thought train of a very lazy warlord

[Karol13]

There are truly plenty of various hero/race combinations.

On top, it can be even more shuffled by letting Hero be created under race X, but then play a race Y {just stealing crafty perk from one race but use armies and buildings, research of another race entirely}

Of course, there are better and less good outcomes.

My problem is, that many of such combos require quite high attendance to the ongoing development both on battlefield as well in the home-base.
In example watching timing of either discounts or power-ups (like +1 level, or Spell Forge, that might double my items, like crown that give +2.4 levels to flyers... but there are dozens if not hundreds such examples)

So how to keep the play simple, so lazy bum like me can enjoy it, yet still reap high effort (whilst not sowing much micromanagement ♥♥♥♥♥)

Well, I went through to the pipeline of trials, and ended up with simple solution: SUMONNING.

But again, I have to battle following drawbacks:
- mana pool
- mana regen
- spell level (not only craving it being as high as possible, due the countermeasure: cool downs)
- # of summoned units
- tier of summoned units
- level of summoned units

Ingredients to cook with in my cauldron of chronic laziness:
- Gate (skill, that increases summoned units level by 0.3 / level)
Summoner
Necromancer
probably one more profession, but can't recall which one.
- Calling (skill, increases # of summoned units by 0.2 / level)
High Druid
- High Sorcery (increased spell level.. for cheap spells dramatically)
Dark Elves (once per 3 minutes)
- Ley Lines (reduces spell cost by 15% if near non-wall building)
Dwarves (permanent)
- Channel Mana (regens 15% of max mana in an instant)
Fey (every 3 mins)
- Natural Weave (Spells cheaper by 3%/keep level)
Wood Elves (permanent)
- Dark Cousnel (+15% mana regen while garrisoned)
Dark Dwarves (permanent)

Wild cards: Deamons (consuming souls), Minotaur (consuming friendly units)

Combined with items, one can get some good summons even without investing into innate spell tree.

Apart the cheap ones (Quasit, Sprites..)
There are some peculiar ones (War Machine, Treant, Water Elemental, Nightmare, Succubi... who can summon quasits :D )

With undead it is more difficult, as most require souls ... and I haven't found any item granting me Dark Portal spell (so one must be a Necromancer or wait for humble enemies to die) ... with the exception of Dark Champion, which works w/o souls.

Here are several aspects to heed
1) QTY vs Quality (some spells are adding extra units per level, other extra XP levels)
2) strategic value: walkers / floater / flyers and of course melee vs ranged
3) overall effectivity (which varies, as swarm of imps can often win you a map, in other cases is turned into dust in 3 seconds, or strong army of treants, but unable to move fast rendered useless on large maps)

So for starters, one cannot combine Calling with Gate, which is kind of fair.
Second, mana regen was tuned down a lot in TPC.
Third, only few items are hard-coded as rewards in certain campaigns, otherwise it is the subject of pure luck, getting or not getting them (especially in case of sets)
Fourth, it is ideal to have such a strong summoner, that won't rely any kind of economy.

Why looking at ways to get summons from items, instead spell schools?
Simple - skill points per level drop as level increases, ending at mere 2 points / level-up.
Saved skill points should be invested into power-up attributes, instead just for unlocking certain spell (especially when strong spells require from you to sacrifice skill points on useless spells, you don't need nor want)

Summoner needs both: INT & CHA (to have good casting capability, but also to increase the attacking speed of your army)

On the other hand, there is still an option of a hybrid: mediocre summoner, who cannot win a war with summons, but can survive first initial waves of enemy's attack (especially important when playing higher difficulty, when enemies can send everything they have early on, before 10 minutes, so way sooner one can get to develop a base and build a formidable defenses)
And after the summons start to be insufficient, fill the gap with standard base-built units.

In example dragons by Fey (with the right setup, can start with level 12)
Also fine are High Elves, White Council, but many others, in general any race, depending on everyone's play style.

But as said, being a super lazy foker, I hate to rely on tedious old-school strategy, so rather having formidable enough army of good summons (both good in battle, so fast on the battlefield, possibly passing through oceans and mountains)

[felord520]

which race and class is the best Summoner?

[Karol13]

Used to be Fey, but after the revamp, I would say Dark Elf it is again. (with their perk, that boosts spell level)

But there is a twist: balance between summoned units # and quality.

