Posts from Development of a Necropolis mage hero

Winner: The "Sacrifice" ability is applied to your unit, for example, to a Necromancer. When an enemy attacks any friendly creature from your unit, all the damage is transferred to the Necromancer (reduced by 33%). It works 100%.

Zybr: Regarding the "Dominate" (Shadow Crown) and "Explosion" (Alchemist's Bracelet) skills, they are obtained from non-set artifacts in the 4th mission of the Necropolis campaign. Personally, I don't like "Dominate" at all; it lasts only for one turn, and I don't see any advantages with my tactics. In those screenshots, the character was only level 24, and honestly, all the necessary skills were already learned. In the last 6 levels, I gained skills without any particular strategy because, anyway, you don't always have time to cast all the necessary skills during a battle, as the enemy starts using powerful spells after 2-3 turns. And if you use "Meditation," the magic attack becomes approximately 115-120, up from 94, although I think it will exceed 100 by the end of the map with buffs. :smile44:
I didn't learn the "Tactics" skill because it's pointless with the Necromancy faction skill, just like learning the "Storm Arrows" skill from the "Wind" branch. Logistics and Education were necessary for me at the start of the first mission because the heroes move further, and Education provides a +25% experience bonus to quickly reach levels 6-8, which are necessary for the skills required for survival, as I wrote above. Of course, the skill distribution will be different in duels; for example, Education and Logistics can be replaced with Tactics and Dispel. :rolleyes:
I didn't have any problems with the Dark Elementals; Ghouls and Skeletal Archers know their job. Teleport, as correctly noted, was learned for the Necromancers (web for 2 turns, skipping a turn) and Vampires (with the Vampirism buff, they deal normal damage).
P.S. The only thing I didn't like in this part of the game was the frequent crashes or freezes that throw you back to the desktop. This is most likely due to an unfinished game engine when fighting a strong or deadly enemy with a large number of units in the stacks. Auto-battle or changing the battle strategy helps. I'm not exaggerating about my computer; it's almost top-of-the-line, and it's fast. For example, Battlefield 3 multiplayer runs at 60-80 FPS. Both games are installed on an SSD, although it's possible that it conflicts with the multi-core processor.
The screenshot of the maximum development of the Tomb is from the middle of the 4th mission, and it's very easy to complete on hard difficulty. :
P.S. I have two questions for those who know: 1. After the campaign, do the characters in the "Dynasty" section retain their stats that they had after completing the campaign, or are they the same as for all self-created characters?
2. Can the sets collected in the campaign be worn in duels, or are they only for the campaign and its quests?

The sets collected in the campaign can be worn in duels, or are they purely for the campaign and intended for completing quests?

Dynastic artifacts can be used if the setting allows it. But mostly, people play without them.

Petrification + sacrifice is the best, but it only works on the second turn. That's the whole problem.

Petrification + Sacrifice is the best, but it only works on the 2nd turn. That's the whole problem.

I used it once in a duel.
The opponent immediately removed the petrification with dispel.

Added 3 minutes later

Here are the detailed characteristics of the Necropolis Mage, Zenda. He's a combat mage with 1 medal, and he completed the "Difficult" level against 5 "Strong" AIs in the "Broken Alliance" scenario.
Zenda, Necropolis, Master of Darkness, Level 28.
The skills are listed in approximately the chronological order in which they were acquired in the actual game.

10. Charismatic Leader 1.

What good is this to Necromancers?

1) What's the point of Aggressor for a mage? It increases physical damage, not magical damage.
It's a waste of skill points, especially at the beginning.
2) Logistics and Pathfinding at the end O_o
3) Charismatic Leader O_O for Undead? O_O
4) Stone Skin is too late.
5) Dispel is too late.
6) I don't see any skills that enhance magical power... or maybe I just couldn't find them by name.
7) Education at the end O_O, that's rough...
8) I don't see any skills that boost magical defense...
9) No Meditation...
10) Where's the tactics?

In conclusion: many unnecessary skills were taken, some are a matter of taste, and some are just completely useless. Many crucial skills were taken too late or not at all.
For example, Logistics is taken not to catch up, but to develop faster.

Strange... Chingis, with such a skill build, easily defeated strong AI opponents. But they are completely crushing me (playing as a Necromancer). This is ridiculous...

Yes, there's some truth to that; it doesn't offer much in terms of tactics. But what about Retaliation 3? In my opinion, it's one of the most useful skills for any warrior, and especially for undead and human warriors – it's a close second to Tactics.

So, how about Retribution 3?

He has a mage hero. Retribution is effective up to level 2 at most. Overall, it's still a useful item, although it can be replaced with some useful spell (depending on the situation).

