Heroes 3: Favorite Druid

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Uland is one of the few heroes who starts with three picks of secondary skill (There's also a Warlock)

[Jolly Joker]

In the last stages of me playing H3 I always used to take really bad heroes to make things more interesting. So, when playing Rampart I picked a Druid. Malcom is a really bad choice.

Anyway, Elleshar will have decent spell points. With a Druid, however, that's never much of a problem anyway. Except maybe on a large map with not much opportunity for a spell point refill. So while Elleshar seems to be a halfway useful pick, in reality the only redeeming thing is him starting with a Curse spell which earns him a point for originality: Rampart isn't known for that kind of evil fire spells.

Alagar WOULD BE a good choice, if he was a Warlock. Since he is a Druid, though, he lacks in Spell Power and no amount of Sorcery can make up for the combination of second rate casting power and second rate spell, so, no, thanks.

Uland comes with 3 skill points. For Rampart, Ballistics doesn't seem to be that necessary, though, and Advanced Wisdom is a skill that will take long to use. No, thanks.

That leaves Melodia. In fact, starting with a Druid a little bit of Luck can't hurt.

In the end this makes Melodia the pick of choice: with a Druid, the rational, if slightly evil pick of Eleshar loses against the pure belief in fortune. Melodia is it. For me.

[enk]

Elleshar with his bucketload of spellpoints for me. Also, he looks best by far. I kinda like those spell points on maps with shortage of wells or others places of spell point renewal. In a series of long battles this man really shines.

Well, not that it's a big deal anyway. But he's cool. He wins.

[Tress]

voting Elleshar. You cant have too much spell points. Specialy in early game for spaming some lightning or magic missle.

[Gaidal Cain]

Elleshar; he and Alagar are the only two with specialities that could actually make a difference. Melodia is OK, but to specialise in Fortune AND come with Luck? There's no way that you'd get enough luck penalties for that to matter.

[Jolly Joker]

Not that I'd want to argue, but Alagar?
Ice Bolt is 8 points worth, and Alagar will cast it for 32 points of damage, if I remember his bonus right, when you start. To make that better, hel'll have to get Spell Power, Water Magic and more Knowledge. Once he has that, Bless on the Elves or Haste on whatever will be the better choice for sure.

For Melodia, this is a pure "favorite" choice. As I said, if, for some reason you'd have to go with a Druid I'd pick her for sheer Luck because you are placing your bet on Luck anyway.

For Elleshar. While the Curse spell is really a nice detail in terms of individuality, it has to be said that Fire Magic is an extremely improbable skill to get for a Druid, the Mage Guild not giving Bloodlust, Sacrifice, Fire Elemental, (Curse) or Armageddon with Fire spells in general not having that good chances of appearing.
Now, on a really BIG map or in some campaign all of this doesn't matter much - a really high level Elleshar will have a couple hundred spell points and probably every spell he needs, so what is left is something like double the amount of spell points he'd have without Intelligence and another double for his special. 150, for example, 300 with Intelligence and 600 or even more thanks to his special. This MAY indeed be the decisive edge to win, especially when your only other allowed pick for the map would be another Druid.

But, for me, as I said, I think there is nothing rational or deliberate in a decision to go with a Druid - therefore I don't see any reason to make the least irrational choice. I'd simply pick Melodia and trust on Luck - I'd need it anyway.

[Tress]

I think fortune specialty is kinda waste. Personaly i really rarely use mirth/fortune. Since it only increases chance by ~5-10% that you will do 2x dmg also luck skill itself grants max bonus already so no fortune needed. Also luck is skill that rampart heroes have high chance of getting and unlike moral, luck hampering factors(devils, fountain) are really few while there is plenty of boosting . Also even without caped luck bless overly gives biger boost.

[Banedon]

All pretty terrible. Still, I have to pick one, so might as well go with Elleshar. Alagar is bad for the reasons JollyJoker gave - small wonder every now and then when I attempt to play Rampart with Alagar I do terribly. And then, there's no other choice.

[parcaleste]

Dunno why I like Coronius that much... sucky he have this Scholar, but his look and special ability (well, at least just the sound of it) makes me shiver

[BigThingWithHolesInIt]

Slim pickings. What softies! We have a First Aid specialty AND a Cure specialty, both utterly useless. Eagle Eye, useless. Slayer, arguably the worst level 4 spell (even Water Walk is useful more often).


Alagar... let's see. Lightning Bolt doesn't show up with Rampart a lot, and I don't know how likely a Druid is to get Sorcery but he's probably going to need it. He may be able to do some effective rushing, but why would you rush with a Druid?
Aeris doesn't work, he's designed as a secondary hero (Scouting) to which I would never entrust the fragile Pegasi.

As long as you get Implosion, Elleshar is the only one hero that can become decent over time. I picked him.

Question about Melodia: does a Fortune specialty allow Luck values higher than 3 to be considered? Otherwise I really, really don't see what makes it valuable.

[Jolly Joker]

I'm probably playing a map with her just to check this out.

[BigThingWithHolesInIt]

Cool! I'd be interested, it also has that "bonus is greater when used on weaker units" aspect right? Kinda hard in a margin of 2 since she even starts out with Luck...

