Footmen frenzy heroes:General Tips

The most important thing that new players of frenzy tend to miss, is using healing salves. They are free and are very powerful. They turn off if you are attacked, however, they are your best option considering base healing was removed in 5.0.

Heroes are the wildcard in a game of Frenzy. Heroes can reach a max level of 18, and have three six level skills with a three level ultimate. Though many people neglect their hero and pump money into army upgrades, a well chosen hero can make or break your game. There are over 30 heroes to choose from, including all of the heroes from the standard Warcraft game. These regular heroes have the same skillsets as they always have, though a few like Farsight have been replaced by a more useful skill. Level 6 skills are so overpowered that they're ridiculous, until you consider that there are millions of units on the screen and everyone else has the same options as you.

The third tavern is composed of custom heroes, named for people in the NoHunters community. These heroes are not always better than the normal ones, but they are fun to play and some have powerful skills. There are two special heroes in this tavern, Avalanche and Death Sheep. It is much harder to win with these heroes, so give them a try if you want an extra challenge. The two special heroes disappear after two minutes, so if you want one you must decide immediately.

If you have trouble choosing a hero, you can also go Random. This gives you a random hero from any of the three taverns (remember that you can only choose or random Avalanche or Death Sheep in the first two minutes of the game). As of 5.1, the random heroes no longer come with free items, Jaood's Amulet of Power (which gives you bonus health and mana), and Boots of Speed (which increase movement speed). Going random makes the game much more interesting for everyone. You will never become an expert at Frenzy unless you random. The only way to learn all the strengths and counters for heroes is to play them yourself and see what other people beat you with. As another incentive, there is a secret hero that can ONLY be played when you pick the Random option.

Don't forget that you can save your skill points for later levels. Many heroes have two dominant skills that you would want to maximize as soon as possible. Say, for example, you have a Keeper and you don't like Entangle. You can get Thorns at Level 1 and Force of Nature at Level 2. When Level 3 hits, you are not eligible to add anymore points to those skills. Most novices will spend their 3rd point on Entangle because it's the only one available. However, if you wait until Level 4, you will have 2 points saved up which you CAN use on your favourite two skills. Here is a sample plan for a hero where you want to maximize two skills and your ultimate:

1. Skill A
2. Skill B
3. Wait
4. Skill A & Skill B
5. Wait
6. Ultimate
7. Skill A & Skill B
8. Skill C
9. Wait
10. Skill A & Skill B
11. Ultimate
12. Wait
13. Skill A & Skill B
14. Wait
15. Wait
16. Skill A, Skill B, & Ultimate
17. Skill C
18. Skill C

Note: Unless otherwise mentioned in the guides, durations on single-target spells that affect both heroes and units are listed for heroes, since you are more likely to cast the spells on heroes.

In Frenzy, as in the real game, you gain the most experience by being near the battle where you and your allies are killing other units. You will often see teams choose only two heroes while the third player techs. The logic is that three armies will generate lots of experience, and the two heroes will level up much faster, since they don't have to split experience with a third hero. Keep in mind that there are experience-cap rules built into Frenzy which are intended to make all strategies (tri-hero, 2 hero + tech, 1 hero + 2 tech, 3 tech) reasonably viable.

Footmen frenzy heroes: Cattle Bruiser

CattleBruiser's main purpose is to kill enemy Heros. Except for Contract of Death, all his spells damage a single target. The most important thing to remember when playing CattleBruiser is to keep his mana up and keep him out of danger.

Spells

Death Strike

Death Strike is a variation of the Death Knight's Death Coil spell. The spell is used to damage an enemy non-Undead unit, and is best used in combination with Cold Strike. It is advisable to learn this spell first due to its low mana cost. During the early part of the game, use Death Strike to finish off footmen with low health. As with Death Coil, Death Strike can also be used to heal an allied Undead Hero or unit, making CattleBruiser a part-time healer in some games.

Level	DMG / Heal	Range	Cooldown	Mana
1	100 HP / 200 HP	800	6 seconds	75
2	200 HP / 400 HP	825	6 seconds	75
3	300 HP / 600 HP	850	6 seconds	75
4	400 HP / 800 HP	875	7 seconds	100
5	550 HP / 1100 HP	900	8 seconds	100
6	750 HP / 1500 HP	925	9 seconds	125

Cold Strike

Cold Strike is just like Frost Nova without the Nova. The target will take damage from the spell and be slowed down for a short duration, but nearby units will be unaffected. When planning to use Cold Strike and Death Strike in succession, it is better to use Cold Strike first to slow down the enemy Hero. Cold Strike always has an 8 second cooldown.

Level	Damage	Range	Slow Duration (Hero/Unit)	Mana
1	175	800	2 / 4	125
2	250	825	3 / 6	125
3	325	850	4 / 8	125
4	400	875	5 / 10	125
5	475	900	6 / 12	125
6	750	950	8 / 16	150

Contract of Death

Contract of Death is a spell that sacrifices an Undead unit to heal CattleBruiser by an amount relative to the unit's hit points. This spell is generally only learned to level 3 because at that point you can use it on an Abomination and CattleBruiser will have maximum (or near maximum) hit points. Note that you will not make much use on this ability unless you tech Undead Tier.

Level	% Life to Life	Range
1	50	800
2	100	825
3	150	850
4	200	875
5	250	900
6	400	950

Camato Yannon

Camato Yannon deals more damage to a single target than any other spell in the game. This spell is best used to finish off a Hero with realtively high hit points. Due to the high mana cost and cooldown, you have to be careful when using this spell. An enemy Hero weakened by this spell could easily escape or another team could steal your kill. It must be therefore noted that in almost all cases this spell should only be used if it would kill a target Hero. Since Heroes have some natural immunity to spell damage, Camato Yannon only deals 70% of its advertised damage to them.

Level	Damage (Units)	Damage (Heros)	Range	Cooldown	Mana
1	1000	700	400	330 seconds	300
2	2000	1400	600	300 seconds	400
3	3000	2100	800	270 seconds	500

Strategy

CattleBruiser generally needs to use both Death Strike and Frost Nova back-to-back to score hero kills and Camato Yannon also requires a lot of mana. Unfortunately, CattleBruiser is a strength-based hero and therefore has low maximum mana and mana regeneration capabilities. Buying items that increase CattleBruiser's maximum mana and/or mana regeneration (such as Precept of Mana, Sobi Mask, or Robes of Magi) help counter this problem. It is not essential to tech Undead Tier, but is advisable if you want to to make use of Contract of Death.

TheBigGame interview

Quite frankly, if you play Frenzy and you don’t know who he is, then you’re rather clueless . He is of course, the creator of our favourite WC3 custom game – Footmen Frenzy.

It doesn’t get any better than this, folks. I’m really looking forward to this one, and I’m sure you are too. So go to the toilet, grab a snack, tuck your chair in, sit back and relax, for you’re about to undergo the ultimate (and somewhat lengthy) interview viewing experience.


Good morning, TBG. First off, let me just say that I’m thrilled you let me conduct this interview with you. I don’t know about other people, but as a passionate Footmen Frenzy disciple who used to play the game religiously, I couldn’t help but become curious about the life of the guy who made it all happen. As blatantly homosexual as that may sound, it’s the truth. And luckily enough, I now get the opportunity to have all of my questions answered. Let’s start off simple, and work our way into the juicy stuff.

Q: What’s your real name?
Bill Kazmaier.

Q: How old are you?
28.

Q: What physique do you have (height, weight)?
6'3", 240 lbs.

Q: What is your nationality?
I’m from Guam.

Q: What is your ethnicity?
I’m an islander.

Q: Everyone knows you’re hot for The Hulk, but I’ll ask anyway. What is your sexual orientation?
Hetero’.

Q: What is your occupation?
I work in IT.

Q: Do you have a girlfriend / wife / family? If so, please briefly elaborate.
Yes, I have a wife and family.

Q: Do you have any pets? If so, please tell us what.
Two dogs: Labradors.

