thief hero starting leadership

[BoromiR]

i know thief has some very nasty special abilities, poison, steal etc, but is it worth it, when he only has 2 starting leadership? every enemy or crip confrontation is an upside battle without that 3rd additional unit slot, which other heroes have by default at level 1.

[Karol13]

When you can actually turn all thiefs skills into fruitful bonuses / benefits (I usually cannot), then you can subtitute missing unit with items, scrolls especially.

I guess it is Reincarnation, that limits heroes with ammount of items, that can be used per combat.
If I am right - then thief has a benefit against any other hero: he can use more items per battle.

I personally rather hire and train units. Or at least start with one of the heroes (fighter, mage..) and later hire thief as extra hero, when everything goes the right way for me.

[BoromiR]

can you please explain to me what focus is in battle.

[Karol13]

Well, even with 3 units most confrontations are upside battles, especially most Hot Seat maps, which are rarely balanced (looks like D3 devs wanted to implement HERO-IMPORT, like was known in D2, where you could start with high-leveled hero and swipe through most neutrals like with 1000 degrees hot knife through anime characters)

Anyway - the focus is to remove the gap in power and I do this usually buy buying summon scrolls from the shop and try to use the summoned creature either to soak damage (tank) or to occupy enemy casters/shooters sho they won't kill my frail units (casters..)

Of course, summons don't last after the battle - that's why I rather bring into battle hero+3 units and keep them alive to level em up (so possibly I can develop sufficient army, that won't rely on summons so much)

Funny about thiefs is also the fact, that they do little damage (while they try to act more often...what becomes tricky in case they are poisoned)...they are also fragile (mabye even more fragile as mages) and die easily (they try to suplement it with high doge - but common, when did dodge really work for us - players - as we wanted to)

So for me the battle focus is simple - bring in hired tank (I like the tanks of Demons, either gargoyle or beast... tanks of undead - dragons, are usually to slow and have not enough HP to really soak enough damage... Titan of Humans is IMO cool at the start, but later he won't grow in strength enough compared to others) and keep your other units safe.

Balanced army is usually the key --> ranged unit, spell caster, tank... the typical scenario.
Humans have a bit of dilemma : adding healer..sometimes healer is the key, sometimes is healer dead weight...

[BoromiR]

Originally posted by Karol13:

Well, even with 3 units most confrontations are upside battles, especially most Hot Seat maps, which are rarely balanced (looks like D3 devs wanted to implement HERO-IMPORT, like was known in D2, where you could start with high-leveled hero and swipe through most neutrals like with 1000 degrees hot knife through anime characters)

Anyway - the focus is to remove the gap in power and I do this usually buy buying summon scrolls from the shop and try to use the summoned creature either to soak damage (tank) or to occupy enemy casters/shooters sho they won't kill my frail units (casters..)

Of course, summons don't last after the battle - that's why I rather bring into battle hero+3 units and keep them alive to level em up (so possibly I can develop sufficient army, that won't rely on summons so much)

Funny about thiefs is also the fact, that they do little damage (while they try to act more often...what becomes tricky in case they are poisoned)...they are also fragile (mabye even more fragile as mages) and die easily (they try to suplement it with high doge - but common, when did dodge really work for us - players - as we wanted to)

So for me the battle focus is simple - bring in hired tank (I like the tanks of Demons, either gargoyle or beast... tanks of undead - dragons, are usually to slow and have not enough HP to really soak enough damage... Titan of Humans is IMO cool at the start, but later he won't grow in strength enough compared to others) and keep your other units safe.

Balanced army is usually the key --> ranged unit, spell caster, tank... the typical scenario.
Humans have a bit of dilemma : adding healer..sometimes healer is the key, sometimes is healer dead weight...

can you please explain to me what focus is in battle.

[Karol13]

not sure what you are asking
you mean 'focus' - what do I try to do in battle with highest priority
or
'focus' - specific attribute that is in-game implemented (if you can provide a screenshot probably, is some time I was in the game myself, hence I am pretty rusty and don't have this one on top of my head)
or
something else

[BoromiR]

Originally posted by Karol13:

not sure what you are asking
you mean 'focus' - what do I try to do in battle with highest priority
or
'focus' - specific attribute that is in-game implemented (if you can provide a screenshot probably, is some time I was in the game myself, hence I am pretty rusty and don't have this one on top of my head)
or
something else

in battle sometimes when hero (maybe units as well) misses, there is splash text "focus gained" in blue.

