Posts from Development of a Necropolis mage hero

Similar to my guide for the Confessor cleric, here are a few thoughts on the Requiem.

This text is suitable both for completing the campaign as Necromancers and for duels. My experience in duels is still modest, so I hope that you, dear reader, will supplement my findings and show what can be done better.

The Requiem is a necromancer mage characterized by strengthening all Tear reputation skills and two unique abilities:

No rest for the wicked (oh my, a translation of the good old "No rest for the wicked") - strengthens Necromancy by 5% at the first level of Tears and another 2% up to a total of 7% at the second.
That is, using the faction skill, the Requiem raises slightly more of his own fighters from the dead than other necromancers.
At first glance, it seems insignificant. But when choosing the strategy I will describe below, it's simply wonderful. Thanks to this, you, dear reader, can either avoid many losses or — more importantly — turn the tide of more than one duel.

Sacrifice - a selected stack of our fighters takes ALL DAMAGE for all our stacks for a couple of turns until it dies, and incoming damage to this "lucky" unit is reduced by 33%.
This is our "gimmick," the primary target for an enemy dispel every single day. Because while the spell is active, the opponent can only hit one of our stacks — usually the most protected one. And in combination with our other tricks, this essentially means two turns of own unrestrained chaos. I tell you, it's a real bomb.
Why? You'll see now.

First and foremost, skills.
The best way to show the Requiem' same coolness is through an example of a Necromancer duel premade. Thanks to conflux, we create a new dynasty hero.

Physical skills:
Defender 1-2: adds +5 physical defense to the hero. We need sturdy undead capable of playing from defense.

Ambush: for the first three turns, our troops receive +5 initiative. It is extremely important for us to cast a spell before enemy troops move. For duels, our higher vampires (base initiative 50) should go first; for campaigns, insatiable ghouls (base initiative 35) are quite good.

Tactics 1: we can arrange the troops in a convenient order before the battle. At the start, it is necessary to thoroughly cover our most fearsome weapon with defenders. In the campaign, tactics will allow you to clear an insane number of troops at level 1 using a couple of tactical tricks.

Endurance 1-2: adds +6% HP to our troops. This is because we need hardy and plump undead!

Magical skills:

Magic Aptitude 1: +30 mana for the hero. Every unit will count, so this is a must.

Arcane Keeper 1-3: +7 spell power for the hero. When possible to cast one spell per battle round, every spell should be maximally strengthened!

Time Stop: a target enemy stack does not respond to attacks and stalls for up to 4 turns. Cyclops last slightly less. One of the most powerful spells in Heroes VI — and our "finisher," more on that later.

Meditation: restores our mana. And we will need a lot of mana in every duel. A lot.

Mana Drain: steals mana from the enemy hero and transfers it to us. Meditation for the poor — exclusively for prolonged battles, especially against Inferno. M:TG players call this a sideboard. Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Alternatively, Dispel Magic or same-type own Dark Magic dispel could be here. I don't yet understand which of these fits better!

Weakness, Weakness (global): "global" for 5 turns reduces incoming damage from opponent troops by 20-25%. A harsh necessity against all sorts of warrior heroes in duels. What's nice is that it works on all their attacks — and all types of attacks.

Despair, Despair (global): for 4 turns, enemy troops receive approximately -20 morale at the maximum level. Read as: "goodbye, morale" for mage heroes' troops, "hit me less often under morale, you damn angel!" — for warriors. Our trump card against Haven heroes — less morale = fewer guardian angels!

Summon Dark Elementals: when we need to block enemy shooters, dispel and reduce damage of the main enemy stack (hello, angels, hello, seraphs!).

Dark Magic 1-3: +8 to the power of dark spells. So that the above is at maximum strength.

Summon Water Elementals: I wrote about them in detail in the cleric guide. Briefly: we need them when it's necessary to block enemy shooters and hold particularly dangerous stacks like seraphs, furies, or abominations in place.

Restoration, Restoration (global): the only healing spell available to us. Simply a necessary remedy against enemy area-of-effect strike spells and similar troop abilities like dreamcatchers for Barbarians.

Stone Skin, Stone Skin (global): the best defensive spell in the game. Significantly reduces physical damage to our troops.

