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FFA: Base Destruction
Version: Beta V1.11
Game Type: Free for All
Suggested Maps: Any Medium-Large
Recommended Heroes: Beastmaster, Naga Sea Witch
Recommended Skill Level: 5-12
Author: zer0das
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Okay, so this isn't so much a strat as a very abusive combo and details on why it's abusive. I'll give a rundown of all the major points.. I very recently came up with this while screwing around in some ffas. Little did I know, that this is probably the absolute best combo in the game.
The major premise behind this strat is that since it's a ffa, it is very unlikely that anyone will latch onto and kill you unless you prove to them that you suck. Thus, you can pretty much count on your heros hitting level 6 if you know what you're doing! Normally, neutral heros are novelties, but there is two exceptions to this rule imo. And here comes the fun, abusable part.
Stampede+Toranado+no tp=ownage
Go beastmaster primary (henceforth called the bm), naga secondary. Alternate between bears/hawk with the bm, forked/cold arrow with the naga. Or if you prefer something else, go for it. I just find that this works best as bears are über tanks and the hawk is excellent for ffa scouting.
Now, even though this is a neutral heros strat, what race are you going to be to maximize the effectiveness of this (based on healing/mana regen)?
Human- Decent at keeping the bm+naga alive, with priest heal and pally as third hero. Unfortunately, it's a bit more difficult keeping the heros alive until priests, especially if you have to engage with other players and they ignore the bears. The clarity potion is a definate plus for the bm, who uses mana very quickly.
Orc- Probably the worst race to use this combo on, although it still works decently well. The main problem you'll face is cheap mana regen, although going bm primary compensates for this somewhat with tomes of intel and sobi masks. The good news is healing is abundant, especially in the form of salves, heal wards, and a shadow hunter as a third hero. Or to make this combo even more devastating, get a farseer and hope to hit earthquake, although I find that rarely ever does the third hero in a ffa get to level 6, so you're probably better off with the shadow hunter.
Nightelf- Moon wells make for great healing/mana regen (and your units won't be as damaged thanks to the bears, so you can spare it), rejuv is great hero healing, and clarity potions are abundant. Also the anti-magic potion is a huge boon to this strat. They're probably the most versatile when paired with neutral heros, although the weak army makes it so that it virtually evens out.
Undead- Imo, the absolute best race to go with the bm+naga at this point time. Statues make it easy to keep heros alive if you run often, ams makes it so their ultimates keep going, fiends are a great accompanying army. The only real problem is early healing is scarce so you have to be pretty careful. Mana isn't a problem, especially after statues. With a statue trailing after the bm, he essentially has infinite mana for his summons. Another problem you'll have is in engaging an army over a prolonged period of time with no down time to heal up. Buy pots of healing to help compensate, or just tp out when it gets ugly. This is essentially a fast hit, get out strat.
So what's all the fuss about? One of the hardest things to do in a ffa is eliminate someone quickly. Often you'll find that it's cost prohibitive to effectively eliminate someone's base who knows what they're doing, and it'll leave you invunerable in the mean time. The beastmaster and naga do wonders for this.
The basic idea is to survive until you hit their ultimates. Wait, since you can't creep to level 6, isn't that stupid? Well, it's not nearly as stupid as you think... the bm and naga are able to keep up with virtually every other hero combo provided that they're of equal level and the armies are relatively the same, and are often able to deal tons of damage without the army taking lots of damage (thanks to bears and forked lightning). The key here is to inflict massive damage and run.
Now to the blood and guts of this: now that there's only one tp available for free, often times in ffas people just don't have any tps on hand late game, as multiple hits take place on expansions, mains, etc. It gets cost prohibitive to keep one on hand at all times, and often people just won't have them. Furthermore, most people go with aoe dealers and neglect to get units that can stun. All of the above makes it so you can effectively wipe out an entire base in 20 seconds (stampede+tornado will kill a stronghold, or leave it with virtually no hp), kill almost all the peons, and run away without taking any damage if you play your cards right. Even if they have a tp, stampede will inflict massive damage on whatever tps in and tornado will throw up a good deal of an army into the army, and slow it's movement. Very sweet. They won't be able to rebuild their army/base at a reasonable pace, and they'll be left completely vunerable.. if they take any significant losses to their army, they are completely screwed.
People never expect their base to fall in less than a minute. NEVER! You can beat someone with a stronger army just by destroying like 2-3k gold worth of buildings in a matter of seconds and then running away, leaving them in a very tight, almost impossible to come back from situation.
So that's the jist of my ffa strat. It's very basic and simple, just an outline, but deadly. I have some replays of just how effective this is, but they're worthless.. I'll probably just send them to blizz. 
Edit: Posted some screenshots in the screenshot thread. Only two of them really testify to the power of stampede+tornado. Go check them out.
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