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- Apr 24, 2012
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Contestants were to create a techtree themed around a chosen Warcraft hero/character. The submission must fit the theme of the hero and ideally capture a style of gameplay attributed to them.
- 1st place: 75 reputation points
- 2nd place: 50 reputation points
- 3rd place: 25 reputation points
- Entry: 15 reputation points
- Judge: 15 reputation points per entry
The three winning teams will receive an award icon, representing the winning entry.
Theme | How well the various elements of the Faction (including aesthetics, gameplay & design) fit together in a thematic manner such that they feel like they are representative of the given Faction, as well as that of the chosen Contest Theme. Well-fitting & polished aesthetics which complement a cohesive theme will be graded well; poorly-considered or lacking thematic elements will result in a poor score. | /25 |
Gameplay | How well the various elements of the Faction work together to achieve the tactical synergy & gameplay style the Faction has, as well as how efficiently each element performs its particular function. Strategic systems that endow an identity to the Faction, comprehensive & well-though-out roles which complement a cohesive Faction will be graded well; ill-considered, insufficient or over-compensating roles will lose points. | /25 |
Balance | Indicates how comparable the Faction is in terms of 'playability'; i.e. the ideal Faction should win/lose 50% of the time against default races. Overpowered or Underpowered units/heroes/abilities/etc. will result in a poor score; properly balanced elements will result in a good score. | /20 |
Creativity | How original the design of the Faction is in terms of innovative ideas, clever implementations, or creative concepts. Innovation and creativity will be rewarded; extensive re-use of existing elements in vanilla factions & poor originality will result in a poor score. | /30 |
| /100 |
- Judgement: 70%
- Poll: 30%
Bangsgaard received a 5% malus for self-voting.
64/100
Theme: 20/25
I don't get the sense of a sea faring people art wise from the buildings. I can see you were heading there with the Foundry and Tent. Your core combat units from the Barracks aren't terribly creative with abilities, but they do fit a sea aesthetic well. Ditto for those from the Mage Tent. The Enchanted Shipyard does a much better job of providing visually and functionally unique units that fit your theme. Jaina having Talents was a nice touch, although they too could have been less generic. Overall I don't attribute this with "Jaina's army."
Gameplay: 15/25
There's not a strong style I could identify. Generically spells rely on water. There are certainly all the specific roles represented, but as far as a tactical synergy it's mostly a case of spamming ranged units.
Balance: 14/20
Daughter of the Sea is basically a flying hero unit. I was able to decimate a T3 Tauren army with one. The Alliance Bombard similarly does incredible damage. I was able to defend my base indefinitely by block the entrance with two Barracks and placing six of them behind the wall. Kirin Tor Guardians costing zero food despite their ability roster meant I could spam them over cliffs to the enemy gold line. I'm assuming this was an oversight. The Admiral's Guard is a good example of the core issue with this race: most units hit way too hard for their cost. He does 56 damage at T3 while providing Command Aura, with 8 armor, a chance to reduce armor on attack, and only costs 2 food. I tried a number of unit compositions and was always able to win fights by a-moving with fewer units.
Creativity: 15/30
In text and visuals you brought some originality. In function most spells are simple alterations on vanilla spells. The tech tree is also extremely similar to the Human tree. I think there was an opportunity for the sea to be more integrated into upgrades, or just the addition of non-standard upgrades. You did some of this with the Talent system, but again there was nothing innovative beyond the concept.
Theme: 20/25
I don't get the sense of a sea faring people art wise from the buildings. I can see you were heading there with the Foundry and Tent. Your core combat units from the Barracks aren't terribly creative with abilities, but they do fit a sea aesthetic well. Ditto for those from the Mage Tent. The Enchanted Shipyard does a much better job of providing visually and functionally unique units that fit your theme. Jaina having Talents was a nice touch, although they too could have been less generic. Overall I don't attribute this with "Jaina's army."
Gameplay: 15/25
There's not a strong style I could identify. Generically spells rely on water. There are certainly all the specific roles represented, but as far as a tactical synergy it's mostly a case of spamming ranged units.
Balance: 14/20
Daughter of the Sea is basically a flying hero unit. I was able to decimate a T3 Tauren army with one. The Alliance Bombard similarly does incredible damage. I was able to defend my base indefinitely by block the entrance with two Barracks and placing six of them behind the wall. Kirin Tor Guardians costing zero food despite their ability roster meant I could spam them over cliffs to the enemy gold line. I'm assuming this was an oversight. The Admiral's Guard is a good example of the core issue with this race: most units hit way too hard for their cost. He does 56 damage at T3 while providing Command Aura, with 8 armor, a chance to reduce armor on attack, and only costs 2 food. I tried a number of unit compositions and was always able to win fights by a-moving with fewer units.
Creativity: 15/30
In text and visuals you brought some originality. In function most spells are simple alterations on vanilla spells. The tech tree is also extremely similar to the Human tree. I think there was an opportunity for the sea to be more integrated into upgrades, or just the addition of non-standard upgrades. You did some of this with the Talent system, but again there was nothing innovative beyond the concept.
54/100
Theme: 14/25
It takes some time to understand where the differences are as you must train Arthas, kill units, and then give souls to another unit. There are no visual differences in the buildings to indicate something has changed. Until you upgrade units there's no connection to Arthas, and that is the major flaw in this commander: if you don't kill you don't experience him. As I experimented with upgrading every unit there was no theme to the improvements. For example if I isolate the Plague Fiend there's nothing about it that says: "Arthas made me."
Gameplay: 16/25
You have a clear strategic system for Arthas: kill, collect, upgrade. Unfortunately this creates a few bad situations. Early game I was creeping quickly and upgrading Ghouls and Fiends which snowballs fairly quickly due to the significant armor, damage, and ability bonuses. I got a few upgraded units and then hit the AI, which they had trouble recovering from as I gained more upgrades during the rush. In another game I saved the souls and spent those upgrading T2 units, just in time for an attack. I lost most of my forces, which do not drop souls, and fell back to using standard units. As the game progressed and creeps dried up I had a few bad engagements with the AI and for the remainder of that game I was basically using vanilla units as there just weren't that many units dying. The AI also seems to view the soul gems as enemy units and will attack them, but they appear to have 100% evasion, and they disappear after a time without any indicator.
Balance: 10/20
Early game this system can be abused and it does not scale over time. I expected higher tier units to provide more charges for Arthas to work with. Killing a Chimaera and getting the same reward as a Archer felt bad. The new Graveyard upgrades are way too powerful for their costs. 25% melee life steal for 200/200 is amazing, as are all the upgrades.
Creativity: 14/30
The system itself is interesting but the associated gameplay is lackluster. For how complicated it is to gather souls the units provided are simple stat upgrades with vanilla spells and abilities. I don't feel that Arthas created these units or that they are a cohesive force that compliments each other. The Fallen Priest and Revenant also don't add much and don't relate to Arthas, they are variations on vanilla units.
Theme: 14/25
It takes some time to understand where the differences are as you must train Arthas, kill units, and then give souls to another unit. There are no visual differences in the buildings to indicate something has changed. Until you upgrade units there's no connection to Arthas, and that is the major flaw in this commander: if you don't kill you don't experience him. As I experimented with upgrading every unit there was no theme to the improvements. For example if I isolate the Plague Fiend there's nothing about it that says: "Arthas made me."
Gameplay: 16/25
You have a clear strategic system for Arthas: kill, collect, upgrade. Unfortunately this creates a few bad situations. Early game I was creeping quickly and upgrading Ghouls and Fiends which snowballs fairly quickly due to the significant armor, damage, and ability bonuses. I got a few upgraded units and then hit the AI, which they had trouble recovering from as I gained more upgrades during the rush. In another game I saved the souls and spent those upgrading T2 units, just in time for an attack. I lost most of my forces, which do not drop souls, and fell back to using standard units. As the game progressed and creeps dried up I had a few bad engagements with the AI and for the remainder of that game I was basically using vanilla units as there just weren't that many units dying. The AI also seems to view the soul gems as enemy units and will attack them, but they appear to have 100% evasion, and they disappear after a time without any indicator.
Balance: 10/20
Early game this system can be abused and it does not scale over time. I expected higher tier units to provide more charges for Arthas to work with. Killing a Chimaera and getting the same reward as a Archer felt bad. The new Graveyard upgrades are way too powerful for their costs. 25% melee life steal for 200/200 is amazing, as are all the upgrades.
Creativity: 14/30
The system itself is interesting but the associated gameplay is lackluster. For how complicated it is to gather souls the units provided are simple stat upgrades with vanilla spells and abilities. I don't feel that Arthas created these units or that they are a cohesive force that compliments each other. The Fallen Priest and Revenant also don't add much and don't relate to Arthas, they are variations on vanilla units.
72/100
Theme: 20/25
You have a cohesive idea here. It is missing elements though that leads to having few viable strategies. Raiku Leaf's design could have been more integrated and/or easier to access. You did well aesthetically as its clear enough I'm dealing with something related to Druids when looking at my base.
Gameplay: 18/25
Maybe I'm missing something, but until I researched Emerald Gift there was no way to gather lumber. The first play through I about got myself into a place where I couldn't afford the lumber cost, that should really be a given ability. Similarly Raiku Leafs should not be an upgrade. The Dream Tower was a powerful defensive structure, but again it wasn't clear that a Druid had to be in it to deal damage. There's also no cargo indicator to indicate how full it is, which appears to be a max of three. The Circle of Ownership is interesting, but really disrupts base building as you don't control where it spawns (it can go over cliffs too). There is synergy with the units, but there are notable roles missing such as any siege unit until the Savage Beast late game. Having to return to my base to get Raiku Leafs was also disruptive to pushing an advantage after winning a fight.
Balance: 12/20
Slab of Rock being a single active use is crazy for 1000 gold. Dream Tower can be incredibly lethal. For example placing three max tech Druid Acolytes in one means 77-257 damage until killed, but then you have to kill the units inside as well. If I place an occupied Druid Farm nearby the tower becomes near un-killable due to the regeneration rate. The downside of Dream Power is potentially crippling, especially if you happen to start in a location where the circle is exposed. This structure almost steals game focus as the swings it can potentially bring may be game ending. I also don't like that it deals no base damage. Savage Beast is more appropriate since it has so many pre-requisites; although the base movement speed is so high hero surrounds were guaranteed. It also comes so late in the game I can't imagine it would see much use. When I discovered Bulky Protection I immediately purchased three and stacked them on my 50 food army, which made my army deadly. Elune's Dream is useful only in two situations I can think of and really should be a hero ability: fleeing a battle, repositioning to attack once it stops. More so it can be stacked so the game can simple stop for minutes at a time.
