I've been asked FOR YEARS to do a WC3 Heroes tier list... Here it is. 

I don't even play the game but I need that information

Not me watching this instead of sleeping even though i last played this game a decade ago

To this day I find it funny that Priestess' picture shows her Tiger instead of the Priestess herself. 😸

This video is perfect to picture how good the hero protraits are great. So much personalities with so few pixels. Great artworks!

-"Pitlord was a mistake" Grubby Miyazaki

I don't play WC3 since many years now. But this game was just a bit part of my childhood and... I listened 1 hour straight even if it's kind of useless. I just loved to hear your explanations about so much things I loved back in the days. Nostalgia is so strong...

Grubby, you didnt mentioned one of the most important features of hex, as well, it changes armor type of unit to medium. So it takes additional damage from normal and 100% from spells and magic.

I appreciate the historical background for each hero. I didn't realize they changed so much since 2003! Thank you!

You actually were right the first time. Cleave damage ignores armor entirely. You can see this against knights, which have very high armor. The pit lord will often be doing more damage to the knights that are cleaved than the one he is actually attacking

18:18 It got changed back in 2011 with patch 1.25b: "Hex will no longer disable mana or health regeneration of Heroes."

"breakers, sorcerers, and priests, and those three units just happen to be among the best in the human race" Not one human in them haha

It is also really interesting because, like your tier list points out, Elf heroes really aren't that strong. You almost always have to go DH to try and shut down the enemy hero instead. But the race is entirely held up by the strength of Staff of Preservation. Staff makes it so ridiculously hard to get a pick and basically acts like a pseudo hero ability. Human also gets a Staff, but way later with a much longer cooldown and root. Something I think is really broken and underutilized, is picking up items from other races in team games. Staff on Orc is broken stupid, but you never even really think about running over to the Elf to pick it up. You can slap Orb of Corruption on your Shadow Hunter for a ridiculous hero killer. Or power creep with Salve, although your Orc will probably get big mad if you keep buying their stock. I remember making a 4v4 strat of just building Orc shops in my ally bases to supply them with fast expansions and healing salves, and business was boomin'.

8:56 "Endurance aura effects every unit around him, fr fr, no cap"

46:45 "The moment you are starting to get su**ed... the su***ing continues for some time" getting me a bit flustered Grubby

You forgot to mention for Blood Mage that his Siphon Mana can be used on friendly Units AND Heroes. And when you do that, instead of Blood Mage sucking their mana, he transfers his own mana to the friendly unit/hero. Which is extremely useful when your Paladin runs out of mana for example. And Blood Mage can afford to sacrifice his mana, cause he can steal it from enemies again, because of no real cooldown and cost.

Holy shit! That story at the end was top notch. People who dont watch all the way through are gonna miss such a gem.

Cryptlord was my favorite hero. I always thought it was amazing that in the middle of a fight he could use his swarm heal and be ready up for another fight. Kinda sad that he ended up that low. :(

17:45 I think Fly yesterday, against Hawk, skipped Reincarnation, and went for 3 point in Aura. He got so fast and Hawk didn't even bother to attack TC, not sure if he realized that Fly went for 3/3 skills.

I have not been asking or waiting for this, but its about time we got a hero tier list from the lord of Warcraft. Now we also need a map and unit tier list. Very nice. This is so much more than just ranking heroes, this is like a tutorial for beginners and at the same time so much information for vetaran players.

I had to look up a video showcasing shadow hunter because i realized ive never seen big bad voodoo ever

I wouldn't put Crypt Lord at the bottom, he synergizes brilliantly with the other undead heroes. Cast death pact or dark ritual on a beetle and you get a lot of health/mana back, much more than a skeleton would give, and without wasting a unit that costs gold and wood resources. Also the dreadlord vampiric aura buffs beetles and you can use them to surround/trap enemy heroes with sleep. Also you can put him out in front of your army and let the enemy break themselves on his spiked carapace while you toss death coils on him and buff him and his units with unholy aura. He gives you an undead tank that death knight can actually heal, which is sorely needed prior to abominations.

Many moons have I waited for this moment

Grubby's tier list actually makes a lot of sense. S = indispensable. A = very strong, usually best among options. B = makes important but non-critical contributions. C = highly situational. D = not ideal even in their supposed niche.

I was never good at RTS but I remember watching a lot of the pro scene back in the day, including your games, and I don't follow the game now but a video like this is still super interesting to me haha. Glad it popped up on my feed.

If they allowed DK heal not friendly undeads, but friendly targets - that would be so much fun. For undeads.

One of the great things about you Grubby is how well formulated and thought out comments and ideas are. I might have not played ladder W3 for at least 10-20 years, but I really do enjoy your explanations and context.

