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| Thread: Guide: Getting the abilities and skills you want | |
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Izzachar
Adventuring Hero
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posted July 12, 2006 02:30 PM |
bonus applied. |
Edited by Izzachar at 12:43, 13 Jul 2006.
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Guide: Getting the abilities and skills you want
Writing my way of Lvelin Deleb in a Inferno strategy post made me think of posting my generall tactic as a new thread as I think ppl might find it intresting. Im pretty sure experienced players got the hang of this but I help it can help new players understand the ability and skill system and how to use it to you benefit.
I experimented alot with exp_cheat to find ways to get the skills and abilities you want the most for your hero. And there are some general guidelines you can follow to make it easier for you to get the abilities and skills you want.
I presume you chose a specifik hero. Someone with a skill that you want for some reason. I will take Deleb and vladimir as my examples in this post because it is the heroes I played the most with.
Usually there are some abilities you want to get as fast as possible. Like Vlad - skelleton archers and Deleb - Ballista, First aid Tent.
[--Basics--]
* A skill is for example Logistics. Something you can be basic, advanced and expert in.
* An ability is something you get from skills. Like master of curses.
* For every skill lv youve got in a skill; Basic, adv, expert you get to choose 1 ability from that skill.
* If you choose an ability wich leads to another ability. Like Master of life -> haunted mines (Vlad) and catapult -> brimstone rain (Deleb). The ability that is "opend" will be in the ability list when you lv upp VERY frequently. I almost dare saying that an "advanced" ability always shows upp in the right lower corner of you lv upp screen as long as no other advanced ability is there to fight with the place for it. Im not 100% sure off this though.
* You will always get to choose one new skill and enhance a known one. Unless you have expert in all X skills then you get two basic choices. Or if you allready have all 6 skills then you will only get enhancement choices.
[--Choosing skills and abilities--]
0. Decide before starting what skills are the most important. Probably you will never get all 6 during a game. Having a list off the 3-4 most important and 2-3 good skills is a good choice.
1. Dont pick any other skills untill you got your basic skills and abilities no matter how tempting! In the end you will mash upp your ability choices. This goes for gating and summoning magic aswell.Lets say you reach lv 2 with deleb, you want ballista and tent but only catapult and mark of the damned shows upp in the list. Also you got basic logistics and expert warmachines. Choosing logistics is VERY tempting but in return next lv you might get navigation and scouting as abilities. Depending on what skills / abilities you choose now you are in more or less trouble I wont explain it further. You could take a chance and go for expert warmachines but the next lv the exakt same choices might come upp so you only delayed having a double firing ballista or a resurecting first aid tent by one lv. Wich around lv 4-5 probably equals two fights without one off them abilities, how many imps is that in heroic? If advcaned gating was there the same thing would happen as with logistics only not as severe. Cleaning the ability screen would take another 2 turns! and you could still get same unlucky choices next turn, how many imps was that again?
2. Choosing a "bad" ability might be a good choice
a) if it cleans upp the ability screen! In the above example the best thing to choose is mark of the damned (and to have an easy arguement swap logistics with sorcery). Its a crappy ability you probably will never use it but it ensures that you will only get warmachines abilities the next lv, wich means that you are 100% guaranteed to get either First aid or ballista. Just keep in mind that this might make some trouble for you if you are going to get dark magic with deleb as weakening strike will be alot in your ability screen.
b) If it doesnt clean upp the ability screen or leads to another "advanced ability" you might not wanna choose it. If you take catapults with deleb as an example to avoid mark of the damned you can be pretty sure that brimstone rain will haunt you forever and choosing it will make you unable to get either first aid or ballista. As I said above this will give you weakening strike when choosing dark magic however in this scenario its worth it IMO. Also mark of the damned + catapult is just one out off 9 possibilities I think so you could consider yourself unlucky having to take it.
4. Prioritize important and good abilities over good skills. Good skills are the once you told yourself from start that you might wanna have but they arent the most important. So deleb as an example. Logistics is an important skill. Luck IMO isnt. Why prioritize like this? Well there are some advantages. Your ability choices screen will always be pretty clean increasing you chances of getting the abilities you want after picking a skill. Dont tell me you never saw scouting and navigation and at the same time had basic warmachines and basic summoning magic as skill choices with a haven hero =) If you cannot learn any more abilities and choose advanced x skill the next lv you will have an extremely high chance getting the ability you want. Also when there are no abilities that you want (scouting, navigation) you can increase the skill lv of a known skill.
5. Choose advanced and expert skills when you need them for a new ability. If you got archers the firt lv with vlad you need advanced necromancy to get eternal servitude.