While Daemonologist gives possibly best summoner capabilities, it can ultimately boost only the level of summoned units with Gate skill, but despite spending loads of skill points into the summoning magic tree (to unlock possibly best summon: Pit Fiend), the limitation of mana / mana regen, your army would not rise fast enough (unless playing against low-AI enemies)

On the other hand, High Druid, with her perk to increase # of summoned units, you can get decent level of summoned units through Dark Sorcery (depending how expensive your summon is, your max mana and base casting level)...

Right now, my 74 Dark Elf High Druid can summong +7 units.
But the twist continues:
High Druid's the best summon spell: Treant - slow, bulky, not extremely efficient (while rooting, becomes good siege weapon, but often misses his target on larger distances)

Again, only low-AI enemies can be taken down by 18~36 pesky treants, Prince+ AI would wipe the battlefield with your treants in a combo of tanks, shooters, casters and siege units, that would overrun treants who just have loads of HP.

So we need to look into items.
Not all items offer summon spells, so here is what I found so far:
- Sprites
- War Machine (my fav so far, while lacking offense, still can defend your base against titans and dragons)
- Succubus (not very strong flyer, but tactically superb, and one can get her to high enough level, so when you get 8 succubi / cast... it is not bad asset at all)
- Treants (meh)
- Unicorns (only valuable due the healing or cheap cannon fodder)
- Water Elemental (very versatile shooter, immune to most afflictions, but one must collect the complete set, which is pretty rare and nearly impossible to achieve)
- Doppelganger (kind of a wild card -> if you hero is formidable, your doppelganger is as well)
- imps (pretty fine in general)
- Nightmares (fast and with bludgeoning damage - good vs buildings)

Also - some spells add # units / level (usually +0.2 units / level), other increase XP level (+0.2 XP level / level)

So it is best to mind what is your summon you want to go for.

If it are sprites: you want daemonologist, who would boost their XP level with Gate skill.
If you rather want Succubi: you want High Druid, and add dark sorcery to boost the casting level (which also boosts summoned unit level)

Further items hunt also should be well planned : boosting Ritual, max MP, or rather reduce casting costs (arcane shard), or items that boost XP of summoned units (I also found few items, that boost # of summoned units, not much, but can be upgraded at the Smith)

While deciding on the main summon, also consider if it will be formidable against buildings (sprites for example are pretty weak against buildings, unless the race you choose offers fire arrows, but even then, they remain on the weaker side of siege units)

Treants sound like perfect base levelers, but their low speed and high ASP makes them often a burden, instead power.

So still try to keep in mind, how will you support your summons, because rarely one or two summons can do everything

Oh, also, you might not want to play against allied AI (which I usually do), so then the summoner's classics : Nightmares + Imps can be perfect for assault and defense, but also control of the map. But cannot withhold many enemies nor strong heroes (unless they fight against each other and I just reap the spoils after they are done)

Oh, there is one cheap combo: cheap to summon Quasit, later combined with Daemon research, that gives him fire ranged attack ... against mediocre enemies, an army of fire shooting quasits is pretty much unstoppable.

With the dark (or HIGH?) Sorcery, one can sometime more than double the casting level... so on higher hero levels, in combination with strong items, getting to 200+ levels might be possible, so remember, the cap on # units per cast is 8x8 = 64, do not try go overboard, as you will create waste.

[felord520]

Thanks, dude. Your explanation is really helpful. By the way, do you know if there are other powerful caster types? For example, ones that focus on venom, disease, or even time control,or warlock, use hp instead of mana?
I’m curious to learn more about other caster types, if you have any recommendations.

[Karol13]

I tried summoning pretty powerful Blackguards from Poison Circle + COIL (skill that adds Morale & speed to all units with inborn poison attack) - was fun, but not ultimately effective.
Then there is the Call of Aranea, wich can become pretty potent on the # of summoned spidies, but hem, spidies die to easily & too fast.

Disease is powerful, on enemies that can succumb to it, but once your enemies are undead or machines or golems or dragons -> it becomes useless.
Disease cloud is pretty fine, on high enough spell levels, it can stay roaming in the dedicated spot, and disease anyone who trespasses. But again, only living units can be targeted.

