History Characters / Warcraft3Heroes

* AchillesHeel: Evasion makes a Demon Hunter surprisingly resilient, but snares, stuns and chain nukes can give them a difficult time. Chain nukes can be particularly bad as they ignore Evasion, while movement impairing effects will hamper their ability to close the distance when Metamorphosis is unavailable. A Bloodmage who knows Banish and Siphon Mana, and is accompanied by a Mountain King with Storm Bolt can inflict all three ailments and amplify nuke damage by a staggering 66% while depriving the Demon Hunter of mana.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Wardens who do much dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde. The Dark Rangers are a tragic case, as they're former Rangers of Quel'thalas who are primarily upset over being forcibly raised as Banshees (originally) to serve the Scourge, and mainly lash out at targets in grief over their predicament.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Wardens (favoring a blend of [[JackOfAllStats strength & intellect]] growth) who do much dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde. The Dark Rangers (also favoring a strength and intellect blend) are a tragic case, as they're former Rangers of Quel'thalas who are primarily upset over being forcibly raised as Banshees (originally) to serve the Scourge, and mainly lash out at targets in grief over their predicament.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Wardens (agility-intellect hybrids) who do much dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde. The Dark Rangers (agility-intellect hybrids) are a tragic case, as they're former Rangers of Quel'thalas who are primarily upset over being forcibly raised as Banshees (originally) to serve the Scourge, and mainly lash out at targets in grief over their predicament.

* GoodCounterpart: Thorns Aura is this to the Dreadlord's Vampiric Aura. Instead of the aura healing allies for a percentage of their melee damage dealt, Thorns Aura causes causes enemies to suffer a percentage of their melee damage dealt. If both auras are present in battle and at equal level, then Thorns Aura will heavily negate Vampiric Aura making it a powerful direct counter.

* CombatMedic: Unlike most healing heroes and units, the Paladin is comfortable at or near the front lines. He is very durable with Devotion Aura and Divine Shield prevents him being being damaged.

* NonindicativeName: Somewhat confusingly, Malfurion Stormrage is designated a Keeper of the Grove, but is not a child of Cenarius and is a Night Elf that is not a stag-centaur. Keeper of the Grove refers to his class and skills, but not his race. He is still Cenarius' greatest pupil and knows the same skills that the Keepers all would, and in-universe he is mostly known as an "Archdruid".

* CombatMedic: Unlike most healing heroes and units, the Paladin stands at or near the frontline by default.

* ShootTheMedicFirst: Low level Paladins can be killed by focus fire because he can't use Holy Light on himself, and it is a good idea if possible, because of his insane defensive capabilities. He has Divine Shield to counteract this weakness a bit, but it takes a lot of levels before he truly is very difficult to kill.

* NonindicativeName: Somewhat confusingly, Malfurion Stormrage is designated a Keeper of the Grove, but is not a child of Cenarius and is a Night Elf that is not a stag-centaur. Keeper of the Grove refers to his class and skills, but not his race. He is still Cenarius' greatest pupil and knows the same skills that the Keepers all would.

** Malfurion in the ''Reign of Chaos'' Night Elf campaign has a path to overcome the weakness and become a full on CombatMedic. He always carries the Horn of Cenarius, which adds 200 health and 2 HP regeneration, so Malfurion has nearly 1100 health at max level with no other items. With some stat or armor items and a Necklace of Spell Immunity (dropped by [[OptionalBoss The Largest Panda Ever]] in the 5th mission) to prevent Tranquility from being interrupted, he makes a [[https://youtu.be/c3LzxALN-9s?si=JRqlI7jsUxJ5MdJX&t=600 shockingly effective frontline tank in the final mission]]. This is not something he can replicate in ''The Frozen Throne'', as the item drops in that campaign don't lean towards tanking and he no longer carries the Horn of Cenarius.

* SquishyWizard: They possess strong disruptive spells and a decent heal as their ultimate but have very low survivability under fire.

* AchillesHeel: Evasion makes a Demon Hunter surprisingly resilient, but snares, stuns and chain nukes can give them a difficult time. Chain nukes can be particularly bad as they ignore Evasion, while movement impairing effects will hamper their ability to close the distance when Metamorphosis is unavailable. A Bloodmage who knows Banish and Siphon Mana, and is accompanied by a Mountain King with Storm Bolt can inflict all three ailments and amplify nuke damage by a staggering 66%.

