Skills & Attribute Analysis

[Lord_Loffen]

I don't find chaos ,agic that good. Maybe in the begining of the game, but even then i prefer the trap spell which does more damage than expert magic arrow/fireball and takes away rest of enemies action points. Even in late game it can be nice when it stops an enemy from attacking and give you a little more time to cast new spells and use rage box

[travcm]

A few things to note:

Intelligence is actually more useful than the stat description reads. It boosts base spell effect by 10% for every single point (not 7 points). 7 points may, however, provide a bonus 10%.

Money talents, even in hard, seem rather useless.

I now think that alchemy is one of the most useful talents. You'll need it if you want to have a decent variety of level 3 spells as a mage. Crystals aren't that common.

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.

[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.

[kurton]

about debate - magic school....

distortion too much underestimated, true that battle is much longer if using distortion/order but in fact I think that is quite much more fun to beat enemy with those spells than destructive chaos... (as a mage of course)

more than a half of the game a went through mostly with combination target/magic spring/stone skin/trap and order gift on inquisitors, when enemy has at least one ranged unit. that way looses are in most part of game insignificant. if enemy doesnt have ranged unit, then i use trap a lot, of course in combination with mentioned spells. trap is one of the greatest spell, it does good damage and take away action points. also, black dragons can be beaten that way more easily (with emerald dragons). in difficult fights with significant looses, i used rage potion before fight so i could use glots armour on unit with big HP (mostly Giants) and move him in first turn as a decoy. even glots armour mostly dies quickly, sometimes in difficult battles it gives significant positive state on battlefield even Giants are not good in damage, coz their high leadership and few in numbers. but, with Giants as a decoy and mentioned combination of spells, i cleared that way all freedom islands, hard part of darion (rezo, undead boy, tent, deserted castle, mage trial), mines, up&low haddar, tarion, ardan peaks, and most of elves and undead land. there were very few battles with different strategies (bosses - same spells, except target on tank unit). if lucky, best spells could come more and more and player has more good combinations of not loosing troops.

[ureal]

Originally Posted by Lord_Loffen

I don't find chaos ,agic that good. Maybe in the begining of the game, but even then i prefer the trap spell which does more damage than expert magic arrow/fireball and takes away rest of enemies action points. Even in late game it can be nice when it stops an enemy from attacking and give you a little more time to cast new spells and use rage box

Same here, I find I use Trap alot, saves my troops massive damage from huge stacks that rush before my troops.

[Falconhurst]

Thanks. I didn't realize INT was +10% magic power/level + 10% more for every 7 levels. That makes it a LOT more worthwhile.

Good feedback on the skills and thanks for the leadership formula - much appreciated.

[kennec]

as i am playing a mage the schools of magic have diffenrt importance depending whut spellbooks and scroll i find in game. as i have foundout they are random it all depends.

in my game i got fireball and firerain early and decided to be good at chaos. if finding other damage spells scrolls early (lvl 7-12) had mayby made be go an another school.

i saved for earlier magic lvl 1 and found it very usefull. altough upgrading to lvl 2 cost more then many other skills that gives way more benefit to my magic couse they are cheaper.

[Sky Keeper]

The skill that allows you to place units before combat is one of the best skills in warrior tree. It allows you to position your army to use terrain and, combined with initiative bonus from another skill, allows your melee units to strike first.
I played a paladin and went mostly melee from about lvl 15. Used low level mobs and Inquisitors for Rez(have not got sacrifice, so had to be carefull). gotta love those chain sea devil crits for 50k+ (using magic to give them 1 more attack and glot's armor to prevent losses). Only ranged mobs were skeletons.

I also think that pally is best choice for higher levels. Has more Leadership and rage than mage and can CC just as good. (And magic damage dealing does not scale well with levels.)

[daydreamer]

One thing to note about the Frenzy skill. It only gives that bonus after your unit kills a complete stack of units. So it's pretty much useless IMO.