hmmm... here it goes... i'll resume this to the very basic, just to give an overview:
UNDEAD - Best race at hero nuking ( death coil + frost nova + impale/carrion swarm) and an orb at the racial shop that decrases an unit armor. UD has very good anti air abilities (web from crypt fiends, gargoyles and frost wyrms). Has a caster that can summon fighters from corpses (necromancer) , and another that can possess enemy units ( banshee). ghouls are lumber harvesters but great fighters too, when upgraded with ghoul frenzy and benefited with Death Knight's unholy aura and Dreadlord's vampiric aura. Undeads tend to be weak against "Area of Effect" spells, such as blizzard, flame strike, shockwave, fan of knives, frost nova and so on... because UD's have mainly low food and low lifed units, being able to have a large army, but with low hit points. Some counters for that may me anti magic shell from banshee, or destroyers which are immune to magic. Destroyers are also your unique way to dispel magic with undead, so it's a need when facing mass buffs or debuffs. The Death Knight is a great hero for almost all matchups, so you may try him as a 1st hero ( except in a mirror match, because you won't be able to use death coil to hurt enemies). Some very basic combos for undead are DK + lich + crypt fiends, 2 statues and abominations or DK + DL with ghouls and necromancers. Undeads have extra regeneration when upon blight. Frost wyrms are costy, eat 7 food supply, but have a extremely powerful magic splash attack that slows units in an area, or even freezes buildings with the respective upgrade.Their racial shop has rods of necromancy and sacrifial skull as it's best items.
their heroes are:
* Death Knight: Cant heal friendly units/hurt enemies (xcept UD) with coil, gives +speed and +life regeneraion with unholy aura, can heal itself with death pact and can raise 6 invunerable dead fighters for 30 seconds.
* Dreadlord: Can put units to sleep, has vampiric aura witch allows melee fighters to steal life from attacks, carrion swarm is a area dmg spell and can summon a powerful melee unit, an infernal which falls from the sky, stunning an area and has immolation.
*Lich: a weak hero, but proficient at dealing dmg to large crowds.. has frost nova, his main skill, which freezes an area, slowing units and dealing dmg; frost armor, dark ritual which allows him to consume a unit to regenerate mana and his ultimate damages everything in an area for 4% of it's total hit points.
*Crypt Lord: can summon 5 carrion beetles; has impale, which stuns units in a line and deals low dmg; can use spiked carapace to increase it's armor permanently and hurt melee attackers and his ultimate is locust swarm, which summons a swarm of locusts which will hurt enemies around and give life back to the crypt lord.
ORC: They got the best melee fighters in the game, kinda like the opposite of the undead. Their racial shop has the best healing item, the healing salves, and the best orb in the game besides the undead' one. Scroll of speed is usefull to rush ranged units or to run away from danger. Orcs armies are composed of a little number of units, but those are big ass tanks of hit points and hit hard. Orc casters got, IMO, the best synergy with their units. the shaman will make your fighters attack faster and grow bigger, what somehow scares the enemy; witch doctors can set down wards to stun an area and to heal your army, making your tanks last more time in the battlefield; and spirit walkers can link your units so they distriubute the dmg taken, and can REVIVE tauren, the best melee fighter in the game. Raiders are also great units, but you better learn basics 1st so you can use raiders effectively later. Orc air units are not so great, wind riders are good but easily countered if scouted right... and batriders serve mainly as kamikazes, but you will need a large number of them in the most cases. Being the best melee, it's logical that ORC weakness is air, so you may have problems against enemies massing air units against you when you're ORC - try raiders with ensnare, headhunters and batriders to counter air. Some very basic combos for orcs: Farseer + Tauren chieftain + grunts + wind riders + shamans ; or Farseer + Shadow hunter + grunts, then Tauren, raiders and witch doctors. Burrows are great for base defending, and can be upgraded to fortified armor together with towers; and you may use spiked barricades to hurt melee fighters attacking your buildings.
their heroes:
*Blademaster: adept at killing units 1 by one, in melee fighting, he's got critical strike as passive skill, which gives hima chance of dealing 2,3,and 4 times his normal damage; wind walk, which allows him to turn invisible, walk faster and deal extra damage to the unit hit when he breakers invisibility; mirror image, which allows him to summon fake images of himself creating chaos; and his ultimate is bladestorm, which creates an area of damage around the hero, dealing a total of 770 damage over 7 seconds. HE can become extremely powerful when high leveled, equipped with an orb of lightning and boots of speed.
