The enchanted Dryads are the daughters of the Night Elf demigod, Cenarius. The playful, frolicking creatures vaguely resemble centaurs (their cursed cousins), but have bodies more akin to woodland fauns. They are swift and sure and are at peace with all of the children of the forest. Though they abhor unnecessary violence, the Dryads will defend the wildlands of Kalimdor with their lives if need be.

Level: 2
Cost: 145 60 3

Unit Type: Normal
Attack Type: Pierce
Weapon Type: Missile
Armor Type: Unarmored
Armor: 0 (6*)
Ground Attack: 18 avg (24 avg*)

*(#) = Stats when fully upgraded Air Attack: 18 avg (24 avg*)
Cooldown: 2
Hit Points: 435
Health Regeneration: Night
Mana: 200
Mana Regeneration: 0.75
Range: 50
Day Sight: 140

Night Sight: 80 (140*)
Speed: Fast (350)
Build Time: 30
Trained At: Ancient of Lore
Requirements: None
Transport Space
Usage: 1
Production Hot Key: D

Typically the Dryad is used in a support role in large games, while in small games players can focus entirely on Dryads. The Dryad does less damage than both the Archer and the Huntress and is easily killed. You can heal the Dryad using Moon Wells or the Keeper of the Grove's Tranquility Ultimate spell. But advanced players can really work wonders with Dryads with good control methods. The key is to keep enemy melee units away from the Dryads and to do lots of hit-and-run attacks as you do with ranged unit control. A big advantage of the Dryad is its ability to poison enemies and slow their attack and movement speed. Also the Dryad's Abolish Magic ability can remove any negative spells on your units and remove positive spells on enemy units.

The Dryad really shines in its ability to prevent enemy units from running away. Enemy armies running away is a common situation giving the Dryad plenty of opportunities to kill a few of the enemy units at the tail end of their retreat train. Enemy units are slowed for 5 seconds giving you plenty of time to finish them off. Dryads can even be used on running Heroes but they will only slow the enemy Heroes for 1 second due to their magical resistance. However, if you have multiple Dryads continually hitting a Hero you can keep them slowed almost the entire time despite the 1 second length of Slow Poison on Heroes.

You will often want two Ancient of Lore buildings so you can research Abolish Magic and train Dryads at the same time. This also makes it easier to switch to Druids of the Claw.

Control
For the best results each Dryad should keep a different unit slowed. You can do this by TillerMaN's suggested method of assigning each Dryad to a different control group. Using this method you can quickly assign a Dryad to a specific enemy unit and keep them slowed.

vs. Night Elves
The Dryad should not be used solely in facing enemy Huntresses. Huntresses can easily work large groups of Dryads even when slowed. Use Huntresses, Archers, or Bears with your Dryads to face the enemy Huntresses.

vs. Spellcasters
The Dryad can help assist against spellcasters such as Shaman, and Sorceress that are buffing their troops or that are hurting your troops. But be reminded that Dryads have only 200 mana while normal spellcasters can have as much as 400 mana with master training. This means they can't compete at full mana with equal numbers and can only really assist in removing some of the spells. To properly deal with enemy spellcasters you will not only have to dispel their buffs but kill the casters themselves. The Dryad can help in this area by using Slow Poison to reduce spellcaster's movement speed which will make it hard to impossible for them to run away. You can then use other units such as the Huntress, Archer, or Bear to finish off the enemy spellcasters.

Some Dryad Counters

All
Ranged Units with focused fire
Surrounded with melee units and kill

Night Elves
Huntress - Rush, surround, then kill with focused fire
Archers - kill with focused fire

Slow Poison (Passive)
A poison attack that deals 4 damage per second, and slows the target enemies movement by 50% and attack by 25% for 5 seconds (1 second Heroes).
Research Cost Researched At Requirements
None Always Available None


Duration (Hero) Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect
5 (1) sec. None None N/A Unit Air, Ground, Organic 4 damage/sec, 50% less movement rate, 25% slower attack rate

Slow Poison Information
Slow Poison does not need to be researched and is always available.
Abolish Magic (Autocast)
Dispels positive buffs from enemy units, and negative buffs from friendly units. Deals 300 damage to summoned units.
Research Cost Researched At Requirements Upgrade Time
50 50 Ancient of Lore None 45 sec.


Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect
Instant 1 sec. 50 50 Unit Air, Ground, Ward Removes Spell, 300 damage to summoned units

Abolish Magic
Be sure to research Abolish Magic as soon as possible. Usually you want to leave Abolish Magic always on but in some situations you want to build up mana if you need to cancel spells such as Polymorph to ensure you will have enough mana.
The Dryad does not automatically cast Abolish Magic on summoned units so you will have to do this manually yourself. In the case of Necromancer's Skeletons this might not be easy and it's best to use Wisp Detonate instead. Dryads can easily use Abolish Magic to kill Archmage Water Elementals, Keeper of the Grove Treants, Farseer Spirit Wolves.

You can use Moon Wells to fill up the Dryad's mana before entering combat. Although you may wish to save your Moon Wells for healing health of returning combat troops.

Abolish Magic will not remove positive buffs on friendlies or negative buffs on enemies. Abolish Magic no longer auto-dispels hero spells.

Spell Immunity (Passive)
Renders this unit immune to spells.