The Silent Room

Note: This entry is dedicated to players of Warcraft 3. Plenty of jargon will be used so unless you’re familiar with the game or are interested to learn it, you will find this entry to be extremely boring as well as confusing.

It’s been a really long time since I played any melee games. All this while it’s been DotA, Enfo’s, TD and all those custom maps. One of the major reasons is that I’m stuck here at home in Cheras while the rest of my other Warcraft kaki buddies are there in Cyberjaya, hence no one to play with. However, I’ve only started to play against better AI on maps that have Advanced Melee AI [AMAI] embedded in them. So far, I only have two of them, Turtle Rock and fortunately my favourite map, Gnoll Wood.

Up to v1.18, I haven’t been able to secure myself a solid NE build. Now, I’m the type who has a really REALLY hard time playing 1v1 matchups. I think my skills only really show in team games, and that’s probably because I can’t really handle too many tasks [i.e. controlling melee, range, caster, base at the same time], so I would usually only specialise in one aspect eg. being the meattank, handling air, only doing range, or even tower rush.

Back to my NE story, only after several games I have now understood why is it that so many pros complain about NE abusing the Tavern.

Sure enough, I haven’t been able to really hold much ground against AMAI with any of the 4 NE heroes. Not saying that it’s an impossible feat, but I find that it’s a whole lot easier with Tavern heroes instead. I realised that a major problem with NE is that their tier1 melee [hunts] is too vulnerable to ranged attacks, as compared to other races. To top it off, they don’t have a Str hero to lead the tank. Though plenty claim the DH [Agi, for the less observant ones] can tank with evasion+high armor but in the light of nukes [chainwave, novacoil, bolt, entangle] and FF, the DH doesn’t have enough hp to stay in front long enough.

Hence the need for a str hero. Ever since the release of TFT, NE players everywhere has started to [ab]use the Beastmaster in countless situations. Because not only can he tank, he moves ‘fast’ and he can summon another tank, his bear. If you have played long enough, I don’t need to elaborate on how the BM fits in the NE build.

Now, with the arrival of the Firelord [FL] in v1.17 previously, I have seen replays where he is coupled with hunts in the wide [ab]use of Incinerate. I thought this would be a pretty cool build I can base off and later branch away at tier2, I always, always mismicro my hunts as they too, die fast under FF, mainly by novacoil+fiends or bolt+rifles+elementals. The lack of skill forced me to go back to BM. However, it is only last week, that I finally managed to secure myself a steady yet flexible NE build. Yes, I abused the Tavern.

It starts with a basic archers build;
5 wisps to gold, queue 2 more
1 wisp comes out builds an AoWar, queue 1 more
pull one wisp from gold, build well, rally back to gold
1 wisp comes out builds Altar, queue 2 more
2 wisps go to wood, Altar wisp goes to Tavern
AoW ready, queue 2 archers
pull one wisp from gold, build well, rally back to gold

By the time that wisp reaches the tavern the BM should be ready, get him and creep any green camps with the bear to tank for him. Continue making archers, until you have about 5 and start creeping green camps with them. Micro priority is archers, your BM and his bear should be able to tank well enough on the green camps. If you feel up to it, grab a wisp and set rally point to scout. Don’t forget to get a shop.

[note: if you don't know it yet, in 1v1, if you have only 1 hero, any kills your units make will contribute to your hero's exp, no matter where he is on the map]

You can use whatever skill build for your BM, but I used bear, pig, pig, bear, bear, stamp. Why don’t I use hawks? Because hawks only boost firepower when BM is lvl3. While my BM is lvl2, I don’t have that much firepower and archers die very quickly. This build is especialy risky against mass ghouls, and chainwave. If you ever meet these situations, of course, you get hawk.

The moment you have 4 archers, get a hunter’s hall up and queue 2 archers more. 6th archer comes out, tech to tier2 and queue 2 more. Heal everyone, and hit an expansion camp. If you haven’t been rushed or had any skirmishes yet, I can bet the enemy is teching to something big so go hit them. Upgrade AoWar dmg and AoL armor. Once the expo is cleared, get a wisp there to expand. Don’t forget to keep making wells.

By the time you hit tier 2, you should have enough to summon FL and make 2 lores. At this point it’s up to you and the situation. The FL is there to add firepower with spawns and incinerate. Is you’re going against a good Orc or NE, this is will be a very difficult build to play as shamans and dryads will turn both heroes into sorry targets. When the lores come up, make 2 giants in each.

Before the giants come out, avoid losing and replacing archers too often. If the fight looks bad, shadowmeld or run. When running away, get bears, pigs and spawns to block their path.

2 giants is usually enough. So far, with my [incompetent] micro, I have been able to fend off 9 different builds from all 3 races [normal] with this one. I still get outnumbered at tier1 against insane AMAI, though.

Here I list down the basic strengths of this build:
- Summons add tank and firepower for NEs weak tier1
- FL compliments archers and dryads FF with incinerate
- preservation staff helps keep giants/heroes alive.
- cheap archers means its easier to save money by the time you hit tier2

And now I outline the weaknesses:
- archers fall quickly under nukes and AoE spells
- dual rax will own archers
- a well placed lightning shield tears archers to shreds
- shamans/dryads will render your summons useless
- demolishers will still kick NE ass

An important key element here will be giants. Taunt to keep firepower away from archers. Focus fire on lowhp units. This is where incinerate is abused. Keep track of your summons. Its handy to keep a mana potion on your FL as he uses up his mana quickly. Save your giants, and run away when you have no more. Proper FF will let you cut down enemy numbers fairly quick and a chase is more than unlikely. A good winning move would be to creepjack, picking off near dead units.

Comments/Feedback please?

**update**

I just downloaded the AMAI installer, and have installed it on all my melee maps :D