Since the release of 1.20 (and 3 minor patches "fixing a problem that caused the game to crash") much has happened in the warcraft strategy world. New players have risen on their own legs, using their own strategies and achieving great results with them. At the same time, some matchups seems to have stagnated even more, as the skill in using particular strategies have risen. I'd like to talk a little about these innovators, their strategies and about what matchups need a little innovation or patching. First of all I'd like to bring up the player who has been called the best in the world: the greatest, uh, satelite in the sky: Moon! He more than anyone has shown that you shouldn't let pressure block innovation in your strategy. Many would-be innovators find their strategies lacking as they are very vulnerable in one stage or another of the game. Maybe a certain hero makes harassment extremely easy, or maybe some build has a long window of opportunity for rushing before its real power comes into play. Many of the strategies moon has used often appear risky, but with try and fail and general analysis he has found the holes and filled them up. His strategy of using a single Keeper of the Grove and tower rushing orcs may seem both suicidal and wasteful at the same time, but considering the cost of grunts, and their inability to fight hunts early it would be close to impossible for the elf not to get a few towers up. And even if the tower rush gets fended off at tier 2, a high level keeper is a source of fear for an orc. Not only can it either summon copious amounts of meat for the elf or redirect a large amount of the damage output, roots level 3 kills a raider from full health! This is but one of the strategies that he has used in serious games. Hidden winds with fairy dragons in mirror or versus human is also an example. Hidden implies a risk, but with a well-timed harassment you can make it close to impossible for the enemy to discover them in time. In truth, no matchup is safe from moons inventions. Throughout the "history" of Warcraft 3, the game has seen many changes in strategy as the patches have fixed the major imbalances. Innovation was basically abusing the overbuffed units of the game until the next patch came, and then go discover the next imbalance. After a long time of patching the game is the closest to balance it has ever been (at least most agree on this), and it is in balance that real innovation can be born. Reinvention being a part of it. The hippogryph rider had its time of glory only for a short time in the early days of RoC. At this time, few could micro, and this quick air assoult was very hard to deal with. Nowadays most people would laugh at anyone trying to use them in any matchup, but there is at least one player that does. Satiini has risen from a mediocre rt/at player to one of the best soloists in the world, and with him he brings an arsenal of inventions, old and new. The hippo rider with dr vs human strategy might seem suicidal at first, but as you analyse the strategy you see that most of the holes are acctually covered. One problem would be of course that bolt could steal a rider each time. But, considering that it's basically a harrass-to-death strategy, expanding should not prove too difficult, and you can afford such losses, as long as you deliver more damage than you take. Another point might be that the human gets dragon hawks to shackle the riders, but here the ranger comes into play. Since aerial shackles is a spell, silence will disrupt it, and the dhawks will be quickly dispatched. The second strategy that is what has made Satiini famous is his reinvention of the Warden. For a while, this hero was the counter to the garg massing of undead until someone pointed out that she doesn't take nuking very well, and you can put an orb of venom on your dh instead. Instead of using the classical dual nuke with fan of knives and shadow strike, Satiini uses ss with blink to dance around the map, taking out anything unfortunate enough to get spotted. Nothing is safe anywhere. Not even deep inside the main base can you hide from this hero. Warden works, and he has proven it against the worlds best. Obviously the elves aren't short of innovators, but what about the other races? Well, one hotspot of innovation is the human vs undead matchup. For a long time humans have complained that the undead nuke and the mana-guzzling destroyers are the bane of their existance, but then again, many undead players have complained that the human nuke is far too strong, and that an undead without his heroes is basically a lost case. So what have been done to solve these problems then? Well, for one there was a old-school human who came to think: wait a minute... Doesn't human have a third tier? Before Insomnia started using a combination of knights, gryphons and gyrocopters vs undead there had been usage of siege engines and mass expanding. This worked well because undeads only have 5 workers that can repair in each base, and no way to reinforce their structures. But, many players thought this strategy lame. Shouldn't the human army be able to fight the undead head-on like everyone else? The knights/gryphs/gyros seemed like the answer. Of course, the undeads didn't like at all the direction this was going. Now there were 2 races that kept saving units with their stupid staves, a powerful nuke to deal with heroes, powerful magic damage to take care of ghouls and aboms and one of the few units that can force destroyers to run, gyrocopters. Time to hit the second-hand barrel again, and this time Shocker drew the perhaps most underused unit in the game so far: the Banshee. Anti magic shell stops 300 magic damage and cannot be dispelled. Additionally, all those high tier units didn't really leave much supply room for casters, so curse was also free to use. Perhaps what has been called the most imbalanced matchup is finaly balanced now? Maybe... And then there's orc... Well, lately, not much has happened in this area. Instead of developing new strategies, the orcs have been forced to try to adapt to what everyone else throws at them. Everyone has a weird strategy they want to try on them. Summons, pit lords, casters, air. Basically people figure that orcs will be using melee, and perhaps a few wind riders from time to time. Not many worry about spirit walkers, because orcs never get enough or them to be able to dispel everything for too long. But, orcs are still raking home their share of wins, so they don't seem to worry too much. But, there's one bane that every orc player has complained about at least once. Orc vs Night Elf. The mass dott strategy has dominated for a long time, and not much has happened in this area since it was invented. Some have tried to do nothing but mass raiders, but on high levels fairy fire has stopped the hit n runs quite effectively. Some have tried to use some walkers to dispel, but they are only able to take care of either the summons or the cyclone and fairy fire, and that is obviously not enough in most cases. When the mass dott strategy first became popular, the orc player Farseer used headhunters and witch doctors to counter it. Today I wonder where that strategy went. Some people argue that the elf can only get some aoe hero to counter the head hunters. Panda or maybe Pit Lord, but personally I can't see why that would be such a huge problem. Humans keep massing casters versus orc, even though chain lightning/shockwave should tear them up. Same thing goes for druids of the talon. Area of effect SHOULD counter these strategies, but they don't. So what is the problem then? Maybe orcs have a hard time letting go of their melee units. It takes a certain type of micro to play mass melee and a completely different type to play mass ranged. Perhaps this is a obstacle most orcs are unwilling to try climbing over. Perhaps most are more comfortable complaining and hoping for a patch than trying something new to turn the situation around. I'm not sure, but I do hope that orc will get a new innovator. Someone with the ability to fill the holes in an otherwise suicidal strategy and make it work. Someone like the players I've written about in this article. The game is alive and moving, and only those willing to change will have a chance to keep their place among the very best.

