Best way to use Night Elves in Warcraft III?

[RZetlin]

The Night Elves archers are cheap to make compared to the Orc's Grunts, but over all the Night Elves units are so weak.

They don't have any heavy fighters or good siege weapons.
Their defences are destroyed so easily.

What's the best way to play this race on an offensive and defensive position?

What build order do you suggest?

[Badaro]

Are you playing with TFT or just ROC? Strategies change a lot if you have the expansion.

[]s Badaro

[RZetlin]

Originally Posted by Badaro

Are you playing with TFT or just ROC? Strategies change a lot if you have the expansion.

[]s Badaro

No expansion pack.

But how much are they different?

[Proto]

A lot, giants and the other funny flying units can totally change your strategies...since Im much more familiar with RoC Ill give you my strat...

Over all there are many things you can do with them... a huntress+ demon hunter + KotG with nature's call can be your melee units, while you help either with upgraded ballistas, and some druids if you want... normally for the early game i keep harrassing with demon hunter or KotG, which is later supported by the huntresses...

You can also go a totally different way and just go Demon Hunter and amass archers, planning to get hypogriffs later, but this needs of an ally that will go heavy melee.

[Kaiser Sigma]

My usual approach (granted that I never reached a good level of playing) is to start with KoTG + Huntresses for melee and PotM + archers for backup... the combination is superb, plus PotM's aura benefits the Huntresses as well.

A couple of acquaintances taught me back then a few start-up hints... try to keep your base tight making difficult the way for your enemies to get it. Use Moon Wells as walls, plus the auto-healing comes in handy during a struggle. The best hero to start is IMO the KotG for its Force of Nature which allows some early level up/harassing. Next would be PotM for its highly useful Trueshot Aura, most NEs units benefit from it due to the fact that (with the exception of Druids of The Claw and Hippogryphs) all of them are ranged units.

I'd suggest that you get at least 4 archers and 4 Huntresses before you go Tier 2... I usually tend to go for Hippogryphs Riders, Dryads are useful under certain circumstances but they aren't as strong as the HR... NEs have one of the strongest Siege weapons on the game, the Chimaeras, the drawback is that they are ridiculously expensive and you can't get them until Tier 3.

[Proto]

Well i never liked the PotM because as a unit itself it totally sucks until you get StarFall... hence why a KotG/DH is much better... at least IMO ( a high level duo can even take out expansions on its own)

[Kaiser Sigma]

Actually Starfall isn't at all that great unless you have at least 6 or more land units to cover the PotM ass and even so it's still kind of risky. A PotM while doing Starfall is quite the easy prey. The key to play with the PotM is to have a good number of Huntresses acting as a wall so she can benefit all your units from her TS aura.

I don't think she sucks, her abilities tend to be useful specially if you are playing in big maps and need a quick pinpoint of the enemy's base location. Starfall is a great ability but I often save it only to take down a base where there is little space for the enemy to surround her and massacre her...

[Radix865]

HAH, night elves are ny favourite, you make those that can have the upgrade to that one shot hits three times, have those about ten and some backup units and you're invincible! Other one is the orcs Taurens...

[Kaiser Sigma]

Actually no... the upgrade you talk about is Tier 3 and by then most T3 units from other races are significantly superior to Huntresses... IMO the best you can do is to try to finish your opponent before he/she reaches T3... otherwise NEs start to suffer significantly... other than that mass land units are often a risk when facing L6 abilities from other heroes, which is another reason to go with HRs...

[Badaro]

Originally Posted by Proto

Well i never liked the PotM because as a unit itself it totally sucks until you get StarFall... hence why a KotG/DH is much better... at least IMO ( a high level duo can even take out expansions on its own)

Gotta agree with Kaiser here. Trueshot Aura is borderline overpowered in team games, and still one of the best auras in Solo. She also has Searing Arrows, which makes her a surprisingly effective sniper to finish running units.

Anyway, my usual strat for NE is to start with Huntresses, and depending on the units the enemy get stick to pure hunts for Tier 1 or mix archers. A mixed force is better against Grunts, Fiends and Rifles, while pure Hunts are better IMO against Footmen, Archers, Ghouls and Trolls.

Late game, there's several possibilities. Chims with a Hippogriff escort can be devastating, though it requires you to expand early to get the resources to pull this one effectively. Druids of te Claw in Bear Form are VERY strong melee, and mixed with some Dryads slowing the enemies with poison are quite scary. Druids of the Talon are always useful, since Faerie Fire is a nice debuff, Cyclone is good for removing threats from the battlefield, and in a pinch then turn into a pretty decent AA with Crow Form.

As for heroes, in classic I always favored the KotG/PotM and DH/PotM combos. I usually focus on Entangle for the KotG, Mana Burn/Evasion for the DH, and Trueshot/Searing for the PotM.

Originally Posted by Kaiser Sigma

Actually no... the upgrade you talk about is Tier 3 and by then most T3 units from other races are significantly superior to Huntresses... IMO the best you can do is to try to finish your opponent before he/she reaches T3... otherwise NEs start to suffer significantly... other than that mass land units are often a risk when facing L6 abilities from other heroes, which is another reason to go with HRs...

Not to mention that Hunts get slaughtered by siege at T2.

[]s Badaro

[kain425]

First of all starfall is potentially the most powerful spell in the game, direct dmg wise. true shot aura on level three gives at least 4 dmg to each of your units which is a lot.
Searing arrows make her a very powerful attack since basic attack+ 5-8dmg from aura+ 30 fire makes for a very powerful punch. All of this makes the priestess the best NE hero.

I always go pure priestess to get starfall as yearly as possible and support her with hunts, archers and chims and maybe a few dryads. NE archers are the best archers in the game when viewed price vs. dmg output, range and speed. chims are ground pounders that if protected well can win any battle with huge ground dmg vs units and buildings.

NE basically have 2 weaknesses: no USEFUL tanks (yes the giants own but they cost way to much to be effective) and crappy towers. I usually take hunts for tank and dont use any towers until deep in game.

also important to use with NE are the moonwells which provide the second best heal ingame (behind human priests) moonwell must be placed together in the front of the base and if placed well you'll be able to defend as if you had trice the force you have. I always build a few more wells then i need and it always makes a difference in base defense.

my strat didnt change by much moving from RoC to TFT

[Zell]

RoC DH Rush , then 5 sentinel + 2 glaive
TFT Panda/Warden rush foloud by the same 5 sentinels . you can beat your oponent under 10 minutes without micro !

[kain425]

yes but you forget that rushing is for stupid idiots who have no real ability to play

[Kaiser Sigma]

Actually rushing requires a great deal of quick mass producing + knowledge about which units to produce in order to have an advantage over the enemy at hand... that quick assessment on the situation is nothing small... I wouldn't call rushers idiots, more likely the one who can't stand a rush is the person with little if any abilities at all...