Gargoyle (Warcraft III)

The dreaded Gargoyles of Northrend are voracious flying creatures who revel in slaughter and mayhem. Brought from the frozen north by the armies of the Lich King, these strange, wiry flyers have rough, crystalline hides which protect them from all manner of attacks. In times of great peril, gargoyles can land and condense their hides into a stone-like surface. Though they are unable to attack in this state, Gargoyles can take time to regenerate their wounds and replenish their energies.

Gargoyles are a mix of the Human Flying Machine and Night Elf Hippogryph; they can attack both air and ground units (which is already unlocked) and have a powerful anti-air melee attack. Gargoyles are generally cheaper to use than Destroyers but lack the versatility that the latter provides. Generally, Undead players focusing on aerial units will have Gargoyles accompanying the more powerful Frost Wyrms to protect them from any hostile aerial attackers. The Gargoyles are the Undead counterpart of the Human Gryphon Rider, Orc Wind Rider and Night Elf Hippogryph Rider.

The primary advantages of a Gargoyle are its fairly damaging ground and extremely powerful aerial attack, and swarms of Gargoyles can easily decimate most aerial armies in seconds if they aren't focused on. Gargoyles can also quickly regenerate themselves by hardening themselves, making them one of the few Undead units that can heal themselves outside of blighted ground without relying on a Death Knight's Unholy Aura or a fountain of life.

Gargoyles are best accompanied with a Dreadlord, as his Vampiric Aura allows the Gargoyle to leech health off of enemy aerial units. Swarms of Gargoyles with this Aura often result in them only Troll Batriders being able to take them down as all other aerial units simply deal little to no damage due to the health they restore from their attacks.

Toggle the Gargoyle's air priority on when they are trained/amassed. This way they will immediately attack any enemy air units in range over other ground units with higher priority than them.

Like Hippogryphs, Gargoyles possess Unarmored-type armor for balancing reasons. This makes them highly susceptible to all forms of attack.

• Transforms the Gargoyle into a statue that is immune to spells, has 12 bonus armor, and a regeneration rate of 8 hit points per second. The Gargoyle cannot attack in this form.

Due to the high armor bonus players can often use Stone Form as a barricade of sorts, but the Gargoyle becomes attackable by ground units as soon as it is activated, and will often deprive the player of some additional damage. Stone Form is highly effective against Troll Batriders if they attempt to use Unstable Concoction on them, as the Gargoyle is immediately considered a ground unit once Stone Form is activated, and Unstable Concoction only works on aerial units, which kills the Troll Batrider without harming the Gargoyle.

• Renders this unit immune to negative spells. The Gargoyle only has this ability in Stone Form.

Gárgola (Warcraft III)