My notes:
Well, hi to my FAQ. I'm Platinumrachet, just call me Plat, rachet, whatever.
Dude is fine too. I wrote this faq because I like this game a lot, and I
think it should be played more. I had fun writing it, and I hope you like it.
Some things though. Firstly, I'm not THE smartest player in the world, not
even close. Though I am a wise man (>_>), I don't know answers to every
question and the answers I give aren't always the best. I could be totally
wrong, but if you really can't bear it, please stop reading it. I am just
trying to help people to play this game better. Okay? Point two. I am NOT
a native english speaker. I am dutch, please bear with me people. So my
english might not be correct, but understand that I tried my very best in
doing it good. Also, no, I don't give my e-mail. I gave it once, and I got
all ignorant people asking if they could have my guide on their site. NO.
It's a gamefaqs only. If you see it anywhere else, that's illegal and a
crime. Not fun. Note that there were also people with good questions, and
good comments on my mail, but try asking the questions a the Gamefaqs
message board. I'm pretty active there too. Last but not least, I know the
faq isn't finished. I did this because if I wait too long, nobody will read
this anymore and my work will go to waste.
Version History:
15 april 2007, version 0.5: Yeah, tried to post it on gamefaqs. I hope it's
posted now... The rest of the faq WILL be posted later! I promise! Keep
playing this game in the meanwhile though!
#!INTRO!INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#
The story of the Dwarves and Elves- BFME2 story
INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#INTRO!#
While the lands of men were being invaded, a huge threat was still hiding...
The Goblins.
At saurons will, they left their caves, and were supposed to reinforce
Saurons armies. There were two problems.
The stubborn Dwarves of the Iron Hills and Proud Mirkwoo Elves. They would
not let foul creatures pass or threaten menkind. War was unavoidble. The
Iron Hills and it's capital Erebor, Mirkwood, Rivendel, King Dain and King
Thranduil...
They all need to be destroyed to ensure the domination of Sauron.
Will you let them destroy that? Will you side with the good forces, and be
the tactician famed for his skills in smiting evil? Or are you that guy who
helps Sauron to his goals in domination, feared by even his own Orcs, able to
bring down anyone in your path? YOU decide the fate of Middle-Earth
_^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^_
Conquest of Arnor, fall of the Dunedain ROTWK story-
_^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^__^ROTWK^_
Much before the war of the Ring, a Shadow falls over middle-earth. Since
Sauron's defeat, there haven't been much sight of any evil creature.
UNTIL NOW.
Sauron's right hand, the Witch-King, once a great king, is rising. By uniting
some of the rebelous Dunedain, the Dark Numenoreans, by asking an allience
with the Orcs of the mountain Gundabad, and by uniting the scattered and
angry trolls, the Witch-King has everything he needs. The Dunedain are still
fighting each other, unaware of the danger threatening them.
It is THAT unawareness, which is the Witch-King's greatest weapon. Even with
the help of the Elves, the Iron Crown can't lose. Especially with YOU! Famed
of you tactical skill, you agreed to help! Smite down the Dunedain, kill all
resistance... The destruction of Arnor is in your hands!
Well? Nice, huh?
Table of contents: (Ctrl+F to find a chapter by the code named after it in
brackets)
1#: Middle Earth Language. (WhtRUsyng?)
2#: Heroes. (Uaremyhro!)
3#: Powers. (Loekutmyawsumepowurs!)
*%$*WTF*%$*WTF*%$*WTF*%$*WTF*$%*
Middle-Earth/RTS talk, and slang- (WhtRUsyng?)
*%$*WTF*%$*WTF*%$*WTF*%$*WTF*$%*
RTS (game)- Real-time strategy (game). The type game this game is. It's a
strategy type game too.
OP: OverPowered. Said by people who think something (a unit, a powe, etc.)
in the game is too strong, even so strong that it screws up the gameplay.
Rushing, Booming and Turtling: Although not really a choice in this game, in
most RTS-games these are the three ways of surviving and winning. Rushing
means putting recources in an (early) army, to hit the enemy hard early and
put pressure on him, so you can cripple him and crush him later on. This is
about the only way to win in BFME2, unfortunatly. Booming means devoting all
recources into economy, making you very vulnerable early-game, but VERY
powerful late-game. This IS a good strat in BFME, BUT it gets countered by
rushing, and since the counter against rushing sucks, it's nearly impossible
to boom. Turtling means putting recourses into defenses, either an army as
defense or buildings. This strat just doesn't work in this game, for
buildings are too fragile and you lose map control, which basicly means you
just lost. Pity, but you're left with rushing, and that's al it is.
FU: Fully-Upgraded. When a unit is upgraded with all the upgrades it could
be upgraded with. Basicly means it is stronger than a normal unit, and should
win of the units it counters, but of the units it hasn't has any advantages
against too (unless they are upgraded too).
Zerging: Quantity! Using numbers of weak units to overhelm the enemy, and to
bring the strong units in later to give the final blow. The two races who are
the best at it are Mordor and the Untamed Wild, A.K.A...
The Goblins: Yeah, another name for the Untamed Wild. That name sucks anyway,
the goblins is a much better name and more commonly used. Use "the untamed
wild" to sound like a nerd-type somebody >_>
MOTW: Men of the West. That basicly means all men, but it's more like Rohan
and Gondor together. Used to be two factions, but are one now, known as the
MOTW
Newb(ie): Someone new to a game, who doesn't really understand it's
mechanics. IT IS NOT NEGATIVE! It's more a form of self-knowledge and
honesty.
Noob/N00b: An idiot, a sucker, a loser, a stupid guy, a jerk... Someone who
acts like one, or IS one, is called a Noob. Not nice to say against someone,
and don't confuse it with newb. THIS ON IS NEGATIVE, OKAY?!
CAH: Create a hero (hero). A hero made by the Create a Hero function in the
game.
BFME: Battle for Middle-Earth: The prequel to BFME2, which you should play
too if you haven't already.
BFME2: Battle for Middle-Earth 2. The game this game is an expension
for. You need it to play this game.
ROTWK: Rise of the Witch-King. The name of this expansion you're reading a
guide for.
Exp: Experience. The thing units gain for killing units. When they have
enough, they gain a level.
Lvl: Levels: How experienced the unit is. Normal units can reach level 5, but
heroes can go up to level 10. Some units learn abilities when they reach a
certain level.
AOTD: Army of the Dead. Not used a lot, but it saves time to type it. It's
the power MOTW can have.
GC: Gamecube. No wait! In BFME it can also mean Glorious Charge, a (great)
skill Theoden can get. So if i say, "put on GC now", don't go put your
Gamecube on, okay?
RC: Rallying call. A evenstar power that grants leadership for the "good"
forces.
LOS: Line of sight. How far a unit can see.
AOE: Area of effect (or Age of Empires, but that's not the use in this guide,
m'kay?). How far a spell/ability/special attack/power reaches.
Atk, Def, and Spd: Attack, defense, and speed. How much damage a unit does,
how much the unit substracts from the damage and the movement speed of a
unit, respectivly. I believe these terms were first used in the games
"Pokemon Red" and "Pokemon Blue", but it could be a Final Fantasy game too.
AOA: Area of attack. How big the radious is where an attack does damage to
units.
lAwT!!1!: That means I want to speak in bad english, better known as internet
speak. Ya now wut i min? Cus if u dunt, u suk! I prefer normal English, thank
you (because I kinda "suk" at speaking internet could be a reason)
A.K.A: Also known as. One you should know, it's used all over the web.
LOL!: Laughing out loud. Probably THE most used word on the web. When
something is funny, and you laughed about it; LOL!
ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing. Used a lot too. I never laughed that
hard that I had to roll on the floor, but hey, apperently, a lot of people
do. One thing: How can you say that you're rolling on the floor laughing,
while still typing that message? Mmmmm...
ROFLSCITP: It was something like that, but I forgot the entire name. It
means: Rolling on the floor laughing scaring the cat in the procces. I don't
know the name for sure, so just believe me if I say that this one isn't used
much. Answer honestly: Have YOU ever rolled on the floor while your cat was
having his midday break, scared him in the process, got your head scratched
open by the cat who freaked out, and still laughed? No? Yeah, that's what I
thought.
Hero: A special unit that can be recruited from the citadel, usually someone
who did special things in Middle-Earth history. Has great stats, and
sometimes has skills too, but some need to be "unlocked" by leveling up.
Look at the hero section of this FAQ for information.
Leadership: A feature back from BFME1. It's a boost to normal units, usually
by 50% to defense and attack. Given by various sources, like Hero Statues,
heroes, and powers. A good thing to have.
De-buff: The opposite of Leadership. It gives the affected units a penalty,
usually 50% or 25% of defense and attack. It usually negates leadership too.
Given by heroes, powers, and some fortress expansions. Of course, those
give it to enemy units only.
Stealth: A thing that makes you invisible for the enemies, until they come
too close or until you attack. There are a lot of forms of leadership, the
best one given by Thranduil and Elven mists, the "worst" get every Elven
unit and some archers from other factions, but those only work by trees.
There's another form, listed below. It's great for surprising purposes.
Cloaking: Given by the Elven Cloak skill, gained by some heroes and the
Mirkwood archers. Makes it impossible to move, or to attack, or you'll lose
your cloak. Some skills can also expose you. You can't be attacked though,
and you'll keep regenerating hitpoints if you can, and you'll keep your
line of sight. You will lose it too when cavalry tramples you. Perfect for
surprise attacks.
Flanking: When a unit attacks a unit from the side or from behind. Easier
done with cavalry against archers, also it's usually when you're enemy runs
away.
Knockback: When a unit is knocked away from the impact of the attack. It
means they gain damage, are scattered, and need time to get up on their feet
again. Wizard Blast is a perfect example of an attack with knockback.
Flank bonus: The bonus units gain in BFME2 for attacking a unit from the side
or the behind. It's quite a big bonus too, so try to get it, and avoid it
being used against you. In other words, don't flee often, as this is almost
a free flank bonus for your opponent. Archers can't obtain it, but they can
get...
Height bonus: When a archer unit is on high ground, they gain better range,
and an attack bonus. Keep it in mind when picking your grounds.
Sniping: Killing someone, sometimes unnoticed, from a distance. Use Legolas
first before saying that it isn't in the game ;-) Used mostly in First-Person
shooters, by weapons like sniper rifles, but it can be a bow in this game
too (unless you ever saw an elf walk around with a sniper rifle, in which
case I highly doubt you have an legel copy, or a non-modded game).
Splash damage: The damage done to units not in the impact of an attack, but
NEAR the impact. Usually the damage is lower the farther you are from the
impact, but sometimes it even does more the farther you are. Examples?
Gothmog's normal attack, Brand's Slam Shot, Gloin's Slam...
Powers: Name for all the things in the Evenstar power menu and the One Ring
ones.
Bats: Cave Bats. A power for the goblins, just say Bats for short.
Crows: Crebain. Although most people say Crebain, most people will
understand crows too. It's a power for Isengard, which does the same as
cave bats.
*H.E.R.O.E.S*
Heroes- (Uaremyhro!)
*H.E.R.O.E.S*
The Heroes of light:
The Good Factions usually have a lot of heroes, especially the elves and Men.
Their heroes are usually more cheap, only one hero of the Good Faction
costs more than 3000 (Gimli). They usually have more defensive skill, and
some have leadership. Dwarfes are one big exception, they don't have that
many heroes, their heroes are a bit costy and only one hero has leadership.
MOTW (Men of the West)-
MOTW have quite some heroes, all from BFME1. Take all heroes of Gondor and
Rohan, remove Gimli and Legolas, and you have the MOTW heroes. They are
all quite cheap (save for Gandalf) and most of them have leadership. Also,
MOTW heroes tend to be lacking a bit in the lifespan department, having not
that much of health. One thing to note is that they can research Banners in
their fortress to decrease the cost of heroes by 10%, saving you 1100
recources if you would buy all the heroes (But Banners cost 500, so it
actually saves you 600). Also, the Houses of Healing decrease the time to
build a hero. Might be worth it if you're really heavy on heroes.
Eomer, Commander of the Rohirrim
Health: 2400 (The health on lvl 1)
Cost: 1000
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Mount/Dismount: Get's Eomer up on his horse, or of it. When on his
horse, Eomer is faster, but Spear-units do bonus damage.
Lvl 1: Leadership: Eomer gives a leadership bonus to all mounted
units around him. Nice on lvl 1, pity that it only applies to
mounted units.
Lvl 2: Pillage: When a mounted unit around Eomer kills an enemy, you'll
earn a small amount of recources. The stronger the unit killed, the
more recourses you earn.
Lvl 5: Spear throw: Throws a powerfull spear to the enemy. Not as powerfull
as Eowyn's throw, but powerfull nonetheless. Don't waste it on
an Orc,use it on something strong (An enemy hero, a troll, a Mumakill
etc.)(In other words, don't put this on auto-use).
Comments:
Eomer is a cheap hero, that's for sure. So, don't expect THAT much of him.
He's quite weak, dies very quickly, and doesn't do that much damage.He can
hold a battalion of orcs or goblins on his own(Although if those goblins
activate poison swords, they might even win O_o),
but not something like a FU-Hilltroll battalion.
BUT Eomer is not a hero made for destroying units, he's a hero
made for giving Rohirims and other cavalry units bonuses. Group him with a
group of cavalry, and watch their performance in battle grow. His
Pillage ability is nice, but not tide changing. The amount of recourses you
get is so small, you probably don't notice it (Although it gives a good
feeling to see all those numbers fly from the battlefield). Conclusion;
Eomer is a cheap hero, who should be kept out of too much fighting, and
should be fighting with a group of cavalry to gain exp. He's not too
impressive, but... You'll get what you've paid for, as they say.
Rating: 6/10. Although he's worth the money, there are other heroes who are
much more worth their money and cost only a little more (Think Theoden or
Boromir). Therefor, in free matches, I only get him if I already have
gotten the more important heroes, upgrades, units and buildings.
A plus is that he levels up quite fast, so you can start earning recourses
for kills quite fast after building him. Therefor, a 6.
Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan
Health: 1600
Cost: 1200
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Smite: The stronger version of spear attack, use it on strong units,
like a thrall master(Because his entire battalion dies if he dies)
Mumakil, Trolls etc. Also fun to snipe Nazgûls out of the air.
Hero's also get hurt pretty bad.
Lvl 3: Mount/Dismount: You know what this is. Kinda weird that you have to
lvl her up to get this, but hey, having to do something for it
gives you a feeling of accomplishment ^_^.
Lvl 4: Disguise: Yawn. She disguises herself as an rohirim. Sure, whatever.
Don't expect anyone to fall for that.
Lvl 5: Shield Maiden: Gives Eowyn an armor bonus of 65% for a period of time.
