Dreadlord (Warcraft III)

Dreadlords are incredibly powerful demons who wield the powers of darkness and mental domination. These cunning, malefic beings once served as the demon Kil'jaeden's most trusted lieutenants. Yet, at Kil'jaeden's request, the vampiric Dreadlords were sent to watch over the Lich King Ner'zhul, and ensure that he carried out his orders to sow chaos in the mortal world. Though Dreadlords have been known to revel in the gore of single combat, they generally prefer to manipulate and beguile their enemies from the shadows.

Hero names
Terrordar, Nerothos, Bleakill, Necros, Fearoth, Dethecus, Maldibion, Nochthitus, Gholbine, Rashgarroth, Aramachus, Zilfallon, Lorthiras, Zenedar, Mullioch, Algammon, Banehallow, Ven'Gyr.

Information
The Dreadlord is one of the most popular Undead heroes because of his massive versatility, especially in team matches. Though he is classified as a melee (Strength) Hero, the Dreadlord possesses one of the highest mana pools and intelligence growths. In single matches, a Dreadlord isn't as powerful due to his lack of support to an Undead army compared to a Death Knight or Lich.

Dreadlords should always be paired with Ghouls during the early/mid-stage of the match, as they benefit the most from his skills. Alternatively, players may opt for Gargoyles instead of ghouls, although this takes some time to start up and won't be as effective against ground armies.

Carrion Swarm is the Dreadlord's killing capability, as it deals a good amount of damage against ranged units, including aerial that the Dreadlord cannot normally attack without the assistance of an orb. However, it should be the last skill invested into, unless an ally is also using the Dreadlord or ranged armies are being built due to its somewhat low damage which is further damaged if it hits more units.

Sleep is arguably his most useful skill, as it allows him to temporarily disable an enemy unit. Though it is almost negligible at first, level 3 Sleep is extremely powerful because of Sleep's naturally fast cooldown, low mana and prolonged duration regardless of whoever the Dreadlord targets.

Vampiric Aura is a powerful aura, especially when used in team matches and teammates are bringing in any melee unit, be it ground or aerial. At level 3, units under the aura's effect will restore almost half of the damage they deal onto enemies. This skill should take second priority over Sleep because of its usefulness with melee units; Gargoyles become incredibly dangerous because most of the damage they'll take will be negated due to their strong melee attacks. If no melee units are being made, invest into Carrion Swarm instead.

Inferno, as the name suggests, summons an Infernal. It is a powerful creep that deals chaos damage, has spell immunity and permanent immolation. Upon making an impact with the ground, all nearby ground units are temporarily stunned, and all nearby ground units and buildings take impact damage. The impact also destroys trees, though this usually has no significant purpose. Inferno can interrupt summoned abilities, and also allows for killing potential with other Heroes.

A Dreadlord will greatly benefit from mana boosting and regenerating items to complement his high mana pool and allow him to cast Carrion Swarm and Sleep frequently.

arrion Swarm

 * Sends a horde of bats to damage enemies.

Carrion Swarm can cause great damage to enemy units, especially low hit point units such as ranged units and casters. Although having its fair share of advantages over Sleep, Carrion Swarm is less effective against clusters of units and costs more mana than Sleep.

Carrion Swarm is also useful if another allied Dreadlord in the game is using Vampiric Aura. That frees up some points you can place in Carrion Swarm since they already have Vampiric Aura covered.

Although Carrion Swarm cannot damage wards, it can damage both mechanical and aerial units.

Slep

 * Puts a target enemy unit to sleep. A sleeping unit can be awoken by attacking it.

Sleep is an incredibly powerful spell. Good use of Sleep can help determine the outcome of the game. Use Sleep on enemy Heroes to put them out of action. Use Sleep on Heroes that are attempting to run away. Surround them with your Ghouls or Abominations then attack them once they are trapped. Cast Sleep on the most powerful enemy units to take them out of the battle. If the player lacks poor micro skills, then Sleep will easily overwhelm them as they will generally not attempt to wake their units up.

Cast Sleep on the most powerful Creeps before attacking them, though it will not last as long, it adds precious seconds to save your units. You can cast Sleep again on the enemy after they have awoken. This is truly one of the most annoying spells to the enemy. This spell is even more powerful with multiple allied Dreadlords. They can put a whole army to sleep!

Use Sleep on Heroes trying to cast spells that must be maintained such as Blizzard, Death and Decay, Tranquility, Starfall, and Earthquake. This will stop these spells prematurely.

Try to avoid casting Sleep until it is level 3 because it drains a considerable amount of mana from the Dreadlord's mana pool. You will find yourself quickly running out of mana and causing very little harm to the enemy with level 1 or 2 Sleep.

Note that when Sleep is cast on a target, they become temporarily invulnerable for a split-second.

The most common way to defeat Sleep is to wake up your unit by attacking it with your own unit. Be sure to stop the unit attacking the slept unit as soon as it wakes up. Sleep becomes less powerful if the enemy possess micro skills, but it can still cause control nightmares for them. Sometimes they continue to attack their own units after they are awake. This also shifts their control focus away from attacking you and more on waking up their own units which is in your favor.
 * Sleep Counters

An anti-magic shell will also protect the user from being targeted by Sleep.

Night Elves can use the Demon Hunter's Mana Burn or a Wisp's Detonate.

ampiric Aura (Passive)

 * Nearby friendly melee units gain hit points when they hit a unit.

The Vampiric Aura works very well with Ghouls. It is especially useful in large team games, where players' armies will greatly vary in each match. It is strongest with Hippogryphs and Gargoyles, as they will easily shred any anti-air option against them outside of Troll Batriders and Siege Engines.

Be reminded that Vampiric Aura doesn't work with ranged units so it's not useful with any unit possessing ranged attacks.

Iferno (Ultimate)

 * Calls an Infernal down from the sky, dealing 50 damage and stunning enemy land units for 4 seconds in an area. The Infernal lasts 180 seconds.

Inferno is an ability which allows you to summon an Infernal. Infernals have permanent Immolation, deal Chaos damage which allows them to do full damage to all armor types, and complete spell immunity.

Inferno is useful for casting on an enemy army. It's a great way to spawn in the Infernal because enemy units in the area of effect take damage and are stunned when Infernal lands.

Inferno can be used to interrupt spells that must be channeled.

Inferno can also be used to clear trees, but Meat Wagons would be more useful for that purpose.


 * Counters

Simply target the Infernal and take it down quickly before it causes too much havoc. Despite being a summoned unit, they're protected by Spell Immunity which makes the task of removing them more difficult compared to other units.

Quotes

 * See Warcraft III Dreadlord quotes