Apart from poison & COIL, there is the summon eyes (4 types are offered): and the cheapest floating eye is also pretty cheap spell, hence it goes well together with High Sorcery i.e., but getting then enough in QTY is still difficult. Contagion usually goes well with plaguelords + skill that boosts regen of disease bearers. But I could not achieve desired victories (from perspective of a lazy warlords), still loads of micromanagement.

Apart of Warlock, who cannot heal, only replenishes his HP from consuming mana.. there is also Alchemist, who uses resources, but all his spells are 25% cheaper, so with Charm & Transmute, one can achieve pretty great spell level results.

Chaos magic used to offer 4 spell caster summons, now it is only one, I believe. So it is not bad choice, versatile to say so. But if I would crave a spell caster, I would go for the Staff that gives Summon Undead Champion spell (Vampire, Dread Knight, Liche, that dude with scythe) , despite more expensive on mana, still giving top-notch summons.

On Mana, there is still Fey in game, despite one canno "zero" the refresh times, still getting 15% mana regularly is good. High Elves have +300% mana regen for 10 secs, Wood Elves can get 15% cheaper spells, Dwarves also (under conditions), Empire gives 40% bonus after 30 secs if garrisoned...
But all these have one in common -> it's harder to manage the input/output of mana, especially when the battles become more difficult and mana becomes more important (running out of it might be the cause of losing a scenario)
Each of the alternatives require special approach, and might not fit general challenges, nor very unique scenarios in now many campaigns (4 custom campaigns, The Protectors campaign, and WBC 1, 2, 3 campaigns )

With the warlock, one can calibrate the hero build, so one can cast more spells at the game beginning, jeopardizing the life of hero (but that's what garrisoning is for :D ) but inability to use potions can turn problematic eventually.

Said that, I didn't really invested a lot of time into the alternate builds (usually up to 15 levels to test it), so maybe they can reveal new horizons and capabilities later on.

[jonoliveira12]

I like Knight Inquisitor.

Stats:
10 STR
15 DEX
10 INT
10 CHA

Perks:
Do nor remember the names, but get the one that give your units extar Armour and the one that gives summons Dancing Swords when you attack.

Skils:
Your choice of amount between Constitution, Mighty Blow and the one where you blast apart any unit or Hero with enchantments (at lvl 20, you get +666% damage against enchanted units, so often you can 2 hit any enemy Hero taht casts any buff on himself).

I have been finding this combo to work very well. You get Defense Lore, Mental Dran, Calm and Resist Fire to buff up your units, and also Cauterize to heal groups of them.
It goes exceedingly well with the Knights toolkit of having units level up very fast.
You can literally run around the map with a few Pikemen and Knights Errant, and just target down enemy Heroes like no tomorrow, then in the lategame go full Paladin + Archon and steamroll any base.

[Karol13]

Yeah, when you also add the Inquisitor set (unless it was renamed after latest 0.91a patch)

it is decent leader & fighter 2in1.

I personally always tailor my strategy to keep my hero outside of direct battle. After hero level 70 or 80, especially playing against Emperors or Demigods, enemies tend to hurl long range spells at me, that might deals 1000 damage (and hence I mostly play against allied enemies, they often group together and even 3000HP heroes fall)
But for any other scenarios, having a solid hero-killer build is fabulous, like warrior, thief, assassin... but leading Knights brings extra perk> +5 xp per kill & quests XP bonus, so if played right, one can get his army to high XP (I often end up with some units on level 40+, at least the ones that survive long enough :D)

But back to summoners.

I am testing War Machine + Undead Champion (as these supplement each other nicely, while the latter makes excellen base crushers, Doom Champs as tanks, Liches as support), War Machines make unbeatable defenses (when I move the max army points from 100 to 250, so I can actually have enough... then no matter what combo enemies send my way, Lightning with range of 14 stops even dragons in their tracks, Ballista that can go into siege mode, pierces through arrays of enemies, catapults and fire cannons do splash damage, rebuking flyers, cavarly, shooters, casters, even enemy sieage weapons... only titans cannot be stopped, but can be still killed)

Of course, even level 20 siege engines are still vulnerable, so when I get attacked by 5+ fire dragons, my defenses can be still weakened, but not breached. The true problem is to find balance between attacking and defending -> which works, if enemies deplete their main forces during attack on my adamant superdefensive base. But in the screenshot below, it can be observed how sometimes enemy armies get stuck in choke points, and clearing them is not so easy as just passively defending against them. And sending 1/2 of my army into offense brings risks of leaving my base with doom knight tanks.

