Shakti has several significant drawbacks in addition to his advantages:

Let's go through them point by point:

1. Upgrading Trogols slows down development by a day, depriving you of either 1 unit or growth, if you sacrifice the Stronghold.

Let it slow down, but no one said you need to build the entire Castle. Having Eyes and the Castle on week 1 is considered normal! We'll find troops in reserves and hives, maybe even in Pandoras :smile20:

2. If the map is large and the game is prolonged, in the final battle with his 300 elite Trogols, he is, to put it mildly, not as effective as Des or any hero with another specialization (Jedite, etc.).

If the game is prolonged, then the specialization of Thazar and Kreg usually decides the outcome, but not Das!

3. There are situations where you don't need that much attack power and you can simply collect resources without much effort, building the Castle (if there aren't that many Dwarves on the map, etc., the scenarios vary).

Attack power and Shakti are synonyms! :D But I can't even imagine a situation where attack power would be superfluous!

4. He can also end up in the Tower.

Of course, he can, but I don't think you should count on it...

5. +1 to the speed of the Minotaur in the same first week is not much worse than +1 to the speed of the Troglodite, and later it's even better. Everything, I think.

Is there a difference between speeding up 150 Trogols or 3 Minotaurs? And later, +1 to speed doesn't really matter, whether it's Shakti or Das. The main thing is to start well!

Well, and I just don't like him) consider it a personal dislike, I don't rule out that I will change my mind:smile04:

That happens. I don't like Shakti either for some reason... That's why I don't play as the Dungeon. But I understand that Shakti is objectively the strongest hero of the Dungeon!

Gunnar is also very good, but there is one "but": in battle, his specialization is absolutely useless.

It's important to approach the final battle with dignity, and for this, you need artifacts and creatures! Having such a fast hero as Gunnar, we get speed as a bonus, which allows us to run around the map faster than our opponent and snatch, for example, a Utopian from under his nose... And if, with approximately equal troops, your parameters are 10 higher than your opponent's, then it doesn't matter what your specialization is, even Navigation :p

You can build on day 1, find Eyes or Medusas, for example, I mean that if the game is prolonged, the additional + to population seriously tips the scales in your favor.

In a prolonged game, other factors usually decide the outcome (parameters, magic, control)