Keeper of the Grove (Warcraft III)

The enchanted Keepers are the favored sons of the demigod Cenarius. Like their lesser Dryad sisters, the Keepers appear to be half Night Elf, half stag. They have enormous antlers and manes of leaves that flow down their backs. Their right hands are disfigured and twisted - as if they had become like the gnarled root-claws of the Treants. Keepers possess many strange powers over nature and the animals. Though they typically remain within the sacred Moon Groves of Ashenvale forest, the Keepers always heed the call to arms when the greater lands of Kalimdor are threatened.

Larodar, Anubris, Nandieb, Califax, Bandalar, Malorne, Gholbine, Dagda, Nuada, Oghma, Centrius, Ceredwyn.

The Keeper of the Grove is an powerful support Hero who is also very easy to use, even moreso than the Demon Hunter.

Players should generally invest skill points into both Entangling Roots and Force of Nature despite the heavy mana drain it puts on him. He is a fast Hero and Entangling Roots has very good range, damage and duration, especially at higher levels where it is guaranteed to kill a non-melee ground unit if not dealt with accordingly. This spell prevents units from auto-attacking, making it very useful in removing enemy attackers during a battle.

Force of Nature is reasonable for creating early sandbags for creeping and the Treants themselves have reasonable stats in the early stages of a game.

While Thorns Aura is good at reflecting damage dealt by melee attacks, it can usually be ignored as many players tend to drop using melee units (if they were using any) early game, who generally get replaced by either ranged units who ignore the aura, or very bulky melee units where the effect essentially doesn't deal enough damage back.

Tranquility is his most powerful spell, as it stacks with friendly healing wards and Unholy Aura for very high health regeneration for a short amount of time. The spell itself can essentially be used to heal units in a pinch or during a hectic battle.

• Causes roots to burst from the ground, immobilizing and damaging a target enemy.

Entangled Units are unable to attack, though they can still cast spells.

Entangling Roots will prevent enemy Heroes and units from teleporting back to town via Scrolls of Town Portal or the Archmage's Mass Teleport spell. It can also interrupt channeled spells.

Dispel the roots.

• Counters

• Converts an area of trees into Treants. Treants can attack land units.

Force of Nature is useful for accessing areas blocked by trees and also for early creeping. Outside of that, they're fairly useless despite being able to benefit from the Nature's Blessing research. If you are not intending to access areas blocked by trees, only take down as much trees as necessary since destroying numerous trees will still yield the same amount of Treants as the spell can create.

They can be dispelled or stolen from by Spell Breakers.

• Counters

• An aura that gives friendly units around the Keeper of the Grove a damage shield, which wounds enemy melee attackers.

Notes: The damage is reflected, before it is reduced by armor.

Thorns Aura is only effective if your units are being hit by melee attackers.

• Causes a rain of healing energy to pour down in a large area, healing friendly allied units for 48 hit points per second.

Once this spell is cast collect units under the rain until they are healed.

This spell must be maintained by having the Keeper of the Grove stand still while the spell is cast to get the full effect. Stun, bind and focus on the Keeper if possible to force him to teleport or die.

• Counters

• See Warcraft III Keeper of the Grove quotes