Q: Share some of your PC specifications (processor, video card, ram, etc).
Dual core processor, 1 gigabyte RAM, Raedon 9800 graphics card.

Q: What internet connection do you have?
Cable.

Q: Are you a sports enthusiast / do you play sport?
Yes and yes. I enjoy all sports, and I play like to play all sports recreationally. I play basketball and ping pong hardcore.

Q: What kind of car do you have?
Saturn.

Q: What is your music taste?
Rap / R&B mostly, but I like anything really.

Q: Apart from gaming, do you have any particular hobbies or talents you’d like to share?
Hmm… I’m a movie buff, and I like to cook. But I don’t have infinite time to do random things.

Q: While we’re still on the subject, is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your personal life?
Heck no. I hate talking about personal life with people I don't know .
SLB: I hope that explains your reluctance to elaborate .
TBG: Of course, last thing I need is Ohboy breaking into my house to iron my clothes.

Alright, that was enlightening. But enough about your personal life, let’s delve into the topic of games.
Sure, games are fun.

Q: At what age did you first start gaming?
Like as far back as I can remember… 7? 6?

Q: What were some of the first computer games you played?
I played this submarine game for the apple. And of course, Oregan Trail.

Q: What was it that drew you to the gaming scene?
Mostly the competition. It's always hard to make new friends so I didn't really stay in one place until I was 13. Before that I just had video games to really pass the time and be my hobby.

Q: I hear that you were quite the Starcraft player back in the day. Amongst the best in the US? Please tell us how you became such a good player, and what it is that you love so much about this game.
Again the competition is a reason I played it. The ability to pit your skills vs another human was always fun. I got really good mostly because I played the game way too much and I became friends with a lot of top players and they helped me improve. I do consider myself a top USA zerg when I was in my prime. Which isn't saying much really. USA players beyond a small handful were overrated.

Q: You performed quite well competitively at local Starcraft tournaments, I believe?
Local tournaments? Give me a break, I could beat everyone in random if I played locally. Nationally I had beaten everyone who was considered a top player, but that again isn't saying much. We've only had a very small amount of world class players.

Q: What do some of your favourite Starcraft strategies involve?
Hmm well my best race is Zerg, and my favourite build was probably 9 pool speedlings. It's an aggressive strat and against people who aren't top top level they really don't know how to deal with it and it's an easy victory. With protoss probably sair/dt was my favorite overall strat. It was only for anti zerg though. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. After that my favorite matchuup is t vs p as terran. I really enjoy using metal and pushing people. It's very fun and very challenging. Even if I lose this match-up, I totally will play it 100 times over. Back in the day that match-up was unwinnable unless you were like the Jesus of Starcraft so it's always fun playing it even though today it's more of a balanced match-up.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to mention about this game, which was obviously a great and memorable era in your gaming career?
Nothing major really. It's a game that I don't intend on focusing as hard anymore. But for those who are playing now guys like sphere, bark, congo, etc. They all really enjoy the game and want to get better.

The easiest way to get better is to always keep your money at 0. Also people think that expanding is the key. Sure expanding is great, but the best way to practice is to never expand and instead just pressure your opponent from 1 base. If you macro better hen him and keep him pressured you can win 100% of the time. People try to get 3 bases and they can't even begin to spend that money effectively... sometimes people watch these replays and try to emulate it. This isn't War3.

Q: How did you stumble across Warcraft III and World of Warcraft?
Well, both are Blizzard games. I mean what more can I say beyond that. Blizzard makes another RTS? Okay sure, I’ll play that. I'll play anything Blizzard. I'm very devoted to them.

Q: Tell us a little about the World of Warcraft guild, Nohunters.
I don't really play with them anymore, but they are a bunch of sexy men whose sole guild goal is to come up with hilarious catchphrases which I’ll hear whenever I talk to them, and then I end up using them in front of bark for like 2 weeks. Gaytown comes to mind.

Q: What was the inspiration for the name “Nohunters”?
Nohunters is an old Starcraft guild (which I think is explained already in our FAQ tsk tsk SLB)
SLB: Meh, no one reads it.
TBG: In Starcraft there is his horrifically gay but fun map called Big Game Hunters. So this channel hated on that map, making the channel Nohunters.


Q: What are all the gaming aliases you’ve used in the past? How did you come up with such names? And finally, why couldn’t you stick with the one name?
Fox^1 is my original name. My RL nickname is Fox, but couldn’t get Fox on the large battle.net, so I went with Fox^1. My AIM name and MSN as you know are foxisquick. My War3 name was HatoUP created from an article I read about a Magic the Gathering player that I respected. He named his new deck "HatoUP" which was basically the most dominant deck at that time. After a while somehow the account was taken by someone else. Because of this I used the name TheBigGame. Which is partly from the wrestler HHH who had the nick The Game. I instead put the BIG game and it just stuck.

Q: How did you get your HatoUP account stolen on battle net?
No clue, I just didn't have it one day

Interesting. Okay, time to talk about all things Footmen Frenzy!
Sure, sure.

Q: I’m very interested to know about the origins of Footmen Frenzy. Please explain how this map came into being.
Well I tried out some war3 games and there was this map called Footman Wars that was a lot like Zergling Madness (Hydra Rancher is also like it, but I played mostly Zergling Madness) and I realized how fun it was with heroes and units flying around, and killing 100 units with one swoop of your hand. But there was a problem. All the maps I played were horrible and imbalanced and just gay. So I decided to make one myself.

At first I called it Advanced Footmen Wars. But then Jaood came up with the idea to call it Footmen Frenzy. We started the map balance in www.halpmeh.com but that has since gone under

And that's when I also created nh.com. Halpmeh, CattleBruiser, Jaood, Ravage (Bark), Edge, Dino Din, and all the other custom heroes, were helpers / fans of the map from Nohunters. So that's how it started.

Q: How many years have you worked on Footmen Frenzy for? What support did you have to assist in its creation?
I’ve worked on it forever, and I did it by myself really, and just had other people help me test it. Not until the past year or so have I brought in the public really.
Currently balance is done by the balance staff as you know it. A group of good frenzy players and vets of the game. I'm currently more interested in new additions, which is a reason I wanted to create mine in the first place, so I can just make it as I see fit.
I played FF because I like the game. So I like to change it based on how I like the map to play out. People sometimes don't like that (3.8 fags unite!) but I don't really care. But I do enjoy that there are people who support our vision and follow us whatever path we decide to go down. For those people I thank you.

Q: Did you have any specific aim or goal for Frenzy when you first started working on it; and did you predict it would become as massively popular as it is today?
Yeah I had no idea it would get popular. I like made 1.3 and left it for like a year. Then Bark is telling me that everyone plays it and I need to update it because it sucks.
Finally I said "okay", and we are basically where we are now.

Q: What do you attribute Footmen Frenzy’s colossal success to?
Well probably because there are a lot of people who want to believe they are good at a game. That they are not abusing obvious flaws and that their own skill is allowing them to win.

It's a great thing to your ego to know you beat the other guy not because you abused some random thing that he didn't know about, but more that you're a better player then him. I think that Frenzy gave people that feeling. Because of our preaching of balance. Other maps had no balance and ours preached it as the primary reason to play.

Q: Through years of grueling balance changes and countless additions to the map, Footmen Frenzy has come a long way, and is still improving. Are you happy with the direction it’s heading in?
Not really, because it’s difficult to get it to where I want to go. There are problems with the map that cannot be circumvented because they are just impossible unless we completely were to change the map around. The biggest one is the 4 team concept.
Having 4 teams makes it very hard to keep everyone in it. Usually what happens is you get one team with a better advantage than the bottom team. So much, that the bottom team will have it very hard to come back. The top 2 teams isn't a big deal, itis that if you're the last placed team you're fucked...

Which is where the 12 footmen rule comes into play. Things like that. AOE being too dominating, etc. It would seriously be much easier to just make it a 5 vs 5 game. That would be so much easier to balance for competitive play. Which is why when people compare it to DotA it’s kinda annoying. DotA has more resources, and is a much easier game to balance. It's a great game because of those two HUGE factors.

