History VideoGame / Warcraft

** Similarly to Malfurion, Cenarious is introduced by turning a large cluster of trees into an army of Treants. Then, he uses his Ultimate spell (which normally is just a wide area heal) to regrow all the trees the orcs had cut down in the previous mission.

* SkillGateCharacter: An army of Necromancers and Meat Wagons form a self-sustaining ZergRush of skeletons, which definitely looks fearsome and can steamroll an unprepared opponent. However, they become walking sacks of experience if the enemy is savvy enough to get mass dispels, of which [[WeaksauceWeakness every race has one]].

* AnAesop:
-->'''Uther''': Vengeance cannot be a part of what we must do. If we allow our passions turn to bloodlust, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters we become as vile as the Orcs]].
** While this ''is'' a pretty solid theme throughout the entire Warcraft universe (from Sargeras to Arthas), Uther's line here is one of the only times it's made so explicit. Although more ironic when he follows it up almost immediately with:
--->Now, if you're feeling up to it. I want you to lead the attack. I'll remain here and ensure that none of the loathsome beasts threaten the camp.

* UniqueEnemy: Soe campaign missions will feature unique, custom-made enemies:

* TheArtifact: In ''III'', runes that can be touched by hero units for an immediate effect, such as acting like a Scroll of Healing, were added to the ''Frozen Throne''. However, the original ''Reign of Chaos'' campaigns lack runes, which makes the usage of Health and Mana scrolls a lot more prevalent. Especially for micro missions that don't involve base building. The most obvious example is the dungeon crawl mission, "The Oracle," for the Horde campaign where it's quite common to come across Health and Mana scrolls to heal up Thrall's little army. If this was a level updated after the release of ''Frozen Throne'', such scrolls would no doubt have been runes.

** After being woken up, Malfurion will carry the Horn of Cenarious for the rest of the campaign, given that it's needed to wake up the rest of the druids, and it's later used to trigger the trap that kills Archimonde. Thankfully, unlike the Urn of King Terenas, the Horn provides +200 health and +2 health regeneration, so it doesn't just sit there taking up a valuable inventory slot.

* BagOfSpilling: Happens to Arthas between the Human and Undead campaigns of ''Warcraft III'', but the game goes to some effort to avert this within the campaigns themselves, as a Hero unit that departs for story reasons leaves all their items behind.

** '''Several people [[DropTheHammer wielding hammers]]:''' It's hammer time!

The success of ''Warcraft III'' eventually gave birth to ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' in 2004, which grows with a new expansion every two years on average. It [[GenreShift shifted]] the ''Warcraft'' universe's storytelling from RTS to [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPG]], retconned some of the backstory developed by the previous games and continues the universe's story after the end of ''The Frozen Throne''. It also created the Franchise/WarcraftExpandedUniverse. A [[Film/WarCraft2016 feature film]] based on the story of ''Orcs and Humans'' and owing much of its WorldBuilding to ''World of Warcraft'' was released in June 2016.

** A core concept in ''Warcraft 3''. Heroes level up, collect equipment, and can be resurrected for a fee if they die. Gameplay in both the single-player campaigns and multiplayer skirmishes revolve heavily around heroes.

--> '''Thrall, to [[spoiler:Grom]]''': "You... did [[TheCorruption this]]... to our people... ''[[NotBrainwashed knowingly]]!?'' '''''GGRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!'''''"

--> '''Mannoroth, to [[spoiler:Grom]]''': "Within your heart, you know, [[NotSoDifferentRemark we are the same]]."
--> '''[[spoiler:Grom]]''': "NUUUUUUUUUUURGH!" (It's actually a "NO", but his yell sounds almost inarticulate.)

--> '''Thrall, to [[spoiler:Grom]]''': "No, old friend. You've [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice freed us all]]]]... RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!"

* ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' (2020)

* AdaptedOut: The bonus ending credits where the Terran Marines and Space Fel Orcs duke it out were omitted in ''Reforged'', this is due to the latter lacking an HD model that matches the others.

* ArcVillain: ''Warcraft III'' has this approach with it's campaigns, often having a primary villain for each individual campaign.

* ObviousBeta: ''Warcraft III: Reforged''. In addition to missing most of the features that were advertised, the game is often horrendously laggy and prone to randomly crashing. Furthermore, the game was written over the original ''Warcraft III'' available on Battle.net and is somehow missing features compared to the original, such as the ability to play custom games offline. It's quite telling that, when Blizzard tried hosting a LAN tournament of the game, a concerning number of matches had to be restarted due to one player being disconnected for no apparent reason, with one player in particular being straight-up ''robbed'' due to his game crashing ''twice'' while he was winning.

** Alterac still has non-human units after it's revealed to be traitor (in particular, after it's revealed that Alterac was responsible for an ambush on a band of elven scouts earlier in the campaign). Lore-wise, it's unlikely that dwarves and gnomes would be willing to assist a traitorous human kingdom, and especially unlikely that elves would.

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: In ''Reforged'', Arthas creates a frozen bridge to reach the Sunwell, whereas it was accessible by foot in the original. However, this comes off as strange as he, as it was in the original game, doesn't do it in the mission before that when Sylvanas destroys the bridge, forcing Arthas to use Goblin Zeppelins to transfer between the isles that contain elements of the key to the second Elfgate.

* ForWantOfANail: One of the tie-in manga brought up an interesting question: What if Jaina didn't leave Arthas at Stratholme? [[spoiler:Well, Arthas wouldn't have become the Lich King. There'd be a Lich ''Queen'', though.]]

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: In ''Reforged'', Arthas creates a frozen bridge to reach the Sunwell but doesn't do it in the mission before that when Sylvanas destroys the bridge, forcing Arthas to use Goblin Zeppelins to transfer between the isles that contain elements of the key to the second Elfgate.

** When the orc hero Grom Hellscream angers the demigod Cenarius, he and his men drink demon blood from a corrupted pool, transforming themselves into Fel orcs and giving them the ability to kill Cenarius.