Meditation? I need to think about it. It's not bad, though. But I always had at least 500 mana before the start of real battles.

Meditation not only adds mana (and in percentage terms), but also significantly increases magic power.

Aggressor is a passive combat skill; mages don't really need it.

It gives a small bonus and costs a skill point. That is, you'll end up with an underdeveloped warrior (still not enough) and an underdeveloped mage (because you're not increasing magic power).
We're not considering artifacts. You can't rely on them initially; you only look at the situation during the game. And even so, the more magic power a mage has, the better.

I've never used Stone Skin at all.

It will allow you to break through strong defenses earlier.
The main principle of the game is to progress, level up, and acquire key artifacts as quickly as possible.

I didn't take Tactics and I won't.

Same as with Stone Skin. If you spend three months exploring the map and break through thanks to an excess of troops, then yes, it's not necessary.

I regret not taking Water, Air, and Light Elementals. They were available to me. Then the game would have turned into a walk in the park.

This is just for fun, and not very effective, I must say.

These are conclusions only against the AI. If it's against a human, I won't argue, as I haven't played against a human yet.

It's not even about that. It's simply a matter of rationality.
Of course, due to the specifics of the playing style, you might not need Stone Skin, but skills like "Logistics," "Pathfinding," and "Tactics," in my opinion, are almost always a must-have. Although, after the fixes in patch 1.2, I somehow got completely disappointed with the game and I hardly play it anymore.

By the way, regarding "education," I understand what you meant. Does experience accumulate faster with it? Does that mean the hero's level also increases faster? That's important. But it still requires some thought.

Yes, although it's not necessarily essential. You either take it at the beginning or don't take it at all.
It's not essential because, with a decent game pace, you'll gain the necessary levels anyway.

I didn't quite understand the part about elementals. Could you explain?

1 summon - 1 turn for the hero, during which you can't do anything else.
Teleport/dispel/drain/stone skin/ice armor/regeneration/time stop/petrification/hypnosis, etc.
Against the AI, 1, maximum 2 elementals are enough; after that, it's just for fun. Against a human player, I think more than 2 elementals on the battlefield will only indicate your tactical mistakes - you didn't heal, didn't remove a debuff, didn't take someone out of the fight.
After all, you don't necessarily have to kill the elementals - you need to kill the main army. For blocking ranged units or removing retaliations, 1-2 are more than enough.
I personally prefer only the Dark elementals for the Undead faction; they remove buffs from the opponent and have no retaliation, or, as a last resort, Earth elementals - they can disable or save with petrification.
In terms of the overall usefulness of elementals, you can also add Light elementals (light elementals) due to their multi-purpose retaliation-healing ability.

Zybr, taking your advice to heart, played two more "Broken Alliance" battles on "HARD" difficulty against 5 "STRONG" AI opponents.
The first time wasn't too difficult, and the second time was easy. When you make the right moves, the opponent doesn't stand a chance.
On the first turn, I upgraded Zenda with "Education," and on the second turn, I upgraded her with "Logistics." These two simple upgrades seemed to solve everything. In the last game, I finished in just 3 months of game time, with a total of 58 saves.
Here are the stats for Zenda II and Zenda III. I didn't follow all of your advice, as I was playing against the computer. When playing against a human, I need to consider your other suggestions.

Zenda II, a Necropolis mage. She received her second medal.
Level 29. Mana 390. Physical Strength 11, Physical Defense 17, Magical Strength 29, Magical Defense 28, Luck 13, Leadership 2.
She destroyed 2 MEGA armies. The first army belonged to Azure Stronghold, and I gained 102,217 experience points in that battle. The second mega army belonged to Green Inferno, and I gained 166,335 experience points in that battle.

The skills were acquired in approximately the following chronological order:
1. Education.
2. Logistics.
3. Agony.
4. Drain Life.
5. General Agony.
6. General Drain Life.
7. Training (as I urgently needed a second Hero).
8. Protector 1.
9. Protector 2.
10. Dark Magic 1.
11. Counter Strike 1.
12. Counter Strike 2.
13. Aggressor 1.
14. Dark Magic 2.
15. Stop Time.
16. Summon Earth Elementals.
17. Subjugation.
18. Summon Dark Elementals.
19. Terror.
20. Dark Magic 3.
21. Poison Cloud.
22. Dispel.
23. Find Path.
24. Steal
25. Reinforcements 1.
26. Reinforcements 2.
27. Luck 1.
28. Luck 2.
29. Aggressor 2.

