ATTENTION:Do not read any further unless you are willing to read the whole damn thing. Email me after you read if for more detailed questions and I will post them at the bottom of this page.
I decided to make this page to help out all of those people who lose me games on random teams on battle.net, but it will go into depth so even average-good players can learn from it. Yes, I am a generous guy. Please do not waste your time and embarass me by reading this unless you are going to put my words into actions. Most of the people that read this will say that it's stupid because they already know all of it. If you know it and use it all you should be over 60%. If you're not 60%, then just shut the hell up, read it, and take notes.
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First of all you need a decent building order. I do not want to waste my time listing building orders because it doesn't help any to read a build order, you have to see it to do it. Download any of the replays from www.replays.net and try to copy their building order EXACTLY! Do not try to modify the building order because you will just make it slower. The replays on replays.net are from pros and are the absolute best build orders that can be found. Simply download it to this file: c:/PROGRAM FILES/WARCRAFT III/REPLAY and start up warcraft, go to single player and click view replay.
Hotkeys speed you up by about 500% if you haven't been using them. If you don't know what hotkeys are, they are simply hitting keyboard buttons instead of clicking. Mostly every action has a keyboard button that you can press. You can find out what button is used for what action by clicking on the building, unit, etc. that you want to do the action and move your mouse over the action you want to perform. It will have the name of the action and one of the letters will be yellow. This is the button that you push to perform that action.
Ever play a game, lose a battle, and then realize that you have like 2 units and 2000 gold? So you try to get some units and get massively owned by your opponents counter? Yeah, you have. You need to always be using your gold. If you wanna be pro, you will never let yourself get over about 600 gold. Use it on upgrades, units, whatever you can find, but just be sure that you use it.
To designate a group, unit or building to a #, select the group,unit, or building, hold "Ctrl" and press one of the number keys. Now every time you press that number key it will bring up the group, unit, or building. Now, put your hero on #1. Then designate the different kinds of units to other #s. DO NOT DESIGNATE SEVERAL DIFFERENT TYPES OF UNITS TO THE SAME #. When you designate different types of units to different numbers, it is way easier to micro and cast spells. I would suggest using the #s 1-6 for heros and unit types. Also be sure to set your major buildings to #s too. I would suggest using the #s 7-0 for buildings. Once you have your buildings designated to numbers, it is very easy to make units while in a battle. Example: (you are human, barracks designated to 9, archmage designated to 1) type 9-f-f-f-1. This will open up the barracks options, make 3 footmen, and then selects your archmage so that you can micro him. This takes approximatly one second.
Harassing is a very important tool in keeping your opponent from creeping, attacking, expanding, or winning. The whole point is to keep your opponent pinned down in his base. At the very start, with a hero and maybe some units too, go and attack your opponent. When he comes after you, back out. When he stops chasing you or chases you too far, go back to his base and attack again. Target weak units like peasants, wisps, etc. BE SURE YOU KEEP BUILDING, UPGRADING AND GETTING UNITS AT YOUR BASE! Another form of harassment that can be really hard to deal with, is to attack a building as soon as he starts making it. If you get him right as soon as he clicks to build it, he will lose the gold that that building took to make. You can also harass later in the game by getting your units, taking out one building and leaving before your opponent can get close enough to attack you. Some people will wonder what the difference between harassing and rushing is. Harassing is simply a continuous attack to keep your opponent frustrated. Everybody has had some games where they were extremely frustrated, and I'm guessing that you didn't win it. I would recommend harassing over rushing any day.
Heros are arguably the most important key to winning the game. They get experience for every unit that they kill, getting more experience for more important units (you get more experience for killing a knight than you would a footman). When you get enough experience your hero levels up. Leveling up your hero is very important, but not the only quality that make heros so good. A hero's abilities give you a nice meaty advantage at a high level, and their items also give you an advantage. Another factor though, is that you can keep your opponent occupied at trying to kill your hero while your units attack them. It is very important to keep your opponents hero from leveling up. How to do this is described in more depth in the next sections "creeping" and "micro."