Creativity: 22/30
I haven’t seen a passive AoE heal style bunker ability before so the Druid Farm is interesting. Having any unit load into towers to increase damage was interesting, if problematic. Where it falls short is the application of the few unique ideas across the tech tree.
Theme: 20/25
You have a cohesive idea here. It is missing elements though that leads to having few viable strategies. Raiku Leaf's design could have been more integrated and/or easier to access. You did well aesthetically as its clear enough I'm dealing with something related to Druids when looking at my base.
Gameplay: 18/25
Maybe I'm missing something, but until I researched Emerald Gift there was no way to gather lumber. The first play through I about got myself into a place where I couldn't afford the lumber cost, that should really be a given ability. Similarly Raiku Leafs should not be an upgrade. The Dream Tower was a powerful defensive structure, but again it wasn't clear that a Druid had to be in it to deal damage. There's also no cargo indicator to indicate how full it is, which appears to be a max of three. The Circle of Ownership is interesting, but really disrupts base building as you don't control where it spawns (it can go over cliffs too). There is synergy with the units, but there are notable roles missing such as any siege unit until the Savage Beast late game. Having to return to my base to get Raiku Leafs was also disruptive to pushing an advantage after winning a fight.
Balance: 12/20
Slab of Rock being a single active use is crazy for 1000 gold. Dream Tower can be incredibly lethal. For example placing three max tech Druid Acolytes in one means 77-257 damage until killed, but then you have to kill the units inside as well. If I place an occupied Druid Farm nearby the tower becomes near un-killable due to the regeneration rate. The downside of Dream Power is potentially crippling, especially if you happen to start in a location where the circle is exposed. This structure almost steals game focus as the swings it can potentially bring may be game ending. I also don't like that it deals no base damage. Savage Beast is more appropriate since it has so many pre-requisites; although the base movement speed is so high hero surrounds were guaranteed. It also comes so late in the game I can't imagine it would see much use. When I discovered Bulky Protection I immediately purchased three and stacked them on my 50 food army, which made my army deadly. Elune's Dream is useful only in two situations I can think of and really should be a hero ability: fleeing a battle, repositioning to attack once it stops. More so it can be stacked so the game can simple stop for minutes at a time.
Creativity: 22/30
I haven’t seen a passive AoE heal style bunker ability before so the Druid Farm is interesting. Having any unit load into towers to increase damage was interesting, if problematic. Where it falls short is the application of the few unique ideas across the tech tree.
75/100
Theme: 20/25
While the Pathfinder was at first a strange unit to me it started to make more sense once I saw it was integrated into siege weapons. Many units have attack based buffs, which feels at home in a race based on aggression. Aesthetically everything fits. Shared abilities also tend to create a unifying sense so Battlefury paid off here. Unfortunately the theme suffers from complexity in spells.
Gameplay: 20/25
Starting with only one builder threw me off, especially since you lose the worker for the build duration. Rushing is basically not an option. I love the aggression focus of the race. It starts to become cumbersome though as there are so many buffs and debuffs to track it's a mess for both players. The Status bars on some units were maxed fairly often. Even the T3 items for sale add more buffs to the mix. Otherwise it was a fairly standard race to play. Juggernaut acting as a sort of passive talent system was fun, and in general I enjoyed attacking with him.
Balance: 15/20
As interesting as it is requiring a Pathfinder to get use of siege weapons creates a phantom requirement, and means I need to make two units just to deal damage. I'm not a fan of paying for a unit I then can't use. Black Shrine is an incredible late game upgrade structure. Having a race-wide unit replacement upgrade is pretty neat, although I worry that it would be very startling to an enemy player if you happened to be in combat when it finished. The Spellhunter Ward is a great idea, although my issue with wards in general is how fast they get nuked down. Stygian Cuirass is incredibly good for its mana cost and duration. The Supply Kodo is a powerful plus for this race as it provides instant expo benefits. That makes up for the higher cost of some upgrades as well since there is little investment cost in expansions vs other races. Having a permanently invisible unit is also concerning, although by T3 everyone has detection.
Creativity: 20/30
Despite balance and gameplay concerns you're spell ideas are original in their implementation. Juggernaut in particular allows me to add an enjoyable level of complexity to hero abilities. The siege weapons felt lazy compared to the rest of your units, and I was disappointed that Mannoroth's Blood didn't change them (although it makes sense).
Theme: 20/25
While the Pathfinder was at first a strange unit to me it started to make more sense once I saw it was integrated into siege weapons. Many units have attack based buffs, which feels at home in a race based on aggression. Aesthetically everything fits. Shared abilities also tend to create a unifying sense so Battlefury paid off here. Unfortunately the theme suffers from complexity in spells.
Gameplay: 20/25
Starting with only one builder threw me off, especially since you lose the worker for the build duration. Rushing is basically not an option. I love the aggression focus of the race. It starts to become cumbersome though as there are so many buffs and debuffs to track it's a mess for both players. The Status bars on some units were maxed fairly often. Even the T3 items for sale add more buffs to the mix. Otherwise it was a fairly standard race to play. Juggernaut acting as a sort of passive talent system was fun, and in general I enjoyed attacking with him.
Balance: 15/20
As interesting as it is requiring a Pathfinder to get use of siege weapons creates a phantom requirement, and means I need to make two units just to deal damage. I'm not a fan of paying for a unit I then can't use. Black Shrine is an incredible late game upgrade structure. Having a race-wide unit replacement upgrade is pretty neat, although I worry that it would be very startling to an enemy player if you happened to be in combat when it finished. The Spellhunter Ward is a great idea, although my issue with wards in general is how fast they get nuked down. Stygian Cuirass is incredibly good for its mana cost and duration. The Supply Kodo is a powerful plus for this race as it provides instant expo benefits. That makes up for the higher cost of some upgrades as well since there is little investment cost in expansions vs other races. Having a permanently invisible unit is also concerning, although by T3 everyone has detection.
Creativity: 20/30
Despite balance and gameplay concerns you're spell ideas are original in their implementation. Juggernaut in particular allows me to add an enjoyable level of complexity to hero abilities. The siege weapons felt lazy compared to the rest of your units, and I was disappointed that Mannoroth's Blood didn't change them (although it makes sense).
69/100
Theme: 22/25
It's clear aesthetically this is a Blood Elf based race. There is an abundance of healing and damage spells on various units that indicate elven magics. You've captured the theme of your commander well enough I can imagine her leading these forces into battle.
Gameplay: 18/25
This race plays similarly to standard races. I wasn't clear at the beginning which hero to train first, meaning if I had not seen the map entry page I may have not even trained Lady Liadrin. The Blood Crystal ended up being helpful because of Magical Energies but in the real match a human player will nuke it down as soon as they see it. Players would need to hide it away which sort of negates the passive bonus. Overall I don't see an identity beyond heavy healing.
Balance: 17/20
I'm mainly concerned there's too much healing, and some units have too much utility. The Blood Knight has a strong single target heal, a very cheap attack/movement speed buff, and a AoE damage buff which makes them one of the best units in the game for her cost. Holy Arrows is an incredible upgrade for mid/late game when races depend on mana. In terms of unit stats though nothing stood out as way out of line. I felt the AI's comparable army was evenly matched.
Creativity: 12/30
This race has a few interesting notes such as Mount Arcane Golem, and the secondary hero abilities. Overall though there are many re-skinned vanilla spells. I'm not sure some units are necessary, particularly Dragonhawk Rider vs Sky Guardian. The Ballista checks the box for a basic siege unit, but nothing more. The Arcane Golem for all the requirements and upgrades is a Mountain Giant with Shockwave. I expected something more integrated than the Blood Crystal for a force meant to channel retribution. The T3 items were a letdown.
Theme: 22/25
It's clear aesthetically this is a Blood Elf based race. There is an abundance of healing and damage spells on various units that indicate elven magics. You've captured the theme of your commander well enough I can imagine her leading these forces into battle.
Gameplay: 18/25
This race plays similarly to standard races. I wasn't clear at the beginning which hero to train first, meaning if I had not seen the map entry page I may have not even trained Lady Liadrin. The Blood Crystal ended up being helpful because of Magical Energies but in the real match a human player will nuke it down as soon as they see it. Players would need to hide it away which sort of negates the passive bonus. Overall I don't see an identity beyond heavy healing.
Balance: 17/20
I'm mainly concerned there's too much healing, and some units have too much utility. The Blood Knight has a strong single target heal, a very cheap attack/movement speed buff, and a AoE damage buff which makes them one of the best units in the game for her cost. Holy Arrows is an incredible upgrade for mid/late game when races depend on mana. In terms of unit stats though nothing stood out as way out of line. I felt the AI's comparable army was evenly matched.
Creativity: 12/30
This race has a few interesting notes such as Mount Arcane Golem, and the secondary hero abilities. Overall though there are many re-skinned vanilla spells. I'm not sure some units are necessary, particularly Dragonhawk Rider vs Sky Guardian. The Ballista checks the box for a basic siege unit, but nothing more. The Arcane Golem for all the requirements and upgrades is a Mountain Giant with Shockwave. I expected something more integrated than the Blood Crystal for a force meant to channel retribution. The T3 items were a letdown.
82/100
Theme: 23/25
This is definitely a heavy pandaren theme. So much fresh cool ale! You defined the thematic elements extremely well, and they are present in most of the tech tree. As far as Chen goes he fits the army well.
Gameplay: 19/25
The logging camp is a great unit. I enjoy not having to always worry about worker harass, the refund ability is good for expansions, and the cart provides a nice visual touch but also allows the enemy player to understand what is going on. Bamboo Stalks are a similar well done mechanic that's easy to understand, and provides a meaningful bonus. The Pathfinder is an interesting take on the Dragonhawk Rider. I think the main issue is I'm not attacking while the spell is channeling. Unlike Cloud the intended target(s) are not immobile so this unit can easily be outmicroed. This is a similar issue with Heat Wave, it should really be an under eight second cast time otherwise I'll end up canceling it before then as the player moves their army away. This race suffers from too many chance buffs though. Every unit aside from the Storm and Fire Casks has a % based buff/debuff. Even your two premier items have chance based designs. That's a lot of random chance even for War3 and more so for a player to track on either side. The idea for specialized towers is a good one but I'd rather see this implemented as one building with researches to unlock Eye of the Storm and Taunt, it's less tedious for a player. I'd rather see Ingredients Sphere as an ability that is learned with Exotic Ingredients, and keep in mind that the game can only display 16 pings on the mini-map at a time.
