Noob mage

[Petwin]

One more question, can I rush to a good companion? as the one I have got now gives me bonus to pirates and stuff and would like to go for some other.

Elenhel can be found in the north of Verona (house next to the bridge). You'll need 20 Int to hire him (or 10 INT + the wanderer scroll that gives +10 INT for a short while). He gives you +4 INT and a wanderer scroll every 30 battles. see http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=10991 for more info.

[EDIT] can hire cyclops, should I add them to to my army composition?

There are not many fans of the Cyclops. Have you collected the free Green Dragon at Rusty Anchor yet?

[Suporex]

Originally Posted by Petwin

Elenhel can be found in the north of Verona (house next to the bridge). You'll need 20 Int to hire him

I have 20 int after upgrading novice staff, will look for the guy, thanks

Originally Posted by Petwin

There are not many fans of the Cyclops. Have you collected the free Green Dragon at Rusty Anchor yet?

no, I have not seen any free Dragon, I will look around Rusty, thanks

[bukimi]

Cyclops are weak units. I think the weakest 5 level ones.
Only good thing is their high damage resistance but they deal only a little damage and are slow. You also cannot heal them

I would not take third 5 level unit to the army. You will not be able to keep stoneskin on all of them and it will be harder to keep them alive by healing all of them.
You also cannot resurrect them so a good 4 level unit will be a better choice (the best choice will be some summoning unit like demonologists)

[Suporex]

OK I am lev 18 now, got Ethaniel and have army of 2 red dragons 2 black dragons and 5 trolls, works well since black dragons are immune to magic, they are rarely attacked and can move them back if needed, but the extra damage is great since their crit rate is so high.

Trying to upgrade some items without loss but not that easy, found resurection spell, working on getting to the voice of dragon in mind tree. clearing Verone easly without losing any units. will add green dragons when I will buy more to have full stack.

PS. Thinking if I should invest in the skill that breaks items for mana before voice of dragon, but I think I would need at least 2 points in it as 1st gives only 2 mana

[bukimi]

Originally Posted by Suporex

PS. Thinking if I should invest in the skill that breaks items for mana before voice of dragon, but I think I would need at least 2 points in it as 1st gives only 2 mana

You brake items for crystals, not mana.
You will find a lot of useless artifacts level 1-3 to break.
They are cheap to buy so I buy every useless artifact (if it's cheap) only to break it.
Without Neatness ability you get only 1 crystal. After taking it you get 2 crystals for every simple artifact you break. That's a lot of crystals to get.

I personally never invested in more than 1st level of neatness, because better artifacts are usually good and expensive and it takes a lot of runes that can be spend on sth else...

[kcwong]

Originally Posted by bukimi

I personally never invested in more than 1st level of neatness, because better artifacts are usually good and expensive and it takes a lot of runes that can be spend on sth else...

If you take Neatness II, several level 4 artifacts will give you runes.

Even on Impossible, by the end of the game you can still have enough money to buy every single artifacts for sale. Plus you can't possibly have a use for all the level 5 items you will get - which makes Neatness III useful (but not high priority).

[bukimi]

Originally Posted by kcwong

If you take Neatness II, several level 4 artifacts will give you runes.

Neatness is not totally useless but in early and middle game there is no way to get enough runes from destorying artifacts.
If you get back what you invested in this skill you can say you are lucky.

I prefer to exchange mind runes to magic runes and take higher magic 2, upgrade summoner skill or other useful magic skills.

[Suporex]

Originally Posted by bukimi

You brake items for crystals, not mana.
You will find a lot of useless artifacts level 1-3 to break.
They are cheap to buy so I buy every useless artifact (if it's cheap) only to break it.
Without Neatness ability you get only 1 crystal. After taking it you get 2 crystals for every simple artifact you break. That's a lot of crystals to get.

I personally never invested in more than 1st level of neatness, because better artifacts are usually good and expensive and it takes a lot of runes that can be spend on sth else...

I just double checked and it says that it breaks item into crystals but in addition it rises your maximum mana (lev1 +2 max mana), so I think this is very usefull for mage, lev 2 at least I would say

[ludak021]

+2 mana means nothing, (it gives you +2 mana when you take the skill, not every time you break an item!) you need to conserve those mind runes if you are a mage, you will need them for distrotion magic, transmute and almost every other skill in magic tree. Neatnes is ok if you are left with bunch of runes and already have all you need from magic tree. Transmute gives you mana each time something dies on battlefield (if not killed by your magic), and things die and give you mana all the time (summoned units from both sides, archer stacks, etc etc.). Neatnes you need one point only so you can get to absolute balance witch gives rage + mana per upgrade.

Voice of dragon for mage...hmm...I don't know where are you going to get that much might runes, since you need level 3 for dragons to get +1 morale. I don't think it's worth it. While you get to the point (as a mage) when you can afford to put 1 point into voice of dragon, you will stop leading animals big time, so it's just a waste of runes which can buy you onslaught, frenzy or something that all your troops can use.