Best/Worst Heroes!

[Mustavus]

This place needs more arbitrary arguing. So. Best/Worst heroes for every race? Feel free to avoid actually justifying your answers or skip a race. Gogoggo.

And of course, these are all simply my opinions. If I'm neglecting to see some major strategic flaw that makes Dirael's wasp swarms game breaking or something, or if I'm forgetting someone starts with 20 black dragons, because I'd frankly be curious to know.

Stronghold:
Best-- Haggash. No question, for me. Early game is one of the most important stages of any game, and she simply has the best start for orcs. She starts with the most centaurs and what I consider the best starting skills.

• -Memory of Our Blood makes it so 1-3 attacks will boost Centaurs to rage level one in any fight.
  -Attack is self explanatory. Simply a good skill to have when your only real goal is killing enemies before they have an opportunity to attack.
  -May take Archery to boost her pet Centaurs at first level.
  -Memory of Our Blood gives her second fastest path to Battle Elation, and fastest path to Retribution, able to have both and Archery by level 10. (Not likely to be available, but wouldn't that just be amazing?)

Her bonus, while not the best, in curious in that it provides a boost to one of the Stronghold's most important units, and gives them more of a benefit than any similar hero. While it's at its strongest at the game's start, it never really wanes in usefulness.

Honorable mention for Urghat because starting with Pathfinder is flipping sweet.

Worst-- Kilghan. His bonus gives you more goblins and keeps them from betraying you. It takes a long time for the weekly goblin joinings to add up to anything meaningful, and a betrayed goblin stack's going to die in one hit from just about anything. All this really means, at best, is you get to enjoy Witch Doctor/Trapper abilities for an extra turn.

I briefly considered Shak'Karukat before realizing the wyvern he starts with is actually quite a boon against early neutral stacks (depending on the map).

Inferno:
Best-- This probably won't come as a great surprise, but Deleb. Inferno struggles more than anyone with the beginning stages of the game, unless of course, they have arrows with fireballs stapled to them. Her ability and Triple Ballista lets her outpace damn near everyone.

Once again, props to Grok as resident Logistics hero. He does his job well, but loses just as many imps as any other Demon Lord. Marbas and Nymus can both be great at higher levels, but their talents are useless for the first stretch of the game.

Worst-- Bit of a toss up, but I'm going with Grawl. The starting Hellhounds are nice, but the only think that really makes the unit "good" per se is the No Retaliation they get on upgrading, and his bonus doesn't keep them from being a fragile target at any level. Starting with Eldritch Arrow is a nice touch if he has enough mana, but otherwise starting with Destruction Magic is nothing notable.

Alastor's not much better though, if at all. His bonus is kind of neat, but very limited in application. I only consider him marginally better because he starts with Mana Regeneration.

Haven
Best-- Maeve. If you can get your hands on Mass Haste, you're taking it either way. Why not capitalize on it? Once again, a hero who can leap into taking Retribution early on, and guaranteed to get the Leadership ranks to support it. Part of my reasoning is simply that having Maeve guarantees you have Haste, since you might otherwise be stuck with Divine Strength. If you end up getting Divine Strength anyway, guess who has two level 1 Light Magic spells!

While unlikely, Empathy + Mass Haste Maeve + Divine Guidance + >=5 Morale = Your enemies no longer get to take turns. Maeve takes a bit to really get going so she's not going to be fantastic on smaller maps, but I love this combo too much not to point it out.

And of course, Rutger, for going zooooooom. And as a faction that's a bit better at starting out, he's significantly more viable than Grok. While I don't think Haven needs as much of an early game advantage, Dougal can be pretty snazzy, too.

Worst-- This is a tough one, but I'm gonna say Laszlo. I don't have a lot of reason for this, it's actually kind of neat to start out with Footmen since you don't need to be as worried about early ranged neutrals like Gremlins, he just seems otherwise completely unremarkable compared to the rest.

Necropolis:
Best-- ...I really have no idea. I've never been able to decide. I tend to favor Vladmir, partly for the strong start Master of Life gives him despite how weak his bonus is, but mostly for his portrait. Deirdre's nice but I tend to find better things to use a hero turn for than Banshee's Scream anyway, and while she has very little to start her off, Lucretia's Sorcery start and Vampire bonus can be great in the long run. So... I'unno.