And so happened, when I tried to unclog the traffic jam -> they all stormed in, trampling through my offensive army in seconds an my defenses were not replenished fast enough to hold them up.
I played against 3 Emeperors (allied)

Then I started another scenario, against 5 Princes. While they were hammering my base, I could hold up (Ice map), and the strategy (winning by attrition) worked just perfectly. At the end, I was able to build 8 Doom Knight & 8 Liches, and take down one enemy base after another, with very insignificant setbacks (when some enemies finished their titans, or sent 3+ dragons at once). But losing few towers and few units is not of huge impact to my strategy.

After rethinking the flow of the events in both cases, I can hardly find better summoning options (unless the army limit would be over 300, and I could send zounds of low ASP units early on, before enemies build up their bases). But again, statistically at least one enemy might be a rabid spell caster, throwing glaciate, Armageddon or similar AoE spells, possibly wiping out 100 of my weak units in one wand swing.

Funny, how the most expensive among the four undead champions is Reaper, who is pretty weak (well, with his critical and special attack, Reaper might be labeled as the best hero killer, but during base sieges, he is pretty mediocre at best, if not outright useless)

I just can't part the combo of undead champs & war machines, as each fills in mandatory role in my strategy. It would be so much easier, if I could focus only on one spell. Also when pairing with a race.
Knights? (giving huge XP rewards, but not supporting my war machines at all)
Ssrathi? (giving +3 range to Liches, but only the weakest Sssrathi are night-loving, and even they can cast only fog, which is counterproductive, also they don't have the extra range for spell casters)
Dwarves (or dark dwarves)? Pretty good for War Machines and also good for doom knights with mithril research, but lacking in economy (so needed for liches spells and ballista siege skill)
Undead? gives mild bonuses for all undead, but no bonus for war machines
Dark Evles? economy is no problem, with endless income from souls, but no bonus for war machines, and below average support for liches and knights. At least they have night aura around buildings with the range of 12... so my undead can heal at any weather.

Well... in old, simpler times, I just needed 64 sprites of level 20, cast every 50 seconds, till I filed the max army limit gauge... no brainer, easy victory. Now I have to bounce between races, spells and skills... and even stats (as many items now have high STAT requirements).
New version truly makes you strategize a lot.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3395219777

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3394971574

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3394971410

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3395219987

[Karol13]

Just sharing random luck:

I was mentioning Staff of Zhur & Tome of Experiments, each of them is pretty rare and usually getting them is possible first after many maps, either campaign (Staff of Zhur) or with quest givers or shops + random item chests..

But this time I got them both on one map (custom campaign, treasure hunt #1)

What is not so lucky, my build is more dependent from INT boosting or spell cost reducing items (as I am working with learned spells: Quasit, Imp & Nightmare)... and the later game I introduce produced Fire Dragons (with Dark Elves - Yrm, I do not need to worry about resources and with Daemonologist Occultism, my red draggies can hurl fireballs pretty often)



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3395419104

[felord520]

which items can summon War Machine + Undead Champion？

[Karol13]

As per the picture above (in my previous post), Staff of Zhur can summon Undead Champion
And in the same picture, there is reddish book, called Tome of Experiments, and that one offers Summon War Machine +1

Oh, and the undead spell is correctly named : Summon Undead Lord (not Champion), sorry.

[felord520]

Originally posted by Karol13:

As per the picture above (in my previous post), Staff of Zhur can summon Undead Champion
And in the same picture, there is reddish book, called Tome of Experiments, and that one offers Summon War Machine +1

Oh, and the undead spell is correctly named : Summon Undead Lord (not Champion), sorry.

so， these items drop from the skirmish mode or the campaign mode？I don't see any useful item in the skirmish mode.

[Karol13]

Campaigns drop better items, or at least, you can encounter wider drop pool. Plus, campaigns have many very good items hard-coded (usually as reward) ... different campaigns grant different items, which is also the reason I try to go through campaigns with my fav heroes.

