Footmen frenzy heroes: Mountain King

The Mountain King is the master tanker. He can easily wade into the fray and survive, especially later in the game with Avatar. His weakest point is his extremely small mana pool. If you aren't on a skilled team which can control the middle shop with its mana regeneration aura, you're going to need mana items very desperately. Even with the middle advantage, you won't go wrong by giving the Mountain King a Precept or two.

Strategy

The usual Mountain King strategy is to buy mana items and rush quickly to a Cloak of Immolation, and then farm Footmen and other weak melee units early on. Later, Stormbolt and Thunder Clap is chained to easily eliminate heroes.

Advanced Micro

• The Mountain King benefits well from animation canceling.

• When using Thunder Clap before you get your Cloak, Clap and quickly move away from enemy units to minimize damage. After Cloak, this only slows down your farming.

Spells

Storm Bolt

Storm Bolt is the definitive hero killer spell. Even if the Bolt doesn't kill a hero, the stun allows you time to surround the hero and pick it off with your army. Late game you should be going bolt-happy, bolting any hero that shows its face in the middle. The goal is not necessarily to kill heros all the time -- the goal is to make them afraid to enter the middle.

Level	DMG	Stun (hero/unit)	Mana	Range
1	100 dmg	3 sec / 5 sec	160	600
2	200 dmg	3.5 sec / 5 sec	160	625
3	300 dmg	4 sec / 10 sec	160	650
4	400 dmg	4.5 sec / 12 sec	160	675
5	500 dmg	5 sec / 14 sec	160	700
6	700 dmg	6 sec / 20 sec	160	750

Thunder Clap

Thunder Clap is a very effective unit killer, and should be the first skill you get. Like the Tauren Chieftain's stomping skills, you will need some practice to determine the most practical locations for a Clap. Early game, make sure you have an escape route to run away through after the stomp, so you don't get surrounded. Late game, combine Thunder Clap with Storm Bolt to quickly eliminate heroes. Use Clap just after Stormbolt's stun wears off to take advantage of its slow. Thunder Clap always lasts for 3 seconds on heroes and has a 6 second cooldown.

Level	DMG	Speed/Slow Effect	Mana	Area
1	60 dmg	-50% atk & move speed / 4 sec unit	125	250 AoE
2	100 dmg	-55% atk & move speed / 5 sec unit	125	300 AoE
3	150 dmg	-60% atk & move speed / 6 sec unit	125	350 AoE
4	200 dmg	-65% atk & move speed / 7 sec unit	125	400 AoE
5	250 dmg	-70% atk & move speed / 8 sec unit	125	450 AoE
6	350 dmg	-75% atk & -80% move speed / 9 sec unit	125	500 AoE

Bash

This is a latent skill which gives you a chance to stun and do bonus damage. It's a nice bonus to have, but maximizing this skill does not give you as visible a benefit as other skills. One zany strategy you can try is to stack agility items on your MK and then max bash. It won't be as effective as the old Falcon, but it'll be fun for about five minutes.

Level	Probability %	DMG	Stun hero/units
1	20% chance	+25 dmg	1 sec hero / 2 sec unit
2	30% chance	+35 dmg	1.25 sec hero / 3 sec unit
3	40% chance	+45 dmg	1.5 sec hero / 4 sec unit
4	40% chance	+55 dmg	1.75 sec hero / 4 sec unit
5	45% chance	+65 dmg	2 sec hero / 4 sec unit
6	50% chance	+80 dmg	2 sec hero / 5 sec unit

Avatar

Avatar turns your Mountain King into a magic-immune fighting machine. When fighting a high level Avatar, the only counter is to focus fire with ranged units, far enough away from the MK to survive. If this is not an option, the best counter is to hide and let him destroy someone else. Try having him chase you into someone else's base and hope the two forces collide to the detriment of both. Avatar always costs 250 mana and has a cooldown of 200 seconds.

Level	DMG	Armor	Extra HP	Duration
1	+30 dmg	+5	+500 hp	60 seconds
2	+40 dmg	+10	+750 hp	65 seconds
3	+50 dmg	+15	+1000 hp	70 seconds

Countering the Mountain King

• The Mountain King is a very difficult hero to counter once he has become powerful. The key is to stop him from getting that far. Always move your units out of Immolation and try to not give him many hero kills.

• The best way to kill a Mountain King is with a strong Night Elf tech.

• If he chains Stormbolt and Thunder Clap, use a Speed Scroll to counter Thunder Clap's effects.

• When he uses Avatar, hide.