[Karol13]

Isn't this occuring only when you fight specific unit? (there should be a skill, that increses attack rating, each time respective unit misses)
But this skill is not known to all units.

[Harbanatim]

If you're running the Rogue class hero, it's a good idea to pick the mage ability before the start of the game, the Rogue relies on doing a lot of his damage outside of combat. I've only played a Rogue as the Undead Hordes, so I can't really say what would be best in the other factions, but I give him a zombie/templar and a ghost to start and unlock diversion. Then I start picking apart the local mobs with diversion and spells, until they're weak enough to take on with my Rogue's party. Then I shoot toward unlocking his 3rd leadership, which goes to an initiate/lich. The Lich really helps out in the late game, as every enemy he kills comes back as a minion on your side, which gets rid of the disparity, and the Rogue has an ability that decresses air resistance, making it easier to utilize the Lich's abilities. As Karol13 mentioned, scrolls/runes can certainly help with the Rogue's small party surviving engagements.

As far as I know, the Focus condition only happens when you have the correct type of unit standing on a bonus granting terrain feature: melee/stone floor, archer/hill, mage/magical vortex.

[Karol13]

Oooh, yeah - that kind of focus. That boosts the power (usually damage / or healing power)

[BoromiR]

is steal ability on cooldown or something? stole once, now ability is greyed out. how long should i wait.
also, do artefacts transfer with heroes from mission to mission?
and how many heroes transfer im campaign alongside lambert? just one strongest, or all?

[harleyquinrazer]

Originally posted by BoromiRofGeo:

is steal ability on cooldown or something? stole once, now ability is greyed out. how long should i wait.
also, do artefacts transfer with heroes from mission to mission?
and how many heroes transfer im campaign alongside lambert? just one strongest, or all?

1. One use per map.
2. Artefacts do transfer.
3. All heroes transfer in campaign. The catch is players only get to pick one of them at no charge at the start of the Act. If you want the others, you have to pay for them with the cost dependent on what level the hero is (for example a level 5 thief costs 900 gold).

[BoromiR]

Originally posted by harleyquinrazer:

Originally posted by BoromiRofGeo:

is steal ability on cooldown or something? stole once, now ability is greyed out. how long should i wait.
also, do artefacts transfer with heroes from mission to mission?
and how many heroes transfer im campaign alongside lambert? just one strongest, or all?

1. One use per map.
2. Artefacts do transfer.
3. All heroes transfer in campaign. The catch is players only get to pick one of them at no charge at the start of the Act. If you want the others, you have to pay for them with the cost dependent on what level the hero is (for example a level 5 thief costs 900 gold).

i see, makes sense. thanks.

[sideways]

The Demon Thief has been my strongest leader by far. With 4+ move and 4+ interception just send the Ripper to their front line and he slices and dices their whole group and his knockback ability does a ton of extra damage. He has dual attacks and rings like increase accuracy 50% from critical damage or Vampirism along with his self heal, he is always the last man standing. Throw a couple of Incubus and Inoel behind him and may god forgive you. The Demon thief dropped a fully healed Eternal Guardian all by himself in 2 turns... nuff said.

A smaller party levels up faster and farther and with this group you only need to level up the Mages building. An economical and fast leveling party.

BTW - This is a awesome game and I love it. Great job Devs!

[QWEEDDY2]

Thieves still not a hero. Just support.

[sinot2]

Originally posted by harleyquinrazer:

Originally posted by BoromiRofGeo:

is steal ability on cooldown or something? stole once, now ability is greyed out. how long should i wait.
also, do artefacts transfer with heroes from mission to mission?
and how many heroes transfer im campaign alongside lambert? just one strongest, or all?

1. One use per map.
2. Artefacts do transfer.
3. All heroes transfer in campaign. The catch is players only get to pick one of them at no charge at the start of the Act. If you want the others, you have to pay for them with the cost dependent on what level the hero is (for example a level 5 thief costs 900 gold).

Thief can use steal in stores ability many times per map.
But after each steal Thief need win one battle.