It's a bit of a shame, but really refreshing from Heroes 3 when a hero with 1337 spellpower, 1336 knowledge and a summon elementals spell but a pathetic army could force a lot of unnecessary losses or even a draw against my mighty swarm of troops, especially since I don't remember any spell or skill of Heroes 3 to quickly take out summons. Though I bet there was one and I'll just get egg on my face
I think summon elemental is great. Its best used early like you say so you dont lose troops while building. Any non shooter mobs will take atleast 1 turn to get to you(for the most part).
Fire or water elemntals are awesome. Especially water because the circle of water spell is powerful
Also they can be used for cannon fodder of course so your troops dont die
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If it was lvl 1-2 sure but you'll never build guild 4 in earlygame and if you did that's probably the worst of them. But even if week 1-2 you can creep well without it.
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my choice is the fire they are powerful in massive armies but the water elemental has 12 mana that is not enogh and the casters don't take enough damage in massive armies and there is the chance of getting luck
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