Strategier

Generelle Strategier

Making Use of Stunners

1.03 - May be valid in higher versions

     Stunner generally refers to the skills that immobilizes the target units. Several heroes and normal units in the game have such skills that they can utilize from time to time. In this guide, I will discuss the effectiveness of these skills and how they should be used in the actual battle. The list of the stunners is like following : 



Area of Effect Stunner: 



     Mountain King’s thunderclap. Thunder Clap deals good damage around the Mountain King and stuns them for a while. This skill is useful in melee combats against hard hitting uints.



Single Target:



     Mountain King’s storm bolt : Deals good damage against single targets with reasonable mana cost. The stunning duration lasts for 2 seconds. 



Keeper of the Grove’s Entangle: 



This is a skill in which vines pop out of the ground and grab onto the targeted unit. 

The Wolf Rider’s Ensnare : Although it deals no damage, the ensnared target will not be able to move or attack. In addition to that, any flying ensnared units will be brought down to the ground, rendering the flying unit vulnerable to ground units. This is one of the most useful spells in the game.

Crypt Fiend’s Web : Much like the Wolf Rider’s ensnare, but only works against air units. The function of the web is similar to ensnare, but with longer cool down duration. 

Dread Lord’s Sleep : Need I explain this? Just try to have a nice dream J



     As you can see, all the races have their share of stunners in the game. There are quite a few reason that stunning is useful : Your units will be allowed to have free hits, selectively targeting / killing the units that are dealing the most damage to your army and catching the retreating opponent. 



Free hits: 



     This one is a no brainier. Stunning or immobilizing units for short period of time could mean the differences between the defeat and victory in small micromanagement-intensive battles. And because Warcraft 3 revolves around these small and frequent battles, the stunning can provide a HUGE boost in your overall effectiveness. The Mountain king’s thunderclap, in this respect, is very abusive at killing off the melee units in early game. With one well-placed thunderclap, you might find yourself claiming victory over the whole game.



Cutting of certain units in the battle:



     Stunners are the best way to keeping those annoying spell casters out of the fight. This is especially effective against melee-range units or heroes. In addition to keeping them from inflicting damage on you, you erase the unit’s ability to respond any threats around him / her. This can be abused to extreme with spells like entangle and storm bolt. All you have to do is target the unit that you want out of the picture and they will no longer be able to contribute their power in the battle. For example, lets say you had keeper of the grove with level 3 entangle. You are in the process of fending off those annoying footmen, but you see a mortar team and archmage coming for the support. You can quickly entangle archmage, eliminating any chance of taking damage from blizzard or water elemental. (However, entangle is not a true stunning skill as archmage can still attack cast spells in certain radius. He just can’t move while entangled by the vines) This will allow you to divide the groups of enemies and face them selectively in easier and more digestible amount. Picking off heroes is also an important part of the stunning aspect. At this, Mountaing King excels the most with his stormbolt skill. Stormbolt deals big damage against the heroes and stuns (completely immobilizing) for 2 seconds. While the hero is stunned, he will not be able to cast spells, use items, move or attack. You can use this opportunity to surround that hero and kill it quickly. If your units that are dispatching of the other hero get in trouble, you can simply use your Mountain King’s thunderclap to buy yourself some more time to finish the job. 



Stopping the retreating units:



     Stuns, especially the area effect stuns can cause a lot of damage to retreating units. Most smart players will retreat their heroes / units when they realize that they are fighting a losing battle. However, with stunning, you can prevent them from running away and finish the job quickly. With single target stuns, you will usually be able to deal damage AND prevent them from running away. This is especially useful against units with large size since if the smaller units around it might not find enough space to go around it. The units then can be easily disposed of. Also, this is ideal for sniping the running heroes with high mobility. Entangle and Stormbolt is the best skill for doing such sniping – while sleep gets the worst stunning skill award (any heroes can be awoken from the attacks from his / her own units as well as enemy units)

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