Exalted Order

The Exalted Order, or Exalted, is one of the four playable races in Night of Oblivion.

## **Storyline**

 The Exalted Order is a group of High Elves and Blood Elves under the command of Kael'thas, the leader of Quel'thalas. The Exalted arose as a result of their disagreement with the Night Elves to practice Forest Form, an ancient magic which eliminates all foreign magic sources in the user's body. The Exalted take great pride in their magics, but when the Oblivion Cannon hit Quel'thalas, the faction lost almost all its strength in a matter of seconds, including but not limited to the death of Kael'thas. The Exalted were the first faction to discover the Core.

## **Race Attributes**

* High Elf Workers only need to start buildings to construct them.
* All their units have 0 armour, but instead have a mana shield.

## **Units**

Worker: High Elf Worker

Exalted Barracks units: Swordsman, (Elder Swordsman), Archer, Emissary, Lieutenant.

Arcane Sanctum units: Priest, Sorceress, Grand Magus.

Exalted Factory units: Crossbow, Barrage Engine, Battle Golem, Hyperion Cannon.

Exalted Waygate units: Arcane Zeppelin, Dragonhawk Rider, Skywagon, Phoenix.

## **Structures**

Town Hall: Observatory. Arcane Spire, Violet Citadel

Core Structure: Mystic Core

Farm: Lantern

Production Facilities: Exalted Barracks, Arcane Sanctum, Exalted Factory, Exalted Waygate.

Tech Structures/Research Facilities: Arcane Vault, Arcane Fountain, (Fuschia Dynamo), Book of Exalted Pedestal, Exalted Laboratory, Aeon Cube.

Defensive Structures: Sky-Fury Tower, Earth-Fury Tower.

## **Techtree**

Mystic Core: Can cast Summon Extractor Golem, Summon Mana Elemental, Aetherize.

* Summon Extractor Golem: Summons a permanent Extraction Golem which is a specialised biomass harvesting worker.
* Summon Mana Elemental: Summons a Mana Elemental to fight for the Exalted for 120 seconds.
* Aetherize: Sends 5 random enemy units in the target area back to their highest tier town hall.

## **Exalted Opening Theory**

* The Exalted has various advantages in the opening game. First is the High Elf Workers' ability to construct structures without needing to maintain the construction. This nets the Exalted a small economic advantage since the Worker can return to gathering resources quickly.
* Another implication of this is that proxy openings become powerful as the Exalted only needs to send one worker out.
* Coupled with the pressure of tower rushes from the Exalted's strong towers, enemies often need to be wary of proxies.
* An early Arcane Vault can be useful as it is a viable building to use in wall-offs alongside the Barracks. In addition, Arcane Vaults enable the construction of the Earth-Fury Tower, which, when paired with a wall-off, is extremely strong at holding early pushes.
* If playing for a standard game, the Arcane Fountain is an important checkpoint which opens up the rest of the Exalted techtree. The quickest progression is Lantern - Barracks - Fountain, and it is not a bad build by any means.
* The Mystic Core is not extremely important to activate early, as its high cost is not offset well by its power in the early game. Its economy spell Summon Extraction Golem offers little use early when build progression is gated by minerals.

## **Exalted Unit/Composition Theory**

The Exalted’s combat units are divided and classified by each of their production structures, of which there are four. Compared to other races which often have three production structures, the ‘wider’ tech tree of the Exalted allows for much more variety in team compositions.

In a standard opening, an Exalted composition would initially primarily consist of Exalted Barracks units as they are easy to access and transition well into higher techs. After completing the Arcane Fountain, any tech is free game as transitions to any of Exalted Factory, Arcane Sanctum, or Exalted Waygate are viable. Doubling down on Barracks production with the higher tech units like the Emissary and Lieutenant is also an option.

### Combat units:

Swordsman/Elder Swordsman:

Swordsmen are the primary frontline for the Exalted in the early to mid game. They can be upgraded to Elder Swordsmen in the Arcane Fountain, which notably affects existing Swordsmen. Thus, timing attacks can be strong with Swordsmen.

In the late game, Swordsmen maintain their versatility in being a solid frontline, and also a mineral dump for the Exalted late game units.

Archer:

Archers are fairly weak in low numbers, but gain their strength through critical mass and is further enabled with its range upgrade.

Archers pair nicely with Swordsmen as they cover each other well. This combination of units is also very light on biomass and thus easily enables tech splashes such as spellcasters into the composition.

Emissary:

Emissaries are fast moving units with a Pierce attack. Their primary strength comes in their ability to harass worker lines, but they can be formidable combat units if the opponent’s units have Light armour.

Lieutenant:

Lieutenants are solid front line damage units with a Hero attack. This allows Lieutenants to plow through the enemy’s frontline units, which usually have Heavy armour. Lieutenants and Emissaries thus form a decent core as they complement each other's offense well.

As Lieutenants are bulky and have damage, Lieutenants can be paired solely with support units to function well. While Priests come to mind, Archers can be situationally good support units as they can alleviate the Lieutenant’s inability to hit air units.

Barrage Engine:

Barrage Engines have a high attack speed and have a Siege attack. Notably, they can hit air units, which would otherwise be a crippling weakness of Factory compositions.

Having a Siege attack automatically lends well to dealing with structures, so they can be produced as a countermeasure to an opponent who is relying on towers for defense.

Crossbow:

Crossbows are artillery units with a line Pierce attack. This means it is effective against clumps of units, and doubly so if they have Light armour. These units are primarily infantry units, so teching into Crossbows is an effective way to break an infantry arms race.

Battle Golem:

Battle Golems are the primary front line for late game Factory compositions. They have great bulk when upgraded, and Spell Immunity which is invaluable in the late game.

