Grade the ULTIMATES

[Idleness2]

huh, yeah,, thats funny, no destructive magic for rage of elements, i guess after getting it you would need 3 more levels to get your destructive magic, thats funny...hmmm...now i remember why i never bother goign for it anyway. But neway u will still have elemental dmaage from your creatures, which are very powerful with dungeon, having very high initiative, very high damage, AND dungeon hero having attack prmary skills, so even just looking at the creatures, I feel that rage of the elements would be > natures luck, am i right? But, btw, elemental damage actually also works with non-destructive spells, I took note that it works with decay, and decay is earth elements...is also effected by emerald slippers by the way....and fire wall and firetrap are, of course, fire element. Wasp storm and fist of wrath i have no idea, probably not an element.

Actually, gosh i forgot about the + to creatures when I was grading the ultimates...hmmm...that would bump rage of the elements up to 22 or 23, imo

[Kilop]

i find ultimates to hard to get ( must drop archery for necs ) for what it gives so no more than 10 for all , except sykvan, good choice of skill anyone should try to get those...
so it is a 20 for sylvan.

[Jolly Joker]

How ill you get 300 Marksmen in week 3?
You need at least 4500 for Peasants and Marksmen buildings. If you want to build Let'say you build the necessary stuff only and start on Town Level 3 with Tavern and Fort (very favorable) build:
Town Hall, Archers, Peasants, Mage Guild 1, Training Grounds, Blacksmith, City Hall, Citadel, Hall of Heroes, Castle, Marksmen (Footmen, Griffins, Capitol)
up to Marksmen this costs 33000, not to mention resources (let's say you have them), 2 more heroes: 38500. Income: A bit over 20000, let's say 30000 with some chests and gold piles and Pesant income. Three Heroes: 30 Archers and 80 Peasants, another 48 Archers for 2400 Gold hired plus roundabout 110 Peasants for 2400 as well. So let's make it about 80 Archers and 200 Peasants all in all. You have expert trainer. So it costs 81 gold per peasant to Archer: 16200 Gold. And it costs 8400 Gold to grade 280 Archers up to Marksmen. That brings the money spent all in all to about 68000 gold, while you have earned only about 30000 including money finds. You have a seriously underdeveloped town at this point (I didn't even include Footmen or anything higher), nor a Capitol.
Depending on the level of difficulty you play this is then: possible on easy, just so possible sometime in week 3 on normal, not possible at all on hard, with additional resource limitations severly hampering the building at that, and completely impossible on heroic.
As said very often, for me it looks like the optimal playing difficulty is hard. You have all options, you can explore all roads.
However, even if is possible on normal, the other towns will have their strengths as well. 280 Marksmen may easily lose when attacking a Sylvan town midway through week 3 with Marsmen being on Ranger's shit list against Master Hunters and Druids (and you don't have any guarding force left except you build footmen and Squires further making more money necessary). You may easily lose against Inferno as well: no chance against the gating opposition that will block your Marksmen, the Mana Drain, the Cerberi the Succubi and the Chargers making you fear. You may easily lose against Necro: Those Ghosts are nasty: every second shot on them is wasted. Vampires as well Archers, too, Liches are pretty nasty too.
You may easily lose against Academy as well. Master Genies will be at you in no time. Academy could have some really nasty spells for you.
And you will probably lose against Dungeon with Teleport Assault.

You will lose for sure against everone who can cast a halfway efficient Confusion on you, if you cannot Cleanse it. You will certainly lose against Puppet Master. You'll lose against level 5 Summon spells and I'm probably forgetting a ton here.

The bottom line is, you can try to ward against Haven and their shooter rushes. Of course that may - depending on the toen - be a more difficult way than simple to come with the Marksmen and hope for the best, so it's still a viable option with good chances for success on the low diff levels. But against a careful playing opponent guarding against that, nothing is assured.

[okrane]

Has anyone here got any of the ultimates, in a legitimate way(no mods, no cheats... just playing the game..)?

[DaemianLucifer]

Well As sylvan, theres a couple of ways I might go, and depends on the armies u are using, Luck , soldiers luck and elven luck seem definately vital for an army with master hunters and unicorns.

Actually,someone did a test and unicorns aura doesnt get boosted by soldiers luck.

They have 3 units that can hit on the 1st round, without tactics and/or speed bonus: Sprites, Druids, and master hunters. Of these, 1 cares about luck at all, and with the warding arrow special, its a little wasted if they just kill an enemy stack outright.

