Naga Sea Witch (Warcraft III)

A mystical Hero, adept at ranged combat. These scaly denizens of the ocean have often been associated with the coming of prodigious storms, but few have actually seen them rise from the sea and lived to tell the tale. Attacks land and air units.

Anna Kondra, Scilla Murkshadow, Ursula Snakemane, Lady Venomtongue, Lady Serpentra, Lady Darkscale, Serena Scarscale, Asprah Serpus, Venna Seastorm, Charib'dishal.

The Naga Sea Witch is an exceptionally powerful Neutral Hero. While she isn't a great melee fighter, the Sea Witch is useful for ranged assaults and staying back behind the melee units in battle. The Sea Witch is a great Hero and unit killer, mainly because of her Frost Arrows' slow effect, which prevents enemies from fleeing from battles as easily. By the time the other player realizes their hero is almost dead, it will be too late and they'll be too slow to run away. The Sea Witch is also great at delivering high damage to enemy Heroes or clumped units with her Forked Lightning skill. She should target one of the most powerful enemies first, to make sure it is hit by the lightning. She becomes even more effective for combat with the Mana Shield. Basically, the Sea Witch uses mana as hit points with this ability, allowing her Intelligence to act for her instead of Strength. With it, she can become at least partially decent for melee combat. Once the Sea Witch gets to level 6, she can effectively destroy enemy buildings with her Tornado skill. It can be stopped with a number of enemy spells, but most players won't act in time to stop the Naga from using her Tornado with maximum efficiency.

Some good ideas for use of the Sea Witch's skill points, are the following: First try placing points in Forked Lightning for a good basic spell, followed by Frost Arrows or Mana Shield if you plan on having fewer damage absorbing units. You may find Mana Shield less useful in team games, because your allies will probably have at least one warrior Hero for damage absorption. You can also try to max out Frost Arrows for anti-hero uses. The benefit of this is that if you have your army still intact, the Sea Witch can chase the enemy hero and slow it while the rest of your forces catch up and surround it. The Naga Sea Witch is usually a good second Hero choice. Her Forked Lightning can instantly give a fair amount of damage to 3 enemy units, but Frost Arrows is also a good first support spell. Picking the Sea Witch first can, however, give certain advantages, as Frost Arrows makes her a good hero killer, and Mana Shield increases her life in a way. These spells can also be used to prevent enemies from doing as much to her as normal. If you see a fast hero or unit coming at your Naga, shoot it once with Frost Arrows and run away. The distance you cover just after that might be enough to get your Naga to safety.

Give the Sea Witch speed boosting items such as Gloves of Haste and Boots of Speed that add to her quickness in and out of combat. When you want to cast Forked Lightning or Tornado, turn off Frost Arrows because they drain a lot of mana. This will often keep you from being able to cast Forked Lightning or Tornado, and can leave you in a tough spot.

Make sure you are close enough to three units when casting Forked Lightning. Unlike Chain Lightning, the Naga must be within range for all three targets.

• Calls forth a cone of lightning to damage enemies.
• Hits a maximum of 3 units.

This ability is very useful for preventing enemy units or Heroes from running away. Combine with Forked Lightning to kill units that try to escape. Switch targets after firing to slow down multiple units at once. Because it takes up a lot of her valuable mana, you may want to toggle Frost Arrows off during minor battles and have the Naga attack several different targets in large battles.

• Adds a cold effect to each attack, slowing a target enemy unit's attacks and movement.

This ability is useful to prevent the Naga Sea Witch from dying. If the enemy targets her, turn on Mana Shield. Be sure to turn it off when she is no longer under attack. You can use Mana Potions to keep the shield up longer. Before you load up on mana potions to feed your mana shield, remember that until you have level 3 mana shield, Health Potions provide more damage recovery for your gold.

• Creates a shield that absorbs damage by using the Sea Witch's mana.
• Blocks 100% of incoming damage.

• Summons a fierce controllable Tornado that slows enemy units' movement speed, randomly tosses enemy ground units into the air and damages enemy buildings.
• The Tornado does 100 damage per second to buildings under it, and 14 damage per second to buildings in its general vicinity.

Tornado does extreme damage to nearby buildings, light damage to buildings in the general vicinity, slows units by a large amount, and tosses nearby units and Heroes up into the air randomly. If you put a Tornado between two buildings, you can get a large damage rate split between them. Tornado is "siege for free" in that you can generally kill all of their towers with it. Tornado brings units to minimum speed unless they are speed 350 or faster. There are only 2 or 3 such units in the game. Tornado also slows air units, unlike Earthquake. The Tornado slow area is 60 (600 in-game). Tornado tosses units every 3 seconds in a 27.5 radius, and the toss lasts for 12 (6) seconds. Tornado cyclones a particular unit once every 22 seconds. The Tornado's speed is 75. That means that Tornado more or less disables 4 units continuously. It can also toss Heroes and break channel spells potentially.

Tornado Counters This spell must be maintained to get the full effect. If the Naga Sea Witch moves, the spell will not do its full damage. Force the Naga Sea Witch to move from her location. This will stop the Tornado.

• See Warcraft III Naga Sea Witch quotes

• The Naga Sea Witch's Frost Arrows ability is originally from the cancelled Ranger hero unit. When the The Frozen Throne expansion was released, Cold Arrows was given to Sea Witches, renamed to Frost Arrows and given a new icon.