Warcraft 3: Reforged Guide – All Race Buildings and Best Orc Build Orders

Warcraft 3: Reforged gets a lot of attention for its heroes and battles but buildings are still the life blood of your army. You’ll need resources like Food, Lumber and Gold to build them, and each race has their own unique buildings. When all your buildings are destroyed, the game is over so you need to defend them effectively. We’ll also look into basic build orders for the Orcs to provide something easy and effective to start with.

Each race starts with the Town Hall along with four to five Peons or workers. You’ll go through Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 buildings while setting up. The first focuses on an Altar, food production, towers, units and so on. Tier 2 will provide new buildings for specializing units into two different schools while Tier 3 will net you a fairly strong unit.

First, let’s take a look at the Human buildings. Keep in mind that some buildings are required before you can start constructing Castles and Keeps. Resource costs and build time for the buildings are as follows:

• Scout Tower – 30 Gold and 20 Lumber. Requires 25 seconds to build.
• Farm – 80 Gold and 20 Lumber. Requires 35 seconds to build.
• Guard Tower – 100 Gold and 70 Lumber. Requires 50 seconds to build.
• Lumber Mill – 120 Gold. Requires one minute to build.
• Altar of Kings – 180 Gold and 50 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Arcane Vault – 130 Gold and 30 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Workshop – 140 Gold and 140 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Cannon Tower – 150 Gold and 120 Lumber. Requires one minute and 5 seconds to build.
• Arcane Sanctum – 150 Gold and 140 Lumber. Requires a minute and 10 seconds to build.
• Blacksmith – 140 Gold and 60 Lumber. Requires a minute and 10 seconds to build.
• Castle – 1065 Gold and 625 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.
• Keep – 705 Gold and 415 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.
• Town Hall – 385 Gold and 205 Lumber. Requires three minutes to build.
• Arcane Tower – 100 Gold and 70 Lumber. Requires 50 seconds to build

Next, let’s look at the Orc buildings and the amount of resources and time they require to build.

• Orc Burrow – 160 Gold and 40 Lumber. Requires 50 seconds to build.
• Altar of Storms – 180 Gold and 50 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Beastiary – 145 Gold and 140 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Voodoo Lounge – 130 Gold and 30 Lumber. Requires one minute to build
• Watch Tower – 110 Gold and 80 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Spirit Lodge – 150 Gold and 135 Lumber. Requires one minute and 10 seconds to build.
• Tauren Totem – 135 Gold and 155 Lumber. Requires one minute and 10 seconds to build.
• War Mill – 205 Gold. Requires one minute and 10 seconds to build.
• Fortress – 1025 Gold and 565 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.
• Great Hall – 385 Gold and 185 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 30 seconds to build.
• Stronghold – 700 Gold and 375 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.

Now let’s look at the Undead’s buildings.

• Nerubian Tower – 250 Gold and 70 Lumber. Requires 30 seconds to build.
• Spirit Tower – 295 Gold and 90 Lumber. Requires 35 seconds to build.
• Sacrificial Pit – 75 Gold and 150 Lumber. Requires 45 seconds to build.
• Ziggurat – 150 Gold and 50 Lumber. Requires 50 seconds to build.
• Temple of the Damned – 155 Gold and 140 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Tomb of Relics – 135 Gold and 30 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Slaughterhouse – 140 Gold and 135 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Altar of Darkness – 180 Gold and 50 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Crypt – 200 Gold and 50 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Boneyard – 175 Gold and 200 Lumber. Requires one minute and 10 seconds to build.
• Graveyard – 215 Gold. Requires one minute and 20 seconds to build.
• Necropolis – 225 Gold. Requires one minute and 30 seconds to build.
• Haunted Gold Mine – 225 Gold and 210 Lumber. Requires one minute and 40 seconds to build.
• Halls of the Dead – 545 Gold and 210 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.
• Black Citadel – 870 Gold and 440 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.

