Night Elf Resource Gathering
In order to mine gold, Night Elves must first entangle a gold mine with their Tree of Life using the Entangle Gold Mine command. Once entangled, Wisps must then enter the mine to begin gold gathering. Up to five Wisps may remain in an Entangled Gold Mine at a time. Wisps do not need to return to a Tree of Life to deposit gold, which is automatically added to the Night Elf reserves while Wisps remain in the gold mine. To harvest lumber, Wisps bond to nearby trees, slowly adding small amounts of lumber to your reserves without harming the tree. As with gold, Wisps do not need to return to your Tree of Life to deposit wood.

Building
Build your town in such a way that the Ancients are up front where they can attack the enemy and the Moon Wells are in back where they are more safe and can heal. You should also possibly leave it open so that Wisps can get in and repair.

[ Click to Enlarge - 180 KB ] Sample open and defensive town layout. Units that try to go between the Ancients will be hit by them. Archers can also hide behind the Ancients while still using the Moon Wells to heal them.

Moon Wells
Moon Wells spend Mana on Health and Mana replenishment separately. For instance, if you sent a 0 Mana, nearly dead Demon Hunter to a Moon Well, and the Moon Well had 100 Mana, your Demon Hunter would gain 25 Mana, and 100 Health.

After your Hero is resurrected they come back with low mana. Use Replenish Mana to restore the Hero's mana.

Moon Wells are also useful for Druids. When they arrive they are not at full mana. You can use Moon Wells to recharge their mana and send them into battle.

Build Moon Wells around allies' towns in team games. Sometimes it might be useful to build Moon Wells in various locations where there might be fighting. But you could lose those Moon Wells pretty easily. It is ok to build more Moon Wells than you need for food so you can use their healing.

Be sure to set Moon Wells to autocast so that they will be actively working without having to target them. Double-click on a Moon Well to select them all. You can also select units and right-click on the Moon wells to use them. These are not set to autocast automatically because some players wish to only use them for Heroes and wish to have more control over how they are used.

You may find it more useful to build your Moon Wells all together in long lines. While this can make them more vulnerable to Sapper attack, siege damage, and building killing spells such as Earthquake, it does make them much easier to use. Rather than having your units run around to fill up at each Moon Well throughout the town you can instead just quickly run down the line of Moon Wells. It's also much easier to fight next to lines of Moon Wells.

Use Moon Wells early on when Creeping. For the first Creeps, if possible, lead Creeps back to the Moon Wells by firing at them with archers then running, fire then run, and so on. Then you can have the Moon Wells heal you while you attack the Creeps.

The usual process of playing the Night Elves is to attack then return to the Moon Wells and heal whenever possible. You should also watch units' health during battle and send them back to the Moon Wells when they become severely damaged. Make sure you research the Well Spring upgrade to increase the amount of mana stored and the mana regeneration rate. Remember to use Moonstones to active the Moon Wells during the day time.

[ Click to Enlarge - 88 KB ] Moon Wells are placed in a line so they are easy to use. Be sure to leave spaces so you don't become trapped in your town.	[ Click to Enlarge - 138 KB ] Night Elf player sets up the Moon Wells for easy usage.

Scouting
Place a Huntress Sentinel in key locations that you want to watch such as around your bases or around enemy towns. Place Sentinels next to Gold Mines where the enemy might expand. This upgrade is must have for Huntress users. Few players try to remove the Sentinels once they have been placed. Also, it should be easy to replace Sentinels if they are removed. If enemy players use Sentinels remove them by destroying the tree it's attached to with a Siege Unit or use a dispel ability on the area.

Protect your Wisps
Wisps harvesting Lumber are a common target when the enemy attacks your town. Spread out the Wisps or even hide them elsewhere to make it more difficult for the enemy to kill your Wisps. Try not to bunch them all up in one place. In team games you might even consider putting them in an ally's town.

Use Hide
Hide is best used for preventing units that are near death from being killed. This of course only works at night time. Group select units and pick out units that are near death by double-clicking on their portrait. Now hit I for Hide. This is easier and safer than attempting to run away. Just make sure you don't reveal them by giving them additional commands. Pay attention to the time of day and use Hide whenever possible at night.

