Warcraft III - Basics > Rookie Mistakes

Not having a Hero
Warcraft III is all about Heroes. Heroes have many abilities that are only available on Heroes and, typically, are responsible for winning or losing battles.

Not Leveling up a Hero
Typically Heroes should be level 3-5 before combating enemy players unless you are Hero rushing. This is done by aggressively seeking out all surrounding Creeps and killing them. This allows your Hero to become better and for you to gain additional spells, which can determine which group wins or loses a battle. You should never have a Level 1 Hero engaged in combat against an enemy player unless it's a second or third Hero being built after your first Hero or someone pulled some super rush.

Not Spending Hero Skill Points
A Hero's Skill point should be spent as soon as you get it. Watch the portrait in the top left corner for the number that indicates that a Hero has a skill point. Don't let them add up. Don't leave them unspent for very long. While in rare situations you might wish to save up skill points, usually you want to spend them as soon as you get them.

Level 1 Hero Soloing vs. Powerful Creeps
Heroes are great at higher levels but they are very weak early on. They need the help of 3-5+ units for leveling up. Do not attempt to take on multiple high level Creeps with a level 1 Hero. Usually there are some easy "gimmie" Creeps such as 3 level 2 Creeps which your level 1 Hero can solo. But, do not try to take on say a group of 5 Creeps which are level 5.

Attacking Creeps that are too powerful
Sometimes a Creep camp will be much too powerful for your current army. You'll discover that your Hero and army are slaughtered against powerful Creeps. Part of learning the game is knowing how powerful the Creeps are and if your army can take them. This comes through experience. There are some basic common sense things you can do to compare. Count the number of your units vs. the number of the Creeps. Look at the level of the Creeps. If they are 5+ you may have trouble with them. Very high level Creeps such as 9 will be a lot of trouble so have a large army. Be sure to run if the battle doesn't look to be going in your favor. You can come back later with more troops. As you learn maps, the race you play, and the Creeps, you will soon be able to know if you should attack a Creep camp or not.

Fatal mistakes in the beginning can cost you the entire game. One of those mistakes is losing your whole army to the Creeps when the enemy is about to attack your town.

The Creep Camp indicator on the minimap (Alt-C) will help you find out where the low level creeps camps are located (green) on every map.

Losing your Hero to the Creeps
This is very shameful. If the Creeps are attacking your Hero, back off. Watch the battle and control the Hero. Heroes should not die to Creeps. =)

Losing your Hero to the Creeps in the first 1-3 minutes of the game
See above.

Not controlling a Hero during Battle
A Hero should always be controlled during battle. If it is attacked, immediately use the F1-F3 Key to jump to the Hero and control them. Back damaged Heroes away from combat.

Not picking up Hero Items, or leaving them for the enemy
You should always pick up Hero Items unless you have no room. If you cannot take an item and don't want someone else to use it, attack the item to destroy it.

Placing more than 5 Human Peasants or Orc Peons on a Gold Mine
Five is the maximum number of units that can mine depending on what direction the town hall is placed. If you place more than 5, they will stack up and won't be actually doing anything. Using these extra workers to mine ties up supply and can push a player to higher Upkeep levels for no reason. However, on some maps and positions the Town Hall may be placed too far from the Gold Mine which could require as many as 6 or 7 Peons to mine the Gold Mine. Make sure you have enough workers to mine a Gold Mine effectively.

Attacking Superior Forces
You should have an idea by looking at the enemy whether you're going to win or not. While you can't always know for sure, you should not attack OBVIOUSLY more powerful armies. The problem is knowing what is an obviously too powerful army. You will learn this by playing the game. Single-player and playing custom games against Computer players can teach you this before you're ready for games against other players.

Don't forget, if the battle is not going your way, use a Scroll of Town Portal to escape, or run away.

Attacking the enemy in a position to enemy's advantage
Don't attack the enemy if they have towers to support them, or are using a Fountain of Life, or are on high ground while you are on low ground. Avoid fighting the enemy if you don't have enough room to get all your forces attacking the enemy (such as fighting in narrow areas)

Not using Neutral Buildings
Neutral Buildings are very powerful and should be used throughout the course of the game. As you learn more about their purpose, you can learn more about how to integrate them into your gameplay.

Not using Teleport Scrolls or running to save an ally or your town when you can just Teleport there
Use Teleport Scrolls to save your or your allies' Town.

Not getting an Expansion Town before your Gold Mine runs out
It's very important to use additional Gold Mines. Clear the Creeps away from a Gold Mine and be ready to expand.