Extra way to get to rare items: set under hero settings "drop all items", but watch out, it is double edged sword. But if you know what you are doing, and play against at least Prince or higher AI, expect some good items.

[Karol13]

While testing new build (0.92), I reverted back to non-magic combo (Fey Merchant)

Fey -> when I survive early assault waves of enemies, I can produce dragons on level 8, later 12

Merchant -> one of few Frugal Investors, recently a truly valuable skill, plus Wealth, that allows me to spawn sprites (or any other gold-only based units) early on (good cannon fodder)

Also, leprechauns got nerfed Army Points during game start (from 10 to 4), so I have formidable shooters to garrison into towers (and later on their range increases 8 -> 10)

Previously, I was not touching Merchant at all, as high CHA could reduce building costs by default, which is not the case anymore.

With the research, that boosts the tower damage (rather changes to dual, physical & magical), Fey defenses are not ridiculously weak, also the very mobile sprites can pick up on enemy siege engines (not on enemy dragons or titans, tho)

But if I survive long enough and do a good job on balancing attrition, I can get to dragons (especially the ones from retinue) before first titan, or first batch of dragons assault me (4+ dragon at once)

I now feel so silly, for looking down on Merchant for nearly a year. Just 30 points into Frugal Investor, and building up your base becomes a lot more streamlined.

Of course, from economy perspective, I got Summoners Robe, to get extra Quasits .. and with Staff +10 INT & necklace +2 INT, I can summon 3 quasits per cast without investing single skill point into INT.

I still plan getting two Dragonstones (now after upgrades giving circa 0.6 xp levels to flyers each), I already have the crown (+1.2 XP levels), and in my backpack I plan to have the robe (also circa +1.2 xp levels, and wear it, after I fill mines with quasits)
Same for the shield, that gives probably +1 XP level to flyers, and also equip it after I don't need quasits (as the staff is two-handed)

I even got the perk, that reduces unit skills/spell by 20%, so I can often save crystals, gold & metal, when upgrading wisps or when injured dragons fly back to base, and use HEAL (instead 250 crystal, only 200), not that crystals management is of huge problem, due the ancient wisps, but those are not given, and one cannot have them too many, due army points limits.

All in all, Fey offer sustainable economy, merchant helps with the early base startup, and having Fey hero, the extra points can be invested into Dream Lord (+ Morale when leading FEY), and later on, commanding level 12 dragons, that deal 120+ damage, dealing it once per 1.3 seconds, or once per 0.5 seconds becomes painfully different. Higher level and Fey research removes the last downside of dragons : slowness. Now they can hunt most heroes (assassins, thieves and similar classes are still faster)

Well, one weakness remains: Fey buildings have still low armor and if they fail to kill enemy waves quickly enough, the whole base can fall like domino.

Funny, how magic is still needed.... apart quasit summon, I often crave for Industrial age, reconstruction, or charm, transmute.. or simple stone skin. Also, to make the perk working, my hero needs to be outside towers (risking his frail life, if enemy heroes get near enough to my base)

But the laziness is strong with me, when my base auto-produces zounds of units, and I need just to keep an eye on resources, and on HP of my unique units.

So sad that Knights do not have good sustainable economy ^_^.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3397314054

[Karol13]

Tried some new builds.

Dwarf Lichlord (main point: getting Runepriests on higher level -> better Doomstones and stronger Earth Elemental --> turning them into both defensive and offensive power)
Despite Brewmaster & Mage King are working well together, and it all adds up on top of the CHA extra level(s), these Dwarven spellcasters are slow, bulky yet not that resilient as one would wish.
While Dwarven bases are usually top notch, with advanced infantry (Kazrimi Guards I believe) one can keep the base repaired just by spending some Crystals. Towers get extra HP & DMG, Mortarts cover 16 tiles radius and war machines can help repelling waves of critters (Trebuchet) or snipe enemy catapults on long distance as well dangerous flyers (Ballista), hiding in the safety of the base (towers, walls), but reaching far out thanks to the Siege mode.
But despite all attempts to build up the economy (and even used the Overwork spell), getting to Runepriests takes time and effort, and even after that point, their produciton is slow and costly (even with Industrial Age).
After all, I had to resort to dragons, who could cover wider area as flyers.
My extra skill points wasted on Mage King & Brewmaster were not impacting the battle output at all, despite I acknowledge the versatility of dwarven spellcasters, Doomstones just don't "cut the edge", and Earth Elementals while being true tanks, just can't really change the course of actions later on.
Sometimes I did better just by spawning zounds of zombies from Necromancy circle, and wondered, why I thought high-level Runepriest will be fun.

