Which creatures from the alternative upgrade options do you choose?

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Vadimh

There are plenty of decent ranged units in the game. Elves, humans, and mages can deal significant damage with any hero, and there are also artillery units with ballistae.

I doubt anyone will waste a turn using a ballista on them if there's even one more important target. And the ballista might even break down by the time those priority targets are gone.

Vadimh

Humans don't have that much mana. If you start casting dispel and anti-magic spells from the beginning, it will hinder your ability to cast other spells and weaken the human in a prolonged battle, and you'll also run out of mana. At the same time, there may be situations where paladins can dispel mind control or berserk before the hero can. Also, white horses are immune to berserk. The Necromancer is tough and difficult to kill in a few turns.

If the hero is going to buff everyone, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to take Adepts and use dispel to remove mind control or berserk, and give the hero the opportunity to buff the creatures calmly.

Vadimh

Academics are good because they can play in any school and in various combinations of schools. Chaos may not even be present. Steel Golems can be buffed, and under Stone, it's difficult for a combat unit to kill them.

I haven't seen many light academics, but in that case, I agree with you.

Vadimh

Dwarves have Armageddon with resistances and signs and 30% spell power, academics have the same 30% and a mark, the League has Arcane and elemental wave and a whole 45% spell power. The Necromancer simply has the same 45% spell power and is tough. And demons have no skills or abilities for chaos and only 15% spell power increase. That's just funny.

It seems like we're not talking about effectiveness compared to other factions, but about the very fact that there are demons that play with chaos, and such demons exist (even if there are not many of them).

Vadimh

I wrote a little about demon upgrades above, if briefly:
1. Only the mana drain itself is important. If they can pump mana unpunished for a couple of turns, then black. No? Then red.
2. Only the jumping ones, someone will dispel the retaliation anyway. Red has a weak ability. I don't see any connection between the upgrades depending on chaos. The survivability is approximately the same for all upgrades, and nothing else matters.

1) The ability of imp upgrades is not limited to draining the enemy's mana; you also need to use the fact that the mana goes to the hero/cavern dwellers, and this also plays a role. 2) Where is the guarantee that retaliation will definitely be dispelled? Although the other creatures of Inferno are initiative, this does not give a 100% guarantee, especially in the middle and at the end of the battle.

Vadimh

The task of the lizardmen is to run with a dash, deal a lot of damage, and die after that. The old ones will deal a lot of damage due to ignoring armor, and the exchange will pay off. The new ones will simply die. And the League has no troop survivability, so they die quickly, and it's important to kill the enemy faster than he kills the League.

Can't agile units compensate for the damage difference in the form of damage that will be dealt by a hit?

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