Argg new to his game! need help!

[Aerosoldier]

Well finally i bought this game, but now i feel stupid coz i don't know how t play this game and i've been playing Heroes since A LOT of years, i wanna know :

1)How the Magic system works?
2)How the Ability, Skills works?
3)Best Magics, ABility, Skills for Acadmy?
4)Any other academy thing i should know?

Please make it easy to understand!

[PhoenixReborn]

Well there is a fan manual included in the fan documents folder of your installation.

But you can figure most stuff out by playing. That's the fun of it.

Another stinkin wizard lover eh

[gzork]

First off, you'll probably want to use the skillwheel on this site, https://www.celestialheavens.com/520 there's a downloadable version linked to on this page. It helps you map out what skills and abilities you'll want to take.

This is the first Heroes game I've played so I don't know how much of this you know but,

You have mana to cast spells. Your hero's knowledge determines how much mana you have at your disposal and your hero's spellpower determines your spells' effectiveness. The spells are seperated into 4 schools (Destructive, which is mostly direct damage, Dark, which is mostly curse spells you place on enemy units, Light, which is mostly healing spells and magic that will make your units stronger, and Summoning, which is kind of a hodgepodge but mostly focuses on battlefield manipulation and summoning extra units) and split up between 5 circles (or levels), increasing in power per circle. Any hero (aside from orcs) will be able to learn any 1-2 level spell, you'll need the abilities for the spell's school to learn anything greater (i.e. Basic = 3rd, Advanced = 4th, Expert = 5th, these abilities also increase the spell power you use when casting the respective school's spells). All mages guilds will have random 1st-3rd level spells, but your faction decides what school the 4th and 5th will be. Academy will get Light and Summoning.

You get the option to take skills and abilities when you level up by gaining experience from fights and, sometimes, treasure or events on the map. You don't get exp. if you lose or run from a fight. Every level up you'll get the option to take 2 skills and 2 abilities, which you need for those skills. If you can't get anymore of either (if you have the max number of abilities or don't meet the prerequisites for skills) that side won't be represented.

Aside from that I can't really answer anything with too much certainty. Academy strategies seem to vary a lot, and I don't play with them enough to be of much help.

[danhvo]

This is something that wasn't obvious to me the first times I used the skillwheel, so I thought I should point it out.

Inside the wheel, you'll see 3 rings. Abilities on the outermost ring are basic abilities and have no prerequisite. Those on the inner rings are advanced abilities and require at least one other specific ability (indicated by the arrows). When you level up, the computer will always, if possible, randomly offer you one basic ability and one advanced ability. Thus, if you, for example, are offered 2 basic abilities, then you know you haven't qualified for any advanced ability. Keep this in mind when you want to maximize your chance of being offered an ability that you like.

The computer will also, if possible, offer you one new skill and one existing skill advancement. Try to keep at least one skill advanceable (not at expert level) until you fill up all your 5 skill slots. Otherwise, the next time you level up, you might be offered 2 new skills and 2 abilities, none of which you want and you'd be forced to pick one.

You have to have a basic level in a skill before being offered a first ability associated with that skill, an advanced level before being offered a second ability, and an expert level before being offered a third ability. An obvious implication of this is that you can choose at most 3 abilities for each skill, so choose wisely.

[Aerosoldier]

gonna try the wheel.. thanks

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

The fan made manual tells you what schools each of the faction's guilds are attuned to.

For example, the Academy guild is linked to light and summoning magic.

Use the skill wheel to plan out your skills. Don't to develop too many skills at one time or you may be forced to take perks you don't want to take. I try not to develop more than 2 skills at once. For example while I am developing sorcery I'll be developing summoning magic at the same time instead of also picking you destruction and dark magic.

Since you mentioned the Academy specifically make sure you get Mark of the Wizard as soon as it is offered. MOW lets you cast the same spell on two different units at once

As Academy I virtually always pick up summoning magic (and you want to develop sorcery pronto.) The other magic school I chose depends on what spells show up in the mage guild. You will want to build up your guild as soon as you can because a wizard is higly dependant on spells and you also need to know what will be available in your guild as soon as possible you you know what seconday magic school to pick.

You'll need to sacrifice a lot of stacks of 1 gargoyles for decoys to slow donw the enemy advance in early creeping. Place your gremlins in a corner and put three stacks next to them to form a box around them and them use the decoys to lure enemy stacks away from advancing directly to your real troops.

It'll take you a little while to get the hang of how to use the spells effectively but experiment. Fire trap and wasp swarm are low level spells that can be great with mark of the wizard and expert summoing.

[Aerosoldier]

So i should stick with Light, and summoning always? Because i think dark is better than Light, and about the other skills? what about Sorcery+Dark+Summon+Logistic+Attack+????

And i ALWAYS play long maps, so i always max my stats and creatures...

[danhvo]

If you think that Dark Magic is better than Light Magic, then you probably have a pretty good sense about how magic works.

For a wizard, the only problem with choosing Dark Magic is that until you capture another (type of) town, you won't have access to high level Dark Magic spells. Just something to keep in mind.

About other skills, my personal advice is, in the beginning, try them all, even the ones that on first look seem weak or useless. You'd be surprised how some turn out to work better than you thought. Only after you're familiar with all (or at least most) of the abilities will you have the best idea of what works for you. I bet no two players will agree on what would be the best skills/abilities for a wizard (or any other hero), which is good. Otherwise, multiplayer games would be boring.

[Qurqirish Dragon]

A note about the skill wheel: if you got TotE, the skill wheel (stand-alone, not in-game) is installed with the game. I printed out the eight wheels for easy reference.

[ThunderTitan]

Remember kids, Dark Magic can be resisted, so it's not always better the Light...

[Aerosoldier]

I didn't knew that you can have only 2 kinds of magic per class, and wizards is Summon/Light, hope they are good coz i always loved my IMPLOSION!

[danhvo]

I didn't knew that you can have only 2 kinds of magic per class, and wizards is Summon/Light, hope they are good coz i always loved my IMPLOSION!

I'm not sure what you mean by that. You can choose all four magic schools if you want. Of course, you only have five skill slots, so that might not be wise. Each class has two favored magic schools, and all that means is that you're more likely to be offered those two schools than the other when leveling up.

Nathir starts out with Destructive Magic.

[Aerosoldier]

But what kinds of magics d you learn in your mague guild?? the 2 favored or any of the 4?

[ramparter]

Any of the 4 but the 2 favorites have higher percentages to be offered.

[danhvo]

But what kinds of magics d you learn in your mague guild?? the 2 favored or any of the 4?

Each level in the magic guild will have one spell each from your two favored schools. The lower levels (1-3) also have an extra spell randomly chosen from the other two schools.

Normally, that means you can't get 4th and 5th level spells from non-favored schools. However, Academy towns can have a library that will give an extra spell in each level. That means it's possible for you to get Implosion (1 in 6 chances, as there are 6 5th-circle spells from Dark and Destructive).

[Aerosoldier]

So is better to create my mage guild quite quickly so i can see the magics i have so to learn the best magic skill??