The Orcish Horde is probably the most beginner friendly faction there is in Warcraft III. That is because of how tanky the units are to use, so it allows easier microing. They are known for having excellent melee-based units, so it’s a great faction for those that want a strong army in the frontline. The Orc faction is also known for having some excellent caster support, and I personally believe they can be very game changing in the late game.
I am both a Human and Orc main, so I definitely know what are some of the most iconic unit compositions to use for the Horde. Just like in my last unit composition guide, I’ll be picking only five of them that I know most Orc players will use.
These unit compositions are certainly known for being efficient for their role, and I have seen them many times during my life with this game. I would also recommend new players to try them out too if you want to become an Orc main.
Headhunter Caster
Headhunters are certainly all the rage these days. That is because they’ve been severely buffed in the 1.30.0 patch for the game. Before the patch, I certainly remember players using them with the Tauren Chieftain in team games. The whole idea is to have an army to do damage behind the hero, while the hero is there to handle the crowd control aspect with his War Stomp ability. Also, the Endurance Aura enhances the troll’s lethality due to the increased attack and movement speed.
Sometimes, players like to go solo Tauren Chieftain just to feed experience for the hero because he’s a great hero for the late game stage. Most Warcraft III players do not want to deal with a Tauren Chieftain that has a level 3 War Stomp ability because it stuns a large amount of enemies for five seconds and it has a seven second cooldown.
Some of them like to have a secondary hero like the Shadow Hunter for healing support or combine his Hex ability with the Tauren Chieftain’s War Stomp ability for massive hero damage potential.
The Shamans are probably one of the most desirable caster units in the game.
I prefer to go with the Far Seer as my entry hero, and I’ll pick whatever second hero I believe will be best during my situation. But this build is certainly flexible in terms of hero choices, and the casters are something players tend to add to the composition during the late game stage. I believe the most popular are Shamans because of their Bloodlust ability which increases a unit’s attack and movement speed.
But there are other options like Witch Doctors for the Stasis Trap Wards or Healing Wards. You can also go for Spirit Walkers for the anti caster department.
This build is very popular ever since the patch changes and they’ve also been used in top 1v1 competition. It was mostly commonly seen for team games, but it has now made its ways to the interest of the professional players.
Grunt Raider Walker
This is probably one of the most iconic unit compositions for the Orc especially among skilled players. It’s easily my favorite one to use out of them. I look at it as the tried and true composition for this faction.
This composition is designed to be a melee build, but it’s very versatile in a lot of things. It’s great for destroying the enemy’s mobility because of the Raider’s Ensnare ability. It can also be great for dealing caster composition because of the Spirit Walker’s Disenchant ability. You can also use the Spirit Walker’s Spirit Link spell to increase the damage reduction for your units.
Not only that, you can somewhat use this build to deal with air units because of the Raider’s Ensnare ability. It can be a rather viable unit composition for dealing with air units as long the enemies don’t have too many of them.
They are ready to fight!
Last but not least, another amazing thing about this build is you can take advantage of the Pillage upgrade from your Great Hall. Since your army is mostly going to be Grunts and Raiders in terms of density, you can do hit and runs against your opponent’s bases to farm up some resources!
As you can see, it’s very versatile, and it’s just a lot of fun to play and I always liked how the army composition looked too. I tend to go Far Seer or Blademaster as my entry hero when opting for this build. In the late game stage, I’ll throw in Kodo Beasts or try to throw in Taurens if I can.
Nowadays, I believe people don’t use it as much anymore because of the buffs for the Headhunters, but I still love using this unit composition when I want to play as the melee role and try hard at the same time.
Tauren Shaman
Here’s another iconic melee composition for the Orcs. Some people call this build as “Bloodlusted Taurens.” This one is more of a style over substance type of build, but it still has its usage. Don’t ever expect high skilled players to use this build often and it has its limits. I do think it does have its place in 3v3 and 4v4 gametypes.
Taurens are basically the only tier 3 unit for the Orcs. Unfortunately, they’re not as desirable compared to other tier 3 units from the other factions. The problem is they are a melee unit and melee units are designed to just fight units on the ground. That means, they can easily be hard countered by air units which the other faction do have for their tier 3 units or even for tier 2.
