Wisp ( Warcraft III ) Wisps are ancient spirits of nature that inhabit the forestlands of Kalimdor . Legends say that Wisps are actually the disembodied spirits of the Night Elves themselves , but these rumors have yet to be proven . The Wisps act in unison with the Night Elves and serve to strengthen the demigod like trees known as the Ancient s . Beckoned by the Night Elves , Wisps are capable of animating various trees and expanding themselves into rough - hewn structures of living wood and stone . Information . Wisps do not have an attack so it is best to run away when attacked . While Wisps do not have an attack and may appear weak ( having only 120 hitpoints ) , however they can kill a most powerful demon in large numbers . To mine Gold Wisps must be placed inside an Entangled Gold Mine . They cannot mine Gold from a Gold Mine until it is entangled . Wisps are useful in battle to repair mechanical units or as a last resort to cast Detonate . Unlike the other races , Wisps do not attack trees for harvesting ; rather , they attach themselves to the tree and siphon lumber from it . While it is slow ( harvesting 5 lumber per harvest , compared to 10 / 20 from peons , peasants / ghouls ) , this is very effective in a long game where resources may be heavily depleted . Because Wisps do not kill trees , you may find it useful to hide Wisps away from your town where the enemy is unlikely to look . If the enemy attacks your main town they won ' t be able to attack those Wisps harvesting Lumber . If creating an " Ancient " building ( e . g Tree of Life , Ancient of Lore , etc . ) , the Wisp is consumed in the process . If the Ancient is destroyed , the wisp will also be destroyed in the process . Destroying non - ancient buildings won ' t consume the wisp and allow it to construct other buildings if needed . Use Wisps around the map to scout . Place several a bit outside of your town at the start of the game to watch for offensive towering . Using this method the enemy will often start building towers in your line of sight . Unless the enemy sets their units on an attack or patrol trajectory , they will be not discover your wisps . This allows the user to prepare countermeasures for their attacker ( s ) . Spells and Abilities . Create Building . Wisps are consumed when creating Ancients ( all of the trees ) but not when creating a normal structure such as a Hunter ' s Hall , Moon Well , or Altar of Elders . Detonate . Detonate is targeted on a location rather than an enemy unit so make sure you adjust where you want the Wisp to Detonate if the enemy moves after you target it . If you do not control the Detonation carefully the Wisp will use Detonate on an area after the enemy has already left its blast radius which will waste the Wisp . Another thing to watch out for is friendly or enemy units walking where you instructed the Wisp to Detonate . If this happens the Wisp will move to Detonate but will then stop and do nothing . Usually they just die before you can give them another command . To use Detonate effectively you will need to control it rather than just firing and forgetting . Keep in mind that Detonate is one of the best dispels available to the Night Elves . When the enemy rushes your town early on with summoned units use Wisps to detonate them . Try to also hit the enemy Hero to take away some or all of their mana . This will remove up to 50 of their Mana a Detonate and can shift the power in favor of your Hero . Wisps should also be used against Skeletons and groups of casters ( if you can sneak up on them ) . Whenever possible try to bring a few Wisps into battle . Be warned that Detonate will also affect your own Heroes and allied units so be careful when using it . If the enemy Hero is attacking your Wisps Detonate on them rather than trying to run away . Heroes can easily chase down and destroy Wisps . This will prevent the enemy from gaining experience on your Wisps with easy kills . Deny them that experience . Detonate is great if you can get a tightly packed group of enemy spellcasters . If the enemy has a bunch of Shaman or Sorceresses you can sometimes sneak up and remove some of their mana . Detonate is also great if you can hit several enemy Heroes at the same time . Detonate is usually not a good trade in most situations . A Shaman can have 400 mana which would take 8 Wisp Detonates to remove . But if you can hit a bunch of Shaman or several Heroes , or if the Wisp would just die anyway , it ' s good to use . Reign of Chaos differences . In , Wisps have a movement speed of 220 .