Worst-- Raven. The added effect to curse of weakness is definitely a welcome improvement, I've just never thought of Weakness as a go-to spell when you have Slow/Raise Dead/Puppet Master to throw around, and Destructive Magic is a wasted skill in Necropolis.

And that's all I have the attention span to write, right now. Let me just end by saying

Svea is useless, useless, useless. Why would you ever pick her. Why would you even use lightning magic. You could have Helmar or Brand, but no. You wanted to be able to cast the worst Destructive spell on the, what, two units immune to it?

Why does she exist. Why is she even a thing. Grawrglefargle.

[Ell1e]

Nice idea, let's see...

Stronghold
I'd agree that Kilghan's bonus is pretty terrible. I mean, it does provide you with some free cannon fodder (throwing goblins will never get old), but there's better things you can get. Urghat makes a good secondary hero with her +movement bonus and I usually use her for scouting. I don't really have a favorite Stronghold hero, the others all have their uses.

Inferno
Deleb is terribly overpowered with her ballista, sure, but on higher levels I actually prefer Nymus' special combined with all summon-increasing skills you can get. As for worst, Nebiros' special seems pretty useless. +1 Luck and the opponent can't use Tactics which definitely isn't a vital skill.

Has anybody ever tried using Alastor's special? He steals 1 Mana per level when he casts Confusion. This would reduce all caster units' mana to zero after a few levels, meaning troops like Mages can't do anything, but it seems pretty situational.

Haven
I like Maeve's special the most here. Irina (bonus to Griffons, regular Griffons gain the ability to Battledive) sounds like she'd be a great help in the beginning since a group of Battlediving Griffins can take out most enemies with no losses. Klaus with higher damage for Paladins sounds good as well, Paladins can do great damage. Vittorio and his ballista of doom are also fun.
Elaine's special (+1 gold per Peasant) is pretty terrible, but she works well as a secondary hero who carries around all the Peasants if you need the money that bad.

Necropolis
I learned to like Lucretia's bonus to Vampires during the TotE campaign, Ornella's Vampire Lords were an unstoppable force and they could just keep themselves healed against any living targets. In difficult situations, casting Vampirism on them to double their life drain works just fine. Vladimir's improved Raise Dead is good too.
Deidre isn't bad later in the game. Nature's Luck can't kill you if the troops keep skipping their turns. Kaspar's improved First Aid tent will help you fight regular battles with no losses but is useless against enemy heroes.
Worst is Orson. Seriously. Zombies take longer to kill, but they still don't get to attack until the battle is over. Zoltan is pretty bad too, preventing a spell from being cast twice may be a nasty surprise the first time you encounter him but what kind of hero only has one useful spell?

Sylvan
Osric definitely has the best special but unless I know I can find a Memory Mentor on the map I wouldn't take him since he can't learn Nature's Luck. I usually go with Wyngaal for additional initiative.
A friend of me swears Vinrael is the best hero because he levels up faster than anyone else.
As for Dirael, I guess since Wasp Swarm lowers initiative you could maybe use it with Expert Summon Magic to slow down enemies and... Okay, I got nothing.

Fortress
Inga (chance to learn a new rune on level up) is good if you know you won't have many towns. If you have at least two towns I'd say Brand is better.
I am a fan of Helmar the Holy Hammer because his name is fun to say. His special isn't anything great.
Yup, Svea's special isn't good at all.

Dungeon
Sinitar's lower mana cost for charged spells goes a long way to help with a Warlock's low spell points.
Kythra's special would be better if Minotaurs weren't terrible to begin with.

Academy
My favorite Wizard is definitely Jhora, on high levels she can cast spells really fast.
Nur is probably the worst, Wizard's should have enough spell points later on that they don't have to regenerate them.

[markkur]

Haven, No real favorite though I tend to favor Vittorio for an easier start. However all are good in time.

