Posts from Humans vs. Mages Auto-translated

Naadir’s ability doesn’t suit my playstyle; it’s not very effective. If they take the Guardian Angel, they often go for the Sanctuary, and that’s a different story – I’ll have to deal with an army with enhanced defense.

Here, it should be noted that the guardian angel does not resurrect the entire squad, but only a part of it.

If the armies are equal in quality and quantity, and in the end, each side has only a few units left, that's fine... but against Necropolis, the Archangel isn't very effective unless it's leveled up to 30+ (which is very rare). It's better to take Eternal Light; it's more useful.

I recently played a game of Haven against Academy, and the game went into the late game. After three battles, I came to these conclusions: if the Mage doesn't level up Darkness, then Haven will easily defeat Academy without much trouble. The Mage will likely only be able to defeat the Knight with a leveled-up Darkness skill and the Sar-Issa staff. Without the staff, there's a very real chance of encountering magic resistance, and if mind control is reflected, then you can consider the game over; doom in a purple cloak arrives, and it's too late to dig trenches.

A Mage always needs to have 2 schools of magic leveled up, as well as defense – that’s the bare minimum. And if we’re talking about a long game, leveling up heroes to 30+ levels, then it makes sense to level up the Specialist skill in Haven… as one of the options.

If a mage chooses the Stronghold, they lose:
1) One skill slot, as the Stronghold requires managing machines, which is completely useless in the late game.
2) The ability to take the most useful skill for a mage - empathy. With empathy, the chances of winning increase significantly.
3) They will not be able to cast mass spells. And mass confusion against a Knight will be very useful, because any group of mages will be killed with a single successful counterattack.

I agree with Ganseng; attacking Haven with a Sorceress is pointless, as there are other more useful skills. To fully utilize the Sorceress's innate ability, you need to level up both spellcasting and empathy, and also have at least two artifacts of Sar-Isi. In this case, the Sorceress can make at least two trips before the opponent's hero's turn, even if they also have empathy. With a favorable setup, you can manage to cast a counterspell and cast your own spells at the same time. Regarding magic, I definitely choose light and dark. Without dark magic, the Academy won't be able to handle Haven, that's for sure. As for artifacts, it's desirable to have the Staff of Sar-Isi (as mentioned above), as well as artifacts that boost initiative. My opinion is that if you play tactically and intelligently in the final battle (taking into account what I said), the Academy will have an advantage over Haven, at least with a 70% to 30% probability.

Yes, the mages surprised me this time, especially with their terrifying initiative, as a result of which the titans were able to attack three times before the knights could move, and that's practically a game over, even with vampirism. No darkness is needed here.

Miv easily solves the problem of mages' excessive initiative.

By the way, regarding the "Guardian Angel" ability – I think it's a completely useless skill, just like the "Guardian" skill for Humans. As I recall, at level 30, it won't raise that many troops (and if we rely on this perk, we'll lose). It's better to take "Righteous Fury" + "Storm Wind" and "Protection" or take all three perks.

Miv easily solves the problem of the mages' excessive initiative.

In reality, Miv will need to manage to cast his General speed buff before the Haven troops can do anything. Besides, if the speed buff is cast first, we won't have the opportunity to defend against the inevitable casting of the subjugation spell on the Knights, which is even worse. So, I think that the best solution here would be to have the maximum number of artifacts on initiative (which is not always possible, as the mage can easily increase initiative with minor artifacts), and the Staff of the Underworld.

Added 3 minutes later

By the way, regarding the Guardian Angel ability – I think it's a completely useless skill, just like the Humans' special ability...

Actually, the Guardian Angel can still be useful in a rush, but in the late game, it's probably really useless, although there were cases, for example, when I was playing as Necromancer against Haven and only one stack of zombies remained, the special ability and the Guardian Angel would definitely have been useful.

It's perfectly fine for Mive to use her sharp mind and cast the necessary spells at the beginning, and then boost her luck with artifacts... Empathy + Light + Invocation + Antimagic – and the mages won't envy her).

It's quite possible to give Mive a sharp mind and apply the necessary spells at the beginning, and boost her luck with artifacts... empathy + light + influence + antimagic === and the mages won't envy her)

Yeah, you probably can't imagine what it's like to face mages with minions from Order level 35. Yesterday, when mish-gun`o and I were playing, I experienced it firsthand. He had almost all the artifacts for initiative. Do you know what it means to have titans with 31 initiative compared to knights with 10 initiative? It means the titans will go three times before the knights and wipe out more than half of them - and that's with a sharp mind, which I had.

Yes, I know that when playing against mages, you need to look for artifacts that boost initiative. (Wasn't there anything? At least a ring with +10% initiative?) And what was the first spell you cast? ... "Ogre" is just terrible; it will attack 2-3 times while your hero is trembling with fear.

First, I cast vampirism on the knights (or what was left of them). There was no one else to cast it on – there were few angels left, and the rest had already been defeated by rakshasas and shot down by mages. Well, you can't cast vampirism on peasants, can you? Actually, I was thinking of casting enthrall on some mage unit – that would have made sense, but for that, I needed at least a decent spell power. By the way, I had a ring. But what good is it when the opponent has the Staff of the Underworld? Anyway, when he had wiped out more than half of the knights, I didn't even bother finishing the game.