Posts from - Magic in Heroes 3

Actually, the Spatial Gate could also have been made into an earth spell (without the ability to be cast on water); but since it was assigned to air, the city portal should also be there.
Lightning is definitely fire; a stream of ionized particles is plasma (I was never good at physics, so if I messed up, I apologize:)).
I would remove the Prayer altogether and replace it with something more appropriate; prayer is not a spell, but a prayer.
Clone... it's hard to say. If it were a real clone, then it would definitely be water (water is closest to life, and we are 80% water), but since it's just an illusion, it seems closer to air.
Actually, I would definitely remove Acceleration from air; it's hard to believe that the effect of the spell is achieved by air currents pushing the running warriors in the back! In fact, I would assign both Acceleration and Slow, as well as Clone, to mind magic, but since there is no such school, it would be more logical to place Acceleration in the same school as Slow.
Curse and Blessing are a special case. It's not clear where to put them, as they have little to do with the elements; but if they have to be put somewhere, it would be in air magic - arrows will fly better (or worse), the wind will blow in the face of the attacker, reducing melee hits, or in the face of the defender, reducing his mobility... But in general, this is a tricky matter.
Although, of course, from the point of view of balance and the purpose of each school of magic, everything is just great:) Although I personally prefer not to take fire, I understand that in certain situations it can be very useful

Still, lightning is a stream of electrons, and a stream (and not only) of ionized (an ion is an atom that has lost one or more electrons) and highly heated particles is called plasma. Fire is heated molecules or atoms – but this is just a tangent.
Of course, it's hard to disagree with Ganymed about Portal and Clone. On the other hand, everything happens in space, so why make all the magic from one school? It wouldn't be interesting to play, so the developers spread things out to balance the game.
By the way, in Heroes 3: The Restoration of Erathia, Portal is actually in the Magic of Fire. :D :D :D

In my opinion, the balance could have been achieved in a slightly different way, but that's a separate topic, not for this thread:)
I'll just say that air, earth, water, and fire have unique advantages that are specific to them, and if these advantages are logically arranged, they will balance all the schools:) in the sense that the player can choose their priorities, whether they want to be a master of air, earth, water, or fire. IMO, this would be more logical and also better for the gameplay. Everything is interconnected, and there should be a clear, albeit fantastical, logic in everything. There would also be rivalry between the schools, rather than their mixing, which, IMO, would be more interesting.

Prayer - m. Water. It implies that one prayed, drank some kind of holy water, and felt refreshed, etc. The question about lightning is debatable (50/50). Clouds without water (vapor) do not exist, just as there is no thunder without rain and no thunder without clouds. We attributed it to air magic for the balance of magic schools. And besides, there is a lightning bolt (initial level of magic, either level 1 or 2) that can belong to any school. This is where the fantasizers went wild...

Added 3 minutes later
If spatial gates are made with earth magic, then why is air magic needed? Only to increase the speed of units?

Prayer is a matter of Water. It's implied that he prayed, took a sip of holy water, and felt vigor in his body, etc., etc.

You're on fire :D :D :D
Though, if this isn't a joke, then it's not funny anymore... with the same success you could sprinkle yourself with holy soil or chew some holy rice (my brother once brought home blessed rice from Sunday school :D ), walk through holy fire (remembering the Zoroastrians), or blast yourself with streams of sacred wind from a sacred fan!:D But seriously, as for the wind, you can do without the fan and just walk up a sacred mountain, etc.

Fire is not a stream of atoms and molecules! Fire is plasma! Of course, molecules are part of it too, but generally speaking, fire is plasma

And there's also the Lightning Bolt spell (either level 1 or 2 magic) that can belong to any school of magic.

Yeah, the Magic Bolt is the only spell where it's pointless to argue about its affiliation. It adapts to the hero's most developed magic school. :)

Small off-topic: The difference between fire and plasma: plasma is an ionized gas in which the concentrations of + and - charges are equal. Fire is a non-ionized gas heated to a temperature at which it emits in the visible range.
In terms of physical properties, fire is not equal to plasma.

Thanks for the little off-topic discussion :) I forgot what the difference is between fire and plasma... I apologize for the misinformation.

My answer is earth magic!!!!!!!!
I had an amazing battle: without magic, I would have lost - 500%, but luckily I had magic and enough mana. The spells BLIND and BLESSING saved me.
P.S.: He didn't run away, and neither would I - I had WAR BONDS.

My answer is earth magic!!!!!!!!
I had a killer battle: without magic, I would have lost - 500%, but luckily I had magic and enough mana. The BLIND and BLESS spells saved me.
P.S.: He didn't run away, and neither would I - there were WAR CHAINS.

