As somebody who’s been playing Human since the Reign of Chaos days, it’s a faction that is vulnerable in the early game stage. Due to the Alliance having to need to get to tier 2 for the real power spike, it can be a tough thing to deal any sort of harassment while playing Warcraft III. This is why players like to harass the Human just to make them struggle before they reach to tier 2 or prevent them from fast expansion. This guide will take you through some of the most important things you should do to survive the early game harassment as a Human player. I have 5 tips that will instantly make you become better by surviving the many kinds of harass tactics in Warcraft III.
The Value of Arcane Tower
First and foremost, it’s important for me to talk about the value of the Arcane Tower from the Alliance. It is the only tower in the game that allows you to burn mana from any unit. This stat makes the Arcane Tower an excellent early game defense from any sort of hero harassment. Whether it’s a Blademaster to Demon Hunter, or any aggressive early game hero, the Arcane Tower can easily remove the threat level drastically.
Personally, I think in team games it is mandatory to have it no matter what. Going without it is absolutely greedy and it is possible for the game to be over if the opponents just hit a good timing push. They could possibly do a cheesy rush which going without an Arcane Tower means you are vulnerable to those sorts of strategies. I’d say only in solo, it’s optional to have an Arcane Tower depending on the match up and map you are playing.
Getting one Arcane Tower early generally means your time to reaching Keep will be slower, but you are safer from harassment and you could theoretically gain more wood as you are reaching tier 2 because your economy won’t be as vulnerable.
Don’t Stay in the Back of Your Base
This one is something that I see Human players still do to this day, and it is a habit that one should break. You should never stay in the back of your base. It is true that staying in the back of the base means you have access to militias or your Arcane Tower, but that means your opponent knows your hero’s location.
Archmage is generally the most popular first hero choice for most Human players because of Water Elemental and Brilliance Aura.
In Warcraft III, your hero is your most important unit and you have to make it hard for your opponent to know where your hero is. Always try to run away from your opponents and make your enemies predict where you will be. Another issue with staying inside of your base is it means you’re letting your opponents stealing nearby creep camps from you which you should never let them do!
The Level 1 Death
There will be times where you will face your inevitable death of your first hero during the early game. If you are still level 1, then it’s better to let them die than burn your precious Scroll of Town Portal. That item is worth 325 gold while your first hero is just 170 gold. Also, the revive time is not too bad and you won’t be too far behind if you happen to get that overwhelmed in the early game. If possible, always try to die towards a creep camp than give your opponents that experience gain.
Another reason why you don’t want to use your Scroll of Town Portal is the enemy will most likely try to go for the kill because they know where your location will be. If you’re playing in team games, you can get away from dying, but it is still not worth it to use your Scroll of Town Portal at this stage of the game. Always ask yourself, is it worth it to lose 325 gold and wait for tier 2 to buy the Scroll of Town Portal or just revive your hero for 170 gold?
Wall Off Your Base
Some Human players do like to completely make their base layout walled off from any incoming economy harass. There is a downside to this because it means your hero can be completely stuck inside your base if you don’t town portal in the right direction. However, it is an option that can be useful if you want to take this approach and it means you can skip out the Arcane Tower too. It should be noted that certain unit collision can still enter and attack your economy, but this method is mostly designed to block hero units from harassing your economy.
This is what it should look like. The Archmage cannot enter, but the footmen can.
Buy Boots of Speed
For the final tip I can give you is buy the Boots of Speed if you feel the harassment is very strong. Some players will want to invest a lot of their energy to keep pressure on your hero. The main reason why is to prevent you from fast expanding which the Human faction is easily capable of doing. They also do it to make it hard for you to level up which many Human heroes are very strong when they reach to level 3. I’d suggest if the harassment is so aggressive, it’s worth it to buy a Boots of Speed. The item can also scale well in the later stages too because it can work well on multiple secondary heroes like the Mountain King or Naga Sea Witch. The Boots of Speed is mostly there to make your opponents struggle to chase you.
Those are my five tips that I can suggest to Human players that want to get better at surviving the early game harass. Human is a great faction once you get make your way to the mid game because the faction does start to come online when you have access to casters and being able to have two heroes. I hope these tips will allow you to enjoy playing the Human faction better and help you win more ranked matches.
