#Warcraft 3 neutral heroes manual

That's neat, I suppose.Дemon Hunter 'At last. The Dryads and the Keepers are sort of treated in-universe as basically being super-duper close to nature, even moreso than the night elves. The Keepers are basically, well, deer-centaurs like the dryads, only they are also master druids that can manipulate nature and the forests themselves. Always loved their attack animation, though, with their right hand turning into a giant bark-covered claw that trails vines behind them. The Keepers of the Grove always looked regal and cool, albeit I've never really liked how their face and hair ended up looking. And, again, there's a bit of unfortunate gender-role thing where all the female Dryads are generic goon minions while the male Keepers of the Grove are these mighty nature-gods that can turn the forest itself into armies of Treants, summon entangling roots and healing rains. The Keepers of the Grove are the male versions of the Dryads, the favoured sons of the demigod Cenarius (who himself uses a modified Keeper of the Grove model). They launch poison-tipped spears, and, for reasons that I've never really put too much thought off, Dryads are completely immune to magic while being able to remove buffs from allies and enemies. They look pretty neat, and are the first of the many non-elven allies of the elves that help to fight intruders to the forests. One that's honestly arguably a bit more boring? Again, it fits with a lot of the given lore regarding the night elves' patron demigod Cenarius (the dryads are 'true' children of Cenarius the centaurs are 'foul' children of Cenarius) and I can't fault the Warcraft creative team for that. Sure, they have night elven upper bodies instead of human ones, and a deer's lower body instead of a horse's, but it doesn't change the fact that they give us a pretty unconventional look for a Dryad.

something that with World of Warcraft's many retcons have been sort of handwaved aside.ДЄgain, this is my first exposure to a 'Dryad', so it didn't strike me strange that instead of a nature spirit that takes the shape of a woman draped in leaves, Warcraft's Dryads are instead centaur women. There's a significant attempt to make the night elf have a lot more exotic abilities, and in the campaign, there is a significant divide between the female night elves (who are all warriors who have stayed awake for 10 thousand years) and male night elves (who all apparently went to slumber for druid business for 10 thousand years). The Archers themselves aren't anything to write home about, but it's worth noting that all night elf women are able to Shadowmeld in the night, basically becoming invisible in the trees. Warcraft III's Night Elf side features some night elf units, sure, like the basic Archer here, but ultimately their whole vibe is that the Night Elves, unlike the far more arcane-magic-bound and civilization-leaning High Elves of the Alliance, are so in-tune with nature that they are able to utilize its mighty creatures and get nature itself to fight for them. Very weird, and, again, the fact that these ghosts end up basically being Warcraft's version of will-o-wisps is always interesting.Дespite being the 'night elf' army, perhaps a more accurate term would basically be the 'Sentinels'. The Wisps actually are basically the basis of a lot of the Night Elves' unique mechanics - they harvest gold and lumber without moving or consuming trees, but in exchange, when they build 'Ancients', their version of buildings, the Wisp spirit would be consumed to create an Ancient. They do add a sense of mystique to the elves for sure, being cute little glowing balls of light that, when you click on them and see their portraits, reveal that they actually have an elf face within.

#Warcraft 3 neutral heroes manual

Warcraft III's manual goes back and forth on whether the Wisps are simply just ghosts of night elves or some sort of more primal nature spirit that just flit about and help out the tree-hugging night elves, but later lore suggests the former more than the latter. It's not until later on that I realize that Warcraft's Wisps are basically their adaptation of the mythological will-o-wisps, and how weird that they're basically the Night Elven forces' version of the human peasants or the orc peons. I've sort of taken it for granted because Warcraft III is one of the first big fantasy franchise that I've stepped into, so for the most part I learned about Warcraft's versions of elves and undead and demons first before I touched D&D or Tolkien or Warhammer or Elder Scrolls or any other fantasy fiction, so I've never noticed and have basically taken for granted that, sure, the elves have Wisps.