Emperor Pan I
Respected Member
Introduction To Undead
Introduction: Undead is a complicated race to play/understand. To start off, they are NOT the equivelent of the zerg from SC. Ud is not about massing units. Undead uses the most skill to control units out of the four races.
Undead units are not balanced out. They range from fast with low hp stats to slow with lots of HP.
Undead do not have naturaly fast units, the backbone of the Undead army is the DK, and in 90% of cases he is the main hero used.
The Undead Base:
Let's start off with the most basic of UD units, the Acolyte. This dude here is 1/2 of your recource gatherer and most importantly, your builder. But let it be known, that although he sucks gold out of the Mine, he DOES NOT CHOP WOOD. The acolyte is the most important unit, being he builds everything, mines gold and can unsummon buildings. Unsummoning is crucial to undead overall. Unsummoning will be covered later.
With that out of the way, let's head to our other recource gatherer. Namely, the Ghoul. Ever wonder why you start out with one of these babies? To chop wood of course! The Ghoul is the best racial gatherer for wood in the whole game. The ghoul gathers 2 wood per chop, and after 10 chops brings back 20 wood. The only other wood gatherer that gathers better is the Goblin shrdder which brings back a max of 200 wood per trip. There is also a catch with the ghoul. Alot of times the ghoul is the undeads main form of defence, offense and they are built from the Crypt. Ghouls also cost more than workers, but less than tier 1 meele units at 120 gold. Ghouls also cost 2 food, which allows them to be evened out among the other races.
The UD summon their buildings, Allowing a player to use only one acolyte to build multiple structures immediately. Undead buildings summon only on the blight with the exception of the Necropolis and the Haunted Gold Mine. Also If your short on money, pick a building your not using, and "un-summon" it to get 50% of the money back. Blight will remain even after buildings are destroyed or unsummoned allowing you to build almost immediately after a building is razed.
Your entire economy is based on the Ziggurats which provides the Undead with 20 food per structure. Unlike other races' farms, the Ziggurat is the undeads main source of defence. Ziggurats can be upgraded to a Nerubian Tower or a Spirit tower.
The Nurubian tower is a cheap (100 gold 20 wood) early defense that slows targets but deal little damage. The Spirit tower is more expensive, but provides a piercing attack with much better damage. The Halls of the Dead and Black Citadel both have an attack, which upgrades with the building. This attack however is insignifigant and in no way should ever be relied on for defence.
Blight: The blight is what the undead use as thier main source of healing. As oppose to the other races that heal all the time (Night Elf only at night) Undead's natural healing is done only while standing, or flying over it. Blight can be dispelled by most casters even the wisp as long as no building is supporting the blight. Blight itself is created with each building, and will continue to expand as your base does. Blight is also created by the Sacraficial skull, more on that later.
The Corpse: Their the undead race, not using corpses would be a crime. The Corpses are what it's all about! The bodies of slain warriors/critters can be used for quite a few purposes.
One of the Main roles of the corpse is to provide the Ghoul and the Abombination with a hardy meal. Cannibalize allows the two main meele unis for undead consume the corpse either enemy for or neutral to gain health. Cannibalize is researched at the Crypt, and costs only 75 gold.
Next is the Necromancer. The has been greatly improved since the old days. Unlike in old skool Warcraft, the Necromancers can use a single corpse to raise 2 skeletons. The skeleton is a below average warrior, and one on one is not much use against everything. The true power lies in the Necromancers ability to raise multiple corpses. With support the necromancer is one of the most feared casters on the battlefield. The Necromancer can raise several skeletons, that accompanied by an army will vastly increase your ranks.
The Death Knight is the most useful hero in the undead army. At level 6, the Death Knight's Ultimate Ability, Animate Dead can certainly turn the tide of a heated battle. The computer automaticaly selects the highest level bodies on the ground. This tactic however is minor in comparison to many other ultimates, and very few times will your efforts be rewarded with 6 very good units.
Another Undead hero, the Crypt Lord uses corpses to great effect. The Crypt lord will use a corpse to raise a Scarab beatle, which is an invaluable asset to a Crypt Lord build. More on the Crypt Lord and Beatles later.
A skeleton rod will also provide any hero to summon two skeletons from a single corpse. they can be bought at the Undead shop. More on the Undead shop later.
How do you get all these bodies to the field? A mobile morgue of course. It is becasue corpses only last 88 seconds on the field that Undead needs an ulternate source of bodies. The Meat Wagon is the Undead's siege weapon, and a damn good one at that! From teh graveyard which produces a corpse every 5 seconds, the Meat Wagon is able to load up to 6 corpses and if there is not sufficient bodies around the Meat wagon can create corpses with an upgrade called Exhume Corpse.
Shop:
Tomb of Relice shop has the most unique items available to a race at start.
