Pit Lord Fast T3 Necro Wagon Push

This guide was created by Nio of Ida (aka SilversGodot)

This guide introduces the Pit Lord Tier 3 Necro-Wagon strategy, which combines the strong sustain and attrition value of necromancer meat wagons and the Pit Lord’s powerful Cleave ability. This is a highly off-meta strategy and as such it is likely not viable at MMRs above 1600, but it is playable below that. It is most feasible in the Undead vs Human and Undead vs Night Elf match ups. Undead vs Orc is playable but not ideal. It is not advised in Undead vs Undead.

Difficulty of Build: Intermediate – at lower level play, micro is not necessarily the deciding factor, but good control of the army and hero are necessary to climb.

Pros:

• Very strong attrition value through necromancers, meat wagons, obsidian statues, and disease cloud.
• Powerful Pit Lord Cleave attacks punishes spell caster/dispel heavy compositions.

Cons:

• Weaker early game: Pit Lord is weak early on, power spikes at level 3 and beyond.
• Slightly Micro-intensive: Especially against Mass-air compositions.
• Exp. fed to opponent: In long drawn-out games, the skeleton army will feed Exp to the opponent. Some ultimates are more dangerous than others, but all of them can be dealt with. Have fun seeing these rare spectacles!

The Build Order

The Game Plan- Start to Finish

Early Game (0-5 Minutes):

• Initial Creeping: Creep up the Pit Lord with rod of necromancy, and 2 ghouls. Skill Rain of Fire at level 1, Cleave at level 2 and 3. Rain of Fire accelerates creeping speed and allows Pit Lord to creep most orange camps.
• Be careful of aggression: Pit Lord may have good stats compared to most heroes, but he lacks Utility so you might be bullied off the map by opponent Heroes.
  
• An example creep route on Tidehunters is shown below. Unimpeded, Pit Lord can easily get to level 3 or 4.

Against Mid-Game Aggression:

• Upgrade Nerubian Towers if the enemy is dedicated to aggression/harass. The tight corridors of an Undead base funnels units directly into Pit Lord’s Cleave attacks.
• If the opponent utilized ranged units such as headhunters or riflemen, Rain of Fire can be used to drive them away. Buy Health/Mana potions if things are desperate.

Skill Choice:

Rain of Fire does excellent damage at level 1 and in fact out-damages even level 3 Cleave. However, Pit Lord has poor Mana pool and Mana regeneration, so its usefulness is limited in the long term.

Cleave should be the main skill you focus on, especially as it synergizes very well with Unholy Frenzy. Cleave damage on secondary targets is unaffected by armor and spell immunity, so it is a powerful method of dealing area damage.

Howl of Terror should be picked at level 4 if you need strong damage mitigation, especially if your opponent has gone mass air. Otherwise, Rain of Fire level 2 is a good choice.

At the beginning of a fight, Pit Lord should use up his Mana pool by using Rain of Fire or Howl of Terror. This is especially important before level 5 and 6 Pit Lord, as you do not have level 3 Cleave or Doom yet.

Once you reach level 6, Mana should be saved for Doom. Doom is an undispellable de-buff that does stead damage over time to the affected unit until they die. Doomed units cannot be saved, although they can be healed to delay their death.

Upon dying, a Doom Guard is spawned, which has access to Rain of Fire, Warstomp, Cripple, and Dispel Magic. This is a powerful unit that adds good utility and damage to your army. Doom should either be cast on an expensive enemy unit (such as knights or Gryphons) to maximize value or a friendly skeleton summon to get the Doom Guard as fast as possible.

Push Timing:

It is more important to have everything ready rather than pushing out too early. Your army should be 8 necromancers, at least 2 meat wagons (a single meat wagon is not enough), and 1-2 obsidian statues. Ghouls can also be pulled since you will not need high lumber income after your upgrades are completed.

• Target Selection: If the opponent has an expansion, you need to prioritize killing it. Tier 3 Necro-wagon has high-cost efficiency, but it cannot beat 2-base income vs 1-base.
• Scout Beforehand: Utilize skeletons from necromancers. The worst thing that can happen is to run straight into the enemy without being ready.

Fight Strategy:

• Always Pre-Summon: Look to summon a batch of skeletons just before you start the siege. Skeletons will spawn beside the meat wagons, so take your time to move them away from your casters.
• The Front line: Always be sure to send in skeletons first. They will body block, (making opponent pathing awkward) and soak up damage. Be careful since they can also be killed very quickly with mass dispel.
• Unholy Frenzy: Cast onto Pit Lord. This provides a massive increase to his DPS, and further amplified by Cleave, which is unaffected by armor.
• Spreading the Disease: Try to maximize disease cloud coverage. If you see fragile units like dryads/priests within range, focus them with the meat wagons.
• Keeping Hero’s Alive: The PitLord is both tanky and an easy focus target. Be especially careful of how much damage he is taking. Ensure PitLord stays back and casts multiple Rain of Fires, and he can then join the Front Line (Cleave and Unholy Frenzy) once he runs out of Mana. If you are afraid of the Pit Lord dying, you can get a Death Knight with Death Coil as 2^nd hero, though this will necessarily delay your push.
• Cripple the Opponent: Cast cripple on dangerous heroes and units. This is especially important on heroes with high DPS or splash damage, such as Demon Hunter, Panda, Naga, Blademaster and mountain king.
• Kite it out: Cripple allows you to disengage from the enemy and you can summon skeletons in your wake. The goal is to win by attrition. Not every fight need to be a decisive victory.

Late Game:

• It is often the case that the game drags beyond the initial push. You should push past 50 supply and into low upkeep, continuing to produce necromancers (up to 12), meat wagons (up to 4), and Obsidian Stautes (as many as you need to maintain Mana on your units).
• You should only make a 2^nd hero after your push has been put together (this hero will be made while the push is ongoing), though sometimes you may want them before that. Below are some choices:
  • Death Knight: To heal up the PitLord with Death Coil
  • Dark Ranger: Silence against opposing Dispel Units (Also works vs. Wisps)
  • FireLord: Incinerate and SoulBurn to add DPS and control enemy Heroes.
• Expand when your gold mine runs out. You will need gold income if the game has not ended, but a 2^nd gold mine is generally not needed.
• Banshees for anti-magic shell can be useful against heroes with strong AOE spell damage, such as Bloodmage (Flamestrike), Archmage (Blizzard), Mountain King (Thunder Clap), etc.

Control Groups

The following control groups are what I use. You can experiment and adapt them to your own. I will explain my reasoning.

• 1: Necropolis for Acolytes and tech.
• 2: Crypt, Altar of Darkness, Slaughterhouse, and Temples of the Damned for army and hero production.
• 3: Meat Wagons for ease of focus firing and control.
• 4: Heroes, ghouls, and Obsidian statues to make sure every unit is in a control group
• 5: Necromancers. These guys need their own control group because you will continue making them as the game goes on and you will often reach the 12-unit control group size limit.

Example:

Conclusion:

This build is quite fun and cinematic for how powerful Pit Lord can become. Funnily enough, the Necromancer Meat Wagon army is seemingly how Blizzard had initially intended the Undead race to be played. Due to the high amount of experience feeding that dispelled skeletons give, you will often see many heroic ultimates that you otherwise won’t see, and if the game drags long enough you will also gain access to Pit Lord’s Doom.

This guide is meant to be a primer for players looking to play off-meta. Experimentation is highly encouraged!

Contact Info:

• Discord: nio_of_ida
• W3C Profile: SilversGodot

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