Basically we'd almost have to scrap the entire game and build from the ground up again. Bark and I are already talking about doing a few things along those lines for 6.0 but until we are able to achieve it, I won’t be happy.

Q: Where do you see the game in 12 months from now?
Hopefully we will have 6.x out and I’m hoping to see major improvements mostly in flow of game and ability to come back. The thing about frenzy is that if I attack first with footman, I basically lose unless I'm 10x better than everyone in the game.

When skills are equal, there are so many gay tactics to be able to gain an advantage as opposed to just fighting someone and winning. Like think about DotA or ladder. If my hero dies, they do not get a HUGE advantage. But if you lose your hero early game in FF? Or are the 1st to attack and get all your footmen flanked? You're fucked . You'll be like level 1 and someone else will be level 4?

Q: How do you feel about being responsible for the immense amount of joy you’ve caused for literally tens of thousands of individuals all across the world?
I’m glad people like the map, but I don’t really think about it. I’m the type of online person who has his online life and his RL. When I'm doing RL stuff I totally do not even think about online at all. Bark is probably the same way.
Online is fun for us, it's never serious and we never take it serious. But on the flipside our RL are very serious so it's like 2 different worlds for us. But I'm glad people like the map but I don’t really think about them.... unless it's you SLB... and while I’m having an erotic dream.

Q: How long has your Footmen Frenzy forum been online for; and just how much have your loyal forum goers influenced you in the balancing of and creating new ideas for the game?
In the past year, the forum people have been my major influence. This is why I rarely lock threads. I listen to everything and ideas are very useful. There is a reason this is the best footmen map (imo) is that we use the best ideas. Some guy says "you should do this" then even if he’s a fag or whatever… if it's good I’m going to use it!

I just want to enjoy my map and anything I can do to increase the enjoyment is great. Right now bark and I are basically going to scrap the tiers and build them from the ground up.

Q: How many hits does your website get weekly? Is this number growing?
We get a huge number of hits. Let me find the number for the past month.
…
For October we got 4 926 010 hits.

Q: What does it cost to run NoHunters.com?
It’s pretty cheap for the site itself. Like around $30 a month.

Q: Approximately, what is the total value of monetary donations you’ve received through the site?
Hmm… probably $1 000? That’s about 75 cents per day since the site went up. It’s not as high as you think .

Q: What do the badonkadonks (site advertisements) earn you?
Oh god, like nothing. Last month we got like $10 I think.

Q: How long do you believe it will be before the sad day arrives when you decide to “retire” from Footmen Frenzy?
Retire? I'll never really retire from nh.com. Will I ever pass the map on to someone else to have them be the head of it? Yes. But I will probably always be on this site; I enjoy it and its fun to talk to random people about gaming. Or at least be able to give people a place to come and talk about it.

Q: I’m sure that people who play the game, particularly in previous versions, wonder how many of the custom heroes and creeps attained their name. Care to tell us who they’re named after?
Just people who have helped with the map.

Q: Do any of these people occupy a special place in your heart?
Hahahaha honestly... CB / Jaood / Bark are very good friends to me. They know things about my personal life and they are cool. Also other people like Halpmeh or Avalanche, they are good friends but I don’t think they are as close as to me as CB / Jaood / Bark.

Q: You have been criticized in the past for your rather controversial balancing techniques. This involves over-nerfing the overpowered subject, and then increasing its power in subsequent versions in “baby-steps” until it’s just right. You must realize that rendering these subjects practically useless, if only for a temporary period of time, is extremely frustrating when players are trying to cope with using them. What do you have to say about that?
It’s fine, learn2play. Haha but honestly, the major example to people is probably the Shadow Hunter. I’ve gotten tons of e-mail about him. And there isn't much you can do that about that. I mean we can try to tweak him over and over again to get him right. The thing was he was so incredibly strong that if you want to tone him down enough so that he's "just right” it’s really gay because even then you'll have people who say "okay he's still too strong, you didn't do anything to him". You can't please everyone. So for me I rather just make sure he's not overpowered and if he's underpowered then that's okay, I’ll be able to find what heroes are too strong since he's out of the way and fix them. People need to look at versions 2.0-3.0 and oh my god, they had some super isnane heroes.

Also realize that recently we've had all these tournaments; more resources for us to figure out issues with the map. That has helped a GREAT amount. Big props to teams like Rainfall and German teams who use their godly frenzy skill (lol) to help us learn what's imbalanced or not. E-mailing me "Jaood kills heroes too fast; remove his chaos damage" doesn't help. But when Tek tells me "X hero's Y ability is too strong and here're the numbers to back it" then I’m going to listen and I thank him for that.

I'm really looking for 6.0 to HOPEFULLY make 80% of the heroes mainstream usable. Unfortunately, not even ladder can boast that number. No one ever starts with TC in ladder, same with Paladin, Pit Lord, and others. Even ladder with all its balance and high level play, they still can't do it. I don't expect us to do the same. But we can make an effort and hopefully with the publics’ help we can get it down to the point where you can again random and still be ok.

Q: I’d bet many new newbies wonder why your website says that there are approximately 5000 members, and yet they get branded a member number in the 11k’s. Care to clear up this confusion?
Yes. I blame Congo. He’s up to something. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll find out. It could also mean we have a bunch of members banned, unverified, etc.

Q: How long ago did the great Forum Crash occur, and what are the reasons for it happening?
Omnis.com didn’t back up their SQL database. I do so now once in a while, because of their gayness.

Q: How frequently do you play Footmen Frenzy?
Every fucking day, and it's annoying sometimes to play it everyday. 50% of it is for research, which gets old.

Okay well what is annoying is that someone e-mails me that hero X sucks. So what do I do? I login and play that hero 50 times that week and see how bad he really is. Then from there try to balance him to make him better. Like some guy told me that Naga sucks. So I played her like 25 times in a week, and she's such a boring hero to me and after all of that I was so glad to be done with it

Q: Do your children play Footmen Frenzy?
Hell no.

Q: What are the prerequisites for one to join Clan HALP?
If you’re cool and enjoy gaming, that’s it.

Q: Why are there so few custom spells in Footmen Frenzy?
Mostly because I haven’t gotten to that point yet. The standard was just to keep it simple, so balance was simple. I think soon we'll have a good overall hero balance, and we can start adding more fun custom ability heroes, but the problem is this: who the heck wants to use a custom ability hero when you have PALADIN... see where I’m going? Paladin is boring... but a hero who can cast ice Flame Strikes that lock the hero in place and also make a wall of ice in that area so it's not easy to get by. I mean in DotA, all the heroes are custom. We have ladder heroes, to thrust custom abilities in there would be "bleh?".

Q: What are your ladder and Frenzy APMs?
Like nothing. Barely 80? Heck probably lower. 50. My ladder APM is like 25 and I still beat Bark in ladder. It doesn’t require a high APM . if you need more than 125 APM to play frenzy, you're wasting clicks. Heck 100 should be enough .

APM is so overrated it's retarded. In Starcraft I had like a 125-175 APM and I still beat people who had like 250 APM who were Korean players. There are like only a handful of people really can effectively use high APM. In War3 there are a few guys that use it effectively. Grubby / Moon / Sky / Fov - there you go. You seriously should destroy 95% of battle.net in frenzy if you have a 75 APM.

Q: Do you play DotA, and what’s your opinion on the game?
DotA is a great game for what it is. It’s easily the best game of its type hands down, no question. The problem is, it's like me saying "This is hands down the greatest fork I’ve EVER SEEN" Wtf does that mean? It’s a fucking FORK who cares if it's the most ELITE FORK OF ALL TIME. DotA is a great game but requires 0 skill to play. It’s ONE hero... ONE... Wtf ONE?!?!???!?!?! That game should be won on coop ability alone, and that's the big reason why it's played at a high level. Is because it's coop… like CS is. The big reason it's so popular is it gives people a false sense of skill and also it's fun getting L33t ITEMS. Halpmeh is like the best DOTA Player in the US. He loves the game which is cool. I like it as well, I just don't also believe that it's some super skill based game. Because it's not .
I mean the most skill based game on the internet overall is Caravan Assault. But no one in the world even cares about that map. Even though it's probably the most brilliant map EVER MADE OF ALL TIME. And I’m somewhat joking. It's probably the best UMS on War3 .

