Need Hard mode mage tips, Never played other KB's.

[Nevar]

Originally Posted by Xargon

I'd only reset if you really want to play a mage focused on damage spells. Int is not that important for buffs and other stuff (maybe some of the summoning spells). I would be surprised if the difference in altars was that huge, and you can always get the medals and talents. The biggest difference may be in items, and I think you get at least one +5int ring fixed (the snake ring). With that, my lvl27 (or so) soothsayer has 29 intellect iirc, and I do not have great incentives to raise it right now (no powerful damage spells except blizzard, no powerful summon spells except ice ball). I can get 10 more intellect from talents, I believe.

REAL summoned creatures (Book of Evil, Ancient Phoenix, and Ice Ball) benefit tremendously from Intellect. I'm talking units capable of fighting stacks with double your leadership. For the rest, it just adds leadership to the summons, which is meh.

The problem with not having high intellect with a mage is that you will be forced to rely on buffs/debuffs to help your weaker-than-average army. You'd basically be playing like a Skald with half the army size. I.E. you'd be handicapping yourself.

Still, like I mentioned, my own Skald has 28 Intellect, with a lot of that from altars. I can't imagine the difference in altars is huge, either.