* AchillesHeel: Evasion makes a Demon Hunter surprisingly resilient, but snares, stuns and chain nukes can give them a difficult time. Chain nukes can be particularly bad as they ignore Evasion, while movement impairing effects will hamper their ability to close the distance when Metamorphosis is unavailable.

* BlingOfWar: Uther's [[PaletteSwap model]] features shining armor in white and gold with added lion symbols in contrast to the more plain plate and leather worn by the regular Paladin. In ''Reforged'', most of the campaign Paladin variants feature heavily decorated plate armor, particularly Uther and Arthas.

* GuestStarPartyMember: Magroth the Defender is one of the [[OptionalPartyMember optional]] variety in "The Ruins of Dalaran" in ''Terror of the Tides'', being an optional rescuable hero that will help Maiev and Malfurion stop Illidan, and does not join in the final mission.

* LightEmUp: He has light based powers.

* PaletteSwap: Due to the amount of Paladins that show up in the campaign, there's a few recolored variants of the standard hero with black or white hair, while Uther's model has unique white and gold armor. ''Reforged'' goes beyond just swapping colors and gives most of the Paladins in the campaign their own unique model with different weapons.

* ShootTheMedicFirst: Low level Paladins can be killed by focus fire because he can't use Holy Light on himself, and it is a good idea if possible because of his insane defensive capabilities. He has Divine Shield to counteract this weakness a bit, but it takes a lot of levels before he truly is very difficult to kill.

* GlassCannon: For maximum damage, Blood Magi can Banish a target and nuke it with Flame Strike and/or their Phoenix summon for heavy damage, but they have low vitality for a hero and their Banish does not stop heroes or casters from casting potentially dangerous spells, it just disables their basic attack. Their Phoenix is also penalized with a strong debuff that causes them to be unaffected by Fountains of Health, and rapidly lose health until they become an egg. It is crucial to fly the Phoenix to safety before they become an Egg, as they Phoenix Egg is very fragile and its survival is necessary to get the best milage out of the Blood Mage ultimate.

** Some players skill Banish first because it is a 0-cooldown disable that has to be dispelled, basically used like a better version of Sleep to aid in creeping and catching escaping units, though it cannot interrupt channeling spells. Banish also makes a great healing booster for Holy Light or Priest Heal but it's a double edged sword due to the damage vulnerability.

* TeleportationRescue: Night Elves has the Staff of Preservation in their shop, which teleports a unit back to the highest level town hall, saving them from being killed. Unlike the human Staff of Sanctuary, it does not heal them, but Night Elves have Moon Wells to take care of that.

* RecurringBoss: In ''The Frozen Throne''. Unlike most instances of this trope in regards to heroes, all the times a Demon Hunter is fought, it's one character, Illidan Stormrage. He is fought as an enemy hero in three separate missions (two in the Sentinels Campaign and one in the Scourge campaign), with the last of them acting as the FinalBoss to the main story.

* SuperMode: Metamorphosis transforms them into a shadowy demon. It's not as strong as the Mountain King's Avatar, giving the same health boost but not the spell immunity, armor and damage increase. Instead it gives a boost to HP regeneration, a ranged attack that inflicts [[InfinityPlusOneElement Chaos damage]] with splash damage, something that is very deadly thanks to the Demon Hunter's high attack speed. Compared with the Mountain King whose ultimate makes him a melee powerhouse, the Demon Hunter's Ultimate turns him into a ranged killing machine.

* GoodCounterpart: Thorns Aura is this to the Dreadlord's Vampiric Aura. Instead of the aura healing allies for a percentage of their melee damage dealt, Thorns Aura causes causes enemies to suffer a percentage of their melee damage dealt. If both auras are present in battle and at equal level, than Thorns Aura will heavily negate Vampiric Aura making it a powerful direct counter.

* SquishyWizard: They possess strong disruptive spells and a decent heal as their ultimate, but have very low survivability under fire.