Another issue in the older patches was it used to require players to build a Tauren Totem to produce them. Blizzard did allow players to build that building for tier 2 and they decided to let players make Spirit Walkers in them instead of the Spirit Lodge to increase the usage of the Taurens. However, it still hasn’t made them all that effective to use.
Despite not being a unit that’s popular among skilled players, it can still be good as long you opponents aren’t expecting it. Taurens are also very hard to kill if your opponents don’t have the right units to fight it.
Deadly against ground units and stylish at the same time.
You do have a good amount of hero options too. It’s very fun to see a Bloodlusted Blademaster in action, so using a Blademaster for your entry hero isn’t a bad idea.
You need to have your allies to work on the anti air role because it’s extremely hard to transition once you go for this build. You’re very much going to be the melee role for the entire game.
Shamans are mostly there just to cast Bloodlust on the Taurens and when Taurens are Bloodlusted, they become devastatingly scary when fighting ground units. You can also try to use Lightning Shield on the Taurens too if you see one stuck in a crowd of enemy units.
It’s certainly a lot of fun to watch the Taurens go at it. Like I said, this build is mostly designed the 3v3 or 4v4 game modes and you have to hope your opponents aren’t the best to make this build shine its true colors.
Wind Riders/Wyverns
Here’s a classic unit composition among Orc fanatics. The good ol’ mass Wind Riders or Wyvern build. I remember during my younger years, I’ve seen so many Orc players used to mass these guys.
Since I was exposed to the popularity of Wyverns, I knew that every time I bump into an Orc opponent, I would have the thought in the back of my head that he could potentially go for this build.
This unit composition is popular because of how damaging Wind Riders are especially with their Envenomed Spears upgrade. It’s also very popular for players to upgrade their “main building” as fast as possible just to get quick access to these guys and start wrecking havoc.
Ready to soar, master!
They are an air unit too, so that means they have excellent mobility and can be a great unit to harass an opponent that doesn’t have many towers or not having the right unit to counter them.
I don’t see them as much used nowadays and that’s because I think people have gotten better over the years to deal with them and having better game sense. But it’s easily iconic for many long time Warcraft III players because we’ve all seen these guys many times.
Oh, and let’s not forget the good ol’ feeding strategy in 2v2 Arranged Team matches where an ally would feed the Orc to get quick access to Wind Riders.
Batriders
I’m going to end this list with a controversial build from the Orc faction. It’s the one build that no player ever wants to deal with and that is massing Batriders. Most people generally go for this build to simply destroy their opponent’s “main building” as fast as possible.
This kind of tactic is called “laming” among Warcraft III fanatics mainly because this unit composition is not too great for fighting, but it’s good at destroying buildings. Basically, the player is just trying to destroy all the opponents’ buildings to win the game, but they are also trying to avoid any real fights at the same time. It is extremely popular to use in 3v3 and 4v4 matches especially if the player is not scouted.
The large maps can also make this build be very effective too because of how difficult it is to scout them.
What makes this unit composition so controversial is the Liquid Fire upgrade. This prevents your worker from being able to repair them, and this is where things can get stressful if you are the one that’s getting sieged.
I am certainly not the biggest fan of using this build, but it is extremely common to bump into when playing team games. You also have to expect it every now and then too.
A terrifying sight…
Players tend to go solo hero. They like to harass and scout their opponent while upgrading their Great Hall to tier 3 for the full power spike. The Blademaster is perhaps the most commonly seen hero for this build.
The Orcs are also known for massing Raiders which has similar roles to massing Bats, but I chose Bats over Raiders because I know every player will remember how annoying it is to deal with these guys when they don’t expect it.
Also, sometimes players can use their large amount of Bats to back up precious tier 3 air units like Gryphon Riders or Frost Wyrms in team games. This adds value to the Batriders in various stages compared to Raiders.
Those are my five unit compositions for the Orcs that I believe are very iconic among Warcraft III players. I hope both veteran and new players found this guide to be an enjoyable read. With that said, go out there and play some more Warcraft III because the game is awesome and despite what Blizzard has done to the game, there are still many devoted players playing.
