The enchanted Keepers are the favored sons of the demigod Cenarius. Like their lesser Dryad sisters, the Keepers appear to be half Night Elf, half stag. They have enormous antlers and manes of leaves that flow down their backs. Their right hands are disfigured and twisted - as if they had become like the gnarled root-claws of the Treants. Keepers possess many strange powers over nature and the animals. Though they typically remain within the sacred Moon Groves of Ashenvale forest, the Keepers always heed the call to arms when the greater lands of Kalimdor are threatened.

Cost: 425 100 5 Attack Type: Hero Weapon Type: Missile Armor Type: Hero Cooldown: 2.13 Range: 60 *(#) = Stats when fully upgraded

Primary Attribute: Intelligence Strength Bonus per Level: 1.8 Agility Bonus per Level: 1.5 Intelligence Bonus per Level: 2.7 Health Regeneration: Always Mana Regeneration: .01

Day Sight: 180 Night Sight: 80 (180*) Speed: Fast (320) Build Time: 55 Transport Space Usage: 1 Production Hot Key: K

Level Attack (Ground/Air) Armor Strength Agility Intelligence Hit Points Mana 1 20-26 [23 avg] 3 16 15 18 500 270 2 22-28 [25 avg] 3 17 16 20 525 300 3 25-31 [28 avg] 3 19 18 23 575 345 4 28-34 [31 avg] 4 21 19 26 625 390 5 30-36 [33 avg] 4 23 21 28 675 420 6 33-39 [36 avg] 5 25 22 31 725 465 7 36-42 [39 avg] 5 26 24 34 750 510 8 38-44 [41 avg] 6 28 25 36 800 540 9 41-47 [44 avg] 6 30 27 39 850 585 10 44-50 [47 avg] 6 32 28 42 900 630

Hero Names: Larodar, Anubris, Nandieb, Califax, Bandalar, Malorne, Gholbine, Dagda, Nuada, Oghma, Centrius, Ceredwyn

The Keeper of the Grove is a great Hero! All four of his abilities are extremely useful. Entangling Roots can be used to stop melee units in their tracks allowing the Night Elves to pick them off at range with Archers, Huntresses, or Dryads. Force of Nature can be used to create Treants, which can complement your army. Force of Nature can also be used to remove trees allowing you to reach Gold Mines surrounded by trees. Thorns are very useful when facing lots of melee units. Tranquility can be used during battle to determine the outcome and to repair units such as Glaive Thrower while they assault a town.

It's best to keep the Keeper of the Grove away from enemy units and Heroes, as he is more of a weak spell caster type Hero. If the enemy tries to attack him run away or out of range. The Keeper of the Grove is somewhat large so it's easy to get stuck if you're not careful. Leave plenty of room around him for escape. Be sure to keep the Keeper behind your army and out of danger.

There are several point spending strategies with the Keeper of the Grove. Some players focus on Entangling Roots followed by Thorns if the enemy is using melee units. It's very important to not waste points in Thorns if the enemy is using mostly ranged units. In large team games Thorns can be very effective as it protects multiple armies. If you are not going to use Thorns you can place points in Entangling Roots and Force of Nature. But If you use a lot of Entangling Roots you may find you never have mana for Force of Nature and vice versa. The other option for the Keeper of the Grove is to place points in Force of Nature and Thorns.

Keepers that focus in Force of Nature make great early soloing Heroes. The Keeper can use the Treants and an Archer or two to solo Creeps at the start of the game. Entangling Roots can also work as the Keeper can put the most powerful Creep leader out of action (unless Spell Immune) and finish off the leftovers. Focusing on Entangling Roots will require more control and more "dancing" on the part of the player.

The Keeper of the Grove is an excellent Hero rusher with Entangling Roots. He can run in and Entangle enemy Peons and melee units such as Grunts and Footmen at the start of the game. He can run in and Entangle something then run. The Keeper of the Grove is also useful at preventing Hero rushes when using Entangling Roots on enemy Heroes.

When selecting items for the Keeper of the Grove, pick "caster" type items that help his mana and intelligence.

Entangling Roots Causes roots to burst from the ground, immobilizing and damaging a target enemy.

Level Duration (Hero) Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect Hero Level Req 1 9 (3) sec. 8 sec. 75 80 Unit Ground, Enemy, Neutral Deals 15 damage/sec 1 2 24 (4) sec. 8 sec. 75 80 Unit Ground, Enemy, Neutral Deals 15 damage/sec 3 3 36 (5) sec. 8 sec. 75 80 Unit Ground, Enemy, Neutral Deals 25 damage/sec 5

Entangling Roots Information
Entangled Units are unable to attack, though they can still cast spells.

Use Entangling Roots on Heroes and important and dangerous units that are running away such as Sorceresses, Mortar Teams, Shamans, and other spell casters. In games against good players there is often a lot of running away. Using Entangling Roots you can make the enemy pay by losing a few units every time they choose to run. Sometimes using Entangling Roots makes the enemy change their mind about running.

Use Entangling Roots to break up enemy battle groups by making the most dangerous enemy units inactive. For example, cast Entangling Roots on a Knight, then move away from it out of its range. Try to lead the enemy away from it. The Knight will be out of action and you can focus on the remaining troops without the Knight doing any damage. The same can be done against Abominations, Bears, Mountain Giants, or Tauren.

