Secondly, World of Warcraft has also been updated, featuring a fighting pit for hero duels. Get it here.

Got a map? Be sure to submit it. For other scenerios, check out our Map Archive.

In the third chapter, the Skeleton's realise that tonight was likely to be their last night in existence. Consequently, they toss away their inhibitions, and decide to act they way the had once lived:

• Humerus: Chapter 3
• Stories Archive
• Comment

A talented write yourself? We've love to see your work. Be sure to submit it.

However, ever a strategy that exploits an imbalance isn't invincible, and since everyone's doing it, you can develop specific builds the counter. Nightmyre shows you how in this week's tip:

• Anti Mass Casters
• Strategy Index
• Comment

A talented Warcraft 3 player yourself? We'd love to hear your tactics. Be sure to send them in.

For Humans, it's militia, Burrows for the Orcs, Moonwells for the Night Elves, and power Town Halls with a vengeance for the Undead. Which is the most effective? You decide this week.

Do you download the Map of the Weeks at Infoceptor?
Always	71	11%
Sometimes	175	26%
Occasionally	171	26%
Never	184	28%
What Maps?	63	9%
TOTAL	664	100

Interesting results, and its good to see that the great majority of our viewers do make use of the maps, at least poccasionly. With a good tenth that have downloaded every map so far. Since that's around about 800 people, Infoceptor's a great place for you map makers out there to show off your work.

After years of drought and insincere prayer the gods "blessed" this region with an endless rain forcing its inhabitants to flee. Only the hardiest of souls should attempt to reclaim it.

Interested? Download it here.

For other great maps, check out our archive. Got a cool scenario? Be sure to upload it.

Today, we feature the first section, charged items:

• Charged Items
• Item Guide
• Comment

Got a strategy? We'd love to hear it. Be sure to send it in!

• PC Strategy Game of the Year
• PC Overall Game of the Year

Oh, if you're wondering why we didn't bother mentioning the awrads chosen by the actual staff, they were a little insane. In fact, in those wards, Warcraft 3 only got nominee for best strategy game! Thank got us fans know what's right.

Kudos to Bylak for the news.

In the second chapter, the Skeleton's follow their master into a tavern. It is here, that they realize that this very evening could well be their last. Be sure to give it a read:

• Humerus: Chapter 2
• Stories Archive
• Comment

A Talented write yourself? We'd love to hear your tale. Be sure to check the submission gudelines.

To celebrate the Christmas spirit, we invite you to revisit some of the great Christmas content here at this website. Over the past two years, ]nfested_me has created numerous great parodies of Christmas carols, here we list the best:

• Edmund the Rednecked Terran
• Grandma got Devoured by a Zergling

A whole list of great parodies are available in our Music Archive.

In addition, we've got a great selection of Christmas Wallpapers, for instance, check out this one of Santa Diablo. Find them in our Wallpaper's Archive.

Happy Holidays!

Despite their efforts, there's still more bugs. Recently, Rehti has stumbled upon a bug that allows a player to send level 10 dragons into the opponent's base, and what's more, force them to remain in the enemy base till it's destroyed! This, obviously, makes Plunder Isle a map to beware of. Thanks to HaHaHasooweddd, we have two replays of the glitch in action:

• Dragon Bug Replays

Expect an extensive report of this phenomena

• Battle.net Bells
• Kerrigan's Coming to Town

Have a merry Christmas! Got a parody of a Christmas Carol? It's not too late to send it in! Be sure also to attach a midi file of the tune.

The ones published here are courtsey of ]nfested Me.

The Building Placement Guide teaches you the foundations of how to set up your base so that it offers maximal protection from attacks. Be sure to give it a read:

• Building Placement Guide
• Strategy Index
• Comments

Got a strategy? We'd love to hear it, so be sure to submit it.

Which Realm to you think has the best Warcraft 3 Players? [comment]
Asia	146	17%
Europe	89	10%
US East	215	25%
US West	190	22%
Daboo?	215	25%
TOTAL	855	100

Just which realm has the best players is a difficult one to answer, hence it's of no surprise that a good amount of people were as lost as a peon. As for the rest, US East comes first, with US west at second. It seems that despite their crowning glory in Starcraft, people were not so much impressed with asia... and if you want easy levels, perhaps try Europe?

Gub has sent over V1.03 of his highly popular map, Warcraft 3 Gladiators. In the newest version, there's two more game types, Team Mirror Match and Press Gang. In addition, there's a lot of bug fixes, which were the only complaint to the previous release. If you enjoyed it before, be sure to download this!

A little lost? Warcraft Gladiators is a Multiplayer Scenario where participants take on the role of gladiators, who participate in various events from Bunker Defense to King of the Hill. In addition, the computer has been programmed to know how to play!

Got a scenario? We'd love to see it. Be sure to send it in.