Srites dragons and unicorns have the same speed if I remember,so without speed boosters and tactics they can hit a large creature opposing them.As for the warding arrow being wasted if the enemy is killed Warding arrow is not something that happens always,its a random bonus,so its never wasted.

huh, yeah,, thats funny, no destructive magic for rage of elements, i guess after getting it you would need 3 more levels to get your destructive magic, thats funny...hmmm...now i remember why i never bother goign for it anyway. But neway u will still have elemental dmaage from your creatures, which are very powerful with dungeon, having very high initiative, very high damage, AND dungeon hero having attack prmary skills, so even just looking at the creatures, I feel that rage of the elements would be > natures luck, am i right? But, btw, elemental damage actually also works with non-destructive spells, I took note that it works with decay, and decay is earth elements...is also effected by emerald slippers by the way....and fire wall and firetrap are, of course, fire element. Wasp storm and fist of wrath i have no idea, probably not an element.

Actually, gosh i forgot about the + to creatures when I was grading the ultimates...hmmm...that would bump rage of the elements up to 22 or 23, imo

Umm...Element bonus doesnt always trigger for your units,only if you match the elements,so maybe once in every 4 strikes.

Has anyone here got any of the ultimates, in a legitimate way(no mods, no cheats... just playing the game..)?

Some people did,but just in campaigns,I think.

[BrYzAs]

natures luck:22
Arcane Omniscence:19
howl of terror:25(if u get it, there is no enemy....)
unstopable charge:9
Rage of elements:12

[ThunderTitan]

howl of terror:25(if u get it, there is no enemy....)

Unless you're playing against other Necros.

[okrane]

howl of terror:25(if u get it, there is no enemy....)

I disagree... I used a mod, got HoT and I cast it in the first round of a big battle against a haven army... I was surprised to see that even if the army had -5 morale, the bad morale only triggered twice or three times throughout the battle... and it lasted more than 7-8 rounds...

Now I agree that it's a useful thing.... but the best... I don't think so... I'd take nature's Luck anytime over this...

Have you ever tried it out?

[wayne]

I think it is easier to rank them in order of merit rather than grade them on a scale of 1-25 (in descending order) :

Urgash's call
Howl of terror
Nature's luck
Arcane omnipotence
Rage of the Elements
Unstoppable charge

[arturchix]

Here's my choice:

Nature's Luck
Urgash's Call
Howl of Terror
Arcane Omniscience
Rage of Elements
Unstoppable Charge

[okrane]

Arcane omnipotence

As oposed to Arcane Impotence

[Kilop]

I agrea, just finished a very big map solo heroic dificult , and i had deidre, and i cna tell you howl of terror is far from beeing hat exiting, it is good, to suppres good morale, but bad morale do not rigger very often or at all if the oponent get some artefacts + leadership...
And I find Arcane omniscince with mark of the wizard sooo useful : just think one pupet mater and 2 frenzied shooters... gg

[watcher83]

Unstopable Charge: 5
Urgash's call: 15
Nature's Luck: 20
Arcane Omniscience: 25
Rage of the Elements: 14
Howl of Terror: 15

Although I'd say you'll get a much more powerfull hero by learning usefull skills instead of trying to get the ultimate.

[Lady Farquad]

Unstopable Charge: 10
Urgash's call: 20
Nature's Luck: 25
Arcane Omniscience: 15
Rage of the Elements: 5
Howl of Terror: 1

What's good about -5 morale when the enemy is +5, wind up in 0 wasting your turn with a useless spell.

[Sir_Toejam]

What's good about -5 morale when the enemy is +5, wind up in 0 wasting your turn with a useless spell.

sorry, but the irony here is just too good to ignore.

you really don't see what's good about taking away the enemy's ability to act 50% more often?

[DaemianLucifer]

you really don't see what's good about taking away the enemy's ability to act 50% more often?

Theres a good side to that?Really?

[Sir_Toejam]

you're kidding, right?

how can taking away 50% of the enemy creature's actions be worthless?

is mass haste/mass slow worthless?

[Kilop]

i much prefer luck or urgash... just think waht necros ll do against other necros on a big MP or academy s razzak for that matter...

[Night_Heaven]

Unstopable Charge fas: 0
Urgash's call: 11
Nature's Luck: 25
Arcane Omniscience: 25
Rage of the Elements: 3
Howl of Terror:5

But there is a better way to play Heroes 5....choose some good skills damit..dont waste them on silly ultimates...