Skills & Attribute Analysis

[SpiritSeeker]

Since this thread now seems to be more about which spells are useful : I feel one spell should be mentioned as well: Fear.
If you only use level 3 and up units, it's really nice to cast fear on those huge stacks of low level creatures. I don't think I would have survived that stack of 2000+ fireflies (when fighting that dragon at the Orc's castle) at level 11 without that spell. Well, not without losses anyway

I've only just started using Inquisitors with Sacrifice, and even while playing on Impossible (mage, now lvl 12), it feels a bit like cheating . Sacrifice that giant, and resurrect him for free units.. It's a bit too easy.

So far, important components were:
low level mage: mana spring & fireball, pain mirror in heavy fights
low-mid level mage: fear & slow, sacrifice if I must, damage spells if I have the time

[lauvhk]

Sacrifice cheating? Then I guess I "cheat" a lot.

I have been using Ancient Vampire and Vampire to fill up one another and the rest of my army using Sacrifice most of the time. Rarely did I buy any units in game except like Dryad/Black Dragon.

[Gatts]

Originally Posted by lauvhk

Sacrifice cheating? Then I guess I "cheat" a lot.

I have been using Ancient Vampire and Vampire to fill up one another and the rest of my army using Sacrifice most of the time. Rarely did I buy any units in game except like Dryad/Black Dragon.

Same here - just with the difference that I tried to use Undead units (for that I had Zombie Rina and called my own hero "Undead LORD" ) ... but also I gone for Emerald Dragons ASAP ...

But having normal and ancient (blue/red) vamps in my army - I either had zero losses or even gained units. (on Impossible this strategy is not so cool but still working... )

On Impossible I used mostly gloth's armom on my one and only unit ancient vamps + armageddon.
If mage, second spell was iron skin ... if the battle was too hard, I tried to survive in corner of the battlefield, lettin in second round "CLONED" vamps to get all damage from shooters/ flyers...
after my swamp guy rested enough and I still had enough mana... again gloth's armor and armageddon ... (mostly I didn't had enough mana, only if I used charges/ magic spring... )

But the fact that the unit itself could "steal life" nearly in each battle - so all you need is to let such stack live till the bitter end to use it as "ressurection unit" - vamps are the unit to go for (having undead commander skill - you will start in each round... getting the right artefacts - you can kick ass even on impossible... )

For the elven undead underground - full of undead creatures - hide your vamps in backup slot and hire black/red dragons ... after you defeat Korador, swap back to vamps

WARNING! - most spells like GOD ARMOR do not work on vamps... so if you don't especialy like undead like I do - just go for green dragons (fast, fly, gods armor + magic spring + iron skin + GIZMO = you won't lose a battle ... the hardest of hardest you lose few units... again you can get in such battles other units and use them as sacrifice )
Second option - much more harder to play : Griffins... WHY?
you can cast on them BERZERK, god's armor, ressurection... why are these so cool?
1.) have more HP than leadership
2.) make unlimited retalations - can wipe out the battlefield in crazy speed just by retaliating
3.) easy to get in huge numbers (stock up your back up slot) and are easy to maintain in battle (ressurection)
4.) have not few but very good Griffin only specific artefacts
NEGATIVE:
a.) There is no specific skill for them (there are skills for human army, for undead army, for archers... not for griffins... SAD!)
b.) level 3 only + not mind immune (tricky in some battles - very tricky indeed )
c.) initiative 5 is BAD - with the master skill in MIGHT you can start the battle as first, but not continue to be first... still if you are good in strategy - you can turn this "bug" in "feature"

[ender]

"b.) level 3 only + not mind immune (tricky in some battles - very tricky indeed )"

Those beholders from dwarf mines gived me a hard time with this strategy - now I HATE beholders more than any other unit

[Gatts]

Originally Posted by ender

"b.) level 3 only + not mind immune (tricky in some battles - very tricky indeed )"

Those beholders from dwarf mines gived me a hard time with this strategy - now I HATE beholders more than any other unit

That is why I value undead army so much

[BAL_Hawk]

Admin, please *Sticky* this!

[Koki]

Originally Posted by Falconhurst

Master of Spirits: increases experience of spirit of rage in combat
1: 4/1/0 +10%
2: 5/1/0 +20%
3: 6/1/0 +30%
Useful once you actually get the spirits of rage.

