Hoomans

Stalwart Humans

The new units the Humans receive have the potential to completely redefine the typical formula for ladder play. Most noteworthy is the new Blood Mage hero. He has the ability to cast a ‘Flame Strike’ which deals staggering amounts of damage for the first two seconds, then tapers off and deals minimal damage for the remainder of the spell. The area the spell is cast upon briefly glows blue before erupting in a fantastic explosion, allowing for micro-adept players a short interval to move their troops. The Blood Mage can also cast ‘Mana Shield’, which allows for him to absorb a set amount of physical damage or magic spells. His ‘Banish’ ability turns any unit temporarily invisible, and his ultimate, ‘Mark of Fire’, sacrifices one of your units into a massively powerful phoenix which takes a constant amount of damage per second upon inception. The new Spell Breaker unit is almost identical to the Footman in terms of statistics and upgrades, and begins with spell immunity. They may be upgraded to ‘Spell Steal’ positive buffs from enemy units, placing the enchantment onto a nearby friendly unit, and perform the reverse with respect to negative buffs. Finally, the versatile Dragon Hawk can attack both land and air units. They also possess the ‘Cloud’ ability which casts a small fog, preventing any afflicted building from attacking with ranged attacks.

Big Bird

How Useful

Incoming

A popular strategy is to tri-hero with the Archmage, Blood Mage, and Mountain King. The player rushes the Mountain King into the middle of the fray, Thunder Claps (stunning all enemy units around the Mountain King), then simultaneously casts Blizzard and Flame Strike onto the enemy units. The combination of both spells, especially at high levels, will drop a unit’s hit points faster than Enron’s stock. Similarly, some players go heavy Spell Breakers, casting Blizzard and Flame Strike with abandon, as the Spell Breakers are completely immune to all spell damage. This sort of reliance upon heroes allows human players the luxury of diversifying their armies significantly. The Dragon Hawk is a more affordable substitute for Gryphon Riders and their base-neutralizing abilities can be very helpful. It is also worth noting that Flame Strike deals damage to buildings. Undead players who mass Spirit Towers are often shocked to see an able Human player rip through their base in a matter of minutes alternating between Blizzard and Flame Strike. Mana Shield makes the Blood Mage effectively invincible, and with Brilliance Aura, the Blood Mage won’t be running out of mana.

Shocking

Big Boys

Not Doing Anything Useful