Appreciate the lesson. In-between the tier list you're still getting all the knowledge. The joy and utter fulfillment on that face from the 2019 clips 😀

This was a fun video! And surprisingly educational about WC3, too.

Says Blood Mage is the most underrated hero, then immediately proceeds to underrate Blood Mage :D pretty much agree with all the other placements (Orc heroes imba). AM/Beastmaster vs Orc brought back some good memories haha, it was my bread and butter back in the day.

I’ve seen so many hero tier list I didn’t think I’d enjoy this… now I need more! Give us HOTS hero tier list Grub! ❤

Azgalore should be in S+ tier unlike regular Pit Lords.

Love this video - I honestly love your breakdown of the heroes and even though I played this 15 years ago, I'm seriously considering trying this again - Thanks Grubby.

"I AM HERO AND OBEY" -what i thought the blademaster was saying back then

I am still impressed by how much you know about the game and I love hearing you basically ramble and analyze all that information. I dont even play this game yet I cant stop watching your videos!

Pitlord is bugged btw his rain of fire damage values are wrong when you check it in the editor which is why its weak no matter what rank it is When you do some quick math and make the changes it works like its stated lol

I havent played W3 in like 10 years but I needed this tier list in my life nway.

Great Video. I didn't know about the Hex effects like denying exp and mana regen.... incredible.

TC is my favorite hero

Seen some people in the stream chat commenting about how in depth and how long this video is gonna take to make. GOOD, could listen to this kinda info all day lol

I need practice in RTS games in general but i have a passionate love for the genre, wc3 and good, applicable knowledge just watching you play and talk so keenly about your strategies and reasonings for things. You bet your sweet hiney im going to enjoy watching this list and educated guessing where heroes would rank!

WC3 is my childhood game, I used to suck and even now. Even that I don't play it anymore, I do enjoy your wc3 content!

Havn´t played War3 a decade yet all these hero icons and spell icons are just so iconic, they live rent free in my mind

loving the list, thanks!

The background music added in this video is very appreciated. The Warcraft III music is underrated. Nice to have music to go along with good explanation of the heroes.

Grubby, have you ever heard of a custom campaign called To the Bitter End? I swear you should cover this master piece, it is a full game within a game.

I turned this on while working on something. The audio itself was enough to make me want to reinstall the game and make yet another playthrough. Speaks how great the game is. Thank you for the vid Grubby, it is really interesting!

Please do a similar unit tier list!!! Loved this grubby

I don't think Night Elf having generally weaker heroes is that much of a hot take - the same logic of orc and undead being carried by their heroes is true of night elf being carried by moon wells. That's why they've historically been the race that uses tavern heroes the most. Honestly, it's because of moon wells that neutral heroes aren't a strong as they generally should be in my opinion, you basically have to balance neutral heroes under the pretense that they have access to moon wells.

Really good editing on this one. Had to dig to find it though

I don't know if this changed since the Reforged version, but back then I remember Pitlord's Cleave ability bypassing armour and could actually deal more damage to the secondary targets than the main one if hitting a bunch of high armour targets, which is quite odd

I've been dying for this video for like 10 years, thanks so much Grubster! Would love to see the ultimates tier list next! =)

Havent played the game since a year after the expansion release, but i still love watching your vids. Keep it up:)

1:31:02 you had me chuckle, but this is also why i always followed you since like forever. Authentic, at it, inspring and well mannered. Thanks for being around, Grubby!

Grubby, I'm really happy to see this channel taking off. Your positivity and insights make all of your videos, regardless of topic, a joy to listen to!

Totally accurate list

Priestess of the Moon

I won so many games with my orc farseer and 3 grunts rush at first midnight back in the day. Then tinker came out and I won even more with the same strat in 2v2 using factory.

Grubby, I have been following you since 2005. But only in this in-depth analysis I have been able to fully appreciate your knowledge of the game and how complex WC actually is. Take care m8, you rock!

I remember not 3 years ago, Fly100% went BM + *PL* + SH (unsure on the order of 2nd and 3rd hero) in an Orc mirror against Lyn (I believe?) on Concealed Hill and it was absolutely glorious...! It was a one-off, no doubt, but in an Orc mirror with mass Raiders and Shamans, a bloodlusted PL with cleave and HoT was a real force of nature and a spectacle to behold.

This might be my second most anticipated movie release of 2024, next to pannenkoek's nearly 4 hour long video about walls in Super Mario 64.

Caught it ongoing on stream, decided to wait for video. Sweet.