Added 6 minutes ago
Zenda III. The 3rd medal in the same battle as number 3. There was only one General Battle, and oh, what circumstances! Again, against Azure Stronghold, and he had some kind of MEGA army (350 Furies, 330 Crushers, 70 Cyclops, and so on). The entire army was destroyed because I had the "Shackles of Fate" artifact. Zenda's losses were only 15 Pikemen. I SWEAR! Once again, I am amazed by the racial ability of Necropolis.

Zenda III. Level 23.
Skills:
1. Education.
2. Logistics.
3. Agony.
4. Drain Life.
5. General Agony.
6. General Drain Life.
7. Training.
8. Protector 1.
9. Protector 2.
10. Dark Magic 1.
11. Counter Strike 1.
12. Counter Strike 2.
13. Reinforcements 1.
14. Dark Magic 2.
15. Stop Time.
16. Summon Earth Elementals.
17. Subjugation.
18. Summon Dark Elementals.
19. Dark Magic 3.
20. Poison Cloud.
21. Reinforcements 2.
22. Find Path.
23. Steal

Artifacts: Shackles of Fate, Archmage's Bracelet, Crystal Lens, Stone Fist Clan Scrolls, Prophet's Pauldrons, and some others.

So, let's talk about duels. The mage hero of this Faction has become my favorite. With one tactic, I won 7 times in a row against different players and different Factions. I easily handle Barbarians and Demons; I haven't fought Nagas yet. I fought the Preacher "to the last drop of blood," and I'll even describe it: He has a standard tactic: Guards protect 2 Elementals and the Preacher, Knights with an Angel attack, and an Archer is separated from everyone else to shoot comfortably. I won't describe the entire battle; the opponent acted decisively, cast Stone Skin on the Spider, the Elementals casted Banshee's Wail, and he used healing and resurrection spells very often. It took him a long time to break through my defense and completely eliminate my Archers. I focused all my fire on the Archers, Knights (who fell relatively quickly), and then only on the Angels, who tried in every way to protect the Spiders. At the end of the battle, I had 7 Spiders, 70 Banshees, and 30-40 Vampires left. He had 13 Angels and 26 Elementals left. Then he uses his last healing spell + 7 Angels, and I lose. In general, my 7 Spiders were in defense, and 20 Angels broke them down in 3 turns (his hero had long run out of mana and was attacking with a regular attack; I still had a little left). While the Angels were breaking down the Spiders, I quickly eliminated the Elementals and resurrected another batch of Spectres. After I finished off the Elementals, the proportions were 100 Spectres, 30 Vampires, and 15 Angels. So, here's the most interesting part: I used the little mana I had saved to cast a magical nuke on the Angels, dealing 1.7k damage, leaving only 10 of them. Then my opponent made a mistake. A FATAL mistake. He starts attacking my Vampires with Angels and his hero. Vampires are tanks in the hands of a mage hero, and when my Spectres hit the Angels a couple of times, he realized his mistake, but he still went for the win – he killed the Vampires. I won with 80 Banshees left. P.S. Spectres and Banshees are the same thing; I just say it that way so that the same word doesn't hurt my eyes. So, to summarize, the most dangerous opponent against Necropolis is Humans... only because of their insane healing, although we, Necropolis, also excel at resurrections. I haven't fought Nagas (Sanctuary) yet.

Regarding the Naga, in my opinion, they aren't as dangerous as the Haven faction, and it's easier to win against them. As usual, sacrifice a unit to the Ghosts, and you're good to go.

I have a clear idea of what the Necromancer will look like in the Path of Tears. It will be a bulky, nearly invulnerable unit with excellent regeneration. As an alternative, I'm currently trying to complete the campaign on the Path of Blood, and so far, I like it more than the build described in the guide. Here's the talent build per level:
1. Logistics
2. Find Path
3. Drain Life
4. Stone Skin
5. Tactics
6. Affinity with Magic
7. Drain Life (general)
8. Agony
9. Agony (general)
10. Archery
11. Dark Magic 1
12. Dark Magic 2 (+first damage bonus on the Path of Blood)
13, 14. -
15. Dark Elementals; Stop Time; Terror
16. Education (because after level 15, experience is gained slowly, and there's plenty of it before the 3rd mission in the campaign)
17. Stone Skin (general)
18. Dark Magic 3
19. Meditation
20. Explosion
21, 22, 23. Guardian of Secrets 1-3
24, 25, 26. Primal Magic
27. Mana Drain
28. Weakness
29. Weakness (general)
30. Giant Killer That's about it... I'll write a follow-up after completing the campaign to see how it works out. If it's good, I'll only play duels with this build... And one more question: can the Explosion spell be regenerated at all, either for undead or living creatures?

Guys, let's continue the discussion, it's interesting!