What are High Elf mage heroes for now?

[Don Cool]

It´s been a long time that I played High Elves, noticed I could recruit Lord mages and that pretty much nullifies the need for a caster hero unless you need one for map purposes or want an extra mana battery.

Unless I am playing Vamps I never bring two casters in the same stack along for the ride, maybe I am missing something here?

[Poothoottoot]

You can use them on armies led by a prince/princess/non-caster LL?

Archmages have a different set of traits available to them compared to princes who have different traits compared to princesses, so if you're after a favorable trait for certain army comps you may be locked into a lord choice. Prince/Princess mount choice is better as well with getting up to a star dragon oh and certain lores of the hero mages get access to dragon mounts as well to keep them caught up with the power of the archmages.

That said archmages are really good, especially with the greater arcane conduit ability always being active, feels really hard to run out of winds unless you're in a really long fight.

[Hollywood]

Same as other races with mage lords, while Archmages are definitely stronger than most lords in general, there's always a faction or two that you'd rather have a melee or ranged lord in. Late game Dwarves and Lizardmen, for example, will absolutely poop on your dragon mounted mage, and any army with hero stacks will crap on your mage lord. Of course with proper micro, you can keep em alive in any situation, but forget about them for a second and they get hit by any anti large or duelist hero and their health disappears, at least on Very Hard battles.

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by Poothoottoot:

You can use them on armies led by a prince/princess/non-caster LL?

Archmages have a different set of traits available to them compared to princes who have different traits compared to princesses, so if you're after a favorable trait for certain army comps you may be locked into a lord choice. Prince/Princess mount choice is better as well with getting up to a star dragon oh and certain lores of the hero mages get access to dragon mounts as well to keep them caught up with the power of the archmages.

I guess you are right, I just found it easier to recruit a bunch of fire arch mages, they make the game so much easier and the need for other stuff becomes less relevant. Unless you are fighting Doomstacks a simple tier one spearmen/archer stack with a firemage is pretty darn powerful.

[Hollywood]

Also, block army, the single most important hero action in the game.

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by hollywoodkik:

Also, block army, the single most important hero action in the game.

I had that included in my OP ... (map purposes). :)

[Poothoottoot]

Originally posted by Don:

Originally posted by Poothoottoot:

You can use them on armies led by a prince/princess/non-caster LL?

Archmages have a different set of traits available to them compared to princes who have different traits compared to princesses, so if you're after a favorable trait for certain army comps you may be locked into a lord choice. Prince/Princess mount choice is better as well with getting up to a star dragon oh and certain lores of the hero mages get access to dragon mounts as well to keep them caught up with the power of the archmages.

I guess you are right, I just found it easier to recruit a bunch of fire arch mages, they make the game so much easier and the need for other stuff becomes less relevant. Unless you are fighting Doomstacks a simple tier one spearmen/archer stack with a firemage is pretty darn powerful.

That's fair, I generally try to break out of the spearmen/archer spam of the H-elves as fast as I can to get to the more interesting stuff since that phase can drag on for a while as it takes time to get the buildings for the other units but yeah basic spears and archers last quite a while with armor piercing spells available.

I don't really run duo casters but I'm wondering if the Archmages Greater Conduit would allow enough winds to run a 2nd caster without totally wrecking your winds. Could be fun to let 2 vortexes go at once or have ready access to heals in addition to a more offensive lore.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

They're for slapping into archmage-led armies to diversify your available magic options. As if it wasn't obvious.

[Hollywood]

Originally posted by Don:

Originally posted by hollywoodkik:

Also, block army, the single most important hero action in the game.

I had that included in my OP ... (map purposes). :)

Oh i forgot about that while I was typing lol.

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by Poothoottoot:

Originally posted by Don:

I guess you are right, I just found it easier to recruit a bunch of fire arch mages, they make the game so much easier and the need for other stuff becomes less relevant. Unless you are fighting Doomstacks a simple tier one spearmen/archer stack with a firemage is pretty darn powerful.

