Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/Human units

Heroes
Heroes are a new element to Warcraft and are extremely powerful units. Up to three heroes can be recruited. All heroes are created (and recreated, in the event they die) at the Altar of Kings.

Paladin
The Paladin is a melee combatant but isn't as powerful as some other heroes, such as the Blademaster or the Demon Hunter. He is more akin to the Dreadlord in being a support hero with a melee attack. His spells make him a good choice for beginning players, who can use the Paladin's Holy Light ability to heal, and Devotion Aura to boost the armour of his units.

There are a few different ways to build your Paladin - some players choose to invest in Holy Light and Devotion Aura, then get Resurrection at Level 6. Others players go Holy Light and Divine Shield with a point or two in Devotion at higher levels. While you could go a mix of Divine Shield and Devotion Aura it's better to use Holy Light.

Holy Light is a spell that causes a holy beam of light to pierce the target. It can heal a single organic unit such as a footman, rifleman, or knight, but it cannot heal mechanical units like Gyrocopters. Holy Light can also be used as a weapon against undead opponents, damaging them for half the amount. Since the Paladin has a melee attack, Holy Light can allow him to strike aerial undead units such as Gargoyles and Frost Wyrms.

Divine Shield allows the Paladin to become completely invincible for an amount of time. In this state it cannot be targeted by enemies, so enemies typically will run away when Divine Shield is active. At higher levels, the spell lasts longer. It's also effective in allowing you to run your Paladin away from threats. When it wears off you can use an Invisibility Potion to get away. Divine Shield cannot be deactivated.

Devotion Aura boosts the armour of nearby units. Naturally, the more units around the Paladin, the better Devotion Aura is. Players often improve this along with Divine Shield of Holy Light.

Resurrection, when triggered, targets the corpses of dead allies and brings them back to life. Naturally, this skill is best used when there are at least six powerful, and recently slain allies nearby, such as Knights, Tauren, or Bears.

Archmage
The Archmage is a spellcasting hero, capable of creating destruction through carefully crafted spells. As a caster it is extremely vulnerable to attacks and should not be anywhere without escort. Under no circumstance should you allow the enemy to surround your Archmage.

Skill point spending tactics include Water Elementals combined with Brilliance Aura, or Blizzard combined with Brilliance Aura. So the standing question is: Water elementals, or Blizzard? Both have their strengths and weaknesses. In smaller games, or if you intend to use a lot of melee units, try to use Water Elementals instead - Blizzard has an annoying tendency to harm your own units as well as the enemy's. That said, Water Elementals can be easily dispelled by anti-spellcasting units like Dryads. Typically players use Water Elementals in 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 and use Blizzard in 3 vs. 3 and 4 vs. 4.

It typically isn't hard to kill an archmage, especially if you use an immobilizing spell like Entangling Roots or Ensnare. All that is required afterwards is to surround the Archmage and attack it normally.

Blizzard summons multiple waves of freezing icicles that damage everything in their area of effect. Higher levels increase the number of waves and the damage each wave does. Since Blizzard affects your units and the enemy's, try not to use it in a melee - try instead to cast it on the enemy's ranged support. Note that Blizzard must be maintained, and if the Archmage moves or is forced to stop casting Blizzard, you won't receive its full effects. Blizzard also does not harm magic immune units like Dryads or units with anti-magic shell. This can allow you to cast it safely if an undead ally uses anti-magic shell on your footmen - then you can shower them with Blizzard and not worry about them.

Water Elemental summons a giant hulking form of water that acts as a short-ranged archer. Its primary role is to provide additional damage and to give the enemy something to shoot at besides your troops. A level 3 water elemental can be rather difficult to vanquish. It can also strike aerial units. Enemy heroes, however, can gain experience from killing water elementals. Water elementals, as summoned units, can be dispelled and only last a short amount of time.

Brilliance Aura works in conjunction with spellcasters and other heroes. It increases mana regeneration for all nearby units.

Mass Teleport can be an extremely deadly spell, allowing unprecedented mobility for the Humans and their allies. Only obtainable at Level 6 and above, Mass Teleport essentially allows the Archmage to teleport himself and up to 24 units - a veritable army - to any friendly unit or building. Obviously this allows for devastating surprise attacks, especially late-game when the enemy is more focused on his or her expansions and less so about their main town. You can even mass teleport to invisible units - have a Sorceress use Invisibility on a unit, run it into the enemy base, and then use this spell on them. Then laugh at your opponent as he stares stunned at the army materializing into his base.

