H3: Magic schools

[Metathron]

Most people (myself included) seem to favour air and earth magic, rather than water and fire.

Would you say these two schools are (relatively) 'better' than the other two?

If so, does that make the game, or at least the magic system, somewhat unbalanced?

[difool]

Well, as has been discussed before many people play without Fly and DD,
which makes Air much less appealing. Water is very close to Earth IMHO;
if your enemy is hosing your troops with deleterious spells it's the only way
to cancel all that stuff. Then you have Bless/Teleport/Forgetfulness/Clone,
which with the right army can all make a big difference.

If I was making the magic system (oh lo 8-10 years ago now!?), I'd probably
put DD with Fire, and call it "Fire Door" (or junk DD altogether).

[klaymen]

I use mostly water magic: weakness, bless, forgetfulness, prayer (excellent spell)

[Metathron]

Well, as has been discussed before many people play without Fly and DD,
which makes Air much less appealing.

Is that because they consider these spells as overpowered? I guess then they should also relinquish the (earth) town gate spell, as it can be just as (overly) powerful IMHO.

I also use the fire school the least, so perhaps putting dimension door in there might have evened out the odds somewhat.

[Gaidal Cain]

With movement spells, I'd rankt the schools:
1. Earth
2. Air
3. Water
4. Fire

Without, it would be:
1. Earth
2. Water
3. Fire
4. Air

Air has close to nothing beyond Dim Door and Fly that's significantly improved if you have the skill- Haste is good, Counterstrike OK, (Chain) Lightning is a damage spell and thus quickly rendered obsolete as stacks grow. Earth does have TP, but it also has a smattering of other good spells. Water is a very close second though.

[kitcat0]

I think fire magic is generally underestimated. There are some lovely mass spells, of which mass curse is the best. And berserk is a very powerful spell.

But othewise I agree with others - air magic is only good if DD is enabled. (I wouldnt even put fly in the pot, since you can use fly in principle also without air magic to cross some areas that are blocked. Although not as effectively)

[Paulus1]

IMO Earth magic can make or break your game.
Town Portal, Ressurection, Mass slow are simply too important to miss.

Air Magic is second best if DD is enabled. Both Water and Fire have some excellent combat spells, but lack the adventure map movement spells.

[DaemianLucifer]

Earth is the best since youll suffer no losses and you can instantly defend any town,so your enemy has no chance of defeting you.Water is my second(bless,prayer,clone).But air is almost on par with water(DD,fly).

[Metathron]

Yes, it appears that without the two level 5 spells, air magic loses a huge chunk of it usefulness and I agree that without those spells in air magic, water magic becomes a greater priority for your hero to learn.

[Banedon]

I'd say with Dimension Door enabled Air Magic takes priority over Earth Magic (assuming the hero in question will learn the spell). Expert Dimension Door is so godlike overpowered that it overwhelms everyone. The hero casting it may not be as strong as the hero with Earth Magic at first, but it will soon build up an insurmountable advantage. You can't even counter with Town Portal, since those casts of Dimension Door will take him anywhere you cannot leave your town without it getting sacked.

Water and Earth are excellent spell schools to have. Without Dimension Door Air Magic's hardly as good, though depending on race it might still be useful (I remember the time my opponent Stronghold cast Mass Haste and rushed his Ancient Behemoths into my Power Liches. Horrible.) I rather dislike Fire Magic. I'm not fond of Curse (prefer Bless many times over) and Berserk's a great spell, but not good enough for me to learn it (I have no guarantee of getting Berserk, too).

[Nerissa]

Air and Water, to use my favorite battle combo of HoMM2, Mass Haste + Mass Bless.

Earth comes into play later when I can pick up Ressurect. Town Portal is nice, but not a deal-breaker since I can just hero-chain new troops to my main hero anyways. The rest of Earth isn't very fancy or useful, except maybe a Mass Shield.

Fire is blah. Curse is a nice mass spell, slayer is good for dealing with tough enemies (Titans, Dragons, etc. Most level 7s), but the rest of the school is so blah.


I tend to play Tower, and when I do, I usually choose Solymyr as my starting hero. The specialty in Chain Lighting (and having the spell from the start), tends to decimate early opposition.

Otherwise I like using Armorer or Offense-scpecialty heroes. You can either absorb or deal ridiculous amounts of damage when you're high leveled. (Creature specialists are blah. Which is why I hate most Conflux heros. GAH)

[ClownRoyal]

I like the Fire school. Berserk, Frenzy, and Bloodlust are all pretty cool. I wouldn't rank fire the most powerful, obviously. I think it may be the "weakest" school, but it's really fun to me. I like getting it when using Stronghold heroes.

After that I'd have to say Air is my next favorite. Mass Haste, Precision, and Dimension Door are great. I don't use a large range of spells to begin with, since most battles are over before I can cast more than 4 spells or so.

[Rainalkar]

With all spells enabled:
1. Earth (clearly the nr. 1 in 90% of the cases; slow, ressurect, TP, shield, you name it).
2. Air (if you can get DD and enough mana Air is number one, unless, pehaps, when playing XL. DD is so overpowered that it is simply hilarious)
3. Water (very good school, but it really shines only sometimes. Cure is great, as is bless and weakness, forgetufulness is limited, prayer is excellent, and clone is the top of the notch, especially when playing castle)
4. Fire (By far the weakest, there is really only one big spell here and that is berserk, and even berserk can be outmatched. For Armageddon you do not need fire, Sacrifice is rarely used, there are much better spells than i.e. bloodlust)

Without Fly/DD/TP:
1. Earth (no competition)
2. Water
3. Air (There is nothing in Fire, even Berserk, that can match Mass Haste, regarding you WILL have haste, and berserk more no than yes. I would even consider this over water, but only in some cases. I mostly take all three but what else is new)
4. Fire

So the classic hero development with adv spells banned is always the same:
Logistics
Earth
Water
Air
Offense
Armorer
Wisdom
Intelligence (there is also place for something else here)
+3 morale/luck in endgame with objects/artifacts (easy)

Possible changes may include pathfinding if there is a lot of swamp and no roads (VERY rear), Archery etc.