NO HERO STACK NERFS

[Kai-ron]

Wtf. you literally mentioned in this update that you dont want the meta to be so slim and narrow, and then you put stacking nerfs on armies that hold more than 1 hero???

So it pushes people into the narrow meta YOU want? ugh, come on. Hero stacks were expensive and fun. now its boring =/

[The Former]

The main reason I can see this being a balance problem is that after a point, you can resurrect your heroes freely. So you basically have a permanent stack of godlike beings that can go toe-to-toe with one or more top-tier units and has no actual counter, only delaying measures.

[GrandMajora]

No, training an army up to Legendary rank, just to have them get wiped out because the AI rolled up to my city with 3 heroes in their army was not, as you say, 'FUN'.

Also, support abilities were almost useless on the extra heroes, because the stack only benefited from the army leader's support abilities. Meaning that the extra heroes were encouraged to only pick from Martial and Magic trees.

[Frienby]

It's a single player game and the AI rarely did stacks of heroes themselves. This nerf to allowing party of heroes, mostly useful for exploring ruins or what-have-you, seems very silly and narrowing how the game should be played.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Originally posted by Frienby:

It's a single player game and the AI rarely did stacks of heroes themselves. This nerf to allowing party of heroes, mostly useful for exploring ruins or what-have-you, seems very silly and narrowing how the game should be played.

Agreed.
I never do it myself but the punishing of a playstyle is wrong.
Also hero parties are part of age of wonders since day one.
If you want to encourage army leaders buff the leadership skills.
Make it so that it is worth using them as leaders.
Dont punish them for enjoying it.

Lets take age of wonders 1:
Multi heroes mean multiple spells per turn.
Chain lighting those anoying large armies to death.

Age of wonders 2: Heroes have your domain around them.
Spreading them out increases your ability to cast spells.

Age of wonders 3: Removed the ability to cast multiple spells per turn because it made armies useless.
Aka removing a legit option and even then people used hero stacks because resurgence and the massive reduction to damage, increase in damage or just the ability to call lighting with your druid stack.

Age of wonders 4 hero stacks from my understanding are populair because of the same reasons as past games.
They give more damage per hit then armies can.
Want to make people use them as generals.
Give them better army buffs.
Right i can pick between 3+ heroes each casting area of effect fire skill in there turn.
Or i can limit myself to only 3 generals who's armies simply wont have the same area of effect wipe.

Now lets take age of wonders 3 heroes for a second.
Every hero had skills like: Increase healing per turn, give army wide happiness.
Heavens the druid was the best army leader you could ask for.
Rebruit animals, Second best spellcasting tree and damage reduction for everything when leveled.
A well designed druid leader could give my army so many buff's they became badass.
Or theocrat giving everything in the army resurgance.

The solution isnt nerfing hero stacks.
it if buffing general skills.

[Midas]

It's not like the change hurts the effectiveness of a hero-focused party. It just prevents the power-leveling meta god-stack from being the most powerful thing in the game. If you want to combine the heroes for something important, you can, but it would be unwise to leave them that way indefinitely.

That said, I do agree it would be nice if they just did more for the army inherently. Tossing all the army buffs into support both makes support boring, and makes everything but support just all about buffing the hero only. All three paths should have army-buffing effects, and they should be an automatic part of a hero, not an alternative.

[Terrkas]

The nerf aims at the possibility to level 5 heroes to lvl 20 in roughly 30 turns.

[TirAsleen]

Good change.

[⎝Wyrd Deofol⎠]

Very good change. It opens up multiple army configurations instead of the hero stack of doom.

[Aurumworks]

I propose a new basic ability be added to the leader, something like "The Master's Right Hand" that allows them to have one hero at their side without penalties. Or make it an ability you can pick on a hero, but only once among your heroes.

[Arthur two sheds Jackson]

maybe they could have nerf the heroes themselves instead of this, they get way too op too quickly

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Arthur two sheds Jackson:

maybe they could have nerf the heroes themselves instead of this, they get way too op too quickly

That's the point. They're supposed to be famous heroes, not generic soldiers.

[RobAlca]

noobs will stack heroes

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Originally posted by Arthur two sheds Jackson:

maybe they could have nerf the heroes themselves instead of this, they get way too op too quickly

Why people keep saying this?
Heroes die like there made of paper.

[Pantagruel]

Outside of ancient wonders, it doesn't actually make that much difference; just keep your heroes in separate stacks.

[mk11]

Originally posted by Pantagruel:

Outside of ancient wonders, it doesn't actually make that much difference; just keep your heroes in separate stacks.

And for ancient wonders, gather them together and lose a little experience so you can clear them.