Favorite spells?

[erased. over. out]

Some of my favorite spells include (all of them seem to be Destructive ):

Meteor Shower (huge improvement from Heroes 3)
Circle of Winter (looks beautiful)
Implosion (same as above)

Nival needs a big hand for making these spells really come to life. They're a joy to cast. Ice Bolt has nice effects as well.

I was pretty disappointed with Chain Lightning however- it pales in comparison to the spells above (aesthetically speaking). On a side note, does anyone else think 40 spells are far too few?

[Ari]

I assume we're talking graphics first and tactical value second

I'd have to go with implosion and meteor shower. Earthquake also stood out. Given how it appears graphically though, you'd expect it to damage defenders (sigh).

I was kinda underwhelmed by icebolt and circle of winter. The ice seems the wrong color (clear/white is probably realistic, but hardly exciting), and the effect itself is kinda dull imho. Implosion, on the other hand, looks incredible. Ditto with meteor shower. Both of these are more like what you'd seen in, say, a mid era final fantasy . I found lightning satisfactory, though I can't recall what chain looks like off the top of my head. Haven't had access to it often. And I've been afraid to use armageddon when I had it (is there ever a good use for that?). Perhaps now that I'm in the dungeon campaign I'll find the damn spell and have dragons at some point.

Graphically, I found that too many of the dark buffs look very similar. When an enemy uses one, I still can't figure out which it is without looking at the text. I've been disappointed with a lot of the light spells too. Haste looks kinda wimpy and Righteous Might needs some more "ooomph" badly.

40 spells seems slightly modest, but only slightly so. Given the mechanics of the game, there's only so many things you can do on the battlefield (affect stats, do damage, etc), so more spells might start to duplicate things that are already there. I'd love to see more strategic-level spells though. Master of magic (which, granted is almost a different genre of game) had all sorts of spells that could be cast out of battle. Long-term buffs, spells that affected movement, spells that aided a specific alignment, etc. There's room for a lot of spells of that type, though HOMM has traditionally been light there, and if one thing is clear, it's that the brave developers of HOMM5 are ever so slightly loath to introduce drastically new concepts into gameplay

[DaemianLucifer]

I was kinda underwhelmed by icebolt and circle of winter. The ice seems the wrong color (clear/white is probably realistic, but hardly exciting)

It can be.In spellforce the ice towers are clear white,and they look magnificent.

Perhaps now that I'm in the dungeon campaign I'll find the damn spell and have dragons at some point.

I think you wont,since irresistible magic works on your troops as well.

I like the effects for fireball,meteor shower and earthquake.

As for the effects:The best spell is phantom forces.If necro,there is another great spell,raise dead.

40 spells wouldnt be low if those spells were usefull.But land mines?Youll end up using just one or two spells each battle,which is dumb.COmpared to the zillions of spells youve used in HIV this is ridiculous.

[StMichael]

I realy like the Implosion spell ! It's my favorite. The spells Holy ward and unholy ward are worth the pity. It could be more exciting if there was more animations and more damage.

[cornellian]

Implosion looks really great, its like a mini nuclear bomb going off on the top of the unlucky mob's head, the blue/pink/grayish mushroom cloud is very well done...

Meteor Shower also looks wonderful and (after all these games finally) very powerful as it should be.

Armageddon could be a little improved but a giant meteor-like rock crashing in the middle of the battlefield and the huge explosion is a nice idea..

One little detracting point is that the eldritch arrow and the curses look pretty generic..

[ThunderTitan]

Meteor Shower is the only one that impressed me. Implosion looked nice, but Meh.

[Gus]

the impacts on the Meteor Shower are really cool.

[5il3nc3r]

Graphics-wise, I love:
Implosion, Meteor Shower, Armageddon (if you want to see it and have a chance to survive, get imperial griffons, start a fight without any other unit on your side but them. When it's their turn, do the dive, so you won't have any units, technically, on your side, and cast it; or get black dragons with any hero BUT warlock.) and Arcane Armor.

I like:
Lightning, Circle of Winter, Fireball, Curse of the Netherworld/Word of Light, Resurrection.

And I agree that there aren't that much spells compared to other Heroes games. I hope there will be more spells in an eventual expansion.

5il

[Cunning Death]

I would be happy if disintegration made its way back to HOMM (I know it's H4 and everything ) It could be associated with a nice visual effect and could be something like killing explicit number of creatures or dunno

[DaemianLucifer]

I would be happy if disintegration made its way back to HOMM (I know it's H4 and everything ) It could be associated with a nice visual effect and could be something like killing explicit number of creatures or dunno

Disintegrates a whole stack,but your hero loses all his mana and canot play the next number of creatures/creature weekly growth turns,or something like that.

[Omega_Destroyer]

I would say Meteor Shower is my favorite, followed by Implosion.

I would like to see the Hand of Death spell return. Not the most practical, but I liked seeing the skeletal hand rip through the stack.

[DaemianLucifer]

I would like to see the Hand of Death spell return. Not the most practical, but I liked seeing the skeletal hand rip through the stack.

Very practical against high levels.

[ThunderTitan]

Disintegrates a whole stack,but your hero loses all his mana and canot play the next number of creatures/creature weekly growth turns,or something like that.

Or, heavens forbid, it could do what it did in H4 and make Ressurect and Animate Dead useless.

[Forestmaster]

Puppet master and frenzy are my favourite

[Orfinn]

Frenzy, Firewall and Lightning here

[MrSteamTank]

Is it just me or does the game seem to be a little short on spells?
Far fewer spells than in the previous homms. I'd like to see a few more added to be honest.

Easy spells to add :
Misfortune(- luck)
Fortune( + luck)
Courage(+ morale)
Fear(- morale)
Acid Rain(AoE area targetted dmg over time ability)

And so forth.

[thecheese]

It really depends on my hero and what my armies can do. I'm playing one game where some of my units have +45% initiative, so mass slow + mass confusion on expert level = mass yay. Gotta love fighting griffins that cant retaliate, or master hunters that cant shoot.

[ThunderTitan]

Easy spells to add :
Misfortune(- luck)
Fortune( + luck)
Courage(+ morale)
Fear(- morale)
Acid Rain(AoE area targetted dmg over time ability)

I'm sorry, but besides the last one that would break the rule.

It is annoying that they took down the # of spells, and "we got rid of the useless ones" doesn't really cut it, as I don't think Cat Reflexes & Co. were useless.

[MrSteamTank]

Easy spells to add :
Misfortune(- luck)
Fortune( + luck)
Courage(+ morale)
Fear(- morale)
Acid Rain(AoE area targetted dmg over time ability)

I'm sorry, but besides the last one that would break the rule.

It is annoying that they took down the # of spells, and "we got rid of the useless ones" doesn't really cut it, as I don't think Cat Reflexes & Co. were useless.

How would that break the rule? The only problem is the cap of +5 luck. How about a spell that gives +3 luck and +X attack boost(based on spell power) on lucky roles. Or the opposite effect on misfortune.

[Gus]

He was trying to be funny with the "rule": Take nothing from H4.
A rule that he has created and claims governed designing H5.