Tips and tricks-Academy

[cornellian]

In my MP games, the mage towers seem to focus on Nature and Dark magic, with Light magic spells getting available usually only with the library. Higher Destruction spells are rarity

http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/he ... ells.shtml says Academy is lightie-summonic.

Funny that just yesterday, the mage tower gave me Arcane Armor and Curse of the Netherworld for level 5, and that is usually the case with me, but always getting a light for level 5? Hmm that's weird..

[PhoenixReborn]

Minor complaint here. When I phantom force a mage unit the clone appears right in front of the original. This means I might have to shoot through it and hope my shot misses if I have no spell points left. Wouldn't it make more sense for the image to appear below the original at least in the case of mages?

[DaemianLucifer]

Minor complaint here. When I phantom force a mage unit the clone appears right in front of the original. This means I might have to shoot through it and hope my shot misses if I have no spell points left. Wouldn't it make more sense for the image to appear below the original at least in the case of mages?

No,no,no!This spell is already way to strong.Especially for the mages.Making it even stronger would be insane.

[Night_Heaven]

I ask yet again. Any Idea why we cant add damage to our artifacts as it was possible in the beta?

First of all because that could be to overpowered.My guess is that damange has been out for reasons of balance.



Now...for others.I know light and dark magic are very powerfull but sumoning magic is one of the spell skills required for ultimate skill arcane omniscience.And that is not all.BANISH is extremly powerful as I say combined with mark of the wizard.Hell gating is very easy to break after you combine those two.
For ultimate skill> Maybe is only at the expert level casting but all the spells is a big advantage.Put that with hight mana and I think that can be great

Now...about destructive magic I don't know...Only for Dungeon is good taking in consideration empowered spells. About dark magic > pupet master can be good but sumoning magic is very good not for banish only but wall of fog too(-10% reduced damange and initiative for enemy archers>not much but good enough to make a difference)

About attack>not only for archery is very good but to cold steel as well but everyone has his/her own tactics.

[Orfinn]

First of all because that could be to overpowered.My guess is that damange has been out for reasons of balance.

Thanks for the answer It was exactly what I thought too but had to ask just in case.

[sunbearie]

Just a little post on the amageddon-obs. gargs strategy.

I tested this playing against the AI in 1.1.

Few interesting points:
- obs. gargs still take damage (bug?) although its less than 1/2 damage.
- mark of the wizard doesn't cause the monsters to suffer double damage.

The only issue is you should really get enlightment (to boost spell power) and wish you got lucky with your spells and artifacts.

At level 17, I had a spell-power of 11(without artifacts) and that only did 300 damage per spell. Not to mention I actually hunted down another castle to get amageddon.

Overall, it didn't seem to work out too well for me.

[Night_Heaven]

I presume because armagedon is an areea efect spell sunbearie.Soo mark of the wizard is not good for this spell.Gargoyles taking damange is a bug I think

[Sir_Toejam]

In the Haven campaign, I noticed AI wizards casting armageddon with frightening regularity, whenever the following conditions were met:

I had cast puppet master on one of their stacks

and they had obsidian gargs as a stack.

every time, it showed the little "resisted" sign above the gargs when the AI cast the spell.

so, maybe they fixed the resistance in 1.2?

anybody verify?

[Mightor Magic]

I tried Armageddon with Nathir, Obsidian Gargoyles and the Fire Damage Artifact and it killed about 80 OGs out of 140. On the other hand, the enemy did not survive at all.

I think they're immune to direct magic, just not area affect. If you want to make them Resistant, well there's a Creature Artifact/Regular Artifact combos but I don't know if they stack. Or you could just try your luck with Creature Artifacts, you get 80% with about 37 knowledge. Works most of the time.

If they were completely immune on their own, that map would have been a lot easier. And boring.


And I find Destructive magic to be a lot more useful for Spell Sap, Fiery Wrath and Master Of Fire than the other magic skills on their own. Look, you get two skills that you don't even have to cast spells to use, it's great if you get heavily into Creature Artifacts.

[SmokeyTheBear]

I haven't tried it, but I imagine that Steel Golems with Creature Artifacts granting Magic Resist, Defense and HP would be excellent tanks for Armageddon. If it stacked additively Steel Golems wouldn't even take any spell damage at all.

