Rushing your enemy in 5 steps1. Start every game like so: send 3 worker units to your mine, have the fourth build an altar for summoning your hero, and have the fifth build a farm or equivelant building. From there, quickly produce more worker units to collect resources and build your other essential structures; your troop production building and upgrade structure should be next on your list, as well as an extra farm (ziggurat, etc) or two.
2. ALWAYS send your first new worker unit (acolyte, whisp, etc) to scout the map and find your opponent's base. This way you will ready to attack anytime when you're ready without having to search, whereas your opponent will not know where you are unless he scouts as well. If you can keep your distance, you can often spy on what your adversary is doing. If you're playing the orcs, an alternative is to get a far seer for your first hero and use his spirit wolves ability to both scout the enemy base and to harass his workers/units. This is certainly efficient, but I don't recommend it for reasons I'll get to later.
3. Your altar should be done soon after you send out your scout. Summon your hero IMMEDIATEDLY, as soon as its built. Your scout should DEFINITELY have found your enemies' base by the time your hero is summoned if you keep it moving, unless its a large map and you have bad luck. Once your hero is summoned, move it directly to the enemy base and attack. From here, you have two options:
1. Attack the hero. If the enemy hero is summoned but not much else, you can try going head to head with his hero. If you kill him off, you can move on to beat up his workers and other units without much in the way of resistance.
2. Go right for the workers. If your enemy already has a hero and 3 or 4 units (this is likely if you're up against a good human player), don't fight a battle you'll lose. Instead, run right past them and attack the worker units gathering units and wood. By and large these units are helpless, so they'll be easy pickings.
Whatever you do, while you'll do some damage you most likely won't destroy your opponent's base with just your hero. When he gets enough together to threaten your hero, simply use your town portal scroll to return to your base. Give yourself time to use it; you should be employing it when your hero falls below 100 HP. Hopefully, the time you leave, you'll have either (a) killed the enemy hero, (
killed 2, 3, or more worker units, or © done both if you're VERY lucky or your opponent is very bad.
4. While your hero marches and battles, your base should be researching and producing units. Once your hero is back take a little time to let him recover and a few units, then attack (if you're night elf, use moon wells to heal your hero quickly). It is IMPORTANT that you follow up on your hero rush within a minute, or its pointless; you can't give your opponent time to recover. Generally, 4 to 6 units is enough for your follow-up attack, and you should have most or all of these ready at or soon after your hero retreat.
5. Attack all out. Go about it like so:
1. If the enemy hero is there, have all units focus on him and kill him QUICKLY, then focus on the rest. If you get his hero you'll have an easier time, as you'll have the benefit of a hero and your opponent will not.
2. If the hero's still dead, get the normal units quickly and attack the enemy altar afterwards. Expect the enemy hero to emerge. Once/if he does, you can gang up on him and win by advantage of numbers, then go back to finishing off the altar.
3. Either way, with the hero and altar gone the game is well in hand. Focus on the enemy's troop production buildings, then the rest of the base.
4. That's it, you've won. Be wary that workers do not escape. Even he does run a worker, however, the odds are heavily in your favor. And when you get right down to it, if you're good enough to pull his off you're sure as hell good enough to kill off a fledgling base.
Do note that rushing will NOT work all the time. However, its a great tactic for throwing your opponent off balance and keeping the pressure on him the entire game. If you continually produce units while your army is away, you can send wave after wave at your enemy on an almost constant basis.
Rushing by raceThe Undead ScourgeThe undead are a great race for rushing, perhaps the best. I lose to undead rushes more times than I care to admit. It takes only one acolyte to summon the buildings you need, and its a simple matter to build several ghouls while doing your thing with your hero. The best undead heroes to use for rushing are ranked as follows:
1. Dreadlord. Perhaps the best rushing hero in the game. Spend your skill point on sleep and use it to stop the enemy hero in its tracks, then attack the worker units while he's asleep. When he awakes, just cast sleep again and keep going. Retreat when you run out of MP, then return with your ghouls and add insult to injury. Note that, by the same token, the Dreadlord is excellent at stopping a hero rush as well. If your opponent is undead, its wise to rush with a handful of accompanying units and not just your hero.
2. Death Knight. Death Coil is a good offensive spell, and can be used to weaken the enemy hero for the kill or to kill a worker unit in one shot. The knight can do a decent job in a rush, but the dreadlord is still more effective.
