Heroes V skills/abilities

[FantoMaxJM]

..Seems very nice, complex & addictivity raising. I´d sure like to see the animation of that "War Machines" ability called "Last Aid": First Aid Tent causing damage to enemy creatures??

EDIT: That puts Geneva Conventions in an awkvard position I guess.. Sorry about this irrelevant overexcitement-burst.

[Gaidal Cain]

..Seems very nice, complex & addictivity raising.

It is. It's probably my favorite part that has been added

[niteshade6]

How do the subskills that are part of the main skills (ie pathfinding in logstics) work? Do you have to learn expert logistics before you can learn pathfinding? How do these skills become available to learn?

[Kristo]

The skill tables at The Lamp would certainly imply that. I do recall from some of the gameplay videos that every time a hero levels up he is offered 4 choices: 2 skills and 2 abilities.

[FantoMaxJM]

Do you have to learn expert logistics before you can learn pathfinding? How do these skills become available to learn?

*Heh* You picked up that random example very well. I haven´t had a chance to play open beta yet, but after reading your post I remembered that there was a level-up situation shown in one of the videos published during E3. A hero called Axel (alter ego of Alexander Mishulin..?) achieves level 11. There´s window for a secondary skill selection and it looks like this:
--------------------------------
Skills.............| Abilities
----------------|---------------
Basic.............|
Summoning...| Pathfinding................(<- this looks horrible, but
Magic............|...................................gives you a picture of
----------------|---------------.................the situation)
Advanced......|
Logistics........| Diplomacy
....................|
--------------------------------

My guess is that you´ll select one of those random 4 possibilities (2 skills, 2 abilities). And what comes to abilities, like Pathfinding you mentioned, the Basic level seems to be enough (in this case Basic Logistics).

[Arzang]

My guess is that you´ll select one of those random 4 possibilities (2 skills, 2 abilities). And what comes to abilities, like Pathfinding you mentioned, the Basic level seems to be enough (in this case Basic Logistics).

the obvious example has to be the unique skills where there seems to be an ability called "ultimate".

which, at least to my kinda perceptive eyes, seems to be just another level after the initial three.

[FantoMaxJM]

the obvious example has to be the unique skills where there seems to be an ability called "ultimate".
which, at least to my kinda perceptive eyes, seems to be just another level after the initial three.

You are absolutely right! ..But doesn´t it fight against the example in E3 video? A conclusion would be that the Ultimate-ability is an exception which confirms the rule. I think I´ll wait and install the Open Beta when it comes available anytime soon before I make more assumptions.

[Gaidal Cain]

You'll need the basic skill for any ability("subskill") associated with it. Certain combinations of abilities will then unlock more. The Ultimate skills (and absolute abilities) aren't something you'll commonly see though.

Just to give you an idea of the size of the thing: after all my testing, there are still an enourmous amount of abilities that I haven't seen in action. It's fantastic.

[theLuckyDragon]

When I first saw the lenght of that scroll bar, I said something along the lines of "WOW"! And when I started reading, I said the same thing.

I simply love the names of the skills and abilites! (Names are what I look at first; I want the game to have a certain atmosphere.) As for the gamplay part involved, I'm no master (not even expert or advanced...) tactician and strategist, so I can't really say if there's anything good to them. But given the fact that many of them work like the ones in Heroes 3, I reckon they're fine.

Back to the names, a few of them caught my attention:
* I like the fact that spell levels are now called "circles"
* Artificial Glory -- seems very awkward, IMO, both as name and as gameplay effect
* Fast an Furious -- hmm... interesting... but it's fun, nonetheless
* Herald of Death -- sounds very cool and it's very suggestive
* Academy Award -- I wonder what it's in-game icon is... an Oscar?
* Road Home -- this instantly made me think of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" from the Wizard of Oz... maybe there should be a spell with that name: "Show the Yellow Brick Road" (++ movement points)
* the Luck skill should definitely include an ability called "summon the Lucky Dragon by accident and sheer chance"
* Last Aid -- does that term exist in real life???
* Death Scream -- spooky... I wonder what the in-game graphical and sound effects are

[Arzang]

You'll need the basic skill for any ability("subskill") associated with it. Certain combinations of abilities will then unlock more. The Ultimate skills (and absolute abilities) aren't something you'll commonly see though.

Just to give you an idea of the size of the thing: after all my testing, there are still an enourmous amount of abilities that I haven't seen in action. It's fantastic.

can you get the ultimate subskills with only basic on the primary skill?

and it seemed like some skills were widely connected to the factions without saying it. the academy award as an example, and dark revelation etc etc.

seemed like sylvan had a slew of sylvan only skills. same for necros.

[Gaidal Cain]

A note on anything that appears on that site: While most of the names probably will stay the same, it's quite possible that more than a few changes before release. I also think a few descriptions doesn't reflect how the skills work in reality (Holy charge had a wrong description last push of closed beta).

And I don't think you can get to ultimate without having expert- but I haven't seen everything, so who knows. And yes, certain abilities are closer linked to certain towns. And it's all awesome

[Sir Charles]

I've updated the Skill page to include all the pre-requisites for the Abilities. It should make it much easier to follow how they work and entertwine.

And yes, GC is correct. These names can all still change.

[Thelonious]

Ok, new. Cool. But still have to work with it to get more exicted about it.

[FantoMaxJM]

I've updated the Skill page to include all the pre-requisites for the Abilities.

Thanks a lot! After this update I can spend the rest of the night in a drawing board figuring out the optimal secondary skill/ability tactics to my favourite (Sylvan) hero, which is going to be a hard task thanks to Nival! My hotseat-mate is going to be amazed when I crush him in our first Heroes V game (partly thanks to these knowledges).

It's probably my favorite part that has been added

I´m beginning to feel the same way..

[Thelonious]

Well, I don't know - but Gaidel said that he hadn't even seen some of the skills and he was in from the beginning... Maybe that path of yours will proove to be impossible...

[niteshade6]

While it is cool in some cases that different heroes have different requirements, in many cases it just seems a bit random and arbitrary. It seems like it will be hard enough to keep track of what your requirements are even without that.

[Gaidal Cain]

Well, I don't know - but Gaidel said that he hadn't even seen some of the skills and he was in from the beginning... Maybe that path of yours will proove to be impossible...

It's not so much for lack of possibility to create different heroes, but more from lack of time on my part (though I doubt even those who have played more than me has seen them all).

Oh, and did I say that the whole system's incredible?

[FantoMaxJM]

@ Thelonious:

You are right, I didn´t succeed in managing my favourite secondary skills (wisdom=MUST, Earth Magic, Defence, Offence, Logistics, Diplomacy to name few) to main hero in Heroes III and often got skills (Eagle Eye, Navigation, Mysticism, First Aid etc.) that ruined him/her. And in the name of truth, it´s going to be a completely new level of difficulty to create a perfect hero in HV, but I belive it brings just extra "spice" to the gameplay.

[Orfinn]

Woooow! This looks awesome
So many possibilities and twists, its overwhelming cool

[RK]

So what's everyone's favorite skill tree?
I'm going all the way to Luck with Preserve