Might and Magic VIII

[Holly]

Starting this baby again. I finished the game two times before, both times with a knight as my main character. Anyway, wanna give it a go again, with probably dark elf or vampire as my main. And, of course, wanna go into that blasted vault of time. When I realized how to get in, I was already finished with the game, so didn't bother. I know starting class ain't that important, since you can go with 4 dragons later on (lame if you ask me), but are, for example, Trolls and Minotaurs good? I am a bit suspicious towards minotaurs, since they can't equip helmets and boots. Any input or your experience is appreciated.

[Tress]

Havent really tested Troll that much, but i think they hit pretty hard and gm mace can paralyze opponents that is pretty much ticket towards easy endgame. All in all troll is not bad substitute for knight even if he hits bit weaker.
Minotaur on other hand is quite unlucky design. And inability to wear helms is quite small con in light of the others. Main problem is that they cant grand master any armor. That leaves them with nasty recovery rate or your forced to wear chain, that doesn't work too well as armor. They have weak ego magic skill available but that's pretty much useless if you already have cleric or even vampire that is alot better caster. Also game feature too few good axes, and minotaur only axe is one hander what is shame since they cant use shield anyway. They can halve armor for all its good but still I noticed that my minotaur did less damage than similar level knight.They can get GM perception but dragon can do same.
They have really nice voice and portrait tough

[Variol]

I pretty much solo MM8. You can solo with a troll, but I do not like using a minotaur that way. If you're gonna use NPC's, any class will get you through the game, just like MM6 & 7.

[DaveO]

In my opinion, Trolls or Minotaurs are not bad choices. You can check my character creation videos where I discuss the classes. Look to the Let's Play MM8 thread for the video link.

[Macros the Black]

Trolls almost never die, even in solo game, because of body building and regeneration, and although they're not as powerful in melee as a knight they do get 20% chance to stun AND 20% chance to paralyze an enemy. That means once every 3 attacks you're going to disable an enemy. With some luck you can keep the enemy you're attacking disabled! All in all, the Troll is a more defensive choice than the Knight.. Depends on your playstyle I guess. If you do want a Troll in your party though it's best to make him your main character (start the game with a Troll) because there are no really good NPC Trolls around.

Minotaurs though... worst class in the game imo. No helm or boots is just lame, and even their skills are kinda weaksauce. They're the Ranger of MM8, except they don't get elemental magic.

[GrayFace]

Trolls are fine, Minotaurs are the worst class.

regeneration

That's good while you aren't strong. Just don't waste skill points on it. At least Master and GM are a total waste.

[vladimir-maestro]

hmmm...
i've noticed that regeneration spell is kind a uncomplete in mm8!
at GM level it only restore +15HP every 5 minutes!!! and in mm7 it was +50HP!! or i missed something?

[Holly]

Thank you for the replies. I think I'll just start with troll and work my way around with it. Alternative I'll go with dark elf.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Troll is a great starting option, if nothing else because they're the only class without a recruitable level 5 early in the game.

And I agree that Minotaurs are underwhelming. Which is a shame since minotaur UNITS in the heroes series have always been great in all installments. (and some of the Minotaur heroes in H3 were pretty damn neat too. Logistics specialist? Meteor Shower specalist? yes please!)

They at least should have given them a shield! What's the point of a single handed axe if you can't hold anything in your left hand?

[GreatEmerald]

And I agree that Minotaurs are underwhelming. Which is a shame since minotaur UNITS in the heroes series have always been great in all installments. (and some of the Minotaur heroes in H3 were pretty damn neat too. Logistics specialist? Meteor Shower specalist? yes please!)

You kidding? Minotaurs in HoMM are nothing. It's in MM series that they are strong, with MM6 Minotaurs being one of the weaker kinds. I'd go into spoiler territory if I talked too much about the other MMs, though

[Tress]

Troll is a great starting option, if nothing else because they're the only class without a recruitable level 5 early in the game.

"This" and possibly dark elf since its other class that cant be recruited in first 2 locations. Would really make game more repayable if low level npc,s would be shuffled around randomly at start.
Unfortunately that how is unlucky they made game design that most classes can be easily recruited at start while some are harder to come by. Personally i think best starting class is DE since trolls dont have much useful skill to team and can be substituted by almost any other class, while by picking elf you get both disarm and merchant from the start.

[DaveO]

Each class has an advantage and disadvantage. As far as Minotaurs go, I'll have one in my LP party. Minotaurs are almost equivalent to Paladins in MM6, so that means the use of them involves the utility skills of Disarm Trap and Perception. Of course, Dark Elf also has better ability to learn the utility skills and I consider it an unbalanced class since Dark Elves can learn a lot of the utility skills to Master or Grandmaster.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

>>> "This" and possibly dark elf since its other class that cant be recruited in first 2 locations

Well, level 5 dark elf Rohani is at least as easier to get than the first dragon, at least. She's in a house a Alvar, joins for free, not to hard to get there from the first big town.

[Tress]

Ye but Alvar is 3rd location, and by that time lvl 5 char can be somewhat too low, while lvl 15 elf isnt as eager to come. Also DE is class with one of the highest utility and that makes game's start bit less convenient .