An ability to put on Auto, extra armor = good. You'll probably don't
notice the effect, but it is there, to make sure she is around for
some time.
Comments: Eowyn is the only female hero in the game (Except Arwen). Like
Eomer, she's quite a cheap hero, costing only 1200, not costy for a hero.
Her smite is powerfull, really powerfull. She's stronger than Eomer, for
sure, but, like Eomer, isn't a hero to send in the fray on her own. I
have two problems with her. 1, she needs to lvl up to lvl 3 to mount, and
2. She lacks the leadership Eomer has. HOWEVER, she is quite nice on lvl 5,
where she will have a fun time riding with the rohirrim, smiting enemy
heroes and having an armor bonus. Still, retreat her when you see pikes,
and she's mounted. She still get's owned by pikes when mounted.
Rating: 5/10. She's strong, no doubt, but like Eomer, when to build her is a
problem. There are just other heroes who are better for her cost (Faramir &
Theoden). So only build her if you have the CP and recources to spare.
Theoden, King of Rohan
Health: 1600
Cost: 1200
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Leadership: Yay! On lvl 1! Nice! Grants a leadership bonus to all
friendly units around Theoden.
Lvl 1: Mount/Unmount: Yeah, obviously, it mounts him. He's pretty much
always better when on his horse.
Lvl 4: King's Favor: Gives exp to friendly units in a certain areas.
The exp is split between units if there are more than one
battalion in the area of effect. It usually lvls the unit up one
level. Don't go casting it over lvl 5 units though (or seige, or
heroes). Pretty nice to get elite units or to save money spent on
Banner Carriers.
Lvl 6: Glorious Charge: It was godly in BFME1, and it still is. All mounted
units around theoden gain only 10% damage for a period of time.
One of the best abilities in the game. Your horses can now defeat
anyone, even pikes! Even better, it works on mounted heroes too
(Gandalf, Faramir, Eowyn, Eomer and Theoden himself!)!
Comments: Only 1200, Theoden automaticly comes in with the leadership
ability. Very nice adition just for the leadership. Like all the Rohan
Heroes, he doesn't perform well on it's own, but great in groups. And,
like the other two Rohan heroes, he can mount. You can also use him
unmounted with Gondor soldiers to give them leadership, but generally,
he performs better on a horse. Of course, don't rush him into pikes. Duh.
His king's favor is quite nice, but his real power is Glorious Charge.
It makes all mounted units around Theoden gain only 10% damage. In other
words, it puts them in Godmode. Watch them destroy trolls and pikes while
gaining only minor damage in the proces!
Rating: 8/10 Let's face it: Built in Leadership and his Glorious charge makes
him a VERY good hero. Just watch out, because when not in Glorious Charge,
he's quite fragile. You'll be hearing "Rohirim, come to my aid" quite often.
Faramir, Ranger of the Secret Spring
Health: 1800
Cost: 1200
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Change weapon: Changes his bow for his sword, or the other way
around. In general, use his bow when fighting units, and his sword
when attacking structures.
Lvl 2: Wounding Arrow: Sends an powerfull arrow to an enemy. Only
availble in Ranger mode. Nice for taking/damaging out heroes,
trolls, Thrall masters, and Flying units.
Lvl 3: Mount/Unmount: Adding to his versatility, he can also be a Gondor
Knight.
Lvl 6: Leadership: The MOTW has a lot of leadership, huh? It's always
helpful.
Lvl 7: Captain of Gondor: Free exp! Yay!
Comments: Faramir is one of my favorite heroes. Faramir is THE most
versatile hero in the game. Ranger, swordsmen, knight- If he now had a
spear, he would have every unit type in him. When he has his bow, he is
stealthed when in the forest. His wounding arrow is nice for reasons said
above. When mounted, he can get around fast (If the ring is on, and I
have Ivory Tower, I use him to kill Gollum and get the ring back fast).
Leadership just makes him even more useful. Captain of Gondor is also
nice. The best thing about Faramir is that he levels up quickly. VERY
quickly. Let him attack units with his bow to level up in no time.
Rating: 7.75/10 The fact that he's cheap, cool, a ranger, is versatile, has
leadership and levels up very quickly makes him earn an 7.75.
Boromir, Captain of Gondor
Health: 2800
Cost: 1400
Abilities:
Lvl 2: Horn of Gondor: The reason why Boromir is a solid and good hero. The
Horn of Gonder scares all enemies, letting them stay in one place,
while being stunned.
Lvl 5: Leadership: ... Again!? Well, great!
Lvl 6: Captain of Gondor: Same as his younger brother, it gives free exp!
Always helpful.
Comments: Boromir is much more different than his brother, being more of a
tank. It takes a lot to kill him, especially since he's powerfull too.
Horn of Gondor is a great skill, which should be set on auto. He helps
out a bunch by being in early raids with Gondor soldiers, which is the
main reason to buy him. O, and 1400 is cheap for such a good hero.
Rating: 8.5/10: I almost always buy him. He helps out in the early attacks.
Horn of Gondor is something that's gonna win a LOT of battles for you.
Aragorn, Heir of the Throne of Gondor
Health: 2400
Cost: 2000
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Athelas: Heals all nearby Heroes. Nice healing skill, could be set
on auto to makes sure he survives a little longer.
Lvl 2: Swordmaster: +100% Attack and Defense, Aragorn becomes 0ber with this
skill. Use when attacking strong units, heroes or buildings, or when
being attacked heavily so you don't get killed quickly.
Lvl 4: Leadership: ... AGAIN??? Sheesh...
Lvl 6: Elendil: Nice skill that let's enemys flee. Pretty funny. Use when
surrounded by enemies. Why they moved this skill to lvl 6 is a
mystery to me.
Lvl 10: Summon Army of the Dead: Yay! It summons 3 battalions of Army of the
Dead. A very strong skill. They kill units like they're butter.
However,they suck against buildings.
Comments: Aragorn is a pretty strong hero. His Athelas skill is nice,
especially with other heroes around, but doesn't heals that much.
Swordmaster, on the other hand, is a really strong skill, giving
Aragorn a monster attack. Leadership is.. Well, leadership. Elendil
is good when crowded so your archers can shoot the fleeing enemies,
and your cavalry gets a flank bonus (cause their backs are turned to
you). The Army of the Dead is great, but actually getting Aragorn to
level 10 is quite the accomplishment, and, realisticly, will almost
never occur.
Rating: 7/10: He's strong, but not practicly useable. When having the CP
and recources to spare, however, he's a great help to any non mounted army.
Gandalf the White
Health: 2400
Cost: 3000
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Wizard Blast: Great move, when used well. You can whipe out at least
half an battalion with this, if not one & a half.
Lvl 2: Lightning Sword: Gandalf sends out a mini-lightning storm from his
sword. Sucks against small units, rules against big juicy targets
who aren't really fast. Great damage against buildings, so that's
my main use.
Lvl 5: Shadowfax!: He mounts on his nice white horse, Shadowfax.
same as all mounts.
Lvl 7: Light of Istari: Nice explosion of focused light. It does MASSIVE
damage to units, only use it againt heroes. Even Sauron gets wounded
when hit by this, and that says something.
Lvl 10: Word of Power: Hehehe... BFME1 players should remember this, the
insane damage-dealing, knock-backing mini atom bomb. INSANE range,
great damage and fun to see all those Orcs go flying. Because it's
so strong, it's recharge time is BIG.
Comments: Gandalf is a VERY powerful hero, no doubt. His wizard blast is
nice for killing or at least wounding crowds of units. It recharges quite
fast, so it's a very useful attack. I like to use it manually rather than
putting it on auto to get the most out of it (using it on some cavaly who
are just running by is a waste, as you'll only hit one of them). Lightning
Sword is nice against buildings. Shadowfax is there for flexibility and
movebility. Light of Istari is an attack that is too strong to be put on
auto or to use it on an orc/goblin. Don't waste it on Thrall Masters, use
it on things like heroes, mumakils and attack trolls. It also does quite
pathetic damage to buildings, it's a unit killer. WOP is just insane...
One of the best moves in the game, although not as effective as in BFME1.
However, like Aragorns Army of the Dead, getting Gandalf to level 10 is
quite hard, especially against humans who aren't going to let your Gandalf
get to that level, they make him a top priority to kill. Therefor, Gandalf
use is limited, because he levels up quite slow, really stakes out with the
rest of your army (unless your color is white) and because the enemy will
do anything to take him down.
Rating: 7/10 Well, sorry, but Gandalf isn't what he was. Starting on level 1
this time, he has to level up a bit before he starts to kick ass. If you
have enough money, and your army needs some help, he's a nice help.
MOTW: My final ranking:
1. Boromir
2. Theodén
3. Faramir
4. Aragorn
5. Gandalf
6. Eomer
7. Eowyn
The Elves:
The Elves have a lot of heroes too. Because they have more stamina then MOTW
heroes, they tend to cost more than MOTW heroes (save for Arwen).
2 heroes have the leadership ability. Also, the powers of Elven heroes are a
bit more defensive than those of MOTW heroes. They can research an upgrade
at the fortress (I forgot the name) to decrease the time to make a hero.
Arwen, Daughter of Elrond
Health: 2000
Cost: 800
Abilities:
Lvl 1: Mount/Dismount: Horse riding. W00t. Use for scouting, getting around
fast, helping cavalry charges and flanking archers.
Lvl 2: Athelas: Same as Aragorn. Heals herself and heroes around her. She's
going to need this, putting this on auto helps to help her surviving.
Lvl 10: Flood: Powerfull Attack that does high damage to both buildings and
units. Loooong recharge time of around 5 minutes.
Comments: She's not impressive in any way. Her attack is not very good, her
defenses and health are utter crap. She dies insanely quickly. Athelas
helps in surviving a little longer (for a quick getaway, perhaps?) but it
doesn't keep her alive for that long. It is very, very hard to level her up
to level 10, because she dies so often. But if you DO, flood is a nice
reward to really kick some ass. Don't waste it on weak units.
Rating 5/10 Arwen isn't really good. She just dies too quickly. Maybe use
her to scout in the beginning of a game, but wasting 800 recources for a
weak scout is not really a good idea. Especially recources better spent in
units or buildings (although there are weird stories about her. Killing
strong heroes like Rogash with her quicker attack speed O_o). Although Arwen
rushing might be deadly when used properly, I'm not a big fan of it. More
on the Arwen rush explained in the Elves strategies chapter.
*EDIT* Ignore everything negative said about the Arwen rush. It owns as I
found out, so use it if you wish *EDIT*
Glorfindel, Rider of the Wind
Health: 2500
Cost: 1800
Lvl 1: Mount/Unmount: He mounts. In most situations it's better to
mount him, unless you're facing pikes.
Lvl 3: Blade of Purity: +100% attack and Defense. Exactly the same as
Aragorn's Blademaster, and should be treated the same.
Lvl 6: Ride of Wind: A move that increases his defense and more importantly,
speed. For getaways, to get somewhere quick or to flank.
Lvl 10: Starlight: Heals units nearby and gives them a leadership bonus.
Nice move, but not really a level 10 kind of move.
Comments: Glorfindel is a nice hero. His health, defense and attack are all
very good. You can mount him to get him somewhere quickly or to flank
archers. His skills are not really skills to help out your normal units,
they're more skills to help himself. Blade of purity is a REALLY nice move
that should be used when attacking buildings or when in a nasty situation.
Ride of the wind should be used for getting somewhere INSANELY quick, to
flank, to get some defense or to get away somewhere quick and without many
casualties. Starlight is his only support skill, and is gained on level 10.
Pretty nice, but not when compared to other heroes level 10 skills. But
that's probably because he levels up so quickly. Even better, his skills
recharge quickly too.
Rating: 8.5/10 Good hero, really lives up to his price. He's not really
army based, so having him around on his own won't get him killed. If he
does start hitting critical, he's got a lot of very nice skills to buff
his stats. All in all, a very good hero. I wish I would see him built
more online.
*EDIT* While writing this faq, suddenly all elven players saw Glorfindel's
potential, and now he's almost OVER-used. Most elven players let him run
about the map, and let him go solo on everyone they see. So, my wish came
true ^_^
Haldir, Guardian of Lothlorién
Health: 2000
Cost: 2000
Lvl 1: Change weapons: Well, yeah, switch his bow for his sword or the other
way around. Bow for killing units, and sword against buildings or
when surrounded by infantry.
Lvl 6: Leadership: Cheapest elven hero that gets this, but on level 6??!
For leadership, just use Elrond.
Lvl 10: Golden Arrow: Very sucky for a lvl 10 move. It's a more powerful
arrow that gives a light show when hitting his target. But it's
recharge time is fast.
Comments: Haldir is a bit of a "meh" hero. His defenses and health are
reasonable, his attack good. He's usually in bow mode so he can safely
snipe of enemies without getting in the fight (which usually leads to his
death). Leadership is great, however, leveling him up to level 6 to get it
isn't. Come to speak of it, he levels up reasonably fast, not THAT fast,
but not that slow either. Golden Arrow, as said in the discription, kinda
sucks. It doesn't do great damage. The discription says that it's
supposed to scare enemies, but I've never seen it happen. Also, until
he has leadership, he doesn't really add anything to your army (with the
money spent on him, you could have FU 2 battalions).
Rating 4/10 For 2000, he's a waste. Go to Elrond for leadership,
or use Rallying Call. He doesn't really has any value except an overpriced
elf.
Elrond, Lord of Rivendel
Health: 3500
Cost: 2500
Lvl 1: Athelas: Heals nearby heroes. Same as Aragorn and Arwen's, a skill to
ensure survival or to get another hero out of a sticky situation.
Lvl 3: Leadership: Phew, this at a decent level. Probably your best bet
aside from Rallying Call if you want leadership.
Lvl 6: Farsight: Wow, exactly the same as the same-named Evenstar-power.
Very handy tool, saves you 5 PP and can be used for various things.
Scouting, checking on your opponents units, using it to cast an
evenstar power... A lot of possibilities. Even better, it's recharge
time is VERY fast.
Lvl 7: Whirlwind: Summons an whirlwind which does good damage to units and
scatters them, and does reasonable damage to buildings. A very good
move. It's more effective against the computer than against humans,
because a human might get his unit hit by the first seconds of the
summoning, but then retreat his units to saver ground, away from the
whirlwind and his pathetic movement speed. Therefor, it's best used
in the middle of an enemy army so they can't escape. It's damage
against buildings is good, but don't expect to take a fortress down
with it. It is made for killing units!
Lvl 10: Recover: Elrond and nearby allied heroes automaticly recharge their
powers to useble, even when just used. O_o. One of the most
incredible powers in the game. Make sure to get in a group of heroes
who just used their powers before using it.
Comments: Elrond is just... Awesome. Very good health and defenses,
reasonable attack. Doesn't levels up very fast though. However, his skills
are his glory. Athelas is a nice survival move, which adds durability.
