Prozerran
05-21-2008, 11:01 AM
Most human strategy in FFA games seems to focus around the Archmage or the Mountain King. These are strong choices, there's no denying it. But can other Heroes be used and, if so, how can their abilities be maximized for greatest effect? Can the Paladin be a useful first hero? What about the Bloodmage? I thought I'd briefly offer two strategies centered around the use of these guys as a way to liven up the FFA strategy when playing Human.
First, it's important to understand the way FFA works. Very rarely will one hero be used. Often, three heroes come into the picture, though I've seen Orc played with two because of the need for more units. It's also important to understand where the game will go in the end. By the time the FFA winds down to two players left, you'll very often see the following:
Orc: Wyverns/Bats OR Bloodlusted/Spirit Linked Tauren/Mass Raider/Caster
NE: Chippo (Chimera/Hippogryph)
UD: Gargs/Frosties
HU: Tank/Gryph
Why these unit combinations? They are some of the strongest combinations of units in mass, and they often counter each other in match-ups. One might be tempted to make these unit combinations the goal. The problem with this, though, is that there is a middle game, a point and time in an FFA where other players need to be eliminated. This means the pacing of an FFA game is a LOT slower than that of a solo game. There are more timing issues to consider, and it takes some experience to know how well you are progressing. This is often why solo players find FFA difficult to dash right into. The dynamic is different, it's not about killing your opponent faster than s/he can kill you, and it's not about getting to 100 control first.
Almost every FFA game begins with a Fast Expansion. It's a longer game, and it's resource intensive. Setting up your economy should be the first step in every FFA you play. However, that being said, if you structure your strategy around preventing your opponent's first expo and rushing early on, it's possible to gain an early advantage (even accomplish putting up an expo and prevent your opponent from expanding early as well). Your next move from there would be to take out your opponent early and try to take his position as a second expo. The options are yours, just be mindful of your other opponents and what your opponent might be able to tell them about your strategy. Now, let's take a look at a couple of strategies taking the lesser-used Human heroes.
Paladin First - Light/Aura/Light/Aura/Light/Ult./Aura/Shield/Shield/Shield
The strategy is pretty cut and dry. This is definitely an example of what you want to do from above. It might be beneficial to adjust the build order slightly as well to include additional farms and an additional Barracks. Open with: Rax/Farm/Farm/Alter/Rax/Farm/Farm/Farm up to 50/54. Pumping foots from two Barracks will help with the initial rush. You want to give your opponent time to clear the expo so you can overwhelm with mass foots once he's dedicated resources to fortification of the position. You can then get defend once the expo is down. Your opponent will likely upgrade towers in his main base, so defend will keep your units alive long enough to take down the hall and kill all the workers. Essentially, you can all but ignore the towers and focus your effort on taking down the hall and kill all the workers. While this is happening, you should have enough resources to begin upgrading to Tier 2, then immediately to Tier 3, getting an MK and an Archmage (for Brilliance Aura). When your opponent is crippled with no units or towers left to defend, send your footmen off to creep and keep your heroes around to fend off harassment and finish off buildings while you put up some towers. Your objective from there will be to use foots to harass expos, replacing them with Knights. Add tanks and Gryphons when possible and start taking down expos. From there, you should know what to do.
Bloodmage - FS/Siphon/FS/Siphon (Banish*)/FS/Ult./Siphon/Banish (Siphon*)/Banish
*You'll want Siphon maxed out before Banish. You get Banish if you want to go with an MK combo with Banish/Bolt/Gryph-FF.
Bloodmage first is an interesting scenario. It takes a bit of work to get used to, but you won't be needing a Barracks until much later in the game (so don't waste early resources better spent on setting up your economy). The better units to use in this combination are Militia. Why? For one thing, militia are lower in cost, they're faster units, and in larger numbers, they have higher damage per second compared to the cost of footmen, food for food. For example, if you have 6 footmen and 11 militia, the militia are probably going to win if everything else is equal. So, treat this strategy as if you were playing UD. Your peasants are similar to ghouls (though they have to militia to work in this way), they are less expensive, and you have more of them.