Balance: 15/20
The other side of Bamboo Stalks is they provide infinite lumber, which is bad. Transmute is the only ability that expressly generates resources from "nothing" and it's an ultimate. Six Bamboo Huts means 30 free wood every minute. Exotic Ingredients is such well imagined spell, but it's simply overpowered. The drop rates are way too high and after a couple major engagements I had a super-Panda that just melted enemies (101-111 damage, 57/34/32 SAI, 1650 HP). As much as I love the Floating Cask the elemental upgrades are incredible for the associated mana costs, especially Fire Energy. I made a small army of them and absolutely wrecked an attack wave. Ale Rain is also a hard call as they are a difficult to kill healer, but I think the self-damage makes up for it. Tiller's Union is something I think Human could use, although a 50% gold rate increase is madness. 1-2 gold is substantial.
Creativity: 25/30
I love the Floating Cask. It's a simple unit but fun to use and Volatile Hop is a useful upgrade I've not seen on a suicidal unit before. The way you integrated it with the elements as well makes it scale well, and then used a similar structure for his Chen's ultimate. Ale Rain is also a simple and useful spell that fits well with the unit. As well thought out as many of the spells are too many of them rely on ale. It is certainly part of Pandaren lore, but it's not their only pursuit. Granite Embodiment is a good example of where I think more of the race could have drawn from. You came up with a number of interesting units, and then provided upgrades and interactions for them that made me want to explore your tech tree.
Theme: 23/25
This is definitely a heavy pandaren theme. So much fresh cool ale! You defined the thematic elements extremely well, and they are present in most of the tech tree. As far as Chen goes he fits the army well.
Gameplay: 19/25
The logging camp is a great unit. I enjoy not having to always worry about worker harass, the refund ability is good for expansions, and the cart provides a nice visual touch but also allows the enemy player to understand what is going on. Bamboo Stalks are a similar well done mechanic that's easy to understand, and provides a meaningful bonus. The Pathfinder is an interesting take on the Dragonhawk Rider. I think the main issue is I'm not attacking while the spell is channeling. Unlike Cloud the intended target(s) are not immobile so this unit can easily be outmicroed. This is a similar issue with Heat Wave, it should really be an under eight second cast time otherwise I'll end up canceling it before then as the player moves their army away. This race suffers from too many chance buffs though. Every unit aside from the Storm and Fire Casks has a % based buff/debuff. Even your two premier items have chance based designs. That's a lot of random chance even for War3 and more so for a player to track on either side. The idea for specialized towers is a good one but I'd rather see this implemented as one building with researches to unlock Eye of the Storm and Taunt, it's less tedious for a player. I'd rather see Ingredients Sphere as an ability that is learned with Exotic Ingredients, and keep in mind that the game can only display 16 pings on the mini-map at a time.
Balance: 15/20
The other side of Bamboo Stalks is they provide infinite lumber, which is bad. Transmute is the only ability that expressly generates resources from "nothing" and it's an ultimate. Six Bamboo Huts means 30 free wood every minute. Exotic Ingredients is such well imagined spell, but it's simply overpowered. The drop rates are way too high and after a couple major engagements I had a super-Panda that just melted enemies (101-111 damage, 57/34/32 SAI, 1650 HP). As much as I love the Floating Cask the elemental upgrades are incredible for the associated mana costs, especially Fire Energy. I made a small army of them and absolutely wrecked an attack wave. Ale Rain is also a hard call as they are a difficult to kill healer, but I think the self-damage makes up for it. Tiller's Union is something I think Human could use, although a 50% gold rate increase is madness. 1-2 gold is substantial.
Creativity: 25/30
I love the Floating Cask. It's a simple unit but fun to use and Volatile Hop is a useful upgrade I've not seen on a suicidal unit before. The way you integrated it with the elements as well makes it scale well, and then used a similar structure for his Chen's ultimate. Ale Rain is also a simple and useful spell that fits well with the unit. As well thought out as many of the spells are too many of them rely on ale. It is certainly part of Pandaren lore, but it's not their only pursuit. Granite Embodiment is a good example of where I think more of the race could have drawn from. You came up with a number of interesting units, and then provided upgrades and interactions for them that made me want to explore your tech tree.
85/100
Theme: 21/25
There's nothing that screams Kel'thuzad about the buildings, or most of the aesthetics. They are all appropriate for an Undead race though. What really comes through are how the various abilities and spells work together to create the sense of a coming Undead surge that I associate with Kel'thuzad from the campaigns. The myriad of ways to spread blight, and the active role it takes in combat and expansion is compelling. You also nailed his Talents both in variety and overall design.
Gameplay: 22/25
Starting off was a bit confusing with being unable to harvest or mine until you build a Catacomb. You could get yourself into a bad position if you weren't paying attention to your starting gold. Catacombs also need a smaller footprint for the low amount of food they provide. The Necrolyte is an interesting unit, but ultimately I didn't want to take them into combat because when one dies all their associated summons die. I ended up making six of them, summoning a giant army in my base, and then overwhelming the AI. The Blight Spreader is a compelling unit, it's interaction with Necrolyte summons is fantastic and really gives a feeling of a hoard of undead rushing you. The Banisher/Bone Breaker/Sky Darkener transition allowed me to make army composition decisions after engaging an enemy, which as a mid-tier player is something I appreciate. I'm not a fan of units that rely on taking damage to perform, which leaves the Cold Wraith out in the cold.
Balance: 14/20
Dredges create an incredible weakness for this race. I can only have six from one Catacomb, meaning to have a standard optimal resource income I need at least two. Further thinking of worker harass it's unlikely I can't micro my Cultists away for long without losing my economy, and they are 100 gold. Instead of limiting the Blight Spreader to one I would increase the cost and/or adjust stats to allow for multiple on the field. Blight Spread is critical for this race to function properly, particularly on larger maps. Darkening Bolt has a bug I think, it dealt over 3800 damage to a Bat Rider according to the text. Summon Grave should have a skeleton limit in addition to a time limit. Its way too good for 75 mana, I got 7 summons out of one grave. Banishing Nova is also incredible, banshing AoE with 50% reduced movement for 75 mana for 12 seconds! The 50% damage reduction on Unholy Armor is again way too good, even for 175 mana. Across the board there are spells that are nearly or at hero level: Tenderize being a forced engagement spell, Unholy Orb providing un-counterable damage, Plague Cloud again with massive slowdown, and Predeator Instinct making the Carrion Bird incredibly hard to kill. On the other side Activate Fade is a great idea but the mana drain makes it an extremely short lived spell, and it's so late in the game everyone would likely have detection. Overall you need to tweak numbers, and bring some of the affects in line with more standard unit stats.
Creativity: 28/30
The Blight/summon relationship is quite well done. You created one of the most interesting variations on the Necrolyte I've seen. Even the more "boring" units like the Carrion Bird and Plague Wagon have unique and useful abilities. I don't think I've seen an Orb of Reanimation before, and it's a fantastic idea. While I'm not a huge fan of the economic system is also rather new. It was a frosty surprise to play Kel'thuzad.
Theme: 21/25
There's nothing that screams Kel'thuzad about the buildings, or most of the aesthetics. They are all appropriate for an Undead race though. What really comes through are how the various abilities and spells work together to create the sense of a coming Undead surge that I associate with Kel'thuzad from the campaigns. The myriad of ways to spread blight, and the active role it takes in combat and expansion is compelling. You also nailed his Talents both in variety and overall design.
Gameplay: 22/25
Starting off was a bit confusing with being unable to harvest or mine until you build a Catacomb. You could get yourself into a bad position if you weren't paying attention to your starting gold. Catacombs also need a smaller footprint for the low amount of food they provide. The Necrolyte is an interesting unit, but ultimately I didn't want to take them into combat because when one dies all their associated summons die. I ended up making six of them, summoning a giant army in my base, and then overwhelming the AI. The Blight Spreader is a compelling unit, it's interaction with Necrolyte summons is fantastic and really gives a feeling of a hoard of undead rushing you. The Banisher/Bone Breaker/Sky Darkener transition allowed me to make army composition decisions after engaging an enemy, which as a mid-tier player is something I appreciate. I'm not a fan of units that rely on taking damage to perform, which leaves the Cold Wraith out in the cold.
Balance: 14/20
Dredges create an incredible weakness for this race. I can only have six from one Catacomb, meaning to have a standard optimal resource income I need at least two. Further thinking of worker harass it's unlikely I can't micro my Cultists away for long without losing my economy, and they are 100 gold. Instead of limiting the Blight Spreader to one I would increase the cost and/or adjust stats to allow for multiple on the field. Blight Spread is critical for this race to function properly, particularly on larger maps. Darkening Bolt has a bug I think, it dealt over 3800 damage to a Bat Rider according to the text. Summon Grave should have a skeleton limit in addition to a time limit. Its way too good for 75 mana, I got 7 summons out of one grave. Banishing Nova is also incredible, banshing AoE with 50% reduced movement for 75 mana for 12 seconds! The 50% damage reduction on Unholy Armor is again way too good, even for 175 mana. Across the board there are spells that are nearly or at hero level: Tenderize being a forced engagement spell, Unholy Orb providing un-counterable damage, Plague Cloud again with massive slowdown, and Predeator Instinct making the Carrion Bird incredibly hard to kill. On the other side Activate Fade is a great idea but the mana drain makes it an extremely short lived spell, and it's so late in the game everyone would likely have detection. Overall you need to tweak numbers, and bring some of the affects in line with more standard unit stats.
Creativity: 28/30
The Blight/summon relationship is quite well done. You created one of the most interesting variations on the Necrolyte I've seen. Even the more "boring" units like the Carrion Bird and Plague Wagon have unique and useful abilities. I don't think I've seen an Orb of Reanimation before, and it's a fantastic idea. While I'm not a huge fan of the economic system is also rather new. It was a frosty surprise to play Kel'thuzad.
50/100
Theme: 12/25
Buildings and workers give me the sense of an elven race rather than forces associated with Jaina. Units are better in that regard, but for example if you look at the Elven Catapult it's a bit generic.
Gameplay: 10/25
You have all the boxes ticked as far as unit roles. Should Spread turned out to be quite useful as you have three units with summon spells to rely on. Overall though I wouldn't say there was a tactical synergy here, nor a strategic system that screams Jaina.
Balance: 18/20
You don't have a lot of crazy outliers here so I felt evenly matched with the AI. Heavier Harness is actually a really good upgrade as it takes you from 200% damage from piercing to 75%. My main issues are with your heroes. Aspect Essence at level three on a level eight hero, assuming full mana, heals 2190 per unit in the AoE - insanity. Precision Shot is unclear on damage, and after casting on a Frost Wyrm it was perma-stunned. Dragon Form is incredible as it's a flying hero unit with Chaos damage and a AoE passive slow. It absolutely needs a timer. Mana Shield was good but it would not be terribly useful against Night Elf.