Q: Why does Jaood have chaos damage?
Because he’s so overpowered. The RL Jaood is even more overpowered.

Q: Is Jaood black in RL (lol)?
Yes, and he’s large. Bark and I have confirmed he’s at least 11”. These are the reasons why we felt he should do chaos damage.

Q: Why are you so bad at writing tooltips ?
Oh because I’m lazy. That’s about it really. I should put someone else in charge like you to do all the tooltips for me.

Q: The Footmen Frenzy hero, TheBigGame, is quite popular amongst intermediate and advanced players alike. Could you please tell us why you chose to create “your main hero” in the fashion you did?
I threw dice and found 4 random skills.
SLB: Oh so like Falcon?
TBG: Yes.

Q: What was the inspiration for the Death Sheep? Care to shed some light on its history with regard to balance?
Death Sheep comes from Advanced Hero Arena. The 1st map that War3 Nohunters players fell in love with. It was such a great game, and basically games of that type were one of the founding fathers to a game like DotA (imo). Death Sheep in hero arena had the biggest damage skill in the game, but he was so fragile and died all the time. Like our own guy!

Q: Reworking the Naga Sea Witch’s Tornado so that it sported a powerful Immolation was an ingenious idea. Who came up with that?
A random guy, forgot who it was. But it wasn’t me!!!

Q: Planning on naming any future heroes after forum members who have contributed significantly to the community ?
SLB: I know ohboy is itching for one.
TBG: Yeah sure totally. With new heroes I’m very much inclined to reward people for their efforts.

Q: Why Hulk? There’re plenty of other handsome bachelors out there.
Because when it comes to strength and power, there is no one cooler.
SLB: Or greener .

Q: You are bankrupt at Tier Zero with a stacked Pit Lord, a Dark Troll High Priest, a Sorceress, a Shaman, and a shitload of footmen. You are about to get attacked by an army consisting of 50 Tauren and a stacked TBG with a spell shield, itching to Stampede your base. What do you do?
Cast doom on his building and make him call me a hacker.

What do you think of Kristin Kreuk ?
She’s pretty cute.

Q: Why so pro?
I can’t help it if I was born this way. You can’t act non pro; it’s just wrong to do so.

Thanks for taking the time out to do this interview with me, TBG. I’m sure the fan base shall enjoy it.

Q: Any last things you’d like to say?
Yeah sure. Thanks to everyone who support us. While the forum can be abrasive to your ideas, that doesn't mean they aren't heard! Footmen Frenzy rocks, and I'm really pumped about 6.0. Hopefully it's as good as I want it to be.

A Quick Footmen Frenzy Creep Guide

Creeps are a very important part of Footmen frenzy, particularly in the first few minutes. Often your usage of creeps will determine whether you level or not. Hence learning to choose and use them effectively is a great help in learning to play frenzy, on several different levels.
This effect upon leveling is amplified by good teamwork, since each player can only buy 3 creeps. Picking which ones to get in what situation is an important skill for teams hoping to enter and do well in the weekly tournaments. You should plan your strategy around what creeps each person is going to use and choose these based on what heroes and techs they are getting - thus you have clearly defined what each person is doing and you can ensure you don't fall behind because you're missing something.
You should try to keep your creeps within the range of the fountain of mana since the extra regeneration amplifies their abilities a lot. Creeps without mana can be killed to make way for new ones if you're out of food.

A list of each creep and their suggested usage follows. These are intended as guidelines in using each creep and give situations when they are good - putting them together with your own techs and hero combos is up to you.

Sorceress:



Cost:200g
Spells: Slow, Invisibility, Polymorph

The Sorceress is an excellent mid game creep. The main usage for her is invisibility - using this spell it is possible to sneak up on armies and heroes and get into position without being detected. Invisibility is usually used as a surprise - it's high mana cost prevents it from being spammed early game without a couple of sorceresses. However, remember good players will use dust spam and witch doctor wards to nullify your advantage. Invisibility also allows you to dodge projectiles such as bolt, coil, and shadow strike - this is most effective if you have very little lag or if you just need to prevent a hero from killing you until your allies can drive it away.

Slow is semi-useful against high tier non ranged armies, however since you can only have 3 creeps it is difficult to get the mana to cast it enough to make a difference. You should always turn off autocast when you get sorceress until you want to use slow. Using it to slow heroes can help you to finish them off, but counters like speed scrolls and teleport scrolls usually prevent this, and it can be hard to know when to cast.

Polymorph is good for shutting down other creeps if you can get in close, but it is not generally used.

Priest:



Cost:200g
Spells: Heal, Dispel Magic, Inner Fire

The Priest is a specialty spellcaster who mostly exists to counter other creeps and summon heroes. He is good as a specific counter against heroes such as Beastmaster, Firelord, and Dark Ranger. I would recommend getting one fast at the start if you don't have the ability to focus wards much since they all die in 1 dispel. Whenever you see summons, even late game, get priests to dispel them and make heaps of gold. This is especially good against Scroll of Necromancy and Animate Dead. You can also counter spells like silence and drunken haze.

Heal is useful if manually cast (turn off autocast - it's a waste of mana) on a weak hero, as it allows you to sit around in the field while being healed and doesn't force you to back away from the action to get or use salves. Inner Fire is a mediocre companion to this which raises your armour and gives just a little extra survivability to your hero. Unfortunately you need to cast it often as it has a low duration.

Witch Doctor:



Cost:200g
Spells: Sentry Ward, Stasis Ward, Healing Ward

The Witch doctor is a very powerful frenzy creep as his main abilities are AOE instead of single target. He only has the mana for one Heal Ward at the start, which you should use judiciously. Stasis Ward is possibly more useful in footmen battles, as when well placed it allows you plenty of free hits and a chance to cast channeling AOE. Witch Doctor is pretty much essential at the start; ideally get your allies to pool you so you can get one right away. Keep 2-3 around for the first part of the game and keep him near the mana fountain to make sure you can cast as much healing and stun as possible. His wards should be placed behind your lines (slightly in the case of stasis, as far as possible while affecting footmen in the case of heal) to prevent the enemy from killing them before they have an effect.
Make sure before you cast that you're in a location where you'll be fighting for a while.
Sentry ward is an underused but useful counter to invisibility and wind walk.

Shaman:



Cost:300g
Spells: Purge, Lightning Shield, Bloodlust

The Shaman is a footmen battle specialist since he has the only damaging AOE amongst creeps. This is balanced out by his relatively high cost. Use lightning shield to gain extra XP and gold at the start, although you will not get your investment back fast but rather need to rely on slightly faster leveling.

Against good players who micro out the shielded unit this combines well with stasis wards. Target a footman with high health so that your spell lasts the full duration.

Purge is a good companion spell that can be used to slow enemy heroes or to save your own heroes from single target dispelables such as entangling roots. It costs a lot of mana however and the range is not great. It can also dispel summons in a pinch, although priest's dispel is far superior.

Bloodlust is a specialty spell which helps heroes which rely on attack (Assassin, Priestess, Blade,
Pitlord) to do more damage. You have to keep casting it though as the duration is low. Combine this with Unholy Frenzy to get the equivalent effect to ~4000 gold worth of items. It can also be used on demolisher, to speed up slow heroes like Dreadlord and Panda, and to bloodlust Tauren for extra pulverize.

Don't leave it on autocast.

Druid of the Claw:



Cost:200g
Spells: Roar, Rejuvenation

This creep is useful throughout the game if you can keep it alive. It is melee so it doesn't tend to work well in a control group with other creeps. Roar is marginally useful for footmen, use it at the start if you have the micro to keep the druid hold positioned near the fountain. Rejuvenation is less useful in frenzy because heroes quickly get far more than 400 hp, however it can be used to save heroes and creeps from small amounts of damage if necessary.