For those of you "all out noobs" who don't know what creeps are, they are labeled on the minimap when you're playing with a green, orange, or red circle. Creeps are simply neutral (not helpless) units that you can kill for hero expirience and items. The green circle stands for weak creeps, the orange circle for medium strength creeps and the red circle is for stronger creeps. You get better items for killing stronger creeps. NEVER LEAVE AN ITEM ON THE GROUND! Even if you can't find a use for it, your opponent might be able to. Sell it at a shop if you don't need it. Your units should never be sitting in your base doing nothing. Always have them doing something. If they're not attacking, they're creeping, and if they're not creeping then they'd better be attacking. Make sure that you don't get too scared of your opponent if he starts harassing you to go out creeping. You might be afraid of losing a few units if you go creeping and he catches you, but if you don't creep then you will lose the game.
[[[[[THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION!!!]]]]] Read it several times to let it all sink in.
It's sorta hard to describe micro because it's more of something that you need to see for yourself instead of hearing it (replays from www.replays.net). Micro is short for micromanagement, or how you move your units around. The lamen terms for describing micro would be moving hurt units out of battle. This not only saves you money from having to buy another unit to replace him, but MOST IMPORTANTLY it prevents your opponents hero from gaining experience. The whole point of micro is to try not to lose ANY units during a battle.
The easiest way to micro is to tap [alt] to see all your units health, then move one back, hit [alt] again, move another back, etc etc etc. I typically move hurt units back about 2-3 inches (on your screen) out of the battle. This draws the fire off of them, and after about a second of sitting back, they automatically will rejoin the battle. The unit in front when you go into battle typically gets targeted first, so be sure you're ready to move him back as soon as the battle starts. A unit with 500 health does the same damage as a unit with 1 health, but a unit with 0 health doesn't do crap (except maybe turn into a skeleton?)
While you're getting frisky with the [alt] button make sure you also focus your units on your enemy's low health units. Your designated numbers come in handy here because you can have whole groups attack 1 unit by pressing the number and right clicking the weak unit. However it does make micro a little harder because if you sent a unit in a group away and then had your group attack a weak unit, your unit is coming right back to attack with the rest. When it gets too hard then use the technique explained 2 paragraphs down.
Your hero(s) is the most important unit to micro, but don't zone in on only him. Most average players focus heros first, and if you keep your hero moving, then they will chase him and your other units can attack while your opponent is running in circles to get your hero. The same thing is also true with his hero. As long as you're microing properly, you should focus units instead of heros. I have seen people lose nearly all of their units trying to kill a hero while the other person loses only their hero. Heros have higher defense and are therefore harder to kill, so do it when you can focus on him without getting attacked by his other units.
If you're having trouble microing in a battle and it just seems like you're one step behind during the whole battle, then just back up all of your units like you're leaving completely and get out of visibility of the other persons army. Then run back in and you can start fresh on staying on top of your micro'ing. However, DON'T run critical health units (in the red) back into battle as you will lose them quicker than you can micro. Either heal them real quick or send them back to your base and you can heal them later. If you send them back to your base make sure to undesignate them from their numbers (just press the group number, hold shift and click the weak unit to deselect him, then redesignate the group to the number). This technique also gets really annoying for the other person which does wonders for making them make mistakes.
Scouting is very important in this game. You can not macro properly (described in the next section "macro") if you do not scout. There are some abilities/units that are good or made for scouting. For example, shade (undead), invisibility (sorceress ability for human). There are also many others and also some buildings that help you scout. Be creative. If all else fails, a peasant, peon, wisp, or acolyte works just as well.
Yes, you heard it right folks, macro. Macro is not micro. Macro is getting units that are strong against your opponents units. Chances are that if you wait till he attacks to get units that are good against his, it's already too late. That's where scouting comes in. Scouting gives you the ability to know what your opponent has/is getting and do something about it. Example?: (1v1 ud game) I scouted him and saw mass gargs, so I got fiends and necs and owned him. Be ready for your opponent when he attacks. Surprise him with units that he can't do anything against.
You're human, you've finally got to tier 3 and have a few knights. For some reason you have no other melee units (except maybe your hero), have a nice supply of ranged, and have neglected to upgrade any of your armor. Now you sit here contemplating wheather you should build another knight or get that lvl 1 armor upgrade. That upgrade adds an extra 2 armor to each of those knights. With the added armor your knights won't die as fast, so they will be easier to micro. If they're easier to micro, your opponents hero gets less exp. (Typically you would still have some footmen from your last attack that also benefit from the upgrade). Upgrading is definately worth the money. Do it. I would suggest getting the armor upgrade before attack. However, if you feel confident in your micro, go ahead and upgrade the attack first.
