New Equilibris is going to be released soon, but it doesn't seem to be final and as many wrote there will be probably 3.7
Playing all this time with diffrent guys I've figured out how adv classes should actually work in the game. Bonuses shouldn't be complicated. It looks like they should neither be dominating, as skills are fair good.
Moreover, important is type ofcombination like magic-magic, might-magic and might-might, as in H4 access to spells is crucial. So skills are to be cathegorized from hero perspective into: magic, might (Combat group) and support (Tactics, Scouting and Nobility groups)
It's silly to count Knight, Lord or Thief as fighters, therefore bonuses engaging weak hero in combat melee are useless.
I'll post only those classes where a change is suggested as many of existing are fine (don't get angry for doubling your suggestions without permission
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LIFE + ORDER
current: Monk; Chaos Ward
change: Cleric; -
Why?: Monk is a creature with Death Ward so Cleric, a magic hero from H3, suits better
LIFE + NATURE
current: Summoner; +10XP to Summoning skill
change1: -; +25% to Summon spells
change2: -; Summon spells cost 50% less
Why?: current ability suits better Beast Lord. Also, Illusionist creates illusions in combat, why shouldn’t Summoner do the same?
LIFE + TACTICS
current: Crusader; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Mirth’ (maximum morale)
change: Acolyte; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Heavenly Shield’ (like artifact Angelfeather Cloak)
Why?: Crusader is a creature with double strike; ‘Heavenly Shield’ is more like priest-fighter hero especially as Knight’s basic skill is Defense. Also, current skill suits better Prophet
LIFE + SCOUTING
current: Prophet; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Spiritual Armour’
change: -; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Mirth’ (maximum morale)
Why?: Nature+Scouting (Bard) gives maximum luck, Life+Scouting could give max morale. Also, ‘Spiritual Armour’ is rather weak bonus
ORDER + DEATH
current: Shadow Mage; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Blur’
change: -; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Magic Mirror’
Why?: Blur isn’t totally useless, however, typical Order-Death-magic-combination is Evil Sorceress with Magic Mirror ability, therefore it would suit Shadow Mage better
ORDER + NATURE
current: Enchanter; +20% to Summon & Illusion spells
change: -; hero can cast Mind spells on creatures normally immune to them: Elementals, Mechanicals, Undeads (like artifact Crown of Enchantment)
Why?: it’s pointless to have a hero who’s doing what do separate hero classes. This guy should mix Nature’s reality and Order’s illusion together so that even creatures immune to Mind effects wouldn’t see the difference
ORDER + TACTICS
current: Illusionist; +20% to Illusion spells
change: -; +25%
Why?: 5% is no big deal but makes rarely chosen spells more popular
ORDER + COMBAT
current: Battle Mage; +20% to ‘Magic Fist’ &’Ice bolt’
change: Iceguard; Freezing (like Ice Demon) [and Cold Resistance]
Why?: neither Mage goes for crappy Order direct damage, nor does Barb. Also Iceguard would be opposite to Fireguard (Chaos+Combat). Personally I’d give Cold Resistance which is far inferior to Fire Resistance (useful only against Ice bolt) but maybe Freezing is enough. I’d like to hear your opinion.
ORDER + SCOUTING
current: Seer; +2 scouting radius
change: -; +3
Why?: increases the effectiveness of ‘Vision’ and makes scout-heroes more useful to find enemy armies
ORDER + NOBILITY
current: Wizard King; hero’s melee attack casts ‘Misfortune’
change: -; all spells for friendly creatures cost 33% less (like artifact Magic Amplifier)
Why?: Wizard reduces spell cost, Wizard King could do similar but instead of doing such for himself he/she would support friendly creatures especially Genies and Magi from his home faction
DEATH + TACTICS
current: Reaver; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Magic Mirror’
change: -, hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Haste’
Why?: current ability suits better Shadow Mage. Also, ‘Haste’ like Tactics itself is about speed so it suits Reaver better than Assassin
DEATH + COMBAT
current: Assassin; hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Haste’
change: -, Poison ability like Venom Spawn -Poison deals 25% inflicted combat dmg- [NOT ‘Poisonous Attack’], hero’s also immune to Poison like Venom Spawn
Why?: nothing suits assassinating better than deadly poisons. For a Necromancer just being Immune to Poison is not that bad bonus, but Barbs and Archers who deal fair dmg with GM Melee or Archery would become nice Spawns
DEATH + NOBILITY
current: Dark Lord; hero’s melee attack casts ‘Sorrow’
change: -, +10% to Necromancy skill (like artifact Amulet of Undertaker)
Why?: Death+Nobility is opposite to Life Nobility (Cardinal). Also, Nobility is about having more units, so it’s perfect for the king of the undead to raise more than simple Necromancer.
