raise dead

[Alamar]

which is quite a task, even for a powerful warlock like sinitar or any other faction

With normal heroes the only faction that can destroy [by magic] enough creatures to keep up with Vlaad is Dungeon.

A L20 Vlaad with [oh say] 20 spell power raises about 1260 hit points worth of creatures with raise dead. Expert implosion would require a spell power of about 31 to kill off the creatures that Vlaad can raise. With an EMPOWERED IMPLOSION you still need 20 spell power to keep pace with Vlaad's Raise Dead!!!!

I won't argue that there isn't a nice symmatry there but honestly Vlaad's special [IMHO] needs to be toned way down if for no other reason than to allow other Necro heroes to be somewhat competitive with him.

[DaemianLucifer]

And lets not forget that with the mark of the necromancer each implosion would give vlad all his mana back,so while he spends nothing,your mana quickly disappears.

[MrSteamTank]

I personally think raise dead for undead simply needs a nerf. Although raise dead is uber in the hands of vlad its outrageous with every necromancer army. The only reason vlad is imbalanced is because it makes a spell thats already too strong WAY too strong.

I'd probably change it to require a fully dead stack to cast. Then allow 50% of non-undead creatures to come back permanently(instead of 100% for undead). If it's a little too weak increase the amount raised a little bit(say it raises an additional 5-10% of the stack on top of the hp raised from spell power).

Personally thats the only way this level TWO spell will be balanced. With a big nerf like that. Phantom forces requires something equally harsh such as a large initiative drop and a limit based on spell power to how many units you can raise(say 250 hp + 125 hp per spell power).

Raise dead in general needs a nerf. Not vlad as that will still leave necromancers begging they get 'lucky' and have this spell in their mage guild. The very fact people hope to get this spell over every other one shows its too strong.

[DaemianLucifer]

Personally thats the only way this level TWO spell will be balanced. With a big nerf like that. Phantom forces requires something equally harsh such as a large initiative drop and a limit based on spell power to how many units you can raise(say 250 hp + 125 hp per spell power).

No,its not the only way for it to be balanced.It could be also balanced if it raised units in a new stack that would disappear after the battle and leave no body for future raising.exactly how it worked in HIV

[Orfinn]

Yeah, the necors can rasise 50% permanently but others 100% for the duration of combat.

[Alamar]

I'd rather have the spell be higher level and / or cost more mana than reducing the spell's power too much. This will reduce the number of spam casts early on by itself. Late in the game pretty much all factions can spam away so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Lets not forget that just a week or two later in the game Academy / Haven / Sylvan [IIRC] can do pretty much the same thing with Ressurect. The Necro's initial advantage doesn't last overly long ....

As for Vlad I'm fine with him starting w/ Summoning, Raise Dead, and the booster ability.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'm fine with Vlad starting with that but instead of 1 spell power every 2 levels to the spell he should get some other bonus ... [like a fixed +3 spell power / +1 SP every 5 levels / or anything else to make the hero cool but not overpowered compared to other Necros].

[Sir_Toejam]

However I agree that Phantom Forces is ridiculous now, as you can easily make your own copies of 20 titans all over the place.. Phantom, Frenzy, and Puppet Master should be like Hypnotize in previous HoMMs, the HP of the stack that is casted on should matter. In a large map you can easily have several expendable heroes with expert dark magic that can cast one little spell like Puppet Master to royally screw your army and flee on the next turn.

a bit late on the reply, but I found the AI does something interesting when you "commandeer" its troops:

If it can, it will cast a mass destruction spell right on the puppetized trooper, releasing them from bondage at the cost of a few of them.

I found this out the hard way on the necro 3 map, where some of the orange leaders would cast armageddon or chain lightning as soon as I tried to put the strings on one of their stacks. If I used frenzy instead, the ai did not react the same way to that, though rarely they would cast "immune to magic" on a frenzied trooper.

I'ts a nice addition to the ai, IMO. Better than I ever saw in homm IV.

I also notice that when you puppetize a stack, it loses a turn basically, but gets that turn back if it is damaged before it can act as your puppet.

It makes frenzy more useful in some circumstances.

[thecheese]

Interesting that they know to employ such tactics, yet can't figure out how to pick up resources or build past the second tier of troops.

[Sir_Toejam]

hmm. I've noticed the ai avoids tackling well guarded resources, but it seems to do a pretty good job focusing on aquiring mines and picking up most loose resources close to base.

so far, playing with 1.2, I've seen the problem that the ai doesn't build many high level units, but certainly I've seen lots of units up to level 5, some 6, but rare 7.

what's more concerting to me is that on maps with multiple enemy cities, some cities are completely ignored for upgrading/building, even after many weeks.

perhaps the tweaks to 1.2 also mean the ai gets fewer "automatic" bonuses?

[DaemianLucifer]

Also fun thing about frenzy is that it seems to increase the creatures attack.Ive noticed this when computer started casting it on his own troops.Too bad that it always ended with him attacking his own troops

[asandir]

ahhh ... the counter to better AI