TotE - my opinion;p

[gaspi2]

Allright got TotE in my hands and I hoped that AI has been fixed since HoF - I mean fleeing from battles without fight. I started TotE, goin' 4 normal diff. and I was quite pleased - it was playable. But too easy. So I switched to hard one - and to my horror AI did nothing but flee flee and flee, again, without fight. I mean - why it isn't fixed????!!!! really this isn't any fun.
I like that ultimates are now easier to get and that they are better balanced but this is insane - I can't play like this, only hot seat against myself(~~).
Moreover, the AI cheated again - getting cyclops(4) at the point where I didn't have even liches(due to lack of money, but he fled when I engaged him with 300 skellies not even fighting).
I did some games as comparement of ultimates - barbarian faction owned every1(don't know why, shamans were too powerful), followed by fortress and haven. The least was academy, then inferno with slight inprovment.
Both haven and dungeon paths to ultimates were improved a lot, haven from the weakest at time of HoF now it ended 3rd from top, but inferno sunk from the best to one of the worst. (Seraphs with retalation strike, vampirism and divine strenght owned everything, even allmighty lava dragons(I can write why I chose lava ones).
30 Untamed cyclops with good luck smashed 100 champions of haven with 1 blow(ouch). When I took out cyclops, haven got beated up by shamans and maulers. When I took out shamans and maulers, haven got beated up by tier 5 and cyclops.
Barbarian vs fortress was always a close one, but barbarian won 3:2(tried to get bonus from tight formation and preparation, but when untamed got there 3-4 stacks got smashed down in 2-3 hits), when loosed it a bit the result was even worse, crushing blow has too wide range I think.
Haven got owned by frotress even tru mass confusion.(rune of elemental imunity, expert sorcery and armageddon every round was too much for lousy seraphs;p, though barbarian luck, protection and magic resistance did the job for barbarians(15% to avoid, 40% dmg reduction), and little flames that were left by lava dragons burnt down great portion of army and thunder thanes with their chain attack wiped down low tiers(preparation ya-ha:D).
Dungeon was allright, but fights were too fast to make some huge dmg with spells. warlock was able to cast only around 3 deep freezes before his army was destroyed(even with expert sorcery). Still that deep freeze smashed down around 60 champions in 1 hit(hehe) but wasn't enough to bring down champions, seraphs and other stuff down.
Haven owned other faction mainly cuz of champion charge. 100 champions with training, jousting bonus, retribution, luck and expert attack when placed correctly were able to smash 2 out of 7 stacks with one hit at the very start of combat.
Write u'r opinion, where do you think I made mistakes in comparement and so on. I tried to make best possible skill/perk allocation for every faction on their way to ultimate.

[Asheera]

Wow what's with those huge numbers in stacks? And yes, the ultimates are not balanced at all, but I really don't understand people that go for them... those ultimate abilities take out so much fun from this game by limiting your level-up choices, I personally wish they wouldn't even exist... (not to mention many times they're not even worth aiming for)

[gaspi2]

Well I just wanted to try them out, but IMO they are quite balanced(people thinks that unstoppable charge is not worth at all but they hardly saw it in action, when magma dragons attack and hero counters it killing 11 magma dragons in 1 hit;p)
And u'r right, ultimates should be gone, everytime I play it drags me to pick up perks that leads 4 them:(.

[Mlai]

I thought the latest patch fixed the always-flee AI issue.

You're giving your own army rankings based on hotseating against yourself? Why do I feel there's something wrong with that?

[Asheera]

Well if you're very serious and not favor one side over the other it shouldn't make much of a difference, although you'd still know the enemy's surprises though...

[gaspi2]

Yes, that's what drags many people...anyway barbarians were so powerful that they could win even when favouring other side~~

[Asheera]

Indeed, having a lot of Rage is simply imba, not only because of the bonuses but also because of that damage reduction based on rage...

Still the Fortress Ultimate ability is extremely strong as well, since it means you'll die twice as hard with it.

[gaspi2]

Not only that...;p expert defense, tight formation, mass endurance and deflect missile + absolute protection, rune of elemental imunity for fire(mainly), preparation and armageddon with expert sorcery and everything but barbarians went down trough ignite and master of fire;p
for dwarves I had:
destructive, summon, light, defense and sorcery, 1st round mass endurance, deflect nly against strong shooters...
And I'v got fire resostance if runes wouldn't give fire imunity 4 armageddon...
light:master of abjuration, fire resistance, eternal light
sorcery: way to distract.

[danhvo]

I would love to try playing a Knight against your Barbarian. What would you do if I puppetmaster your 30 Untamed Cyclops? Even if you have Expert Shatter Dark, I'm sure there's something else I can puppetmaster to attack your Cyclops and trigger the deadly retaliation. A well-timed Frenzy might also do the trick.

One thing I hate about playing a Barbarian is that, without magic, I'm pretty much limited to attacking comparably-sized neutral armies while creeping, or else suffer casualty. No attacking a neutral army with High or Deadly challenge rating, for example. Magic opens up possiblities and allows me to take on seemingly impossible odds. A comparison between factions must take this into account. Slower creeping means your hero will be more slowly developed (level and army) and hence at a disadvantage in the final battle.

[Asheera]

With Weaken Dark and Knight's low spellpower Puppet Master wouldn't be so effective... and what if the Barbarian has that artifact which grants him immunity to Frenzy?

[RommeL_666]

With Weaken Dark and Knight's low spellpower Puppet Master wouldn't be so effective... and what if the Barbarian has that artifact which grants him immunity to Frenzy?

what if, what if...

[gaspi2]

Well those cyclops were too slow anyway even hasted...I said only that they can do a lot of dmg(how many times I smashed 1 of my own stacks along with 3 of the enemy's;p), but I told, shamans and tier 5 did almost all of dmg, and maulers too, with soldier's luck their assault did a great havoc;p

[Macros the Black]

Yeah, Earth Daughters are definitely one of the best troops in the game..