| Worst skill in HotA right now? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted May 05, 2025 07:57 PM |
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Poll Question:
Worst skill in HotA right now?
I am not gonna include a lot of options here, as I think most skills have some use in the newest version of HotA, but some have very limited use, so I have included some of the worst here imo.
I have not included skills like Estates, Navigation and Scouting, since I know they are not really main hero material, but very good for scouts. So I still think they have more use, than the worst skills.
So what do you think?
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LordCameron
Famous Hero
Veteran of the Succession Wars
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posted May 06, 2025 01:43 AM |
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Fire Magic or Luck are the worst.
Fire Magic gives you mass curse, bloodlust, berserk, and a slightly better blind, but all those spells are already nearly as effective without it. (Like Mass Curse, sure I want to curse their harpy, but the Angel and the Naga? Don't really care.)
Blind gets 90% of its value regardless of level, and berserk still occupies the most dangerous stack.
As for Luck, I often have heroes with 2 Clovers of Fortune and Cards of Prophecy in their backpack because I've already maxed out my luck through Idols and Flags and everything else. If luck applied to creature specialties, we'd be talking.
First Aid is amazing now, Artillery and Ballistics have their place. 95% scholar is pointless, but when you need it, you NEED it.
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Phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted May 06, 2025 07:44 AM |
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Okay fair enough, I still think Mass Berserk is a gamechanger, you can even cast it on immune creatures, if you have Orb of Vulnerability, making almost all battles a complete cakewalk.
And Mass Curse is not bad either.
It's easy to get luck true, but if you have the skill, you can equip other artifacts instead + it does true double damage now.
For me it's Ballistics, I don't want this skill on main or scouts, I don't want it on anyone. (It's an AI skill really.)
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VARN
Hired Hero
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posted May 06, 2025 10:04 AM |
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Should be Ballistics. I really don't care about a bonus for siege. Siege situations are rare situations. It is sad how high AI values it. Prison heroes have it countless times.
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted May 06, 2025 01:54 PM |
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Ballistics, hands down. Learning and First Aid are both top-tier skills.
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Ghost
Undefeatable Hero
Therefore I am
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posted May 06, 2025 03:07 PM |
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I voted Ballistics, very poor bad since RoE.. A very nice you joined me as a first-time club.. Loser votes other?! Can't beat the map, MP, etc But today you say Ballistics.. Welcome to advanced club..
One thing yet! Lol poor GeorgeJungg
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LordCameron
Famous Hero
Veteran of the Succession Wars
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posted May 06, 2025 05:08 PM |
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I can't rate ballistic low since I like playing defensive, and when the AI has it they destroy my defences. Its the difference from beating an army 3x your strength and not.
And the new Learning is amazing. Basically a perfect implementation. It is a reroll on your secondary heroes so you can get Estates/Scouting/Logistic faster, or a way to get your main up to power quicker for their specialty or a quest guard or just for the primary skills.
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What are Homm Songs based on?
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gatecrasher
Famous Hero
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posted May 06, 2025 05:39 PM |
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Voted for Eagle Eye. (Nothing to do with spell research which in many games is too expensive anyway) Sure, the last update made it somewhat situationally useful but if you need to hope to get the spells you need from an early encounter or even just prior to an endgame fight through Eagle Eye the game is lost already.
You'll just develop too slowly in early/mid game compared to your enemy without access to some pivotal spells.
I don't see a use case which could reliably help you win a game.
Maybe in games vs. AI which is stupid enough to regularly charge weak heroes with useful spells in the book at you.
Ballistics got a decent buff in the last update. Sieges aren't encountered that often but usually it's make-or-brake fights.
Tent replacement is what hampers First Aid the most indeed.
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Phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted May 06, 2025 05:53 PM |
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LordCameron said:
I can't rate ballistic low since I like playing defensive, and when the AI has it they destroy my defences. Its the difference from beating an army 3x your strength and not.
