Emphasis on heroes
Rank and tier units are the heart and soul of any RTS game. However, one of Blizzard’s trademarks was to give base soldiers a lot of personality (just see what happens when you keep clicking on a unit). If that wasn’t enough to make the franchise stand out, Blizzard also emphasized the role of heroes within the game.
While previous games like Warcraft 2 featured units of heroes, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos took it to the next level. Heroes not only had access to far more interesting powers and abilities, but they could actually level up and become even more powerful. This provided an incentive for players to take heroes into combat instead of hiding them safely behind other units.
It quickly becomes clear that the entire narrative of Warcraft 3 revolves around these heroic (and villain) characters. And these characters, along with their legacy, have shaped much of the story that begins World of Warcraft.
Tons of variety
Something that made the Warcraft franchise remarkable from the start was the fact that players enjoyed being both orcs and humans. This was a fun departure from standard fantasy RTS games, but there was an inherent downside: with a few notable exceptions, the orc and human units often played very similarly to each other.
Warcraft 3 changed that. Not only has it upped the ante by doubling down on playable factions (you can now play as Night Elves and Undead, as well as familiar orcs and humans), but each faction is very distinct from the other factions.
In this way, we see Blizzard’s continuing evolution – they clearly took the lessons they learned while creating StarCraft and used them to enhance their original franchise.
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