Warg

"The Wargs and the goblins often helped one another in wicked deeds. […] Then they often got the Wargs to help and shared the plunder with them. Sometimes they rode on wolves like men do on horses."

- The Hobbit, Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Wargs are the result of Sauron attempting to create the perfect mount for his armies. In many ways, this operation was a great success.

They resemble large wolves (they may look more like bears though), but are more intelligent. They are often found being ridden by Orcs, though they also pose a significant danger on their own.

Killing a Warg earns the achievement "Warg Slayer".

Warg Races
As with Orcs, there are many different races of Wargs, corresponding to the different factions. Most Orc races breed their own Warg race as mounts.

These Warg races are identical in most ways; however, the alignment bonuses and penalties for killing them are different, since they are aligned with different factions. The armour they may wear and the alignment you need to ride them is also different.

Gundabad Wargs
These Wargs ravage the wild lands to the North of Middle-earth, along with their Orcish masters. They do not use Warg Armour, and can be any of the four colour types shown below. They can be hired from Gundabad Orc Chieftains (with or without riders), who can be found in Gundabad Orc Camps.

As of Public Beta 26, Gundabad Wargs are significantly faster than other Warg types, regardless of colour.

Spawning
 * Anduin
 * Coldfells
 * Eregion
 * Ettenmoors
 * Grey Mountains
 * Lone-Lands
 * Misty Mountains
 * Tundra

(during night-time only)

They can also spawn as part of a Gundabad Invasion.

Angmar Wargs
These ferocious creatures are the mounts of the Orcs of Angmar. They use Angmar Warg armour and can be any of the four colour types for Middle-earth Wargs. They can be hired from Angmar Orc Chieftains, who dwell at the pinnacles of Angmar Towers.

Spawning
 * Angmar (day and night)
 * Ettenmoors (night only)

They can also spawn as part of an Angmar Invasion, along with the destructive Angmar Warg Bombardiers.

Isengard Wargs
These ferocious creatures are the mounts of the Isengard Snaga of Saruman. They use Uruk Warg armour and can be any of the four colour types for Middle-earth Wargs. They can be hired from Uruk-hai Chieftains, who spend their time in some Uruk Camps (when they're not slaughtering Rohirrim that is).

Spawning
 * Uruk highlands
 * Fangorn wasteland

(day and night)

They can also spawn as part of an Uruk-hai Invasion, along with the deadly Uruk Warg Bombardiers.

Mordor Wargs
These terrifying beasts are the mounts of the Orcs of Mordor. They use Mordor Warg armour and are always black in colour. They can be hired from Mordor Orc Chieftains, who live in Mordor Towers (when they're not pillaging Gondor at least).

Spawning
 * Mordor (day and night)
 * Ithilien (night only)

They can also spawn as part of a Mordor (or Black Uruk) Invasion, along with the deadly Mordor Warg Bombardiers.

Utumno Wargs
The Utumno Warg spawns in all the levels of Utumno. It has 40 HP, which is more than double any other Warg type. It shares the fundamental behaviour of other Wargs, but it cannot be tamed, which means it cannot be ridden or armoured by the player. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to get a positive Utumno alignment.

Warg Types
Wargs are found in four different fur colours:
 * Brown - the most common colour. Around 63% of all Wargs are brown.


 * Grey - around 32% of all Wargs.


 * Black - quite rare. Around 5% of Wargs are black. All Mordor Wargs are black.

The colour of a Warg has no effect on its health, speed, strength, or any other property.
 * White - extremely rare. Only 0.2% (1 in 500) Wargs are white Wargs.

There are also three special warg types that are only used for Utumno Wargs:
 * Utumno Ice Wargs - found on the first level of Utumno. These Wargs inflict a freezing effect when they attack.
 * Utumno Obsidian Wargs - found on the second level of Utumno.
 * Utumno Fire Wargs - found on the third level of Utumno. These Wargs are immune to fire, and inflict a burning effect when they attack.

Behaviour
The Warg is capable of running at great speeds, can execute powerful attacks, and is known to swim. However, the Warg cannot jump, which makes for a severe weakness in mountainous biomes. They have nine to twenty full hearts of health and can move faster than a sprinting player. Don't get too complacent, however, because Wargs, as fast as they are, can not run faster then the mounted Riders of Rohan; if you are on a Warg and the Rohirrim are chasing you down, you can only stand and fight – or get shot down by their mounted archers.

