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| Thread: How to choose your hero ? | |
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batman
Hired Hero
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posted February 21, 2008 01:15 PM |
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How to choose your hero ?
Hello
I mostly play on random maps with everything set to random. Seems realistic that way, compared to carefully arranging your fights before going into play. I still think campaigns are great, though.
My question is on a random map how much would you wait for a good hero in the tavern ? I mean I would not hurry and kill everything I can because then all the experience goes to the first hero, chosen at random. Then I can also not wait very much because in the early game every step counts on staying ahead the enemies. I win mostly with good magic heroes, I like playing the map and I am not very good in a fight without tens and hundreds of spell points. I always win a random map if I get a hero with intelligence, but this is rare. I also like mysticism, although I agree it is difficult to play it without the artifacts.
So I have some heroes better than others, and some heroes that guarantie me winning the map. But how long do you wait to see them in the tavern, if you always play random ?
Also the more I read this forum, the more I think you guys can play just any hero you get, because you have strategies for each of them. When you play random, do you care what hero you first get ? Do you wait a few weeks for a better hero int the tavern ?
I play 200%, L or XL, except on campaigns where you can not select difficulty.
Thank you
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted February 21, 2008 01:23 PM |
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- Might hero as main, not magic.
- Offense, armorer and logistics, not intelligence and mysticism.
- Creature dwellings before capitol.
- Money from chests, not experience.
a.s.o.....
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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batman
Hired Hero
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posted February 21, 2008 01:37 PM |
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Well ... you know better strategies than me.
But if you build creature dwellings don't you run out of money to buy the creatures ?
If you take money from chests, won't you be missing a good increase in primary skills, which is very fast at the beginning ?
If you have a might hero, you will later miss many implosions and chain lightnings and town portals. Might heroes really get little knowledge and power, if at all...
But this is not my question. Suppose you agree with your friend to play on a random map, with advanced settings on random (so that noone can choose his best strategy), 200%, L. How much would you wait for a good main hero in your tavern, before starting to develop him/her and send him/her out ?
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bigbadfly
Famous Hero
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posted February 21, 2008 01:46 PM |
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Even if you don't have money to buy the creatures they accumulate and really affect the game later.
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted February 21, 2008 01:49 PM |
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Quote:
But if you build creature dwellings don't you run out of money to buy the creatures ?
No, because those creatures will help ya to recieve even more money from guarded chests and piles, from crypts, imp caches, medusa stores, naga banks etc...
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If you take money from chests, won't you be missing a good increase in primary skills, which is very fast at the beginning ?
No, because the skill tree is already done at the start of the game. You do not need expert wisdom or expert pathfinding in week 2. But 2000 gold from chest could help ya to build citadel day 7 for example, or even a level 5 creature dwelling.
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If you have a might hero, you will later miss many implosions and chain lightnings and town portals. Might heroes really get little knowledge and power, if at all...
Artefacts raise skills the same way on might and magic heroes. And knowledge of 10-15 is way enough to fight anything. You could double your spellpoints in a dungeon town or on a magic spring.
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But this is not my question. Suppose you agree with your friend to play on a random map, with advanced settings on random (so that noone can choose his best strategy), 200%, L. How much would you wait for a good main hero in your tavern, before starting to develop him/her and send him/her out ?
I develop all my heroes at the beginning. You do not have a single hero only, but u buy more heroes as soon as u can afford. If u only run around with 1 hero, you will scout your area much slower, u can not do that much fights a day like u could with 3 or 4 heroes, and u also could not collect all the free resources that fast, which make u able to build up your town. 1 pandora box with 10k experience points will level up your hero in 1 day higher than all your other heroes in 2 weeks. So don't worry about bad heroes at the beginning. I normally wait till I find either a barbarian, a beastmaster or an overlord in the tavern. Then I go for him/her. Exception may be a log specialists (Kyrre, Dessa)
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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demarest
Known Hero
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posted February 21, 2008 06:25 PM |
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Quote:
But if you build creature dwellings don't you run out of money to buy the creatures ?
You might. If it's towards the end of week 1, you have Unicorn Glades and Citadel built, but not much money in reserve, don't build your Castle. It is better to be able to hire five Unicorns at the start of week two than it is to have six sitting back at your city. Not to mention that I've noticed that five works well anyways because if you're carrying your Centaurs and Grand Elves, you can still split your Unicorns into five stacks if you're heading for a Medusa Stores for example.
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If you take money from chests, won't you be missing a good increase in primary skills, which is very fast at the beginning ?
Only on a very rich map should you even consider EXP from chests, and even then only on the ones that offer 1500 EXP and ONLY if the hero has a per level bonus. Since your first question was concern for running out of money, this is one way to help avoid that.
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If you have a might hero, you will later miss many implosions and chain lightnings and town portals. Might heroes really get little knowledge and power, if at all...
I disagree. I recently played a map where I started with Rampart and Ivor and I was blockaded by strong creatures very early. It was week two and I was desperately seeking crystal to build my Dragon Cliffs before the end of the week. Money was tight as well. So I started picking fights I normally would've waited on because they were strong. I split my creatures up in a way as to offer a few Centaurs as sacrifices to spare myself from more significant losses. Not only did it work, but I had a few that had EXP. The last pandora's box I opened had all fourth level spells. IVOR of all people was already level 15 with Advanced Wisdom, so it wasn't lost on him one bit.
Besides, Implosion? Chain Lightning? These are pretty spells, but you can't bank on them. Take Slow for example. Slow is a VERY easy spell to gather. There are a number of magic shrines, most cities you take over will already have a level 1 mage guild or can be built the moment you take it over. Mass Slow will assist you in battle more than Implosion will. Even if you're not relying on archers, mass Slow essentially gives you 14 first strikes and complete comntrol over the flow of the battle while your opponent has to sit there and take it and hope he can survive. That's only at four magic points a pop. By the end game, your might hero will already have a spell power and knowledge of four even without artifacts. That's plenty of magic assistance. Direct damage is enticing, but the longer the game goes, the less useful it is by percentages alone. ANY standing army can produce HP a LOT faster than you can boost your spell power.