Forgetting to mine an Expansion
A common mistake is to build at a new Gold Mine, the building finishes but you forget to build workers to harvest Gold. Make sure you don't let this happen. Keep checking on the progress of your expansion and build workers or send workers from your original town as soon as it is ready.

Abandoning your Partner too early
Just because a Partner has left the game doesn't mean that it's impossible to win the game. Continue to play until there is no chance to win. If they haven't even attacked your town yet, it's too early to leave.

Quitting the game too early
Just because your town is gone doesn't mean the game is over. In previous games a player was eliminated when all of their buildings were destroyed, but in Warcraft III, a team will live until ALL buildings from all of the team members are destroyed. This means all players should stay in the game until everyone is eliminated. Share unit control and fight until the end.

You can continue to control your allies' troops if you can get them to share unit control. Also you can still get a win if you and your ally are still able to beat the enemy. Don't give up. You can help your ally by helping them better control their troops. If you manage to win, you both get a win even if all of your (but not your allies') buildings and units were destroyed.

Building too many Barracks
You only need one or two in most cases. You should only build more if you are using them all and have several expansions.

Not Expanding Fast Enough
In smaller 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 games you often have to get an expansion very early. Clear out a Gold Mine so you will be ready. You do not want to have to start an expansion as your Gold Mine is running out.

Not Giving Resources to allies before leaving the game
If you have to leave a game and your allies continue playing, open up the allies menu and give all your resources to your ally. This may help them win the game. Allies will still be able to control your buildings and units after you leave the game. It's just better for them to spend the resources on their troops rather than on yours.

Not Taking Control over dropped players towns or towns of players who have left the game
Once a player drops from the game or leaves the game, allies can take control over that person's town. Take advantage of this.

Building Massive Tower Defenses
Siege Weapons and other abilities can easily kill tower defenses. You only need enough Towers for a defense -- don't build too many.

Building Tower in the middle of nowhere for no reason
For towers to be effective you need them in your town, or to prevent the enemy from walking around them. A common mistake is to place towers outside your base that the enemy can just walk past or around and reach your town. When you build towers place them IN your town, or at least prevent the enemy from walking around them using your army or by walling yourself off.

Not running past Towers
Similar to the above, if you can walk past towers and reach an enemy town out of range of the towers, do so.

Standing in Towers
Don't stand in the middle of towers. Bring Siege Weapons and kill them from range. You should only attack towers if you have superior numbers and are sure to win the battle.

Constructing buildings next to the Creeps
Creeps will attack new buildings. Cancel the building if the Creeps attack it. Kill the Creeps or build away from them.

Not Upgrading Units
Research upgrades. Your units will benefit greatly from being upgraded. Armor and Weapon upgrades are especially important.

Ignoring attack limitations such as units that can be used against air units or air units that cannot attack other air units
Learn the units and their capabilities.

Not Knowing the Map
As you play a map more you learn how to get around. You should try to learn every map that you might have to play. You can do so in custom games with or against the Computer if you have to.

Getting Heroes or Workers Stuck Between Buildings
Always make sure when you build a building that the worker or Hero has a way of getting out when they are done. If you're not careful, you can end up walling in your worker or Hero with buildings or trees. If this happens, you either have to destroy a building, kill the worker, or purchase a Goblin Zeppelin to get them out. You can also kill the unit to free up food.

Undead: Trying to chop down trees with Acolytes
Ghouls harvest Lumber, not Acolytes.

Undead: Keeping Acolytes around while a building is constructed
Once an Acolyte has started to Summon a building it is free to leave and do other tasks. It does not need to stand there while a building is being summoned.

Undead: Building a Necropolis next to an Expansion
You only need to Haunt a Gold Mine. Since Acolytes mine the Haunted Gold Mine directly you do not need additional Necropolises at new Gold Mines. But Necropolis can actually be useful next to an Expansion so that you can Teleport to it, and upgrade it to Halls of the Dead so that it can be used as a tower.

Undead: Not Healing Undead Units
Undead units only heal while standing on Blight, however some units have other possibilities to heal themselves: Ghouls and Abominations can research Cannibalize (it needs corpses, so bring a Meat Wagon to the units if there are no corpses around). Crypt Fiends can research Burrow which also allow them to heal, and finally Gargoyles can turn into Stone Form. There are other possibilities such as Obsidian Statues' Essence of Blight, Death Knight's Death Coil and Unholy Aura or Hero Items : Scroll of Healing and Healing Wards (only available at neutral buildings) offer a way to heal your army.