History Characters / Warcraft3Units

* LightningBruiser: Gryphon Riders have the highest damage and HP of flying units, even before their HP is increased by Animal War Training (not counting Creeps) next to the Frost Wyrm, with speed equal to the less powerful Wind Rider.

* CrutchCharacter: Being summoned units with decent stats that cost nothing, but the Archmage's mana makes Water Elementals excellent tanks in the early game, especially when fighting neutral units so that your actual units take less damage. While they do become quite powerful at higher levels, their status as summoned units mean they get destroyed quickly by dispels, making them less powerful overall once the enemy has teched up.

In the past, Dragons in their twilight years would fly to Northrend to die, leaving massive graveyards full of the bones and skulls of long-dead Dragons. When Ner'zhul took full control of Northrend he raised the skeletons as undead servants called Frost Wyrms who only think of serving the Lich King. Infused with cold power they breathe blasts of frost.

* MundaneUtility: If you keep even a single Frost Wyrm with your army, they can simply support your army by slowing enemies or freezing a key structure like an Altar or a defensive structure. It's not as flashy as massing Frost Wyrms but ''less'' risky financially and might even trick an opponent into overcompensating with AntiAir.

* StoneWall: Originally, they had 800 health (still visible if you play the Scourge campaign, which uses an older version of each unit). This was quite a lot for a unit that costs 3 food. It was nerfed down to 700, then 550, then later 500, averting the trope.

* ManaDrain: Absorb Mana causes a Destroyer to steal all mana from a friendly unit.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Unlike most units that start with their mana partially full and slowly regenerate it, the Destroyer starts with 0 mana and has negative mana regeneration, meaning that any mana it receives will drain over time. Aside from Orb of Annihilation, its spells give its mana back instead of costing it.

* VanillaUnit: Before getting Sundering Blades, Knights had no active or passive abilities.

* MindControl: Their Control Magic spell allows them to take control of summoned units.

* AntiStructure: Raiders do Siege damage, which makes them better at destroying buildings than units since most buildings have Fortified armor which takes reduced damage from everything except Siege and Chaos damage.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: They were heavy melee fighters in the previous two games, the orc counterpart to the human Knight. While the Knight retains this role in the third game, the Raider's stats make them very ill-suited for frontline combat. They're far from useless, though; their speed and Siege damage makes them excellent for harassing expansions. Ensnare is also easily one of the most useful and versatile abilities in the entire game.

* StoneWall: While the Kodo Beast is a support unit without a lot of damage output, it's quite durable, with the most HP of the Orc units next to the Tauren.

* CriticalHitClass: With their Pulverize ability researched. Rather than dealing extra damage to its target (unless it is upgraded), it deals damage to enemies around the target.

* BoisterousWeakling: Unlike the Peon and Peasant, Acolytes are oddly confident when sent to attack. To their credit, they ''do'' have better attack damage than other worker units and like other Undead they get decent regeneration on Blight, but they're still no match for actual military units.

* InTheHood: Acolytes all wear hoods, and most of their faces are covered as well.

* FragileSpeedster: Of the starting combat units, Ghouls have the lowest HP next to the Archer and the lowest damage. Researching Ghoul Frenzy gives Ghouls a boost to their attack rate and speed, making them as fast as a Knight.

* WorkerUnit: In the sense that they gather and preserve corpses for later use.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Frost Wyrms are the Scourge's most powerful unit in terms of raw stats. They also cost an arm and a leg, only reviving a high-level hero or hiring a Dragon costs more than a Frost Wyrm, and only a Dragon takes up more population space, so they are a huge investment that is difficult to create in significant numbers. On top of their cost and long build time, they require their own unique structure to build, so if an enemy scouts an Undead base and see a Boneyard(s), they can easily see the Frost Wyrms coming. Despite their high HP, they are still very vulnerable to AntiAir attacks due to their poor armor and slow speed. Due to their magic attack type, they also cannot damage spell immune units. As a result, they do not see much use outside of team games where it is easier to amass the resources needed to produce them and how easily they can be countered.

* BreathWeapon: Being skeletons doesn't stop the Frost Wyrms from having an icy BreathWeapon.

* DracoLich: Reanimated skeletons of dragons with no legs in the original. ''Reforged'' adds legs to them.

* GiantFlyer: The largest flying units players normally have access to outside of the occasional dragon.

* MundaneUtility: Because they don't have a timed life, they are more likely to be around to provide added utility for a Lich's Dark Ritual (restores mana), or the Death Knight's Death Pact (restores health). At Level 2 and up, they surpass Skeletons in return on investment, with the trade-off being that the Crypt Lord needs to spend a small sum of mana (50) to raise each Beetle; this can give the Crypt Lord a niche as a mana battery for the Lich hero.