6. Choose advanced and expert skill when no good abilities and new important skills shows upp. Atleast for early lvs do this. If you havent got any important skills after a couple of lvs it might be a good idea starting to pick from the good ones. The reason not to lv upp your basic skills to early is to have it as a buffer. If you are unlucky and doing the other way around you might be expert in all you skills and get to choose scouting, navigation, warmachines and a magic school you dont need. This is also one of the reasons for prioritizing abilities.
7. Important abilities before anything else after early game. When an important basic skill shows upp after lv 4-8, depends on how you wanna advance with the hero in the early lvs, you should take it no matter what abilities offerd. You will see the abilities again but chances of seeing that skill again isnt as big. If an important sill shows upp as early as lv 3 as I said it might mess upp your early game, usually it will appear again.
[--Examples--]
* If we take Vladimirs Haunted mines as another example. If you want to have it getting advanced summoning magic will make it have a VERY big chance showing upp in the ability list next lv. However if you do not want to have it keep in mind that it probably WILL show upp in the list next lv if you take advanced summoning magic. Now if you have abilities left in necromancy you might get haunted mines + banshee howl next lv along with leadership and expert summoning magic. Getting summoning magic and you might have the exact same choices next lv only to see leadership along side with warmahcines. To avoid this simply choose all the Necromancy abilities (a note here you dont need ALL necromancy abilities just so many that you dont get them anymore in the ability screen when enhancing the summoning skill) first before going for advanced summoning magic. When you go for advanced you will get two choices master of conjuartion / earthblood together with haunted mines. (This might be a stuipid example as I find haunted mines much better then earthblood and since you can have three abilities in summoning and therefor get conjuration + life + haunted mines.) But I hope it serves as a good example how to think when lvelin upp.
* And to ensure getting eternal servitude and skelleton archers you only need lv 4 with vladmir. Following the guide lines you should pick. Skelleton archers / eternal servitude first. Then advanced necromany then the other ability you didnt get first. Note that no summoning abilities will be in the ability screen as Vladimir starts with basic summoning magic and master of life.
[--The End--]
Following the above Guidelines is a very good way to get skills you want around lv 15. It greatly reduces the chances beeing forced to choose skills and abilities you dont want.
When I Lv with deleb I think I get logistics + destructive magic + swift gating + teleport assault + master of fire + searing flames about 80% of the times I play before lv ~18. 95% off the times I get All off the above except teleport assault and or searing flames and possibly another important or good skill, however I will get telepost assault and searing flames the next lvs.
Good luck Leveling all =)
Will edit this post as I find necessary.
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juventas
Adventuring Hero
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posted July 12, 2006 04:54 PM |
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Good post. Goes along with what I've been thinking as well, although I might get all advanced skills before I move onto the abilities. Why? I think a lot of times, increasing a skill is more useful than getting an ability.
If you are going for the Ultimate, would you suggest getting things in this order?
1. All basic skills
2. All 1st tier abilites
3. All advanced skills
4. All 2nd tier abilities
or would you get:
3. One advanced skill
4. The associated 2nd tier ability
5. Repeat 3 and 4
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Izzachar
Adventuring Hero
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posted July 13, 2006 12:38 PM |
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Edited by Izzachar at 12:47, 13 Jul 2006.
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Yes there are some skills that are alot better then the abilities, however in time you will get expert in the skills anyways.
One exception could be logistics as it benefits you much early game.
My suggestion is to have a certain plan for your hero from start, that way you can plan what skills and abilities you want that will make a good hero around lv 15. Most of the times following these guidelines you will end upp with what you had in mind or if you have 2 main paths you had in mind atleast get one of them.
For ultimates I have no idea. This is for multiplayer and vs computer in multiplayer maps. As I said lv 15-18 could be a good goal. I have never reached an ultimate and never even tried to. Beeing lv 25-32 the game should be settled already. I will try and answer you question though I think the later suggestion is much better.
Going for all basics first then you could easely get two ability choices that you dont need and thats usually enough not to be able to get the ultimate as Ive read in other threads.
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Shauku83
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted July 15, 2006 12:14 AM |
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Edited by Shauku83 at 00:15, 15 Jul 2006.
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I learned the 2. b) rule the hard way today... I was aiming for Master of Mind, since I had Confusion and Slow spells at my disposal. What was offered were Advanced Dark, Basic X (can't remember), Mark of the Damned and Master of Curses. I decided to go with Mark of the Damned, because I wanted to make sure that no ability of Skill Gating would be offered next turn. Alas,
choosing Mark of the Damned was a grave mistake, because it opened the Weakening Strike, an advanced ability. I was sure to find Weakening Strike there waiting for me on every level up, and naturally blocking Master of Mind...
A very good post Izzachar, I wish I had learnt my lesson just by reading it 
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