Mountain King
For sheer power, the Mountain King has all the human heroes beat. He is also an expert at chasing down enemies thanks to his Storm Bolt ability, and Thunder Clap can turn the tables if he's surrounded by cheap enemies.

For skill point spending, most players focus on Storm Bolt or Thunder Clap along with Bash if necessary, holding out for Avatar.

Storm Bolt has the Mountain King hurl a hammer at a target, stunning it and causing considerable damage to it. The stun effect particularly makes Storm Bolt a powerful hero killer - when an enemy hero attempts to flee, use this skill to stun them. Then surround them with your army, and then attack. Storm Bolt's lack of area of effect detriments it against multiple opponents, but that's what Thunder Clap is for.

Thunder Clap has the Mountain King slam the ground, causing area of effect damage and slowing the enemy down by 50%. The higher the skill level, the more damage this does. At Level 3 it can eliminate multiple low-levelled enemies in a single strike, allowing the Mountain King to turn the tide of battle when pitted against multiple small opponents.

Bash is a passive skill that does not need to be activated. When the Mountain King has Bash, he can stun enemies and cause additional damage with his normal attack. The higher the skill level, the higher the chance of this skill occurring, up to 40%.

Avatar is the Mountain King's ultimate spell. Obtainable only at Level 6, the Mountain King becomes enormous. The Mountain King 5 bonus armor, 500 bonus hit points, 20 bonus damage and spell immunity while the skill is active. This skill is best used when a group of enemies are pinned in a battle and are unable to flee it, or against a base with a lot of towers - the extra hit points and the bonus armour really help the Mountain King act as a shield for the smaller units.

Standard Units
Standard units are units that can be built at usual unit producing structures, like Barracks. There is no limit to the number of standard units you can field, aside from that dictated by your food cap. They are also considerably weaker than heroes and do not gain experience.

Peasant
Peasants are the standard worker units for your army. They perform extremely useful tasks - namely the gathering of resources and the construction of structures that assist the rest of your army. Up to five peasants can work on a gold mine - any more are a waste (although some players insist that six is most effective). Peasants also can gather lumber from trees, and construct buildings.

Peasants are unique in that only they can cooperate in building construction. At the cost of a few extra materials, you can assign multiple peasants to build a building, and it will be constructed faster. The downside to this is that the peasant is vulnerable while the building is being constructed.

When the town is under attack, Peasants can transform into Militia for a period of time. This is activated by using the "Call to Arms" ability from the Town Hall, or by giving the order to each individual peasant. As a militia their attack nearly doubles, they gain 5 armour, have a faster attack rate, and better overall statistics. They only last for a limited amount of time before automatically reverting to peasants, but it is typically long enough for them to defend against an attack. Their military tenure can be cancelled prematurely by using the "Back to Work" ability from the Peasant (sending just that peasant back) or from the Town Hall (ordering all Militia back).

Footman
Footmen are your standard melee soldiers. Armed with broadswords and kite shields, Footmen are the units a new hero wants on his or her side for aid. They are otherwise unremarkable, aside from their special ability.

Defend is a skill that slows the Footman down, but renders him almost immune to arrows and piercing attacks. This makes Footmen extremely deadly against towers, archers, and other standard range units. Defend has no effect at all on standard attacks, such as against ghouls, huntresses, and siege units like meat wagons.

Defend does not require mana and can be activated and cancelled at any time. Ensure to deactivate Defend when the footmen are not engaging ranged units.

Rifleman
Riflemen cause considerably more damage than footmen, but they are less capable of receiving it. As ranged units they are very susceptible to melee attacks, but are more effective against spellcasters. Riflemen replace archers as backup ranged units for footmen.

Their Long Rifles upgrade allows them to strike at a longer range than normal, and are a necessity if you intend to use them for long. Also as ranged units their prowess against flying units remains almost unparalleled.

Riflemen work well in conjunction with a Paladin, since his Devotion Aura allows for increased armour and Holy Light can be used to support the Riflemen a little more. When fully upgraded Riflemen will prove to be a threat against any unit.