* MundaneUtility: Because they don't have a timed life, they are more likely to be around to provide added utility for a Lich's Dark Ritual (restores mana), or the Death Knight's Death Pact (restores health). At Level 2 and up, they surpass Skeletons in return on investment, at the cost of the Crypt Lord needing to spend mana regardless.

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Unlike a typical SiegeEngine unit, these machines attack at melee range instead of from afar, have Fortified armor instead of the typical Heavy armor, can't harm mobile ground units, and can be fitted with AntiAir rockets.

* MightyGlacier: Unlike most siege units, they are very durable. They have high HP and Fortified armor, which are normally only found on buildings. This means most attacks deal reduced damage to them. The cost of all this resilience is that they are slow.

* NonActionGuy: Unlike the Peon and Peasant, the Acolyte has no way to defend himself aside from his weak basic attack, and unlike the Wisp, Acolytes cannot hide inside Gold Mines or other buildings. Even their transformation into Shades turns them into harmless invisible scouts. Fortunately, they can wall themselves off by summoning strategically placed structures, usually Ziggurats, a good idea for protecting your workers and Haunted Gold Mines; they can later unsummon any structures that are no longer useful.

* NonActionGuy: Unlike the Peon and Peasant, the Acolyte has no way to defend himself aside from his weak basic attack, and unlike the Wisp, Acolytes cannot hide inside Gold Mines or other buildings. Even their transformation into Shades turns them into harmless invisible scouts. Fortunately, they can wall themselves off by summoning strategically placed structures, usually Ziggurats, and this is a good idea for protecting your Haunted Gold Mines; they can later unsummon any structures that are no longer useful.

* BorrowingFromTheSisterSeries: Acolytes are similar to Protoss Probes by virtue of being able to "warp in" structures and depart for other duties while the summoning completes automatically. As an added perk, they can even unsummon structures to recover part of their original cost.

* NoSell: When using Ethereal Form, the Spirit Walker is immune to everything except spells and Magic Damage, which do extra damage to them in this form. As another cost, they cannot attack in this state.

* BatteringRam: With War Club, they gain Siege damage, which makes them ideal for charging at towers and crushing them into dust. Especially with Hardened Skin, which reduces damage they take by 8 (12 originally). Their armor type (Medium) also resists the most common tower attack type (Piercing).

* NoSell: Resistant Skin gives the Mountain Giant the same ContractualBossImmunity that heroes and creeps above level 5 enjoy, making them immune to Polymorph and Possession and weakening certain debuffs.

* OptionalBoss: Most melee maps have a "boss" type encounter, where the strongest creep camp(s) hangs out, sometimes guarding a valuable neutral building (Gold Mine, Marketplace, or even more rarely, a Dragon Roost). These are usually near the center of the map, but occasionally may be tucked away in some corner of the map. Though most maps are sensible with the strongest encounters on the maps fitting the estimated length of the game (for example 1v1 maps rarely have creeps over level 7), some smaller maps have disproportionally powerful and high level creep camps. They often serve as a way to get powerful items, but there's a decent chance that if you're engaging often with your enemy or enemies, you will never get a chance to kill these "boss" encounters, as [[AwesomeButImpractical they simply take too much effort to kill]] when a player has to worry about being attacked by another enemy, and there's a greater fear of being ambushed by the other player while fighting the hard creeps.

* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: Outside of a Dreadlord or Pit Lord ultimate, these Demons can be summoned if a player finds the right item, though they are considered summoned units so they have a timed life. This doesn't apply if they are fought as Creeps or as enemies in the campaign.

!!Elite troops from Kul Tiras
The Elite soldiers that Daelin Proudmoore brought to Theramore to destroy the horde once and for all.

!!Milita Captains and Militia Commanders

Elite units working for the surviving Paladins that escorted the fleeing human refugees who tried to escape the Lordaeron Capital.

Milita Captains are ranged fighters that use the model of a Brigand/Assassin, and have the Critical Strike, Command Aura and Envenomed Weapons abilities. Militia Commanders are horseback {{Magic Knight}}s that use the model of the Bandit Lord, and have the Healing Wave, Hardened Skin and Devotion Aura abilities.
----
* EliteMooks: Much stronger than any of the regular units the Alliance can field.
* InfinityPlusOneElement: Milita Commanders deal Chaos damage.
* MookCommander: The two of them have auras that increase either the defense or offense of their allies.
* ThePaladin: Implied with the Militia Commanders, given that they're horseback knights (which use the Bandit Lord model probably to set themselves apart from the regular Knights) that can use healing spells and project defensive auras, plus the fact that they work for the Silver Hand.
* UniqueEnemy: They only appear in the "King Arthas" mission.