 

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(2 years ago)  #1 BiG

the prob with orc is easy.. we tried everything but everything fails... so GG.. Human and NE just do their shit and win. <3 mercy

(2 years ago)  #2 Dectilon

Well, maybe a patch IS needed, but new strategies are most uncommon to orc players it seems. At least if you look at pro replays. Suprise and Terror!

(2 years ago)  #3 Asuka

Grunt/Raider has lived on longer then RifleCaster ♥All You Need is Love♥Love is All You Need♥

(2 years ago)  #4 GadZ

i really had to laugh when i read "Perhaps most are more comfortable complaining and hoping for a patch than trying something new to turn the situation around." and #1 afterwards ;) nice article! :) Why are we so fucking handsome?

(2 years ago)  #5 robih

raiders ensnare is imba i think HH/caster is a lot easier to beat than anything+raider for any race

(2 years ago)  #6 Dectilon

I dunno... when you're using mass strategies, getting good position (and holding it) is much more important than microing individual units away. An ensnared dott doesn't stop attacking, and if the raider can't reach it because of all the summons that are in the way, then it's more or less useless (and that's what I feel it usually looks like in OvN) Suprise and Terror!

(2 years ago)  #7 Vash

Undead vs Orc is balanced, don't even talk about it. I dunno why but i guess you are an orc player.

(2 years ago)  #8 Dectilon

Not that I DID, but to be honest, most orcs say Orc have the advantage in Undead vs Orc. I'm an undead player myself. Suprise and Terror!

(2 years ago)  #9 diG1tY

BIG http://www.id-petrov.com

(2 years ago)  #10 s7orm

ye... too long, i just read the part with the UD and HU... and there is a mistake... Star21 is the 1st one who imo used the UD casters (banshees for AMS included) I reject this fuckin' race, I despise this fuckin' place

(2 years ago)  #11 Dectilon

Nah, it was probably some unknown player we have never heard about. Basically Shocker was the first I saw using it as a serious counter. And it's a bloody article, not a blog :P Suprise and Terror!

(2 years ago)  #12 Dectilon

You lazy bastards ~~ :) Suprise and Terror!