Hi, I'm a Starcraft player interested in Warcraft 3. Before Starcraft 2 comes out I want to feel that I have an understanding of the game. I have therefore a few starting questions.
1. In Warcraft 3 there exist low upkeep and high upkeep. Is it more beneficial to stay on low upkeep to achieve a greater income or is high upkeep not that much of a problem? With other words, army size vs economy? Is it situational, MU-specific or race specific?
2. How important is a second hero? And if so, is a third hero necessary? Are there units/unit-combos that are better then heroes?
3. How important are upgrades?
4. Are there BO:s or strategies that requires no hero to execute? With other words, are there strats regarding only units being used?
5. What maps today are mostly played? A similar matter for Starcraft players when learning about the Iccup Map-Pool.
6. I have studied the races but am still somewhat confused about their role in the game. Is there a huge difference among the races or are the races more similar? Are there races harder then others to learn?
7. What would you recommend me to start with? What MU is the easiest to understand for a beginner?
To start with I want to thank you all for your informative replies. I have played one week on ladder so far and it’s been a blast. Warcraft 3 is actually a good game. The mechanics somewhat still confuses me but I’m beginning to see the game from a new perspective.
As a Zerg player I love creep so naturally I chose Undead as my main race. The other reason is simple: Acolytes are cool. But still I haven’t grasped Undead, both MU-counters and strats. I have followed the BO site and tried out different strategies. Of course the more you learn the more you don’t so a few more questions have arisen.
Instead of creating a new thread regarding my issues I will redo this. Almost every question below is from an Undeads perspective. Please note that I know that these questions can sound vague.
8. Is there specific counters for each and every unit in Warcraft 3? In a game vs a Night Elf my Crypt Fiends got completely squashed by his Huntress. In another game vs Orc my Fiends spanked the crap out of his Grunts. With other words, is there a counter-system? Ex Fiends > Grunts, Huntress > Fiends etc. What are a good counter between Undeads units and the other races?
9. Following your guide Death Knight and Lich King seems to be the most common hero combination in every MU. What items do you usually use for this heroes? Is Orb of Corruption important?
10. How do you scout as Undead? I have seen people making an extra Acolyte to scout with. Other then that, you send your ghoul or first fiend?
11. Harassment seems to be a big part of how the UD works. Is it more important to try harassing in the beginning then go creeping?
12. In late game I tend to lose more due to the fact that I don’t understand it. How powerful is a maxed UD army? What units would you say is more important in this mix then others? An example, Destroyers vs Abominations? Necromancers vs Banshees? Meat Wagons vs Statues?
Hey Pokkiteam! Every unit has a counter. Fiends counter hunts but hunts also counter fiends so it comes down to micro in those cases. Grunts also counter fiends pretty good but then again fiends is also a good counter to grunts when microed properly.
It will take a while to mention all the recipies for the counters vs every race but I can tell you some of the popular unit combos.
8.
Vs elf you wanna go ghouls most of the times in the earlygame, let's say 90% of pros do this but then again some prefer fiends.
When you reach t2 you want to make either gargs or fiends, continue by teching to t3 and put down a slaughterhouse. If you sticked with gargs you wanna put down a sacrificial pit and then a boneyard. It's pretty important to have 1 in order to take down bears and for herofocusing. Also make sure to have a statue or 2 with you. Remember that vs elf you can either take naga as 2nd hero when you reach t2 but this only if you are planing to push with some ghouls etc... B4 you reach t3 get the lich and when he's out stack him with the orb.
If lategame you can put down another slaughterhouse and pump out abos and meatwagons.
When going fiends it is also a smart thing to do naga, lich or lich, naga.
For this strat you basically want to creep as much as possible to be able to nuke properly. Fiends are a very nice counter to dryads but not to bears, so you may want to add some destroyers and a couple of ghouls. Make sure you have the ghoul frenzy upgrade
Vs orc: The best thing for you would to go fiends. Ghouls can work out even better but for a rookie it will be very hard as it takes good micro to perform surrounds and keepin those low hp guys alive.
With fiends you can do fiends + destros or fiends + wyrms etc.. you dont want to make abos vs orc.
