When to take the combat skill.

Although the forum isn't very active, I decided to start a thread for discussion. The question arose while compiling a "Guide for Heroes of Might and Magic IV." The point is this: for almost all heroes (except the Barbarian and Archer), it's advisable to take the combat skill. The reason is simple – to avoid being killed with a single blow in battle, as they are too weak, and experience isn't gained when dead. This isn't so relevant on a low difficulty level, but on a high difficulty level, where there are many enemies (neutrals) (three times more than on the normal level), and experience is given three times less, and there are almost no resources, the choice of skills becomes very important. While studying different articles, I encountered recommendations that sometimes contradicted each other (even within the same article) regarding when to take the combat skill – from "immediately" to "after fully upgrading the main magic (or tactics) skill." And when I tried playing with different upgrade schemes, I noticed certain inconsistencies. Therefore, I would like to hear the opinions of players about when they take the combat skill. :smile19:
Sincerely,
dnaop-wr