I used to be the same as you: Picking magic heroes over might. Once I opened my mind to might heroes, I noticed things. You might think a magic hero has a decent Magic Arrow right off the start for example. Still, that's what? 30 damage that can be cast four times without recharging? If your hero has an attack of four instead of zero, your creatures will be doing that extra damage and more already and without having to recharge. Not to mention that dealing more damage means less creatures to retaliate. With a higher defense, that means the retaliate will claim less casualties. You'll have more creatures in the long run. That way, when you transfer them to another hero, that lesser hero has more to work with, can allow you to have greater influence over all, etc. At least try it out.
Quote:
But this is not my question. Suppose you agree with your friend to play on a random map, with advanced settings on random (so that noone can choose his best strategy), 200%, L. How much would you wait for a good main hero in your tavern, before starting to develop him/her and send him/her out ?
Depends on the heroes available. As stated above, you want a good might hero as a main. So if on full random, you start with a magic hero specializing in Eagle Eye, but in the Tavern, you have an okay might hero and a phenomenal might hero, the latter should be your choice. Early game, it's not very important anyways. Why do I say that? Say day 1, you have to defeat lots of Pixies to claim your Ore Pit. That'll give you what? 100something EXP? Even day one, that's a drop in the bucket. Experience is going to come from the lots of Pit Lords, Naga Banks, pandora's boxes, etc. If you have this sort of procrastinatory attitude, if the one you're choosing as main gets stuck with a crappy development, you can scrap him easily. Or let's say it's week 3 and Sir Mullich pops up. GRAB HIM! Even if you're playing undead, the +2 speed across the board is a tremendous advantage. Also, I always hire Luna if I can find her. Her double damage Fire Wall and starting Pixies (even if it's just one) is enough to defeat a number of obstacles all by herself. I've taked on lots of Earth Elementals day one and survived with no casualties. But that's another thread.
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Kelvorn
Tavern Dweller
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posted April 21, 2011 10:07 PM |
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I like magic heroes myself
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zombiewhacker
Adventuring Hero
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posted September 09, 2011 02:40 AM |
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Well, one question you should always consider is: what are the unique characteristics of the current map you're playing? Small? Large? One level or two? Continents vs. islands? What constitutes the immediate terrain? Snow? Grassland? Marsh?
Let's start with size. If you're playing a small map, as is featured in most of the campaigns, you have to brace yourself for the fact that confrontation with your "neighbors" is likely to come sooner, not later. In that case, a cleric with a starting attack power of 0 and a defense ability of 1 might not be your best bet if Crag Hack is about to come thundering into your neck of the woods on the very next turn.
On the other hand, if you're playing a very large map where initial contact with your opponents will be scant (Warmongers comes to mind), even a lowly cleric can be muscled up into a Conan on steroids by the time he's pressed into major combat.
So pardon the hoary cliche, but size once again matters. Small maps mean lickety-split decisions. Larger maps usually buy you some breathing room to screw around.
Continents vs. Islands? If the map is island-intensive, hiring a hero with navigation skills early on is a no-brainer. He doesn't even have to be your main hero, necessarily. Just recruit him as a scout. While your main hero is seeing to other tasks, your scout can be uncovering other areas of the map, accumulating gold, lumber, and other artifacts. Need it be said that more gold and lumber at the start of a game is never a bad thing?
The same thinking applies if you're starting from a landlocked town. If your hero hails from a tower surrounded by frozen tundra, you're going to have a dilly of time just trudging back and forth to the same mill every week to collect your 1000 gold, let alone conquering the rest of the map. Here logistics/pathfinding are essential unless you're lucky enough to build a magical hero with expert wisdom and the spells "dimension door" or "fly" available right from the start. It happens, and oh boy is it ever gravy when it does. Just, you know, don't count on it.
On the other hand, if your base of operations is a rampart, typically nestled in a sylvan glade (unless your random map generator went haywire on you), then logistics/pathfinding need not be your first priority.
Ultimately, though, how you choose to play the game is really up to you. I won't go so far to say that there are no rights and wrongs, because lord knows there are a zillion different ways you can screw up in a game like this. ("A throng of Nagas guarding a single treasure chest? Come, my pack of Master Gremlins... charge!")
But in truth, sound strategy in a balanced RPG like HOMM is always predicated on tradeoffs. Constructing a capitol straightaway means fewer creatures initially but helps you accumulate cash faster and requires fewer resources to build. Concentrating on creature generation from the get-go positions you better for a race to the Grail. It's up to you.
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B0rsuk
Promising
Famous Hero
DooM prophet
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posted September 09, 2011 11:19 AM |
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Edited by B0rsuk at 11:20, 09 Sep 2011.
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Like it or not, the optimal way to play a magic hero is to abuse hit&run attacks to the fullest.
Spellpower-based spells have nothing to do with your army size (one exception: Resurrect). They are orthogonal. And if army size is not important, multiple fast stacks are good. Durable if possible. Cast Cold Ray or Lightning, and retreat. Attack as often as distance and mana pool permits.
This is effective in Heroes 2 to the extreme. When Cavaliers have 30 HP and Champions 40, Paladins/Crusaders 50/65. But in Heroes 3, when you can get level 7 creatures in week 2, and even cavaliers have 100 HP with identical growth... not so much.
Armageddon with 1 efreet sultan, rinse and repeat. Oh yeah, banned tactic.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5um8QWWRvo RSA Animate - Smile or die
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