[Macros the Black]

So, my opinion for starting NPC is Dark Elf if using a Knight (you get one early), Troll if using a Troll. Necromancer and Cleric are great but you get both of them at the start and you only need one of both. So basically you need to choose between Vampire and Troll or Knight and Dark Elf. Though if you choose Knight and Dark Elf you could switch in a Vampire every once in a while; some dungeons are way easier with Levitate.

Using a Necromancer does not rule out using a Dark Elf, and using a Cleric does not rule out using a Vampire. Those classes do have magic skills that are similar, but that's not the best thing about them. What makes them great is utility skills and overall usefulness in any kind of situation.

hmmm...
i've noticed that regeneration spell is kind a uncomplete in mm8!
at GM level it only restore +15HP every 5 minutes!!! and in mm7 it was +50HP!! or i missed something?

In MM7 it's a spell you have to cast on someone, and only at later level of mastery does it last very long. Even then it's overpowered though. But in MM8 it's a passive skill that only one character (the Troll) can GM. Would be way unbalanced if it was that good. MM7, while it's kinda overpowered, it's like Protection from Magic: the game is designed with in mind. You kinda need the spell if you want to have a smooth playthrough. Btw I actually preferred not having to pause all the time to heal up my party in MM7, it kept the game fresh.. But yeah it's a different situation.

Would really make game more repayable if low level npc,s would be shuffled around randomly at start.

Woah, that's a really cool idea. I definately agree, that would have fixed MM8's replayability problem for sure. Especially if you get lucky every once in a while and have a dragon available but they'd have to be very rare..

[tolich]

i've noticed that regeneration spell is kind a uncomplete in mm8!
at GM level it only restore +15HP every 5 minutes!!! and in mm7 it was +50HP!! or i missed something?

In MM7 it's a spell you have to cast on someone, and only at later level of mastery does it last very long. Even then it's overpowered though. But in MM8 it's a passive skill that only one character (the Troll) can GM.

MM8 has Regeneration both as skill and clerical Expert spell.

[Xfing]

I've actually never used the spell of Regeneration in MM8 (as I thought it would be just as underwhelming as the skill). I grew to appreciate it in MM7 though, where even at Master level it kicks insane amounts of ass. I think I'll try it out in 8 as well to see if it's as good.

[BMJedi]

I don't know if you remember, but the trouble with the Vault of Time is that you can only get the key to it on July 24, and you have to be strong enough to defeat the Unicorn King on that day.

And you have to have had all 12 obelisks collected by then, I think, or he won't drop it.

I've always been underwhelmed with the obelisk quest in al three games. By the time you can get the treasure, you already have such strong magic items that whatever is in there isn't worth what you went through to get it.

And I had so many artifacts by the end of my MM8 run, I didn't know what to do with them. I got to where I was rolling my eyes at them - "oh, look, it's another artifact, oh joy...<sigh>.

[Xfing]

Ye but Alvar is 3rd location, and by that time lvl 5 char can be somewhat too low, while lvl 15 elf isnt as eager to come. Also DE is class with one of the highest utility and that makes game's start bit less convenient .

I don't think I get your point to be honest. It's not like you're forced to stay in Ravenshore until you do the Arion Hunter and Dire Wolves quest, are you? If you're in Ravenshore, you can as well travel to any accessible location on level 5 and recruit anyone you want before doing more quests. I used to get Ithilgore in Garotte Gorge as soon as I got off Dagger Wound, then I did the two harmless yet beneficial Dragonbane Flower quests, which let me raise Ithilgore to Master Dragon and fly around on level <10. Your success in the game depends on your ingenuity.

[Arret]

I don't know if you remember, but the trouble with the Vault of Time is that you can only get the key to it on July 24, and you have to be strong enough to defeat the Unicorn King on that day.

And you have to have had all 12 obelisks collected by then, I think, or he won't drop it.

I've always been underwhelmed with the obelisk quest in al three games. By the time you can get the treasure, you already have such strong magic items that whatever is in there isn't worth what you went through to get it.

And I had so many artifacts by the end of my MM8 run, I didn't know what to do with them. I got to where I was rolling my eyes at them - "oh, look, it's another artifact, oh joy...<sigh>.

I agree the obelisk isn't worth it in MM7 and MM8 for the following reasons:

1) You have to get to places that are near impossible (Eeofol) or flat out impossible(Regna) in order to get all the obelisks until much later in the game.
2) The loot only shows up one day a year
3) The artifacts are underwhelming related to the effort.

But MM6 is completely different because none of those apply:

As soon as you get to Free Haven you have enough to get the obelisk chest (expert fly) without even having to mess with hirelings, rather than waiting a year and a half in game (MM6 can be done even earlier with hirelings). There are no direct fights (just the main chest blowup) so it can be done by a very low level party. In addition the loot has arguably the best drops of any chest in any game in the series after 5. Items to boost every magic skill in the game, great. Then there's the 250000 gold (this can be done fairly easily by level 8). Oh and just for good measure we will get 2 spells (admittedly crappy spells) you won't get anywhere else, barring a bunch of circus abuse to get more DI.