Skeleton Warrior (Warcraft III)

Skeleton Warriors are mindless automatons that can be summoned forth by Necromancers to fight for the Scourge. While not the sturdiest of fighters, they are tenacious melee attackers.

They can also be encountered as creeps in the Dungeon, Underground and Northrend tilesets. They can also be summoned from creeps of other tilesets such as Dark Wizards.

Skeletons last 40 seconds without Skeletal Longevity. Make sure Skeletal Mastery is researched so that the skeleton lasts an additional 15 seconds, up to a total of 55 seconds. In Frozen Throne, Skeletons now last 45 seconds, but after research Skeletal Mastery its timed life is increased by additional 20 seconds, up to a total of 65 seconds. Skeletons benefit from melee upgrades, and thus it's important to research these to allow them to survive longer.

To quickly summon a large group of skeletons, Undead players should bring one or two Meat Wagons filled to the brim with corpses from the Graveyard so the Necromancers can immediately summon the skeletons straight into battle. This isn't much of a worry with Exhumed Corpses researched, as it allows the Meat Wagon to immediately generate corpses.

While they use fairly weak attacks and have low health, two skeletons are summoned from every corpse. They're mainly used as fodder to overwhelm the enemy through sheer numbers. Unfortunately, the usefulness of the skeletons are completely insignificant if going up against units such as Priests and Destroyers, who annihilate these units with ease with their dispel spells.

In The Frozen Throne, players who research Skeletal Mastery will cause one of the Skeleton Warriors to spawn as a Skeletal Mage instead. While this reduces the amount of melee fodder, it does allow for additional anti-air units.

There is a maximum limit of 25 Skeleton Warriors that can be summoned by a player.

• Skeletal astery
• Causes one of the two skeletons created by Raise Dead to be a Skeletal Mage and increases the duration of raised Skeleton Warriors and Skeletal Mages by 20 seconds.

Called forth from the grave by the insidious necromancers, skeletal warriors are mindless slaves of the Lich King's powers. These lumbering fighters are highly resilient and tireless. When operating in great numbers, skeleton warriors serve as an invaluable part of the Scourge’s combat force.

• Although the Warcraft III manual calls them Skeletal Warriors, the text also calls them Skeleton Warriors and within the game the units are called Skeleton Warriors.