Mage Build?

[Menken]

My mage is Strong my army not so much, so I need your help for what kind of items and troops I should use for the start of the game and the end.

[Maple]

I'm currently running through the game as a mage for the first time and I've been pretty much sitting back and chilling with a ranged army, and letting my spells do the work. Take advantage of the perk that lowers leadership requirements of casters and use Archmages and Inquisitors early on, Bowmen were also great due to their Slow arrow. I lucked out and found some Evil Beholders early on which also complement the mage pretty well due to forcing certain units to essentially skip a turn.

As far as late game goes, My current team consists of Green Dragons (only melee unit I've used the entire game!), Inquisitors, Cyclops, Cannoneers, and Orc Shaman. Green Dragons are great because they restore the mage's mana (this is huge!), the shaman put down decoy totems, inquisitors heal, cyclops just generally sit around and pretend they are a target worth attacking, and the cannoneers are my main damage dealers, I got an item that doubles their attack (the Telescopic Sight) and it almost makes me feel like I'm playing as a warrior whenever they attack! One key thing about this party is that they're all level 3 and up, so fear is an extremely potent CC against level 1 and 2 creatures.

As far as items go, anything that increases mana or intellect is worth looking at, though attack and defense is fine too, you'll need at least some defense to survive. Leadership enhancing items are usually pretty nice, just be careful to not put TOO much emphasis on leadership- I have a helmet that gives +3 defense and 400 leadership, and I'd take that over the helmet that gives 500 leadership and +20% attack at night (unless it IS night, of course!). The Intellect Ring is a good one to use when you find it, because after a certain amount of battles (GameBanshee says 50, I swore it was lower) it gives you a permanent +3 intellect. It's hard to give specifics, it really depends on your playstyle and what you actually end up finding. Same goes for spells, I'm at the point where I'd love to start using Black Dragons + Armageddon cheezy tactics, but I haven't actually found the Armageddon spell, and didn't find a Resurrection spell either until I made it to the elf lands!

Don't ignore rage summons as a mage either, because the mage can use rage nearly as well as the warrior, they just tend to have lower rage totals (though that can vary based on build!). I've been using the Frost Summon a LOT, in particular her ice ball is a very useful distraction. The Death Summon also has an ability that, the way I built him, deals 20% of an enemy's hp for only 5 rage, making him a good battle opener. In general, look for summon abilities that are effective without needing to be built up much, and don't cost much rage.

I'm playing on normal difficulty, of course. Hopefully this is still relevent, or if it isn't someone somewhere can use this advice. If anyone else has any suggestions I'd like to read them, especially for dealing with impossible difficulty ^_^

[Menken]

I'll be sure to remember this, thanks!

[AvidWriter]

Ranged army. Since you have to many spells it's better to have units that can add to that.

[Stormfox]

Since units are somewhat randomized and not that much dependant on what class you chose, I will only list some units that you can always get and that are very strong:

1. Royal Snakes

By far the best troop in the first half of the game, especially if you marry the frog and/or get the +speed item for snakes. You can always get a few hundred them in the swamp.

2. Inquisitors

You can always get a dozen or two at the temple in the swamp cemetary, but sometimes you get lucky and can find some extra. Especially during the cemetary part, they are invaluable since they deal double damage to undead (especially ghosts) and have the ridiculously money- and timesaving ressurection as well as a rage booster ability. You can get some extra ones once you get to the pirate isles, but after a certain point in the game, they start to become to squishy and tedious to mage.

3. Griffins

After about a third of the game, you can unlock the griffing kings store via a quest and he has hundreds of the wonderful birds. They are extremely good tanks for their leadership costs, just fill up your reserves with them so you do not have to travel to that island all the time to refill them.

4. Horsemen

A bit after you get Griffins, the main Castle will get a huge supply of these. Fast, tough, solid damage, good resistances, high initiative.

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Other very good units, if you can find them in large enough numbers:

Berzerkers, Shamans, Orc Veterans, Goblin Catapults, Green Dragons, Evil Beholders, Alchemists, Cannonneers, Dryads, Druids, Elven Archers, Fire Spiders if you have frog lady as your wife.

Green Dragons are especially good in the mid to late game because they can refill your mana while being tough enough rarely lose one and regularly available over in the elven lands.


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Units I would personally avoid since they are not really that good once you have access to the better stuff:

- Every melee unit that is slow (i.e. move 1-2). Dwarves are almost playable because of their high initiative and strong combat stats, but still a tad too slow for my tastes when they used up their running.
- Everything with very low hp since you have to replace them constantly. Notable exceptions are the shooty plants during the first few hours of the game because they pack quite a punch and are incredibly cheap and easy to replace through sprouts. Similarly, Fire Dragonflies are so fast and cheap that they are nice throwaway troops for the first map. The bears would also be an exception simply because they are so tanky, but they are incredibly annoying to use.
- Archers, Clerics, Cyclops. They simply do not deal enough damage and do not have special abilities good enough to compensate for that fact. Clerics are allright for the cemetary run.