As long as you're not a mage(Who has huge -40% Spirit xp nerf) and you're summoning Spirits first round each combat(Which you should) you won't need more than level 1 to keep the Spirits at your Hero's level. Incindentally, you can get that level before you even get the Chest, so just do that and forget about it.

Tactics:
1: 10/2/0 Allows troops to be arranged on the battlefield before combat
2: 14/4/0 allows troops to be arranged in a broader area
Expensive and of limited benefit.

One level in this and you can re-position your units so that enemy dragons won't get a free hit on the very first turn(usually). Quite worth it, even with the hefty cost. Level 2 seems useless, unless you're playing with all-melee army.

Frenzy – increases attack bonus for hero’s troops
1: 4/1/0 +2 attack
2: 6/2/0 +4 attack
3: 8/3/0 +6 attack
A great skill, everyone should get this ASAP as attack makes a big difference. These are big bonuses to an attribute that is hard to raise by other means

As someone pointed out, the bonus only applies once the troop killed something; still, the hardest battles in the game are the longest, so yeah, it's worth it.

Onslaught
Hero’s troops receive initiative bonus in first turn
1: 5/0/0 +1 initiative
2: 6/0/0 +2 initiative
3: 7/0/0 +3 initiative
This is a puzzling and largely worthless skill, since it works only during the first turn (even at level 3) when only missile troops typically have the range to engage the enemy. If it worked all the time it would be worthwhile, but as a first-round only bonus it does not warrant any serious investment.

This is the skill about which I disagree with you the most - in case of two troops having same initiative, the enemy will always go first. And in combat, you want to be able to use a Spirit and cast a spell before the enemy moves. This skill allows you to do just that.

Learning
1: 1/5/1 +10% combat experience
2: 1/6/1 +15% combat experience
3: 2/7/2 +20% combat experience
Level 1 is useful; 2 and 3 reach diminishing returns. This skill helps you get levels faster, but levels are still capped at 30 and so this won’t necessarily change the end-game dynamics. Stick with level 1 unless you have lots of useless might runes and nothing else to do with them.

I always take level 1 of this before I fight anyone(After the Trials of course). This gives me one "free" level in mid-game, and two late-game. The difference can be pretty big because the leadership bonuses you get scale to your level.

Diplomacy
Entice away enemy troops if you have enough leadership and the same troops in your army
1: 1/6/0 entice 5%\
2: 2/7/0 entice 10%
3: 3/8/0 entice 15%
You are rarely going to have spare leadership, and enemies will rarely have the same troop types. And it’s expensive for only a small boost. Skip it.

I think this skill is good, but only for Paladins(Too expensive for other classes). Getting through battles with no losses at all is hard and you find the banners everywhere so you will usually have some spare leadership, so the skill allows you to keep your troops at maximum strenght. This gives you free units at the same time reducing the number of enemy units. The enemy troops are varied enough so you will find what you want sooner or later, and it's a great source of otherwise rare stuff(Griffins, Inquisitors, Faeries, Dryads, etc.).

Trade:
Sell items and scrolls for higher price
1: 0/1/0 items 50%, scrolls 30%
2: 0/2/0 items 75%, scrolls 40%
3: 0/3/0 items 100%, scrolls 50%
Given the great abundance of cash if you play well and the relative scarcity of items and scrolls, this skill has little use. Its only upside is that the rune cost is low.

The cost is absolutely pathetic(I think it's cheapest skill in the whole game) and it practically doubles your income from items and scrolls, and you'll find a lot of both. And money = runes. I always get level 3, and I never even sell anything before I get it(Your inventory is unlimited anyway).

Inquisition: Can upgrade priests to inquisitors
1: 1/5/1
Since you can buy inquisitors anyway, and can replace them if numbers run down through “sacrifice,” this skill is almost completely worthless.

I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking putting this at the top of Paladin skill tree. Inquisitors are good, but how can this compare to things like Higher Magic? Should be swapped with Holy Anger or something.

Holy Anger (Paladin Only)
Increases attack against demons and undead
1: free (+5 attack)
2: 5/8/0 +10 attack
3: 5/8/0 +15 attack
A nice bonus; however, demons and undead are only a fraction of the enemies in the game. These targeted bonuses against selected enemies are not as useful as the all-the-time bonuses of knights (rage) or mages (magic power & damage).