Summon Earth Elementals: these guys can turn even the strongest enemy stacks to stone for a turn. We summon them when we need to block shooters and delay key enemy stacks like Radiance or Kensei.

Earth Magic 1-3: for reasons already clear.

Horror, Petrification, or Subjugation would also suit us. However, even without them, a powerful mix of defense and battlefield control has been created.

Now a few words about the troops.

Key stacks for the Requiem are ghosts, liches, and fate weavers. They have a magical attack type; under the leadership of a mage hero, they receive a significant damage bonus multiplied by all our spell power boosters. Yes, in spider form, fate weavers have a magical attack, and in infantry form — physical!
At the same time, liches and fate weavers are capable of dealing huge damage from a distance. They will be our main striking force in duels.

In the campaign, at different times, we will deal damage with bone archers, summoned elementals, and the hero's auto-attack.

I will note separately — our other troop types are nothing more than a cover for liches, ghosts, and fate weavers. An undead shield of thick, sturdy, and well-fed troops, strengthened and reinforced by defensive spells.

Now, actually about the battlefield strategy.

The strategy begins with preparation — and here is what the start of a duel for the Requiem might look like:


In case the image does not display, from top to bottom:
Archliches in the upper corner, vampires before them;
Ghosts #1, insatiable ghouls before them;
Fate weavers;
Ghosts #2;
Rotting Lamassus.

Casting spells depends heavily on the opponent. Usually, against warrior heroes, we will need Stone Skin (global), Weakness (global) and, optionally, Despair (global).
For field control — summoning water or earth elementals. For dispel and damage reduction — dark elementals.

And here is the most pleasant part about Sacrifice.
It should be kept ready for our darkest hour. When our stacks are about to start falling one by one. The main target for Sacrifice — Fate weavers, Lamassus or, closer to the end of the battle — summoned earth elementals. Yes, summoned creatures can be "scapegoats"! For this, they should be summoned at a point on the battlefield far from the opponent and, preferably, covered by other stacks.
Fate weavers are perhaps the best candidate for Sacrifice. They have extreme defense values, many hits — and they can be raised from the dead using Ghosts and necromancy.
This is where it becomes clear why we need No rest for the wicked.

Fortified by our defensive spells, Restoration, and the hero's physical skills, Fate weavers are a tough nut to crack. Which can be instantly restored to its original state using strengthened necromancy.
And Sacrifice, meanwhile, also reduces incoming damage by a third!

In general, there is a lot of synergy here and it's all in our favor.
And about our "finisher." A convenient scenario for us is to gradually kill the opponent's troops stack by stack. Meanwhile, the last one, possibly the strongest — we can put into Time Stop. Over 3-4 turns, there is a good opportunity both to restore troops using healing with necromancy and to prevent the enemy hero from escaping. In the campaign, this technique works splendidly against neutrals consisting of 1 stack, for example, cyclops or seraphs. In a duel, this allows you to finish the game with equal troops by stopping time for the enemy's key stack. The main thing is to lure out the dispel from the enemy — or kill their creatures with dispel first.

Now about artifacts.

Of the dynasty weapons, Soul Stealer suits us perfectly: +5 initiative to troops, +5 spell power for dark spells and -10% to their cost.
During the campaign, these will be very useful:
Elementalist's Ring (+20% summoned creatures)
Sar-Issa's Robe (-50% to the cost of all spells)
magister or prophet set
artifacts for +initiative, +spell power, +mana

And finally, a couple of tricks not yet known to everyone from our foreign colleagues.

#1. When clearing neutrals, we often need mana. It can be restored not only with wells but also by killing enemy stacks on the battlefield. 3 mana for each. A discovery for me was mass suicide of single units for mana restoration.
For every one of our lone ghouls sent to their death, we get 3 mana. Convenient, considering that for the Requiem, ghouls are just meat!
Plus, sometimes living neutrals join us. Well, dear reader, you've already understood me. Meat is meat, 3 mana for each!

#2. At level 1 we take Tactics, with which we place skeletons in one of the corners — and surround them with ghosts. Voilà, hero auto-attack + skeleton volleys — and we can clear almost any stacks of cavalry and infantry. It's all about the Ghosts' "spirit" ability = -50% incoming damage until the first action. And with tactics, they can perfectly stall for the whole battle — and cover the skeletons.

