Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne/Undead strategies

Why Undead?

 * Pros
 * Mobile.
 * Inexpensive, able to mass troops.
 * Many unit abilities revolve around health regeneration.
 * Best support heroes in the game.
 * Ability to use corpses as resources.
 * "Summoned" buildings (allows construction of multiple builders by a single builder).
 * Ghouls collect 20 wood per trip.
 * Does not have to travel when receiving gold (Necropolis does not need to be beside a goldmine).
 * Condensed Build Platform ("Blacksmith"/"Lumber Yard" is 1 building, Food & Tower same).


 * Cons
 * Low damage and HP (except for Abominations and Frost Wyrms).
 * Health only regenerates on blight.
 * Most buildings can only be built on blight.
 * Farms are often placed close to the borders to act as towers, enabling them to be destroyed more easily than some others.
 * Goldmine must be haunted first, and Town Scrolls cannot be used unless a necropolis is built.

Heroes
The Death Knight is generally used as the first hero because a) Death Coil heals your troops, (but unlike the Human Paladin's Holy Light, it can be used against most enemies as a nuke spell) b) Unholy Aura is often considered the best aura overall because it boosts rushing speed and healing speed, and also stacks with other Heal Over Time, and c) he rides a goat. Death Pact is OK, but is shadowed by the uberity of Death Coil and Unholy Aura. Animate Dead is more of a situational move, you should only use this when there are corpses of powerful units on the ground, e.g. Human Knights, Undead Abominations, Night Elf Bears, or Orc Taurens.

Build: Death Coil-Unholy Aura-Death Coil-Unholy Aura-Death Coil-Animate Dead-Unholy Aura-Death Pact-Death Pact-Death Pact

Dreadlord are sometimes used against Undead players. Sleep may seem like a powerful move at first, but everybody and their grandmother knows that you can wake up your own unit by attacking them with another unit; despite this, it is one of the only spellcast-interrupting move for UD. Carrion Swarm is only useful when used efficiently when enemy units are lined up and one can hit almost all those units with one swarm, and the Vamparic Aura doesn't work if you use crypt fiends since fiends are ranged, limiting your strategy. However, if you get the Dreadlord to lv 6, Infernal helps to demolish buildings, stun units, and tank very effectively. The Infernal is spell immune, has permanent immolation, as well high hp.

Build-Sleep-Vampiric Aura-Vampiric Aura-Carrion Swarm-Vampiric Aura-Inferno-Sleep-Carrion Swarm-Sleep

Lich is going to be your damage output hero. Althrough fragile, the Lich has Frost Nova, which is AOE and useful in all situatons; Frost Shield, which doesn't really do much execpt increase the tanking ability of DK; Dark Ritual, which is slightly more useful than Death Pact but not quite; Death and Decay can kill anything, but it ran on a percent scale, which means it is going to take the same time to kill a footman as it does a castle, provided it last 13 seconds.

Build: Frost Nova-Frost Armor-Frost Nova-Frost Armor-Frost Nova-Death and Decay-Dark Ritual-Frost Armor-Dark Ritual- Dark Ritual

Crypt lord is the closest thing to an melee hero the undead has, but he's used more like a tank. Crypt Lord also has the spell to summon forever lasting beetles, use these as scouts summon-able tanks. Beetles are also used for early ghoul rushes.

Build: Beetles, Armor/Stun, Beetles, Armor/Stun, Beetles, Locust Swarm, etc.

Note: Armor/Stun is situational, if the player intends to rush, he may prefer armor over stun.

Remember: The Undead should try to stay away from Neutral shops, they might use some heroes in the neutral tavern, but it is usually situational. For example, Alchemist, Pitlord, Dark Ranger, and sometimes Firelord. Night elves may use Pandaren and Naga, Humans might throw in a Beastmaster, but the Undead has the heroes that are capable of carrying their army.

Tactics
There are a lot of different tactics while playing the Undead Scourge, but the most important thing is to scout and counter the tactic of your opponent earlier than he does. This game revolves around speed. Always remember your researching, for instance the frost wyrms arn't very good without frost breath.

