Techtree Contest #19 Extra Info

Riki · Jul 25, 2025

KEY MECHANICS & DESIGN


Soul Essence The infamous blade Frostmourne, was the mourneblade of the Lich King. It possessed the power to shatter and imprison the souls of its victims and could remake the living into mindless undead. In Arthas's hands the blade spilled the blood of kings, destroyed nations, and inflicted several permanent scars on the world. To represent the blade's terrible powers, Soul Essence is an abstract representation of the souls consumed and trapped by Frostmourne. Soul Essence is obtained through various means, such as Arthas's attacks and spells, and certain abilities or upgrades for units. It plays an essential part in the development of Arthas as a Hero and can also enhance his attacks and abilities. "Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit"	Arthas's Path The best way to tell Arthas's story as the Lich King's champion is by reviewing his countless list of kills and atrocities, and the trail of destruction left in his wake. In game, Arthas has both a lower amount of starting attributes and a lower attribute gain per level. So instead, by using the Soul Essence he collects along the way, he can permanently boost himself and his abilities by spending on Arthas's Path talents. This talent menu takes the place of the usual hero skills menu and allows for a more interactive way of tracking the Death Knight's progress. Unlocking all the talents will be difficult due to the amount of souls you will have to harvest, but in return you will obtain unparalleled power waiting for you. "Your young prince will find only death in the cold north"	The Lich King The ultimate reward for completing the Arthas's Path comes in the form of obtaining the hero's ultimate form: his transformation into the Lich King itself. So, in this way, Arthas will obtain one last permanent bonus to his attributes and will replace his ultimate ability with a new one: Summon Sindragosa. The mighty wyrm will bring benefits when fighting alongside Arthas and adds additional support to your armies while active. "Return the blade. Complete the circle. Release me from this prison!"


Blight The blight is usually portrayed as a side effect, just a consequence of the Scourge's presence on conquered lands. For me, the blight isn't just a side effect or consequence; but the representation of the relentless advance of the undead troops and the trail of desolation they leave wherever they go. Following this line of thinking, many of Arthas's troops will gain advantages when fighting over blight, in addition to having various abilities that allow to spread it. "It's as if the land around the granary is... dying"	Cult of the Damned Members of the Cult of the Damned are promised eternal life and complete equality beneath the iron fist of the Lich King. In exchange, they serve the temple and proffer their magic and their souls to the power of the Cult. Apostates are loyal servants of Arthas's cause and perform numerous tasks for the benefit of the Scourge. These tasks include summoning structures, gathering resources, harvesting souls, and defending the base by channeling auras onto the Scourge's main structures. "Greetings, great lord. Our master, Kel'Thuzad, told us that you would come"	Merciless Siege Arthas's Scourge heavily focuses on bringing siege and devastation upon their enemies. Siege options are vast thanks to their numerous creatures and long-range weapons that can take out enemy bases and lay waste upon enemy formations, all while receiving support from their spellcasters and heavy melee defensive units that can mitigate the enemy damage for them. "Bring up the meat wagons! We'll make our own entrance"

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

Strengths

Weaknesses

Very offensive playstyle, with a great focus on heavy sieges and assaults.
The Apostate is a very versatile worker that can gather resources, transform corpses into Soul Essence and help in the defense of the base by channeling Grave Tether on their main hall.
Blightstone Nexuses build the faction's goldmine automatically with no additional cost, allowing for a faster expansion.
Overall, this faction offers many siege options with its numerous creatures that either serve directly as siege weapons or do so indirectly through their support.
Arthas is a powerful Hero that can lead the unholy armies of the Scourge to victory. His abilities synergize with the units and mechanics of the faction.

The faction is powerful on full-scale assaults, but prone to failure against ambushes and guerrilla tactics.
Most units are not exactly the most resilient, many of them are fragile and depend on the support of other units, while others are expendable following Arthas's philosophy of achieving victory at any cost.
Fighting on blight could mean the difference between victory or defeat.
Arthas starts with fewer attributes than other Heroes and his level gain is mediocre. His power will depend on unlocking his talents.

UNITS

Tier 1

Apostate

Husk

Weaver

Basic worker. Can summon structures, harvest resources, and Restore. Can bind to a nearby Scourge hall to channel a defensive spell. Can learn Reap.

	Grave Tether	Target a Blightstone Nexus, Sepulchral Halls or Glacial Keep to start channeling a defensive spell that increases the power of Grave Shroud. Grave Shroud is an aura that increases the movement speed of player units standing on blight, while enemy units standing on blight will take extra damage from Wailing Spires.
	Reap	Transforms a nearby corpse into Soul Essence. The amount of Soul Essence generated is equal to the original unit's food cost.