CHAOS + SCOUTING
current: Fire Diviner; +20% to Fire spells
change1: -, +25%
change1: Elementalist, +25% to all direct damage spells
Why?: 5% is no big deal but makes rarely chosen spells more popular. Moreover, direct damage spells are less and less effective because Magic Resistance is to easily accessible (MR depends on hero’s level, cape-artifacts and Potions of Resistance, MR-skill itself)
CHAOS + NOBILITY
current: Witch King; Fear (like bone Dragons)
change: -, Mind Leech (like Imp)
Why?: Chaos is about mana manipulation (Mana Flare, Mana Vortex). Also there’s artifact Witch Ring with same ability which proves that witching = mana theft
NATURE + TACTICS
current: Warden; friendly creatures get +10% Defense
change: -, 20%
Why?: this would make Warden class like artifact Ring of Protection
NATURE+ COMBAT
current: Beastmaster; +20% to ‘Summon wolf’
change1: Trapper; Binding (like Mantis)
change2: Forest Guardian, hero’s granted the effect of spell ‘Giant Strength’
Why?: current ability is absolutely useless. Either Trapper or Forest Guardian would be attractive class for Barb/archer and even for Druid
NATURE+ NOBILITY
current: Beast Lord; +20% to ‘Summon wolf’ & ‘summon White Tiger’
change: -; +10XP/day to Summoning skill
Why?: current ability is absolutely useless. Also, it would make Beast Lord a third lord class aside from Cardinal and Dark Lord to increase the number of creatures in the army
TACTICS+COMBAT
current: General; friendly creatures get +1 morale
change: -; friendly creatures get +1 speed and +1 movement (+5%/2 levels)
Why?: to differ General and Lord Commander class
TACTICS+SCOUTING
current: Field Marshall; friendly creatures get +10% to Attack
change: -; 20%
Why?: this would make Marshall class like artifact Warlord’s Ring
COMBAT+SCOUTING
current: Ranger; hero gets+10 Ranged Attack and has Ranged ability
change: Mercenary; No Retaliation
Why?: without Archery skill this bonus is useless, and Archery is rarely chosen skill when you build a hero. No Retaliation is better option both for Barb/Archer and Thief. And why mercenary? Well, scouting or pathfinding characterize wandering heroes, and this class is a wandering fighter to hire
COMBAT+NOBILITY
current: Warlord; hero gets+10 Melee Attack
change: -; Block (like Minotaurs)
Why?: increasing a bit attack isn’t much helpful for a hero against strong stacks of 3rd and 4th level units. Also, Archer or Lord are not to fight creatures in melee. Besides, Barb-faction is generally weaker than magic ones, so its heroes should have better class choices and a new Warlord bonus would be better protection than the current one
SCOUTING+NOBILITY
current: Guildmaster; hero ignores Magic Resistance by 66%
change: -; -25% to hire cost (like Purse of Penny Pinching artifact)
Why?: it’s pointless for non-magic hero to ignore magic resistance. Also, Thief and Lord deal with money (despite different point of view on gold, heh) . Besides, current skill suits Archmage better
Btw. is this possible to make Purse affect any cost, like hiring heroes in tavern , buying skill in university or pay less Tree of Knowledge?
ARCHMAGE*
current: +20% to all spell effects
change: hero ignores Magic Resistance by 66% [or 50%]
why: Archmage is a master in casting spells. In TGS Archmage’s artifacts give ability to fully ignore magic resistance
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SUMMARY:
-Factions wouldn’t lose access to bonuses like maximum morale, Magic Mirror or ‘Haste’, some of them would be just given to other combination but within the faction
-Totally useless bonuses like +20% to ‘Summon Wolf’ would be completely changed, so would classes with same or similar bonus (Enchanter & Illusionist in Order)
-Barbarian which is weaker than magic factions due to no spells would have better classes with spell-like-effect bonuses (Freezing, Binding, Poison like Venom Spawn)
-Combat skill would generally improve protection (Immune to Poison, Cold Resistance, Block) like it currently does with Death Ward and Fire Resistance
-Weak Nobility classes would go for supporting in general (Mind leech, -33% to spell cost for friendly creatures, increase number of creatures in Necromancy and Summoning) rather than force fragile heroes to fight in melee
-Some of changes are just cosmetic like name or 5% difference of effectiveness of spell group
Sorry for quite a long article-post. Waiting for constructive criticism.
Hope it's not a sin to play with dead (topic, of course)
It requires fast animation and making hero's battlefield movment =50