If you don't have a positive alignment with the faction that the Warg is part of, the Warg will sniff you out from 32 blocks away, and will attack. However, if your alignment is positive towards the type of Warg that you are near (i.e. if you have positive Angmar alignment and are near an Angmar Warg), it will ignore you unless provoked. They will also attack any nearby good NPCs. They chase down rabbits as well.

As stated before, Wargs have a longer tracking range than is normal for mobs; instead of the typical 16 blocks, a Warg will be able to hunt you down within a 32-block range. Wargs spawned as part of an invasion (see below) have an even greater tracking range.

Invasions
If a faction uses Wargs, then that faction's Wargs are capable of spawning during an invasion. As with naturally-spawned Wargs, they have a much greater sight range than normal NPCs, but because they were spawned as part of an invasion, their sight range is further increased. In addition, invasions may spawn a type of Warg which doesn't spawn naturally.

Warg Invasions
All the factions that use Wargs are capable of sending Warg invasions, as well. A Warg invasion is the same as any other invasion, except that every unit in the invasion is an unridden and unarmoured Warg.

Warg types
Aside from the standard Warg, there are three other types of Warg that may appear in the mod:

Warg riders
Sometimes, Orcs spawn atop the Wargs. When Orcs ride the Wargs, the Warg controls how both mobs move.

When close enough to a foe, the Warg and its rider will both start attacking, unless the mounted unit is a ranged unit, in which case attacks start from a distance of 10 meters (from the mounted unit only).

If you're up against a Warg mounted by an evil NPC, the best strategy is to attack the Warg if the unit on it is a regular Orc or an Orc Archer or Uruk-Hai.

Prior to Beta 26, Uruk-hai were capable of riding Wargs.

Warg Bombardiers
Main article: Warg Bombardier

Warg Bombardiers are Wargs equipped with Orc Bombs that use a suicide-style attack, similar to creepers. Each faction that uses Orc Bombs has a Warg Bombardier.

Armoured Wargs
Armoured Wargs are simply Wargs equipped with armour, and are only used by Angmar, Mordor, and the Uruk-Hai. Their behaviour is the same as that of normal Wargs, but their armour makes them much tougher to kill. Armoured Wargs may spawn naturally when ridden by another unit, in which case they have about a 10% chance of being armoured, or they can be hired.

Taming
At an alignment level of +50 with the respective faction, you become able to ride their Wargs. In order to ride a Warg you must first tame it. To do this, you're going to have to do what you would do to tame a horse; get on the Warg over and over until it likes you (feeding it meat can make it like you faster). Tamed Wargs do not despawn.

To ride the warg, the player needs to put a saddle on it. Riding a Warg is similar to riding a horse; by default, the player right-clicks to mount, uses the WASD keys to move, and the left shift button to dismount.

You can heal a tamed Warg by feeding it meat - this includes raw meat, cooked meat, and even rotten flesh. Just like the wolves in vanilla Minecraft, the angle of the Warg's tail shows how much health it has.

You can also equip a tamed Warg with Warg armour to give it a formidable boost in strength.

Hiring
Wargs can also be hired from the Gundabad, Uruk, Angmar, and Mordor factions at an alignment of +150 for a price of ten silver coins.

Advantages

 * A very fast unit
 * Can be ridden by another unit; a Warg ridden by an archer/crossbower can be a formidable opponent indeed, combining a ranged attack from the rider and a melee attack from the Warg
 * Can be hired from most evil factions; Gundabad Wargs especially are easy to replace if lost
 * Quite inexpensive
 * Not weakened by sunlight (unlike most Orcs)

Disadvantages

 * Somewhat weak if unarmoured
 * No ranged attack unless mounted by a ranged unit
 * Warg-riders can become somewhat expensive
 * Can't fit through single-width doors

Drops
When slain, Wargs drop their fur, which can be used in crafting Warg fur armour, as well as bones which can either be crafted into four pieces of bonemeal or sold to Galadhrim Traders.

They may also rarely drop a Wargskin rug of their fur colour. These can be used for decoration. A warg has a 1 in 50 chance of dropping its skin when killed.