On the other hand, both undead and demons are "imba", receiving big race bonuses(such as immunity to mind spells), and both have good units and innate abilities as well(especially demons). Adding the fact that you will meet most of the demons in Demonis(where they get Def bonus because of the lava terrain) and undead at cemeteries(Where they get morale bonus), I'd say this skill is pretty awesome for what it does and it's cost(no prereqs).

Necromancy:
1: 0/2/4 Resurrects 15-20% of slain soldiers after a battle, necro call + 10%
2: 0/3/5 raises 20-30% of soldiers, necro call +20%
3: 0/4/6 raises 30-40% of slain soliders, necro call +30%
Offers some useful bonuses, but once you get the “sacrifice” spell along with inquisitors (resurrect) and order magic (resurrect), it becomes less helpful. Investing 0/9/15 points to get 30-40% of soldiers back after battle may be worthwhile, but there are other ways to keep your troops healthy in most circumstances. Unless you are playing with a lot of undead, it is likely better to wait on this.

Even with Necro Call boos this skill is kinda bad - if you lost entire troop during battle(which is about only time when the skill is useful), you were either prepared for it(Because it was hard battle), or you messed up and are about to reload.

[OGKingsBounty92]

Originally Posted by kennec

the green one with haste or resurection thing i would go for. depending on whut scroll u get early in game wich can be used untill end game

I'm new here but apparently NO ONE has ever told you that the word "WHAT" is actually spelled "W-H-A-T", not "whut".

I'm curious as to how and where you learned to write since (this is fascinating to me and find it as an incredible or stupid phenomenon) you actually still use 4 letters to spell the word but yet STILL manage to mispell it. I can see if you're trying to abbreviate or shorten the word but, you're not.

The kicker being English is not my first language but I could still seem like an English PHD at age 8 compared to you.

Seriously, is this you trying to be cool or you think that sounding stupid makes it cool? Or your english is not too good because it's your second language? Then this becomes extremely useful to believe being that the word "what" is possibly one of the first words that one learns in the English language.

By the way if this offends you then trust me it's for your own good. No one likes to be stupid and you might want to thank me so that you don't experience a bigger embarrasment in the future.

[CKaz]

Originally Posted by travcm

When you level up and have a choice, the Leadership increases are as follows:
Warrior: 60 x Level
Paladin: 50 x Level
Mage: 40 x Level

So if you are a Paladin turning level 10 it might offer +500 Leadership and something else.

Hmm.. given this, if you can swing it, aren't you a LOT better off pushing leadership gains off, as your option doesn't scale with level [right]?

Is there ever a point you're sitting on silly leadership, so this wouldn't be as big a factor as it first appears? It would seem at least hard/impossible difficulties pushing it off - if you can - would almost be essential.

[maltz]

My pick of the useless skills:

(A) Might Tree. For warriors you will end up maxing them anyway.

- Training (lv 1 required) There are much better units than archers very soon. Knights are good against dragons but you don't need the circle attack to hit them effectively.

- Combat Readiness (lv 1 required). Turn One is the least likely turn that you will be hit by anything. For dragons you can use Trap / Glot's armor.

- Frenzy (lv 1 required). When you can wipe out 1 stack you can wipe out 10 stacks.

- Tactics (lv 2). It is always better to wait on turn 1 so you can wipe out the faster units first.

- Spirits of Rage (lv 1 enough). The best rage spirits spells are all available quite early. You don't need to push from level 28 to 30.

(B) Mind Tree. For paladins you will end up maxing most of them anyway.

- Scouting (Lv 1 required). I don't know why people keep recommending them. This is a single player game and you are supposed to reload like crazy.

- Anything that gives extra money (Trade, Trophy, Keeper of the light). Even on Impossible you will run a large profit, if you know how to conserve troops properly and know the right troop to buy.

- Diplomacy (Lv 1 is enough). Your troop count should be always maxed, or close to max since you just pulled a flag.

- Inquisition (Paladin only) - Useful if you don't have sacrifice. Useless if you have it. In my game I didn't. Great skill.

(C) Magic Tree - for mages you will end up maxing many of them anyway

There is no useless skill here!

- Alchemy (Mage only). You can leave this as the lowest priority since 80% of spells are simply not worth learning. Plus the most expensive upgrades only come in end game - so there is no point investing in this early-mid game.

- Necromancy - useful if you like undead and combine it with the might skill Dark Commander. There are so many good living units, though.