Cost: 800 100 Hit Points: 90 Damage: 2 - 12 + 4 Armor: 4 + 4 Sight: 5 Speed: 13 Range: 1

Ogre-Mage
The Ogre-Magi were originally a small band of extremely loyal Ogre enforcers, transformed by Gul'dan into scheming and malicious sorcerers. By warping and twisting the Elf-magiks of the Runestone at Caer Darrow, Gul'dan was able to infuse the magical abilities of long dead Warlocks into the bodies of these unsuspecting hosts. once hulking, simpletons, the transformed Ogre-Magi can direct their death magiks as easily as their lesser cousins would deliver a crushing blow to any foolish enough to stand in their path. The Ogre-Magi have also become extremely cunning and insidious - serving the Horde only as they see fit.

Ogre-Mages are, arguably, the Orcs' most powerful unit. Even before they learn to use combat magic, they are very effective in combat, able to stand up against the Human Alliance's knights and crush pesky Footmen in groups. Once your Ogres are imbued with the power of the dead Warlocks' magiks, however, they are able to swat aside even Paladins with ease, and reduce buildings to rubble in seconds. It is the Ogre-Mages' primal spells that really bring out the differences between the philosophies of the Humans and the Orcs in battle.

The Ogre-Mage creates a free-floating apparition in the form of a disembodied Eye that he can direct through the air to look down upon enemy forces and encampments. Named for the great leader of the Bleeding Hollow clan, this ever vigilant Eye transmits its view to the caster, giving him the knowledge of both the lands it wanders and those creatures who live there. The Eye will vanish after a time, leaving the Ogre-Mage with the knowledge of the terrain.

This spell is a variation on the summoning and necromantic magiks used by the now vanquished Warlocks and Necromancers. The "eye" is a physical object which can be destroyed by enemy arrows or cannon fire, but it is very fast. Over time, the enchantment that holds the eye together fades away, and the spell will cause a harmless explosion as the eye vanishes. The eye is, of course, intended to be used as a scout, but it can also be used to harass fleets of enemy destroyers by maneuvering around them and drawing their fire. The Destroyers' shots will do damage to any units within the small explosive radius, which can really annoy anyone foolish enough to leave their ships packed together too tightly.

Use the Eye of Killrogg to spot Submarines. It is very useful when your Juggernaughts are being attacked by Submarines when you don't have a Goblin Zeppelin nearby to spot them.. While it takes quite a while for a Goblin Zeppelin to reach the Juggernaughts the fast speed of the Eye of Killrogg can allow it to reach the Juggernaughts nearly instantly.

Use the Eye of Killrogg to quickly scan the Gold Mines on a map looking for enemy expansions.

[ Click to Enlarge - 53 KB ] An Eye of Killrogg is used to make enemy Destroyers fire on each other as they try to hit the Eye of Killrogg. Each shot hits air and sea targets. In one pass a Destroyer and Battleship is sunk. That is quite a good deal for only 70 mana. The counter to this is to keep the ships separated or to click allies with the player using Eye of Killrogg so that the ships will not fire on it.

This enchantment is used to instill an insatiable lust for blood into a fellow warrior, causing him to enter into a savage, berserk rage. A fighter who feels this Bloodlust deals more damage to his opponents than normally could be done.

Bloodlust sends the target into a controlled frenzy. The subject feels fire is running through his/her veins, and is capable of dealing much more damage than usual. A Bloodlusted unit has both its Basic Damage and its Piercing Damage doubled for the duration of the spell, which makes the unit extremely effective against even the most heavily armored foe. The bonus from weapon upgrades is also doubled.

For example, in a battle between an upgraded Paladin and an upgraded Ogre-Mage, both units will do 4-8 points of damage to each other.

(8 Basic Damage - 8 Armor) + 8 Piercing Damage = 8 Max Damage
(see The Combat Equation for a detailed explanation)

If the Ogre-Mage is Bloodlusted, however, it will do

(16 Basic Damage - 8 Armor) + 16 Piercing Damage = 24 Max Damage

This is triple the amount that the Ogre-Mage was doing before! Even if a Human Mage casts Slow on the Ogre-Mage, halving its attacks, it will still do 50% more damage than the Paladin does. A cube (9) Bloodlusted Ogres can tear through a much larger force of Paladins, even if the Paladins are full of mana when they are attacked. It will only take an Ogre around 6 hits to kill a Paladin, which means that the Human player had better be really fast with Healing.

An extremely effective way to rapidly Bloodlust a group of Ogre-Magi is to select the first Ogre in the group, hit the Bloodlust hot-key ("B" in the American version), and double-click on the next Ogre. Hit "B" again, and double-click on the next Ogre, etc. This will cast the spell on that Ogre, and then select it. This way, each Ogre casts the spell one time, leaving it with 200 mana to either cast Bloodlust later on, or throw down some quick Runes. Once combat starts, try to mix up which Ogres are casting spells so that no unit runs out of mana before the others.

Don't forget that any living unit can be Bloodlusted as well. Bloodlusted Trolls can do a little more damage than completely upgraded Rangers, and with axe upgrades, Berserkers can do significantly more damage than their woodland rivals. Bloodlusted Dragons are an intimidating sight, especially if they're also enchanted with the Haste spell.