* CrutchCharacter: They are effective in rushes if the opponent is not expecting them and only has basic melee troops, but their value goes down if the opponent has anticipated the rush and unlocked ranged troops to snipe them down. As the match progresses, they ultimately get replaced by Druids of the Claw in Bear Form. They do however retain debatable utility for their Sentinel Owl ability to create a DefogOfWar over trees near key points of the map, until the opponent starts felling the trees to counter this.

* HornedHumanoid: The Druid of the Talon's official portrait on the battle.net site (shown on the right here) depicts him with antlers like Malfurion despite not having them in the actual game. This is because the model was originally meant for the scrapped Arch Druid her, which was then reused for the Druid of the Talon unit with the antlers removed, but the portrait wasn't updated to reflect the change.

->''"[[ComicBook/FantasticFour It's clobbering time!]]"''

* AttackSpeedBuff: As the original caster of Bloodlust in ''Warcraft II'', the Ogre Mage can buff an ally's attack speed for increased offense.

* InformedAbility: The Ogres are supposedly very strong. The basic Ogre Warrior is actually weaker than a Footman or Grunt, both of whom are much smaller than them.

* PaletteSwap: The Apprentice Wizard is one to the Alliances' Priests being human instead of elven, lacking the latter's ProphetEyes (yet still having blue glowing eyes). The rest are a PaletteSwap of the Archmage.

* SummonMagic: Revenants of the Depths have a spell called Summon Sea Elemental, which summons a Sea Elemental, a unit somewhat stronger than the basic Water Elemental.

* AntiAir: While they cannot attack air units (unlike other ranged units), Crypt Fiends can force air units to the ground with their Web ability. Their attack type is also well suited for most flying units.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Undead BigCreepyCrawlies, being mummified spiders.
* InescapableNet: Their webbing will draw flying units to the ground and can't be dodged. Though unable to immobilize ground enemies like the Raider's Ensnare, it can be auto-cast, and the Crypt Fiend has other perks like having a ranged attack and being able to Burrow.

* AntiAir: While they can attack ground and air units, the attack against the former is very weak compared to the latter. Hence, their main use is to kill other air units.

An all-female group of demonic sadists. They do not sleep at night.

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Unlike most spellcasters, which tend to directly manipulate units with buffs or debuffs, Witch Doctors' spells instead plant wards that grant an effect around themselves. Since wards are immune to magic, they can't be removed by dispels, but can be targeted by attacks to destroy them.

* NonIndicativeName: Skeletal Mages do not cast spells and do not have Magic damage. Although they do dress like mages, so maybe they are just unable to access the magic they had in life, besides the evil fireballs they throw.

Trolls riding on giant bats are fast units with an obsession with fire and causing destruction with their deadly chemical concoctions.

* NotTheIntendedUse: While Spirit Walkers are designed as support units, they can make a surprisingly good source of ranged damage as their basic attack is quite strong for a spellcaster and they have decent health (they end up serving a similar function to Shaman in ''Reign of Chaos'' before their nerf, though not to the same extent)

* OptionalBoss: Most maps have a "boss" type encounter, where the strongest creep camp(s) hangs out, sometimes guarding a valuable neutral building (Gold Mine, Marketplace, or even more rarely, a Dragon Roost). Though most maps are sensible with the strongest encounters on the maps fitting the length of the game (for example 1v1 maps rarely have creeps over level 7), some smaller maps have disproportionally powerful high level creep camps and they often serve as a way to get high level items, but there's a decent chance that if you're engaging often with your enemy or enemies, you will never get a chance to kill these "boss" encounters.

* StarterVillain: The neutral creeps are this in melee games. If a player isn't trying to rush their enemy, players will be fighting creeps to level up their heroes, potentially grab useful items, and seize control of Gold Mines before trying to engage with their opponent(s). Creeps end up becoming an afterthought once players become fixated on trying to fight each other.

* BreathWeapon: Dragonspawn Overseers have an ability called Breath of Frost where they breathe ice of an area that damages and causes a short DamageOverTime effect. It is essentially the Pandaren Brewmaster's Breath of Fire, with ice instead of fire.

Flying monsters that breathe a particular element. They come in the varieties of Red, Blue, Green, Black, and Bronze, each with their own element (though Black and Red Dragons both breathe fire, despite Black Dragons being themed around Earth). Young Dragons are called Whelps, and older ones are called Drakes, whiles much older ones are referred to as “Dragons”.

Introduced in ''The Frozen Throne'' are Nether Dragons, which look quite different and have their weakest unit called “Hatchlings” instead of Whelps. The Nether Dragons have a mana pool and the Cripple spell instead of Devour. Their Roosts used to share a model with the Black Dragon Roost, but they got a unique one in ''Reforged''.

