Version 1.02 released

[KGB]

I often take a Ranger just for the purpose of fast L2 Ruin Hunting, and to me it looked like the Sorceress could fill that role even faster (Move16, +3 per 5), at least for Water-based maps. However, 12+3*2=18 at Level 3, whereas the Sorceress 10+2*5=20 at Level 4 is decidedly worse. On the other hand, she can continue to reap L3 Ruins at Level 6, which the Ranger can only do if UL-Items were found or if an UL-Temple is at hand. Hm.

Seems incredibly unlikely anyone will ever manage to level up a Sorceress from L1 to L6. Just not enough ways to get XP. The only way to get L6 will be to get her as a L4 hero offer and use L2 ruins to get XP.

As for the dwarf, I am highly skeptical that allowing a fast hero with siege capabilities is a good idea. Siege is good, and its drawback has always been that it was slow to deploy?!

The game needed a way to break open the maps that are 'closed' with choke points that get upgraded to +15 walls. His +13 bonus and faster move potential allows for bypassing or breaking those points. Plus my Barb needs a new best friend to come along on his Eagle raiding parties

KGB

[Moonknight]

I say get rid of the personal anti-air and personal "no wall" ability, and give the Sorceress the chance to resurrect weak skeletons either after ruin hunting or battles.

Skeletons could be a 7/2 (or maybe 10/1) creature with 1 UL/1 view/0 plunder/13 move. They can be useful in helping to defend empty cities early on or with ruin hunting. Maybe they can be levitated for cheaper too (b/c they're lightweight).

Leveling up could just be increasing the chance after a battle.

I can see levitating overall valuable if there is a road alongside a wall/mountain/river and you can move about 10-12 squares and then jump to the wall/mountain/river where the enemy can't touch you with land units.

[Qube]

The Engineer is obviously really good. But, the Sorceress lacks synergy between her abilities. Personal AA, but a low strength and wounds seems fairly pointless. She looks to be decent on maps with lots of water, and maybe for her special movement in specific situations. However, she seems kinda lacklustre overall, since her abilities just don't complement each other.

Be cool if she summoned units into battles. Frontliners that would disappear after the battle. Just recolor some light inf and call them "Phantom warriors". Leveling up the ability would create more warriors.

[Tim]

I really like the new Heroes and i think each has its useability but i agree to Chazar. There is some unbalancing.

Maybe it would be better if the

Dwarf Engineer can not built up the Siege so fast. Maybe only +2 for 5 Points and i think it would be good if the Dwarf Engineer can not Fly. Not alone and not with Flyers.

The Sorceres is can be quite useful sometimes and i like the different abilities. But some other Spells would be good. For example i like the Idea of a
Portal Spell First Point can activate it so that the Sorceres can teleport to another City. Maybe the nearest two own Cities from where she stands. With every Point more on this she can take one other Unit in her Stack with her. Maybe only from a city not from other Terrain.

Another Idea for Sorceres would be SpecialTowerDefenseBonus. Upgradeable to 15 5 points for 5up.

Next thing i prefer when there is a Hero that can upgrade NegateTerrain. Maybe this could be the Ranger...
sorry dont mean negateTerrain. I mean NegateHeroTerrainBonuses. But only for Special Terrain like HorseLord Ranger herself, Sorceres and DwarfEngineer. This could be 1 Point for two PointsNegate up to 6.

[KGB]

If the Sorceress is going to resurrect units then she needs to be called a Necromancer. Similarly if she is going to summon units she needs to be called a Summoner. A Sorceress means she is casting other spells for battle/movement etc. Regardless of what you want to call her, she is going to need an overhaul of some kind to have any value.

If her base UL was increased to 12 (with the +5 for 2 points, cap at 27 max), her base movement to 20 and she moved over all terrain at cost of 2 (give her fly+waterwalk) she'd be a great ruin picker in the early game. Swap the 'nowall' skill for the Eye of KGB skill (call it 'Scry') which is something she needs as a ruin picker and has value the entire game (should not extend to teammates though) and then she probably gets used. I think the levitate skill can be changed to 10 points for Levitate at +8 move with each additional 5 points reducing the move cost by 1 down to a minimum of 4 so that 30 points spent = 4 move rate levitating. 30 points spent seems equivalent to a +9 Pally/+14 Valk/32% ambush Assassin/+13 Dwarf Engineer etc. Not sure what to do with the mostly useless personal AA.



As for the Engineer's siege, +2 for 5 points is *faster* than it is now! Right now you get +5 for 10 points and then +5 more for 20 points. So +10 costs 30 points (level 4). At +2 for 5 you reach +10 for 25 points.

I think the Siege skill is fine as it is. It has no value in non city battles and even in city battles many times cities have +0 wall bonus anyway. Plus with the new adjustment to allies you can get a Battering Ram as an ally which gives the early Siege you normally need during the expansion phase. So his +13 bonus really matters in late game or for flying raids which opens up new strategies the game needs.

KGB

[smursh]

For sorceress to be worthwhile for early game needs to get to lvl4 or better. Then at str 40 with no wall can take most single unit cities and now starts to get speed boost. Getting there while game still has lots of neutrals seems like a problem though.

[jetigig]

For sorceress to be worthwhile for early game needs to get to lvl4 or better. Then at str 40 with no wall can take most single unit cities and now starts to get speed boost. Getting there while game still has lots of neutrals seems like a problem though.

Leveling a sorceress to level 4 would isn't as worthwhile as leveling an assassin to level 3. A 100 personal ambush assassin (lvl 3) would be better for picking off the single defender neutrals.

[mowhar]

well done!
cant give congrats on the new heroes until they have been tested, but the rest is all improvement!

[Qube]

If the Sorceress is going to resurrect units then she needs to be called a Necromancer. Similarly if she is going to summon units she needs to be called a Summoner. A Sorceress means she is casting other spells for battle/movement etc.

Sorcery does not mean battle magic. It refers to magic involving evil spirits. Merriam Webster lists it as a synonym of necromancy.

[Chazar]

Be cool if she summoned units into battles. Frontliners that would disappear after the battle. Just recolor some light inf and call them "Phantom warriors". Leveling up the ability would create more warriors.

That is really a great idea, love it!
Having a Sorceress summoning phantoms fits thematically, and changing a LightInfantry's color to grey would already do, having more phantoms per ability should also scale well (maybe give the phantoms a small swarming bonus as well, so that they remain useful at high level, say str 10 hit 1 plus +2 swarming or so).

The only problem might be a runaway hero stack in the endgame: Currently, one can grind such a stack down over time, if it enters enemy territory too deep. The Sorceress would provide too much cannon fodder then. The fix could be that the sorceress' phantoms still have to respect the stack limit of 8 units, so that such a powerful stack may only use 1-3 phantoms anyway?!