Might and Magic? More like Magic and Magic

[mongerman]

Is it just me, or is melee totally overshadowed by magic? Late game, melee characters are just there to be meatbags. Seems to me they are useful only in the 1st 1/10 of the game.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

In MM6 - totally.
Situation not helped by a nasty bug that makes wearing any armor MUCH slower because the bug negates the recovery reduction that should be given by expert/master skill.

In MM7 they balanced it much better by fixing the above mentioned bug, adding fierce weapon skills (Armsmaster, Unarmed make Knights & Monks juggernaughts), and dividing Light and Dark magic schools. Might parties are extremely effective in MM7 if you go Light and have 1 person able to cast it.

MM8 and MM9 - who cares. As the "MM7 arab male human" would say when identifying less desirable items:

"Mmph! Trash if I've ever seen it!"

[Deadguy118]

Just because MMVIII just happens to be on the tip of the quality scale before the horrors of MMX doesn't mean its crap. at least you can find expert skill teachers in that game without blind searching

MMVI is insanley magic oriented at the end.
MMVII has armsmaster, which makes knights who GM it uber.
MMVIII is really unbalanced anyway because all necromancers start with toxic cloud.

[Bandobras Took]

Yes, I mainly use a Magic character to buff my might characters.

Bless, Heroism, and Haste on a Thief w/GM Dagger, Master Armsmaster, and GM Leather is capable of astonishing damage in a turn.

[mongerman]

If I'm not mistaken, a lowly sparks at lvl 12 GM will outdamage a knight with 20 GM sword and AM.

[Lord13]

On MnM6 as many already said you can see that later on
game Magic owns!

On MnM7-8 the balance is muuuuch better! You can cause
extreme damages with dual-caharacters(rogues,archers etc.)
I remember my D.Elf(is like an archer on MnM7 on most parts)
on MnM8 after a lvl caused the most damage on few rounds than
any other char(using dual-swords)!!

For the first parts of MnM(1-5) don't know how was the balance.
I played them so looooong time ago the 2-3 part and never complete
them thought, so I can't figure out the balance thing.

[BoardGuest808888]

Might & magic are meant to back each other up.

Early game, it's far easier to go with might alone, but later game magic rules. Though M & M 6 was more magic oriented, 7 and 8 were more balanced. I like the 7 better.

You can go alone with magic, but you'll eventually found troubles (immunities, mana drain, etc). The might characters are better than in 6, and buffed with magic, you can turn them into awesome killers.

I prefer using character -enhancing magics than raw damage. They're more reliable, use less mana, and last longer.

Monk + Day of Protection + Hour of Power + Day of God + Prot from Magic + Hammerhand === monster

[DaveO]

I think MM8 does the best 'balancing' job for melee vs magic. Now I'll freely admit that the Sparks spell does more damage than a melee attack might, but Knights and Trolls(and even the Minotaurs to a smaller extent) can make up with some pretty nasty hits. I ran thru MM8 with a 'Misfit' party of Troll, Minotaur, Vampire, and Knight(there was a Dark Elf but I thought he'd unbalance a Misfit party). I liked how the limited magical capabilities forced me to pretty much hack and slash thru the opponents.

As far as the earlier M&M games go, the Knight and Barbarian were the prime melee characters who could really deal hefty damage. The druid was a bit more of an unneeded character since the ranger in MM3 thru MM5 had the same spell capability and could use the bow(bows are a bit important in MM3 thru MM5).

[Hobbun]

In MM6 - totally.
Situation not helped by a nasty bug that makes wearing any armor MUCH slower because the bug negates the recovery reduction that should be given by expert/master skill.

In MM7 they balanced it much better by fixing the above mentioned bug, adding fierce weapon skills (Armsmaster, Unarmed make Knights & Monks juggernaughts), and dividing Light and Dark magic schools. Might parties are extremely effective in MM7 if you go Light and have 1 person able to cast it.

MM8 and MM9 - who cares. As the "MM7 arab male human" would say when identifying less desirable items:

"Mmph! Trash if I've ever seen it!"

From my understanding, that Armor bug was fixed with the official patches. (v1.1 & v1.2)

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Nope. I started a fresh new file after patch 1.2 was out.

As soon after I got enough skill points I tried Expert Plate and compared it to a guy with Basic Plate.
Same sluggish speed.

[ShadoMan]

So do you have any links to these things where the guys have beat mm6 in a few days, I want to see some of this stuff.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Sorry, can't find it anymore, it's been almost 10 years.

[Phobos]

So do you have any links to these things where the guys have beat mm6 in a few days, I want to see some of this stuff.

http://www.castlegobs.nl

Click 'Might and Magic VI' and then 'The January Game'.

[Bandobras Took]

If I'm not mistaken, a lowly sparks at lvl 12 GM will outdamage a knight with 20 GM sword and AM.

Just what weapons is the Knight using? What are their enchantments? And out of curiosity, how many more times does a GM Knight with 2 swords swing compared to a spellcaster?

On a related note, which one's still alive after the Behemoth Swings?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

The poster above me has got a very good point.

In any case it's stupid to put 20 pts in sword. It's more efficient to put 10 in spear, 10 in sword and the rest in AM. Each AM skill levels gets +2 dmg PLUS two recovery time bonuses.

Plus, if the knight is using a swift halbers AND swift sword, with GM AM he will attack extremely fast (faster than a monk's fists or a thief's daggers), and do more dmg with each shot.

In all fairness though, Liches & Dark Priests ARE powerful when using shrapmetal at point blank range, nothing can touch that...

[TheOne]

I had played only MM8 and MM9. The first one was much better. Now I decided to try MM7 because I didn't find any better choice in new games. MM8 had some advantages and disadvantages.
- MM8 skill system is very good
- I think, MM8 hireling is better than MM9 starting party at all points except barrels
- maybe those barrels was an unnecessary thing, it would be better to get those stats for every level
Is MM8 better than MM7? Has MM7 any advantages? Do I need any patches because of bugs I need know about?

[Bandobras Took]

MM7's story is more compelling for me.

It's also one of the few games that really forces a choice on you -- you can have either light magic or dark magic in your party, but you can't have both.

Also, Mok's patch is almost a necessity on newer systems.

[Gaidal Cain]

Is MM8 better than MM7? Has MM7 any advantages? Do I need any patches because of bugs I need know about?

There are a few annoyances in going from MM8 to MM7, like how there's no system for writing comments to maps (and no blue dots which marks trainers), but for the most part, they're pretty similar in terms of gameplay. If you liked MM8, you should enjoy MM7 as well.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

And ditto for MM6

MM6 has MUCH better music, much more numerous & complex dungeons.
But everything else about MM7 is better than MM6 (revised skill system, storyline, interface, game balance)

[Kareeah Indaga]

MM7 also allows you to pick race and class separately, so if you play a Human you aren’t limited to Knight and Cleric. I like VIII, but getting rid of that option was a step backwards, IMO. And VII isn’t as short as VIII, which is a bonus.