Dual Crypt Rush
It`s a strategy which represents the usual Build Order(BO) of the Undeads,so I`ll explain it first.

Start by creating three acolytes (optional:create only two and scout with your ghoul after getting enough lumber for building one Crypt,one Altar of Dead and a Ziggurat as well as one Tomb of Relics) and send the Ghoul to cut some lumber and two of the three Acolytes to the goldmine,the other one summons a Crypt and a Ziggurat.Then send it to the goldmine as well. After you possess enough lumber for an Altar,start summoning it and later a Tomb of Relics and another Ziggurat.Summon a second Crypt as early as you can to create more Ghouls (this is why its called Dual Crypt) All the time you must build as many Ghouls as you can.Send them to the wood.If your hero is finished,send them with a right click on your Necropolis and then to your hero.Then buy your hero a Necromancy Rod in the Tomb of Relics and let the fun begin.

Now you are ready to attack your enemies base. Focus on your opponent's hero(focus: all your units attack one specific unit) and surround him if he wants to flee (surround:stop a unit walking away by blocking his way with your units). Your Ghouls will be faster, and if you creeped (killed creeps for experience) your hero to level two and skilled him second with the aura. Your first skill must be the Death Coil.

Difficulty: medium

Mass Skeleton
One of the most fun thing to do as an UD. 4-5 Necromancers, 3 meat wagons, 2 heroes, and you are all set. In case you don't know how this works - set your necromancers raise dead to automatic with a right click, and make your meat wagons carry the corpses for later (or with expansion you can have the wagons make corpses).

Crypt Fiend Madness
A trickier Undead strategy is summoning a lot of crypt fiends and a Death Knight. Nothing other than that besides maybe getting t2 stats or t3 frost wyrms, and upgrading the damage or armor early game isn't a bad idea either. Make sure that you use death coil to heal your fiends, not nuke the enemy. This strategy is good for creeping and waiting for your team to build up.

Double Race
This strategy allows you to get another race early in the game (in certain situations, you can gain control of all four). It is difficult to pull off without leaving your base undefended.

After establishing your base, focus on spawning a lot of Banshees and ghouls. Upgrade to Banshee Master Training to acquire the Possession ability for your Banshees.
 * How to start

Attack the other race with ghouls as a distraction, then use possession on as many of the opponent's units (specifically their peons) as possible so that your troops will have a higher chance to escape. As soon as the builder is under your command, guide it securely out of the battle to an outpost that is protected (using a scroll of teleportation makes this much easier). When the stolen builder is safe, order it to build a town hall (be aware that other town halls will dispel blight in a large circle). You may like to create some more builders once the town hall is complete. This strategy works best when you use the Possession ability against Orc, because Orcs are very strong and have good units, (like the Tauren) you can get Frost Wyvms and Tauren and easily destroy your opponent. You're generally going to have to Tech here, so Graveyard, Crypt and Ziggurat will do fine. When you get the gold, make an altar. Quickly get Halls of the Dead and make two Temples of the Damned, one for upgrading the banshees and the other for making banshees. Don't forget that you can use your Town Scroll to teleport the possessed workers away to your base.
 * Early offensive action
 * Build order

Against Human
The crypt fiends are ineffective against human footmen, and the humans can also create militia, making it difficult to rush them. However, fiends can outrun defended footmen and slowly pick them off, and can also perform hit and run tactics to encourage enemies to convert peasants into militia. Death Knight's unholy aura, and death coil can help slowly defeating them. The best hero to use is the Crypt Lord, who can strike and stun many units at once, such as footmen. Avoid getting deep into your opponent's base until his entire army is dead, then eliminate his workers. After that, take out his farms to guarantee a win.

Strategy 1
Form a team of 5-6 ghouls (with cannibalize ability) and have a rod of necromancy along your inventory. set rally point of crypt (even 2 crypts would be good) upon the hero, and produce continuously ghouls, and simultaneously upgrading their armor and attack damage. Your army will be superior to the orc's army, and their units have lots of hit points, but weak damage, allowing the hero to gain levels much faster. After orc's army is slaughtered, take out his burrows, then he's doomed.

