Inquisitors vs. demonologists vs. archmages
 

I've been using Inquisitors since I started the game, but now that I'm at level 35 using a paladin hero with max resurrection skill and the resurrection spell, and Paladin units (yes I know overkill on the resurrection), I rarely need the Inquisitor's skill. So I'm thinking of switching them with demonologists or archmages. Just wanted to get other's opinions on advantages/disadvantages or each stack.

Also since the demonologists are rare, I heard that the sacrifice spell can be used to increase the unit #s. I tried the spell a couple times, but it would only let me reinforce the unit that had casualties. So is the spell limited to only increase the # of units that you started the battle with?

Thanks.

I must be missing something about archmages, cause I have never seen any usefulness in them. I am always late finding trap, so I dont use them for moving units onto traps. Is there something special about them?

Magic shield which halve the damage and it can be used many times per battle.

I also quite like the chance on shocking and ofcourse the huge hitpoints Archmages have is always nice.

Back to the original topic: the use of the spell Sacrifice. You can increase the number of a stack by sacrificing part of another stack. You can use it to grow your army for free (and there was much rejoicing..)

Basic troop gaining:
1) Sacrifice a lvl5 unit
2) Gain units for a stack <lvl5
3) Resurrect or Time Back the sacrificed unit.

But be careful: you can get more units in the 2nd stack than your leadership allows and then the stack will become out of control.

Additional things to consider:
1) With the spell Peacefulness the health of the sacrificed stack will be higher. In that case 1st level Sacrifice will not kill the unit.
2) When you resurrect damaged stacks there's a chance the resurrection will not work. Heal the stack before you resurrect.

With regards to the topic's unit comparison, I think one must use archmages mainly on the first part of the game wherein a single tank with magic shield could help you a lot. But once you get the relevant medal for resistance, you should drop them for something better.

Demonologists are better for a warrior. With the summons and the warrior's inherent greater rage generation when units hit each other, the demonologist just has better uses. For a paladin, the inquisitor is still better. The +40% damage from the level 3 medal is akin to a 40% leadership discount for inquisitors. With a level 1 cast of the Phantom spell on inquisitors, you could also generate rage from them as necessary, even when the battle goes long and units hitting each other don't generate rage anymore.

But given that you are using a paladin character, why not just drop your paladin units and use inquisitors and demonologists? Too much resurrection already, and the demonologist would be more active in battle for you, and could even provide blockers (and more rage). The paladin is too slow for tanking anyways, you would do better to use dragons, either red or green, which your inquisitors could resurrect (the resurrect spell doesn't work on level 5 units).

Inquisitors are nice in the early game for building rage (especially in multiple stacks) but they do start to lose their effectiveness later on. The problem is that they do below average damage for their cost. Now as a paladin though, that +40% does go a long way. I've never played a paladin but I've never had a fight where I was like "Wow, I'm glad I had the firepower of those inquisitors! They really contributed to the fight!"

One of my friends used to be fond of saying, "Don't make your back door bigger than your front door." What he means is, if your goal is to maximize killing efficiency, don't hamper that too much by going too heavy on defense. If your team has lots of resurrection, you will also find the need to use more of it (since those units won't be as strong in combat.)

In terms of what to replace it with, I think that depends a lot on what you hope the replacement will do. Do you want something hardier, something that does more damage, etc? Are you replacing it because they are boring you or do you feel your team is lacking in some way?

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful info.

What I'm hoping to achieve is replace the Inquisitors with a beefier unit. The +40% dmg medal does make them worth keeping, but they are usually the first targeted and I'm taking 10 unit loses each time an enemy archer attacks them. Depending on the enemy army, some battles I get hit for 30-40 loses in the first round before I can get my tanks to the enemy archers. So I'd rather replace them with a unit that can withstand the enemy attacks better.

I'm also just looking for some variety since I've had them since I started, so it's not essential to replace them, just more of an entertainment thing. I like loreangelicus's suggestion of replacing the paladin with demonologists though, I think I'll try that and see if I like that army setup.

Well, there's a couple of ways to go here. You could use demonologists/druids for their summoning or you could perhaps go Cyclops if you just want a beefy guy. What's the rest of your team like?

Um, I feel obliged to enter the conversation since I'm pretty much into those types of units... My perfect army consists of both archmagi and demonologists, while leaving the inquisitors behind.

Why?

Both units have a decent amount of HP, which means you can't easily suffer a loss from those stacks. Magic shield from the Archmagi is an extremely useful ability throughout the entire game, because it allows you to play with a single tank stack, such as he paladins. Against bosses, it allows you to suffer less, because it will reduce the damage a stack takes by a half, regardless of the stack. This goes a long way towards achieving no-loss victories.

You will excuse my bias towards the Archmagi, but I do think that they are one of the best units around - Phys/Magic damage, No range penalty, Magic shield that helps any tank or unit in distress... What more can someone else want from a ranger?