Mish-gan
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This is more of a remnant from the original Heroes 5. Nowadays, Vlad has significantly weakened his position among other Necromancers.
I agree with you. Currently, in my opinion, the best choices are: Kaspar for early-game rushing, Zoltan for late-game against magical factions, Lucretia and Orson, as well as Deidre with the "Caster's Apprentice" skill, against physical factions. Although, sometimes Vlad can also be used for early-game rushing; with a favorable starting position, you can quickly eliminate ranged units, but as a leader for an entire faction, I don't think he's strong enough.