Banshee:





Cost:200g
Spells: Curse, Anti Magic Shell

Banshee is a rarely used creep which is a specific counter to hero killers, both physical and magical.

Anti Magic Shell protects you from a certain amount of magic damage; note that it does not prevent side effects like stun and slow. This is great mid game, especially against the Death Knight who cannot target the banshee instead. Curse weakens physical hero killers like Blade/Jaood/Avalanche so that they hit you less often and you have more chance to escape. In this case it's a good idea to use it in combination with invisibility and possibly slow since it only causes the hero to miss 33% of the time unlike the old pocky's 66%. Always turn off autocast.

Troll Priest:



Cost:250g
Spells: Sleep, Heal

An underused but powerful custom creep (the only one left ), the Troll Priest is great for preventing powerful heroes from bothering you and for getting cheap surrounds with melee. Sleep costs quite a bit of mana, but it is still spammable and allows you something like the old creeps where you can put a lone hero out of action for a while. It also allows a team without disable to cancel channeling spells like Blizzard and Death and Decay. Heal is the same as priest's, and has the same usefulness, however as before remember to turn of autocast so you have mana for the more important sleep.

Necromancer:



Cost:200g
Spells: Raise Dead, Unholy Frenzy, Cripple

Necromancer is a combination creep best used with heroes which can shut down the inevitable dispel counter. His main spell as normally used, Raise Dead, produces heavily armoured but low hp skeletons which give you quite a bit of extra bulk and DPS on the battlefield. If used in conjunction with a hero like DR or DK that can shut down opponent's creeps, or used in a situation where this isn't a problem (eg a rush), raise dead can be very effective - but it's free gold if your opponent can get a priest out and begin dispelling.

Unholy frenzy is much like bloodlust and is best used in conjunction with it. The small damage taken by the target is fairly irrelevant in frenzy.

Cripple is much like slow with a high mana cost and can be used on heroes if needed. I rarely find a use for it since Necromancers mostly need all their mana for Raise Dead.

Demolisher:



Cost:400g
Spells: None

The demolisher is a legacy creep - once overpowered and essential it is now hardly ever used as it does a fraction of the damage and also takes up valuable food. You can try using it with unholy frenzy and bloodlust to boost it's effectiveness, but be aware that it is vulnerable to enemy spells as it doesn't have the mechanical classification in frenzy. Perhaps with the cooldown decrease and hp increase we will see more of it in the future.

Peasant:



Cost:300g
Spells: Repair, Blink

Essential if your base is damaged or being attacked, fairly useless if not. Does not take up food, so you can safely mass a couple if you're afraid your base is going to die. When under attack, walk the peasant into blink range of your building and then blink to a free space so that you get there as fast as possible.

Zeppelin:



Cost:450g
Spells: Load/Unload

The zeppelin is a semi-useful utility creep. Often used to protect and speed up sheep on a battlefield, the zeppelin can protect your weak units and heroes while allowing you to use them when it's safe or just to gain experience. Be aware that it is very obvious when a zeppelin is in use and that counters such as ranged units, orbs, and phoenix can quickly bring it down and leave anything inside paralyzed. You can also use it with mass teleport to transport allied heroes and units.

Creep Related things:

Superlanboy's Staff of Sanctuary:

Cost:200g

Rarely used, this item allows you to instantly save creeps (and other units) from being killed. One good use is to charm an enemy creep and instantly staff it to prevent it from being killed by your enemy before it can escape. Try it out when you have low lag and are facing creep killers such as DK and Alchemist whose missiles can be prevented by its use.


Special thanks to nipp0523 and goron- who helped me with screenshots; images by bark so if they dont make sense dont blame tek -bark

Text copyright Nohunters.com. Permission is granted to reproduce this article so long as the authorship and copyright notice are preserved.

The first official FOOTMEN FRENZY 6.1 TOURNAMENT

This week's (and hopefully subsequent weeks) tourney is going to by hosted by keldyn and roaaaarrrr at 5PM Bnet time, Saturday September 1st.

If you don't know your time in reference with Bnet, log in and type /time. It will give you your time and Bnet time.

Now I know everyone's been waiting a long time for tournaments to start up again. so this time around we're gonna keep it real simple and not overcomplicate things with a ridiculous amount of rules so hopefully everyone will enjoy themselves.

Your rules!

1) No base suiciding. Period.
2) No leaving the game if your or an ally's base is under attack.
3) Gamehosts will be determined by ping, or selected by the tournament organizers. This may mean trying until everyone can agree on a host. However if a tournament organizer selects the game host, that will be the game host regardless.
4) If you have a concern or need to report a rule infraction, message keldyn or roaaaarrrr at any time. This means actual infractions, not complaints about imbalance.
5) Failure to comply with the suiciding or leaving rule will result in a ban from the following weeks tournament.

The winning team of each game needs to save the replay and send it to nhtourney@gmail.com


If you are unable to get a spot in one of the brackets sign up your team as alternates and show up at tourney time. There's usually at least one or two teams that can't make it and need replacements. This goes for people without teams as well!

And one last time, the tourney will be on Saturday, September 1st, 5PM Bnet time.

Good luck everyone!!

Footmen Frenzy Download (v 6.1)

Footmenfrenzy 6.1 has been released.
You can download it here.

Here are the changes:

- Attack/Life Upgrades now located on racial circle instead of main building.

- Racial upgrades now available at tier 1

- Ethereal bug fixed

- Animate Dead bug fixed

- Tank Token damage type fixed

- Penguins damage type fixed

- Statue autocast trigger area will be looked at/fixed

- TheBigGame Stampede now has a casting animation

- Falcon Rain of Fire now has a casting animation

- Acid Bomb armor reduction reduced to 3/4/5/5/5/5 (previously 3/6/9/12/18/25)

- Secret hero abilities fixed

- Bill item loss not fixed (no idea what causes it)

- Warden Shadowmeld hotkey fixed

- Flying Meatwagons now have 25 mana (previously 0)

- Faerie Fire hero duration reduced to 20 seconds (previously 60)

- Demon Hunter Metamorphosis level 3 cooldown/duration reduced to 45/45 (previously 75/75)

- Rejuvenation can no longer heal flying units

- Blank base damage reduced to 25 (previously 45)

- Demolisher now unit lvl 5 (previously 2); base damaged lowered to 50 (previously 81)

- Obsidian Statue Healing Touch range increased to 200, mana cost increased to 10 (previously 2)

- Obsidian Statue Spirit Touch mana cost increased to 10 (previously 2); no longer affects self

- Human War Training damage reduction improved to 3/7/12/16/22 (previously 3/4/6/8/10)

- Tooltip errors fixed on Gamera turtles, Falcon Hex

- Shops spaced apart more

Download Footmen Frenzy 6.0

Footmen Frenzy 6.0 was released !!