* LivingShadow: The Nether Dragons all looked like vaguely dragon shaped shadows with a purple (or Green for the Nether Dragon) auras, rather than actual beings. ''Reforged'' makes them purple, shark-like dragons.

* NonindicativeName: Despite their name, they do not bear much resemblance to real spider crabs.

* GlassCannon: For their cost, Frost Wyrms are this. They deal massive damage, but despite having some decent health, they have poor armor value. They also still have the Light armor class that almost all other flying units have, which does not resist any damage types and takes 200% damage from the abundant piercing type and 125% from magic. On normal flying units that are much cheaper this is a fair balance measure for the superiority of flying movement, and how much more easily they can be replaced, but with the slow Frost Wyrm and its hefty resource and time cost, this armor type is a very risky liability. This was even more pronounced in '"Reign of Chaos'' where they only had 1100 health and took longer to build.

Introduced in ''Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in ''Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in ''Frozen Throne''.

On the water maps introduced in ''Frozen Throne'', a player can hire a ship from a Goblin Shipyard.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Undead Orcs.
Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

Introduced in 'The 'Frozen Throne''.

There are also Nether Dragons, which look quite different and have their weakest unit called “Hatchlings” instead of Whelps. The Nether Dragons have a mana pool and the Cripple spell instead of Devour. Their Roosts used to share a model with the Black Dragon Roost, but they got a unique one in ''Reforged''.

An odd cousin to the Murloc introduced in ''The Frozen Throne'', the Mur’gul appear to be mutated and more powerful.

** [[MakingASplash Sea Revenants]] mostly use spells involving water, like Crushing Wave (which sends a wave of water) and spells that summon Water Elementals.

!!Wildkin

Wild wolves that deal a lot of damage.

Night Elf watchers responsible for the prisoners in the Barrow Deeps, encountered by Tyrande in her quest to free Illidan. Not to be confused with the Warden hero in The Frozen Throne.

* SiegeEngines: They are the Nagas' siege units. While they lack the absurd HP of their creep variant and the range of other factions' siege units, they have the highest damage against buildings of any unit while still being decent fighters if they come under attack. They are also one of the few siege unit that is Biological, so they regenerate HP naturally.

* SiegeEngines: They are the Nagas' siege units. While they lack the absurd HP of their creep variant and the range of other factions' siege units, they have the highest damage against buildings of any unit while still being decent fighters if they come under attack. They are also the only siege unit that is Biological, so they regenerate HP naturally.

* SiegeEngines: They are the Nagas' siege units. While they lack the absurd HP of their creep variant and the range of other factions' siege units, they have the highest damage against buildings of any unit while still being decent fighters if they come under attack.

There are also Nether Dragons, which look quite different and have their weakest unit called “Hatchlings” instead of Whelps. The Nether Dragons have a mana pool and the Cripple spell instead of Devour. They also have no Dragon Roosts available.

* TheMedic: Priests can heal friendly units with their [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Heal]] spell. It does not restore as much HP as other healing spells, but it is cheap and can be set to autocast so the player does not have to manually order the Priest to use it.

* ArtEvolution: It was redesigned between the base game and the expansion. Originally, the Steam Tank looked like an old-style front car of a freight train, but the Siege Engine looks more like a bulldozer and had a large gryphon design.

* {{Nerf}}: Even though leveling up the spell to summon them makes them more powerful, Water Elementals never occupy the gamebreaking level of strength they had in the original game. On top of this, they have the vulnerability to AntiMagic spells damaging them.

* NoSell: The Phoenix is immune to spells.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Averted: the Phoenix has no protection from its flames, causing it to lose HP every second.

* TheVoiceless: The unit has no visible crew so it has no quotes.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: They were heavy melee fighters in the previous two games, the orc counterpart to the human Knight. While the Knight retains this role in the third game, the Raider's stats make them very ill-suited for frontline combat. They're far from useless, though; their speed and Siege damage makes them excellent for harassing expansions and Ensnare is easily one of the most useful and versatile abilities in the entire game.

!! Wyvern / Wind Rider

* NotTheIntendedUse: In ''Reign of Chaos'', Shaman did quite a bit more damage (Average 16 and increased each level of research, which was nerfed down to 10-1 and no longer scaled with research, and their attack rate was slowed down) and had the piercing attack type, which is not blocked by Spell Immunity. Since this was before Berserkers, this meant Shaman were actually quite effective as relatively cheap, ranged damage dealers that could easily catch anyone trying to flee. You could have an extremely powerful army just with your heroes, Shaman, and Witch Doctors (who had similar damage output) to support the Shaman.

