Night Elfses

Enigmatic Night Elves

The new Night Elf Hero, the Warden, has so many useful skills it can be difficult to choose what to specialize in. ‘Blink’ allows for her to teleport instantly to any point on the visible screen. ‘Fan of Knives’ automatically hurls a flurry to knives against all enemy units (to a cap, similar to Carrion Swarm) in the immediate vicinity of the Warden, dealing substantial amounts of damage. ‘Shadow Strike’ is the Warden’s tool of assassination; she hurls a poisoned dagger at a single-target, dealing massive amounts of initial damage, followed by significant poison damage. Last, but certainly not least, her ultimate ability, ‘Spirit of Vengeance’, creates a fighting spirit from the bodies of fallen allies. I’ve seen Spirits with thousands of hit points summoned from a mass graveyard of archers and huntresses. It’s worth noting, however, that bodies of fallen air units and mountain giants do not count to the corpse total.

The new Faerie Dragon is a flying unit that is immune to magic and can attack both air and land. It has two very useful abilities. ‘Phase Shift’ allows for the Faerie Dragon to immediately turn ethereal when attacked by an enemy unit, preventing damage. ‘Mana Flare’ turns the Faerie Dragon into a pulsating ball of energy. This ability is ridiculously overpowered. In essence, if any spell is cast by an enemy within the immediate vicinity of a transformed Faerie Dragon, it will be countered, and the Faerie Dragon will deal 4 times the spell cost in damage to the offending caster. Currently, this is capped at 150 damage versus normal units and 50 damage versus heroes, but the ramifications of this ability are about as subtle as a dentist suggesting you ‘brace yourself’. Finally, the new Mountain Giant can hold its own in the midst of the Faerie Dragon insanity. The Mountain Giant initially starts very weak, but can obtain a ‘Hardened Skin’ upgrade, which currently reduces all physical damage taken by 20 points, down to a minimum of 3. His ‘Resistant Skin’ reduces all magical damage by a certain percentage. The Mountain Giant can also double as a building demolisher, as his ‘War Club’ ability lets him grab a tree and use it as a ranged weapon for a set amount of attacks, transforming his damage into siege damage. His most famous ability, however, is ‘Taunt’, which causes nearby enemies to switch their attacks over to him.

Beaten Down By Air

Uh-Oh

Shiny Ribbons

The Night Elves, already the anti-magic race of choice, is given two weapons in its arsenal making them the undisputed Kings (or, perhaps more aptly, Queens) of anti-magic. Going spellcasters against an advanced Night Elf player at this time is suicide. I saw one Undead player attempt to swarm a Night Elf player with Skeletal minions, but his Necromancers virtually imploded when attempting to Raise Dead close to the transformed Faerie Dragons. Additionally, a fully upgraded Mountain Giant can take more punishment than a Town Hall. The –20 damage resistance seems rather severe, as a significant proportion of units in the game can’t deal more than 20 points of damage. If you take into account the Mountain Giant’s hit points (a whopping 1400), it’s easy to see why creating a couple of Mountain Giants, then going overkill on air, is a popular Night Elf strategy at the moment.

Sphinxes

Battling It Out

Webbed Bats