Leadership is nice, especially for Elves. Haldir is not reliable and
Rallying Call doesn't last long enough, so Elrond's leadership is the Elves
best source of buffing. Farsight is very nice, I think I said enough about
it in the discription. Same for whirlwind, very good, said enough about it.
Recover can be used just about in every situation, make sure your heroes
used all their powers before using it. All in all, Elrond is a very nice
hero, pity that leveling him up to level 10 takes some time (although if
you just let him fight with your main army, he'll get there in not a very
long time)
Rating 8.5/10 Very nice hero, for leadership alone. Recover is a very handy
move and it's much more common to see Elrond hit level 10 than other heroes
like Arwen, Aragorn and Gandalf.
Thranduil, King of Mirkwood (Or "The Woodland Realm")
Health: 2000
Cost: 2500
Lvl 1: Wild Walk: Thranduil stealths while ATTACKING. This is great because
most players just ignore you and walk on without noticing that their
entire batallion is being sniped. Although the smart player will
look around until he has found the source of the snipe-fest. On top
of that, your enemy probably is aware of the fact that Thranduil can
be stealthed while attacking, so he will probably be on his toes.
Oh, Thranduil is stealthed when not attacking too and can be
discovered when the enemy comes too close. Oh, and of course it only
works near trees.
Lvl 3: Move Unseen: When cast over units, they get stealth like Thranduil.
Very nice for sneaky attacks or unseen flanking (Stealth Lancers so
you can flank those archers. Unseen!). Only problem is that it's
radious of effect is small.
Lvl 4: Elven Cloak: Cloaks so the enemy can't see him, even when standing
right next to him! When being attacked, this can't be used. When
attacked while in it, you'll lose it (but to do that they have to
use the "bombard" option of seige. AND they have to know EXACTLY
where you cloaked, so don't expect to be knocked out of it). Use
it to make him a sort of spy (run him into the enemies base, cloak
him, and get information (and a way to cast evenstar powers in the
enemies base)), to flee (more effective when used while losing, not
once the Mirkwood King is the only unit left on the field and a
giant army is marching his way. Although if that army is infantry-
based, they can't get to you before you cloak. Archers however, will
hit you in your cloak animation, canceling it).
Lvl 7: Dead eye: Increases Thranduil's range and attack for 20 seconds.
Also, it makes him do magic damage. A VERY strong buff. Thranduil's
attack becomes insane with this. It's kinda overkill against normal
units though, so use it against very strong units, heroes and the
like (BTW, it's icon is very Wilhelm Tell-ish, don't you think?)
Lvl 10: Thorn of Vengeance: O_o. Powerfull arrow that does incredibly much
damage and fire and magic damage. It's so strong, only use it on
heroes.
Comments: Thranduil only has one move revolving around helping others, the
rest of his skills target himself. Also, three of his five skills revolve
about stealthing something, making him a master of sneaky moves too.
Thranduil is one of those character who does well behind your frontlines,
sniping of enemies with his very good attack and good rate of fire. His
health and defense are not fantastic or anything. This is because he isn't
a front line fight, as said previously. No, he's a sniper. One of the best
things about him is that because he can get to enemy's so fast, he levels
quickly. Also, about his stealth; Near trees he can attack when not giving
away his stealth, when not near trees his stealth cancels after his attack
and comes back a few seconds after attacking. Therefore, trying to keep him
near trees is smart. Dead Eye and Thorn of Vengeance are just ultimate hero
and powerful unit killers. And last but not least: Thranduil performs very
good against units, but totally sucks against buildings.
Rating 8/10 A nice unit-killer with awesome attack, use him if you find
yourself swarmed with units, or when attacked by powerful units. Although
when swarmed with even more units, you might wanna think about recruiting...
Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood
Health: 2000
Cost: 3000
Lvl 1: Hawk Strike: Legolas sends two powerful arrows ("These two will fly
like brothers") after an enemy for extra damage. You can put this on
auto, however, it might be much smarter to wait until you find a
more powerful unit. Also, it takes some time before it's released,
so putting it on auto might result that he actually defeats less
enemies.
Lvl 2: Knife Fighter: Legolas grabs his knifes to prove that arrows aren't
his only speciality. It also increases his defense by 20%. Legolas
can't disable it, you have to wait until it has ran out if you want
a ranged elf again. When really surrounded, that 20% extra defense
can make a difference.All in all, you won't use this move that much.
Lvl 4: Train Archers: Legolas gives archers in the radious of this move
extra experience. Very nice, especially for the elves. It's the
same amount of exp as with Captain of Gondor and King's Favor. Use
to get those Lorién/Mirkwood archers elite.
Lvl 7: Arrow Rain: Sends multiple arrows over an area for a period of time.
Very good when the enemy has his units packed together, it lasts
for a long time, and recharges reasonably fast, so use it when
necesary.
Comments: Hey, one of the two elven heroes that was in BFME1! His stats
remained nearly exactly the same, insane rate of fire, even more insane
range, good attack, incredible Line of sight, and reasonable defenses and
health. Legolas is pretty much like his father, except that he doesn't
specialises in stealth, but instead brings "unit-killer" to a new level.
Legolas is the ultimate unit-killer. He walks, sees the enemy way before
they can see him, starts shooting and kills them without casualties. He's
a nice hero to have when in the back of your army, where he'll have the
time of his live sniping enemies safely, leveling up very quickly. Also,
while his father has 2 moves to kill very strong units/heroes, Legolas only
has Hawk Strike which doesn't even comes close to the damage from Dead Eye
and Thorn of Vengeance, however, he has Hawk Strike build in, while
Thranduil has to level up to level 7 to get one, and level 10 to get the
other. But still, if you have a unit problem, get Legolas, and if you want
to kill heroes, want to perform sneaky moves and want a little help in
killing units, get Thranduil. If you have the money, why not get both???
Rating: 8/10 He does what he's supposed to do, kill units, and quick.
However, I would go for Thranduil when not that swarmed in units, and also
have some heroes to deal with. You can always get him later after having
Thranduil kill all those units.
Treebeard, Leader of the Ents
Health: 5000 (don't know how much he has on lvl 1, as you get him on lvl 10)
Cost: 2000
Lvl 1: Throw Stones/Go Melee: He changes his hands for stone (WITH ROCK, AND
STONE!!!) or goes melee on those stupid Orcs. Generally, use the
rocks against archers (So you don't have to wait an hour until
he has reached them) and buildings and go melee against infantry and
pikes (Who, BTW, counter him, so try to protect him against pointy
objects)(I ment spears, for you which did not understand that).
Comments: Treebeard, we all love this old... tree >_>. He has exactly the
same skill as all the other ents, and acts nearly the same. He starts out
on level 10, so he can't level up in any way. He's basicly a super-ent.
More health, more attack and more defense than a normal ent, but he's costs
the double of a normal ent. The CP-cost is the same though. Nothing to say
about him really, except that he can catch fire when attacked by
fire-based moves, which works a bit like poison- It slowly drains his
health. He can put the flames out by standing near a pool of water (No
water around? Uh-oh...). Buy him if you want an extra strong seige weopon,
and if you have money enough that it isn't more effective to spent that
extra 1000 in something else, or another ent.
Rating 6.5/10 Like Legolas, does what he's supposed to do, kills buildings.
Like all seige units, keep him away from harm, especially spears and fire.
The Elves: My final Ranking:
1. Glorfindel
2. Elrond
3. Thranduil
4. Legolas (Thranduil is just a little more versatile)
5. Treebeard
6. Arwen
7. Haldir
The Dwarves:
The Dwarves have only 4 heroes, the least of all factions (Although the
Goblins only have four too, so it's a shared last place). Only one of their
heroes has leadership, which is dissappointing. The heroes they have, however,
are pretty good, and are pretty tank-ish.
Brand, Captain of Dale
Health: 2000
Cost: 1200
Lvl 2: Slam Shot: Fires of an arrow that hits a target with extra damage,
and throws back units that are near the impact. Nice move to put on
auto, only thing against it is that it knocks back friendly units as
well.
Lvl 4: Train Archers: Gives exp to friendly archers in the area of effect.
Same as Legolas's. A problem with this is that it only works on
archers, and since the Men of Dale are the only Dwarven archers, you
can only give exp to them.
Lvl 7: Monster Slayer: Very strong damage to one target, also backfires him.
Use it against very strong heroes.
Comments: Brand is the only ranged hero the Dwarves have, and the cheapest
one. His attack is nice, like his rate of fire. His defenses and health are
what you can expect from a ranged hero- Not that good. His Slam Shot is nice
for units who are aproaching, but it's not good to hit a unit where your
army is near, as they get thrown back too. Train archers is for a free
Banner Carrier upgrade for a Men of Dale batallion. Pity it doesn't works
on axe throwers (But then the Axe Thrower rush+ Brand would have been a
very OP strategy). Monster Slayer (I don't remember the exact name, srry)
is a good move against those strong units that are coming his way. Brand is
best treated like a Men of Dale; Keep him in the back of your army, away of
danger, and let him snipe the enemies from afar. He levels up quick too, so
if you let him fight alongside your units, he'll level up to level 10 in no
time. As with all archers, Brand sucks against buildings, target him
against units. For his price, only 1200, Brand is a viable option when in
need of some heroic ranged support.
Rating 7/10 Brand is nice to have around, killing units from the back of
your army. He has no tide changing power, but that is to be expected of a
hero that costs 1200. Building him is a good option mid-game when you've
gotten the more important investments out of the way.
Gloin, Father of Gimli (My catchy phrases are becoming worse and worse >_>)
Health: 3000
Cost: 2000
Lvl 1: Slam: Does good damage to buildings or throws enemy units in the air.
A nice move to quicken the destruction of buildings or to get some
enemies of your tail, a bit similar to Wizard Blast.
Lvl 4: Shake Foundation: Does very good damage to the building it's targeted
on. Vey nice for destroying building quickly, but the recharge time
is a bit long.
Lvl 10: Shatter Hammer: Causes a minor earthquake to occur where Gloin
struck the ground. Very powerful, it is almost a bit like Word of
Power. Only use it when totally surrounded by enemies, don't waste
it on one goblin battalion.
Comment: When BFME2 just came out, I remember him being soooo overpowered.
However, now, he isn't really OP anymore, but just "good". Gloin is pretty
strong, has good defenses and great health. Slam is nice to help him defeat
units quickly, or to get those Farms down faster. Shake Foundation is very
handy, it's hard to stop and does good damage, good for immediate killing
of a Farm, or to destroy an Orc pit/Barracks which is continually churning
out Orcs/Soldiers, this will give a blow to his unit production, which is
good. Shatter Hammer is one of those level 10 moves who really own, but are
hard to get. Luckily, Gloin levels reasonably fast, so there's a big change
you'll see those units flying if you just keep him fighting.
Rating 7.5/10 Gloin is made as a building killer, and he does a good job
of it. He's also VERY tank-ish and won't die very quickly. All in all- Good
hero, buy him when you have problems with a turtling person
(although turtling isn't a very good strategy in BFME2), or a person who
relies on a building to defend himself against hordes of angry dwarves
coming his way.
Dain, King of the Dwarves and the capital of Erebor.
Health: 3000
Cost: 2500
Lvl 1: Leadership: You know what this does. Dain is the only hero of the
dwarves who has it, making him valuable for a dwarven army.
Lvl 4: Mighty Rage: Heals units and gives them a leadership bonus for a
period of time. It's a bit like Glorfindel's Starlight, but it's
a bit pointless with him because he already has the Leadership
ability, but if your units need healing, why not? Also nice to use
when sending out dwarves without Dain tagging along, if you
need him for something else.
Lvl 7: Stubborn Proud: Gives units around him immunity to fear. Very nice
ability, which screws up some other abilities. Horn of Gondor
doesn't work anymore, Scream doesn't work, Sauron, Galadriels and
The Witch-King's fear attacks don't work... It's pretty nifty. Also,
he's the one of the two heroes who has it, so it's pretty rare,
making Dain pretty unique. Only downside; He gets it on lvl 7.
Lvl 10: Summon Royal Guard: Summons 3 battalions of Dwarven Axe Throwers,
Dwarven Guardians and Dwarven Spearmen, all fully upgraded. Nice to
summon when battling to give an extra kick to your army, and it's
pretty much good in every situation. They stay for a reasonable
time, but make sure to make most out of them. And remember; They
will die anyway, so don't go baby-sitting them, if needed, sacrifice
them for the better good (Not really a very nice thing to do, but
hey, if you can win a game with it...)
Comments: Dain is the only Dwarven hero with the all-powerfull support move,
leadership. That alone is very important. As you can see if you look at his
powers, he's a support hero, made to assist your hordes of bearded friends.
His stats are like you expect from a Dwarf; Great defenses, great health,
but not that great attack. But seeing how Dain is a hero that you don't
want in the fight, but more giving leadership, he doesn't need monster
attack. He levels pretty fast too, a plus. Stubborn Proud is the only real
good counter against fear in the game (Gothmog's only affects Orcs), so
it's very handy because it protects against some very nasty thing. Dain is
usually recruited in mid-game, when your Dwarves need some extra "oomph".
Because he costs 2500, don't buy him early game if you don't want your
economy wrecked.
Rating 7.5/10 Dain is your man (Well, more like Dwarf) when you need a
support for your Dwarven hordes. HOWEVER, remember at al times that they can
get leadership from War Wagons! So don't go spending 2500 early game, go for
the cheaper (but weaker) War Wagon leadership, instead of draining all your
recources! Dain is for those later battles where you need leadership so
badly that you can't afford to relie on a War Wagon who might run into some
pikes, then he's handy because he survives much longer.
Gimli, son of Gloin
Health: 4000
Cost: 4000
Lvl 1: Axe throw: He throws an axe to a target. Nice damage, too good to put
on auto. Might wanna add that when slayer is on, this attack becomes
stronger too.
Lvl 2: Jump: ^_^, Gimli jumps to an area and slams everyone out of the
place. Nice when crowded, it can seriously put a dent in an enemy
army. Problem in ROTWK; Rogash's jump is a billions time more
stronger.
Lvl 5: Slayer: Rawr. It buffs his speed, attack, attack speed and makes his
normal slashes do area damage for the time this is active (which is
a long period, BTW).
Comments: Gimli is strong in almost every thing, save for speed. Attack is
insane, health is awesome, defenses are very good. Before you go think of
"Gimli's coooool", check his price. 4.0.0.0... O_o 4000$??! WTF! No really,
it's true, 4000. He's very expensive, right up there with the Witch-King
in terms of costs. Golden rule: Generally, don't buy heroes above 2000 until
mid-late game unless you're using a special strategy around them. HOWEVER,
before you go "Gimli is an overpriced ass", his impact on battles is
enormous. Jump kills a lot of units, but he really starts to shine when he
gets slayer. Gimli can now go be the tank he is, while killing oodles of
stupid Uruk-Hai's, Goblins, Trolls, and Orcs without getting a scratch.