Download Footmen Frenzy 6.0

Here are the changes:

General
New game modes added (selected via menu)
- Normal
- Random Heroes (Each player starts with a random hero)
- Random Draft (Basically removes random heroes from the taverns, leaving a pool of 11 heroes remaining)

New alliance mode added (selected via menu after game mode)
- NONE (3v3v3v3 like usual)
- Top vs Bottom (Team 1 and 2 vs. Team 3 and 4)

New terrain added
New loading screen (to be changed in next patch)
Invisible units now give off Auras
Heroes now start with 0 mana, and resurrect with 0 mana
Map file size is a lot bigger

Tech/Tiers
Tier buildings have different models
Tier 1 is now free and automatic; there is no timer for Tier 2+
Beacons have been added to allow selection of your tier 1 race, and to switch races
Race switching cost reduced for all tiers
Beacons autocast Healing Scroll (can be interrupted) cooldown 10secs
Racial abilities have been reworked
Tech units have 25% more HP
Armor upgrades replaced with life upgrades
Weapon and Life upgrade costs increase with each level, and give more returns
Tier 5 cost reduced to 30000
Undead Skeletons have been reworked (no unholy frenzy, bigger size, slower spawn time, more hp/damage, and more bounty)
Undead Abominations no longer have Disease Cloud
Night Elf tech has Shadowmeld instead of Phase Shift
Orc tech at tier 3+ has Ensnare

Attack and Armor types have been revamped
- Human < src="http://nohunters.com/e107_images/emoticons/smile.png" alt="" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;">

Heroes
New proper names for most heroes
3 All-new heroes

Human
Mass Teleport casting time increased to 20/15/10 seconds; Invisible units targeted by Mass TP are no longer revealed.
Avatar - Yields extra bounty of killed (like meta); lower duration and lower cooldown
Storm Bolt - Lower stun duration at higher levels
Phoenix no longer affected by healing spells
Devotion Aura weakened at all levels

Night Elf
Metamorphosis - Cooldown time on meta gets lower as level is higher
Fan of Knives - damage increased by 10 at all levels
Trueshot Aura - weakened to 10/20/30/40/50/65 % bonus dmg
Starfall - cooldown decreased (now 150 sec at all levels)

Orc
Serpent Ward - duration increased at all levels, mana cost increased by 15 at all levels
Earthquake - cooldown decreased by 20 seconds at all levels

Undead
Unholy Aura movement speed bonus decreased at all levels; Area now 900 at all levels
Infernal reworked (shorter duration, higher base dmg, larger stun aoe)

Neutral
Stampede - Cooldown no longer decreases at lvl 2 and 3 (now 180 sec at all levels)
Alchemist - Increase duration of acid bomb by 5 sec at all levels
Fire Spawns - Level 5 range increased by 100, lvl 6 range increased by 150
Charm - Has a small AOE effect. Cooldown 45/20/5 sec

Custom
Dino Din - Ultimate model changed
Avalanche - Critical Strike replaced with Omnismack
Random_digit - Taunt now compels attacks. No longer heals the hero.
Levia - Base movement speed increased
Sea Elemental - Mana cost decreased
Great Fishing Harvest - Cooldown decreased
Ravage - Entangle now has AOE effect
Assassin - Has a new skillset (Frost Bolt, Mirror Image, Searing Arrow, Animate Dead)
Cattlebruiser - Now has Windwalk instead of Dark Pact
Turtles - Now have autocast devour
Falcon - Hex now the same as SHs
Falcon - Now has Rain of Fire instead of Bears
Bill K has higher base intelligence
Stampede - Cooldown no longer decreases at lvl 2 and 3 (now 180 sec at all levels)
Unholy Aura movement speed bonus decreased at all levels; Area now 900 at all levels
Charm - Has a small AOE effect. Cooldown 45/20/5 sec
Tichmeh Armorz - Has been weakened at all levels

Creeps
No more food limit
Brand new creeps
Increased Healing Ward mana cost by 50

Items
Removed Scroll of Beatings, Necromancer's Bidding, Healing Ward of the Gods, Giant Leg, Fast Wood, Flask of Soda, Cheese, Talisman of Evasion, Soldier's Mask, Sturdy War Axe, Warsong Battledrums, Healing Wards, Firehand Gauntlets, Scroll of Protection. Look for new items in the next patch.

Mana potion/Mana stone at middle has a 5 minute cooldown before being available
Dust of Appearance = 1 charge instead of 3, lower range
Speed scroll cost increased to 100

Bark's store:
Bark's Store renamed to Wut're ya buyin'?
Fox Frenzy (3 charges) - Slams the ground, slowing nearby enemy movement and attack speed by 50% for 5 seconds (does not affect heroes), cooldown 15 seconds; mana cost 40; 150 gold
Eyebrows of Mashiba (2 charges) - Casts Cripple on target unit (hero duration = 7secs); mana cost 150. 200 gold
Bark's Clutch (2 charges) - Instantly kills a non-hero unit; cooldown 60 seconds; 400 gold
Jean's Rage (3 charges) - Throws a child at a target unit, dealing 200 damage; 400 gold (death coil range)
Wrath of TekPike (consumable, 1 charge) - Grants immolation (same dmg as infernal cloak) for 20 seconds. Undispellable. 300 gold
Barks Nikes cost decreased to 500

Weapon Shop
Berserker's Blade - 5% (or 10%?) Cleave; 200 gold
Berserker's Armor - Returns 10% of melee damage; 200 gold
Berserker's Helm - Reduces damage taken by 5; 200 gold

Armor Shop
Sobi Mask cost increased to 350 gold

Archvault
Dust of Appearance charges reduced to 1, duration reduced to 10 seconds, and area reduced to 500
Roaaaarrrr Scroll now located in Archvault
Scroll of Miyata - gives invisibility + speed (with roar scroll duration/aoe) 700 gold.. attacking breaks invis, dispellable
Scroll of Itagaki - grants 75% evasion (roar scroll duration/aoe) 800 gold; not dispellable
Scroll of Saeki - 1 charge of Mass Teleport 1000 gold
Scroll of Darkness - covers middle in fog of war for 60 seconds 300 gold

Altar of Legends
Scroll of Takamura - gives undispellable invulnerability (huge aoe.. like enough to cover all of middle) for 2 minutes 12000 gold; available same time as altar (at the same shop as altar)
Altar - cost 12000
Tier 4 - cost 30000
Claws of Devastation - cost 3500
Cursed Axe - cost 2000
Fixed name of the Granite Golem (it was still called wendigo in shop)


Some random notes about the new version..
- Life upgrades when fully upgraded give a 100% bonus to HP. This means that you are not going to get much life from upgrading it at the lower levels.. This is likely to be reworked in the next patch.

- Racial upgrades similarly are more effective at later tiers, and not so much early on; this is something that caused a big delay in 6.0 and we decided to keep it the way it is now to speed up the release.

- Depending on how serious the bugs we find are, we will likely release a new patch in 1-2 months, which will probably include items to fill out the shops.

- This change list itself may be incomplete; our original change list got deleted when the forum was pruned, so yeah It should list most things though.

Download Footmen Frenzy 6.0

Footmen frenzy heroes: Bloodmage

The Bloodmage is a very powerful hero but requires much more micro to get the job done than heroes like the Archmage. My style of play for the Bloodmage is to alternate between Flamestrike and Siphon Mana as primary spells, then put 3 points each in Banish and Phoenix. The increase in duration for Banish is not really worthwhile at high levels unless you need to immobilize an army rather than a hero.

Flame Strike

Flame Strike is a partial channeling spell, so you must stand still until you see the pillar of fire descend from the sky. If you move beforehand, the spell will be interrupted, but once it begins, you can safely run away. Flame Strike is the most powerful Area of Effect (AoE) spell in the game (and the Frenzy version has no maximum damage cap), but its initial casting delay means you have to anticipate the movement of troops and heroes when you cast it. The spell will do immense damage every 0.4 seconds during the first 4.0 seconds (a total of 10 ticks), and then it will do negligible damage to units who remain in its radius for 5.0 seconds afterwards. Flame Strike always has a 1.5 second casting time, 12 second cooldown, and costs 150 mana. It only has a 10% effectiveness against buildings. Counter this with Scrolls of Speed or old-fashioned interrupting spells on the Bloodmage.

Level	DMG	Mana	Area	Range
1	10 dmg per tick / 20 minor dmg	150	200 AoE	800
2	17 dmg per tick / 30 minor dmg	150	220 AoE	825
3	25 dmg per tick / 40 minor dmg	150	240 AoE	850
4	40 dmg per tick / 50 minor dmg	150	260 AoE	874
5	55 dmg per tick / 60 minor dmg	150	280 AoE	900
6	70 dmg per tick / 75 minor dmg	150	300 AoE	925

Banish

Banish makes a unit ethereal -- immune to physical attacks but 66% more susceptible to negative spells and magic. A quick Banish followed by an ally's Death Coil can kill any hero in just a few seconds. It's also helpful to cast on enemy heroes who rely on physical damage to be a nuisance, like Jaood and the Blademaster. Unlike the regular game, Banish does not slow units down and cannot be cast on friendly units. Banish always costs 125 mana.