You can use a hidden unit to spot for Glaive Throwers when sieging a town. Look at spotting and the screenshot for more information.

Use Hide to break target lock. If the enemy is focusing fire on one unit, use Hide to make that unit disappear. Once the enemy is focusing fire elsewhere, have the unit reappear and attack.

Buy a Moonstone and use it before a battle so that you can use hide during a battle.

[ Click to Enlarge - 163 KB ] A Night Elf Warden hides from a Human army. (which is better than YOUR army)	[ Click to Enlarge - 162 KB ] The same Night Elf player uses Hide to save his Huntresses from being slaughtered by Summonables and Slow.

[ Click to Enlarge - 156 KB ] When your town is under attack early in the game and you are waiting for reinforcements, use Hide with your Archers. These Archers hide until help arrives.

Reaching surrounded Gold Mines
If a Gold Mine is surrounded by trees use a Glaive Thrower to clear them or build a Tree of Life and have it Eat Tree until it clears a path to the Gold Mine. You can also use the Keeper of the Grove's Force of Nature ability to clear out sections of trees.

You can also use Mountain Giants to clear trees. Use War Club to grab a tree, then attack the other trees to clear them.

Clearing a path with Eat Tree
You can queue up Eat Tree Commands and make Ancients clear a path through the trees automatically. Simply select an Ancient that is uprooted. Now hold down Shift and hit E for Eat Tree and click on each tree between your Ancient and the destination. Now release the Shift Button and watch the Ancient automatically clear a path if you selected your trees correctly.

Mountain Giants
Mountain Giants can be very helpful because they act as a "tank" for ranged units like Archers, Huntresses, and Dryads. To be very effective they should have Hardened and Resistant Skin. Be sure to use Taunt also. You can even heal them with Moon Wells or Rejuvenation!

Mountain Giant Trick
You can use Mountain Giants to clear out trees. Simply have them pick up a tree and then attack trees you want to clear. Once they are armed with a tree they can bash other trees to clear a path.

Constructing Ancients
Be sure to cancel an Ancient being created if it is about to be destroyed. If you do not you will lose the Wisp along with the building. If you cancel the Ancient the Wisp will survive and you can possibly escape with it. This is not an issue when constructing non Ancient buildings.

Nature's Blessing
Nature's Blessing increases buildings' armor to 7 in most cases. The Ancient Protector's armor is increased to 3. Research this upgrade since it can allow your Ancient Protectors and buildings to survive longer. This upgrade is first available at Tree of Ages. If you're using Huntresses or Archers you might want to wait until you have upgraded to the Tree of Eternity and researched Marksmanship and/or Moon Glaive before getting Nature's Blessing because it can delay the research of those upgrades. Few players research Nature's Blessing so it can really surprise players who expect the Night Elf buildings to be easily destroyed.

This upgrade can also increase the Ancient's walking speed if you need that to move a Tree of Life or are using Ancient Protectors.

Often players will target Night Elf bases because they are easily killed without Ancient Protectors and have only 2 armor for their Ancients. You can play off that by researching Nature's Blessing. When the enemy shows up it will take them a long time to finish off the buildings (without Siege Weapons) which they will not expect.

If you are using the Keeper of the Grove's Force of Nature then Nature's Blessing is a "must have" upgrade because it also increases the Treants' armor to 5.

Neutral Heroes
The Naga Sea Witch and Dark Ranger are great Neutral Heroes for the Night Elves since they already are heavily focused on ranged units with Archers, Huntresses, and Dryads. These Neutral Heroes can be used as replacements for your normal Night Elf Heroes or they can combine with them as second Heroes. The Dark Ranger can raise Skeletons which can tank for your Archers.

Defending Towns
Although Wisps don't have an attack, they are one of the most fierce defenders of a Night Elf town. Detonate can be used to get rid of Summonables and the enemy Hero's Mana. Wisps can also repair buildings under attack and buy time until you can get back to defend your base.

