Banshees were once beautiful female Night Elves who were brutally murdered by demons during the fall of Kalimdor. Their restless spirits were left to wander the world for many ages in silent, tortured lamentation. Over the years they became jealous of the living and seeded a deep hatred for all life. Yet when the Lich King, Ner'zhul, became aware of them, he gathered them together and promised them vengeance upon the living. Ner'zhul gave them terrible voices so that the living would finally hear their timeless anguish. Thus, the Banshees have pledged themselves to the Undead cause and serve as valuable warriors in the Scourge. The spectral Banshees can fly and are fond of hammering their enemies with tortured blasts of sonic force. Their unnerving, unholy screams can be heard from miles away.

Level: 2 Cost: 155 30 2 Unit Type: Normal Attack Type: Magic Weapon Type: Missile Armor Type: Unarmored Armor: 0 Ground Attack: 11 avg *(#) = Stats when fully upgraded

Air Attack: 11 avg Cooldown: 1.5 Hit Points: 285 (365*) Health Regeneration: Blight Mana: 200 (400*) Mana Regeneration: 0.667 (1.167*) Range: 60 Day Sight: 140

Night Sight: 80 Speed: Average (270) Build Time: 28 Trained At: Temple of the Damned Requirements: None Transport Space Usage: 1 Production Hot Key: B

Banshees are the lesser-known Undead spellcaster. Many Undead players choose to focus on Necromancers but Banshees are also useful to the Undead. The most powerful and scary ability of Banshee's is the Possession spell. Banshees can gain control of units like Knights, Abominations, Tauren, or even powerful spellcasters such as Shaman or Sorceresses. Imagine how cool it is to take over a Human Sorceress then instantly use it to Slow enemy troops. You could also take over an enemy Shaman and Bloodlust your troops. Banshees can also support troops with their Curse ability. They can help protect Heroes with Anti-Magic Shell.

Banshee Counters
Banshees are very easy to kill. Undead players need to run away from any enemy that gets near them.

Curse (Autocast) Curses a target enemy unit, causing it to have a 33% chance to miss on an attack.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements None Always Available None Duration (Hero) Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect 120 (60) sec. 1 sec. 40 70 N/A Air, Ground, Organic 33% chance to miss

Anti-magic Shell Creates a barrier that stops 300 points of spell damage from affecting a target unit.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements 100 50 Temple of the Damned Banshee Adept Training Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect 90 sec. None 75 50 Unit Air, Ground Absorbs 300 points of spell damage

Anti-Magic Shell Information
This spell absorbs the first 300 points of spell or magic damage dealt to the target, but does not grant magic immunity. Note that spells absorbed by AMS can still deal secondary effects, such as stun, paralysis, or mana drain.

This spell is most helpful when cast on Heroes to protect them from other enemy Heroes or spellcasters. You can also cast on normal units or spellcasters to protect them.

Possession Stuns a target unit and the Banshee for 4 seconds, during which the Banshee takes extra damage from attacks. She then displaces the soul of the enemy, giving you permanent control of it, but destroying the caster's body. Possession cannot be used on flying units, Heroes, or creeps above level 5.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements 100 150 Temple of the Damned Banshee Master Training Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect Unlimited None 250 35 Unit Ground, Non Hero, Enemy, Organic, Neutral Converts unit to your side

Possession Information
The Banshee takes 166% damage while possessing a unit.

Possession is one of the coolest Undead abilities. Possession can allow you to gain control of units that you are unable to use or train as an Undead player. Possession is also useful for turning the tide of a battle because the enemy loses a unit and you gain a unit. This places you far ahead in terms of unit match-ups. It is especially cool when you steal a useful enemy spellcaster such as a Human Priest, Sorceress, Orc Shaman, or Orc Witch Doctor and can now use their abilities to help your own troops. You can also steal the workers of other races and build up their tech tree. You can even take over enemy Creeps such as an Ogre-Mage with Bloodlust.

You can possess the worker units of other races and build up the tech tree. You cannot have more than 3 Heroes for all of the races you control. Once you have built 3 Heroes, additional Heroes cannot be built. You do not increase your Food Limit by controlling additional races. It is always 100. You can continue to Possess units over the 100 limit but you might not be able to revive a dead Hero if you are over the limit.

When Possessing troops pick the most important units to steal. Knights, Tauren, Priests, Sorceresses, Kodo Beasts, and so on are important units to grab. Spellcasters that can cast buffs or heal your units are especially useful.

Possession can be used to get free upgrades much like the Dark Archon's Mind Control in StarCraft. When you possess an enemy unit, all upgrades/ researches are automatically researched for you free of cost. You can possess different enemy Undead units to "steal" upgrades.

Possession Counters
Posession is a channeling spell so interrupt it. Read more. Try to remove the Mana of the Banshees so they don't have enough Mana to cast Possession.

Banshee Adept Training Increases mana capacity by 100, mana regeneration rate by 30%, hit points by 40, and gives them the ability to cast Anti-magic Shell.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements Upgrade Time 100 50 Temple of the Damned None 60 sec.

Banshee Master Training Further increases mana capacity by 100, mana regeneration rate by 30%, hit points by 40, and gives them the ability to cast Possession. Research Cost Researched At Requirements Upgrade Time 100 150 Temple of the Damned Banshee Adept Training, Black Citadel 75 sec.