I tried it (defender, assassin) in a few games but I felt I was missing out on casting big time and the abilities I got weren't so great. The main problem was the increased mana costs of spells.. How often do you choose something other than mage?
I'm playing with my sovereign as a high-dodge Assassin now (as suggested by MoRmEnGiL in this thread) and she's kickin' ass. I've got her just by herself, no other units, taking down 900+ HP armies without problem. I'd never even considered Assassin before, but it's working out pretty well, especially since the addition of the Assassin's armor.
Yes, I do, because of:
1) Variety. All mages all the time is boring.
2) RP reasons. Some champs just don't seem suitable as mages, e.g. Lord Markin.
3) Traits and abilities. Some champs seem more suitable for non-mage professions.
4) Itemization. It's nice to have a variety of hero types so all your great gear gets put to good use.
5) Resources. Too many mages can be too much of strain on the mana pool in some cases. Too many melee champs can be too much of a strain on the gold reserves (i.e. due to buying armor and other equipment) in other cases.
6) Fun. I find it fun to experiment with classes, abilities and strategies I've not used before, even if they may be under-powered or sub-optimal. In fact, winning with these strategies can be very satisfying for me.
What I'd like to know is if anyone ever plays a sovereign - or any champion - with a ranged weapon. I found Initiative to be a much too important attribute to accept the heavy penalties that usually come with ranged weapons, since with high Initiative not only do you go first, but you get to act more often altogether.
As for mages vs. other types, I find it hard to imagine playing a sovereign without any spellbook. The backstory says the rulers are all channelers, and if you research the magic tree you'll inevitably get some spells anyway, so I find it justified to give any ruler I create at least one spellbook, regardless of the path I make them take at L2. Apart from that, I prefer mages (characters starting with two spellbooks who advance as mages) but I've had a few interesting other types so I can see their appeal and might try them some time.
There are actually a few ranged weapons that do not have an initiative penalty. The Haunter's Staff was converted to a ranged weapon but no initiative penalty was added. There's another staff that was converted, too. And there were a few ranged weapons that didn't have them before, either. Although, all of them come from questing and killing monsters.
If I'm trying to level a low-level champion, I'll put it with some strong units and give it a ranged weapon so it can contribute but stay out of the fire.
the game is supposed to be about not having enough mana to do everything you want to do
if you're not running out of mana all the time, maybe add more monsters and raise the difficulty
I generally prefer commander for my sovereign. The early unrest bonus is nice, and the command skills is crazy useful. There used to be a way to get battle crsurreally early as well by takin some army initiative trait. Dunno if they fixed that, it was a bit broken. Battle cry is really tricky to use right though. When it works it's ridiculous, when the timing is off...it's ok. Initiative traits are crazy good though. Withthe right build you can guarantee your troops win knit every time, then combine that with finesse you get a cheap and effective attack boost.
I don't really like the research or Gildar bonuses. They are ok if you can ge them really early, but late game they are pretty meh. I play epic scale research though so that could be part of the problem. They should probably scale the research bonus a bit.
I guess mages are still more powerful though, I've just never been able to sort out the spells.
I find that I need a commander in my first two or three heroes. With no roads everything kind of grinds to a halt. With roads you get a huge advantage over the monsters of the world and the AI. Logistics are key to victory.
So I'm playing my first game with a serious assassin, and I have to say I am very likely to play this again. My god the buret damage from this thing is incredible. It helps that I found a druss blade and Pony, but still.
You can play any kind of champion until you get to some difficulty. On redi/insane level you really need a mage, if you go henchman you can also make your hero a defender/commander but you really need one early mage in your army. I don't know about assasin/warrior, never seems to work out for me on high difficulty. They just die to fast and ranged assasin takes to long to power up to compete midgame.
Also beastlord is very broken, haven't been able to win on rediculous level without it.
The main thing is that mages and commanders are far less dependent on equipped items compared to the other classes, they employ their benefits naturally without the need of combining them with what they wear. Assassins, Warriors and Defenders can be as powerful or even more important in certain situations IF they find the appropriate equipment:
You find a rare/unique bow and suddenly your assassin has become a killing machine combined with the ignore defence and critical damage traits.
You find a rare/unique armor and your defender can withstand basically every kind of damage combined with his damage/spell mitigation traits.
You find a rare/unique melee weapon and your warrior will have the highest damage output on regular troops in the entire game combined with decimate and other traits.
In addition, only if you have the right equipment all the different class specializations come into play so that the assassin will be a champion killer, the warrior will be the trained troop killer and the defender will protect your army from Fear and other spell/damage effects. The problem is not the trait trees, it's your forced reliance on luck concerning what loot you find. This needs to be addressed.
Great advice. And interesting to read that a 3 magic schools Sovereign Assassin can also be an effective caster.
Stormwatch27's post opened up an even more interesting option. 3 magic schools plus Commander will suit my preferences and playstyle perfectly. As I'm new to the game, I've only used one of the the mage's talents; Healing +50% and put the majority of points in increased Life, Air and Earth - something I can do just as well with a Commander. I want my Sov to bolster the troops from behind - but still have access to Life and Air. Thanks for the idea.
I've tried the Ninja class from the Nexus site - although you'll need to change the tactical multiplier modifier for PathOfTheNinja to -0.25 rather than -25 (which essentially removes all mana costs). I've even seen the AI take Ninja a lot of the time.
1. Best of all are warriors if they can cast spells. Mana may be low. But they have always good attack.
2. Useful are wizards for additional spells.
3. Occasionally useful assasins, thargs are best with double strike, perhaps.
4. Very rarely useful, almost useless defenders and commanders. Defenders expected to buff whole armies, but they buff only themselves. Commanders are of doubdt specialization. They are specialised for city government and for battlefield which are mutually exclusive. AI plays weak with defenders and commanders.
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