In my opinion, and in the opinion of most forum participants, the Academy is the weakest Castle in Heroes 5. That's why I tried to mainly strengthen the mages. Not everything worked out; I lacked the knowledge, and not everything can be fixed with a mod. Do you have your own solutions? Suggest them.
They are not very resource-intensive to build, they have 3 archers, a level 6 unit with retaliatory attack (or whirlwind, which is also quite good), level 7 creatures are immune to mind control (as are two other units), level 4 sorcerers, which are easy to obtain early on, golems are healed by gremlins, and they also have two flying units.
The heroes have very good specializations, for example, Jalib's "Magic Mirror" or Ora's specialization, which casts spells and also moves faster on the map (I tried a combination of "Distraction" and "Empathy" with artifacts for leadership; it is very effective).
On top of all this, they have one of the strongest racial super abilities; they get all spells, and they are used at the maximum level (there are no bonuses from additional skills).
But that's not all; they can create artifacts for creatures; just the magic resistance (even if it's only half) is worth something. And with the Amulet of Mastery, there are 4 effects.
In my opinion, mages are one of the strongest.
But, as I think, there are as many opinions about balance as there are people, so you are free to do what you think is right