Creativity: 10/30
Outside the three heroes there isn't much going on with unit abilities. They are mostly reskinned vanilla spells. Upgrades are a little better due to how you made some of them common for certain units. Units themselves are fairly standard. The Dalaran Construct and Mana Crystal are probably the most out there. Mana Shield was a more unique take on building defense which I enjoyed. Ice Storm was a fun spell as well that really fits Jaina's personality.
Theme: 12/25
Buildings and workers give me the sense of an elven race rather than forces associated with Jaina. Units are better in that regard, but for example if you look at the Elven Catapult it's a bit generic.
Gameplay: 10/25
You have all the boxes ticked as far as unit roles. Should Spread turned out to be quite useful as you have three units with summon spells to rely on. Overall though I wouldn't say there was a tactical synergy here, nor a strategic system that screams Jaina.
Balance: 18/20
You don't have a lot of crazy outliers here so I felt evenly matched with the AI. Heavier Harness is actually a really good upgrade as it takes you from 200% damage from piercing to 75%. My main issues are with your heroes. Aspect Essence at level three on a level eight hero, assuming full mana, heals 2190 per unit in the AoE - insanity. Precision Shot is unclear on damage, and after casting on a Frost Wyrm it was perma-stunned. Dragon Form is incredible as it's a flying hero unit with Chaos damage and a AoE passive slow. It absolutely needs a timer. Mana Shield was good but it would not be terribly useful against Night Elf.
Creativity: 10/30
Outside the three heroes there isn't much going on with unit abilities. They are mostly reskinned vanilla spells. Upgrades are a little better due to how you made some of them common for certain units. Units themselves are fairly standard. The Dalaran Construct and Mana Crystal are probably the most out there. Mana Shield was a more unique take on building defense which I enjoyed. Ice Storm was a fun spell as well that really fits Jaina's personality.
80/100
Theme: 22/25
Aesthetically there's not much here to insinuate a connection to Uther. I think where your entry shines is the heavy integration of Uther into the tree. This is the most thorough out of the entries in the regard and really brings out the commander part of the design brief. Faith provides motivation to explore the race, and the Talents had me playing very aggressively to get to my next unlock. Visually the race needs work, but mechanically you're there.
Gameplay: 18/25
Why would I ever deactivate Shield of Faith on my Peasants? The Talent UI was a smart way to communicate to the player their options, past choices, and future options. Holy Bomb is a neat upgrade but the cast duration and healing amounts are off, I'm rarely going to be able to sit in the same place for 60 seconds. There's not a great deal of complexity in the standard combat units, which is appropriate because the Paladins are micro intensive. I do wish there was a more fleshed out tree though as there are only five combat units, but again it makes sense given the complexity and thoroughness in your heroes. The end result was enjoyable, although I do wish you could relearn talents. I'm not a fan of artificial limits on unit counts as well; I think the better solution would be to make Altars more expensive. I would need to play the race a few dozen times to master the quantity of talents and how they relate to each race matchup, so there is a learning curve there. That's not negative but worth mentioning.
Balance: 17/20
Shield of Faith is probably too good. Enemy players need to waste a significant percentage of their damage output just to start dealing damage. Although if I'm playing against Night Elf in particular I'm going to get Detonated into oblivion. Your standard units are all fairly on par with what I expect and held up well in combat. Some of the hero abilities are too good though, Hammer of Justice providing a 9 second stun is an eternity.
Creativity: 23/30
The Hero structure with "lesser" heroes is a great way to take advantage of the commander design. I was impressed by how integrated the system is in all aspects including Faith. I think this also presents a problem though as the standard units don't feel nearly as interesting. In SC2 this tends to be fine since my army is going to be enormous, but in War3 50-60 food armies are about where things top out in 1v1 so a little more micro is ok. I would have liked to see your take on a heavy siege unit. Again I think you missed out on visuals as well, there are a number of effects that would have made my base feel more holy.
Theme: 22/25
Aesthetically there's not much here to insinuate a connection to Uther. I think where your entry shines is the heavy integration of Uther into the tree. This is the most thorough out of the entries in the regard and really brings out the commander part of the design brief. Faith provides motivation to explore the race, and the Talents had me playing very aggressively to get to my next unlock. Visually the race needs work, but mechanically you're there.
Gameplay: 18/25
Why would I ever deactivate Shield of Faith on my Peasants? The Talent UI was a smart way to communicate to the player their options, past choices, and future options. Holy Bomb is a neat upgrade but the cast duration and healing amounts are off, I'm rarely going to be able to sit in the same place for 60 seconds. There's not a great deal of complexity in the standard combat units, which is appropriate because the Paladins are micro intensive. I do wish there was a more fleshed out tree though as there are only five combat units, but again it makes sense given the complexity and thoroughness in your heroes. The end result was enjoyable, although I do wish you could relearn talents. I'm not a fan of artificial limits on unit counts as well; I think the better solution would be to make Altars more expensive. I would need to play the race a few dozen times to master the quantity of talents and how they relate to each race matchup, so there is a learning curve there. That's not negative but worth mentioning.
Balance: 17/20
Shield of Faith is probably too good. Enemy players need to waste a significant percentage of their damage output just to start dealing damage. Although if I'm playing against Night Elf in particular I'm going to get Detonated into oblivion. Your standard units are all fairly on par with what I expect and held up well in combat. Some of the hero abilities are too good though, Hammer of Justice providing a 9 second stun is an eternity.
Creativity: 23/30
The Hero structure with "lesser" heroes is a great way to take advantage of the commander design. I was impressed by how integrated the system is in all aspects including Faith. I think this also presents a problem though as the standard units don't feel nearly as interesting. In SC2 this tends to be fine since my army is going to be enormous, but in War3 50-60 food armies are about where things top out in 1v1 so a little more micro is ok. I would have liked to see your take on a heavy siege unit. Again I think you missed out on visuals as well, there are a number of effects that would have made my base feel more holy.
72/100
Theme: 19/25
I'm not sure it's possible to communicate "Lord Garithos" though buildings, but you captured the explosive hatred in his heart across the spells and abilities. You've also got the recurring idea of execution or on death effects which were quite fitting. Overall I think you captured Garithos, but this needs work on the visuals to support that.
Gameplay: 21/25
I appreciated the unit hints, although your initial message makes me think you've been hanging out in the Tavern too much with the Brewmaster. I'm not sure of the purpose behind Swiftness other than microing in your base faster during an assault. The Garrison was one of the more useful units, allowing fats expansion without having to worry so much about worker harass. It really needs five slots though, and should accept lumber as well otherwise I'm not having to build two structures to take advantage of an expansion. Challenger, while a fun idea, seems to remove some player control which should be used sparingly. Side note: I got a lot of crashes on his map when attacking units and had to use some sorcery to get through.
Balance: 17/20
Scouts provide perma-invisibility and detection, and can eventually see over cliffs. For 75 gold this is way too effective at information gathering. There wasn't a great deal of issues I saw, I felt evenly matched with the AI's. Orb of Judgement is extremely good; it should probably be a lower percentage.
Creativity: 15/30
Your version of Demolition is actually something I have not seen before and in practice I love it. Tar pool is also an interesting take on liquid fire. Garithos has some interesting abilties. Vanguard is perfect for him, and it combos well with Marshal's Might. Unfortunately there isn't much more depth to the race. Most of the abilities are alterations on vanilla spells. There isn't much to say for upgrades either. The Garrison is interesting.
Theme: 19/25
I'm not sure it's possible to communicate "Lord Garithos" though buildings, but you captured the explosive hatred in his heart across the spells and abilities. You've also got the recurring idea of execution or on death effects which were quite fitting. Overall I think you captured Garithos, but this needs work on the visuals to support that.
Gameplay: 21/25
I appreciated the unit hints, although your initial message makes me think you've been hanging out in the Tavern too much with the Brewmaster. I'm not sure of the purpose behind Swiftness other than microing in your base faster during an assault. The Garrison was one of the more useful units, allowing fats expansion without having to worry so much about worker harass. It really needs five slots though, and should accept lumber as well otherwise I'm not having to build two structures to take advantage of an expansion. Challenger, while a fun idea, seems to remove some player control which should be used sparingly. Side note: I got a lot of crashes on his map when attacking units and had to use some sorcery to get through.
Balance: 17/20
Scouts provide perma-invisibility and detection, and can eventually see over cliffs. For 75 gold this is way too effective at information gathering. There wasn't a great deal of issues I saw, I felt evenly matched with the AI's. Orb of Judgement is extremely good; it should probably be a lower percentage.
Creativity: 15/30
Your version of Demolition is actually something I have not seen before and in practice I love it. Tar pool is also an interesting take on liquid fire. Garithos has some interesting abilties. Vanguard is perfect for him, and it combos well with Marshal's Might. Unfortunately there isn't much more depth to the race. Most of the abilities are alterations on vanilla spells. There isn't much to say for upgrades either. The Garrison is interesting.
