Warcraft III Beta Report: The Night Elf Sentinels

Ancient walking trees form the backbone of Night Elf society.

Since the Warcraft III Beta officially opened last week, frenzied battles have been raging on Blizzard's Battle.net service, not only in competitive matches, but also in the chat rooms, as testers discuss which of the game's four factions is the strongest. The night elves have been the center of much attention, only partly because their ranged units were initially very strong in massed groups. The night elves have also been popular simply because of their distinctive look and gameplay style. We'll look at what makes the night elves so different in this final installment to our week of Warcraft III beta reports.

Keeper of the Grove
Half elf, half stag, these magical creatures can summon the very trees to their aid. Keepers can charge into battle to smash enemies with their melee attack, but they often use their magic in a supporting role. Force of nature turns trees into walking treants that fight with their sturdy wooden limbs, and the entangling roots spell can root an enemy in place. Keepers assist nearby troops with the thorns aura, which shields units from damage, and tranquility, their ultimate spell, showers a group of friendly units with a healing rain.

Although they haven't before appeared in a Blizzard game, night elves have a very long history in the world of Warcraft. An ancient race capable of potent natural magic, the night elves have long lived apart in their remote homeland of Kalimdor. Even at first glance, it's obvious that they have a special relationship with nature: Their most important "buildings" are animated trees with distinctly humanoid features like arms and faces. In fact, so powerful is the magic that animates these trees that they can even uproot, walk, and fight. While the Terrans of Starcraft may have had structures that could airlift from one position to the next, it's quite another thing to attack an enemy's base and have it attack back.

The tree of life is at the center of every night elf base and defines how night elves gather resources differently from the other three races. Instead of having elven or even treelike workers, pixielike wisps gather at the tree of life to keep the elven economy running smoothly. Wisps gather lumber, but they gather it in the most eco-responsible way imaginable, coaxing it magically from nearby trees in a way that leaves them standing intact. Wisps can also summon buildings, which sprout from the ground as a small copse of trees before growing into rooted giants or one of a few static buildings. But the wisp also disappears in the process of building, so the elven player will have to produce a steady stream of new wisps, one for every new building. And despite what a new player might expect, wisps don't have any role in mining gold. The tree of life itself does that, entangling the mine with its roots to harvest resources. Expanding the night elves' territory to encompass new gold mines is as simple as sacrificing one worker wisp to create a base that mines for itself. For this reason, when night elves are free to expand to multiple gold mines, they can do it very cheaply, without the upkeep costs associated with having many workers.

At night, female Night Elf warriors blend into the shadows and are invisible while standing still.

It should be no surprise that the night elves take advantage of Warcraft III's new day and night cycle. Like their high elven cousins who fight alongside the humans, night elves don't suffer any penalties during the day. But night elves are perfectly suited to moving and fighting in darkness. A troop of elven fighters can be very stealthy at night because of the shadowmeld ability that all female night elves have. When standing perfectly still, the elves' hardy female fighters disappear into the moonlit shadows and are effectively invisible. It's also possible to research ultravision for your elves, which gives them the ability to see as well at night as during the day, giving elven players an extra reason to move at night, when other factions are swathed in darkness.

But don't think that trees and nocturnal scouts are the most fearsome troops the elves can muster. Find out about transforming druids, swift archers, flying hippogryphs, and more.