* DeathFromAbove: Their ultimate spell send waves of falling stars into every nearby enemy (land and air) and structure.

* JackOfAllTrades: The Priestess of the Moon has a versatile skillset and can do a little bit of everything, but lacks the specialization of the other Night Elf heroes. She is an effective support hero with Scout and Trueshot Aura, but she can deal some damage with Searing Arrows and can be a huge factor in fights with Starfall. Just about the only things she can't do are heal and duel enemy heroes, as she lacks any sort of burst damage or disable.

** Far Seer has the most flexible skillset as a JackOfAllTrades, Tauren Chieftain is a powerful MagicKnight who is able to absorb a huge amount of damage and disrupt fights, Blademaster is a micromanagement intensive ConfusionFu GlassCannon hero, and Shadow Hunter is built around healing, support, and disables in a faction that is starved of it (which lets them cover weaknesses instead of amplifying their own strength). The Shadow Hunter's ultimate is also one of the gimmickiest in the whole game.

* AutoRevive: Reincarnation always revives the Tauren Chieftain at full health and mana after 5 seconds, as long as the ability is off cooldown when he dies. There's no way to stop him from reviving [[note]]There is one circumstance where the Chieftain will die without reviving, which is if he is in a transport and it dies over deep water or unpathable terrain (cliffs or heavy tree density). This will have him marked as dead without ever triggering Reincarnation. The reasoning for this is because the Chieftain is technically not on the map while in the transport which means he can't trigger Reincarnation because he technically doesn't have it while on the transport. Additionally, him respawning over unpathable terrain wouldn't really be helpful either.[[/note]].

** Serpent Wards are not just extra damage in a fight, but also very effective for scouting out unexplored areas, especially if placed on top of high cliffs.
** Big Bad Voodoo can be used as a instant, large area dispel due to granting invulnerability. This can be useful if multiple spellcasting units were hit by a AOE silence or a huge number of your units have been hit by powerful debuffs.

* BoringButPractical: They're not the flashiest hero to recruit mainly due to mediocre attack rate and damage. Much of their utility is in throwing Death Coils for damage or healing, buffing your army with Unholy Aura's healing and speed buff, and occasionally skilling and using Death Pact for an efficient self-heal. However, they provide a lot of staying power to the Undead as their damage spell is also a great way to save your units from being picked off. Meanwhile, Unholy Aura allows your troops to passively heal automatically off of blight and maneuver more swiftly. The most boring builds skip Animate Dead at Level 6 in favor of maxing out both Death Coil and Unholy Aura because they're that effective. Fortunately, if your really need them to attack physically, the Necromancer's Unholy Frenzy will give them a considerable 75% boost to attack rate, and Unholy Aura can even negate the health drain.

* DevourTheDragon: Death Pact lets the Death Knight sacrifice his own non-Hero units to restore health based on that unit's current health. In addition to all the expendable, timed-life fodder the Undead can summon to begin with (including the ones raised by the Death Knight's own Animate Dead, which are invulnerable so they always heal him for the full amount when sacrificed), simply using it on a lowly Ghoul is already more efficient than chugging a healing potion.

* {{Foil}}: Their overall theme of an unholy healer and reanimator contrasts with the Lich whose spells are themed around freezing, decaying, or sacrificing targets; Death Coil is still an effective nuke against the living nonetheless. Their sacrifice spell also contrasts, being used to heal the caster instead of restore mana.

* JackOfAllStats: The Death Knight is the most [[JackOfAllTrades well rounded of the Undead heroes]] and is able to heal allies, nuke living enemies, increase his army's mobility, keep himself alive by "eating" a unit, and potentially turn the tide of a battle with his ultimate. While somewhat durable as a strength hero, he isn't exceptionally tanky and more built around speed and supporting. He's considered the safest first hero to pick on Undead in most circumstances, unless you're doing a hero-specific strategy that requires one of the other heroes specializations (like using a Lich to rush or using a Dreadlord to be paired with Ghouls/Abominations).
* MagicKnight: The Death Knight's damage mostly comes from Death Coil. He has low attack damage and his attack speed is very slow. As a result, players will often prioritize itemizing their Death Knight with mana gear at every opportunity.

