Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Guess I'll go first. I will just give a brief history I have with this game to start.

To begin with, I played it pretty actively 2005-2007, but I mostly played custom games, and I wasn't serious enough to play the Ladder that much.

Then, I got it again not much later, but only to play Dota on Garena. This was pretty aimless, but I guess I played at least around 500 games probably much more. To be honest DotA just isn't my thing and I prefer the RTS genre to the Moba genre. Dota Allstars was an incredibly well made map series, in any case.

Then many years of nothing, until I eventually started to eye the competitive scene again, which I only paid a little attention to back in the early years, watching replays by famous players like Grubby and Moon, but never really learning to play that well myself (being around 50% in ladder, which was really bad in those days when everyone was fucking terrible. Then again I was like 14 years old.)

When I actively started watching pro streams and the casters from Back2Warcraft, I knew I had to get into this game again so I bought it in 2016 and have been playing on and off since on w3arena, a server for the hardcore veterans (well, there is also asian NETease for the best of the best, but I've heard getting a 50% winrate on w3arena is harder since the average skill is still better there.)
I only play the regular game nowadays and mostly solo on the ladder on w3arena, I have played almost 1000 solo games on w3arena now and I still feel like somewhat a beginner, because the skill level on the server is so harsh. I'm maining Human and I'm finding this game in 1vs1 to be incredibly fascinating, entertaining, skillful and complex. I'm struggling to be a ~50% player on w3arena and the road to improve from here is not easy. In fact, I'm not sure just where I'm going from here, because I certainly am not aiming to be a pro.

So that's my short story. I will give some short pointers on how I think you can try to appreciate Warcraft 3.

-Avoid single player

Warcraft 3 campaign gives completely the wrong idea about the qualities of this game. The campaign is boring and if you somehow don't find it boring, you will find after learning how to play the game well that it is... probably. The campaign is ok at teaching the very basics, and I guess some people might like the story and thematics of the maps, and it might be somewhat engaging if you are a total beginner at RTS, but I would certainly NOT advice people to only look at the single player and rate this game from that angle. This is a multiplayer game.

-Play custom maps or play around in the map editor

This is certainly what warcraft was most notable for in the public's eye, see DotA especially, which managed to even surpass the normal game in popularity. The map editor is absolutely legendary and the map community is as well. I've enjoyed a lot of custom maps myself even if that was in the past. The truth is that most of it is terrible, to be honest. But hey, the option of being creative and making amazing maps is there.

-Learn how to play 1vs1 melee. Avoid Battle.net which is terrible, get w3arena or NETease.

Try out team/FFA too, as that can also be fun in a different way. Personally I like 4vs4 in theory, just very few competent players playing that compared to all the bad players.

Anyways, 1vs1 is what I like most about warcraft. Not the custom maps, but just playing the normal game against other players. I'll just say that the game is very rewarding to try to master and that the gameplay is way, waaaaay more intense than what you'd think from just playing casually. Warcraft 3 is clearly not a very interesting game to play if you just sit around and build buildings and make an army and kill AI or whatever, there's not much to the economy and infrastructure... There are so many things that make up the true beauty of warcraft that I don't even know where to begin... it will take a lot of time and effort on your part to try and grasp more about this game. I think it perfectly encompases the skill, action aspect of microing/macroing in a RTS while still having the whole game flow and strategy element be deep and constant. The game is masterfully made with a plethora of aspects to consider during gameplay.

I main Human, so for the next part of the review I'm going to talk about why I picked Human.

-Human have the most strategic options of all the races.

In any given (race) matchup, the human can choose to expand in tier 1, make footmen into Riflemen, make footmen only with or without defend, make an archmage or mountain king or even a tavern hero like a beastmaster first, can fast tech with a 2 farm build, have a large variety of creep routes or other gameplay routes available, once you hit tier 2 or tier 3 things get really interesting in the amounts of efficient builds and strategies you can do. then there are a lot of options in individual matchups, I especially like what Humans can do in HvNE. I would argue that Human is the best race to pick if you are a strategy oriented player and you like variety and being a bit of a tricky tryhard.

-Caster oriented gameplay.

The staple of most human armies is the Archmage with his brilliance aura, and a double sanctum pumping out casters. The Archmage, though a very squishy hero, is a hero that still feels incredibly powerful, maybe even overpowered, if you can manage to use him correctly. Fast level 3 pushing on Orc burrows or tier 2 buildings in construction is incredibly powerful and it's nice to have this comparatively "weak" army that can still pull stunts like slowing all enemy units, respeccing into blizzard, etc.

-Fast expansions and the deepest structure/macro gameplay of all races.

This one is maybe arguable, but I would at least say that Human is more macro intensive than Undead and Orc for sure. Having to pull off fast expansions and manage resources, time, experience, items, units and structures (including towers) correctly in relation to the opponents gameplay is one of the cool complex things about playing human.

-Can be strong across all phases of the game.