If you feel it's neccessary to get a 3rd hero choose either Crypt lord, dark ranger or pitlord. Dark ranger is not that common by the way. Of course there are other heroes but I would stick to one of these, maybe naga if you are looking to push.
If you are crazy enough you can make banshees. Master upgrade allows you to posses enemy units over a timelap of 5 seconds. Still I think this Might be a bit hard for you to controll. Maybe stick to the normal cookie cutter strategies 1st?
Vs hu: You have 2 options. Economy build which is somewhat the same as fiend build, but with a delayed graveyard. This allows you to get 4 ghould for wood and then fiends with a quick tech. If not just stick to the ghoul build. If the hu goes for a fast expand, which he will do by the way 80% of the times you can go for gargs if you have time to harrass his expo b4 he gets to many towers up. Make sure that you harrass it as much as possible to delay it, either with fiends or ghouls. If you go for gargs you want to creep up the dk and lich while not letting the hu creep. Always remember to make a slaughterhouse. Statues are a MUST in every game. Now if you want to get a 3rd hero that's ok just make sure it's not to late in the game. Otherwise it can be free exp for your opponent.
Fiends... Perfect against towers and nice for pushing. Add a statue and a 3rd hero and it can often work out pretty good.
In mirror you have a lot of options. You can either go lich/mass gargs, dreadlord/mass ghouls or dk/fiends/ghouls.
If going for fiends just creep untill there are no more creeps. And be sure to tech armor/dmg as much as possible. Crypt lord is a must as 3rd hero.
If going for gargs you can get panda 3rd and dk 2nd. Panda is not needed but very nice. Drunken haze and breath of fire works great even though your opponent can get stone form to remove the burning shit on his gargs
Really I know I left out a lot but those are just the basic. You can do a lot of other stuff, no need for flame!
So:
Fiends counter: Dryads, hunts, grunts, raiders, wyws, gargs, and probably some other shit aswell. Can't think of anything vs hu except for air.
Ghouls: Everything as long as they have ghoul frenzy, really haha
Gargs: Dryads, > all air and that's it.
Wyrms: Great for herofocusing and vs bears. Works great vs grunts, raiders aswell.
Ud heroes > all (except for bm!)
I know I left out some things so again, pls dont harrass me ;D
9.
Orb on lich is a must! you want to give him all claws as the orb reduces armor and gives room for dealing a lot of dmg. Dk is ok with some minor items like a circlet or 2 and so on.. All mana items should go to the lich.
What do I use? I take what I can get ^^
10.
If you make fiends you can scout with the 1st fiends that comes out. If you make ghouls you can scout with a ghoul yes but 1 aco would be the best since you need to get a quick tech and you would lose 50-100 wood then.
11.
Only if you make ghouls! F.ex vs elf you can creep to lvl 2 and then harrass or just go straight to him. If you go for the economy want to harrass in the beginnning always, you dont have much of a choise. Now I wouldn't say that it's more important to go harrassing then creeping but when you go ghouls they can easily creep for themself while the dk harrasses. Etc...
12.
a MAXED ud army.. Omg I dont even wanna think about that ;P
Vs abos you can make ghouls. Dark ranger vs banshees. Dont make meat wagons in mirror, if that's what you are talking about. Statues dont need a counter besides gettin counters yourself.
Hope I helped some. Just watch a lot of replays and play a lot. Eventually you will improve
8. Is there specific counters for each and every unit in Warcraft 3? In a game vs a Night Elf my Crypt Fiends got completely squashed by his Huntress. In another game vs Orc my Fiends spanked the crap out of his Grunts. With other words, is there a counter-system? Ex Fiends > Grunts, Huntress > Fiends etc. What are a good counter between Undeads units and the other races?
9. Following your guide Death Knight and Lich King seems to be the most common hero combination in every MU. What items do you usually use for this heroes? Is Orb of Corruption important?
10. How do you scout as Undead? I have seen people making an extra Acolyte to scout with. Other then that, you send your ghoul or first fiend?
11. Harassment seems to be a big part of how the UD works. Is it more important to try harassing in the beginning then go creeping?