* HorrorHunger: Ghouls are driven by a sort of hunger and they can eat corpses to heal themselves. Their only non StopPokingMe where they speak is a simple "Must feed!".

* InescapableNet: Their webbing will draw flying units to the ground and can't be dodged. Though unable to immobilise ground enemies like the Raider's Ensnare, it can be auto-cast, and the Crypt Fiend has other perks like having a ranged attack and being able to Burrow.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Unlike typical AntiAir units, Fiends cannot directly attack air. Instead, they rely upon their webbing to ground their targets. This has the added perk of allowing ground-to-ground units to also attack, and can mean a swift death for the target.
* MoleMonster: He would count since he can burrow. Though unlike most types of this trope, the Crypt Fiend cannot attack while burrowed, nor does he do a DigAttack.

Gargoyles are evil creatures brought from Northrend by the Lich King. Normally they attack from the skies, but can descend to the ground and harden their skin while regenerating their wounds.

* DefogOfWar: Shades have even less HP than the Acolytes sacrificed to create them, and they cannot attack. Instead, they are used as scouts since they are permanently invisible and can see invisible units. Voice lines for the Shades attacking exist in the game, implying that originally they were going to be able to attack but the ability was cut for balance purposes. The lines still play when a Shade is selected along with other units, and the whole group is ordered to attack.

* SupportPartyMember: Necromancers are frail, so they are meant to stay behind the more sturdy units while creating an army of Skeletons, using Unholy Frenzy on a powerful friendly unit and using their Cripple spell to weaken a strong enemy.

* NonIndicativeName: Skeletal Mages do not cast spells and do not have Magic damage. Although they do dress like mages, so maybe they are just unable to access the magic they had in life.

* AntiMagic: Their Anti-Magic Shell stops a set amount of magic damage. Originally, it granted its target Spell Immunity, except it could be dispelled.

* InstantExpert: Banshees that complete Possession will gain the (non-combat racial) upgrades they had. For example if they possess a Footman with Defend, they will have Defend. This is a potentially nice way to get upgrades without paying for them if facing an enemy who is also playing Undead.

* GlassCannon: Meat Wagons have the highest damage of the siege units next to the Demolisher, but have low health and die easily if they come under fire.

* GlassCannon: For their cost, Frost Wyrms are this. They deal massive damage, but despite having some decent health, they have poor armor value. They also still have the Light armor class that almost all other flying units have, which does not resist any damage types and takes 200% damage from the abundant piercing type and 125% from magic. On normal flying units that are much cheaper this is a fair balance measure for the superiority of flying movement, and how much more easily they can be replaced, but with the slow Frost Wyrm and it's hefty resource and time cost, this armor type is a very risky liability. This was even more pronounced in '"Reign of Chaos'' where they only had 1100 health and took longer to build.

* MundaneUtility: If you keep even a single Frost Wyrm with your army, they can simply support your army by slowing enemies or freezing a key structure like an Altar or a defensive structure. It's not as flashy as massing Frost Wyrms but ''less'' risky financially and might even trick an opponent into over compensating with AntiAir.

* MagikarpPower: Their attack is negligible and they aren't intended to do anything but restore friendly units, but they can turn into the very powerful Destroyers.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: No pun intended, they're essentially Mechanical Priests who provide healing without the need for blighted ground, and have a mode that restores mana like a makeshift Brilliance Aura. Similar to Priests, they can dispel magic but only when they irreversibly transform into Destroyers.

* StoneWall: Originally they had 800 health (still visible if you play the Scourge campaign, which uses an older version of each unit). This was quite a lot for a unit that costs 3 food. It was nerfed down to 700, then 550, then later 500, averting the trope.

* WeakButSkilled: Keep them behind your army formation as they only have an average amount of health yet are large, tempting targets. They have a generous amount armor points, helping soften the blows, but their attack is like a gentle breeze. However, they are both healers and mana batteries, and can permanently transform into Destroyers which is a very good skill for making them offensively strong, especially when they can devour the opponent's magic.

* AntiMagic: While a Destroyer can do fairly high damage with its Orb of Annihilation spell, since it doesn't regenerate mana it has to gain it from allies and enemies with its Absorb Mana and Devour Magic abilities, the latter of which also removes buffs and debuffs, and damages summoned units. This allows it to fill a hole in the Undead’s roster as the Necromancer and the Banshee had no spells that could do this, unlike the magic units of other factions.

* WorkerUnit: Wisps build Night Elf structures, gather gold from Entangled Gold Mines and harvest lumber from trees without cutting the tree down. They do not need to return to drop sites, but gather lumber more slowly to compensate.

