Hero Strategy - Beastmaster

[Chris]

Beastmaster - Hero Strategy
I hear the call of the wilds....
Last revised: Feb 1st, 2007 (v1.21)



Greeting fellow web surfers. I have written my second guide in hopes that I would give insight into the Beastmaster neutral hero. I have started using this hero recently and I have somewhat mastered him like a third hand. The hotkey for this hero is S

General

As his name impies, he is a master of beasts (ooooh, bet you didn't figure that one out!). All 3 of his basic skills enable him to summon animals that will fight for your cause, and you can also summon as many as you can. However, as with most summons they succumb to powers like Dryad's Abolish Magic or Priest's Dispel. His own attacks can be powerful but he is lacking a strong MANA supply. You will need to invest your gold in mana potions, clarity potions, and possibly try finding items that increase your intelligence.

When you creep, any of the summons can take damage for your other units. This saves a bundle on potion costs and such. Just be warned of the Gnoll Wardens and thier purge ability.

Like the Pit Lord, he has a Fast (300) running speed. He can outrun most melee or ranged at the beginning except for hunts, making him easier to micromanage if he is about to die. Also, all summons are fast movement speed so they won't slow the Beastmaster down if you move in formation.

His ultimate is hilarious as it is deadly, which will cause lizards to run and explode in your enemies' faces. Microing capabilities will also involve your summons themselves and your hero. You need those summons and units considering you paid a hefty load of mana to call them to your aid.

As you read my guide, click on the spell icon to view the unit's stats and powers.

Beastmaster's Abilities



Summon Bear

For 125 mana, you can summon a bear to help you fight in melee combat. The bear itself is a devastating melee fighter with high hit points, damage capacity and longevity. I recommend the bear as your basic summon so you can solo creep, harass enemy camps, or help you turn the tides on rushes.

At higher levels, the Bear gains more hit points and will learn the Bash ability. Enabling you to have a channel breaker by chance if you encounter people using AoE's, ultimates, or spells like Siphon Mana and Life Steal. Bash will also help you fight t3 melee in deadlock, considering you knock out a unit for awhile.

At level 3, the bear becomes a very funny summon that most people don't expect to happen. The bear will become a Warden, in the sense he will gain Blink. Teleporting Bears can be very fun and very hazardous to your enemies.

Teleport bears next to siege weapons that are all alone and don't have much backup. They'll pay for bringing those devastating demos and meat wagons with a furry claw to thier faces. You can also teleport the bear and hope it can break a spell like Starfall, Tranquility or Mass Teleport (small chance of working, use a real hero to do this if it isn't working). The last use of teleporting the bear is to micro and also catch heroes and/or units running away. Making this bear a real hero killer at any level, considering he does melee damage and often has more hit points than the hero himself.

When I attack bases, I often summon a Level 3 bear (if I can), teleport him near workers and let him do some damage while I fight the enemy army. If the player doesn't stop him fast enough, I will get the last laugh with most or all your workers dead.

The bear is a must-have summon in many cases, just don't let dispellers manually cast spells in an attempt to waste your hard earned mana.

Note: If you play on Northrend or Icecrown tileset, you will summon a Polar Bear instead of a Brown Bear. Both have same stats, just one appears different.




Summon Quillbeast

For 75 mana, your Beastmaster can summon a boar that will help you in ground ranged combat. Quillbeasts have less hit points and armor than a Bear does, but are able to attack aerial units and eventually shoot splash damage quills. Thier damage is piercing type and does a little more damage than a bear does.

This unit is very underestimated, considering you can summon a larger amount of them because of the cooldown on the spell. You could have up to 3-4 Quillboars at once! Keep them behind units like Grunts and Hunts to keep them alive. An army of these little shooters could easily own Hunts, weaker air units, some forms of melee, and eventually be able to kill casters or other unarmored and light armored units with ease.