As I said, Ballistics is an AI skill. AI needs it and it is one it's most prioritized skills. I very rarely see a situation, where human players need it though. I guess it's nice for getting the intiative, if you are playing a slow town like Stronghold or Tower and only if the defender does not have Artillery, but that's about it. AI does'nt know how to defend a castle anyway, it always charges out the gate, making Ballistics pointless.
Let's look at the 5 Ballistics heroes in HotA:
* Uland (Native max speed 16)
* Theodorus (Native max speed 11)
* Olema (Native max speed 17)
* Yog (Native max speed 11)
* Morton (Native max speed 15)
So out of those, 2 are from some of the slowest towns, Stronghold and Tower.
Factory, Rampart and Inferno have speed 15, 16 and 17 and won't benefit much from it though.
Replace those 3 with Cove (12), Fortress (13) and Necro (14) and maybe Ballistics would look a tiny bit better...
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MurlocAggroB
Known Hero
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posted May 06, 2025 07:32 PM |
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I have to agree that the worst is Luck. Ballistics is theoretically very powerful in a siege, it's just limited by the small use case and having limited skills. Luck on the other hand has no use case. If there were twelve skill slots, Ballistics would be more tempting, while Luck would still not be.
It'd be kinda cool if Luck had the Resourcefulness effect from Heroes V where you get extra resources from piles and campfires. That might make it a C-tier scout hero ability, which is at least something.
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ZanthorX
Tavern Dweller
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posted May 07, 2025 01:42 PM |
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Ballistics
Why is ballistics important for the AI? Wouldn't be it much better AI would prioritize Earth and co? Same is true for Estates. (Even though it is better than Ballistics imo)
Would love to change the AI values for skills and tried it but failed
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Syth1984
Adventuring Hero
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posted May 08, 2025 09:24 AM |
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Edited by Syth1984 at 11:18, 08 Jan 2026.
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I can get more value from ballistics then First Aid.
Scouting I don't like but I understand why people like it. Personally it's my least favorite.
Scholar is pretty bad for main hero but pretty nice for a secondary hero.
I like the new eagle eye. It has functionality. I hope A.I. is able to use it properly.
Artillery is mehh. I always hoped it would be patched to become better.
Luck is becoming bottom of the barrel but with some critical artifact competing for the luck artifact positions that could change.
So final verdict is => First Aid.
[January 2026]=With changes to the First aid I think I will go with Artillery.
Ballistics is a close second.It should also effect sieges when defending in my opinion (Increase damage vs fliers? maybe)
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VARN
Hired Hero
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posted January 08, 2026 08:45 AM |
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I have to revoke my earlier post about Ballistics. I played some single szenarios where it was essential to have it due to the fact that the towers in siege situations do a lot more damage then I was used to (while I mostly play multiplayer and there a are rarely siege situations). In one small-sized szenario hiring Uland of all heroes was my winning move.
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Drakon-Deus
Undefeatable Hero
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posted January 08, 2026 06:56 PM |
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I never cared much for the Ballista/Cannon and the Artillery skill in either Complete or HotA so it gets my vote.
I do like the catapult with the Ballistics skill though. Nice to have it for a siege.
And I always liked Scholar.
First Aid still isn't great but not the worst.
Glad that Learning and Eagle Eye are no longer the obvious worst skills for your main in HotA.
Fire Magic could certainly be improved, yeah, as we discussed on previous threads.
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LordCameron
Famous Hero
Veteran of the Succession Wars
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posted January 08, 2026 08:42 PM |
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I think if Ballistics was like Tactics (as per AlexSPL's mod) and if Luck also effected creature skill proc chance (imagine expert luck doubling your Gorgon death gaze chance) it would be two easy fixes/buffs to those skills.
Eagle eye is now useful for map makers in some scenarios, but I've still found it isn't great unless the map leans really hard into it, but that's fine.
One thing added by HotA which I don't get is the surrender specialists. It doesn't make Diplomacy feel better at all and doesn't even have an interesting use case I can think of.
So I think the worst is Luck, but I'm never going to pick Scouting or Fire Magic either. Scouting is just play style (I think it is in a good place), whereas Fire Magic is going to take a lot of work to fix.