Most of the time it's best to use Entangling Roots on a unit or worker instead of a Hero. Entangling Roots is only useful on Heroes when you are using it to trap and finish off a Hero but during normal combat it is best to Entangle units instead.

Try to cast it when an enemy unit is next to one of your Ancients. Then he will be stuck in place as your Ancient attacks him.

Entangling Roots will prevent enemy Heroes and units from teleporting back to town via Scrolls of Town Portal or Archmage Mass Teleport. If you cast Entangling Roots on an enemy Archmage, the Archmage and units will not be able to teleport. Entangling Roots is good to interrupt spells that require spell channeling.

[ Click to Enlarge - 264 KB ] An Entangled Grunt is forced to wait behind.

Entangling Roots Counters
Use dispel spells such as Dispel, Purge, Abolish Magic, and Dispel Magic to free up trapped units.

This can be defended by using certain Heroes and Hero spells such as Storm Bolt or by building towers. Night Elf players can use Wisp's Detonate to remove mana from the Keeper of the Grove. Orc players can use their Burrows to fire at the Keeper.

[ Click to Enlarge - 227 KB ] The Keeper Entangles a Peon harvesting Lumber.	[ Click to Enlarge - 188 KB ] The Keeper Entangles a Peon mining Gold.

Force of Nature Converts an area of trees into Treants. Treants can attack land units.

Level Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect Hero Level Req 1 60 sec. 20 sec. 125 80 15 Trees Raises 2 Treants 1 2 60 sec. 20 sec. 125 80 22.5 Trees Raises 3 Treants 3 3 60 sec. 20 sec. 125 80 30 Trees Raises 4 Treants 5

Force of Nature Information
Treants are great additions to your army. Since Force of Nature is only limited by its mana and cooldown, buy Mana Potions or replenish mana using Fountains or Moon Wells then cast Force of Nature again.

Use Force of Nature to clear away trees so that you can reach Gold Mines surrounded by trees.

When you're attacking enemy towns cast Force of Nature on areas where the enemy is trying to harvest Lumber. On Night Elf Towns you can sometimes cast it right in the middle of all their Wisps harvesting Lumber which will stop their Lumber harvesting and the Treants will already be in position to kill the Wisps.

Keep in mind that Treants are good experience to the enemy Heroes. Don't throw them away if you can help it. Have them run away and die elsewhere rather than just giving experience to enemy Heroes.

Research Nature's Blessing to increase the armor and movement speed of the Treants.

Force of Nature Counters
Use Dispel abilities.

[ Click to Enlarge - 189 KB ] TillerMan uses Force of Nature to clear a path through the trees to an enclosed Gold Mine. Force of Nature is great for clearing out trees if you wish to reach a Gold Mine surrounded by trees.

Force of Nature/Treant Counters
Use spells such as Dispel Magic, Abolish Magic, Purge, and Detonate to cause severe damage to Treants since they are summoned units.

Run away from the Treants, the timer will run out and they will die.

Thorns Aura An aura that gives friendly units around the Keeper of the Grove a damage shield, which wounds enemy melee attackers.

Thorns Aura Information
Thorns Aura is only effective if your units are being hit by melee attackers. If the enemy is using a lot of ranged troops, don't invest in this skill or at least don't invest heavily in this skill.

Thorns Aura Counters
Use ranged troops. Kill the Keeper of the Grove. Run the Keeper of the Grove away from his troops so he can't give them the aura.

Tranquility (Ultimate) Causes a rain of healing energy to pour down in a large area, healing friendly allied units for 20 hit points per second.

Tranquility Information
Once this spell is cast collect units under the rain until they are healed.

Tranquility Counters
This spell must be maintained by having the Keeper of the Grove stand still while the spell is cast to get the full effect. Force the Keeper of the Grove to run which will cancel Tranquility. Force the units under the Tranquility to leave the area of healing so they cannot be healed.

You can interrupt this spell with spells such as:

Humans: Sorceress - Polymorph (uncastable on heroes)
Humans: Dragonhawk Rider - Aerial Shackles (uncastable on ground units)
Humans: Mountain King - Storm Bolt
Humans: Mountain King - Bash (uncastable on air units)
Orcs: Raider - Ensnare
Orcs: Tauren Chieftain - War Stomp (uncastable on air units)
Orcs: Witch Doctor - Stasis Trap (uncastable on air units)
Orcs: Shadow Hunter - Hex
Night Elves: Druid of the Talon - Cyclone (uncastable on air units)
Night Elves: Keeper of the Grove - Entangling Roots (uncastable on air units)
Undead: Crypt Fiend - Web (uncastable on ground units)
Undead: Dread Lord - Sleep
Undead: Dread Lord - Inferno (uncastable on air units)
Undead: Crypt Lord - Impale (uncastable on air units)
Neutral: Dark Ranger - Silence
Neutral: Dark Ranger - Charm (uncastable on heroes)
Neutral: Goblin Tinker - Cluster Rockets
Neutral: Pit Lord - Doom (uncastable on heroes)
Neutral: Fire Lord - Soul Burn
Neutral: Fire Lord - Volcano

[ Click to Enlarge - 205 KB ] Tranquility heals the army.