Especially when supported by heal, it's insanely hard to take gimli out.
So, instead of all those heroes who need an army to safely go to battle,
Gimli can just go mayhem on his own when needed.
Rating 7.5/10 Yes, no 8. That's because of his cost, which makes him late
game only. However, when in late game, Gimli can effectively turn the tide
of any battle.
The Dwarves: My final ranking:
1. Dain
2. Gimli/Gloin
3. Brand
(But seriously, all three are pretty good, none of them is bad to have in a
battle or something.) (I put Dain above Gimli and Gloin because Dwarves
relie a lot on their normal units, Guardians, Axe throwers, Spearmen and
Battle Wagons, to win battles for them and Dain provides those units with
good bonuses)
Well, all the heroes of the light have been done now. Because it looks nice,
I will give the final ranking of ALL the good heroes now:
1. Glorfindel (Yeah, I was pretty surprised that I ranked him so high. I did
this because I have the feeling he's underused now in online play.)
2. Boromir (Obviously, he really can turn the tide of a battle. For his
price, he's very good.)
3. Theoden (Built in leadership? Glorious Charge? How can this hero not be
in the top three?)
4. Elrond (Now it's get's hard to say who's better. I chose Elrond because
of his great tide-turning abilities)
5. Thranduil (Master of sniping and stealth, being a little more versatile
let's him be on place above the other master of sniping...)
6. Legolas (VERY good sniper, though costing 500 more than his father
makes him less useble than his father)
7. Faramir (Versatility master, great in every situation, cheap, and a very
fast leveler. Pity that he doesn't have the tank-ish nature of his brother)
8. Dain (Buff your Dwarven army with him. Even gives protection against
fear!)
9. Gimli (Yeah, above his dad. He turns late-game battles in such a way that
he has to be high-placed. Very high cost though.)
10. Gloin (For those annoying buildings. Great to have tagging along)
11. Brand (Yeah, cheap, early game hero who provides sniping power. Great
for fighting any unit army, buildings are not his speciality, go to Gloin
for that)
12. Aragorn (Lot of helpful powers, but lacks the health and defense to use
it properly. Nice help for any non-mounted army though)
13. Gandalf (Great to have around, but dies quickly and is very easy to spot,
making him hard to use. When level 10 though, he can really kick some ass)
14. Treebeard (Nice to have an extra powerfull seige unit on your side, can
kill those building with relative ease, keep him away from battle though)
15. Eomer (Cheap and his leadership are the two reasons to buy him, the rest
is crap)
16. Eowyn (Cheap, but doesn't add much. A Gondor Soldier battalion has more
influence on a battle than she has. Smite is nice for getting heroes out of
the way though, making her better than...)
17. Arwen (Bleagh. Defenses are almost non-existant, attack sucks, health
sucks, and even more important, she sucks. I do NOT trust the arwen rush!)
*EDIT* Okay, okay, the Arwen rush works pretty good. But I'm still not using
it! *EDIT*
18. Haldir (Overpriced little elf who brings shame to the elven race. Has no
impact whatsoever, unless you count leadership which needs him to not get
killed in two seconds)
As you can see, the Elven heroes take a lot of places in the top 6, but also
have the two worst heroes. The MOTW heroes are a bit spread all over the
place, and the Dwarves have taken in place 8 to 11. So basicly, they're all
pretty balanced, with all pretty good heroes (some exceptions though).
The Heroes of Darkness
The evil heroes are usually more expensive, and have a bit more specialized
uses than the light heroes. Some, but not many, have leadership. They have
some of the strongest heroes, but also some of the weakest (Wormtongue >_>).
Also, Lurtz is the only ranged hero of the Evil side.
Mordor
Mordor has changed quite a lot in the hero department. Their 3 Black Riders
have been removed, and are mini-heroes now (which sucks, in my opinion),
and they have Gothmog now. They have a lot of expensive ones, and one really
evil mastermind (The Witch King). The two Nazguls are also costy, because
the damage they can inflict if no archers present is quite enormous. In
general, they have 3 powerhouses and 2 very cost-effective heroes (in my
opinion, Mouth of Sauron is one of the most cost-effective heroes in the
game. So is Gothmog.)
Gothmog, Lieutenant of the Orcs
Health: 2400
Cost: 1200
Lvl 2: Iron Hand: Ah, the second ability which gives protection against fear.
It only works on Orcs, the reason why Dain's is better. However, it
is very nice, especially seeing how he gets it on lvl 2, and because
he is an early game hero, you can have protection against it very
early.
Lvl 4: Fury: Same as Lurtz, it's the weakened version of Swordmaster, giving
an attack bonus of +100%, and an armor bonus of +50%. Gothmog
becomes an insane monster with this. He can take heroes down with
ease, kill buildings very quick and units even quicker. It takes not
a very long time to recharge, making it a VERY good ability.
Lvl 6: Day of the Orc: Leadership for the Orcs! Weeee! Pity it's on level 6
though. Also, the name is more original than the usual "Leadership".
"Day of the Orc" sounds a lot more cooler than that ^_^! Oh, and
please don't go asking everyone why the leadership doesn't work
on Soldiers of Rhun, it's called Day of the *ORC* for a reason.
Comments: Gothmog is probably one of the best heroes in the game. His attack
is very high, his normal attack does ENOURMOUS splash damage, and his
health and defenses are reasonable. Costing only 1200, those facts alone
already make him well worth the money invested in him. BUT there's more.
His abilities. His abilities buff the most used units of Mordor, the Orc.
His Iron Hand is one of the least expected things in the game, it's very
strange how one of the weakest units in the game (Orcs) can get immunity
against those really strong skills in the game. Fury is one of those
"Get a building down fast" or "DIE HERO DIE"-skills. Very nice to have.
Day of the Orc is just plain awesome. Your little fodder has just become a
lot more useful. Now you might think "Gothmog still needs to get to level 6
to get it, so why should I use him instead of a troll drummer?" Well, the
greatest thing about him; he levels up incredibly quickly. So if you just
have him tag along his orcish friends and let him fight a little, he'll be
level 10 in no time.
Rating 9/10 He plain dominates early game, and still remains awesome until
very late game. Orcs should be used in any strategy with Mordor, so I think
Gothmog should be used in any strategy too (Notice how the first evil hero
immediatly kicks of Glorfindel of his #1 spot? Hmmmm...).
The Mouth of Sauron, Sauron's right hand.
Health: 5000(!!!)
Cost: 1500
Lvl 1: Mount: Well, uuuhm... Mounts him, maybe? He is usually better when on
his horse then when on his feet.
Lvl 4: Doubt: De-buffs enemies, making them lose 50% Defense and 50% attack.
Why oh why is this not passive like the other Nazguls. Well, when
used, it gives a considerible de-boost to the enemy, giving you that
extra boost in battle.
Lvl 6: Dissent: Let's enemies (or allies!) fight each other. Good move as
long as you don't cast it over your own troops. It's handy to thin
down the enemy troops and to distract them.
Lvl 10: Eye of Sauron: Beam of red light zaps a target for hot damage. Mouth
of Sauron's form of Istari light. Use it on strong enemies, not a
lone and innocent bypassing Gondor Soldier. It does INSANE damage,
it kills most heroes in one hit.
Comments: Mouth of Sauron, let's say MOS for short, okay? Anyway, the MOS is
a VERY strong unit in terms of tank value. For those who disagree, go check
his health. *5.0.0.0*!!! WOW! For a very low cost hero (only 1500) that is
certainly a lot. It gets a bit less useful because of his moderate armor
and attack, which cancels each other out. He can be mounted, something rare
for a Mordor unit, but adds to his usefulness. Now with the added Haradrim
Lancers, he can shine a bit more, he can now finally ride out and whoop
some Elven ass. His skills are mostly de-buffs trickery. His Doubt is best
used on a large group of enemies to win an important battle. Dissent is
nice for distracting and watering the enemies armies down. Eye of Sauron is
a hero-killer, but he get's it at level 10. He levels up very quickly
though.
His low cost makes him an excellent choise after building Gothmog, great
when you have Gothmog and his Orcs keeping pressure on the enemy, MOS can
lead the army for that final push with Haradrim units. He's a very good
early and mid-game hero, don't deny him a piece of the battle when he can
help out.
Rating 9/10 MOS is just plain great. Very nice as an army leader to help
your army out, but he can make a stand alone too. I nearly always build him,
he's easily included with any Mordor strategy.'
*EDIT* I nearly forgot to tell. Never seen this guy before? That's probably
because he was cut out in the original movie. LOTR: ROTK extended version
DOES show the scene where he makes his appearance. He's the man who shows
the Fellowship (minus Frodo Sam and Boromir) the Mithril Vest of Frodo,
which makes them think Frodo is dead. However, Aragorn has no time for that
and he slices of his head. How nice of him ^_^ *EDIT*
Nazguls on their Fellbeasts.
Cost: 3000
Lvl 1: Scream: A life saver. Or better said, Nazgul-life saver. It scares
all enemy ground units for a small time, letting them scatter around
everywhere.
Lvl 1: Dismount: Transforms the evil flying Nazgul into an evil walking
Nazgul. Generally, why would you?
When dismounted:
Lvl 3: Dread Visage: W00t! A de-buff to all the surrounding enemies! Very
nice it's passive, not like MOS's. It only works when walking, which
sucks, as you shouldn't be dismounting him.
Lvl 6: Morgul Blade: Well, I can see how this can be useful. Although it's
only when on the ground, which he shouldn't be. But it's a good move
and it kills heroes very quickly.
Comments: Ah, the evil Felbeast-riders. You can build two, BTW. The Nazgul's
is a flying hero, therefor he can only be hit by ranged attacks (or attacks
with an Area of attack). His attack against buildings is very good; he can
easily kill a fortress on his own (he'll end up wounded tough, and he'll be
killed if there are archers around). However, his defense stats and health
are kinda low (well, very low) and he will get killed very easily by
archers, especially upgraded ones. That's why it's very important to keep
him out of harm's way. Scream can help here, it can save your cute little
human-eating monster's live. It can also be used offensive, by using it to
scatter the enemy forces, so your Orcs can chase and kill them. If you use
a Nazgul, NEVER EVER use the dismount skill. It's suicide, it's a waste,
it's very stupid. Why would you want to transform a 3000-costing hero in a
1000-costing one???
That said, you might have just decided to never use a Nazgul again. NO!
Nazguls are great! In mid-game, these can act like uber-seige units, but
even better. While your Orcs are keeping pressure on the enemy, you can
wait for the cash to flow in, then use that Nazgul as a final push! It's
a very good choice building him, and I see a lot of online players building
him lately. BUT remember; Don't let him attack something with archers
around, and remember that while he can kill units quite fast, it's smarter
to use him against the buildings and let the orcs handle the infantry.
Rating: 8/10 A nice hero, very good choice to build him, he can be a game
ender when used correctly. But remember that in mid-game and late-game, your
enemy probably has the recources to counter him, so don't relie on only him
to win a game.
The Witch-King
Cost: 4000
Lvl 1: Mount/dismount: Duh. Goes on his fellbeast, ready to pwn all, or goes
of his fellbeast, ready to pwn on foot.
Lvl 2: Dread Visage: Yeah! The De-Buff! It's like having a permanent cave
bat power as long he's around! Very nice. Even better; It works when
he's mounted!
lvl 6: Morgul Blade: Ooooooh... A very good move. It attacks a unit, poisons
and cripples him/her in place, and turns him in a wraith when
killed! Very nice to put on auto-use, or as a hero-killer.
Lvl 10: Hour of the Witch-King: Wow. This thing seriously wrecks most CAH's.
It resets al the hero's reload timers to "just used". Very handy,
however, finding a hero where it's useful on AND getting him on that
level isn't really handy. It also sucks if a hero like Elrond is
around, and uses Recover on the targeted unit >_< It also totally
screws ring heroes, as their wait time for their abilities is LONG,
very long.
Comments: The witch-king is powerful, no doubt about it. He attacks ALL
units around him with his melee attack, even allied units! His health is
uber, his defenses are uber, HE IS JUST PLAIN UBER!!!1! Ahum. Although he
does gains high damage of pierced attacks when mounted, and even more from
certain ranged hero skills... *cough*EowynsSmite*cough* Ahum again. I
prefer him on foot, UNLESS when there are no archers around AND he needs to
attack buildings. His skills are all great in their own good, but his real
power lies in the fact that his melee attack strikes multiple units, which
is the reason why he can really go out on his own and pwn some ass. See him
like some sort of mini-sauron, but with weaker health and defenses, without
a Rain of Fire skill, but more hero kill skills, and much faster. His use
is limited though; I'd rather upgrade some Haradrim Lancers than building
him. He's a bit of a n00bhero, too. However, I can't deny the fact that he
just plain rocks. ALSO, for a 4000 cost hero, he levels EXTREMELY fast.
I'm not kidding. So...
Rating 8/10 IF you find yourself with leftover recources, and with enough
time, the Witch-King is a very good late-game option. Make sure to keep
your own troops away from him though, he can damage them too. He is also
good as a building, and a hero-killer.
Mordor: My Final Ranking:
1. Gothmog
2. Mouth of Sauron
3. Nazgul
4. The Witch-King
Isengard's heroes:
Oooh, Isengard. Although Isengard has 4 heroes, those four (well, at least
1) are really handy and great to have. Only Lurtz has Leadership, so go to
him for that (or use Warchant). They're pretty cheap, save for Saruman, and
usually are worth their money. Although Isengard relies on the power of the
fighting Uruk-Hai, and their monstrous Warg Riders, their heroes can really
add something to their performance in battle.
Wormtongue
Cost: 800
Lvl 1: Escape: Wormtonque can't be attacked or attack for a short while. In
other words, this is a live-saver for him. The duration is pretty
short though, so get him out of the fight, and don't let him just
wait in one place. Best used in a sticky situation, obviously.
Lvl 3: Poisonous words: Yay! De-buff! Pretty handy if Crebain can't be used,
and you want the enemy to suffer a little more.
Lvl 6: Backstab: Tha hero killer! Heavy poison damage! It does a LOT of
damage, so really, don't waste it to a stupid peasant or something,
use it on Boromir or another tough hero instead.
Lvl 10: Take over (I seriously forgot the name): It takes control of an
enemy hero for a short while! Yay! When used correctly, this can win
battles for you. Taking over a hero like, say, Gandalf on lvl 10 is
deadly. However, VERY unlikely that you can take over such a good
hero. Therefor, it's a bit situational.
