ur magic invulnerable units will take damage.
Orcs
TC, FS and SH - mass zerkers plus casters and some taurens.
The key in defeating this is mass heavy air with dispell, adding some heavy melee if needed to save heroes from taurens. Dispell spirit link blood lust, traps and h wards, DISPELL CONSTANTLY, and never never make the mistake of focus firing the tc, as that is exactly what he wants. Aim directly at the bundle of zerkers, and nuke them with any aoe at your disposal, as the big strenght in this army is the fact that they can spread the damage around and heal everybody fast (if ur in a map without scrolls this is a big advantadge for ud) and if you see and opening, nuke the sh. Scrolls are very good here, as you might be dealing with a lot of spread damage, coil the frosties u see hes focusing in and lead them to the back.
Same as above - wyvs bats casters.
This is considerably harder, for this u will need some destroyers and some heavy air, but gargs or fiends are something you need here. I prefer gargs, and micro them so the bats dont do full damage to everything (you can try and keep 2 groups separate), get the wyvs first and then the rest of the army, leave heroes (specially tc) for last always, unless you get a good chance and a clear shot at the sh. Remember a lvl 5 wave of nova and carrion can take out bats, so nuke them a bit before engaging and always have scrolls with you, use them after ( and during if you can) a wave of bats to recover.
Mass bats and towers.
Starve the S.O.B., and get fiends, be sure to keep some fiends in every exp (3 is a good number) with burrow and some in your main (tower up on main) so you can surprise the bats. Nuke the bats whenever they get close to your heroes (even with coil) and try to make sure he wastes his money. If he gets taurens be sure to get some shees or necros so you can add a bit more to the fight. Be aware if he changes strat as it can rape you pretty fast. This strat will usually make you lose the game, but at least make sure you take down the bat masser with you.
Tips versus Orcs
-As i said before dont mass gargs when u have an orc beside you, as he can pretty much just send the bats from far away and kill you stuff. If you do have gargs and you see bats, be sure to stone form the gargs before they can hit.
- The sh is one of your main targets in this army, if you see an opening go for him, aim everything u can at him, and if he heals and you see you cant handle him keep with the fight and retarget or tp out.
- Keep a shade near you to remove those annoying sentry wards that will be all across the map.
-If you happen to find an orc without the upgrades in burrows and towers, snipe all the burrows you can and tp out (only engage if ur SURE that youll win), recover an attack again, as he will probably not be able to recover properly.
Undead
DK DL Lich - fiends frosties
Use mass gargs kill the frosties fast and then try and nuke the lich (sleeping the dk will help ^_^) and the fiends if u can, add scroll as his nuking WILL hurt you bad.
Same as above - gargs frosties or pure gargs
You can mass gargs, or you can necrowagon his base (Always strike at base if u can, as he will be trapped), this can get ugly very fast if you dont know what ur doing, and he can kill ur heroes very fast aswell so be careful. Scrolls are a must, very scrolls you can afford.
Necrowagon
Be VERY careful with this, spot it fast, and stall him as much as you can until u can get destros. Nuke the necros and the wagons, and dispell everything you can.

Maps

Some maps require specific strategies, approachs or things you have to be aware of. I wount be getting into 4 people map as i thumb them all down, i hate small maps for ffa. Its always good to check if there is any spot vacant on the sides to see if you can get 2 or 3 expansions fast. Spots = primary starting locations.

