Posts from In your opinion, which faction is the strongest in Heroes 5? Let's discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each faction.

Well, here's my humble opinion: Factions should be ranked by strength based on the stage of the game. For example, Dark Elves are strong at the beginning, but become completely useless towards the late game. This is simply because, apart from Chaos magic, they don't have much else to offer, and Chaos magic is easily countered. The strongest in the deep late game are probably Orcs, the Undead, and Mages. 1. Orcs have a crazy formula for calculating blood damage (and various schools of magic can turn dark/light/chaos magic into one big joke). 2. Necromancers – everything has already been said about them, but overall, they are one of the races most likely to dominate in the late game. 3. Mages – with a well-developed hero and artifacts, there were rumors of Rakshasas with an initiative of 40+. That is, by stunning the Paladins with Gargoyles or Golems, the Rakshasas will kill the Paladins before they even get to move once. And the Knight can't do anything about it – he simply won't have time to make even his first move. Next, I would mention Demons, Sylvan, and Dwarves, which, although not as overpowered, can become almost invincible even against a Necromancer in certain builds. However, there are only a couple of such builds. The Order and Dark Elves are the worst, as they are already in a bad state. They are top-tier in the early to mid-game, but towards the late game, no amount of Knight training will save them from strong enemy builds, and the Knight himself has nothing to offer. Yes, they have the most elite and balanced troops, but humans don't have any uber-mechanics. However, they are the most stable and reliable. You don't have to dance around with rituals as much as you do with Mages. And it's easy to create a working build, while for Mages or Demons, you need to make sacrifices to Kha-Belekh or find a mentor.

The developers released a ton of expansions for the fifth game, so essentially they are all more or less equal, but if we're talking about the deep late game, I would rank them as follows. First place - Orcs. Firstly, almost all of the Barbarian's stats go into combat, which makes this Faction's hero one of the strongest in the late game. Secondly, Bloodlust is not very effective in the late game, and thirdly, to use the Barbarian's faction ability, you don't need anything else besides its presence. The downside is that they can't use magic. Second place - Humans. Like the Barbarian, the stat growth mainly goes into combat stats, and a huge stack of horses can defeat anything, especially if Axel is in command. The downside is that, unlike the Orcs, Humans have a huge problem: to use the faction ability, you need a tremendous amount of gold, which you will never have enough of, no matter how hard you try. Third place - Magic. Mini-artifacts allow you to turn weak troops into killing machines. High-level heroes must be given artifacts for attack, defense, and initiative, considering that there are 3 archers in the army, they can inflict a lot of damage on the enemy before their turn, especially if they have high initiative, and this applies to units that deal a lot of damage but are not very durable. The downside is that they mainly grow magical stats. Fourth place - Dwarves. Runes are powerful; they provide a variety of effects and can turn the tide of battle. Even first-level runes, such as Energy and Berserk, are very helpful, let alone runes like Resurrection, which revive 40% of the killed troops in a unit. Fifth place - Necromancers. Where other Factions will suffer losses, Necromancers will instead replenish their ranks; they can simply overwhelm with numbers. The downsides are limited Dark Energy and weak combat stat growth. Sixth place - Elves. Critical damage to enemies is, of course, great, especially when combined with luck, which can deal enormous damage. The downsides are that you need to kill the sworn enemy in the first two weeks, and luck and critical hits may simply not trigger. Seventh place - Demons. The ability to summon a lot of troops to overwhelm the enemy is quite good. The downsides are very weak defense growth, which doesn't go well with the special ability. While you're summoning a unit from Shio, the enemy can severely damage the main units, so sometimes it's worth attacking with horses or dogs immediately without using the reinforcement ability. Eighth place - Dark Elves. All the advantages of this Faction manifest themselves at the beginning of the game; in the late game, they are practically non-existent. The downside is that the faction ability is good, but there are much better ones. Stat growth mainly goes into magic. The Chaos school is magic, but besides Frost Nova, there is nothing interesting in the late game. Of course, you can choose Darkness, especially since some heroes already start with it, but then you won't get the benefit of such a great perk as Arcane Wave at the beginning of the game, and in the late game, they still won't become top-tier.

I won't try to prove anything to you right now, although I do believe you're not entirely correct. But I'd like to ask one question. Why do you always look at everything from a late-game perspective? Most ranked seasons last a maximum of 2 months, maybe 3 at the most.

Fifth place – the Undead.

Come on, for the Undead, any town on the map is essentially a Necropolis. You can easily double or even triple your troops, especially up to level four, so how can they be in fifth place in the late game? A Knight will never be able to train troops like that...

I mainly consider the late game because that's when the faction's unique ability is most pronounced, and each faction gains more individuality. For example, what's the difference between a Knight and a Sorceress in the second or third week of the game? They only differ in their troops. However, if the game lasts for several months, you can see an "uberstack" with a huge number of Paladins or Knights of Isabel for the Knight, and their tactics will differ significantly from those of other factions. Since all stacks are roughly equal at the beginning, in the late game, one stack will decide more than all the others combined. As for the Sorceress laden with mini-artifacts, she will have three stacks of archers with enormous initiative, which other factions' archers can only dream of.

I mainly consider this in the late game because that's when the faction ability is most pronounced, and each Faction gains more individuality. For example, what's the difference between a Knight and a Mage in the second or third week of the game? They only differ in their troops. But if the game lasts for several months, you can see an "über-stack" with a huge number of Paladins or Knights of Isabel for the Knight, and his tactics will already differ significantly from the tactics of other Factions, because in the early game, all stacks are equivalent, but in the late game, one stack will decide more than all the others combined. As for the Mage, covered in mini-artifacts, he will have three stacks of archers with huge initiative, which other Factions' archers can only dream of.

In short, all Factions are different (not to mention the units), the heroes are different (it would be good to understand what to upgrade and against which hero).
And the possibilities and implementation are definitely different for all Factions, depending on the stage of the game (also taking into account which Faction you are playing and against which one): in the 3rd week, in the middle of the 2nd month, in the 2nd-3rd month.
Again, the size of the map and the number of objects on it also have an impact. How will you level up your heroes and equip them with artifacts in the "deep late game" if the map is medium, for example...?
I'd rather not comment on the proposed ranking of Faction strength in the late game...

And in the early stages of the game, the factions develop normally. For example, the Mage will have a decent set of spells. The Knight might have time to train monks. In general, there are many tactics available, and the games can be completed in about 2 months. However, they are played much faster.

Generally, I think it all depends on the stage of the game. In the late game, in my personal opinion, either Sylvan, especially Wingael with True Luck and Retribution, or Academy, especially Ora, is the best choice. Also, due to the mini-artifacts, having minions with 40% initiative with high Knowledge is too powerful. If we consider the early game, I think either Necropolis due to the large army size at the beginning or Haven due to their attack and defense stats at low levels, which sometimes makes them difficult to defeat, while they can break through defenses quite well. Warlock, who can win with Chaos, and Dwarves are also strong, both in the late and mid-game. Especially Ingvar, whose level 1 units become virtually impenetrable, and often you can win a battle by losing your entire army except for the Mountain Guards, with proper hero development. But I don't think there is a race that is stronger than all the others; rather, it's individual heroes within a race that make a big difference. Take Wingael, for example; he is banned in many tournaments because his specialization and development with True Luck and Retribution simply destroy everything and prevent the opponent from even taking a turn. Ultimately, it's more about personal preference; just play and enjoy the game