Knight Great Sage:
Truly peculiar combo. Knight complements the missing HEALING factor of Sage, with a perk that heals nearby units upon any spell cast. Sage adds fantastic perks, one adding 180% XP rewards, the other increasing so much needed morale. With Defense Lore (spell-based aura), it all seems just too good. Of course, the risks are there too. Hero must travel with the assault party together to grant said bonuses. And even if they survive rabid attacks of enemy dragons or even titans, moving that "man-of-war" group of warriors, where they usually block each other (and don't get me started when they stumble upon zounds of neutral animals.. oh I hate hate that) and not always one can force such group to move & re-group to become effective. Especially on larger maps, where one must keep control over multiple strategic points, having one main army centered around hero (who is not especially fast by himself) is always forcing you to rely on luck, hoping that the enemy will not outsmart & outmaneuver you somehow. Luckily, Knights can also keep their base safe with basic war machines, but those luck the bonuses of dwarves. Again, even with the XP bonuses (combined : Sage & Knight) one rarely can develop truly high-level units across the board, hence there still is very vivid need for dragons - most expensive units, while Knights are not the best race for economy (despite the extra research on bonus % income )
Divination is pretty well versed for most battles, but ties hero to be in the midst of such battles. Summoning spell is expensive, so I often decide to abstain from purchasing it, and when I do, I rarely get enough Mages into the battle to make a huge impact, also, for how rare they are, they tend to die quickly. (not to mention the lack of Crystal for their spells, and without spells they are but 1/2 of their true potential)
Healing is limited to the Knight perk, which often is good for low-tier units, but not so effective for units with over 500 HP. So the first downside is the limited healing prowess.
Already mentioned economy can often become the huge problem during attrition wars, where I am forced to capture and defend many mines, but how to do it with so limited maneuverability??
In some scenarios, Knight Sage works perfectly, but eventually it reveals its' flaws and becomes a nightmare, that forces player to crazy micomanagerial tasks, or ends up in defeat.

Daemon Healer.
A true wild card indeed.
Power healing is often the key for keeping my precious units alive, giving me advantage over even much stronger enemies. My units can use spells freely, due Gem Income. What I miss is Occultism, to actually allow my units to use their abilities & spells more frequently.
When bold enough, one can buy the Daemon perks, which will allow the hero to collect souls as extra source for HP & mana replenishment.
The true "wild card" comes with Resurrection spell, when you can resurrect even enemy fallen Dragon, or even enemy heroes. In other cases it can bring back bunch of useless critters, that you can only send on a suicide mission (or save yourself time and CTRL+D them to make space for actually useful units)
Healing tent is also not bad perk, but healing is rarely insufficient.
Calling Archons is super expensive, and they do not so well in many battles too.
Healer also has Frugal Investor & Leadership : both very valuable skills, But if you want to open Healing Circle spells, you won't have enough skill points to really invest in those.
While sometimes Healer makes you smile (resurrects a fallen dragon), in many case he lets you feel the desperation of insufficient funds (despite Frugal Investor) and lack of BUFF spells. Blessing is really lame, and that's basically it. Purify is not the best offensive spell either.
Not to mention that tough battles, when many waves pound your base in very quick succession frequency, you may just run out of mana, and watch your unit perish while you are out of mana potions.
Again, very funny setup for mid-low difficulty maps, but from King upward, Healer starts lacking.
Anyway, using very strong Group Heal, healing large portions of HP on my dragons, made me feel warm (and nostalgic, remembering how many times I had to watch my dragons die, as their huge amount of HP could not be replenished fast enough)
Healer feels very rounded, and very well rounded on top. But his specialization is very narrow and not really useful in all scenarios.
I will just keep remembering the funny moments, when strong dragon jumped out from the ground full of corpses and the enemy who sent it at me early on ended up with surprised pikachu face.
Resuscitation also does not work more, than it does. I often hurry towards the grave of my fallen unit, yet very rarely the unit jumps out alive (not sure if my units must be on the ground in specific time window..)