Posts from Developing an Inferno mage hero.

I decided to create this thread because every faction has one, but Inferno doesn't.
I recently bought Zana, who turned out to be a Tears Mage with a Fire Magic specialization, and I started thinking about how to develop her. I'm definitely not a pro at the game, but here are the skills I got (in random order):

Luck 1
Luck 2
Education
Logistics
Pathfinding
Ambush
Tactics 1
Tactics 2
Push Back
Endurance 1

Wind Blast 1
Wind Blast 2
Fiery Determination 1
Fiery Determination (general)
Inner Flame 1
Inner Flame (general)
Fire Bolt
Fireball
Fire Magic 1
Fire Magic 2
Regeneration 1
Regeneration (general)
Stone Skin
Stone Skin (general)
Petrify
Fear
Drain Life
Drain Life (general)
Time Stop
Explosion

I approve, it's a good development path! A few minor points:
1) I noticed that a hero with "Pathfinding" spends movement points suspiciously quickly. I decided to compare him with a hero without this skill and was quite surprised to find that this skill reduces the movement range on rough terrain. I've checked it repeatedly since then - the bug hasn't disappeared. People say that this bug has been known for a long time.
2) Still, summoning elementals is useful to have in reserve - preferably earth and darkness elementals.
3) An Inferno mage hero relies on succubi and broodmothers, since both deal magic damage. And since both are ranged units, you could consider "Archery" I and II.
4) And most importantly - the extremely useful "Reinforcements" skill. It's indispensable, allowing you to win most battles with neutrals without losing troops or mana. For an Inferno hero, "Reinforcements I" is quite enough, since enemies seem to really like attacking hellhounds - this is the unit to apply reinforcements to.

1: Oh, well, if that's the case, then it's better to spend this skill on a spell. 2: I thought about it, but since I don't know how to prepare them, that is, use them, I decided to give up on it. But it's a good idea. What spells then? Probably dark ones. Earth mages cast petrification, right? And we have that in our arsenal, along with time stop. 3: And shooting still affects it, even if it's magical damage? Then we should take it, but instead of what? If we spend the pathfinding slot on elementals... And the enhanced Cave Lords also deal magical fire damage with their special ability. 4: Reinforcements, yes. They helped a lot in the Campaigns. But I gave it up in favor of vampirism and regeneration. But there's another thing, the tear skill of the Inferno mage - they can summon reinforcements once on the battlefield at the cost of the Hell Gate. Although, in reality, my reinforcements were pretty weak, it seems. I need to check specifically on the dogs. And another question. In the original Might and Magic, there's an increase in magical power; is it worth taking? What does it affect? I thought that fire would be enough, since it's the main school for Inferno. And another question... how do you use the ability of the enhanced Juggernauts? It works for me every other time... Ah, no, it appeared again. Do you know what affects the number of troops arriving from the Hell Gate? At level four, the succubi summoned reinforcements one and a half times their size. I was shocked O_O

And another question. In the original Magic, there is an increase in magical power; is it worth taking? What does it affect? I thought that fire would be enough, since it is the main school for Inferno.
And another question... how do I use the ability of the enhanced Juggernauts? It works every other time for me..
Ah, no, another one appeared. Do you know what affects the number of troops arriving from the gates? At level 4 of the upgrade, the succubi summoned reinforcements 1.5 times larger than themselves. I was shocked O_O

The magical power from the skill in the Primal Magic branch simply adds to the hero's magical power. That is, all spells and attacks of creatures of all schools of magic are enhanced. I usually take this skill with a mage, as I use spells from different schools. And the gate opening (as well as other faction skills) depends on the number of troops in the hero's army. The manual describes more precisely what percentage of the total health of the troops in the hero's army the summoned creatures have.

The magical power for the skill in the Prime Magic branch simply adds to the hero's magical power. That is, all spells and attacks of creatures of all schools of magic are enhanced. I usually take this skill with a mage, as I use spells from different schools.

So, is it worth taking Prime Magic instead of Fire Magic?

And I'll add a question here about Fiery Determination. I haven't used this spell very often. It seemed to me that it doesn't work very well...or am I just mistaken? Maybe it's worth taking Forward! or something similar from the battle cries instead.

In my opinion, the proposed hero mage build has too few passive skills. Why so many spells? I absolutely agree that summoning dark and earth elementals should be added. However, "Flaming Resolve" is questionable – increasing morale isn't the most important thing. If the opponent is a mage, they will counter with something more sinister, such as petrification on champions. And if the opponent is a warrior, the focus should be on disabling enemy units rather than speeding up your own. You can also do perfectly well against neutrals without this skill. I would add a passive skill to increase defense. Otherwise, the units will be too fragile. I would remove "Stone Skin" altogether. It's not needed against mage heroes, and it won't help much against warrior heroes – it's more important to eliminate individual, highly effective stacks from the game. You can also clear neutrals perfectly well without this skill. Petrification and Fear are what you need to use in battle. "Drain Life" and "Regeneration" are both general healing skills. It's tempting to have both, but I would choose one, specifically "Regeneration," as "Drain Life" is useless against undead. Casting both takes too long. In that time, the opponent will definitely do something more unpleasant. It's better to put these skill points into a passive skill or elementals.

Sacrifice, combined with fire spells and "harass," is essential for an infernomancer. The infernomancer deals direct fire damage. And the 2-turn cooldown of the fire arrow kind of hints at that.

In principle, the scheme is simple.
First 3 levels - education, fire arrow, logistics. If you're only fighting with the hero's starting army, take fire arrow first. If you have a lot of troops at the beginning, you can start with education. At level 4, we don't improve a skill, and at level 5, we immediately take harass and sacrifice. In principle, at level 6, you can take regeneration, and that's it; you don't need to spend any more skill points to clear the map, and the hero will still be combat-ready. And save all the skill points until level 15 and then invest them based on the specific opponent if you're playing against a human. Or invest in whatever you want; you can't ruin the hero anymore. :)

Only the mage will be bloodthirsty, not tearful. :)

Added 19 minutes later

1) I noticed that a hero with "Pathfinding" spends movement points suspiciously quickly. I decided to compare it with a hero without this skill, and to my great surprise, I realized that this skill reduces the movement range on rough terrain. Since then, I've checked it repeatedly - the bug hasn't disappeared. People say that this bug has been known for a long time.

How did you check? The movement range decreases simply when loading a save.

I always used to pick simple, strong units, but now I want to try playing as a mage.