Gee, I think it's sorta self-explanatory. How do you build stuff if you don't have gold?
Using your surrounding is very important. Several maps include bridges, which could give you a huge advantage. Simply draw your opponent onto the bridge and sit on the other side of it. You both can have a max of like 3 melee units attacking while on the bridge, but if you did it right and are barely on your end of the bridge with your ranged units right behind the opening of the bridge, your ranged units can tear through your opponent while very few of his units can attack you. For example:
You can also use hills. When you are uphill (hill, not cliff, but cliff would work too) from your opponent, his attacks miss more often. Even if it's a slight amount, every little bit helps.
Simple. 3v3 is simply a harass followed by a bloodbath. 2v2 requires more skill (if you have skill, then 3v3 and 4v4 will only bring you down). Solo requires probably the most skill, but again, if you have it then it's what you need to be playing. Solo requires A LOT more micro, scouting, and macro. Team games are typically just mass up units, cross your fingers and send them in.
Always keep a teleport with you, especially if you're playing team. It makes it so easy to go to or from a battle. There's a strategy to teleporting when defending a base, so MAKE SURE TO FOCUS YOUR TELEPORT. Don't be hasty and just click wildly on your base on the minimap. Take the second to look at your base so you can focus the teleport. In a team game, if you have melee then try to teleport right outside the entrance of the base you're trying to defend. If you're ranged then teleport in the most enclosed part of the base so that your opponents' melee has a hard time getting to them. For solo, teleport right in the middle of your base and move your melee towards the entrance and your ranged into the most enclosed area.
Please people, if you know that you're going to lose a battle (usually it's pretty easy to tell), JUST GET OUT!!! There is no point in finishing a battle that you know you're gonna lose. Simply teleport out or run away. You can then come back later with better, upgraded forces. Trying to finish a battle that you know you cant win (suicide) will only lvl up the other persons hero and lose you your army (wasting all that valuable gold you put up to make them). Usually losing the battle does mean losing the war in Warcraft. So, if you're losing, just leave and come back with better, more upgraded units. Be sure you have a good sense of macro when you get those better units too.
Make sure to hit an item shop to buy some health/mana for your hero if they need it. It's also nice to keep some extras for in battle sometimes.
[For Frozen Throne] Buy an item shop. It's cheap. Get one. I have slaughtered many orc blademasters and ne heros by getting the 75 gold dust of appearance. It's very hard to win when a blademaster keeps targeting your workers, so it's well worth it.
Losing isn't always a bad thing as long as you learn from your mistakes. Immediately after you lose a game you should save the replay and watch it while the game is still fresh in your mind. Turn fog of war off and maybe slow it down so you can figure out why you lost. Find out what your opponent did better than you. I do this a lot and usually find out quicker ways to creep certain maps.
I know that everybody reading this has had a losing streak. Everybody does at one point or another. Many people think that they could just play their losing streak out until they start winning again. Dumb idea. When you start losing a lot in a row, you get frustrated. The more frustrated you get, the worse you play. The worse you play, the more games you lose. It's a continuous spiral down to the 20% range. So when you have a losing streak, do yourself a favor and just quit playing. Do a custom or something. Take some herbal tea and clear your mind. Get yourself nice and fresh before your next game. If you don't like this idea and think that you can just fight your way out of a losing streak, be smart about it. Once you realize you're in that losing streak, sign out, sign back in on a practice account, and just play till you start winning. Then sign back into your good account when you're on a winning streak. See, aren't I a genius?
If you have a decent internet connection yet still lag and you can't figure it out, I have the answer for you. Buy more RAM. A lot more RAM. If you don't know what kind yours takes, go to www.crucial.com and find their memory selector and select your PC.
Everybody who has played team games has had them. They suck. They should die. Next time you get one feel free to save the replay and email to [email protected]. Be sure to include what realm, your name, his name, and what he did wrong. It'd be nice if everybody reported them cause then there wouldn't be as many to screw up team games.
Scouting
Macro
Upgrading
Get an expansion as soon as you can
Use your surroundings
Difference between Solo and Team?
TP (teleport)
GET OUT!!!
Item Shop
Losing (in solo games)
Losing streaks
Lag?
Backstabbers/quitters/sit there and do nothing'ers
Last updated 6/25/07 by
69greatness@uswest AKA greatness69@uswest