* RedMage: While the Death Knight's main purpose is to be a healer for his troops, Death Coil is a useful nuke too, as long as its targeting a living opponent.

** Detheroc swaps Vampiric Aura for Shadow Strike and Inferno for Death and Decay, and he carries the passive Disease Cloud like an abomination. These abilities makes Detheroc an even more dedicated caster with skill in Necromancy and poison magic, eschewing melee combat and SummonMagic for it. The poison theme to the abilities also ties to the orb he carries being an Orb of Venom.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Zigzagged in regards to Vampiric Aura, though it arguably applies to the hero as a whole due to the importance of auras in how armies are structured.
** Vampiric Aura has a much more narrow use than most auras. If you look at the undead techtree, they can only build two normal melee units: Ghouls and Abominations [[note]]Acolytes and Gargoyles can get Vampiric Aura too, but Acolytes are workers and not used for combat except very early in the game and Gargoyles only get it when fighting other air units in melee range [[/note]]. This gives it less utility than the Death Knight's Unholy Aura, [[OvershadowedByAwesome which applies to all units and has them recover health without having to hit any units]]. Vampiric Aura is only extremely powerful if a player were to go rush mass abominations with the "Unholy" upgrade line, but that strategy leaves huge weaknesses to air units and spellcasters (which would normally be covered by the "Creature" upgrade techtree units like Crypt Fiends and Destroyers, which you are less likely to build in this strategy). In order to use it optimally, you would have to put yourself in a vulnerable box that is easily countered.
** It can end up Downplayed because of the MagikarpPower aspect of the skill, where it loses some of the "Crippling" aspect of the trope. The healing it provides grows as the game goes on as the affected unit's attack damage increases. The aura applies to most Undead summoned units (especially the Infernal) and 2 of the 3 other Undead heroes [[note]]3 of the 5 if you count the two Undead neutral heroes[[/note]]. So even if it affects few units it affects the most important ones. In strategies where Gargoyles are used as AntiAir, it works incredibly well at Level 3 and can really help them outlast their targets thanks to their ''very-high'' melee damage [[note]]but be wary of hard-counters like Dragonhawk Riders or Troll Batriders who you don't want to use air-melee against [[/note]]. It becomes even more powerful in team games, as Vampiric Aura is extremely well suited for the melee-combat heavy Orc faction.

* PurposefullyOverpowered: Tichondrius and Balnazzar both have Rain of Chaos, which is an insanely overpowered version of the standard Dreadlord ultimate (it summon 2-4 Infernals, costs no mana and has a lower cooldown than the normal Inferno ultimate) and their other abilities are also very annoying, with Tichondrius having [[SlapOnTheWristNuke Finger of Death]] and Balnazzar having [[AntiStructure Earthquake]]. Both are treated as a major ClimaxBoss in-game, with Tichondrius being the last opponent of the penultimate level and Balnazzar is the enemy hero of the last mission of Sylvanas' arc.

* SkillGateCharacters: The Sleep spell can be very crippling to armies, able to disable half of the units in them if you are not able to micromanage your units to wake your other units up. If you can, it is just a minor inconvenience. Dreadlord users in multiplayer often prioritize Carrion Swarm instead and use Sleep only if the interrupt would be impactful, or use Sleep mostly for creeping (because creep AI does not include waking each other up). Many players get a lot of practice against this spell because of how many Dreadlords you fight in the campaigns.

* GoodPowersBadPeople: Their Dark Ritual is the only one that is deliberately dark themed and relies up a sacrifice for mana. Their Frost and Decay magic are all themed around processes that occur in nature and aren't evil in and of themselves. The Liches use them to devastating effect nonetheless, and this isn't even ''fel magic'' which is noted for its corrupting influence.

* LifeDrain: Locust Swarm is a variation on this. The Locusts will damage enemies in the area and when they return, they will heal the Crypt Lord based on a portion of the damage they dealt. Each one returns and heals the Crypt Lord 20 health after dealing 26.6 damage (2 attacks on a 0 armor target, more if the target has high armor), and all of them return at the end of the duration. As such, the Crypt Lord's enemies are incentivized to either try to focus down the Crypt Lord before the spell ends so he doesn't get that heal at the end or run away so the Crypt Lord gets little healing.