After level 2, they gain Frenzy, a personal bloodlust that will allow them to shoot way faster. Get 3-4 of these, cast Frenzy, and you got yourself a more versatile unit then even an Archer or a Rifleman. At Level 3, they will splash damage allowing you to destroy clumped units more effectively. Such as packed melee or air when they are moving (sometimes they clump up and you can easily do some REAL damage).

Quillbeasts are recommended if you need some more ranged combat implemented into your strategy.

Note: Like in other tilesets, the Quillboar changes color. He can be brown (Barrens), Dark Grey (default), or Light Grey (Northrend, Icecrown).




Summon Hawk

For a mere 50 mana, you can summon a flying hawk to aid you in scouting and/or battle. This hawk has less hit points, weaker armor than the Quillbeast. However, its attack at level 3 and scouting abilities make up for it.
This summon you can only have 1 at a time, cause the cooldown is 70 seconds.

This hawk isn't really ment for battle, it is ment in some situations where you need to see what your enemy is up to without using a hippogyph or a flying unit to see for yourself. The real beauty is in its True Sight ability, which allows this Hawk to see invisible units in its sight range. This will help you:

• See Blademasters under Wind Walk so you can kill them or make actions for your hero's survival.
• See objects like Wards and make decisive moves to dismantle them
• Spot Night Elves under Shadowmeld, make them pay for hiding before thier eventual demise
• Spot fiends that have burrowed or shades hiding at your base.
• Humans that decide to micro using Invisibility

After level 2, he will gain the ability to finally attack units. He causes magic damage with his lightning bolts, so he can really harm melee units or some flyers. However, don't summon a hawk around anti-air, it will be a waste of mana since he could die pretty quickly. After Level 3, he will do almost 40-50 damage and also be a Shade. In the sense that this hawk is invisible until it attacks, nobody may expect him scouting unless you are a human with Magic Sentry towers.

Choose the Hawk if you are fighting Night elves early on or you need a recon unit to help you change strategies and such. This will really benefit you in team games! Be warned, even against ne the hawk may still have some disadvantages (dryads, air etc).



Stampede - Ultimate

By far one of the funniest and possibly deadliest skill used against someone. For 150 mana, you can call upon a stampede of thunder lizards that will run into enemies and explode, causing 70 damage per lizard. Each lizard causes splash damage to nearby units and does full damage to buildings. Lasts 30 seconds or until the spell channel is canceled.

The real problem with this spell is aiming it and where you should cast it. The lizards run in the direction the beastmaster is facing and the lizards appear in random spots across the cast line. So lets take a large deadlock for example.

You need to decide which units should I kill first, the ranged in the back or the melee in the front? If you want the guys in the back, turn your Beastmaster in the direction your enemy is facing. This causes the lizards to spawn behind them and get thier weaker units, vice versa if you want the melee in the front (face the direction you are fighting). Doing the sides would depend on what units are there.

The spot where you cast it also depends, you can't cast it where a channel breaker spell will affect you. Otherwise the full effect is wasted and you need to wait 3 minutes to redo the spell.

If the spell is pulled off correctly, you can weaken or waste large armies of men just with 150 mana from your pool. If you are being focused fire in attempt to break the channel, carry life ups or use a spell and/or skill that heals your Beastmaster.

This is a fun and hazardous spell, try to get the hang of aiming before you try to use it against your foes properly.

Hero Building

It is recommended you get Boars first. Because one bear will clean out a large amount of the Beastmaster's mana. Also, most pros do go Boars.

You can then choose between Bears or Hawks to assist you. I often choose hawk since scouting is very important and also I can bring ranged units of my own to help me kill hunts. At level 6, learn Stampede. Level 7 and up, master your last creature you never used.

As for items, mana bonus items will greatly help your cause. More mana = more beasts. Some items include pendant of mana/energy, sobi mask, or any intelligence ups. Life ups and orbs are another benefit when you start casting Stampede or you need some life in your Beastmaster.

The beastmaster is a good hero to have when you need summons to benefit your cause. I hope you enjoy him in your warcraft gaming as much as I had writing this guide and mastering him .