Arcane Omniscience

[jaq]

As for now, I haven't played lot with Academy, but this fraction seems to be weak in the midgame - a lot of resources are needed to upgrade dwellings, gargoyles are good only for gremlins as ammo and once again resources for Artificiency are pain in the ass. All this together with Wizard's strength rising considerably in early twenties makes playtime of a Wizard longer. If so, one has to answer himself a question if he's hero is going for Ultimate Omniscience. There are fractions which have ultimates better designed (Demon Lord, for the greatest part Necromancer and Ranger which is overpowered if someone would like to hear my voice) while others are to be covered gracefully with silence. For a Wizard, it is something worth closer look.

What are the requirements?

Summoning magic at expert is nice, Phantom Forces, Arcane Armour, Phoenix are all powerful spells - and don't forget Wasp Swarm. Master of Conjurartion is no good, Banish can be a skin-saver in some circumstances, while Wall of Fog can come handy now and then.

Offence is good for everyone, Archery is nice also, Flaming Arrows are more of interest only in connection with Remote Control, while Cold Steel is - for version 1.1 - too weak to be an object of desire.

Every Wizard should be a sorceror thus Sorcery is a must, but consecutive perks can be questionable - Wizard already has very high Spell Points, and Counterspell doesn't seem right, well, maybe when you fight with Warlock.

Enlightment is the most questionable skill in the kit. It's perks are just for laugh I believe. It can only be considerable if the game is played on a map without any stat boosters. 30% more experience is insignificiant. Side note: RPG designers are still making this fundamental mistake - the experience requirements to advance rise expotentialy, while experience boosters are linear; it means that 30% is just one level more.

So do I want to have Arcane Omnisciene? Summoning, Sorcery and Offence are the good choices, Enlightment and most of 12 perks mentioned I can live without. Instead of those I'd pick maybe Light and Dark schools with their six masteries. The only advantage of Arcane Omniscience is one secondary skill slot free, which can be handy at some huge maps, which will be designed in order to reach level 40 but otherwise I'd rather prefer power all the way up instead of power in the far end.

[Cunning Death]

Enlightment is the most questionable skill in the kit. It's perks are just for laugh I believe. It can only be considerable if the game is played on a map without any stat boosters. 30% more experience is insignificiant. Side note: RPG designers are still making this fundamental mistake - the experience requirements to advance rise expotentialy, while experience boosters are linear; it means that 30% is just one level more.

there was a discussion on enlightment. They pointed out that this isn't the old skill from the old games. The stat bonus is worth to have IMHO, even if you aren't going for ultimate. Some xp is always worth to have as well.

check out this thread

[jaq]

there was a discussion on enlightment. They pointed out that this isn't the old skill from the old games. The stat bonus is worth to have IMHO, even if you aren't going for ultimate. Some xp is always worth to have as well.

XP is next to nothing, while rise in the primary attributes are not that big if a hero has some artifacts or have visited Marletto Towers and such. Anyways, here's why Offence/Defence secondary skills are as important as primary attributes. In the case of Wizard Enlightment is even less important because of his uber-knowledge. But the thread you've mentioned makes me less sceptical about Enlightment in the context of Dungeon.

[juventas]

Creature artifact power is directly related to knowledge, just so you know. A huge knowledge is not a waste for a wizard (as long as you're in a high resource map, that is).

Also, increases in primary stats have a linear benefit, so a 12-point increase at level 24 is not reduced in effectiveness just because you have some artifacts or have visited stat shrines. Interestingly, I think taking enlightenment *and* one of the offence/defence (or attack/defense in the US) would be ideal since offence/defence would scale with the stat bonus.

Ironically, enlightenment is less useful for warlocks than I originally thought. Sometimes I have had all my enlightenment bonus stat points go into attack instead of spellpower or knowledge!

Finally, in my opinion it is usually never worth the effort to go for the ultimate since you only see a huge benefit in the end, even for inferno, necropolis, and sylvan.

[Gaidal Cain]

Summoning magic at expert is nice, Phantom Forces, Arcane Armour, Phoenix are all powerful spells - and don't forget Wasp Swarm. Master of Conjurartion is no good, Banish can be a skin-saver in some circumstances, while Wall of Fog can come handy now and then.