Level	Effect hero/unit	Cooldown	Range
1	4 sec hero / 12 sec unit	4	800
2	5 sec hero / 15 sec unit	4	825
3	6 sec hero / 18 sec unit	4	850
4	7 sec hero / 48 sec unit	4	875
5	8 sec hero / 60 sec unit	4	900
6	9 sec hero / 120 sec unit	3	925

Siphon Mana

Mana Siphon drains mana and a small amount of life from enemy heroes. This spell is effective at shutting down Strength-based heroes early in the game, and is a direct counter to Bill K's Call of the Gods (he can't cast it if he has no mana!). Use this to keep your Bloodmage active early game, and use it to preemptively drain any deadly heroes late game. Siphon Mana always costs 10 mana and has a 15 second cooldown.

Level	Effect hero/unit	Duration	Range
1	15 mana & 1 hp/seconds	6 seconds	650
2	30 mana & 2 hp/seconds	6.5 seconds	675
3	45 mana & 3 hp/seconds	7 seconds	700
4	60 mana & 4 hp/seconds	7.5 seconds	725
5	75 mana & 5 hp/seconds	8 seconds	750
6	150 mana & 6 hp/seconds	8.5 seconds	800

Phoenix

This spell summons a phoenix with a flaming attack. For levels 1 and 2 of this skill, the life of the phoenix drains over time and when the phoenix reaches 0 life, it turns into an egg for several seconds before respawning with full health. The egg has no armor and a meager 120 hitpoints, making it extremely vulnerable. At lvl 3, the phoenix does not drain its life, meaning you can essentially destroy an entire army of melee units with it (they can't hurt you if they can't hit you!). Phoenix grants a 200 gold bounty on death.

In addition to the Phoenix's primary attack, nearby units and heroes will be affected by phoenix fire, which does 240 fire damage over 20 seconds.

Level	Damage	Hitpoints	Life Regeneration	Armor	Cooldown
1	46-60 dmg	1000 hp	-40/s	1	180
2	66-80 dmg	1100 hp	-20/s	3	160
3	81-95 dmg	1250 hp	0/s	4	140

Footmen frenzy heroes: Crypt Lord

The Crypt Lord does pretty well as a solo hero and is beefy enough to last for quite some time. If you want to play him as a mean killing machine, max everything but beetles. If you'd rather use the beetles of doom, max it instead of Spiked Carapace and keep the Crypt Lord on the sidelines. Summoning beetles while on the front line can be deadly to you, because they'll probably appear around you and block your retreat.

Spells

Impale

Impale damage and stuns a line of enemy units. The stun on this spell is better than the damage it does. It's great when used in tandem with another AoE spell like Carrion Swarm. It's also useful for stopping retreating heroes. Impale always costs 100 mana and has a 9 second cooldown.

Level	DMG/(Impale length)	Range	Stun (Hero/Units)
1	50 dmg / 625 length	700	1 sec hero / 2 sec units
2	90 dmg / 650 length	725	2 sec hero / 3.5 sec units
3	120 dmg / 675 length	750	3 sec hero / 5 sec units
4	150 dmg / 700 length	775	4 sec hero / 6.5 sec units
5	180 dmg / 725 length	800	4 sec hero / 7 sec units
6	360 dmg / 800 length	825	4 sec hero / 10 sec units

Carrion Beetles

Carrion Beetles are a different kind of summons than you're probably used to. These fat beetles don't do much damage, but they have fortified armor and are magic immune. They were designed to be more of a moving Bone Wall than a scary attacking squad. Beetles make a good meat shield for ranged units and also do wonders at messing up the pathing of Tier 4 units. To increase the survival of your beetles, combine them with Vampiric Aura or some Scourge Bone Chimes. A fun strategy to try: Impale a hero and then surround him with beetles. Beetles always last for 60 seconds or until killed. The mana cost is 100 and the cooldown is always 15 seconds for levels up to 6, and level 6's mana cost is 300 and cooldown is 30.

Level	Units	Hitpoints	Danage	Armor
1	3 Beetles	350 hp	16-19 dmg	0
2	4 Beetles	400 hp	16-19 dmg	2
3	5 Beetles	450 hp	21-24 dmg	4
4	6 Beetles	500 hp	21-24 dmg	6
5	7 Beetles	550 hp	24-27 dmg	10
6	20 Beetles	550 hp	24-27 dmg	10

Spiked Carapace

Spiked Carapace is like a local version of Thorns Aura, and also provides additional armor to the Crypt Lord. It is very useful when your opponents tech melee units or when you are facing a Blademaster or Jaood.

Level	Armor	DMG returned %
1	+3	25% dmg returned
2	+6	50% dmg returned
3	+9	75% dmg returned
4	+12	100% dmg returned
5	+15	125% dmg returned
6	+20	225% dmg returned

Locust Swarm

At Level 1, Locust Swarm is a healing spell which takes hit points from enemy units and feeds them to the Crypt Lord. At higher levels, it's an AOE killing spell, because the locusts take much more HP than your Crypt Lord could ever want. Locust Swarm always costs 150 mana.

Level	Life Regeneration	Area	Cooldown
1	20 swarms returning 25 hp each	800 AoE	180 seconds
2	30 swarms returning 50 hp each	850 AoE	150 seconds
3	50 swarms returning 80 hp each	900 AoE	120 seconds

Footmen frenzy heroes Superlanboy

Superlanboy is one of the best tanks in the game. With frost armor, howl of terror, high strength, and his life-restoring ultimate, he can stay alive forever. Most of his kills will be scored with immolation. Frost armor helps keep allied heroes alive as well and can even help in big battles when strategically placed on a few units. Howl of terror will turn any close battle to your favor.

Spells

Immolation

This is an exact copy of the Demon Hunter's spell. It is Superlanboy's only damage-causing spell and the best way to kill melee units that are futilely attacking you.

Level	Dmg/second	Mana/Second	Area
1	15 dps	10 mana per second	160 AoE
2	35 dps	10 mana per second	180 AoE
3	55 dps	10 mana per second	200 AoE
4	75 dps	10 mana per second	220 AoE
5	95 dps	10 mana per second	240 AoE
6	160 dps	20 mana per second	260 AoE

Howl of Terror

Howl of Terror is a very strong AoE disabler. You are guaranteed to level up if your army is fighting pathetic weakened versions of everyone else's army. Run Superlanboy behind enemy lines to get maximum effectiveness. A rarer strategy (which is subtly effective) is to use it on two armies that are fighting each other. These armies will net their heroes experience at a much slower rate, so you're effectively weakening two teams at once. Howl of Terror always costs 75 mana and has a cooldown of 12 seconds.

Level	Damage reduction	Armor reduction	Duration	Area
1	-30% damage	-3 armor	15 sec hero / 20 sec unit	500 AoE
2	-35% damage	-4 armor	16 sec hero / 21 sec unit	550 AoE
3	-45% damage	-5 armor	17 sec hero / 22 sec unit	600 AoE
4	-55% damage	-6 armor	18 sec hero / 23 sec unit	650 AoE
5	-65% damage	-7 armor	19 sec hero / 24 sec unit	700 AoE
6	-80% damage	-10 armor	20 sec hero / 30 sec unit	900 AoE

Frost Armor

People don't like Frost Armor because it requires micro and does not have a very noticeable effect. Give it a chance though, and you'll love it. Casting Frost Armor on a unit boosts armor and any enemies who attack will be slowed for a few seconds. You should be looking for the healthiest of your troops who are on the front line, or heroes who might be surrounded. The slow duration listed in the chart reflects both heroes and units. Remember to cast it on yourself when you enter the fray; the extra armor and slow really help keep you alive.

