Black Dragons are really awesome! 300 HP + immunity = great! It just rarely gets to that point... Personally, I don't remember when I last upgraded to level 7...

I said pretty much the same thing.)

Added 13 minutes ago

Shakti is too good to not take him at the start.
Alternatives:
Gunnar - he can move further, but he can't hit as hard as Shakti!
Ajit - if you get lucky, you can gather enough eyes on day 1 to shoot everyone, but for him to come with eyes, and for another hero to build another town on day 1 - that's only possible in TE :)
Damacon - you can never have too much gold... But still, Shakti is Shakti, and he can steal so much money right away that Damacon will be collecting for a week!
Das - good starting skills, but Shakti has the same ones :D
And +1 to the speed of a troglodyte is much more important than +1 to the speed of a minotaur, because the lower the base speed, the more significant the bonus! And the starting army isn't that great anyway....
Arlash - a cannon is cool, but if he comes without a ballista, you can just give up, and his attack isn't as good as Gunnisson's, so you can't really rely on that....
Synca - basic literacy is just... meh
Lori-Lei - no comment!!! You can still find a use for her in TE, but definitely not in SoD!
Warlocks - they are not even considered as starting heroes, because you constantly need to replenish mana, and building a GM on the first week is not ideal...
From all this, we conclude: If you want to control the initiative, start with Shakti!!!!

Shakti has a number of unpleasant drawbacks in addition to his advantages:
1. Due to upgrading troglodytes, he slows down development by a day, which deprives you of either 1 unit or a growth bonus if you sacrifice the Stronghold.
2. If the map is HL and the game is long, then in the final battle with his 300 troglodytes, he is, to put it mildly, not as effective as Das or any hero with another specialization (Jedite and others).
3. There are situations when you don't need that much attack power and you can just collect resources without much stress, building a town (if there are not many gnomes on the map, etc., the scenarios are different).
4. He can also end up in the Tower.
5. +1 to the speed of a minotaur on the same first week is not much worse than +1 to the speed of a troglodyte, and later it's even better.
That's all, and I just don't like him) consider it a personal dislike, and I don't rule out that I will change my mind:smile04:
Gunnar is also very good, but there is one "but", in battle his specialization is absolutely useless.

Added 3 minutes ago

The Portal is great everywhere and always! Some build it on day 2 if they have a good stash!

You can even build it on day 1 if you find eyes or medusas, for example. I mean that if the game drags on, the additional + to population seriously tips the scales in your favor.

Added 7 minutes ago
They didn't talk about the artifact market, very helpful boots or gloves bought on weeks 2-3, you can also earn by selling scrolls and significantly increase the chance of collecting some small assembled artifact like cursed daggers or elixir of life (a great artifact and it's easy to collect) which greatly ease your life :) -