I’ve been playing through the campaign on Hard, just casually as time allows and it hasn’t been too bad other than a few spots where I refused to start over and just kept hammering away.
What missions did you guys find the most difficult on either difficulty? I had the most trouble with Under the Burning Sky, Defense of Strahnbrad, and honestly the most frustrating of all was Balancing the Scales…Naga are just so tanky and each attack wave has 1-2 heroes.
balancing the scales you just do the second quest then rush directly to the gate, unload, destroy the gate and GG. This nagas are too imba!
Under the Burning Sky was definitely harder. But only due to the last minute where they send literally everything. I mean even Wtii who is a master W3 tactician almost lost.
A couple more I noticed were harder: 1) The Crossing & 2) A Symphony of Frost and Flame
Night Elf Missions are generally harder whether in RoC or TFT because for some reasons, their units were so weak in the campaign, especially against Naga units at TFT missions.
At least undead units can put some fight against Naga units, while NE units just die so fast for most of the times.
The mission where you have to stop Illidan from destroying Northrend.
Hot damn that was frustrating. I saw so many youtube videos of it from the beta in which it was obviously a lot easier than at release.
I ended up finally devastating his economy and production line that with 40s left I rushed the remaining 2 Nagas and killed them with 4 flying dragons surviving it + my heroes with 5s left.
This mission was a lot easier in WC3 as far as I remember… Back then I made a stack of the dragons, hugged the north entrance map edge and took out the 4 nagas before he even reacted with his army. Safe to say - not possible in WC3R.
King Arthas was the first challenge for me. Until I said screw it doing it the traditional way and built up an army on Sylvana’s side of those knights who heal and just took the middle portion. to combine my troops, then it was extremely easy.
The 2nd was Frost and Flame. Illidan’s forces that just instantly respawn as soon as I defend was just a nightmare. It literally seemed like 15 seconds after he died he would respawn with a 100 food cap army of quatel’s at times.
I pretty much defended the first 3 obelisks without taking them and illidan always seemed to focus on the left one. I countered by pulling/baiting the forces away from the top obelisk, spread my units around to block the naga and ran Arthas in for the win.
New Culling (Human 6) idk if the AI was bugged or what, but the changes they made to that mission made it much more difficult. Mal’Ganis’ army is actually a threat and relentlessly pursued me. Had to micro pretty hard to beat that.
Frostmourne (Human 9) is, in theory, a difficult mission, because you have to manage 2 separate forces from the start.
Under the Burning Sky (Undead 8) is again, in theory, a difficult mission, but if you just play tower defense it’s very manageable.
Grom’s missions (Orc 4/5) can be difficult because they’re unconventional, and the second one requires you to split up your forces.
By Demons be Driven (Orc 8) can be difficult because of the inferno rain and the sheer size of the base you have to fight through, although it is possible to cheese this mission. Also there’s the possibility that Jaina can get wiped out if she gets overwhelmed.
The Awakening of Stormrage (Night Elf 3) is/was probably my most feared mission because I feel like you have to play perfectly from start to finish, although I think this was made slightly easier with Reforged.
Twilight of the Gods (Night Elf 7) should be the hardest in the game, but like Undead 8, if you abuse towers and play smart, you can get a lead that becomes insurmountable (hold the first 2 bases for at least 17 minutes, and it becomes a cakewalk to the finish).
The ‘Rescue Maiev’ arc (Sentinel 4/5) have the infamous ‘split forces’ issue. The latter of which, in particular, starts you with no gold mine, against Naga units which are imbalanced and broken.
Ruins of Dalaran (Sentinel 7) has a time limit to attack and is into a rather fortified Naga base. Might have been easier if I made more chimaeras.
The Brothers Stormrage (Sentinel 8) would be hard if there was actually a way to lose, but it still requires you to control 2 forces.
A Dark Covenant (Alliance 2) is a pain because you’re outnumbered 5-1 with an incomplete army (no siege damage!) and have to get creative. There are ways to abuse some things to make it more even, but it’s still very tense.
King Arthas (Scourge 1) makes me regret life. You have to control three separate forces with limited forces. The first 2/3 of the mission are rough until you can clear out a side and start to calm down.
A New Power in Lordaeron (Scourge 6) yet again splits up your forces and has a lot of enemy bases on the map.
A Symphony of Frost and Flame (Scourge 8) can either be manageable or a right pain. Historically, I’ve either exploited an opportunity for a relatively easy win, or had to go through a long, protracted war of attrition.
Basically, ‘hold out/defense’ missions, the last mission of a campaign, or anything that requires you to control separate armies tend to be the most difficult missions. Even as an RTS veteran, they still provide a good challenge.
I was struggling with this mission so hard because the Human base would just get massacred, then after a restart it was a ton easier and I realized why - the first time, Jaina was never actually on the field!
A symphony of frost and flame was a pain!
You can cheese it by training 20+ fairy dragons with full armor upgrade and sent them to the naga mage and “mana flare” them to death. Illidan’s forces are not fast enough to wipe out your 20+ fairy dragons.