Level	Armor/Duration	Cooldown	Slow down Effect	Mana	Range
1	+3 armor for 45 seconds	2 seconds	5 seconds slow	40	800
2	+6 armor for 45 seconds	2 seconds	5 seconds slow	40	825
3	+9 armor for 45 seconds	2 seconds	5 seconds slow	40	850
4	+12 armor for 45 seconds	2 seconds	5 seconds slow	40	875
5	+15 armor for 45 seconds	1.75 seconds	10 seconds slow	50	900
6	+25 armor for 60 seconds	1 seconds	12 seconds slow	60	925

Taunt

This spell causes all nearby enemy units to attack Superlanboy and restores his health to maximum. This spell always costs 25 mana.

Level	Range	Cooldown
1	1000 range	60 seconds
2	1500 range	45 seconds
3	2000 range	25 seconds

Note: As of 5.3, this ability does not work properly at levels 2 and 3. Life will be restored, but nearby units will not attempt to attack Superlanboy.

Footmen frenzy heroes: HatoUP

HatoUP aka TheBigGame (after 5.0) is an excellent hero killer, and gains experience by the virtue that she's too fast to die frequently. Hatoup is best played wtih everything maxed but frost arrows, which don't help out at all in the late game. While not really needing any items other than the ever important town portal, life and mana items are very useful, and she could benefit from some Agility items. In previous versions, HatoUP was one of the heros that could easily dodge the Bloodmage's Flamestrike/Banish combo due to her unholy aura.

Spells

Shadow Strike

This is an exact replica of the Warden's Shadow Strike. Use it on a hero and then slow it down with Ice Shards until the cooldown is over. Shadow Strike has an 8 second cooldown and costs 65 mana.

Level	DMG Hero	DMG Units
1	75 dmg / 30 dmg over 9 secs hero	50 dmg over 15 sec units
2	150 dmg / 60 dmg over 9 secs hero	100 dmg over 17.5 sec units
3	225 dmg / 90 dmg over 9 secs hero	200 dmg over 20 sec units
4	300 dmg / 120 dmg over 9 secs hero	280 dmg over 22.5 sec units
5	375 dmg / 150 dmg over 9 secs hero	400 dmg over 25 sec units
6	450 dmg / 160 dmg over 9 secs hero	600 dmg over 30 sec units

Ice Shards

Ice Shards is a frost-arrow based skill that greatly slows down units. In battle, manually attack units in turn so the frost effect is distributed. It's also very effective at stopping heroes from running away. Remember that arrow skills do not interact with orbs. The slow effect lasts for 1.5 seconds on heroes and 5 seconds on units.

Level	DMG & Speed reduced	Extra DMG	Mana
1	-30% atk & move speed	+5 dmg	10
2	-40% atk & move speed	+15 dmg	10
3	-50% atk & move speed	+25 dmg	10
4	-60% atk & move speed	+30 dmg	7
5	-70% atk & move speed	+35 dmg	7
6	-80% atk & move speed	+60 dmg	7

Unholy Aura

Unholy Aura increases the movement speed and life regeneration rate of nearby units. It is especially useful for maneuvering your units into a hero surround formation. Unholy aura gives you the advantage of hit-and-run and is many times useful when teams try to to flank you.

Level	HP Regeneration/sec	Speed Effect %	Area
1	+3 HP	+10%	900 AoE
2	+4 HP	+20%	950 AoE
3	+5 HP	+30%	1000 AoE
4	+6 HP	+40%	1050 AoE
5	+7 HP	+50%	1100 AoE
6	+10 HP	+60%	1250 AoE

Stampede

Stampede will let you level up and win the game when effectively used. Many people don't realize that you can direct the stampede. When you cast the spell, TheBigGame will start channeling towards the spot you click and the thundering lizards will charge across the screen in parallel lines to the line formed between TheBigGame and the targetted spot. The lizards always come from behind the hero. The lizards will explode against the first unit they hit, so you want to angle your stampede to hit the weakest units.

A VERY effective way to stampede is to clog someone's base with your armies and then have TheBigGame cast stampede while pointing towards the Archvault in the middle. The lizards will appear inside the enemy base and make it much harder to avoid damage. If all their units are up front, your lizards will also be more likely to hit their bases first, which could mean game over very quickly at Level 3. Stampede placement takes some practice, but any idiot can learn it once they know how it works. Stampedes always last for 30 seconds.

Level	Units, DMG, Area	Cooldown	Mana	Area	Range
1	2 size 55 Lizards per sec, 60 dmg each in 275 aoe	180 seconds	150	1000 AoE	300
2	4 size 57 Lizards per sec, 90 dmg each in 285 aoe	170 seconds	200	1100 AoE	300
3	6 size 59 Lizards per sec, 120 dmg each in 295 aoe	160 seconds	250	1200 AoE	300

The heroes: Warden

The Warden is incredibly powerful if you keep her alive and is also lots of fun to play. Micro is essential to playing a Warden, since your weak Warden must be on the front lines to do much damage.

Spells

Fan of Knives

This is a very underappreciated skill -- it's one of the few AoE spells that cannot be dodged. Though the damage output is low, the cooldown decreases so you are doing damage more often than other spells. When using Fan of Knives, try to be decently surrounded by enemies so that no knives go to waste. Late game, you can Blink into an enemy base filled with lower level units, Fan, and Blink out before the enemy can even react (this is sometimes called Farming). This is especially fun when combined with Level 6 Blink. Note that Fan of Knives is classified as a physical spell so it won't hurt Halpmeh.

Level	DMG/Total DMG	Cooldown	Range
1	75 dmg / max 400 dmg total	9	400 AoE
2	125 dmg / max 900 dmg total	8	450 AoE
3	190 dmg / max 1400 dmg total	7	500 AoE
4	240 dmg / max 1900 dmg total	7	550 AoE
5	300 dmg / max 6000 dmg total	6	600 AoE
6	350 dmg / 9999 max damage	5	700 AoE

Blink

Most people see Blink as their escape path, but it is also superb for diving into danger. Once you have Blink you should walk around as little as possible. You should have Blink at level 3 to be decently useful, and Level 6 Blink is a must-have for hit and runs. With Shadow Strike, Fan of Knives, and Blink maxed, you can kill any hero with no danger to yourself. Notice the range on Level 6 Blink -- you can Blink between adjacent bases which makes it very easy to farm late game footmen, archers, and ghouls, for cash.

Level	Range	Cooldown	Mana
1	1000	10	50
2	1250	9	50
3	1500	7	50
4	1750	5	50
5	2000	4	50
6	3500	3	50

Shadow Strike

Shadow Strike is a very cost-effective hero kill which does a small initial damage and then more damage over time. Because this is a draining spell rather than a single damage spell, people don't realize how great it is. It always costs 65 mana, slows the target by 50% for the entire duration, and has an 8 second cooldown. The draining damage drains heroes for 7 seconds at every level, but the times for units are much higher. As its initial Damage is classified as physical, Halpmeh will no longer take damage from the initial, but still from the over-time damage. So use it on him to clear off the kill before someone else does it.

Level	DMG Hero	DMG Units
1	75 dmg / 30 dmg over 9 secs hero	50 dmg over 15 sec units
2	150 dmg / 60 dmg over 9 secs hero	100 dmg over 17.5 sec units
3	225 dmg / 90 dmg over 9 secs hero	200 dmg over 20 sec units
4	300 dmg / 120 dmg over 9 secs hero	280 dmg over 22.5 sec units
5	375 dmg / 150 dmg over 9 secs hero	400 dmg over 25 sec units
6	450 dmg / 160 dmg over 9 secs hero	600 dmg over 30 sec units

Vengeance

Vengeance creates a giant undispellable Avatar which creates invulnerable, but dispellable, Spirits from nearby dead bodies. Killing the Avatar kills all the Spirits, or you can dispel them all with several casts of Dispel Magic. This spell got a bad rap in older versions, but as of 3.3, the Spirits will survive much longer in battle. The Avatars last for 180 seconds, or until killed.

Level	Unit(s)	Mana	Cooldown
1	1 Level 1 Avatar which can summon 7 Spirits at a time	150	180
2	2 Level 2 Avatars which can summon 7 Spirits at a time	140	170
3	3 Level 3 Avatars which can summon 7 Spirits at a time	130	160