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.

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