#3. With the purchase of vampires, it becomes possible to clear large neutrals using only bloodsuckers. Vampires in the corner, plus their "out of time" ability = the first attack misses. Add the Restoration skill — and you can clear various lamassus and riders of light without losses. Especially if enemies approach one by one. The main source of damage is the hero's attack. Slow, but effective.

They say Necromancers are OP. I don't know about everyone. About the Requiem — I'm sure.

An inspiring guide.

I don't know, the "victim" didn't inspire me, so I just went all-out on Anastasia.

On a more active forum, I was given a tip on how to further enhance the game using the Tomb.

#1. Use tactic 2 and block the spiders and liches with the remaining units at the beginning of the battle. If we guess the opponent's tactic, it's a clear advantage: their troops won't have time to attack, and we'll have more room to maneuver.

#2. Add Petrification and cast it on our own spiders before Sacrifice. As a result, all troops receive 0 incoming damage for 2 turns.

#3. For summoned elementals, use "wait," then set them to defense and cast Sacrifice on them. -50% incoming damage due to the "Spirit" trait and an additional -33% from Sacrifice itself. OMG, elementals!

In general, I'm amazed that this topic has been around for a week and has 200 views. Either I'm writing poorly, or this forum is really just for necromancers.

Perhaps not everyone is interested in developing a Necromancer, and there are other topics to discuss? I'll try to develop Anastasia in the campaign in this way. I'm not sure, but I think that in a duel, where losses are inevitable, "Sacrifice" will be more useful. In the "Sign of the Necromancer" campaign, with a 20% bonus to attack spells, it looks better, considering the small number of troops at the beginning of the missions and the powerful magical strength of the campaign heroes. By the way, it's also interesting that when I played against a Necromancer who used "Sacrifice," I didn't deal any damage to his troops - for some reason, the 67% damage didn't transfer to the sacrificing unit, and the attacks simply disappeared. All that remained was to attack the sacrificing unit itself and shoot.

I've encountered this setup in duels. It's easily countered with archers from Haven. Demon Destroyers, with their high attack, are also effective. And Orcs with magic immunity (from the Tears skill tree).

But it really depends on personal preference.

I've encountered this setup in duels. It's easily countered by Alliance crossbowmen, Demon Destroyers with their aura, and Orcs with magic immunity (Tears branch).

This one is a matter of preference.

I'm curious, what makes Strength scary against magic for Necromancers? :)
There are essentially no targeted spells, Stone Skin doesn't remove it from undead, maybe the mass weakening effect wears off faster on Barbarian troops?

I've encountered "Tears" Barbarians, the funniest thing was, I quote:
"

Moderated: USE OF OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE in the message

, I thought the second skill could remove the slow effect (of the water elemental)."
The combination of Stone Skin and mass weakening turns Barbarian troops into weaklings.

It's more difficult with Alliance crossbowmen. But it's solved by summoning elementals and immediately placing them in defense. -50% incoming damage from the Spirit ability + a lot of HP and defense = "hit us, knights, hit us."

In general, until Necromancers are nerfed, duels are one-sided.

The "Haven" faction, playing defensively like a "turtle," will become even stronger, and if they also guess the right tactic, they can destroy a large part of the enemy's covering force in the first turn. Even the bug with "Sacrifice" on vampires won't save them; the buggy auras will decide the battle. But the duel is an unbalanced

Moderated: PROFANITY in the message

for now. On the map, there might be a situation where artifacts are distributed in a way that, for example, and you'll have to develop a build in such a way that some of the skills will likely not be taken by anyone.

I wonder, what is so scary about Power against Magic for Necromancers? :)
There are practically no targeted spells, Stone Skin doesn't work on undead, maybe the mass weakening effect wears off faster on Barbarian troops?

I've encountered "defeated" Barbarians, the funniest thing was, I quote:
"

Moderated: USE OF OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE in the message

mlya

, I thought that with the second skill, you could remove the slow effect (of the water elemental)."
The combination of Stone Skin and mass weakening turns Barbarian troops into weaklings.

It's more difficult with archers in the Alliance. But it can be solved by summoning elementals and immediately placing them in defense. -50% incoming damage from the spirit ability + a lot of health and defense = "hit us, knights, hit us."

