Careful buffs to Night Elves to make it easier for new players?

Competitive Multiplayer
1

Hello,

First of all, I am aware that nelfs are capable and represented at the highest levels of competition. I very much enjoy watching the various tournaments that are constantly ongoing. However as someone who is looking to get back into the game, and wants to main Night Elves, it feels discouraging as the elves feel very weak to a newbie. From my perspective at least, I attribute some of that to the weaker feeling starting units and heroes which require a lot of micro and tactics to be competitive, the difficulty further enhanced by a lack of easy to manage healers and being subject to rushes.

I understand that balancing is a very very delicate process, especially in a game like WC3, and that any balance changes need to ensure that competitive multiplayer is not disrupted at high levels and tournaments. I would therefore like to propose to the much more capable balancing team to consider adding a few buffs to Night Elves which improve the situation for new players but doesn’t disrupt the high levels of plays. I imagine its going to be a very hard task.

Examples (without knowing impact on high levels):

Give Archers a little more hp (e.g. 40hp), or higher movement speed (thinking of the agile description of night elves).
Give Huntress +1 attack and/or +1 armor, or just a little hp.

Also perhaps worth considering:
Buff/Rework Priestess of the Moon

Out-of-box idea:
Add a healing unit, or give healing to an existing unit/hero (that is not as hard to manage as druids of the claw) e.g. Priestess of the Moon. An idea could be to replace Searing Arrows or Trueshot aura with a new ability called Light of Elune (name taken from Hots), that perhaps does less healing but has two charges or something to make it a little bit different.

(Not proposing all at the same time! Just suggestions)

Anyway, I am by no way an expert on this matter, or how above would impact competitive plays, but I do think it would make it simpler for newbies to get into night elves without feeling punished for their choice. I’m sure the much more experienced WC3 balance team can up with some much more considerate suggestions. I just hope that the issue is adressed at some point of time, if at all possible.

Thanks for reading. Please don’t hate this newbie for his ignorant suggestions.

//Lothras

2

Priestress of the moon rework is maybe an idea.

Archers alreay received +15 HP in a recent patch. Before that they received +5 HP. They also received Elunes Grace which reduces damage from spells. No need for movement speed, they already have Shadowmelt. Archers also received +33% Buff on Marksmanship. Archers are one of the strongest T1 unit in the game, only rivaled by the Troll Berserker from Orc in effectiveness. They must not get buffed any further. In fact Archers and Huntresses are so good, its all that Nightelf plays vs Orc for quite a while now. Hopefully with the Bear buffs that will change. Huntresses certainly do not need any more buffs. They were overbuffed and then nerfed again for good reason.

Nightelfs are using the Alchemist for healing, so I recommend you try this. Otherwise make use of Moonwells, Moon stone and Druids of the Claw with Rejuvenation.

2 Likes
3

I understand what you’re saying. As a experienced player (i assume), you know that archers and huntresses would have a negative impact on high levels of play if they were to be buffed. That is fair. However, for a newbie Night Elves are really hard to manage, I’ve had much more success with UD (my second favorite) and Orc/Human as its not as punishing if the micro management is bad, on newbie levels at least. This is further enhanced by UD, Orc and Human having really solid heals that are not too difficult to manage, mostly auto cast and hero abilities. Is there any buffs/changes that you can see happening that would improve the situation for beginners that wouldn’t the break the pro levels?

Regarding the Alchemist, I’ve tried quite a bit with this one, but its also a hero that feels not as a strong and as easy to manage as other heroes with healing abilities. Perhaps then, Priestess of the Moon, which is almost never used at pro levels, could be an interesting hero to rework to include a healing ability - done carefully not to upset the balance of course. Lorewise it would make sense too, since they are priestesses after all. This would also be interesting to see on the tournaments - what new strategies would be created.

4

Nights Elves are indeed a special race to play for sure. You see, the established plays for Nightelf involve creeping (=killing the npc mercenaries like Gnolls, Ogres etc for experience) with your Ancient of War. Usually Night elf players start with a couple Archers, around 2-6 depending on what race you play and what strategy you go for.

Then, you have your ancient of war absord the damage. But you must be careful to not last hit the creeps with your ancient because then you don’t get exp. Everyone does it and has been doing so for years now, and will forever do so in the future. That way you do not need to heal your units as much since the Ancient of War or Ancient of Life (if you decide to expand, you also build this one next to the creeps) can simply eat trees to heal hitpoints. I recommend watching some pro players play, for example search for videos from Back2Warcraft on twitch or youtube.

The other races are a bit more straightforward in that regard. Humans make big use of their militia of course, which involves a lot of juggeling peasants back and forth and is not very easy for a new player. Therefore, Orc and Undead are probably the most straightforward races to learn for a beginner. I’m not sure if Blizzard is going to touch the Priestress. Keep trying the Alchemist, usually paired with a Keeper of the Grove so you can have your Treants absord damage instead of your units.

5

Wow, I never thought of that; but the ancient is so slow, is there a way you can compensate for the lack of speed?

6

You build it next to the creep camp so it doesn’t have to walk very far. Otherwise, not really. You can get Nature’s blessing.

7

I’m gonna need to try this. though running Warden first kinda ruins it don’t it? but this’ll come in handy when trying to creep an expo, my warden dies occasionally when trying to do this because I can’t get her away; this’d probably fix that.

8

Warden is pretty standard vs Human nowadays. But Nightelf creeps any hero with Ancient of War. Also if you expand. Just place Tree of Life next to creeps and let it tank damage for you. Those strategies have been standard play for a long, long time. Just watch out you don’t place the tree too close because creeps hate Trees of life!

I presume you haven’t watched any professionals play this game? You should, there is much to learn from the best of the best. Just search for any game by Moon or Lawliet, best Nightelf players in the world.

9

TLDR buff night elf units to keep the game fair and balanced for noobs. Lul