Hyperion Cannon:

A slow firing but powerful cannon with a Magic attack, the Hyperion Cannon truly shines in the late game where there are powerful units for it to snipe. The Hyperion Cannon’s high range and damage allows it to gain value by firing volleys to oneshot enemy units.

Arcane Zeppelin:

Arcane Zeppelin units are primarily harassment units, having a potent ability Interference, which causes its attacks against structures to halt its progress. When left unchecked, Zeppelins are capable of harassing worker lines as well as disrupting tech timings and unit production in the enemy’s base.

Zeppelins create immense pressure on the opponent to respond to them, and their high movement speed helps it do its job. Zeppelins are thus useful in a tech opening, gaining valuable tempo for the Exalted while at the same time heavily dissuading all-ins from the opponent if they do not have anti-air.

They fall off in the mid game, but regain a niche in the late game thanks to Overcharge, an upgrade which sharply increases the attack speed of Zeppelins. Because of Inteference, attack speed bonuses directly translate to improved building control.

Dragonhawk Rider:

Dragonhawk Riders are the Exalted primary air to air unit. Having a Chaos attack, Dragonhawks are able to outtrade most air units.

Excess Dragonhawks can easily contribute to the ground fight with Magic Binding, which is a channeled leash on a single enemy unit. This ability is especially useful against long ranged units which may be otherwise difficult to reach. Alternatively, Magic Binding can be cast on a retreating army to pick off as many units as possible.

Skywagon:

The Skywagon is a support unit with a mediocre attack. Instead, it has incredible bulk, and offers detection, high vision range, and two impactful abilities in Energy Overflow and Lightning Crash.

Energy Overflow restores the mana of nearby allied units, while Lightning Crash is an aoe damaging spell. As such, Skywagons are best paired with Barracks or Sanctum based armies as they can make good use of Energy Overflow.

Phoenix:

Phoenixes are bulky air units with a Magic splash attack. They have high dps and are durable, but most importantly, they are supply efficient which makes them premier units in the late game.

### Spellcasters:

The Exalted have spellcasters which focus on defensive utility, and have a motif of neutralizing enemies.

Priest: Can cast Concord, Neutralize, Holy Light.

* Concord reduces the attack speed of target unit.
* Neutralize harshly slows a target enemy unit and removes all its buffs, or deal damage to a summoned unit.
* Holy Light heals target ally non-Mechanical unit.

Priests play the role of a defensive utility unit. Concord causes enemy armies which are reliant on auto attack dps to lose a good portion of their damage, while Holy Light allows Priests to heal and protect priority units on the Exalted side. It is important to note an anti-synergy in Holy Light with Factory units as they cannot be healed.

Neutralize is a more niche spell, but is effective at shutting down expensive enemy summoned units at a cheap cost. It can also be simply used as a slow to catch retreating units off.

Sorceress: Can cast Arcanite Attack, Enrapture, Polymorph.

* Arcanite Attack empowers the sorceress’ attack at the cost of mana.
* Enrapture silences the target and deals damage over time.
* Polymorph hexes the target unit, disabling it temporarily.

As Sorceresses are air units, they can very easily play a harassment role. Their empowered attack allows them to burst down weaker units such as range infantry or workers, and come the late game, Sorceresses can transition into a supporting role, offering two control spells which allows them to counter opposing spellcasters with Enrapture or their dps units with Polymorph.

Grand Magus: Can cast Blinding Light, Arcane Implosion, Light of Justice.

* Blinding Light causes a target enemy unit to miss a percentage of its attacks.
* Arcane Implosion instantly burns all of the target’s mana, and deals damage based on the mana burnt.
* Light of Justice is a channeled spell which silences, slows, and cripples enemies in the area.

The Grand Magus is the ultimate spellcaster unit for the Exalted. It has Spell Immunity which protects it against enemy spellcasters, and Arcane Implosion which makes short work of them. Grand Magi excel in the late game where spellcaster wars are prevalent.

However, this is not to make light of its combat prowess. Blinding Light severely impairs the damage output of dps units, and synergizes with the Priest’s Concord. Finally, Light of Justice is an extremely powerful ability, shutting down most if not all enemy units in the area, forcing them away or take an uphill fight.

Grand Magi provide very powerful support spells, but are left helpless if there are few units to capitalize on its strengths. Thus, they can be rather useless when behind.

## **Exalted Strategy**

* Having units which rely on mana shields instead of armour has several implications. The obvious weakness is that Manabreak will be highly effective. The counter argument is that mana shields help override armour weaknesses. The most obvious case is for buildings, where the huge mana shields provide a strong defense against Hero (or Magic) attacks.
* Leading from the first point, it is important to note that armour upgrades fall off slightly at +2 and +3, but this is not the case for mana shields which arguably scale since mana shields also protect the unit against spell damage which is more prevalent in the mid to late game.
* The choice of tech after Arcane Fountain will affect the style of play. A Waygate allows for map control, a Factory allows for better combat potential, while an Arcane Sanctum is a safe option which can still diversify into training Priests or Sorceresses, which are defensive and offensive options respectively.
* The Exalted will want to look to harass around the early to mid game, via Emissaries, Sorceresses and/or Arcane Zeppelins, depending on the composition and situation.

## **Trivia**

* The Exalted race, if it wasn't obvious enough already, drew strong influences from the Protoss race in StarCraft.
* Swordsman's Enhanced Swordsmanship is the only unit replacing upgrade in the game.
* Exalted is the only race with two Defense Structures. In addition, the Fuchsia Dynamo is the only intermediate structure in the game.
* The Arcane Vault has the most researches available out of any research facility at a whopping 28 researches.