Skills for an Inferno hero.

Don't say that... Stone Skin's effectiveness isn't that great without Light magic... even with +9 to defense... and you can learn it in Light magic, although it drops at level 15+. Besides, when creating a Stone Skin spell, you'll spend 12 mana (but that doesn't really matter, because only mages have more mana than Paladins... and Imps add to it), but you'll only spend 0.5 initiative, and if you have Expert Sorcery, you'll only move 0.2 on the action bar and have time to cast Mass Haste or Mass Righteous Might (and by the way, you'll add...). As for the "fight to the last"... well, that's good for Cavern Lords; they can take down 1-2 Angels or Dragons with a Vampire. And Archdevils: they can summon (if they haven't already) more Lords. IMO, Readiness is better. Imagine: 10 Paladins, 30 Horsemen attack. They attack first, then there's a 30% chance that Hellfire will hit... and if you have Cold Steel or Fiery Wrath (or both), you'll definitely take down 7 of them, and the rest depends on probability.

Well, +9 to the defense of the entire army is a lot, and it will only shift the balance by 0.5. If you're teaching Light magic to demons, then Stone Skin might not be necessary. But! Light magic is rarely offered, and you still have to find the spells. But this way, you get a solid army buff for just one level, which is more than enough. About Readiness: demons (units) have one of the lowest defenses in the game (excluding levels 6-7), and it doesn't increase with heroes. So, are you going to defend in the final battle with demons?:smile07: No amount of Readiness will help you, and trained Paladins definitely won't be able to withstand them, I assure you. If you don't attack with demons right away, you can summon reinforcements, but Readiness won't "activate" then. About Battle Deployment: you probably haven't seen how experienced players break through many Phoenixes with Battle Deployment on weeks 3-4, many Archmages (probably already an army by week 4), etc. And how can you use pairs of Imps to hold passages or block enemy archers for several turns? Ask Antonag, he has replays of how he breaks through strong neutrals with Battle Deployment.