12. In late game I tend to lose more due to the fact that I don’t understand it. How powerful is a maxed UD army? What units would you say is more important in this mix then others? An example, Destroyers vs Abominations? Necromancers vs Banshees? Meat Wagons vs Statues?
I think wc3.petter covered almost everything.
#10 Everything he said was correct for the initial scout. You also want to be scouting throughout the game, more importantly enemy positions to hopefully set up a creep jack. Skeletons from your Rod of Necromancy is really helpful here. Take a look at GOMTV.net and watch the GWI finals best of 5, between TeD and Grubby. TeD is a great Undead player, and Grubby is considered the Orc king. TeD is probably one of the best scouting Undead players, and throughout the games you can see how well he uses his Rod to scout. Commentary is also done by 2 very good former pro players. Your ability to scout will get stronger as you learn the creep patterns. Just because you don't see your opponent with your skeletons... doesn't mean you don't know where he is and where he is going to go.
#12 Basically no one wants to fight a max food Undead army. It's just too crazy. Although that is the case, you also don't want to just sit in your base and mass all game.
About Unit upgrades and banking gold at 50 Supply:
When you stay at 50 Supply you don't have to bank all your Gold. You can invest the gold in Items or upgrades. You usually try to get about 2 Scrolls of Healing, an Potion of invulnerability, maybe a scroll of protection so that you are ready to fight when you have to. You also want to get some upgrades (maybe not 3-3) but 2-1 or something like that for your most important units ( depends on the unit composition). Often there are fights where both players are at 50 Supply and these fights get decided by the unit composition, the micro but also the items, which can make a big difference.
About scouting
Scouting at the beginning is very important because you want to know where the opponent is and which strat he is playing. I always build a 6th aco to scout since scouting with a Ghoul costs you a lot of wood and therefore slows down your tech.
As #23 said. Later in the game you always scout with the skellies from the rod or you get a shade which is quite helpful in nearly every game.
About the Lich and the Orb
As some posters said before, an orb on the Lich (or another hero) is very important because in the battles Ud's are very strong in focussing single units or heroes. And -5 armor on a Unit/Hero which gets focused is pretty huge, but you will recognize that on your own ;-)
The countering system
In Wc3 there are a few Armor and Attack Types. Here is a short list I copied from battle.net:
Normal (most melee units)
Normal attacks do extra damage against Medium armor, and reduced damage to Fortified armor.
Piercing (most ranged attackers)
Piercing attacks do extra damage to Unarmored units and Light armor, and reduced damage to Fortified, Medium armor, and Heroes.
Siege (artillery)
Siege attacks do extra damage to Fortified armor and Unarmored units, and reduced damage to Medium armor and Heroes.
Chaos (A few Creeps, Powerful Summoned Units)
Chaos attacks do full damage to all armor types.
Magic Damage (most spellcasters, air units)
Magic attacks do extra damage against Light and Heavy armor, and reduced damage to Medium, Fortified armor, and Heroes. Magic attacks do 66% extra damage to ethereal units, and zero damage to magic-immune units.
Hero
Hero attacks do reduced damage to Fortified armor.
Unarmored (most spellcasters)
Unarmored takes extra damage from Piercing, and Siege attacks. Some unarmored units such as Huntress, Gargoyle, Hippogryph, and Druid of the Talon in Storm Crow form have armor for balance reasons. Most unarmored units do not have armor.
Light (most flying units)
Light armor takes extra damage from Piercing and Magic attacks.
Medium (most ranged attackers and workers)
Medium armor takes extra damage from Normal attacks, reduces damage from Piercing, Magic, and Siege attacks.
Heavy (most low and high tech melee units)
Heavy armor takes extra damage from Magic attacks.
Hero
Heroes take reduced damage from Piercing, Magic, Spell, and Siege attacks.
Fortified (buildings)
Fortified armor greatly reduces Piercing, Magic, Hero, and Normal attacks, but takes extra damage from Siege attacks.
But it is important that not only Armor and Attack Types are important for countering specific units. You also have to look for the special abilities :-)
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And be sure to tech armor/dmg as much as possible. Crypt lord is a must as 3rd hero. 
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