Strategy 2
Professional players, such as Grubby, focus on the use of Crypt Fiends in the early game, and tech to get destroyers. This strategy takes a bit of micro, but is very effective against Orc. The goal is to tech to tier 3 as soon as possible.

Crypt Fiends are very effective in the early game, because they do well against grunts (which most people use). A good Crypt Fiend build order is:
 * 1) 3 acolytes to gold.
 * 2) Ghoul to wood.
 * 3) Create 1 acolyte.
 * 4) Build a graveyard.
 * 5) Build crypt.
 * 6) At 155 gold, build a ziggurat.
 * 7) Train your 5th acolyte.
 * 8) Build alter at 180 gold.
 * 9) Make 1 ghoul (for wood).
 * 10) Just as the ghoul pops out, the graveyard should finish.
 * 11) Make 1 crypt fiend.
 * 12) Summon a death knight.
 * 13) Build one ziggurat.
 * 14) There will be a slight delay here.
 * 15) At 215, build another crypt fiend.
 * 16) As the second fiend comes out, the ziggurat will complete.
 * 17) Make your 3rd crypt fiend.
 * 18) The 3rd crypt fiend will appear just after the death knight.

After getting the destroyer upgrade, and after massing about 6-8 Obsidian Statues (some made while in tier 2), head off to the Orc base. Make sure you have a good amount of food and gold.

When you reach their base, immediately take out burrows!


 * The micro
 * 1) Click and transform one obsidian statue and have it drain mana from a second.
 * 2) Now click the 2nd to transform and drain the 3rd.
 * 3) Repeat for all of them, until only one destroyer has no mana.

Burrows have heavy armor, and destroyers will deal 2x damage to them. In addition, the added mana gives each destroyer +20 damage per hit, and gives them a spread damage. By taking out the burrows, it will cripple the Orcs on food resources, but again, this takes a good amount of micro to coordinate effectivly.

Run away after you take out burrows!

Against Nightelf
As the Nightelfs build units and buildings way slower than you do, build these first: 3 ziggurats, 1 crypt, 1 graveyard (for later use) and a tomb of relics. Build an elite team with the Hero you got, 5 ghouls, 3 necromancers and 3 banshees. Research Cannibalize to help with the healing of ghouls, and prepare for the fun! Go near the nightelf's base, hold there until noon (weakest time for the elves) and attack the hero first, when s/he's dead, the rest is at your hand! IF you have time, research the upgrades in the graveyard! BUT REMEMBER, THIS STRATEGY IS ONLY GOOD FOR 1-on-1 between you and the elves!

Against Undead
Undead versus Undead is often the single most annoying kind of match up in the game, due to the fact that you can't use Death Coil or Disease (picking up the Death Knight will reduce its functionality, and upgrading disease would be a waste of resources). Get the Lich, Crypt Lord, or Dreadlord against Undead, but Death Knight is still very useful against the UD vs UD match up. Your opponent may pick the three heroes listed above, but if you have the DK, you can heal your units giving you a upper hand.

An early possible rush involves using 7-8 ghouls, along with the Lich's Frost Nova ability combined with Dark Ritual to regain mana for the Lich. After the initial rush, continue developing your attack forces while upgrading to more advanced units, such as Necromancers and Meat Wagons.

2on2 with Human
An Undead player working cooperatively with a Human player is quite hard, as neither of you can heal each other, so it's generally not suggested for long games; you should try and wipe out the opposition fast. To do this it would be a good idea for your human friend to make a Mountain King (MK) and you make a Dreadlord (DL). Pick Vampiric Aura first, as you're going to support the MK with his powerful melee attacks. Make a Ghoul rush and let him make a couple of Footmen and now all your units get health back from hitting. If you strike first, then most likely one of the enemy players will leave and the other will leave with him.

