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Upgrading Orson is very logical, and I think it could also work well for Lucretia and Deidre – these heroes have a good foundation for the late game. By the way, I want to note that if we have a mentor, necromancy isn't very useful for the final battle. We can remove 4 skill slots, leaving only the basic necromancy skills and spiritual connection, and then at level 30, we will have a complete build. However, I would like to point out two reduced abilities that, with proper implementation, could completely counter Wingael... and not just him.
Firstly, Dark Regeneration does NOT work on Mass Plague and Mass Disruption. I was really hoping that casting Disruption on an area and then having a unit cancel the spell and cast it again immediately would work. But alas, it only works on single-target spells like Subdue or Blind. It's a pity that in this case, the hero is only pushed back 50%. Even 60-70, and then the perk would be simply good to excellent. Although, on the other hand, Faize in the Academy of Magic would be the ultimate overpowered hero, rather than a useless outsider. Thus, you can take all three Dark Magic lords and not worry about any specializations.
Secondly, Readiness only works for one attack. In my opinion, it would be very cool to have creatures stand in defense – and let Wingael attack them. But that's only half the problem. After all, when a Necromancer and a Wood Elf meet, at the end of the battle, zombies (we have Orson) and Ents (they always remain) are left. We activate Readiness on the zombies and try to do something with magic, like Vampirism, Disruption, or some other nasty spell. The other half of the problem is that Readiness still needs to be activated. It would be great if, at the beginning of the battle, the troops were in a state of Readiness before the start of the turn – and there you have a direct counter to Wingael's cheating first turn. But that's not the case, and therefore, while Readiness can be taken instead of Stone Skin and Dodge, it's 50/50.
Now, a little about the strategy for playing against this elf. In ideal laboratory conditions, both heroes have comparable levels, number of creatures, and artifacts. In reality, it's not like that. On large maps, the one with Logistics rules much more than the one without it. Thus, of all the races capable of countering Wingael, we can immediately rule out Dwarves and Mages – without Logistics, they will develop very slowly. The only way out is to place the elf somewhere in a swamp, desert, or snow, and walk around the plains ourselves; then, Dwarves and Mages (in the form of someone like Helmar, Inga, Oraz, or Razazak) can develop on par with the elves and, considering runes and mini-artifacts, even win. This leaves Barbarians, Demons, Humans, Necromancers, and Warlocks. Barbarians can only do something with Special Abilities and by intercepting key artifacts from the elf (although this is quite achievable with Haggeesh), Demons are just bad, Humans train Paladins... after which Wingael marks them as sworn enemies and eliminates them on his first turn, the Warlock needs Special Abilities and two artifacts that enhance elemental chains, plus Lion's Courage. Then his spells are strong enough. But in the deep late game (after 5-6 months of play), when Wingael has 50-100 dragons and, accordingly, the rest, his spells are still weak even with the ability to hit with something like Earth Shock for 10k with luck and all these bonuses. Only the Staff of Sar-Iss can help here. This leaves our favorite undead. It turns out that we need to mass-produce an army through mentorship, a lot of Dark Energy, and buying troops in other cities... and only then, with a numerical superiority of at least two, or even three times, can a Necromancer do something against the elf.
I would also like to note something else. Let's say the elf focused on Special Abilities and took it (he will definitely take it with a mentor). In this case, it is useless for us to reduce his luck, but we can reduce his morale to zero (and Banshees will be happy). Then we take Deidre, Necromantic Cloak and Staff, one or two rings with a minus to morale, dragon artifacts for the rest, and Phantom Dragons. Still, Astral creatures only reduce Morale and Luck by one. Then we try to mess with the opponent as much as possible, even though Dark Regeneration doesn't work correctly.
Friends, I have looked everywhere for a reliable late-game counter against this cheating elf, and in the end, I summarized all the information I found in this message. This is terribly little – to take a Necromancer/Orc or, with adequate development in fields/deserts, a Dwarf with a Dwarven set or a Mage with mini-artifacts, level up, and hope for a miracle. Has nothing changed in all this time?
