hopefully #13 is better!
Using the Shadefrost Nerubians
Understanding the Gameplay
Units
Heroes
Strategy
The Shadefrost Nerubians use only six structures:
Aside from the Altar and Hatchery, you won't use structures to build your army. Instead, the majority of your units will either be laid in an egg by one of your units, or evolve in a cocoon from one of your units. You can easily tell the eggs and cocoons apart by their color.
- Bastion (main base with 2 upgraded forms, and also standard upgrades)
- Ziggurat (food source, upgrades into 2 different towers)
- Altar of Shadefrost (makes heroes)
- Reliquary (item shop and lumber dropoff)
- Sculptuary (enables spellcasters and upgrades them)
- Hatchery (creates Arachnathid eggs, has upgrades)
The basic units of your army evolve into each other in a linear fashion. Some of the more specialized troops will either branch off of that line, or be acquired in a different way.
The Ziggurat and Bastion are summoned by your basic Melee and Ranged unit, respectively. The other structures will require you to sacrifice one of your worker units.
Laid by Vanguard Evolves from Collector Evolves from Vanguard
Total cost: 75 gold 1 food Total cost: 140 gold 2 food Total cost: 200 gold 35 lumber 3 food
The basic worker unit of the Shadefrost Nerubians.
- Evolve to Vanguard: Spend 65 gold to evolve this unit into a Vanguard.
- Summon Foundation: Places a foundation at a target location. Once the foundation is placed, this unit can be sacrificed to summon a structure into the foundation.
- Restore: Repairs mechanical units and structures. Costs resources.
- Gather: Mines gold from gold mines. Can't harvest lumber.
Primary troop and lumber harvester.
- Lay Collector: Spend 75 gold to lay an egg that hatches into a Collector.
- Evolve to Stinger: Spend 60 gold and 35 lumber to evolve this unit into a Stinger.
- Evolve to Bombarder: Spend 75 gold and 40 lumber to evolve this unit into a Bombarder. Requires you to upgrade your Bastion into a Bulwark first.
- Summon Ziggurat: Spend 125 gold and 50 lumber to summon a Ziggurat at a target location. Ziggurats provide 8 food, and can be upgraded into towers.
- Gather: Harvests lumber from trees. This harvesting is at double speed, like how Ghouls do it.
Basic ranged troop.
- Lay Corruptor: Spend 130 gold and 20 lumber to lay an egg that hatches into a Corruptor. Requires a Sculptuary.
- Evolve to Brood Queen: Spend 80 gold and 20 lumber to evolve this unit into a Brood Queen. Requires a Hatchery.
- Summon Bastion: Spend 385 gold and 185 lumber to summon a Bastion at a target location. Bastions act as both Town Hall and Blacksmith for Shadefrost Nerubians, allowing resources to be dropped off and core upgrades to be completed.
- Poison Sting: Deals minor damage over time to organic enemies.
- Web: Binds air enemies to the ground. Requires a research from the Hatchery.
Evolves from Vanguard Laid by Stinger Evolves from Corruptor
Total cost: 215 gold 40 lumber 3 food Total cost: 130 gold 20 lumber 2 food Total cost: 180 gold 70 lumber 3 food
Basic flying unit with a ranged attack.
Primary spellcaster.
- Parasite: Deals 5 damage per second. If a unit dies with this buff, it spawns a Scarab.
- Shadow Blend: Turns a unit invisible, while slowing and regenerating it. The unit becomes visible while attacking or spellcasting, but only for a moment. Requires Adept training.
- Merge: Permanently combines with an Arachnathid to form an Injector. Requires Master training.
- Evolve to Fireshaper: Spend 50 gold and 50 lumber to evolve this unit into a Fireshaper. Requires a Reliquary.
Long range siege unit with splash damage. Can't attack at close range.
- Permanent Immolation: Burns nearby enemies for 10 damage per second.
Evolves from Stinger Laid by Brood Queen Laid by Hatchery
Total cost: 280 gold 55 lumber 4 food Total cost: 160 gold 20 lumber 2 food Total cost: 200 gold 80 lumber 3 food
Tactical ranged unit that can be upgraded to serve a siege role.
- Lay Seer: Spend 160 gold and 20 lumber to lay an egg that hatches into a Seer. Requires a Sculptuary.
- Brood Spawn: Summons 2 Scarabs. These Scarabs can help divert damage from your more important units.
- Poison Sting: Deals minor damage over time to organic enemies.
Support spellcaster.
- Inner Frost: Increases a friendly unit's attack damage, and regenerates their mana when nearby units cast spells.
- Spell Shield: Removes negative buffs from friendly units, and heals them by 25 per buff. Also blocks the next spell cast on those units, but this shield only lasts 20 seconds. Requires Adept training.