Theme: It's really difficult to imagine the Kel'Thuzad theme being any different to this. It captures it phenomenally well, and makes you really feel like you're playing in the role of the Archlich himself. Custom soundsets and theme music are a very nice touch – although it is a mild shame the music doesn't seem to loop. It does, however, come back when it decides to, and when it does, I am in flavour town. 25/25
Gameplay: For what little difficulty arises from handling the use of Blight just to keep your army from timing out, it's done in such a way that makes it compelling to manage. Granted, by the time you start merging units together, you effectively bypass that mechanic entirely, but on that same token the race offers more than just a single gimmick to its arsenal. This is not only performed well, but adds a much needed layer of diversity that a lot of factions often find themselves lacking. 25/25
Balance: The faction is mostly balanced, although there are some questionable elements, such as having two workers costing only 1 food between them. Furthermore, they don't seem to obey the “required Blight to be alive” rule which does make them thoroughly effective free scouts. Other than that, anything that could be overpowered has relatively compensating features. Kel'thuzad is naturally more powerful than most heroes would be, but given that the map for this entry doesn't even have a Tavern for said heroes to be available, that balances out rather well. In the event of a Tavern being present, I would like to see the use of such heroes limited. Overall, a solid job on balance, with some fine tuning ahead. 18/20
Creativity: What can I say? This entry oozes with creativity. It casually throws out compelling ideas like they're no big thing, and weaves them together to create an intricate whole. This gives off the distinct impression of being a labour of love for the contestant. With the Archlich returning for free but with a longer time requirement, the use of Raise Undead and Blight mechanics in new and compelling ways, leading into combining units to create more powerful units, and having unique one-off units that help aid the playability of the race, it's hard to imagine that I haven't even covered the tip of the iceberg. And the contestant was actually hard on themselves for not including all of the features they wanted? To say I'm impressed is an understatement. 30/30
Total: 98/100
Gameplay: For what little difficulty arises from handling the use of Blight just to keep your army from timing out, it's done in such a way that makes it compelling to manage. Granted, by the time you start merging units together, you effectively bypass that mechanic entirely, but on that same token the race offers more than just a single gimmick to its arsenal. This is not only performed well, but adds a much needed layer of diversity that a lot of factions often find themselves lacking. 25/25
Balance: The faction is mostly balanced, although there are some questionable elements, such as having two workers costing only 1 food between them. Furthermore, they don't seem to obey the “required Blight to be alive” rule which does make them thoroughly effective free scouts. Other than that, anything that could be overpowered has relatively compensating features. Kel'thuzad is naturally more powerful than most heroes would be, but given that the map for this entry doesn't even have a Tavern for said heroes to be available, that balances out rather well. In the event of a Tavern being present, I would like to see the use of such heroes limited. Overall, a solid job on balance, with some fine tuning ahead. 18/20
Creativity: What can I say? This entry oozes with creativity. It casually throws out compelling ideas like they're no big thing, and weaves them together to create an intricate whole. This gives off the distinct impression of being a labour of love for the contestant. With the Archlich returning for free but with a longer time requirement, the use of Raise Undead and Blight mechanics in new and compelling ways, leading into combining units to create more powerful units, and having unique one-off units that help aid the playability of the race, it's hard to imagine that I haven't even covered the tip of the iceberg. And the contestant was actually hard on themselves for not including all of the features they wanted? To say I'm impressed is an understatement. 30/30
Total: 98/100
Theme: This has some potential when it comes to interesting ideas. Named paladins as demi-heroes could have been a great path to go, especially with better execution. The Talents mechanic is… serviceable as a base idea, although it is difficult to quantify with the way it is implemented. The Faith mechanic could be a nice addition if it did either a little more or just something else. As it stands, the overall theme is rather lacking, with some gold nuggets here and there which could be expanded upon. 8/25
Gameplay: This is like playing the ingame Human faction with a severe handicap. Most of the units are considerably weaker, crippling you until you manage to get 100% Faith, and even then the oversaturation of mana shield on every unit makes your entire army Feedback bait. Granted, I do like the analogy that historically in Techtree Contests, Faith mechanics have not performed well against Feedback. Unfortunately, this doesn't aid the gameplay aspect. It's far too difficult to play for how simple some of the executions are. 0/25
Balance: A lot of the balance problems have been partially touched upon in Theme and Gameplay. Oversaturation of Mana Shield doesn't work well, since there's a few good counters that will bend your entire army over in a seedy back alley. The sequential walk of shame isn't much fun, either. Uther and other (rare) “casters” being overly reliant on Mana Shield further serves to cripple them as well. Unfortunately, you're effectively forced to spam Footmen for the early game since Riflemen don't do as much as their cost promises anymore. In some respects, I recommend taking advantage of Tavern heroes being available rather than using Uther, and making an entire army out of nothing but Mercenaries. 0/20
Creativity: There's some potential with some of the ideas here, but they're sorely lacking in being expanded upon. Unfortunately, Mana Shield has everything hinged on it being such a penultimate feature, when in reality it's not served to make the race more compelling to play or more intriguing. My recommendation would be to take a look at the potentials of how the Paladins were used, and maybe incorporate that a little bit further. There's potential to take that further, and maybe do something inspired by the way Tychus plays in co-op commanders. As it is, for all I will say against Mana Shield being used like this, there are some implementations that I would hope to expect from this, such as upgrades improving Mana capacity, Faith mechanics (which should be implemented differently, but are creative enough nonetheless), and… that might be about it. There's an abundance of ingame abilities being used here, too. Uther's ability roster is just Holy Light, Storm Bolt, Resurrection and an ability written entirely in Russian that lets you make buildings stronger for a bit. 4/30
Total: 12/100
Gameplay: This is like playing the ingame Human faction with a severe handicap. Most of the units are considerably weaker, crippling you until you manage to get 100% Faith, and even then the oversaturation of mana shield on every unit makes your entire army Feedback bait. Granted, I do like the analogy that historically in Techtree Contests, Faith mechanics have not performed well against Feedback. Unfortunately, this doesn't aid the gameplay aspect. It's far too difficult to play for how simple some of the executions are. 0/25
Balance: A lot of the balance problems have been partially touched upon in Theme and Gameplay. Oversaturation of Mana Shield doesn't work well, since there's a few good counters that will bend your entire army over in a seedy back alley. The sequential walk of shame isn't much fun, either. Uther and other (rare) “casters” being overly reliant on Mana Shield further serves to cripple them as well. Unfortunately, you're effectively forced to spam Footmen for the early game since Riflemen don't do as much as their cost promises anymore. In some respects, I recommend taking advantage of Tavern heroes being available rather than using Uther, and making an entire army out of nothing but Mercenaries. 0/20
Creativity: There's some potential with some of the ideas here, but they're sorely lacking in being expanded upon. Unfortunately, Mana Shield has everything hinged on it being such a penultimate feature, when in reality it's not served to make the race more compelling to play or more intriguing. My recommendation would be to take a look at the potentials of how the Paladins were used, and maybe incorporate that a little bit further. There's potential to take that further, and maybe do something inspired by the way Tychus plays in co-op commanders. As it is, for all I will say against Mana Shield being used like this, there are some implementations that I would hope to expect from this, such as upgrades improving Mana capacity, Faith mechanics (which should be implemented differently, but are creative enough nonetheless), and… that might be about it. There's an abundance of ingame abilities being used here, too. Uther's ability roster is just Holy Light, Storm Bolt, Resurrection and an ability written entirely in Russian that lets you make buildings stronger for a bit. 4/30
Total: 12/100
Theme: An excellently conveyed Pandaren theme. In many instances, when I see a Pandaren race done (all two times), they are often done… well, blandly. There are some issues here in the higher tier where it falls into similar trappings, but everything else is… well, it's damn near perfect. Tier 1 is an absolute blast as you get to beat up creeps with alcoholic pandas as they attempt to instil teachings of self restraint. After all, material possessions are fleeting, but alcoholism is forever. Bamboo adds a nice layer to the entry, Chen's own personal playstyle is compelling, and the backing music is nice. Accompanying AI lets you see how the computer will play the faction, and it actually works with the lumber mechanic. The AI will turn any 2v2 into a 2v1, however, but it's still a nice touch that is worth mentioning, even if it technically doesn't help with the score. The top tier is unfortunately where there is a bit of blandness, and there could be more inspiration from Chinese mythology (they are an untapped source of fun and crazy shit), but overall this is a job well done. 20/25
Gameplay: Only a few complaints here. The bamboo mechanic, while interesting, does make healing a little difficult to make full use of. Unfortunately, it also seems that due to the nature of how it works, queuing up a Tiller to chop them all down for some quick lumber will see the order queue cancelled after reaching the second Bamboo shoot. There's not a lot of reason to get to tier 3, although this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some factions are more early to mid-game orientated, and this is definitely one of those. Unfortunately, the Wild Dog is a bit superfluous in its role, although there is an attempt here to separate it out it just sort of feels like it's not really needed. With a lack of meaningful healing beyond a couple of tricky sources, and some of the later game roles being a little strange, these are definitely areas that can be improved upon. I'm also skeptical of Ale Elementals being flying, but am open to the requirement for more flying units. Personally, I would replace the Wild Dog with a Chinese Dragon Rider or something of that nature, have the Ale Elemental as a ground unit with a somewhat more defined role, and make the Pathfinder available at tier 2. A tier 3 hippogryph seems… perplexing. 20/25
Balance: Chen becomes overpowered – and this works fine, you can't get access to any other heroes and so you resort to collecting ingredients to buff Chen up as much as you can. The real balance issue comes from the units. Tappers are so cheap, and yet they have stats that make Riflemen blush. Their slightly slower attack speed somewhat mitigates this, but when you add in the tier 2 upgrades that cause their attacks to have a chance of making an enemy unit's attack miss 100% of the time for 5 seconds, you mostly just attack move to see how many enemies you can disorient. Occasionally, an enemy hero will come around, and killing them will give you a guaranteed ingredient drop. More power for Chen, which is always nice to have. Ultimately, I found you can win entire matches with nothing but Tappers. If you lose a Tapper, it's not even that big of an inconvenience – they cost only slightly more than a Night Elf Archer while being superior to the Dwarven Rifleman in every conceivable way. The Bamboo as a healing mechanic causes issues, as you cannot stack the effects (unfortunately), and the compensating upgrade requires tier 3 to get. Not to mention to make the most of it, you often need to return back to your base, or you can build all your food production across the map. I'm not quite sure why, but the Tillers also get an upgrade to increase the rate at which they can gather gold. This is also accessible at tier 2, which is where you really find the faction comes into its stride by spamming a tier 1.5 unit. It's… definitely an area that needs a lot of reworking, especially since both the tier 1 units only cost 2 Food while being worthy of 3 Food units. Personally, I recommend upping the Brawler's stats a bit as well as the cost to make it more fitting for a 3 food role, while increasing the costs of the Tapper and bumping that up to 3 Food as well. 5/20