The problem is that all of it's secondaries pretty much suck. It would have been better to get any of the other schools and get at least two effective spells.

[Rainalkar]

Enlightment is a great skill, but less for wizard because it mostly boosts already superb knowledge. It is brilliant for most heroes though.

[DaemianLucifer]

Enlightment is a great skill, but less for wizard because it mostly boosts already superb knowledge. It is brilliant for most heroes though.

No,it is perfect for a wizard,since you will forge better artifacts with higher knowledge.

[Rainalkar]

I forgot about that, but most of the time it's very hard to gather funds for that. By the way, do you know how does knowledge influences art creation exactly?

[jaq]

I forgot about that, but most of the time it's very hard to gather funds for that. By the way, do you know how does knowledge influences art creation exactly?

OMFG. That's what I call news. So Enlightment makes your troops better. See. But then, Wizard is a master of long game.

[Rainalkar]

Very interesting.

[Rainalkar]

Considering art creation, do you know in what way can they be LOST? Can it happen by spliting stack, losing most of the stack etc.?

[juventas]

As long as the stack still remains in the original hero's army, I think the artifact stays. Man, there's nothing like a +27% haste, +2 speed artifact to turn your 100 steel golems from gremlin-defenders to actual contenders in battle. I love putting haste on titans, though. Makes them so much more dangerous. With a 23 knowledge, I was also able to tack on 70% reduction in magical damage and a +7 defense so that concentrated fire doesn't take them down so quickly.

[Gus]

Expert Luck + Luck-boosting artifacts = "here i am, double-damage every other hit". (frequency deliberately exagerated for emphasis)

[Cunning Death]

As long as the stack still remains in the original hero's army, I think the artifact stays.

I had no problem when moving the stack from one hero to the other. And I don't see any logical reason for a creature moved losing its artifact. It is beared by the creat. not the hero or something.

[Psychobabble]

While we're talking about artifacts, is it just me or are the % boosters (like initiative) good to put on high level creatures while the set +X (like HP or attack/defence) good to put on low level ones. A +5 HP is far, far more valuable on gremlins than titans, yeah? Same with attack defence? Just wondering if I'm missing something.

[juventas]

I agree with you mostly, Psychobabble, except for a few points:

1) I think attack and defense are useful for any tier creature, just as attack or defense from the hero are (+7 is not trivial).

2) Also, gremlins have pretty high initiative, so a percent increase would yield fairly good results. So even if they don't do great damage, you can tack on that -2 to armor on them and have them whittle away the armor of some of the enemy's bigger stacks. Or they could repair golems a lot faster.

3) Even though golems are low tier, something like +25% to initiative and +2 to speed would make them a whole lot more useful.

[Omega_Destroyer]

I rarely bothered using the creature artifact skill of the wizard, but when I have, it was pretty spiffy. Made my gremlins last a bit longer. But it certianly is annoying when you can't access a town to use it, just like with the Avenger skill.

[Orfinn]

I know, maybe there shoud be some kind of racial adventure buildings you could visit, like Rangers Guild or Arcane Forge? Would eleminate all the walking back to town just for switching favored enemy, artifacts. For Haven there should also an adventure building, Training grounds, letting you train your troops.
And IMO those dwellings should come in two flavors on the map, basic and upgraded as in town.

[Cunning Death]

I know, maybe there shoud be some kind of racial adventure buildings you could visit, like Rangers Guild or Arcane Forge? Would eleminate all the walking back to town just for switching favored enemy, artifacts. For Haven there should also an adventure building, Training grounds, letting you train your troops.
And IMO those dwellings should come in two flavors on the map, basic and upgraded as in town.

Yeah, I agree, that's a good idea. But for the balance of factions you will need something for the others. A gating improver adventure building sounds really silly at first glimpse.
put to request list, right after caravans and flagable mills.

[Orfinn]

But for the balance of factions you will need something for the others.

Like an external Loom building for the inferno, an external necro amplifier for necropolis and a external crystal of elements for dungeon?