To launch us off, we have the first chapter of Mayavan Thevendra's promising new fiction. 'Humerus' is a comedy set in the world of Diablo II. It's very original, written from the point of view of a Necromancer's minions. Give it a read:

• Humerus Chapter 1
• Comment

A talented novelist yourself? We'd love to see your work, to be sure to read our submission guidelines.

For those of you who don't know the map, World of Warcraft is a multiplayer scenario that simulates the MMORPG that'll be released by Blizzard. It's one of the more unique free flowing RPG maps out there, meaning you can do quests, or whatever else you feel like. Download it here.

• Terran Siege Tank

Want for eye candy? Check out our Fan Art Gallery. A talented artist yourself? Be sure to submit your image!

Source: War3 Pub

• Orc vs Undead: The Closest Match

Comment here.

Although this does cost resources, it allows a Human Player to keep his townhalls alive for a much longer time, especially with full Masonry upgrades. Here's a report:

It doesnt take ANY micro. It takes a 90/90 army like 20 seconds to pound the thing to low life, at REAL SPEED (you all probably watched that replay at 10000x speed), so all you need to do is sit and watch TV, and use "u" and "esc" every once in awhile.

Siege doesn’t do jack! This guy had 90/90 siege against me just now, and it didn't do anything. After 10k gold, he can attack you for over an hour with pure siege. And anything else takes over 2 hours.

Sounds nasty, a replay is available here. Discuss the topic in our forum thread.

Nightmyre has written up a comprehensive guide for new to average players that gives you the essential information to manage your units, including how to group them, when to use subgroups, and at what situations should you target the hero over the army and vice versa. Be sure to give it a read:

• Micromanaging Guide
• Strategy Index
• Comment

A talented Warcraft 3 Player? Be sure to publish your strategy.

What is the highest level you've achieved on a Warcraft 3 Battle.net account?
1 - 5	148	17%
5 - 10	273	32%
10 - 15	283	33%
15 - 20	81	9%
20+	70	8%
TOTAL	855	100 %	..

The good majority of players here are in the 5-15 range, with 10 being the average. That's not too bad when compared to the actualy average level of all players on Battle.net. With this in mind, we'll focus our strategies to be most useful for those players at around level 15, which should be good for those of half a dozen lower levels as well.

In Warcraft Gladiators, you are a Gladiator, competing with up to 11 fellow warriors. The goal of the game is please to crowd, by killing your adversaries of course. However, instead if your normal kill them all, there's 11 different game types, from King of the Hill to an Ultimate Brawl to Bunker Command.

The Scenario features an in game help, spectator modes, a voting system and over 16 different classes to choose from. What's even better is that unlike nearly all other UMS maps, Computer AI has been programmed to know exactly what to do. If you don't have enough players, fill in the slots with CPU.

Definately worth a download. Oh, Kudos to Gub for the submission.

Got a map that you'd like to share? Be sure to upload it instantly.

-Signatures are now separated from the post with a line so that they don't blend together with the post. This will make it clearer that the text in the signature is not a part of the post.

-We’ve added BML (Blizzard Markup Language) to the forums, which will allow you to use some HTML commands to format your posts. Go here for more information.

-The forum threading system is now flat. This means that new responses will always appear at the bottom of each topic or thread rather than being inserted somewhere in the middle of a thread.

-The Battle.net forums also now recognize URLs. Place "http://" before your link to make the Battle.net forums recognize your link. When you click on a link in the forums, it will launch a new Web browser window. This will allow you to access the linked-to page while keeping your current position in the forum thread available as well.

-You can now sort in descending order. Just click on the headers at the top of the forums to reverse the order of the sort.

-You can now sort topics by the number of times that they’ve been viewed.

-Users can now delete their own posts. Simply log in to the Battle.net forums and on your post you will see a red X icon that you can click to delete your post. Please note that this will also delete any responses to your posts, including the entire thread if the post you’re deleting is the opening post.

All these features are available in the Test Forum only so be sure to go there to check them all out.

• Dryad Painting: -Drawn By Depth Charge
• Bloodlusted Grunt: -Drawn By Aaron

A talented artists yourself? Be sure to send us your work.

Comment

The problem of course, is getting to these creatures without being killed first. This strategy helps you do just that, featuring a build order that's great for intermediate players.

• The Power of Wyrms
• Strategy Index
• Comment

A talented Warcraft 3 Player? Be sure to publish your strategy.

• Elven Archer: -Drawn By Pekle
• Dwarven Warrior: -Drawn By Aaron

A talented artists yourself? Be sure to send us your work.

Comment

The USEast Diablo II realm will be unavailable for maintenance starting at 1800 Wednesday, December 11 (1:00 P.M. EST). This maintenance is expected to take up to one hour.

-The Battle.net Team

P.S. This isn't Diablo II v1.10.

We'll just have to wait for a legitamite announcement for the long awaited patch 1.10.