In general, until the Necromancers are nerfed, duels are one-sided.

In such a situation, I usually have the following scenario: The Necromancer cannot cast 2 spells at once. The Necromancer just goes into a direct attack, casts magic resistance (under him, a stack of 20-30 weavers gave me only 400 damage). And we just take apart the entire pyramid. The first damage is absorbed by the jaguars and then we focus. By the 2nd turn, it won't matter whether Stone Skin is there or not. Weavers in the Mage's fighter form are just a joke. And then, depending on the situation. That's how my battles usually go.

I'm not saying that I always win, sometimes I lose, when the Necromancer starts doing certain things that are not standard. And in general, I don't believe in the idea of an invincible enemy, any army can be destroyed.

In such situations, I usually have this strategy: the Necromancer can't cast two spells at once. The Necromancer just goes all-in, casts magic resistance (with that, a stack of 20-30 weavers gave me about 400 damage). And we just dismantle the entire pyramid. The first damage is absorbed by the Jaguars, and then we focus. By the second turn, it won't matter whether Stone Skin is active or not. Weavers in the Mage's combat form are just laughable. And then, depending on the situation. That's usually how my battles go.

I'm not saying I always win; sometimes I lose when the Necromancer starts doing certain things that aren't standard. And in general, I don't believe in the idea of an unbeatable enemy; any army can be destroyed.

I agree, any army can be destroyed. It's not about the army, but about the player controlling it. If you encounter a newbie or an idiot who hasn't read about the troops, doesn't know the abilities, and casts spells randomly, you'll win even in a seemingly losing matchup.
It's just that Necromancers have too good units and too powerful faction bonuses.

Weavers, for example, turn into killers of everything when controlled by a Mage. And, in addition, they apply a stun for 1-2 turns on those unfortunate souls who reach them in the first or second turn.
You can especially cynically bully Barbarians and Monks, who immediately rush towards the Weavers and focus on them. In a couple of turns, the attacking stacks are dead, the player writes something like "Necromancers need to be nerfed," and leaves.

I've only encountered the "Turtle" of the Alliance a couple of times. It's unpleasant when the Cleric plays a control game and deals damage with Holy spells. But whatever, we play the spellcasting game first – we control them with Elementals and focus on Vestals and Archers in turn.
The trick is that the Alliance has difficulty completely blocking the Archers with their troops, especially if they also want to pressure the Necromancers with Angels and Knights.

And the Archers are only strong if the hero is a Warrior. For a Mage, Holy spells and Vestals with their magical attack are more dangerous. In general, everything is good for a Warrior hero; luck and morale are frequent. But their attack is only slightly stronger than that of a properly built Reaper (yes, with +5 to physical defense). So, Archers will be unpleasant with a Blood Reputation and skills invested in + to ranged attack and Giant Killer. In other cases, they are just meat, although they do pierce the Necromancers' defensive formation.

Anyway, let's play a duel closer to the weekend.
As long as they don't send a beta key for Star Wars: The Old Republic, otherwise, forget Heroes, let's go be Jedi :P

Basically, it's possible. I don't stack too many Weavers; Vampires cause me more problems.

