A few questions from a new player

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by Loopy

Thanks for the responses guys.

Regarding the pet: is there any way to affect the upgrades available when the dragon levels? Is it completely random or does it change based on what you use most? Ball lightning seemed really useless early on since it just didn't have the initial "wow" factor of killing off 1/3rd of the enemy troops instantly, but I can see how % based damage to a stack would get ridiculously powerful late game when you could be facing an ungodly stack size. Trouble is, I don't think I've seen the option to upgrade it for a long time.

As a side note, I've noticed the extra XP for lower armies and have exploited it a bit. Notice how my pet is several levels ahead of me . It seems odd though that the class which is supposed to have the most pet-focused build (warrior) is also the one whose pet levels the slowest because they have the largest army.

ckdamascus, does your goblin build work with mages? Or should I save that for another playthrough with warrior? Being able to abuse the shamans myself would be a nice change.

Unfortunately, the only information on beating shamans I can find on the forums here seems to boil down to "hope you incapacitate them or kill them before their first round or you die", which isn't exactly inspiring advice. I can't imagine how overpowered they must have been BEFORE the patch that nerfed them, just how high was whoever created them? For the damage they put out it seems as if their leadership requirement should be at least doubled if not tripled.

Also I've figured out how to search for scrolls, and apparently there are no resurrect scrolls in my game . Is this really unlucky or fairly normal? How good are my chances of digging one up?

It is pseudo-random I believe. I also think some skills require you to be a certain level to even see them. e.g. you aren't going to see Lava Call at level 2.

Yeah but Warrior can use the Pet farrr more often thanks to his Bloodlust ability and the fact that he usually has a higher base rage and a bigger army (which affects your rage generation).

Dragon Dive also generates a lot of Pet Dragon XP; perhaps the most out of all the skills. You have to level up the skill though to get more Pet Dragon XP.

Regarding the shooter army with a mage? Generally, no. Perhaps if you are extra clever, but it doesn't have nearly the same sick power. "All-ranged" works best with warriors since Quick Draw and the higher leadership enables you to do so much potential damage in the first round, there won't be much left to fight back

Goblin shaman? Use Target. Or, you can hope Phantom works well enough on a high profile target. Sheep, Blind, etc. A lot of debiliation is available.

Actually, Phantom is better than resurrection. Phantom Paladins are generally more mana efficient for reviving units (or Phantom Rune Mages).

However, you need to max Summoner Skill to level 3 (which you did not do), as this also affects the power of Phantom.