This makes Flamestrike much more useful. If you flamestrike and lose a footman in the process, that's 135 gold. If you flamestrike and lose a peasant, well, that's 75 gold. Militia are also very useful for creeping. You have to be sure, though, that you bring enough depending on the strength of the creep. Do it on a creep level basis and add up the numbers (practice this on some of the FFA maps first, don't be wasting your time figuring this part out during an actual game). Add up the levels of each npc at each camp and subtract 2 (let your hero count as two units for the purposes of this). For instance, if you have a yellow (sometimes green) camp with a level 4 npc and two level 3 npc's, you'll want a minimum of five peasants (10 control to 10 total levels - even numbers). Factor in a few lost peasants (hey, don't cry over it either, they're just peasants) and you'll need about 7-8 peasants (13 control to total level of 10 - weighs in your favor).
At any rate, the build is pretty simple: Alter/Lumber Mill/Farms/Towers. Peasants to about 30-36 control. When your Bloodmage comes out, take all your wood peasants and clear an expo right away. Start setting up towers there (about 5-6 at first), then upgrade to Tier 2. At Tier 2, you'll throw down two Sanctums and two Workshops and get an MK or AM (depending on the way you want to proceed from here - Banish/Bolt or FS/Blizzard). I can say this much. FS/Blizzard is good for invisi-mortar. It's horrible at the end of the game when heroes are at really high levels. Banish/Bolt is good then, because all that needs to happen is a few good Banish/Bolt/Gryph FF to kill off higher level heroes. It's worth it, but the choice is entirely up to you.
At Tier 2, caster/mortar is effective. It allows you to go with some very sneaky tactics. For instance, you can use invisibility to scout with the BM and FS harass expos. You can use invisibility on Mortars to sneak into the back of an opponent's base and destroy their upgraded hall. If you need to add some FM's to defend from early air, they work in the interim. In the end, your Tank/Gryph combo will be ideal (with Barrage). Start a Barracks and an Aviary so you can immediately upgrade Animal War-training at Tier 3.
At Tier 3, you should know what to do from here. Remember that this strategy uses patience and timing, with some less aggressive tactics that produce impressive results toward the end of the game. It just takes some practice to get the timing of FFA down. Once you have some idea of what other players are doing and how they are thinking, you should have no problem imposing your own will. hfgl!
First, it's important to understand the way FFA works. Very rarely will one hero be used. Often, three heroes come into the picture, though I've seen Orc played with two because of the need for more units. It's also important to understand where the game will go in the end. By the time the FFA winds down to two players left, you'll very often see the following:
Orc: Wyverns/Bats OR Bloodlusted/Spirit Linked Tauren/Mass Raider/Caster
NE: Chippo (Chimera/Hippogryph)
UD: Gargs/Frosties
HU: Tank/Gryph
Why these unit combinations? They are some of the strongest combinations of units in mass, and they often counter each other in match-ups. One might be tempted to make these unit combinations the goal. The problem with this, though, is that there is a middle game, a point and time in an FFA where other players need to be eliminated. This means the pacing of an FFA game is a LOT slower than that of a solo game. There are more timing issues to consider, and it takes some experience to know how well you are progressing. This is often why solo players find FFA difficult to dash right into. The dynamic is different, it's not about killing your opponent faster than s/he can kill you, and it's not about getting to 100 control first.
Almost every FFA game begins with a Fast Expansion. It's a longer game, and it's resource intensive. Setting up your economy should be the first step in every FFA you play. However, that being said, if you structure your strategy around preventing your opponent's first expo and rushing early on, it's possible to gain an early advantage (even accomplish putting up an expo and prevent your opponent from expanding early as well). Your next move from there would be to take out your opponent early and try to take his position as a second expo. The options are yours, just be mindful of your other opponents and what your opponent might be able to tell them about your strategy. Now, let's take a look at a couple of strategies taking the lesser-used Human heroes.