2on2 with Orc
One of the best hero combos with UD/ORC is BladeMaster (BM) and DreadLord (DL).

The skills you get are Sleep and Vampiric Aura, and Wind walk and Critical Strike.

Sleep and Windwalk is good defense and offense, both the UD and Orc can hold off on their own. In the beginning, the Orc goes BM and grunts, nothing fancy. Then at Tier 2 ( T2 ) you add a Tauraun Chieftan. ( TC ) and a lodge for adept walkers and a little bit more grunts than usual, and some raiders. Get orbs, and lust as well.

The UD goes DL and ghouls and normal tech .. In T2, you can either get Panda or Lich. also, add in some fiends and some banshees. Around that time BM reaches lvl 3. UD doesn´t tech to tier 3 here, except for possession on the rare games against lots of tier 3 melee.

The point is to harass on early game, this strategy is very useful, especially if a Night Elf is going mass hunts. The BM kills the wisps, while the DL and ghouls defend with sleep and surround.

This strategy is very good on Gnoll Wood as well.

Well, GL & HF, micro well.

2on2 with Nightelf
🇨🇴 🇨🇴 🇨🇴
 * Pros
 * Huge DPS from auraed fiends
 * Huntress/Fiend midgame push should easily be able to take one player out by 18 minutes.
 * Map Control from PotM
 * DoTs should further buff damage. (e.g 175 Average EHP reduction from a grunt)
 * Pressure from Nightelf should disrupt enemy creeping
 * Cons
 * Weak Lategame
 * Multitasking required from Nightelf
 * Nightelf lose solo hero ability
 * Extremely behind if midgame push fails.

One of the most popular 2v2 setups available. This essentially focuses on aura abuse. Nightelf will train up a Priestess of the Moon and get trueshot aura with owl scout for secondary. Undead should focus on pumping crypt fields with a Death Knight hero training unholy aura.


 * Priestess: Trueshot → Owl Scout → Trueshot → Arrows
 * Death Knight: Unholy → Coil → Coil → Unholy

Owl Scout offers map control for the team, allowing the undead and nightelf to catch one player creeping and thus form a 2v1 opportunity.

Unit composition should be pure huntress or hunt/dryad for the Nightelf, while the undead should focus on getting mass crypt fiends. Nightelf should be attempting to expand as much as possible, while staying under 50 supply (low upkeep). Once 50 supply has been hit, resources should be transferred to undead so undead can break low unkeep and push towards 100 supply.

Continue scouting for expansions, crush any as soon as possible.

This build is very effective for a midgame push (~14-15 minutes into the game). If the push fails, the nightelf should immediately transition towards a dryad/bear combination while picking up another hero (Generally Panda), alternatively, teching to mass Druids of the Talon actually works very effectively against any team with an Orc. The combination of faerie fire (-4 armor) with +9 damage buff on crypt fiends destroy orc armies very quickly while countering the Windwalk of the Blademaster harass. Undead should continue making crypt fiends, as the DPS/resource of a auraed fiend is extremely effective.

With this build, timing your creeping is also very essential. The Nightelf should attempt to creep alone for the first few minutes, attempting to push to level 2 as soon as possible to gain map control. Once level two has been hit, PotM should branch off and offer aura to undead creeping, this should allow the undead to creep orange/red creep camps very effectively. Huntresses should be deployed in order to screen the undead creeping while keeping threat pressure on opponents creeping.

Lategame should not be reached with this build. Once lategame breaks, the aura abuse is not effective once opponents have started to reach lategame play. Basically, if this reaches late game, you have lost the game.

2on2 with Undead
Recruit a Crypt Lord and build crypt fiends. Set three ghouls on wood. Build two crypts, then upgrade your Ziggurats to protect you. Upgrade to Tech 2 as soon as possible. Research Burrow, build 10-15 crypt fiends, then burrow them in your enemy base to annoy them. If they have big units, get to Tech 3 and build one Temple of the Damned. Summon banshees to possess the heavy units. If they have little units, get Frost Wyrms and to kill them easily. Target large groups of units cramped together.