Question about Sorcery and Hand of Death? (HOMM IV)

[Edano]

Hi I'm not sure where to ask this, but I was recently thinking whether or not to get sorcery on my necromancer. He's already Grandmaster Death Magic and has the Hand of Death spell. I was wondering if I were to get Sorcery (Chaos Magic secondary), whether it would increase the damage of my Hand of Death? ALSO, if I were to use a Staff of Death (which makes Death Spells 50% more effective), would it also make my Hand of Death stronger?

Basically, I just want a stronger Hand of Death So I was wondering what I can do to make that happen (besides gaining more levels). I could also become an Arch-mage for the 20% boost? Would that also help?

Thanks in advance!

[Pyroxene]

The Archmage class bonus and the Staff of Death bonus will work and stack with each other. You could also build the grail building in a Necropolis for an even bigger boost.

I don't think the Sorcery skill improves Hand of Death however.

Hand of Death is a spell that seems good on paper but is useless in most situations. A Disintegraten from a chaos sorcerer does almost as much and you can use it on all levels of creatures unlike HoD which is only used on level 4 creatures.

[Maciek]

I don't think the Sorcery skill improves Hand of Death however.

Confirmed. Asylum Grail doesn't help either. Also, the bonuses seem to be:
Archmage class 20%
Cloak of Darkness(from WoW) 25%
Staff of Death 50%
Necro Grail 50%
All of them are additive with eachother and with 100% Demonology bonus, which isn't a good thing.
Adding another Grail won't increase the bonus(I haven't checked if it increases Necromancy skill though), so you might consider putting extra Grails in other towns

[Dalai]

All of them are additive with eachother and with 100% Demonology bonus, which isn't a good thing.

Why do you think it isn't a good thing?

[Maciek]

Why do you think it isn't a good thing?

It's only bad for the power of the spell. An Archmage will only kill 10% (not 20%) more creatures than a Necromancer of equal level if both have GM Demonology and neither has any Artifacts.
In general, I guess it makes sense if passive bonuses are additive(weaker), while activated bonuses(spell effects) are multiplicative(stronger).

[Dalai]

These are all additive bonuses. I don't see any problem with Archmage being just slightly more powerful than Necromancer with all relevant skills being equal. After all, Necromancer specializes in Death spells.

I personally think that all bonuses should be multiplicative. Passive bonuses are a matter of strategy, activated bonuses are a matter of tactics. Both strategy and tactics are equally important.

[BoardGuest808888]

Hand of Death is a spell that seems good on paper but is useless in most situations. A Disintegraten from a chaos sorcerer does almost as much and you can use it on all levels of creatures unlike HoD which is only used on level 4 creatures.

Naah. I didn't go that way. HoD can be used for every level creatures too, inclulding heroes.

There can be times HoD might do more damage, such as against high HP creatures (Megadragon) or those with chaos resistance (Titan).

Another, u can always raise a stack killed by HoD, while with Disintegrate, u can't.

[klaymen]

Naah. I didn't go that way. HoD can be used for every level creatures too, inclulding heroes.

Sure it can, but show me one sane man who would use Hand of Death to kill 6 imps. (barring the case when hero has enough mana and they are the last stack remaining)

[cjlee]

I would like to suggest analysing this from another POV.

You need to know who/ what are your most powerful enemies/ the most likely battles.

Although Death is usually the most powerful faction in Heroes IV, Death is also uniquely weak. For that reason I NEVER specialize in Death spells for my hero. It's usually ok to exclusively specialize and get to Grandmaster Pathfinding or Grandmaster Life, but Grandmaster Death is a little vulnerable.

If you're facing an enemy Death caster, half your spells are useless.
If you're up against a strong Life opponent, everything you cast will be negated.
Hand of Death is useless against an opponent that focuses on Mass tactics - eg lots of lower level creatures. In general it is only useful for killing tier 4 creatures.

Anything that boosts power of Hand of Death is great, but I think it is better to get a second spell school because you can't depend on HoD to win every battle. Unless it is clear what kind of opponent you are facing, I prefer versatility.

Even low-level Chaos spells like mana flare can help your side greatly (for both you and Devils to summon more Demons). Low level Order spells like Displacement are pretty fantastic in sieges.

I'm not as enthusiastic about investing heavily in Chaos magic like Pyroxene (hehheh, someone who calls himself pyro-something is probably a fan of fire spells). At low-to mid levels, Chaos spells are tactically great (Confusion, Spell Shackle, etc). But the direct damage Chaos spells are uniquely weak against Chaos Ward and heroes/ creatures with fire resistance. I find that even a modest investment in Life Magic will keep your Death heroes on the field much, much longer and will go out of my way to visit Life altars/ schools.

If I'm already Grandmaster Death, I'll prefer to have some skill points in different spell schools over Sorcery.

BTW HoD can't kill an enemy hero 'for good' if he has potions/ supporting spellcasters. Only Disintegrate can.

Hi I'm not sure where to ask this, but I was recently thinking whether or not to get sorcery on my necromancer. He's already Grandmaster Death Magic and has the Hand of Death spell. I was wondering if I were to get Sorcery (Chaos Magic secondary), whether it would increase the damage of my Hand of Death? ALSO, if I were to use a Staff of Death (which makes Death Spells 50% more effective), would it also make my Hand of Death stronger?

Basically, I just want a stronger Hand of Death So I was wondering what I can do to make that happen (besides gaining more levels). I could also become an Arch-mage for the 20% boost? Would that also help?

Thanks in advance!

[GreatEmerald]

Then again, Death specialises in raising troops. And animated troops work just fine against everyone (except for Life). But yes, given the low amount of direct combat spells, sorcery is largely useless for liches.