[ Click to Enlarge - 138 KB ] What usually happens is the enemy goes after the Ancients of War. Make sure you get Nature's Blessing if possible which is always handy when you're attacked.	[ Click to Enlarge - 140 KB ] The Wisps move in to repair to buy some time for help to arrive.

Defending Expansions
Typically Night Elf players don't have defenses at their expansions. So to defend the expansion you need to delay the enemy until you walk there or Teleport using a Town Portal Scroll. It's also important to get the Nature's Blessing upgrade so that the trees have more armor and take longer to be killed which give you more time to rescue them.

[ Click to Enlarge - 176 KB ] Unload the Wisps out of the Entangled Gold Mine and repair the Tree of Life. If they attack the Wisps get back in the Entangled Gold Mine. Repeat if necessary. Repair the Entangled Gold Mine (must use hot key R to prevent being loaded) if it is attacked. If the Tree of Life is killed, Detonate all of the Wisps.

Vs. Humans

Archmage - Mana Burn him, Entangle him and focus fire. Cast Shadow Strike on the Archmage. Focused fire will usually finish them off easily.
Mountain King - Mana Burn or use focused fire with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads
Footmen - Use Huntresses, Thorns Aura. Entangle them.
Paladin - Focus fire, he can't heal himself
Knights - Use Dryads, Archers, or Bears
Sorceresses/Priests - Kill with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads using focused fire. Use Mana Flare.
Gryphon Riders - Use Hippogryphs, Archers, or Dryads. Fan of Knives can help too.

Siege Engines
If you are caught by some Siege Engines assaulting your base, uproot your buildings. This will change their armor to heavy armor which will make them last longer against the Siege Engines. You don't want to do this if they are supported by lots of troops.

Fighting against Footmen using Defend
Use Huntresses against Footmen who are using Defend. Defend will not work against Huntresses.

Vs. Orcs

Blademaster - Mana Burn, Entangling Roots, Use Abolish Magic on Mirror Images, surround and kill. Use Dust of Appearance to reveal invisible Blademasters.
Far Seer - Mana Burn, Entangling Roots, or surround and focus fire with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads
Grunts - Use Entangling Roots, Use Thorns Aura, hit and run with Huntresses, or use Dryads to slow them
Tauren - Use Archers or Dryads with Huntresses
Shaman/Witch Doctors - Rush and kill with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads. Use Mana Flare.
Wind Riders - Use Hippogryphs, Archers, or Dryads
Wards - Use Focused fire to kill them as soon as you see any of them. This is especially important with Stasis traps.

Vs. Burrows
Don't use Huntresses against Burrows. Burrows do piercing damage which means they can easily kill the Huntresses. Instead use Archers.

Vs. Undead

Ghouls - Huntresses, Archers/Dryads with focused fire, Thorns Aura
Abominations - Archers, Thorns Aura, Dryads. Entangle them with the Keeper of the Grove.
Frost Wyrms - Hippogryphs, or Archers/Dryads
Gargoyles - Hippogryphs, Archers/Dryads
Necromancers/Banshees - Surround and kill with Huntresses, or Archers/Dryads. Use Mana Flare.
Mass Skeletons - Use Wisps to Dispel or Faerie Dragons' Mana Flare

Whenever possible fight by your Moon Wells, make sure you line them up and turn them on
Priestess of the Moon - Mana Burn, Entangling Roots, and focus fire with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads
Keeper of the Grove - Mana Burn him or focus fire with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads
Demon Hunter - Entangling Roots, and focus fire with Huntresses/Archers/Dryads
Warden - Surround and kill. She dies pretty quickly. But if she uses Blink it might be hard to kill her.
Archers - Use Huntresses and focus fire. Archers get slaughtered by Huntresses if they can reach them
Huntresses - Use Huntresses with focus fire, Entangling Roots, upgrade the Huntresses more. You can also try Bears with Archers. Use Faerie Fire + Huntresses or Faerie Fire + Huntresses + Archers
Dryads - Use Huntresses or Archers, they easily beat Dryads
Chimaera - Use Dryads (they can't hit them), and/or Hippogryphs