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VARN
Hired Hero
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posted January 09, 2026 08:41 AM |
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Scouting is in Duel and Jebus Outcast one of the most wanted skills. The logic is easy: if you don't have other heroes who scout the map, you have to do it with your main. Broghild, Fiona, (King) Aerys and Wynona are often picked heroes.
And I like it that for some game types (as the one hero games) some skills are differently rated. Eagle Eye can be useful in these szenarios too, but I don't like it because it is not predictable and it is most of the time in a game a useless skill. I only like Eagle Eyes in the popular "luck tests".
Ballistics as I said seems necessary in some very niche szenarios. The map I can not win without Ballistics (except Necro) is Manifest Destiny, a small original map I played recently.
Luck can be nice - but it also is not predictable. It should be more visible when you have it. Maybe not only in battles, but also when you pick up ressources etc.
Scolar now got a little boost with the abilty to learn runes in Bulwark. It is of niche use. The whole wisdom/scolar concept is still not very satisfying.
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Ghost
Undefeatable Hero
Therefore I am
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posted January 13, 2026 08:07 PM |
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Ballistics yet.. I can't change.. To fabulous skills like EE.. I can't.. When EE became easier to you.. Ok think about you've already spells, you dismiss a Wisdom.. So opened fog, you dismiss a Scouting.. Ballistics have still in effect or valid.. If you asked.. So strategic matter.. Thus Offense, etc are better.. HotA has an object, AlexSpl told, I don't played yet.. Only in WoG or/and ERA.. From XL, you don't need a Wisdom, but smaller map, you need a Wisdom.. Many PROs understood wrong, thus the rich artifacts, scroll of spells, etc aren't in smaller map.. So if you know the map, why a Scouting.. An example of Lexiav always playing the same map or sometimes.. I don't know what I should to write more.. My English vocabulary isn't enough..
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Fight MWMs - stand teach
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bloodsucker
Legendary Hero
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posted January 14, 2026 07:47 PM |
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gnollking said:
Ballistics, hands down. Learning and First Aid are both top-tier skills.
Ballistics has it's very specific niche in single player maps, now Learning, while pretty good right now, it still occupies one slot and I almost always end up with two wasted, cause I couldn't visit the desired Witch Hut/Magic University in time. But at least makes Loynis a powerhouse, like a Prayer specialist deserves to be (I hate how religious I am in this game...).
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Ghost
Undefeatable Hero
Therefore I am
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posted January 14, 2026 09:22 PM |
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Syth1984 said:
Ballistics is a close second.It should also effect sieges when defending in my opinion (Increase damage vs fliers? maybe)
If you want to decent.. An answer is increased arrow tower damage.. In the WoG or/and ERA, you meet rude arrow tower damages..
I quote(d):
Arrow towers now can train and collect experience in fights. If the player keeps control of a town for one week, the arrow towers on day 1 will receive additional experience and are amplified according to the following formula:
No Bonus | 100% damage
After 1 week | 200% damage
After 2 weeks | 300% damage
After 3 weeks | 400% damage
After 4 weeks | 500% damage
and so on...
If a town successfully defends against a siege, it gets better as though one week had passed. If a town is captured, all saved up experience for towers is lost.
The central shooting tower receives experience irrespective of the lower towers. The lower arrow towers receive experience simultaneously since they were both built at the same time.
Ok? Good.. HotA crew could make 500% straight! No less or more.. Thus different from WoG/ERA.. And HotA crew creates a new artifact for arrow tower damage increases well..
But what? Your Rampart with joined zounds of War Unicorns by Diplomacy.. You are happy, but enemy destroys your Ballistics, an example of Meteor Shower.. I'm hoping you've Earthquake..
Ok? The solution: Ballistics have immune to lvl 3-5 spells.. 2000-5000 HP.. and.. to increase defense.. You know that is large catapult needed many horses.. Are you seen LotR? One example..
You've free idea for Ballistics in idea thread..
Thus today sucking Ballistics..
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Fight MWMs - stand teach
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Phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted January 14, 2026 11:37 PM |
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Perhaps they should just combine Artillery and Ballistics.
Both skills are below average, if we are being generous.
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