* AntiAir: Upgraded Archers are some of the most cost-effective ground based anti-air units. Their high sustained piercing damage allows them to tear down air units.

* BatteringRam: With War Club, they gain Siege damage, which makes them ideal for charging at towers and crushing them into dust. Especially with Hardened Skin, which reduces damage they take by 12. Their armor type (Medium) also resists the most common tower attack type (Piercing).
* BreakableWeapons: A tree can be uprooted by the giant for use as a war club, but will break from repeated attacks.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Being Giants made of stone, being loaded onto a cargo machine (Boats or Zeppelins), they will take up 2 slots (which is pretty generous because they could believably take up 4 spots).

* ImprovisedWeapon: Their War Club ability lets them uproot a tree and use it as a weapon. The tree does more damage than its fist, but breaks after enough swings.

* OurGiantsAreBigger: They are gentle creatures made of stone, and are the biggest land unit in the game.

* StoneWall: Mountain Giants are extremely durable and can Taunt enemies into attacking them, giving the Night Elves a decent damage-sponge unit. However, their attack damage is mediocre for their resource and population cost and they attack very slowly, so they're a lot better at taking damage than dishing it out.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Taunt forces enemies to attack the Mountain Giant, but does nothing to make them ''focus'' on it, meaning it can be immediately overridden by simply ordering the taunted unit(s) to do literally anything else. However, the taunts can be chained with multiple Mountain Giants to create a more effective nuisance.

* FairyDragons: They are lizard-like creatures with butterfly wings, and are much larger than they would be depicted in later appearances. Despite their name, they are not actual dragons.

* MercenaryUnits: Goblin units do not appear as creeps in any standard maps, but can instead be hired by anyone from any neutral Goblin Laboratory (regardless of tileset). ''Frozen Throne'' added Goblin Shipyards on water maps, where the player can hire a Transport Ship.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Siege Weapons and some Heavy Units (Mountain Giants and Kodo Beasts) take up 2 slots of space in a Zeppelin, while a Siege Engine takes 4.

* ContractualBossImmunity: Creeps above level 5 are immune to the Kodo Beasts' Devour, the Banshees' Possession, the Sorceress’ Polymorph and many instant kill type skills like Charm or Transmute.
* EliteMook: High level creeps in the same line are always bigger, but tend to look fancier or have more unique colors. The campaigns have literally dozens of "elite" variations on creeps that are stronger than even the strongest version of the creeps in the melee game.

** Maps that can support six or more players have Dragon Roosts that allow the player to hire Dragonkin. The fully-grown Dragons are easily the strongest units outside of the campaign, and also the most expensive units in the game by a wide margin.

* InvisibilityWithDrawbacks: They all posses the Shadowmeld ability, allowing them to become invisible at night as long as they stand still.

* PoisonedWeapons: Assassins carry envenomed javelins (although their tooltips erroneously refers to them as envenomed bolts).

* LightningBruiser: Centaur Khans are a bit slower than other Centaurs, but hit harder than most late-game melee units while having a lot of HP, and Reincarnation (an ability they share with Tauren Chieftains) means they have to be killed twice.

* HerdHittingAttack: Their attacks have a small AOE and they have the Tauren Chieftain's War Stomp spell, which damages enemies around them.

* FragileSpeedster: The Fel Beasts are fast, but have little health and damage.

Flying monsters that breathe a particular element. They come in the varieties of Red, Blue, Green, Black, and Bronze, each with their own element (though Black and Red Dragons both breathe fire, despite Black Dragons being themed around Earth). Young Dragons are called Whelps, and older ones are called Drakes, whiles much older ones are referred to as “Dragons”. They are also Nether Dragons, which look quite different, have their weakest unit called “Hatchlings” instead of Whelps, have a mana pool and the Cripple spell instead of Devour, and has no Dragon Roosts available.

* FragileSpeedster: Dragon Whelps are fast, but have little health and damage.
* HerdHittingAttack: Dragons' attacks hit a small area around the target.

* TheJuggernaut: Dragon Roosts only appear on maps that can support six or more players, because Dragons are very hard to stop even though they are the most expensive unit in the game by a wide margin. They have Heavy armor as opposed to Light armor like most flying units, so they do not take extra damage from Piercing damage, which is what most ranged units that make cost-effective AntiAir responses use, and have spell immunity so [[RemovedAchillesHeel they're immune to the only damage type effective against Heavy armor]]. Being high-level Creeps, most abilities that would otherwise hinder them wear off very quickly.

Large green bipedal beasts.

* AquaticMook: Makrura appear on maps with a lot of water and can cross water like land.
* ArmoredButFrail: Makrura all have very high armor values but relatively low health for their levels. The Tidal Lord has 800 Health, when most level 7 creeps have around 950-1100, and he has Devotion Aura which adds Armor.