3. Lich. One of the WORST heroes for rushing. The lich is a very frail hero, and will lose to almost any other enemy hero toe to toe. Frost Nova the best bet for the first spell, but the Death Knight's death coil is equally if not more effective. In the end, there's no reason to start off with the Lich. He can be a good second hero, but not a first. A rush can work with a lot of ghouls, but a solo rush is out of the question. If you want to rush as fast as possible, go with one of the other two.
HumansHumans are AWESOME for rushing. All 3 of their heroes can do it well, and footmen are cheap and easy to produce quickly for the kill.
1. Mountain King. This is a fantastic hero for rushing, as 2 out of 3 of his skills can stun enemy units. I suggest the stomp skill over storm hammer, as that can stun several units surrounding you as opposed to just one. The strat for him's pretty simple: use his skill to stun and then attack while he's incapacitated.
2. Archmage. 2 skills of the Archmage's are useful here: blizzard and water elemental. Use water elemental if you rush alone, blizzard if you want to attack with footmen. This is because the archmage needs support to be effective; toe to toe he's vulnerable. If you use blizzard, its best to use it as a hit and run tactic; have your footmen occupy the enemy hero while casting blizzard on the enemy workers. If you know you're playing against a night elf this isn't desirable since the whisps are spread out; use it the enemy hero instead.
3. Paladin. He's last on the list, but that doesn't mean he's not effective. Holy light is a good skill to use if fighing an undead player, but the best skill for the Paladin is divine shield for a solo rush. That 10 seconds of invulnerability can easily make the difference between victory and defeat. If you opt to rush with footmen, you might want to consider devotion aura to give your units and your hero a much needed armor boost.
OrcsThe orcs are decent, for rushing. Their units are expensive to produce earl, but their heroes can all be good rushers, much like the humans. Building up before the rush isn't plausible with the Orcs; rely on a solo rush to harass the enemy and keep him on his toes.
1. Far Seer. Two words: Chain Lightning. This workes well on enemy heroes, and can ravage a worker group. Its no problem at all to rush in, zap the small fry, and then leave before the enemy hero can do much of anything. Spirit wolves can work too, and might be more effective if you're looking to kill the other hero off. If you're fighing undead, however, just chain lighting the acolytes haunting the enemy gold mine and get out of there before you get hit with sleep.
2. Tauren Chieftan. the chieftan is a great melee hero, and can match up well against any opponent. I suggest inventing in stomp like with the Mountain King; stunning multiple units is a very good thing. Unfortunately, one on one the Chieftan will falter against top-tier heroes like the Dreadlord and Demon Hunter early on.
3. Blademaster. It was tough putting him last, but the fact of the matter is that he gets good at later levels--but not at the start of the game. The blademaster is a great hero, but there are better heroes to use for a rush with the Orcs. If you do try to rush with a Blademaster, use mirror image to keep your opponent off balance.
Night ElvesThe Night Elves can rush successfully, if played well. Archers are frail early, so your best bet is to get a hunter's hall and ancient of war as quickly as possible and start on huntresses for your support units.
1. Demon Hunter. An AWESOME rushing hero. With the immoluation skill, he can take out any other enemy hero toe to toe with the exception of the Dreadlord. simply put, immoluation rocks. It eats away the enemy HP, and can make quick work of enemy units if the attack is persistent.
2. Keeper of the Grove. Not bad, but most other heroes are better. Invest in entanglement; use it to slow down your enemy's hero and use the time to kill a worker or two, or three. Hit-and-run tactics with entanglement work very well; it can also be used to cover your getaway.
3. Priestess of the Moon. A GREAT hero for a long game (*coughstarfallcough*...but not so good at a rushing game. If used in this manner, the PoTM needs lots of archer support; 6 is a minimum number. A research in moon armor helps immensely as well. In this case invest in trueshot aura, NOT burning arrows; the former will give you more damage overall. The problem with rushing with the Priestess is that it takes time to make it work, and if you're too slow you're setting yourself up for a big-time fall. There are safter heroes to go with, but use her if you're confident in your speed and ability.
Disclaimer: this little guide is NOT perfect, and is not guarenteed to give you victory after victory on battle.net. On the contrary, I still lose many games online. This is simply my take how to successfuly rush, nothing more; I'm still learning my myseslf. Also note that all this works best in 1v1 or 2v2 games. In the case of 3v3 or 4v4, its generally always a good idea to have 4 to 6 units with your hero, no matter what.
In short, don't blame me if you play a game based on these tactics and get your ass kicked. That is all.
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[This message has been edited by UE Crusader (edited 10-28-2002).]
