Warcraft III: 5 Iconic Human Army Compositions to Use

These are the army compositions you should be using or know if you play for the Alliance. If you have logged in many hours into Warcraft III, you probably have seen countless of players using these compositions. Maybe, you probably used them for yourself because you know how good they are.

Warcraft III: 5 Iconic Human Army Compositions to Use Cover

Warcraft III has many different kinds of army compositions that all have their purposes for various situations. The game itself is heavily centered on your hero-unit, so players tend to like to make an army that’ll benefit them. Keep in mind, there is no such thing as the perfect army composition in any real-time strategy game, so these five iconic Human army compositions aren’t necessarily the best overall, but they are far from being weak.

But it’s something you will see many players using through the game’s various ranked modes and that’s because of how effective they are. They just happen to work well with certain hero set ups the player uses and how fun they are to use. If you happen to be a novice player to the game, I recommend you try out some of these compositions in your multiplayer matches. I guarantee you will find much more success in playing experience and hopefully win more matches and improve. For the seasoned veterans, I think you’ll understand why I put these compositions on the list.

I am a long time fan of Warcraft III. It’s a game that’s truly timeless and if you want to know more about my story with the game, you can read my article.

Rifle Caster

The Rifle Caster composition is possibly the most versatile composition for the Human army. It’s also favored among high level players for solo match ups against Orc, Undead, and Night Elf. The main reason why it is so effective because of the damage from Riflemen can be devastating against air units because they are designed to be an anti air unit. They are also good at ground units like the Huntress because they take extra damage from the Riflemen’s piercing damage type. Not only that, they can be potentially deadly against melee compositions combined with a high level Mountain King. The Thunder Clap ability can change how fights can go.

Human players tend to use the Priest or Sorceress for their caster support. The Priest is there to heal injured units and dispelled any enemy abilities that buffs them or abilities that debuffs your units. The Sorceress is predominantly there to slow down the enemies’ attack speed and movement and the occasional invisibility to protect heroes from dying, so the enemies’ heroes don’t gain experience.

This is what the unit composition should generally look like.

This is what the unit composition should generally look like.

It’s mostly popular to use this composition while going Archmage as your entry hero in your matches. The Mountain King is my preferred second hero, but there are other options you can try out depending on the situation and game modes you are playing. Another wonderful thing about this composition is there are variations to it. The Tier 2 set up is generally what I recommend when playing solo or 2v2 matches.

This method is designed to have a strong mid game sustainability by having your two heroes preferably at level 3 or more. You want to have an expansion while having your army around 60 food with upgrades and then you upgrade to tier 3 for late game. My personal favorite set up that I enjoy using is the Inner Fire Rifle method. The build is extremely good against Undead players in solo play while being on a one base, but it can also be very effective in 3v3 or 4v4 team games if you want to play the support and anti air role. This set up is all about getting the Inner Fire upgrade for your Priest and going for a triple human hero set up as quickly as possible. The Paladin should mostly be your third hero of choice.

As a human player, this is probably one of my personal favorite compositions to use throughout my time with Warcraft III. It will always be “the” composition I will use if I’m feeling determined to give my opponents a hard time.

Knight Gyro

This one is a very simple composition that a player can use, but very effective too. Players use Knights for the ground units and is designed to be the front tank. Knights are also excellent for fighting units with the Medium armor type because they’ve been updated to have the Sundering Blades ability. They already do respectable damage to Medium armor type units, but the Sundering Blades just enhances it. The Flying Machines (or Gyrocopters for my old school Reign of Chaos players) are there for anti air and their Flak Cannon ability. They are a cheap unit which makes them arguably an excellent unit for fast anti air transition when needed.  You do have the possibility of not needing Flying Machines if you notice the opponents aren’t getting much air-based units, so you can opt for Mortar Teams for your Workshop units.

This is mostly a great composition for team games where you can have a teammate for extra anti air support like Crypt Fiends or Headhunters or with caster support like Shamans. It is also used in solo play while performing a fast expansion against Undead players. I personally enjoy using the Mountain King as my entry hero for this build because I like to have a high level Mountain King for the late game to bring fear among my opponent’s heroes. The Paladin or Bloodmage is generally what you want as your second hero to synergize your Mountain King.