Basic melee unit. Can learn Voracity, Unyielding Hunger and Pact of the Damned.

	Voracity	Grants an attack speed boost and if the Husk dies while active it will release a putrid fume that inflicts nearby organic ground enemies with Rot, causing them to take bonus damage from other Husks.
	Unyielding Hunger	Grants a lifesteal effect on attacks. Bonus is greatly increased when under the effects of Voracity.
	Pact of the Damned	Every time this unit attacks it will have a chance to generate 1 Soul Essence. When a Husk dies, it will also generate Soul Essence to its owner.

Vicious ranged creature, effective against air units. Can learn Silk Anchor and Corpse Webbing.

	Silk Anchor	Throws a web that reduces an enemy air unit's movement speed for a few seconds and links it to the Weaver. Attacks from Weavers against webbed enemies will deal a percentage of the unit's current hit points as extra damage. If the webbed unit gets too far away from the Weaver, it will be bound to the ground.
	Corpse Webbing	Enemy air units that die while affected by Silk Anchor will be converted into Soul Essence. The amount of Soul Essence generated is equal to the original unit's food cost.

Tier 2

Wretched

Unraveler

Apparition

Herald

Dread Hearse

Corpse Titan

Cinderwing

Fallen warrior of the Silver Hand, effective at absorbing damage. Has Grim Aegis, which increases damage resistance based on nearby friendly melee units at the cost of movement speed. Can learn Undeath's Resolve.

	Grim Aegis	Activate to gain a percentage of damage reduction for each player's nearby Hero or ground melee unit. The unit itself also counts toward the calculation. While active, the unit will move slower.
	Undeath's Resolve	Increases maximum hit points and movement speed.

Primary spellcaster. Can initially cast Preservation, which gives armor and heals friendly undead units. Can also learn Desecrate and Bone Garden.

	Preservation	Increases a target friendly organic unit's armor and, if it is an undead unit, will restore some hit points per second. Boneguards will receive bonus damage instead of regeneration.
	Desecrate	Reduces the movement speed of a target enemy unit and, if it is a living unit, an area of blight will erupt from it when healed.
	Bone Garden	Summons an immovable ward that raises 1 Boneguard from a nearby corpse every few seconds. Boneguards are weak skeletons that cannot be healed, but gain a powerful buff when fighting over blight that increases their attack speed and gives them a critical damage chance.

Secondary spellcaster. Can initially cast Phantom Glide, which makes it immune to physical damage and allows to detect invisible units. Can also learn Haunt and False Echo.

	Phantom Glide	Turns the Apparition ethereal, gaining additional movement speed and making it immune to physical damage but unable to attack. It can cast spells, detect nearby invisible units and will take extra damage from Magic attacks and spells.
	Haunt	Removes all buffs from units in a target area and causes enemies to have a chance of missing their attacks. Deals damage to summoned units.
	False Echo	Creates an illusion of the target friendly organic unit that deals a percentage of the original unit's damage and takes extra damage. If an enemy unit destroys this illusion it will be disarmed for several seconds.

Anti-spellcaster creature adept at disrupting enemy units with mana. Has Scour, which dispels buffs and destroys mana from enemy units. Also has Spell Immunity. Can learn Insight Curse.

	Scour	Dispels positive buffs from enemy units, and negative buffs from friendly units. When cast on enemy non-Hero units will cause them to lose mana. Deals damage to summoned units.
	Insight Curse	Inflicts a curse on an enemy organic unit with mana, losing mana every time it try to cast a spell. If the unit's mana reaches 0, the curse will be removed and the unit will be silenced.
	Spell Immunity	Renders this unit immune to all spells.

Long-range siege weaponry. Exceptional damage versus buildings, but slow and vulnerable. Can learn Unhallowed Payload.

Unhallowed Payload

Enemy units killed by this unit will generate Soul Essence and create an area of blight at their location. The amount of Soul Essence generated is equal to the original unit's food cost. Enemy structures destroyed by this unit will also generate some Soul Essence.

Melee construct made of corpses, effective against buildings and with a high hit point regeneration while on blight. Has Pestilent Barrage, which hurls a corpse at an enemy structure and reduces its armor. Can learn Mortuary Shield.

	Pestilent Barrage	Sacrifices some of the Corpse Titan's hit points to hurl a rotting corpse at a target structure or mechanical unit, dealing damage and reducing its armor for some seconds. Cannot be used if the Corpse Titan has not enough hit points left.
	Mortuary Shield	When this unit is over blight it gains additional hit point regeneration rate and damage resistance against the attacks from buildings and mechanical units.

Flying undead fiery drake. Can learn Shadowflame.

Shadowflame

Increases attack range and gives a chance to ignore a portion of the armor of enemy air units.