I would like to see you play a showmatch as Orc against a Human player, but the heroes of the races are switched, so you get Human heroes at the altar and the Human gets Orc heroes. This would be a fun way to test the relative strength of the races' heroes.

will be nice to see voting on how community sees these heroes in comparison

I'm a sucker for a tier list. I will watch all the WC3 tier lists, lol. Units, Ults, Maps, WC3 players of all time, etc

i also enjoyed the beastmaster/dh aow creep with quilbeast and tinker third with mass master talons vs orc. that strat was BIG for a long, long time knocking out tons of orcs. i think i've only seen 1 or 2 orcs ever beat it in a big tournament. i think i've seen you beat it once back when you were playin in WCG Competitively

Such a pleasure to watch the whole thing, plus this tier list reminds me of old DotA hero portraits

27:51 also gargoyles, skeletons, beetles, even acolytes, mercenaries and possessed. Dreadlord was clearly designed as fast farmer and support, devs just didn't think about even faster farm strats. Great design on paper, B/C tier in reality.

Thank you dearly for this tierlist, very in depth but also straight to the point, i am a NE Warden enjoyer btw

Mercenary tier list next! Also Alchemist and Paladin are a fun duo.

Haven't played W3 in like 10 years, but I'm still very familiar with these heroes (not so much their patch notes) and hearing about them coming from a pro like you is always great content

I agree with the list for the most part (aside from minor discrepancies) but there is one thing I have to point out because I just feel like it's way off... I really think that Demon Hunter & Far Seer need to swap places. I think (being an orc main who uses him constantly) that Grubby slightly over values FS - I understand the value of scouting & wolves harass, but after early game there are just SO many matchups where he has barely any value and just falls off so hard. Chain lightning is relatively weak & has very high mana cost, and once you get a few mins it opponent is just constantly dispelling wolves for free xp (or God forbid you end up in a match up against human with breakers or elves with dryad - wolves just set your mana on fire only to be poofed, can't even cast lightning and you're stuck AAing with a hero that has shit attack). Meanwhile, Demon Hunter is an absolute menace from the beginning and only gets stronger. Mana Burn is just super oppressive to play against, and even one point in Immo can do some real damage - and of course if you get to 6 Meta is absolutely terrifying. I really just can't see any possibility that FS = S tier while DH is only A...

seeing this summary makes me realise even more so just how awesome wc3 is. The development team back in the date was fire.

Thanks Grubby. Your people demands a part II with ultimates. Except for a very few, they're so mana expensive that i'd often skip them for basic ability

I would love to see more of this for each of the races. Either a unit tier list (or spells), or just an in depth description of each races pay styles/strengths/weaknesses/strats/current and past metas. WC3 is a hard game for me to understand with so much going on.

Idk man. My bottom 50 ranked strat of solo TC destroying everyone works just fine! 😂😂

Love this! even though all my heroes (MK,DH, BM) was A tier list. keep up the great work! even though havnt played for 14 years ish, this game is still close to heart.

Hey grubby I really felt excited when I saw the video and its so awesome how you explain everything in detail. I just feel confused about DH, how can he have so much good stuff and strenght that he was called superman but hes not S tier in your opinion, it feels always hard playing against him. Maybe its because of the general NE concept but still he has everything, abilities, stats,…

Any chance we can have a tier list for items ? The ones from the shop and also the drops from the creeps camps, that would be awesome ! Thanks for the video

Started listening to this on vacation while in shower.. FINALLY time to finish it! The moment many of us have been waiting for.

I don't play competitively in WC3 so my ratings of heroes is super different (it's literally all preference) but I really like all the heroes that spawn extra units, and the Crypt Lord in particular is very good for a first hero in my opinion because it gives you 4 permanent bonus units that are fairly powerful at max rank to supplement your army. I know the other spells all have a lot of impact as well but for lower skill players its really nice to have spells that auto cast or do something permanent to have a little less to manage during fights.

I really love that Glad you can bake it Uther reference. I laughed out of nowhere here in the office

That's quite amazing. I didn't think they were so complex. Btw would you include in that tier list custom/unique heroes like Garithos etc?

Last time I play WC3 was like 8 years ago but I need this hour and a half information for my incoming exam. 👍

I love this tierlist video grub. I think wc3 biggest issue is the hard accessability. Very complicated game to get into😊

I feel like Blood Mage is the most underrated hero. Maybe 20 years later he will be meta when people will understand how to play him