Paladin First - Light/Aura/Light/Aura/Light/Ult./Aura/Shield/Shield/Shield
The strategy is pretty cut and dry. This is definitely an example of what you want to do from above. It might be beneficial to adjust the build order slightly as well to include additional farms and an additional Barracks. Open with: Rax/Farm/Farm/Alter/Rax/Farm/Farm/Farm up to 50/54. Pumping foots from two Barracks will help with the initial rush. You want to give your opponent time to clear the expo so you can overwhelm with mass foots once he's dedicated resources to fortification of the position. You can then get defend once the expo is down. Your opponent will likely upgrade towers in his main base, so defend will keep your units alive long enough to take down the hall and kill all the workers. Essentially, you can all but ignore the towers and focus your effort on taking down the hall and kill all the workers. While this is happening, you should have enough resources to begin upgrading to Tier 2, then immediately to Tier 3, getting an MK and an Archmage (for Brilliance Aura). When your opponent is crippled with no units or towers left to defend, send your footmen off to creep and keep your heroes around to fend off harassment and finish off buildings while you put up some towers. Your objective from there will be to use foots to harass expos, replacing them with Knights. Add tanks and Gryphons when possible and start taking down expos. From there, you should know what to do.
Bloodmage - FS/Siphon/FS/Siphon (Banish*)/FS/Ult./Siphon/Banish (Siphon*)/Banish
*You'll want Siphon maxed out before Banish. You get Banish if you want to go with an MK combo with Banish/Bolt/Gryph-FF.
Bloodmage first is an interesting scenario. It takes a bit of work to get used to, but you won't be needing a Barracks until much later in the game (so don't waste early resources better spent on setting up your economy). The better units to use in this combination are Militia. Why? For one thing, militia are lower in cost, they're faster units, and in larger numbers, they have higher damage per second compared to the cost of footmen, food for food. For example, if you have 6 footmen and 11 militia, the militia are probably going to win if everything else is equal. So, treat this strategy as if you were playing UD. Your peasants are similar to ghouls (though they have to militia to work in this way), they are less expensive, and you have more of them.
This makes Flamestrike much more useful. If you flamestrike and lose a footman in the process, that's 135 gold. If you flamestrike and lose a peasant, well, that's 75 gold. Militia are also very useful for creeping. You have to be sure, though, that you bring enough depending on the strength of the creep. Do it on a creep level basis and add up the numbers (practice this on some of the FFA maps first, don't be wasting your time figuring this part out during an actual game). Add up the levels of each npc at each camp and subtract 2 (let your hero count as two units for the purposes of this). For instance, if you have a yellow (sometimes green) camp with a level 4 npc and two level 3 npc's, you'll want a minimum of five peasants (10 control to 10 total levels - even numbers). Factor in a few lost peasants (hey, don't cry over it either, they're just peasants) and you'll need about 7-8 peasants (13 control to total level of 10 - weighs in your favor).
At any rate, the build is pretty simple: Alter/Lumber Mill/Farms/Towers. Peasants to about 30-36 control. When your Bloodmage comes out, take all your wood peasants and clear an expo right away. Start setting up towers there (about 5-6 at first), then upgrade to Tier 2. At Tier 2, you'll throw down two Sanctums and two Workshops and get an MK or AM (depending on the way you want to proceed from here - Banish/Bolt or FS/Blizzard). I can say this much. FS/Blizzard is good for invisi-mortar. It's horrible at the end of the game when heroes are at really high levels. Banish/Bolt is good then, because all that needs to happen is a few good Banish/Bolt/Gryph FF to kill off higher level heroes. It's worth it, but the choice is entirely up to you.
At Tier 2, caster/mortar is effective. It allows you to go with some very sneaky tactics. For instance, you can use invisibility to scout with the BM and FS harass expos. You can use invisibility on Mortars to sneak into the back of an opponent's base and destroy their upgraded hall. If you need to add some FM's to defend from early air, they work in the interim. In the end, your Tank/Gryph combo will be ideal (with Barrage). Start a Barracks and an Aviary so you can immediately upgrade Animal War-training at Tier 3.
At Tier 3, you should know what to do from here. Remember that this strategy uses patience and timing, with some less aggressive tactics that produce impressive results toward the end of the game. It just takes some practice to get the timing of FFA down. Once you have some idea of what other players are doing and how they are thinking, you should have no problem imposing your own will. hfgl!