Tier 3

Harvester

Ghost Maw

Powerful support lich. Has Life Reaper, which allows to attack multiple enemies at once, and Deadly Burst, which unleashes a healing plague nova upon reaching the limit of charges. Can learn Necrotic Mastery.

	Life Reaper	Allows the Harvester to attack several nearby enemies at once, gaining Deadly Burst charges for each enemy hit, but dealing a reduced amount of normal damage to each.
	Deadly Burst	Life Reaper attacks fill charges for this ability, up to a maximum. Upon reaching the limit, the charges reset and the Harvester unleashes a plague nova that heals nearby friendly undead units and creates a blight area at its location.
	Necrotic Mastery	Increases the attack rate of Harvesters and increases the amount of targets of Life Reaper.

Flying assault wyrm. Effective at aerial sieges, but slow and vulnerable. Can learn the Glacial Tomb ability.

Glacial Tomb

Creates a small freezing zone at the point of impact with each attack for a few seconds. The freezing zone reduces land enemies' movement speed and causes buildings to take siege damage from Ghost Maws' attacks instead of magic damage.

Arthas

Arthas Menethil

Arthas's Path

The Lich King

Warrior Hero, exceptional on melee fights and leading undead armies. Can learn Dreadstrike, Eternal Agony, March of the Scourge, and Phantom Steed. Can upgrade his stats and abilities unlocking talents.

Frostmourne's Hunger

Dreadstrike

Eternal Agony

March of the Scourge

Phantom Steed

Frostmourne's Hunger

Innate ability

Arthas's basic attacks against enemy non-mechanical units will generate Soul Essence (extra Soul Essence against heroes). For every 1 Soul Essence currently stored, Arthas attacks and spells gain a critical chance and additional critical damage.

	Dreadstrike	A powerful melee strike that deals damage to a target enemy land unit and restores hit points to Arthas. Generates Soul Essence when used against enemy units (extra Soul Essence against Heroes).
	Spectral Assault	Increases Dreadstrike damage and the hit will reach an enemy unit near the target, dealing damage and restoring additional hit points to Arthas. Generates some Soul Essence.
	Decimate	Grants a chance to instantly kill the target enemy of Dreadstrike if Arthas's current hit points triples the target's.

	Eternal Agony	Channels necromantic energies over the target area over a few seconds, dealing damage per second to enemy units and creating a small zone of blight.
	Death Siphon	Increases Eternal Agony damage per second and Arthas will heal hit points per second for each enemy unit hit.
	Army of the Dead	When Eternal Agony is cast, one Boneguard will spawn next to each enemy land unit in the area, up to a limit of Boneguards per cast. Boneguards last a few seconds.

	March of the Scourge	An aura that gives nearby friendly units a chance to deal bonus damage. Undead units have an increased chance when fighting over blight.
	Spirit Grinder	Arthas's attacks will reduce the current cooldown of Dreadstrike and Eternal Agony.
	Apocalypse Now	Increases the bonus damage of March of the Scourge. When an enemy Hero is killed by an unit affected by this aura, all nearby allied units will gain maximum movement speed for a few seconds.

	Phantom Steed	Summons Arthas's undead horse, Invincible, to the battlefield. Invincible quickly makes its way towards Arthas, dealing damage to enemy land units it hits. When the horse reaches Arthas he will mount, dispelling negative buffs, and gain bonus hit points, extra movement speed and cannot be slowed for the duration.
	Unholy Iceshock	While Phantom Steed is active, Arthas will gain an enhanced attack every few seconds that deals spell damage to the target and nearby enemy units around it.

Arthas's Path is a talent menu exclusive for this Hero. It allows to both unlock and upgrade Arthas's abilities, as well as increase his stats by using the Soul Essence resource. This talent tree consists of two branches:

Lore talents: This is the main branch, located at the bottom of the window. It is a linear 10-level branch that follows Arthas's story from obtaining Frostmourne to becoming the Lich King, and each level gives him certain bonus stats.
Ability talents: The Ability talents are the secondary branches that allow to, first, unlock his abilities and then upgrade them. Ability talents require a certain level of Lore talents first in order to be researched, indicated by the blue vertical lines.

Once you unlock the entire Arthas's Path you will finally gain access to the last level of the Lore talents, which will grant one last upgrade to Arthas and will replace his ultimate with a new one.

The final upgrade of Arthas's Path, Ascension, will transform Arthas into the Lich King itself. He will gain additional hit points and damage, as well as a new ultimate that will replace Phantom Steed.

Summon Sindragosa

Summons the powerful wyrm Sindragosa to attack Arthas's enemies. Sindragosa has Unholy Iceshock, Spell Immunity, and Resistant Skin.