Creativity: Fantastic entry on a creative level. Lots of great ideas, but tier 3 is still a lot of untapped potential. This is where it falls a little short, unfortunately, but everything else is premium. You've done a great job with this entry, and a lot of the ideas are a step in the right direction. Chen's ultimate, however, is the same as the Pandaren Brewmaster's. Bit of a shame, but it also serves as the perfect analogy for this entry in general – everything else is designed really well, it's just towards the later game that it is sort of lacking. 24/30
Total: 69/100
Gameplay: Only a few complaints here. The bamboo mechanic, while interesting, does make healing a little difficult to make full use of. Unfortunately, it also seems that due to the nature of how it works, queuing up a Tiller to chop them all down for some quick lumber will see the order queue cancelled after reaching the second Bamboo shoot. There's not a lot of reason to get to tier 3, although this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some factions are more early to mid-game orientated, and this is definitely one of those. Unfortunately, the Wild Dog is a bit superfluous in its role, although there is an attempt here to separate it out it just sort of feels like it's not really needed. With a lack of meaningful healing beyond a couple of tricky sources, and some of the later game roles being a little strange, these are definitely areas that can be improved upon. I'm also skeptical of Ale Elementals being flying, but am open to the requirement for more flying units. Personally, I would replace the Wild Dog with a Chinese Dragon Rider or something of that nature, have the Ale Elemental as a ground unit with a somewhat more defined role, and make the Pathfinder available at tier 2. A tier 3 hippogryph seems… perplexing. 20/25
Balance: Chen becomes overpowered – and this works fine, you can't get access to any other heroes and so you resort to collecting ingredients to buff Chen up as much as you can. The real balance issue comes from the units. Tappers are so cheap, and yet they have stats that make Riflemen blush. Their slightly slower attack speed somewhat mitigates this, but when you add in the tier 2 upgrades that cause their attacks to have a chance of making an enemy unit's attack miss 100% of the time for 5 seconds, you mostly just attack move to see how many enemies you can disorient. Occasionally, an enemy hero will come around, and killing them will give you a guaranteed ingredient drop. More power for Chen, which is always nice to have. Ultimately, I found you can win entire matches with nothing but Tappers. If you lose a Tapper, it's not even that big of an inconvenience – they cost only slightly more than a Night Elf Archer while being superior to the Dwarven Rifleman in every conceivable way. The Bamboo as a healing mechanic causes issues, as you cannot stack the effects (unfortunately), and the compensating upgrade requires tier 3 to get. Not to mention to make the most of it, you often need to return back to your base, or you can build all your food production across the map. I'm not quite sure why, but the Tillers also get an upgrade to increase the rate at which they can gather gold. This is also accessible at tier 2, which is where you really find the faction comes into its stride by spamming a tier 1.5 unit. It's… definitely an area that needs a lot of reworking, especially since both the tier 1 units only cost 2 Food while being worthy of 3 Food units. Personally, I recommend upping the Brawler's stats a bit as well as the cost to make it more fitting for a 3 food role, while increasing the costs of the Tapper and bumping that up to 3 Food as well. 5/20
Creativity: Fantastic entry on a creative level. Lots of great ideas, but tier 3 is still a lot of untapped potential. This is where it falls a little short, unfortunately, but everything else is premium. You've done a great job with this entry, and a lot of the ideas are a step in the right direction. Chen's ultimate, however, is the same as the Pandaren Brewmaster's. Bit of a shame, but it also serves as the perfect analogy for this entry in general – everything else is designed really well, it's just towards the later game that it is sort of lacking. 24/30
Total: 69/100
Theme: Angry Orcs becoming more powerful in direct confrontation is the name of the game, and I would expect nothing less from a Grom Hellscream entry. A lot of the gameplay is nice and simple for the user, having a lot of the potential complexities relegated to passives. Lovely stuff. The grand finale of touching upon Grom drinking Pit Lord fluids serves as the cherry on top – it's like every game you play as this guy perfectly captures those few missions you get to with play alongside Grom, play directly as Grom, or even play against Grom, melting it all down and mixing it all up seamlessly. Cannot praise you enough on this. 25/25
Gameplay: The tactical synergy achieved here is fantastic. You get to play as a hyper aggressive race that gets all of its population from unit production structures, all while direct confrontation makes you stronger. The siege weapons require the use of you Pathfinders to make proper use of, while the casters are relegated mostly to support roles – you wouldn't want them to do too much direct fighting on their own. This puts a great emphasis on the Barracks units, which is the bread and butter of Grom and perhaps Orcs in general. If your enemy manages to survive long enough for you to reach Tier 3, you get to bring the Reign of Chaos down upon them. Strangely enough, areas that could have caused some potential issues are actually mitigated by the race's overarching playstyle – Pathfinders being required for constructing structures can be a potential deficit, but they also serve as a potential assisting force to your military. I would like to see their role improved a little here, and perhaps expanded further, but the use of them with Siege Weapons is serviceable enough. Lack of flying could be a pain, but it sort of feels like flying would only serve to ruin the theme of the faction as it is. There's basically no garbage here, everything has a function, with some tweaking required here and there. 23/25
Balance: Could be a little testy here. Overall, there are some deficits to the entry that were addressed with compensating features. There's no flying, and only one anti-air unit, so that anti-air unit is mental against any air. However, it doesn't become /too/ overpowered because your primary military force is going to consist of melee skull crackers, since the ranged units aren't as spectacular against ground as these guys are. You'll need to find a good balance of units, with a heavy emphasis on the melee, and direct confrontations in prolonged battles will always favour you – being picked apart by cowardly ambush tactics will spell your doom. There's some areas that are relatively questionable in balance, that can be improved, but overall the race is really self-regulating and… phenomenally well designed. 18/20
Creativity: What I find most amazing about this is that while the gameplay is simple, the ideas are creative as hell in making it simple and accessible to the player. This is exactly what you'd want for an Orc race done with a hyper aggressive playstyle. Everything here is an absolute treat, and ties in very well with one another. Even the Siege Weapons which you might not use too much of due to the nature of the race are sort of a nice mobile implementation of Orc Burrow tactics, which also results in the destruction of these units spawning however many Pathfinders you crammed into them. Having followed some of the previous entries by this contestant, this feels like it could be the entry where they had the most fun, which is where a lot of great ideas were put together, some whacky and hilarious but all tying back to the original theme. Everything is a caricature of Orc aggressiveness done right. 30/30
Total: 96/100
Gameplay: The tactical synergy achieved here is fantastic. You get to play as a hyper aggressive race that gets all of its population from unit production structures, all while direct confrontation makes you stronger. The siege weapons require the use of you Pathfinders to make proper use of, while the casters are relegated mostly to support roles – you wouldn't want them to do too much direct fighting on their own. This puts a great emphasis on the Barracks units, which is the bread and butter of Grom and perhaps Orcs in general. If your enemy manages to survive long enough for you to reach Tier 3, you get to bring the Reign of Chaos down upon them. Strangely enough, areas that could have caused some potential issues are actually mitigated by the race's overarching playstyle – Pathfinders being required for constructing structures can be a potential deficit, but they also serve as a potential assisting force to your military. I would like to see their role improved a little here, and perhaps expanded further, but the use of them with Siege Weapons is serviceable enough. Lack of flying could be a pain, but it sort of feels like flying would only serve to ruin the theme of the faction as it is. There's basically no garbage here, everything has a function, with some tweaking required here and there. 23/25
Balance: Could be a little testy here. Overall, there are some deficits to the entry that were addressed with compensating features. There's no flying, and only one anti-air unit, so that anti-air unit is mental against any air. However, it doesn't become /too/ overpowered because your primary military force is going to consist of melee skull crackers, since the ranged units aren't as spectacular against ground as these guys are. You'll need to find a good balance of units, with a heavy emphasis on the melee, and direct confrontations in prolonged battles will always favour you – being picked apart by cowardly ambush tactics will spell your doom. There's some areas that are relatively questionable in balance, that can be improved, but overall the race is really self-regulating and… phenomenally well designed. 18/20
Creativity: What I find most amazing about this is that while the gameplay is simple, the ideas are creative as hell in making it simple and accessible to the player. This is exactly what you'd want for an Orc race done with a hyper aggressive playstyle. Everything here is an absolute treat, and ties in very well with one another. Even the Siege Weapons which you might not use too much of due to the nature of the race are sort of a nice mobile implementation of Orc Burrow tactics, which also results in the destruction of these units spawning however many Pathfinders you crammed into them. Having followed some of the previous entries by this contestant, this feels like it could be the entry where they had the most fun, which is where a lot of great ideas were put together, some whacky and hilarious but all tying back to the original theme. Everything is a caricature of Orc aggressiveness done right. 30/30
Total: 96/100
Theme: For this entry, Arthas finds himself wielding Frostmourne around as he consumes the souls of the living to amplify his Undead thralls. Does he do this well? Reasonably so, yes. The implementation of this theme will have you purging the living just to make your armies more powerful, but beyond that it's sort of the only real following of the theme that is going on here. A lot of what's left is fairly stock standard Undead mechanics such as summoning buildings, haunting gold mines, unsummoning buildings and, of course, Blight. None of it is really expanded in those areas, but the implementation of collected souls is a considerable addition and impossible to ignore. 15/25
Gameplay: For this entry, you will be playing a watered down melee Undead race with less-than watered down additional variations for each unit. The tactical synergy achieved here is questionable at best – ultimately, you will be scrolling through the three alternate variations of each unit to discern which is the most broken to use. That being said, going around killing things to make your army stronger is in line with what I once read as being “Undead gameplay”, and it takes that to a hilariously impractical nth degree that drips in charm. 14/25
Balance: When you do succeed in finding the most broken combinations, you will decimate entire enemy armies. Corpse Wagons, Brood Fiends and a couple of Frost Fiends will spell doom to any enemy army. You'll be using these units to fight enemy armies with constantly respawning summons, while the Frost Fiends are just there to pick on weak stragglers trying to run away. The heroes themselves are… not overwhelmingly powerful, probably because they are the exact same as the ingame heroes. A lot of the existing units are also exactly the same as ingame units, and the only real broken aspect of the game comes from using souls to amplify your units. As such, this can be potentially pay-walled, but you also end up with way more souls than you can ever spend in one game so that is usually when the game kicks it into being imbalanced. Given the use of ingame units, there is some balance to be found here – although this will cost dearly when it comes to Creativity. 5/20
Creativity: We're looking at a real mixed bag here. You get Arthas, Kelthuzad and Anub'Arak with this entry – all using their ingame hero abilities. Most of the unit roster is just ingame Undead with a number of units missing. Variations for each unit, however, adds a whole layer of creativity that should not be permissible. If you want to play a whacky entry with little to no concern for “balance” that takes ingame units and makes them hilariously fun to play around with, this is the entry for you. I personally love that, but creatively speaking in a contest setting… even the variations mostly use ingame abilities, with some notable exceptions here and there. Custom researches is a nice touch, the lack of Attack and Armor upgrades is confusing. This is close to being split right down the middle. 14/30
Total: 48/100