Comments: Mmmm. Wormtongue stats are really sucky, that's a fact. Health
sucks, defense sucks, attack speed isn't the best either... Although his
attack is VERY high. So, looking at that you might think of him as an
idiotic unit that dies very quick. But wait! Before you hate him, look at
his potential! His abilities are all very nice, 2 anti-hero moves, 1 life
saver, and one army helper/de-buff. He's also CHEAP, very cheap. I
personally don't use him, but some players like him. I do agree though,
when he's carefully microed, he can be a great asset. However, do you have
the time to micro him, babysit him over the battlefield? Some people do,
and those people do a good thing by building him in mid-game or early-game.
Rating 7.5/10 This is a rating based on potential. He can be good, but only
for some people. One thing for sure though; He's quite worth his price.
Lurtz, commander of the Uruks of the White Hand
Cost: 1200
Lvl 1: Switch weapons: Switches bow to sword, or sword to bow. In most cases
it's better to use bow against units, and sword against buildings.
However, Lurtz with his sword can be very good against units too,
but it's saver to attack them from a distance and have your Uruks
take the blows.
Lvl 1: Cripple: Ow. This was quite handy in BFME1, but it's limited now. In
BFME1, he was nearly the only hero with a hero killer move. What it
does? It cripples an enemy hero in place, unable to move. The hero
can still attack though, or use abilities. It's better on the melee
kind of units, as Lurtz can just continue to snipe him off without
danger to himself. Crippling heroes like legolas has little to no
use, they'll just start sniping you too. It can only be used in bow
mode, though.
Lvl 3: Onslaught: +100% damage and +50% defense! AND an area of attack, AND
increased attack speed? AWESOME! In this case, Lurtz can go mayhem
on units, building AND heroes and totally own the place. Use it
whenever the need arises, it recharges back pretty fast. Also, you
can hear Lurtz say "BEGIN THE ONSLAUGHT!!!" on a very badass way.
It works in Sword mode only, and while it's active, you can't switch
to bow mode.
Lvl 5: Leadership: A good reason for building Lurtz is that he is the only
Isengard source for PERMANENT leadership. Otherwise you'll have to
stick with with Warchant and/or Tainted land, which both expires
after a while, and, in Tainted Land's case, can't move with your
army.
Lvl 7: Pillage: W00t! Flying numbers... Pretty... Anyway, nice to have, but
definitly not neccesary. BUT, nice to have either way. It's the same
as eomer's, let's Lurtz and your evil army around lurtz get
recources for every kill.
Comments: Lurtz's stats are nothing to be ashamed of. High defenses, health,
and attack. Good attack speed, access to ranged and melee attacks,
and low cost. His abilities are mostly very good, Onslaught makes Lurtz one
overpowered Uruk, and leadership helps the uruks around him. Cripple is
situational, but is attained at lvl 1 which reduces the fear of having a
hero like Glorfindel pop up and slaughter your army. Pillage is nice to
have, very nice. Did I mention that Lurtz levels up VERY fast? Well, he
does. The choice of building him? I, personally, am totally a pro-Lurtz
type. I think he should be built in any Isengard strategy, save for strats
with Wargs.
Rating 9/10 It's score is so high thanks to his overall usefullness. Should
be build nearly always, in early or mid-game.
Sharku, Captain of the Warg Riders
Cost: 1200
Lvl 2: Tame the Beast: Takes control of enemy Warg Riders/Warg packs/Wild
Wargs. Believe me if I say; Unless when facing a mirror match, this
power can almost never be used and is only useful when the situation
arises.
Lvl 6: Blood Hunt: The second leadership ability of a unit of Isengard, but
it only affects Wargs, making Lurtz a better choice for leadership.
Furthermore, getting it on lvl 6 is ridicoulously late.
Lvl 10: Man Eater: A very VERY handy move. It heals you fully, AND gives
Sharku +50% defense and +50% attack for around 20 seconds.
Especially the healing is very nice, and it's cooldown time is just
one minute!
Comments: Incase you don't know, Sharku was the leader of the Warg Riders
who attacked the Rohan people, and in the movie, he's the one who's
responsible for throwing Aragorn of the cliff. Anyway, when looking at
Sharku's stats (If you haven't noticed by now, I nearly always start with
the hero's stats), you'll find that everything is a bit average. Average,
defense, attack, health... Everything average. He's quite cheap, though.
A weird thing about Sharku is that he's the only Mounted hero who CAN'T
dismount. Because of this, you might already understand that pikes are the
bane of Sharku's excistance. So, keep him away of those. Sharku's abilities
are a bit... lacking. His first ability is utterly useless. His other two
are nice, but require him to level up. And the problem is... He doesn't
levels up quick. This is mostly due the fact that Sharku can't really solo
anything. He's the best when with some warg riders, but even then there's a
high change they'll kill him. I wouldn't use him, especially since THE BIG
WARG NERF we got last patch, so Warg Rushing is gone again. If you insist
on using him, use him in strats which involve Wargs, because mostly, Lurtz
is always the better choice.
Rating: 7.5/10 Hmmm. I don't like him. But if you do, build him. I
personally see no use for him, but I can see how he can be useful, so a 7.5
He's cheap, so he can be build around mid-game easily.
Saruman, the Wizard of many Colours
Cost: 3000
Lvl 1: Wizard Blast: Same as Gandalf's. Nice for taking out units.
Lvl 2: Fireball: A good all-rounded move, which can take out units and
buildings. Use it on the stronger units for best results. It does
splash damage where it hits. It also sets Ents or Treebeard on fire
in one hit, nice when playing against the elves who want to seige.
Lvl 4: Wormtongue: Weee! Takes control of units in the radious for a small
time. Doesn't works on heros. Nice, but it doesn't last forever.
use on units who can seriously change the tide of the battle.
Lvl 5: Black Speech: Free exp! Always welcome for free banners or to make
elite units.
Lvl 10: Thunderstorm: To be honest; I've never got this because it's so hard
to get him on this level. Therefor, I'm just guessing here. I think
it's the same as the Isengard fortress upgrade (which isn't really
as good as, say, the Gorgonoth Spire). BUT that's a great unit
killer. But make sure your enemies dont run right out of the storm
for best results.
Comments: Saruman is the evil wizard who's voiced by the awesome
Christhopher Lee (who also did DIZ in Kingdom Hearts 2, if anyone played
that game). Saruman's stats aren't too impressive for a wizard... Average
at best. He doesn't die that fast, but he's not a tank either. HOWEVER,
saruman isn't about stats, but about his abilities. As expected, he uses
his large array of magic to strike the enemies of the White hand. Fireball
and Wizard Blast are two great moves, which both recharge relativly fast.
Use them as you see fit. Wormtongue can be tide-changing when properly
used, which is the reason why it has a longer recharge time. Black Speech
is nice. Thunderstorm is one I don't know much about, I'm sorry about that.
While Saruman may look like the best hero in the game now, that's not
really true. First, his cost. 3000 is quite an investment, making him
late-game only. Then, after he fired of all his abilities, he's quite
vulnerable. Also, he has no real advantages for your army. While that makes
him a solo-hero, he truly is not becuase he'll die quickly that way. On the
good side, lvl 1 to lvl 5 are quick levels for Saruman, as long as you'll
use Fireball and Wizard blast properly. However (I like that word), he is
insanely micro-heavy. This might discourage or encourage to use him. Round
it up: If you have the time to micro, he can be a great late game hero.
Rating: 7.5 Although very powerfull, he is weak, costy, and micro-heavy. I
rather spend that money and time on something else, but if you have it to
spare, then you can buy him. Sure.
Isengard: My Final Ranking:
1. Lurtz
2. Wormtongue
3. Saruman
4. Sharku (Sharku, Saruman and Wormtongue's usefulness depends on the player)
The Untamed Wild (AKA The Goblins)
The Goblins only have 4 heroes, which means less writing for me ^_^ Again,
like Isengard, they camp with the no-leadership problem. Gorkil has it, but
as explained later... He kinda is very overpriced. The other heroes range
from a cheap army helper, a fast hero killer, and a very costy evil Dragon,
who can possibly destroy everything on it's path, or meet one archer
batalion and die. So, on we go... (On a side note, 3 of the 4 heroes of the
goblins are made up heroes, who never made appearences in the books or
movie. Kinda dumb why they made Drogoth. WHY O WHY NOT THE MIGHTY SMAUG?)
Azog, Goblin of the dark mines of Moria (Made up hero... Sigh...)
Cost: 1200
Lvl 2: Pillage: He and goblins around him get recources for every kill.
Not too good, but nice to have.
Lvl 4: Fury: Boost to armour, health and attack. Nice in nearly any
situation.
Lvl 6: Crack the Whip: Gives EXP to allied Half-trolls and goblins. Great
for free banner carriers, but not really great.
Comments: Looking at the Goblin's stats, he's average. Average health,
attack, and armour. His skills aren't anything which seriously affect the
battlefield, more of the "nice to have"-skills. Fury makes him strong, no
doubt about it, but... well... I just don't like him. For the same money,
you could've bought a lot of units/upgrades. He won't change the tide of
the battle in any way. He's just a nice hero to have, but the Goblins have
so much more things who are much better than this lousy, stupid, idiotic
goblin EA made up. Grr...
Rating 5/10 I'm not wasting any words. He may come back once he gets
leadership. Buy him once you've bought... No, wait, just don't buy him. He's
SO not worth it.
Shelob the eeeevil spider (EVIL I TELL YOU!)
Cost: 2000
Lvl 3: Instill Terror (O_o): Either a life save, a scatter move or something
else. Pretty handy in most situations. It scares enemies around you,
if you hadn't guessed.
Lvl 6: Poison Stinger: Mostly the reason to buy her. Nice poison damage, and
immobolizes the target too. Great hero killer, and the stun effect
even works on ring heroes (killed a Sauron with it once!)!
Lvl 10: Tunnel: Shelob digs her way to any place you can see on the map.
Nice life saver, but also good to quickly assasinate ranged heroes
who are sniping you're forces down from the back of their army. Or
use it to pop up in the middle of an enemy army, then use the Fear
move for mayhem.
Comments: Mmmm... Haven't got much to say about her either. Nice hero, sure.
Good stats too. But, like Azog, there are so much better things invest in.
Although when on lvl 6-10 she's a VERY good hero killer, she's not worth
the time leveling her up.`That's it.
Rating 6/10 Unlike Azog, I can see her being a bit useful. Still, don't get
her unless when you really need a hero killer. If you really want a hero,
you might wanna read on to the more versaitile Goblin King...
Gorkil, the Goblin King (That EA made up...)
Cost: 3000
Lvl 1: Skull Totem: A nice move. It's like a smaller, permanent and
destroyeble version of Tainted land. Use it anywhere where your
units fight, preferebly on a place you need to defend.
Lvl 4: Mount/Dismount: Well, he rides his Badass scorpion. I like him
mounted better. It makes him less vulnerable.
Lvl 5: Leadership: OMG IT'S LEADERSHIP FOR GOBLINS I MUST BE IN HEAVEN. Main
reason to buy him, great ability.
Lvl 7: Poison Stinger: Same as Shelobs, with a little less damage. Has the
awesom stun effect too. Great hero killer.
Lvl 10: Call from the Deep: It summons 3 Fire Drakes for a period of time.
It lasts a long time and is obviously very powerful. Make sure to
use Incernate at least once with every Drake. Can kill an entire
army when used properly.
Comments: He costs 3000 again. OVERPRICED! His skills are all great, and his
stats are pretty good too, but for 3000? I rather build some Mountain Giants
for that. Leadership is great, but when you have the money to spare, it's
already late game and you should have Darkness. HOWEVER, when compared to
all the other Goblin Heroes, he really rocks. I would consider building
him, late-game, when money is no issue anymore and when quality is more
important than quantity.
Rating 7/10 This hero HAS it's uses... Very late game. Come on EA, bring
back the times of the low cost Gorkil!
Drogoth the Dragon Lord (WHICH EA MADE UP... AGAIN!!!) (WHY NOT SMAUG??!)
Cost: 5000
Lvl 1: Fireball: Drogoth best move is his first. Shoots a fireball, nice
against nasty archers.
Lvl 3: Wingflap: MOST. USELESS. MOVE. EVAH. He flaps with his wingies, and
units get blasted to the ground, but don't gain damage. Just don't
use it. It sucks.
Lvl 7: Fire Blast: Shoots a blast of fire in the shape of a dragon at the
enemy. It's like a stronger Fire Ball. Use when you would use Fire-
ball.
Lvl 10: Flamethrower: Breathes fire over a large area. Use it mainly on
units because the building damage is crappy. Hard to aim, but when
it hits, it's sure to leave a mark.
Comments: Drogoth. He's strong no doubt. He's like a costier Nazgul with
more abilities. So look at the Nazgul and it's about the same thing. Last
thing: He used to be much better (the times of Drogoth rushing...), but he
sucks a bit now.
Rating ?/10 Depends. I don't like him on such a way, that I won't comment to
much to make sure you can make an opinion of your own. Let's just say that
I don't like him. The only thing I know is: He WAS good.
The Goblins: Final Rating:
1. Gorkil
2. Shelob
3. Azog
?. Drogoth.
The heroes of the Iron Crown:
Yay, the new faction. ANGMAR!!! From the cheap hilldude Hwaldar to the evil
heir of the Dark Lord AKA the Witch-King; Theyhave got some remarkable
heroes, none of them REALLY sucks. Although they don't have heroes like
Gothmog or Lurtz, who are almost used in any strategy, but they've got some
great help heroes. Lack of leadership is a problem though.
(Most heroes are made up, but I don't care, they haven't got a lot of
material to work on because Angmar doesn't really appears in the books or
the movies)
Hwaldar, traitor of Rhudaur
Cost: 1200
Lvl 1: Rhudaur Leadership: The only hero source leadership for Angmar, and
unfortunatly, it only works on Rhudaur Spearmen (Thrall master
summon) and on the Rhudaur Axe Throwers (Also TM summons). While
these two units are pretty good, and are a very good combo together,
leadership for all whould be better. BUT for a 1200-costing hero,
and when counting in that he gets it on level 2, it might well be
worth it.
Lvl 2: Rhudaur Pillage: Only works on the two Rhudaur units. They do damage/
kill, you get recources. As with all the "Pillage"-moves, nice, but
not neccesary.
Lvl 5: Summon Rhudaur: Summons three hordes of Rhudaur units. I believe it's
random which units appear, cause I've seen summons without Axe
throwers. VERY quick recharge time, a long duration, no thrall
master (so no cheap "Thrall master dies>whole horde dies" anymore),
immediatly leadership from Hwaldar AND attained at a low level; what
more do you want?
Comments: Hwaldar stats are not fantastic. Nothing REALLY great, his attack
is pretty good, but that's all. As you can see, that doesn't really matter.
Hwaldar is a support hero for your Rhudaur units, as all of his 3 abilities
have something to do with them. His cost is low, which is GOOD. Also, he
levels quite quickly, and attains his abilities at low level, which is even
better. Looking at him on that way, he's great.