For me, it was a pretty easy mission. You put 2 groups to kill the infected civilians. Malganis and his forces can only chase one group, so your other group will be doing the killing. Note that when Malganis is chasing you, he forgot to kill the civilians as he prefers to chase you all over the map. Engaging with him is not wise considering how big is his armies.
Not very hard once your Arthas with Frostmune joined your armies. Also, abuse the Divine Shield for Arthas to snipe (he deals full damage on buildings now) the Undead Alter, Ziggurats and factories.
In this mission, I prioritize towers ( a lot of towers) first for my main base and Jaina’s base before I commit the offense. The wood supply issue can be solved by hiring the Shedder (200 woods per run) from Goblin’s Laboratory. Building melee is this mission is not wise as the orc buildings have spike that hurt melee units.
Yes. The timing is really strict in this mission. I was able to complete this around 5 trees remaining. The NE units are too weak to fight against Orcs in this mission.
I cheese it with Hippogryph+Archers to wipe out Archimonde’s 2nd base, so no armies to attack Thrall’s base.
I spam a lot of towers at the main bases with Kaelthas as support, while my Naga and a lot of archers attacking the undead bases.
I sent Arthas alone to help Kelthuzad’s side as he has the weakest units in this mission. Kelthuzad just spam Death and Decay as much as possible (with Arthas’s healing and potion) on the Alter of Heroes until 3 of them got destroyed. Slyvanas side is easy as you keep possessing the strong militia until you reached the cap. I clear Kelthuzad side first as Arthas’s death coil and Frost Nova can easily burst a lot of things, and after I cleared Kelthuzad’s side, I bring Kelthuzad over with Arthas to Arthas’s side for more burst and damage.
It is easier in Reforged because 2 undead bases were blocked by a gate. I don’t know whether they fixed it at recent patches, but as long as you don’t destroy the gate, you only need to worry about the main undead’s attack.
I haven’t tried myself but you can block Illidan with 4 shades to prevent him to move, so you don’t have to worry about potential attacks from him as long as you don’t kill him and let him stuck at one position.
for me there have been 4 actually HARD missions. (I still have to do the whole scourge campaign of TFT).
Awakening of stormrage, By demons be driven, the crossing and the brothers stormrage.
I could finish the awakening at first try because guardians bugged when I turned tyrande invissible and they run across the whole map to die in my main camp. 1 Tree remaining.
the brothers stormrage is because I realized at the very end of the game there was a gold mine to the south, so I had to finish it with limited resources.
the crossing is the only one I have had to restart.
the trick i found with the last mission with Arthas and Illidan is as long as you clear out the bases surronding the obelisk and “distract” illidan long enough. You can still win, but before then it will always be cancerous. Ziggurats are a great method of stalling but the terrain is so bad to the point where you can maybe build 3-4 zig’s and maybe one crypt and even then the ziggurats don’t last that long oh and the base Necropolis can take a lot of punishment before Illidan ever tries to re-take the obelisk and its even better if its upgraded since it does a fair amount of damage. But without question … I’d say under the burning sky was the hardest. I beat it once and ever since then I always skip it unless I want to torture myself mentally then I try. Lastly the third mission I couldn’t wrap my head around for the longest time was “the dark covenant” and it wasn’t because of how big the map was in a matter of fact since the map is so big you can pincer the base quite easily, but my problem was I didn’t know what to make LOL I guess archers and dragonhawks are quite underrated.
I found the new stratholme to be “challenging” …
I always remember having tons of skirmishes in the old map, having to defend your base and relatively slowly explore the city.
Trying to do this, in first fight against MalGains his infernal alone basically wiped my army …
So on second attempt I just said zog it, killed those orcs and rushed into the city with all you have at start … I lost maybe one unit and finished the mission in 5 minutes … it was kinda anticlimactic
Not sure if we are counting secret levels, but The Crossing has been hair-pulling so far. My best attempt got me to the end of wave 3. Going to keep chipping away when I have some time.
Hint for King Arthas:
If you take the main force of aboms to engage the combat units of the humans, the civilian units keep going. A few ghouls/aboms spread out along the rear catches the civilian units. That way you only have to focus on Syl and Kel. You can wear down the bases near Kel with skellies, and mass Banshee quickly becomes mass OP Special Campaign Units.
just finished the game.
symphony of frost and flame was not as hard as people say, but it is not easy at all.
the crossing (secret level) has been the most difficult level for me. It is the only one I need a youtube guide for and to reset the game.
closing the portals, awakening of stormrage and by demons be driven is my top3 hard missions out of the secret level.
Ruins of dalaran, king Arthas and dreadlords fall deserve a mention too. I was so stupid at a dreadlords fall that I thought it was impossible to destroy the whole detherocs or garithos base in 8 mins so I face both during the mission, it was a nightmare. But doing it properly makes it a normal quest.
My first try at this level was abysmal. My second try, I ran Arthas into the Paladin base and dropped all three mines, then followed up with Kel’thuzad’s DnD to destroy the altars.
After that I left KT and Arthas on defense at their bases, and waited until I had 7-9 spear throwers possessed and used Sylvanas to clean the map.
That made it pretty easy. I had 19 get through but all of that happened before I decided on the Sylvanas strat, and I was so confident in it that I just didn’t reload the save.