That's fair, I generally try to break out of the spearmen/archer spam of the H-elves as fast as I can to get to the more interesting stuff since that phase can drag on for a while as it takes time to get the buildings for the other units but yeah basic spears and archers last quite a while with armor piercing spells available. I don't really run duo casters but I'm wondering if the Archmages Greater Conduit would allow enough winds to run a 2nd caster without totally wrecking your winds. Could be fun to let 2 vortexes go at once or have ready access to heals in addition to a more offensive lore.

Might try that in my current game with Teclis, any how, was going to make a new thread about this but I guess I can ask here. Which is the most destructive lore? Fire? I like the Shadow Pendulum a lot but it doesn´t net me as many kills.

[Fendelphi]

A Beast caster or Death caster hero are great as batteries on Archmage lords, due to generating even more WoM. You end up dishing out so many spells.

Also, the flexibility of having 2 different magic schools in a fight, like Life and Fire, makes for a lot of fun.

Loremasters also have the benefit of being pretty good melee fighters, able to assist your frontline, while having access to some fairly potent(if situational) spells.

[Hollywood]

Originally posted by Don:

Originally posted by Poothoottoot:

That's fair, I generally try to break out of the spearmen/archer spam of the H-elves as fast as I can to get to the more interesting stuff since that phase can drag on for a while as it takes time to get the buildings for the other units but yeah basic spears and archers last quite a while with armor piercing spells available. I don't really run duo casters but I'm wondering if the Archmages Greater Conduit would allow enough winds to run a 2nd caster without totally wrecking your winds. Could be fun to let 2 vortexes go at once or have ready access to heals in addition to a more offensive lore.

Might try that in my current game with Teclis, any how, was going to make a new thread about this but I guess I can ask here. Which is the most destructive lore? Fire? I like the Shadow Pendulum a lot but it doesn´t net me as many kills.

Depends on the faction you're fighting, Fire sucks against anything with high armor or fire resist like Dwarves, but is the best against undead and skaven. I really love light and life, with a good army comp, especially in high elf armies, the utility is often stronger than the damage (Also they both have access to a high damage/high cost damage spell for emergencies).

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

A Beast caster or Death caster hero are great as batteries on Archmage lords, due to generating even more WoM. You end up dishing out so many spells.

Also, the flexibility of having 2 different magic schools in a fight, like Life and Fire, makes for a lot of fun.

Loremasters also have the benefit of being pretty good melee fighters, able to assist your frontline, while having access to some fairly potent(if situational) spells.

I guess if aren´t too picky and just want magic diversity you could go for 2-3 inciendary heroes in the same stack.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Don:

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

A Beast caster or Death caster hero are great as batteries on Archmage lords, due to generating even more WoM. You end up dishing out so many spells.

Also, the flexibility of having 2 different magic schools in a fight, like Life and Fire, makes for a lot of fun.

Loremasters also have the benefit of being pretty good melee fighters, able to assist your frontline, while having access to some fairly potent(if situational) spells.

I guess if aren´t too picky and just want magic diversity you could go for 2-3 inciendary heroes in the same stack.

That is an overspecialization IMO.
Dont get me wrong, Incendiary heroes are pretty fun, but if you want a "blender" hero, 1 is usually enough to get the job done. You will find few situations where having 3 500+ damage glass cannons will improve your army's combat capabilities.

If you want to go large on Incendiary heroes, pick Handmaiden(DLC) heroes instead. They can get it too, although it is roughly 30% weaker. However, they have better stats for being a melee fighter to begin with(better MA and MD, better base damage and skill upgrades for melee purposes).

The only Incendiary mage that might surpass the Incendiary Handmaiden, is the Fire mage, due to getting access to a Sun Dragon mount and the ability to debuff fire resistance on the enemy army(very strong synergy). So if you want a 3 Incendiary heroes team in an army, I would pick 1 fire Mage and 2 Handmaidens.
Combine that with a Death or Beast Incendiary Archmage, and you can have all the WoM you want along with powerful melee fighters.

[BigRockWall]

Entrepenuer. All of them

[yuzhonglu]

Originally posted by BigRockWall:

Entrepenuer. All of them