Troll Batrider (Warcraft III)

For lore, see bat rider.

Troll Batrider
Faction	Orcish Horde
Statistics
Hit points	325
Hit point regeneration	Always
Hit point regeneration rate	0.25 (1.05*) HP/sec.
Level	2
Gold	160
Lumber	40
Food	2
Produced at	Beastiary
Build time	28 sec.
Requires	Voodoo Lounge
Hotkey	B
Combat
Normal attack:	14 (20*) avg
Can attack:	Ground
Range	30
Attack type	Siege
Cooldown	1.80 sec.
Weapon type	Missile
Armor Type	Light
Armor	0 (6*)
Day Sight	140
Night Sight	140
Movement Speed	Fast (320)
Sound
Sound Set	TrollBatrider

This article or section contains lore taken from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the manuals, and/or official bonus maps.

Light flying unit with incredible perception. Good at destroying buildings and flying units (with their suicidal special ability). The fire obsessed troll batriders are often used as reconnaissance for the orcish Horde.

Information

Troll Batriders are fairly weak aerial units like Flying Machines, though they make up for it with their roles of unconventional anti-air killers.

Batriders come with the Unstable Concoction ability upon being trained. It can only be used on aerial units, but it is a powerful ability against armies that have massed aerial units. When used, the Batrider becomes invulnerable and flies towards the targeted air unit, killing themselves but also dealing 600 damage to the primary target and 140 splash damage to nearby aerial units. This ability is extremely effective against enemy air units, as well timed and placed suicide runs can destroy whole aerial armies in seconds.

When the Fortress is obtained, the research Liquid Fire becomes available. Once researched, this ability allows the Batrider's attacks to prevent enemy workers from repairing their buildings until the fire is extinguished. With 15 or so Batriders, they can easily raze a base if it is not well-defended. You may want to bring Wind Riders with them to help take out enemy workers due to siege's poor damage against all but unarmored-type armor.

Counters

If the player attempts to use Troll Batriders to target your town halls, build a ring of defensive towers around them. The Troll Batrider has poor range, low health and cloth armor, so massed towers of any sort will easily repel any attack from them.

Outside of bases, simply running ground heavy armies will work, since the Troll Batrider deals negligible damage towards them. Siege Engines with Barrage work wonders on them, despite being countered by their siege damage.

Spells and abilities

Unstable Concoction

Causes a powerful explosion that deals 600 damage to a target air unit and 140 damage to nearby air units. Using this ability destroys the Troll Batrider.

When this ability is activated, the Batrider gains a +280 movement speed bonus and becomes invulnerable.

Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect 40 20 Air 600/140 (nearby) damage

This is the Orc's anti-air option, as Wind Riders are general heavy air units that will have trouble dealing with anti-air specialists. It should only be used on Flying Machines, Hippogryphs and Gargoyles because Unstable Concoction will generally kill them in a single cast, while it'll take more to kill a Gryphon Rider or Frost Wyrm which is a bad trade-off on your resources. However, Batriders can still be used as emergency anti-air for ground-based armies. A surprise Batrider attack can clean out the enemy's air power or at least eliminate key targets, letting you clean up and push the advantage with your superior ground force while the enemy must take time to rebuild.

Note that skilled Undead players may use Stone Form if their Gargoyles get targeted. If the Batrider targets the Gargoyle and he is charging when it uses Stone Form, then the Troll Batrider will die without killing the Gargoyle.

Unstable Concoction deals physical damage, meaning it is reduced by armor. Even fragile targets like Gargoyles can often survive an Unstable Concoction with armor upgrades.

The attack is a success when the Batrider yells "The ends justify da' means!".

Liquid Fire (Passive)

Flings a volatile liquid that causes buildings to take damage over time.

Buildings that are currently taking damage from Liquid Fire cannot be repaired and have their attack rate reduced by 80%.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements Upgrade Time 75 125 Beastiary Fortress, Voodoo Lounge 75 sec.
Duration Allowed Targets Effect 3 sec. Building, Enemy, Neutral Damages Buildings 8/sec.

If the Batriders are sent to attack bases, this is a useful ability to prevent defensive towers from dealing as much damage, and prevents workers from repairing buildings struck by the Batrider. It is generally less effective against human players due to their ability to compact more towers in a smaller area, along with two of their three defensive towers possessing Heavy instead of Fortified armor.

Upgrades

Troll Regeneration

Increases the hit point regeneration rate of Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Witch Doctors, and Troll Batriders from a base of .25 to 1.05.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
100 100	Barracks	War Mill, Stronghold	35 sec.

Steel Ranged Weapons

Increases the ranged attack damage of Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Wind Riders, Troll Batriders, and Demolishers.

Research Cost	Researched At	Upgrade Time
100 100	War Mill	60 sec.

Thorium Ranged Weapons

Further increases the ranged attack damage of Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Wind Riders, Troll Batriders, and Demolishers.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
150 200	War Mill	Stronghold	75 sec.

Arcanite Ranged Weapons

Further increases the ranged attack damage of Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Wind Riders, Troll Batriders, and Demolishers.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
200 300	War Mill	Fortress	90 sec.

Steel Unit Armor

Increases the armor of Grunts, Raiders, Troll Batriders, Tauren, Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Wind Riders, and Demolishers.

Research Cost	Researched At	Upgrade Time
150 75	War Mill	60 sec.

Thorium Unit Armor

Further increases the armor of Grunts, Raiders, Troll Batriders, Tauren, Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Wind Riders, and Demolishers.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
225 225	War Mill	Stronghold	75 sec.

Arcanite Unit Armor

Further increases the armor of Grunts, Raiders, Troll Batriders, Tauren, Troll Headhunters, Troll Berserkers, Wind Riders, and Demolishers.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
300 375	War Mill	Fortress	90 sec.

Quotes

• See Warcraft III Troll Batrider quotes

Patch changes

Patch 1.19 (09/18/2005)
hit points reduced to 325 from 400.

Patch 1.17 (09/20/2004)
Build time increased to 28 from 25. Can no longer use Unstable Concoction while Banished. Unstable Concoction primary target damage increased to 600 from 550.

Patch 1.16 (08/07/2004)
Hit points reduced to 400 from 500.

Patch 1.15 (05/11/2004)
Now gains a 280 movement speed bonus when Unstable Concoction activates. Liquid Fire damage reduced to 8 per second down from 15 per second.

• Patch 1.13 (2003-12-16):
  • Troll Batrider Unstable Concoction damage reduced to 550 from 900, and splash damage increased to 140 from 100.
  • Troll Batrider damage increased to 13-15 from 11-12.
    
• Patch 1.12 (2003-07-31): You no longer need a Fortress as a prerequisite to build Batriders.
  
• Patch 1.07 (2003-07-01): Added.
  

External links

Battle.net Warcraft III - Orcs -> Units -> Troll Batrider