Heroes 3: Favorite Demoniac

[BigThingWithHolesInIt]

Voted Calh here for no convincing reason really. I just like how she makes Magogs as fast as the shooter elite, and faster than Marksmen.

[Corlagon]

On a less serious note, this guy is truly the most powerful Demoniac out there. He'd quite effortlessly send any of those Kreegans running.

[Muszka]

Vorr? What's his speciality?

Ignatius.

We could see this before, but why?

[Jolly Joker]

Okay.
Question is about favorite Demoniac, not best. I pretty much liked him as soon as I saw you can call him Iggy.

But I can make a case for him being the best as well. First I prefer the Demoniacs over the Heretics (the reason being the fact that might heroes in Heroes 3 are (unfairly) advantaged due to the workings of the magic system).
Octavia is the best secondary hero, obviously. Her special and the Scholar skill make sure of that. The other 2 possible picks are Marius and Nymus, due to the fact that don't start with "wasted" secondaries. However, they start with only one (advanced) skill only as well, which has certain disadvantages: if your first level-up doesn't offer a reasonable new skill beside expert Off or Arm, your second level-up is already crucial. Then, if you get offered something like Basic Scouting and Basic War Machines you are already behind. Moreover the specials have plusses and minusses, tactically, while the direct plusses coming into play very late obviously.

Now Ignatius. He comes with 2 of the most important secondaries of the game. Resistance is something of a Wild Card in every serious fight, because it may always kick in and IF it kicks in chances are that the plans of a serious opponent are disrupted in some way. Tactics is an extremely important skill to have, I don't think I need to give reasons for that.

Now, with Ignatius the Imps become a really interesting factor - this is even more pronounced when you have an outside level 1 dwelling which is the case on most maps. The Imps have speed 6 and in combination with basic Tactics you can reach Master Gremlins, Archers, Gogs and Lizardmen in turn 2 - they get only in one shot halved.

Grading the Imps up immediataly will give you a lot of creeping power. Iggy's second Imp stack is a lot more useful than the Gogs who are no help at all - if he comes with 3, the Imps will become a real force.

In the later part of the game the added speed is quite useful because you can move the Familiars before the Pit Lords no matter how you deploy them, which has some advantages as well.

All in all, Iggy is a chance to pull things through up to a certain point, with what you get FOR FREE, while he is guaranteed to provide you with no wasted skill slot as well.

[Muszka]

Nice ideas...

Question is about favorite Demoniac, not best. I pretty much liked him as soon as I saw you can call him Iggy.

This was the best point beside him

AS for imps being a considerably enemy.... It will occur only in WoG where they can fly the player has grail, and it stacks them up. And of course the 4% daily growth is a must. Otherwise even with an additional speed and some defense/attack they lack damaging power. Somewhere around 1K they begin be a force in their own, below they are just a joke.

One thing is sure, they can be a good creeping force with Iggy

But what concerns resistance... I don't like wild cards...I do like to have a good plan and stick with it. In big fights I try to cast spell on my units instead of the enemies, exactly because of the resistance. but if I must than I do it, I don't like to base whole fights on 15% of luck.
Tactics is a more calculative skill, and it would help my slower units to reach battle field in one. And that helps Pit Lords and H-Demons, but I like a little magic instead, like earth magic, air magic, water magic instead, what can give me a shield/slow/haste/bless, thus compensating for tactics...
but this is a game of choices, so strategy isn't fixed

And beside all just as you've said this is a poll for the favorite and not the best and Iggy just fits so, even if only with his "rocking" name

[Jolly Joker]

But what concerns resistance... I don't like wild cards...I do like to have a good plan and stick with it. In big fights I try to cast spell on my units instead of the enemies, exactly because of the resistance. but if I must than I do it, I don't like to base whole fights on 15% of luck.
Tactics is a more calculative skill, and it would help my slower units to reach battle field in one. And that helps Pit Lords and H-Demons, but I like a little magic instead, like earth magic, air magic, water magic instead, what can give me a shield/slow/haste/bless, thus compensating for tactics...

Well, the whole point of Resistance is to have a little extra in case the enemy has strong spells against you. A missed Blind, one or two units resisting mass slow, all very important in a tough battle.
Of course one or two magic skills are a must as well, but for a Demoniac your skills shoudl be Tactics, Resistance, Offense, Armorer, Logistics, Wisdom, Fire Magic, Earth Magic. Ballistics and Intelligence might be an options, Ballistics especially against a human opponent on a map you'll have to take his town.

[Muszka]

I have different playing style. Although can work, I won't chose Armorer /Tactics only if must. Resistance is a no-no for me, Offense might have a chance for being picked by me.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I try to cast spell on my units instead of the enemies, exactly because of the resistance. but if I must than I do it, I don't like to base whole fights on 15% of luck.

20% actually, at expert...but I agree that it's a weird progression... 5% then 10% then 20%. In my patch boosted Basic at 10%, Advanced at 15% and left Expert alone.

[Muszka]

Oh, I didn't really cared for the weird progression...

[Khaelo]

Another vote for Octavia.

Yes, her special and skills scream "secondary!," but I like her biography and the fact that she survives the Reckoning with her continuity intact. I'll adopt her from the Tavern no matter what town(s) I'm playing. She always makes herself useful.

[Deni]

voted Calh

[Zubbus]

No, Marius is ugly but not exactly scary to me.

I don't hate scouting, especially if you start with it and especially if advanced. With expert scouting you're likely to spot an enemy and back off without him ever even knowing about it.

If a speciality is really great, I'm prepared to overlook 1 wasted skill, cos there are 7 more slots. The +350 gold per day gives you the money to hire another hero every 8 days. So that guy is always your safe bet if you hate the rest.

The thing with Pit Lords is, the idea is to try not to lose them, but use them to make more demons, although fiends do give you quite a bit of bang for your bucks. So I would pick Marius over Nymus any day.

Pyre has logistics, but Demoniacs don't have enough Attack to be good enough with the Ballista.

The thing is they don't have any good combat skill specialists and I don't think specializing in 1 Inferno troop is going to do it for me. It's not like they're really special like vampire lords, gorgons or even griffins. So I'll just go with Octavia.