Posts from Developing a mage hero from the Stronghold faction. Auto-translated

My first experience leveling up a Barbarian Sorceress. This is a humorous example. Later, I will provide an example of a real Sorceress.
Here is an "unrealistic" Sorceress and her results at a beginner level. And Barbarian Sorceresses can also destroy towers:)
The Sorceress fought Zenda and had twice as many troops as in the first picture.

Chingis, I think I'll follow your example and say what I wouldn't do.
6, 7, 8. How can you say that earth magic isn't needed?! If you focus on it, your path skills directly improve (Earth Idol and Mother Earth), you get more earth elementals, longer petrification, stronger regeneration, stone skin, and poison cloud. You can defeat everyone with just earth magic!
17, 18. I don't know how you can play without Education. I take this skill as one of the first. It will give you an extra level anyway, before you even encounter an enemy hero. And I don't understand, is Education and Learning not the same thing?
19. What's the point of Stone Walls?
5 elementals is questionable. That's already 225 mana, if I'm not mistaken. Have you ever had a battle where you needed all 5 elementals?
In general, writing about what to upgrade isn't very useful. You need to consider: a) who you're playing against; b) the size of the map; c) the difficulty level. For example, you wouldn't take Ice Block and Slippery Ground against a Shrine mage, would you?

Rock and slippery ground are good at the start against neutral creatures. The neutrals will be defeated quickly.

In my opinion, regeneration can be even better for dealing damage than Rock and slippery ground. The problem is that it would be good to level up in such a way that you can also fight well against the enemy hero later. Or are you really planning to take Rock and slippery ground against a Haven hero?

Since Orcs don't have access to Primary Magic, you can take Dispel from the Dungeon faction and Purity from the Haven faction – these are general spells (or at least, that's what I think they're called).

I think Dispel should always be taken, regardless of who you're playing against. Firstly, it can remove two general enchantments from multiple stacks simultaneously. Secondly, if there are only two stacks of champions left in the final battle, casting Restoration and Stone Skin on your own units and preventing the opponent from doing the same can help you win the battle. Purity is only useful against mages.