At the start, you should be pretty strong against most things with footman and militia support, the option to do stormbolt surrounds with MK, or the powerful archmage with his water elemental. Assuming you aren't fast expanding, you can also be powerful in the midgame with Riflecaster armies, and do strong pushes. A strong midgame human is really fearsome in any matchup, but especially against Orcs with tower support. If you can manage to take Human into a lategame, then you can even overpower the dreaded Undead army with your trihero, knights, copters, and perhaps tanks. A lategame human army is also likely to win against lategame NE (unless they get level 6 on their DH or Warden, which could change things completely) they just need to have played a strong game and have the economy and levels needed to reach this point.

-Many frail units to control makes it an extremely micro intensive race.

I just like Human units/army composition in general. Now, don't get me wrong, all races require insane micro to play at a high level, but I like microing certain kinds of units and armies more than others. Human just has a really fun to control units which feels really hard to play. It's basically about units that are large in numbers but weak and easy to kill. The other race I really like controlling is Undead, but the mainstay undead units feels a lot easier to keep alive and control, on the flipside undead micro mistakes can also be more punished. I guess I prefer the human "extremely hard to play but some mistakes are allowed" over undead "not as high skill ceiling but you are punished more for mistakes". that's just my take on it.

-Fearsome tier 2 pushing ability.

It is sometimes said that Humans have to expand to beat some of the other races, especially Undead. But this really depends on the map, and Warcraft is a game where the time and resource investments into expanding can be punished really harshly, so it's good to know to know that Humans can always 1-base if they want to. Against orcs, there's two different kinds of pushes I like doing. Either I pull my militia before I hit tier 2, and get a firelord on the way. No sanctums or any tier 2 units in general, just 2 heroes, footmen, and towers and maybe a shop at his base, just keep making footmen with defend and rely on your summons and try to get towers up. If he doesn't already have a warmill, then you could be in good shape, but good orcs will usually defend this kind of push and win. The other way, which has a bit more stability (pretty much guaranteed level 3, useful units, etc) but less surprise factor, is to double sanctum and do the tower push at around 50 food, with heal scrolls and all. At this point, you might even have a level 3 beastmaster or MK. It's a good idea to try anything you can to wreck the orcs economy and supply block him and delay the tier 2 buildings by using your water elementals and quillbeast at the right time. If you don't pull off any tricks along the way to slow down the orcs, then your push will lose. Against night elf, the riflepush is a dreaded kind of push and is a strategy I've shunned for a long time, but lately I've started playing it and I think it's my best option on a lot of maps. Night elf is the hardest matchup for me for what it's worth. In mirror or against undead, these tier 2 rifle/tower pushes aren't quite as effective, but you can still do a lot of damage or push and win the game in the right situation. I've even seen Imperius riflepush win against 120 on LR.

-Mortar teams.

Once you can add some of these to your army, you're going to feel like a fucking badass.

-Legit cheesing options if wanted.

MK or Paladin first against Undead is a great way to feel overpowered for a minute. Same with using zappers, or making tanks later on. On most maps I will do a fast expand against undead with an MK, try to get level 3, and run into his base with a lot of footmen with defend and kill his goldmine, bolting his acolytes. this has made many undeads ragequit out of frustration, because this is a strat that requires pretty much no skill. just run in, do some damage and tp out. If you're lucky, this could win you the game right then and there. You can do a cheesy tower rush against night elves, and fast AM blizzard humans or orcs. Tanks are probably the cheesiest unit in the game too, noone fucking likes playing against them, but if you wanna win, sometimes you need to make some of these stupid tanks. I don't like playing tanks, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and it's nice that human has the option.

-Good use of battle terrains, kiting etc to fight is needed.

The human army grows rather complex later on and I just love the strategic use of unit positioning and terrain needed to function, especially against Night elves. You need to find these little chokes and shit. I especially love the terrain use in lategame against NE, when you have your blizzard, casters, breakerwall, mortars, and the possibility of strategic tower placements while advancing on his expo.

-TOWERS.

Need I say more?

So that's some of what I like about Human. I think there's a beauty in all the races, but for playing them, I think the enjoyment you can get out of orc can be kinda cheap for example, as it relies a lot on the ridiculousness of the blademaster, and on RNG with items and crits. I just think Human is the race for me for a lot of reasons but especially the variety you can get and the army composition (where I like Human and Undead more than Orc and NE) even if it isn't necessarily the race I have most success with... I do think it's a pretty hard race to play, lol. At least Human has one really good matchup and that is vs Orc.

I said a lot of positives, but a lot of them on the flipside can turn into a frustrating negative, like if you are careless for just half a second your archmage could just die, failing a bit with the fast expand can cost you the game, failing the tier 2 push can rarely be salvaged, etc. In tier 1 the Blade Master and Demon Hunter is frustrating to face. The balance in the game between the races is really good at a pro level, so you can really play any race and there's not really any advantage in general, just some maps that are better and some matchups are harder to get the hang of. This about the maps is the biggest problem I have, actually... I just find that most of the mainstay maps are troublesome as human. Turtle Rock and Ancient Isles *shudders*

So yeah, I love Warcraft III and if you are even a little bit interested then have a look at the competitive scene and learn the meta game because WC3 is fucking amazing and you're not going to understand that angle at all or why so many fans play the shit out of this game otherwise. Not that everyone needs to but hey this is a site about rating games and I rate it highly mostly for melee so that's why I would recommend to have a look at melee.

Are all you really need.

probably 5 stars if we include custom games but that doesn't seem fair