HOWEVER, let's look at his negative sides. A problem with him is that his
health and defenses are only average, meaning he'll die QUICKLY. He's also
suspectible to hero-killer moves, and isn't good at fighting a mob on his
own; He needs Rhudaur units covering him to fight properly. And that 1200
spend on him could be spent better on something else.
Luckily, these weaknesses, when aware of them, are easy to protect yourself
with, save for the hero-killer moves and his cost.
For all the things he has to offer, for the measly cost of 1200, he's a
pretty good early-game or mid-game hero, use him when you already have some
Rhudaur units on the field to assure his full potential can be seen, and
feared! ;-)
Rating: 7.5/10 He DEFINITLY has potential as an early game hero. Don't build
him when you're not using Rhudaur units, though.
Karsh, the silent deathbringer
Cost: 1500
Lvl 1: Silent Death: Slowly brings damage to enemies around Karsh, decreases
their stats and reduces their speed. This, my friends, is the best
de-buff in the game. It works very well when he's surrounded, and
it can really bring down an army. The damage doesn't dishes out that
fast, but it IS noticeble. For the speed de-buff you need to have
the enemy quite close though. But all-in-all, great great great!
Lvl 7: Blink: It's the same as Shelob's tunnel, teleportation to any place
on the map you can see. It also knocks back units around the place
you teleport to. Nice, but Whisper of Death isn't really a
hero-killer, so it can't be used as an asasination move like Shelob
can. Use it more as a life-saver skill. This move has insane
recharge time though, so use it sparingly.
Lvl 8: Whisper of Death: Does good damage to target, and knocks surrounding
units back. It's damage is good, but not that good, so when using it
as a hero-killer, make sure you know it doesn't does THAT many
damage. While not strong, the recharge time is very good.
Comments: Karsh is a bit like Glorfindel; A serious solo hero who can go out
on his own to kick ass. However, while his attack is great, his health and
defenses are only average, so you'll have him in red fairly often if you
let him go out on his own. Ofcourse, he does has Blink to complement that,
but that recharge time brings it usefulness a lot lower. He can be comboed
with an army to go out and kick ass easily, as his Silent Death skill is
a great army support.
His cost is a problem though. As with most heroes, when do you have a 1500
to spare? And if you do, isn't that better spent in upgrading/building Dark
Rangers (just an example, it could be any Angmar unit). And could Morgomir
help your army out more than Karsh can? Well, these are the questions to
ask yourself before building him.
Because of those things, Karsh isn't a early game hero. You CAN build him
in mid-game, but late-mid-game then. Or build him in late-game. Or just
don't build him at all! I think Morgomir is a better hero anyway...
Rating: 7.5/10 While I generally don't really like him, I see that he can
seriously kill a lot of units when deployed properly. Also, the Silent Death
skill is seriously handy in any situation.
Morgomir, lieutenant of Carn Dum
Cost: 1500
Lvl 2: Dread Visage: Like nearly all the MOTW heroes have leadership, nearly
all the Nazgul-Based heroes have Dread Visage. But a De-buff is
of course great, and always welcome. Adds to his army support-y-ness.
Lvl 4: Morgul Blade: Again, nearly all nazgul heroes have this. You know
what it is. Good against heroes for an easy kill, or against a
normal unit for a free Wight.
Lvl 8: Dark Glory: Probably best Morgomir ability. Gives a temporary boost
in stats to Black Numenoreans, Dark Rangers and himself. Pity that
it's temporary, only works on the Numenoreans, and is attained at
level 8. But it's the closest thing to leadership you'll get, and
it seriously helps their performance in battle.
Lvl 10: Ruin: The discription says that it does a lot of damage to a
building. However, it's just like Gloin's Shake Foundation ability,
and doesn't do "INSANE" damage to a building. Handy to have, it
can help take a building down quickly, but don't expect to take a
fortress down with it though...
Comments: Morgomir stats are all pretty good, nothing special, doesn't die
quickly, but he isn't a tank either. His true power is of course his
skills. While Angmar lacks in the leadership department, Morgomir comes in,
with his great Dread Visage skill and his Dark Glory skill. Ruin and Morgul
Blade are just skills who add diversity, but his true power is army
support. Well, Black Numenoreans and Dark Rangers support, to be precise.
Although the de-buff is given for the same price in a better way by Karsh,
he misses that added "OOOMPH" of Dark Glory.
But like Karsh, when to make him? Well, that's quite easy with Morgomir,
actually. When you have an army of Numenoreans already, and the normal
upgrades just don't do the trick, have Morgomir build along. He doesn't
only increases their performance in battle, he also adds diversity, with
Morgul Blade he decreases the threat of annoying heroes, and with Ruin you
can take down buildings much faster.
For these reasons, Morgomir is build Mid-Mid-game (O_o), or some later in
late-game. Whenever you need more power to your evil Numenorean hordes.
Rating: 8/10 Him tagging along is seriously great, especially for only 1500.
Pity that he attains Dark Glory very late, otherwise I would like him even
more.
Rogash, Troll of the North (That's his entire name)
Cost: 3000
Lvl 1: Dominate Troll: Takes permanent control of a enemies troll. Not
really useful, and VERY situational. However, taking over a Drummer
Troll is VERY handy. Obviously, it's best used against a Mordor
opponent.
Lvl 4: Jump: Rogash already has a lot of crowd control, and now he has even
more. Rogash jumps to an area and damages and knocks back units
there. It has a bigger area of effect than Gimli's, making it much
better. It can seriously punish any enemy who is so dumb to put his
units close to each other. It recharges quickly too. Use it, love
it.
Lvl 8: Rage of the North: Boost in attack and defense. Nice to use when
in a situation he can die, or when in need of some extra attack.
Also nice when fighting heroes so they die quicker. Recharges fast,
and lasts a long time.
Comments: Rogash has great attack, great defenses, great health... He has
just great stats. Also, his normal attack is an area attack, which is
incredibly handy for crowd control. Of course, this is reflected in his
cost; 3000 is quite a lot. However, his cost is completely justified in
terms of raw power. Rogash can own up any army. His jump inflicts major
damage and scatters the enemy, then he starts slashing and mashing with the
insane area of attack, activates Rage Of The North to survive longer, or to
kill heroes and... Voila (Mmmm... I don't speak French very often)! An evil
and bloodthirsty troll who can seriously rip open every army!
Downsides? Yeah, but minor ones. First one; His attack against buildings
isn't very spectecular. Secondly, while his health and defenses are good,
he still won't survive massed Silverthorn arrows coming his way (but then
again, which hero does?). He levels up quickly, but it will still take some
time to get him to Rage of the North. On top of that, lvls 1 to 4 are a bit
hard, because he'll have no uber-crowd control move. Last thing, his cost.
3000 makes him a late-game hero, only get him once you've done the
neccesary things.
However, if the game reaches late-game I strongly advice to buy him, as he
can be a serious asset to any army, and his area of attack doesn't damage
your units like OTHERS *cough*Witch-King*cough*.
Rating: 8/10 GREAT late game hero, and definitly the best Angmar hero.
When fighting Angmar opponents, take this treat out fast, as he can decimate
your armies easily!
The Witch-King of Angmar (Mounted with a voice)
Cost: 4000
Lvl 1: Mount/Unmount: Mounts him. Duuuuuh. You know what it is (and if you
don't, then you're weird) (or you can't read) (or you skipped
everything in this guide to here)
Lvl 2: Dread Visage: Told ya nearly every nazgul-type hero has it! Well,
he has it too. Great to have.
Lvl 5: Morgul Blade: You know, hero killer, whatever. The wraith isn't as
handy as with some heroes, because his area of effect kills the
wraith too.
Lvl 8: Fear Inducer: The same as Saurons. Life saver, but for some strange
reason glitches sometimes and doesn't work.
Lvl 10: Hour of the Witch-king: Go to the normal witch-king for this
description
Comments: Since he's nearly the same as the other witch-king, and since I'm
lazy, and since you'll probably be too lazy to scroll up, I'll Copy & paste
"Comments: The witch-king is powerful, no doubt about it. He attacks ALL
units around him with his melee attack, even allied units! His health is
uber, his defenses are uber, HE IS JUST PLAIN UBER!!!1! Ahum. Although he
does gains high damage of pierced attacks when mounted, and even more from
certain ranged hero skills... *cough*EowynsSmite*cough* Ahum again. I
prefer him on foot, UNLESS when there are no archers around AND he needs to
attack buildings. His skills are all great in their own good, but his real
power lies in the fact that his melee attack strikes multiple units, which
is the reason why he can really go out on his own and pwn some ass. See him
like some sort of mini-sauron, but with weaker health and defenses, without
a Rain of Fire skill, but more hero kill skills, and much faster. His use
is limited though; I'd rather upgrade some Haradrim Lancers than building
him. He's a bit of a n00bhero, too. However, I can't deny the fact that he
just plain rocks. ALSO, for a 4000 cost hero, he levels EXTREMELY fast.
I'm not kidding. So...
Rating 8/10 IF you find yourself with leftover recources, and with enough
time, the Witch-King is a very good late-game option. Make sure to keep
your own troops away from him though, he can damage them too. He is also
good as a building, and a hero-killer."
Saves me a lot of writing ^_^ It doesn't fit it entirely, just remember he
damages allied units too. Also, when choosing, choose Rogash over him.
Angmar, my Final Ranking
1. Rogash
2. Morgomir
3. Witch-King
4. Hwaldar
5. Karsh
EEEVIL: My FiNaL rAnKiNg!1!
1. Gothmog
2. Lurtz
3. Mouth of Sauron
4. Nazgul
5. Rogash
6. Morgomir
7. Witch-King (of Angmar)
8. Sharku
9. Wormtongue
10. Saruman
11. Hwaldar
12. Karsh
13. Gorkil
14. Shelob
15. Azog
?. Drogoth
Well, had no time to write the reasons why I put them there. I've told you
why in their discription.
Let's go on with the powers!
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
Evenstar Powers (Loekutmyawsumepowurs!)
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
MOTW Powers:
They consist of some varying powers. The first line is filled with army
supporters (and one building supporter), the second with varying powers to
poke your enemies army with. The third line is filled with two very
powerful summons, and one great enemy stunner. In he last two powers is the
power of mass unit destruction, and the power of mass building destruction.
Rallying Call
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Give the effected units a temporary leadership bonus.
Leads to: Arrow Barrage, Tom Bombadil
The most common starting pick. This allows early rushing and counter rushing
to be excecuted way more better. It offers the most "Oomph" for your PP, and
beats heal for effect. You need to know WHEN to use it though, because if
you activate it mid-battle, the power has much less power (>_>) (You know
what I mean...). If you want to use a power mid-battle go for Heal, it's
better in those situations, use Rallying call BEFORE battles. One thing
though; Cave Bats and Crebain ruin it, so watch out for opponents with
those!
Heal
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Heals units in the radious of effect, and restores 2-3 units in a
battalion.
Leads to: Summon Hobbits, Arrow Barrage
While Rallying call may be better, Heal is very useful in his own good. It
can be used in a more spontaneous way, it is more helpful mid-battle. Also,
it's very useful to save a heroes life (if you got a ring hero, or your
ally does, buy this as fast as possible!). It also cannot be countered like
Rallying call. After you bought Rallying Call, it might be a good idea to
buy this afterwards.
Rebuild
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Repairs buildings in the area of effect.
Leads to: Tom Bombadil, Lone Tower
Rebuild is without any doubt, the suckiest power of the first three.
Buildings are already so fragile that, unless it could save you a fortress,
it's not worth letting it live a little longer. Also, more health = More
damage to deal for your enemy= more pp for your enemy, which sucks. Only buy
this when you'll have NOTHING else to spent it on, the other powers are so
much better.
Summon Hobbits
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Summons a bunch of Hobbits to fight for you, led by the heroes of the
Hobbit race (Pippin, Merrin, Sam and Frodo).
Leads to: Summon Dunedain
It's a great power. Hobbits are surprisingly good fighters against Infantry
and do even better against heroes. Buildings go down quickly with your loyal
hobbit helpers too. Problems? Well, it's from Heal, which is not the first
pick you'll probably make. However, later on, it's very possible that you
buy it either way, and then it's very considereble to buy this, especially
when facing heroes. Oh, and Frodo's Bottle of Galadriel thingy can be very
handy when facing infantry units.
Arrow Barrage
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Shoots of a powerful barrage of arrows to destroy enemy units who
are in your line of sight.
Leads to: Cloud Break, Summon Dunedain
A very powerful power, no doubt about it. Of course, it area of effect is
quite small, otherwise it would be tremendously overpowered. Also, it takes
a while to fire, and the lone arrow is an alarming signal which will alert
a smart player, and he WILL remove his units there. Try to use it when you're
enemy is stuck in one place, or when he can't escape very quickly. Works
well in combination with Cloud Break, as all the units will be stunned in
place. Oh, and obviously, it sucks against buildings. (CPU can't seem to
realize this. I've seen an Arrow Barrage being fired from a Brutal computer
on a Mallorn Tree. Artificial Intelligence fails again...). It's obtaineble
from Rallying Call AND heal, which is nice and makes this a common pick. It
leads to two good powers too (but as you'll soon see, every third tier power
of MOTW is pretty strong)
Tom Bombadil
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Summons the ancient wood spirit (Maia?) Tom Bombadil to sing a song.
Oh, and he kills the enemy in the meanwhile too.
Leads to: Cloud Break, Summon Rohirrim
A potent power. Bombadil has his own version of Wizard Blast to burst out, if
you don't have the time to baby sit him, put this on automatic as he can use
it about six times in his whole summon. Tom is a million times better against
units than against buildings, as his area of attack is quite large and can
attack multiple units at the same time. He also works good against large
units who can fall on their back because of his knockback (Say, trolls or
Fire Drakes). A very, very good power. It's from Rallying Call, and it's
usually my second power if I play MOTW.
Lone Tower
Cost: 10pp
Effect: Summons a single lone tower on a spot you desire.
Leads to: Summon Rohirrim
Definitly the suckiest power of the bunch. Just compare it to the effect of
the other powers and you'll soon realize that this is a power that shouldn't
be bought, unless you have NOTHING else to buy. ALL the other powers are
better than this. Furthermore, it's from Rebuild, which is the second-last
power you should buy... So... Just don't buy it. Don't. (The CPU sometimes
does. Oh please...)
Summon Dunedain
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Summons three battalions of the Dunedain, men with the blood of
Isildur himself running through them, hunters of al foul creatures and
responsible for keeping most of West-Middle-Earth save (That's where Rohan
ends).