[Gaidal Cain]

Not that I'd want to argue, but Alagar?
Ice Bolt is 8 points worth, and Alagar will cast it for 32 points of damage, if I remember his bonus right, when you start. To make that better, hel'll have to get Spell Power, Water Magic and more Knowledge. Once he has that, Bless on the Elves or Haste on whatever will be the better choice for sure.

Oh, I don't mean that it is a good speciality. But if you disregard heroes who are not main hero material due to useless secondaries, you are left with Alagar, Elleshar, Melodia, and arguably Uland. And Melodias and Ulands specials are total wastes; for Melodia, it basically amounts to "starts with useless spell". So the only two heroes which could be used for main heroes (though since there are excellent material for that in the ranger pool, that seems like a bad idea) with specials that could be worth considering are Alagar and Elleshar. Of course, if we take specials out of it, it's basically a matter of whether one prefers Luck, Intelligence or Sorcery, and there I'd still rank Luck lowest.

Oh, and Alagar is a rather good secondary, where he can hope to get in at least one bolt if he's surprised on a scouting mission. Also, a hero with Expert Water but no Air will do more damage with Ice Bolt up to Spell power 8, so if there is no reason to take Air (=dim door and fly disabled), it's certainly not a bad spell to have.

[Yurian Stonebow]

Voted Elleshar.

Those extra spell points are always nice, always handy. Although I must add that the Intelligence skill itself seems to be somewhat overpowered.
But knowing that the developers of Heroes III meant the skill to act as an extra storage of spell points, I have nothing more to say. (for now)



Yurian

[Jolly Joker]

Not that I'd want to argue, but Alagar?
Ice Bolt is 8 points worth, and Alagar will cast it for 32 points of damage, if I remember his bonus right, when you start. To make that better, hel'll have to get Spell Power, Water Magic and more Knowledge. Once he has that, Bless on the Elves or Haste on whatever will be the better choice for sure.

Oh, I don't mean that it is a good speciality. But if you disregard heroes who are not main hero material due to useless secondaries, you are left with Alagar, Elleshar, Melodia, and arguably Uland. And Melodias and Ulands specials are total wastes; for Melodia, it basically amounts to "starts with useless spell". So the only two heroes which could be used for main heroes (though since there are excellent material for that in the ranger pool, that seems like a bad idea) with specials that could be worth considering are Alagar and Elleshar. Of course, if we take specials out of it, it's basically a matter of whether one prefers Luck, Intelligence or Sorcery, and there I'd still rank Luck lowest.

Oh, and Alagar is a rather good secondary, where he can hope to get in at least one bolt if he's surprised on a scouting mission. Also, a hero with Expert Water but no Air will do more damage with Ice Bolt up to Spell power 8, so if there is no reason to take Air (=dim door and fly disabled), it's certainly not a bad spell to have.

For a poll of BEST Druid there is no question, at least in my opinion. It's Elleshar, and by a mile. However, the Druid class in itself is so weak that I'd not want to take ANY of them. Since this poll is for FAVORITE, I'd simply take Melodia for the same reason others take Oris or Shiva in the respective polls: I just like the idea of going for a "Luck specialist" in what is to be in the competetion for weakest hero class. It's the stuff where stories are made from: good looking lucky girl stumbles to victory.

In practise Elleshar is so far above the others it makes no sense to discuss another one, really.

[darknessfood]

Elleshar, intelligents is great for a SP game. Makes you really stong early game!

[Muszka]

I don't play with druids unless necessary, but I vote for Melodia because she was my first really great hero on the Myth and Legend, although it was just her portrait Kyrre's special with the name of Amphitrite. I'll always remember my 72K unicorns... and the name of Nauplius for Elleshar:)

[Metathron]

It's the stuff where stories are made from: good looking lucky girl stumbles to victory. smile

Sounds more like something you could catch on late night cable.

[Jolly Joker]

Okay, about Melodia and Luck.

In the troop info you can get a detailed statistic of the Luck factors currently in place which may look this way:

Cards of Prophecy: +1
Spirit Guardian: +2
Expert Luck: +3
Rally Flag Visit: +1
Fortune spell: +3

It looks like 3 is the maximum possible under every single category.
Melodia will quite early give everyone +3 Luck with the Fortune spell, but not more. Every other hero would give +2, so this would be wasted even if all the luck would add up.

I made a quick test, having something like +10 Luck, but I didn't have the impression that my troops lucked out 2 out of 5 times, although it was certainly more often than 1 out of 8. The bottom line is, I just don't know how Luck is really working and what the highes Luck percentage may be.

Beside playing a bit on a testmap I started a game with Melodia and Luck or not, she develops fine and sweeps through the map.

[Gaidal Cain]

It looks like 3 is the maximum possible under every single category.
Melodia will quite early give everyone +3 Luck with the Fortune spell, but not more. Every other hero would give +2, so this would be wasted even if all the luck would add up.

Considering her starting skills, it's pretty much wasted from the get-go, since I believe the only things giving negative luck are Fountains of fortune and events.