Main Uses for Bloodlust:

Ogres - Ogres do triple the damage with Bloodlust.
Dragons - Dragons do triple the damage with Bloodlust.
Axe Throwers - Bloodlusted Axe Throwers can easily take on large groups of Gryphons.
Death Knights - Bloodlusted Death Knights can fight Gryphons and easily take down buildings.
Peons - for a laugh.

Invading By Sea With Bloodlusted Ogres
Sometimes you get into a situation where you need to invade someone and you can't really Bloodlust on their shore. So what you do is find the place closest to their island. Get your Ogres together, cast Bloodlust on them and load them into the Transport. Quickly move the Transport over to the enemy and unload.

Sound Carries
The Bloodlust sound can be a giveaway to the enemy. The enemy will often charge when they hear the sound, Blizzard you or Bloodlust their own Ogres or something else. Try to Bloodlust away from the enemy a little way away from the enemy if possible if this worries you. But this will shorten the length the Bloodlust is on because you have further to walk but sometimes this is necessary to avoid being attacked before Bloodlust can be cast. If the enemy has nothing to stop you, this is not a concern.

The exact nature of the Runes used by Ogre-Magi is unknown to the Humans, but their effect is obvious: anyone straying into the area warded by the Runes is struck by a fiery explosion capable of killing or injuring the hardiest unit. Each "Rune" consists of 5 distinct points, each of which will explode only once. The Runes are also indiscriminate-any unit, friend or foe, that runs over them will be affected. Only flying units are immune to the effects. Since the Runes "float" on top of water, they are pretty good against enemy ships, especially transports.

Using Runes: Runes lays 5 land mines. Each land mine does exactly 50 hit points of damage. On the slowest game speed setting, Runes lasts about 2 minutes. Then the Runes disappear. Also, the Runes blink about every 15 seconds so that you can see them.

The simplest use of Runes is to cast them on the ground between enemy Peasants/Peons and the mine that they are working in. The runes are instantly fatal to the lowly units, and if your opponent has enough peasants/peons working he/she won't be able to pull them away in time to save more than a few. Doing this a few times will not only cripple your opponent's production, but will probably force him/her to pull some units back to guard the mine. This gives you a better opportunity to send a wave of Bloodlusted Ogres crashing into town.

Another devious use of Runes involves using an Ogre Mage and a Death Knight together. The Ogre-Mage casts Runes on the ground between the Death Knight and some enemy troops, then the Death Knight casts Death and Decay on the enemy units. The troops will rush the Death Knight, and run right into the Runes. Obviously, the more Ogre-Mages you have available to saturate the ground with Runes, the more effective this tactic is.





Runes Are Good For Defense
Runes are good for preventing incoming attacks. When you know someone is sending a group of ground forces wait until they are almost on your Ogre-Mages then cast Runes right in front of them. You can kill and damage a lot of enemy units before you engage them.

Cast Runes Around Units Standing Still
The group will have to stand still until the Runes wear off or risk being destroyed. Combine with Death and Decay and the enemy will have to suicide against the Runes or die to Death and Decay.

Rune Bait
Cast Runes around an enemy and attack them with 1 Axe Thrower. The enemy will all charge killing themselves on the Runes. This my be difficult to set up, but when it happens it's a laugh.

Defend Against Goblin Sappers and Demolition Squads
Runes are a great defense against Demolition Squads and just about everything. If you see a Demolition Squad coming cast Runes in front of them.

Get Those Mages
Use Runes when chasing Mages. Cast runes in front of them and they will walk right into them and die.

Don't Let Them Escape!
Use Runes to destroy a retreating army. Cast Runes in front of the retreating army and they will run right into them! Instant Death.

Don't Run Over Your Own Runes
When you cast Runes, make sure you don't run over them yourself. It can easily happen.

Casting Runes Over Objects Means Less Runes
When you cast runes on a space that is occupied by someone or something, the runes which were supposed to appear in that space will not appear. What happens is the rune does not appear in the occupied space. The runes that would make up the 5 runes, appear around the object. So you can cast runes on a guy, but they will appear around the unit. You will get less runes for your magic.

If you cast on a unit, the center Rune does not appear however, you do not loose the magic for that particular Rune. The total cost is 40 mana per Rune. If you only can cast 4 Runes, you only loose 160 magic points. You can use this to recharge Runes that have exploded provided that you cast the Runes on *exactly* the same position. It will only cost you 40 magic per Rune you replace.

Recasting Runes and Rune Timers
Each Rune is on its own expiration "timer". If you cast onto group of Runes that have some missing, you will replace the missing ones; however, the original ones will disappear in the same time they would have. The new ones will last as long as they normally would.

Runes Work On Water... Sort of...
Sometimes you can get lucky casting Runes in the path of oncoming ships and Transports. Quite often they can pass through them or go around them however.

Cast Runes on Units Unloading From a Transport
The units will be forced to reenter the Transport and leave or be damaged by the Runes. Combine with Death and Decay for even more fun.

Cast Runes Around Unit Creation Spots
Cast Runes right where the opponent unit will come out of the building

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