Finally, let’s take a look at the Night Elf’s buildings, which are unique in that they can be moved to different locations (but might lose some functions in the process).

• Moon Well – 180 Gold and 40 Lumber. Requires 50 seconds to build.
• Ancient Protector – 135 Gold and 80 Lumber. Requires 55 seconds to build.
• Ancient of Lore – 155 Gold and 145 Lumber. Requires one minute and 10 seconds to build.
• Ancient of War – 150 Gold and 60 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Altar of Elders – 180 Gold and 50 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Ancient of Wind – 150 Gold and 140 Lumber. Requires one minute to build.
• Entangled Gold Mine – Requires one minute to build.
• Hunter’s Hall – 210 Gold and 100 Lumber. One minute to build.
• Chimaera Roost – 140 Gold and 190 Lumber. Requires one minute and 20 seconds to build.
• Tree of Life – 340 Gold and 185 Lumber. Requires two minutes to build.
• Tree of Ages – 660 Gold and 365 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.
• Tree of Eternity – 990 Gold and 565 Lumber. Requires two minutes and 20 seconds to build.

Recommended Build Orders for Orcs

Working out a build order is crucial since they can determine whether you overwhelm a foe in the early game or prep for the late game. Let’s take a look at some different build orders for Orcs to give you a basic idea for how to start.

The first build order is fairly standard and involves getting a Grunt, Raider and Spirit Walker up by mid-game. Build an Altar of Storms first, followed by an Orc Burrow. Train a peon and send them to mine Gold while two other peons harvest Lumber. Build more Peons and send one to build a Barracks while another mines more Gold.

Create a Blademaster after the Altar is finished and then another Orc Burrow. The Blademaster is fairly potent, inflicting massive damage with Bladestorm and being able to confound enemies with Mirror Image. Critical Strike also provides 15 percent more chance to deal more damage on attacking.

Create a Grunt after the Barracks is complete and then a shop. Have another Peon focus on gathering Lumber. When you’re almost at 200 Wood, it’s possible to send your Blademaster and other units out to mess with your foes. Set up two more Orc Burrows to raise the food cap and then create a War Mill, which should speed up the wood gathering process significantly.

Next up is the Bestiary and Tauren Totem, after which you can bring a Shadow Hunter into the mix. Hunt creeps with the Shadow Hunter while your Blademaster continues to harass the other races. Your Bestiary should be done by this point. Create two Raiders, one with Ensnare and another with a Kodo Beast (which can deal some serious single-target damage).

You can also create two Spirit Walkers once the Tauren Totem is complete. Make sure they have Adept Training to allow for removing debuffs in an area (though this removes buffs as well). Continue upgrades to pick up an Orb of Lightning for the Blademaster or simply attack another race’s base.

The second build order involves a Tauren Chieftain, Troll Headhunters and Bloodlust. While slow to start with, the damage of the Headhunters and Chieftain make up for it later.

First, get a handful of Peons to mine Gold. You’ll want to keep producing Peons who will construct all the required buildings quickly. Start with an Orc Burrow, then Altar of Storms, War Mill and Barracks. Put Peons onto Lumber gathering and recruit the Tauren Chieftain once the Altar is complete.

Construct another Burrow and make sure to stop Peon production when close to 20 supplies. Upon completing a Barracks, start building lots and lots of Headhunters. Set up a shop and get some healing items for your Chieftain. Commence creeping until your Chieftain is level 3 and has War Stomp and Endurance Aura.

Ranged weapons should be upgraded at the War Mill. Pick up the upgrades for Headhunter soon after (use Berserk to increase their damage in fights). Pick up the Shaman and upgrade him as well. Next up you can recruit a Shadow Hunter, if you so desire. Otherwise, the Tauren Chieftain can be used as a frontliner to hit multiple units with War Stomp. Ensure he’s upgraded significantly by the time you’re ready to battle.