* AquaticMook: Mur'guls only appear on maps with a lot of water, and can cross water like land.

* BodyHorror: The Dalaran Mutant in the original ''Warcraft III'' has an oddly shaped head with a jaw bone that stretches down past its neck. In ''Reforged'', it has a more zombie-like appearance with crystals growing out of its back.

* AsteroidsMonster: Some Nerubians spawn smaller Nerubian Hatchlings when they die. The Mercenary Camp says its because they carry their young into battle.

* PaletteSwap: The Apprentice Wizard is one to the Alliances' Priests being human instead of elven, lacking the latters ProphetEyes (yet still having blue glowing eyes). The rest are a PaletteSwap of the Archmage.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Though introduced as primarily undead creatures, this aspect of Revenants is mostly dropped in later appearances, with them being entirely elemental in themed armor. All that remains are a couple allusions to Death Revenants, and even then they aren't classed as undead.

* ImmuneToMindControl: They are undead separate from the Scourge, and are in fact somehow immune to the psychic control that Ner'zhul can use to enslave undead. They are among the few hostile units in the final Scourge mission in The Frozen Throne, guarding the Obelisks from Illidan and Arthas alike.

* LightningBruiser: Even the normal Sasquatch is stronger than an non-upgraded Orc Grunt. The higher-level ones are stronger than a Knight, while being just as fast as one. In addition to having almost as much HP as a Tauren, an Ancient Sasquatch has Reincarnation, meaning it has to be killed twice.

* OurGiantsAreBigger: They are large teal-skinned humanoids. Though compared to other Creeps, they are not that big.

* DemBones: Reaminated skeletons of orcs from the Old Horde.

* VanillaUnit: None of them have any abilities. Unlike some of the others they also are not amphibious.

* HerdHittingAttack: Thunder Lizards have Slam while Storm Wyrms have Chain Lightning, both of which deal massive area of effect damage.
* MightyGlacier: The Storm Wyrm is as slow as the two weaker types, but has more than double their HP and almost double their damage.

* DemotedToExtra: Like Ogres above, Forest Trolls used to be part of the Horde as its main ranged fighters, while now they're just neutral creeps that appear in Lordaeron maps, and will attack their former allies.

* NoSell: Immune to magic, just like the rock based golems.

In a few missions, a more powerful version of the Footman appears, sometimes acting as a messenger, and other times as an obstacle to the player. The main one that appears in much of the story is Falric, who is second in command to Arthas through the entire ''Reign of Chaos'' human campaign.

* InescapableNet: The Dragon Hawk can use Ensnare to immobilise foes and confine aerial ones to the ground.

* {{Foil}}: While Human Peasants are more dopey, dull-witted and down-trodden, the Elven Engineers are more haughty and speak in {{Technobabble}} almost constantly.

* DamageSpongeBoss: His health pool is massive, even higher than Admiral Proudmoore’s. He does not have massive armor however.

* PunchClockVillain: He doesn't want to fight Kael and the two have some history in the Kirin Tor, but will follow Garithos' orders.

* PaletteSwap: The Warlock comes in a non-fel version (used by the Blackrock Clan) and a fel version (used by Fel Orcs). The two versions have the exact same stats and the only difference is skin colour (green vs red).

* PurposelyOverpowered: The player only gets to use Warlocks in one level, and it is easy to see why: on top of their Chaos Damage they have access to the Firebolt spell, whose damage and stun duration are comparable to the level 1 version of the Mountain King's Storm Bolt. With enough Warlocks set up to hit a target with Firebolt, they can lock it into a CycleOfHurting where it cannot attack.

A blue dragon and later Frost Wyrm that Arthas slew and then enslaved upon his return to Northrend.

* KingMook: She’s a bit larger than your average huntress and has a bit more health (700, about 40 percent more) and significantly more damage (around 30 a hit, about 70 percent more) than one. She also has a better armor type (Heavy) so she isn't as vulnerable to ranged attacks.

* DiscOneNuke: Nagas have a very simple tech tree, which means that you can start training tier 2 and tier 3 units pretty much from the start, and ignore the Mur'gul Reavers.

* ZergRush: Reavers are as cheap as Ghouls, and are produced from the Nagas' starting building.

Hulking snake men who wield giant spears. They are the rank and file of the Naga armies. They cost more than the basic warriors of other factions, but have stats comparable to late-game units while being cheaper than the units in question.

* MultipleReferencePun: Myrmidons are subordinates who carry out orders without any hesitation, and are typically unscrupulous. However, it is also applied here to a ''merman''-like creature, so it can be read like a pun too.