* MundaneUtility: Carrion Beetles make handy targets for the Death Pact and/or Dark Ritual, particularly from Level 2 and on due to their health surpassing Skeleton Warriors. Because they never expire, they're more likely to be available for this purpose. The trade-off is that the Crypt Lord needs to spend a small sum of mana (50) to raise each Beetle but this can give the Crypt Lord a niche as a mana battery for a Lich hero. The Beetles are also handy scouts thanks to their ability to burrow and thanks to their lack of a food cost.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Wardens (agility-intellect hybrids) who do much dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde. The Dark Rangers (agility-intellect hybrids) are a tragic case, as they're former Rangers of Quel'thalas who are primarily upset over being forcibly raised from the dead to serve the Scourge, and mainly lash out at targets in grief over their predicament.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Wardens (agility-intellect hybrids) who do much dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

The undead Scourge wrought untold havoc upon the elven lands of Quel'Thalas in its quest for the power of the Sunwell. The greatest defenders of Quel'Thalas, the elven rangers, fell against the undead onslaught, and many were forcibly raised from the dead as banshees, elven spirits that can possess their foes. Now freed from the Scourge as part of the Forsaken, however, many banshees chose to possess their own corpses, regaining their former skills and adding their dread powers to make a formidable combination. They can prevent all enemy spellcasters in an area from casting with Silence, empower their ranged attacks and raise undead minions with Black Arrow, and drain their targets' hitpoints with Life Drain. Their ultimate ability, Charm, allows them to permanently take control of an enemy unit.

* LifeDrain: Locust Swarm is a variation on this. The Locusts will damage enemies in the area and when they return, they will heal the Crypt Lord based on a portion of the damage they dealt. Each one returns and heals the Crypt Lord after dealing 26.6 damage (2 attacks on an 0 armor target, more if the target has high armor), and all of them return at the end of the duration. As such, the Crypt Lord's enemies are incentivized to either try to focus down the Crypt Lord before the spell ends so they don't get that heal at the end or run away so the Crypt Lord gets little healing.

** He also has very high strength growth, so his health pool and attack damage outstrips the other Undead heroes greatly when he reaches high levels. He also has very fast attack speed for a strength hero, 1.9 base cooldown, whereas almost all others have between 2 to 2.5. [[note]]Only the Dreadlord, who has poor strength growth and durability, has faster (1.8). The Goblin Alchemist has Chemical Rage to boost his attack speed, but his base attack time is still 2.5.[[/note]]

* CrutchCharacter: The Beastmaster has very powerful summons, especially the Bear which offers an extremely valauble meat shield. However, due to being countered so hard by dispels, he can be pretty lackluster late game. However, dispels take a while for each race to get ahold of, all of them requiring at least Tier 2 (Tier 3 for Undead), so it is possible to gain an advantage against the enemy before then.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Wardens (intellect/agility fighters) who do much dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Warden (an intellect/agility hybrid fighter) who do much of the dirty work for the Sentinels as jailers, assassins and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion, and the Warden (an intellect/agility hybrid fighter) who do much of the dirty work for the Sentinels serving as jailers, assassins and bounty hunters. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with Wind Walk backstabs and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) tend to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible Night Elf Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with backstabs via wind walk and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

** Agility heroes (That is physical-fighter heroes) have a tendency to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with the Night Elf faction, the Demon Hunters only using the dark arts to fight existential threats like the Burning Legion. The Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with backstabs via wind walk and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

** Compare the [[GrumpyOldMan Archmage]] or [[TranquilFury Blood Mage]] to the [[BoisterousBruiser Mountain King]] for example in the humans. This is also very visible with the Undead heroes where the Liches and Dreadlords (actually strength-intellect hybrids) are heinous and monstrous, while the Crypt Lord is almost a PunchClockVillain in comparison. Additionally, the BigBad of ''Reign of Chaos'' is also an intelligence hero. Notable aversions are the [[OldMaster Orc Far Seers]] who are noble spiritual leaders, the AntiHero Troll Shadow Hunters (intellect-agility hybrids), and the strength-favored [[AristocratsAreEvil Death Knights]] who enjoy wanton cruelty to the living.
** Agility heroes meanwhile (That is physical-fighter heroes) have a tendency to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with the Night Elf faction; the Demon Hunters only use the dark arts to fight the Burning Legion, the Wardens (an agility/intellect hybrid) are also rather anti-heroic and traditionally the jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. Additionally, the Orc Blademasters deliver brutal attacks with backstabs via wind walk and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but are still honorable fighters serving the new horde.