In the mist-shrouded haze of the past, long before the beginning of recorded time, there stood the world of Azeroth. Every kind of magical being strode the countryside among the tribes of man, and all was at peace-until the arrival of the demons and horrors of the Burning Legion, led by the baneful Lord Sargeras, dark god of chaotic magic. Now Dragons, Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Humans, and Orcs all vie for supremacy across the scattered kingdoms-part of a grand, malevolent scheme that will determine the fate of the world of Warcraft®

If you would like to buy this book, then be sure head over here for purchase information.

Unlike solo or team games, Free For All's last far longer, and give the opportunity for multiple heroes to rise to very high levels. And the resources run scarce, the correct choices for your initial hero can mean the different between victory and defeat:

• FFA Guide: Part 3 
• Strategy Index
• Comment

A good Warcraft 3 Player yourself? Be sure to publish your strategy.

• Beserked Grunt -Drawn By Aaron
• Arcane Sanctum Render -Rendered By Kaarthia Rejirozu

A talented artist yourself? Be sure to send us your work!

Comment

Do you plan obtain a copy of the Warcraft 3 Demo?
Yes, Buying it	69	10%
Yes, If It's Online	386	55%
No Way	175	25%
War3 Demo?	68	10%
TOTAL	698	100

Well, seems like the majority would have got the Warcraft 3 Demo by now, and I hope it's worth it. The three new scenarios in the demo really does add a little to the Warcraft 3 Story. The only problem? Now waiting for the expansion is even harder... one wonder's when Blizzard will announced the thing.

Blizzard has made some new improvements to their forums on Battle.net.  Here there are:

-Users can now delete their own posts. Simply log in to the Battle.net forums and on your post you will see a red X icon that you can click to delete your post. Please note that this will also delete any responses to your posts, including the entire thread if the post you’re deleting is the opening post.

-When you click the + icon to expand threads, there is now a message letting you know that more than 25 responses have been posted to a thread. This message allows you to click on further responses to the thread, which were previously not displayed on the forum index.

These changes are available in the Test Forum only.  Be sure to check them out.

Battlegrounds is a game of team warfare where two factions of up to 5 players each Battle to destory each other's castle. Along with computer controlled army, plenty of mercenaries and items typical of such scenerios, it also features an attractive level design. Another great map for a Lan Party.

Download it here.

Certain hack programs cause the Diablo II server software to crash periodically.

New Diablo II realm server software is being distributed to all realms. The new software prevents the use of several hack programs and generally improves the server software. Overall, this will improve the Diablo II realm stability dramatically.

The distribution of this software will be completed shortly. Thank you for your patience.

-The Battle.net Team

Lets hope that it does indeed help maintain a playable environment for realm players.

In a world where Night Elf players scramble for Dryads or Fast tech to Hippogriff Riders, such a combo is rarely seen... yet because of just that, this strategy can allow you to take out the enemy efficiently. Be sure to read it, it includes a replay vs a Level 21 Undead.

• Chimaera Strike
• Strategy Index
• Comment

A talented Warcraft 3 Player? Be sure to publish your strategy.

Comment

There are no plans for a patch at this time.

Well, sorry to dash your hopes, but it seems like Orcs will be weak for quite a time to come yet.

Comment

If you liked the first part to his guide, you'll find the second part just as useful:

• FFA Guide: Part 2 
• Strategy Index
• Comment

A good Warcraft 3 Player yourself? Be sure to publish your strategy.

The Lordaeron Warcraft III servers, USWest Battle.net gateway and the USWest Diablo II realm will all be unavailable during maintenance starting at 1700 Monday December 2 UTC (11:00 A.M. Monday PST). Maintenance is expected to take no more than 2 hours.

So, if you have problems, it's not just your computer.

Early on in your WC3 life, you learn that it's quite important to creep the map as fast as you can, so as to level your hero quickly. Gradually, you learn to do this better and better, eventually learning things like solo creeping. Slowly, you use less and less units to effectively creep the map, and eventually you end up with either having lots of units not doing anything, or a lot of units creeping, even though they aren't needed.

When you reach that point, its time to start learning how to split creep. The basic concept is that, since you have extra troops you don’t need to creep with, take another hero and creep a different patch separately. This basically results in at least twice the exp gaining rate....

How do you pull that off? Read more. 

Warning: Due to the fact the demo is so popular, it appears that the Blizzard website has been rendered down. Please be patient.

Rich Man's Garden Author: Blizzard Game Type: vs CPU Map Data: w3m - Lordaeron Summer - 192x192 Players: 1 Description: A very rich man owns these gardens. Steal his money - if you can. The second Map supplied with the War3 Demo

Deadlock Author: Blizzard Game Type: Melee Map Data: w3m - Lordaeron Summer - 128x128 Players: 2 - 4(Any recommended) Description: One of the Three Maps from the Warcraft 3 Demo at Blizzard User Rating: Not yet rated.

Remember, if you have a map of you own, don't hesitate to upload it.