- Liquid Energy: Speeds up friendly units, but disables their abilities. Requires Master training.
- True Sight: Can see invisible and burrowed units.
Armored short-range unit. Its eggs are laid by the Hatchery, instead of by a Shadefrost Nerubian unit.
- Noxious Blast: Deals damage over time to a target and nearby enemies.
- Burrow: Digs underground, becoming invisible and regenerating faster. Requires a research from the Hatchery.
- Merge: Permanently combines with a Corruptor to become an Injector. Requires Corruptor Master Training.
Merge Corruptor and Arachnathid Built by Collector
Total cost: 330 gold 100 lumber 5 food Total cost: 375 gold 175 lumber 8 food
Fast and heavily armored melee attacker. Complicated to make, but superior in ground combat.
- Noxious Blast: Deals damage over time to a target and nearby enemies, and slows them.
- Burrow: Digs underground, becoming invisible and regenerating faster. Requires a research from the Hatchery.
Heavily armored anti-air structure with a much weaker attack versus ground units.
- Genocide Gas: Damages all units, friend or foe, underneath this unit. Ignores spell immunity. Requires a research from the Sculptuary.
Warrior Hero, skilled at defending allied units and absorbing damage.
Mystical Hero, counterpart to the Undead Lich.
Cunning Hero, adept at manipulating large battles.
Vicious Hero, capable of quickly killing groups of enemies and chasing down important targets.
Can be cast two different ways:
Target a point to create an arc of ice, dealing damage to all enemy ground units within.
Target an enemy ground unit to create a cross of ice, dealing double damage to the target and half damage to all other enemy ground units within.
Either way, all units damaged by this spell have their attack damage reduced for 10 seconds.
- Level 1 - 50 base damage, 10% damage reduction.
- Level 2 - 100 base damage, 20% damage reduction.
- Level 3 - 150 base damage, 30% damage reduction.
Short-range blast of darkness that reduces the movement and attack speed of the target and all nearby hostile units.
- Level 1 - Slows movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 30% for 10 seconds.
- Level 2 - Slows movement speed by 40% and attack speed by 45% for 12 seconds.
- Level 3 - Slows movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 60% for 14 seconds.
The Venom Widow lets loose a powerful blast of sound in a target area. For 10 seconds, friendly units in the area gain armor and life regeneration, while hostile units are slowed.
- Level 1 - 3 armor and 5 life per second, 30% attack rate.
- Level 2 - 4 armor and 7 life per second, 40% attack rate.
- Level 3 - 5 armor and 10 life per second, 50% attack rate.
The Predator digs into the ground and tunnels towards a target, damaging enemy ground units in the way and pushing them aside. If the Predator hits an enemy ground unit head-on at the end of the tunnel, that unit takes extra damage and is stunned for 3 seconds.
- Level 1 - 25 damage during the tunnel, 75 damage at the end.
- Level 2 - 50 damage during the tunnel, 150 damage at the end.
- Level 3 - 75 damage during the tunnel, 225 damage at the end.
Teleports friendly units in the target area to the Guardian one by one, healing them in the process. The amount of healing increases with each teleport. Each unit teleported costs an extra 25 mana, and the spell will stop if the Guardian runs out of mana.
- Level 1 - First heal is for 50 life, adds 10 each time.
- Level 2 - First heal is for 80 life, adds 20 each time.
- Level 3 - First heal is for 130 life, adds 30 each time.
Strikes a target unit with a bolt of dark lightning, dealing damage based on the number of debuffs the target has.
If the target has a debuff that stuns, slows, or snares it, nearby hostile units will flee in fear, unable to fight.
- Level 1 - 100 base damage, 50 per debuff. Fear lasts for 5 seconds.
- Level 2 - 150 base damage, 75 per debuff. Fear lasts for 7 seconds.
- Level 3 - 200 base damage, 100 per debuff. Fear lasts for 10 seconds.
Periodically causes the Venom Widow's attack to unleash a blast of venom at enemy units in a line that deals 20 initial damage, and 5 damage per second over 5 seconds. Drains mana for each blast.
- Level 1 - 5 second cooldown.
- Level 2 - 4 second cooldown.
- Level 3 - 3 second cooldown.
Increases the Hero's attack rate for a short amount of time. If the Hero kills an enemy unit while this spell is in effect, its cooldown will be reset.
- Level 1 - 40% bonus for 8 seconds.
- Level 2 - 100% bonus for 10 seconds.
- Level 3 - 175% bonus for 12 seconds.
Increases the life regeneration rate of nearby friendly units. When an enemy attacks a unit under the effect of this aura, they have a chance to be forced to attack the Guardian.
- Level 1 - 5% chance to taunt, minor regeneration bonus.
- Level 2 - 10% chance to taunt, moderate regeneration bonus.