** Compare the [[GrumpyOldMan Archmage]] or [[TranquilFury Blood Mage]] to the [[BoisterousBruiser Mountain King]] for example in the humans. This is also very visible with the Undead heroes where the Liches and Dreadlords (actually strength-intellect hybrids) are heinous and monstrous, while the Crypt Lord is almost a PunchClockVillain in comparison. Additionally, the BigBad of ''Reign of Chaos'' is also an intelligence hero. Notable aversions are the [[OldMaster Orc Far Seers]] who are noble spiritual leaders, and the strength-favored [[AristocratsAreEvil Death Knights]] who enjoy wanton cruelty to the living.
** Agility heroes meanwhile (That is physical-fighter heroes) have a tendency to be [[AntiHero anti heroes]]. This is visible with the Night Elf faction; the Demon Hunters only use the dark arts to fight the Burning Legion, the Wardens (an agility/intellect hybrid) are also rather anti-heroic and traditionally the jailers, assassins, and bounty hunters. Additionally, the Orc Blademaster delivers brutal attacks with backstabs via wind walk and critical strikes that can severely wound targets, but is still an honorable fighter serving the new horde.

* BrainsEvilBrawnGood: On average, intelligence heroes (or more accurately, caster heroes) in each faction tend to be more unpleasant and ruder than strength heroes, who tend to be more outwardly heroic. Compare the [[GrumpyOldMan Archmage]] or [[TranquilFury Blood Mage]] to the [[BoisterousBruiser Mountain King]] for example in the humans. This is also very visible with the Undead heroes where the Liches and Dreadlords (actually strength-intellect hybrids) are heinous and monstrous, while the Crypt Lord is almost a PunchClockVillain in comparison. Additionally, the BigBad of ''Reign of Chaos'' is also an intelligence hero. Notable aversions are the [[OldMaster Orc Far Seers]] who are noble spiritual leaders, and the strength-favored [[AristocratsAreEvil Death Knights]] who enjoy wanton cruelty to the living.

* JackOfAllTrades: A MagicKnight who has Rain of Fire as a spin on the Archmage's Blizzard, Cleave for dealing with being surrounded, and Howl of Terror for enemy-debuffing utility. Finally, they can Doom an enemy unit which summons a Doomguard with their own set of damage and utility spells, essentially giving the Pit Lord four more spells to play with along with a powerful demon to fight with them. Pit Lords don't have any outstanding strengths besides their bag of tricks they can perform.

** In ''The Founding of Durotar'', Admiral Proudmoore has a strong Archmage as one of his lieutenants, called "Chief of Chaplains". He has the same skills as a normal Archmage.

* ArmorPiercingAttack: Locusts are unusual because they are summoned units who automatically attack enemies and their damage type is the same as spells. But these attacks also damage spell immune enemies. Because of this, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2bffaANqqU Crypt Lord is one of the few heroes that can outfight a Mountain King.]]

* LifeDrain: Locust Swarm is a variation on this. The Locusts will damage enemies in the area and when they return, they will heal the Crypt Lord based on a portion of the damage they dealt. Each one returns and heals the Crypt Lord after attacking twice, and all of them return at the end of the duration. As such, the Crypt Lord's enemies are incentivized to either try to focus down the Crypt Lord before the spell ends so they don't get that heal at the end or run away so the Crypt Lord gets little healing.