Giant turtles the Naga use as their siege units. They are much weaker than the Dragon Turtle Creeps, but are still resilient and powerful units.

* ExtremeOmnivore: They can use Devour, letting them consume any unit, removing them from combat until Devour's DamageOverTime kills them or the Dragon Turtle is killed.

Female Nagas who wield magic. Their unique ability is Parasite, which deals damage over time and spawns a small Mur’gul (called a Watery Minion) from their corpse. The rest of their abilities (Frost Armor and Cyclone) are lifted from other spellcasting units.

* EliteMooks: They are upgraded versions of the Myrmidons, though since the Myrmidons can be considered elite (being as strong as a late-game unit), then the Naga Royal Guard would be a BossInMookClothing as it has abilities to rival heroes and high level creeps.

* ForceAndFinesse: The Finesse to the Vindicator's Force. The Stalker is less durable, but hits harder and is invisible, so it requires more micromanagement on the player's end to reach a target, but can deal greater damage than the Vindicator is used properly.

A ranged dinosaur creature that fights with the draenei. Appears to be based on the normal Salamander unit line. Visually is purple like the Salamander Vizier (unlike the more common red salamanders), but is much weaker.

''Note: There are a huge amount of Elite versions of normal creeps that are in the campaigns, most of them extremely minor. For simplicity this folder will only discuss the most notable of them.''

* VersionExclusiveContent: They only appear in the cut missions of the ''Reign of Chaos'' demo campaign. The missions are playable as the generic custom campaign in ''The Frozen Throne'', and are actually restored in ''Reforged''.

* LightningBruiser: It moves and attacks quickly, while also being very durable. Thus the best way to counter them is to ensnare them or use your units to block their pathing before they reach your buildings.

* VersionExclusiveContent: Just like the Murloc casters, the Siege Golem does not appear in vanilla ''Reign of Chaos'' and is only partially restored in ''The Frozen Throne'' and becomes part of the game in ''Reforged''.

A campaign exclusive enemy, horrific experiments in Dalaran and Lordaeron. They are golems that are part AnimatedArmor and part flesh. They are not actually undead despite thier appearance, and unlike most golems they don’t have spell immunity. They usually have Cripple and Shockwave.

* HardModeMook: She only appears as an enemy in Hard difficulty, but doesn't drop any unique items.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: Despite its fearsome appearance and dramatic boss battle, it is not the last boss of the Azjol-Nerub missions. Instead it’s a campaign exclusive creep [[EliteMook “Faceless One Annihilator”]] (which is just a Faceless One Deathbringer with around 600 more health) in the next map.
* FlunkyBoss: It summons tentacles in it's fight, and when the encounter starts, Faceless Ones begin to spawn from a cave behind the player too.

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: The Forgotten One is a building, but has Heavy armor instead of fortified, and is organic so it can be damaged by Locust Swarm.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: At a glance, the Stonemaul Ogre restores the badass status Ogres had in the past, and would be a possibly valuable part of an Orc techtree. However, they are in ''The Founding of Durotar'', where each hero is immensely overpowered, and even as part of a techtree, they are still much weaker frontline units than Tauren.

* BossBattle: Kor'gall is the only encounter in all of the campaigns that can be considered a traditional boss battle. Most of the other "bosses" are just a HeroUnit, or a very tough EliteMook and can be freely disengaged with. Kor'gall is a DuelBoss, fought in an arena where the player can't flee and with dynamic rune spawning. He himself has 8 active abilities [[note]]Divine Shield, Faerie Fire, Summon Wolves, Roar, Rejuvenation, Healing Wards, Serpent Wards, Stasis Trap[[/note]] and 2 passive ones [[note]]Bash, and an unnamed passive lifesteal skill[[/note]], which is far more than the average 4 that heroes have.

* HealThyself: He has Rejuvenation to recover health, and he also has Healing Wards, which heals far greater (due to its percentage based healing).

* SuperBoss: He is quite a bit stronger than [[FinalBoss Admiral Proudmoore]], but defeating him is not necessary to beat the campaign. He is the hardest of the campaign's single enemy challenges, though arguably some of the Outland Arena challenges are tougher than him.
* SuperToughness: He has an armor value of 120, much more than any other enemy. This gives him 88% resistance to incoming damage. Only Divine Armor beings reduce more (95% for non-chaos attacks).

* OvershadowedByAwesome: At a glance, the Stonemaul Ogre restores the badass status Ogres had in the past, and would be a possibly valuable part of an Orc techtree. However, they are in ''The Founding of Durotar'', where each hero is a immensely overpowered, and even as part of a techtree, they are still much weaker frontline units than Tauren.