[PhoenixReborn]

No,no,no!This spell is already way to strong.Especially for the mages.Making it even stronger would be insane.

Well if the djinn were stronger I might agree with you, but having a useless level 5 means the levels 4,6 need to be strong. What is your suggestion for nerfing phantom image? reducing the %chance to miss?

[Night_Heaven]

The phantom imagine is not too strong...remeber animated dead?That is not a good balanced spell to.
About armagedon and OB.You should be proud ob resist the spell even if the spell damange them.In most of the cases you are the winner among others and the enemy dosen't have a chance.That is a big + for ob and Academy
Yes...golems are more likely to resist if you put them a magic damange reduction artifact.
The artifacts are overpowered as well.Rataska are strong without them but imagine how are with about 8 attack,8 defense and 80 magic resistance or soo...

[stijn]

the game will already be decided by the time you can give units +8 attack.

[Night_Heaven]

That depends on map,on dificulty,ai or human oponent.You can neverr know...

[Mightor Magic]

Rakis are better with Speed and Iniative anyway {or just Speed if you use Dash a lot. I don't but whatever}. That 8/8/80 isn't much if the enemy plays a game of keep away. I like Attack on Gremlins and Titans.

+8 attack is about 35 knowledge, round about level 20 to 25 with one or two decent Artifacts if you build correctly with Enlightenment early {and a little luck, I admit, but not much. Wizards tend to get Knowledge anyway}. Isn't that the point where the real armies start to clash?

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I think realisticaly you will get around +5 attack unless you get really lucky with artifacts.

Plus you have to make the (probably) long journey back to your home town (which is one of the weakness of the ability) if there are no other academy towns close and you must have tons of resources awaiting your use(another weakness of the ability.)

GOW

[Mightor Magic]

Artifacts- Well, you get an Artifacts Merchant and you get a Treasure Cave that gives you 500 more gold a day. They combine to buy Knowledge Artifacts. There is some luck involved but Knowledge helmets are really common. I wouldn't recommend buying any until the Colussi dome is built, however.

Knowledge- 5 Attack is 15 Knowledge. Since Graduate gives you 2 and the Enlightenment skill should give as least 3 and basic leveling should give you at least 10, I would say {from actual gameplay experience} 15 Knowledge is the worst case minimum at about level 20 and that doesn't count any possible Artifacts. A 20-30 base Knowledge is far more likely.

Resources- I only build Mage Guilds to get the adventure spells of Summon Creatures, Instant Travel and Town Portal at the correct Hero levels. This combines with having to go back to the castle each time you get a large Knowledge boost. I wouldn't call that a weakness, I would call that playing defense until you get a suitable Knowledge/Artifact level.

When my main hero reaches level 20, I build the final level of my Mage Guild for the Town Portal spell. Prior to that, I can only afford 1 to 2 stat Creature Artifacts {mostly just Sulfer and Mercury which I usually don't need for building but combine for Iniative}. Notice, you can destroy the Artifacts to regain the resources used to make them so Creature Artifacts should always come ahead of using the resources to develop your Castle.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Here is Jhora in my latest game, Rise to Power. She is a good candidate for going for the ultimate. I haven't finished the map yet so she may gain a couple more levels. The last artifacts she made were plus 6 but she may be able to do better now.

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/5628/jhorazr2.png\

GOW

[DaemianLucifer]

Well if the djinn were stronger I might agree with you, but having a useless level 5 means the levels 4,6 need to be strong. What is your suggestion for nerfing phantom image? reducing the %chance to miss?

No,but making it clone just a number of creatures depending on your SP,and making the clone have the same properties(number of shots/mana left)as the original.

The phantom imagine is not too strong...remeber animated dead?That is not a good balanced spell to.

Both are too strong and need nerfing.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Well if the djinn were stronger I might agree with you, but having a useless level 5 means the levels 4,6 need to be strong. What is your suggestion for nerfing phantom image? reducing the %chance to miss?

No,but making it clone just a number of creatures depending on your SP,and making the clone have the same properties(number of shots/mana left)as the original.

Ah, another nerf for the academy.

Raise it to level 4 so you can't get it through insight and how about basing it on knowelege instead as the illusion depends upon observation of the creature rather than on raw power, unlike a fireball.

Summon Elementals has already been nerfed to uselessness. Please don't totally kill the summoning tree.

GOW