First of all, great list. I can't say I agree with all the choices but that's because the last time I seriously played this game was 20 years ago ao my memory of it is significantly different from what it is now and also because even then, I sucked at the game. Haha. Your logic and explanations are sound. The ratings are fairly consistent, such that even those who only have a novel understanding of the game can kind of "predict" where you would place a hero (or, more accurately, actually follow your logic through the list ). Since my profession is a iut making cogent and coherent arguments, I greatly appreciate this. Therefore, secondly, since I'm a massive Borderlands fan and have recently gotten back into it, I have a ton of time for listening to long form podcast style videos. Hence why I now officially request that you, Grubby, bite the bullet, be one with Purge and make a 3 hour long list ranking all the units for Wc3 in its current incarnation, specifically for 1v1. And then, should that be too easy for you, maybe best abilities specifically ultimates (like you mentioned). The list could go on but yeah... Lastly and on a complete tangent, as a fairly big Raid: Shadow Legends fan, I think you'd actually like the game quite a bit because its essentially a team building game where you try to form the best team to beat whichever boss is in front of you. And now, I realise I've been typing this comment for like 10 minutes in the tropical midday sun and I think a drink of water is probably what my body needs before I melt into a puddle and immediately evaporate, disappearing into thin air. TLDR: Great list Grubby. Now go play Raid Shadow Legends so you can download my code (in the comments below!!!)😂😂😂

I've been wondering this since watching your OG days Grubby.

Dreadlord used to be a bit wacky, true, but at the moment he's a staple vs Hu. Wrecks workshops much better than panda, can be coiled. Placing him behind tinker just doesn't feel right. I beieve he's a solid B

I played few games of Warcraft 3 skirmish. I had invented Paladin build for myself where I would prioritize armor and healing. However, I would go for Priests to create sturdy backline. Commenters also said that Paladin should go with priests. I do not know how good it is at the very top, but it was rock solid strategy for me to start playing with.

Such in-depth analysis! This requires absolute understanding of the game. Your explanation is much better than many professors in the universities. Or maybe, many professors do not have full understanding of the field they are in. 😄😄😄

IMO due to Warden's spell kit and design, she should have gotten more Int per upgrade than Agi and Str.

I used to do DK/Pit/Necro frenzy in 2v2 (one player picking dk, the other pit). Pretty fun cleave rush.

Bloodmage is actually VERY underrated due to skill check entry. Fairly placed however since they've nerfed Flamestrike so much it's now painful to play with it.

14:10 ish, man, getting lvl3 serpent wards for the FIRST time ever in a 2v2 or i think it might've been a 3v3 tournament since we had many many big battles, and we were on ventrilo or maybe teamspeak? we could coordinate hero nukes, hex into a bolt into a coil/nova nuke? is gnarly. but then a TC stomp, coil/nova+hex, into another nuke... having stomp come back up and that dudes still alive, they have no chance to use pots or invuln or anything cept rely on other allies healing (healing wards, heal scrolls, etc) which reminds me of a particular team who always played ud/ud which a LOT of people considered horrible but they constantly remained in the top 5-8 in 2v2 AT. and we played them a lot. they managed to snag a couple wins off of us whenever we got really bad maps and matchups. my worst race in TFT was 100% without question human. hence why i came up with so many cheesy builds.

Reminds me of another beta moment when the dreadlord had mass teleport. If I remember correctly, he would turn into a swarm of bats with his units. It was so cool!

I feel like if the crypt lords aoe effect of his Q hits more units in a bigger cone his use would sky rocket

"If I have wings, why am I always walking?" lives rent free in my head

I didn't know about a lot of warcraft 3 mechanics for years until Dota 2 forced me to learn them. There's both a lot more transparency and written or video based word of mouth about Dota 2 mechanics and maybe not so much I've seen about the same things in War3. I couldn't tell you what the base attack times for all the heroes in War3 are, and I'm only now learning that Banish dispels Ensnare. Which makes some logical sense, since you're a ghost and you slip through the net, but maybe not a ton of mechanical sense.

One spell Idea I could see being a positive for POTM would be to replace searing arrow (which doesn't fit night elf lore anyway they don't catch things on fire) and give her something like enchant weapon. The spell would target units the same way frost armor does, you enchant their weapons to gain the positive effects of magic damage on top of their normal attacks. Each level adds a percentage of the magic damage benefit. Suddenly your projectile army can pierce through heavy armor units like butter.

Back in the day i used to struggle vs undead with human. i either went pala first and bloodmage second or rushed with mass footy and firelord. when your firelord arrives at their base you had 2-3 footy and more on the way. keep the summons alive and you can win on the spot or cripple their eco+creeping speed so much that your knights hit really hard against underlvled heros+no tech. The BO was farm and barracks first, start building footy as soon as possible and let them run to the tavern in the middle. Time your altar with the timing of the tavern, the moment you can recruit him you do it and go to the UD base. Continue to build footy until you reach 7-8 then upgrade defend, if you win hard keep up the pressure with more footy, otherwise start to tech and stop footy production. Dont leave the UD to themself so they can creep, if they tech go for their akolytes. Most important part is to not let the UD tech or slow down their tech and dont lose footy. At home you build an aracne vault and tech for fast knights. Would love to see you play this style.