Rod of Necromancy: Allows any hero the ability to summon 2 skellys from any corpse. Costs 150 gold and contains 4 charges.
Sacraficial Skull: Places a small area of blight on the ground without the presence of a building. Can be used to build zigs by an expansion or for combat healing. Costs only 50 gold.
Orb of Corruption: One of the best types of Orbs. This baby adds 5 damage to nay hero wearing it. Each attack also lowers enemy armor by 5. In effect each swing will do more damage because your enemy will have lower armor. Costs 350 each.
The Hero:
Regardless of what units you use, the Undead race relys heavily on the power that is your heros. Each hero has his/her own strength and use depending.
Death Knight:
The Death Knight is almost a REQUIREMENT. When playing against Random, NE, ORC, HU players you will almost always get him as a first hero. In a Mirror match, your hero selection is alot more flexable.
- Death Coil: Costs only 75 mana heals 200, 400 and 600 and deals a fair amount to non undead (100, 200, 300 dmg). Undeads primary source of heal and the DK's first spell always.
- Death Pact: Costs only 50 mana and sacrafices a unit to heal the DK based on the amount of health in the sacrafice. Death Pact will heal 100%, 200%, 300%. A skeleton will provide 540 hphp easily at level 3 while a ghoul will provide at best 1050 hp! This is alot cheaper than a potion (200 gold) for alot better healing. This will save teh DK in a tight spot.
- Unholy Aura: Quite possibly the second best aura next to Endurance Aura. It increases health regeneration, and movement speed. So much so that the DK will go from 350 speed to 400 speed. Any combination of auras with this will create super soldiers from your army.
- Animate Dead: When you select this, you have the ability to raise 6 invulnerable units that have died. Mediocre spell at best, but is definately balanced out with the ability to sacrafice one of these raised units with death Pact.
He's good against races, or players, that like to mass weak units. He is best when used in combonation of Ghouls. His vampiric aura can do wonders.
- Carrion Swarm: Great AOE spell with a max damage of over 1000. Is good for that small group of weak archers or ghouls, and great for weakening heros!
- Sleep: Perfect for stopping that almost dead hero from running away. Major problem is the fact that attacking a sleeped unit will cause it to wake up. It is an interuptinmg spell and is perfect for heros with mass kill Ultimates, like the Priestess of the Moon's Starfall, the Lich's Death and Decay, the Far Seer's Earthquake, and even the Arch Mages Blizzard!
- Vampiric Aura: The most important ability in my opinion, is the Vampiric Aura that's projected from the Dread Lord once it's selected. This Aura is definetly one of the best in the entire game, mainly for the great bonus your units, and allies get when around the Dread Lord. Every time a unit under the influence of this powerful aura hits an enemy, they get a percentage of the hit points off the enemy to heal themselves with!
- Infernal: Hands down best summon in the game. The Dread Lords Ultimate ability is totally kick ass! Not only does it stun units when it is summoned, the infernal has immolation, is magic immune and has 1600 life! Not to mention it can be cured with coil. Definately the best ultimate from the undead.
This guy Is an amazing support hero, and in the proper hands a great starter.
- Frost Nova: is the most destructive base attack made by an Undead hero, and possibly, by a hero period! It not only does it damage, it also slows the units in the area of affect!
- Frost Armor: Great for meele attacks. Adds armor, plus any attacking enemy gets slowed down. Autocast allowing for any unit that is being attacked to be auto targeted.
- Dark Ritual: Acts like the Death Knights Death Pact, but sent to a different source. Instead of killing a Ghoul for health, you get mana!
- Death and Decay: The most powerful base killer out there, in the truth that it will destroy an entire base all at once! it deals about 4% of base health per second. Crap on units
Undeads third strength hero. The tank of the Undead army. Higher armor than a Tauren Chieften. The CL has amazing spells, and is a well rounded strength hero with great stats.
- Impale: Mass stun, whats better? A nice cone that stuns all units in the range. deals small damage, but the 3 second stun is well worth the skill points. Useful for fleeing heros and units along with damageing smaller untis.
- Spiked Carapace: Adds armor to the cryptlord, and also allows a sort of self thorns aura. Any units attacking this guy will get damage proportional to thier own attack. With level three this guy can add close to 7 armor. A must have.
- Carrion Beatle: Carrion beatles are amazing summons, from early to late game. These guys do not have a timer. All Carrion Beetles will remain when the Crypt Lord that summons them dies. The Carrion beatle can be used to take the hits for a group of fiends, or ruin with a group of ghouls. Created from 1 corpse, max allowed is 5 beatles at once.
- Locust Swarm: The CL sends out numerous locust that steal HP from enemy units surrounding the CL and returns a percentage to the CL. This can make the CL near unstoppable as the self regen rate is incredibly high with larger number of enemys. Definately the second best Undead ultimate next to Infernal.
