Best Level 25 Academy Heroe???

[joeldubuc]

What would be your best skills / abilities for a level 25 Academy Heroe???

[winterfate]

Hmm...let's see:

Expert Artificer
- Magic Mirror
- Mark of the Wizard
Expert Light Magic
- All three mass skills
Expert Summoning Magic
- Master of Conjuration
- Banish
Expert Sorcery
- Arcane Training
- Counterspell
- Erratic Mana
Expert Dark or Destructive Magic

That puts you at Level 23, and leaves 2 blanks in that last skill (Exp. Dark or Destructive).

That is, IMO, a pretty good Wizard build. Then again, I don't play Wizards much, so you should see what the Wizard players consider is important .

[Kilop]

well if you take razzak, things are of course diferent.

[Elvin]

That really depends on what time of the game you are. I will edit my post later, I must go to work!

Edit:
Alright, let's see: Going for the ultimate is bad as getting all spells does not mean you get their mass versions too and light/dark are very important for academy. For lvl 25 I will consider having a strong army, good spells, mini artifacts and adaptability which means being good against more than one factions.

1) Mark of the wizard (D'uh!)

2) Magic mirror
Most useful as well against heroes and caster units.

5) Exp artificer
Yes, it's out of the question early but in lategame it's a killer. Luck and initiative arties rule. But health and speed arties for the gargoyles are outrageous!

8) Exp sorcery
For fast casting and counterspell.

10) Arcane training-> Counterspell
Very useful though it can be bypassed by careful opponents.

13) Exp summoning
Many reasons for that one. Two phantoms at a time+sorcery is fun but so is wasp swarming all over the place

16) Exp light
Mass buffs naturally. Ensured survivability.

19) Master of abjuration->supress light + master of wrath
Haven will eventually have to dispell your mass curses right? I wonder how much mana they'll still have afterwards

22) Exp dark
If you have seen it at work with academy then you know. If you had access to their high lvl spells for sure I'd take it more often. Generally light and dark are most useful when armies are large.

25) Master of mind->seal of darkness + master of curses
Mass slow/confusion is always welcome. Motn will help necros but the seal should drain their mana pretty fast. I dare them to cast puppet master!

Too bad I couldn't throw wall of fog in there the prerequisites aren' t as important as the ones I selected. Teleport assault is also amazing but that's 6 lvls...Better to go magic that is the wizard's forte anyway.

[joeldubuc]

isn't it a waste to have all those magic skills, you can only cast as often as your heroes turn???

[Kilop]

it is for adaptability, and remember, you never need to take luck or leadership with academy ( well exept for razzak with whom you need leadership ) so you have a litle more room.
Oh, and don t forget war machines if your up against lazzlo or deleb!

[Elvin]

Well, luck you can get from the mini arties for the creatures that can make a difference as the rakshasas and titans. I wouldn't get leadership for the same reason and its abilities don't give much either. Teleport assault I used once and it does an admirable job but it needs too much of a focus...Now, remote control sounds sick but I haven't ever used it and it could be bugged since 1.0 for all I know! I don't think I've heard anyone using it either so I should give it a try sometime later.

[Kilop]

indeed you should
but about leadership the only reason to take it is for artificial glory and not teleport assault that lies in logistics anyway
Logistic with razzak is a must to since march of the golem is what make or break razzak !
He should indeed come with logistics

Apart from him academy need at least 2 magic schools, plus logistic ( speaking MP here ) plus meh what ever , just try to adapt to your oponent ( think enlightment if he has zounds of imps for instance )

[atma6]

I've been playing the Academy for awhile now, and I've never been as successful as when I switched to using three magic schools. All schools are open to the Wizards because of their library, but I generally always have Summoning, then the other two are just the next two I'm offered.

Sorcery is really important with this set up, as is Enlightenment, because of the extra stats.

Using three magic schools isn't a waste. Sure you won't usually be following the standard pattern of full debuff/buff that other light/dark mages will focus on, but you gain versatility. Resurection, Summon Phoenix, and puppet master, could all be used in the same battle, which is usually much more effective then casting haste, divine strength, righteous might, and endurance. This is because you could instead of throwing out mass haste, you could throw out both maste haste and slow followed by an Implosion, or a phantom forces.

Sure by only having one or two magic schools you will have plenty to cast for the entire battle, but by adding a third you will have better things to cast depending on the situation.

[Campaigner]

In a MP game I would choose something like this:

Expert Artificer
- MotW
- Magic Mirror

Expert Summoning
- Master of Conjuration


Expert Sorcery
- Arcane Training
- Counterspell


Expert Logistics
- Pathfinding
- March of the Golems
- Scouting

Expert Attack
- Tactics
- Battle Frenzy
- Archery

The last skill would be dependable on my enemys alignment. If he's Haven or Sylvan = Light magic with Supress Light.
If he's Inferno then Dark Magic and Seal of Darkness.
And if he's Fortress or Dungeon I would not pick a second school but instead Expert Leadership with Diplomacy, Estates and Artificial Glory.

[okrane]

How about:

Havez with:

Expert Artificier(5)
- MotW
- Magic Mirror

Expert War Machines(4)
- Ballista

Expert Light Magic(6)
- M of Wrath
- M of Abjuration
- Supress Light or M of Blessings

Expert Attack(6)
- Archery
- Flaming Arrows
- Battle Frenzy(for gremlins)

Expert Luck(6)
- Resourcefulness
- Spoils of War
- Magic Resistance

===============================================

The only difficulty being getting Attack that has a 2% chance.
I do not know why this is the case for a wizard.. Attack seems to suit them really good.

[Campaigner]

The only difficulty being getting Attack that has a 2% chance.
I do not know why this is the case for a wizard.. Attack seems to suit them really good.

The same reason that the Ranger got a pisspoor chance of getting Destructive Magic....it's not in their theme.

[Elvin]

Huh? It's easy to get destructive with a ranger. Around 8 or 10%.

[atma6]

I find there to be two heroes in the Academy: Havez, and everyone else. Havez should deffinitely go for a war machines route with more army based skills, but I believe every other hero benefits more from extra spells.

[joeldubuc]

This is interesting to see how different people want different strategies for their heroes, thanks guys

[Boromir]

I would go for the ultimate. It is true that spells are the strongest weapon of the Wizards and with this strategy I cannot have mass spells of both Light and Dark Magic, which are crucial in the late game, when armies are large. However, the ultimate ability gives expert level spells and therefore is a good substitute for Destructive Magic, while leaving one additional place for an extra skill (compared to the Light + Dark + Summonning school), which is of course Learning (must be for the ultimate). The extra skill points from Learning make spells and mini-artifacts more poerwful and while I can't use mass spells of both Light and Dark Magic, I still can use mass spells of one of these and cast expert Resurrection or expert Puppet Master.
Both in case of Light and Dark Magic (whichever of those I would choose - that would depend on whom I am supposed to fight) I would choose all the three Master Of... abilities - mass spells rule in the late game.