Gameplay: For this entry, you will be playing a watered down melee Undead race with less-than watered down additional variations for each unit. The tactical synergy achieved here is questionable at best – ultimately, you will be scrolling through the three alternate variations of each unit to discern which is the most broken to use. That being said, going around killing things to make your army stronger is in line with what I once read as being “Undead gameplay”, and it takes that to a hilariously impractical nth degree that drips in charm. 14/25
Balance: When you do succeed in finding the most broken combinations, you will decimate entire enemy armies. Corpse Wagons, Brood Fiends and a couple of Frost Fiends will spell doom to any enemy army. You'll be using these units to fight enemy armies with constantly respawning summons, while the Frost Fiends are just there to pick on weak stragglers trying to run away. The heroes themselves are… not overwhelmingly powerful, probably because they are the exact same as the ingame heroes. A lot of the existing units are also exactly the same as ingame units, and the only real broken aspect of the game comes from using souls to amplify your units. As such, this can be potentially pay-walled, but you also end up with way more souls than you can ever spend in one game so that is usually when the game kicks it into being imbalanced. Given the use of ingame units, there is some balance to be found here – although this will cost dearly when it comes to Creativity. 5/20
Creativity: We're looking at a real mixed bag here. You get Arthas, Kelthuzad and Anub'Arak with this entry – all using their ingame hero abilities. Most of the unit roster is just ingame Undead with a number of units missing. Variations for each unit, however, adds a whole layer of creativity that should not be permissible. If you want to play a whacky entry with little to no concern for “balance” that takes ingame units and makes them hilariously fun to play around with, this is the entry for you. I personally love that, but creatively speaking in a contest setting… even the variations mostly use ingame abilities, with some notable exceptions here and there. Custom researches is a nice touch, the lack of Attack and Armor upgrades is confusing. This is close to being split right down the middle. 14/30
Total: 48/100
Theme: Right off the bat, you'll have a whole host of “humanity first” mantra vibes about this faction. The higher you climb in the tiers, the more war crimes you can commit, and Garithos becomes more xenophobic and abrasive to the “sub-humans”. It is at this point, I realised this is the entry for me. Visuals a nice, the minimalistic design actually aids in just how poor off Garithos is with his “humans only” ideology where he had all of two units to pick from in the campaign (until he “rescued” some disgruntled Dwarves from the slums). Tossing Elven heads in what can only be described as the most impractical siege weapon of all time clinches it for me. 25/25
Gameplay: With the minimalistic design comes a necessity for careful design of each unit. This entry is very… interesting, with some choices being a little subpar in practicality but amazingly hilarious by compensation. Your primary fighting force will consist entirely of Javelin Throwers. They cost 3 food, but are dirt cheap at the start of the game, with some end game upgrades designed with the intent of making them on par with other late game units. Some of these upgrades go as far as to increase the cost of these units, so be careful when you get these ones. Ultimately, the tactical synergy isn't the most practical in some respects, as some aspects of the faction are more suited to a defensive playstyle, and yet you'll be playing on a more aggressive front to get in a good enough position for those late game Javelin Thrower upgrades. This entry can be a bit all over the place, but oozes charm in its playstyle, giving players a lot of fun options to play around with. I would recommend this to all my friends. 17/25
Balance: It can't be said that the contestant didn't know what they were getting into here balance wise. Many of the decisions implemented here make some options impractical to use, and the most practical options available lean towards being completely overpowered. Some of the compensating aspects are easily worked around, while some units are far too expensive for what little they can do. Of course, the Citybreaker is still worth the expense just to put those filthy elven vermin back in their place, and costing 260 lumber just means you'll have to deforest their homes more efficiently. I would like to see Mercenaries for this faction relegated to the roles of severely underpaid immigrants that need to be kept in line with nearby Enforcers, as well as the potential for capturing enemy units to give explosives and send off on their death march. Perhaps this would make the entry more “balanced”. For now, there were definite attempts that in some capacities were misguided, but in others create one of the more… interesting entries. 5/20
Creativity: There were other ideas that could have been implemented here, that much is for sure – but the ideas that were implemented were a lot of fun, and while coming from a newbie approach, were rather compelling to play. For what the race lacks in balance, it more than makes up for in sheer hilarity of what you can get away with – Iron Riders running line a line and taunting enemy units into a direct confrontation, while Javelin Throwers somehow improve their damage vastly with range. Far be it from me to question how throwing an Elf head causes it to explode into a pit of tar, but I do know that this entry has a suitable amount of war crimes, with room for a few more. A job well done. 28/30
Total: 75/100
Gameplay: With the minimalistic design comes a necessity for careful design of each unit. This entry is very… interesting, with some choices being a little subpar in practicality but amazingly hilarious by compensation. Your primary fighting force will consist entirely of Javelin Throwers. They cost 3 food, but are dirt cheap at the start of the game, with some end game upgrades designed with the intent of making them on par with other late game units. Some of these upgrades go as far as to increase the cost of these units, so be careful when you get these ones. Ultimately, the tactical synergy isn't the most practical in some respects, as some aspects of the faction are more suited to a defensive playstyle, and yet you'll be playing on a more aggressive front to get in a good enough position for those late game Javelin Thrower upgrades. This entry can be a bit all over the place, but oozes charm in its playstyle, giving players a lot of fun options to play around with. I would recommend this to all my friends. 17/25
Balance: It can't be said that the contestant didn't know what they were getting into here balance wise. Many of the decisions implemented here make some options impractical to use, and the most practical options available lean towards being completely overpowered. Some of the compensating aspects are easily worked around, while some units are far too expensive for what little they can do. Of course, the Citybreaker is still worth the expense just to put those filthy elven vermin back in their place, and costing 260 lumber just means you'll have to deforest their homes more efficiently. I would like to see Mercenaries for this faction relegated to the roles of severely underpaid immigrants that need to be kept in line with nearby Enforcers, as well as the potential for capturing enemy units to give explosives and send off on their death march. Perhaps this would make the entry more “balanced”. For now, there were definite attempts that in some capacities were misguided, but in others create one of the more… interesting entries. 5/20
Creativity: There were other ideas that could have been implemented here, that much is for sure – but the ideas that were implemented were a lot of fun, and while coming from a newbie approach, were rather compelling to play. For what the race lacks in balance, it more than makes up for in sheer hilarity of what you can get away with – Iron Riders running line a line and taunting enemy units into a direct confrontation, while Javelin Throwers somehow improve their damage vastly with range. Far be it from me to question how throwing an Elf head causes it to explode into a pit of tar, but I do know that this entry has a suitable amount of war crimes, with room for a few more. A job well done. 28/30
Total: 75/100
Theme: An obscure society consisting (almost) entirely of druids sets the theme rather well for this particular entry – although the lack of lumber costs may seem a little bizarre, it also seems rather friendly with nature. You'll be collecting your lumber in what can be described as “a severe learning curve via bankruptcy”, as you require a research to make lumber gathering even function and by then you'll probably learn you put all of those structures in the wrong place. Nevertheless, this falls perfectly in line with what I'd want to see from a MyPad entry, although I would have liked to see a few more units here and there. It seems that even by minimalistic standards, this might actually have less unit options than is required for the contest. 18/25
Gameplay: This is yet another masterpiece of obscurity on behalf of MyPad, and for fans of such a style, you are in for a treat. The Druids Of The Harpy effectively replace Archers in the role of your early ranged fighters, which can later take to the skies so long as they have over 50% health. You have an early melee tank unit, a magic damage dealer, and later on in the game you have Bears that snorted several lines of cocaine. While there is a lack of conventional caster upgrades, both the Druid Acolyte and the Moon deaconess double in their capacity for casting spells. Effectively, this creates a dynamic where you feel every unit you have is capable of at least a little magic, while the unit roles are effectively filled up. This also falls in line with what you'd expect a secret druidic society to play like, as uncanny and bizarre as the gameplay elements are. On the downside, it does need some degree of accessibility to it. Strangely enough, though, a lot of the base unit roles actually appear to be covered, where you have your flying assault, your melee tank, magic damage, casters rolled into them and siege damage… terribly potent siege damage. More on that later. 17/25
Balance: This is where the entry takes a turn for the worst. A lot of the facets of this entry are obscenely powerful, most notably when you get access to Bear Form on your Villagers. A unit with that much health dishing out /that/ much DPS in the form of Siege Damage for the ripe cost of 75 Gold and 1 Food is nothing short of overpowered. Granted, this mostly kicks in towards the late game, and as such you'll be using Druids Of The Harpy to harass the enemy until you can get these out. Play your cards right, and you'll get an obscene amount of lumber income that you can never spend with how over reliant the faction's early game is purely on gold alone. There's a lot of work that needs to be done here. 2/20
Creativity: This entry oozes creativity. Factions like this make me a fan of the minimalist design when done right, and this does it rather well – it doesn't rely on a lack of units to get away with implementing less ideas, but instead it incorporates a lot of ideas to make those few unit options available to you work well. I would like to see more of it as the faction branches (get it?) out, but as it is there's a lot of fun ideas here to play around with. 27/30
Total: 64/100
Gameplay: This is yet another masterpiece of obscurity on behalf of MyPad, and for fans of such a style, you are in for a treat. The Druids Of The Harpy effectively replace Archers in the role of your early ranged fighters, which can later take to the skies so long as they have over 50% health. You have an early melee tank unit, a magic damage dealer, and later on in the game you have Bears that snorted several lines of cocaine. While there is a lack of conventional caster upgrades, both the Druid Acolyte and the Moon deaconess double in their capacity for casting spells. Effectively, this creates a dynamic where you feel every unit you have is capable of at least a little magic, while the unit roles are effectively filled up. This also falls in line with what you'd expect a secret druidic society to play like, as uncanny and bizarre as the gameplay elements are. On the downside, it does need some degree of accessibility to it. Strangely enough, though, a lot of the base unit roles actually appear to be covered, where you have your flying assault, your melee tank, magic damage, casters rolled into them and siege damage… terribly potent siege damage. More on that later. 17/25
Balance: This is where the entry takes a turn for the worst. A lot of the facets of this entry are obscenely powerful, most notably when you get access to Bear Form on your Villagers. A unit with that much health dishing out /that/ much DPS in the form of Siege Damage for the ripe cost of 75 Gold and 1 Food is nothing short of overpowered. Granted, this mostly kicks in towards the late game, and as such you'll be using Druids Of The Harpy to harass the enemy until you can get these out. Play your cards right, and you'll get an obscene amount of lumber income that you can never spend with how over reliant the faction's early game is purely on gold alone. There's a lot of work that needs to be done here. 2/20
Creativity: This entry oozes creativity. Factions like this make me a fan of the minimalist design when done right, and this does it rather well – it doesn't rely on a lack of units to get away with implementing less ideas, but instead it incorporates a lot of ideas to make those few unit options available to you work well. I would like to see more of it as the faction branches (get it?) out, but as it is there's a lot of fun ideas here to play around with. 27/30
Total: 64/100