Knights are actually my favorite Human unit in Warcraft III.

Knights are actually my favorite Human unit in Warcraft III.

A very fun build to play, and is rightfully popular to use because it’s well rounded. It’s also just really cool to see Knights in action because of their attacking animation. For team games, you have the option to go either one base or fast expansion, but for solo play, always opt the fast expansion route.

Breaker Caster

This composition is definitely common amongst Human mirror match ups in solo play or high level 2v2 action.  Spell Breakers are mostly used to counter caster-based units because they are a hybrid of a melee and anti-caster unit. However, they aren’t the greatest damage dealers and are not that tanky, but they do have the ability to become spell immune by heroes and units’ abilities. This makes them excellent to counter various heroes that have crowd control abilities like the Tauren Chieftain or Mountain King. You can also use these units to your advantage where you don’t have to worry about hurting your own units with abilities like the Archmage’s Blizzard or Bloodmage’s Flamestrike

Spell Breakers are very commonly used by experienced Warcraft III players.

Spell Breakers are very commonly used by experienced Warcraft III players.

It’s common to use the Sorceress or Priest for your caster support. Similar reasons to what I stated in my Rifle Caster section. This is a great unit composition if you’re trying to nullify a certain hero that your opponent is using, and is very well rounded throughout various ranked modes in Warcraft III. I do recommend having an anti air transition if you do plan on using this composition on the bigger team modes due to how popular air units are in those modes.

Gryphon Riders

This might be one of the most popular compositions for the 4v4 game type amongst Human players. Gryphon Riders are essentially designed to be a late game unit and hard countering melee units. In team games, where they can have support from various units from other players, they can easily be very effective in huge density. In the other modes, they do have their uses, but I personally never seen them used as much in 4v4 or even in Free For All.

These guys have always been a very stylish unit to use and are able to take out grounded anti air unit like the Crypt Fiends if used properly with the right hero set up and having huge density, and upgrades. Due to how popular it is to encounter these guys in 4v4, players tend to like to mass anti air as a sense of security.

You may see FFA fanatics using this unit combined with other units for supporting the primary damage from the Gryphon Riders. I generally recommend players to go for a fast expansion set up if you want to mass them in great numbers. Make sure you have teammates that are willing to get units that can support the Gryphon Riders too. Gryphon Riders are certainly precious units since they are costly, but very powerful in the late game stage and can be a winning factor if used properly.

Gryphon Riders work really well with this triple hero set up.

Gryphon Riders work really well with this triple hero set up.

Rifle Mortar

For my final iconic Human composition army, I want to discuss is probably one of my favorite ones to use during my younger years. I’ll admit, it’s certainly not as powerful and versatile compared to the compositions I mentioned, but it still can be effective. That is the good ol’ Rifle and Mortar set up. I generally prefer to use this composition in 3v3 or 4v4 matchups and the map sizes also plays an influence on my choice for using this build

This build is mostly designed for pressuring the opponent’s midgame formation by trying to take down expansions quickly with the Mortar Teams. Mortar Teams can also be good against taking out casters and I use the Riflemen for just damaging every type of unit. This composition can be effective in a 2v2 experience depending on the match up and situations. I remembered winning solo games with this composition years ago, but it will never be the best strategy against skilled players, so keep that in mind.

I certainly remember during my younger years, there were many players that loved using this composition. Not only it looked kind of cool to see an army of dwarves working together, but it is a great support composition to benefit your team for doing damage to units and taking out expansions to hurt the opponent’s late game phase. You have a lot of hero choices you can use, so that’s another cool thing about this composition. For me, I believe the Paladin will always be my choice if I plan on going for this option during a match.

The yellow colored player is using the composition in a replay footage.

The yellow colored player is using the composition in a replay footage.

Those are five Human army compositions I recommend any Warcraft III player to use. I find them not only fun to use, but effective at the same time. I hope for any new players stumbled this article and left with something they can learn to improve their gameplay. Now go out there and start dominating your online matches.

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