Leads to: Army of the Dead
One of my favorite units in the game, now in a summon! W00T! First of all,
they're archers. Since archers OWN in this game, they OWN too. Secondly,
while the Dunedain are great fighters, they all come with the Longshot
ability, the weaker version of Arrow Barrage! You can fire of three shots
anywhere on the map you have line of sight on. Great great great! Use them
in an important battle, behind your units. They suck against buildings so
don't use them for that. They're too powerful to waste them to a stupid
battle. And make sure to use Longshot when you can! If you want Earthquake,
obviously don't go for this, as it's a Army of the Dead only pick (which is
usually the better one, but if you need Earthquake, don't do this)
Cloud Break
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Suddenly, the sun shines! The birds sing! The rabbits dance! The
Hobbits smoke! Rain is driven away, the Darkness flies of, it's so much
fun! Oh, and all your opponents units tremble in fear and suffer a defense
penalty! Yay for the sun! (incase you didn't catch my criptical hint, the
Rain and Darkness powers stop when this power is used.)
Leads to: Army of the Dead, Earthquake
An incredible waste, OR an incredible great power, depends on the moment it's
used, and the user itself. It can give you an incredible edge, it can destroy
the enemy's army, and can give you time to rush over the enemy, stumbled and
gazed where ever you approach. Great with a Glorious Charge strat, the
defense loss results in much more damage! Watch out, as some units are immune
to it. I believe fear immunity goes around it too, but I'm not too sure. Oh,
and it's helpful to get Rain or Darkness away, especially darkness, since
you'll remove their advantage, but still get yours! 15PP wasted! HA! This
will become more important next patch, as Rain is getting boosted
tremendously, from what I heard, that power will not only remove your
leadership but provide a de-buff too! Then you'll be happy you chose this,
believe me. Also, it leads to both 25PP powers, a very good thing.
Summon Rohirrim
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Summons the Horseman of the Mark, the riders of Rohan, the most
skilled horseriders in Middle-Earth. While their bloodline isn't related as
much to Isildur as the Gondorians, they are allies and will help when they
are called upon by the Gondorians.
Leads to: Earthquake
A great power, which is unfortunatly less picked because it placement. Since
Army of the Dead is so good, and this power doesn't connect to it! Doesn't
take away it's a good power though. The Rohirrim are the best cavalry in the
game. They are great to summon behind the army to attack archers, you can let
them run in the base to divert archer fire, which they can take with their
great pierce defense, also remember to sacrifice them, as they die after a
while anyway! They are affected by Glorious Charge too, so if you're going
for such a strat you can use them too, although Glorious Charge works better
with Cloud Break in my opinion (AND that can connect to AOTD!). Since it
placement, pick this when you already have AOTD, or when the game isn't going
to last long enough for another 25PP to be earned, like when you can give
a final blow with this power.
Army of the Dead
Cost: 25PP
Background story alert!
The Army of the Dead are those guys everyone knows, they are special effect
heavy in the movie. Also known as Dead Men of Dunharrow, or the Oathbreakers.
At the end of the second age, the king of them made an aliance with Isildur
and swore loyalty to him, and promised that he would help him in the battle
with Sauron. And as the battle proceeded, they hid in the mountains to join
the side who was victourious after the battle. For not helping Isildur,
however, he cursed them with a curse (duh). They would not know rest nor
peace until they would fulfill their oath, to him, or to one of his heirs.
Many years passed, and nobody dared to enter the Haunted Mountain. The story
had been passed on, and when the heir to Isildur, Aragorn, needed aid, he
and his companions Gimli, Legolas and a group of brave Dunedain I forgot the
name of, entered, persuaded the king to fight for them, and attacked the
corsair ships. In the movies, they go with him to Minas Tirith too, but I
believe they never did that in the books. AAAAAnyway...
Effect: It summons those dead guys to fight for you!
An insane power, which summons the Dead to help you in your battle against
Evil. They own up every unit very good. It's impossible to destroy the army
of the dead unless you have something VERY powerful. However, they do next
to nothing to buildings. They don't last very long, but long enough to
utterly destroy any enemy unit they see. Also, they work a bit like horses;
they do trample damage. IMENSE trample damage. I suggest letting them just
walk over every enemy unit, watch the radioactive-like sparks and laugh at
their misery. Then let your army take out the unprotected base! Because of
it's power, it's often a game ender. But most of the time, you won't be able
to get this power. Pity. Cause it OWNS.
Earthquake
Cost: 25PP
Effect: Summons a massive earthquake over an area, which destroys buildings,
and does a bit of damage to units too.
The AOTD are the ultimate unit killer, meet his buddy, earthquake, the
ultimate building killer. But if you've read everything, you already
suspected that I don't like this power THAT much. Why? Well, wait, let's
first name the positive things. The range of the power is quite large; it
affect a BIIIIG area. Next, probably every non-fortress building is going
down, or at least nearly going down. And last, all units are goin to get a
scratch too. But, the negatives. Usually, an army will be still protecting
that base. Seeing how units are more of a threat than buildings, it's usually
not worth it to just destroy things which are easily destroyed anyways. It
can be a big blow to your opponent to lose his recourse buildings, and the
ability to rebuild his army, but it isn't neccesarilly THE game ender. If you
are a MOTW player, I suggest going for AOTD instead, if you're a Dwarven
player, this is probably the one you should pick. If you get blasted with
this power, that's about the only time where Rebuild could be very handy
Elven powers:
The Elves have Some powers they share with the MOTW, so I'm not telling my
opinion about them again unless they have something different to use them
for.
Rallying Call
Cost: 5PP
Leads to: Elven Mists, Arrow Barrage
The same as MOTW's, every good faction has it, and should start with it.
Although if you're not planning to get Heal afterwards, and go on to the
10PP powers, and then as fast as possible to Flood, practically the only way
to get there is RC, Arrow Barrage, Cloud Break, Flood. Not forcing you to
choose that or something, but when not aware of the dangers you're facing,
it's a good plan to follow that build-up. It offers army boosting, immediate
army help, an enemy stunner and decimator, and the best 25PP power the Elves
have. Nice!
Heal
Cost: 5PP
Leads to: Arrow Barrage, Elven Woods
This... spells problems. The elven second tier basicly has you sacrificing.
OR you have to pick Farsight, leaving you VERY vulnerable early-game, but
enables you to get Bombadil and make yourself a little less predicteble.
Otherwise, you have nearly no valid option then to go RC-AB-CB-Fl. Why are
there not any other ways, you might think? Well, Elven Woods and Mists are...
eeeehm... Well, let's just say they aren't the best 10PP powers in the game.
About heal though, since they have good heroes (points to Glorfindel), which
perform much better with heal on their side, it's a good idea to begin with
this, or at least buy it later in the game. It offers access to AB, which
means you can go He-AB-CB-Fl if you want (not adviced unless doing something
special with Glorfindel).
Farsight
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Gain sight over an area for a period of time.
Leads to: Tom Bombadil, Elven Woods'
Farsight is a great power, without a doubt. The great thing (which is going
to be patched, but hey) is that it recharges and last so long, that you can
have TWO farsights on the field at the same time! HOWEVER, while it is a
great advantage to be able to know what you're enemy is doing, it offers no
direct bonus, like Heal and RC, which is necesarry to survive early game.
However, it is cheap, gives access to Bombadil, which is GOOD, so I suggest
to buy it if you have 5PP to spare (say, go RC-AB-Fs-He-TB-SE-Fl) (cost 75!
I know that's a lot, but it gives you about all the good Elven powers for an
great late and early game! And for only 35PP, you have 5 great powers! The
options are endless! You could use Cloudbreak instead of SE, if you want.).
A great power when bought not too early or too late.
Elven Mists
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Engulves an area with mist for a period of time, which stealths al
allies and gives a de-buff to enemies. Disappears after a while.
Leads to: Summon Eagles
Elven Mists is, in theory, a very good power. However, when used, you'll
quickly discover it isn't really good. The stealth is the best in the game,
you can still attack while in it, they can NEVER be seen before entering the
mists, and the de-buff is very handy. But the negatives? Well, the mist
itself is one big "MY UNITS ARE HERE YOU CAN'T SEE THEM BUT THEY ARE HERE!"
sign, which your enemy WILL take in consideration before attacking that
area. Also, what do you think if your enemy has longshot/barrage/arrow
barrage? Yeah, that's going to hurt. Furthermore, getting your enemy stupid
enough to actually let his units fight in the mists to let the de-buff work;
don't count it. It IS a pick from Rallying Call though, which is good, but
I still don't advice buying it, Arrow Barrage is much better. Also, placement
denies the use of Flood, which sucks and get's you the worse Sunflare.
Arrow Barrage
Cost: 10PP
Leads to: Cloud Break, Summon Eagles
The same, you know what it is. It's placed on such a way that it's usually
the second power you should pick. Don't be too predictable is the key word
when using this, use it when the enemy doesn't has the time, attention or
speed to get out of there quickly enough. It leads to Cloud Break too,
and CAN reach Flood, unlike the crappy mists.
Elven Woods
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Puts down a forest out of nowhere which grants leadership to allied
units fighting on them. Also negates enemy leadership. Disperses after a
while.
Leads to: Cloud Break, Summon Ents
Yeah, an Elven exclusive, back from BFME1. Then it was actually a good power.
First the positve things: It's a large area it affects, which is handy. It
comes with trees, which means stealth. And, the edge it has over tainted
land, it denies leadership. Now for the bad things: Recharge time is BIG,
which really sucks; Tainted Land recharges faster. It's not permanent, which
sucks too. Then, try to get your enemy fight near it. No, any smart player
isn't doing that. Unfortunatly, a power with much potential, kinda sucks in
the end.
Tom Bombadil
Cost: 10PP
Leads to: Summon Ents
For some strange reason, elves don't have the hobbit summon. I get why the
Dwarves got it (Bilbo, you know), but men? I thought hobbits admired the
Elves? Aaaaaanyway, I've been telling you how handy this power was by MOTW.
It's one of my favorite powers, actually. The game hates me though. So,
they put it on an idiotic place in the sphere gri.. I mean Evenstar (Those
FFX flashbacks of me...) power line-up, so it's impossible to reach as
second power unless you decide to get Farsight first, which is like
suicide, as you'll have no defenses against an early rush. So, buy him if
the game goes MUCH longer on, and there's nothing else good to buy. Sucky
placing!
Summon Eagles
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Summons two giant, pecking, flying eagles!
Leads to: Flood
I kinda hate this power. Before, they were great as a nazgul killer. Now,
they get killed by nearly every archer or nazgul on the battlefield. But now,
when choosing, unless you went Elven Mists (which is dumb anyway), I suggest
you pick Cloud Break, because that's a much better power anyway. This could
have been good, but they just die too quickly. BUT if YOU like it, do it.
Well, at least it leads to Flood.
Cloud Break
Cost: 15PP
Leads to: Flood, Sunflare
Well, you know what this is. Because of placement, it's choosed a LOT. It's
better than summon Eagles, and about the same effect as summon Ents. So...
That's all.
Summon Ents
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Summons Ents to the battlefield to smite buildings where you like!
Leads to: Sunflare
This is actually so good, it can be a game ender. If your army is distracting
the enemy, summon these and let them target their fortress for an easy kill.
While Ents are quite fragile, when kept out of harm, their effect is HUGE.
Also, most units of the Elves do crappy damage against buildings (save for
Lorien Swordsmen) so this is welcome for a lot of Elven hordes. Pity it
doesn't link to Flood.
Flood
Cost: 25PP
Effect: A party of water horses rampages across an area, smiting evil in its
way!
Incase you didn't notice, my entire point in the Elven line-up is that there
are many ways, but some don't lead to Flood. And I already implied several
times that this is the better of the two. Why?
Well, actually, the effect isn't that big of a difference. It's Flood's
diversity against buildings. While Sunflare doesn't do ANY damage to
buildings, Flood does. That, and only that, is why it's better. See my point?
That's not such a big advantage, so pick sunflare if you like.
Sunflare
Cost: 25PP
Effect: Roasts all enemy units in an area for huge damage. Petrifies trolls,
which is pretty cool.
Well, look at Flood. Nuff'said.
The Dwarven Powers
Ah, less writing for me, as they share a lot of powers with MOTW. YAY!
Rallying Call
Cost: 5PP
Leads to: Summon Men of Dale, Dwarven Riches
It's pretty funny how this power gets placed on an AWESOME place in the power
line-up. The SMoD power AND the DR power are probably the two best two
10PP costing powers for the dwarves. It leads to Barrage and Cloud Break
(depends on your choice), which are two good powers too. And finally, it can
always bring you to Earthquake, which is nice.
Seeing how the first three powers of the Dwarves are the same three as MOTW
has, same applies here; RC for games you want to win, He for games you want
to perform some special strategy. Rb for games you want to lose >_>
Rebuild
Cost: 5PP
Leads to: Dwarven Riches, Lone Tower
Well, here it is. Two words: DON'T PICK THIS! (that weren't exactly two
words...) It has placement a little better this time though, as you can now
gain Dwarven Riches. Oh, and lonely tower sucks as much as it did with MOTW,
so don't pick this to get that either.
Heal
Cost: 5PP
Leads to: Summon Hobbits, Lone Tower
While I've been giving this power a lot of credit in the other factions
picks, it has been doomed in the dwarven set-up. Since Lone Tower sucks, you
HAVE to pick Summon Hobbits, which is a pretty good power, but leads to a
situational pick; Undermine, then Summon Fortress. If you need quick help on
the battlefield, those powers won't help you! My advice; If the game goes on
so long that you have already bought your Earthquake, consider buying Heal
and Summon Hobbits, as they are cheap and great battle helpers.
Summon Men of Dale
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Summons 3-5 (I forgot how many, bear with me people) Men of Dale
battalions to the battlefield. They are great archers and will help the
Dwarves on every way they can.
Leads to: Barrage
This, in my opinion, is one of the best summoning 10PP costing powers in the
game, if not the best. Their attack is quite high, but the get sliced by
cavalry. Which leads to this: Protect them. Get 2-4 battalions of Dwarven
Pikemen on the field, summon the MoD in the middle of them, let the dwarven
pikes protect them from harm, and they can cause great damage to every enemy.
While their attack is great, their damage VS buildings... sucks. But still,
buying this as a second power will give you a serious OOMPH for those
battles you would ordinaly lose. I highly advice going for this, although
the Dwarven Riches are awesome too...
Dwarven Riches
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Increases a mines production rate to 300% of the normal rate for a
period of time.
Leads to: Barrage, Cloud Break
This used to be very OP, by being permanent. Now it isn't, but it's still a
very good power. Economy is a very important part of gameplay, and it's like
having two extra mines without the "Farm counter" increasing(I'll explain
later). Having a 100% mine X 3 isa great thing, and can help your economy a
bunch. But of course, it has it's weaknesses. First of all, if you're mine
isn't properly defended, and is placed in clear line of sight, your enemy
will probably try to destroy it right away, setting you back in advantage
considerably. Also, when attackedheavily, it might spell your doom to buy
this while something which helpsyou immediatly on the battlefield would
have saved you, as this power is MUCH better if the game lasts a long while.