Bloodstone Mesa
Always scout to see if the spot to next to you clockwise if available, if it is, you can expand twice fast, and chances are people will not notice it until its too late. As for the middle creeps, if there is too many people in mid, you can try to snipe the big creep, get the item and move on to the other creep, as most people will try and clear the whole creep camp.
Feralas
God, i cannot say how much i hate this map, this is usually an 4x4 map (bad one aswell). Position has a HUGE importance n this map, as u can get surrounded very easy. Try to take a spot with towers and secure 2 expos if you can. The ogre creeps in main spots can be creeped by air units as there are no trappers/Or trolls headhunters, so be sure that when ur done with one creep, send ur garsg over the trees to get the other creep camp creeped before u get there. Remember that trees are the only thing that keeps one base away from another, so take down the trees (with wagons) and invade the other base if people are towering their entrance (remember this versus bat massers).
Monsoon
I have a personal issue with this map, i hate it aswell, ive been tanked one too many times in it. The top/bottom mid creeps are HUGE, never underestimate them but they at least reward you properly, either its a tome of power, mask of death or crown of kings. Get yourself an spot here with towers when u get the chance.
Mur'Gul Oasis
I dont suggest u creeping the hydras in mid without any way of healing (gargoyle stone form may be considered one of them) as they splash the damage. Mid plays a great importance in this map so get urself an mid expansion when you se the chance and tower it up.
Silverpine Forest
Be very careful with orc on this map, as an blademaster with enough +15 claws can take ur heroes out before you can think. To prevent this, get the claws before him and put it on your lich to ease nukes. When you are creeping mid, snipe the ogre get the item and proceed to the next creep camp, as these creeps drop great items, including the famous +15 claws (the spot creeps drop great items, so does the natural exp). Expand twice when u can, or when you have a spot free next to you. Abuse the marketplace as much as you can, the items u should be looking for are those blue periapths, claws, amulet of spell shield and some scrolls of restoration (use them wisely, they are VERY expensive). Always get a shredder, they replace ur 5 ghouls and you can get 2 shredders (its still less supply than those 5 ghouls - only get 2 when u have severe lumber problem or when u have a lot of gold and you want to end games fast, so u dont have to worry about lumber).
Stromguarde
This is usually an ne/orc map, as bats/chims over trees will hurt you a lot. Tower an spot when you can, and be careful with orcs or humans towering spots in this map (damn you rice!! ur towers go up so fast T_T). Get shredders always to replace ur ghouls, and use the ghouls to creep. To creep middle you should first hit the knight, he will activate divine shield, then when the divine shield is over kill him fast, as his chaos damage is very dangerous (its usually better for you to be worried about taking over spots and creeping those archmages than creeping mid tho, as the items arent as good as those in silverpine.
The crucible
I love this map, this is an air map, you dont want to get caught in a choke point with an ground army here. Gargs can pretty much creep anything here very fast (those dragons should be ur first targets when u have about 6 gargs), take over a spot towering as fast as you can, and watch out for orcs/humans doing the same thing, as their towers are a lot harder to kill. If you are facing mass tanks be sure to block ur entrance with ground units. Chims/bats over trees are a bitch too so be sure to pick up anyone doing this and starve them.
ThunderLake

Well weird map, hard to get across to the other side, but i guess its better than some of the others. Get as much of the creeps in mid as you can cause they got some nice aura items drops.
Twilight Ruins
I love this map, the expansion is easily creeped by 3 ghouls and hero (please dont hit the big guy else he will summon more 2 of the lvl1s, only hit him when hes the only one left), and its pretty easy to get 2 or more expos fast. The shop creeps can drop an exp tome so creep them first when ur creeping mid, the 4 skeletons in mid drop some good items, but try to creep the exp tome guys first. The marketplaces on this map arent quite good but still have some good aura items (brillance aura for ud ^_^).
Typhoon
I cant think of a more unbalanced map... as the only shop is on the bottom right corner, the creeps in naturals are VERY hard and dont drop items that good, so no need to creep them unless you dont have anythign else to creep or you want an expo.