Hello everyone, I'm playing through the Necromancer campaign on Hard difficulty. I've finished the 3rd mission and moved on to the 4th. I want to share some tips and directions for developing Anastasia's character. I'm only playing on Hard difficulty. By default, in the campaign, Anastasia is developed as a mage, focusing on the Path of Tears (Mortuary) with the Soul Stealer staff. I have it at level 4, almost 5. This is the most optimal staff for the Necromancer faction for mages. I developed her in the Mortuary path because the first skill in this path gives a 5% bonus to Necromancy power. There's also an artifact that enhances this, the Amulet of Necromancy (+10%). I sometimes replace it with the Heart of Darkness or Amulet of Mastery. The second best skill, which makes the game much easier, is Sacrifice. In the 3rd mission, before the battle, cast it on the Wraiths, and for the next two turns, all damage will be redirected to the Wraiths with a 33% reduction. Then, simply use Necromancy to restore your Wraiths. In the 1st mission, I immediately learned Education, then Drain (only single-target, mainly used on Ghouls). On the 3rd level, I learned Restoration (single-target healing) in Earth Magic to heal against Undead if the racial ability isn't enough. After level 3, I learned Ambush, Endurance (maxed out to 3), and Guardian. Then, I learned Logistics and started focusing on increasing stats with magic attack. In the Initial Magic section, I learned Initial Magic up to level 3 and Secret Keeper to maximize magic attack, as Wraiths and Liches attack with magic, and we protect them with other units. After reaching levels 15-17, I immediately learned Stop Time and Teleportation. After that, in the Dark Magic section, I learned Summon Elementals and Mass Weakness. The optimal artifact set for Anastasia in a magic-focused build with the Path of Tears, which is collected through the Necromancer faction campaign quests, is the Magister set. Battles with difficult neutral or AI enemies become easy in the 3rd mission thanks to getting Kaspar at the beginning of the mission at level 18, while Anastasia is only level 15. I gave Kaspar Logistics, Steal, Education, and Training (+60% for Anastasia at the start of the 3rd mission so she could learn Stop Time before the Demons). I also gave Kaspar 1-2 levels in the Management skill tree, in Builder and Economics. The rest is up to you. As a result, thanks to this, after 3 weeks, when I went to fight the Demons, I immediately had 4 Wraiths. Anastasia destroyed everything, and Kaspar picked up the loot and built buildings. This is like a fast start to the mission, like in Heroes 3. After defeating the Demons, everything went smoothly. Stop Time or Sacrifice, and then heal with Necromancy or Ghosts. Wraiths and Liches cleared everything. In sieges of fortresses or castles, I teleported Wraiths into the mass of enemies and cast Web for 2 turns. I blocked enemy archers with 27-30 level Dark Elementals. As a result, at the start of the 4th mission, I have 75 magic attack, 44 magic defense, 19 physical attack, and 33 physical defense with 600 mana. I think these are very good stats for level 24, and having 6 more skills to learn by level 30 is a big plus in this mission. That's all for now. I'll try to complete the 4th mission in the next few days. By the way, I took the character development example from the Mage skill tree in the Necropolis faction section for multiplayer duels; it really helps. And the tactics I wrote were used by the winner. P.S. If anyone is interested, these tactics really work, and it's hard to play against a well-developed Mortuary mage in duels; the chances are very low. P.S.S. Admins, please don't delete this if I posted it in the wrong place. It's just a small guide that might be helpful for someone playing the campaign on Very Hard difficulty. If something is wrong, I'll fix it. :rolleyes:

Why is there a skill point allocation for the main hero in the campaign? There's already plenty of experience, especially if you extend the playtime a bit.
I didn't see any dispel or mind control skills. O_o
Weakening is unnecessary; it just wastes mana. Storm Arrows are very useful, and lightning helped me a lot in the mission where Anastasia explores her memories, especially when I was completing the quest for the liches. There are Dark elements guarding one area, and the ghosts can't attack them. But that's a matter of taste.
What's the point of teleport if you're defending? It's not very useful for the undead: vampires, ghouls, and lamassu are fast, and the rest are ranged attackers. At most, it can be used to throw spellcasters.
Always use Sacrifice on upgraded vampires and then use them to defend.
There's no strategy here. X_X
With your magic power of 75, the explosion should deal even more damage.

Regarding "Subjugation" - is it actually useful against a human player?

Are Vampires fast? They have high initiative, but they move only four squares :eek:!

By the way, is there a bug with "Sacrifice" as well? The damage to the unit on which "Sacrifice" is cast doesn't apply when attacking other units. It only applies when attacking the unit itself :(.

By the way, is there some kind of bug with "Sacrifice"? The damage to the unit on which "Sacrifice" is cast doesn't apply if you attack other units. It only applies if you attack it directly :(.

It seems to only affect the vampires who have switched to defense.

Are vampires fast? They have high initiative, but they move only four squares :eek:!

You can speed them up, but initiative is more important.
Vampires are an interesting unit – now they are more of a defensive unit))) Before, they were always more inclined towards attack.

Regarding "Subjugation" – is it really possible to use it effectively against a human player?

It depends on how. Although, in most cases, a berserker has always been more effective. But in Heroes 6, it seems a bit flawed – the unit immediately attacks the nearest enemy, but if it still has an action remaining in the current round, it doesn't lose it.