Warcraft III Beta Report: The Human Alliance

By Greg Kasavin, GameSpotPosted Feb 12, 2002 5:26 pm PT

The human alliance returns stronger than ever in Warcraft III. Find out how the humans conduct battle in these in-depth gameplay details, straight from the beta.

Human Heroes:

The Paladin
This venerable warrior wields a massive warhammer and strides fearlessly into battle. His holy light spell cures wounded allies or injures undead, his devotion ability boosts the armor of all allied units in the vicinity, the divine shield spell temporarily makes the paladin invincible, and his ultimate ability, resurrection, revives his slain comrades so that they may continue their crusade.

As the Warcraft III Battle.net beta test swings into full force this week, players are already starting to get a grasp of the game's four distinct playable factions. And while the brand-new Warcraft III factions, the undead and the night elves, are understandably the focus of a lot of players' attention, the two races that popularized the Warcraft series to begin with--orcs and humans--are a force to be reckoned with in the game. All this week, we'll be concentrating on one Warcraft III faction at a time, giving you in-depth details about how they play and what they're like. To kick it off, we'll tell you all about the humans--seemingly the most mundane of all the factions, but one with a great deal of potential and versatility.

If you asked Warcraft II veterans whether the orcs or the humans were the strongest in that game, they'd probably just look at you funny. After all, the orcs' ogre-mages, with their extremely powerful bloodlust spell, were practically unstoppable in large groups--the healing spells of the human paladins could do little to alleviate the massive damage caused by the ogre-mages' gigantic fists. Though cunning human players would employ mages to good effect--invisible mages could sneak into enemy bases, then polymorph a foe of their choice into a harmless sheep--most Warcraft II players agree that the orcs were easier to play. Now, in Warcraft III, it's payback time. The humans are back and tougher than ever.

Led by a paladin, this human force deals swift justice to a band of savage orcs.

"Humans" is a misnomer. As you may know, when Warcraft III refers to humans, the term is used broadly to encompass what's actually an alliance of humanoid races, including elves and dwarves as well as humans. Each of these races forms a critical part of the human faction in Warcraft III. Generally speaking, the humans themselves form the main fighting force of the human alliance, the elves are the humans' primary spellcasters, and the dwarves assist their allies with their technology.

The gyrocopter as well as the new steam tank and mortar team give the humans a technological advantage.

Every faction in Warcraft III has particular advantages over the others, and the humans' main advantage lies squarely in the technological edge they have. Their technology gives the humans a defensive disposition--their Warcraft II-era guard towers and cannon towers are still available, and their buildings are strong and well built, but the humans also have a number of brand-new inventions. Human units may not be overpowering on a one-to-one basis compared with the roughly equivalent units in the other factions. But the humans have a number of powerful upgrades that can be researched, as well as a number of highly useful magic spells that can tip the scales in their favor.

Does the new dwarven rifleman make a suitable replacement for the old elven archer? And is there a suitable replacement for Warcraft II's ballista? How good are the gyrocopter's weapons, anyway? Find out about the human alliance's military capabilities next.