*Far Seer - can summon 2 good fighting wolves; has far sight, which allows him to reveal an area in the map and see invisible units; has chain lightining, a spell that will bounce from a primary target to another ones, dealing max dmg to the 1st and less for each bounce; and his ultimate is earthquake, a base destroying spell which deals 50dmg/sec to buildings in an area and slows units.
*Tauren Chieftain: a very strong hero, has an aura which adds +speed and +attack rate to your units; war stomp, which will stun units near the tauren chieftain; shockwave, a spell that will deal damage to units in a line, and his ultimate allows him to ressurect, full life and full mana. ( has cooldown
)
*Shadow Hunter: a healing hero, has healing wave, which like chain lightining, will bounce, but healing your units; has hex, which will trasform an enemy unit or hero in a random critter, being slower and unable to attack; serpent ward, which allows him to summon wards that have an attack; and his ultimate is big bad voodoo, which will make all friendly units around him invulnerable (xcept from himself)
HUMAN - a balanced race, with pretty good casters and has good counters for everything. Rifleman are very good ranged units with lots of hit points, footman take almost no damage from piercing attacks when using "defend", spell breakers can steal spells... and so on. They are not very easy to play, as you will need a more balanced army, with many different kinds of units, to be more effective. Their casters are very strong, mainly because of sorceress' slow/polymorph and priest's heal/innerfire. knights are tough melee fighters, which have high armor and nice damage. gryphons have lots of hit points, good magic damage and can hit 2 targets with the storm hammers upgrade. Humans' sieging ability is great, having steam tanks ( which have fortified armor) and mortars ( great range). Human anti air ability is also good, composed by rifleman, gyrocopters, dragon hawks ( which can immobilize an enemy air unit, dealing dmg over time) with aerial shackles and steam tanks with barrage. Humans might have problems with early hero harasses, as their only real defense early on is to call for militia (your peons will be called to the main hall and trasformed into melee fighters). Militia is a very good counter to rushes, but it's double edged: while you will be able to deal nice damage and increase peons speed, if you lose militia you will be losing your peons too, and will spend money to recompose your peon staff - And while in militia, your peons won't be gathering resources too, so... Humans racial shop has a very good healing scroll, staff of sanctuary is very good to save units, but orb of fire is the worst orb in the game.Some very basic combos for humans are: Archmage + Mountain King + footman to rifleman + priests + knights; or Mountain King + Paladin + knights + priests + sorceresses + gryphons.
their heroes are:
*Archmage: Can summon powerful water elementals, has brillance aura, which will increase mana regeneration for your team, potencializing casters; has blizzard, a very good area of effect dmg spell and his ultimate allows him to teleport himself and 24 units of your army everywhere in the map where you have a building or a ground unit.
*Mountain King: powerful melee hero, has storm bolt, which will stun a single unit and deal large damage; thunder clap, an area of effect spell that will slow and damage units near the MK; bash, a passive skill that gives hima a chance of stunning a enemy and deal 25 bonus dmg; and his ultimate is Avatar, which will give him 5 bonus armor, 500 bonus hitpoints and make him bigger and immune to magic.
*Paladin: Adept at healing and making allies tougher, has holy light, used to heal allies / or hurt undead; divine shield, a spell that will make him invulnerable to attacks for a period of time; devotion aura, a aura that will give bonus armor for your fighters; and his ultimate is ressurection, which will raise 6 ground fallen units of yours.
*BloodMage: Mixed hero, which can deal area dmg and has some disabling. Has flame strike, a fast channeled area of effect damage spell; banish, which will make a units unable to take and deal physical damage, but receiving 66% more effect from any spell cast upon it ( banished units may cast spells too); mana siphon, which will drain mana from an enemy or give mana to a allie; and his ultimate summon a powerful phoenix, which dmgs itself over time, but is reborn if it's egg is not broken.
