The Dragon is my first hero. Yesterday, I decided to "return to the roots" and try it out. In defense, it's simply amazing. With a level 3 hero, I managed to fend off the AI with stats around ~15 in everything. The troops are roughly equal. I haven't seen anything like this in a long time (lately, I've been playing Inferno). He's out of mana, but my hero opened a book for the first time in his life. And the terrain helps – there's no arguing with that. Enemies get bogged down, and there are few unexpected surprises from them.
But what if you level up a mage? Maybe something worthwhile will come of it?
For example: We take Andra (or whoever has high intelligence). When leveling up, they will definitely get good defense, we increase strength as much as possible, and intelligence compensates for knowledge. Does anyone have similar experience?