- Level 3 - 15% chance to taunt, greater regeneration bonus.
Increases the mana regeneration of nearby friendly units when nearby friendly units are being attacked. When a nearby friendly unit dies, the Dark Elder will have the cooldown of one of his abilities reset.
- Level 1 - Lesser mana regeneration.
- Level 2 - Moderate mana regeneration.
- Level 3 - Greater mana regeneration.
When the Hero is attacked by a unit with mana, a small amount of mana will be transferred from that unit to the Hero. Also increases the Hero's Intelligence.
- Level 1 - Transfers 2 mana, 3 bonus Intelligence.
- Level 2 - Transfers 4 mana, 4 bonus Intelligence.
- Level 3 - Transfers 6 mana, 5 bonus Intelligence.
Gives a 15% chance with each attack to deal damage to all nearby ground enemies. Heals the Predator for half of the damage dealt to non-mechanical units.
- Level 1 - 25 damage.
- Level 2 - 60 damage.
- Level 3 - 100 damage.
Summons a powerful Ice Titan. The Ice Titan is immune to magic, has Bash, and deals Siege damage. It can also use its mana supply to heal your Heroes and restore their mana.
Lasts 120 seconds.
If the Guardian has Inciting Aura, and the Ice Titan is standing in it, units that attack the Guardian have a chance to be taunted by the Ice Titan.
Creates a sphere of darkness that damages everything based on how close it is to the center. Units that get too close are pulled in.
The sphere and its area grow as more damage is dealt, and it will slowly move towards the Dark Elder. Be careful not to channel the spell for so long that the caster is killed!
Injects one of your ground units with a powerful and dangerous stimulant. The stimulant increases the unit's attack rate by 75%, makes it move faster, causes it to regenerate 10 life per second, and makes it immune to magic for 1 minute. When the stimulant wears off, the unit dies instantly.
Cannot be used on Heroes or Mechanical units.
Unleashes a whirling storm of blood towards a target point. The storm's target point can be changed during the spell's duration. After reaching its target, the storm will move towards the Predator until it is re-targeted. Enemy units caught in the storm will take 100 damage per second.
Lasts 12 seconds.
- The total amount of time that it takes to make a Shadefrost Nerubian unit is longer than normal. However, you can turn this around through clever micromanagement. For instance, to get a Vanguard faster, you can have a Vanguard lay a Collector egg, then immediately have one of your Collectors evolve into a Vanguard. Now, instead of a 27 second turn-around time, you get your Vanguard in 7 seconds and replace your Collector in 20 seconds!
- Time your egg-laying and evolution around your battles! Before going into battle, have your units lay eggs to replenish the forces you will lose. After battle, have your injured units evolve, and the resulting units will be at full health. If you've researched Resilient Shells, you can do some of this mid-battle, since your normally Unarmored eggs and cocoons will get Fortified armor.
- Usually, the Shadefrost Nerubians want their Heroes close to the front line, taking damage in place of the regular units. Be sure to keep your Heroes stocked with healing items!
- If you wall off part of your base using your Ziggurats, be sure to summon your Altar of Shadefrost and your Hatchery outside of the wall. Otherwise, the units they produce may become trapped.
- Vanguards are the real key unit to maintaining your army, even if you're not putting them on the front lines. Keep on laying more Collectors, and keep on evolving those Collectors into Vanguards, to ensure you have a steady supply of troops.
- You usually don't want Vanguards in your army during Tier 2, since Arachnathids and Brood Queens can handle the front better. At Tier 3, on the other hand, the Vicious Claws upgrade makes them relevant again.
- Be choosy about when you have Web turned on. If you have Sky Palaces in the back, it's better not to Web weaker flying units, since the Palaces can obliterate them in the air. You might still want to Web enemy Frost Wyrms and Dragonhawk Riders, since they are strong against Sky Palaces.
- If your opponent isn't using Mechanical units, a hit-and-run strategy can help you get the most out of Poison Sting, especially once you've upgraded it to slow enemies.
- Bombarders take a while to hatch, and they're most effective when you have a lot of them, so maintaining a large supply of Vanguards to transition into them is essential.
- Bombarders attack slowly, so watch your timing if you're doing a hit-and-run with them.
- Shadow Blend is a very useful tactical spell, especially for units that are slow and vulnerable. Using it on your Fireshapers can make your siege attacks very difficult for enemies to deal with, for instance. Don't waste Shadow Blend on cheap units, because it isn't worth it.
- Keep in mind that Merge takes 100 Mana to use. If it all gets spent on Parasites, you might have a hard time transitioning into Injectors. You can mitigate this problem by getting the Magenesis upgrade.