* RandomizedDamageAttack: Locust Swarm is this because of AIRoulette. Locusts actually do a very consistent 13-14 damage with 1 second cooldown and attack from melee range. This means that each Locust can do up to 13.5 DPS, which with 20 locusts over its 30 second duration would mean it can [[https://www.reddit.com/r/WC3/comments/q8ao62/a_closer_look_at_locust_swarm/ potentially deal up to 7500 total damage]] (accounting for the fact that it takes 4 seconds for all 20 locusts to be summoned). However, their short range making them easy to kite and their flawed AI (they have a critter-like ability where they will wander instead of looking for targets to attack) causes a lot of variations in the damage's consistency. Player testing found the ability's total damage in optimal conditions is between 2000 and 3000.

* FinalBoss: Of ''The Frozen Throne'', more so in ''Reforged'', where ''The Founding of Durotar'' is the last campaign unlocked, instead of available from the start. He is the last opponent of the campaign and will put up a significant challenge.
* FlunkyBoss: He is accompanied by a paladin and archmage (both level 15), and a group of elite guards, who are much stronger than the knights and tauren.

* CrutchCharacter: Pit Lords have the highest starting strength and health in the game. Their innate tankiness plus Rain of Fire also makes them the single best hero at soloing small creep camps (minus spell immune mobs like Mud Golems), so a player can quickly start trying to get experience on him even before building combat units. If a Pit Lord player plays quickly, they can keep their Pit Lord ahead of the enemy heroes in experience. Later in the game, they start to fall into their MasterOfNone shortcomings.

* JackOfAllTrades: Alchemist can feasibly be built around maxing any of his main abilities. He can focus on supporting by maxing Healing Spray, he can focus on offensive supporting with Acid Bomb, or he can try to build up his damage potential by maxing Chemical Rage.

* LifeDrain: Locust Swarm is a variation on this. The Locusts will damage enemies in the area and when they return they will heal the Crypt Lord based on a portion of the damage they dealt. As such, the Crypt Lord's enemies are incentivized to either try to focus down the Crypt Lord before the spell ends so they don't get that heal at the end, or run away so the Crypt Lord gets little healing.

* RandomizedDamageAttack: Locust Swarm is this because of AIRoulette. Locusts actually do a very consistent 13-14 damage with 1 second cooldown and attack from melee range. This means that each Locust can do up to 13.5 DPS. However, their short range making them easy to kite and flawed AI (they have a critter-like ability where they will wander instead of looking for targets to attack) causes a lot of variations in the damage's consistency. Player testing found the ability's total damage is between 2000 and 3000.

* SuperMode: Locust Swarm is not a transformation per se, but instead summons a bunch of invulnerable units to attack nearby enemies. These units die if he dies, but heal him at the end of the duration. It functions like an odd fusion of a transformation spell and a summon spell.

* CrutchCharacter: The Naga Sea Witch is one of the most powerful heroes in the early levels, and this is her defining feature in multiplayer.

* AutoRevive: Reincarnation revives the Tauren Chieftain at full health and mana after 5 seconds, as long as the ability is off cooldown when he dies.

The fearsome Crypt Lords were once the kings of the mighty underground kingdom of Azjol-Nerub, which stretched beneath the continent of Northrend. When the Scourge, led by the Lich King, proved its supremacy in the War of the Spider, the Crypt Lords were swayed to join the Scourge and were granted the immortality of undeath. These massive, insectoid beings are the mightiest of the Scourge's warriors and guard their holdings in Northrend. They can deal damage to enemies in a line and hurl them into the air with Impale, improve their armor and return damage to melee attackers with Spiked Carapace, and create Carrion Beetles from enemy corpses. Their Ultimate ability, Locust Swarm, sends out a horde of locusts to attack enemies, which return and heal the Crypt Lord.

* BoringButPractical: Spiked Carapace is not flashy, but it makes Crypt Lord more durable and [[AttackReflector punishes enemies]], especially GlassCannon melee heroes and units, from taking what would normally be free shots at him.

* MagikarpPower: Among Undead Heroes, the Crypt Lord is really nothing more than a StoneWall meat shield (and meat shield summoner with his beetles) until level 6. He does not have any real ability to support or output huge spell damage like the other 3 heroes. He has some stun threat potential, but no real damage from Impale either. Learning Locust Swarm is a massive power spike for him, even compared to other heroes and changes him into a MightyGlacier. He also has very high strength growth, so his health pool and attack damage outstrips the other Undead heroes greatly when he reaches high levels.