Necropolis, I tend to take Naadir, He starts with both needed magics and the ghosts become quite useful for blocking. I like Kaspar but the 3-times limit of his Tent makes his value fade quickly.

Stronghold, Yeah Haggash, that's why she is banned so often. Urgat and Telsek are good too. No real favorite, even Kilghan is good for me because I always get Aura of Swiftness & Battle Elation which is a very good deadly-duo for the brutes to have.

Academy Jhora usually but Galib and Narxes are good too for different reasons.

Dungeon Sinitar hands down. I like Lethos but having a magic that is not supported at the top-tiers of magic in the faction is regretful.

Fortress No real favorite but I often go with Helmar. Yeah, I don't get Svea either. Even starting with the trident (by luck} makes zero impact. Could be OK in very late game but lots will happen before then.

Inferno Nymus by a little. Since gating is what this facion is about, he best fits the bill. I will use any but if it's a short game...Deleb

Sylvan I like them all about the same except for Gilraen and Dirael. Wyngaal is the best and why he also gets banned.

Note: With Q's A.I. you can play with either 6 or 8 skills. It's interesting to me what a difference that can make with any of the Heroes.

[Mirez]

Academy
Best: Jhora/Nur, depending on the size of the map. Nur on smaller maps where mana is an issue, Jhora on bigger maps.
Worst: Faiz, starts with dark magic and has a bad specialty.
Dungeon
Best: Sinitar, starts with useful skills and has a strong specialty.
Worst: Lethos, has dark magic, not too useful in a town with summoning and destructive magic.
Haven
Best: Dougal/Klaus, depends on the size of the map. Dougal on smaller maps, Klaus on bigger maps.
Worst: Tough choice, either Maeve or Lazlo. Neither are particularly bad but both are underwhelming compared to the rest.
Inferno
Best: Deleb, obviously.
Worst: Alastor, his specialty is too situational.
Necropolis
Best: Vladimir, has great starting skills and a nice specialty
Worst: oh boy, while I had a hard time which is the worst with Haven because they are all fairly good, with necropolis I have a hard time deciding because a lot of them are horrible. Kaspar is only nice the first 2 weeks, Zombies suck so Orson's specialty is useless, Raven starts with destructive magic... But I'd have to say Zoltan is the wost of the lot.
Sylvan
Best: Ossir
Worst: Dirael, horrible specialty and starts with summoning.
Fortress
Best: Ingvar, considered overpowered
Worst: Inga, her specialty is too unreliable, I don't like scholar
Stronghold
Best: Haggash, makes centaurs extremely strong units. Though not as strong in lategame after you lost a fair amount of them.
Worst: Kilghan

[parcaleste]

Am I the one and only fan of Kragh?

[Mirez]

I never used him, I can't imagine his special being useful after the first week.

[parcaleste]

At lvl 20 he is doing double the other heroes damage. Add Excruciating Strike and to some extend Stunning Blow - think again. Yes, he is not Balista, but you can't actually hurt him so you have that constant damage during the entire battle. And what if you add Empathy or you have that Lion's Spirit set?

[Mirez]

I hardly use my heroes for attacking. When you have Haggash at level 20, your centaurs will have a base attack of 14 (instead of 4) and 20% initiative at the start of the combat.

[Jarin]

My favorite heroes in multiplayer man against man.

Haven - Laszlo > Vindicator> bonuses will make small units is a big killer

Inferno - Nymus > Gate Keeper

Necropolis - Deirdre > Banshee
Zoltan > Spellwringer - several times I won the battle because the opponent can not cast spells (It is difficult to use against the barbarians, or Haven)

Sylvan - Wyngaal > fast shooters and dragons for Elves are the most important

Dungeon - Lethos > poisoning the enemy before the fight
Yrwanna > has no problem with mana at the beginning of the game, improves weak numbers for Blood and Blood Furies Sisteres

Academy - Jhora > Conjure quickly or die
Razzak > because the "basic defense" (2% to obtain)

Fortress - Inga > if you only have one dwarf castle, where they learn different runes?

Stronghold - Haggash > Initiative for centaurs is very good
Kragh > special melee attack + stunning blow

P.S. Sorry for my English