- Permanent Immolation might not seem very useful for a siege unit, but it can help prevent the Fireshaper from being picked off by enemy melee units, if you think fast. Use your other troops to pin the melee units close to the Fireshaper when they move in to attack it, then use the added damage to focus them down.
- Brood Spawn might be on Autocast, but sometimes you can time your Scarabs better by casting it manually.
- Scarabs will chase enemies down, but eventually they will come back to the place they were summoned. Since they're expendable, it's worth taking a moment to select them all and order them to attack, so they won't return to you at an inopportune moment.
- The Ram upgrade can let you use Brood Queens as a siege unit, but this will backfire against Orcs with the Spiked Barricades upgrade. If you still must use them this way, try having just one Brood Queen ram the building while a bunch of your ranged units (such as Fireshapers) hit it from safety.
- It's usually better to cast Spell Shield on your units right before battle, even if you miss out on some healing this way. Your opponent will have a harder time picking targets that don't have a shield amidst the crowd.
- Inner Frost is useful and all, but try to save some mana for Liquid Energy! Liquid Energy is especially useful for empowering units that don't rely on abilities, such as Vanguards and Scarabs.
- Hit your enemies early with Noxious Blast, so that the damage will have as much time as possible to pile up.
- Despite having a ranged attack, Arachnathids work great on the front line. Their armor is high, and if they take too much damage, you can just Burrow them and let them regenerate in safety.
- Injectors might be a pain to get, but make no mistake: they are the true masters of melee combat, especially once the Vicious Claws research is complete. Hit the enemy with the improved version of Noxious Blast to keep them from escaping, then just let their attacks do the rest.
- Burrow is even more important for Injectors, since that's a more expensive unit that you're rescuing. Keep an eye on their life, and don't be afraid to pull them out of combat if things are looking dicey.
- This is the only Mechanical unit that the Shadefrost Nerubians use, and it's worth repairing them if they get battered. Each Palace is a big investment on your part. If you're a StarCraft player, think of them as your Battlecruisers.
- Sky Palaces are the only flying unit that has Heavy armor, which means that traditional anti-air isn't all that effective against them. If your opponent tries to focus-fire a Sky Palace with Archers or something, fly right on top of them and use Genocide Gas. You should survive long enough to destroy them.
I'm looking at it from my desktop right now, and I can see the full images. I cropped most of them down to help them fit on the page. The unit images are supposed to be 256x256 squares, and that's how I see them. If you're seeing something different, maybe take a screenshot and I can try to figure out what's amiss.
Well, that's how it's supposed to do it. It looks like your desktop is smaller than mine, though, so you might have to zoom out in your browser to see everything.
Aww, thanks! Still, it's not the entry format that wins the contest. I hope some people will actually try the Shadefrost Nerubians out and give me feedback.
I don't think it's too late to enter, but you'll have less time to work with than the rest of us. Even so, I look forward to what you make!
Bandits? Like, human bandits? Curious to see how they evolve.
This was intentionally put into the trigger to help with early game. Completing a spire shard removes the shard and therefore removes it from the player's selection. The trigger will help re-select the spire as it's rather cumbersome to select it back on your own.
Oh wow, a rather tedious bug if I do say so myself. Fixed. Good find tho
I remembered this one a month ago. Forgot about it when I got called by my parents to do chores. It's now free to disenchant orbs.
Yeah, I use probably the simplest way to make triggers as I'm kinda good at it. I can't Jass, I don't know how to use hashtables, but I know how to properly index things (maybe). My bet is on the timers that I often use that causes the lag spikes.
Pardon me for being so blunt, but that's a bad way to handle it. The correct way to handle it is, right before you remove the shard, make a Player Group of all the players that had that shard in their selection. Then, remove the shard and add the spire. Last, pick every player in that group you just made, and add the new spire to their selection. To avoid memory leaks, you should call DestroyForce() on the group after all that is finished.
When I read this, I had a different computer download the map and play it. It worked just fine on that other computer, which means that the problem is probably on your end. Try re-downloading the map, or, if that still doesn't solve it, try opening it in World Editor and testing the map, then substitute the resulting test map in for the one you downloaded. These are things that I've tried when I had this problem after downloading a map.
Selection - Add (Last created unit) to selection for (Owner of UPG_Building)
There are three problems with this:I just use this:
I mean, you can't upgrade the shard without it being in your selection. Simple, but I think it's not a problem and works correctly.
function InitTrig_<> takes nothing returns nothing
local unit u = CreateUnit(player, unitId, x, y, facing)
call RemoveUnit (u)
...
set u = null
endfunction
Ah, I see the things haven't changed much. Pretty much the main reason why I want to test races because other than other contestants nobody does it. Well even contestants don't alwys do it unless you do it to them first. Don't even get me started on the polls.
While it's always a shame to see such happen, this is the real fruit of these Contests; self-improvement, self-actualization. : )