NIGHT ELVES: my beloved race
, has the best aerial army of the game, nice melee fighters, very good casters and is mainly composed of ranged attackers. Archers are very good damage dealers, which can stand against most other ranged attackers, but are very fragile against melee fighters and spells, because they have thw lowest hit points in the game for an army trained unit... they can become extremely powerful with all their upgrades and priestess of the moon's trueshot aura and Druid's of the claw roar spell. Huntresses are good fighters, but fall easily against piercing and siege attacks, making them a good choice to start but a weak choice against high tier units ( tier 3 melee fighters, catapults or flying units as they can't attack air). druids are night elf casters that can shapwshift themselves into powerful fighters: the druif of the talon can cast faerie fire, cyclone, and transforms himself into a crow, with a great air attack. Druid of the Claw can cast roar, rejuv, and trasform themselves into bears, great melee attackers. the mountain giant is a BIG units with LOTS of hit points and upgrades to reduce dmg taken, being incredible tanks to soak up damage. the chimaera is a drying 2 headed dragon with a very strong magic splash attack, and can be upgraded to have siege damage against buildings. Faerie dragons are good to fight enemy casters with the mana flare spell, and dryads are immune to magic attackers that can dispel and slow. You might be thinking "OMG night elf is overpowered" but it's not this way. it's really powerful, but it's the race that requires more skill and micromanagement to be played and be that strong. Night elves lack good items at their racial shop, being the staff of preservation and the anti magic potion the only really good items, besides the orb of venom. Night elf bases are designed to fight melee attackers, but ancients can't fight ranged attackers (only protectors). So if you get rushed early on by ranged units and hasn't got an army, you might not be able to fend off the rush. Some very basic combos for NE are Demon hunter + Keeper of the Grove + archers + druids of the claw, or Priestess of the moon + huntresses + dryads + chimaeras. And there is the chimaera + hippogryphs + druids of the talon combo that is one of the most powerful air combos in the game. Night elf heroes have low HP (xcept the demon hunter) and are very weak, but have extremely powerful ultimates. they are:
*Demon hunter: Very powerful melee fighter, has the evasion skill, which gives him a passive chance of avoiding attacks and take no damage; immolation, which will make the demon hunter look like he's on fire, dealing damage to to enemies on melee range with him; mana burn, which will burn mana from other enemy units and deal damage equal to the mana burned, and his ultimate is Metamorphosis, which will trasform him in an Big ranged demon, with chaos splash attack, 5hp regen/sec and 500 bonus hitpoints.
*Warden - adept at chasing heroes, the warden can use Fan of knives to deal dmg to units near her; shadow strike, a spell that will dead initial damage to a unit and keep dealing damage over time, slowing the units for some time; blink, a mini-ranged self teleport spell; and her ultimate is Vengeance, which will summon an avatar of vengeace, a very tough ranged fighter that can summon another little invulnerable spirits.
*Keeper of the grove: versatile but weak hero, good for disabling units with entangling roots, which will hold a units and deal damage to it over time; can summon treant fighters with force of nature; has thorns aura, a aura that will give damage to melee attackers that attacfk your army; and his ultimate is tranquility, which will channel a rain of pure water, healing 20hp/secs to all nearby allies.
*Priestess of the Moon: a very powerful hero, but somehow fragile. her trueshot aura increases ranged attacks, making this the best aura for night elf armies in general. searing arrows will increase PotM range and add fire dmg to her attack. owl scout creates a invulnerable flying scout; and her ultimate is starfall, the most agressive area damage channeled spell in the game, dealing huge amounts of damage over time in the whole screen, and has the advantage of not damaging allied units in the area of the spell.
Man, i've tried my best. this might be extense but it's completely basic, it's not even 5% of the whole warcraft knowledge. but this will prove to be very useful to you, i think. i won't talk about neutral heroes, try using racial heroes only to start. you should not stick to one only race, but to two, so you play in 2 different styles, you know... that's it for now...
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