Priest-Men, Human Strategy by Z_Dragonlord

Difficulty: Moderate
Type: Strategic
Focus: Anti-Unit (Through heavy unit support)

Z_Dragonlord submitted this strategy for posting here at zileas.com

As with all strategies submitted during the beta, the assumption is that this strategy will be effective at release. It might not necessarily work well in particular patches, such as when one race or strategy is particularly overpowered. strategy DOES NOT work in 1.31 particularly against massed siege, and certain air strategies such as massed wyverns. It most likely WILL work in future patches.

This strategy focuses on the combination of basic Footmen and Priests. It is a core racial strategy based on utilizing the defensive abilities of the Alliance. This is one of the interesting rapid tech builds that have become much more effective after 1.20.

Philosophy

The strong point of humans is their defensive skills. They have many healing and defense boosting spells and their relative high amount of HP and armor also attest to this racial strength. This strategy involves a quick tech to a unit that greatly epitomizes this ability- the Priest. Couple the Priest and its Inner Fire and Heal, the Paladin's Holy Light and Devotion Aura, and the defensive abilities of the Footmen- and BOOM- you have a remarkable combination. When used in combination, the sheer resilience of your units is extremely surprising- greatly amplifying your unit efficiency.

Build Order and Strategic Application

1) Start off by building a Farm and an Altar. Send the other Peasants to gold. Queue 8 Peasants. Build a Barracks when money allows (generally after the first Farm completes). Get 9-11 Peasants.

2) Your first hero should be the Paladin and your base unit is the Footman. I get two Footmen and then I go level up. Try to get to level two if possible. The whole time, keep pumping Footmen out of your Barracks. It might also be a good idea to kill creeps during your scouting- two birds with one stone.

3) Depending on your early resource management, you should be able to get the Keep around 19-23 control. Consider getting a second Barracks when the Keep starts, if you have the money. Keep on attacking creeps aggressively and hit the enemy a few times to see his/her race and strategic choice. This will greatly influence the upgrades and route you take later on.

4) Get an Arcane Sanctum ASAP. Be sure to have control open for 3-5 Priests. It is a good idea to upgrade their abilities after getting 2-3 of them first. Now, you will be able to attack with full force.

5) Continue to tech to Castle; you want Inner Fire. Mortar Teams will be of great help if you are having trouble with breaking static defense or taking on massive amounts of units later on. Also, remember to continuously upgrade Armor, whenever feasible from your Blacksmith. If you decide to get a second hero, costs will add up quickly and might result in you making fewer Priests; nevertheless, it is a good idea with in the proper situation.

6) When you attack, try to be in defensive position before the enemy can get hits off you. Having Inner Fire and Defend (when necessary) already cast will greatly influence the battle. If possible, go for his/her expansion first and work your way up into his/her base. All the while, constantly micro by Healing, Inner Firing, and Holy Lighting. More on such micro will be covered in the tactical advice section. One important point is that you MUST keep the Priests alive (they are the centerpiece of your combo). You will, if done right, have a great unit advantage due to the low numbers your units should be dying in. Try to keep the pressure on from this point and determine the best path to go.

Possible Forks

1) A nice second hero for this strategy is the Mountain King. The Mountain King can help out greatly in front lines with his ability to take out heroes or stun large amounts of units. If PM decimated most of his/her army- leaving you in a very good position to do some focus-firing- it is a good idea to get MK and some (5-6) Riflemen. Priests can really help out the low armor Riflemen. It plays similarly to Hero-Muncher and uses a variety of units- Again, getting the second combo of units is expensive and will result in getting less Priests. Getting Mountain King is also a good idea for countering heavy melee armies (Dual Aura Ghoul, Orcs) as he provides a good tank for your army.

2) Another route is possible if the enemy's army didn't get hurt badly by your attacks. This route is pumping Knights. Knights benefit greatly from armor and HP upgrades and will be able to own possible counters to your Footmen due to their higher HP, strength, and armor. Consider them as the replacement unit for your Footmen for the late game; however, if the enemy gets ranged to counter Knights, switch back to Footmen w/ Defend. This also can be tied in with Hero-Muncher.

3) Lastly, possible the best fork is getting your second hero as Arch-mage. Defend will be sufficient anti-range so Blizzard is not necessary- consider getting Water Elementals (adds units to your army) and Brilliance Aura (helps out with mana regen). Buy many Mana Potions to pump Water Elementals for air defense and reinforcements =). Again, Arch-Mage is a really nice second hero as Brilliance Aura will make sure Priests don't run out of mana even after much Healing and Inner Firing. Knights or Riflemen work nicely with this second hero also. I prefer getting Arch-Mage against other humans or Night Elves- NE's main advantage is to have higher unit damage- you can make sure that a NE player won't overpower you with attack boosts by not running out of healing power.

Countering Counters

1) You will experience a certain degree of problems against AOE spells/attacks. The best way to counter spells is to be alert and run out of them whenever possible. The AOE spells don't do enough instant damage so you should be able to easily avoid them without too much damage. Storm-Bolting the magic-caster leaves them out of the battle and unable to cast. Many times the few seconds gained will be enough to turn the tide of the battle.

2) AHHH! Siege! Siege is still a pain in the butt and can easily rape large amounts of units even when healed; they can also assassinate Priests very well. Against 3-4 siege units, simply get a few of your own and be sure to kill them early with Storm Bolt or a melee blitzkrieg. However, generally, mass siege is best dealt with by getting Knights; their speed and high armor (especially after an Inner Fire) allows them to easily charge siege. If the siege is beginning to slaughter your Priests, run them back and forth through shift-queuing orthogonal to the siege. Hopefully, you will be able to dodge the siege shots. When the fire stops focusing on your Priests, go back to Healing. It is a good idea to hotkey your Priests separately so you can perform this stunt easier. Mortars are best dealt with Polymorph.

Tactical Advice

1) First of all, using Defend well is imperative. I generally get Defend when the Arcane Sanctum starts or when you're second Barracks finishes. There are two main ways of using Defend right. First, when charging, look carefully at hurt units. If one is getting hurt constantly-probably the one in the front-, Holy Light him one last time and put him into Defend mode. If the enemy switches targets, take the Defended one out of Defend and put the one getting hurt into it. Units in Defend only sacrifice speed to gain the additional armor- so once you reach melee range there is almost reason not to Defend. Against a mix of units, unless you are worried about getting surrounded by enemy melee, just Defend in the beginning AFTER you are sure that there will not be spells or counters that will force you to be more mobile.

2) The second method of using Defend requires quite a bit of micromanagement, but looks really cool when done right (phalanx). Split your Footmen into squads of 4 (hot-keyed- also best earlier with only around 12 Foot). When you charge, try to have one squad in the front and the others in rows behind it. Defend the first row and then when the second row overtakes the first, defend the second and UN-Defend the first, and so forth. Remember that Defend provides no advantage against melee units- so against pure melee, don't defend; however, it is still advisable to Defend when there is a mix.

3) Holy Light and Inner Fire units that are getting hurt (obviously). Don't be afraid to Inner Fire your hero or even the Priests- they are much more valuable than a Footman. Dispel Magic, although not as useful as the other two spells, will help a lot. Make sure that your units don't get Faerie Fire or other detrimental spells cast on them, as it will even out your defensive abilities. Zileas recommends having one Priest auto-cast Inner Fire, while the others Heal. Remember to spell up before battle when necessary.

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