General Tips

(Ill be sure to update this section everytime I remember something)
Position
-Check your position as soon as you can (use skellies or an aco) so you know if you are trapped and who might be trapped with you.
-DONT attack someone whos also trapped, as it will only get you against two players that want you dead. So always try to break out killing the player that will let you free.
-Take advantadge of your position when you can and expand as fast as you can, as having 3 expansions when you are creeping will let you hoard at least 7+k before you start getting ready to kill people.
Scout
-Always have a shade at least in the guy next to you. As you will have to know when hes about to hit and how big is his army so you can prepare a counter, so you can break out of 50 pop with the least losses possible.
Expansions
-Make sure you have about 6 to 8 towers in your exp to drive people away. Scatter them a bit so earthquake or hawks cant make them worthless.
- Have a shop in your expo if you can, in case you need to use multiple tps, or stock scrolls. Be sure to keep the shop away from harm.
- Have a necropolis next to it too so you can tp when you see the need. Be careful as some armies can take your necropolis down before you can tp, so try and surround the necropolis with some towers, or getting it to the back.
Town Portal
- Make sure you stay aware when your opponent will town portal and where will it go (think "where would i tp in order to gain an advantadge?" and you should come up with the right answer). Casting infernal when they go down and nuking them fast can give you a huge advantadge, but be away for big armies that can take away your heroes (mass chims and hippos, mass frosties, griphons) or armies that can trap you (necrowagon, orc ground, human ground).
- Always think before you tp, always look at your enemy's army before you tp, if you dont have the right counter and your almost sure youll get raped, dont even tp as it will only feed him exp and leave you weak. Try to surprise ur opponent when you tp, by casting infernal and doing some fast nuke.
MassTowers
-When someone mass towers in a spot, there is a good way to avoid the towers. Make sure your opponents army isnt right right after the towers, after that use the dl as tank and let all the towers start hitting him (coil and frost armor him if you can), now go through with all ur army (air armies will work better) and head straight to what you want (its best to pull a stunt like this on the enemy main). He will likely tp and (given you prepared the proper counter) you can rape him tower-free.
-When you have the chance, tower up spots that can let you expand (you can even do this when theres enemy exps inside, fun and useful =D). Dont be afraid to use the towers, letting an expo unprotected is never a good idea.
-When your opponent has taken over a spot, use your flying units to snipe the peons in the exp from behind (watch for tps).
-Frost Wyrms can freeze towers, and if you can target them properly they can freeze a LOT of towers. Frosties freeze buildings they hit, plus buildings next to them, so if you have a 3 tower arrange
OXO
Like this, you should hit the middle tower (x) in order for all of them to get frozen. Target ur frosties the way you find more effective and take the towers out with the other units.
General Manipulation Tips
If you see your opponents seem to be working together, this may be an indication that some private chatting is goin on. When such a thing happens your best choice is to try and counter manipulate them. Say things such
"Hey, ur buddy here is working on a counter for you, id be careful if i were you."
or maibe a
"Im dead, now its up to you, good luck!" fake death works good too =). Hell, what am i saying, i suck at manipulation this is the best youll squeeze out of me ^^.
Well.. always try to convince the players to try and hit each other, identify the weak link as fast as you can, and work on him (try not to use private chat... its dirrrrrrty, and most people dont like it).
How to dodge the anonimous ffa at high lvls.
The ffa community is very small if compared to solo or rt, so its pretty easy to identify whos online at high lvls and whos not. The best way to know when someone gets game with you is to /whereis him before game and after you get in game, a simple adding to f list will work that out. Knowing who you are against lets you prepare more effective counters as you know ur opponents better. In example, people know marn likes to hoard gold, so it would be best to take him out while hes hoarding gold, than to fight other people and have him outresource you.

Last Words

Never give up on an ffa, having 3 more people in a game makes things change very fast, i had games where i only had a single aco and necropolis and still pulled a win. FFAs are frustrating, and sometimes will make you want to break things... DONT, just chill and go play something else or watch some tv, playing more ffas while ur angry will usually make you do bad decisions and make you lose. I hope this guide can influence more and more people into playing ffa's, as it is a great gamestyle filled with all the excitement you can have in WC3.


This is my not guide... Credit goes to LordOblivion....I just thought that d3scene has alot more members that could use the info.

[4skiLLiFighT]

Good but where you coyed it plz a link = thx