And last: Please don't cast it over a 30% efficienty rate mine. Please.
Oh, and make sure to cast it onanother mine when it's recharged! Keep an eye
on the recharge bar! If you're not attacked too often, this can seriously
assure victory for you.3 mines in 1 is very helpful, and should be treated as
so. Oh, and it leads to Cloud Break too, which is a very good choice in all
of the 15PP powerchoices of the Dwarves.
Lone Tower
Cost: 10PP
Leads to: Cloud Break, Undermine
NO. No further explanation, just... don't.
Summon Hobbits
Cost: 10PP
Leads to: Undermine
Strangely absent in the 10PP dwarven picks is Tom Bombadil. Aaanyway, while
this power is great and all, the placement sucks so much. You're forced to
pick undermine, which could be a VERY good power, or you'll nearly never use
it in the entire game. Said the rest with Heal, go check there for more info.
Barrage
Cost: 15PP
Effect: A sudden meteor storm appears out of the heavens, to smite all in the
targeted area, friend or foe.
Leads to: Earthquake
Without a doubt a very "flashy" power, it gives a spectecular meteor shower
over the area which roasts all units in that area. The range is quite big,
but remember that the rocks itself are generated randomly, so they won't fall
on the units who are in the designated area, but just somewhere IN the
designated area. When to cast it is pretty straitforward, cast it over the
enemies army for massive damage, but keep your units out of it. While
buildings are supposed to get a lot of damage too, it isn't that high, so
this power is best saved for unit killing. The recharge time is pretty high,
because the damage it COULD do when used properly. It's a great power to
pick, but remember that it's a one-shot; missing with it could cost you the
game, and using it on weak soldiers means it will go to waste. Barrage is
best picked when you have the upper hand, and you want an game ender. When
properly cast, it can destroy the enemies last units, which will open the way
to his fortress, and with that, his doom.
Notify this though: When you picked Dwarven Riches, and you don't have the
upper hand, but need something to GET the upper hand, pick Cloud Break. Pick
Cloud Break too when you're not too certain things will go your way, or if
you now you're getting a power against you which can be countered by CB.
Like Darkness, Rain, summoning powers, barrage get's countered by CB too, and
many more. Oh, but if you picked SMoD, you have no choice anyway.
Cloud Break
Cost: 15PP
Leads to: Earthquake, Summon Citadel
We all know (and love?) it. Look at Barrage for the reasons to pick this over
barrage, and you know the rest. Solid dwarven choice, for counter-power or
for gaining the advantage. Going on...
Undermine
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Summons a portal to your mining system.
Leads to: Summon Citadel
Notice how many of these names and the powers itself look a lot like the God
Powers from the game Age of Mythology? This one has the name of a God Power
that destroys walls and towers, Undermine, but does almost the same thing as
the God Power Underworld Passage, by creating some sort of transportation
device. Well, sorry for my Age of Mythology moments there, the guide is not
about that game, it's about this one. Ahum...
This is quite the strangest power. With this, you summon a portal anywhere
where you have line of sight, which is connected to your tunnels, so you can
transport units to it any time. The portal CAN be destroyed.
Okay, while most powers have a very easy to use effect, this one has not.
It's more sneaky, and requires excact planning. First of all, you need
preparation. You're probably summoning it in a place where your enemies will
not expect you, or where they are not protected against you. Therefor, it's
probably a place where the enemy can and WILL see you, and he will take it
down as soon as he can. Because of that, you need your army in the mines, or
ready to go into them when you cast it, because it will lose it surprise
effect if you do. A very good way to do this is by making a small diversion
attack for instance (but that requires even more preparation), or by placing
it JUST outside his LOS. Secondly, you need it over quick. Once you make that
attack, keep the flow going through your mines, and have your seige protected
by some units pull up too. If all goes perfect, you have won the game!
How often does that scenario occur? Not often, let me tell you that. The
preparation for this power takes a long time, and will take even longer when
you are attacked in the meanwhile. Not only that, but if you're surprise
attack is broken and defeated, you are hopeless. A BIG disadvantage is that
some units can't go through the mining system anyway, like seige and Battle
Wagons. Although massed axe throwers through it can be deadly, it usually
isn't. Sucky placement is a point too, and this would have been much more
potent and deadly if it could lead to Earthquake. 'Nuff said?
Earthquake
Cost: 25PP
*Points to MOTW section*
The choice between the two powers with the dwarves is much easier now. This
is the better one, believe me.
Summon Citadel
Cost: 25PP
Effect: Summons a Citadel, which is like a mini-fortress with no upgrades
available and only 2 expansion slots.
This one dissapoints. I can go and make a story how and when to use this, but
let's face it; Earthquake is better, and SC sucks quite a bit. If you have
uses for it, use it, but I've never seen it used online by good players in
serious games.
One Ring powers: MORDOR
Some powers of the FOD are the same as some of the FOL. Look there for it's
effects.
The Eye of Sauron
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Summons the great eye to scout for your forces, or give them a
leadership bonus while they're in it.
Leads to: Corrupted Allience, Industry
An excellent power, this one is. The Eye is that thing we all know; The red
evil thingy. While it can scout descently well, that's not it's main purpose.
It's main use is, obviously, giving leadership to those evil Orcs of ya. The
Eye can move, so you can let him hang above your Orcs all the time to give
them leadership, which makes it more versaitile as Tainted Land. Even better;
say your buffed Orcs are killed (they stay Orcs, so they'll probably die
quickly). If you used warchant on them, you would have lost you leadership
now, and with that the effect of Warchant was destroyed. With the Eye,
however, you'll still have uses. You could move it to another group of units
to help them out, you could help your allies units, you could even go
scouting a little bit with it! Seeing how it's more versaitile and just
better than the other two powers, usually pick this. It also leads to
Industry, a very helpful power, and Untamed Allience, a power that's very
situational, but when there is a use for it, it really owns big time. So, in
short; It's a very good power.
Warchant
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Units in the affected area start singing. That's pretty evil on it's
own, because Orcs can't sing. But on top of it, it gives a leadership bonus
to the affected units too. So, this is like the "evil" version of Rallying
Call.
Leads to: Arrow Barrage, Industry
As said, rallying call for evil. While that was almost always the mandatory
choice, it isn't with the evil hordes. Mainly because there are better powers
to pick. Though this always stays a great choice, with mordor you have the
EoS, which is so much better than this because of reasons mentioned in the
discription of EoS. Although when looking at placement, it's placed before
two pretty good powers. If you want to know how to use this, look at the MOTW
rallying call, because it's practicly the same thing.
Tainted Land TL
Cost: 5PP
Effect: Summons a land, where no crops grow, no animals live, where the
ground is polluted, where there's a fog of poisonous dusts everywhere.
Welcome to Orc paradise. All the evil hordes gain a leadership bonus when
fighting on it.
Leads to: Barricade, Corrupted Allience
The evil version of Elven Woods, save for the fact that this doesn't kills
leadership of the enemy. Save for that, I'll have to point you to the
Elven Wood power, so you can look to a discription there.
While it's not only the suckiest power of the 3 Mordor ones, it's also
placed sucky, IMO, with the choice of one weak power, and a situational one.
Meh.
Arrow Barrage
Cost: 10PP
Leads to: Barrage
Well, unfortunatly I'll have to point you to the FoL section again. The
placement could be better, seeing how it's not from EoS, but still leads you
to the pretty good barrage. I'll still rather go with EoS, but hey... If you
picked Warchant, you might rather pick the better industry:
Industry
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Increases the gathering rates of one recourse building to 300% for a
period of time. The same as Dwarven Riches >_>
Leads to: Darkness, Barrage
Again I'll have to point you to a FOL power, Dwarven Riches. Same Cons and
pros and do's and do not's aply here. The placement rocks by the way, and
when playing as Mordor, this is probably the best 10PP power to be picked.
Mainly becuase it connects to Darkness, an incredibly good power that has to
be one of Mordor's best. Pick it nearly always. That is, when no Fire Drakes
around, because if that's the case you better buy Untamed Allience:
Untamed Allience
Cost: 10PP
Effect: Takes control of a lair, and the creatures that roam it. You can
train the corresponding unit out of it's lair for a cheap price, but lairs
are pretty fragile and when gone, cannot be rebuild. The lair is permenantly
under your control once you get it, but I think another Untamed Allience
could "override" the previous one.
Leads to: Darkness, Summon Wyrm
Okay, one of the most weirdest and special powers of the game. You know those
lairs on the map, right? Warg lairs, Goblin lairs, spider lairs, troll lairs,
wight lairs and fire drake lairs. Well, with this power you can control the
lair, the animals around it AND you can build more. That's a very good thing.
However, does this beats Industry? Well, you've heard me saying that this
power is situational. That's because most lairs are not worth 10PP to take
over. The only ones really worth it are Goblin lairs, Troll lairs and the
mother of all lairs, Fire Drake lairs. If ANY fire drake lair present on the
map, go for this power. Go for it. It's basicly a ticket to a won game,
because drakes are freaking strong. They start out with a good power too,
Incenirate. It flames a giantic area and usually kills al normal units in
that area. Goblin Lairs are good because, well, goblins are good and come at
cheap prices, and trolls are good because, well, you know... They're cheap
trolls! Wargs are a bit meh, wights are too slow, and spiders are too weak.
Take this power when there's a Fire Drake lair, or you'll feel you can win
with some cheap goblins or trolls. Otherwise, I strongly advice Industry.
Barricade
Cost: 10PP
Effect: A smal building/tower thing rises out of the ground with Orc Archers
stationed on top on them to attack all enemies in their range.
Leads to: Summon Wyrm
While this sounds like a very handy defensive and ground defending tool, it
dissapoints. While it's handy to have ranged support anywhere on the map by
placing it next to a battle, or to protect a recource building, it turns out
to be not good at that. Why?
It's attack. It's like the Orc archer is using small pillows instead of
arrows, because the damage is next to nothing. However, that isn't the
biggest problem. Then it's range. It's NOT good, not bad either, but seige
weapons out-range it and that is BAD, very bad. But that's still not the
largest problem. The biggest problem is without a doubt it's durability.
The building is made of paper or something, because almost every unit can
take it out without many casualties on their side. It will only be a minor
thing that the enemy has to crush. For the same PP, you could have had
Industry now, and could produce those more expensive Mordor units.
So no, I don't advice to pick this power.
Barrage
Cost: 15PP
Leads to: Rain of Fire
Go to Dwarven section please. Placement is pretty good, leads to the more
"instant" of the two 25PP mordor powers. Can really help in any Mordor attack
really, but I advice the more versaitile Darkness. Although there is really
nothing wrong with this, Darkness usually affects the battlefield more.
Darkness
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Suddenly, above all the land of Middle-Earth, a shadow falls. Dark
clouds hide the sun's light, all the animals go hide in fear, and even the
bravest Men, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit can't hide his fears. All of the people
live in fear in dispair. Except the evil hordes, who love the smell of fear
and can't wait to put even more fear into their hearts. They get so excited
that they get a leadership bonus! For as long the Darkness lasts, of course.
Leads to: Rain of Fire, Summon Balrog
Okay, this power sounds really handy, and it is, actually. Darkness is one
awesome power. As you'll know, leadership is a very important part of this
game, and having EVERY unit of the map from you under it will sure be a high
threat to anyone's army. When to use it is not hard; Use it when attacking
and you know you can give an enemy that final push, or use it when you'll
quickly need aid in an important battle which could decide the winner of the
game. Oh, and even stange units get leadership from it; I believe trolls get
stronger too.
Although this thing does have three things against it: It has a pretty long
recharge time, it doesn't last forever, and it has a achilles heel; Cloud
Break automaticly ends darkness and can turn your advantageous situation,
in a VERY disadventeous one. But still, it's a pretty good power overall, and
usually the third pick for a Mordor Player. Placement is good too, BTW.
Summon Wyrm
Cost: 15PP
Effect: Summons a worm-like, fire-breathing beast which flames all enemy
units in the area, but dissapears after a period of time. If they flee;
There's no escape! Wyrm will follow by digging his way in front of the enemy,
and THEN flame him. Aaah, who wants roasted elf for breakfast?
Leads to: Summon Balrog
This is a bit of a meh power. While it's certainly powerful, no doubt about
it, it is kinda, well, innacurate. It's breath is easy to run from, and he
chases a little to slow to catch all the others. He doesn't lasts long, can
easily be killed or run away from, and basicly only has use at the beginning
of his summoning, because he's too predicteble afterwards. His digging sounds
nice, but is always just enough to let him kill the last three-four units of
a battalion. He can't be summoned in the enemies base because that kills him
to quickly, he can't be controlled, his attack VS buildings sucks, and most
important; the other two Mordor powers are better. I wouldn't pick this when
playing as another faction either, though.
Rain of Fire
Cost: 25PP
Effect: Huge flaming rocks fall out of the sky, burning all units, crushing
all buildings. It's over in a flash, but what a carnage it brings in that
short time!
Technicly, this is like the uber-barrage, with more range and more damage.
However, it's a LOT more damage. It seriously destroys any building AND unit
that gets hit, and can leave a base in ruins when casted right. The
spontaneous effect makes sure escape is near impossible. All that survives
are SO heavily wounded that even a small army will make sure their lives end
right there. Miss-casting it is not accebtible; throwing away such an
destructive power is an insane waste. It's recharge time is LONG, so expect
to use it only once, but the damage it does can be a great game ender. Highly
consider buying it, both of Mordor powers are highly destructive, but this
one is more spontaneous and doesn't have to be baby-sit like the Balrog. Oh,
and DON'T cast it over you army, obviously.
Summon Balrog
Cost: 25PP
Effect: Summons the almighty flaming Balrog, that dude who killed Gandalf in
the movie, you know? The "YOU SHALL NOT... PASS!!!" scene? He's here to go
kung-fu on your enemies with flamy power. After a time or when killed, he
disappears.
Lvl n/a: Ignite: +100% attack for a period of time.
Fire Whip: Whips a single target for damage and knocks it back.
Fire Flight: The balrog flies to the area you chose, and does a
little damage there.
Screaming: Scares units around him.
Fire Breath: Flames a huge area with his breath, doing damage to
units and buildings.
Well, that's his abilities. Unfortunatly, I don't pick him often so I admit:
I don't really know how to use him. Powerfull he is though, and when you're
good at using him, use him. I'm srry for limited info.
Isengard powers: COMING SOON (I'm doing my best, okay?)
Goblin Powers: COMING SOON
Angmar powers: COMING SOON
The Angmar campaign: COMING SOON
Tips and strategies: COMING SOON
Tha legal stuff:
Copyright 2007
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