General Masterclass Guide

Early, mid, late, and end. Each faction is usually stronger than the others at specific phases of the game. If you are strong early? Dominate as hard as you can and eliminate the late and/or endgame factions first. You have no chance against them later. Have no mercy using ultimate weapons as a finishing blow. Waiting or hesitating a few minutes could mean your downfall.

If you aren't strong early, but exceptional in the late or end game? Always focus on the strongest player at that time. Make sure your defenses can hold at any moment. The early game is hardest to survive due to not having a T2 defensive spell or heroes. In midgame, you can usually survive everything when you manage your resources well. Against a snowballing enemy? It can benefit going easy on the other enemies, as they share your same fear: "Stop the strongest from overrunning everyone."

Check which neutral buildings are surrounding you and which factions/bonuses your enemies have. A strong early faction might not be so strong if they have two lategame bonuses. A weak early faction might suddenly be the strongest in the game. Know what you're facing and plan accordingly!

Upgrading sidelane(s) is usually more worth it than the middle lane, especially if there is a gold mine, metal mine, or both. Also, great neutral buildings like the War Mill, Iron Forge, and more make people go crazy over them.

Going mid first is dangerous. Why? People often upgrade sidelanes first. If you have both enemies upgrading on your sidelane first, you are in for hell.

It depends on your faction and early goals:

• Go Armour: Do you want to counter-attack slower and build up bigger waves? You might buy yourself enough time for the middle game for a weak early faction, or completely eliminate an enemy with a massive wave (as Night Elf, Dwarf, Undead). However, be prepared that the enemy will also counter-attack with a massive wave due to your armour.
• Go Attack: Choose this if you want to attack quickly and not face big returning waves.

Awesome; you survived the hardest part. Now, make sure your finances are good and your defenses will hold. You can still tank some damage with your buildings, but if you don't have fortification upgrades and the enemy has 4-8 melee attack upgrades? Yeah. Be careful before someone nukes you down.

Heroes can hold, but are still more expensive than they look. 1000 gold is massive! Make every hero summon worth it. If you have a level 2 barracks against a level 3? It is worth sending a hero. He counter-attacks slowly, gathers a lot of experience, and the enemy won't get as much gold from you as the other way around. Spam heroes endlessly? You will fall behind.

You can easily redirect enemy armies by hitting their hero with the building you want them to be redirected to. Make sure your other buildings don't hit the hero, because that might make it messy. Redirect enemies quickly, and you can make them dance around your base without taking too much damage. You can see by an exclamation mark if the enemy will be redirected or not. Good luck!

A 10-minute cooldown on a hero doesn't seem long, but spam them and you might be without heroes quickly: oh-oh! Same for auras and ultimate weapons. Don't just decide what you need at a single moment, also think 10 minutes ahead: "What do you need to overcome all enemies?" Keep in mind that early and middle game factions will be more aggressive with ultimate weapons, so you can wait and see what they do and pick the best possible response. However, if they pick nothing, you can overpower them without an ultimate weapon later on. Time is your greatest enemy or friend.