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Thread: About the Ballistics skill | This thread is pages long: 1 2 · «PREV |
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Oddball13579
Supreme Hero
Grandmaster of the Hunt
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posted July 18, 2019 09:46 PM |
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I sometimes take the skill just for the ability to control the Catapult.
Or I use it for its ability to target the Arrow Towers during a siege. Makes a siege easier when you don't have 3 shooters focusing down a creature stack.
Also at Expert it can easily crack open a wall with it's double shot and maximum damage. If I am on a large or above map that has a lot of towns and I know I am going to be doing a lot of besieging then I will usually pick it up.
I also noticed something rather interesting. If you have Ballistics and you target the Arrow Towers for some reason it seems to make the AI more aggressive. Almost to the point of recklessness. For the majority of the times that I target Arrow Towers, the AI comes sprinting out from behind the walls and targets the Catapult. I don't know if this is something that everyone experiences or if its a bug or programmed behaviour.
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"Just slide her down a bit farther. I could wear her like a hat." - Gnomes
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Otuken
Famous Hero
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posted July 18, 2019 09:56 PM |
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What is the point of controlling ballista when it always hits walls randomly?
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted July 18, 2019 09:59 PM |
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Quote: If you have Ballistics and you target the Arrow Towers for some reason it seems to make the AI more aggressive. Almost to the point of recklessness.
And if you destroy your own catapult, the AI will refuse to leave walls, no matter how strong his army is in comparison. Hint: highly exploitable
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted July 18, 2019 10:03 PM |
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Edited by Zenofex at 22:07, 18 Jul 2019.
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Personally I measure a skill's "real" usefulness against a human player and obviously Ballistics rates as typically useless in this regard. Objectively speaking though, it depends on how often a skill is used in the given configuration. Logistics for example will normally give you benefits 100% of the time on purely land maps but if you introduce water, the percentage changes, especially if the path to the opponent requires boarding a boat. Same with Ballistics - if you never siege towns, it's a wasted skill slot, if you do it often - it can be useful (although still not as much as some "universally picked" skill in a similar scenario). I suppose it's fair to say that it's useless in multi-player scenarios and useful in some single-player ones.
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phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted July 18, 2019 11:06 PM |
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Nice to hear all your opinions, keep 'em coming.
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Maurice
Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
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posted July 19, 2019 10:21 AM |
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Otuken said: What is the point of controlling ballista when it always hits walls randomly?
Doomforge already posted why on the previous page:
Doomforge said: Noobs. Even against the AI, it allows you to cast before the towers shoot. And before any of the AI units, in fact, no matter what their speed is.
You know how fun it is to hit and run with a Ballistics+chain secondary with 1 goblin? well now you know.
Furthermore, if you control it, you're almost guaranteed to break the front gate in the first round.
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The last Reasonable Steward of Good Game Design and a Responsible Hero of HC. - Verriker
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phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted July 19, 2019 11:02 AM |
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@Maurice But what is the point of breaking the gate, when AI comes running straight out of it anyway?
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Maurice
Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
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posted July 19, 2019 11:55 AM |
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phoenix4ever said: @Maurice But what is the point of breaking the gate, when AI comes running straight out of it anyway?
For one, it leaves his ranged troops undefended. For another, his army scatters about, since fliers will separate from the walkers, too. If you teleport or fly your troops behind the walls, you can play a sort of "catch me if you can" with his troops, while you pick off stacks.
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The last Reasonable Steward of Good Game Design and a Responsible Hero of HC. - Verriker
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phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted July 19, 2019 11:58 AM |
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Hmm perhaps, I just never saw much use for the skill, but I guess it can be helpful in a few situations.
Just wanted to know which factions benefit most from it, seems like people are saying Fortress and Stronghold?
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Oddball13579
Supreme Hero
Grandmaster of the Hunt
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posted July 19, 2019 08:38 PM |
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I'd say Stronghold. Because then you also have Cyclops which are capable of attacking castle walls as well. Giving you two siege units which makes cracking open a well defended castle even easier. Plus Cyclopes benefit from Ballistics skill as well.
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"Just slide her down a bit farther. I could wear her like a hat." - Gnomes
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phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted July 19, 2019 10:52 PM |
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Oddball13579 said: Plus Cyclopes benefit from Ballistics skill as well.
How so?
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Oddball13579
Supreme Hero
Grandmaster of the Hunt
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posted July 20, 2019 01:21 AM |
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"Cyclopes and Cyclops Kings attack at range by throwing boulders to devastating effect. Both can target siege walls and damage them like a catapult. Cyclops catapult attacks are applied with Basic Ballistics skill. Cyclops kings do the same at the Advanced Ballistics skill level." - Cyclops and Cyclops King - HoMM3 Wiki
I know it isn't very well defined, but I interpreted it as Cyclopes benefit from both Basic and Advanced Ballistics but not Expert. No idea really what these benefits are however.
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"Just slide her down a bit farther. I could wear her like a hat." - Gnomes
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bloodsucker
Legendary Hero
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posted July 20, 2019 02:09 AM |
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Nope. It means: when you target the walls with a Cyclops the "catapult" effect will be calculate as if a catapult from an hero with Basic Ballistics had done it. If it's a Cyclops King damage will be calculated as if hero has Advanced Ballistics. I'm not sure but I believe that if hero really has Advanced or Expert Ballistics all Cyclops will do damage according to the hero's Ballistics level.
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Oddball13579
Supreme Hero
Grandmaster of the Hunt
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posted July 20, 2019 06:10 AM |
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bloodsucker said: Nope. It means: when you target the walls with a Cyclops the "catapult" effect will be calculate as if a catapult from an hero with Basic Ballistics had done it. If it's a Cyclops King damage will be calculated as if hero has Advanced Ballistics. I'm not sure but I believe that if hero really has Advanced or Expert Ballistics all Cyclops will do damage according to the hero's Ballistics level.
Finally it makes sense! I honestly never could figure out what it meant. Thank you for explaining it! Mystery solved.
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"Just slide her down a bit farther. I could wear her like a hat." - Gnomes
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phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted July 20, 2019 07:37 AM |
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bloodsucker said: I'm not sure but I believe that if hero really has Advanced or Expert Ballistics all Cyclops will do damage according to the hero's Ballistics level.
Unfortunately it does'nt work like that. If it did ordinary cyclopes would throw twice, which they never do.
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Oddball13579
Supreme Hero
Grandmaster of the Hunt
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posted July 20, 2019 08:24 PM |
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I think it only goes up to Advanced Ballistics. In which case if your hero has Advanced Ballistics and Cyclops Kings then you are guaranteed 100% to do maximum damage to castle walls.
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"Just slide her down a bit farther. I could wear her like a hat." - Gnomes
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