Theme: This sort of captures the theme of the Blood Elves decently enough. In some aspects it is rather bland, but that is also in some respects what the Blood Elves (or High Elves in general) are inclined to be. It would be nice to see some new ideas incorporated here to tie it all together in a nicer fashion, but as it is the entry is serviceable enough. The UI graphics are a nice touch, although a little… overbearing in some respects. Most of the units being casters is an… interesting touch, which somewhat falls in line with the theme. 16/25
Gameplay: This is basically vanilla modding in a nutshell – the faction itself plays a lot like a relatively simplified melee faction, with some ingame abilities implemented in “balanced” ways. It's a style that's been around since the days of Reign Of Chaos, and with good reason. The faction here has a higher than average number of caster units available to them, which works well for Blood Elves, but the emphasis does not fall on them – it falls on the Archers, which also kind of works for Blood Elves. Striking a balance here, however, would make for a more effective stratagem – creating incentive to mix Archers with the ingame casters would be key, and as it is it falls short of that. A good start with plenty of room for improvement. 15/25
Balance: Just get Archers. They cost very little, despite requiring 3 food (I never did understand what that was supposed to be about), and once you hit tier 3 they are able to decimate multiple smaller units and larger single units at the same time. Holy Arrows dishes out Searing Arrows damage so long as your archers have mana, and Triple-Shot sees them dishing out damage against everybody else at the same time. If any of them dies, let them – they're dirt cheap to replace, and it's not worth investing in healing for them. The only real counterbalance to this is you need tier 3 to make the most of these. 3/20
Creativity: This entry makes use of some ingame units, such as Dragonhawk Riders and Spellbreakers. While it does some new things with them, it also keeps some vanilla things with them as well. The use of the swordsman and archer combination is an oldie but a goldie, as well as the use of the Ballista – the biggest let down here is it doesn't go too far with implementing new ideas for them. Magic Defense is a nice touch for the Swordsman, but doesn't go far enough – the abilities for the Archer, while brokenly powerful, are relatively simple. Even when it comes to the oversaturation of casters, a lot of the spells used are simply existing ingame abilities. My primary suggestions for creativity here would be to rather than make multiple units use mana with abilities to the point of having more casters than any ingame faction, would be to come up with ways in which the emphasis on using a smaller number of casters makes them more integral to the inherent gameplay of the faction as a cohesive whole. Overall, though, this is a relatively solid entry. 15/30
Total: 49/100
Gameplay: This is basically vanilla modding in a nutshell – the faction itself plays a lot like a relatively simplified melee faction, with some ingame abilities implemented in “balanced” ways. It's a style that's been around since the days of Reign Of Chaos, and with good reason. The faction here has a higher than average number of caster units available to them, which works well for Blood Elves, but the emphasis does not fall on them – it falls on the Archers, which also kind of works for Blood Elves. Striking a balance here, however, would make for a more effective stratagem – creating incentive to mix Archers with the ingame casters would be key, and as it is it falls short of that. A good start with plenty of room for improvement. 15/25
Balance: Just get Archers. They cost very little, despite requiring 3 food (I never did understand what that was supposed to be about), and once you hit tier 3 they are able to decimate multiple smaller units and larger single units at the same time. Holy Arrows dishes out Searing Arrows damage so long as your archers have mana, and Triple-Shot sees them dishing out damage against everybody else at the same time. If any of them dies, let them – they're dirt cheap to replace, and it's not worth investing in healing for them. The only real counterbalance to this is you need tier 3 to make the most of these. 3/20
Creativity: This entry makes use of some ingame units, such as Dragonhawk Riders and Spellbreakers. While it does some new things with them, it also keeps some vanilla things with them as well. The use of the swordsman and archer combination is an oldie but a goldie, as well as the use of the Ballista – the biggest let down here is it doesn't go too far with implementing new ideas for them. Magic Defense is a nice touch for the Swordsman, but doesn't go far enough – the abilities for the Archer, while brokenly powerful, are relatively simple. Even when it comes to the oversaturation of casters, a lot of the spells used are simply existing ingame abilities. My primary suggestions for creativity here would be to rather than make multiple units use mana with abilities to the point of having more casters than any ingame faction, would be to come up with ways in which the emphasis on using a smaller number of casters makes them more integral to the inherent gameplay of the faction as a cohesive whole. Overall, though, this is a relatively solid entry. 15/30
Total: 49/100
Theme: This is a rather bizarre one for me, as it seems to start with High Elves and moves on to implementing magic users. The mixture of sub-factions is a nice touch, and the way Jaina gets implemented is interesting. Mana Shield on buildings is… serviceable, but could be better implemented. For the most part, this is an entry that follows a more classic convention of Warcraft 3 modding, which is very nice but also doesn't date /completely/ with the Techtree Contests – effectively creating a great template to work from. Two units using the same icon is a bit of a no-no for me. Definite potential here, needs to be expanded upon. 13/25
Gameplay: A nice callback to a simpler time, this entry has a relatively simple and straightforward gameplay to it. Your workers are workers (with no additional features, unfortunately) and as such you'll be training units in much the traditional way as well. Unit roles are well covered, with some added in for a bit of variety. Still, what is somewhat disappointing here is that the most prevalent stratagem this race has to offer will revolve entirely around Archers rather than casters. It's a shame, as for a Jaina themed Kirin Tor faction, it would be nice to see it expand into more summoned units and magic wielders as the centre of attention. 12/25
Balance: Get Archers. Tier 2 is the optimal tier for you here, as you'll get Improved Bows, Agility Training and Arcane Arrows by then. Basically, you'll have a longer ranged attacker with Searing Arrows, that is dirt cheap and easily replaced for costing 3 food. They're also decently bulky with 410 health, befitting of its role as a 3 food unit, but with the cost and abilities… you'll win with just these. 1/20
Creativity: There's definitely some creativity here. Despite appearing to have Blizzard as a vanilla ability, it's actually implemented in a creative way that makes use of the whole “Frozen” mechanic Jaina can implement. This is definitely a solid entry, but there's a plenty of room for improvement. While I'm rather happy to see some units implementing upgrades rather than relying on unlocking abilities, quite a few of them are just ingame researches. There are a lot more ideas that could be explored here. 14/30
Total: 40/100
Gameplay: A nice callback to a simpler time, this entry has a relatively simple and straightforward gameplay to it. Your workers are workers (with no additional features, unfortunately) and as such you'll be training units in much the traditional way as well. Unit roles are well covered, with some added in for a bit of variety. Still, what is somewhat disappointing here is that the most prevalent stratagem this race has to offer will revolve entirely around Archers rather than casters. It's a shame, as for a Jaina themed Kirin Tor faction, it would be nice to see it expand into more summoned units and magic wielders as the centre of attention. 12/25
Balance: Get Archers. Tier 2 is the optimal tier for you here, as you'll get Improved Bows, Agility Training and Arcane Arrows by then. Basically, you'll have a longer ranged attacker with Searing Arrows, that is dirt cheap and easily replaced for costing 3 food. They're also decently bulky with 410 health, befitting of its role as a 3 food unit, but with the cost and abilities… you'll win with just these. 1/20
Creativity: There's definitely some creativity here. Despite appearing to have Blizzard as a vanilla ability, it's actually implemented in a creative way that makes use of the whole “Frozen” mechanic Jaina can implement. This is definitely a solid entry, but there's a plenty of room for improvement. While I'm rather happy to see some units implementing upgrades rather than relying on unlocking abilities, quite a few of them are just ingame researches. There are a lot more ideas that could be explored here. 14/30
Total: 40/100
Theme: In between the custom soundsets and the background music, this entry wastes no time in setting the pace for what you can expect. While having a nice old seadog vibe to it without presenting itself as a band of ruthless pirates, it strikes a great balance here. Unfortunately, some aspects could have been refined a bit further for the theme, with a few more Kul Tiran aspects implemented and less so delving into… gnome fighters and riderless gryphons. Aside from those aspects, it does a rather serviceable job. Would have been nice to see more sea terrors, though. 20/25
Gameplay: Some units, unfortunately, appear to have overlapping roles. Admiral's Guard is basically a Kul Tiran Marine with Command Aura, both the Alliance Bombard and the Cannon seem to fall under the same roles as one another and the Mechagon Fighter is… very muddled. There is a lot of room for improvement here, such as relegating one of the siege unit roles to a flying (or enchanted) battleship for the potential of some tier 3 air-based siege damage. That being said, there is also some nice synergies that can be accomplished within the faction as it is. Tidesages support your army rather nicely, while Kul Tiran Marines are considerably hardy front line attackers potentially rivalling even Orc Grunts. Definite room for improvement. 16/25
Balance: There are some questionable choices here that seem to be relatively unintentional. The Mariner, for whatever reason, has 160 health. Still, it costs 140 gold and 25 lumber, so I don't recommend getting this unit. Quite a few of the unit abilities can leave a bit to be desired, such as what the Mechagon Fighter is sporting. The Kul Tiran Marine, on the other hand, only costs 2 food despite requiring 180 gold, having 600 health and dealing out 18-19 damage at a slightly slower attack rate than the ingame Footman. With research, it can get both Defend and the ability to Sunder Armor, making it very effective at taking down defensive tanks. Combining this with Tide Sage presents a powerful synergy, but perhaps a slightly imbalanced one. However, tactical synergy is still needed to win with this entry, and most of it is relatively balanced. 16/20
Creativity: For the parts that are creative, there's a lot here for a nice, solid entry. There's definitely room for more, as the contestant fully well knows in accordance with a lack of time allocated to this entry. Such is a shame, as what is presented here so far is very nice, and makes good use of Reforged assets to convey itself. Abilities implemented are all within theme, and make for a nice cohesive whole. Would have been nice to see quite a few of the more questionable areas tightened up, and a few more options for scaring the landlubbers. 23/30
Total: 75/100
Gameplay: Some units, unfortunately, appear to have overlapping roles. Admiral's Guard is basically a Kul Tiran Marine with Command Aura, both the Alliance Bombard and the Cannon seem to fall under the same roles as one another and the Mechagon Fighter is… very muddled. There is a lot of room for improvement here, such as relegating one of the siege unit roles to a flying (or enchanted) battleship for the potential of some tier 3 air-based siege damage. That being said, there is also some nice synergies that can be accomplished within the faction as it is. Tidesages support your army rather nicely, while Kul Tiran Marines are considerably hardy front line attackers potentially rivalling even Orc Grunts. Definite room for improvement. 16/25
Balance: There are some questionable choices here that seem to be relatively unintentional. The Mariner, for whatever reason, has 160 health. Still, it costs 140 gold and 25 lumber, so I don't recommend getting this unit. Quite a few of the unit abilities can leave a bit to be desired, such as what the Mechagon Fighter is sporting. The Kul Tiran Marine, on the other hand, only costs 2 food despite requiring 180 gold, having 600 health and dealing out 18-19 damage at a slightly slower attack rate than the ingame Footman. With research, it can get both Defend and the ability to Sunder Armor, making it very effective at taking down defensive tanks. Combining this with Tide Sage presents a powerful synergy, but perhaps a slightly imbalanced one. However, tactical synergy is still needed to win with this entry, and most of it is relatively balanced. 16/20
Creativity: For the parts that are creative, there's a lot here for a nice, solid entry. There's definitely room for more, as the contestant fully well knows in accordance with a lack of time allocated to this entry. Such is a shame, as what is presented here so far is very nice, and makes good use of Reforged assets to convey itself. Abilities implemented are all within theme, and make for a nice cohesive whole. Would have been nice to see quite a few of the more questionable areas tightened up, and a few more options for scaring the landlubbers. 23/30
Total: 75/100
Assigned Staff: Mythic
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