But what does earth magic have to do with it?

The Crusader is doing everything right; it's just that we've strayed a bit off-topic.
The topic is very interesting, but... it's not really relevant to the current discussion.

No, I meant that he's praising earth magic, while talking about blindness and blessing. It just seemed like he was saying: without earth magic, I would have lost... I must have messed something up. :(

P.S. Yes, we've gone a bit off-topic.

Yes, and sometimes you can also play as a Warrior and not overthink things, especially when you only have one slot left, and they offer Air Magic and Earth Magic. Of course, this is unlikely to happen, but just imagine! :D

I would choose Earth. Although, if the city already has an Astral Gate and doesn't have a City Gate or Resurrection, I would think carefully and, depending on the difficulty and size of the map, I would choose either Air (if it's really needed) or Earth (if it can wait).
But in general, I would probably choose Air, because if the hero is at a level where only one slot is left, then probably many cities have already been captured; and if none of them have a City Gate or Resurrection, then it's not worth it.

I would choose Earth. Although, if the city already has Astral Gates and doesn't have City Portal or Resurrection, I would think carefully and, depending on the difficulty and size of the map, I would either choose Air (if it's really needed) or Earth (if it can wait).
But in general, I would probably choose Air, because if the hero is at a level where only one slot is left, then probably many cities have already been captured; and if none of them have a City Portal or Resurrection, then it's not worth it.

Well, you're asking which magic is better? How can you decide right away? It all depends on the circumstances!

Perhaps I'll make many people laugh, but in Heroes 3, I always took (or tried to take) all 4 magic schools. :)
If I were to rank them in order of priority (that is, if I absolutely had to choose between them), I would arrange them as follows:
- Earth
- Air
- Water
- Fire.
However, since I don't have to make such a choice, I try to take all four schools. If I'm going to focus on magic (and I do), then I need to develop everything. Enough has already been said about the advantages of Earth and Air (I will only note that for me, the most used spells have always been mass Haste and mass Slow, and not Portal, Door, and Fly), I want to say a few words about Water and Fire.
Can you imagine what mass Confusion (Forgetfulness) is like? Especially if the battle is not with a hero's army, but with neutral creatures of one type - such as monks, medusas, mages, cyclops, wood elves, and finally - not to mention archers of the first and second levels. This reduces the difficulty of the battle many times over - and losses as well, of course. Mass Healing is generally an invaluable thing, considering that the enemy hero is usually also not idle and weakens/blinds/slows to the fullest, and the units can also stun, paralyze, poison, or curse, not to mention aging from phantom dragons. And have you tried the Mirth spell (I don't remember what it's called in the Russian version - it raises morale) on the Water Magic expert level? Everyone's morale increases by 3 points, it seems. Can you imagine an army in which 2/3 of the units move twice per turn? Believe me, this is not a small advantage.
Now, Fire. Expert Berserk covers several hexes on the battlefield, berserk on one unit is a pathetic sight compared to this. Armageddon is a great chance to use the advantage of black and gold dragons - their magic immunity. Have you ever tried moving with an army consisting only of black and gold dragons? This is not a funny option. First, the hero has fantastic movement speed on the map. Secondly, he moves first in 95% of cases. And this first move is Armageddon. If someone survives, the dragons will finish him off. Shackles of War will not be needed with such a tactic - no one will be able to escape. Thirdly, he can leave all the remaining weekly growth to guard the castle - try to take it with such forces. Fourthly, we don't lose our dragons, so the army of dragons quickly grows to frightening numbers. I'm not arguing that this tactic is not suitable as a universal one, but as an option for the Dungeon with a small distance between opponents - it worked, and very well.
And the main thing in Fire Magic is, of course, Blindness. Blindness on everyone would, of course, be cheating, but Blindness, in which a unit does not respond to an attack, is very significant! Have you ever blinded a squad of, say, 50 archangels? Or at least 30? It is possible to blind him, but it is still difficult to kill him. Here, such a trick as expert blindness - attack - again blindness was already mentioned. It's strange that there is only one mention. This is a win-win option! Of course, the fact that the hero does not have his own initiative plays a big role here. If his units do not have a turn, then he does not have a turn either.
By the way, I saw with my own eyes how, during one hot sit, the owner of the blinded unit almost had a heart attack during such a turn of the battle... His powerful squad (I don't remember which one, but it was definitely very powerful) stands there and doesn't make a single move, and he is being hit, hit, hit... And he also lost the developed hero. You can't escape from blindness.